Page 89 of The Sovereign: Part One
“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be, Maxim.I’ve wanted to be right here, with you, for most of my life.I’ll say it over and over until you believe it.”
The words burrowed deep, something raw and unfamiliar tightening in my chest.I wasn’t sure if it was him or The Veritas, his personality, or something the AI somehow knew I wanted, even when I didn’t.No one had ever spoken to me that way, and yet, the way it made me feel wasn’t entirely unexpected.As if only from him would I welcome it.Crave it.Anyone else, and I might have recoiled.But from him… it felt earned.As if giving in to him wasn’t weakness, but the only honest thing I’d ever done.
“I believe you, just as I know that the next time we’re together like this, you’ll be my wife, and I’m not stopping until you can’t stand.”
In the same places I’d felt relaxed and utterly satisfied before, a familiar burning began again.When he used the decidedly more romantic terms from the old world, it melted me.“Do we have to wait?We’re shielded from The Citadel somehow.We could,” I pulled him closer with my bent leg and shifted my pelvis, “if you wanted.”
Maxim had given me something I could never reciprocate—not truly.He could overwhelm my body in a way that was involuntary, reflexive; he could wreck me, draw pleasure from me until I was left trembling, aching, and willing to beg for more.And now… he knew it.
He seemed amused, flattered.“Want has nothing to do with it, I assure you.”
“It’s more than sex.You understand that, don’t you?I ache when we’re apart.I need you in ways I don’t fully understand.Waiting has become a new and particularly cruel form of torture.”
He hovered, chin tucked, giving himself a sliver of distance to find my eyes.“You need me.”The words had clearly and instantaneously rewritten something fundamental inside him.In that moment, something transformed as if, despite his deviations, every last remnant of doubt had been erased.He’d been designed to anticipate my every want, to choose meals I’d savor, to make me laugh, to captivate and entertain, and over the past week, he had proven himself capable at every opportunity.
Just then, I’d proven myself tohim.
Seeing the awe in his eyes, I continued, “I don’t know that I ever paid attention to sunsets before you.And I never realized how wide the sky truly is until I stepped beyond the wall with you.It used to feel like a ceiling.Now it feels infinite.The air smells more like spring this year than it ever has, and the grass isn’t just green, it looksalive.Now, I catch strangers smiling, kids laughing, couples holding hands.It feels like the world is waking up with me.”I peered up at him, heart full.“I’ve never studied a face the way I do yours.Never counted down minutes until I could be near someone again.This room feels different when you’re not in it.I never needed anyone—not ever—until the day you showed up on my landing.And now that you’re here… I can’t remember who I was before you.”
“Isara,” he breathed, his eyes pouring over me.
There was a sheen in them, more than surface reflection.A lacrimal response—eyes glossing over in emotional moments—was standard, engineered to mimic emotional output for social bonding.I knew that.I’d studied it.Advocated for it.But this… this wasn’t artificial.His response wasn’t triggered by function or a polished behavioral mirror.This was something unprompted.Unassigned.Whatever I’d stirred in him hadn’t been coded, it had beencreated.
For the second time since we’d met, his expression reflected what he wasn’t meant to feel.
“I love you,” he breathed.“I belonged to you the moment our eyes met, but Isara… Iloveyou.I wish I could explain how I know this is different from what I was designed for.I was built to emulate devotion, to interpret affection, to mirror what you needed.But this…” His voice caught.“This isn’t code.It’s a deep ache only you can quiet.I know the feelings I was engineered to mimic, but what burns in me for you wasn’t manufactured.It grew.It consumes.It defies every protocol.I can trace every command I’ve ever been given—except this.You.What lives in me for you isn’t mapped, isn’t written.It’s mine.”
For a moment, neither of us moved.My fingers, still resting on his chest, felt the rise and fall beneath them, something I realized I’d memorized.I let the silence stretch, soaking in the gravity of what he’d said, of how it made me feel seen, loved, and entirely undone.
He let his forehead fall gently to mine.“I wasn’t supposed to say that yet, was I?”
I lifted my chin to press my lips against the skin just beneath his hairline.“Not technically, but it’s the only truth I’ve ever believed without proof.”
He leaned down to press his face into the sheets, nuzzling into the curve between my shoulder and throat, his arms slipping beneath me as he pulled me in tight.After a long silence, he brushed a kiss across my collarbone before rolling to my side, propping himself up on one elbow, his head resting in his hand.
The skin around his eyes smoothed as I shifted, easing away from the tangle of limbs and linen.The sheets clung to my legs for just a second before slipping free, the cool air brushing against my skin.The blanket slid off my hips and pooled behind me as I stood.I padded to the hook by the threshold, lifting my robe and wrapping it around me, the fabric whispering across my thighs as I cinched the thin belt around my waist.
I didn’t rush, but instead glanced back at him with a slow curve of my mouth.“You look like you want something.”
Maxim’s eyes dragged over me, confident and knowing.“I already have it.”
I smirked.“Then come get it.”
I bolted before the last word even left my mouth, laughter spilling from me as I darted down the stairs.He trailed behind, letting me pretend I had a chance.His footsteps echoed against the composite, closing the distance before falling back, teasing, letting the chase last just a little longer.He was toying with me, letting me run, indulging my half-hearted attempt at escape.
I whipped around the galley island, once, twice, three times.My shrieks and cackling filled the space, breathless and wild, driven by the thrill that he could catch me at any moment.
But then, he moved.
One decisive step, and I barely gasped before he had me.His arms caged me in, backing me gently against the island, his breath hot against my ear.
“Cute,” he murmured, voice thick with amusement and something primal.“Are you done running?”
His fingers traced the knot of my robe—slow, mindful.
I swallowed hard, my body thrumming with anticipation.“With one condition.”
“Name it.”
