Overclocked: A cyberpunk romance

In a new world, there are new challenges, new dangers…new ways to die.

Basement Five’s first cybernaut is lost in a universe of bits and bytes. Was it an accident? Deliberate? Doctor Tania Flowers is about to find out….

OVERCLOCKED

by

KS Augustin

Chapter One

Mmmm. That…is…so…delicious.

Tania threw her head back in blatant invitation, coaxing Carl to bring his talented mouth up to her throat. Never one to turn down such a temptation, he smiled against her skin and she felt it along her nerve endings. His lips, warm and full, finished suckling on her breast and worked their way upwards, licking the dark crevice of her cleavage before kissing the length of her neck. His tongue darted out once to flick at her adam’s apple. It made her giggle, a low husky sound. Her fingers clutched at his head, parting the gold silk of his hair, sliding along its cool smoothness.

Do you know, he said, between uneven breaths, what I want to do to you right now?

No, she purred. Surprise me.

It was the easy way out, handing her consent to him on a platter like this, but she was mentally exhausted and happy to let him take the initiative. The stresses of work, the pressures of their own professional relationship, had all come to a head recently. In fact, Tania felt as if she’d been flattened by a steamroller. If Carl wanted to take the upper hand, she was more than ready for it.

He reached across her body and ducked his head below the bed for a moment, emerging with two long wide ribbons.

Tania’s eyes widened. What was he up to? Where had those ribbons come from? And were they made of…suede?

What’s this? she asked and couldn’t help the note of suspicion that crept into her voice.

Carl sidestepped the question.

I know how hard you’ve been working, he told her. You deserve a rest. Some pampering.

Carl—

He moved back towards her, rubbing himself against the length of her naked body. Oh, but that felt good. Good enough to knock any sense out of her mind. His rigid cock pressed against the tight dark curls at her groin and Tania couldn’t help but move her hips against him.

Can’t I spoil you every now and then? he murmured, sliding the leather across her breasts.

That was their problem. Carl thought he could solve everything with sex. Their infamous office arguments had often ended with them entwined around each other behind closed doors. Tania wasn’t sure what it was about him but he had a way of demolishing her defences as if they were made of nothing but tissue.

Carl—

Haven’t we both been burning the midnight oil lately? Putting weeks and weeks of work before…pleasure?

Propping himself on his elbows, he took the shorter length of suede and slowly encircled Tania’s head with it. In the moonlight streaming through the window, she saw his face. It was stubbled and mysterious, partly in shadow so she couldn’t read his full expression. He gave her a final quirk of his eyebrow and even that obscured view of him was gone when the ribbon of suede slipped over her eyes.

Carl—

C’mon Tania, tell me you don’t like it.

His breath tickled her ear, his voice pitched low. She remained silent.

We’ve been working so hard, he repeated. Surely we deserve a break?

He was right on so many counts.

They had been working too hard. For months, they’d been manoeuvring with each other, against each other, in a high-tech hothouse environment. Trying to prove that each was better than the other. That she was faster than him. That he was more adaptable than her. That they were both more focused than any other human beings on the planet.

After eight weeks of the final trial phase, Tania was exhausted. If she or Carl had managed to win victory cleanly, it wasn’t apparent from the daily status meetings they attended. And time was running out.

We’re not machines, Tania, Carl whispered.

Tonight, in the soothing darkness of her room, with Carl’s mellow voice whispering in her ear, Tania wanted to be convinced by his seductive pleas.

We need time to enjoy life. Drop out of the rat race for an hour or two.

Deliberately relaxing her shoulders and neck, Tania let the pillow take the weight of her head, settling back into the mattress with a sigh. Tania felt a pair of lips touch hers and she stifled a groan. Why was it that the man she felt most affinity for, the one who was able to light her up like Christmas fireworks, was also the one most adept at pushing each and every one of her buttons?

When she was consumed by lust for Carl, as she was now, there wasn’t a thing he could do wrong. When she wasn’t, there wasn’t a thing he could do right.

You’re thinking again, aren’t you? he asked. His breath stroked against her throat for a moment, then moved down to her collarbone. That’s your problem. You’re always thinking.

She felt his hot mouth taking in a nipple and sucking on it. He wasn’t gentle and she…liked it. Noisily, he suckled as if wanting to draw the erect nub down into his throat. Tania arched her back and groaned again, clawing at his head. She could feel her sex, throbbing and soaking wet, by the time he decided to move to the other breast.

Nope, he softly declared from a spot halfway down her torso. Tania’s fingers stopped their frantic questing through his hair to listen more closely to what he was saying. This isn’t working. Not the way I want it.

She felt his body lift away from hers and fought a pang of sharp loss. Then hands rested on her hips and she found herself flipped onto her stomach.

Carl!

Hush, Tania. Just go with the flow. Okay?

Go with the flow.

The term struck her momentarily dumb. That had always been the criticism from ex-boyfriends. She couldn’t go with the flow. She couldn’t let go. The fact that they were right only made Carl’s soft jibe that much worse.

He grabbed her arms, encouraging her to stretch them above her head and Tania felt something twining around her wrists. That must be the second long piece of suede he’d fetched from the side of the bed.

Go with the flow, Tania.

After a moment of wry deliberation, she let herself go limp.

Then a thought struck her. He wasn’t trying to…distract her, was he?

Carl, this isn’t about the meeting tomorrow, is it?

She winced at the harsh note in her voice but let the words stand.

"You mean, the meeting?" he asked.

After fastening her hands to the metal bedpost, his fingers skimmed her body. Tania tried to nod, as delicious tremors wracked her body. It was as if Carl had let loose a swarm of wicked butterflies to rub themselves against her skin.

The meeting where they’re finally going to decide who goes into the Blue? he continued.

Argh, why had she even mentioned the damned meeting? His hands were stroking her buttocks, bending her legs. He pushed her knees forward so they were under her body, lifting her arse in the air. With a blindfold on and her hands secured, Tania had never before felt so exposed, so vulnerable. She got even wetter at the thought.

His hands spread her arse cheeks. Tania, trembling, waited for contact and jerked as his tongue licked at her puckered rosette. He wasn’t going to…? They hadn’t ever…?

Relax sweetheart, he whispered, as if reading her mind. That has to wait for another time. Tonight, I have something else in mind.

His hands roamed her skin again and Tania forgot about her question and her misgivings at being tied up. She forgot about everything except the sensations rippling through her at Carl’s touch.

The man was a maestro, wringing sobs of need and groans of frustration from her. His fingers and tongue played her body like a finely-tuned instrument, lightening pressure to a tingle before pressing them with focused insistence. Finally, he moved behind her, using his rock-hard cock to separate her outer lips and rub against her clitoris, the condom-sheathed skin sending vibrations of need through her sex. Couldn’t he feel how wet she was? How much she wanted – needed! – him inside her?

Tania bit at the pillow beneath her face and pulled herself on her elbows. She used her extra leverage to push against him.

Carl! She was begging. Asking. Ordering.

I’m there, sweetheart.

Then he was inside her and she almost screamed with delight, clenching against his length with coaxing spasms. With each thrust, her breasts hit the sheets, the cotton rubbing against her sensitised nipples. He moved even closer and she felt the heat of his body arching over her back. He played with her nipples, pulling at them and pinching them between thumb and forefinger.

You like that, don’t you?

Oh yes, she sobbed, her eyes closed behind the blindfold.

But you’d like to come even more, wouldn’t you?

Was he insane? Of course she wanted to come! In fact, she could already feel the grandmother of orgasms building in her belly.

Oh God. Yes!

If she sounded frantic, she didn’t care.

When one hand left her breast to rub down her abdomen, she jerked involuntarily. All she could think about was Carl reaching down…touching her…rubbing against her wetness….

His fingers touched her frizzy curls and she almost bucked off the bed. She was so aroused, she was sure she was dripping onto the sheets, the musk of her arousal filling the bedroom.

Carl nudged her knees further apart with his own, and started up a steady rhythm, a finger emerging out of nowhere to flick against her erect clitoris before retreating again. With each touch of him against her wet groin, electricity sparked through Tania’s body, made stronger by the fact that she couldn’t see what was happening. She was so ready to come. Her body craved it, her muscles tightening even as she spilt more juice from her cunt.

Twice, she neared climax. Twice, unbelievably, Carl stopped all action. His fingers, his cock, his entire body froze. But, even though she couldn’t see, she could tell he was on the verge of coming too. She could feel his body thrumming, the vibrations travelling from him to her across the most intimate of embraces. She felt his clenching and the quick gasp that heralded a successful heading off of his release. It was incredible how shutting off one sense seemed to heighten the others. Despite the fact she was bound and blindfolded, the sensation of Carl teetering on the edge gave Tania a sense of power she’d never felt before.

She was tempted to wriggle against that delicious cock and make him lose his much vaunted control. Make him grab her by her hips and thrust into her so they could rut away like desperate animals. She wanted to punish him by breaking his control as much as he was punishing her by retaining it but, just for tonight, decided to behave herself. To relax and cede dominion to another.

To go with the flow.

Then Carl twitched against her again, all fingers and cock and her not being able to see a thing. She lost it, screaming out her orgasm to the room, bucking against his groin and driving him to his own climax. The shudders rocked her body for many minutes, wave after wave keeping her in a pure zone of pleasure. It was the most glorious feeling in the world, physical intimacy coupled with a blissful ravishment.

The shudders finally abated and she began