Chapter 53
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
The bot district was quiet as Ronin and Lara walked along the street.
He had his arm around her shoulders, holding her against his side, while one of hers was looped around his lower back.
She leaned against him not because she needed support, but because she wanted to be as close to him as possible. That desire was mutual.
He didn’t intend to ever let her go again.
The midmorning sun cast their shadows ahead of them. He was sure there was some sort of symbolism in that—their shadows, merged into one, leading them home.
Ronin stole a glance at her. The cuts on her cheek had scabbed over, and the dressings on her shoulder and side were hidden under her clothing, which was still stained with blood.
An unsettling buzz ran through his processors. He hated that she’d been hurt, but that couldn’t overpower his happiness and relief that her injuries had been so minor. Not everyone had been so fortunate yesterday.
Dozens of wounded had streamed into the clinic after the battle, accompanied by friends, family, and neighbors. McGowan, Mercy, and the staff had worked ceaselessly to triage and treat the wounded, not slowing even when Nancy arrived with some of her team an hour later.
Once Ronin had ensured Lara’s wounds were tended, he’d joined her in assisting the efforts in any way they could.
The long, difficult morning had stretched into a long, difficult day, and nightfall had brought only minor relief.
Few of Cheyenne’s residents had gone to their homes.
Most found what comfort they could right there in the clinic, sleeping alongside the soldiers who’d come to fight for them.
Exhaustion had overtaken Lara in the small hours of the morning. Ronin had sat down with her, their backs against a wall, and she’d slept leaning against him.
Sometime near dawn, his turn for repairs had come.
He’d very nearly declined despite the grinding in his hip and the alerts warning him of his declining mobility.
But Lara had stirred and demanded he go.
Unwilling to leave his side, she’d gone with him, and had dozed in a chair in the repair room as a machine fixed him.
The morning had come with a grim count. Seven of the soldiers from the base and twelve of Cheyenne’s residents had fallen in the battle, eleven humans and eight bots total. Apart from Cobalt and the handful of defectors, every gearhead had been deactivated.
Lara halted abruptly. Ronin stopped as well, watching as she slowly scanned their surroundings. She took in a deep breath and let it out measuredly before whispering, “He’s gone.”
Ronin’s brow furrowed, and he tilted his head.
Lara’s next breath was shaky, and she trembled against Ronin. “He’s really gone, right?”
“He is, Lara.”
“But…forever?” She turned her gaze up to meet his, and her eyes were troubled, shimmering with gathering tears. “Because you came back. What if someone brings him back? What if—”
Ronin lifted a hand to cradle the side of her face. “He’s gone, Lara. Forever. You’re all right. We’re all right.”
When she closed her eyes, the tears rolled down her cheeks. “He’s dead. He’s really dead.”
Sobbing, she collapsed against him, clutching him tighter.
Ronin turned toward her and embraced her fully.
Lara pressed her face against his chest. There was a rawness in her cries that spoke not necessarily of sorrow, but something much stronger, much deeper.
It penetrated his casing and clawed into his circuitry, tearing at him in ways he’d never known were possible before her.
And Ronin simply held her, petting a hand down her hair and back, soothing her without words.
Even when her sobs subsided and she was quiet save for the occasional sniffle, they didn’t move. All they needed in that moment was each other.
Yesterday had dawned with a near infinite number of potential outcomes, tangled and indecipherable, stretching into an unseeable future.
Probability suggested a terrible toll even with success.
Every variable, no matter how miniscule, could have spiraled into catastrophic consequences.
The slightest alteration to the trajectory of a single bullet could’ve been Ronin’s end, whether that bullet had stricken him or Lara.
Because he did not belong in a world without her.
But fate had seen them through the day. It had brought them together again, alive and whole, had brought them here, had allowed him to hold her, to feel her, to have her.
His Lara, his wife, his purpose.
She rubbed her cheek against his chest. “It just doesn’t feel real.
For all my life, I’ve lived this nightmare, lived with this fear…
until I met you. And now that Warlord’s gone…
” She lifted her head and met his gaze with a soft but tremulous smile on her lips.
The blue of her eyes was especially bright.
It was the color the sky had once been, the color it would one day be again. “We’re free, Ronin.”
He smiled and cradled her beautiful face, wiping the streaks of tears from her cheeks with his thumbs. “We are.”
And he could feel it. The heavy chains of fear that had bound them to this place, to Warlord, had fallen away, replaced by a new weight—that of a future they could now shape. A future that belonged to them. It was a burden Ronin accepted gladly. It was…hope.
He lowered his head and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
Lara’s smile grew. “Let’s go home.”
They continued onward.
When they reached the house, they paused, looking at it in silence. Ronin hadn’t expected to ever see it again. Though he could not guess what Lara was thinking, the place looked different to him. But now that they were back, it felt right. It felt like it was truly theirs.
They walked to the door, which Ronin opened but did not enter. He turned to Lara and scooped her up into what the humans fittingly called a bridal carry.
Lara gasped in surprise, throwing her arms around his neck, and laughed as he cradled her against his chest. “What are you doing?”
“It’s an old human tradition. I’m supposed to carry you across the threshold into our home to begin our new life.” Keeping his eyes locked with hers, he stepped through the doorway, nudging the door closed behind him. “My wife.”
Sliding her fingers into his hair, Lara brushed her lips across his. “My husband.”
And then their mouths came together in a kiss as tender as it was devouring. Sparks danced across his skin, lighting up his sensors, and desire flared in his CPU. Hunger wasn’t supposed to be part of his programming, but he hungered for her all the same.
“I need you,” Lara whispered against his mouth. “Make love to me, Ronin.”
Capturing her mouth once more, he carried her upstairs. Both their kiss and his steps were unfaltering as he strode down the hall to their bedroom. He stood her beside the bed and reluctantly broke the kiss to remove her clothing.
He did so slowly, teasingly, letting his fingers caress her skin as they worked.
He would never tire of the way her body reacted to his touch.
Her breaths grew heavier as he unfastened her pants and slid them down.
Lara stepped out of her boots and kicked her pants aside, stealing another kiss from him as his hands moved to her shirt.
Ronin let his fingertips glide over her skin as he pushed her shirt up.
Her belly quivered, and her breath hitched as he shifted his hands to her chest, his palms skimming her already hardened nipples.
She raised her arms over her head, and he pulled the garment off.
Loose strands of her fiery hair fell to frame her face.
Her eyes gleamed with lust as she looked up at him, and he didn’t miss the pink coloring her skin.
His cock swelled against the confines of his pants, thrumming with need.
He stroked the backs of his fingers over her unmarked cheek. “You are so beautiful.”
Sweeping her up into his arms, he laid her upon the bed, removed his boots, and began taking off his own clothing. Lara watched, her gaze trekking over his body as he revealed it a little at a time.
As soon as he was naked, she held out her arms, and he climbed onto the bed, positioning himself over her.
Lara’s thighs parted wide, and she welcomed him into the cradle of her body, drawing him closer.
Her skin was hot against his, and a very human-like groan escaped him when the head of his cock pressed against the entrance of her pussy.
He stared into her eyes. “Lara…”
She smiled and caressed her fingers down his shoulders and back. “I love you.”
“And I will forever love you.”
Claiming her mouth in a kiss, Ronin flexed his hips, pushing his cock slowly, deeply inside her. Her body readily accepted him, drawing him into her hot, wet, depths. It was a sensation that he savored, that he craved, that dominated his sensory systems and overrode his programming.
This closeness, this intimacy, this life, it was all more than he’d ever thought obtainable. More than he’d ever thought possible.
The long, grueling roads he’d walked had led him to Lara. Every hardship, every trial, every single step, had brought him here.
And this was where he belonged—with her. Always.