Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 55375 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 277(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55375 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 277(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
She cut her eyes towards K-lx and saw that he was still staring at her. Was she really going to have to shower with him and touch him every night? It was so odd—she’d never had to have such intimate interaction with any other Unit she worked with before. She wondered if that part could be skipped. But another glance at the manual disabused her of that idea quickly.
Some Handlers may object to these practices, but they are fully necessary in order to keep your new K-Unit Cyborg emotionally, physically, and sexually content. In fact, they are the bare minimum. If you do not follow the instructions in this manual to keep your Link with your new Cyborg strong, there is a high likelihood of depressive or aggressive episodes.
The scene at the lab with the dead techs and the trashed equipment leaped to Corinne’s mind. Depressive and aggressive episodes indeed.
Remember, these Units are new and still unstable, she read. Though we are working with experts and Tolleg surgeons to perfect the interface and we hope to come up with a patch to help with emotional stability in the near future, for now the best way to keep control of your Unit is to meet his physical, emotional, and sexual needs and keep him content.
There was of course, much more to the manual, but Corinne couldn’t deal with it right now. It was already late and she was tired. The adrenaline rush of talking K-lx down and Linking with him was wearing off.
She supposed she ought to do as the manual suggested and give him a shower. Or no—it had recommended that she shower with him. That was certainly going to be interesting. But she wasn’t one to ignore the instructions and she knew how dangerous an unhappy Cyborg could be.
As awkward as it was, she intended to follow the manual.
5
CORINNE
Corinne minimized the manual and turned once more to K-lx.
The Cyborg was sitting on the edge of her bed with his legs spread and his elbows on his knees. He was quiet, as though awaiting orders and she wondered what he was thinking.
Of course, she could have pushed through their Link to find out and she would have with an ordinary Cyborg, but she felt reluctant to invade his privacy. He clearly had more going on mentally than any other Unit she’d worked with before. It would be better to draw him out verbally, she decided.
But first she had to get him cleaned up.
She walked over to the bed and put a hand on his broad, bare shoulder. He looked up at once, his pale blue eyes searching hers.
“Yes, Mistress? What do you require of me? Is there a battle you wish me to fight? Something heavy you need me to lift?”
Corinne smiled despite herself.
“No, K-lx—nothing like that,” she said. “I just want to get you cleaned up and examine you. Come with me to the bathing chamber, all right?”
“Yes, Mistress.”
He rose at once, moving smoothly for such a huge male.
Corinne led him to the bathing chamber, in the corner of her room. Despite being demoted, she had been allowed to keep her room and her lab equipment. Mainly because of her contract, which stated that she couldn’t be moved to new quarters or stripped of her belongings without her permission no matter what occurred. She’d had that clause put in especially when she’d signed up with the Company five years before, knowing how cutthroat things could be in the far-flung stations.
Under the brighter luminescence of the bathing chamber’s glow-tubes, she could get an even better idea of how huge her new Cyborg was. K-lx really was enormous…and she was going to wash every inch of him. But first, if she was really going to do this, they had to set some ground rules.
“Listen to me, K-lx,” she said, tilting her head to look up at him. “We’re going to take a shower together now and I’m going to bathe you. Are you able to protect your cybernetic parts from water?”
“My Cybernetics and Cybertronics are fully waterproof up until one thousand meters of liquid immersion,” he rumbled. “A shower will not hurt them, Mistress.”
“All right.” She nodded. “That’s good to know. And K-lx, you really don’t have to call me ‘Mistress.’ Just call me Dr. Virelle or Corinne.”
She knew other Handlers who insisted that their Units call them by some variation of “Master” or “Mistress” but she had always believed that such titles put distance between a Handler and her Cyborg. It was better to establish dominance in other ways—actions speak louder than words, after all.
K-lx frowned, as though considering her words.
“Cor-rinn,” he said at last, slowly, as though he was tasting her name. “Little Corinne.”
“Well, I don’t know about ‘little,’” Corinne said, frowning. There did have to be some limits. “I’m not really considered little among my people,” she added.