Page 121 of GlitchBorn Heart

I look around the lab, but he’s nowhere to be found.

Kael’s eyes drag over me, inspecting me. The way his jaw locks as if he’s biting back a thousand words fills me with worry.

I feel an absence where his warm, steady body was, so I wrap my arms around myself, trying to build a barrier out of my own skin. “Don’t look at me like that.”

He steps closer, slow and deliberate, like the predator he is. “Like what, Taiyō?” His voice is low, sexy enough to send chills down my spine. “Like you’re finally here? With me? Oh, and stuck, unable to leave me.” His smile widens. “Hopefully for a long time.”

I don’t even need him to say words. The way his eyes sweep over me like he’s already planning to possess me tells me everything. Still, Kael never misses a chance to stake his claim.

“You still feel me right?” His voice is barely there, almost indulgent as he takes my hand, palm up and threads our fingers together. “You were forced back into the grid when Eli glitched. LINK may have taken your brother’s signature, but she sent you back to me. She’s just trying to give me what I want so desperately.”

I continue to hold his hand in mine, fighting the heat creeping up my neck. “Yes, I still have feeling. So, what now? Can I be fixed? Am I a half-projection? Like some holo-toy?”

That damn tempting smile cuts across his face, dark and knowing. He takes my other hand and weaves our fingers again, like this is all how he would do it if he had planned it. “Trapped in holo-form, yes. But a toy? Maybe.” His gaze drags up and down my body, deliberate and unapologetic. “Besides, I like you better like this. In front of me. Maybe underneath me.”

My stomach flips, and I pull my hands from his. “The rescue was a complete failure, I’m weakened, and all you can think about is sex?”

He doesn’t deny it. He takes a slow step forward until I can feel the pull of his presence like a current. Stars, his scent invades my space. It’s always cinnamon, vanilla, and whiskey. Dark yet comforting. Very inviting.

“I like it because I can have you all to myself. Because every time you vanish into my system, I lose you, and I don’t like losing things I want to keep.”

Fuck me. The way he says it, raw possession wrapped in calm, confident precision, makes me want to slap him and kiss him in the same breath. That vision sends a tingle to the apex of my thighs.

I force my chin higher. “This is a problem, Kael. My brother. I have to go get him. I have to get back in to find him. You can’t keep me here forever.”

His eyes gleam, black and endless. “We will find him. But until then, Little Taiyō...”

He brushes a fingertip just shy of my jawline, lightly touching, making my skin prickle with phantom heat. “You’re mine to look at. Mine to touch. Mine to talk to. And you’ll learn to stop pretending you hate it.” The hand with the lotus blossom wraps around my throat like an exquisite necklace.

I want to snap back, to tell him I’ll dismantle his whole system from the inside to get to Eli. But my throat won’t work. Because part of me, the part that remembers his hands all over me in his penthouse, his deep kiss that tasted like forbidden desires and aged whiskey, already knows he’s right.

His lips crash to mine, his tongue exploring my mouth fiercely. Who am I kidding? I’ll willingly surrender to his touch. I kiss him back, softening, allowing his energy to dominate my reality.

He pulls away first, his lips glistening, wet and messy. The kiss of a man who’s waited a long time for this exact moment. “Besides”—he walks over to Ember’s desk—“I have everything under control. Eli is Jett’s problem now, and you...you’re my number one priority. We’re moving up the timeline to get you out of my system and into my arms.”

47

OnesAndZeros

Playlist: Anything > Human - Bad Omens

Lyra

Kael’s eyes stay locked on me, black holes swallowing the lab’s glow around us. “Eli is fine. Unfortunately, he’s still upstairs, but he’s at peace. LINK has given him a way to escape Vikktor’s cruelty.”

“What do you mean?” I walk over and join him at the monitor. A swipe of his hand, and the feed goes to the wall of screens. “See for yourself.”

I look up to the wall; it shows new security cam footage on Eli. He looks like he’s sleeping sitting up on his cot. He’s oddly calm. “How?”

“LINK and I...” Kael affirms. “We’ve reached an agreement.” His face is so close to mine, I can feel the heat of his skin.

“You’re trembling,” he says quietly. “Is that fear or anticipation?”

I look away before I’m immersed in his gaze. I swallow hard. “It’s rage.”

He chuckles low, a sound like dark velvet. “Rage looks good on you.”

The heat between us crackles like electricity. Everything in me wants to lean in, to forget, to drown in that dark pull of his voice. But the holo-light humming through my body reminds me of exactly what I am. Still a prisoner, just in a different cage.