Passion Model Read online

  Very quickly, I realized I had no choice. The ping of the door to the garden caught my attention, and I opened my eyes. In came Declan.

  “What are you doing here?” My voice was cold, and it didn’t shake. I was glad for that. I stiffened on the bench, then got to my feet when he began to come closer.

  “I need to talk to you.”

  His tawny skin was pale, the lines around his mouth deep. He clenched his fists as he moved toward me, and my own went up in response.

  Like unenhanced humans, I don’t have much control over my body’s instinctive reactions. Unlike them, however, I do have exaggerated responses. My body’s flight or fight mechanism had been triggered by his aggressive stance, and unless he seriously backed off, I would do whatever I must to protect myself. I’d killed men who came at me with less animosity on their features.

  I’ve said before that men aren’t always swift on the uptake. Declan apparently didn’t notice my stance or my expression. He kept coming at me with his hands outstretched, and eyes and mouth grim.

  I didn’t want to believe he meant to hurt me, and I didn’t want to hurt him, but my muscles tensed and I reacted. Just before he reached me, my leg lifted out from my hip and twisted. My foot missed his face by an inch—and it had taken an extreme effort to miss him.

  My heart pounded, but I managed to spit out, “Don’t come any closer.”

  He frowned, which actually made his mouth look softer instead of angrier. “Gemma, I don’t blame you for being pissed…”

  But he hadn’t dropped his hands, and I was still in hyperdrive. He took one more step and this time, my foot didn’t miss. It connected squarely with his jaw. Declan dropped like a stone.

  With my foe felled, my body relaxed a bit. Instantly, I went to my knees beside him. The sight of blood on his mouth, blood I had put there, made me bite my own lip in response. I smoothed his hair back from his forehead, and the feeling of it under my fingers made my already clattering heart skip a beat.

  He opened his eyes, and in the next moment, his hands were around my throat. The adrenaline rush that hadn’t had time to fade returned in double strength. Inside, I knew I should have been more careful. Declan was a mecho too. His body would react as mine did, to protect itself. He didn’t have my Op training and background, but he did have enhancements.

  My mind knew this, but couldn’t override my body, which now began fighting to protect itself. My hands grasped his wrists and tried to tear them from my throat, but Declan was a man, and mecho, and he had the advantage of superior muscle strength. My lungs expanded to better process the minimal air I was now bringing in. I straightened my legs and used the force of my weight to bring us both to our feet. With a swift, sweeping arm motion that had nothing to do with being mecho and everything to do with martial arts training, I disengaged from Declan by knocking his arms away from my throat.

  At the sudden release of his hands from my throat, Declan stumbled back with an appalled cry. He held up his hands as if they were alien things.

  “Gemma, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt you!”

  “I know.” I regarded him warily. “Back off for a few minutes. Let us both calm down.”

  He turned his back on me and paced. He ran his hands through his hair. With the threat gone, my breathing slowed and my muscles no longer trembled with tension. I sat back on my bench and propped up my carrybag while I waited for him to talk to me again.

  After what had happened between us, I should not have wanted to go to my knees before him, but I did. I shuddered and hid the motion by bending to push my carrybag against the bench.

  When at last he faced me, he had the good sense to do it from a distance away. His posture still indicated tension, but he forcibly opened his fists to let his hands dangle at his sides.

  “I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said.

  “You didn’t scare me.” I took a deep breath. “It’s an automatic reaction, based on signals you sent with your expression and your stance. My body registered you as a threat, and I got kicked into defensive mode.”

  “Because you’re an Op.” He narrowed his eyes to look at me, but in his gaze I caught a glimmer of comprehension. “It’s your training, right?”

  I stood and moved closer to him. I turned my head to show him the thin, nearly invisible scar snaking down my neck and across my chest. “I was in a very bad hoverbike accident during vacay on Solaria eight years ago.”

  He stared at me without speaking for a long time. Neither of us moved. He was smart enough to figure things out. I didn’t have to spell it out for him. I waited to see his reaction, and the thought he’d at least know my truth sent a bubble of relief to lift my heart.

  “You’re mecho.” He didn’t stumble on the word, or look embarrassed by it, and why should he? He shared the same stigma.

  “They replaced ninety-eight bones, my kidneys, my spleen and my spinal column. I have an enhanced circulatory and immune systems, and they put an internal hard drive partition in my brain.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “What is there to understand, Declan? I’m mecho. Same as you.”

  “Why did you send that holonote then?” He’d advanced on me again, a little, but when he saw me tense he backed off.

  I sighed, frustrated. “I didn’t. I told you I didn’t. I was late because of work. That’s all.”

  “And I was so sure you wouldn’t want to be with me if you knew the truth, I was ready to believe the note without question.” He punched his fist into his palm. “I’m an idiot!”

  I didn’t want to be the one to tell him his father had been interfering with his life. I didn’t have to. Declan, despite our misunderstandings, was smart.

  “What happened to your face, Gemma?”

  I touched my cheek, surprised. I’d forgotten about the bruises. No wonder the man I’d traded with in the distribution center had looked at me so strangely.

  “I had a problem with some secbots.”

  “My father’s secbots?”

  I hesitated, then nodded. There was no point in lying about it. Declan swore.

  I bent and gathered my carrybag. “I have to go. I shouldn’t even be talking to you.”

  I meant to brush past him, but he reached out and grabbed my arm. His touch was soft enough not to trigger a response, unless you counted the way my heart trip-trapped.

  “I owe you an apology.”

  “You don’t owe me anything.” I felt my back as stiff as an iron rod, and I didn’t turn to face him. “We fucked a couple times. It’s not like we were in love.”

  My voice caught and broke on the last word like a glass dropped on the floor. I pulled out of his grasp and headed for the garden gate. His words stopped me.

  “Gemma, I’m sorry.”

  “Me too.” But that couldn’t change things between us, and I kept walking.

  “Wait!”

  I was almost to the gate, but I paused again anyway. This time, I turned. The weight of the carrybag dug into my fingers and I shrugged it around until it went over my shoulders again. Grief and anger warred within me, and anger won.

  “Wait for what?” My voice was sharp and cold. “You made your feelings clear the other night.”

  “That was before I knew the truth about you.”

  I set my jaw and glared at him. “That I’m mecho too makes everything all right?”

  He shook his head. “No, but—”

  “You’re right. It doesn’t. You were so ready to believe the worst of me, you never even gave me a chance to explain myself. You ran away, knowing I wouldn’t be able to find you! You didn’t trust me enough to talk to me!”

  “But you did find me,” he replied and gave me his damn cocky grin.

  I wasn’t going to fall for it. Not this time. “And I paid for that, believe me.”

  His gaze went to the fading bruises on my face. “I never meant for that to happen.”

  “But it did. And there’s more, Declan. I was demoted in m