Page 91 of GlitchBorn Heart

DreamDestiny

Playlist: Something Was Real - Eli & Fur

Kael

The ping of the system alarm fills me with utter dread. I can’t even jerk off in peace these days because of this job.

I step from the misty bathroom into the dim, warm light of the bedroom. My towel sits low on my hips, water dripping from my hair to the ridge of my collarbone. I shiver, but it’s not just the temperature difference. I’ve been trained to notice the subtlest of shifts in the room. Movement, from the bed. My eyes search for the nearest weapon, which happens to be my katana leaning against the corner wall. Before I move to grab it, a faint blue-white glow catches my sight. Holo-light.

I spin around. “Lyra.” She’s sitting awkwardly on my bed, red-faced, legs crossed, fidgeting. Her breath is short and choppy. She’s a wreck. Sweat beads on her upper lip, and if I wasn’t so worried that something catastrophic has happened, I’d instantly yearn to taste it.

Self-control, Kael.

“Everything okay?” I rush over to her, my damp hands shuttering the holo-beams as I grasp her shoulders. “Did something happen? Are you hurt?” My mind immediately goes to an attack, a virus...LINK.

Her eyes look everywhere but at me. “I...um...yes, something happened, but I’m okay...I think.” She’s rattled, can barely get her words out. “I needed...no, I need to talk to you.” Her gaze lingers down my body to the towel, then abruptly she turns to look out the floor-to-ceiling windows. Her eyes shift toward me, then up, then back to the window.

She’s so nervous, she won’t make eye contact. She just stares blankly at a few delivery drones flying by.

But what could—ah...arriving uninvited again...

Fuck. Realization smacks me in the face. “Lyra, how long have you been here?” I walk over to my dresser and slide a keyboard from a hidden compartment. I type an abort command for the anomaly alarm as I wait patiently for her response.

“LINK—resume system status. No anomaly detected.” I remain facing the monitor. I’m not an idiot—she’s been here the whole time. From the heat in her eyes to the way she won’t look at me, it tells me all I need to know.

No response.

I immediately force a confrontation so I can control the situation. This could work to my advantage. “You were watching me,” I say, not as a question, just soft, deliberate words, “in the shower.” I walk over to her and pull her chin in my direction. I meet her glazed eyes. “What did you see, my little voyeur? Anything you’d like to discuss?” A devilish grin erupts, the kind I couldn’t hide if I wanted to.

There’s a hot, immediate shame seeping out of her.

Oh, I can definitely work with this.

Why should I be embarrassed for pleasuring myself, when she knows how badly I’m obsessed with her very being. This is who I am. I want something, I get it. Including pleasure.

She flips around, voice shaking. “I...no, of course not. I just got here.” She stands and begins to walk out. “I left the thread...door open to...I didn’t mean to...” A long, exasperated sigh escapes.

“You didn’t mean to what? See me naked? Hear me in the shower calling out your name?” I walk over and close the distance between us. My lips brush her ear ever so lightly. “Didn’t mean to watch me come while thinking of you?” I finish her sentence for her.

I’ll stand right here all night, if I have to, until I pull the admission out of her.

I drop my towel and move in closer. My fingers brush her hand, and I take hold, leading her palm to my chest. Her holo-hand is ice cold, and for a moment I shudder. “Curiosity doesn’t suit you, Taiyō.” I pause, then guide her hand lower down my body. “Good to know.”

“Good to know what?” She swallows hard, snapping her hand back. “And for the record, I wasn’t curious!” I can see the anger returning, trying to overwrite the humiliation that’s hardcoded in the lines of her face.

I like this feeling: embarrassing her, teasing her, coaxing her. “Good to know that you’ll look.” I remain soft in my tone. “That you’ll see me how I see you. That you want things you tell yourself you don’t.”

My stare is intensely steady. I pin her eyes to mine so she can’t look away again. The system pings relentlessly, alarms going off, screens bleeding pink and gold. She’s surging, burning for me from the inside. The intensity sets off sensors in the system, LINK reacting with ANOMALY SURGE and DATA INCOMING.

“I’ll remember this, Little Taiyō. I keep things like this top of mind, especially when they’re useful.” I run my thumb across her lower lip.

“You’re...”

“The word that wants to come out is obsessed. Maybe even possessive. I’m well aware.” I step forward and press myself against her. Bold, but I think she’s ready for this. Our bodies are close, so close I can feel the heat of the hologram lifting off her skin.

I kiss her gently. “You feel this, right?” I want to make sure what I’m about to do is still felt in her holo-form, just as if she were here standing in front of me. I coded her to feel everything, taste everything, want for nothing.

And I’ll give it all to her.