Page 134 of GlitchBorn Heart

Another knot falls away. I let my knuckles graze her hip. I could be cruel, careless, but I’m not. I’m painstakingly gentle. My patience is just making her want me more.

The final loop slides loose, the rope pooling at her feet. I should feel relief, but instead I feel loss. The ache of absence. My body sways toward her before I can stop it, as if the force between us has to be satisfied.

I grasp her face in both my hands. Our eyes meet again, and a spark ignites between us. “Do you want me as badly as I want you right now?”

She smiles and answers me immediately. “Yes.”

I give her a hint of a smile back. “That’s good. See? Still human.”

“Or maybe it means I’m weak. I can’t resist you anymore.” She looks at me with those gorgeous amber eyes.

I can’t stand it any longer. My lips meet hers, but I pull away briefly to speak. “No. It means you finally want to be mine. Slow surrender is worth waiting for.”

The taste of trust, of surrender, of acceptance lingers on her lips. I feel different, though. This feels different. This undercurrent flowing between us. It’s now undeniable. I know she feels it too. The want, the need, the pull. It’s not just me anymore.

“I have to tell you something,” she confesses. She sounds brave and confident. Another confession for my arsenal, perhaps?

“Tell.” Not a question. A demand.

She swallows, lips still swollen from the force of mine on hers. “In the RedRoom...” Her gaze drops, ashamed and somewhat embarrassed. “When you wore the mask, when I saw you...” She falters, blushing. “I think I knew it was you. Not right away. But I could feel you, Kael. The way you moved. There’s something more than just our feelings at play here.” She pauses, thinking about her words. “It was impossible to resist and so right.”

I feel like grinning again. I think this is the most I’ve succumbed to a sense of happiness in years. “You liked it?”

She nods once. “I hated myself for liking it. But I did. I wanted you even then. That’s why I was in DreamNet that night you found me on the beach. I wanted you to find me.”

I lean in, her scent filling my senses, sweet and salty: ocean air, nervous sweat, and desire. Gods help me, when I do get my cock inside her...

I stop the spiral.

My nose presses to her forehead. “You don’t have to hate yourself for what you want,” I whisper. “You only have to decide if you trust me to give it to you. And you have.” I push a strand of hair behind her ear. “We don’t have to wait, Taiyō. If you feel things the way I think you do, I’ll give myself to you, right here, right now.”

She blinks, and I can see her fading, static slipping in around the edges of her holo-form. Even aroused, her eyes and the ink down her spine are only pulsing faintly. Another warning. She’s burning out, slipping further from human into code, and I’m running out of time to pull her back. I will never reveal that to her.

I take a step back and head for my bedroom, hoping she’ll follow. “You’re tired. Go lie down, rest. I’m just going to grab a quick shower.”

Her gaze flicks down, lingering where my joggers reveal everything we’ve stirred up between us. She tips her head, and the playful smirk she gives me is absolutely delicious. “Need to take care of that again?”

My pulse jumps. Her tone is teasing, but her eyes are curious. She has no idea how hard it is to hold back when she looks at me like that.

I lean one shoulder against the doorframe, slow and deliberate, letting the weight of my stare slide over her. “I could,” I say softly, “or you could take care of it for me.”

My eyes dip meaningfully to the bed, then back to her face. I imagine her pink lips wrapped around my dick, her tongue licking the length of me...

Fuck! This whole protection thing stirring inside me makes me feel off balance. She needs rest, but what I want is her on her knees in front of me, destroying me with that mouth.

The conflict is a vise around me. Discipline versus hunger. I’ve trained for times like this. I’m a man who’s spent his whole life mastering systems. Nothing I’ve built has ever made me feel weak. Until her.

She moves toward me, placing her hands on my shoulders. I drag a hand through my hair and step closer, forcing the edge back into my voice. “Lie down, Taiyō.”

It’s a command because I have to break this spell she has me under. “If I take you up on that now, it’s not protection. It’s possession. I won’t be able to stop myself from pushing you to your knees and spilling every ounce of me into your pretty little mouth. And you deserve better than my worst impulse.”

Her pupils flare, catching the city light like two pieces of polished ocean glass. She doesn’t move, but I can tell she likes the sound of that.

I don’t do this well. I’m the villain, not the hero.

I build systems, not sanctuaries. I’ve written code that hunts people; it doesn’t save them. And yet here she is watching me like she’s waiting for me to be more than what I am.

I lean down until we’re nose-to-nose, letting her feel my breath, the heat under my skin. “I need your continued trust. You don’t know how hard it is to let you sleep when everything in me wants to touch you, taste you, fuck you until you scream my name.”