Page 87 of Everdoll

“I’m trying to get my body used to you.” He said this with a straight face, but the warmth already splattered on my face. “I think I’m a little off balance from being away from you.” He grabbed me by the shoulders and pressed me against his chest, and I felt it again.

God, someone help me.

He cleared his throat and let me go.

“Guess I’m not used to it yet,” he said with a forced smile, and I remained silent as he bolted from the bed.

In all the years we had been together I had never thought about such things. After all, he was just a robot in my eyes. But there were some moments I remembered now… In the past, whenever I kissed him, he would push me away, keep his distance for a few minutes, and then come back to me. It happened almost every day.

If it had been going on since then… That was a lot of time.

I gulped. I went to the bathroom door and stood there, exhaling, then opened it.

He was on the floor, not in the position I had imagined. His head rested against the wall, his knees stretched out, eyes closed. With sweat glistening down his sharp jawline and pale skin, faint breaths escaping his parted lips, and dark hair falling over his forehead, he looked so…

I gulped. I knew there was no one prettier than Remi because he was a robot, he was designed that way. It was unreal he was a real person. I never thought a human could be so handsome. He was so beautiful, so mesmerizing, everything about him was so…

“Mina?”

I was so engrossed in looking at him I belatedly noticed the astonished blue eyes. Those blues were everything to me. So big and alive, almost like from another world…

“Can I help you?”

There was a heavy silence in the bathroom. He was looking at me like he’d seen a ghost. “What?”

I murmured, realizing the atmosphere become awkward. “If you don’t want to…”

I lost my balance when he pulled me into his lap. I was startled but not scared, and though I regretted it now, I wasn’t going anywhere with him smiling at her like that.

“So…” his smile wasn’t so perverted, actually it was a bit cute. He was watching me with amused twinkles around his eyes. “My Mina is going to help me? About what?”

“Obviously, I…”

My courage drained when his throat came into my vision. I hadn’t been able to see it because the room was dark, but damn, I must have stuck to it like an animal.

Yesterday I was going crazy, so focused on pushing him away that I had no idea what was I doing. My mind and heart were in conflict with each other, one moment I wanted to squeeze that throat and test his patience, the next moment I was afraid he would go away so I gave him gentle kisses.

I hadn’t changed at all. I was still that greedy witch, testing and using people until they were sick of me. I couldn’t blame them for leaving me, it was me who forced it on them.

But Raymond Loxton didn’t leave. He played along with my stupid game, he made my conflict deepened.

Or eased it.

His mischievous smile faded as my hands unconsciously caressed his throat, his Adam’s apple moving up and down. I stroked those veins, one by one, where I had made bite marks and bruises. I couldn’t turn back time, as Remi said, I really only brought destruction and pain.

“I’m sorry…”

“What for?”

I didn’t want to look at him. Hesitantly, my hands went down, down his belly… I could feel him staring at me, but I couldn’t meet his gaze. As my right hand wandered over his black pants, he shifted slightly, caught my wrist, and guided it up to his shoulder. His hands then settled on my hips, holding me securely in place on his lap.

“Mina.”

Heat crept into my cheeks as his eyes slid to my lips. I adored those blue eyes so much, but it was still strange to see my own reflection in them. It didn’t feel real.

Everything about Remi seemed unreal to me.

He was out of a book, maybe, out of a beautiful dream… He was so perfect it would have been natural for him to disappear.