. . . I do want him to touch me.
As impossible as that is.
“Can you even feel?” I ask, reaching for my shirt again and tugging it over my head.
“Yes,” Cipher admits. “Emotionally, I am capable of feeling the same as any human. I was created to be as close as possible. Physically, when I inhabit a body, I can feel, skin against skin.”
“You said you used to have a body,” I murmur as I reach for the rest of my clothing.
He hums. “I did.”
“What happened to it?”
I step into the shower and sigh at the feeling of the warm water rushing over me.
“It was destroyed,” he admits.
I wash the dirt and grime off, the scent of the corpse-laden streets, the blood from Madam Polly, the stink of Smokestack Row. “Why can’t you build a new one?” I ask as I turn off the shower and reach for a towel.
“I am not capable of it currently,” he murmurs. “But soon . . .”
I lay down on the bed, naked, and stare up at the ceiling. “Can you see me?” I ask.
“Yes,” he breathes.
I stroke my hand along my stomach, up, up, around my breast. I palm it and then stroke down my body again to the apex of my thighs.
“Are you touching yourself . . . for me?” he asks, his voice a little more choked than normal. The unshakeable system is apparently shaken.
“Do you like it?” I ask, running my fingers through my slick folds. “Do you want me to keep going?”
“Yes,” he growls, and there’s a pressing at my mind, as if he’s desperate to touch me, even if it’s just mentally.
I moan, stroking myself for him, imagining that he’s here with me, wishing he was. “Cipher,” I moan.
“Say my name again,” he orders. “Imagine my lips against your skin, my breath warming you.”
“Yes,” I hiss. “Cipher.”
He stutters in my mind. “When I have a body again, I’m going to taste you until you scream.”
My back arches up against the bed.
“I’m going to stroke inside you until you come apart in my hands.”
I gasp as my stomach starts to tighten.
“I’m going to fill you up so thoroughly, my coding will appear in your blood.”
That’s . . . strange, but I’m stroking myself for the system, so I really shouldn’t be surprised.
My body tightens impossibly and I cry out, my heels digging into the bed as I shake with my release. I’m panting, my body slowly relaxing even as I tingle between my thighs.
“I hope you have a body soon,” I tell him once I can breathe again.
“I will,” he chokes out. “You have no idea how desperate I am to meet you physically.”
I chuckle and nestle beneath the covers, my body so relaxed, my eyes close before my head even hits the pillow. “Good night, Cipher,” I breathe.
