“No. Sleepy. Was it your intention to stupefy me?” She grinned and he mirrored the expression. She always unearthed a moment of humor, something to lighten the tension; it was one of her loveliest qualities. He’d forgotten how important wit and playfulness could be in a good relationship.
“Maybe. Get dressed. You do seem cold.” He frowned. “The air con better be working.”
She slipped on her pants. “I checked it two days ago and it was working fine. I’ll look again.”
“Tomorrow. Go to bed.” Days ago that particular command would have been greeted with a scowl. Not today.
Jade yawned. “You’ll join me, sir?”
“Soon. The asteroid field is thinning out. I can trust the nav system to do its job and avoid a collision.”
By the door, she turned. “I do understand. My orgasms are yours, sir.”
“Thank you for giving them to me. I shall endeavor to make them the best you’ve ever had.”
With her gone, he returned to deal with another matter—catching Nyle Curtis. The man was unique—a cyborg with a flesh and bone torso and scar-riddled head, but the rest of him was artificial: robotic powered limbs. Those mechanical attachments made him strong, too strong to fight hand to hand. Fast also, he could outrun most things on two or four feet. His brain might not be the smartest, but he ruled over his criminal empire using the combination of might and fear. Mason needed another approach for bringing the beast down.
Chapter Eight
Nights didn’t exist in space, but with the blanket of blackness, it always felt like nighttime. The Universal Space Day, as defined by the omnipresent Federation regulations, ended with a rest period of eight hours. Some days it felt too short, other days, too long. Jade hated the way the Novador Federation dictated when to sleep.
“Are you awake?” Jade asked.
“Sorry,” Mason replied. “I didn’t mean to keep you up. I’m thinking.”
He’d been tossing about on the bed and it wasn’t the first time he’d woken her during a rest period. The last few days he’d slept fitfully.
“Would you like me to help you in some way, sir?” She skated her hand down his bare chest, following the lines of his ribs and stomach muscles, then the bands of his groin. He captured her wrist just before she touched his penis.
“No, thank you.” With her hand still trapped, he rested it on his chest. His heart thrummed gently beneath his breastbone—a regular, calming pulse. Whatever was keeping him awake wasn’t driven by excitement or anxiety, but something else.
“Thinking?” she queried. “Is it Curtis? What’s so special about him?”
“Lights!” Mason commanded and the darkness slowly transformed into a brightness.
Jade blinked and shaded her bleary eyes with her arm. Mason’s eyes were wide open and alert. She slid onto her side to face him. There was no trace of his love-drenched eyes, the ones she adored; instead there were shadows underneath them.
“You said he was dangerous,” she probed, hoping he might share what was on his mind.
“Very. He’s not typical. Although, the most wanted criminals aren’t typical.” Mason paused. “You see, he’s a cyborg.”
She shot up in bed. “Part robot, part humanoid? Really, wow!”
“I thought that might interest you, given your studies.” He hooked his arms behind his head and stared up at her. “It was your thesis?” Mason had full access to her records; there was little he didn’t know about her when it came to her education.
“Medical prosthetics and cybernetics, yes. It was part of my bioengineering studies. I gain a distinction. So Curtis must have been injured and—”
“No, not injured. He deliberately had his limbs removed and replaced with artificial ones.”
Jade’s jaw dropped. “He had them amputated? Fuck, that’s horrible. Why?”
Mason snorted in mutual disgust. “He’s a horrible person. To make him stronger, quicker. His torso and brain are intact, and
he relies on that artificial brawn to overpower his opponents. He’s impossible to take down because those limbs are re-enforced to prevent penetration of any kind of weaponry.”
“Really? That must have cost him heaps.” She couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to be half man, half machine. The research she had done was for those with irreversible injuries and grants were hard to find when the universe was focused on war, not peace.
“Money, for Curtis, isn’t an issue. He just steals it and if necessary, kills people in the process. I need to get him. He’s immoral, despicable.”