His gaze heated, and his body tensed. A blast of warm air rushed over her. She wanted to look away but couldn’t. Numbers coursed across his pupils. Cypher visibly grew, looming over her, an impenetrable mountain of muscle and metal.
Her pulse quickened.
He reached up and cupped her nape.
The feel of the men who’d grabbed her vanished with his solid presence, wiped clean from her mind.
Nothing could get to her with Cypher in the way. He was a wall. A hero who clawed at her thoughts, screaming he was unbeatable in every way. There was so much violence around him, it was easy to get caught up in it and forget everything else.
Her skin warmed.
He makes me forget, makes me face reality.And not the reality that demanded she focus on her dreams.
Vee licked her lips.He’s making me lose myself.
“We should check out the rest of your ship,” she said hurriedly.
If she didn’t get space between them now, he was going to rut her again. She was certain of it. She liked his attention, but there was violence emanating from him.
Vee swallowed, her sex clenching, still partially raw from being used so hard the morning before. Everything was moving so fast that her mind hadn’t quite caught up to it all yet.
Cypher dropped his hand and stepped away.
The fiery heat went with him, and she immediately regretted all of her choices.
“You’re right,” he said, turning for the door, striding away from her, taking his comforting presence with him. “Let’s see how much I’m worth to Nightheart.”
Vee curled her arms over her chest and followed him.
The ship was beautiful. Out of this world. As they went from room to room, her heart fell into her belly. It made her envious. She didn’t feel like she fit in amongst all the twinkling and high-tech machinery. And the longer their tour took, the further Vee lagged behind. She wanted to fit amongst it all—she wouldn’t have entered the championship if she hadn’t longed to be more than a gutter rat. But she didn’t feel comfortable here… Cypher’s life would always be far beyond anything she could ever reach.
I pushed him away.
The need to find a space—her own space—to digest the day and make a plan became overpoweringly urgent.
She was about to tell him she was tired and would like to lie down when the next room opened, and Cypher went still at the threshold. Vee moved to his side and peeked in.
Her lips parted in awe. She pushed past Cypher and went in.
“Oh my goodness,” she gasped.
What lay before her was a gym of sorts, except for a bench and weights over to one side, the entire room was set up with the most beautiful Terraform Zero equipment she had ever seen. And not only was there one rig within, but two, the second with a larger and more solid chair in the middle.
A chair for a Cyborg.
She went for the smaller one and skimmed her fingers over the back. Embedded in her seat was her name tag and her neon red and black colors. The smell of leather tickled her nose. Hooked behind it were a visor and headset, both also having her logo.
Shaking, she picked the visor up and placed it over her head. The screen and the colors of the game materialized all around her in a beautiful array. An AI welcomed her back, loading up the login page.
Heart thundering, she typed her passwords in and verified her account. And as if her real life hadn’t been broken apart at all, all of her virtual life’s work popped up in front of her. Untouched. Ready and waiting for her. Her fingers trembled.
Vee pulled off her visor and turned to Cypher. He’d moved to check out his rig set up beside her.
“Did you…” She could barely form the words. “Did you do this?”
He placed his hands on the back of his chair. “No.”
“Nightheart?”
