Weapons Master Galactic Gladia - Anna Hackett Page 0,33

stupid. They kept beating me.”

“Okay.” She smoothed a hand over his chest. She didn’t want to hear anymore.

“You wanted to know.” His voice was harsh.

“Stop.”

“No.” He sat up. “My organs were pulp. My bones were splinters. They left me dying in a pool of my own blood. Someone found me, and then Magnus came.”

Bellamy swallowed. Something warned her that his injuries were the least of what had caused him pain.

“I woke up in the House of Rone medical. Avarn and his team had replaced my organs. The bones they couldn’t repair were infused with metal.” Maxon shot her a mirthless smile. “I was happy to be alive.”

“Of course, you were.”

“Then my family arrived.” His hand clenched on the sheets. “My parents, my brother. And my fiancée.”

Bellamy gasped. He’d been planning to get married?

“I was engaged to marry a wealthy family friend. A beautiful, frivolous woman that you would hate.”

Bellamy sort of hated the woman already. “That’s enough. I can guess the rest.”

Maxon cupped her jaw, his eyes boiling. “My family believed in untainted bloodlines and good breeding. On my homeworld, it’s a priority to keep the family tree pure.” He spat out that word.

“Maxon—”

“When they learned that I was a cyborg, they were horrified. I was contaminated. Silva looked at me like she wanted to vomit.”

That cow. She’d had a man like Maxon, and she’d rejected him?

“My family denounced me and left me here. Silva went on to marry my brother, Erix.”

Bellamy closed her eyes. “I’m sorry.” She understood rejection all too well. She kissed his cheek, then the other one. Then his forehead, nose, eyes. “I understand being cast off by those who are supposed to love you.” He’d bared his soul, so it was time to show him some of the scars and stains on her own. “My family left me. I don’t even remember my father, and my mother had a weakness for booze, drugs, and bad men. She dumped me on Gram, my grandmother, when I was six.” Bellamy smiled. “She was a crusty old lady, but she loved me in her own way.”

“I’m glad you had her.”

“I was still really angry. The two people who were supposed to love me the most had tossed me away without a backward glance. For a long time, I kept wondering what was wrong with me.”

Maxon’s hands tightened on her. “Nothing.”

She almost smiled at the growl in his voice. She felt a beat of shared kinship.

“I know that now.” But she wondered if he knew that about himself. “Gram died when I was nineteen. I was a pretty wild teenager and often in trouble, driven by my anger.” She smiled. “I have a bit of a temper.”

“Really?” he said dryly.

“I was all alone and then I met this guy. An older guy. He showered me with attention.” She felt Maxon go still. “Turned out he was an abusive asshole who liked to prey on vulnerable young women.”

Maxon growled.

Bellamy grinned. Her overprotective cyborg. “He didn’t hit me or anything, just was very controlling. Anyway, he’s half a galaxy away. And I kicked his ass when I finally left him. I just…I wanted you to understand that I know. I know how it feels when the people who are supposed to love you walk away.”

Maxon stared at her without blinking.

“It’s on them, Maxon, not on us. They’re deficient.”

He grabbed her and kissed her. It was a kiss that was hungry, with an edge that was all wild.

He rolled her under him. “I have to meet a client for a weapons design, but I need to fuck you first.”

Her belly contracted, and she felt a pulse between her legs. “If you’re expecting me to say no, you’re sorely mistaken.” She bit his lip. “Now get that big cock inside me, Ace.”

With a sexy growl, he obeyed.

Maxon stifled a snarl. The buyer was exceedingly annoying.

He was a thin man, with a billowing shirt of an eye-searing yellow. He circled the prototype crossbow Maxon had been working on, tapping a finger against his narrow chin.

“Exquisite.”

The man’s high-pitched voice hurt Maxon’s ears. His entourage hovered nearby, all of them dressed in gaudy clothes.

Jax stood beside Maxon, poorly suppressing a grin.

The buyer, Al’oth, threw his arms in the air. “It’s exactly what I envisioned.”

The man owned some mines in the desert and needed protection for his workers from dangerous desert beasts and bandits.

“I do think it needs some small adjustments,” Al’oth continued.

Maxon ground his teeth together. The man had no clue about weapons design. Most of