I drive us out of the underground parking lot, and after I’ve taken a few turns, she frowns and confusedly says, “You don’t live near my neighborhood.”
“No, I don’t.”
“You lied to me when you insisted on driving me home.Twice.”
“I never told you where I lived, just that I was good to drive you to your place,” I point out, not looking away from the road.
She doesn’t seem convinced, so I continue with, “I kept you late the first time, so it was the least I could do. The second time, I wasn’t leaving you to fend for yourself, drunk.”
“I wasn’t drunk,” she defensively argues.
“You need to make up your mind, Andrea. Were you drunk or not when you kissed me?”
“I was tipsy,” she mumbles after a few seconds.
It seems she’s getting tenser by the minute, which is less than ideal for what we have planned. “You know you can change your mind anytime, right?” I ask, using the fact that we’re stopped at a red light to focus on her.
That must have been precisely what she needed to hear because something releases in her, and her shoulders sink with relief. What she does next surprises me as she reaches for my nape and pulls me down, planting her lips on mine. After a short but intense kiss, she moves back. But I’m not done yet.
Before she’s too far, I pull her in again and take her lips like she’s the oxygen I need to breathe, demanding more, and she yields to my will, allowing me to sample her thoroughly. I could never get used to kissing this woman. She’s pliant yet demanding, knowing when to give and when to take. The thrill of it is never-ending. I could kiss her for hours.
The car behind us honks, but I don’t give a shit. They can wait. This can’t. She either doesn’t hear or doesn’t care because she stays right there, right where I want her. The car honks again, more insistent this time, and I accept this will have to do for now. After one last hungry peck, I rip myself away from her and drive.
About five minutes later, I pull up in front of my building’s underground parking lot. The wide door automatically lifts, and I drive us in. I park in my spot, and we’re soon walking up to the elevator.
“Are you alright?” I ask while we wait for it to arrive.
“Yes. I just—I never do this. It feels strange.”
“Never do what? Have sex?”
“Casualsex,” she corrects me, missing the factthat I was teasing her.
The doors open before us, and I rest a hand on her lower back to gently invite her in. I have to remove it once we’re in to press my floor’s button, but it swiftly returns there. I’m not sure how I’ll manage to keep my distance from her after tonight. This won’t go away with just one night. But that’s a problem for another day. A problem for tomorrow.
Silence weighs the air around us as we walk through the hallway that leads to my apartment, and with every step closer to my door, I grow more anxious about what we’re about to do. What if it makes everything worse? What if I don’t get enough of her and forever crave more?
Again. That’s a problem for another day.
Lex lets me step in first and follows closely behind. I’m so damn nervous that I barely register when he calls out with a clear voice, “Iris, I’m home!”
I whip around, my eyes round with shock.
Who the fuck is Iris?!Does Lex have a girlfriend? Is he expecting a threesome or something? Does he have a secret daughter I don’t know about?
Before I can ask anything and humiliate myself with a chain of accusations, a feminine but undoubtedly electronic voice resonates in the apartment. “Welcome home, Alexander.”
At the same time, the lights increase gradually, and the window shutters roll up without a sound, lighting up the space with the last rays of the sun.
The entire room is vast but not absurdly so, furnished, decorated, and laid out in tones of grays, from light to anthracite, with touches of light woods on the floor and a few pieces of furniture. We’re in the living suite, with a large lounge room, a dining area, and an open kitchen.
The programmer in me is curious to know more about his live-in AI. “I’ve never heard of a home AI named Iris. Where does she come from?”
“She’s my very own Intelligent Residential Interface System.”
“I-R-I-S… That’s clever. You programmed her?”
He nods as if it’s the simplest thing. “I don’t trust the other AIs. You never know how much they are recording, and I like to keep my life private.”
