Page 48 of 8-Bit & Cat

His strained voice came over their link in her mind.I’m putting up the firewall.

A pulse of something shot through her that felt just like what the term implied—a barrier. A wall. She could still feel him, but there was a distance now. Like a door had just been slammed shut between them.

Zero exhaled and released her slowly. “Firewall’s in place.”

Cat swallowed hard. “And you?”

A pause. Then a quiet, “I almost didn’t make it out.”

She exhaled sharply, feeling the ghost of him, the absence of him in her body.

He turned and collapsed into his chair as she slid down off the table. “We need rules,” he growled.

She pulled her chair closer to him and sat with a nod. “You do, at least.”

He glanced at her and she smiled. “I had it all under control.”

His stare bore into her, and she had to guess he was still reeling from it all. “I thought… I would get answers for what just happened…whenit happened.”

Her brows rose, feeling ajoke’s on youcoming on. One related to the complexities of humanity. “I saw it,” she whispered, her stomach erupting in butterflies at the memory.

His gaze sharpened on her.

“I saw it in your mind or… from your mind. What the orgasm was like for you.”

The awestruck look on his face made her giggle as she nodded. “It was… pretty darn epic in a…” She searched for the rightZerokind of term then angled her grin at him. “I guess, logical kind of way.”

He exhaled once. “Logical,” he blurted.

She regarded him then nodded. “I mean… I have no other term for it.”

He continued staring at her. “Howcan there be a… an event that you experience withoutwordsto name it?”

Her laugh shot out, finding that priceless. She shrugged. “That there’s a bug in the system I never once considered.” She cut him a glance, laughing again at his face. Like her not considering it was anotherflaw.“I get it. You like answers for everything.”

“Notlike, Kitten, Ineedthem.”

Her stomach twirled at the nickname. “I don’t know what to tell you. Humans are born into mysteries. Our brains develop with every experience.” She pff’d. “You already know that.”

He was listening intently though, waiting for more enlightenment.

“Think of it like… being born in the darkness. The darkness is familiar. It becomes safe. Even warm. As you learn, you gain a little light. But it’s… kind of like… stepping into it instead of it stepping into you? No?” she said with a laugh, seeing it hadn’t budged his perplexity.

“I understand what you said, but… I think I can’t seem to accept it.”

She sighed and covered his arm with her hand, smiling. “I foresee your fame already. The first one to discover words that define every aspect of the human orgasm. Then after that you can define joy, and love, and sadness, and anger the same way.”

“I know those,” he said.

She quirked a brow. “You know the data for each but that’s like me knowing a recipe for biscuits. It doesn’t define thefeelingit gives me when I eat it. And you can even map out those feelings but that doesn’t tell youwhyyou’re built to feel them.”

She eased back and he caught her hand, holding on to it. The simple gesture seemed to initiate a learning moment forhim. She watched his eyes close, wondering what he was seeing. Kind of sad she couldn’t be a part of it. The weight of him was gone but the mark he’d left on her soul wasn’t. Now his absence felt wrong.

She let him keep her hand and finish his homework. “What exactly did you do? With that firewall? How does that work? Sorry, answer when you’re done with your… hand job.” She held back her snicker at the pun.

“I isolated key points of neural overlap between us and restricted their access.”

Cat blinked. He’d said it without disturbing his work in progress. “Uh… some English, if you don’t mind.”

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