Page 104 of The Gathering
“I’m unstable!” he desperately pled.
She spun and blurted over her shoulder, “Thenmerge, I don’t get why you’re fighting it!”
He hurried after her up the porch. “I don’twantto beforcedto merge, I want to decide that with my head not my dick.” He stood, heaving before her where she rocked on the porch. “Would you want your lust for logic dictating who you merged with? How would you know if you’re lusting afterthemor the contents of what’s in their head?”
She angled a perturbed look up at him. “Because theyarethe contents in their head. And maybeyouare the contents of this perfect, obsessive lust?” she suggested with raised brows.
He stared at her.
“Why does it have to be such a terrible disease? Because it’s so big and strong and potent? Sounds like your manhood was a motorboat and now it’s a swamp dragon. I can’timaginea woman not being thrilled to pieces about that, I know I would be! What are you afraid of, really? Sharing your life with another person? Sharing control? You still have control, you’ve been practicing it this entire time, else you’d have… given in to…” She fluttered her fingers and eyes then shot off the chair and went inside. “I need some chamomile tea, you have me in a state.”
He followed her in, stopping at the island. “Astate,” he said.
“I can’t breathe around you.”
He stared at her pacing before the stove. “Why? Say it since you don’t fear any truth.”
“I have said it. In pieces. Put them together, King!”
“Just King? NotyourKing? Am I your King when you’re not angry and just King when you are?”
“I’m not angry, I’m as you say,literallyaroused. I’m aroused okay? With you, your mind, your mouth, your body, your everything and I don’t have a disease, or maybe I do, maybe whatever is wrong with Pah-Pah is wrong with me and I’m just affected differently. From the second I saw you on that pier, I’ve been riding a shooting star through the universe! I have wanted to merge with you—no, Ihave beenmerging with you since I saw you there and I don’t even care that it might be your stupid disease making you want to merge with me, I want you enough for both of us! There, God, I said it! I don’t fear the truth and that is the truth!”
He turned and headed for the door.
“Fine, leave! I don’t care! Never come back!”
He shut it then locked it.
Korbeu
“Handy’s here to see what he can see with you and the baby,” Bishop whispered at Beth’s ear. “I don’t trust myself with this and I’m going crazy needing to know.”
“Handy?” she barely said.
“It seems I’ve designed him to be very close to me. And my entire lineage.”
Beth’s dizzy symptom spiked at those words.
“Steady Mah-Mah,” Handy said on her other side, helping Bishop walk her to the couch. A warmth spread from his touch through her skin, relaxing her.
On the couch, Bishop sat next to her. She looked at Handy, standing to the side. She reached out to him, shocked that she did. “Sit,” she said.
He looked just as surprised and cautious as he sat, his dark eyes captivating her. She leaned in, looking. “Your eyes,” she said softly, giving in to the need to feel his face. Her fingers connected to warm skin, and she gasped a smile at the red flare in his irises. “You’re… beautiful,” she said, startled with herself as she looked at Bishop.
She found him smiling, then saw that Handy smiled too.
“I think you made him blush,” Bishop said.
“Oh!” Beth gasped, bringing both hands to a suddenly jumpy boy.
“May I, Mah-Mah?” Handy whispered softly, his eyes on her belly. They rose and locked with hers, making her breathsstutter at what was in them. She didn’t even know what it was, only that it was oddly profound in a way that made her feel safe.
“Yes,” she said as Bishop held her hand.
Her body did the exact opposite of what she’d expect when anybody reached for her womb—it relaxed. Even when his mechanical one joined in.
“Oh boy,” she said at how much the baby moved.
