Page 6 of Breakaway
The stranger could pass for human except for the pointed ears, the glowing blue of his irises, and the whites of his eyes being black. There's also the dark smoke that seems to curl around his body, flowing over his arms and down his legs. From the little I know about Sombrans, they're called shadows. Theypool on the ground for a moment before sliding back up just to make the same journey over and over again.
"Did you hear me?" Mauve asks, and it's me for once not looking at her while she's talking, instead of the other way around.
By the time I draw my gaze away from where the Sombran is talking with Marr, they're both walking toward the conference room door. I see the crease in Mauve's brow, a surprising sight since she's so strict about getting that touched up. The door to the conference room opens, and Marr holds it open for my new security detail. The man's unnaturally blue eyes widen a fraction, blond brows shooting up his forehead, and his shadows stop moving all at once, right before they shoot up his body. The tendrils congregate across his shoulders, lifting off them, swaying for a short time before the air conditioning blows them away, and then they do it all over again.
"I said, we're going to tell everyone that you're in a relationship," Mauve says.
The words don't fully process in my brain because I'm too busy watching this stranger's shadow tendrils wiggle around and dance on his shoulders. They all fall, all the way down his body, almost drastically, before pooling on the ground and remaining there.
"I'm in a relationship?" I ask, the words not sounding like they're even coming from me. The idea of it is so absurd that it doesn't even seem like a genuine question.
"Yes," Mauve says, moving her hand in front of my face, her bracelets jangling against each other as she waves it like she thinks she's lost me, and she kind of has.
I reluctantly draw my eyes away from the smoke, noticing that the Sombran's face has gone stoic, almost detached, his arms crossed over his body. His eyes are on Mauve, not evennoticing how I'm still blatantly staring at him. I mean, who wouldn't?
"Reese, meet Zill. He's going to be your personal security, but more than that, he's going to appear as your boyfriend until all of this blows over."
This time, all of the pieces click together, and I shake my head, eyes wide, face flushed to the max if how hot I feel is any indication. "No."
"Yes," Mauve counters before I can even form any sort of argument, my mouth opens, closes, opens again.
I flick a glance at the Sombran, Zill, curious to see how he feels about all of this. The only change in his expression is that he's now looking at me, and his lips are tilted down in the corners. I chew on my thumb again, thoughts racing, none of them sticking.
"We didn't talk about this," Zill says, his voice deep and calm, but still startling enough to have me jumping. The action causes his lips to press even harder down, his shadows slowly creeping back up his body, but no longer reaching as high as his shoulders or swirling around in patterns as they had earlier.
"We don't need to talk about it," Mauve says, waving her hand in the air like it's conveying anything other than the nothing it's giving. "Reese needs to be protected from creeps who think she's the persona she's put into the world for the last ten years. Unless you've bonded with someone since I saw you for your birthday, it shouldn't be an issue for you."
Zill's nostrils flare, the muscle in his jaw ticking twice before he lets his eyes settle on me. His expression softens slightly, but I can't look the man in the eyes, not when Mauve is here forcing him into some fake relationship he doesn't want.
"No, I haven't bonded anyone, but that doesn't mean you can just force me upon some unsuspecting woman," Zill says, hishand reaching up to rub at his temples. "She hasn't agreed to this, and it's not in my job description to date the clients."
"I'm not forcing you upon her," Mauve says, rolling her eyes, showing this Sombran more emotion in the short time he's been here than I'm used to seeing from her in months. She places her hand on my shoulder, giving me a small smile. "You won't have to worry about him trying anything. Sombrans only bond to one person. He has no interest in anything with you. The only reason I'm suggesting this is because it'll deter some of those who might want to harm or exploit you. Not only will it appear as though you're in a relationship, but one with a Sombran. No one is trying to break into a Sombran's house, not one as strong as my son."
I'm in the middle of taking a sip from one of the room-temperature water bottles that Jeanette brought, but as soon as Mauve finishes talking, that little sip of water attempts to kill me as I choke on it in surprise. I cough and cough and cough so much that my face, which was already red in embarrassment, is probably the shade of a tomato from the exertion and the added embarrassment.
"Your son?" I cough, the words coming out like a little squeak.
Zill looks furious when I chance a look at him, so I lower my eyes back down to the water bottle in my hands, picking at the label so I don't try to chew on my nails in front of everyone. Not that anyone is paying much attention to me anyway. Zill is staring straight at Mauve, who apparently has a whole grown adult child that's another species from her that she has never once mentioned in the entire time I've known her. Okay, she's told me when she's had to visit with family, but that was all she ever said. And she's not the type of woman to have pictures of anyone on her desk. Her whole office is kind of sterile in afloor-to-ceiling purple sort of way. Still, it's devoid of anything remotely personal.
"You're only going to upset your father if you keep trying to get into my head," Mauve says, her disapproval focused solely on Zill, who isn't happy in the slightest with everything that's been thrown at him.
Mauve's comment does remind me that she told me the Sombran who would be taking over my security detail was strong, strong enough to read minds at least. At the time, I hadn't cared because everything else had already felt like it'd been stripped from me. What more were my thoughts? Now though? Now that she's telling me I have to pretend to be in a relationship with him? Now that I know he's way more attractive than I thought he was going to be? I'm not sure if I can do this anymore.
"We need to talk," Zill says, his hands closing in on themselves.
"Yeah, Mauve, I'm not comfortable with this if he wasn't informed." My fingers are pressing into my palms, and where I'd usually feel the bite of my nails, I don't feel anything but my fingers and a bit of pain from where I've chewed my nails down to the quick.
"He's informed now," Mauve says, her brows furrowing again as she looks up at her son from where she's sitting. "You two are acting like I'm forcing you to do anything you're uncomfortable with. It will be a relationship in name only. He's already staying in your apartment for safety reasons. Now you two might also be pictured out in the world together. That's it. I'm not demanding any kind of physical proof for the presses. I'm asking for you to say if you are asked, that you are in a relationship with him until this all blows over."
"Mauve, what happened to keeping me single and unattainable?" I ask because that was the whole image we gave of Empress for my entire career.
"That was before men were breaking into your home and jerking off on your bed," Mauve says, her words blunt but effective. "You're now in a long-term, happy relationship that you've kept out of the spotlight, and he," she points to Zill, who doesn't look as angry anymore. Instead, he almost looks distracted, like he's listening to something else. "Will keep you safe."
I take a deep breath, trying to weigh what Mauve is suggesting against what feels right. A fake relationship with someone who is genetically incapable of having feelings for me is the safest scenario for a pretend relationship. Plus, he can hear my thoughts, and already knows I find him attractive. He hasn't even insinuated that he knows, and as long as he can do that and I can focus on other things when the thought of him being attractive comes up, we should be able to get through this without difficulty, right?
"If, and that's a big if, we do this, when does it end? What are the rules?"
Zill stops looking distracted, his whole body tensing for a moment as his shadows stop moving. When he releases his muscles, his shadows begin moving again. He's the one who answers.
