Being Green (Cyborg Sizzle Book 5) by Cynthia Sax Read Free Book Online Page A

swallowing the wild urge to ask Green to stay with her. He had to accompany his friends, help his kind. That was the type of honorable male he was. She understood that.
    But she didn’t want to spend a planet rotation without him. His nanocybotics bubbled within her. He was a part of her now.
    He was more important than her planet, than her mission, than maintaining the botanic history of ancient Earth.
    He was even more important than the safety of the past.
    She had to leave with him. She straightened. She’d rejoin the hectic, noisy modern world, risking the unknown future, sacrificing everything she’d built to be with the male she loved.
    “I’ll go prepare,” she broke into their conversation about energy sources.
    “My Shelby.” Green reached out to grab her.
    She twisted out of his grip, hiked up her skirt and ran to their domicile, passing her mother’s rosebushes. She’d take clippings with her, keep that legacy alive.
    Green would want Windy to join them on the mission also. He never went anywhere without his much loved plant.
    The poppy had been planted in one of the gardens, had spread her roots. She’d require a larger container.
    And ash. That addition to the soil had caused Windy to flourish. Shelby would fill another container with the remnants of last sunset’s fire.
    She rummaged through her newly organized storage chamber. Green had placed all of the open plant containers together. The containers that could be sealed were stored in another location. That made locating her hoarded objects easy.
    She’d be leaving them behind when they left the planet. Would some other being find them, care for her domicile, her gardens? She grasped the needed containers and trudged outside. Would this being realize the significance of the plants, cater to their specific requirements, feel the emotional bond she did to them, to Earth Minor?
    Her predecessor had recorded the plants’ needs. She’d tweaked his findings. Would the newcomer take the time to peruse their data?
    If there was a newcomer. Green had been the first being she’d seen in eight solar cycles. By then, her plants would have either flourished or died.
    She might be sacrificing their life spans for this one chance at happiness.
    Shelby scooped the ashes into the container, ignoring the guilt gnawing at her insides. She loved her plants, her planet, but she loved Green more.
    She chose him. She—
    Her thoughts stuttered to a stop as the cyborg ship lifted off. Green was on that ship. She stared, stunned, as the vessel zoomed into the sky above her. He hadn’t asked her to join him, hadn’t said good-bye, hadn’t kissed her one last time.
    He’d left her.
    Without a backward glance, without a word.
    Her legs collapsed under her. She fell silently, numb, lifeless. Her knees hit soft ground and a cloud of dust puffed upward. She had been willing to give up everything for him. He wasn’t willing to delay his adventure for her.
    He might have said the words, might have believed them himself, but he hadn’t loved her, not truly, not enough.
    A part of her, a small silly irrational compartment in her heart refused to believe this truth. It was unable to accept the facts, even though she’d seen his departure with her own eyes, had heard the roar of the ship.
    She waited for him to return, to tell her it was all a mistake.
    Because she loved him. He had to love her back. This was Green. He didn’t lie. He couldn’t. He was a cyborg, one of the most honorable males she’d ever met.
    She couldn’t lose him, couldn’t lose everything, not again. She wouldn’t survive.
    Shelby bowed her head. A teardrop trickled down her cheek. She gazed unseeingly at the ground.
    “Are you damaged, my female?”
    That sounded like… No. She shook her head. It couldn’t be. He was gone.
    “My Shelby?” Her grief-spawned hallucination persisted.
    “You’re.” She looked upward and her words stopped. Green peered at her, his rugged face creased with