Chapter Six
Partner?
Flicker’s eyes blinked open. She took a moment to collect her thoughts and then smiled, as she remembered last night. The sound of heavy breathing with a hint of a snore to it had her turning her head to the other side. Utah was asleep on his side beside her and with a quirk of an eyebrow her eyes traced down his top arm to where his hand lay splayed across her bottom possessively.
Well he’d been telling the truth about his fascination with that area of her body anyway, she thought to herself with a little grin. It was nice to know that even being half the woman that she was that she could still attract a man, a good man.
Why he was so interested in her she couldn’t fathom, but he was and she certainly wasn’t going to dissuade him. This was a dream come true for her. She had wanted Utah ever since that night when the Code had fallen and she had regained her freedom.
Something about the man, who her brother and several others had to restrain from returning to his fallen friend had called out to her in a deeply emotional way. Beyond that there had been a physical connection upon eyesight and now here he was and he thought that she was hot.
The smile fell off her face. A bitter urge for the impossible rose up in her. She wished…….
She wished she had a pair of toned calves and sweetly formed feet that she could have sashayed up to him in a pair of high heels with real fingers to have reached out and felt the texture and warmth of his skin. She wished that she was whole!
A single bitter tear coursed down her cheek, as she lay watching him sleep. She had to get a grip on herself. Life wasn’t a fairytale, as well she knew and what she needed to do now was realize all the many ways that things could be worse than they were.
She knew the truth of that, but still she wished she could have been more whole for this man than the odd collection of parts and scars that she was made up of. Surely it must almost be a sacrifice for a perfect man like him to be with a woman like her?
He didn’t seem to think that way though. He had given so unselfishly of himself last night. She’d never felt so physically relaxed since the day she had awoken a monster. She wanted to give him something back in return, but what?
“You gave him back his life did you not?”
Yes, she had and how has she done that?
Flicker’s eyes tracked over to the metallic combination of indestructible parts that served as her makeshift hand. First she had saved her brother and then perhaps the world, then Asia, then both of her brothers and now she could add her man to the growing list. There were certainly reasons to be grateful for her cursed state of being.
Her recent successes did make it more bearable to be as she was. Bearable, as long as Utah wanted her anyway. If he rejected her she didn’t know what she’d do.
Utah was starting to wake up and she watched the progression to conscious awareness completely fascinated. His hand shifted and squeezed one of her bottom cheeks firmly, which caused her smile to come back out. His eyes abruptly shot open and his hand quickly moved away, “Sorry about that!”
Flicker almost told him to put his hand back, because she already missed the warmth of it and the sense of connection there had been between them, but “Good morning” was all she said.
“Good morning.” I said in response feeling somewhat embarrassed of myself. She didn’t seem to mind where my hand had been, if her smile was anything to go by.
We both quickly got ready and I watched with real fascination, as she stepped into the lose pile of body armor. She pressed two fingers together from opposite hands and an electric spark snapped visibly. Immediately the loose armor snaked up her body by passing over her lower legs to snugly enfold her in its protective shell.
“Is that stuff bulletproof?” I asked curious to know.
“For the most part.”
“I bet its snake proof.” I said with envy to be heard in my voice.
She just smiled and started out at a more relaxed pace than yesterday, which I was grateful for. We talked along the way and when we reached my concealed Jeep five hours later I was kind of hoping that we hadn’t, because it meant that we would part ways now.
I stared at the jeep hating it in a way, “So like I was saying this was part one of a four-part process. I’ll be frank about it. I really need your help with this mission and beyond that I’d really like to spend more time with you.”
I studied her, as she enigmatically gazed at me. I was unsure of what she would do and fully aware that I couldn’t make up her mind for her. She was free to do as she pleased.
It was with relief that I saw her extend her hand out to me along with the words that she spoke, “I’d really like to spend more time with you too. What do you say to being partners?”
I took her cool metallic grasp and shook it firmly, “Partners it is then!” I said, but we both knew that we were enacting something far more than just a working relationship.
She didn’t let go of my hand and I saw her face darken from some source of self-doubt, as she asked hesitantly, “You’re sure you don’t mind?” Her alloyed fingers flexed slightly in a clear indication of what she was asking.
“I don’t mind.” I said honestly, even as I was glad that we were getting out in the open this sudden attraction between the two of us.
She gave me a look that said she still didn’t believe me. She let my hand go. Sometimes believing is feeling as well as seeing. I stepped close to her enfolding one hand around the back of her neck and pulled her into my kiss.
Her eyes had flared wide in alarm, but I ignored her shocked gaze and closed mine, as I deepened the kiss. She could so rip me into little pieces right now, but instinct won out. She started responding to my kiss with an innocent fervor that was beautiful.
I drew back from her lips and her beautifully expressive eyes blinked open with a dazed look of befuddled passion.
I smiled richly, “Not a problem, understand?”
She nodded affirmatively and I stepped back slightly.
“Now for the next problem. How are we going to stay in touch so you know where to meet up with me to collect the other parts?” I asked hoping that she had an answer to my problem.
Flicker turned from me then to unsling the little pack she wore and then she started rooting around in it in search for something. I took the opportunity to admire the way her very blonde hair fell across her face. There was something so very familiar about her. It hit me like a ton of bricks then.
I about burst out with my revelation, but something made me hold back. The resemblance between her and what had to be her two brothers, Flint and John, was unmistakable and I couldn’t believe I had missed it up until now. Another thought came on the heels of that one.
What would big brother think when he found out that I was dating his kid sister?
Did her brothers know she was even alive?
I doubted it from what little I knew of their stories. Did she know who she was?
Whether she did or didn’t it could wait for another day. She’d finally found what she had been looking for, two little black discs.
“These are thought responders. I already have a pair wired into my head. If you wear these you’ll be able to communicate with me by thought.”
I nodded and she stepped closer and started to place one in the area behind my left ear. I watched her pink lips move, as she spoke, “There will be a little sting as it connects to your resident electrical focus.”
“My what?”
Her lips split apart in a grin that showed her pearly white teeth, but she didn’t answer. There certainly was a sting to it, I acknowledged, as I winced against the pain of it adhering to the side of my head behind my ear.
She went to work on my other side. She was tall standing perhaps only less than an inch off of my 6’4”. I liked that. Her tongue came out to lick her lips, as she concentrated on lining the disc up right. Her lips glistened in the sunlight, as I felt the sting of the second disc. She was saying something and I tried to focus to hear what it was past my fascination of watching her lips move.
“Now I’ll be able to hear your thoughts.”
I blinked hard, all of my focus suddenly on her, as my eyes darted to hers. ‘Don’t do it!’ I silently screamed.
Oh rats! She did it.
I inwardly cringed, as I watched her face blush with an intensity of color. Trying to ease out of a terrible social blunder I threw up a hastily contrived defense, “Boys will be boys.”
She shot through that excuse with one disapproving look and I cringed visibly this time. Honestly I admitted, “I’m sorry if I offended you.”
She looked down her face still the color of crimson and said, “You didn’t offend me. Just shocked me a bit is all.”
“A bit?” I said disbelievingly.
“Okay a lot.”
“Sorry.” I said hopeless to change what she’d seen in my thoughts.
She glanced back up her blue eyes alive with a speculative gleam as she stated, “I guess you have this partnership going a lot further than a standard working relationship?
“I have only the finest of intentions in concern to you Flicker.” I said heartfeltly.
She nodded and something seemed to relax in her still rosy face, “It should be an interesting experience for both of us then.” She said husky voiced.
She left me suddenly then fading away into the jungle.
This just wasn’t right! A girl being able to read a guy’s thoughts at will! It was fiendishly diabolical!
“I heard that.” Came the distinct thought within my consciousness.
“Darn it!” I fumed out loud, but I heard nothing back in reply from the jungle, but the usual jungle sounds and the sense of someone laughing at me inside my own head. I reached up to tug at one of the discs, but it wouldn’t budge.
Morosely I let my hand fall defeatedly back to my side, as I acknowledged the sad fact of the matter that I had just gotten suckered in and had lost the battle of the sexes without contest.