Unintentional Obsession

by Stone, Layla

  “I’m not yours. I’m not a product.”

  “No, you’re not. But this is done. We are mated because you knew what you were getting into. You didn’t stop it. You said yes.”

  At that, Nara looked back at him. He was currently cleaning her sex, and she almost thanked him for that—her gag reflex definitely did—but she needed to say something first. “I’m trying to be nice. You barely know me. You could hate me in a few hours.”

  Shine threw the wadded-up cloth over to the corner and replied, “I know that I hated myself the second you left after I ignored you. I know that I want to take care of you, protect you, and be with you. Even after you ruined my hair.” He rubbed his shaved head that had a half inch of dark stubble. “I also know that you saved my life, even though we didn’t leave on good terms. I think that says all I need to know.”

  Nara made a sound in the back of her throat. “You’re serious.”

  “I am.” He sat back down, put a hand behind her neck, and pulled her head towards his. His voice softened a little. “Three things I like about you today: You’re beautiful, and your body is sexy as hell. Your attitude makes me crazy, but I think I like it. And, lastly, I’m sorry for what I said when you left last time. I want you in my home, and I need you around.”

  Her entire mind melted, and she couldn’t speak. Leaning into him, she kissed him so hard that she rolled Shine onto his back. She needed to order clothes and get started on her own experiments, but her body was obsessed. The need to keep him close overrode her priorities.

  In between kisses, she said, “Again.”

  “Anything you want, I can give.”

  It didn’t take long before his sex filled back up, getting wider, longer. She rubbed the firm flesh between her lower lips and rode him until she’d finished herself. Then she lifted onto her knees, and Shine lined himself up.

  Lowering back down, she let her head fall back. Centered. She felt Shine’s hands on her hips, rubbing as she moved on top. The double sensation made her come quickly. Then he did it again. This time, she screamed.

  Thrashing on top, she was desperate to finish him, but he assaulted her body with pleasure. She couldn’t keep moving; it felt too good. He flipped them over and took himself home as she watched.

  This time when they finished, she held him, thinking that if it were possible, she’d do this forever.

  21

  Talk Facts, Not Feelings

  Shine was inside the lab, cleaning up the mess he’d made with his experiment and his blood. Nara had followed him in, but when she saw the gore, she’d turned her head, walked to the far side of the room, and picked up his Minky pad from the table, giving him her back. He didn’t take it personally because he knew she had a delicate constitution.

  What he found most amusing was that, aside from that, she had a drive that matched his. They had only rested for a few hours throughout the night. It was before zero degrees when Nara had told him that she needed to use his lab.

  No matter how tired he was, he was not going to miss the opportunity to see Nara in his space. So, he’d pulled her up and walked her to the shower. Now, they were clean, dressed, and he was rushing to make the workspace perfect. Because again, he was hosting a Numan in his lab.

  His excitement was hampered by a circling thought, however. Nara didn’t think they were going to last.

  He needed to find a way to convince her to stay with him. Except he didn’t know what to say to make her stay. Other than his apartment, his lab, and his secure routine, he didn’t have much to offer her.

  Before her, he’d thought he had it all. That any female would fight to be with him. Now…not so much.

  Shine bent down and picked up the multi-duro cleaner that had beeped. It needed to be emptied. He walked the flat, round object out, and dumped the contents. All the blood that had been picked up was dry and looked like dark purple flecks. Once the multi-duro was empty, he set it down and let it continue cleaning the floor.

  Nara turned around and clapped her hands. “My supplies are here, and I ordered us food that should last the rest of the day.”

  “What supplies?”

  She smiled. “You’ll see.”

  His hand waved at the wall. “I have hundreds of supplies here. What kind of stuff did you need that I don’t have?”

  Nara pulled back her hair and tied it in a messy knot as she walked past him towards the door. “I saw your chemistry set. I’m talking real supplies.”

  Shine’s scowled at the remark. He didn’t have a youth’s chemistry set, he had a fully functional lab.

  Following the Numan out the door and down the hall, he couldn’t wait to get a look at her order. He fiendishly hoped that he could find some reason to make fun of it, too. As he got closer to the door, he noticed that it was ajar. He also noticed a dark burn spot on the side. By the time Nara opened it, he saw that the lock had been cut. His door wasn’t secure, and his alarm had been off. All night! Anyone could have gotten in. Anyone could have taken his supplies or tried to kill him. And Nara hadn’t mentioned a word of it.

  Nara tapped the door. “I already ordered a replacement. You’re welcome.”

  There was so much wrong with that statement. “I would have been happier had you told me the lab wasn’t secure. That way, I could have installed a new door last night instead of keeping it open for anyone to just walk in and help themselves.” It also bothered him that she made it sound as if he needed to be grateful for her buying him a replacement door. “Also, I can pay for my own door. I’m not poor, Nara.”

  “I didn’t say you were.”

  “But you sure like making comments to remind me that you have more money than I do. Saying that my lab is like a chemistry set and rubbing it in with how much you spent on my apartment.”

  Pointing to the pods, she said, “We can talk about your feelings after we get these inside.”

  “I’m not talking about my feelings. I’m talking about facts!”

  To that, she whipped around and said, “Okay, here are the facts of the situation. I have more money than you. I work on a bigger scale than you do because my design business is huge. I’ve designed entire cities, buildings from the ground up. I do things that your little lab can’t support. But that’s not a slight against you. I’m sorry your feelings were hurt when I said your lab was a chemistry set. It’s just that it’s a quarter of the size of mine. To me, you live simplistically. Again, it’s not a put-down, it’s just how I see it.”

  Shine couldn’t imagine what it would be like to design an entire city. If what she said was true, and he was sure it was, then he really was simple. It was something he couldn’t fully grasp. She was on a level that he didn’t even know existed.

  Shine felt something that he’d never felt before. Inadequate.

  “Now, tell me you still feel the same about me as you did last night. That I’m still a forever mate,” Nara said with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

  “Of course, I do… still feel the same.” Even to him, that sounded awful. But he was in an odd place. His life perceptions were being challenged. He needed time alone in his head to work through the concept of what Nara’s life was like. “You can go back to the lab. I’ll bring these to you.”

  He reached down and opened the first of many pods and lifted out the contents. It was a large tube with white flakes. It was heavy but not to the point that he couldn’t carry it. As he walked the tub in, he tried to imagine the types of things a person would need to design an entire city. How was that even possible? How large was it? How many people? So many questions streamlined into a mental box labeled, I don’t know.

  He placed the tub on the back table in the lab and walked back out. Nara stopped him. “What’s going on in your head? You’re either upset or thinking too hard.”

  He couldn’t keep his questions in his mind. He had to understand. “I don’t understand how you can design an entire city. Did you build it? Or just draw up the concept? And if you built it, how big was it?
What planet was it on?”

  When he finished, she said, “It was a moon city. The population was…mid-five figures. I designed the concept and then hired the builders and spent eighteen months on that project, getting it ready for the inhabitants.”

  She’d built an entire city.

  It was too much. “Three years is a long time.” It was a throw-away comment, but he had no idea what to say to what she’d revealed. All he’d ever done was create specialized bullets. It was nothing compared to what she’d done.

  “You still have that look on your face.”

  “Just thinking.”

  “About what?”

  Shine didn’t like having to share intimate details of his life or his private thoughts. “Are you going to let me get the rest of the stuff, or did you not want my help?”

  “Answer my question.” She touched his chest.

  It was hard to keep from knocking her hand away. “No, because there’s nothing to say.”

  “Your face looks like there is something to say.”

  “You don’t speak for my face,” Shine said with a frown.

  Standing aside, she let him pass. Before he was out of the lab door, she told him, “You’re going to tell me eventually.”

  Shine didn’t respond. Walking back down the hall, he thought about the size of his warehouse, which was bigger than his last. He realized that he couldn’t compete with her. Once he was outside, he opened another pod and brought the contents inside. This time, Nara didn’t stop him, she just glanced at the tub and continued looking at the Minky pad.

  He made several trips back and forth. He left the food for last so it would still be fresh. When everything was inside, he tried to guess at what she was going to make. Nara had a few beakers on the table and was mixing colors—four glass containers in various shades of brown and peach.

  “What do you plan on making?” he asked.

  “Powder polymer. I need to be able to coordinate the colors when I get back to Karr’s lab.”

  A sly smile ticked up the sides of his lips. “Do you want help?”

  At that moment, Nara looked up with her thick goggles. “I don’t say this to be mean, Shine, but you almost died.” Dropping the mixing stick back into the beaker, she added, “You obviously have some flawed lab practices. I, on the other hand, have strict lab rules because I value my life.”

  Another hit to Shine’s ego. Having her in his lab, talking down about him was getting harder to ignore. “I know what I’m doing in a lab. I’ve created more than a paint replacement.”

  Nara paused. “Did you just call my powder polymer a paint replacement?” Her eyes narrowed, and he braced for her comeback.

  She walked over to the Minky screen and pulled up his search history. Then she opened the equation he’d hypothesized for the powder polymer. After she’d pulled it up, he knew that she knew what he had been doing in the lab.

  Keeping his shoulders back, he waited, expecting the worst.

  Nara pointed at the screen. “Degrading my work because you can’t figure it out makes you look like a corbi. The fact that you didn’t bother to ask me how I did it means you either didn’t believe it could be done and were trying to discredit me, or you believed it and wanted to find out how.” She dropped her hand with a look of disappointment that shot right into his gut. “Most Numans can’t stand each other. They need to know who’s smarter. Who’s got the best science. The soulless bastards will stop at nothing to be the best. And here I am with another scientist who’s got the same Numan compulsion. And he’s trying to make himself sound smarter. And yet, not more than a few hours ago, it was all…we’re forever.”

  That last part stung. Nara was throwing their mating in his face, and he was not going to let her shame him for feeling what he did. “You’re right. I did try and figure it out because I didn’t think you were that smart. And I did say what I said because it pisses me off that I can’t figure it out. You want to keep throwing what I said about mating back in my face, go ahead. But it won’t change how I feel or what we are.”

  With a straight face, she walked until her chest almost brushed his, then looked up and said, “This’d better be the last time you go behind my back with the purpose of demonstrating that I’m not as smart as you.”

  That, he could agree to. Because she was smarter than he was, and he knew it. But he wouldn’t be a scientist if he didn’t try to be a part of the experiment. “I’ll agree to never do that again if you let me help.”

  “Instead, how about you stand around and watch me while you imagine what we are going to do when I’m done.” She got up and came closer, brushing a kiss over his lips. “And when I’m done, we’re doing it in the lab. And just so you know, mating is off the table. You want me, you marry me, Terran-style. As in a big-ass wedding that no one will ever be able to top.”

  Shine could not help the smile that grew on his face. Nara was a female like no other. And damn it if he didn’t soften towards her even more. “You want a wedding? I guess that means I’d better get you a ring.”

  Pushing herself up, she kissed him quickly and returned to the supplies. “I know a guy.”

  So did he.

  Pointing at the tube, he said, “So, what’s in the tubes?” Out of all of his experiments, he couldn’t figure out what her base was.

  “Acetone flakes.”

  So simple, and yet he didn’t think about that. Nara laughed, and he assumed it was because of his facial expression. Looking her over, he realized he’d never thought to have a wife. But now, he didn’t care if she wanted him to buy her a planet. He would figure it out, without letting her help pay for it.

  Walking behind his table, she smiled at him. The blinding one that he’d fallen in love with the first time he saw it.

  22

  Numan at Work

  Nara’s skin tingled with excitement as Shine pulled himself up onto a metal table, taking in her supplies and equipment. She could practically feel him from the other side of the room. She was buzzing inside, extra invested in what she was about to show him. Numans didn’t share science. If someone could duplicate your work, then you weren’t very good.

  When she caught Shine’s equation for the powder polymer after she’d ordered her supplies, it’d brought back so many memories from her youth. She’d also noticed that he’d gotten close to figuring it out. Too close.

  Shaking her head from remembrances of the past, she focused on the present. On making several hundred batches of powder polymer. Reaching into the tub, she tapped the top. “All right, class, today we’re going to learn how to make powder polymer.”

  First, she had to alter the polymer so that it could adhere to flesh. Thankfully, she had thrown a blue party years ago and already knew the right sequence to make the flakes attract to the dermis.

  During the first part, Shine had a lot of questions. She explained them as she progressed. At one point, he moved off the table, drawn to the metamorphosis of the flakes. “Can I take one to see it under the microscope?”

  “I guess since you have been a very attentive student.”

  Shine didn’t play with her. Instead, he moved to the other side of the lab in quick strides and grabbed gloves, tweezers, and goggles before returning. With the tweezers, he lifted a single flake and pressed it between two glass slides. Pushing them under the lens, he leaned down and squinted. His hands moved up to the dials to focus the scope. Watching Shine in his element was the sexiest thing Nara had ever seen.

  When Shine pulled back, she had to quickly compose herself and drop the contented smile she wore.

  “Is that a nanite?”

  “Almost. It’s a chemical magnet of sorts. That’s what gets it to adhere to different types of surfaces.”

  Shine took that in, but she could tell that he was wrestling with the idea of programmable magnets. So, she walked him over to the Minky screen and drew out the equation. Each step took about five minutes to write, and triple that time to explain, but that didn’t
bother her because Shine excitedly soaked up each word.

  At one point, she was sure that he had forgotten she was standing there. His eyes were focused on the screen, his lips moving along with a finger drawing something in the air. To his credit, when he came back to her, he said, “That’s phenomenal.”

  The words were declared so sincerely that she actually felt a blush stain her cheeks. “Thank you.”

  “No, I’m serious. I’ve never even considered what you did.”

  Nara could have told him that that’s what made Numans superior, but it would have ruined the moment. And she honestly didn’t want to cut Shine down. He was smart, and he got what she said the second she said it. The only thing that kept him back was his imagination. He was stuck in a box of relative rules.

  Rules that never contained her.

  “I’m sure if I gave you enough time, you would have figured it out. You’re smart, Shine.”

  Shine stood still as if the words had penetrated shockingly deep. Nara hoped that he took them as a compliment and not something mean. But at that moment, she didn’t know for sure. Concerned and needing to clarify, she added, “It’s been a long time since I could talk to someone about my science. Most people I contract with don’t understand a quarter of what I do. You, on the other hand, understand everything. I don’t know where you learned everything, but your teacher did a good job.”

  Shine’s throat moved. His voice was deeper and raspy when he said, “I was my own teacher.”

  It was Nara’s turn to be stunned. His own teacher? How could someone be at her level and yet be self-taught? All of a sudden, her vision of him changed. He wasn’t just a fabulously sexy male with intelligence. Shine was a disturbingly brilliant prodigy.

  Her focus was divided from that moment on. She had to finish programming and packaging the flakes, that came first. But she couldn’t wait to have all of Shine’s brilliant attention on her body. It was like she needed to be connected to everything he was. Everything that made him a rare phenomenon.