Read Cyborg for Free Online Page B

seemed unfair, to say the least, when he hadn’t indicted anything of the kind.
    Sloughing the residual water from her hair and skin, she shut the shower off and moved past him toward the bench. Lifting the length of cloth she decided must be for drying, she quickly dried herself and then studied the garments he’d selected for her. A wry smiled curled her lips when she lifted them to study them. There wasn’t much to the garments … only enough to cover her breasts and genitals.
    She’d seen such garments plenty of times, of course, but she’d never worn anything like it. Soldiers wore garments designed to protect them as much as possible from injury. They had no concern for current styles and they worked in less than favorable conditions anyway. This was the sort of thing women of leisure wore, not working women--unless they made their living on their back.
    Shrugging mentally, she slipped the garments on. She was still the next thing to naked when she’d dressed, but for the first time in her life, she actually felt a sense of her femininity. She felt--pretty.
    The look on Dante’s face when she turned to face him at last was only marginally better than before.
    “I underestimated you.”
    Amaryllis blinked at him in surprise. “What?”
    “You are not above using your femininity as a weapon. They taught you to seduce and destroy, did they not?”
    Her jaw went slack with surprise for about two seconds before a wealth of conflicting emotions flooded her. Anger took the upper hand and she spoke before she considered the consequences. “You’re a cyborg. Why in the hell would I bother trying to seduce you?”
    His eyes narrowed. His face grew taut with suppressed anger. “I feel everything any other spawn of humanity feels,” he said through clenched teeth.
    “How would you know?” Amaryllis shot back at him, still too angry to consider the foolhardiness of provoking her captor.
    An expression of frustration flickered across his features. Abruptly, he caught her, jerking her fully against his length. “If you are so certain I do not, prove it--human.”

Chapter Four
    A coldness washed over Amaryllis. “You said I wasn’t human, that all the hunters were cyborgs--just as you are,” she said stiffly.
    “ I did not. It was Kiran who spoke, but I suppose we all look alike to you humans.”
    He knew. Amaryllis suddenly realized that with perfect clarity, knew she should have realized it immediately and would have if she hadn’t been in such a state of turmoil.
    What had been his purpose in bringing her here, then? Why hadn’t he simply denounced her, dragged her before whoever was leading this band of rogues? Or simply slain her on the spot? He didn’t need privacy to kill her. He would only have had to announce that she was human and no one would have even questioned his actions.
    When she remained locked in shocked silence, he shifted his grip on her, freeing one arm. His hand settled lightly on the bare skin of her waist, then skimmed upward, settling just beneath one breast.
    Amaryllis swallowed with an effort, fighting a surge of panic, and something else she didn’t even want to think about. She wasn’t helpless. She’d been well trained.
    Unarmed, she might stand little chance against him, but she still had her wits and her strength.Her wits had deserted her, though, and taken her strength with it.
    She felt dwarfed by his size and the sensations that evoked wasn’t just fear.
    With an effort, she gathered moisture into her dry mouth. “If you believe that I’m human, not cyborg, then why did you bring me here?”
    He frowned. After a moment, some of the tension seemed to leave him. His grip loosened fractionally, not enough to allow her to escape, but sufficiently that she could drag a deep breath into her laboring lungs. To her surprise, a faint flush colored his skin.
    “Perhaps so that you would consider me favorably.”
    The tone was almost flippant, seeming to belie the suggestion, but