This was sometime after lunch. She’d been extra thirsty all day and her breasts had begun to feel fuller and achy. She supposed that meant the DEE concoction she’d ingested was probably starting to work on her, which worried her a little.
Since K-lx has been doing so well, she wasn’t concerned about leaving him. She slipped into a bathroom and locked the door. Pulling open her coverall, she tugged up her t-shirt and examined her breasts. Sure enough, they looked larger than normal and her nipples were much darker than they had been that morning.
Corinne had brushed her fingertips over one of her tight peaks and sucked in a breath. Her nipple was much more sensitive than was normal for her—so tender that even the lightest touch sent a wave of sensation through her. And as she watched, a droplet of clear amber liquid formed on her nipple, as though in reaction to the light stimulation.
Corinne stared at herself in the image viewer uncertainly. This must be the “nectar” she was supposed to start producing. Crap—what was she going to do about it? She supposed she could have K-lx come into the bathroom and suck the nectar out now, but if anyone caught them in the bathroom together, rumors of impropriety would surge through the station in no time.
Because it was a small, enclosed world with only about a hundred workers, the station was a terrible place for gossip. Corinne didn’t want to be the subject of any speculation—or to give Silas Drex any reason to report her to the Company.
Reluctantly, she decided she would have to wait until after dinner, when she and K-lx were alone together in her room. In the meantime, she was thirsty.
After washing her hands, she stepped out of the bathroom to get some water…only to find Silas standing there. His beady eyes were narrowed and his hands were squeezed into fists as his sides. Clearly he’d been waiting for a chance to get her alone without K-lx.
“Listen to me, Virelle,” he snarled. “Just because you’ve Linked with that antique hunk of junk doesn’t make you his Handler or any part of the Cybernetics Division again!”
Corinne decided to play it cool.
“Oh, so you’ve come up with a new name for ‘Handler,’ then?” she asked, looking down her nose at him. This was easy since Silas was about an inch shorter than her.
“Don’t get smart with me!” he snapped, shoving a finger in her face. “I’ll be watching you! I’ve already written to the Chairman telling him what a mess that walking trash receptacle made of our lab and how he ought to be destroyed immediately!”
“And I wrote a communication letting him know what a wealth of historical knowledge we can gain from working with K-lx and how the only reason he had an Overload incident was because you brought him out of Stasis too quickly,” Corinne said coolly. “Let’s see who he believes.”
Silas’s face turned red as a synthetic tomato and his eyes narrowed to slits.
“Why, you bitch! You wouldn’t?—”
“Wouldn’t what? Wouldn’t tolerate your verbal abuse?”
Suddenly K-lx was there, looming over Silas in a menacing way, though he made no move to touch the much smaller male.
“You…he…” Silas’s eyes went wide as he stared up at the enormous Cyborg.
“Forgive me for interrupting your conversation, Mistress,” K-lx rumbled, speaking to Corinne but keeping his eyes locked with Silas’. “But I felt a spike in your emotions through our link and I came to make sure you weren’t being hurt or threatened in any way. Are you all right?”
“Yes, K-lx, I’m fine,” she said, lifting her chin. “Dr. Drex and I were having a conversation but I believe we’re finished now.”
“Yes, I believe you are.” K-lx leaned down to glare directly at Silas. “I’d better not hear you talking that way to my Mistress again or you’re going to be fucking sorry, little man! I mean it.” His big metal hands curled into fists and his pale blue eyes flashed red as he spoke.
Silas turned pale and took a step back.
“You…you can’t threaten me like that! Get your Unit under control, Virelle!”
“Oh, I’m perfectly under control,” K-lx promised him, straightening up before Corinne could say a word. “I just won’t tolerate you disrespecting my Mistress. Now get the fuck out of here!”
Silas looked like he wanted to say something else—he wasn’t nearly done swearing at her and threatening her yet, Corinne guessed. But one look at K-lx, who was towering over him with a face like a thundercloud, and he scurried away.
The sight was extremely satisfying…but extremely problematic at the same time.
“Are you all right, Mistress?” the big Cyborg asked again, once Silas left. “What did he say to you? Do you want me to punish him?”
“No, K-lx—you know you can’t do that,” she said reprovingly. “And you can’t talk to him like that either,” she added.
“Why not? He talked to you like that. He called you a ‘bitch’—I fucking heard him!” His eyes flashed red again.
Corinne sighed.
“Silas is not my biggest fan, I’m afraid.”
