She doesn’t expect an answer from me. I can tell the question is rhetorical.
But I give her one anyway.
Locke:
Ecstatic.
Now pick the green dress.
And turn around slowly.
Eris hesitates deliberately, just long enough for the anticipation to hit me in the chest. She moves with intention, dragging her fingers down the dress. Performing for me, but not pretending.
It’s then I realize that fear isn’t what drives her.
It’s control.
And maybe that’s why she fascinates me.
The system flagged her user profile the day she first logged in as an anomaly buried in the code. She had no digital footprint before that login. No verified IP trail. No identifiable metadata. It was as if she had just… appeared out of thin air.
No one just appears.
Except her.
Jace can’t do anything more than hack her phone, and Silas can’t dig up shit about her past other than an address that no longer exists and a few living expenses that get paid by aliteralJane Doe.
I want to know all of her secrets.
And then I want to create more with her.
Eris steps closer to the bed, unties her messy bun, and glances at the camera as all that raven hair tumbles over her shoulders and down her back.
Her smile this time?
Wicked confidence.
A dare.
My real life Shego, minus the tight bodysuit. For now…
I drag a hand through my hair, tugging at the roots as I try to shake off the static crawling up my spine. I can hear my heart beating in my ears as my mind tries and fails to piece things together. Things that don’t really make sense… Things that are a stretch, even for my imagination.
The anomaly. The fake office job. The way she seems to bloom under pressure.
Something about her just doesn’t add up.
And I don’t know whether I want to solve her…
Or worship her.
Locke:
You know I could watch you forever, right?
Just like this.
Quiet.
