Winter (Hero Society Book 5)

by Jessica Florence

  “I made something for you,” I told him, nerves back again, this time it was because I hoped I didn’t do anything wrong in making this gift.

  “Seriously?” he asked, and I nodded, handing it over to him.

  “Hey there, Pops, Cora.” He addressed my companions, and Cora simply lifted her head in acknowledgment. She was still a little pissy being around him after he’d dropped water on her. Pops, however, wanted me to be around Arthur more, highly approving of him and the strides I was taking to put myself out there since I’d met him.

  He set it down on the ground and lifted the top flaps.

  “You build me a robot?” His face held no sort of emotion I could analyze, so I had no clue how he felt.

  “Yeah. Um. This is Theodore—I’ve been calling him Teddy. Think of him like your own personal maid. He’s programmed to help organize and clean up. So you can focus on art and have a nice space. He works really well.”

  I’d tested him over and over, and he was pretty spectacular. I wasn’t one to leave messes, so I didn’t need one, but if I did, I would have one like him too.

  Waiting to see what he thought as he inspected Teddy was so hard.

  Then he started laughing—like a deep belly laugh. My cheeks heated up, feeling embarrassed. I shouldn’t have assumed he would like this, just because I would have.

  “You built me an OCD robot to help with my hoarder habits. This is fantastic!”

  Instantly I felt relieved. He liked it.

  “Well, he won’t have too much to do tonight. I spent all day organizing, so you could come inside without having a heart attack.” He picked up Teddy and opened the door for us to come inside.

  He had been a busy man. Not only did he save those people last night, but then came home and made this place as immaculate as he could.

  “You did this for me?”

  Oh yeah, I was feeling a variety of emotions right now, many of which I couldn’t identify or even single out.

  “Couldn’t have you stand out in the winter air the whole time when you came to visit me.” He smiled and set Teddy down on the floor. Instantly Teddy booted up to life and started scanning his surroundings. He was nothing like the simple robot vacuums people had in their homes now. He was like Cora and Pops, a free thinker. He could move and do as he wished. But his directive was cleaning and organizing, so that’s what he would do. His purpose.

  “Thank you.”

  He’d done so much for me, and I wanted to thank him for it, something beyond words. I just didn’t know how.

  Stepping outside my comfort zone, I walked over to him, watching his body freeze at my approach, maybe scared to move and frighten me off. I appreciated that too.

  I leaned up onto the tips of my boots and pressed my lips against his lightly stubbled cheek.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Arthur

  The urge to turn my head and connect my lips with hers was overwhelmingly powerful.

  I wanted nothing more than to have her body against mine, to feel her soft white hair between my fingers, those hands roaming against my chest, exploring me. God, she was pure perfection.

  Her cheek kiss only lasted a few seconds, but the memory would stay with me even in my grave. I’d be dead one day with her kiss tattooed on my skin.

  But that would have to wait. All of it. I had no clue what Gwendolyn’s past held when it came to relationships with people, but if I were to guess, I would assume she didn’t have much experience.

  I looked her up online, like the apparent stalker I was, to see if she was on social media. She wasn’t, but there were many articles written about her genius, the top innovator of robotics in the world. She’d been to many formal events for her work with Griffin Enterprises, but always alone, that look of indifference on her face. Cold and calculating, which earned her the nickname of “human robot of Seahill.” If one didn’t know her, they would think she was a bitch who looked down at everyone. But the truth was so far from that.

  The whole ride in her car to the festival was quiet. Both of us were processing something—I had no clue what she was thinking. But me? I was trying to think of what I could do to win her heart, since she had stolen mine.

  Gwendolyn was different, in a good and unique way. But the typical showering her with gifts and affection wouldn’t work. I needed to think more specific. Having cleaned my place for her wasn’t something I thought would have earned a kiss on the cheek from someone who was uncomfortable with touching another. But it obviously was meaningful to her.

  Thankfully the storm had come and gone quickly, so the winter festival wouldn’t be delayed. I’d already dropped off the photo stands earlier, so Gwendolyn and I were able to just find a parking spot at the small fairgrounds and walk to the event.

  She looked nervous as we neared the bright lights and music, no doubt worrying if she would be okay in this type of atmosphere. I wasn’t worried, though; something told me that she would really enjoy the night. And by something, I mean Phillip, who told me to take her.

  My sight fell upon her tensed hand that was staying close to her body. I wondered if touch would help ease her mind.

  I reached out to gently caress my hand against hers, in hopes that she would grab on, but a metal tail smacked my hand away from hers.

  Instantly my eyes moved up to the dragon perched on her shoulder, who was giving me a dark look.

  Hand-holder defense mechanism. I’d have to win that dragon back over onto my side somehow. Pops was on my team, but Cora wasn’t sold yet. Neither was Gwendolyn, if I was being honest. I could tell she liked me, but I could also tell that she could move on quickly if things went south.

  “Anything you wanna do first?” I looked at her after paying for our tickets.

  “I’m not sure, I’ve never had good luck at these types of events.” She shrugged and started moving with the crowd through the gates.

  “Well then, allow me to guide you in the ways of the winter festival.” I lifted my arm up for her to place her hand on, but the gesture was not one she knew what to do with. She simply looked at me with what I thought was hope in her eyes and waited.

  Epic failure at touching number two.

  Lowering my arm, I gestured to the aisle of fair food. Corn dogs, funnel cakes…even candy apples made to look like snowballs.

  “Fried Oreos?” Her face was scrunched up in confusion, but the thought of fried Oreos had my mouth watering.

  “You say it like that because you’ve never tried it. Now we’ve gotta get them,” I teased, and she simply went along with me buying them.

  Safe to say, Gwendolyn loved sweets, and the Oreos were a hit.

  We walked around, eating junk food and talking about her work, specifically her latest project. Cozy robots. I thought it was a brilliant idea, and the fact that she wanted Phillip to give them out for free said a lot about her character. She was good through and through, as I already knew. This only confirmed it more.

  “Do you wanna ride one of the rides?” I asked, pointing to the few they had for adults. Nothing extravagant, just a few little spinning types of rides.

  “I don’t think so. I might do something to the structure if I got too nervous or scared.”

  Oh. Good point.

  “No worries. We can go play those games we saw back that way.” I smiled, hoping to keep the party going between us. She nodded, and we walked along the row of carnival games.

  “I’m not playing the game where you shoot water; I bet you’d cheat.” That almost grin appeared, and I had to fight back a laugh.

  “Are you teasing me?” She totally was. Hah! Gwendolyn was messing with me!

  “Maybe.” That almost smile grew wider, and my feet stopped moving.

  My brain stopped firing, and my heart stopped beating.

  That smile. All I could do was stare.

  “What?” She stopped walking and looked at me.

  My feet were moving, my brain was firing all signals, and my heart was beating faster than
before.

  Her eyes looked wild and surprised as I placed my hands gently on her cheeks and descended my lips on hers.

  My muse, my love, my beauty in a world of gray.

  “Now, that’s a kiss.”

  Our kiss was cut short by Pops’s narration.

  “Sorry.” He realized his mistake as soon as she pulled back to look at my face.

  Would she regret the kiss? Was touching lips not okay on some level to her?

  “You are amazing,” I told her and watched as her gaze moved from my eyes, down to my lips, then back up.

  “I wanna do that again.”

  I’ve died again, and this time there was no coming back. I was simply in heaven and staying there forever.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Gwendolyn

  He kissed me again, and the feelings curled my toes inside my boots. I wanted to run my fingers through his messy hair and then continue to feel all over his body. Over his shirt, then under.

  So, I did.

  He groaned into my mouth, and I felt a frenzy stir inside me. I wanted more. Needed more. My skin felt hot even though it was cold outside, and my breaths sounded more like pants as his teeth nipped at my lower lip. I opened for him, and then our tongues were dancing together.

  I’d never felt this way before. He melted me like aluminum melted under a torch.

  “I don’t know what I need. But I need more.” I moaned against him, being brutally honest. I’d never done this before. Men weren’t something I had given the time of day to before. They didn’t like me before I was a known robotics scientist, so why should they like me now?

  I didn’t care that we were surrounded by people as his hands moved down to hold onto my ass, lifting me up against him. He was leading this, and I was happy to follow him until we became cinders after the flame.

  “Gwendolyn, wake up.”

  I pulled back to look at his face in confusion.

  “What?”

  “Wake up,” he spoke, and I couldn’t for the life of me understand what was happening.

  “No, I wanna go back to sleep,” I groaned, pulling the comforter over my head in hiding, hoping I could go back to my dream with Arthur.

  “You wanted to get up early this morning for some yoga, and to work on your cozy robots for Phillip.” I pulled my cover back just enough so I could see Pops, who was sitting on my nightstand with a cup of coffee waiting for me.

  He was right. I did want to get up early and get to work. I promised I would have robots ready for trial, and I needed to finish them up for that.

  “What were you dreaming about?”

  “Arthur,” I answered, as I rolled out of bed and took a sip of the coffee waiting for me.

  “That’s good. Means he’s on your brain.”

  Of course he was—after the kiss he gave me last night, how could I not think about him? I wanted to kiss him more, and maybe even do all the things in the dream. But last night screams had interrupted the sexual haze that surrounded us—a ten-year-old boy had a severe asthma attack. The paramedics were close by and were there immediately to help him.

  There was nothing we could have done to help him.

  After that we walked around some more before calling it a night.

  Arthur was sweet as he thanked me again for Teddy, and gave me a kiss in the car before saying goodbye.

  I appreciated that he wasn’t pushing for more contact with me. I needed to figure out what I was okay with him, and that would require experiments.

  “I like him a lot.” I changed into something stretchy and snug for yoga and walked over to Cora on her station to give her head a little rub.

  “He likes you a lot, too. It’s good seeing you with a boyfriend and happy. He is doing everything he is supposed to, based on the data I downloaded on courting. He also shows no symptoms of mental illness or physical ailments either. Cora scanned him and told me. So, he won’t die on you, unless his work as a hero takes him. You two could live a long, happy life together if you chose each other.”

  I didn’t know what to say to all the things he said, so I stayed quiet and walked over to my section of the apartment for exercise. It was a nice area that had windows to the park below.

  “Will you go through the news today and see if anything interesting pops up?” Pops had been doing this lately—he plugged himself into the computer, and scanned through the news. Looking for things that pertained to me, and maybe something odd that might be a Hero Society type of job.

  So far, he’d found nothing, but it was a good habit to keep up with.

  My muscles needed the stretching, and the breathing techniques of yoga helped settle my otherwise chaotic mind.

  “Find anything good?” I grabbed a drink from the fridge and sat at my desk. Pops unplugged himself and nodded.

  “There was a photo of you, taken last night, on Seahill College’s robotics page. Of course, Cora and I were the highlight, as always.” If I’d given him lips so he could smile, he would have a big grin on his face. Pops loved the attention he got from others. I shook my head and drank some more water.

  “I checked in on that kid that had an asthma attack last night—no known cause. But there were five other people who came down with a cough from the festival too. Might be something going around, so use your hand sanitizer. There was also a statement released by Terratrex Corp this morning about their newest projects, continuously fruit-bearing trees, and companion robots.”

  I truly hope I didn’t just hear him correctly. The look on my face must have said what I was thinking, because Pops went into more detail.

  “They’re working on robots with the same traits as your cozy robots. They are projecting each one to cost around twelve hundred, and to be out in a month.”

  Glad I was sitting down for that. My passion project, the one I had been trying to make come to life and give to the people who needed it, was being stolen right from under my feet.

  “Those bastards. They don’t have the resources for that technology.” Even as I said it, I knew it was a lie. I may have brought artificial intelligence to life, but my patents and processes were documented. They could test it out and create their own version of mine. Would never be as perfect, but that didn’t matter to people like them. Terratrex was greedy. They tried to act like they were saving the world with their inventions, but most of the time it all backfired, and they would get off with a fine.

  They were also the top competitor with Griffin Enterprises. One cared about the earth and its inhabitants, the other just wanted to get as much out of the land and people as it could, not caring about the cost or casualties.

  “I need to talk to Phillip about this, see what he wants to do.”

  This wasn’t defeat yet, but I had a lot of work to do now. My focus had to be absolute if I wanted to come out on top and kick Terratrex’s corporate ass.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Arthur

  At first it was cute that Gwendolyn gave me a robot to help tidy up things around the warehouse.

  Then it was annoying. He would try to grab things to put away before I was even done with them.

  But now, now I have figured out how to beat the little asshole. I make messes on purpose, he’s obsessed with cleaning them, and I get peace.

  On the outside he was a little boxed creature, with a ball at his base that he moved on. He had arms and hands like ours, so he could grab things. He had two LED lights for eyes, which narrowed every time I created chaos for him. He mumbled a bit, not really speaking much. I didn’t know if that was because he couldn’t speak or just didn’t feel like it. He’d come with all sorts of gadgets, fully equipped to handle any mess I could throw at him. Gwendolyn really did a good job with him; most people would probably pay everything in their savings for a robot maid.

  He and I had gotten into a weird relationship over the past two days. We were content to just screw with each other as best as we could. He’d vacuum when I was trying to sleep, and I would splatter paint
here and there. It was working for now; he seemed to get antsy if there wasn’t anything to clean, and I liked to be left alone while I worked.

  Gwendolyn had called yesterday to tell me she was going to be busy with work, and that she would be in the zone, likely to not call or communicate until she was done. I got like that sometimes—I would just be so into my artwork that I forgot the world around me.

  But I needed to get out of the apartment and thought she could use a break forced upon her, so I grabbed some Chinese takeout and headed to Griffin Tower, the largest building on the island of Seahill.

  The directory was easy to read, and the security had my name on a list of people that were approved to enter the building. I was on the elevator in no time and on my way to greet my lady.

  People were staring at me from their cubicles as I walked toward the back office that housed the robot genius. They looked like little meerkats, popping up to study what I was doing, no doubt ready to gossip as soon as I knocked on Gwendolyn’s door.

  She answered after three knocks, and I heard the whispers behind me start.

  “Arthur? What are you doing here?” Her hair was tied up into a ponytail on her head, and she looked like she had been working out. Her cheeks were pink, and there was a light sheen of sweat on her face.

  I raised the bags and grinned.

  “I figured you hadn’t eaten, so I’m here to force you into a lunch date with me.”

  She eyed the bags, then her gaze moved to the people behind me.

  “Sure, come in.” She bit her lower lip nervously and opened the door wider.

  She didn’t have to tell me twice; I was in her office in seconds.

  “We can eat over here.” She gestured to a couch and table that was off to the side of her very large office. It had to be at least fifteen hundred square feet.

  There were tables everywhere, and lots of tools and equipment scattered about. But I will say she was organized about it. There seemed to be a station for everything, with labeled bins, and boxes holding everything she needed.