Page 79 of GlitchBorn Heart

I thought he would respond flirtatiously, engage with me. But instead, he said nothing.

That’s how I knew I’d gone too far.

I wasn’t at all prepared for what happened next. My body betrayed me in the cruelest way possible.

Kael’s hand closed around my wrist, warm, but very firm. Gentle enough to remind me he’s always in control but forceful enough to make it impossible to forget. I could feel the pain of his hold, and I welcomed it. “Good. Because I always catch what I chase.”

No anger. No shouting. No disrespect. Just that low, lethal calm that makes my pulse spike far more than if he’d yelled at me. “We’re done here,” he said quietly. Not me...we.

He didn’t look at me as he guided me back down the corridor, holo-lights blurring around us as doors unlocked and sealed again as we passed.

I became aware of a throbbing between my legs, a nagging tingling sensation, full of want for him to touch me there. I had no clue I could feel anything like that in holo-form. I guess they call it PleazureHolo for a reason.

I stumbled trying to keep up with him, but he didn’t let go. Instead, his thumb tightened against my wrist, grounding me, binding me to him. And damn it, that’s when it happened.

I hated him, and I wanted him.

I wanted to feel his hand around my throat as he kissed me. I wanted him to pin my arms above my head as he pressed his hard cock into me.

I felt it everywhere.

“You promised me you wouldn’t do this,” he said, still not making eye contact. “Not in my building. Not in my system.”

I returned his silence, caught between lust and shame.

He finally released my wrist to guide me forward with his hand on my back, fingers spread wide, steering me through the lab door. The contact was brief but enough to wreck me.

I couldn’t help it. I let myself lean into the fantasy. Let myself imagine what it would be like if he just went a little further. If he let himself lose control just a little more.

It must have been written all over my face because he stepped away from me too quickly, like proximity was a risk he refused to take.

“Don’t do that again.” His anger finally slipped through the cracks.

I wasn’t going to apologize. I’m a grown ass woman, and he’s not my keeper. If anything, he’s the reason I’m even here.

“You’re pissed because I disobeyed you.” How dare he make me want to give myself to him then talk to me like that.

Turns out...that did it.

His eyes pulsed again with tiny orange specks when he looked at me. I saw want, frustration, but I also saw that hunger he’s been locking down with iron discipline.

“You think?” He gritted his teeth. He turned back to the console, hands already moving, composure snapping back into place like armor.

But I could still feel his hand on my wrist and on the small of my back. It’s all I could think about as he scolded me. I was so lost in the thought of him that all I heard was blah, blah, blah, as the truth settled deep inside me.

I liked it when he caught me. I loved it when he touched me.

“Hello...Earth to Lyra?” Ash singsongs the words, snapping me back to the matter at hand. I cut the feed playing in my head with a sigh and a couple of rapid blinks.

Ash is a huge part of my education. Where Kael is a scalpel, Ash is a blunt instrument. He sits cross-legged on a bank of servers with his guitar propped against his knee, strumming while he sings to get my attention. So handsome and charismatic, all leather jacket and tattoo cool. He oozes sex. No wonder Ember’s so distracted when he’s here.

Ugh. I definitely have, what did Kael call it? “AI-Induced Lack of Embodied Cognition.”

Simply put: I need to be touched by a human.

The more time I spend with Ash, the more I understand just how powerful he is. It’s not just the music. His fingers make frequencies that pull at the systems. He hums, and the networks sigh. He sings a note and a drone pauses mid-flight. He taught me how to feel the current under our skin, instead of just emotionally affecting it.

“Alright, L!” He claps his hands, grinning like a kid. He’s taken to calling me “L” when he’s being serious because it makes me sound less like a threat and more like his ally. “Match me.”