Page 149 of Immersed
He reached into his tactical uniform and withdrew the small hard drive he stole from Faine’s security system.“I still have it,”he said with a grin.“Want to watch? I bet one of these fancy computers on the ship can play it.”
Levi stared at the hard drive in disbelief.“Are you serious?”
“You know I am.”He tucked the drive back into his pocket and threaded his fingers through Levi’s hair, his eyes roaming over his face as if to make sure all of Levi had come back. “We should find somewhere more comfortable before someone else interrupts us.”
Despite everything—the bodies cooling on the floor, the alarms still blaring, the upheaval of their environment—Levi found himself responding to Asher’s touch. It was familiar in a world of constant change, a twisted constant needed, and he felt his cock twitch to life as Asher tugged on his hair.
“There’s a breach,”he pointed out weakly.“Something escaped.”
“Let it rampage,”Asher muttered, his hand leaving Levi’s hair and settling along his throat.“We have more important things to do.”
His mouth found Levi’s neck, teeth grazing the mark he left days and a world ago. The sensation sent a shiver through Levi’s body, a Pavlovian response to a stimulus that had become intricately linked with both danger and pleasure.
“You’re impossible,”Levi murmured as he leaned into the sensation.
“But effective,”Asher countered against his skin.“You missed me. Admit it.”
And Levi had. He was terrified at the thought of being separated from Asher, of navigating another nightmare scenario alone.“I missed you,”he admitted.
Asher pulled back, studying his face with those mismatched eyes that knew too much.“You’re thinking too hard.I can see it in your expression.”
“Can you blame me?”Levi gestured around them.“One minute we’re in a collapsing sanitarium, the next we’re in space with... whatever’s escaped from containment. And in between, I saw—”
“What you think you saw,”Asher finished for him, his grip tightening on Levi’s throat as he licked the bruise.
Levi sucked a breath through his teeth as Asher kissed his way up his neck, trying to remind himself that he was in a very loose jumpsuit that would do nothing to hide his growing erection.“What do you mean, what I think I saw?”
Asher pulled back again to look at Levi.“Everything feels real when you’re in it. The forest felt real. The sanitarium felt real. This feels real.”His thumb traced Levi’s lower lip.“We feel real. That’s what matters.”
There was something he wasn’t saying, something in his avoidance of discussing the lab, the researchers, the possibility of a world beyond the game. Was he afraid? Did he know something Levi didn’t?
“Asher,”Levi began carefully,“what if we could get out? Both of us. For real.”
A complex series of emotions crossed Asher’s face—fear, hope, doubt, and something darker that Levi couldn’t quite identify.“Out to where?”he asked, voice unnaturally neutral.
“To reality. To whatever exists beyond this... simulation.”
Asher’s jaw tightened, a muscle twitching beneath the skin.“And if there’s nothing for me there? If I don’t exist in your reality?”
“You do exist,”Levi insisted, surprising himself with the intensity of his conviction.“I saw you. Or someone. In another bed in the lab.”
“And if it wasn’t me?”Asher pressed, something desperate entering his expression.“If what you saw was someone else entirely? What happens if you’re right, I exist in some other place, but I’m different? Would you still choose me like you have in here?”
The question laid bare the fundamental insecurity beneath Asher’s possessive exterior—the fear that Levi’s attachment was conditional, temporary, limited to their shared experience within the game.
I don’t know. But I can’t tell you that.
Before Levi could answer, the alarm system shifted to a higher pitch, the computerized voice returning:“Warning: Containment breach has reached Sector 3. All personnel evacuate immediately. Sealing bulkheads in thirty seconds.”
Asher’s hand moved to his weapon again, attention dividing between Levi and the potential threat.“We need to move.”
Levi nodded, grateful for the interruption even as anxiety about the approaching threat built in his chest.“Where to?”
“Somewhere defensible,”Asher replied, already moving toward a weapons locker on the far wall. He looked at it for a moment, then placed his hand on the scanner. The locker hissed open to reveal an arsenal of futuristic weapons. He selected a larger rifle-like weapon for himself, then offered Levi a smaller sidearm similar to his own.“Take this.”
Levi accepted the weapon hesitantly. It felt light for its size, the grip molding to his hand as if designed specifically for him.“I don’t know how to use this.”
“Point and pull the trigger,”Asher said, checking hisown weapon.
