“Can I be Netto?” she asked.
Zeph’s scowl deepened. “Don’t you want to be me?”
“I want to be blue and have lots of teeth.”
Insulted, he led her back to the armory and reconfigured Netto’s face into the programming. He swiftly deleted the one she deemed Steven. When he was done, he situated the tech back on her head and turned it on. Lily ran off looking like a baby Cyborg shark with Mr. Heartface chasing after her.
With a long, drawn-out sigh, he tore out a duffle bag and filled it with his favorite weapons, keeping part of his systems scanning the exterior of his ship for any disturbances.
‘Trophies.’
“Shut up,” he grated.
He wrenched his eyes shut and inhaled, running his fingers over an uncharged laser pistol. He lifted the barrel to his head and pulled the trigger three times before dropping it into the bag.
“Lily,” Janet’s shout echoed down the passageway, “stop running!”
Zeph moved to the doorway. “She went that way.” He pointed in the opposite direction when she noticed him.
“Thanks,” Janet murmured, backing away.
“Do you want to contact your family?” he asked before she could vanish around the corner. He examined her slim figure, decked out in modified crew-wear. It ran a little baggy around the edges, hiding her curves and sun-kissed skin from view; it made him want to unwrap her like a present.
My prize.
She stopped moving away from him. “Are you serious? You’d let me speak to them?”
“On one condition.”
“What?” She moved closer. His cock jumped, and his croc’s hum began to build in his stomach.Closer, sweetheart.
“You’ll forgive me when I kill Steven.”
“What kind of condition is that?”
“A necessary indulgence.” He cracked his neck.
Janet stopped just outside his reach. His lips twisted upward.
She squinted her eyes and scrutinized his face. “Fine. Whatever. You’re never going to get the chance to kill him anyway because that would meangoing back home, which you said we could never do.”
His smile morphed into a grin. “Then it’s settled. Let’s reassure your parents.” He had every intention of slaughtering the insignificant man, even though he posed no threat. It was the principle of the matter. Steven thought Janet was his. A man should know that even thoughts can get you killed.
“Mr. Heartface,” he yelled, startling Janet on purpose. “Gather Lily and meet me in the lab.”
Zeph offered Janet his hand, and she brushed it off, storming past him toward his lab. Amused, he followed in her wake.
“You call the android Mr. Heartface now?” she asked over her shoulder.
“It suits it. It makes it happy.”
Her hair drifted enticingly and he imagined grabbing a fistful of it and forcing her to her knees.
“Isn’t it an android? Androids don’t have emotions.”
“They have the capacity to learn them. Heartface has taken to Lily. It’s hers now.”
They reached the lab door and walked through into the cavernous room. “Thank you, but no thank you. When Lily goes home, the android stays. She doesn’t need a killer nanny in civilized society.”
