“Nahh, you’re a pain,” I said ironically. Surely, he knew I would miss him.
Moving my body closer, I kissed him gently. “Do you want to be with me one last time?”
To my surprise he hesitated and didn’t hungrily roll on top of me like he normally would have.
“Is that what you want?” he asked in a controlled voice.
Sucking his lower lip into my mouth and releasing it with a pop was my way of answering him affirmatively, but he still didn’t get into action. “Yes,” I clarified. “I want us to have one final night together.”
He didn’t say a word when we undressed, and the sex was very different than usual. More cold and mechanical, as if he was holding back. I tried to kiss him, but he kept the kisses short and would hardly look at me.
I didn’t come, and I learned that night that sex without an emotional connection is no better than being with a sex-bot. Or maybe even worse, because with a bot you have no expectation of anything beyond a physical release.
After we were done, Boulder turned his back to me and the quietness resumed. I had never felt so lonely in my life. He was right there next to me. I could reach out and touch him, but I didn’t. Emotionally he was closed off and maybe it was for the best. Tomorrow we would be strangers again. Strangers living different lives in different worlds. Strangers who shared memories, but nothing more. A colossal sense of loss overwhelmed me and I cried, pulling the cover over my head to drown the sound of my shaky breathing.
I needed to go home and curl up, and somehow make sense of all that had happened in my life these past six weeks.
Once I get home, my mind will clear up and I’ll be happy that I didn’t stay, I comforted myself.
CHAPTER 28
The Return
Christina
My roommate, Kya, was overly excited that I had returned. She kept hugging me and asking a million questions.
“You know I’m not allowed to speak about the Nmen,” I told her with a sad smile.
“You’d better,” she said. “I’m dying from curiosity.”
“Well, they’re big and strong like you’ve heard and they swear a lot.”
“So they speak English?” she asked.
“Uh-huh, with a slight accent and more gruffly than us, but I understood them just fine.”
“Did any of them hurt you?”
“No, I made a friend.” As I said it my face fell. “His name was Alexander Boulder and he protected me.”
“He protected you? From what?”
“Any harm that could come to me.”
“So youwerein danger?”
I sighed. “It’s a place where women are a rarity and desperate men do desperate things.”
“So how did he protect you? Did he carry a weapon of some kind?”
I frowned. “No, only the guards carried weapons. Nmen seem very honor bound, and once it was decided he was my protector other men just backed off.”
“Wow, good for them. So, if they have honor they can’t be as bad as we’ve heard. And here we thought they were brutal savages.”
I bit my lip. “Actually, theyarebrutal, and I witnessed them fight and argue several times. Alexander even broke an arm fighting for me.”
“Fighting for you,” Kya scrunched up her face. “What are they, Vikings?” She laughed at her own joke.
