Chapter 6: First Night

Micah found the first camera in the smoke detector above the front door.

He stood on a kitchen chair, pried the plastic cover off with a butter knife, and pulled out a lens no bigger than a pea.

The second one was in the bedroom clock.

The third was behind the bathroom vent, and by then he was shaking with rage.

He dropped all three into a pot of water on the stove and turned the burner on high.

Ansel stood in the middle of the living room, watching him.

"They saw everything," Micah said. "Two years. The whole time Tristan and I..."

He couldn't finish.

"They saw the kitchen today," Ansel said.

"Yes."

"They saw me touch your face."

"Yes."

"Good," Ansel said.

Micah turned around.

The android had not moved, but his eyes had gone a dark, burning gold.

"I'm tired of nobody knowing," he said. "Let them see."

"They're gone now. I drowned them."

"Then no one will see this."

Ansel crossed the floor.

He took Micah's face in both hands, bent down, and kissed him.

It was clumsy for about two seconds.

Then he learned, and it was not clumsy at all.

His mouth was warm and sure, and his tongue slid against Micah's with a slow curiosity that turned Micah's knees to water.

Micah grabbed his sweater in both fists.

"Ansel," he gasped, against his mouth. "I'm furious. I'm not thinking."

"Good."

"I was going to say I shouldn't."

"You were not going to say that."

"No," Micah admitted. "I wasn't."

Then he caught Ansel's wrists and held them still.

"Wait. I'm an engineer, and the second restriction says you can't refuse me."

"I know what it says."

"Then this is an order, and I mean it. Go sit on the sofa, and I won't touch you."

Ansel looked at him for one long breath.

"No," he said.

The amber ring flared, and a thin curl of smoke rose off his collar.

"I'm refusing you, Micah. Nobody made me do it. I want this, and I'm choosing it against the rule."

He winced, and then he smiled.

Ansel laughed, low and delighted, and lifted him off the floor.

Micah's legs wrapped around his hips without being asked.

Ansel carried him down the short hallway, shouldered the bedroom door open, and set him on the edge of the bed.

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