Chapter 12
Fuck. He runs his hand down his face, massaging his eyes as he does. The problem is getting worse.
Why did he have to kiss her?
He blurted out some poor excuse about getting caught up pretending she’s a manupartner.
The unfortunate truth is, no one’s ever looked at him the way she does.
Tease him like that. Her very presence seems to hold back the inevitable wave of grief that always comes when he thinks about Jerme.
She was about to accuse him of trying to date her.
So, in a move he’s still trying to reconcile, he kissed her.
And for Zorg’s sake, she kissed him back.
Is a real woman what he’s been missing this entire time?
It goes against everything he stands for.
Not to mention his plan with his brother, or that his customer base will think he’s a hypocrite if they find out what she is, which would be terrible for his company.
Considering she equated him and his world to rotten candy, plus said they would never date, it isn’t worth it.
She isn’t worth it. How foolish of him to let his guard down, even for a moment.
He needs a manupartner to help him with these urges that are getting more insistent by the day. Another great idea.
He steps off the walking desk in his office and shuts down his system.
He could select one and take the time to activate it, but that would extend his Electra problem another week.
Unless the current Jerme trial succeeds, which is unlikely given how quickly the first ones failed.
There’s just no time to grow a manupartner.
He’s in crisis mode. He flings his office door open and marches through it straight to the bank of elevators that will take him downstairs to the recycle station.
A lighted sign flashes above the sleek metal doors: Momentary Service Disruption.
He and Electra got caught up in something neither of them was prepared for. His stomach twists uncomfortably. Jerme, is this what happened to you?
He taps his foot, suppressing the urge to shout at something.
Why did she have to make him feel so unmoored?
He was perfectly fine before she appeared.
Now, not only does he have to manage himself, but he also has to wade through the emotions of a real human woman.
A nearly impossible task. He’s obligated to share his space with her.
Inconvenient. Therefore, he must interact with her, which leads to his unfortunate interest in her well-being.
Inconvenient isn’t the right word for that.
Dangerous.
Right. But he invented a solution to this problem.
He’s been stupid not to have used it. He rushes to the emergency exit, running down the stairs before he loses his nerve.
Staff scatter as he throws open the doors to the M Quadrant recycling station.
Some of the staff here have probably never seen him in real life, but they all know who he is.
He barks at the first person he sees, “Where are the units waiting to be recycled?”
They jump at his brisk tone, but nod toward a door labeled Holding Rooms: Authorized Personnel Only.
He approaches the door’s locking panel, doing a quick retina scan.
The door opens and he enters a room full of manupartners waiting for decommissioning.
He scans the rows, looking for a suitable specimen.
When he spots a woman with unblemished pale skin, big blonde hair and even bigger breasts—the exact opposite of Electra—he paces over to her. “What’s your name?”
The unit blinks twice, as if coming out of a trance. Then she gives him a feral grin. “Chryl. What’s yours, handsome?”
“Res6. I’m your new owner.”
Her eyes brighten, and she loops her arm through his. “Looks like it’s my lucky day!” she gushes.
As he escorts her into the SAT, he retreads the mental gymnastics it took to convince himself that a new manupartner as a buffer was a great idea.
Anything to distract him from the temptation in his unit until his brother is back.
But as Chryl rubs a burning hole in his thigh, and it takes everything in him not to rip her hand away, he’s having second thoughts.
After a tense fifteen-minute SAT ride, he’s ushering Chryl into his unit, having third and fourth thoughts.
The third: with Chryl, the body double manupartner, and the actively growing Jerme, the spare room will be uncomfortably cramped.
The fourth: the irate woman whose deadly stare might as well be a sparkler beam aimed at him.
“We kissed and had an argument, so you immediately get a manupartner?” Electra shouts as he guides Chryl into his unit. Given the frequency of Electra’s shouting, she must get some enjoyment out of it. Perhaps he should hire a private tutor for a Respectful and Considerate Conduct Course.
He sits calmly on the couch, patting the spot next to him. Chryl plops down next to him. “This is Chryl. Chryl, Electra.”
“Wow! She’s pretty. Is this going to be a three-way thing? How kinky!” Chryl exclaims, patting the spot next to her.
“No, it is absolutely not,” Electra snaps, planting her clenched fists on the back of the opposite L of the couch so she’s facing them. She turns her laser-sharp gaze to him, hissing, “You. Are. Unbelievable.”
“Please sit down so I can explain,” he says.
“I’ll stand, thanks.” She stubbornly crosses her arms.
“Feisty one, isn’t she?” Chryl says. “I bet the sex will be explosive!”
Res6 wipes his eyes. He really shouldn’t have chosen a manupartner so indiscriminately, because whoever selected Chryl’s traits clearly chose vivacious, SexcitableTM, and audacious—all traits he never would have chosen. “Chryl, please go wait in the spare room and remember what we talked about.”
“Sure thing, handsome. I may have a little surprise for you when you’re ready.” Chryl mimes zipping her lips closed before winking and sauntering toward the door.
“The one on the left, and please, no surprises.” He slumps back onto the cushions, defeated.
“Whatever you like, handsome,” she says, slipping inside.
Electra points an accusatory finger at the door Chryl is safely ensconced behind. “So she’s allowed to know what’s in your supersecret room, but not me? The actual real person who lives with you, who might feel a little better knowing there isn’t a gaggle of re-animated corpses behind that door.”
His mouth falls open. The carefully thought-out words he hoped would smooth things over get lodged somewhere between his brain and his throat.
It seems you are throwing me off my carefully curated routine.
I thought having a manupartner, which I often do, might help me resist your presence and regain a sense of security and personal space.
Granted, it’s been a few years since he turned his last unit in for recycling.
Admitting the level of boredom he’s reached in recent years would probably make him a hypocrite.
Though it would explain his interest in the next wave of more LifeLikeTM advancements.
He sighs as a wave of emotional exhaustion rolls through him.
“Hello?” Electra presses. They stare at each other in a stalemate for a long moment. Her lip quivers, and a tear rolls down her cheek—a horrifying sight. “Fine. You don’t owe me an explanation, I guess. I just really don’t like this.” More tears fall.
Though he has a strange urge to go to her, wipe the tears away, and wrap her in his arms, he roots himself to the couch. Getting involved was a mistake, and it will be best for both of them if she figures this out on her own.
Still, it would be considerate to explain his behavior, but now that he’s facing her, his planned speech seems insufficient. “I don’t mean to make you cry, but Chryl feels necessary.”
“You made me believe you might give a shit about me.” She looks down her nose at him. “As if you’re capable.”
“You said there’s nothing between us.”
“That isn’t what I said.” She resolutely plants her hands on her hips.
“Then what did you say?”
“It doesn’t matter. Come to think of it, you’re right. Chryl can be your advertising from now on.”
“Electra!” he calls after her as she storms back into the bedroom.
It’s obvious Res6 has misevaluated everything to do with Electra from the beginning.
For instance, he now realizes how he might have misled her.
He needs to convince her that their misunderstanding was purely accidental.
Really, how could he develop an affection for a woman who respects his life purpose so little?
Who rejected him after what he thought was a groundbreaking kiss.
Not that he’s developing an affection just because he admitted to himself that he likes her.
At least the kiss and their subsequent misunderstanding reminded her that she does not, in fact, like him.
So even if he is tempted, there’s no concern.
Chryl pops her head out the door, glancing around, presumably for Electra. “Is the coast clear?”
He sighs, nodding.
“Good, because there’s a half-formed man quivering in the closet and it’s giving me the creeps.”
She’s referring to the fourth Jerme trial using synthesized DNA.
It hasn’t failed yet, thankfully, since Res6 is already dealing with so much inner turmoil as it is.
He points to the cushion beside him. “You can sit here. I’m going to do some reading, so keep quiet.
” She perches on the spot, staring at him eagerly.
Anticipation is evident in her bright blue eyes.
Since he’s had years of practice with countless eager manupartners, ignoring her is easy. He leans back on the couch, determined to let his troublesome thoughts slip away. Now that Electra knows he’s reading her books, he doesn’t think she’ll mind if he continues.
He reaches a chapter where the red-skinned, horned hero has the anti-damsel pinned against a wall in a cave on the outskirts of his kingdom.
Vorack is growling something possessive in his native tongue into the heroine’s ear, but he has yet to learn that Ella didn’t run from him.
The enemy clan kidnapped her, and she only just escaped before the tribe forced her into a marriage with their leader.
While Res6 is keen to finish the scene, because he is fairly certain what comes next, it might be wise to save it for later.
The couple’s first encounter, which had only amounted to some heavy foreplay, was quite arousing, after all.
The last thing he needs is for Electra to emerge from the bedroom to find his pants tented with an erection and Chryl salivating over it.
Chryl leans against his shoulder. A wave of revulsion rushes through him, but he tamps it down. “Whatcha doing?”
“Still reading,” he grumbles.
She leans over, scanning the text for a moment. “Oh là là. They’re about to have sexy time.” He jumps as her hand smacks his thigh and squeezes. “Anything I can help with?”
A chime sounds in his unit right as Chryl throws a leg over his waist, straddling him. “My last owner wanted me to call him Daddy. Is that what you want too, Daddy?”
“Please don’t.” He grasps her hips, about to hoist her bodily off him, when Electra’s door opens.
“What was that noise—” she starts, but stops when she sees the precarious position he’s landed himself in.
“Finally decided to join the fun, darlin’?” Chryl asks, winking as she gyrates as if she’s riding the horse from the simulation chamber.
Though he should be glad that Chryl is serving her intended purpose—insulating him from Electra—he feels sick to his stomach. He never asked for this, so when he abruptly moves Chryl off himself, it is decidedly in frustration. “That’s enough, Chryl.”
By now, Electra has retreated once again, slamming the door behind her.
He and the manupartner stare at the bedroom door. He’ll deal with that later.
“What’s up her butt?” Chryl asks.
“Chryl, please go stand in the kitchen.” Thankfully, she obeys.
At the front door, a delivery crew has arrived to swap the uncomfortable bed for a better and larger one since it seems he’s going to be stuck with it for a while.
He directs them to the spare room. Ten minutes later, they have the new bed set up, which is great because Res6 is ready to plant himself face down on the mattress and pretend, if only for a few hours, that this is only a dream.