Chapter 38
James
Does Don’t wait up mean what he thinks it does? Maddening woman. He can only imagine the narrative playing in her mind.
He shoots Jett a quick message, and he gets a location in response immediately.
“No, but it will be.” He downs the rest of his drink and leaves, determined.
James can’t get to the bar that Jett gave him the address to fast enough. Bubble Bar—God, the future makes his brain hurt.
The woman at the host stand gives him a placid smile. “Welcome to Bubble Bar, MSP’s most effervescent simulation chamber.”
He offers her an equally stupid grin, a technique he’s mastered in the almost three months he’s been forced to play the role of a manupartner. “My Kate wishes me to surprise her.”
The woman feigns a gasp, raising her brows to the customers waiting behind him. “Oh, how exciting! Just enter her identification number here.”
He does, and when the screen flashes green, he exhales a relieved sigh. She lets him in.
Glowing orbs in dark blues and purples assault his senses.
As he makes his way further into the space, the undulating dark floor makes him wish for something to latch on to.
Overhead, there are spheres hanging at different levels, with ladders leading to them.
A track circles the room behind them, and he sees servers marching between spheres carrying loaded drink trays.
Several of the bubbles are blacked out so he’s unable to see inside, but more are transparent.
Inside, people sit around circular couches, chatting and—there’s a couple fucking in the nearest bubble.
The woman sweeps a sheet of auburn hair over her shoulder and his heart stutters.
Then the woman glances up from her position splayed over an armrest on a moan and catches his stare.
It’s not Kate. She gives him a come-hither look, like he is more than welcome to enter their bubble to join their fun.
He can’t tell if her lover is a manupartner or a real man.
It doesn’t matter. He shakes his head to communicate that he’ll pass.
Looking away from the public display, he makes his way deeper into the main room, noticing that the bubbles and catwalks rise several stories. Is Kate in one of the bubbles? Is she alone?
Colorful lights pulse throughout the circular space much in the way they did in clubs from his time.
They are offset by enormous particle panes displaying disorienting images of floating spheres.
He doesn’t get the impression that this is a sex club, but if one wanted a hookup, this would be the place.
The soft electronic music is ethereal and strange, but after almost three months he’s used to the strange.
He climbs a ladder that leads to the first catwalk, passing several servers who eye him curiously, but don’t say anything. There’s no sign of her in any of the transparent bubbles, so he makes his way up to the next level where there is a common area in the back with a bar and another host stand.
Bodies are crowded on and around the path that leads to it, and he has to push his way through. As he passes the host stand, he hears the host tell a small group that the bubble will go dark when the door is locked.
As he scans the space, he spots another flash of auburn hair toward the back of the common area.
His stomach sinks as he realizes it’s her.
The man she’s with looks too much like a perfected version of himself, and he knows what she’s doing.
She’s distracting herself with a less complicated version of him.
Will she actually go through with it? He isn’t curious enough to find out.
This isn’t what either of them want, and he isn’t about to stand by and let it happen.
He watches the man lead Kate down a dark catwalk, presumably to a bubble he’s already secured. James debates for a moment before his control finally snaps and he’s following them. If Kate wants him, then she’ll have him. Not some over-tweaked replica. They just have a few things to settle first.
Kate emits a feminine giggle as the man presses her into the railing, burying his face in her neck. Then James has a fistful of his shirt and is tugging him backward. The man gives him a few rapid blinks as he tries to determine what is happening, then his lip curls into a snarl.
James releases him, saying, “Nothing personal, buddy, but the lady’s spoken for.” He’s almost proud of how civil he’s being.
“Excuse me?” The man looks as though he’s going to step a little too far into James’s personal space, and that won’t do. “You mean to say she’s with you?”
“That’s precisely what I mean,” he says.
Kate pushes herself off the wall, angling toward the man. James catches her hand, pulling her to him so he can get an arm around her before she can reach her new friend.
She tries to shove him away. “You can’t tell me what to do. We’ve been through this. Besides, you ended our relationship.”
He takes her chin in his opposite hand and holds her still long enough to place a kiss on the tip of her nose.
“You’re adorable, you know. And you have a lot to learn about being in a relationship.
” When Kate’s resistance melts at his words, he turns to the man.
“Don’t make a scene. I’m sure another suitable friend won’t be too hard to find. ”
He looks at Kate, and James can tell he’s struggling to remember her name. “But women like her don’t come in here that often. I thought—I mean, where am I supposed to find—”
A replacement. Someone of Kate’s caliber to stick his dick in. He might murder the man if he says anything else, so he cuts him off before he can make the mistake. “She’s not an object, you moron. She’s a fucking treasure. Go away before we have a problem.”
The man lets his eyes drift to Kate again. “I guess if this is what you want?”
Kate is speechless and blushing at his words. James, knowing it will needle her, answers, “Trust me. It’s what she wants.”
“You can’t just do that,” she protests, pushing weakly against his chest. By now, the man has decided it isn’t worth the trouble, and they’re alone in the hall.
“I just did, and you like it.” James grabs ahold of her hips as he walks her toward the railing.
When her back hits, he takes both wrists and holds them behind her back.
She doesn’t resist. He leans in, lowering his voice to say, “If you need a distraction, I’ll be the one distracting you.
And if you need to get fucked that badly, I’ll be the one fucking you. Understand?”
She nods vigorously.
“Good. And so we’re clear, I’ll be the only one fucking you.”
She nods again.
“Use your words, sweetheart.”
He licks up the line of her neck as she says, “Yes.”
A chuckle escapes against her heated skin. “Say, ‘Yes, James. I understand that if I need to get fucked, you’ll be the one doing it.’”
Her voice is breathy when she says, “If I say it, you’ll do it. Promise?”
With his free hand, he grabs a handful of her tit, grinding his hips into her soft flesh. “Promise.”
Her voice is sweet, almost contrasting with the words as she says, “Yes, James. I understand that if I need to get fucked, you’ll be the one doing it.”
“ ‘Even when I’m bad and you’re mad at me,’” he says, and her eyes widen.
“Does this mean you’re still my boyfriend?” she asks, trying to repress a grin.
“Say it,” he growls.
She swallows. “Even when I’m bad and you’re mad at me.”
“Very good.” Her nipple peaks to a hard point as he runs a thumb across it. “Yes, I’m still your boyfriend. That was a fight, sweetheart. Not a breakup. Now, where would you like to get fucked? Here or at home in your bed.”
“Both, please,” she says, shifting her hips against him.
He chuckles again. “Very well.”
Grabbing her wrist, he drags her down the hall, glancing through cracked doors until he comes to a bubble with only a few people inside sipping drinks. This will have to do. James barges in, barking, “Get out.”
The group looks up, startled. A man with spiky green hair jumps up, protesting their invasion. “But this bubble is already rented—”
“Out,” James points toward the door, practically vibrating now.
The group is no match for his demanding tone. A woman rises and sheepishly tugs on the man’s shirt sleeve, dragging him out the door. The two others follow, eyeing James suspiciously. When they’re gone, he slams the door and locks it. The bubble dims, and James is sure that means no one can see in.
“That wasn’t necessary,” Kate says, but before she can add anything to her protest, he’s kissing her.
When he pulls away to tug down the straps of her dress, exposing her breasts, he says, “They’re fine. And that was one way to get a man’s attention, sweetheart.”
He walks her back until her knees hit the back of the couch.
“Are you still mad at me?” she asks.
He chuckles, dragging her dress up over her hips so it hangs on her waist. “A little, but that doesn’t change anything.” He eyes her panties. “Take those off.”
As she slides them down her thighs, he shrugs off his jacket, tossing it to an adjacent couch.
A quick flick has the buttons at his wrists undone and he’s rolling up his shirt sleeves.
With a hand to her shoulder and a gentle shove, Kate falls back onto the couch.
Then his hand is at his belt buckle. When his cock springs free, Kate stares with wide eyes. “This is what you wanted?” he asks.
She nods, looking pretty and a little dazed.
“You just couldn’t be patient, could you?” he asks.
The corner of her lips ticks up, and he would pay a handsome sum to know the thoughts floating through her head.
Her shiny auburn hair falls in a straight sheet down her back. He gathers it in his fist, then tilts her head so she’s staring up at him.
“You drive me crazy,” he says.
She moves forward like she wants to take over, but he keeps her hair, holding her back. His dick gives a twitch as she grins up at him.
“You like it,” she says, smirking.