She stripped down to her undergarments and then turned fully to face the large man. He was standing in the exact position, hadn’t moved an inch from when she’d turned away from him. Their gazes locked.

“I said remove all of your clothing. I want you na**d and stretched out on my bed on your back for me.”

Frowning, she glared at him as she jerkily removed her undergarments, shivering from the chilly ship air that the cyborg didn’t seem to notice. Maybe the chill didn’t bother him since he hadn’t adjusted his living quarter’s controls. The room had to be in the high sixties, not really cold but definitely chillier than Dawn liked. Her ni**les tightened as goose bumps rose on her skin. She glared at the cyborg as her chin lifted while she kept her fists to her sides. She fought the urge to cover her bared br**sts even as a pair of dark blue eyes lowered from her face to her chest.

His mouth tensed and she saw his Adam’s apple move as he swallowed hard. She took a shaky breath and she wondered if he was going to hurt her. Possible ways this could go down were running through her head. He didn’t look to be the type of guy who was gentle or even sensitive. She just hoped he didn’t come at her like a charging animal. She wasn’t really sure what to make of a cyborg who wanted to have sex.

Her heart skipped a beat as the man bent over to tear at his black boots. He was going to strip down and that only meant one thing. He was really going to have sex with her. She took a step back from him and bumped into the bed with the back of her thighs, leaving her nowhere to go.

His chest was amazing, muscled and well defined. Her gaze flickered over him—a perfect male specimen. Super buff. His skin was beautiful. Not shiny, like some metal, but a dull, lustrous, light silver-gray color. It looked warm and supple. A nice shade that reminded her of some of the new metal engine parts she loved working with, but she was silently freaking out about the whole cyborg thing. Her mind tried frantically to remember any history she knew about cyborgs. She wasn’t coming up with much.

Dawn remembered they been designed to for medical purposes, had been grown in labs, similar to the way clones were grown, and then enhanced. Scientists and doctors had used cybernetics to replace missing limbs, failed organs, and they’d managed to map the human brain to help the mentally ill.

Eventually scientists had mated humans with technology enough to produce super-strong men with a projected lifespan of two hundred years. She’d been told that Earth Government had wanted pilots for deep-space-exploration flights to seek out other life and life-sustaining planets, to find new resources. With their new technology and implants, cyborgs were stronger, faster, and supposedly possessed computerlike brains, giving them super intelligence as well. Her father had told her they lacked emotions and were robotic, so space madness, which afflicted some human travelers on long space journeys, didn’t happen to cyborgs.

They had been flawed though. She had learned that they refused to take orders and had turned on humans. Earth Government had deemed the project a failure and ordered all cyborgs destroyed. There had been rumors that some had escaped before the military could put them to death. Obviously that rumor had been true since one was stripping na**d just feet from her.

Her gaze roamed broad shoulders covered with tattoos that ran from his collarbones over the tops of his shoulders and then disappeared to his back. His biceps were thick masses of muscle that were bigger around than her thighs, maybe even her waist. She swallowed hard, her attention lowering to his pants, which he slowly unfastened. He had ridges of muscle just above his belt. Her heart hammered. He looked too big and too strong for it to even be safe to have sex him. If he didn’t manage to bruise her by being too rough then he’d definitely squish her with his weight.

Intense blue eyes watched her from beneath long, curly, dark red eyelashes. His luminous skin tone and red hair was shocking enough but as his pants slid down tapered hips, she was in for another stunning moment. The gasp she heard came from her own lips as her terrified gaze locked on his sex.

“Oh, hell no.” She tried to back up, forgetting she was already against his bed, only to collapse on her ass on his mattress at the sudden motion.

His full lips twisted. “You’re my slave and you agreed to this.” His voice was deeper than normal but in a lower tone that reminded her more of a growl.

Dawn couldn’t look away from the cyborg’s protruding cock, which was pointing right at her as he kicked out of his leather pants and boots, stepping free of them to remove his socks. He straightened, took a step toward her. She whimpered, shaking her head again.

“You’re too thick, too big, and I can’t.” She never thought she’d be telling a guy he was too big but she’d never seen a guy built the way the cyborg was either. He wasn’t freaky large but that was more than she’d ever seen and she hadn’t had sex in two years, four months, and some weeks. Her gaze tore from his generous sex to plead with him with her eyes. “You’ll hurt me.”

He froze, stared at her, looking seriously annoyed. His eyes narrowed and his expression became grim. Taking a deep breath that expanded his chest further, he growled low in his throat. The animalistic sound made her even more afraid.

“I’ll be careful. The last thing I want to do is hurt you.”

She so didn’t believe him. She inched back on his mattress until her head bumped the wall, telling her she was trapped in the corner with no escape. Her gaze was locked with his and fear turned to outright terror as he took a step toward her and then another, advancing on her the way a predator would, toying with its prey.

“Please,” she whispered. “You’re seriously the size of two of me and with that…” her gaze flew down to his c**k again and then back up. “That’s going to hurt me.”

His eyes flashed then all expression was wiped away. He stopped at the edge of the bed, staring down at her, not even blinking now. “Open your thighs and let me see you.”

“No.”

That got a reaction from him. Iron frowned. “If you don’t want to be hurt then open up and let me see. Don’t make me say it again. I can make you do anything I want. We both know I’m much stronger than you but I don’t want to have to force you because I’d have to pin you, which might harm you.”

She hesitated.

“I want to see if you can take me without pain…or not. Like males, females come in different sizes. If you are as small as you are implying then I will see that and know that sex isn’t possible between us without harming you. Open your thighs to me and I’ll be the judge.”

She finally shook her head. “No.”

He took another deep breath, drawing her attention to his wide chest again. Then he spun away. He took a few rapid steps to his discarded clothing, bent over to show her a nice, muscular silver-gray ass, then he straightened and turned back to face her. He was gripping his belt.

“What are you going to do with that?” She went from terror to anger. “If you hit me, you better knock me out or I’ll kill your ass.”

She moved, getting to her feet on his bed. Being taller than him helped him look only slightly less intimidating. She balled her fists, tensing. She’d fight before she submitted to some ass**le whipping her.

He watched her a moment before he struck. He moved faster than she thought possible for such a hulking frame. He almost dove at her, going low, not giving her time to react as his hand gripped her ankle. She didn’t even have time to scream as he gave a mighty jerk, yanking her legs out from under her. She hit the bed on her back, in shock, before weight crushed her down as the cyborg fell on top of her.

She stared up at his face, unable to even breathe from his weight, feeling crushed into the soft mattress. Hot skin pressed tightly to her cooler flesh. She didn’t fight when he jerked her arms above her head. She was too stunned and the panic of not being able to get air into her lungs made her freeze up. When the urge to breathe became unbearable she started to fight.

His weight lifted off her, allowing her the air she needed as she gasped it in. The man pinning her used his hands to brace his upper body, their gazes locking—hers terrified and his grim. She tried to push him but her arms wouldn’t come down. She jerked and felt the bite of his belt on her wrists instead. Her wrists were tied together, attached to his headboard.

“Let me go.”

He slowly shook his head, lifting off her. “Open your legs now for my inspection.”

“Fuck you.” She locked her legs together as he moved to sit on the side of the mattress, turning to stare at her legs.

He frowned. “I could force them open but then you’d have bruises.”

Glaring at him, feeling afraid at the same time, she hesitated. “When I get free, I’m going to kill you, ass**le.”

An eyebrow arched. “Thank you for sharing your plan with me.” His voice deepened. “Now open up for my inspection. Resisting me is a waste of your energy and will only harm you.”

Gritting her teeth she drew her knees up to her chest, hesitated, and then twisted her body suddenly and slammed the bastard in his chest. She kicked out hard, and to her shock, actually knocked him off the bed. She watched him disappear off the edge and heard the satisfying sound of him landing on the floor with a grunt.

He came up fast, anger on his features, and then he reached for her with his big hands. Struggling and trying to kick him didn’t work for long. The big cyborg grabbed her thighs, pressing them to the bed. He forced her legs open and pinned them down. Dawn screamed in rage. He ignored her to stare at her exposed pu**y.

She stared at his face. He frowned and his gaze lifted. “Activate your sex drive now.”

“What?”

He sighed. “You’re not ready for sex. Activate your sex drive so you are prepared for my cock.”

Shock tore through her as his words sank in. She struggled, straining against his hands on her thighs and the belt that kept her arms together over her head, but all she did was twist helplessly. She glared at him, letting her anger override her fear.

“I’m not a damn computer. I can’t get turned-on at a command, ass**le. Is that how your women are? That’s just freaky.”

He blinked a few times while he studied her. “I want you wet and ready for me.”

“I want you to let me go, you gray bastard. I can’t just do that because you tell me to.”

His hands jerked away from her, releasing her thighs, which she immediately locked together. He stood up in a fluid motion and stormed across the room. Dawn watched the big man slam a fist into the wall, taking loud, long deep breaths. He stood there with his back to her before he slowly turned to face her again. Rage was etched on his face.

“I demand you prepare your body for me. I control the fate of the younger human you care for, so you will do as I say.”

She moved on the bed, using her feet to push on the mattress and managed to sit up, her back to the headboard as she tugged uselessly on her bound wrists. The belt was tight on her skin, the weird, stretchy material it was made of dug into her wrists almost painfully. She just stared at the cyborg in shock. He honestly thought she could just flip a mental switch and want him. Were they like that? Sexual desire just something cyborgs could turn on and off in their brains? She swallowed.

“I’m human. I can’t just want you because you tell me to. I don’t want you and I’m afraid. The only way I’m going to get wet is if I piss myself.”

He growled low, a frustrated sound. He bent suddenly to grab his clothes up off the floor. She watched him get dressed in jerky motions. Relief hit her as he stormed out of the room a minute later, leaving her alone. Her heart rate slowed as her fear and anger eased away. She turned her attention to the belt that held her secured to his bed.

“Fuck.” She tugged and even managed to bend and twist enough to use her teeth but she couldn’t get free of the damn thing.