"Why?" he asked gently.
"I never realized the stars really do twinkle." Her silver eyes were wide, looking at the entire night sky. "It's so pretty. Everything up here is beautiful, even the streets, you know?" She turned to face him, her eyes watching him closely. "You get to see this every day. You look at so many beautiful girls down there. You walk through a garden and think nothing of it." She slid a hand to the side of her face, checking to make sure she was still covered. "They dress us in elaborate fabrics covered in embroidery and beading. It's attractive."
"Rissa..."
She shook her head. "Sin, I'm covered in data ports. My hair won't even grow on the sides of my head anymore because of all the enhancements. I don't have curves. They supply us with sufficient nutrition to keep our minds operating at top efficiency, and that's it." She swallowed and turned back to the sky. "You're handsome, and I'm disgusting. That's why I wear the robes."
"You're not disgusting." He turned her face back to his. "You have beautiful eyes, Riss. Like molten silver or a turbulent ocean. Your voice is lovely, and you're one of the nicest people I've ever met. I don't care if the lower half of your face is covered in black faux-skin; you're not disgusting."
She tried to pull away, but he wouldn't let her. Instead, she lifted her chin. "I just don't want to see you look at me like I'm ugly."
"Never," he swore. "You're not just my angel, Riss." He pointed at the sky. "I don't bring clients up to look at a sunset."
She giggled. "Maybe I should post this on your fan site?"
"Don't you dare!" He laughed. "And what were you doing reading that filth anyway?"
"Learning about kissing," she said with a shrug. "I wanted to research the handler I'd been assigned. I didn't even know some of those things were possible." She paused, then giggled again. "I guess you didn't either, huh?"
He dragged his hand across his face. "No, I know about them. It's just trash, though, Riss. It's a bunch of lonely women—and a few men—daydreaming about forbidden fruit."
"Yeah." She pulled away from him and reached up to straighten her hood. "Sin, everything is forbidden fruit to me. Sunsets, twilight, kissing a man..." She sighed. "Is it wrong?"
"Is what wrong?"
A pace away, she turned back to him. "That I wonder what it would be like to kiss you?"
She stood there proudly, waiting for him to answer, but Sin didn't know what to say. She told him she believed she was ugly and then said that? "No," he said, finally. "It's flattering and a little embarrassing, but it's not wrong."
Something about her body softened with his answer, like he'd given the right one. Then, in a perfectly choreographed display, she glided toward a bench overlooking the city and lowered herself onto it. Her eyes were locked on the neon glow of advertisements and the dim specks of streetlights below. He moved next to her, and just as he reached her side, she looked up at him.
"Have you ever kissed a girl?" she asked.
"Yeah." He sat beside her, their shoulders just touching. "A few. I wasn't always a priest, Riss."
"Did you like it?"
He thought about that. She was begging to know what she'd missed in life, so he wanted to answer her as truthfully as possible. "Yes. I didn't always necessarily like the girl I kissed,but the act is pretty good. Women are soft and gentle, with a strength inside that's hard to understand. There's something primal about it, you know, putting your mouth on someone. It feels good."
"Is it hard to be a priest?"
He sighed and put his arm around her again, pulling her against his shoulder. "Yes, but not like you think. I'm guessing what you really want to know is if it's hard to keep a vow of celibacy?" She ducked her head, so he took that as a yes. "Not as hard as I thought, actually. When I became a priest, I started looking at things differently. I don't need physical comforts as much as emotional ones, and that's why I'd been screwing those girls when I was younger. I thought that if they'd sleep with me, it meant I was worth something."
"Really?" She looked up at him with wide eyes.
He nodded. "Figured I was a pretty impressive man if I could have any girl I wanted. Thing is, I wasn't. Neither a man, nor impressive. I was a dick to most of them. Said exactly what they wanted to hear, then as soon as I got off, kicked them out and never looked back. I wasn't always like that, just usually. There was one girl I was really fond of." He sighed at the memory. "Cassandra. Making love to her was different."
"Making love?" Rissa asked. "Is there a difference between that and just sex?"
Sin chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, hun. Pretty big one. Sex is just about the orgasm. Making love is about the emotions." He squeezed her shoulder. "It's like this. You wouldn't let just anyone put his arm around you, would you? But because we're friends, it's ok to touch like this."
"I like it," she whispered. "But you can feel my ports."
He bent toward her ear and whispered, "Yeah, and I don't really care. I'm watching the city at night with my friend. Youcan feel my fake fingers, I can feel your data ports, and it's all ok, right?"
"I don't mind your synthetic skin."
"And I don't mind your data ports," he said. "I don't care if you're bald and ugly, or look like a virtual model under that robe, Rissa. We're friends, and I've never picked a friend for what he or she looked like." His hand closed gently on her shoulder. "And we can't ever be any more than friends."
