Then he felt an utter dick for noticing the flush on her cheeks and the sleek smoothness of her thighs… and for being aware that she wore absolutely nothing underneath his shirt.
Clearing his throat, he rubbed at the back of his neck again. “Perhaps I should see about getting another room…”
She froze mid-bounce in the middle of the bed, her stricken gaze latching on to his face. “Another room? You mean leaving me in here on my own?”
Sitting down heavily, she plucked at the bedding with small hands, trying to smooth it down around her. “Don’t you… don’t you want me?”
Fuck yeah, he wanted her. He bit back his answering growl, prepared to tell her that yes, for both their sakes, he had to get his own room. Or at the first opportunity, he was going to fuck her until she screamed. But her stricken expression rocked him to the core. He was adopted. He knew what rejection felt like, and he couldn’t do it to her.
“Of course I want you, sweet stuff.” He managed a sunny smile from somewhere. “As long as you’re comfortable with me in here, I’ll…” he cast about and then nodded. “I’ll take the couch, let you spread out and get a proper night’s sleep.”
Three hours later, Jay regretted his decision to take the couch.
Not because it was uncomfortable. It wasn’t. Built on Latharian lines, it was more than big enough for both him and Keris to sleep on together. The problem wasn’t the couch, nor the blanket he had draped over his hips. The room wasn’t too hot nor too cold.
The problem was the soft, breathy sighs from the other side of the room. The low whispers of movement as Keris moved in her sleep, silken skin sliding against satin sheets. Just the idea of her there, soft and…
Fuck. He bit back his groan and turned over, punching at the cushion under his head. He would get some sleep. Somehow. All he had to do was think of something else. Like Mr. Stickuphisasspaladin in his nana’s dress…
Movement got his attention, and he opened his eyes to find Keris standing in front of him, still dressed in his t-shirt. She blinked at him sleepily, and even in the semi-darkness he could tell she wasn’t really awake.
“Keris? What’s the matter, honey?” he asked in a low tone, trying not to wake her further. Could she be a sleepwalker now she didn’t have rigid control over her body?
“I don’t want to be on my own,” she whispered. “It’s weird and I can hear things. Odd sounds.”
He smiled softly. “It’s just the base settling, sweetheart, nothing to worry about.”
She didn’t move, looking at him with those big, dark eyes. Without a word, he lifted the blanket and she got in, curling up nestled against him. Carefully, he tucked the soft covering around her.
“You’re so warm. It’s lovely,” she murmured and with a sigh, settled her head on his arm. Within seconds, she was asleep again.
Jay lay there for a long time, listening to her slow, relaxed breathing. Then, he tightened an arm around her waist and pulled her closer. Closing his eyes, he buried his face into her hair. It smelled of the generic shower gel from the bathroom, but under it was a softer, more delicate note that made a warm, fuzzy feeling spread out from the center of his chest.
“Sweetheart,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “You’re going to drive me insane.”
5
Keris came back online with fuzzy vision and a strange pressure in her midsection and lower stomach.
“Ugh,” she groaned, squinting as she opened an eye. What had happened? One moment she’d been staring at the ceiling, listening to Jay’s breathing as usual and waiting for it to lengthen out so she knew he was asleep, and the next… nothing.
Panic gripped her, her breath catching. Was there something wrong with this body? It was possible. Bio-printed bodies had been susceptible to cellular degeneration in the past. It wasn’t a problem with remote piloting, the pilot could just pull back to his original body as the avatar became unusable. But this was her body, her only body. She couldn’t return to her metal one, even if she’d wanted to. The mechanism and subroutines didn’t exist in this biological format. She was entirely contained in her current form.
So if the body began to degrade… she would die. Is that what had happened? Had she blacked out due to cellular damage?
“Hey, sweet stuff,” Jay’s voice made her jerk upright into a sitting position, turning to find him behind her. He had a towel wrapped around his waist and his hair was wet from the shower. “How’d you sleep?”
She blinked. Sleep. She’d…
“I slept?” she said in wonder. “That was sleep?”
He smiled, and her heart did a little flip-flop in her chest. She would have lamented the lack of a diagnostic function… if she hadn’t been too busy staring at the handsome human.
“You were out like a light as soon as you got in,” he said, his attention shifting to her face. “You… err… you might wanna…” He motioned toward her cheek. “Lil’ bit of… errr…”
She lifted her hand and wiped her skin. It was wet. Pulling her hand away, she looked at it. The fluid was clear, not blood as she’d feared. Her gaze cut to the pillow. There was a wet patch in the middle.
“Just a bit of drool. Nothin’ at all to worry about. And yes, you slept.”
While she’d been looking at the pillow, Jay had recovered some combat pants, turning his back to slip them on. As he buttoned them up, he looked over his shoulder. “How was your first time?”
Her cheeks burned as she swiped away the drool. Leaking bodily fluids… how embarrassing. Did that mean there was something wrong with the body?
“It was… not what I expected,” she admitted, meeting his gaze. “Does that…” She indicated the pillow. “Happen often? Does this body need calibration?”
“Nope. It just happens. At least you didn’t snore.” He smiled as she wrapped the blanket around her. It was warm and smelled wonderful. She pulled it closer and looked at him.
“I didn’t?”
Jay snored on occasion, but only when he was exhausted or hurt. An ache started in the center of her chest at the memory of him when she’d first found him, battered and almost dead in that D’Corr cell.
“Why do I hurt?”
“Drooling? Yeah, humans do that all the time. Nothing to worry about.” His expression sharpened. “Pain? Where? Show me.”
She moved to lift the hem of her nightshirt, his t-shirt, to show him and he yanked his gaze up. “No! Don’t show me!”
Confused, she dropped her hand. “You said to show you.”
“Yeah, but not if you’re naked under that!”
She shook her head. “What difference does that make?”
He risked a glance downward again, and then when he saw she was just sitting there, looked at her normally, his arms folded over his chest.
“It just does. Show me over your clothes.”
She sighed. Humans were so confusing.
“It hurts here,” she said, pressing her hand to her lower stomach and between her legs. It was a weird pressure, hard and spikey and she didn’t like it at all.