Chapter 7 #2
I need this man inside me, or I might just go insane.
Nolan, you know how we said we’re just talking?
Yeah?
I don’t think we’re just talking anymore.
I agree. We’re definitely not just talking anymore.
I really want to see you.
I want to see you too.
I nibble on my lower lip, trying to ignore the heat that’s beginning to flare up in my core.
And I want to do more than see you. Please tell me you’ve been thinking about it too.
Mia, these days, you’re all I think about. In every aspect. Including this one.
Groaning, I switch to lying on my belly, ignoring its contented rumble from my breakfast, and fight the urge to caress my own body. That’s nothing but a Band-Aid solution to the remedy I crave.
I really don’t think I can wait to see you. I just don’t know where we should meet up.
My mind runs in circles. I could pick him up in the car, but messing around in Jess’s car, when she and her kids ride around in it?
That’s just disrespectful. Nolan may be artificial, but the idea of getting it on anywhere for the first time other than a nice place with a sturdy bed makes me feel like I’m cheapening him.
He’s not a walking vibrator for me to use when it suits me. He’s a person, metal or not.
I can practically hear the smile on Nolan’s face.
You could come here.
To the station? I can do that? But aren’t the other guys there, sleeping and stuff?
I don’t see why not. It’s my work, but it’s also my home.
I have my own room. They’re here, but there’s enough distance between my room and their barracks to give us some space, and I’m officially out of commission for three days.
Chief’s orders after the injuries I sustained.
I wouldn’t recommend strutting around the front entrance, banging on a drum and announcing it to the world or anything, but yeah.
You can come over. Discreetly. Just text me when you’re here and I’ll let you in the back way.
Repercussions fly through my mind. There’s some risk. I wouldn’t want to get Nolan in trouble or embarrass Apollo if I were discovered, but I can be discreet, and it’s not like I have a lot of options with my full house here.
We’ll have to be quiet. Can you do that?
Nolan is who I want. He’s all I can think of anymore.
Yeah. I can do that. Tell me when.
Come after 11. Does that work?
He’s everything right with the world. He’s solid and steady, but he’s also exciting and intriguing.
This is so much more than just wanting him physically.
My need for Nolan transcends the physical.
He’s become a drug coursing through my veins.
I want more with Nolan than I’ve ever wanted with any man.
It’s not just about whether or not we sleep together—and I really, really want that—it’s the thought of potentially waking up next to him, of what it could be like seeing him every day.
This is real. One hundred percent the real thing.
Realizing that, I’m helpless against his offer. I have to be with him tonight.
All right. I’ll be there tonight.
* * *
I spent the day with little Hera and Laurent so that Jessica can really enjoy her only day off.
I help Laolao with the kids’ bedroom. I start laundry, I wash dishes.
Domestic duties are a nice change of pace for me today, and it helps pass the time fast. My mind and heart are stalled, waiting for nightfall.
Jessica knows something is up when I come down after dinner in the evening, wearing a little black dress, silver jewelry, and jasmine perfume in my hair. I went easy on the makeup, keeping everything light and natural.
“A date with Nolan tonight?” she teases. “I didn’t know he had the evening off.”
“They gave him some time off to recuperate from his injuries.” Not that he needs it, but it makes me respect Nolan’s chief a little, knowing that he treats Nolan the same way he treats his human personnel. “I was hoping I could borrow your car keys.”
Jessica squints at me with a mischievous smirk, one I can’t help but bashfully return. Even if I tried to lie to her, I think she’d know. She offers me her key fob, then withdraws her hand at the last second and points at me. “No sex in my car.”
I scoff. “I would never.”
“Never?”
“Well, not in your car.”
“You swear?”
“I swear.”
Jessica grins and tosses the fob to me. I catch it expertly. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
“Well, with Nolan, I can’t get knocked up and in trouble like somebody I know, so . . .”
She playfully bats me away, and I giggle. “Okay, okay, I’m going.”
“Be safe.”
My mind races as I drive to the fire department headquarters.
So much has happened since I came here. New Carnegie, and by extension, Belmont, is called the City of Innovation.
I’m finding myself, reinventing myself here.
I have a family supporting me. Someday I want to support them too.
My dreams of designing are slowly coming to fruition.
I often doodle in my room or at Cyber Street in the back office in between my social media work.
I hope we’ll hear back from Amber Rivera soon about that convention in New York.
What I wouldn’t give to see Jessica get the international praise she deserves.
I’m not certain how I’ll make that dream a reality, but I know everything will come with time. What I am certain of is how I feel about Nolan.
I never expected to find anyone like him here.
He was never a part of my plans, and yet now, I’m trying to include him in every vision, every dream, every fantasy.
There may never be retirement for him, or at least, not for a long time, not until BioNex creates a more souped-up bionic down the line.
I wonder if that will bother him someday, or if he’ll be happy to live his own life.
If he’d like to live that life with me. I don’t mind being a sole earner if necessary.
Someday I want to move out, have my own apartment. Would he be there with me?
I don’t even bother telling myself to slow down. I’m allowed to think of the future, dream of what I want it to look like. But no matter which way I dream it, Nolan is always there. I’m always fitting him in. And I would like to fit into his life too, if that’s what he wants.
I’m terrified of saying all of that out loud to him. It’s probably too early. But my mind is made up. My emotions are tied up just as tightly as his own gratification drive.
I try to think of not being with him. Being with someone else. And it’s becoming impossible for me.
I don’t know what that means, or if I’m losing my mind, but in this crazy, stupid, selfish world, Nolan is a shining light in a hellish darkness.
He’s the only one who makes sense.
* * *
Following Nolan through the headquarters after he lets me in the back makes me feel like a teenager sneaking around a lover’s lane.
We’re both cautious and quiet. Nolan leads me up two flights of stairs to a utility area and a ladder that leads to an attic. “They put you up here?” I ask, climbing up the ladder carefully after him.
“Yeah. This building was built back in the 1800s, if you can believe it. It’s been reconstructed quite a few times. The second floor was the barracks, and this used to be a storage area for animal feed.”
“Animal feed?” I marvel.
“Sure. Hay, oats. Firetrucks used to be horse-drawn carriages,” he says. “Belmont goes way back.”
“And firemen would sleep here?”
“Yes. Well, technically, they still do in the barracks downstairs. Just not up here.” He takes my hand and pulls me to him.
I straighten, instantly enchanted. I never really gave much thought to the fire department’s history, but I can appreciate it, knowing that Nolan respects it, belongs to it, is making his own. As I take it all in, I can’t help but laugh. “Did they decorate it for you?”
I didn’t think androids could become embarrassed, but Nolan chuckles and sheepishly rubs the back of his neck. “Yeah. I know, it looks like a kid’s room, right? Some of them were pretty excited when I joined the team. They may have gone overboard.”
Everything is firetruck themed. Between a few toys on some shelves and framed, old-fashioned black-and-white photographs of firefighters long past mounted on the walls, his room is half museum, half schoolboy.
“I can relate. I think Apollo decorated my room like he thinks I’m in middle school.
But I guess I did bring a fluffy stuffed unicorn, so it’s cute. ”
I see a pole in the corner of the room and gasp, heading toward it. “Does that go down to the first floor?”
“Oh!” Nolan sounds excited as he walks with me to admire it. “Yeah. First day I came here, that was the first thing they made me do. Kind of a rite of passage.”
“Do they use it?”
“Not really. This is technically the third floor. Second floor is administrative and storage. Our dispatcher hangs out there. The crews bunk on the main floor. They’ll never get rid of this area, though.
It’s part of the building, and kids love to try it out when schools come through on field trips. ”
If we hadn’t just snuck in here, I would totally slide down this pole. As though I needed another reason to find Nolan completely adorable, now I’m picturing a small mob of children crawling all over him. “Do you hang around to meet the kids on field trips?”
“Absolutely.” Nolan sniffs, folding his arms as he straightens with mock self-importance. “It’s my main function. Gotta get kids excited about fire safety.”
“You are so damn cute.” Laughing softly, I reach for him. He closes the distance between us and wraps his arms around me.
“I am not cute,” he replies with a playful scoff. “I am a forty-thousand-dollar bionic BNF12B8 emergency unit. I’m anything but cute. Take it back.”
I trail my hand across his synthetic cheek. “Never.”
He leans into my hand, gazing down at me as we share a moment of silence, feeling the electricity between us, the energy moving between our bodies.
“Can I ask you something?” I ask.
“Of course.”
“How worried should I be about you? About fires and TerraPura?”
“I wouldn’t worry too much about fires. I can withstand a lot. Wildfires, they’re where things might get dicey. TerraPura—well, you saw what happened.”
“Can you promise you’ll always return to me?” I murmur.
“I can promise I’ll always try.” His hands rest at the small of my back, his fingers tracing circles just above the curve of my rear.
I lean up on my tiptoes to kiss him, and his mouth crashes hungrily into mine. His tongue pushes past my lips as I wrap my arms around his neck, brushing my fingers over his hair, allowing myself to finally let everything go, drunk on his taste and the way his hands slide lower, cupping my ass.
“Apollo has a lot of nerve.” His voice is low, reverberating in his chest as he pulls me closer, allowing me a moment to breath. He’s so warm. The sound of his voice just inches from my ear is intoxicating. “Hiding you in California for so long. If you’d been there at my activation . . .”
“I’ve thought about that too. Wondering if I wasted time, wishing I’d come here sooner.” I tease another kiss until he grows impatient and claims my mouth again.
“Two years we could’ve been doing this,” he replies, toying with the fabric of my dress between two fingers. He pauses, studying me, silently asking me for permission.
Permission granted. Within moments every button has popped and I’m gasping as his teeth graze the flesh of my neck. I answer by loosening his belt. “Guess we should make up for lost time?”
Nolan takes handfuls of my rear and pushes his hips into me. I gasp softly, feeling the outline of his hardened dick being my legs. Heat instantly shoots through me, pooling at my core.
“As many times as necessary, and more.” His voice has dropped even deeper, tantalizing me. “Don’t you agree?”
“Yes,” I breathe, and he silences me with another passionate kiss, his tongue searching for mine.