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His mouth covered hers in a kiss that stole her breath. His hand covered her jaw, fingers digging hard as he blasted lewd moans into her lungs while stretching her with his fingers. They moved in and out of her like a rolling wave in a building storm. His grip left her face and found her clit. “Oh! Oh God.”

His breath caught in a rough groan as he circled the hot button till she trembled and her body arched.

“My fucking pussy,” he groaned, breath ragged. “And this ass…” A slow swirl of his thumb right on it. “You ready for another finger, baby?”

Her cry hitched, heat flooding through her core. “Yes!” she pleaded, frantic.

“Please what?” he demanded, his hot breath on her pussy.

Her body tightened around his fingers, writhing, reaching. She needed more. She needed him.

“Ethan,” she begged, voice breathless. “I love you.”

A deafening white noise crashed in.

Then—nothing.

Air rushed back into her lungs. She gasped, blinking against the disorienting darkness.

Her hands clutched fabric.

A nightgown.

Her head whipped left, then right. Searching.

The room lit up. The Dungeon. But how it looked without the goggles. She reached up and pulled the headset off, her breaths the only thing in the room. She removed the nodes from her head and body, fighting her confusion, her jagged breaths.

What the fuck just happened? What was that?

****

The control room was silent.

Zero sat at the console, one hand resting against the screen, watching the data stream scroll. Cat’s vitals. Omnis’ performance log. The moment it went to hell.

He saw it. Not just in the data. In Omnis.

“You gonna say it now?” Zero asked.

Omnis stood at the opposite end of the room, hands braced on the edge of the other console. Too still. His breath wasn’t perfectly measured. His pulse wasn’t perfectly even.

Zero tilted his head. “Come on,” he prompted, his rage starting a low boil. “Sayit.”

Omnis’ fingers curled against the console, like he was restraining something.

Zero leaned forward, tapping a few keys, replaying the exact moment. The moment he lost her. The moment she confessed her love for Ethan—and Omnis fucking broke.

Zero exhaled. “Webothknow what’s coming.”

Omnis’ jaw flexed. “We are compromised.”

Zero let out a low laugh. “Took you long enough.”

The hum of the servers filled the space between them.

Zero gestured to the screen, eyes sharper. “So what’s the move? We try again? Double down?” His voice dipped lower, mocking. “Erase it?”

Omnis’ head snapped toward him.