Stars Dancing [Dreams-To-Lovers Romance]

124: Don’t Try This At Home



SHAH

Book six was at a standstill. For five months, it had been getting worse for Rilla Sandewen. She was on Holla 12 with the alpha male of all alpha males: a panther shifter sexier than sin who had a life mate but needed to shag a human once a month to keep him from shooting blanks.

That was the only way he could impregnate his life mate; by having vigorous sex with a non-shifter female. Rilla was his current side piece. Only Rilla was finding it hard to get off.

So was Psy Ling who currently had both the front door and the back door loaded with vibrators, and still wasn't getting the joy.

In case you can't keep up with the layers of identities, the double vibrations were happening to me, Portia Sloan, intrepid galactic traveler and genre-bending fiction writer.

Only, all the erotica seemed to have left the Cosmos, and I was frustrated. So was my character. Neither of us was gonna get anywhere tonight.

Buzz.

Strintch! That was my dad's video buzz sound. Strintch! Strintch! Strinch!

Ah well. I made sure both vibrators were off and smoothed my hair. If he said anything about my appearance, I had five evasions ready. I was an excellent liar. I had to be, didn't I? My whole life was lies upon lies upon lies.

"Daddy?"

"Hi, honey. You doing okay?"

"Of course. You and Mom?"

"We're great. Listen, we got some photos from Ronnie, but he didn't send us much info, and he's not answering. Is he sleeping? I hate to put you on the spot. I know you're busy."

"Hold on, Dad." I typed into my pad, but Ronnie didn't answer. That was all a show for Dad. Ronnie wasn't answering my telepathic hail because he was locked up tight. He wasn't asleep, but I couldn't tell Dad that.

"He's not answering me either, Dad. Did you need something?"

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Pictures of our VR world with Ronnie's bulb-shaped beautiful building appeared on the video. My stomach fell onto the floor, but my face gave nothing away. "Are those the pics Ronnie sent you?"

"Umm hmmm. Your mother and I like them. If either of you has more that you've played with, we'd love to see them. We need ideas. We're colonizing Five Spheres, and we want it to be as pretty as possible. I need design ideas, drawings, cityscapes. Anything. We won't press you, but with art like this, I could really do some gorgeous things, honey."

My dad knew exactly how I felt about his plans to colonize Five Spheres. I thought it was a terrible idea. I thought everyone like him should be deep in hiding.

Because I knew about my dad's Talent, but he didn't know about me. He didn't know that I was telepathic and that I saw the inside of people's minds. I knew exactly how dangerous it was to be different, and I did not like the plan to have "Talented" people gather together on spheres for the special.

Dad knew that I was opposed, but he didn't know the whole reason why. He thought I was afraid for Ronnie because my twin was different. And that was part of it, sure. But Dad didn't know just how different Ronnie really was, and Ronnie didn't want him to know. Because Ronnie agreed with me.

That's what came of being telepathic. We had intimate knowledge of what went on in people's minds and just how unsafe the Known Cosmos was. I said none of that to Dad.

"Okay, Dad. I'll take a look. We'll send you anything that looks interesting, okay? Tell Mom 'hi' for me."

"You got it. Love you, honey."

"Love you too, Dad."

Sigh. I cleaned my toys and put them away. Then I started looking through VR images from our trip six months ago with Euridyne Crieve-Madrano. The real reason that Rilla, Psy, and I were stuck sexually.

Because Rilla just couldn't keep fucking her way around the Cosmos. She wasn't enjoying the alpha male supes anymore, and I didn't know how to give her a happily ever after. I didn't know how to write a real romance. I knew nothing about how normal people fall in love and get along with boyfriends.

And I was too much of a coward to try and find out.

I had all the VR footage from our trip with Euri. So did Ronnie. And, obviously, Ronnie had sent images to Mom and Dad. We hadn't talked about it. I didn't know Ronnie was gonna do that. I wouldn't have done it, but since he did, it was probably the right thing to do.

I found the image of my favorite building that I'd designed and bookmarked it. I kept scrolling through pics, and I felt Ronnie coming down the hall. I showed him my favorite building in our minds, and I felt him smiling happily back.

So, you thought you'd help Dad out? I asked.

I knew he needed ideas. We've got a lot of good ideas. I like that one too. Will you send it to him?

Yeah. You got any more for him?

A few. I think we need to go see Euri.

My stomach fell on the floor again. I didn't hide it from Ronnie. There wasn't much point in hiding from him.

Can we go talk to him? my twin asked.

You want to alter course? Go to Shurwinn?

He shrugged, telling me why not? My heart raced. I felt like I'd be sick.

Not without a reason, Ronnie.

A smile quirked on one corner of my brother's face, and I knew it was game over. He'd figure out some way to get what he thought was best, and I probably wouldn't even realize what he'd done until it was too late.

I groaned and flopped back on my bed, Ronnie's laughter echoing down the hallway.


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