Amy

George had dropped off my suitcase in a room with burgundy walls and white trim. I closed the door and leaned against it, rubbing my left wrist. Writing over two hundred invitations made my hand sore. Cindy had helped me with another hundred, and with three hundred invitations finished, I was good to go for tomorrow. Cindy and I brainstormed ideas on how to get those invitations into the hands of virgins and came up with a plan. I’d sleep on it. In a really nice bedroom.

If the guest room was this magnificent and as big as our entire apartment in the habitat, I couldn’t imagine the size or the décor of the master bedroom. Not that I cared what it looked like since Nentres occupied it with an ego rivaling the size of his house. Yes, well, he could have an ego when he was that hot, but still, some humility wouldn’t hurt him.

I touched the place on my neck where he’d bitten me. Thankfully, his teeth hadn’t left a mark. While writing out those invitations, I’d felt like some sort of marked property, which only solidified my resolve. I needed this ball over and done with so I could find transport that would take me to my cousins. In Pittsburgh, I would get a job and carve out my own path instead of having Stepmom carve it out for me.

I rubbed my hands, feeling a bit cold, and walked to the fireplace. The flames rose higher. I stepped back. Nentres must have some sort of tech in the house to keep the house and the adjacent homes warm, or people would freeze to death in the winter months. The Cy parts on the cyborgs kept them warm, and the habitat’s temperature regulation kept the humans inside warm, but outlaws didn’t have those resources, and the Ice Age winter approached.

In October, New Orleans’s average daily temperature was in the fifties, compared to its pre–Ice Age temperatures in the low seventies. At night, midthirties was a blessing.

I rounded the fireplace and found myself inside the bathroom. The tub alone could fit five people. I stood there thinking I’d lived all my life in luxury inside the habitat. Not. This badass tub was luxury, its cream rustic tile a perfect match for the antique mirror hanging above the sink.

A clear bottle with pale pink liquid stood in the corner of the tub. I picked it up, opened the container, and sniffed. Rose-scented liquid. I threw some inside the tub, plugged the drain, and twisted the faucet. Hot water poured over the liquid, making it bubble up. I stripped and got in, then leaned my head back and watched the fire rise from the torches at the gate through a large window overlooking the front lawn.

Beyond the mansion, darkness settled over New Orleans, or, as Nentres called it, Nawlins, and I imagined only the habitat shone bright in an otherwise unlit city. My dad had grown up here and had told me stories about the nightlife, often saying how New Orleans held a special flair and was unlike any other city in the States. His family lived in the poor parts, and he’d gotten into trouble quite a bit in his youth until he met my mom and, in spite of his parents’ protests, followed her back to her hometown in New Jersey, where they faced Mom’s parents’ protests. My mom was white and my dad was black. My paternal and maternal grandparents had never met one another or approved of my parents’ union, or me, and their refusal to accept the union led to my parents’ late marriage.

I turned the ring on my finger, the one Mom had inherited from the grandma I’d never met. Nentres seemed interested in it, and I was surprised he hadn’t pressed me to hand it over as a part of Stepmom’s bribe. He could still ask me for it anytime he wished, though why he’d want it when he had all this was beyond me. It was a simple gold band with an amber stone, not even a diamond, but for all I knew, this ring could be worth a lot more than what met the eye.

I still wondered how Nentres got all this wealth when the entire world outside the habitats suffered. Stealing family heirlooms and selling them couldn’t buy him everything I saw around here. Poker games? I didn’t believe that. How much poker did he play, and how much did he bet? With whom? Cyborgs, perhaps. Nobody else had this much wealth.

Not that it mattered to my circumstances, other than that I depended on him to keep a roof over my head. I hated having to depend on anyone, but I couldn’t do anything about it, and with the winter coming, I needed something permanent ASAP. The only thing I could hope for was that I would learn how to live an outlaw life from the people around me, even if they didn’t appear to live a typical outlaw life. I needed to learn how to get around the country on my own, become street-smart, as my daddy would call it. An outlaw like Nentres would know quite a bit about street smarts.

I dunked my head under the water and emerged to find Nentres in the bathroom. “Oh,” I said and covered my breasts, pulling up my knees. “Do you mind?”

“Not at all.” He hooked both hands behind his head and pulled off his T-shirt. He let me peruse his glorious body, where every abdominal muscle was clearly defined. It was amazing to see a human man’s body without any metal parts. His self-centered persona clearly loved attention, and he appeared unapologetic about his ego. I might’ve licked my lips.

Nentres bent and dropped his gray sweatpants, then kicked them in the corner. I forced my gaze to stay locked with his blue eyes while he stepped inside the warm bath with a sigh. He got comfortable, even spread his arms along the sides and sprawled. I refused to look past his neck while contemplating what to do.

I couldn’t get out because I was naked. I couldn’t kick him out either. But I could try. “I’m naked,” I said.

“I’ve noticed.”

“What…like, what the fuck?”

He smirked. “Fucking is on my mind, believe me.”

“It’s not on mine!” I screeched.

“I know. Relax. A rub?”

“No, no rub.”

“Shampoo?” He offered me a bottle. None of the bottles were labeled, so I had no idea what was in any of them. I extended my hand, but he jerked the bottle back, a playful smirk on his face. “Turn around.”

“Why?”

“I’ll wash your hair.”

“I have hands.” I lifted them, wiggled my fingers.

“I could restrain them, if you want.”

Silence stretched between us until Nentres shook the bottle, indicating he wouldn’t give up and I’d leave the tub with dirty hair.

I could rebel, or I could get a rub. I gave him my back and knelt on the seat inside the tub, making sure to give him the kinky-hair spiel and tell him that I needed loads of conditioner or it would knot. He listened and started with the shampoo. Cold liquid touched my hair, then Nentres’s fingers rubbed the shampoo in, starting from the top and working their way to my temples, where he paused for a massage. I suppressed a moan but couldn’t help the way my head tilted back. The back of my head touched his torso, and I jerked up, but he stopped me. “Relax. I don’t mind. Open your eyes.”

Damn. I hadn’t even realized they’d closed. When I opened them, blue eyes from above locked with mine.

“Usually,” he said and continued with the scalp massage, “when a man walks in on a naked woman, she screams bloody murder unless she wants him to see her naked. I’m gonna take your reaction as the latter.”

“Don’t. You misunderstand.”

“How so?”

“I can’t physically throw you out.”

“Damn right.”

“And I can’t ask you to leave.”

“Why not?”

“It’s your house. I’m here on a loan.”

Briefly, he looked out the window, then back at me. “Can I borrow your body?”

“Are you asking me to sleep with you?”

“Not yet. Maybe I’ll ask you tomorrow.”

“I’m surprised you asked.” I spun around and dunked under the water to wash out my hair. When I came up, Nentres hovered over me, one hand resting on the tile near my head. Water dripped down his torso, and I had this inexplicable urge to lick it. I didn’t lick him, but I did touch his chest. Under my palm, his skin burned. It was a miracle the water droplets hadn’t already dried. “You’re hot,” I told him.

“I know.” On his knees, he inched toward me, and I spread my legs to let him come between them. Nentres took my wrists and held them apart, his eyes on my breasts. “B cup.”

“A full B cup,” I corrected.

“Do you mind if I touch them?”

I shook my head.

One hand left my wrists and palmed my left breast. A thumb rubbed over my nipple. I pinched my lips so as not to whimper. The fingers of his other hand traveled up my arm, over my shoulder, and cupped my other breast. This one, he lifted, then bent his head and licked my nipple.

I parted my lips. A mistake, because a whimper escaped. I didn’t want to feed his ego. Nentres was a hard man to resist, and I couldn’t come up with a good reason to resist him. He was handsome and single. I was single. He would pick a bride this coming Saturday and free me from my duties. I didn’t care that he’d pick another bride, because I hadn’t come here for commitment.

Nentres had come in here and washed my hair, made sure I was nice and comfortable, which told me he could be attentive. He’d likely be an attentive lover, the kind of man who made sure I came first or at least twice as many times as him. I could fall head over heels in love with him, but having known the loss of both parents, I avoided getting attached at all costs. I would rather go through my life never knowing love than have to live without my other half.

My dad had tried replacing my mom with Stepmother. When it didn’t work out as well as he’d hoped, he’d ended up replacing Mom with alcohol, which killed both his sorrows and him. Late one night, he’d driven into a high-rise and died on the spot. Nobody said anything about alcohol, but we all knew he’d been drunk that night. He’d been drunk every night for the past four years.

I closed my eyes and let the outlaw kiss me. His lips burned mine, and the heat of them made me want to pull away. I tried retreating, but Nentres’s palm rested on the small of my back and pulled me closer while his tongue sought mine. I hooked my hands around his neck and kissed him back, enjoying his clever fingers working my nipple, then traveling lower to rub my entrance.

“You’re wet,” he said at my lips.

“You make me wet,” I told him.

“You confuse me.”

“Not on purpose.”

“You don’t seem attracted to me.”

“I am. But it doesn’t mean I want to marry you.”

His eyebrows drew down, and he lifted his head. “A fling? You want a fling?”

I shrugged. “Sure.”

Nentres gave me a hard stare. I wanted to look away but couldn’t, as if he held some sort of power over me. Two fingers entered me, and I gasped, tightening my grip on his shoulders. He worked his thumb over my clit, and I hitched breaths with every stroke. He pressed a hand onto my chest and pushed me back so I leaned my head on the back of the tub, never taking my eyes from his.

My arousal built and built, and when Nentres put a hand over my throat and squeezed, my walls fluttered, my belly tightened, and I came still trying to gasp for air.

Nentres released my throat, and I swore by all things holy, I saw a flame ignite in his eyes. My limbs relaxed, and Nentres sat back on the other end of the tub. He licked his fingers.

Had I imagined what I’d seen in his eyes? Sure. I chuckled.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked.

“That you made me see stars.” Or flames, for that matter, but I didn’t want to make this awkward moment any weirder.

He showed me his dimples when he smiled. “I can fly you to the stars.”

“Your ego has wings?”

“Something like that.”

I shook my head. “I don’t mind flings.”

Nentres snorted. “Of all the women I have ever wanted to say that very thing, it had to be you.”

I shrugged. Karma.