51. TheUndoing
TheUndoing
Playlist: The Death of Peace Of Mind - Bad Omens
Kael
I slide my hands up the rope, settling them over her shoulders. A soft touch that will hopefully soothe her frayed edges. My fingers swirl down her arms. “Sugoi desu ne, Taiyō,” I translate. “Amazing.”
She moans softly, a sound that threatens to make me come undone.
I want her to look into my eyes so she knows there’s something steady in the center, her anchor.
“When you step out of this system, when you have your own body again”—my thumb grazes her full lower lip—“this is what I want you to remember. Not being trapped. Not running. This. You and me.”
Silence fills the air around us. Her pulse is still stuttering, a reminder of how much she’s revealed to me tonight, how much she’s let me in. Finally.
My fingers drift to the knotted rope. Not to tighten it, but to undo them. Free her, be her savior. Just maybe, this once, the villain actually gets the girl.
Another knot loosens, the rope whispering across her holo-skin. I work deliberately, every slip of the rope as careful as the tying had been.
“Trust.” I remind her. “It isn’t just about letting someone bind you. It’s also letting them set you free again.” I see her throat swallow hard. I fight the urge to wrap my fingers around it again.
She understands. I didn’t deliberately create the corporate systems to cage her or anyone else inside them. This happened as a result of magic and machine merging in a space where it shouldn’t be possible. Another reason why they both can’t exist simultaneously.
Another knot falls away. I let my knuckles graze her hip. I could be cruel, careless, but I’m not. I’m painstakingly gentle. My patience is just making her want me more.
The final loop slides loose, the rope pooling at her feet. I should feel relief, but instead I feel loss. The ache of absence. My body sways toward her before I can stop it, as if the force between us has to be satisfied.
I grasp her face in both my hands. Our eyes meet again, and a spark ignites between us. “Do you want me as badly as I want you right now?”
She smiles and answers me immediately. “Yes.”
I give her a hint of a smile back. “That’s good. See? Still human.”
“Or maybe it means I’m weak. I can’t resist you anymore.” She looks at me with those gorgeous amber eyes.
I can’t stand it any longer. My lips meet hers, but I pull away briefly to speak. “No. It means you finally want to be mine. Slow surrender is worth waiting for.”
The taste of trust, of surrender, of acceptance lingers on her lips. I feel different, though. This feels different. This undercurrent flowing between us. It’s now undeniable. I know she feels it too. The want, the need, the pull. It’s not just me anymore.
“I have to tell you something,” she confesses. She sounds brave and confident. Another confession for my arsenal, perhaps?
“Tell.” Not a question. A demand.
She swallows, lips still swollen from the force of mine on hers.
“In the RedRoom...” Her gaze drops, ashamed and somewhat embarrassed.
“When you wore the mask, when I saw you...” She falters, blushing.
“I think I knew it was you. Not right away. But I could feel you, Kael. The way you moved. There’s something more than just our feelings at play here.
” She pauses, thinking about her words. “It was impossible to resist and so right.”
I feel like grinning again. I think this is the most I’ve succumbed to a sense of happiness in years. “You liked it?”
She nods once. “I hated myself for liking it. But I did. I wanted you even then. That’s why I was in DreamNet that night you found me on the beach. I wanted you to find me.”
I lean in, her scent filling my senses, sweet and salty: ocean air, nervous sweat, and desire. Gods help me, when I do get my cock inside her...
I stop the spiral.
My nose presses to her forehead. “You don’t have to hate yourself for what you want,” I whisper.
“You only have to decide if you trust me to give it to you. And you have.” I push a strand of hair behind her ear.
“We don’t have to wait, Taiyō. If you feel things the way I think you do, I’ll give myself to you, right here, right now. ”
She blinks, and I can see her fading, static slipping in around the edges of her holo-form.
Even aroused, her eyes and the ink down her spine are only pulsing faintly.
Another warning. She’s burning out, slipping further from human into code, and I’m running out of time to pull her back. I will never reveal that to her.
I take a step back and head for my bedroom, hoping she’ll follow. “You’re tired. Go lie down, rest. I’m just going to grab a quick shower.”
Her gaze flicks down, lingering where my joggers reveal everything we’ve stirred up between us. She tips her head, and the playful smirk she gives me is absolutely delicious. “Need to take care of that again?”
My pulse jumps. Her tone is teasing, but her eyes are curious. She has no idea how hard it is to hold back when she looks at me like that.
I lean one shoulder against the doorframe, slow and deliberate, letting the weight of my stare slide over her. “I could,” I say softly, “or you could take care of it for me.”
My eyes dip meaningfully to the bed, then back to her face. I imagine her pink lips wrapped around my dick, her tongue licking the length of me...
Fuck! This whole protection thing stirring inside me makes me feel off balance. She needs rest, but what I want is her on her knees in front of me, destroying me with that mouth.
The conflict is a vise around me. Discipline versus hunger. I’ve trained for times like this. I’m a man who’s spent his whole life mastering systems. Nothing I’ve built has ever made me feel weak. Until her.
She moves toward me, placing her hands on my shoulders. I drag a hand through my hair and step closer, forcing the edge back into my voice. “Lie down, Taiyō.”
It’s a command because I have to break this spell she has me under.
“If I take you up on that now, it’s not protection.
It’s possession. I won’t be able to stop myself from pushing you to your knees and spilling every ounce of me into your pretty little mouth.
And you deserve better than my worst impulse. ”
Her pupils flare, catching the city light like two pieces of polished ocean glass. She doesn’t move, but I can tell she likes the sound of that.
I don’t do this well. I’m the villain, not the hero.
I build systems, not sanctuaries. I’ve written code that hunts people; it doesn’t save them. And yet here she is watching me like she’s waiting for me to be more than what I am.
I lean down until we’re nose-to-nose, letting her feel my breath, the heat under my skin. “I need your continued trust. You don’t know how hard it is to let you sleep when everything in me wants to touch you, taste you, fuck you until you scream my name.”
A tight-lipped grin cuts through my self-control. “Get in the bed. Before I forget I’m trying to be the good guy now.”
A certain something flickers to life in her, defiance, want...no exhaustion. She’s fighting to stay upright, but she’s also fighting her desire for me.
About fucking time, Taiyō.
She bites her lip. “So bossy, Dr. Ryudon.”
“Always, now go. Bed.” I smack her ass on her way through the doorway. The sting just makes me stay erect. “Before you disappear on me completely.”
In the shower, I turn the faucet to the coldest setting the pipes will give me.
The water clings to my skin, cold battling hot, ice to flame.
When I step out of the bathroom, my hair is damp, my towel rests loosely on my hips.
I look over by the bed, and there she is.
Still in that little red, holographic lace bra and panties, all fire and pixels, looking at me like she knows exactly how close I am to losing it.
A cold shower, some distance—it didn’t do a damn thing to kill the desire she left in me. Working out beforehand, showering after, every discipline I use to quiet myself only makes it worse.
I tip my head back, eyes closing on the ceiling as if I can see through it to some other world. My voice comes out in a whisper to myself: “Kenji, all the things you taught me about self-control, I need them right fucking now.”
My fists flex once, knuckles whitening. Her shape flickers in the corner of my eye, a temptation wrapped in light. Every muscle I train to strike is trembling to break its own rules.
This woman will be the death of me.
Lyra is pacing in front of the bed like a caged animal, arms crossed, hair wild. The shadows of my room against the cold neon outside wrap around her like comforting hands, but her movements are still restless.
“Problem?”
Her head whips toward me, eyes flashing. “Where do you expect me to sleep?”
I let the question hang. I enjoy seeing her conflicted about something she has no choice about.
The way she tries to make this about defiance when every inch of her body screams sex is cute. Slowly, I step closer, crossing the room until I stand between her and the edge of the bed.
“My bed,” I say, low and final. I watch her for a beat, the way her holo-form flickers faintly around her shoulders like dying embers. She’s nervous about it, running on adrenaline still. She’s about to fall over, and she doesn’t even see it.
“Come here.” I say, softer now. I open my arms for her to come to me. My mind goes straight to the place where I see her crawling to me. Begging me...
Stop it, Kael. You’re not helping the little predicament down below.
Her lips part, caught between silence and speaking. Something she doesn’t want to admit? I tilt my head, letting my stare fall over her deliberately, then back to her eyes.
She melts into my arms and buries her head in my chest. I kiss the top of her head. “Again...my house. My bed. No arguments,” I answer. “You’re not a guest, Taiyō. You’re mine to protect. For now that means under my roof, wrapped in my sheets, in my arms, not pacing like a glitch all night long.”
I strip the towel off and slide into bed, folding the covers back like a command and a welcome rolled into one.
Her eyes widen as she looks at me stretched out on the mattress, skin still damp from the shower, city light cutting across my naked body.
“You sleep like that?” She looks scandalous.
I smirk, low and slow. “I do. Afraid you can’t hold back?”
She takes a slow step, then another, until she’s standing at the edge of the mattress. She still doesn’t climb in, though. She just looks at me, like she’s waiting for me to tell her it’s okay.
“Relax, Taiyō. Let me take care of you.” I pull the blanket back further, exposing my entire body to her. My heart is pounding from the thrill of making her squirm. I lean back on one palm and wait, everything on full display, a silent invitation.
I can see the gears turning. She makes the choice to join me.
I reach out, taking her hand, guiding her down without force.
“Lie down.” My thumb brushes across her knuckles as I settle her against the pillow.
I wrap my body around hers, arms and legs entangled.
Gods, her hologram is so warm. She stutters beneath my touch.
“This is nice.” She allows herself a long sigh.
“It is.” I settle into her. My body fits perfectly around hers. “Right now you need someone to hold you until you’re whole.” Her hair smells like synthetic skin and the sterile air of the lab, like she’s half-real already.
“You’re hard again,” she murmurs into the dim light, a wicked little spark in her voice. “I can feel it between my ass cheeks.”
“I’m aware.” I shut my eyes for a second, trying not to laugh. “You’re as bad as Ash.” I exhale. Honesty prevails. “This is what you do to me, Taiyō, I want you so badly I can taste it. Now go to sleep before I send you to his house for the night. You two can take turns being Captain Obvious.”
She giggles, and the sound warms my soul like sunlight hitting an iceberg that’s been frozen for years. It awakens something inside me I didn’t think existed anymore.
I hold her under the sheets, and for the first time it isn’t lust. It’s just her weight in my arms, flickering but real enough for me. My body knows this is obsession, but my mind starts to register something else: devotion. I’ve never had a reason to let anyone in; now I have one.
I can feel how fragile she is in my arms, how close she is to disappearing. And yet, she’s trusting me. Me, of all people. Kael Ryudon, the boy who learned to hack the world before it hacked him. The man who builds doors to other worlds but doesn’t know how to leave his own door unlocked.
She lets another giggle slip out as I press my length into her back. I tuck her closer, my voice rough at her ear. “Keep laughing, Taiyō. Keep feeling. As long as you do, you’re still human. And as long as you’re still human”—my fingers tighten at her hip—“I’ll get you out of this mess.”
“LINK—lights.” I command. Shit! Maybe I shouldn’t have said that. No need to ruin this perfect moment with a reminder of the threat she’s running from.
The lights dim until the black finally envelops us. The still quiet is a nice change to the hectic pace of my life outside these walls. Lyra wriggles into me, tugs the covers, tosses, then turns. I let go of her and roll to my side of the bed. I breathe out forcefully. “What is it now?”
“Kael...” she whispers. “I’m scared again. What if pulling me out doesn’t work? What if I come out empty? Or not at all. I can’t shake this bad feeling.”
She turns her face toward me in the dark. “I need you to tell me it’s going to be okay. I’m spiraling, and only you can stop it,” she says quietly.
That one hits me in the chest like a bullet. I know what’s at stake, how close she is to being another one of my creations. But I continue to lie to her. Because deep down, I fear the truth will shatter her. Protecting her from the pain is all that matters now.
I slide an arm under her neck and draw her against me, her body fitting into the curve of mine like I was made for her, even though she’s only light and projection. For a moment she feels so real, I forget she’s not yet human.
I press my lips to her hair. “Then stay right here,” I assure her. “This is the first time I get to really hold you, and I’m not letting go.”
She exhales, and tiny golden pixels take flight. The fight is finally draining out of her. And for the first time since this ordeal began, she closes her eyes and lets me hold her. Safe in my arms while the danger of the city glows outside the glass.