A smile curled that devastating mouth. Stepping toward her, he grasped her arms, thrusting them behind her back and bringing her up hard against his massive chest. “We could. On the other hand I am waiting for someone and I really do not like being interrupted when I am pleasuring a beautiful woman.”
“That wasn’t an invitation,” Dalia snapped.
His dark brows rose. “No?” He shook his head and finally shrugged. “Machines! They can never quite grasp the subtleties of human interaction, can they? That is what always gives us away.”
She didn’t believe for one moment that he’d interpreted her comment literally. He was, she realized with a touch of stunned amazement, amusing himself. “Let go of me,” she said through gritted teeth.
His smile vanished. “I am not even slightly tempted ... rogue hunter.”
For the first time in her memory, Dalia felt real, unmitigated fear. “I wouldn’t be fleeing the city if I were.”
“The question is,areyou fleeing the city? Or was this merely a clever ruse?”
She gave him a look. “I had my weapon on your back. I could’ve killed you then and there would’ve been no point in subterfuge.”
“Except that that would not have gotten you into the rebel camp, would it, Dalia?”
Dalia stared at him in dismay. She licked suddenly dry lips. “My name’s Kaya.”
“Your name is Dalia VH570 ... and you are a rogue hunter ... gone rogue.”
Of all the things he might have said, nothing could have stunned her more, or more surely inspired her to throw caution to the wind. “I’m no rogue,” she spat in disgust before she thought better of it. “I’m human.”
His mouth tightened until his lips were no more than a thin line. His nostrils flared as he dragged in a deep breath to calm his temper. “You have enough contempt to be a rogue hunter, whatever you want to call yourself.”
Dalia twisted, testing his hold of her, but she was not the least surprised when he held her without any sign of difficulty. She supposed she should have simply accepted the fact that she was dead except for the dying part. He knew she was a rogue hunter. He wasn’t going to simply let her go, and he wasn’t going to take her with him.
Somehow, though, she found she simply could not give up or accept that she wasn’t going to be able to find a way out of this. “If you know about me, then you know I’m on the run. I’m no threat to you.”
“Not presently. But, then, you are assuming I believe any propaganda the company chooses to put out. I do not.” He leaned close, placing his mouth near her ear. “They lie,” he whispered.
Her body obviously didn’t know or care that he was a cyborg. The heat of his breath on her ear and his scent in her nostrils combined, sending a rush of heat and weakness through her that couldn’t be interpreted as anything but desire.
An unaccustomed spurt of panic followed that confusing reaction. Dalia struggled to free her hands again. She was too much shorter than him, and too close, for a head butt to have any effect on him. More likely, she’d end up knocking herself out. Finding after only a few moments that she was having no appreciable effect, she desisted again, panting with effort. “What are you going to do with me?”
His arms tightened. Slowly, he lowered his head until his mouth was near her ear again. “Do not allow your prejudice to mislead you, little flower. I am not a machine. This flesh feels. This body desires. This mind wants. So, unless you want to discover what it is like to spread your legs for a cyborg, I would advise you to stop rubbing your very tantalizing little body against mine. I might decide to fuck you until no humanmanwill ever do for you again.”
Two completely polar sensations went through Dalia at once; outrage that he would even consider treating her--a trained warrior and rogue hunter--as if she was nothing more than a pleasure slave, and pretty much the same jolt of stunned attraction that had hit her the moment she saw him--except that this time it was accompanied by a rush of heat and a deluge of adrenaline.
She went perfectly still, more from shocked surprise than because he had commanded it, or because she feared he might keep his word, hardly daring even to breathe. As she stared up at him, however, it occurred to her that he had offered her a bargaining chip she hadn’t even realized she possessed. “I would....” She licked her dried lips and tried again. “I will barter the use of my body for transport.”
He frowned. “I would sooner leave you here. I am sure it will surprise you, but I have no taste for killing ... and not much for humans, even to slake my needs.”
Dalia felt blood flood her cheeks, only to wash away so rapidly she felt slightly dizzy. “But ... you said....”
“I lied.”
She blinked at him, stunned once more, not because he admitted it, or even because he had the ability, but because he’d done it so convincingly that she’d believed him. It was no wonder the company had ceased production of this particular cyborg. It was no wonder he had never been caught. He was as human as any human spawned, but capable of far more than any human being, whether enhanced or not, and therefore far more dangerous.
“If you leave me here, you leave me to die,” she said finally, trying to keep the desperation from her voice.
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Assuming you are not lying and the company is hunting you, but not because you have gone rogue, then why?”
“I don’t know.”
