She glanced up at him. “On what?”
“Whether that was a yes or a no,” he replied promptly.
She laughed outright at that. “I never knew you were such a tease.”
He smiled faintly. “You’re certain I’m teasing?”
Instead of responding, she glanced up at him speculatively. “What happened to Violet?”
His lips flattened with annoyance. “I’ve no interest in Violet.”
Amaryllis lifted her brows skeptically.
“Currently, she’s being courted by no less than three cyborgs and appears to be very satisfied with herself.”
Amaryllis declined to comment on that.
“And, no, it isn’t sour grapes. I prefer my women a little less … abrasive.”
Amaryllis’ lips twitched. “Your women?”
He gave her an irritated glance, but finally sighed gustily, running a hand through his dark hair. “We’ve all lost everything and everyone we’ve ever known,” he said tiredly. “It doesn’t make it any easier to bear knowing that most of it was manufactured and never real to begin with.”
A sense of both shame and empathy smote Amaryllis at the same time. She’d been so self-absorbed she hadn’t taken the time to consider that she wasn’t the only one suffering. “Everyone must be having trouble adjusting,” she said thoughtfully.
He shrugged and finally smiled wryly. “Some more than others, I imagine. As it happens, I’d begun to suspect long before the cyborgs took it upon themselves to enlighten us. It wasn’t as much of a shock, or as hard to accept as it might have been.”
She tilted her head at him questioningly. “What made you suspect?”
“Their creativity—or perhaps I should say their lack of imagination. I handled new ‘recruits’, remember. I saw all the backgrounds on everyone.” He glanced down at her thoughtfully for several moments and Amaryllis felt a prickle of uneasiness. She looked away, and discovered to her surprise that they’d almost reached the landing field.
“Almost without exception, everyone had had a tragic life that left them alone in the world. At first, I didn’t think that much about it. The policy was that Robotics, Inc. had no interest in anyone with ‘baggage’, ostensibly because of the dangers in the work and the travel. Single men and women with no family wouldn’t have their minds elsewhere when they were supposed to be concentrating on their job. Then you came along.”
A coldness washed over Amaryllis. She should have known that Cain would have figured it out if Reese had.
Chapter Twenty
“I’d thought I would take the path just here,” Amaryllis said, changing directions abruptly and leaving the road.
It occurred to her forcefully that the three males who’d shown the most interest in her just happened to be three who knew, or at least had guessed, that she was not a cyborg. She couldn’t help but wonder if they would’ve been drawn to her anyway, or if their interest had been spurred by that knowledge.
It was a dampening thought.
She’d wondered how it was that she’d suddenly become so desirable. She should have known it had to be something like that.
“How far along are you?”
Amaryllis stopped as abruptly as if she’d hit a tree. “What?”
“My wife was pregnant when she died,” he said pensively. “Of course, she wasn’t my wife. I wonder if the memory was entirely computer generated or if she actually exists somewhere?”
It took an effort to continue walking. Amaryllis discovered her knees suddenly felt rubbery. Was it that noticeable, she wondered?Shehad noticed, but it was her body after all. Her waist had thickened until there was only a faint curve between midriff and hip. Her belly had begun to take on a roundness that hadn’t been there before, but she hadn’t thought the changes were that noticeable—so far.
“Does he know?”
Amaryllis reddened, but she didn’t look at him. She kept her attention focused on her feet, watching the uneven ground for anything that might trip her up as she stalked rapidly along the path. “Who?”
“The father,” he said tartly.
