She turned around quickly, her heart pounding in her chest as she moved for the bed.

What kind of lover would the big cyborg be? She prayed he was nothing similar to Chuck. Her not-so-loving husband was damn selfish in bed. If she’d ever slept with Chuck before the marriage there wouldn’t have been a ceremony. He was a “two-minute not so wonder” who didn’t believe in foreplay, not even liking to face Rena when he’d taken her. She climbed on the bed and stretched out on her back.

She turned her head to stare at the cyborg when he didn’t immediately join her. He hadn’t moved from where she’d left him, his gaze was watching her silently. She stared back at him, waiting for him to do something, anything, not sure what else to do.

“You are frightened of me.”

She could lie but he seemed pretty intelligent. “I am. You’re really big and obviously strong. I heard all about cyborg enhancements. You could snap my bones without even straining a muscle. You’re stronger, faster, and bigger than regular men so of course I’m a little afraid of you.”

“What do you know of cyborgs?”

She hesitated and then sat up and she crossed her arms over her br**sts to hide them, feeling uncomfortable sitting na**d on the big bed. “I know why Earth tried to kill your kind off and what they were afraid of. I know that you’re fighting machines and that you have implants throughout your body and in your brain.” She paused, not sure what he was looking for in her answer.

“Have you ever met my kind?”

She shook her head. “No. Cyborgs were gone from Earth by the time I was three years old unless they were prisoners.”

“So you read about us in your history files?”

She hesitated. “I knew someone who was a military guard for the few cyborg survivors captured after the order went down to stop the cyborg program. Before they were executed.”

He blinked a few times. Steel finally moved, closing the distance to stop at the side of the bed. His gaze ran over her body before he settled for staring into her eyes. “I don’t want you. You’re too small, too frail, and you’re not my type. You may sleep on my bed tonight but in the morning you’re going to go with my engineer.”

Shock rolled through her. “I’m not unattractive.”

He tilted his head. “You are correct. You are very appealing but you aren’t my type.

My unit female was six-foot-four with a rounded, solid frame.” His gaze lowered down her body and then lifted. “You’re not sturdy enough for someone like me and I like aggressive females. You will be much better suited for another male.”

“So you’re just turning me down?” Rena was shocked. She had men hit on her all the time when she was clothed but now she was na**d in this man’s bed yet he was rejecting her. That burned and was insulting as hell. “You said you haven’t had a woman in a long time. You’d rather go without sex than have it with me?”

He paused. “There are cyborg females on a planet we will arrive at in the morning.

Many of them have shown an interest in forming a family unit with me but I had thought I was still contracted to a woman. Now that I know I am free I can contract with another cyborg female so I won’t be without sex for long.”

Biting her lip, she glared at him. “Please don’t give me to someone else.”

He sighed. “You will be treated well.” He turned away to walk to a dresser. In less than a minute he returned, tossing a large gray shirt at her. “Put that on.”

Her hands shook as she put his big shirt on to cover her body. He was going to give her away, her life was going to be pure hell, and the thought of attacking him even came to mind. If she attacked him he might kill her, but she reasoned that dying would be preferable than becoming a ship whore.

“Do not take it personally,” he said softly. “I was a prisoner after it was declared cyborgs should be decommissioned.” He took a deep breath. “I spent six years in prison on Earth until I escaped when they had a system failure after a blizzard. I don’t hate humans but I don’t want to get involved with one. The years I spent locked up made me never want to trust your kind again.”

Shock rolled through her. “You were in a detention center on Earth?”

He nodded. “They had a use for me but when they were done I was slated for execution within sixty-four days.”

Hope hit her hard and fast. He’d been detained, which meant he had been subjected to the same procedure as the cyborgs her father had guarded. Did he know what they’d done to him? Had he gotten reprogrammed? Had the extra chip been removed from his brain? Her father said they didn’t tell the cyborgs what had been done to them when they processed them into the detention centers for fear that they’d try to operate on each other.

Her thoughts went into overdrive.

“Could you please sit down on the bed so we can talk about this?”

He regarded her uneasily. “You wish to seduce me? It won’t happen. I’m not an Earth male.”

“I wouldn’t dream of doing that,” she flat-out lied. “I’d like to hear more about this engineer. I’m scared. Please sit down and at least tell me what you know about him so I’m less terrified. I didn’t do anything to you when you were on Earth. I’m too young to have been a part of that.”

He hesitated, studying her, but he finally moved to the bed and sat all the way at the bottom, away from her. The bed dipped as the mattress took his impressive weight. He took a deep breath and turned his head to look at her. “I am tired but I will answer a few of your questions. Go ahead and ask, but do so quickly.”

Swallowing hard, her heart pounding, she stared into his beautiful eyes. “Are you listening to me, Steel?”

He nodded. “Ask your questions. I will give you five minutes but that is all.”

Terrified, she blurted out the words her father had told her so many times as a child that she’d never forget them. “Spectrum three-three-three-six!”

Steel opened his mouth, probably to ask her what that meant but then his eyes widened as his body went totally limp. Rena lunged for the big cyborg as his body started to slump forward. She wanted him on the bed, not on the floor or she’d never get him back on the mattress. She grabbed his shoulders and tugged hard, grunting as she fought his slack weight but then winning as he fell back toward her, on the bed. As his body landed, the bed bounced a little, almost knocking her on top of him.

She stared down at his closed eyes. “Oh shit. It really worked.”

Her father had told her that cyborgs had been reprogrammed to shut down for ten minutes and he’d given her the code that triggered the defensive program. The chip had been added in case they ever tried to revolt, escape, or if a guard was trapped in a room with one trying to kill him. Cyborgs were super soldiers and their keepers had been afraid they were too damn smart to keep contained, even locked in detention centers, so they’d embedded a chip that shut them down when those words were spoken, sending a jolt to all their hardware, forcing them to totally reboot.

She had ten minutes before the big cyborg’s brain came out of shut-down mode and she could guess that he was going to be killing mad when he realized what she’d done.

She released his shoulders and turned her head, staring at the chains wrapped around the bed frame. Her gaze returned to Steel.

She was in deep shit if this didn’t work but hell, he was giving her away regardless.

What did she really have to lose? She stood up on the bed, carefully moving around his limp body to walk to the posts. Time was ticking away and she had a lot to do.

Chapter Three

Worry made Rena bite her lip after more than ten minutes had passed. She checked the pulse at his throat again, feeling relieved when she found a strong, steady one. His heart was good, his breathing was fine but he hadn’t woken up the way he was supposed to. Her father had said ten minutes but it had been closer to fifteen and Steel still wasn’t coming out of it.

“Steel? Wake up, please.”

She hesitated and then straddled his waist as her hands flattened on his chest. His skin was warm and she noticed again how damn big he was. Her knees barely touched the mattress with her sitting astride him. She knew her weight wouldn’t hurt him. She rubbed him, letting her hands glide over his ribs, feeling his muscles even though he was relaxed under her palms and fingertips. They were easy to feel since he had so many of them.

“Steel? Damn it, wake up! Please?”

She gasped when the man under her suddenly jerked violently, his eyes flying wide open as he tried to sit up with her on him. He couldn’t move much, the restraints holding him spread-eagle the way she’d put him but it still made her feel terror. Was he strong enough to break the bed or the thin chains that were attached to it? His startled gaze met hers and in the next second she saw pure rage in his eyes as he jerked against the leather restraints around his wrists and ankles.

He started to fight, bucking his hips, twisting trying to break free. Rena had to squeeze her thighs tight against his h*ps to remain seated on him. She was hoping her weight would help keep him down.

“Stop it!” She rubbed his chest again. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

He roared in rage, the sound loud in her ears. He didn’t calm. If anything he fought harder but luckily the restraints held. She heard the wood creak as though it might snap.

She could see his muscles bulging and straining as he tried to pull the bedposts from the frame. He glared at her, his mouth snapping closed as the angry sound died.

“Just calm down.”

“Calm down?” He snarled the words. “What did you do to me?”

He wasn’t twisting or trying to buck her off anymore. She relaxed, staring into his fierce eyes. “I don’t want to be given to someone else.”

“So you knocked me out somehow and restrained me to the bed?” He growled at her just as an animal would, surprising her. “If you think you can ransom me to get off the ship, they will kill you the second you leave this room or they will come in here to take you out. Your plan of escape won’t work.”

“I know that plan won’t work,” she admitted. “I’m also not stupid. I’m sure the Vontage has escape pods but I also know that this ship is first class so it could easily overtake a pod so leaving in one wouldn’t assure my freedom. I’m too damn far from Earth to make it anyway, even if you didn’t chase me down. We’re weeks out and while I know a pod would eventually get me there I’d be a sitting duck for any pirate who spotted me in one of those slow-moving things.”

He glared at her.

She took a deep breath trying to calm her frayed nerves. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea but I’m desperate.”

“Release me now and I won’t kill you.” He pulled on the arm restraints but they held.

“No way in hell am I letting you up until we work some things out.”

He growled at her again, glaring. “When I break free you are going to be sorry.”

“Probably.”

“If you kill me, they will kill you.”

“I’m not going to kill you. If I wanted you dead I wouldn’t have tried to wake you up. I would have taken you out when you slept. I’m not a killer, damn it.”

“What did you do to me?”

She hesitated. “I’m not telling you that. Listen, Steel. I don’t want to be given to your engineer. I want to stay with you.”

His eyes narrowed. He was totally irate and it showed. “This is your plan? You think you can make me promise you under duress?” He paused. “Fine. Let me up and I swear I will keep you.”

Rolling her eyes, Rena sighed. “Sure. Right. I’m stupid. The second I let you up you’re going to hurt me.”