Chapter 17
Dawn kept her eyes on his, searching their depths for any hint of deception. All she could see was her own desire mirrored back at her.
Twice, he’d mentioned taking on a more complicated task, and twice, she’d changed the subject. She had something planned, a way to get him out of her hair while she embarked on the next stage of the experiment, but she had to play her hand carefully or risk his finding out it was a sham.
So far, he’d been patient, untangling cords and wires that she and Ladee had tangled themselves in a bid to keep him distracted. Whenever his attention was on other things, she’d been able to make progress on her real agenda. Dawn had enhanced two neural linkage devices, one the primary prototype and the other a backup. She had been ready to test them for the last couple days but hadn’t figured out a way through the crystal.
Then this morning, a breakthrough. While Z had been in his ship for his daily shower and grooming session, she’d been running her fingers over the crystal, attempting once again to find a way in. It had been a long night, and she’d worked into the wee hours to no avail.
Beginning to worry that the crystal would never open, she’d gotten little sleep even when she’d dragged herself to bed. This morning, she’d gone back to the lab first thing and had tried all of her methods over again in case she’d missed something.
Nothing had worked.
She was exhausted, frustrated, and on the verge of tears. Laying both hands on the crystal, she let her mind drift, hoping to come up with some new idea for opening the vessel. Eyes closed and breathing deep, it wasn’t long before she fell into a light sleep.
Suddenly, the crystal moved beneath her. It opened, folding back onto itself, then folding back again and again. And again. And on the last fold, it disappeared.
A substance that had seemed indestructible had just vanished. Now her subject lay there, unmoving, but inside her chest, a heart beat. Dawn had hurried to activate the stasis unit to make sure that her subject was preserved just as she’d been inside the crystal. As quickly as she could, she took readings, but before she’d finished, the door had opened, and she’d activated the hologram, making the beautiful creature appear once again to be a pile of electronic junk.
All afternoon, she’d analyzed the readings, and when Z had gone to prepare dinner, she and Ladee had taken another set of vital signs to confirm the first. Their heads together, whispering over the possibilities, they’d come to a consensus. The creature that had resided in the crystal was asleep.
They had debated the possibility of waking her but had decided it was too risky with their investor around. “We need to get him out of here,” Ladee had said, his eyes skittering to the door. “Send him out to get some vital piece we need. Then we can try and wake her.”
Dawn agreed, though she had a niggling suspicion that waking the woman up wouldn’t be as easy as Ladee implied. “How are we going to get him to go? He’s not likely to volunteer. He’ll probably think it’s a ruse to get him out of the lab. Which it is.”
Ladee frowned. “You’ll have to find a way to make him trust you.”
“But how?” The look the robot shot her was full of meaning. Dawn sputtered. “You can’t want me to… you know!”
“Haven’t you already?”
“No, I haven’t, thank you very much.” Dawn crossed her arms over her chest. “And what makes you think that would work?”
“I’ve seen the way he looks at you. And the way you look at him. I think if you showed him a little attention, you’d have him eating out of your hand.”
She rolled her eyes. “I think you overestimate my charms, robot.”
“And I think you underestimate them.” He ticked off his points on his little black fingers. “He’s pursued you from the start. I’ve caught you making out on more than one occasion. He practically takes care of you, feeding you breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”
Dawn couldn’t refute any of those points, but she still wasn’t convinced. Then the robot laid the heavy stuff on her. “If you spend a little time canoodling tonight, if you open yourself up to him, the likelihood is that he’ll consider his position here secure. Whether he’s in love with you or he’s faking it, accepting his advances will make him think he’s got you.”
“Got me?” She hated being considered little more than a possession. “And believe me, he’s not in love with me.”
“Doesn’t matter,” the fox said, shaking his head in frustration. “All that matters is that he believes you trust him now. He’ll think he can trust you, and we can shoo him out the door and get down to business.”
Now, standing next to the handsome male, she wondered if Ladee was right. Would one night of pleasure be enough to have him in the palm of her hand, or would it just serve to drive her deeper into a bad situation?
This past week, when she wasn’t consumed by work, she’d found herself considering thoughts she shouldn’t. Z had been kind, helpful, and considerate. He’d cooked, cleaned, organized, and never said a word of complaint. And all the while, she’d liked him more and more, wondering if there could be some kind of future between them.
She’d had to remind herself repeatedly that it was all a game. Z was a spy, some kind of alien mutant, and he was primed to hurt her worse than Brian ever had. And now she was about to embark on the most perilous thing a woman could do who was nursing a crush for a guy she knew was bad for her.
She was going to fuck his brains out.
Well, maybe not. Maybe they could just start with some light flirting, maybe some making out and touching. She didn’t have to go all the way.
Yeah right. Denial ain’t just the fourth moon of Grandum either.
If she let him start to touch her, to kiss her in that all-encompassing way, she didn’t know how she would stop him from going further. Dawn didn’t even know if she would want to stop him.
