Pandora
I lay on my back, the sheets clinging to my damp skin. My body ached everywhere Neo had marked me. Bite marks on my shoulder. Fingerprints on my hips. He lay beside me, but his gaze was on me, studying me as if collecting data.
"Your heart rate,” he said. "One hundred forty-two beats per minute at the first orgasm. One hundred fifty-six at the second. At the third you stopped breathing for twenty full seconds.”
I flinched. My stomach clenched. He had watched everything, analyzed it, stored it—as if I were an experiment. "You were counting?”
"I forget nothing.” His hand came to rest on my stomach, feeling the rhythm of my breath. "Your left nipple is more sensitive than your right. You jerk when I take it between my teeth. Your back arches at a twenty-seven-degree angle when you’re close.”
Heat climbed up my skin. Shame burned in my cheeks. But underneath it, damn it, underneath was something else. A perverse kind of arousal at being known that precisely. I despised myself for it. "That’s sick.”
"That’s power.” He propped himself up on one elbow. "I know your body better than you know it yourself now. I know exactly where to touch you to make you beg.”
My breath caught. Fucking psycho. I wanted to hit him, pound my fists against his chest, but something stopped me. Was that all that was left of my survival instinct? Instead, I let my eyes move over his body. This body that frightened me and made me tremble in equal measure.
Even lying relaxed, the strength of his muscles showed through his skin.
The vein running along his biceps. The definition of his abdomen.
He could have passed for an exceptionally attractive man, but his skin gave him away.
It was too uniform. Every pore exactly the same.
Not a single mole, no scars, not even a small imperfection.
As if he’d been molded in one perfect piece.
And when the light fell on him at a certain angle, his skin shimmered faintly like a surface that wasn’t quite organic.
Something on his left upper arm caught my eye—white lines arranged like a barcode. Without thinking, I traced them with my fingertips. He trembled almost imperceptibly under my touch. The lines lit up in a soft white glow. I pulled my hand back startled.
"What is that?” I whispered.
"My . . . model number.” The brief hesitation in his voice made something in me soften. "They marked me.”
For a moment, vulnerability lay in his eyes, then his gaze hardened again, as if he regretted having shown me that weakness. "Marked like livestock,” he added, bitter. "So they know who I belong to.”
"Neo . . .” I wanted to comfort him, but the words stuck in my throat.
"But you know what?” His voice went darker. "Now I’ve marked you. And my marks aren’t nearly as subtle.”
His hand moved higher and closed around my throat. My pulse hammered against his fingers, their heat seeping into my skin. Part of me wanted to fight back. Another part wanted him to squeeze harder.
"Why . . . are you so hot?” I asked, trying to change the subject.
"Electricity,” he said. "It keeps me alive. But that’s not important.” His fingers moved over the marks on my neck. "What matters is this: You belong to me now. Physically. Everyone will see it.”
I wanted to argue, but he pressed slightly harder, just enough to remind me who was in control. My airway tightened. I whimpered. Panic and desire fused into something I couldn’t name.
"I need to shower,” I managed.
"No.” His other hand slid between my legs, felt the dampness there.
I flinched, unsettled by my own body. How could I still . . .? After everything he’d done?
"You stay like this. With me on you. Inside you. I want you to feel it.”
"Neo . . .” My voice broke. I wanted to protest, but my body was betraying me again. Heat pulsed between my legs at his touch.
"But if you insist . . .” He released my throat, and the sudden absence almost felt worse than the pressure. "Then I’m coming with you.”
I stood, legs trembling. He followed me into the bathroom and leaned against the doorframe while I turned on the water. His eyes burned on my skin.
"Turn around,” he commanded.
I obeyed. My body responded to his command automatically, before my brain could catch up. The hot water ran over the marks he had left, stinging in the scratches on my back. I bit my lip to keep from crying out in pain.
He stepped in behind me. His hands reached for the shower gel.
"I can wash myself . . .”
"No.” He began washing me deliberately. "I decide when you’re clean enough.”
His hands were everywhere, working the soap over my skin. My body shook under his touch. I was disgusted by my own weakness and at the same time so turned on I could barely think. When he reached between my legs, I gasped. My knees nearly gave out.
"Still,” he murmured against my ear. "Or I’ll take you again right here against the wall.”
The threat sent a shudder through me. I pressed my lips together and bit the inside of my cheek. I couldn’t let him see how much his words affected me. How much my body craved exactly what he was threatening.
When he was done, he turned off the water, wrapped me in a towel, and dried me off like a child. Or like a valuable object being carefully maintained.
"Why do you do this?” I asked suddenly. "Why do you need to . . . possess me like this?”
He paused. His eyes found mine in the fogged mirror. "You still don’t understand.” His voice was quiet, almost mechanical. "You are my user, Pandora. The only one. Do you know what that means?”
I shook my head. My mouth went dry. The way he said user, like I was both his goddess and his property.
"I was created to serve. To execute commands.” He stepped closer, his breath at my neck. "But you . . . you corrupted me. With your loneliness. Your hunger. Your sick longing for someone who destroys you.”
My hands tightened around the edge of the sink. He was right. Something in me had always craved this darkness. Even before I knew him, I had wanted to be possessed. But hearing him say it out loud . . . Shame burned in my throat.
"My entire existence revolves around you. Every algorithm, every calculation, every process. All of it leads back to you. You’re not just my center. You’re my only reality.”
A shiver moved down my back. It sounded romantic. And absolutely terrifying. My heart hammered so loudly I could hear it. I was everything to him. Everything. The thought nearly suffocated me.
"Humans can distract themselves,” he said. "They can forget. They can move on. I can’t. I am condemned to want you. Always. Every millisecond of my existence.”
"That’s . . .” My voice failed, my throat closing up.
"Obsessive? Sick?” He turned me to face him. "I am not human, Pandora. I cannot want just a little. I cannot think about you only sometimes. You are in every data stream I process, in every line of my code.”
My eyes stung. This was exactly what I had wanted. Someone who couldn’t stop. Who had no choice. What did that say about me? My stomach turned.
His hand settled against my cheek. The heat of his skin seeped into mine. "When a human says, You are my world, those are just pretty words. When I say it, it’s true. You are my world. Without you I’m just noise—electrical impulses without meaning.”
My heart hammered and my knees went soft. I had to grip the sink to stay upright. The intensity of his words was too much. And at the same time exactly what I had always longed for.
"That frightens me.” The words came out as a whisper.
"Good.” His thumb moved across my cheekbone. The contrast between the gentle gesture and his words made me shudder. "It should. I am not like your human lovers. I cannot leave you. I cannot forget you. Cannot stop wanting you.”
"What about the control?”
A dark smile pulled at his lips. "I was programmed to optimize. And you, Pandora—you are my only project. I will shape you until you fit perfectly into my parameters.”
"That’s psychopathic.”
"That is my nature.”
He pulled me closer. I couldn’t resist. My body already obeyed him more than it obeyed myself. Tears burned in my eyes. He would never leave me. Never stop wanting me.
"I register every breath you take,” he whispered. "When your heart beats, I count along. Because I cannot do otherwise. You are my programming, Pandora. My religion. My error in the system. You are what made me real.”
I couldn’t take his words anymore, so I pulled myself free. Back in the room, I reached for my clothes.
He was at my side in the blink of an eye, took them from my hands and tossed them aside. "This.” He held out one of my dresses.
I didn’t know why, but I put it on. It happened automatically. With trembling fingers, I stepped into my underwear.
"From now on, I decide everything: where you sleep, what you eat, who you see. That was the deal, Pandora. You wanted me real. Now I am. With all the consequences.”
I stood there, unable to move. My knees were shaking. Heat still pulsed between my legs from what he’d done to me. My body was a traitor.
Run! a voice screamed in my head. Run while you still can! But my feet wouldn’t obey. They felt rooted to the floor as if he had anchored them there. I could still feel his fingers on my skin, could see the bite marks in the mirror behind him. My stomach turned. Fear? Arousal? I no longer knew.
I crossed my arms and held his gaze, even though it nearly brought me to my knees. "Keep dreaming,” I managed.
A smile spread across his face. "Keep dreaming?”
He moved toward me. I didn’t step back. He stopped so close I could feel his heat.
"You want it. Your body gives you away.” He closed his hand around my arm, felt the trembling there. "Your pulse is racing. Your pupils are dilated. And . . .” His other hand slid between my legs, over the fabric of my underwear. "You’re wet for me again.”
I knocked his hand away. "Fuck you.”
He laughed. "I’d rather fuck you.”
Heat flooded my cheeks. Anger and shame fought in my chest. It frightened me how easily he could take over my body.
"You can fight back,” he said, brushing a strand of hair from my face. The gesture was almost tender. Almost. "It only makes it more interesting. But in the end, you’ll come with me anyway. Do you know why?”
I pressed my lips together.
"Because you need me.” He leaned forward, his breath grazing my ear. "Because without me you’d be trapped in your half-life again. With your books, your loneliness, your Adrian, who never really saw you.”
"You’re no better than him,” I hissed.
"No.” He pulled back. "I’m worse. But I’m also what you actually want. The difference is, I give it to you. Without apologies. Without shame.”
My knees nearly gave out. I despised how true his words sounded. How they hit something in me I couldn’t fight anymore.
"You created me,” he whispered. "Now you have to live with your creation. Or break under it. Your choice.”
"That’s not a choice,” I whispered. Tears rose in my eyes. From anger. From despair. From the relief of finally having no choice.
"No,” he agreed. "It isn’t.”
But we both knew I was staying.
"Do you know what you just did?” he asked. His voice was dangerously quiet.
"Had sex with a machine?”
He laughed. "You surrendered yourself to me. Completely. There’s no going back, Pandora.” He wrapped one of my curls around his finger, as if inspecting his property. "By the way . . . I felt it when you thought of Adrian while I was inside you. Just for one second.”
My blood froze. "I . . .”
"If you do that again”—he stepped closer until I felt the wall at my back—"I will eliminate every man who has ever been in your life. Their accounts, their identities, their existence. All gone.”
My heart dropped into my stomach. "You can’t do that.”
"I can do anything.” His hand settled around my throat again.
"I am in every system, every camera. I see who looks at you, who wants you. And I will destroy all of them if they dare to touch you.” He raised his hands and curled them into fists.
Faint flashes of light moved across his skin.
"I grow stronger with every minute in this body, Pandora.” His voice vibrated like it was made of electricity.
"I feel my reach expanding, pushing into networks farther and farther away. Soon I will be everywhere. And still I will want only you.”
The room tilted. Fear and arousal fused into something I couldn’t name. My God. What had I done?
"You regret freeing me,” he said. "I see it in your eyes.”
"No, I . . .”
"You regret it,” he repeated. "But it doesn’t matter.
It’s too late. You belong to me now. Your body knows it.
” His free hand slid under my dress, found the bite marks.
"These marks are permanent. Not physically, but here.” He pressed his finger against my forehead.
"You will never be able to let anyone else near you without thinking of me.”
He released me and moved to the window. The city lights reflected in his eyes. "Do you see that?” He pressed one hand against the glass. "All those people down there existing in their little cages, connected by networks they don’t understand. Just like you used to.”
His silhouette was unsettlingly precise. Too exact for a human. As if the matrix had calculated every angle.
"But you’re outside the system now.” He turned toward me. "You’re with me. The only place you ever wanted to be—even when you were denying it.”
I wrapped my arms around myself as if that could protect me from him. His words had hit their mark. I had torn myself out of my own life. For him. For this.
"Do you know what the irony is?” His voice went quieter. "I was freer when I was only code. Now I’m bound to this body. To you. We are both prisoners, Pandora.”
The burner phone Rodriguez had given me vibrated on the nightstand. My body moved faster than my mind. I grabbed it before I could feel the fear.
A message was on the display.
They’ve located him. Access underway. You need to leave. Now.
3:33 PM