Page 44 of 8-Bit & Cat

Zero’s breathing came measured but tight. “Kitten, stop.”

But she didn’t. Because she couldfeelthat he didn’t really want her to. And neither did she.

She allowed her own need to take over, tracing the hard, defined lines of his muscle. Her heart pounded as her skin heated more and a slow, deep ache curled low in her stomach.

His breathing was rough now. “This is... fuck.”

Cat’s breath staggered when he again tried to form words for what he was experiencing and couldn’t. They were all too new. Zero’s mind flexed inside hers, coiling tighter, trying to regain control. But there was no defense against this. No firewall. No protocol. No countermeasure. There was only her being ruthlessly naughty.

But at what cost? He was experiencingrealfeelings. And in that second, he wasn’t justexperiencingher pleasure, he wascravingit.Unravelingwith it. Not in a chaotic way, but like pressure building. A system reaching its limit. Like something he’d never prepared for.

Her pulse leapt in a near wicked joy at the power she wielded. How it had his entire body locked in restraint. She slowed the drag of her fingertips along his shoulder.

Zero exhaled sharply. “Catherine—”

Christ, she’d done it. She’d had dirty thoughts to see if he would see them. She’d imagined her in his lap, holding his shoulders. Carefully, she continued her slow, gentle rape. “You want me to stop?”

He gave a delicious rough exhale, almost a groan as she watched his face. His jaw ticked when her fingers moved along it, his tension sharp and hungry. She suddenly felt them merging. Zero felt it too. Like her fire met up and joined with the fire he was mirroring. Now, the single force moved through both of them and neither had control it seemed. Like it suddenly gained a mind of its own.

Their breaths shook as it drove them both to an edge. Pulses pounding. The newness of it. The revelations he experienced became a consuming thing, an awareness sharpening inside her. The shock was nearly as euphoric as the desire branding new paths in his mind.

Her stomach tightened when his hand covered hers. “Zero—”

His breathing edged with hunger. “Stop.”

She felt his fear now. The fear of what was coming, where it would end, what it would do to him. What he would do to her. Not being able to run logical algorithms and predict it was as new to him as the feelings that had hijacked his system. Call her reckless, but she couldn’t love it more.

She leaned in closer, just enough for her breath to brush against his jaw.

Zero stilled completely.

Cat swallowed. “You don’t want me to stop.”

Zero exhaled hard. “You’re playing with something you don’t understand.”

Her pulse slammed. “Then explain it to me.”

She felt his control slipping. His body might not be real, but the sensations were. The warmth, the spike of her pulse inside him when she touched him and had her dirty thoughts. He felt the slow, deep ache between her thighs now, intensifying with every second. And it was colliding inside him.

CHAPTER NINE

Zero’s Paradox

ZERO:

She grazed her lips along the edge of his jaw. Fuck. His processing jolted. His entire system was coming apart. In a way that had no precedent, no countermeasure. He wasn’t built for any of it. For pleasure. For hunger. For something he couldn’t predict or control. But she was somehow giving it to him. And he was somehow taking it.

Her lips had barely grazed his jaw. Not even a real kiss. Just heat and breath and promise. And yet, his entire existence had just recalibrated around it. He felt her breathing inside him. Not just the sound—but the physical sensation of her arousal. The deep pulse between her legs. The warmth spreading through her stomach. He could feel her body’s anticipation. Her need. It was all his.

Catherine tilted her head, her voice just above a whisper. “You’re feeling everything, aren’t you?”

Zero’s hands flexed with urges. He was still trying to hold the last thread of his control, but it was slipping fast. He watched her fingers trace lower, over his chest. His desire was now following hers. Matching. Meeting in the space where sensation and thought blurred together.

She dragged her nails lightly down his stomach and his breath hissed between his teeth.

Catherine’s pulse pounded inside him. “…Mmm,” she barely murmured. “You felt that.”

Zero’s voice was almost a growl. “Yes.”

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