“I never thought I’d be absolutely relieved to hear a guy tell me he wanted four kids with me, but damn am I. Not that I’m agreeing to it,” she said quickly, to be clear. “But that’s a hell of a lot better than what I thought you were trying to tell me.”

“The only male who will touch your body is me, Dawn.”

She lifted her hand to place on his chest. The leather texture was thick and she wished it were his skin she touched instead as she continued to gaze up into his eyes. “Okay. Good. I’m not a space hooker and I never want anyone besides you touching me. Are we clear about that?”

“We’re in total agreement.”

She nodded, her body relaxing. “So tell me what it means to be in a family unit and it better not mean adding more members to our little contract or unit or whatever the hell you call it in cyborg language.”

“You’re human so you’re not obligated under cyborg law to have more than one male in a family unit with you. If you were a cyborg female you would have no choice. I do not like to share a woman so I decided to form a family unit with you so I never have to allow another male to be with you.”

Not the most flattering reason to be married, she decided, but then again, she was relieved that he was the only one she was expected to be with. “That’s good to know.”

He nodded.

“So why is your job more difficult since you signed up to be married?” She let her hand drop and inched away from him to sit down. Conversations with Iron went better when she was seated since he had a tendency to shock her often. “What’s the problem? You said it made your job harder.”

Iron hesitated before he took a seat on the edge of the bed a few feet from her. He stared at her as he turned to face her. “There was a female cyborg on Earth that I grew close to during training.”

Dread hit Dawn. “A cyborg woman you were with?” She hated the jealousy that struck her but the green monster instantly rose to claw at her gut. “She’s one of the survivors?”

Iron nodded in one short movement. “We have the same coloring and we are not a DNA match from the same donors.”

“She is a redhead,” Dawn guessed aloud. The nasty green monster roared louder in Dawn, knowing damn well that Iron had chosen her off that shuttle because of her coloring. He’d admitted as much to her. “Did you sleep with her on Earth?”

He hesitated, answering Dawn’s question without words. She definitely was experiencing hard-core, gut-twisting jealousy at that moment. Her hands fisted and she shoved them into her lap, trying to hide her reaction. There was a woman that Iron had been intimate with that he was now obviously going to be around.

“It was a long time ago,” he said softly. “When she saw me yesterday on the planet’s surface, she was eager to offer me a family unit contract.”

“You’re already taken.” Dawn was suddenly glad that he’d gone behind her back and married them according to cyborg law. “Did you tell her that?”

Iron gazed into her eyes for long seconds. “I did but she doesn’t count it as binding since you’re merely human. She has refused to stop trying to pressure me into joining a contract with her. There were very few males on the Moonslip since we loaded as many females aboard as possible. With their limited numbers many of the females have been very eager to form family units immediately with our males who arrived in the Star and the Rally.” He paused. “Steel, the commander of the Vontage, was having the same difficulty with the rescued females approaching his males, some of whom are already contracted with females on Garden.”

She studied his face, letting her gaze lower down his body to take in his perfectly hot physique with his broad shoulders, muscular arms, and she knew the guy was hung. Iron was any horny woman’s wet dream come true in the flesh and then some. At the thought of another woman going after him, possessiveness hit Dawn hard and fast. He was her cyborg. Her name was on his body just as his name was on hers. If that wasn’t commitment, she didn’t know what was. It was just as good as a marriage ring.

Dawn let that information sink in. “In other words, they haven’t been laid in a long damn time and she’s after you like frosting on cake.”

“Frosting on cake?” His confused look was comical.

Dawn laughed. “Didn’t you ever have a birthday cake? My mother always smeared so much frosting on it, the damn thing would collapse under the weight so we were eating mostly frosting. It’s a saying.”

“I was never given cake. Our birthdays are not celebrated.”

Sadness filtered through Dawn. She stood, walked the three feet that separated them then hesitated in front of him to gaze into his beautiful blue eyes.

“I’m sorry. You should celebrate your birthday. Do you know the date you were born?”

“I told you before, I wasn’t born. I was grown in a laboratory but I’m aware of my activate date where they allowed me to become conscious for the first time.”

She wanted to cry for the things he’d missed, all of it going through her mind. He’d never had overprotective parents to drive him nuts with their smothering love. He didn’t have memories of birthdays or Christmas mornings. She hurt for him and it explained how different they were. His cold façade wasn’t because he couldn’t feel. She’d seen emotions, mostly anger and passion, come from him but he’d never had the platform to express much joy.

“Take your hair down for me.”

“I do not take my cleansing here. I do it in my sleeping quarters.”

Dawn lowered herself to her knees, using her hands to push his thighs apart to give her room. Her hands slid up his leather-clad thighs to his belt as she went to work to remove it. She dropped it on the floor and her fingers worked the front of his pants next to open them up.

“You wish to have sex with me?”

“Take your hair down for me, baby. I’ll reward you if you do.”

He frowned. “As much as I enjoy the sex, I refuse to be ordered around, Dawn.”

Ignoring his words, she opened his pants. Iron even lifted his h*ps as she backed out from between his legs to jerk his pants down his hips, down his thighs, and after quickly removing his boots and socks, she dropped his pants on the floor next to them. Her body instantly responded to Iron’s aroused cock, standing straight up between his muscular thighs.

“Take off your shirt…please.” She knew he was sensitive to being given orders. Her hands gripped his thighs, pushing them wider apart as she moved between them. “And take down your hair if you want me to finish what I start.”

Iron frowned at her but he removed his shirt, stripping it off as Dawn watched, so he was totally na**d on the edge of the bed. He dropped the shirt and offered her his hand to help her up on the bed with him. A grin spread on her lips as she reached out and put one of hers on his chest instead, trying to push him back but he tensed, not moving the way she wanted him to.

Her attention lowered to his hip and a smile played at her lips as she studied her name in black ink on his beautiful skin next to his hipbone. It did something to her, made her feel things like possessiveness and pride, to see it there on him. Iron was her man. His stiff c**k twitched, shifting her focus on it.

“You’re going to like this,” she said a second before her other hand wrapped around the base of his cock. Her head lowered as Dawn licked her lips. “Damn, are you big, baby. I hope you fit.”

“What―”

Dawn licked the crown before her lips wrapped around Iron’s cock. She smiled around it as his word turned into a gasp of surprise. Whatever he’d been about to say was probably lost forever. She tested how much of him she could take, knowing damn well she’d never get all of his generous size too deeply into her mouth. Her hand pushed against his chest again but this time he didn’t resist lying back for her.

His fingers slid into her hair at the side of her head, caressing her scalp as she worked on him with her mouth, knowing from the way his breathing changed, from normal to soft gasps and groans, that he was enjoying what she was doing to him.

The taste of him surprised her. Not one to normally enjoy the male taste, the first lick told her she was in for a treat, literally. His pr**cum was sweet instead of bitter tasting. She moaned around his stiff length, her tongue teasing the underside of his c**k as she sucked. She lifted up to almost totally remove it from her mouth so she could swirl her tongue around the ridged crown, her tongue exploring every little aspect of him.

The fingers in her hair tightened. “Don’t stop, Dawn.” His tone was gruff.

She released him completely with her mouth to look up the length of his body, loving how incredibly sexy he looked lying across the bed, his stomach muscles tight, showing every defined groove there.

“Undo your hair for me and I won’t.”

Iron lifted his head to look down his body to glower at her. “Are you serious?”

She licked her lips, making a show of it. Easing down, she opened her mouth and licked him slowly from the underside over the rounded tip of his aroused flesh. She paused. “Unbind your hair, Iron.”

He growled but he released her hair to reach up to his own. He had to shift a little but she saw him tearing at the ties that bound the bottom of his long braid. Smiling, she went back to his cock, opening her mouth to take him back inside. The taste of pr**cum was definitely sweet and delicious. She wondered how he’d taste when he came and decided to find out.

His c**k was thick and the head was mushroom-shaped enough that the rim was a noticeable sensation on her tongue. She turned her head, going at him from a newer angle, and took him deeper into the back of her mouth. The hand returned to her hair, his fingers gripping a fistful of hair but he didn’t pull it or try to lead her movements. His breathing picked up again to a near pant as she moved up and down on him, turning her head over and over, feeling her tongue rasp on his skin as she took him a little deeper still.

His h*ps rose from the bed as his thighs tensed, letting Dawn know he was damn close. She sucked harder on him, moving faster, and Iron rasped her name a second before he started coming inside her mouth. The sweet flavor of him filled her as she swallowed his release down, enjoying every groan he made as he kept coming. His body jerked, almost choking her as he pushed deeper into her mouth so she eased back an inch, suckling him until his h*ps dropped back to the bed and his legs relaxed.

Dawn gently eased his c**k from between her lips, taking a few swipes at it with her tongue before she completely lifted her head. Her gaze rose. Iron’s hair was free, spilling across the cover of his bed, his head turned to the side, his eyes closed. She got up from her knees to strip out of her clothes, never taking her attention away from him.

Iron turned his head and his gaze fixed on her. He was so damn handsome with his hair free, the blue of his eyes really startling against his light silvery skin with that fiery red mass of long curly hair spread out around him. His features were relaxed in a satisfied and wholly pleased way, making him look a little vulnerable with his guard obviously down. Naked, she climbed onto the bed next to him to stretch out on her side. Her fingers went into his glorious hair, instantly loving how the bright curls wrapped around her hand as she gripped it.

“I love your hair.”

Full lips curved downward into an unhappy look. “That was blackmail.”

She grinned. “It was and it worked. Your hair is gorgeous. Why do you always keep it braided? What is the point of having it down to your ass if you keep it tied up?”

“It reminds me I am free.” He paused. “When I was on Earth they kept us shaved bald. It is my way of rebelling.”

“I’m glad then that you’re a rebel because I want to rub your hair across my body it’s so damn sexy.”

A red eyebrow arched. “What is the point of that?”