Chapter Three

Zaya

I felt Steele's absence acutely when he left the room. I would have asked him to stay, but I really didn't want to dress in front of him. As he left, I reached up to touch the cheek Steele had caressed. I smiled and realized I liked his touch.

Living on my family's isolated ranch, I hadn't met many men nor had a relationship with any. But I'd read enough old romances to know I was attracted to Steele. I had never felt like this before. Whenever he was near, I felt a fluttery feeling between my legs.

I was a virgin when I was kidnapped, but the alien took that from me. The nanocybots left only the knowledge that it happened but not the memory of the experience.

Before I was taken, I learned about the Cyborg Mating Project; one of the times, I went to Gretchen to trade for supplies. I met a cyborg and his mate who took a scan of my DNA for inclusion in the database.

They gave me a com-tablet and hoped that I would get a cyborg mate one day. The cyborg Dagger was so handsome and solicitous of his mate; I knew he was the kind of mate I wanted. I daydreamed about it frequently while I was working in the garden or tending the animals.

It just seemed like all the good men were married or taken. The others were either loners or thuggish brutes, only looking to benefit themselves. Some were the kind of men who would kidnap a woman and sell her to aliens so that they would not have to work for a living.

I dressed quickly, anxious to leave the hospital. The clothing all fit perfectly, and I was so glad to have it. Putting the lid back on the plastic box, I said in a normal tone, "Steele, I am dressed and ready to leave."

He was back at my side in seconds. He was so handsome as he looked down at me with a combination of frank admiration and longing. I felt it, too, as I met his gaze. Though I was taller than average height, Steele was head and shoulders taller, probably 6'8".

Steele moved closer and gently took my face between his hands. "May I kiss you?"

I nodded. That was exactly what I wanted. I needed to know if it would feel as good as I imagined, and it did. He kissed me lightly at first, then ran the tip of his tongue along the seam of my lips. I opened instinctively for him, and our tongues slowly danced together. Steele pulled me against him, rubbing my back as we kissed.

I slid my arms around his neck as need surged through my body. Dagger's mate told me it would be like this if I ever met the cyborg who was meant to be mine. I could feel his erection against my belly and an answering throbbing in my clit.

Although I wasn't ready to go farther than that, I felt relieved to know that I could still feel that way about the man I wanted. I felt safe with Steele and intensely attracted to him. Since he was my genetic mate, that was a good thing.

Still, I was relieved when he didn't take things any further and released me from his embrace, though reluctantly. He went to the closet where he had stowed his rifle and shouldered it by its strap. Then, he returned, picked up the box of clothes, and reached for my hand.

Since we couldn't get transport back to Montana until the next day, Steele told me on the way out, he had arranged for us to get a hotel room. But first, he asked, "Do you want separate rooms?"

"No. I don't want to be alone, but," I hesitated. "I'm not ready—"

"It's alright. We will wait until you are ready. If it is alright with you, I will hold you until you fall asleep. I can hold you all night if you wish."

"That sounds lovely," I sighed. His tenderness was exactly what I needed.

An auto tram was waiting for us when we emerged from the hospital building. Steele helped me into the seat and climbed in beside me. The tram immediately set off to the hotel. There was no waiting to check in because Steele had already arranged it through the AI Net from his internal CPU.

"I have good news," said Steele as we took the elevator to the third floor. "Raven just got back to me. They have secured your farm. They found a large fluffy dog, four goats, and seven chickens apparently living right around your outbuildings."

"That's wonderful! It sounds like they are all there. Bruno must have been taking care of them all this time. He is a good herding dog."

"Raven said he was very protective of your animals. They checked the property, and it didn't seem like anyone had been there in a long time."

"That's a relief. I don't have much to steal, but it's all I've got. There's no way to replace any of it."

"The fence around your vegetable garden has kept out the goats, but the weeds are competing with the vegetables for space. However, there are still many vegetable plants growing and producing."

The elevator stopped, and Steele led me to our room. "I downloaded a full schematic of the hotel stored into my CPU," he explained, opening the door with his handprint. It was a modest room simply furnished with a king-size bed, a table for two, and a small sitting area.

"Weeds are a constant battle that I'm quite used to in the garden. I will be glad to get back to tending it." I looked around the room. "This is really nice. I didn't expect it to be so large."

"You were probably thinking that it would be like a hospital room."

"I guess… I don't think I knew what I expected because I've never been away from Montana before."

"We should be back there by tomorrow afternoon at the latest. I will help you clean up your garden, contain your animals, and anything else that needs to be done," Steele assured me. "Zaya, you are my priority now. I was trained for two things while in stasis: To become a warrior and to care for my mate."

I looked at him, feeling at a loss for words. He was so handsome and attentive. He looked at me with such appreciation that it made me feel self-conscious. I liked him very much, but I worried that I could never live up to his idealized genetic mate.

"What is it, Zaya? You look troubled."

"I'm not sure that I can be the woman you need me to be. I don't have much education, except I know how to read, write, and do arithmetic. My momma taught me. But I'm just a ranch girl scraping out a living on a secluded ranch. All I know about how things used to be I read in very old books."

"You do not have to be anyone but yourself, Zaya. That is the woman I need you to be. As we get to know each other, we will figure out how we fit together. Recognizing you as my genetic mate triggered my instincts to make our relationship work for both of us. As long as we are open and honest with each other, we can come to an agreeable solution. Can we be honest with each other?"

I smiled shyly. "We can sure try. I do like you—very much."

Steele smiled back. "I'd say that's a good start. Are you ready for some nourishment? It's been a few hours since your last meal."

"Yeah, I am kind of hungry."

"Would you like to have food sent to us here? Or I could take you to an actual restaurant. They have them here in New Chicago," he asked. "I could show you some of the city, too."

"I think I would like that. I've never seen a city before," I agreed readily.

"Good. I will just secure my rifle, and we can go." As he locked his weapon in the closet safe, Steele asked, "Do you want to eat first, or would you like to see the sights?"

"Can we see the sights and then have something to eat?"

"As you wish, Zaya." He smiled, took my hand, and led me from the hotel room. Outside at street level, we took a waiting tram. In seconds, Steele programmed a sightseeing route through the city. The domed craft allowed us to see all around the vehicle.

"It's so beautiful. This is nothing like the cities that I read about. The buildings aren't crowded together, and there are lots of trees and gardens between the buildings."

"That's because the Mesaarkan bombings decimated Earth's population. New Chicago supports only about a tenth of the people that the original city housed.

"In fact, most of the metropolitan areas in North America were reduced to small cities or towns surrounded by rural countryside. Not all of the major cities destroyed were rebuilt. Most of the rubble in what was once suburbia was cleared away and either returned to nature or sectioned into small homesteads to encourage people to become self-sufficient," Steele explained.