Page 73 of Sexting Mr. CEO

“We need this to end so we can begin our lives together.”

He gently brushes tears from my cheek, then leans down and kisses me softly. “My life began the moment I laid eyes on you.”

I love you.I almost say the words aloud, but I can’t cross that line, not yet, not until I know we’ve got a serious future together.

“Arrange the details,” I murmur. “I’m going to get some more work done. I feel like I’m close to a breakthrough.”

“Sera, it’s almost midnight.”

“Please.” I press my hand on his chest, my fingernails bending as I claw against his firm muscles through his shirt. “I need to do this. All of this – life – sometimes it gets too much.”

He leans down, kissing me again. “Okay, Sparkplug. Don’t worry. Soon, this will be over. Then we can decide what the rest of our story looks like.”

I step into his office and switch on the computer, then log into my NeuroDrive Cloud account. Recovering my work, I slip on my headphones and play some music to help me drift into that perfect fluid state.

I only realize I’ve been sitting for so long when Luke gently slips his arms around me and massages my shoulders. I let my head fall from side to side, stretching my neck out as he rubs out the kinks in my neck.

“It’s four AM,” he whispers when I take off my headphones.

I spin to him, smiling despite everything. My heart pounds – not with fear, but with excitement. “Luke, I think this is going to work. We need to go to the officenow. We need to upload this to the prototype car. I honestly think this is it. The empathetic model fits right into the existing framework. Luke, this is it.”

He wraps his arms around me. “First thing in the?—”

“No, let’s go now. Let’s make it happen. Don’t you get it?This is it.”

He smiles and kisses my cheek. “The office is closed. Even if I opened up, I don’t want to take you there without security. Let’s grab a few hours’ sleep. I promise, as soon as the office opens, we’ll head in and upload your program. Not that we need to.”

“What do you mean?”

He squeezes my hips. I love when he does that. Before Luke, I never would’ve imagined feeling so confident about curves. “Your passion is enough to tell me this is going to work.”

“It is,” I say breathlessly. “This AI, this personality, it wouldn’t dream of saying the things the sabotage caused the other model to say. Listen to me.Dream. I’m not saying it’s sentient, but the algorithm wouldn’t produce those responses.”

“Right, that’s it,” he says, then scoops me off my feet.

I laugh, throwing my arms around him. “What are you doing?”

“Taking you to bed. You need some rest before your big day tomorrow. I love seeing you like this, but if you had your way, you’d getnosleep, I’m sure.”

He carries me to the bedroom and places me down. Together, we walk into the en-suite and brush our teeth. He smiles at me in the mirror.

“I like brushing our teeth together,” I tell him after. “It feels very couple-like, doesn’t it?”

“That’s because we’re a couple, Sparkplug. You’re mine and I’m yours.”

We climb into bed. I lay with my head against his shoulder, my hand on his hard chest. My mind won’t stop whirring with anticipation for tomorrow.

“I can hear that,” he says.

I chuckle. “I didn’t say anything.”

“You didn’t have to. I can hear your mind spinning around and around.”

“I can’t help it. I never thought I’d have time to try my ideas on this scale…”

He rolls onto his side, so we’re face to face, our noses touching. His smile is magnetic. “You’re the most resilient person I’ve ever met. After everything, to be this passionate, this excited… it means something, Sera. It means you’re going to be an incredible wife and mother one day.”

“Wife and mother,” I whisper.

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