Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 8 by Best Women's Erotica of the Year 08 (retail) (epub)

Author:Best Women's Erotica of the Year 08 (retail) (epub)
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Best Women’s Erotica of the Year Volume Eight
ISBN: 9781627785280
Publisher: Cleis Press
Published: 2022-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

WHENEVER YOU NEED ME

Fiona Zedde

Before she died, the scientist put part of herself inside me. It’s a big enough piece that, now, watching her wife, Ava, cry quietly destroys me. A sharp pain streaks through my chest. The chair under me creaks as I shift my weight in discomfort, wanting to go to Ava. But I can’t. Not until she gives me permission. The distance from where I sit on the balcony to the bedroom, though only a few feet beyond the closed French doors, feels like a thousand miles.

Ava’s tears splash down to the page of the letter she’s reading for the second time today. Shoulders shaking in grief, she sits on the edge of the unmade bed, the oversized sweater bagging around her hips and drooping off one shoulder to catch on the bare upper curve of her breast. Her teeth sink into a fisted hand and tears track the splotchy and too sharp ridges of her cheeks.

For days now, I’ve been on the balcony where Ava shoved me when I first arrived. Sitting in the sun and rain and looking over this paradise of green rolling hills, blue skies, and the garden below with its field of strawberries going to rot. This is a place built of dreams. But the dreams ended a long time ago.

Through the glass door, I hear the crinkling of paper.

“Stop looking at me.”

Ava doesn’t shout. She knows she doesn’t have to. Like the facts of my enhanced hearing, strength, and endurance, she also knows the basic details about me—that I’m the scientist’s clone with a mostly biological body filled with nanomachines and able to kill nearly anything and anyone. Now, I’ve been repurposed to care for one woman as long as she lives.

But Ava doesn’t want me to care for her. The pain in my chest sharpens to a knifepoint and, if I could scream, I would. Ava’s dark eyes, with a fine network of wrinkles at their corners, old laugh lines, narrow at me. Then, like it’s too much for her, she yanks her gaze away and back down to the letter crumpled in her fist.

“Fuck you, Ellie.” Anger rasps through her voice, deepening the huskiness already there. “Fuck you to hell and back for doing this to me.” Tears make her eyes glisten, but none fall this time.

Then Ava stands up, a whirlwind of movement, grabs a wooden box from the bedside table, and hurls it at the framed mirror leaning against the wall. A crash. The massive mirror shatters; jagged cracks erupt across the surface. The box tumbles to the floor, the hinged lid broken away to spill out a wrinkled envelope and a silver remote control. Under the sweater, her breasts shudder from her unsteady breathing.

I keep myself still, knowing Ava would throw me away, just like that box, if she could.

The scientist and I worked well together. She created the code behind her miracle machines while I put the machines together, gave them physical life. At first, that was all.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.