Being Green (Cyborg Sizzle Book 5) Read Online Free PDF Page A

support, escaping into the comforting safety of her work. The metal container was beautifully etched with images of vegetation and fantastical flowers. “Did you craft this?”
    “I did.” Green lifted his square chin. “It took me many solar cycles to scavenge for the materials but I finally found them, pieced them together, crafted the container.”
    This rough tough warrior had lovingly made the container for his plant. “I see you added drainage holes and a tray.” The tray was just as ornately etched.
    “That was your suggestion. I lined the container also, as you advised.”
    He’d listened to her. Her spine straightened with pride. “Is that why Windy is looking so much better?” The leaves were no longer wilted and brown.
    “One of the reasons.” Green moved closer to her. Heat radiated from his big body. “Changing the light source helped too.”
    That had been another one of her suggestions.
    “She’s not completely happy.” He tenderly stroked one of his plant’s bright red petals. “Her little flower head is drooping.”
    “But she is flowering.” Her gaze tracked his fingers. She remembered how wonderful his hands felt against her skin. “That’s a good sign. Plants don’t flower when they’re on the verge of death.”
    “The flower faced the sky when I first met her.”
    “It isn’t the same flower.”
    “It is,” he insisted, his expression sincere.
    “It can’t be.” She glanced up at him. “Poppies flower for fourteen planet rotations. How long have you had her?”
    “Over two hundred planet rotations.”
    “I’ve never heard of a poppy flower lasting for almost a solar cycle.” What did that mean? Had she misidentified Windy?
    Shelby had taken one quick glance at the plant and assumed she was a common poppy. As she’d taken one look at Green and shamefully assumed he was killing machine.
    She’d been wrong about Green. Had she been wrong about Windy also?
    Shelby studied the plant more closely. The leaves were slightly more rounded than expected. The coarse hairs on the stem were softer, shorter, almost like fur. These differences, in isolation, wouldn’t be noteworthy, but when combined, they raised questions in her mind.
    Could Windy be a new species of poppy? Excitement mixed with foreboding. A new species belonged to the uncertain future, didn’t belong on Earth Minor, wasn’t in her area of expertise.
    “You can repair her.” Green wrapped one of his arms around her waist. “I know you can.”
    She glanced at him. He gazed back at her, no doubt reflecting in his countenance. He believed in her, in her abilities. She couldn’t say no, couldn’t tell him to take his plant to a more qualified expert.
    She didn’t know if that being existed. She could be their best option.
    She couldn’t abandon them.
    “I’ll do my best to cure her.” Shelby instinctively folded her body into Green. Lost in the challenges of determining the needs of new species, she barely registered his nude state, the skin-on-skin contact feeling natural, right. “Where did you find her?”
    “Nebula Seventeen.”
    She wasn’t familiar with that planet. “I can leave Earth Minor for a couple of planet rotations. We could travel to Nebula Seventeen and—”
    “You’re not going anywhere near Nebula Seventeen.” Green’s face grew hard. “When we escaped Humanoid Alliance control, Mantidae swarmed the surface of the planet.”
    “Oh.” She couldn’t face the beings that had killed her parents.
    “What do you require from there?”
    She required everything. “Soil, sunlight, air readings. If we replicate the environment, Windy should flourish as she did there.”
    “We can tell you everything you need to know.” His confidence was adorable.
    Shelby didn’t have the same faith in his abilities. “The average being’s observation skills are unreliable. You’re not a scientist. You’re a warrior and you were battling the enemy.” He wouldn’t have noted much.
    “I’m