Page 24 of Defended By Love

I gather information. I use my head to act knowledgeably.

“Wha—” I start to ask, turning to face him. When I do, the sight of his open emotion steals my words. With shaking fingers, he reaches up and strokes the side of my face. His thumb lingers on my bottom lip.

In another time, I would close my eyes and tilt my head up, parting my lips a breath apart. He would kiss me with the kiss that eclipses all others. It would be a celebration of being alive, a promise of our lives to come, and a merging of two people entwined by fate.

Instead, I clear my throat. “What’s going on?”

He looks dazed, still staring at my mouth. “I don’t know. One second I was…somewhere else. The next, I was here. Again.”

I nod, looking anywhere but at his longing eyes. “Same.” I pause. “Where were you before?”

Now it’s his turn to avoid my eyes. “That’s not really important,” he hedges.

“Answer the question,” I say, going full lawyer. Then, I dial it back. He’s going to know that I know if I insist on interrogating him. “We need as much information as we can to figure out what’s happening.”

Grant shrugs. “I’m just happy you’re okay.”

“My current leading theory is VR.”

“VR?”

“Virtual reality.”

Grant rolls his eyes. “I know what virtual reality is. I just don’t think that’s what it is. I mean, this is definitely happening.”

“And what makes you so sure?” It takes every ounce of control to not phrase that as an accusation.

Grant tugs at his spandex collar, revealing an angry welt from where some debris hit him. “Feels pretty real to me. If I had to wager a guess as to what’s happening, I’d say time loop.”

“A time loop?”

“Sure. I’m guessing a resetting at midnight one, if your watch is accurate.”

It reads 12:24. I guess midnight would make a good guess. I probably wandered around the office and filing room for twenty minutes before the shaking started.

But, really? A time loop?

“It could be some sort of booby trap VR—”

“That we both got trapped by?”

I bite my tongue. Obviously, if this were a trap he’d have to be in on it.

“Right? Pretty ridiculous that we would both get caught in it,” he adds.

I bristle. Ridiculous has literally never been an adjective that’s been associated with me.

“But time loop is a perfectly fine first logical step to take?”

He nods. “It all adds up. Right at midnight I found myself in the same place I was the night before at midnight. Everything, and I mean everything, is exactly the same. The same raccoons fighting in the alley. The same taxi driving over a curb. The whole building re-collapsing is proof enough, though, really.”

I roll my eyes, even though I’m having trouble locating an error with what he’s said.

“All of that could also be explained through VR.”

He shakes his head, a smile on his lips and a memory in his eyes. “When I close my eyes, I still have the taste of your pussy on my tongue. There’s no way any program could make me imagine how fucking delicious it was.”

A small moan escapes as my thighs clench together. Yeah, there’s no way virtual reality could make me imagine that orgasm. If anyone had that kind of technology, I’m pretty sure the entire economy would fail as people just stopped showing up for work.

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