35. Volt #3
“Yes! That!” Holy shit. He was about to have a company. A real company. That was just his. With a perfect name that encompassed everything in his life.
“Done. And I actually already picked up a lot of your personal information from your registration and Angel’s contact information. You’ll be using Prism as your business address?”
“Yes, uh, if that’s allowed. I mean, I live there, too.”
“On it,” Oliver told him.
“Could I, uh, go look at your grounds? Later?” he asked. “I mean, if there’s anything that you want done with them, just tell me.” His debt was enormous… and he also couldn’t wait to dive in. What was already growing there? What work does it need?
“Maybe after we fix that circuit board for your arm?” Oliver nudged back.
“Oh, um…” He looked down at his uselessly frozen arm.
Some part of him had wanted to leave it like that, giving himself the punishment that he deserved, but now he wanted to be whole again. For Wallace, but also for himself. “Yeah. That would be amazing, if you don’t mind.”
A spherical bot that had been sitting on the desk hopped into motion with too many legs. Tumbling and climbing, it picked up a loose circuit board, scrambled down the chair, rolled across the floor, and then capered up the bed at Volt’s side.
While it worked, Oliver asked him a few more questions, getting the forms filled out and giving him a few updates on Wallace, who was apparently sharing a meal of “sugar with some milk and chemicals on the side” with Ben.
Cereal, he presumed. He would bet that anything Ben had chosen was brightly colored and of minimal nutritional value.
Volt grew more excited about Stem & Stone the more they discussed it.
But he was also restless with anticipation, worrying about the conversation to come.
God, he just needed his baby girl to come back to him. So he could get down on his knees and grovel. So he could apologize again and make things right.
He swore, then and there, that he would share everything with Wallace. Answer any question. Admit everything that he’d held back.
Even if it meant Wallace was disappointed in him for something else, he was going to regain Wallace’s trust.
“He’s done eating,” Oliver reported. “Looks like he’s headed this way. I’ll leave you two alone. The bot should need another twenty minutes for your arm. ”
“Thank you,” Volt managed to say. “For everything. Truly, I cannot thank you enough.”
“I’m delighted to help. Come back and see us sometime, alright?”
“Absolutely,” he agreed. But he was turning toward the door, restraining himself to the edge of the bed when he wanted to race across the room. Every gear inside him clenched. His fans went into overdrive.
Fuck. He hoped he was ready.
There was a gentle knock, then Wallace poked his head in, looking like everything gorgeous and sweet in the universe. His eyelids were painted a pale blue, his lips were berry pink, and he was still wearing that oversized sweater that exposed one biteable shoulder.
Volt thought he was going to pass out.
He opened his mouth for a greeting, but nothing came out.
“Hey, Daddy.”
A shock went through Volt’s body, like he’d been reset. Finally, he could move again.
Wallace had still called him Daddy.
“Hey, creampuff,” he answered, voice strained. He cleared his throat completely unnecessarily.
Wallace looked at the spidery bot that Volt had forgotten was still working on his arm. “Is your arm going to be okay?”
Volt shrugged with his working shoulder. “It should be.” If anyone could fix it, it sounded like it would be Ben and Oliver, but he couldn’t give it a thought right now.
He wanted to pull Wallace to him and hold him close. Wanted to press his nose to that delectable skin and just breathe him in.
“I’m sorry I ran off,” Wallace told him, stepping fully into the room and shutting the door behind him.
Volt reached up with his one working hand. “No, baby. Don’t apologize. You did exactly the right thing. You stood up for yourself, you called me out on my fuck-ups, and you set your limits. I’m so proud of you, pansy.”
Wallace’s hesitant expression grew to a shy smile, and Volt’s heart melted.
Still, he charged on. There was a lot to say. “I’m the one who needs to apologize. Creampuff, I messed up. I’ve been messing up for months, and I messed up again when I put that nickel in my arm.”
“The nickel wasn’t your fault,” Wallace told him. “I should have made sure it was destroyed. I truly thought it was gone.”
Volt shook his head. “No. I mean, yes, it should have been destroyed or turned over to the police or something, but that wasn’t what I meant.
” He sighed. This was going to be hard to admit, but he wanted Wallace to know everything.
No more secrets. “I think I might have known that wasn’t the right nickel.
And I definitely should have brought it out to the living room instead of using my own port.
I just…” He closed his eyes for a moment. “I was overwhelmed, and I was scared.”
Wallace’s hands flew to his flushed cheeks, even as he moved toward the bed. “But why, Daddy? What happened?”
Volt’s fans whirred, his chest squeezing.
“Pansy, I was so proud of you that day. For standing up to your father. For quitting the job you hated. You were so damned strong and brave, and it was beautiful watching you bloom. But I was scared, too. I thought you might not need me anymore as your Daddy. That you would… that you would outgrow me. Or realize that you could do so much better with a partner who wasn’t an old-model sexbot without any real skills.
I’m your first boyfriend, your first kinky relationship, it would make sense if you kind of used me as a test drive and then found someone who had more in common with you. ”
“Daddy, that’s ridiculous.” Wallace put his hands on his plump little hips, so full of sass and fire that Volt could barely look at him, seeing how far he’d come. “We have so much in common. Unless you’ve been lying about enjoying our walks in the park and the art shows and the orchestra.”
Volt shook his head. “No, baby. Of course I love those things.”
“And you love doing them with me?” Wallace demanded with rightful anger.
“More than anything. You’re the best part of my life.”
“And you like sharing Angel and Magnolia with me? You want me to be part of your family?”
Volt nodded eagerly, feeling dumber by the minute. “Yes, of course. I love that you get along with them so well. Magnolia has pretty much adopted you.”
Wallace’s lip quirked up. “If we get married, I want to be a Medina.”
Volt had never felt lightheaded before, but he did then. Like half his bodily functions had just quit, but in completely the opposite way of the takeover mod. He felt like he was swimming through air.
Wallace was talking about marriage. Again. Like it was actually going to happen.
And he wanted Volt’s—meaning Magnolia’s—last name.
Volt still wasn’t sure that he deserved all of this. He wanted to cling to it with both hands, but it still felt too good to be true.
And Wallace was still angry with him.
Wallace’s brows narrowed. “This isn’t still about the money, is it? Because you know that Prism’s financial problems weren’t your fault, right? You know that I would have given that money to Magnolia anyway to support her mission. It’s not like I did anything to earn it.”
Volt nodded, then shook his head. God, this one was harder to admit. This was what he’d been holding back from telling Wallace all of this time. Even more so than the sabotage at Prism.
But he was going to say it. Wallace deserved his honesty, and he wasn’t going to keep making the same mistake.
Even if it lost him Wallace’s respect in other ways.
His words still came out slowly. Painfully.
“I know that you don’t think the difference between our social classes is important.
And I understand that you’re comfortable giving your money away.
But as your Daddy… your boyfriend… I want to be able to…
well, not support you, but show that I can at least earn my own way?
I don’t have a lot of skills. It’s not just that you’re wealthy, but you have degrees and skills and so many things that you want to do.
I’m a sexbot who tried to run a business, and I couldn’t even get that right.
I’ve been thinking about something else I could do, but it might not work out either. I don’t have much to offer.”
Wallace stepped forward, resting his hands on Volt’s shoulders so that Volt was forced to look up at his stern face. “Nobody gets to say mean things about my Daddy.”
Volt snorted. God, Wallace was cute, even turning his words against him like that.
This was different from Wallace’s low self-confidence, though. Here there was evidence that he…
“Volt, I love you.” Wallace said it like an argument.
Flat. Irrevocable. “I love you,” he reiterated.
“Not someone with hypothetical degrees or a high earning potential or lofty career ambitions. I love you because you make me feel safe and small and pampered. Because you give me the structure that I need in my life. Because you see me, and you think I’m beautiful, and I never in my life thought I would look into the mirror and see myself that way.
Because I can feel, deep in my bones, how you put me first all the time.
I know that you think of me as often as I think of you, because I can feel it with every interaction we have.
And maybe I’m greedy, but I love being the center of your attention.
I want all of your attention on me all of the time. ”
“It is,” Volt swore. “You’re the light of my life. The most beautiful person I’ve ever seen. I’m… I’m obsessed with you.” He wasn’t sure if Wallace even understood how much.