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you in a pod and send you on your way. I wanted you in range of the Vontage long
enough to make certain you reach it safely so that is when I calculated that you ll need to
leave.
79
Kissing Steel  Laurann Dohner
Ten hours? Oh god. Rena nodded and turned away to blink back tears that filled her
eyes before he could spot them. I don t want to let him go. I don t want to leave Steel.
Just the thought was enough to make more tears fill her eyes. I ll never see him again. I ll
never
 Rena?
His voice drew her from her panicked thoughts. She blinked rapidly, forced a smile
that made her cheeks hurt, and turned back to face him.  Yes?
 Flint and I discussed how to handle this and the plan we came up with is very
simple. One of his men flew Pod 3 from the Star and docked it with the Vontage so you
can have it when you go. The memory banks on it have been altered so anyone checking
the logs will see what we programmed them to reveal. He watched her as he spoke, his
face expressionless.  That will fit the cover that we came up with for you. You said you
followed that pod s signal so you will tell anyone who asks that you found the Star but it
was damaged in the firefight your recovery team had with the pirates that helmed the
Star. You need to tell them that both ships were destroyed along with every life aboard
except you managed to get to the lone functioning pod and jettison away. He paused.
 Can you say that? It will hopefully make your company stop hunting the Star and
explain why you don t have the Bridden since we plan to keep it. Your recovery team
really spent a lot on upgrades we don t have available to us to shield it so it s virtually
undetectable until it s within visual range of its target.
 You ve really thought about this plan, was all she could manage to get out.  What
about when you contacted Outpost Five? Aren t they expecting me?
 I never told them why I wanted to know if an Earth transport was in the area. They
won t associate my request with you showing up in a pod.
 So everything is all figured out. It depressed her.
 If you agree to go along with our plan to tie up all the loose ends it will be in our
favor.
 Of course I will. She took a deep breath.  I don t want anyone tracking you.
 Thank you, Rena. He waved to the food.  Let s eat.
 Sure. She numbly moved forward and hoped he didn t notice how dejected her
mood was, her mind fixed on the fact that she had a mere ten hours left with the man-
cyborg who had wiggled his way straight into her heart.  I m starving. She flat-out lied,
her appetite completely gone.
They sat at the small table that took up one corner of his room. Steel removed his
boots, socks and shirt, and sat across from her and opened up the bottle of wine. She
glanced at it and realized it was the same expensive brand her husband kept in his wine
cellar at their house, one she was never allowed to touch since Chuck said it would be
wasted on her. It reminded her again how much better Steel treated her as his property
than Chuck ever had as his wife.
Rena ate everything on her plate, barely registering that someone had gone to a lot of
trouble to prepare a really nice dinner for the two of them. She avoided Steel s persistent
gaze as they finished their meal. She was careful to not consume more than a single glass
of wine, terrified if she allowed herself to get intoxicated that she d become a fool and
beg him to keep her.
80
Kissing Steel  Laurann Dohner
 You are quiet.
She stared into his beautiful eyes and knew they would haunt her for a really long
time.  I m going to miss you, she admitted. It wasn t a confession of undying love but it
was something she could admit to without embarrassment or fear of him realizing just
how deeply she d fallen for him.
 I will miss you as well. He hesitated.  I considered asking you to stay with me.
Hope soared just to be quickly dashed as he looked away from her, reached for his
wine to sip it, and then avoided looking at her as he focused on his dessert.
 You know how set I am on having a family unit with a cyborg woman. After the
past few months when I lost contact with my people while we were trapped on the
planet s surface doing repairs to my ship, I realized that I would have failed my kind if
I d died. It is my duty to reproduce so we don t die out as a race.
He looked up, glanced at her, before he gave his attention back to the piece of
chocolate cake. He took a bite, chewed it slowly and swallowed.
 The continuing existence of my race is a priority to my people and me, Rena, a
common goal we all share and one we value more than our lives. We must create a
future. We all must do our duty, and unfortunately, the females are few while the males
are many. We have lost a lot of male lives in the past ten years, ones who had not
produced offspring to replace their lives in our society. It burdens the rest to produce
even more and the strain on our females is greater, making it more difficult to be
productive to achieve success. Their gazes locked. Steel let his emotionless mask slip a
little as he frowned and his expression was a bit sad.  Otherwise I would ask you to stay
with me. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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