“Fine,” she whispers, pulling her shirt over her head. And even though I’ve seen her naked—hell, the whole harem has seen her naked, including the cyborg master—he and I both turn our heads.
A moment later she climbs up into the scanner and we turn back to look at her. Find her biting her lip to stop a whimper, but not really succeeding.
I glance at the cyborg master and give him a nod to proceed. But just as he’s about to push a little button on the control panel I reach up and grab his hand.
“No,” I say. “Do not restrain her. She’s had enough of that for one day.”
The cyborg maser shrugs and presses another button to activate the machine.
Three things happen simultaneously.
One. The thin laser-hood arc comes up over Lyra’s head and begins to scan her body.
Two. The lower part of the machine splits in half and begins to bend, forcing her knees up and her legs open.
And three. Lyra freaks out, and tries to make a run for it.
I quickly push her back down and glance over at the cyborg master, who is shooting me an I-told-you-we-needed-restraints look of satisfaction. Also difficult to pull off with only one red slash of an eye.
“Just… be still,” I tell Lyra. “It’s practically over already.”
“I cannot believe this is happening,” she whimpers.
I really do feel sorry for her. It’s rough. I get it. She doesn’t know us. My bot pierced her without her permission—or mine, for that matter—and now she’s in pain and being forced to endure yet another moment of total humiliation in order to get relief.
But I wasn’t lying when I said it was a thirty-second procedure, and when the scanner stops and the laser hood arc returns to its starting position tucked neatly away behind her head, she just closes her eyes and lets out a breath.
“OK,” the cyborg master says, looking at the scan on the large wall screen. “Well, it’s swollen.”
“No shit, genius,” Lyra snaps.
“There’s my girl,” I say, kinda chuckling.
“Shut up.”
“So did the bot fuck up? Or what?”
“No, actually,” the cyborg master says. Then he points to an image of Lyra’s labia, which has been magnified like… a billion times. I glance at her to see if she’s gonna throw a tantrum about that, but she’s got her hand over her eyes and she’s taking deep breaths. “The piercing is right where it’s supposed to be. Directly behind the lux node. See?”
I lean in and squint my eyes. “That?” I ask, pointing to a little nub of flesh. “Huh. I always thought that was a clit.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Lyra wails. “It figures. Stupid men.”
The cyborg master ignores her and so do I. Because the shit works the same from my experience.
“The problem is,” the cyborg master continues, “it’s…”
“It’s what?” Lyra asks. “What’s wrong with it?”
“It’s like ten times larger than normal. Are you on any medication, Lyra?”
“What kind of medication?”
“Anything,” I say, rolling my eyes with frustration.
“No,” she says.
But it’s a lie. I’ve only known her half a day but she lies so much, I can tell now.
The cyborg master knows she’s lying too. Seems like she came in that way.
“Well, it’s not the piercing,” he says. “So unless you tell me what’s really going on here, the only thing I can do is relieve your discomfort with analgesics.”
“Cool, let’s do that,” she says, still covering her eyes with her hand. But then she removes it and sits up a little bit. “Not you,” she snaps. “Him.”
And she points to me.
I raise my eyebrows at the cyborg master and he just shrugs, reaches into a little drawer, and pulls out a hypo-spray. “Here,” he says, handing me the small cylindrical container. “Spray her with that. But you have to hit the node or it won’t help. Precision is everything in this case.”
Then he gets up, walks to the door, unlocks it, and leaves.
“Thank the sun,” Lyra says. “OK, hand it over. I’ll do it myself.”
“Whatever,” I say, tossing her the tiny canister.
She catches it one-handed, sits all the way up, and bends over to look between her legs. She sprays it, waits, then shakes her head. “Get that asshole back in here. It’s not working.”
“You probably missed,” I say, so fucking done with this girl. “Did you not hear the part where he said precision is everything? Give it to me.”
She pulls her hand away when I reach for the spray, but I snatch it anyway.
“Look,” I say, any sympathy I had for her gone. “Just lie back and shut your mouth for three more seconds so I can fix this. And then you know what?”
“What?” she growls.
“You’re not coming back with me. You’re staying here. I’ve had enough of you.”
“Good!”
“Good!”
“So do it and leave.”
“I will.”
I grab the little doctor’s stool, sit my ass down, and slide between her legs.