Page 26 of The Cyborg Way
“Now tell me,” she demanded.
He sighed and tugged her closer.
“We decided to leave the caves alone.”
She gave a big sigh of relief, and he shook his head.
“I knew you’d be pleased, but I’m still not convinced that we should ignore them.”
Nothing appeared to have changed in the year since Henry had appeared—there were no rumors of other flying lizards or caves spouting vegetation—but Levi had been monitoring the cavern they had discovered and found that the plant life had spread. The walls and ground were now covered by lichen, noticeably thicker and healthier.
He’d left today to meet with Sam, Addie, and several other rangers to discuss whether or not they should explore deeper into the rock.
“What does Addie think?”
“She still agrees with you about not disturbing the ecosystem.”
“Don’t you trust her judgment?” she asked softly.
“I do, but that’s part of the problem.” He tilted his head and she suspected he was listening to Henry warbling to their daughter. “You know her theory is that it was our presence on Mars—the changes we are making—that created Henry.”
She nodded. Addie believed that as the atmosphere stabilized and the oxygen levels increased, the tiny lizard could have hatched from an egg that had lain dormant for millennia. It seemed almost impossible, but there had been similar incidents in Earth’s past, although none quite so ancient.
He frowned. “I still worry that something… larger and more dangerous might also emerge.”
“But Henry is so small, and he could survive on the lichen. Anything larger—if there were anything larger—would starve. And don’t forget that as far as we know, Henry is the only one of his kind to make that transition.”
“Unless all the other female settlers have a secret companion,” he grumbled, but his face no longer looked as worried.
“I don’t see why they would.” She started toying with the button on his shirt. “They don’t all have big, handsome cyborg husbands.”
“I’m not handsome, little bird.”
Despite his objection, she could see the pleasure on this face—pleasure and hunger as she released the top button.
“You are to me,” she whispered as she opened a second one.
“Then that’s all that matters.”
He groaned as her fingers danced down his chest, teasing along the edge of his waistband where his cock was trying to push free.
“Carry me to our nest, love, and make love to me all night long,” she whispered, then smiled. “Or until Janelle wakes up again.”
He kissed her and obeyed, abandoning his concerns about the future to the pleasures of the present.
