clones without reprimand and they gain access to guest food, since they’re invited to dine with them.”
“What about you?”
“I lived in a dorm with many other service clones. All males.” He paused. “We aren’t permitted to have relationships with females. We must be very discrete if we have sex with another clone, or both of us are punished. And service clones only eat nutrient bars.”
“How do they punish clones?”
“It depends on the crime. They mostly use shock rods that cause no lasting physical damage. A few days of being secured to a table and repeatedly suffering pain tends to make one not break rules again.”
She lifted her head, peering up with him. “How did you get so good at sex, then? Did you have a lot of girlfriends?”
Big snorted and eased his hold around her waist. “No. I had brief relations with a few female clones but I also read up on the subject quite a bit first.” He winked. “I’m glad you think I’m good at it. My experience isn’t what you might assume. You’re my fourth female. The first three were brief encounters that amounted to experimenting with sex.”
She liked hearing that he hadn’t been some womanizing Romeo. Insecurity still surfaced, though, remembering how her marriage had ended. She was the only woman on the huge station, so cheating wouldn’t be a problem. Then again, he’d found her. What if he went out to raid another transport and came across a second female clone?
“What is it?” He cupped her jaw.
“Nothing.” She turned her head away.
“Don’t shut me out. Tell me.”
She forced herself to look at him again. “What if you find another woman clone?”
He studied her for what felt like forever. “Should I worry that you’ll be attracted to my men? I invited Fig to return to home base and bring Blade with him.”
She didn’t even have to think about that. “No. I already have feelings for you.” It was true.
He grinned. “Exactly, Gemma.” All humor vanished off his face. “I would fight them if they attempted to lure your affections from me. I feel things for you as well. Possessiveness and a longing to form a strong bond with you being at the top of those emotions. I never want to share you with someone else. I hope you feel the same toward me.”
“I do.”
“Good. That’s settled. We are a couple for the rest of our lives. One unit.” He took her hand. “Now it’s time to take you to the control center and begin to teach you about the station.”
She groaned. “This is going to be bad. I’m warning you now.”
“There’s plenty of time to learn and you’re smarter than you used to be, Gemma. Give yourself more credit. Enhanced body. Remember?”
“I’m also the woman who fell out of bed because some cleaning robot wanted to steal my covers this morning.”
He lifted her hand and kissed the back of it as they left the clothing store. “You’re doing wonderfully.”
“That’s because you’re really hot and I want to impress you.”
“You own me now, Gemma. No need to impress.”
She relaxed, letting go of some of the tension she felt. The future wasn’t looking so bad with Big at her side.
Chapter Eight
The control room at the station intimidated Gemma. It contained three rows of long desks with computers, or what passed for them in the future. “Crap. You can’t really expect me to learn how to work all of this stuff.”
Big chuckled, leading her past two dark rows to the third one. One screen was lit up. “This is all you need to worry about. Forget the rest.”
She glanced back at the rest. “What are they?”
He gestured to the other rows. “The first row controlled the robotic mining equipment and also ran the docking stations for the shuttle ports. Second row is all just security feeds, monitoring the station and the mines. This last section is station operations.”
She glanced down the long row.
He grabbed ahold of her arm, took a seat, and pulled her onto his lap. “We’re not reopening the mining shafts or monitoring dozens of businesses. Nor are we attempting to keep track of thousands of people.” He released her and touched the top of the flat surface in front of them. A keyboard lit up. It was part of the desk, and she gawked a bit.
“Free rerouted everything we use to this single station. Life support…” He tapped on the pad and explained what she was seeing on the screen.
“Free?”
“It’s his name now. He hated the