“I could help?—”
“You could.” He found his trousers and pulled them on with a speed that suggested a lot of practice in dressing quickly. “But I want to do this for you. Let me?”
The earnestness in his voice undid her resistance. “All right.”
She watched him pull on his shirt, leaving it unfastened, and move towards the door. In the morning light filtering through her window, the scars on his chest stood out in sharp relief—pale lines against silver-bronze skin, each one a story she hadn’t yet heard. She wanted to trace them with her fingers, to ask about every battle, every wound, every moment that had shaped him into the male he was now.
Later,she told herself.We have time.
At the doorway, he paused and looked back at her.
“What?” she asked.
“Nothing. Just...” A muscle in his jaw worked. “I keep expecting to wake up.”
“From what?”
“From this. From you.” His expression was raw, unguarded. “You’re real, Liora. Tell me you’re real.”
The vulnerability in his voice made her chest ache.
“I’m real,” she said firmly. “I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”
He nodded once, sharply, as if confirming something to himself. Then he slipped through the doorway and disappeared down the stairs.
She fell back against the pillows with a smile she couldn’t suppress.
This,she thought.This is what happiness feels like.
She allowed herself a few more minutes of indulgent lounging before the restless energy that had always defined her made staying still impossible. Pip chirped his disapproval when she slid out of bed, but she ignored him, padding across the cool floor to her wardrobe.
The face that greeted her in the small mirror mounted on the inside of the door was unfamiliar. Her features hadn’t changed—same blue eyes with their gold flecks, same spray of freckles across her nose, same untamed mass of blonde hair—but something had changed. There was a softness around her mouth, a brightness in her eyes, a general sense of aliveness that hadn’t been there before.
Is this what sex does?she wondered.Or is it just him?
She suspected it was the latter.
She dressed quickly in a simple shift, not bothering with the more complicated garments in her wardrobe. There seemed little point in formality when she intended to spend the morning with a male who had seen her entirely without clothing.
The thought sent another wave of heat to her cheeks.
Get a hold of yourself,she chided.You’re a scientist. Act like one.
But the scientific part of her brain had been decidedly offline since the moment he first kissed her, and she wasn’t sure she wanted it back.
She was halfway down the stairs when she heard the sound.
A heavy metallic clunk, followed by the hum of power being redirected. She froze, one hand on the railing, her heart suddenly pounding.
“Ari?”
“Good morning, Liora.” The AI’s voice was pleasantly neutral, utterly unchanged from every other morning of her life. “I trust you slept well.”
“What was that sound?”
“Security protocols have been engaged.”
Ice crystallized in her stomach. She took the remaining stairs two at a time, nearly stumbling in her haste.
