I’m still flapping confetti off my head when I spy Delphi making her way through the crowd. She looks cute as fuck today and that makes me smile, the tension of speaking to Dicker and placing the neutrino call fading as I take her in.
She’s wearing tan tactical pants, a pair of brown standard-issue station boots, and a white t-shirt that accentuates her… um… tits. Quite nicely, I think. Nice enough to make my cock jump a little just watching her pick her way through the crowd.
Her hair is up in a ponytail and on her head is a red and black Mighty Minions hat that she was not wearing when we left the penthouse earlier.
I grin as she comes up to me. “Don’t ask,” she says, rolling her eyes and pointing to her head. “I had to buy a hat because those stupid holographic demon children were following me around. I was gonna go up and grab yours from the penthouse, but I didn’t know which one it was. So”—she sighs and shrugs—“I bought another one.”
I laugh. I can’t help it. This place is such a fucking racket.
“What the hell is that?” she asks, pointing at my new bot.
“I’ll fill you in over breakfast,” I say, taking her hand. “Come on. I’m pretty sure our food is ready.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO – DELPHI
I try to focus on what Jimmy is telling me while we eat our Centurian wraps, but it’s kinda hard to concentrate. I’m usually all business. I’m not one of those flighty princesses who gush all over a handsome man and act like love-struck fools because I’m pretty logical on most days. But those violet eyes, and that hard body, and yeah, OK, so I’m shallow, but two cocks? I mean… come on. Two!
But… I dunno. It’s more than that. I think I really like him.
He’s so intriguing. Everything about him is just fascinating. I mean… that Harem Station thing? Suns. It has an allure I can’t deny. A whole station city of outlaws and bots run by some infamous, evil AI. Not to mention the way he throws money around like credits have no value at all.
And the band of brothers who will just come running when he calls… I can’t even imagine such loyalty. I had my father and Tycho, that’s it. Sure, I had plenty of cousins and sisters, and others around me my whole life, but could I count on them to help me in a pinch?
No. That’s exactly why I’m out here alone in the first place. No one was gonna save Tycho but me.
And now I have him. Jimmy of Harem Station, of all people.
I smile as Jimmy continues to describe his conversation with Dicker and then the Mighty Minions ambassador who signed him up for this crazy rewards card. His bot is still hovering over top of us. High enough to be out of reach—I think so Jimmy can’t swat him away—but low enough so that there’s no mistaking who he’s been assigned to. Tons of kids are gathered around us in a little circle gawking up at it because it’s been doing magic tricks and making balloon animals the whole time we’ve been eating.
And I know that I should be thinking up a new plan to get us out of this mess with Queenie, and I totally plan on doing that just as soon as I can stop staring at this Akeelian male and planning our fun day together, but what if… what if he’s right and we’re connected? Like true genetic soulmates?
Wouldn’t that be amazing? Not just the part where I get to spend the rest of my life with a true partner… but he’d take me back to his station. I would integrate into their culture and society. I’d meet new friends and do new things.
I would have people. Real loyalty. I’d have a family again.
“So what do you think?” Jimmy asks.
“Hmm?” I say, shaking myself out of my daydream.
He laughs. “Were you even listening to me?”
“I was. Sorta. Ask me that last question again.”
“Our day?” he says, raising his eyebrows. “Did you change your mind? I mean, I guess you don’t have to stick around with me all day, but it would be safer.” Then he points up at the bot. “I’ve got a security detail for us now.”
“Security? Wait what did I miss? You said this was your rewards bot.”
“Such a lie.” Then he leans in like he’s gonna tell me a secret. “I’m telling you, this station has some kind of interest in me. It’s weird.”
“I don’t know,” I say. “Not so weird. You are kind of fascinating.”
This makes him lean back and smile. “Say more,” he says.
I laugh. “I’m just… you know. Intrigued by this whole soulmates business.”
“I know,” he says, running his fingers through his light-brown hair so it’s deliciously messy. “If you had asked me yesterday if I wanted to fall in love with a Cygnian princess I’d have run the other way without even answering.”