Page 35 of The Bounty

It’s normal.

But what’snotnormal is the way she’s looking at me.

The last time I saw her, she was a mixture of desperation and fear. I saw the way she flinched when I punched the wall, and the terror in her eyes as she recoiled in horror.

But all those emotions have been wiped away and replaced with determination on her delicate features.

“Hey,” she says. “Can I come in?”

And because I’m an idiot, I nod immediately.

“Thanks.” The door swings open, and she steps inside, her natural perfume subtly clouding my office. Her eyes dart throughout the room until her gaze lands on my desk.

“Damn,” she says, raising her eyebrows. “What a setup. Looks a bit like mine.”

She takes a step closer, and I stand up, amazed at the spark in her eyes.

There’s nothing exquisite about my workspace. There’s my main desktop, with a monitor on each side.

To the untrained eye, it’s nothing special. It’s a bunch of screens, with some extra electronics.

I cock an eyebrow at her, at the same time beaming inside.

“Er, itwasmy setup. Before…all this.” She waves her arm and shakes her head. “I worked in tech. In Silicon Valley.”

I wasnotexpecting that answer.

“Really?”

Excitement builds in me against my will.

None of this matters.

I can’t be interested in her.

“My company did cyber security,” she says wistfully, staring at my desk. “We worked with app developers and made antivirus programs.”

“I build applications,” I blurt, and suddenly, I’m an insecure fourteen-year-old boy again.

Then, she gives me a smile, bright and beautiful, and I want to tell her all my secrets.

I want to talk to her forever.

“Yeah?” She asks. “What kind?”

“I was working on a social networking platform for Omegas. Before…before all of this,” I admit sheepishly.

Her smile grows. “You don’t seem like a social butterfly,” she murmurs.

I shrug. “I’m not. But there was a market for it.”

She nods, but her smile fades.

“I miss work,” she mutters, as she stares at my desk. “I miss sitting at a computer, as weird as that sounds.”

“Do you want to sit down? The webcam is disabled, so feel free to use the computer.”

I offer it before I can stop myself.