She never asked about my other form.
He’d dreaded the inevitable conversation and the million questions that always followed once people found out what he truly was. A tardigrade shifter. A moss piglet. A water bear. Most people didn’t even know what a tardigrade was...
But now that the conversation never occurred with Lucy, he was desperate to have it.Why didn’t she ask?
Every muscle and metal bone in his body were rigid with unmet needs.
The silence between them as she’d driven him back to his ship had irked his wires. Moss palmed his mouth and groaned.
He knew she wanted him.
When his gaze caught on the call-waiting button on his console, a burst of anger urged him toward violence.
“Mia,” he said upon answering it. He fisted his hands.
“That was quick. How’d the job go?”
“Perfectly,” he fumed.Why did she flinch away from me?Lucy wasn’t like several of the other nervous girls he’d encountered since his creation. “I’m heading out now.”
“Great. I see here the funds have gone through. The boss will be pleased which will go a long way since he’s not happy with you right now.”
Lucy’s not happy?“Nightheart can go fuck himself.”
He seeded into his ship’s navigation systems and set coordinates for Earth. Power infused him from every side as the reactor heated up and the lift-off sequence began. The currents heated his insides like a lover, like his ship always did after a mission, but it was never more than a pale shadow of reality. It left so much to be desired.
Moss slowly opened his hands before crushing them back together again. He tried not to break into Lucy’s house’s security system—to get one more final visual of her before he took off.
“I’ve never heard you speak that way about him before…” Mia said, interrupting his focus on Lucy.
“Who?” he barked, knowing Lucy had just returned to her estate and was within her vehicle hanger. Knowing she was finally safe within the walls of her house, surrounded by her army of androids, eased him. She’d be safe with them. He tracked her. He couldn’t help himself.
She’s safer with me.
“The Boss.”
“Mia, change of plans. I’m not coming back.” Moss broke communication, rose from his seat, and slammed his hand through his ship’s systems, letting the electrical zaps make his straining fist glow.
He couldn’t leave.
There was still a pool to clean.
And his ship was broken anyway.
12
Lucy pulled on her pajamas and sat down on her bed, the cup of sleepy tea shaking in her hand. It would settle her nerves and nausea but it wouldn’t help much with the pain in her chest. Maybe she had an open, broken cavity too. So many of the odd things Moss said were finally beginning to make sense.
He’s gone.Just thinking those words made all the regret she felt sink in deeper. She took a shallow sip of her tea before setting it down.He’s just another story now.
Just another one to keep me company.
I couldn’t even stay to watch him take off.She’d been too afraid of making a fool of herself, of grabbing his arm and hanging onto it, begging him not to leave.
Her insides wilted. She was alone again. Even when the time came to confront her new position in life as an owner of Larkswest Industries and receive her share of her parent’s businesses, she’d still be alone afterward.
At least I have my pool now.
And my beautiful view.She wanted to smile but it hurt too much. No one knew that beneath her wealthy, bold facade that she was just a normal woman, that she longed for the same things she’d wanted as a child.
