One eyebrow arched.

“Do you know how much a sex bot costs? I do. Four hundred and twenty-five thousand credits. Do you know what I clear a year after paying out my crew and for fuel, repairs, and docking fees? Just over a hundred thousand.” She fisted a handful of hair. “See this? Do you know why I’ve grown it so long? Some weirdo I deal with frequently offered to pay me fifty thousand credits if I’d grow it three feet and sell it to him. It was a compliment, Stag.” She said his name on purpose. “People really have to want a sex bot bad to go to all this trouble to own one. Be flattered!”

His eyebrow lowered and his eyes narrowed. He didn’t say a word though.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Did you plan to buy a bot for your own use?”

Damn. She’d said too much. She glanced around, not able to hold his stare as she lied and backed away from him. “No. Of course not. I’m just saying, I haul them in my cargo hold. I know what they cost, and they aren’t cheap.” She stopped and looked at him again. “I’d say thanks if some guy thought I was a bot and wanted to buy me.”

That was a fib too. She’d have decked someone for thinking he could pay her any price for sex, human or bot. Her hair was for sale, but not the rest of her body.

He moved fast, and she gasped when he grabbed her. One of his arms locked around her waist, the other one cupping her head. He pressed her up against the nearest wall, pinning her there with his body.

He adjusted her so they were eye level and he peered at her with a scowl. “You’re lying. Don’t do that.”

He scared her. He was strong, fast, and held her off her feet as if she were as light as the pillow on his bed. She calmed fast though, when it sank in that he hadn’t hurt her. The arm around her waist wasn’t squeezing too tight and the back of his hand had hit the wall, not her skull. He’d used it to cushion her from impact with the solid object.

“I hate deceit. This is why I never trust Earthers. It’s all your kind does. They manipulate and twist facts. Do you want me to tell you all the ways I can detect a lie from you?”

She licked her lips and took a deep breath, unable to look away from the blue depths of his eyes. They were dazzling. “Fine. I admit it. I’ve been saving for a Dax 333 since my twenty-fourth birthday. Happy? All the brothels on our travel routes only cater to men. They don’t buy male bots.”

He smiled.

“I so don’t like you.”

“Why a bot and not an Earther? You could have one of those for free. You’re attractive. Any man would have sex with you if you showed an interest.”

“That’s none of your business.”

He shifted his body, spread his legs, and pinned her tighter to the wall. “Are you comfortable? I’m not releasing you until you answer my questions.”

“Bully.”

He blinked again.

She could tell he wasn’t bluffing. “Do you want a list?”

“Yes.”

She thought fast. “I’ll make a deal with you.”

“I’m not having sex with you.”

Her mouth fell open. “Like I would ask you to. You don’t exactly inspire me to want you.” She grabbed his shoulders and tried to push him back but he didn’t budge.

“What is your deal? I’m curious to hear what you want.”

“I’ll answer any questions you ask with total honesty from now on if you promise to drop the android bit and let me go free at the first opportunity. I want to leave your ship.”

“No.”

“I’m not your prisoner. I didn’t do anything illegal. My freighter was attacked. You have no right to keep me on your ship by force or lock me up.”

“I’ll agree to cease calling you an android for your honesty, as long as you don’t lie to me again, but your release isn’t up for negotiation.”

“Why not? You answered my distress signal. You have to take me to a station. That’s the law. Survivors are transported to the nearest one and left there so they can report the incident that took place. I have an insurance carrier to notify and the authorities need to do something about those Markus Models. They murdered my dad and crew! I want them hunted down to pay for that.”

“You’ve seen us.”

“So?”

“I can’t allow you to tell any other Earthers about this ship, about us, or that we’re hunting the Markus Models.”

“I hate to break this to you, but people already know about cyborgs. That’s how I knew what you were on sight. Gray skin means cyborg. Nothing else was ever made like you. As for your ship, I don’t know anything about it because this is the only room I’ve seen. I don’t even know the class of it. Your stateroom is as basic as they come. The Pride wasn’t the only vessel those things have attacked. I heard reports that they killed people on stations too. Warnings have been going out for a while now about Markus Models. I just never knew what they looked like until you told me that’s what boarded us.”

“No actual reports of our survival have been verified. We’re keeping it that way.”

He had her there. Cyborgs were all supposed to be dead. Sometimes rumors floated that there had been sightings, but the government news stated they were hoaxes. “So I won’t tell them. Simple. You want me to lie and say some random crew picked me up and dropped me off at a station? Fine. I can do that. I’ll tell them I was too traumatized to really notice anything about them or their ship. No problem.”

“I don’t trust your word.”

She closed her eyes, took a few seconds to get a reign on her temper, since slapping him wouldn’t help her cause. She looked at him again. “I’m motivated. Do you believe that? I want off this ship, and I don’t ever want to give you a reason to come after me. How about that? I know you hold a grudge.”

“We’ll discuss your future at a later date. We’re in the dead zone, so I couldn’t take you to a station even if I wanted to at the moment. We’re waiting out the Markus Models to avoid capture. Now—why did you want to buy a sex bot when you could have had an Earther lover without it costing you credits? The truth.”

“There were a lot of reasons.”

“Name them.”

“My dad.”