Nate's Fated Mate(69)

"Don't worry about it, Captain. Just dial it down a couple notches. I'm a lot older than you. Oh yeah... and I'm gray and wrinkled and grossly overweight," Kyra added, her tone sharp as she made up lies. She tied the tourniquet band around his arm. "Make a fist for me. Good. Now release." When he did, she drew out five vials of blood.

"Thanks for working on me all night," Peyton said. "Hey, I just remembered yesterday. Some guy brought me here in a frigging carrier pod like I was a refrigerator. He tried to talk you out of letting me stay. What a dipshit. And you're not gray or wrinkled. You're a nicely built woman with an excellent ass. Damn it-sorry. Guess that should have been filtered a little before I said it. Wow-remembering you makes my head hurt like a son of a bitch."

"Stop rushing things, Captain Elliott. Enjoy this little mental vacation because it won't last long," Kyra ordered.

Peyton allowed himself a chuckle. His chest couldn't move much with the restraint so tight across it. "So tell me, Doc. Are you always so pessimistic about your patients?"

Kyra shook her head over her reaction to the dimple in his cheek. It made him very appealing and made him seem very human. "Actually, I'm the most optimistic person alive on our planet at the moment. There aren't many people left in the world who think the way I do. I hope you agree with that one day."

"I'm sure I will. So when are you turning me loose, Dr. Optimistic?" Peyton asked.

"Your new cybernetic processor is in the process of rewiring itself to your existing chips. Until that process is complete in three days, I'll have to keep you in some sort of restraints. I have mobile ones and a cage where you will sleep. The changes to your programming are indeterminate in outcome. The precautions are for my safety more than yours. There is no threat to you here unless you count me as one."

"You're certainly a threat to my raging libido. Is that what you mean?"

Peyton laughed low when she sighed heavily again.

"Don't fret so much, Doc. I hear what you're saying. There's a possibility I could get a power surge and turn into a killing machine. I get that. You're doing what's necessary."

"Yes. That's exactly what I'm doing," Kyra said, instantly agreeing with his deduction.

"I'm disappointed. You completely missed it that time, Doc. That was sarcasm," Peyton declared.

"No, Captain. It wasn't. The chance of you becoming an out-of-control killing machine is a very real possibility. A powerful shock to your cybernetics right now could do a lot of unexpected things to you in your current condition. Until your upgrades stabilize, the alterations to your original programming could produce erratic behaviors."

Kyra walked to a table where the mobile restraints she had removed from Alex's broken body still rested. He had been almost the same size as Peyton, which was good because she hadn't had money to buy new ones. Pushing the negative thoughts about her failure with Alex away, she snapped and code-locked the mobile remote firmly around her wrist before carrying the rest of restraints back to Peyton. She was startled to find him openly staring at her.

"Hey, you do look every bit as good as you sound. Did you lie to me because you're married or something? Your face is really familiar. I feel like we met for some other reason than me getting hurt."

"Let's go with the 'or something' explanation," Kyra said finally. She lifted the mobile wrist restraints to show him. "Are you willing to wear these? I will have to test their effectiveness before I remove the chair restraints."



       
         
       
        

"Pain? I'm not really into that sort of kink, but if restraints are my only option to get out of this chair, I guess I'm game," Peyton declared, winking at her sudden flush.

Kyra pressed her mouth into a line as she snapped and locked the mobile restraints on his wrists. "I was briefly divorced. Before I could really get used to that status, it turned into being widowed too. And I'm glad to report that the sick bastard I married is dead. So you see, Captain Elliott, I'm not a pleasant woman these days. I have no time for sex games, including innuendo that's going nowhere."

Kyra bent, lifted the legs of his jeans, and snapped the ankle restraints on him. She made sure they rubbed against his bare skin.

"Who said anything about games? I just thought you might want to know I was interested in case you were interested back," Peyton declared, staring at the top of the woman's bowed head. Her position on her knees in front of him gave him wicked ideas, but he thought telling her might be just a little too honest. Her exasperated sigh over his comments made him grin.