Page 113 of The Fall

“Can you stop saying that?” She grabbed her meagre breasts to emphasise the point.

“Not if you do that every time I say it.” Mackenzie leered.

Caoimhe curled her lip.

Mackenzie ignored her disgust. “You should go say goodbye to your girlfriend. We’re heading to the vault in an hour and she’s coming with. She’s waiting for you at your MobilePod.”

This time, Caoimhe didn’t rankle at the word. If Cat was to be believed, Lusa wanted the same thing. Everyone else seemed to think they were. Doubt be damned, she would shoot her shot.

She found her on the wooden steps, raven hair flying freely in the breeze. Lusa picked apart a stem of grass and threw it absently, as natural as the material she sat upon, sans weapons, guard down and blissfully unaware of how stunning she looked. No wonder the girls at the Lake threw themselves at her. Caoimhe reminded herself that she was hers. For now. Certainty beyond that would need to be earned, from both of them.

“Mackenzie said my girlfriend was waiting for me here.” Caoimhe enjoyed the mix of surprise and uncertainty playing across her features. The high cheekbones and dark eyes from Sesi. The stature from Talia. Also, the temper.

“Is she?” Lusa stood, gathering her limbs slowly. “Is she here to fight me, or…?” Deflecting with a joke to protect herself from disappointment – That’s what Cat had meant. Not only did Lusa need time, she would always need time. Every interaction would need to be eased into. Caoimhe could be impulsive, but she wouldn’t get the answers she wanted without doing an emotional dance first. With Lusa, that’s just the way it would have to be.

Caoimhe pretended to look around. “I don’t see anyone else.” She slipped into Lusa’s space, the warmth of her in the morning chill. “Did you already kill her? Where’s the body?”

Lusa arms conformed to the shape of her waist like water. “Under the MobilePod. That’s why we were here all morning.”

Caoimhe could wait, but each step in the dance led them closer to the end. She stepped carefully through the rubble of Lusa’s defences. “If you killed her, then that means you have to take her place.”

“I haven’t dated anyone in a while, but I’m not sure that’s how it works.” A deflection, but not a jest. Caoimhe could almost see her through the cracks.

“It is.” Caoimhe craned her neck to kiss her jaw, silently cursing Mackenzie for not making her a little bit taller. “It’s a new rule. If you don’t accept, you have to walk away now.” Caoimhe really hoped she wouldn’t walk away.

Lusa carded her fingers through Caoimhe’s tangled mess of strawberry blonde. She hadn’t had the chance to cut it yet and she thought it made her look too young and feminine. Lusa kissed the top of her head. “I’m afraid I’m going to hurt you.” The words fell so quietly the wind almost swallowed them.

“I’m more worried about your family than I am about you.” Caoimhe leaned back to look her in the eye. So much vulnerability behind an almost unnaturally dark brown. “Your aunt shot me in the neck, remember?”

“And you kidnapped Pinga.”

“You cost me my right arm, though,” Caoimhe turned her flawless hand this way and that, examining it. “I guess you made up for it.”

“You didn’t mention Piston.”

“Your mom told me.” Caoimhe let go and took a step back. “And she told me why. Your family may be a tich fucked up, but you take on troubles that aren’t yours.”

Lusa could only blink wetly.

“Cat’s grand, though,” Caoimhe said, “I like her.”

Lusa lowered her head. “Sorry. You don’t have to stay here. You can go back to Tyton.”

For a moment, neither of them moved. After all that, Caoimhe still hadn’t broken through Lusa’s stubborn belief that she wasn’t wanted. “I can’t help but notice you’re still here.”

Lusa raised her eyes. “Should I go? I was about to show you around your MobilePod.”

Exasperated, Caoimhe grabbed her collar, pulling herself up to catch her lip. “No, you idiot. You didn’t leave, so now you’re my girlfriend.”

“But my family…”

Caoimhe stopped her words with her tongue. “You’re not your family. You’re mine. For now.”

Propelled by years of overcompensating for her height, Caoimhe threw herself into Lusa and took her mouth. Without implants, Lusa could have easily stopped her, but she didn’t. Lusa let her.

Caoimhe broke away but remained standing on her highest tip toes. “Now show me the MobilePod. Specifically, the bedroom.”

Caoimhe remembered fumbling with the door. The latch had trouble understanding her haste. Somewhere in the kitchen, clothes had been removed. She remembered how easily Lusa lifted her onto the countertop. Like she weighed nothing. She remembered how she had ruined its surface when Lusa’s teeth broke her lip. Decided that it didn’t matter, that surfaces could be cleaned. She remembered how tongues fought for depth. How fingernails bit. How hair was pulled. How unbelievably soft the skin on her cheek felt against the inside of her thigh. Softer still, the press of her lips.