“Ping her back. Agree to meet her,” Ewan said. “What could it hurt?”
She pulled away to look him in the face. “My feelings.”
“They’re already hurt,” he told her.
That was true. Still, Nina hesitated, thinking carefully of how to reply without sounding heartless. “Your sister passed away, and the two of you never really reconciled.”
Ewan nodded and brushed a kiss over her hair. “Yes. And I regret it. I don’t want to see the same thing happen to you.”
“But that assumes you would have.”
“I like to think we would have,” Ewan said after a pause to consider her words.
Nina nestled against him. “But you don’t know. You can’t. What if you’d spent the rest of your lives at odds with each other? Or simply tolerating each other, but never really . . . you know. Liking each other.”
“Tolerating each other is better than hating each other,” Ewan said.
“I don’t hate my sister. I don’t know if she really hates me or not, even though she acts like she does.” Nina frowned and stepped back from him. “Just because someone’s family, Ewan, that doesn’t mean you automatically like them. Sometimes you just don’t get along and it’s better for everyone if you agree to maintain your distance.”
“Your sister hurt you a lot, I can see that. And when you’re ready to tell me everything that happened, I’ll be ready to listen. Until then, I’ll respect whatever you decide, baby.”
She kissed him. “Thanks. I guess the whole thing unsettled me a little bit, that’s all. I get run over by a buzzcycle, there’s weirdness at the hospital, I come home and Patrice pings me . . . it’s all weird and too coincidental. I’m going to take a nap.”
“That sounds like a great idea,” Ewan said and let her go so she could head for the doorway.
She paused there to look over her shoulder and crook a finger at him. “You could join me.”
“I’m not sure I can sleep,” Ewan said with a slowly widening grin, even as he started toward her.
“That’s a good thing, because neither am I.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Because Nina was no longer contracted to protect him, she wasn’t required to go with him when he went to meetings. Ewan had asked her to go along, though, because Udo Villanova was exactly the sort of man whose support could make big changes in legislation. Getting him to vote their way would be a huge advantage.
“I’m very aware that I should be sort of offended,” Nina said now as the transpo eased away from the rail system and onto the final bit of road that would take them to Udo’s estate. She gave him a sideways smile. “You know. That I’ve been reduced to a pretty face without a voice.”
Ewan winced. “You will always have a voice with me.”
“I know.” She’d been staring out the window. In profile, lit with the glow coming in through the glass, she had an ethereal quality that set his heart thumping. As if she’d noticed—random hells, she probably had—she looked at him now. “This guy has a lot of power, huh?”
“Yeah. Big pull. He’s one of the last remaining life-term senators,” Ewan said.
Nina nodded, her expression thoughtful. “So his vote matters. I guess I can simper a little bit, if it helps.”
“You don’t have to simper,” Ewan said and took her hand to kiss the back of it. “Just be honest. Be yourself.”
She laughed at that and touched a hesitant hand to her hairline, where a few black threads still remained. “According to Katrinka, nobody wants to see me as myself. Especially with all these leftover stitches.”
“You look beautiful, and you chose your own clothes. You’ll impress Udo because of what you have to say, not your shoes.” Ewan glanced at her feet, then back to her face. “Although, I have to say, those shoes could give a guy a heart attack.”
Nina giggled and stretched out a leg, pointing her toes. The pretty gray high heels embellished with inset lights shone in the transpo’s interior. Ewan would never pretend to understand the trends of women’s fashion, but he was all about Nina’s feet in those shoes.
“I passed Katrinka’s quiz,” she said after a second, her smile fading. Her look serious, she added, “Clearly, Katrinka thinks I am kind of a moron.”
Ewan laughed, because he could understand why Nina would think so. “She can be a little intense. But she knows her stuff. What was on the quiz?”
“Etiquette. Whose hands to shake first, which fork to use. That sort of thing. I’m her Eliza Doolittle project.” Again, Nina lifted her toes to show off the shoes. “I like the wardrobe. The rest of it, not so much. She asked to see my speech.”
Nina hadn’t even shown it to Ewan. “Did she like it?”
“I didn’t show it to her,” Nina said. “I’m not a schoolkid. Or her apprentice. I’ve given speeches before. She suggested I let her hire someone to write it for me, when I wouldn’t share.”
Ewan kissed the back of her hand and twisted their fingers together. “Let me guess, you turned down the idea.”
“I want my words to be mine. My experiences are mine. If she wants me to be the pretty face to this campaign, that’s one thing. But nobody’s going to be persuaded if I’m not convinced, myself.” With a sigh, she slid across the seat to rest her head on his shoulder. Their linked hands rested on his thigh. She put her free hand over them both. “Tell me he’s going to have dinner, at least.”
“Udo sets a very fine table. I’m sure you won’t go away hungry.”
Nina glanced up at him through the fringe of her long lashes, darkened by cosmetics and tipped with tiny bits of glitter. “Hmm. Depends on what I’m hungry for.”
Oh, how she loved how quickly Ewan reacted to her. As soon as Nina made the innuendo, Ewan was already pulling her close to kiss her, his hands moving over the soft fabric of her dress to cup her breasts. They’d planned it horribly though, because before they had the chance to do more than wiggle around together for a few minutes, the transpo was pulling up in front of Udo Villanova’s house.
Ewan had been right about the food, there was that. And the elderly bro himself, surprisingly charming. He’d listened carefully to Nina’s answers to his thoughtful questions, nodding and occasionally writing notes on an old-fashioned pad that he handed off to a secretary. She and Ewan had taken their leave when Udo started nodding off in his chair.
“He seemed to care and understand,” she said now as she watched Ewan shucking out of his briefs. “Wait. Don’t get in yet.”
He’d been about to step into the in-ground hot tub, a treat they’d both agreed would be delightful in the summer’s nighttime chill. “What’s wrong?”
“Admiring the view.”
Ewan chuckled at that, though in a low, gritty tone that told her he was flattered. Turned on. He twisted, showing off his body, until Nina’s pulse throbbed faster. “Like this?”
“I could stare at you forever,” Nina said. “For an infinity.”
“Take off your clothes,” Ewan urged.
She did, stripping slowly out of the outfit that had felt like a costume. Eyes locked on his, she stood naked in front of him and rejoiced in the way he took all of her in with his gaze. She offered herself to him without words, and he accepted everything she gave him.
In the steaming, swirling water, they embraced. His kiss drifted across her lips, tickling and teasing, and Nina let him because she wanted to savor him for as long as she could. Ewan pulled her onto his lap. He was already hard, his erection rubbing her belly as he pulled her closer.
“Want you,” Nina murmured into his mouth and caught his offered tongue between her teeth. “Right now.”
He was inside her within seconds, both of them shuddering at that first delicious connection. The water buoyed her so that Ewan could slide his hands beneath the backs of her thighs and move her up and down as he thrust. Pleasure built inside her so fast her head spun and she cried out his name, low and ravenously.
When she sank her teeth into
his shoulder, Ewan shouted a hoarse cry and bucked upward. Nina’s climax swept over her fiercely. She bit harder. Ewan joined her in the ecstasy, both of them shivering together. Slowly, slowly, she returned to herself as they floated in the heated water. Her mouth still tasted of him. He was still inside her when she squeezed her knees against his sides and put her arms around him, her face pressed into the hollow of his shoulder.
“I love you so much,” Nina whispered. “More than I ever imagined I could.”
Ewan’s hands ran down her wet back. “That’s good, because I feel the same.”
She’d have stayed like that for longer, except that she didn’t want the hot water to make him feel faint. She pushed back from him a bit to suggest they get out, when a figure in the grass by the corner of the house caught her eye. She was off Ewan’s lap and out of the water in moments. Her bare feet slapped the shorn grass. She didn’t bother grabbing a towel. She had no weapons, but that didn’t stop her from heading for the silhouette.
He was on the ground before he had a chance to even cry out, but she kept herself from hitting him when she saw the kid’s face. “Jordie?”
Ewan came up behind her with a towel she wrapped around herself as she stood, leaving Jordie on the grass. The kid looked stunned, but that might have been because she’d landed on him fully naked more than any damage she’d done. Nina nudged him with a bare foot.
“Get up,” she said harshly.
Ewan leaned over to offer the kid a hand, but Nina blocked his arm with a shake of her head. She didn’t trust this kid further than she could throw him—random hells, she could probably throw him a good distance, and she didn’t trust him at all. At least he seemed scared enough not to sneak any peeks of her still mostly nude body as she jerked him up by the front of his shirt. He wove a little, unsteady, and she grabbed him by the upper arm to keep him still.
“I just . . . I just wanted to make sure you were all right. I heard you’d been in an accident!” Jordie’s teeth chattered.
Nina didn’t let go of his arm. Her fingers dug into him through the layers of his jacket and shirt. “How did you hear that?”
“Viddy news. I subscribe to Mr. Donahue’s channel!” Jordie didn’t try to get away, but he did stand up straight without so much as a tremble. He gaze twitched away from hers and his tone turned sullen. “I was worried about you. Even if you punched me in the face once. I care, Ms. Bronson. I’m not a hyper pustule.”
“Let’s go inside.” Ewan put his hand on the small of her back.
She refused to let go of the kid’s arm. If nothing else, he’d been spying on them making love in the hot tub, and that alone was enough to deserve getting tossed out on his ass. Ewan allowed her to go in ahead of him and keep herself between him and Jordie, but she couldn’t be sure if he did it because he knew she was in protection mode, or if he also sensed something wrong about the weird kid who kept showing up in places he wasn’t expected.
Something about that stopped her for a moment. Jordie, showing up in places he wasn’t expected. A memory throbbed, faint, distant. Fading. She shook it away.
Once inside, with Jordie ensconced at the kitchen table while Ewan retrieved robes for the two of them, Nina didn’t relent in her steady staring at the kid. She didn’t have to say anything to him. The silence would build and make him squirm until he spoke of his own accord. Ewan leaned against the counter, also silent.
“How’s your head, Ms. Bronson?” Jordie said finally.
She studied him. “It’s fine. Did the news stories tell you I had a head injury?”
“They said you got hit by a moving vehicle. Head injuries are common after something like that. I figured you’d . . . anyway, you have a stitch.” Jordie pointed.
“And you worried about me so much you had to come here, unannounced, once again ignoring the NO TRESPASSING signs? Even though you knew I would most likely think you were an intruder and possibly cause you more harm than I did when I punched you by accident?” Nina tilted her head and narrowed her eyes, listening, smelling, looking. Jordie’s vitals were all over the place, but was it the candy or a nervous response? Too hard for her to tell. She wasn’t a psychologist.
She was and always would be a soldier.
This realization came hard on the heels of their earlier meeting with Udo Villanova and the hours of prep from Katrinka Dev, of Nina’s own protests that she’d stopped being a soldier when they made it illegal for her to be one. Sobered, she sat in the chair across from Jordie and put her hands flat on the table. The pain in her temple felt long ago and far away, as the saying went. She focused on the kid instead of her body.
“Answer me,” Nina said.
Jordie shifted in his chair, hunching his shoulders. “I was worried.”
“Why were you worried about me?” she asked calmly with a glance over his shoulder to watch Ewan’s reaction.
“Because . . . I heard you got hurt, and . . . I know how much you mean to Mr. Donahue. And if something happened to you, I guess that might, you know, do something bad to him, and I wanted to check in. Because I care.”
Nina shook her head, aware of the small, tingling tendrils of black in the edges of her vision but so far successfully fending them off. Fighting the glitch. Focusing on the kid.
“I’m fine, Jordie.”
Jordie frowned. “Are you sure? You don’t look fine. You’re all banged up.”
“That’s enough, Jordie. I’m going to call a transpo for you to get home,” Ewan said abruptly, stepping forward.
“You look like your head hurts,” Jordie said. “Like you got all kinds of stuff going on in there. Did you hit your head when the cycle hit you, Ms. Bronson?”
“Enough!” Ewan snapped.
Jordie didn’t stop. He leaned toward Nina, gaze intense. “I need to know, Ms. Bronson, do you feel different?”
“Different, how?” she asked, holding up a hand to keep Ewan from grabbing the kid and tossing him out the front door.
“I don’t know. Just different. You look a little different.”
Nina shook her head again. “I don’t feel different, Jordie. No. My injuries were fortunately minor, considering what might have happened. And I heal faster than most people.”
“You don’t feel different at all? Nothing?”
“You sound disappointed,” Nina said.
It was Jordie’s turn to shake his head. He got to his feet, evading Ewan’s grip but barely. “I’m glad you’re not hurt, Ms. Bronson. I’m glad you feel shiny fine. I hope you’re fine, I really do. I’m sorry I scared you both, I just get these ideas, you know, and I know I shouldn’t act on them, but I do. It’s a thing I have, it happens. I’m sorry. I’ll try not to do it again, but I’m sure I will. I always do.”
Ewan caught her eye over the kid’s shoulder. “I’ll walk you out.”
Nina gave him a small nod to let him know she thought it was all right, but she followed them as they went to the front door. The transpo arrived faster than expected, so in minutes Jordie was gone. Ewan pulled her close for a hug as they watched it drive away, heading for the rail system.
“That was weird,” Ewan said.
“Yes. That kid is weird. Let’s go to bed.”
She kissed him with a smile, not telling him that she’d lied to Jordie. It might have been the glitching tech. It might have been something else.
She did feel different.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“You ready to do this?” Ewan looked from his own reflection in the mirror, where he’d been straightening his bow tie, to Nina’s.
She shook her head, then turned her face from side to side to study herself in the mirror. She wore a floor-length tunic-gown hanging from one shoulder with a several strands of glittering beads. Both the dress and the beads were red, the color he loved best on her. This time, she’d refused his offer of a makeup artist and hairdresser coming to the house and had pinned her hair up in a complicated series of twists at the top leading to a full explosion
of her curls down her back. She was so beautiful that she took his breath away.
“Absolutely not,” she answered after a moment. “No way.”
He laughed and turned to take her in his arms. “Baby . . . you’ll be fine. Your speech is terrific, you don’t need to worry about that. They’re going to love you.”
“I do have experience speaking in front of crowds, Ewan. I’m not scared about that.” She gave him a slightly annoyed glance he supposed he deserved for being slightly patronizing. “This feels different, that’s all.”
“Why?” Curiously, he studied her as he used a fingertip to push a dangling curl over her shoulder. He let his fingertip trace her upper arms and watched her skin ripple into gooseflesh that he wanted to kiss and lick and stroke.
“Because they’re all hyper moneyed.” She shrugged but didn’t move out of his embrace. “This crowd is not the same as the ones I’m used to connecting with. It’s not like speaking to mothers’ groups or educators on behalf of the other enhanced soldiers, or testifying to senators in support of the tech to prove that it’s necessary and important. I’ve worked for rich people before, lots of times, I mean, they’re the only ones who could afford me. It’s different being one of them. Moving among the crowd instead of around or through it. It’s almost like you all speak a foreign language. Before, when I talked to people and tried to convince them to support my cause, it was always as a soldier. I wore my uniform to remind them of that. Not like . . . this.
“These,” she added with a kick of one foot to show off the pointy-toed high heel. “I mean look at these things. They ought to be designated as lethal weapons, mostly because they’re killing my feet.”
“So take them off. Wear your boots. Hell, wear your uniform, if that makes you feel better. I told you that before.” Ewan eased her closer for a kiss.
Nina laughed and rolled her eyes. “Ewan. My love. My heart. Do you really think anyone is going to take me seriously if I don’t show up dressed for the part? Katrinka was right. They don’t want to see a soldier in front of them. They don’t want to be reminded of what I am.”