She's elemental. Mercurial. She is fire and frost and everything I could ask for…beyond what I could ask for. She deserves something other than a bitter old man.
“Baba?” Solvi's voice cuts through my thoughts. “Are you okay?”
I look across the table at my daughter, the sound of Flicker shredding Lyn’s scarf a painful reminder of all the things I don't deserve.
“Yes, Solvi,” I murmur. “I'm fine.”
But I'm beginning to worry I'm not fine at all.
And I won't be fine…not until I fix the damn translator. Not until I know she wants me outside the lab, too. Wants me when the data isn’t glowing and her body isn’t lit up with pain signals and pleasure feedback.
Not until I’m sure I’m not just an experiment that happened to feel good.
CHAPTER 22
LYN
You crawlout of the sex nest for a couple damn hours and suddenly you realize how incredibly fucked you are.
And no, I'm not just fucked in the fun way…although I amabsolutelyfucked in the fun way. I'm also fucked in the you-got-fucking-wrecked-by-your-supe-last-night way.
And it feels likeeverybody knows.
It feels that way when Thalara texts me first thing to ask if we can get coffee…then when Orin texts me to ask if I'm okay. It especially feels that way when I walk of shame through Mythara Village in Kaelion Rhyss’s shirt, for fucks sake.
I fucked up.
I have never hesitated to admit when I fucked up.
But it feltso good.
Even given that I'm hardwired to his touch right now, he's good in bed. Great, even. He uses his tendrils like fingers, he talks neuroscience to me (which for me is the dirtiest kind of dirty talk), and those clasper things on his cock…?
I didn't know they had those.
It makes it—it puts a whole new spin on things.
And beyond that…the care. The instructions. The “put your hands here” and “hold still” and “just ride it out, I've got you.”
I'm actuallyblushingwhen I get back to my place in the village.
Christ.
I strip off Kaelion’s shirt and throw it on the back of a chair like it’s a live grenade, then I pad over to my desk—bare feet, shorts, bra—and fire up my computer. I want to look at the data, try to figure out what the hell is going on with me…see if anything's changed. I pick up the vitals cuff I keep on my desk, then slide it onto my wrist.
Pulse is…elevated from my walk, but normal. Temp too. I give myself a little pinch and my pain response is normal, no orgasms.
My eyes flick toward my bedroom.
The real test is if I'll be able to jerk off…if maybe I just needed the reward of Kaelion's touch to balance out my nervous system and go back to normal.
I narrow my eyes and head resolutely to the bedroom, where I yank my bedside table drawer open and grab my dildo. I practically rip my pants off before flopping into my bed, spreading my legs, and pressing my vibrator directly to my clit?—
“Ohfuck,” I curse as arousal rockets through me.
I'm already almost there, so fast it's a little startling. Yes…yes,yes,thank fuck, Kaelion's dick cured me. I race toward orgasm, almost there, almost there…
And it just…stops.
