Page 7 of Human Reform
He stood in the doorway, his massive frame nearly filling it.The morning light caught the angles of his face, highlighting those chiseled features that seemed too perfect to be real.His ice-blue eyes studied me with unsettling intensity.
“My apologies for last night,” he said, his voice controlled but with an undercurrent of something I couldn’t quite identify.Not synthetic.Something human.Shame, perhaps.
I sat up, pulling the blanket with me despite being fully clothed.“For kidnapping me or for the tantrum?”
A muscle in his jaw twitched.“Both.”
That simple admission caught me off guard.I’d expected defensiveness, not accountability.
“So why exactly am I monitoring my own heart rate?”I lifted my right wrist with the sleek band.“And how do I get this thing off?”
“You don’t.”He finally stepped into the room but maintained his distance.“And it’s more than a heart monitor.It tracks your location, biometrics, and serves as your colony identification.”
“I don’t want colony identification,” I replied, my frustration building.“I want to go home.”
Something flashed in his eyes—that same violet glow I’d glimpsed during his outburst last night.“Like I said yesterday, that’s not possible yet.”
I didn’t think twice.Three years of mountain survival had honed my instincts.When you see an opening, you take it.I launched myself from the bed in one fluid motion, my bare feet hitting the cool floor as I darted toward the door.Daxon was still inside.The door had to be unlocked.
I slammed into the unyielding metal with my full body weight.Pain shot through my shoulder as the door refused to budge—locked, not automatic like I’d stupidly assumed.The impact rattled my teeth and sent me bouncing backward, off-balance and vulnerable.
Strong hands caught me before I could fall.Daxon had moved like lightning, wrapping his arms around me to stop my momentum.The moment his skin touched mine, electricity sparked through my body—not metaphorical, but a physical jolt that radiated from each point of contact between us.Like my cells suddenly remembered what they were designed for.
“Let go,” I gasped, but my voice betrayed me, emerging breathless instead of commanding.
He didn’t.If anything, his grip shifted, becoming less restraining and more… supportive.The heat from his chest seeped through the thin medical garment I wore.
“You’re going to hurt yourself,” he said, his voice dropping to a timbre that made my stomach tighten.His face hovered inches from mine, close enough that I could see the faint lines at the corners of his eyes—incongruous details that made him seem more human than machine.
“You already hurt me by dragging me here,” I countered, but my heart wasn’t in the accusation.It was too busy hammering for reasons I refused to examine.
His eyes—those impossible blue eyes with that haunting violet undertone—searched mine.“Not by choice.”
“There’s always a choice,” I whispered, suddenly aware of how perfectly I fit against him, and how his hands splayed against my back created anchors of warmth.How my treacherous body leaned into his touch even as my mind screamed to pull away.
What the hell was happening to me?This man—this cyborg—had participated in my abduction.He represented everything I’d spent three years hiding from.So why did my skin prickle with awareness?Why did my breath catch when his gaze dropped briefly to my lips?
“Not for me,” he said quietly.“Not anymore.”
His words held a resignation that struck a chord in me.I knew what it was to live without choices and to be caught in systems larger than myself.I’d escaped mine by running to the mountains.Where could he run?
“You could let me go,” I suggested, making no move to pull away, betrayed by my own body’s reaction to his proximity.
A ghost of something that might have been a smile touched his lips.“I’m trying to.”
But his arms remained around me, and I realized with startling clarity that neither of us was talking about his physical grip anymore.
His gaze dropped to my lips again, and for one crazy, electric moment, I thought he might actually kiss me.The most bewildering part?I might have actually wanted him to.My breath caught in my chest as the space between us seemed to charge with possibility.
Then a sharp stab of pain shot through my shoulder, breaking whatever spell had momentarily captured us both.I grimaced, unable to hide my discomfort as the adrenaline faded and reality rushed back.
Daxon immediately released me from his embrace, though his hands moved to my uninjured arm, steadying me with a gentleness that seemed at odds with his imposing frame.
“You’re hurt.”His brow furrowed, the concern in his voice genuine.
“Just my pride, mostly,” I muttered but couldn’t stop the wince when I tried to rotate my shoulder.
Without hesitation, Daxon guided me to sit on the edge of the bed.His movements were fluid and careful, as though I might break if handled too roughly.The contradiction between his evident strength and this unexpected tenderness left me momentarily speechless.
