Made to Love by DL Kopp Page B

mean you don't--”
    He started pulling at his
pants.  I cried out and covered my eyes.  “I believe
you!  I believe you!”
    “ I guess I'm incomplete,”
Byron said.  I peeked between my fingers, and he was leaving
his trousers up, so I lowered my hands.  He looked quite
crestfallen.
    Octavius, on the other
hand, appeared as if it was his birthday and Christmas all rolled
into one.  “Too bad,” he said.  “I guess you'll just have
to make do without it.”
    “ Not at all.”
    Octavius whirled on
me.  “ What ?”
    “ The rest of him is
constructed from various parts,” I said.  “I could weld
something.  Or there are stores--”
    Octavius grabbed my
forearm.  “We're leaving.”
    And before I could protest,
he whirled me out of the room.

Chapter
Thirty-Two
     
    “ What are you doing ?” I demanded, shaking my arm free when we reached the
relative privacy of the stairs.
    “ He’s been planning this
all along,” Octavius said.  “He—he is obsessed with you! 
He knew that by getting your help, you would want to help him mate
and start the battery, and it is all a plan to keep you for
himself!”
    “ That doesn’t even make
sense.”
    He gripped my
shoulders.  “Calliope.  I love you.”
    Octavius bent and kissed me
passionately.  I enjoyed it, lost in his heady scent and
intoxicating taste, but I couldn’t help but feel a little
disappointed.  Kissing was all we could do.
    But we have our
love , I reminded myself.
    When he let me go, I
frowned at him.  “At least Byron is innocent.  I can’t
imagine him trying to deceive me.  You know, when I went to on
Friday, nobody even knew who you were!  Not even your
band!”
    “ I want to be nothing but
honest with you,” Octavius said.  “I am a siren.  My song
is intoxicating.  Enchanting.  When I am there, my sheer
presence creates a bubble universe in which I have a full, mortal
life.  When I am gone, I cannot do that.”
    “ So when you’re there, you
exist as a human, but when you’re not, nobody knows you,” I said,
frowning.  This was too much for me.
    He nodded. 
“Exactly.”
    “ And how do I know you
haven’t enchanted me with your song?” I asked.
    He smirked.  “Oh,
Calliope.  I have.”
    Octavius kissed me again,
laying a hand on the small of my back to bend me backward until my
shoulders bumped the wall.  His body pressed against mine, so
cool in comparison to that of Byron, but it heated me in places I
didn’t even know heated.
    He pulled away, our
foreheads pressed together, and I stared into his endless eyes from
inches away.  “I love you too,” I breathed.  “I do. 
I’ve never felt like this before.”
    His hands stroked me,
molded to my body.  “Nor have I,” Octavius murmured. 
Pain flashed across his face.  “I don’t want you to power
Byron.”
    “ I’m not the only woman in
the world,” I said, touching his cheek.  “We’ll figure
something out.  But we have to finish him in the first place,
and we can’t do that if you keep dragging me away from my
work.”
    After a time, Octavius
nodded.  “Very well.  But I don’t want you alone with
him.”  I opened my mouth to protest, but he didn’t let me
speak.  “It’s for your safety.  Trust me, and you’ll be
safe.”
    “ Okay,” I said. 
“Anything for you.”
    For days, years, a
lifetime—we kissed in the hall.  And yet, there was some tiny,
disappointed part of me that was frustrated we couldn’t have sex
unless we were trying to breed.  Octavius was amazing in every
way possible, and it was crazy to think, but I could imagine
breeding with him.
    If I got pregnant, though,
my parents would freak.
    But only for the next
month.  Until I turned eighteen.
    Octavius sensed my
frustration and laid kisses against the side of my throat. 
“Soon,” he whispered, “soon.”

Chapter
Thirty-Three
     
    We returned to
work.
    Byron was distant now,
casting suspicious looks in Octavius’s direction even as