Second Genesis

Grey remained frozen above Amunet for so long that the tension between them slowly changed, the heat of the moment fading just enough for the weight of her words to settle properly.

He didn’t avoid her gaze or search for some joke to escape behind either, he simply stared down at her while an old memory surfaced with enough clarity that he almost laughed at the absurdity of it. It wasn’t the first time someone had given him this exact ultimatum.

If he remembered correctly, Sabrina’s words had been damn near identical, and now that he thought about it, their positions hadn’t been all that different either. Amunet was still beneath him with her thighs around his waist and the warmth of her body pressed against his lower half, yet much like back then, Grey knew there was no chance he could keep going after hearing those words.

Maybe that made him an asshole. But he hadn’t even been through college yet, so what the hell did he know about spending the rest of his life with one woman? How was he supposed to know whether Amunet was the one person he would still want fifty years from now, especially when Sabrina had been closer to that position than anyone else he’d ever known and he still hadn’t been able to make the promise to her?

Amunet watched the answer form without Grey ever saying a word, then slowly exhaled and slipped her wrists free as his grip loosened. She didn’t accuse him of anything or ask again, simply pushing herself upright and moving away. The silence had already told her everything she needed to know.

Grey sat on the edge of the bed while she dressed, his gaze following her without even pretending to be subtle as she collected the clothing scattered around the room. Amunet tolerated it for several seconds before finally looking over her shoulder with a glare.

"Are you really just going to keep watching?"

Grey’s grin suddenly returned. "How am I supposed to know when I’ll get another chance to see such a magnificent sight? I have to breathe it in."

𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Amunet rolled her eyes, though to Grey’s surprise, the annoyance slowly gave way to a small smile as she pulled on the last few pieces of clothing.

"I hope you don’t regret it, then. I think I would have tasted pretty good."

Grey scoffed. "I can practically smell the virgin coming off you. How would you know? You were just gonna do your best starfish impression."

Amunet straightened with surprising pride while fastening the last of her clothes into place. "My education for integrating into modern Earth was very, very thorough."

Grey’s eyes narrowed immediately.

Amunet caught the look and turned toward the door before he could start asking questions she had absolutely no intention of answering, though her hand stopped just short of the handle. She stood there for a moment, then turned around and walked back across the room until she was standing directly in front of him.

Grey barely had time to raise an eyebrow before she pressed one hand against his chest and leaned down, kissing him softly on the lips.

It lasted longer than he expected, not carrying any of the frantic heat from earlier, but something quieter that somehow made Grey take it more seriously. When Amunet finally pulled away, her face remained close enough for him to feel her breath as she whispered, "You are at least a decent man."

Then she walked out. Neither of them seemed to remember that this was actually Amunet’s room.

Grey stared at the closed door for several seconds before slowly looking down at himself, his expression becoming increasingly resentful as his body remained painfully aware of everything that had almost happened. There was a faint twitch below as though his dick itself was personally telling him to go fuck himself.

"Yeah, yeah. Fuck me too."

Grey fell backward onto the bed and stared at the ceiling, wondering whether surviving two Infernal Princes only to die from blue balls would qualify as the most embarrassing death in Genesis history. His eyes slowly closed as he groaned into the empty room.

"Fuck, she’s hot as fuck."

**

Amunet had barely made it two steps beyond the door before stopping.

Her back pressed against the wall while she drew several deep breaths, trying to calm the heat still rolling through her body as though she had just finished a battle. She hadn’t meant for things to go nearly that far, but somewhere between pretending for the Genesis System and Grey being Grey, she had allowed herself to get swept up in the moment.

She hated how persuasive that bastard could be. Even worse, he clearly knew exactly what he was doing.

’Am I alone not good enough for you? Fucking men.’

Amunet ground her teeth, though the anger didn’t last long before older memories began creeping beneath it. Her father had possessed several wives himself, and as a child she had watched what that actually meant for the women who supposedly shared his life.

Her own mother could go months without personally speaking to him.

The longest stretch Amunet knew about had been more than nine months, and even as a child she had never understood how two people could call themselves husband and wife while barely occupying the same world. What was the point of marriage then, other than giving a powerful man another woman to count among his possessions?

She didn’t want that. She didn’t want to barely see her husband, and she certainly didn’t want children who grew up wondering whether their father even remembered them.

Amunet felt moisture gather in one eye and wiped it away almost angrily before straightening her shoulders. There were more important things to deal with than whatever Grey Temolt did to her emotions, and saving Earth had been her responsibility long before Grey ever entered the picture.

She wasn’t going to let him carry that burden alone.

Amunet exhaled once, forced her expression back into its usual calm, and walked steadily down the hall.

**

Back on Earth, Sabrina sat on the couch with her arms crossed while a storm seemed to hang over the entire room.

The stream had cut out almost immediately after Amunet closed the curtains, so Sabrina hadn’t actually seen what happened afterward, but she wasn’t an idiot. The fact that the feed had remained censored for that long told her more than enough.

James and Duke had wisely retreated into the kitchen.

"I’m just saying," Duke whispered, keeping his voice low enough that Sabrina hopefully couldn’t hear, "when she gets like this, you don’t make eye contact."

James nodded solemnly. "Or sudden movements."

Lilac came walking into the living room with a bowl of snacks, apparently possessing either far more courage or far less survival instinct than the two boys. She placed it near Sabrina, who reached inside without looking, pulled out a baby carrot, and bit it viciously in half.

The crack echoed through the room.

James and Duke both flinched before slowly bringing both hands down to protect their crotches.

Neither said a word. Instead, for Grey’s sake, they offered a silent prayer.