The afterglow crackled between us like a dying storm. His weight pressed me into the couch, delicious and crushing. Where our skin met, arcs of violet and blue electricity danced in the charged space between us.
He shifted, dragging his lips across my shoulder, the metal stud in his tongue leaving a trail of static that made me shiver. My senses remained hypersensitive, every point of contact between us creating ripples of sensation that echoed through my electromagnetic field. His Flux signature had imprinted itself on mine—a wavelength I could recognize anywhere, even with my consciousness barely tethered to my body.
“Feel that?” he murmured against my throat, his voice rough with spent desire and something darker. He rolled his hips against me, lazy but deliberate, and I felt that familiar resonance begin to build again.
I rolled over, fingers tangling in his sweat-dampened hair, the blue strands wrapping around my knuckles as his teeth found the tender spot where my pulse fluttered. He wasn’t gentle—he never was—but there was something almost reverent in how thoroughly he mapped my body, like he was committing every reaction to memory.
The Flux in my blood began to rise again, responding to his proximity even as my body still trembled from release. His did the same.
I tried to push him off, to get away from this force that so easily overwhelmed me. He shoved me back down, his eyes going hard.
“You think I’m done with you?” He grabbed his glove from the side table where he’d thrown it, and my stomach dropped—until I felt the smallest pulse of his power. The metallic threads inside it resonated and began to hum. He pulled it on, clenching the wrist in his teeth to tighten it, while his other hand opened my legs again.
“You got away last time. I won’t let that happen again.”
He wrapped his fingers around my throat, the pressure snug but not constricting. Power laced his pupils as he leaned in and whispered, “You’re always so strong, doll, but I think I finally found your weak spot. I wonder how many times I can get you to come for me tonight?”
He locked onto my overstimulated clit and I cried out, but he only squeezed my throat tighter, the edges of my vision sparkling as pressure built within me. His gloved finger vibrated with increasing frequency, driving me past the point of sensitivity and back into absolute need.
I moaned his name, but he had laser focus—his fingers moving with the precision of someone who had mastered both taking life and giving pleasure.
“Cy…” I reached up, forcing him to look at me.
The look in his eyes wasn’t just lust—it was hunger, possession, something that terrified me because it mirrored what I felt. In that moment, I knew I’d made a terrible mistake. I’d let him in—not just into my body, but somewhere deeper. Somewhere I couldn’t afford to be vulnerable.
Because in this city, vulnerability meant weakness, and weakness meant pain caught beneath a crushing force none of us could escape.
Panic rose, even as his hands worked me toward another climax. I’d already lost control once tonight with the Vector. I couldn’t lose it again—not like this. Not with him.
This wasn’t salvation. It was annihilation.
But as the Vector, Flux, and pleasure all built inside me, I stepped over the edge and let myself fall.
I kissed him—my tongue rolling against his with a desperation I knew he could taste—and everything went electric as the firewalls I’d so carefully constructed came crashing down.
CHAPTER 53
EON
Orange dawn broke over the horizon, streaming in through the large, uncurtained windows. It was perfectly framed between two neighboring megabuildings, like ancient stone monoliths built by people who still believed in miracles.
The long shadows it cast cut across the living room, darkness reaching for me like an old friend. My fingers trailed through the shadows on the carpeted floor, my arm dangling off the edge of the couch as I drifted back into consciousness. I was compressed, wrapped in warmth. A long, soft inhale behind me snapped my mind fully awake.
Cy.
His arm was draped over me, wrapped around my waist, surprisingly tight for someone asleep. I turned my head slightly, careful not to wake him. His face was relaxed in sleep, a stark contrast to the hardened expression he usually wore. The early light softened his features, making him look peaceful. Vulnerable, even.
I reached out, my fingers hovering just above his cheek before I pulled them back. Touching him like that felt toointimate, too dangerous. We had already crossed a line, but this was too far.
No. Last night had just been transactional. That was a kind of sex I knew all too well. He’d helped me, helped Taos, and I’d repaid that debt. That was it. Nothing more.
But with his arm still wrapped around me, the price was starting to climb much too high.
I tried to gently lift his arm, to run away. Immediately, his muscles flexed and he pulled me tighter, pressing my face under his chin. I was surrounded by the scent of ozone and that damn sweetness from the VaPurr flavor he loved. Why did it smell so good?
He pressed his face into my hair. “Stay.” A command, but I heard the plea underneath.
“I need to check on Taos—”
