sex bots 04 - one night steined Read online

  Frank shrugged. “That doesn’t mean I don’t know what’s best for you.” It was true. He knew all the ins and outs of Q-ter’s system, having been the one to reprogram the kid when they liberated him from his maker’s mainframe. Why Q-ter didn’t see that, Frank didn’t understand.

  “Whatever.” Q-ter walked away and grabbed his jacket off the hook outside the lounge. He’d snatched his cell out of his pocket before reaching the exit and thumbed through screens. Frank opened Q’s laptop and put a lock on his workstation so he couldn’t link from it remotely.

  From the down the hall, he heard Q shout, “Aw, man.”

  Frank grinned, but his face fell when he heard footsteps heading his direction. If Q-ter fought him on this, Frank might have to reassess his programming. Maybe force his system to need more sleep, or implant a desire for a hobby. Maybe he could make the kid enjoy Frisbee.

  The footsteps slowed and clacked too loudly to be Q-ter’s. They echoed like chunky plastic heels hitting concrete. Frank waited for Kuri, but the sound stopped, then started in the opposite direction. He rushed into the hallway before she could leave.

  Kuri wore her long, straight hair in a loose bun held by a cross of sticks at the back of her head. Her t-shirt over long-sleeves and skinny jeans made her look like an upscale housewife, but her plastic shoes screamed ten-dollar hooker.

  “Did you find us a place?” Frank called from a short distance away. He wanted to know much more—how her day went, what she was thinking. Whether she was scared or sad that she was glitching again. But he couldn’t think of anything else to ask.

  She stopped but didn’t turn around. “Yeah, but we can’t move in until the day after tomorrow. It’s the warehouse in Ballard you listed. I told them we needed it to store a shipment of fish.”

  He tried to chuckle at her joke, but couldn’t force the laugh. Frank blurted a follow-up question to keep the conversation going. “But…did you ask if we could store a moving truck inside tomorrow?”

  Kuri shrugged. Something was wrong. She still hadn’t looked at him, and now her fingers wrapped around the handle as she started opening the door. “I did the best I could.” She ducked outside and started trudging up the stairs into the mouth of the market.

  Lifers walked the evening hallways, so Frank turned to the side so they wouldn’t see his scars. He touched Kuri’s shoulder. “What’s up, doll? Tough day?”

  She turned, revealing a shiner blooming around her right eye.

  “Aw hell.” Frank knew he was growling, wished he could respond with sympathy instead of anger. But he was so damn mad at her. She should have told him it had gotten so bad that she was losing awareness during the day.

  A cut on her top lip glistened with blood. She didn’t say anything, but her shoulders set in a hard line and her chin jutted forward.

  “Who did this to you? Tomorrow, I’m sending Bane over to that warehouse to teach that landlord a lesson.” Frank considered going himself—maybe at night when no one could see him. “And we’ll find a new place to move. Hell, we can load everything on a truck and hide it in storage for a few weeks if we have to.”

  Kuri shook her head. “It wasn’t him. Some guys outside the place in the south end, they…” Her shoulders rose, and then fell. “All in a day’s work, right?” Her resigned tone set off a series of mini-explosions of anger in his brain, his chest and his gut. “Some guys like it rough.”

  He grabbed her arms, wanting to shake her. “I’m going to do another wipe on you, Kuriko. A complete system reset, and this time—”

  She flung his hand away. “A full reset? Are you kidding? I’d lose all my memories, my personality. No.”

  Frank angled his body in front of her, backing her farther into an alcove. “I don’t send you out there to get abused.”

  Kuri poked a finger at his chest. “You send me out there to be the business face of the ZU. And if you weren’t so paranoid, you’d send Shani sometimes instead.”

  He rushed to defend himself. “You’re more approachable-looking and can pass for a lifer.”

  “Oh please, Frank,” she spat. “With makeup Shaniqua can pass fine, but you hardly ever send her.”

  “Shani fights with every person she meets.” He retreated farther into the shadows lest someone on the street see him. “And other than when you’re glitching, you’re really good at your job.”

  Her hands on her hips, Kuri advanced on him until he felt cornered. “Well maybe I don’t want to do it anymore.”

  He’d seen a lot of things on the faces of his team, but never such disdain.

  She scowled at him. “I’m outta here. See you tomorrow, Frank.”

  Chapter Two

  Frank watched Kuri disappear into the crowd. The clacking of her shoes faded until it blended with the voices and footsteps of Seattle’s tourists. Then he slipped through the doorway back to the privacy of the ZU.

  He passed the kitchen and staff lounge, then the broken-down workstations. The force of his loneliness constricted his chest. He could go to his room and try to sleep, but he knew he’d be wondering where Kuri was, torturing himself with nightmares of her getting raped or killed.

  With an exasperated sigh, Frank marched into his office and clicked on his computer. He charted the GPS signal of each of his team, pretending to run a general check, but really searching out Kuri’s dot again.

  The blue sphere drifted up to Second Avenue, then stayed there—waiting, he knew, for the bus. It was the wrong stop for her apartment. Then her dot drifted north along second and onto Aurora.

  Frank’s leg muscles bunched and his fingers pinched on the desk. She was heading to the seediest part of Seattle, and he could only imagine what she’d do there. Frustrated, he forced himself away from the screen and to his room. Barbells littered the floor, still unpacked, offering a way to burn off his frustration.

  He tore off his shirt and rolled his hands around a set of weights. He lifted one arm, then the other, pumping faster and faster. If he did enough sets, if his arms burned enough times, maybe he could stop caring, he could stop wanting, he could stop dreaming about her fucking a different guy every night…and none of them him.

  Sweat dripped off his forehead and into his eyes and he lowered his weights. Frank used his discarded shirt to wipe off his face. Hardly aware what he was doing, he marched back out to his office, slamming every door along the way. When he checked his computer again, her dot had stopped moving. It hovered on Aurora Avenue, swaying a little to the left, then a little to the right. Any second he knew that damn blue ball would start moving, being driven off into a deserted alleyway by some guy—a pervert or a rapist, someone who’d blacken her other eye.

  Without thinking, Frank grabbed the keys from Q-ter’s desk and marched out into the Market to figure out where boy genius had left the company car.

  * * * * *

  Frank slammed his foot on the brake and the sedan’s blue, rounded nose stopped just short of the parking lot’s concrete piling. He shifted into reverse and then pressed gently on the gas pedal, still getting used to the feel of the new car. He never should have let Shani talk him into buying the yuppy-mobile. Only Q-ter looked believable driving it. Of course, Kuri could have pulled it off but her makers had programmed her to be a terrible driver.

  He drew up to the lot’s exit and looked one way, then the other. Frank pulled the hood of his sweatshirt up, shielding his face from passersby on the sidewalk. Each person seemed to scan his direction, and he imagined every one of them doing a double take.

  He let the car’s calm-voiced directions guide him through the dark streets of downtown. An enormous pink elephant marked a car wash and lights blinked from the top of the Space Needle. The road dipped onto a highway, and he sped around the city’s perimeter. Closed-for-the-night businesses filled the gaps between low-end bars and sleazy motels. He didn’t know if he was madder at her or at the bastards who’d built her. No, he was pissed at her. Because if she’d just let him do a full reset she wo
uldn’t still be pulling this crap.

  Frank tracked her GPS signal into a motel’s parking lot. Scanning the bright lights under the awning, he surveyed the lineup of empty-eyed females. Most of them swayed in place, looking closer to death than any stein. A skinny one with dyed red hair approached the car, and Frank waved her off.

  The motel’s door opened and Kuri walked into the lot. She’d abandoned her jeans and ripped the neckline of her t-shirts so that it looked as if she was wearing a shirt-dress that barely cleared her hips. Her skyscraper plastic heels tilted her pelvis forward so if he angled his head Frank could see the lowermost curve of her ass. He scowled even as his dick jumped to attention.

  When she spotted his car and strutted in his direction, Frank resisted the urge to hide behind the wheel. He figured she’d yell at him, tell him to mind his own business, but as she neared, he noticed blankness in her features.

  He rolled down the passenger-side window, and when she leaned into it, he asked, “Are you all right?”

  She didn’t meet his eyes—or show any sign of recognition. “You wanna go for a ride, big boy?” An accent colored her words, like some recent immigrant, even though what records he’d tracked down from her natural life said she’d grown up in Southern California.

  “Um.” His mind raced. “Yeah, doll. Get in.”

  She batted her eyelashes and gave him a big, vacant smile. Then she opened the door and lifted her leg into the car. Frank ogled the bright-red thong stretched along her bare taint for a split second before she sat.

  With a snarl in his throat, Frank started the car. He’d take her home, save her from a night out on the streets. Tomorrow he’d insist on resetting her system. No man would ever see the view he’d just been treated to. He focused on the road in front of him, not on the way she crossed her legs. “Put on your seatbelt.”

  She pouted and stroked the back of her hand along his neck, then over the thin and sweat-damp material of his shirt and to his abdomen. Frank’s muscles tightened under her touch. Hell, he would have made a move on her ages ago—had thought about it damn near every night since he’d saved her—but he felt too guilty. Every time he’d considered asking her out or hinting at his interest, he figured it could wait until she was better. But she never did get better.

  Lost in thought, Frank almost missed his turnoff to downtown. He swerved to avoid hitting a divider, and Kuri giggled and lowered her hot little hand over his dick.

  His eyes slid closed for a blink and he angled his hips up into the pressure. “I’m going to take you home, Kuri.” He closed his fingers over hers and he pulled her hand away from his crotch.

  “It’s up that way.” She pointed toward Pike Street and he started up the incline to Capitol Hill. Frank ventured a gaze at her face. Kuri looked out the window, confusion etched in the crease of her forehead. Her fingers threaded through her hair.

  Frank pulled up in front of the building, but when she didn’t move to open her door, he rolled past the loading zone and shifted the car into park. Kuri turned to him with a coy smile and reached down to toy with his fly. Not a hint of recognition lit her eyes, she lowered her head to his crotch and unzipped.

  His dick sprang into her waiting mouth. Frank gasped in surprise then groaned in pleasure. It pained him to stop her, but he couldn’t bear to take advantage. He wove his fingers into Kuri’s hair with one hand, and snuck his other hand under her shoulder, drawing her up. “You don’t want to be doing this.”

  She looked at him, confused. Her eyes scanned a long line at the top of her field of vision, checking some aspect of her programming. Then her eyes darted to the corners. He could tell when she located the answer in her mind, because she closed her eyes, her nostrils flaring.

  Frank rushed to explain before she got the wrong idea. “Hey, Kuri, I’m sorry. You were confused and I brought you home. Nothing happened.” Frank adjusted his dick, trying to get it back in his pants, but it was too swollen to fit. Embarrassed, he crossed a hand over his cock. “God, I’m sorry.”

  With her eyes clenched shut, Kuri shook her head. She placed a hand on each of his shoulders, and threw her leg over to straddle his lap. Then she kissed his neck.

  Frank cleared his throat and tried to form a question about what she was doing, but the feel of her soft, shaved pussy flush against his dick stole his words. Hell, it stole his thoughts and reason.

  “Don’t…” Kuri rolled her hips forward. “Just shut up and do me.” She sounded sad and desperate, as if fucking could make it all go away. Her tiny moan was laced with a sob.

  Frank clenched his hands on the seat’s upholstery. He tensed his thighs and ass to stop from grinding into her, but the move heightened the creeping ache in his groin. “I’m not like those men.” Though a moan broke from his lips, Frank struggled to calm down. His body was giving in even as his mind screamed to hold back. “I don’t want to treat you like that.”

  “Then don’t.” She’d lifted her eyes to his. Their liquid blackness dared him to argue.

  There was no way he could deny her—not when she looked at him with fire in her eyes. Not when her sadness crept under his skin and she felt like the only person in the world who understood his loneliness. Frank caressed her hips. He clutched her, pulling her closer to drag her along his cock.

  Her eyes fluttered closed and her head lolled to the side.

  Frank pinched her chin. “Look at me.” His free hand followed the line of her thong through the cleft of her buttocks, into the indentation of her center. He didn’t take his eyes off her as he tugged the elastic away and pushed two fingers inside. He kissed her—hard and fast, biting at her lips and scouring his tongue along her teeth. He wound his hand to the back of her neck to hold her tight.

  Kuri squirmed, rising and falling on his fingers. She reached between them and palmed his cock. Peering at him with a determined expression, she positioned his head at her entrance.

  Frank half wanted to back out, to go back to the way things were. Or maybe to take her somewhere and make love to her slowly on a bed with satin sheets. But all they had was now—after decades of nothing but arguments, and he yearned for something new and real with Kuri. Something not about a future that might never arrive.

  He spanned her tiny waist with his mismatched hands and fed her, inch by inch, down the length of his cock.

  Her breath caught on a gasp and her eyes widened. She felt so small, with her shapely arms wrapped around his shoulders. Her inner walls strangled his dick. She shifted and Frank lifted her before plunging in for a thrust. He thought he might have detected a hint of pain mixed in with her cry of pleasure, and felt the tiniest stab of guilt. But a hard anger filled him—Frank wanted to hurt her. He fucked harder, listening to her sharp keens.

  His mind reeled—he could have been anyone tonight. Some guy she’d never met and would never see again, screwing her in the front seat of a car. Mindless, he wrenched her down until she sobbed.

  “Frank, slow down,” her tremulous voice whispered in his ear, jolting him away from his fury. “Could you move the seat back? The steering wheel is jamming in my back.”

  Frank pressed a button and the electric motor whirred while the seat retreated. When Kuri shifted on his lap, moaning with sexy impatience, he pressed a hand to her back. Before he could think, he lifted a palm and smacked her ass.

  Her mouth dropped open in outrage for a split second, but then a sly smile twisted her lips. “That will cost you extra.”

  Frank’s nostrils flared. He’d never thought he’d hit a woman, not even in the heat of passion. But fury burned his palms, rushed to his cock. He wanted to punish her, and himself both. He wanted her to hurt like he did. That coy little smile of hers only made him more pissed. With a growl, Frank slapped her again, this time hard enough he felt heat bloom under his fingertips.

  Chapter Three

  Kuri bit her bottom lip, trying to hide her flush of emotions. She knew Frank wasn’t spanking her to be kinky or cute. He cared about her,
was worried about her. Guilt snuck up her neck, melted her core. Still, she needed to argue, to make Frank believe she didn’t die inside every time she regained consciousness with a stranger’s cum on her leg. “You can’t tell me what to do, Frank.”

  He glared at her, his cock a pike through her body spearing straight through her heart. “The hell I can’t.”

  When he lifted his hand again, Kuri flinched, the clench driving Frank deeper, until she felt nothing but his rage.

  “You. Will. Not. Do. This. Anymore.” He punctuated each word with another blow.

  She bucked on his lap, trying to escape his hand. Her rear end burned under his fingers. Kuri sobbed, trying to beg him with her body. Make him stop being angry and hold her safe. Hold her like he did the first day they met.

  Frank pulled her in for a kiss. He reached under her body, to stroke at her taint and her pucker. His finger started to probe and Kuri squeaked in fear for how far he planned on taking this revenge fuck. He pressed into her ass. “Only me, Kuri. I’ll come for you every night, but you’ll only be with me,” Frank snarled against her lips, his voice cracking with emotion. His cock slicked deep and hard into her, and he fingered her asshole without pause or mercy. The roughness contrasted with his gentle whisper of, “Please, doll.”

  Mindless, she nodded. Kuri wished she could promise what he wanted. She’d give anything to be able to stop the black outs. “I’ll try.”

  The steering wheel bumped at her back as he arched her body. Frank lifted one of her legs so he could watch his cock spread her. The look on his face sent her reeling into orgasm. “Oh God, oh God, oh God.” She bounced, hardly able to move, she was so full. Kuri threw her head back, moaning and crying, wanting the moment not to end.

  Frank fucked her more slowly, waiting until she’d finished coming, and then lifted her from his purpled cock. “Get in the back seat.” She worried at his unreadable expression, but climbed over the center divider to do as he said. Frank zipped up his pants and got out the driver’s side, opened the back door and climbed in next to her. “Get on your hands and knees.”