Chapter 64: Episode 64: Hard or Gentle?

Adonis did not ask questions.

He simply carried her back to the massive bed.

He lay down beside her, pulling her securely against his broad chest. He wrapped his muscular arms around her trembling frame, assuring her that she was absolutely safe in his arms.

Even placing a kiss on her forehead to show he truly did care.

Nikki buried her face deep into the crook of his neck, her sobs slowly tapering off into quiet, jagged hiccups. She refused to say a word, focusing entirely on the steady, simulated rise and fall of his chest.

She breathed him in, a deep, grounding scent of fresh rain, and a faint dark rose that clung to his skin. It was intoxicating.

It was an addiction that slowly poured ice water over her blazing panic attack, bringing her heart rate back down from the hazardous red zone.

For a long time, the only sound in the penthouse was her ragged breathing and the soft, rhythmic whir of his internal cooling fans.

When her trembling finally subsided, Adonis shifted slightly. He gently pulled back, just enough to look at her face.

His large hand moved up, his thumb brushing millimeters away from the dark, mottled bruises blooming across her throat. He didn’t touch the damaged tissue, calculating that even the lightest pressure would cause her pain.

“Nikki,” Adonis rumbled, his voice a low, vibrating frequency designed to soothe. “What happened? The contusions on your neck… they are fresh. The biometric data suggests immense localized pressure. Did anything or anyone touch you while you were in the library?”

His jaw tightened. “If a security drone malfunctioned, I will dismantle the entire network.”

Nikki swallowed hard, wincing at the dull ache in her throat. She shook her head, forcing a weak, unconvincing laugh.

“No,” Nikki lied, her voice raspy. “No one touched me. It wasn’t real. I just… I fell asleep at the reading table and had a dream.” She paused, scrambling for an excuse that would satisfy a supercomputer. “It was just so similar to that movie we talked about. M3GAN

. It freaked me out so badly I must have grabbed my own neck in my sleep. You know how chaotic my biological responses are.”

It was a flimsy lie, scientifically improbable, but Adonis was operating on the [Heart Protocol]. His priority was her immediate emotional stabilization, not interrogating her.

A soft, incredibly rare smile touched his lips. He reached up, his large, warm hand gently patting the crown of her red hair.

“A horror film,” Adonis murmured, shaking his head with fond exasperation. “Your imagination is a highly inefficient processor, Master. I assure you, nothing like that is going to happen. You are safe in my arms. No machine will ever harm you here.”

Nikki closed her eyes, leaning into his touch, but a cold knot of dread tightened in her stomach.

Safe. She began to doubt the very concept of the word.

What if all this was temporary? What if his system reset tomorrow, wiping away the quirks, the affection, the bizarrely romantic obsession he had developed for her?

What if the “God of War” protocol overrode his logic circuits, and he became the exact monster she had just witnessed in the Penalty Zone?

What if his system suddenly went haywire, and she lost this General, the one who thought only for the people, who tried to balance the good of mankind with his own rigid programming?

The thought terrified her so profoundly that she squeezed her arms around his waist, holding onto him with a desperate, crushing grip. She didn’t want to lose him. She didn’t want the world to burn.

[THAT’S WHY YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN PREVENT THAT.]

Nikki gritted her teeth, burying her face against his collarbone. She hated it. She hated that the System had placed the literal weight of the world on her shoulders.

She was just a girl from the slums who liked sleeping. She didn’t deserve this burden; she was weak, foolish, and easily swayed by a handsome face.

But as she listened to the steady hum of his processor, her resolve hardened. She would try her best. She had to. Because life at this point wasn’t worth living if she failed.

If she gave up, she would be thrown back into Sector 4, forced to find a miserable job, struggling to survive among desperate humans who were just as dangerous, if not more so, than the AI and the robots.

She had tasted the heavens. She refused to fall back into the dirt.

Nikki slowly withdrew, pushing herself up slightly so she could look down at him.

Adonis looked back at her, his blue eyes tracking every micro-expression on her face. Nikki reached out, her fingertips tracing the sharp, perfect angle of his jaw. She brushed over the strong curve of his cheekbones, the slight furrow of his eyebrows.

She felt a profound, overwhelming awe for how beautifully he was created. He was a weapon of mass destruction, yet every inch of him was sculpted with the meticulous care of a Renaissance masterpiece.

“I said it last night, and I’ll say it again,” Nikki whispered, a genuine smile finally breaking through her trauma. “The person who created you was indeed a god.”

Adonis’s lips parted slightly. A slow, devastatingly handsome smile spread across his face, transforming him from a terrifying warlord into something entirely breathtaking.

Nikki couldn’t resist. She leaned down and pressed her lips to his.

Adonis responded instantly. His large hands slid from her waist up to her back, pulling her flush against him as he returned the kiss. It wasn’t forceful; it was deep, reverent, and overwhelmingly warm.

As their lips moved together, Nikki realized something that sent a thrill of terror and excitement down her spine. The more she got to know him, the more he continued to appear human to her.

To everyone outside this penthouse, he was the cold, unfeeling AI General who ruled with an iron fist. But here, in this bed, he was gentle. He was attentive. He was hers.

She was deeply, hopelessly attracted to this side of him, and it scared her to death.

She was meant to seduce him, but in the process, he had been the one that completely seduced her.

Nikki broke the kiss, her chest heaving, her lips swollen and shining. She looked down into his glowing blue eyes, the adrenaline from her nightmare converting entirely into a different, much warmer kind of heat.

“Adonis,” Nikki breathed, her voice dropping to a sultry, purposeful whisper. “I’m no longer on my period.”

Adonis’s processor noticeably stalled. His hands tightened on her waist, the blue in his eyes flickering wildly.

“Nikki,” he managed to say, his voice a low, gravelly rumble that betrayed his immediate system reaction. He tried to summon his logical subroutines. “Your cortisol levels are still stabilizing from a night terror. You require rest. Furthermore, I need to apply a medical-grade disinfectant and a dermal regenerator to the wounds around your neck to prevent—”

“No,” Nikki interrupted, shoving his logical words away. She shifted her hips, straddling his waist and pressing her hands flat against his broad, bare chest.

She looked at him with dark, heavy eyes, desperate to erase the memory of the apocalypse with the undeniable reality of his touch. “I don’t want medicine. I don’t want to rest. I just want you. Only you.”

Adonis stared up at her. He reached up, his massive hands gripping her hips.

“Then~” Adonis asked, his voice a dark, velvet command that sent a shiver straight to her core, “do you want it hard or gentle?”

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