The Me You Stole ✔

The Stuff Bolted Down 17

After reaching her room in record time, Andrea got out a duffel bag and was filling it as the door of her bedroom opened and closed.

In the stillness that followed, she closed her eyes, dreading what might arise.

"Is it true?" Tanner asked. "Is what he said true?"

Still with her back to him, Andrea nodded. "Yes. I...I couldn't pass the test. But I couldn't afford not to. I had to do something."

Do you know how difficult it is to tamper with Colony files?

Andrea was silent even as she heard the E approach.

There is a program that sweeps through the System and all the Colony files to flags the ones that are inconsistent. The System itself has to approve all files that have been entered. It is virtually impossible to fool the Assembly or the System, so how did you do it?

Andrea shook her head.

"Honestly, I was shocked that I pulled it off. But I did do it. I was desperate," Andrea confessed. "I just knew I couldn't come back home without that license. I made a mistake. I'm...I'm sorry. And now, when they start snooping, even if they don't find anything, audits take at least a month. That means no business for this place for a whole month." She turned finally, her voice raw from fear and fatigue. "Mother'll kill me for this."

Tanner only watched her, searching Andrea's eyes.

"Will you mate with me?"

The room became still and Andrea's brain switched off and on again, trying to get itself to work.

"What?"

Tanner began to wring his hands. "You've done an incredible thing—"

"It's a crime."

"It's an incredible thing. An incredible thing." Tanner's breath hitched, and he closed his eyes as he took a deep breath and asked again, "Would you please mate with me?"

That time it was Andrea's heart that stopped. There was a ringing in her ears, her body feeling shattered from the inside out.

"Wh-why would you want to mate with me?" She wanted to kick herself; that wasn't what she'd meant to ask. "That didn't come out right. But let's be honest—you don't want anything from me."

"I want to know you," Tanner insisted, at a loss. But you won't let me in. You won't let anyone in. If we mate.... He paused, struggling to think of something that might be appealing. I'll have enough power to protect you from her. And it will give us a place to start.

They only stared at each other.

Finally, Tanner confessed, I don't know anything about seduction. I've—I've never shared myself physically with anyone, so please don't think that I don't want to make an honest effort to woo you. I just don't know how.

Andrea still stood rigid and speechless.

Tanner's hopeful expression dissolved. "You do not find me attractive then," he said.

Andrea gaped. "Of course I do."

"No." The E watched the ground as he nodded. "You do not. I'm not surprised." He finally met Andrea's gaze. I'm not as breathtaking as Kobal. Or as romantic and loving as Midge. I....When he looked down at himself, he kept his head hung. I don't even have clothes.

Andrea didn't see the large man she'd come to know over this brief period of time. She looked at the disappointment in Tanner's eyes and saw someone she'd never seen, someone vulnerable and trusting.