Touching Ice Read online

  Onyx nodded. “Mine as well. I’m commander next shift so now it is yours. It is the least you can do since you’re putting us all in danger of repercussions when the council realizes you have circumvented their direct orders.”

  Ice nodded and sighed as he heated the tray. “Tell the men what my stand and decision is about Megan. If anyone has a problem, alert me. I want to know if I need to watch my back.”

  “They will probably agree since we all respect you greatly,” Onyx acknowledged softly. “But I doubt any will be willing to take command of the Rally until this situation is over. You know what that means.”

  “I’m in official command at all times.” Ice removed the tray from the auto warmer and faced his crewmates. “Contact me if anything arises. I didn’t rest much on my sleep cycle so I’m going down for a few hours.”

  Onyx suddenly grinned. “I bet you are going down. Tell me, do humans taste anything close to what our women do?”

  Ice paused next to his friend and grinned. “Find a human and discover the answer to that question yourself.” He moved toward the door, which automatically slid open, and walked out into the hallway.

  His smile died as soon as he moved out of sight of Onyx and Varion. The council could be vicious and Zorus would be the harshest set against anything human. The cyborg had a bitter history of his time on Earth, had no forgiveness, and he would be very angry when he realized Ice had refused to kill Megan.

  What if they sent the Bridden back so others not under Ice’s influence came to kill Megan? His hands tightened on the tray. He clenched his teeth. No one would touch her. He’d kill before he allowed anyone to harm a hair on her head.

  He stopped dead in his tracks, feeling the blood drain from his face. What the hell was happening to him? He thought about killing other cyborgs to protect a human? He debated if he had lost his reasoning or if perhaps he had gone insane. He uttered a foul curse. Megan had changed something inside him, influenced him somehow, and he needed to analyze how deeply she’d affected him.

  * * * * *

  Megan sensed something was wrong as she finished her meal. Ice was too quiet as he watched her with a curious expression on his handsome features. He’d also kept his distance from her by taking a seat near the door at the only small table in the room.

  “Are you all right?”

  “I’m unsure.” He sighed softly.

  “Are you sick?”

  “No. That isn’t my problem.”

  “Then what is?”

  He shifted in the seat and then stood to his full height. “I’m not myself. Since I came

  into contact with you I have been changing and didn’t realize how drastically until I retrieved your meal.”

  “Okay. I’m not really sure what you mean but I’m trying to understand you.”

  He bent and removed his boots, then his socks, before straightening up. “You have influenced me in ways I am still trying to figure out. I disobeyed a direct order, nearly came to blows with another cyborg who struck you, and now I’m risking my entire future and that of my crew to possible punishment from the Cyborg Council. I never considered I would do any of these things.”

  Guilt ate at her just a little. “I never meant to do this to your life.”

  “I believe that.” He paused next to the bed within arm’s reach of her. “There was no logical expectation from you to foresee my reaction to you.” He sat down gently. “What was your real plan, Megan? What do you hope to gain from me? Is it information you need? I have been completely honest with you and I give you my word that I am unable to harm you regardless of your answers.”

  It hurt a little that he was still suspicious of her but she understood. She had lied to him right from the beginning. “I’m not a bounty hunter and I don’t work for Earth Government. I’m just a programmer who needed a ride when that freighter slammed into Folion. That’s why I ran onto your shuttle and no other reason.”

  “You could have chosen any of the cyborg males but you ordered the bots to not service me alone. Why?”

  Shit. She bit her lip and then set the empty tray aside. “The truth?”

  “I would appreciate that.” He lifted his arm and gripped her gently around her neck.

  “Are you going to strangle me if you don’t like what I have to say?

  He chuckled. “No. I’m reading your pulse. I’m good at detecting lies. Think of me as a breathing lie detector. Do not attempt to test me. That will irritate me.” He paused. “I won’t choke you but you don’t want me angry either.”

  She swallowed. “When I saw you that first time when you forgot to leave your weapon on your shuttle and came aboard Folion, I was instantly drawn to you.”

  “The first time?”

  She knew her heart raced. Ice’s eyes narrowed and he inched closer, looking into her eyes, carefully studying her. She bit her lip and then sighed, releasing it with her teeth.

  “I spied on you,” she admitted. “I told Clara you were a threat to the station. Every time you docked with us she made me aware. I monitored you when you came aboard just so I could see you on the cameras.”

  His hand tightened and his features hardened. “So you reported us after all?”

  “No!” Megan reached up and held onto his arm attached to the hand around her throat. He didn’t hurt her but he had a good grip. “She doesn’t report to anyone but the company and she wouldn’t report that unless she had to file a damage incident report. It just alerted me and no one else when you came aboard Folion. I got to visually track you while you were aboard so I could see you. That’s how I knew how many times you visited. I’ve been seriously attracted to you from the first time I laid eyes on you and you kind of dominated my thoughts sometimes.”

  The hold on her eased. “Earth wasn’t in any way alerted?”

  “I wouldn’t have done it if that were the case. I knew what you were the second I saw you. While I might not be a history buff, everyone knows certain things about cyborgs. Your skin color was a dead giveaway. It stunned me that any of you still existed because according to what I’d heard growing up, all cyborgs were destroyed. You fascinated me but I sure as hell didn’t want to get you caught.”

  His hold eased more. “So why did you program the bots to ignore me? You did that, didn’t you?”

  “Yes. I had a lot of fantasies about you and hell, I saw my chance to finally get to touch you in the flesh.”

  He took a deep breath. “You’re very brave.”

  “Stupid is the word I’d have used and maybe even pathetic but damn, Ice. I really wanted to know how it would feel to touch you and have you touch me back. I’d even go so far as to say it had become an obsession of mine to know. When I signed up for my job on Folion nobody ever mentioned that I’d be locked behind a bulkhead with only Clara to talk to. The last programmer happened to be a complete jackass and you can’t imagine what he did to her programming. I tried to change some of it but he was damn good at what he did and I couldn’t override some of his commands without pulling her physical motherboards and wiping them, which I couldn’t do because I wasn’t allowed to leave that one area of the ship unless something really went wrong. Nothing ever did until that freight carrier slammed into us.”

  He released her and leaned back, staring into her eyes. “You could have chosen another male. There are plenty of us onboard.”

  “I wanted you.” She hated to admit the truth to him but she did. She’d said she’d give him that and she was. “You’re the one I dreamed about sometimes in my bunk.”

  Interest sparked in his eyes. “What kind of dreams?”

  She hesitated. “Sexual fantasies.”

  He reached for her, gripped her leg, and Megan gasped as he pulled her flat on her back on the bed and came down on top of her, pinning her under his body in a few heartbeats. She reached up and curved her fingers around his shoulders, staring up into his handsome face. She really enjoyed the feel of the muscular cyborg on top of her, trapping her under him. He was