Love in Retrograde (5 page)

“Why?”

“Why?” Kelly shook his head in disbelief. “You… you killed them all without so much as a second thought.”

“It’s an analysis to gauge my physical capabilities under combative situations. My directive is to eliminate all threats. Self-preservation against those wishing to harm me.”

“They were civilians. That last wave of people weren’t soldiers. They were innocent people.”

Mars frowned. “Innocent people don’t attack. They were threats.”

“And you’re telling me there was no other way? That
you
, with all your capabilities and skill, couldn’t find another way to neutralize them without ending their lives?”

Mars cocked his head to one side. “I had not considered this. My directive is to eliminate threats, not subdue them.” He studied Kelly. “This… upsets you?”

“Yes, yes it upsets me very much.” Kelly was having trouble getting his pulse to steady. His heart was racing.

“Your hands are shaking,” Mars said quietly. “I don’t understand. It was only a simulation. They weren’t real people.”

Kelly let out a slow breath. “If I attacked you, would you kill me?”

Mars opened his mouth to reply, then closed it.

“If you were told to kill me, would you? If it was your directive?”

Mars took a step closer, and Kelly braced himself. Had he pushed too far? He should have never agreed to this. Is this what Lucius feared? Was Kelly’s life in danger by simply being in the same room as Mars?

“No.”

Kelly looked up at Mars, surprised by the conviction with which he’d spoken, by the unmistakable determination in his gaze.

“I would never hurt you.”

“How do you know?” Kelly asked. “How do you know they wouldn’t ask you to and you’d snap my neck like you did with them?” Kelly thrust a hand out to where Mars had stood moments ago.

“I’m not a heartless machine.”

“Then don’t act like one,” Kelly snapped, startling Mars.

Mars reeled back as if Kelly had struck him. He swallowed hard, his brows drawn together in confusion, and then Kelly saw the blood.

“Shit. You’re bleeding.” Kelly removed his T-shirt, wadded it up, and held it to Mars’s side. He’d been so wrapped up in what was going on he’d forgotten Mars had been injured.

“You care,” Mars stated, as if surprised by Kelly’s actions.

“Of course I care, you idiot. You’re fucking bleeding.” Kelly let out a frustrated huff. “Open the doors. We need to get you to the medical room.”

Mars nodded, and the doors to the bay slid open.

“Hold this to your side.”

Mars did as told and followed Kelly out of the bay and through the apartment to the medical room. There Mars sat in the padded white chair, and Kelly grumbled incoherently to himself as he initiated a recovery sequence. At least the advances in medicine were something to be proud of. Nowadays injuries were quicker to heal, thanks to nanotechnology. As soon as he entered all the information on Mars’s injury and linked Mars’s medical profile, a small panel opened in the wall, and a tiny Medibot zipped out. It hovered over Mars’s injury, and its microscopic laser went to work creating muscle and skin until the wound was no more. Man, he was exhausted. And hungry. Now that he wasn’t feeling sick to his stomach. The sequence and tests had taken longer than expected, and they’d missed lunch.

“It’s time to eat,” Kelly muttered, turning to leave when Mars caught his wrist. He sat up, his amber eyes filled with pain.

“You’re angry with me.”

Kelly let out a heavy sigh. He wasn’t. Not really. “No, not you. The people who most likely want to use you. I think you’ve been lied to. We’ve all been lied to. It’s not your fault. You just do as you’re told. You don’t know any better.”

Mars stood, his hand still wrapped around Kelly’s wrist. “Will you show me?”

“Show you? What—”

Before he could finish his sentence, Mars stepped close to him, his hand going to Kelly’s cheek.

“Show me how to be a good man. Like you. I want to be good.”

Kelly’s heart squeezed. “You are good, Mars. It’s your purpose I’m worried about, and I don’t know how to change that. Even if I did…. They could hurt me. Do you understand that?”

The gold in Mars’s amber eyes darkened, and the lights in the room flashed. What the hell was that?

“I wouldn’t let them.”

This was getting him nowhere. How could he expect Mars to understand? It was far too complicated for even Kelly to wrap his head around. What he needed was for Jordan to find whatever it was he was trying to find and get back here so they could figure out their next move.

“Listen. Let’s forget about everything that’s happened and start over. How about we have some dinner and then watch a movie?”

Mars looked like he wanted to argue but nodded silently instead. They grabbed a couple of extra T-shirts before heading into the kitchen.

Deciding he needed a little distraction, Kelly tapped into the kitchen’s interface and brought up one of his favorite music stations that played lots of vintage music from the 1950s. He tapped his foot and bobbed his head as he selected ingredients from the FoodCube’s scrolling grocery list.

“How about bacon, mushroom, and chicken pasta with a creamy garlic ricotta sauce?”

He smiled at Mars, who nodded. The poor guy looked so lost.

“You’ve listened to music before, right?”

Again a nod and not much else. Okay. Kelly gathered all the ingredients he needed and placed them on the nanoglass counter beside the sink. It had been a while since he’d cooked. It was easier to just grab some takeout on the way home than cook for one. As Kelly began to chop up his veggies, he noticed Mars lost in thought. He looked… sad.

A thought struck Kelly, and he wiped his hands on a paper towel before returning to the kitchen’s interface. After finding exactly what he was after, he tapped the screen when Debbie Reynolds’s lyrical voice filled the kitchen. Gene Kelly’s and Donald O’Conner’s voices soon joined in singing “Good Morning.” Mars’s head shot up, his eyes wide. A slow smile spread across his face as Kelly began to sing along. He clearly wasn’t made for the stage, but Kelly did his best. When the song was over and “Singin’ in the Rain” came on, he grabbed a mushroom and danced around the kitchen, holding the mushroom like an umbrella, making Mars laugh.

Kelly sang and held his hand out to Mars, who took it with a smile. They danced around the kitchen, Mars laughing at Kelly’s atrocious attempt at tap dancing. It was awful. Mars helped Kelly cook, and they talked during dinner, with Mars telling Kelly about all his favorite musicals and old Hollywood actors. His amber eyes glowed radiantly when he spoke. It hurt Kelly’s heart to think they could turn this vibrant, passionate man into a cold-blooded killer.

After dinner Mars helped Kelly clean up. They went to their rooms to shower and get in their pajamas to watch movies, though Kelly found Mars more captivating than the screen. It amazed Kelly how strong and fierce Mars was, yet how innocent he appeared to be. As they watched movies, he would ask questions. Mars knew everything there was to know about weapons, combat, and science but knew little about so many other things. He’d been exposed to movies, music, and culture by Jordan, but there was so much he didn’t understand where human behavior was concerned. At times even Kelly struggled to explain why humans did what they did. Often people just didn’t make sense.

Halfway through their fourth movie, Kelly dozed off. When he woke, he found a pillow under his head and a furry blanket keeping him warm. He’d drawn his legs up and had snuggled down. He should have gotten up and gone to bed, but he was comfortable and cozy. Wait. Where was Mars? He sat up suddenly when he heard Mars’s sleep-laced voice.

“It’s okay. I’m here.”

Kelly looked down at the floor and found Mars stretched out on the carpet with only a pillow under his head, his back pressed against the couch.

“What are you doing on the floor?”

Mars turned onto his back and looked up at him, his amber eyes hooded. “Sleeping.”

“Why? There’s plenty of room on the couch.” The thing was L-shaped and huge.

“I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable,” Mars replied with a yawn.

With a sigh, Kelly motioned to the couch. “Come on. It’s fine.”

Mars quickly scrambled up, bringing his pillow with him. Kelly chuckled as Mars made himself comfortable on the couch, curling on his side and snuggling down into his pillow. He was like a big house cat, with no trace of the killing machine he’d witnessed earlier.

“Good night, Kelly.”

Kelly made himself cozy again. “Good night, Mars.” The tension he’d been feeling washed away, and he drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

THE DAYS
passed with no word from Jordan. Kelly tried his best to tamp down his growing concern. He hoped Lucius was keeping Jordan out of trouble. When Kelly agreed to watch Mars, he hadn’t expected to be confined to the “apartment.” The tests were easy enough. All he had to do was initiate the sequence. Mars and the network did the rest. Kelly had been hesitant to return to the bay, but Mars had assured him it would be okay, and it was. The sequences that followed were all to test Mars’s endurance and skills, but none involved any humans, digital or otherwise. When Kelly asked Mars why that was, Mars replied he wanted to be a good man, like Kelly. Kelly had no idea how to respond to that.

Somewhere along the line, supervising had turned into hanging out. While the longer tests were run, and during some training sequences, Kelly would read on his glass tablet, because he was old-school like that and liked holding something while he read. Nowadays folks could have books scanned directly into their brains, but where was the fun in that?

Kelly enjoyed Mars’s company. They’d watch movies and have conversations, which usually resulted in Mars asking him more questions, but Kelly didn’t mind. Normally after a day at the lab, Kelly would go home to his empty little apartment and watch TV or surf the web. It was nice having someone to talk to, to share his thoughts with. No matter what he talked about, Mars listened intently, intrigued by Kelly.

One week quickly turned into two, then four. Soon it was coming up on two months and still no word from Jordan. When Kelly started to get lost in his thoughts, Mars would engage him in conversation or ask him to watch a movie, where he would ask more questions—as if he could sense Kelly’s discomfort. The longer Kelly stayed cooped up in Mars’s living quarters, the more he turned to Mars to keep him sane. Kelly spent more nights on the couch than he did his bed. The thought of sleeping all alone in his room didn’t appeal to him, and last night he’d woken to Mars curled up around him. Instead of freaking out, Kelly went with it, closing his eyes and going back to sleep.

Kelly sat on the floor next to Mars as they watched
Singin’ in the Rain
for the billionth time. They could both recap the movie scene by scene, with all the dialogue and song lyrics. Sometimes Kelly sang along, and Mars would join him.

“What’s it like?” Mars asked, his intense gaze focused on the glass panel playing his favorite movie.

“What’s what like?” Rain? Had Mars ever been exposed to rain? He showered. Not exactly the same thing but close enough. Did Mars ever feel the urge to leave? Kelly was already missing the outdoors, even if it meant cloudy skies and rain. Could Mars miss something he’d never experienced? A sudden sadness washed over Kelly as he observed Mars. All that power, and yet the man had never felt the sand between his toes or the sun against his skin. He’d never smelled freshly cut grass or—

“To be kissed.”

Kelly swallowed hard and pretended to brush some fluff off his pajama bottoms. As if the place wasn’t immaculate. No dust bunny stood a chance. “Um, it depends. If it’s from someone you like, it can be pretty amazing.”
Like?
What was he, a first grader?

“Do friends kiss?” Mars turned to study him, his head cocked to one side.

“Some might.”
Wow. Look at the time.
Maybe it was time to call it a night and pretend this conversation never happened.

“Kelly?”

“Yeah?” He looked up and found Mars’s face inches away from his.

“May I kiss you?”

Kelly could feel Mars’s warm breath on him, could feel the heat radiating off his body.

“I… um, I don’t think that would be a good idea.” It was a terrible, awful, horrible idea. Wasn’t it? Yes, terrible idea. Awful.

“We’re friends, right?”

“Sure,” Kelly replied with a smile. Mars’s brow furrowed, and Kelly cursed himself. It was like he’d kicked a puppy. A lethal, nanoengineered puppy. “Of course we’re friends.”

Mars’s full lips spread into a bright smile. “I’d like to know what it feels like.”

Kelly subtly leaned back. “What about Jordan? He’s your friend.”

Mars grimaced. “Jordan isn’t my friend. He’s my father.”

The words took Kelly by surprise. “Who told you that?”

Mars sat back, much to Kelly’s relief. “He helped create me. His face is the first I remember. He raised me, taught me to speak, to dress myself, to do most of what I know. When I’ve been ill, he’s cared for me. When I’m injured, he heals me. Isn’t that what fathers do for their children?”

Kelly didn’t know what to say. Judging by Mars’s expression, he believed it down to his core. Who was Kelly to tell him otherwise? He smiled warmly at Mars. “You’re right. That’s what fathers do.”

Mars returned Kelly’s smile, and then he kissed him.

TO SAY
the kiss hadn’t been what he expected would be an understatement. Kelly hadn’t expected to be kissed without warning, much less be rendered immobile by it. Mars took Kelly’s parted lips as an invitation, and his soft, warm mouth moved skillfully. His tongue slipped between Kelly’s lips, tasting him, circling his tongue.

Kelly needed to push Mars away, but instead his foggy brain made him pull Mars closer. He returned Mars’s kiss and dug his fingers into the man’s thick biceps. Kelly had no idea where Mars learned to kiss like this, but right now he thanked whatever higher power was responsible. He closed his eyes and surrendered to the heat spreading through him, to Mars easing him onto his back until he lay on the carpet and Mars settled his heavier weight on him. Kelly arched his back, his cock straining against his cotton pants.