Peyton 313: A Cyborg Adventure

Chapter 11-3

Thinking Peyton might actually be clueless about his double-wiring made her feel better, but it brought up additional ethical considerations.

Should she tell him about the situation straight out while he was awake?

Was she risking possible apprehension if her revelation set off a code launch?

Or should she try to get Peyton back into the lab where she could attempt to use the creator code again to shut him down? Checking his upgrades definitely gave her a damn good reason to look for the secondary processor.

Kyra leaned across the table. “If you want, I can make sure you’re upgraded. That will help you with your assimilation and may even be the source of your blips. Maintenance information should be instantly accessible to your processor at all times. It’s strange that you can’t recall the last date you were upgraded. Those facts are generally stored in the processor’s routine backup files.”

Peyton frowned. “Does fixing the blip require me going back into the chair?”

“Yes—unfortunately. Shutting you down is still the only way I can safely work on you. I didn’t leave myself that option with Marshall and Alex. If I had, they might still be alive.”

Peyton didn’t like the situation his reformed mad scientist was describing, but he hated the idea that there were still cyber blocks on his memories more. “Okay. I’ll let you take another whack at fixing me. Are you planning to record the session?”

Kyra nodded, unwilling to lie about that fact. It was bad enough that she was not revealing the extent of what she intended to do to him. “Yes I am intending to record what I do and find. I warned you I would be doing so for everything we did to you.

Peyton nodded back. “Yes, I remember. I’m mentioning it because I want to see the recording afterward. I have a right to know what’s going on with my head.”

Kyra nodded again, totally in agreement, and happy he had stated it that way. “Yes you do have that right. In fact, I have several recordings to share with you. I’ve just been waiting for the right time. Your request tells me you’re feeling ownership of your body again.”

“Good. Then let’s do this, Doc. The sooner we get it over with, the better as far as I’m concerned.” Peyton stood when Kyra did. He had to hustle to prevent her from leaving. “Wait. I need one more thing from you before I get into that damn chair again.”

He put a hand under her chin and lifted her face to his. “In case I don’t come out of this next round of cyber tinkering as good as we’d both like me to, I just wanted you to know it was damn difficult to let you out of bed this morning. The urge to keep you there was not prompted by anything stored in the Cyber Husband chip either. It was the result of your toned a*s squirming against me all night and giving me erection after erection I couldn’t use. If those guys hadn’t shown up this morning, this day would have started very differently. I was intending to seduce you... and not bragging or anything... but I damn well would have succeeded.”

Before her brain could get over the shock about how sure he sounded, Kyra felt herself lifted to her toes. His mouth on hers was gentle, but his fingers gripped her hips firmly as he pulled her flush against the front of him. She would probably have bruises from that fierce grip later, but it was hard to care when Peyton’s tongue was dipping in and out of her mouth in a rhythm that made her want to let other parts of him do the same thing.

Kyra found herself suddenly wishing they were in another time and place where his seduction could have just happened naturally between them. By the time her mouth was finally free, her heart was hammering against her shirt. “You make me want things, Peyton Elliot. I don’t know whether to thank you or hate you for it. My life is complicated enough already. The attraction between us makes it worse.”

Peyton pulled her close and rested his chin on top of her head. “You make me want things too, Doc. And I’m ninety-nine point ninety-nine percent sure that’s the human side of me feeling it instead of the cyborg. I can’t say a hundred percent yet, but I see that as a real possibility with you.”

Kyra pulled away, but slid her hand down to his. She used their linked fingers to tug him along. It was the sweetest moment she could remember having with another person in a very long time. “You’re a hell of a man, Peyton Elliott. If you survive this, I may just let you show me heaven after all.”

Peyton grinned as they headed to the lab. “I just ordered my brain to make a note of that comment and date it. This is yet another time I wish I had been recording you, but I’d rather you not be worried about talking to me.”

Kyra turned and leaned her head against his arm. “I don’t know why any woman ever sent you back. You’re pretty terrific out of bed as well as in it.”

“Flattery again, Doc? Well right back at you. I don’t remember who I was with any of those other women, but I like the man I’m becoming with you,” Peyton said softly.

She pulled away and patted his arm. “I hope that remains true, Captain Elliot. I hope that remains true.”

Kyra coded them into the lab as she chastised herself for allowing such an intimate moment between them without telling Peyton everything.