Page 19 of Tyton: The Spider and the Dragonfly (Tyton #1)

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gh.” Callie flopped on her bed. She could hear Sparx loudly peeing in her bathroom. “I am too old to be working full time and dating.” She heard the faucet run and Sparx returned, zipping up his fly.

“God, I missed peeing standing up.” Sparx grinned, straight white teeth gleaming surrounded by a killer smile and dark stubbled skin. A pillow caught him in the face.

“You make the same joke every time.” Callie folded her legs and made room for him on the bed. “Try that smile on someone who isn’t a lesbian.”

“Oh, I intend to.” Sparx exaggerated his smile, crossing into maniacal . “Tornit prefers men.”

“What? Are you saying you flipped for a guy you just met?” Callie chewed at her fingernails. Sparx was very much his own person, and she couldn’t imagine him changing that for anyone or anything.

“Nah,” he said, combing his fingers through his short cropped brown hair. “I’ve been feeling the itch for a while. I just needed my bank account to catch up.”

Callie nodded leisurely. “So, is everyone in the Adlets queer then? You seem to have gotten along rather well with them.”

Sparx chuckled. “Lemme think. Sesi’s a lesbian. Talia is very lesbian, Siku is ace and Tornit is bi, but male leaning, as discussed. I don’t really know the rest of them, but honey, it’s the end of the world. Everyone is a little bit queer.”

Callie wasn’t sure about that. When Sparx’s parents joined the Natalists she only knew they hated queer people.

She hadn’t known they tried to force their daughters to breed.

Far earlier than she wanted to think about.

It was one of those odious things people spoke of in hushed tones.

There were rumours of dark places one would go and pay absurd amounts of money to try for another child.

A wave of nausea hit her, and she felt Sparx’s hand on her shoulder.

“Are you okay?”

Callie realised her face was contorted in disgust. “Yeah. I just – I felt stupid for a minute.”

“About most people being queer?”

“No, my thoughts kind of raced ahead.” Callie turned her back to Sparx and leaned against him.

He laced his arms around her. It felt like the first time he had flipped.

Callie had let him stay with her. He had needed the physical intimacy of being held, but it felt better, more masculine, if he did the holding.

And Callie had let him, without question. Without fear.

“How stupid was I to believe that misogyny was a thing of the past?”

Sparx rested his chin on Callie’s head. “In what way?” he asked.

“I was just thinking about those creepy Natalists. And because I’m a self-absorbed arsehole and it doesn’t affect me directly, I just…”

“Shh,” Sparx interrupted. He didn’t need Callie getting worked up any more than she already was. “I’m a bigger arsehole than you, remember?”

Callie punched him in the leg. “It’s not a competition.”

Sparx laughed and squeezed Callie tighter. “If it makes you feel better, rescuing girls is one of the things the Adlets do.”

“So, they’re not a gang, they’re vigilantes?” Callie rolled her eyes. She felt Sparx shrug.

“Gangs rely on the good will of their districts. Fear only gets you so far. Haven’t you watched any mob movies?”

“I guess not. They didn’t really seem like my kind of thing.”

“That’s weird for someone who reads detective novels.” Sparx grimaced. “Well, you’ve just earned yourself a movie night.” Sparx kissed Callie on the cheek as she squirmed away.

“Goddammit, your stubble, Sparx!”

Sparx laughed and brought up a screen on the Hexaline wall with a list of gangster movies. Callie scrolled down the list, reading each blurb carefully.

“You know Talia’s one of them, right?” Sparx stared at his hands, admiring his new, more muscular fingers.

“One of what?” Callie quickly rejected a movie and moved on to the next page.

“A rescue from the Natalists.”

“What? She never told me that?” Callie stopped scrolling, her attention now fully on Sparx.

Sparx nodded sombrely. “It’s why she wears the mask. She’s afraid someone will recognise her.”

“Can’t she just go to a DocPod?” Callie asked.

Sparx shrugged. “Now that I think about it, I don’t know any of them that have been to one for anything cosmetic.”

“I haven’t either. It’s not that weird. I just don’t want to spend money on it.”

“Yeah, but you’re already hot.” Sparx shoved her playfully.

“You’re full of shit.” Callie shoved back and turned back to the screen.

“Really? How many women have been begging for your attention in the last week?”

“Ugh.” Callie rolled her eyes exasperated. “Just Akna and Talia.”

“And the mixer,” Sparx added.

“That was the week before. And because Sesi told her to.”

“Fine, also Sesi.”

“Sesi hasn’t been begging for my attention.

” Callie suddenly felt warm. There might have been some innuendo in her conversation with Sesi, but Callie could also have been letting her longsuffering libido run away with her.

She couldn’t deny that she wanted Sesi’s attention, though.

“She’s like a spider. Just sitting there, waiting to trick you into doing what she wants. ”

Sparx cocked an eyebrow, thinking, and then nodded. “That seems about right. Once you get to know them all, you’ll see that’s about as close as Sesi comes to begging.”

“You weren’t even conscious!”

“No, but Tornit was watching through the Hexaline.”

“You and Tornit are that close now? Having a little gossip sesh about his boss?” Callie mocked, but there was an edge to her voice.

“Oh stop.” Sparx waved her off. “Anyway, it’s obvious the feelings are reciprocated.”

“Fuck off, Sparx.” Sparx laughed and Callie went back to scrolling. A few minutes passed. Sparx attempted to cross his legs, but he just wasn’t as flexible in this new body. It would take some practice again.

“So, how much of your wishlist did you tick off last night?” he threw out, knowing perfectly well how it would land. Callie nearly choked.

“Jesus, Sparx!” she coughed. “Is nothing sacred?”

“Between us?” he laughed again. “No. Remember that time with the three guys and I told you every detail?”

“Yes,” Callie groaned. “Don’t ever do that again. I was cringing the entire time and you just kept going because you like pushing my buttons!”

“And you,” Sparx tapped his index finger on Callie’s shoulder, “like having your buttons pushed. Which is why we’re friends.

” Callie frowned, but Sparx wasn’t wrong.

She did enjoy the titillation of his occasional oversharing, even though she would be loath to admit it.

Callie did want to let go, but something always bound her to propriety, unless she got a push.

Then, she reasoned, she could at least partially fault someone else.

Sparx was always more than happy to take the blame.

“So, spill,” Sparx goaded. “I want to know what weird shit she’s into.”

“Wait, what?” Callie was momentarily stunned. “One, we don’t kink shame and two, I thought you knew everything about her!”

“Not everything .” Sparx whined. “And please, enough with the don’t kink shame . With the size of that stick up your arse, you’d think you’d enjoy…”

“I am begging you, do not finish that sentence.” Callie grabbed a pillow and hid her face.

“You do! ” he squealed gleefully. “Okay, so now I need to know how big…”

“Absofuckinglutely not!” Callie hit him with the pillow. Repeatedly. Sparx giggled and fell backward against the wall. “Too far!” Callie scolded.

“Alright, alright, you win.” He lifted his hands in surrender.

“I have no idea what she’s really into,” Callie added once he had stopped laughing. “Just some light bondage so far. I think she didn’t want to scare me off. She can’t be into everything . Or at least not good at all of it.”

“That’s true,” Sparx mused. “Is there anything you were hoping for?” Callie glared. Sparx raised his hand defensively again. “Professional curiosity is all.”

“And what profession is that?” Callie smirked. She hugged her knees. “I’m fine doing other things, but you already know what I’m hoping for.”

Sparx nodded.

“It’s just hard finding someone who’s both good at it and I want to do it with.”

A crooked smile slowly spread across Sparx’s face.

“What? What aren’t you telling me?” Callie narrowed her eyes.

“Nothing, I swear!” Callie lifted an eyebrow. “Fine, I promised I wouldn’t say anything,” Sparx admitted. “But it’s not a bad thing.” Sparx grew serious. “You know I’d never do anything to hurt you, right?”

“Like that last date you set me up on” Callie twisted her lips.

Sparx cringed. “I am well and truly sorry for that. But you know that I was really trying to make you happy.” He paused for a moment, considering if it was appropriate to ask. He went for it anyway, in true Sparx fashion. “Did you ever, you know, with the…?”

Callie rolled her eyes. Sparx rarely acted squeamish like this.

Probably because he really did regret it.

“No.” She picked at her fingernails. “When he showed up, I stayed as long as I could trying to ignore him. I felt weirdly guilty about leaving in the middle of things, even though she’d forgotten to mention him.

But I couldn’t bring myself to actually have sex with him.

Not even just to experiment or whatever.

” Callie bit her bottom lip and stared at the ceiling. “It’s weird, you know.”

“Why?” Sparx put his hand on her knee, moving his thumb back and forth.

“I always felt that I should try everything once. But I just couldn’t. As soon as I saw him naked, I shut down. I had to use my safe word.” Callie’s eyes started to moisten. “Does that make me a bad person?”

“Oh honey,” Sparx scooped Callie into his arms and kissed the top of her head. “I will never, ever set you up again without triple checking them. I can’t believe I was such an arsehole.”

Callie squeezed back. “I know,” she said, muffled against his elbow.

“For the record,” Sparx felt Callie roll her eyes somehow against his arms. “Would you ever do a poly thing?”