“I was twenty-three,” I tell her, “so about five years ago now.”
“Why did you stop here?” Aerin asks. “Why Plastictown?”
“I like the people, and they seem to think I’m all right. It’s far enough from the capital that there isn’t much chance of me running into any of my father’s groupies. I suppose I was tired of traveling, too. Hilltop is a good place to find things, and I set up a pretty good trade here.”
“How long ago was this?”
“A little more than two years.”
“That’s about the same time I left the capital,” she says. “You’ve managed to steal from the Thaves for two years and have never been caught?”
“I find things,” I say, reminding her. “I also never find things like books and batteries. If I did, I would get caught. I stick with simple items that are hard to find in the valley. Naughts can survive on their own without my help, but life is hard. I just try to make it a little easier for them.”
“You are an interesting man.” Aerin smiles and looks down as she shakes her head a little.
“Why do you say that?”
“You grew up in a mansion,” she says. “You get caught up in a lot of political drama, and your father turns against you. Then, you leave the capital where you had everything and end up in a town made of plastic, stealing things—sorry, finding things—and giving them away.”
“What’s so strange about that?” I feel a little defensive.
“I’d expect someone who grew up with everything to try to recreate that, no matter where they end up or in what situation. I assume you traveled through other communities before you got here, right?”
“Right.”
“Other places are nicer. They have more things for you to find. You could have made up a new Thave identity for yourself and fit into one of those places easily enough, but you didn’t. You came to live with the dregs.”
“They are not dregs.” I stop leaning against the counter and stand up straighter. “They’re families with children, and they just want to live their lives like anyone does.”
“I know that,” Aerin says as she holds up a hand, “but others don’t see them that way. They see extra mouths to feed when there isn’t enough to feed the current population.”
“You are too, and so am I.”
“I don’t mean to say that I disagree with you.” Aerin softens her voice. “I’m just saying this is how we were raised. It’s not right, but it is the situation we have. Naughts don’t really understand what’s happening in the capital any more than those in the capital understand what’s happening in Plastictown.”
“What point are you trying to make?” I narrow my eyes. I don’t know what she’s getting at, but I don’t think I like it.
“I’m sorry,” Aerin says. She places the book back on the shelf and comes back over to me to take my hand again. “I wasn’t trying to upset you. I meant to say that…well, that I admire you. Most people raised in the kind of luxury you were are selfish assholes. You’re not. You genuinely want to help the people here. That’s all I wanted to say.”
“Oh.” I feel instantly disarmed.
“You really care about those people in the valley.”
“Yeah, I do.”
Aerin puts her cup on the counter and then takes mine from my hand and does the same.
“I like that,” she says. “I like the way you are.”
She moves even closer to me and then runs her hand up my arm and to my shoulder. She brings her face closer to mine, and I can’t comprehend exactly what she intends until she tilts her head and presses her lips to mine.
When our mouths meet, I can’t move. I can’t even breathe. It takes a moment for me to even realize I’m not kissing her back and remedy that quickly by wrapping my arms around her waist and pressing against her lips harder. She turns her head and opens her mouth, and I feel her tongue against my lips.
She kisses me hard and deep, and I do my best to keep up with her through my shock at what is apparently happening. When she groans into my mouth and then runs her hand over my chest, my cock responds instantly.
Placing my other hand on the back of her head, I lean over her.
“Do you want to go to bed?” she asks quietly.