“Mykail!” I gasped, starting forward, but Dana caught my arm, pulling me back and putting himself between me and Mykail.
“He’s fine,” he assured, pointing a finger at me to scold me. “However, Little Lily, we need to have a talk.”
“About what?!” I snapped, pushing at his chest unaffectedly.
“Don’t think I didn’t hear what you two were talking about down there. I must say I did enjoy all the stories about what a devious little girl you were, but the point is,” he said quietly, “he said you two were getting intimate.” Dana shook his head, clicking the tongue against the roof of his mouth. “I am very disappointed in you. I trust you to be alone in the house with him and you almost lose your virtue.”
“It’s none of your fucking business!”
“It is my fucking business,” he snarled, leaning close, his eyes boring into mine. “I’ve already told you, Little Lily. I don’t like sharing.”
“Fuck you, I’m not yours!”
“Oh, you are,” he nodded with authority that sent shivers up my spine. He tilted his head slightly to the side and the shivers turned into waves of fear. “You are completely mine, you just haven’t noticed, yet.”
He turned over his shoulder to see Mykail struggling to get to his feet.
“You really want to fuck him?” Dana chuckled brokenly. “He’s just a boy, Little Lily. He’s got a lot more to learn. He may have been a whore, but he knows nothing about giving pleasure to women, I can assure you.”
“I’d say he knows plenty.”
That was a mistake and I knew it. Mykail blinked at me like I had levitated into the air and Dana rounded on me with fire in his eyes. I backed away, but Dana pulled me into his arms, his hands hard on my body as he locked me against him.
“Don’t provoke me, Little Lily,” he snarled. “Half the fun in having you is getting you to come to me first, but if you continue to push, I will take you right here and now in front of him and there will be nothing either of you could do to stop me.”
His eyes revealed the promise in his words.
“Whatever pleasure you think he’s given you is only a sliver of what I can show you,” he breathed, getting closer, his eyes changing from menacing to arousing, causing my legs to go weak. “I can take you to heights you never even dreamed existed…” Dana leaned into me, pressing his mouth to my ear. “And you’ll crawl to me, begging for more…”
I shuddered from the tone in his voice, unable to help myself.
There was a knock that sounded from the door leading to the garage and Dana let out a breathy chuckle, standing straight and releasing me.
“That will be Sean,” Dana groaned. “He’s found me.”
Dana looked at me and Mykail and smiled darkly.
Before I registered that he had moved, Dana reached forward and took my face in his hands, kissing me deeply, overwhelming me as he pressed his weight into the kiss.
I hated to admit the feeling was electric, and I especially hated to admit that when Mykail was watching.
I saw him move out of the corner of my eye, starting toward us with a growl, but Dana broke the kiss and held up a hand to Mykail, holding the remote for the disciplinary chips in his hand.
“I wouldn’t try it, little angel,” he chuckled. He turned back to me, lowering his hand. “Open your mouth,” he whispered with his honey-like voice. My body shuddered, but my mouth remained shut, trying to fight him.
“Little Lily,” he whispered. “Open your mouth…”
I did not obey.
His hand moved down my back and pressed me closer as his leg moved between mine, causing me to gasp in surprise.
As soon as my lips parted, his swooped in, tongue first and kissed me so hard it made my head spin. I was sure I would pass out as his tongue explored my teeth and lips delicately. I never thought to bite him, too overwhelmed from the onslaught of intense sensation to command my muscles to move.
My eyes flickered shut. The only thing that kept me from moaning was Mykail. I wanted these feelings to be with him, not with Dana.
The leader of the Commission of the People pulled away from the kiss and smiled.
“Good girl.”
He turned to Mykail.
“Let’s get you back to your room,” he grinned darkly.
The most I could do was try not to collapse as Dana pushed Mykail backward and down the hall to his room pushing him in roughly and slamming the door shut, grabbing the key ring in his pocket and locking the door.
“I will lock the other one, too, don’t worry,” Dana smiled. He looked over Mykail as I stumbled out of my door, trying to keep the ground from moving. The leader of the Commission chuckled.
“Just in case.”
He pressed the button in the remote in his pocket, causing Mykail to let out a choked scream and collapse to the ground.
Suddenly finding my feet again, I started forward, grabbing onto the bars and watching Mykail writhe in pain as Dana chuckled, ignoring the continuous pounding on the door to the garage.
“He’ll be fine, Little Lily,” Dana assured, grabbing my arm and pulling me down the stairs. I wanted to fight, but I did not know what I could do against Dana. I was worried that, if I fought him, he would punish Mykail, and I could not bear to see him collapse yet again. I had forgotten about the disciplinary chips. We should have taken those out with the tracers.
“Calm down, damn,” Dana groaned, opening the door to show a flustered Sean standing in the garage. “I just got here. You’re quick.”
“When you vanish, I have to be,” Sean said. “Good evening, Miss Sandover. I am sorry,” he said, stepping into the house. “Sir, we need to go back to the Commission.”
“No,” Dana snapped. “I’ve been cooped up down there for too long and I’m going crazy. We’re staying here tonight.”
“What? Why?” both Sean and I snapped.
“We have to make sure that Mykail doesn’t take advantage of having Little Lily alone in the house,” Dana said, looking at Sean expectantly. The head of security groaned and rolled his eyes, closing the door behind him and shaking his head. Dana smiled triumphantly and turned to me.
“Don’t worry, I will be right here,” he pointed to the couches in the small living room, “all night to be sure that he doesn’t sneak into your room when you’re asleep.”
“And I’ll make sure you don’t do the same,” Sean murmured, glancing at Dana. The head of the Commission made a face at the other man before turning back to me.
“So, why don’t you go upstairs, do your homework, brush your teeth, and go to bed like a good little girl?”
“Fuck you,” I snarled, storming upstairs. I turned to look into Mykail’s room. He was sitting against the foot of the bed, breathing hard, his eyes tightly shut. I was about to open my mouth to speak when Dana’s voice resonated sharply up the staircase.
“Little Lily, get your little ass in your room, now!”
I groaned and flipped him off as I walked into my room, slamming my door shut angrily.
I had no intension of letting Dana stay in my house all night, but I needed a few minutes to gather my thoughts. I sat on my bed, running my fingers through my hair, agitated and trying to figure out a way to get him out of my house.
I was staring at the carpet, wanting nothing more than to go to Mykail and make sure he was alright before attacking Dana somehow. I looked at my door for a moment, seriously considering the plan before I sighed and flopped back on my bed, torn.
A small mewl startled me and my eyes shot open.
“Dex?!”
I quickly fell to the side of my bed, looking under to the bed skirt to see my cat, terrified, hiding behind the stowed suitcase.
“Oh, baby, come here, come here,” I whispered, reaching under the bed and carefully extracting him, pulling him into my arms. I sat against my bed, holding him to me, stroking his fur. “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?” I asked, looking him over. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I’m sorry
…” I held him tight, both of us calming down together.
Once I had regained some of my bearings, I tried to figure out a way to get Dana Christenson out. I paced my room, thinking carefully. My legs were tired by the time I gave up trying to figure out a way to Mykail’s room. I sat on my bed, vowing that I would not sleep that night in case Dana sneaked into my room and tried anything. Although, since he had not so far, I was beginning to think that he had left. Sean’s car in the driveway was the only thing that told me otherwise.
Around midnight, I sat at my desk to do my homework, trying to keep myself awake. I still could not concentrate.
I was wondering what Dana was doing in my living room. Or maybe he was wandering around my house, looking through everything that my family owned. I had half a mind to storm down there and demand that he leave bluntly.
Before I had time to think better of it, I opened the door and started downstairs. Dana was sitting on the larger couch in the small living room, facing the fireplace, a glass of wine on the coffee table in front of him and his shoes kicked off haphazardly below his seat as he sat with his legs folded under him, an old photo album perched on his thighs as he looked at our family photos silently.
“You should be sleeping,” he said, not looking up from the pictures.
“And you should be minding your own business and not snooping through my family album.”
“Oh please, there is nothing about your family I don’t already know,” he groaned, seeming disinterested as he turned the page. I looked around the room, leaning on my hands on the back of the other couch, my brain abandoning the idea of telling Dana off.
“Where’s Sean?”
“He went on a walk. He’ll be back,” Dana answered, still not looking up. He glanced over the pictures, studying every detail. “I’m surprised to see one of these old albums,” he said quietly. “Most families keep the electronic ones now…”
I looked at the album in his hands.
“Mom used to love putting those together,” I murmured, walking around to sit on the other couch. “She used to try and get me to help, but I always thought it was such a waste of time when we could just have the electronic ones…”
Dana turned another page.
“My favorite thing about albums is seeing how the style changed,” he told me, his voice calm and quiet. “Makes me think about how quickly everything changes. It’s refreshing knowing that change is coming.”
I watched him as he looked over the new page.
“Do you feel nostalgic about anything?”
He finally turned to me and shook his head slowly.
“No.”
He looked back at the page and smiled.
“Your father certainly had a huge smile on his face when you were born,” Dana grinned, glancing up at me. I stared at him, surprised by his demeanor. He seemed quieter, calmer than I had ever seen him before. I still felt his power, but it was muted, as though he was partially asleep. He turned his powerful eyes back to the picture. “He must have been thrilled to have a daughter…”
I looked him over slowly, confused and admittedly curious about his change in behavior.
“You two seem to have a very special relationship…” Dana smiled.
“…we used to.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ever since the Commission, things have changed…” I said. “Nothing is what it used to be.”
“How did the relationship with your father change?”
“What do you care?”
“I’m curious,” Dana said, closing the album slowly and moving to place it on the coffee table. “I told you, I like noting how things change.”
“You already know everything about my family, though,” I pointed out. “I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you.”
Dana smiled, grabbing the glass of wine and sitting back in his seat. I scoffed and rolled my eyes.
“By all means, make yourself at home,” I snarled coldly.
“There’s no need to be hostile, Little Lily,” Dana grinned, lifting the glass to his lips with incredible grace and power, commanding my attention to the way his wrist ever so slightly tilted as he tasted the burgundy liquid. “I just want to talk.”
I looked him over once and then mustered up the nerve to ask.
“What is with you?” I whispered. “You’re…different.”
“How so?”
“You’re…quiet…”
“I’m normally raucous?” he chuckled, lowering the glass to rest on his knee.
“No. You’re normally…I don’t know…” I shook my head and looked him over once more. “It’s kind of like when an animal is sedated to get their shots…you seem to be running at forty percent.”
Dana smiled and leaned his head back on the back of the couch, looking at the ceiling, deciding how to respond.
“My mind is normally very busy,” he said, his voice gentle. “Always buzzing, like a little bee that you can’t swat away…” His head rolled forward again and he looked at me. “But sometimes, it goes quiet…generally when I finally get out of the Commission.” He looked into space for a moment before heaving a sigh, smiling. “That’s why I just want to talk. I want to know how your relationship with your father changed when you became part of the Commission.”
I sighed and looked around the room, trying to find a way to keep from spilling my guts to Dana. His eyes were prying and powerful as always, but they were magnetizing now, pulling me closer in a different way. I found myself relaxing, not worried about being alone with Dana.
“That’s not very fair…”
“What’s not?”
“That you can ask questions about my life…even though you know everything about me…” I said quietly. “If I answer you, I get to ask you a question.”
Dana nodded, tipping the wine glass to me before taking another sip.
“I go first,” I said, jumping on the opportunity. I had always had a million questions buzzing in my head about Dana, but now that I had the opportunity to ask, I found I could not think of anything. “Were you a willing experiment in the Commission?”
He smiled and glanced distantly at the family photo album on the table.
“That’s a little difficult to answer,” he started. “At first, no,” he admitted, looking back to me. “I kicked and screamed and fussed, just like all the others. But…then I started to realize how I was changing, how those barriers that had kept me from acknowledging that I wanted things began to fall…and I was able to understand better how I operated as a human. I learned more about myself on that table than anywhere else. So, after a while, I found myself excited to go back to the tests.”
“What did they try to make you?”
“That’s two questions, Little Lily,” he pointed out. “It’s my turn.” I grumbled irritably and slumped back in my seat. “What was it about the relationship you had with your father that made it special? That made it different from the relationship with your mother?”
I sighed and thought about how to answer.
“I don’t know…” I breathed. “It just…was.” I picked at the lint on my pajamas. Dana was very quiet, waiting. I could feel his eyes, but they were gentler than usual, almost caring, even if they did still make my skin prickle. “My mother always was teaching me something,” I mused. “Always looking for some lesson, or trying to make me a perfect woman, or…whatever it was she wanted me to be…” I chuckled brokenly. “I always had to try so hard to please her, to be the perfect daughter, the one that everyone would compliment so she would compliment me later…with my dad, he just loved me. I didn’t have to be anything for him. We used to be able to go out and just…entertain ourselves for hours and never be bored. We were always laughing. I always felt so happy when I was with him. But now…”
“Now?”
“Now he belongs to the Commission,” I finally whispered. “He’s not mine anymore. I have to get permission from you just to spend the day with him.” The tears were b
eginning to rise to my eyes, but I bit them back, pursing my lips and waiting for the lump in my throat to go down before I spoke again. “And he’s so busy trying to appease both my mother and me as we fight. So…he’s not my father anymore. He’s the peacekeeper, the one who’s trying to keep things the way they were…” I glanced at Dana, who was looking at me with vivid golden eyes. “But things are never going to be the way they were.”
“No,” Dana admitted quietly. “They won’t.”
“I want to go back to that time, too,” I whispered. “I want my father back…my protector…”
“Your protector?” Dana asked. “What did he protect you from?”
“That’s two questions, Mr. Christenson,” I said with a chuckle. He smiled and took a deep breath, slowly letting it out. He leaned closer, extending his hand with the wine glass.
“Would you like some?”
I blinked at the wine, and then glanced at Dana again. It was like I was sitting with a completely different person. I started to wonder if I was no longer sitting with Dana Christenson, but instead sitting with the human Dana had been before the Commission tested on him. I studied his relaxed posture, the small light that played in his eyes. It was not a different look, but it was subdued, easier to handle.
Carefully, I reached forward and took the wine glass.
“Ask your question,” he nodded, backing away. I lifted the wine glass to my nose and sniffed it. I stared into the burgundy liquid as I sloshed it around in the glass, pretending that I knew what I was doing as I thought of my next question.
“Do you remember your life before you were an experiment?” I asked finally, glancing at him before lifting the glass to my lips and sipping the wine.
“Of course I do.”
“You said you didn’t remember things from your childhood,” I pointed out.
“Ah, well, there are certain things I don’t remember. I couldn’t tell you my birthday or how old I am because I don’t remember. But I do remember my mother, and my father, I remember the little sister that died three days after she was born and made my mom terrified to try for children again…I remember how skilled my father was with a belt, that’s still pretty clear in my memory.”
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