“What?” he demanded. “You knew this would happen? And you still got into the suit?”
She jumped at the anger in his tone, opening her eyes to find him looming over her. “Why the fuck would you do that?”
Eris had never seen Zero angry before, not even when they’d been facing down the worst of the worst special forces troops trying to kill them. If anything, he’d just seemed slightly amused at the bullets slicing through the air around them and dispatched any that got into his sights with lethal efficiency. But now that calm, joking man was gone and in his place was a towering tsunami of fury.
She looked away, unable to meet his eyes. A large hand slammed into the exam bed by her head.
“For fuck’s sake, woman, look at me!” he ordered, his voice little more than a snarl. He didn’t move, looming half over her as she lay on the bed, his blue eyes cutting like lasers when she lifted hers.
His anger made her shiver, but only a little. Even though he was killing mad, the tiny veins in his temple pulsing, she wasn’t scared of him. Far from it. Instead, she was aware of every inch of him. Every hard plane of muscle, the strength in his corded arms as he leaned over her. The full, kissable softness of his lips as he glared down at her.
All she wanted to do was sit up and press her lips against his. Divert his attention. As soon as the thought crossed her mind, her body moved to suit thought to action.
The feel of her lips pressing against his surprised Zero and stopped his tirade instantly. The fury still surged through him, but the instant he registered the softness of her lips, it changed, flipping and burning faster than the Sprite. Growling, he slid his hand into the hair at the back of her head and crushed her mouth beneath his.
She gasped, and he took advantage, parting her lips with his in a savage kiss before thrusting his tongue within. She didn’t stop him, a soft sound of surrender in the back of her throat as her hands bunched in his shirt. Her taste exploded through him again, that little sound getting him hotter and harder than he’d ever been in his life.
Warning, elevated hormonal levels and heart rate, his onboard announced in the back of his head. Recommend sexual intercourse to reduce levels.
No shit. He silenced his onboard and tightened his fist in her hair. Pulling her head back, he kissed along the slender column of her throat. They were hard, almost biting kisses that he couldn’t control… that he didn’t want to control. Hard and fast. He wanted her more than he’d ever wanted a woman in his life.
Pulling back, he looked down at her, and the sultry look in her half-lidded eyes sent a surge of arousal through him. His cock, trapped against the exam bed, jerked savagely.
“Make a choice,” he told her, barely recognizing his own voice. “Tell me to go, or I’m going to fuck you right here and now.”
“I…” She blinked and wetted her lips. Her eyes were dark with heat and desire.
He groaned, the sound turning to a growl more feral than any sound he’d ever made. “Don’t do that or I won’t be responsible for my actions.”
She shook her head. “But why? In case you missed it, Zero, I’m a fucking cripple. This will not get better. Ever. I’m done.”
He pulled back his lips in a soft snarl. “One… do you think I give a crap about whether you can walk or not? One of my original crewmates was embedded in a fucking ship for god’s sake. And two… you’re like me, a cyborg. We’re fucking modular, baby. We can fix you.”
“A ship?” She shook her head. “I’m not a cyborg… wait, did you say you can…” The hope in her eyes speared him to the core. “You can fix me?”
He nodded, sliding a hand around her waist and pulling her toward him. At the same time, he altered her position, making her sit up. Like a bulldozer, he forced his hips between her thighs. His heart sang as she welcomed him, her hand sliding up the side of his neck as he claimed her lips again.
This kiss was only marginally less bruising than the first. He’d intended to be gentler but didn’t have it in him. She was a fire in his blood and he couldn’t get enough, would never be able to get enough. He’d suspected it from the moment he’d first seen her, but now he knew for sure. She was his.
And he was irrevocably hers.
The kiss went supernova in a heartbeat. He broke away with a gasp to trail kisses along her jaw and down the slender column of her throat. Her hands stroked over his shoulders, pausing for a second as she registered the metal of his shoulder. He pulled back, stripping the shirt off in less than a second to drop it on the floor behind them.
He didn’t say anything, simply watching her face as she took him in. Sitting on the edge of the bed as she was, he couldn’t miss how tiny she was compared to him, and a thrill of arousal speared through him. He’d never thought of himself as the sort to find a woman’s fragility appealing, but he found he liked being larger and stronger than Eris. He could protect her, look after her… and that fed a need deep inside he hadn’t realized he had.
Her face was rapt, her dark gaze flicking to his as he took her hand and pressed it against his shoulder.
“It’s okay,” he rasped, voice heavy with need. “You can touch it.”
“You can feel that?” she whispered, her voice low and intimate, just between them. His cock throbbed at the husky tones and then went into near meltdown as her fingers stroked the join
