The next morning Lucy found Moss standing in the exact same place as the evening before. The dawn sun glinted off his short military-cut hair. She gawked at him from a room away and strived to keep herself as quiet as possible so as not to disturb whatever it was he was doing.
Cyborg things.
Cyborgs doing Cyborg things, going about being all Cyborgy.
“I know you’re there, stalker,” he said, his voice low and deep.
She stepped from the shadows as he joined her inside. “Thank you.”
“For what?” He looked up at her questioningly.
“Comparing my stealth skills to a stalker. I’m not known for my sneaking abilities.” Lucy joined him by the overlook. She actually wasn’t known for anything, at least nothing that truly mattered to her. Being born and raised as an heiress, she’d die the same way according to the masses. Not many heiresses made it into history books.
“If I wasn’t built the way I am. I may not have even known you were there.”
Lucy laughed. “You’re patronizing me.”
He bowed with exaggerated flourish before her, flinging out his armor-clad arm. “If I wasn’t built the way I am, I may not have even known the exact second you opened your eyes this morning, rolled over in bed, yelled at your estate’s AI, and then proceeded to down two cups of freshly brewed coffee.”
“Wow. Okay. Now, who’s the stalker?” But her pulse was already kicked into overdrive, and a blush was spreading up from her chest to her cheeks. Horror and arousal swirled about in her gut that left her feeling oddly satisfied. Coffee and yelling hadn’t taken up her entire morning. She wondered what else he had heard.
Lucy frowned.I like his attention.
I want more of it.
Oh no.
Moss worked for her. That meant he was off limits. He wasn’t even human, at least not fully, which made her tingles a little perverse in her mind. Lucy rubbed her bottom lip and watched him from under her eyelashes.
He was grinning at her.
“I’m just doing my job, Ms. Larkswest. I can’t really call this mission a success if my employer doesn’t come out of it alive.”
His words stung despite the light teasing in his tone. She didn’t like that, not at all.I don’t want to be just a job.“If you say so,” she teased back.
He abruptly stepped toward her and reached out his hand. His long fingers opened up as if waiting to be accepted. “Alive, healthy, and very happy with a job well done. Take my hand.”
“Why?” she asked while accepting it suspiciously. Her fingers curled around his much larger ones and the heat they gave off rushed through her. His hand twisted until he intertwined their fingers, locking them together.
She tugged gently, and his hold on her tightened. Her gut clenched.
He pulled her close. “If I wasn’t built the way I am,” he breathed directly into her ear, “I wouldn’t know that you tossed and turned for hours last night, that you didn’t get to sleep until after midnight, that you kicked your blankets off your bed midway through.”
She swallowed twice before she remembered what words were. “There’s a monster in my backyard.” It wasn’t what she wanted to say, but it’s what came out. She swallowed again.
Moss pulled away from her, his smile dimming. “Yes, there is. It’s time I get rid of it.”
“Yes…”
He released her hand and turned away.
Lucy stood numbly, watching him walk out of the room and in the direction of the veranda.If he turns around…
If he looks back at me, he’ll know…
Moss Johann would know he’d left nothing but a puddle of feminine nerves where a flesh and blood woman once stood.
7
