Perfect Gravity (Wanted and Wired #2)(32)
“Well, this is the suxors.” Chloe’s disembodied voice, in Angela’s head. Wait. Chloe? But yes, definitely her. “Heads up, you two. We’re about to have company.”
The warning came maybe half a second before the wall against Angela’s ass began to move, and she didn’t have time to worry about Chloe possibly having just voyeured this entire reunion.
No, not the wall. The elevator doors. Which she had backed herself against. Damn it. She had forgotten. She lurched forward, away from the sliding doors and smack into Kellen. Obdurate body—not even a hint of softness there, all planes and angles—colliding with hers like tectonic plates, volcanic at the seams, and then he was holding her, and her arms were reaching around to clasp his thick-muscled back. She could feel every contour beneath his threadbare cotton shirt, and the miasma of leather and soap and pure, sun-kissed man stroked her senses.
The door was wide open behind her, but she didn’t give enough fucks to look. All her attention was centered right here.
“I can’t tell you how relieved I am to find you.” Dan-Dan. Except not. Can’t rather than cannot. It was Daniel now, or some weird amalgamation of the two, almost like they were fighting for dominance in his skin shell. “Did you have a nice shower?”
The differences in voice and movement were subtle, but they caught and snagged on Angela’s perception, icing her veins. The salacious thoughts she’d been entertaining whimpered and retreated.
She turned her face against Kellen’s chest and peered sidelong at her mech-clone, looking for facial echoes of the sarcasm that drenched his words. There wasn’t any. It was always weird when he played Daniel: the intonations were full of butter and snark, but inside, she had to remind herself he had no motivations, no desires or psychoses. Inside, he was just a machine. Predictable. Safe.
So why did her body react this way, cringing away from him? Surely she was too evolved to judge somebody based purely on how they looked, even if that somebody was just a robot.
She must have stiffened or something, because Kellen pulled her closer. And Angela, who before today hadn’t touched another human in more than a year and hadn’t endured a gentle touch in some while longer, wasn’t sure what to do with this sudden sensory overload. She was drowning in him and didn’t want to stop. All her other thoughts muddled and sloughed.
Touch. Human touch, skin to skin, body to body, warmth merging with its like. Combustion hovering just on the edge, so close. She remembered what it felt like, that explosion. It was elemental and beautiful and overwhelming and warm and past and future and keening and clawing and want. So very, very want.
She ought to step away, especially now others could see. She ought to get herself under control. She ought to behave like the intimidating persona she projected to the world. Like a war minister.
Instead, she clung. Just for a few more seconds. It felt too fucking good.
Chloe fizzed into visibility just beyond Daniel, and they both stepped out into the barnyard area, leaving Angela and Kellen tucked still in shadow. Kellen tensed in response, but Angela couldn’t see his face, just the scruffy chin near the top of her head.
“This is dangerous, what you’re doing, Chloe-girl,” he said.
“Back atcha.” The nanorobotic intelligence raised her eyebrows higher than a real person physically could. The effect was comic, almost cartoonish. Her form blurred on the edges where it met sunlight, but she was grinning like a cat in cream.
“I’m serious. Told you before, if the wrong eyes see you…”
Chloe cut him off with a huff. “Fine. I will go back to the plane. Real soon now. But somebody needed to show Angela around, and nobody down here was doing their job.”
Kellen sighed heavily. “Do you even know who this is?”
“Oh sure, she’s Angela. She’s your—”
“Senator Neko.”
“Yup.” Chloe nodded her not-there head vigorously.
“Of the government that has outlawed your very existence.”
Short pause. Chloe might have wanted to say something but held back. On her holographic face, though, it was hard to guess her thoughts.
“You see now why I told you to stay away?” Kellen went on. “Why Heron had Angela confined to her quarters, at least until we could figure out our next steps?”
“I am always away,” Chloe said in a barely audible voice.
Angela turned, and Kellen loosened his hold of her as if she’d asked it of him. She hadn’t. The loss of contact hurt, physically hurt, but she did need to pull herself together, if not for her own dignity, then at least as reassurance for Chloe. She took a step away from Kellen and smoothed her skirt.
“You don’t need to worry, Chloe,” said Angela. “Even after I leave here, I won’t report you. Promise. And Dan-Dan won’t either.”
Another legally iffy complication. She was getting downright mired in those things, but she didn’t see a good wiggle around this one. The last thing she wanted was for Chloe to go rogue, run away from the people who were keeping her hidden, keeping her out of trouble. A self-recursive AI would be infinitely more dangerous on its own, learning ethics based on trial and error. At least somebody like Kellen could train her. Like that vicu?a.
Chloe’s grin suddenly widened unnaturally, and her eyes sparkled. Literally. Particle effect?