Her eyes dropped.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” he roared.
Vee jumped as Cypher slammed his fist into the metal wall, puncturing it like tissue paper. Bees tore from her hold and dashed deep into the ship.
Cypher ripped his fist out and punched the wall again and again. The sounds carried through the hall like explosions, making her jolt, but they were nothing compared to the Cyborg’s aggression.
He grew bigger, more animalistic, and his bear appeared between pummels. In a blink, it was gone, but she knew she would never get the sight of it from her head. Even bigger arms, wider legs, and a snout—a giant metal snout that looked like it could clamp down on her middle and tear her in half without any effort.
But when he twisted back to look at her, he was once again the Cypher she knew.
The hatch opened up behind her.
“Go,” he rasped.
“Cypher…”
“You wanted to go. Go!”
“I’m a woman too,” she whispered.
For a long moment, they stared at each other.
“What?”
“You said you needed a woman—” gosh, it hurt to say “—and I’m a woman.”
His eyes sharpened, and she gulped.
If he refused her this time, she would swear off all men forever and buy more cats.
“Vee, you don’t know what you’re saying.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Have you ever even been with a man?”
Her cheeks reddened brilliantly. She didn’t even need a mirror to know she looked like a tomato.
“You haven’t,” he answered for her, clearing his throat. “You haven’t been with a man.”
“I have toys!”
Cypher turned his back on her. “Oh, devil.”
Emboldened, she moved closer. “You were going to kiss me, weren’t you?”
“Vee!” he growled and rounded on her. “I don’t know if you know anything about bears—”
“I don’t.”
His hands tightened into fists. “I’m in a rut. A goddamned, shit-eating, rut,” he snarled. “If you don’t leave now, then you’re not leaving at all, understand?”
Vee sucked her lower lip into her mouth. He hadn’t refused her after all. The breeze at her back beckoned. She should go, find her own answers, get out of Cypher’s control. She knew what rut meant; it meant sex. No, she’d never had sex before, and jumping straight to it wasn’t her plan. But even after his show of violence, she couldn’t turn around and flee. Not anymore.
She’d always made her own choices and accepted the consequences, even if those choices were wrong. If she couldn’t have her dreams, she could at least have this. A man—the first ever to make her want something more than nebulous freedom.
Vee met Cypher’s eyes. “I should leave…”
