“Your obsessive compulsions.”
“And what doyouknow about it?”
“Very little, but I intend to research it further while you sleep tonight.”
She rose to her feet with a shriek of metal over polished concrete.
“I think it’s time you went back to the lab,” she bit out, snatching up her phone.
Tears of anger pricked her eyes as she tapped the screen until the line began to ring. Pacing away from the kitchen, she folded one arm over her chest.
Even the robot knows I’m broken, and he’s only been here for a day. God, what does that say about me?
Logan didn’t pick up, so she called him again, her desperation to get the robot out of the house overriding her fear of angering him further. When he didn’t pick up on the third ring, desperation bubbled within her chest.
He couldn’t ghost her, right? All his stuff was still in the apartment. He’d have to speak to her eventually, even if only to?—
The door lock turned over with a clunk. She tossed her phone onto the couch, eagerly approaching the door.
“You’re back,” she said breathlessly. Her hands fisted in the fabric of the clean pajama shirt she’d pulled on after returning from her shopping trip.
Logan was still wearing the clothes he’d left the house in the night before, though now they were rumpled, and his pants were stained over the thigh.
“Yeah,” was all he offered in greeting, toeing off his shoes.
“Where… where did you go?”
He rubbed a hand over his neck, ruffling his golden waves.
“I crashed at Brandon’s,” he said, looking up at her uncertainly. “I hope that’s okay.”
“Oh. O-of course. You needed space.”
He hoped that was okay. Did that mean he cared what she thought still? That he didn’t want to end things?
“I’m sorry about last night,” he said in a rush, crossing the room to take her hands. “I’m sorry about this whole week, baby. I don’t know what got into me.”
Relief made her knees weak. She stepped into him, throwing her arms around his waist and burying her face in his shirt as her eyes welled with tears.
“I’m sorry, too,” she said, her voice muffled.
He huffed a laugh, smoothing a hand over her hair, and her fear of change, of loss, of failure, all smoothed away with it.
This was familiar. Familiar was safe. Everything would be okay.
She turned to press her cheek against the plane of his chest, meeting eyes with the android standing half in shadow between the kitchen and the living room. There was a strange glint in his eye, and for a moment, she could have sworn she saw a muscle tic in his jaw.
CHAPTER 10
Thirty-One turned awayfrom the human couple, looking at the half-eaten meal Ophelia had left on the table. Trying to ignore their low, murmured conversation, he grabbed the plate and her glass and carried them to the sink.
He didn’t know how to interpret the strange feeling raging through him at the sight of them together.
No. That wasn’t entirely true. He knew what he would have called it if he were human.
Jealousy.
But hecouldn’tget jealous. It wasn’t in his programming. It would be completely counterintuitive to have an android meant to service humans sexually across all possible situations get jealous of their primary user. He should be able to watch a small army copulate with her without feeling anything.
