The Gate Read online

  “It wasn’t him! It couldn’t have been him!” Brenda exclaimed, whirling away and beginning to pace. “It must just be that I’ve had him on my mind so much lately because you and I have talked about him so much.”

  Carly felt a hard blush rise to her cheeks. Fortunately, Brenda seemed too distracted to notice. She cleared her throat, trying to get up the nerve to confess what she’d done, but all she could think about was that Devlin had put her in this horrible position! She knew it had to be him! And what the hell was he doing wandering around when he was supposed to stay in the apartment!

  Of course, she hadn’t told him he had to, but why would he have left it?

  She hadn’t told him that he had to stay in the apartment, but she also hadn’t given him any errands to run!

  Because she hadn’t wanted to risk the chance of Brenda, or someone else who’d known the real Devlin, seeing her cyborg!

  Damn it!

  She’d known when she’d ordered him that she was taking a huge risk. She’d managed to quiet her conscience by convincing herself that she could keep it a secret, that Brenda need never know.

  “Well, uh, maybe that’s it?” she finally said a little weakly, instead of confessing like she should have. “We’ve been talking about him a lot and you had him on your mind and you just saw someone who looked a lot like him?

  “Or maybe not even a lot,” she added in a rush when Brenda turned to look at her accusingly.

  “Do you know how many Arapaho are in this colony?” Brenda snapped.

  Carly blinked at her. “Uh … no.”

  “Me!”

  Carly felt heat flash in her face. “Well … uh … Devlin was never here at all, right? So it couldn’t be him.”

  “It couldn’t be him because he’s dead!” Brenda snapped. “He died a year ago in that explosion!”

  It occurred to Carly that she was getting in deeper and deeper. She should confess and take the fallout she had coming to her, try to explain. Brenda was going to find out sooner or later anyway, she told herself, trying to brace herself for the inevitable even while still searching her mind frantically for some escape.

  “Well … uh … I … uh ….” The stammering didn’t help. No solution magically presented itself. The urge to confess was nearly overwhelming, but the fear of the nasty confrontation that would result from confession was more overwhelming. “So … uh … maybe it was a new colonist? He could even have been east Indian.”

  Brenda narrowed her eyes at her. “We may all look alike to you white people, but I think I fucking know my own brother!”

  Dismayed, Carly gaped at her. “I didn’t mean it that way!”

  “What did you mean?” Brenda demanded angrily.

  “I’m just saying ….” Carly left the attempt at another lie hanging. After staring at Brenda for a long moment in dismay, she blurted out the confession she didn’t want to make at all. “I suppose it might have been my companion cyborg.”

  The blood drained from Brenda’s face leaving it a sickly yellowish color and all expression vanished with the shock that went through her. “Your what?”

  Carly winced. “I can explain!”

  * * * *

  “You went out!” Carly said accusingly.

  Devlin turned from the window to look at her with an expression of surprise. The shock didn’t last more than a few seconds, though. His face closed. “I didn’t realize I was a prisoner,” he responded coolly.

  The comment was delivered in a flat, emotionless monotone that would have sounded completely inoffensive if not for the words themselves. It was what he said that changed it from a neutral response to a cool challenge.

  Carly gaped at him in disbelief as that tone registered and instantly felt her anger escalate. As ready as she’d been to blame the entire mess she was in with Brenda on Devlin she hadn’t expected an actual fight about it. She’d expected to air her grievance and get a humble apology in response.

  He was a cyborg! He wasn’t supposed to defend himself! He was supposed to accept the blame so she could feel better!

  “You’re a cybernetic companion!” she snapped. “You can’t be a prisoner anymore than my … cooking unit can be free! And you upset Bren ….” She broke off and flicked a glance at the computer sensors as it suddenly dawned on her that Trude was probably recording the entire exchange.

  Devlin flicked a glance toward the censors, as well. His expression tightened for a second and then all expression was wiped from his face.

  “Your cyborg is exhibiting alarming signs of defective programming,” Trude announced. “Should I contact the company?”

  Dismay flashed through Carly. “No!” She calmed herself with an effort, scrambling to think of an explanation that would sooth Trude’s suspicions. “He’s the … uh … latest in cybernetic development, designed to behave like an actual companion. He detects when I have a need for an argument and responds accordingly.”

  It sounded lame even to her, but she was too agitated to consider that she should have flatly denied the possibility that Devlin was arguing at all.

  She pasted a smile on her lips. “Make up sex time!” she announced brightly. “Let’s do it in the shower.”

  Turning on her heel, she stalked toward the bathroom. To her relief, Devlin followed without her having to command it. The moment the door closed behind him, she sucked in an angry breath to give him a piece of her mind. She didn’t manage to deliver the set down that crowded into her mind. Devlin crowded her against the lavatory, caught a fistful of her hair and yanked her head back hard enough to produce a sting at the strain of her hair against the roots. A mixture of alarm and surprise filled her but before either could do more than register in her mind, he locked his lips to hers and invaded her mouth with his tongue. Heat washed over her. Her skin prickled with stinging sensation as if she’d come into contact with an electrical charge.

  She knew the feel of the body pressed to hers, though, the mouth, the taste and scent of him and her body responded faster than the logical side of her brain could. She kissed him back, clutching at him to pull him closer. As familiar as the sensations were, though, she’d never experienced it with clothing preventing her from skin to skin contact and that itself was enough to distract her from complete absorption in his love play.

  “Dev! What are you doing?” she whispered when he broke the kiss to explore her exposed throat.

  She thought she saw a faint smile curl his lips for a split second as his head descended. “Make up sex,” he murmured huskily against her throat.

  Carly wavered. She hadn’t expected him to take the suggestion literally.

  Truthfully, she didn’t believe he had—but it certainly seemed more like something he should do.

  Except for that smile.

  Which she wasn’t convinced she’d seen.

  She dismissed her qualms.

  What was the point in arguing with a cyborg anyway? She should have told him not to leave the apartment! It just hadn’t occurred to her that she would need to. She’d expected him to respond to her orders not to act autonomously to a degree that she’d have to tell him not to do things!

  In any case, it had been months since the last time she’d made love with him!

  And she’d never done it like this!

  She wedged her hands between them and searched for the closure of his clothing. He resisted until he realized what she was doing and then pulled away far enough to peel her jumpsuit from her upper body. She shivered when his hands settled on the bare skin of her waist and skimmed upward to cup her breasts, feeling the muscles low in her belly contract in reaction as he pinched her nipples between his fingers.

  A brief debate raged in her mind as to whether she most wanted a slow, thorough awakening or something more rough and impetuous, but it was no contest, really. She was wet and ready as soon as he kissed her and eager to leap to the next level. “Now,” she muttered a little feverishly, tugging at his jumpsuit in a demand that he remove it.
/>   Instead, he hooked his hands in her clothing and nearly pulled her off the vanity removing her jumpsuit and her panties. She caught herself and wiggled free, lifting her legs to lock them around his hips and pull his erection tightly against her cleft the moment she felt her tether drop away. He found her lips again as he slipped one arm around her and reached with his other hand to free his erection. The moment he’d aligned his body with hers, he caught her hip and speared into the mouth of her sex. The skin tingled and then burned briefly before yielding. Surprise flickered through her and then pleasure as he sank deeply.

  It had never happened like that in the simulation!

  She hadn’t felt the fullness of actual penetration before let alone the sting of a tighter than tight fit.

  It felt … wonderful! The thrill that went through her shot her excitement through the roof. She moaned a sound of encouragement, wrapping herself more tightly around him and lifting to receive as he setup a rhythmic thrust and retreat within her. Like the bow of a violin sawing across the chords, the motion and his turgid, heated flesh set off waves of exquisite vibrations. She felt her inner muscles quaking with excitement, felt tension building until she reached the moment of crisis. She caught her breath and held it, focused completely on the goal that seemed to be within her grasp for one moment and slipping away the next. She felt herself wavering on the brink for so long that the fear of failing to reach it began to seep through her and then it burst, the tidal wave of bliss that seemed to radiate outward and blast through her entire being not just her body.

  Half mindless, she felt him stiffen and every muscle in his body go rigid before he expelled a satisfied groan that told her he’d cum right on the heels of her climax. A sublime sense of victory sugar coated her own climax, making it all the sweeter because she’d given pleasure not simply gained it.

  “I know you.”

  Carly flicked a startled look at Devlin, trying to shift gears. She was battling the after-fog, giddiness, and weakness of a powerful climax, however.

  She couldn’t help but notice that he looked like he’d completely recovered. “What?” she asked, sparring for wind.

  His hands tightened on her hips where he’d gripped her moments before with passion as he’d driven into her.

  “We’ve done this before,” he said in a deep voice that resonated with conviction. “That’s why you seem familiar.”

  She couldn’t help but notice there was nothing particularly lover-like in his touch or his expression anymore. “Uh … when you were a sim,” she responded after a moment, trying to jog her sluggish brain into some sort of mental acuity. “I mean, I guess, sort of. They put that in your memory?” She considered that for several moments, trying to remember what she’d told the rep when she’d ordered him. She couldn’t remember anything, though, but telling the woman that she’d picked the sim Daniel and wanted that ‘personality’ used.

  “What are you talking about?”

  She stared at Devlin in dismay. She was really going to have to give the company a call and find out just how quickly the AI was supposed to work. It didn’t seem to her that he ought to be responding the way he was. “When I ordered you ….”

  Devlin released her abruptly and ran a hand over his face. He couldn’t make any sense at all of what she kept telling him. He’d been a sim? She still thought he was nothing more than a cyborg? Why would she believe that?

  Abruptly, as he stood massaging his throbbing temples, a memory surfaced. “The dating thing?” he murmured doubtfully then shot her a look to see if that rang any bells for her. She looked perfectly blank, even dismayed, but he was suddenly certain that he’d found a piece of the puzzle. “My research ….”

  He stopped abruptly instead of completing the explanation he’d been about to give her as the word triggered a virtual avalanche of memories. “I was in my lab. I’d just discovered ….” He broke off again and sent her another searching look, this time feeling distinctly uneasy. “What do you know about my research?”

  Carly gaped at him. As hard as she’d been trying to ignore his odd behavior and explain it away, it was impossible to dismiss the fact that he believed he was Devlin Bear.

  Chapter Five

  “I want to see him.”

  Brenda had that stubborn look on her face that Carly had learned meant she was absolutely determined and nothing was going to sway her, but she tried anyway. “Do you really think that’s … uh … healthy?”

  Brenda’s lips tightened. “Said the pot to the kettle,” she retorted dryly.

  Carly felt her face redden and not just because the remark had struck so close to home. She knew she was obsessed, but she didn’t want to explain just why and how she’d gotten so obsessed to his sister!

  Not but what Brenda probably had a really good idea of why and how, but she didn’t want to discuss it with Devlin’s sister! “Ok, so it wasn’t the healthiest thing I could’ve done, but that’s beside the point! If I jumped off a bridge, would you?”

  Brenda sent her a look. “I want to see him.”

  “And then, too, you know we don’t really want to attract the attention of you-know-who,” Carly said a little desperately. “You showing too much interest could be … uh … a bad thing.”

  Brenda narrowed her eyes, but it was a speculative look that made Carly hopeful for a few moments. “You’re suggesting the possibility that I might draw the attention of whoever was responsible for my brother’s death?”

  Carly gaped at her, dismayed that Brenda’s thoughts had turned in that direction. “I meant the government.”

  “And they’re probably neck deep in whatever conspiracy there was—is. It was a government funded project after all.”

  Carly blinked at her, not the least because that was new information she wasn’t prepared for. “But … Brenda! That doesn’t even make any sense! If the government was funding it they’d be the last to want to destroy the research they’d funded!”

  “It just doesn’t make any sense because we don’t know what it was about!” Brenda countered. “That doesn’t rule out their involvement. Someone thought he was getting too close to something they didn’t want exposed.”

  Carly frowned. “He isn’t Devlin, Bren,” she finally said gently. “I just used the sim that was so much like him and had the company develop a cyborg that resembled him. There was no DNA involved and even if there had been the cyborg won’t have his memories.”

  She felt guilty as soon as she said that because the cyborg had planted a seed of doubt in her own mind. He’d seemed damned convincing—even though she knew it just wasn’t possible that he could actually be Devlin.

  “So it won’t hurt for me to meet him,” Brenda pointed out with a touch of triumph. “In fact, it might be the healthiest thing I could do. It would clear my mind of the idea that, somehow, he was Devlin.”

  Carly chewed her lip thoughtfully. She still felt like it was a very bad idea, but she also thought Brenda had a point. Maybe it would be better to eliminate the idea that the cyborg was anything but a facsimile of Devlin? “I think we should play it safe, anyway. I mean, if there’s anything to your theory about Devlin’s death, I don’t think we should take any chances. We’ll need a safe place to meet.”

  * * * *

  There were still disturbing holes in his memory, but Devlin had remembered enough to be distinctly uneasy as Carly guided him through the unfamiliar complex. He remembered her—well enough he had to wonder how those memories had eluded him. What bothered him was that the memories he had of her were … more like dreams than reality. He remembered making love to her, many times, and yet they were almost like … out of body experiences, real enough he felt heat wash through him when the images flowed through his mind, but almost more as if they’d happened to someone else, as if he’d been a spectator instead of a participant.

  Truthfully, the more he remembered, the more confused he was and the more uneasy and filled with dread.

  He’d remembered the acciden
t, the point, he was certain, where everything had changed for him. He knew that had to be the event that had caused his memory loss and … well the strange hard-to-accept things that he’d experienced since. Or thought he’d experienced.

  The surfacing of that memory had created more confusion and uneasiness, though, not cleared things up for him as he’d thought it would. He remembered thinking something just wasn’t quite right just before he’d powered up the reactor to open the gate. Even now he wasn’t certain what that ‘something’ was. It might have been no more than intuition or a ‘sixth sense’ that something just wasn’t quite right. He thought, though, that some part of his mind had detected the ‘something’ and just hadn’t had time to figure out what that something was.