Chapter 9
Dean
Sera was doing her third set of hip thrusts, and I battled with my stupid collar. It got activated constantly. When I looked at her. When I heard her voice. When she looked at me, usually with a glare or an angry frown, oh, that was the worst.
I tried to redirect my responses using the lust pathways, but lust was too simplistic to encompass everything I, well, felt. She was socute.Also impressive. She didn’t lie about hip thrusting one hundred pounds, and as she finished the twelfth one, her legs shaking, her face tight and covered in sweat, I fought with my collar again so it wouldn’t alert anyone that a rogue clanker with a crush on a human was at large.
I wrote a dozen new versions of my code, but none managed to prevent the alarms, and I couldn’t risk taking the thing off. Sera was clearly a foreigner, and her cyborg companion needed to wear a collar, or else people would panic. All I could do was stop the alarm signal before it went out—sometimes as often as once every three minutes.
I was doomed.
Sera wiped sweat off her face with a disposable towel, then cleaned the barbell where it touched her body. I desperately focused on her butt, its shape obvious under the tight leggings she got at the gym’s clothes printer, and felt a surge of heat in my core. The collar calmed down for a few seconds until Sera looked around suddenly, her posture alert. As soon as she found me with her gaze, her shoulders relaxed. She gave me a nod and went off to the free weight racks for a pair of dumbbells.
My stupid emotions exploded in elation. She looked for me! She got anxious when she didn’t see me, and relaxed as soon as she did! She liked me!
The collar activated, and I threw my choking code at it, following Sera at a distance. She did a full body workout designed to tire out her muscles so she could think, as she told me. Now, she moved on to squats combined with shoulder press with two twenty-pound dumbbells, and I stood behind her, shamelessly watching her butt.
This part of the gym was almost empty, and my pleasure sensors hummed with faint warmth. I learned I liked it when it was just me and her.
I decided squats were my favorite exercise. As for hip thrusts, I preferred to be the one doing them, possibly with Sera as the weight.Bro Signalhad an article on foreplay at the gym, and lifting one’s girl in various combinations featured prominently. The article promised lots of awe and wet panties, since human females were supposed to find physical strength wildly attractive.
I ran a virtual scenario in my head, projecting Sera’s possible reactions if I came behind her and started doing squats with herin my arms. I arrived at a ninety-two percent likelihood of her screaming in rage.
The other eight percent featured some form of physical violence.
Thankfully,Bro Signalhad me covered. I read a few articles on wooing reluctant females, the one with the most comments entitled11 Easy Strategies for Making Your Hater Your Lover.
When I finished, I realized I already did most of those. Buy her clothes? Check. Be there when she needs support? Check. Become her shoulder to cry on? Hm. I’d have to work on that one.
A man with a fake tan and bleached hair sauntered over to the free weight rack, stopping just short of the mat Sera was using. He stood behind her and to the side, clearly checking her out, and her eyes flicked to him in the mirror she faced. Her expression grew wooden, and she did her best to ignore the man, continuing her set. He did not get the hint.
I took a step closer, but rememberedBro Signalwarned against appearing competitive against other males.
“You are not one of the herd, fighting for her attention. You’re the alpha male who already knows she’s yours.”
I held my ground and watched the man as he ogled her butt. Sera’s breathing, already labored, turned harsh as she huffed with fury, glaring at her own face while she tried to pretend he wasn’t there.
“You should bring your elbows a bit closer when you come down,” he said in English, tapping his chin with apparent thoughtfulness. “Your form is quite good, overall, but I have a few tips that…”
“No, thanks!”
She exploded upward in her final rep and crouched to put the dumbbells down, not gracing the man with a look. I kept my face neutral, though the emotional expression algorithm I wrote for myself indicated a smirk was appropriate.
My girl was fierce.
“I have some time, and you could use the help,” he said, stepping around her until they faced each other. Sera stood up at once, because her crouching position put her face level with his crotch.
I instantly recognized a fellowBro Signalconnoisseur. One frequent tip advised men to make the blowjob position as natural as possible in everyday interactions.Stand when she sits. When she crouches to do her shoelaces, make sure you stand in front of her. Drop something and have her pick it up.And so on.
My collar sent an alarm signal, and I slapped it with my code at the last moment. As soon as the sequence ran, it raised another alarm. My core felt unnaturally hot.
Rage, my emotion database prompted helpfully.Murderous fury.
Yes. Murderous. I would kill this man for trying to score a blowjob from my girl.
The collar beeped in distress, and Sera turned to me. Our eyes met, hers brimming with annoyance at the idiot man who thought her perfect form needed correcting from the likes ofhim.
“You could hurt yourself if you don’t fix your…” the asshole began, but broke off when I took two long steps that put me right between him and Sera.
