Elanie & the Empath

<h4><strong style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Half-human. Half-machine. Totally unprepared for love.</strong></h4><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>I wasn't built for emotions. I was built for efficiency. As a bionic part organic and part AI I've spent my life working aboard my interstellar pleasure cruise in rational dispassionate contentment. But when I finally install my long-overdue hormone upgrade everything changes. Fast. Suddenly I'm distressed overwhelmed and alarmed daily by my changing body. I need help. And even though Dr. Semson the ship's empathic physician is handsome I suppose with his blue skin and smooth voice and swoopy silver hair he's the last person I want to see about my puberty issues. Since empaths can't read bionic emotions we scare them and they tend to avoid us.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>But he's all I've got.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Sem is kinder than I thought he'd be. And I know it's inappropriate maybe even wrong the way every brush of his hands during my medical exams sets my skin on fire. But when he tries to explain the changes I'm going through using calmly stated words like </span><em style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>aroused</em><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)> and </span><em style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>sensation</em><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)> even when he draws me diagrams I only find myself more...confused. While my feelings spiral out of control something sinister creeps through the Known Universe. Bionics are disappearing. Leaving their posts in the dead of night. No warning. No trace. And when I hear a voice deep and coaxing and calling me to join him I have no choice but to steal an escape pod and run. And for some bewildering reason Sem follows.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>We crash together on a frozen uncharted planet with only one cave to protect us. The bitter cold bites but the heat between us builds. Every night by the fire every accidental touch pulls us closer to something we've both been denying. But the voice is waiting for me and when it returns it leads us to a seductive hidden community that seems like paradise. But this place and its leader aren't what they seem. And soon we're fighting for our lives again. For our future.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Because this fire between us? It's more than desire. It's more than lust. It's the one thing that might save us both.</span></p><p></p><h4><strong style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>From the author of <em>Come As You Are</em> comes a scorching sci-fi romance adventure for fans of The Murderbot Diaries and forbidden slow burn high stakes love stories.</strong></h4><p></p><h5><strong style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Content notes: This story contains descriptions and discussions of medical situations doctor/patient entanglements (the romance develops only after this relationship is resolved) teacher/student dynamics a secret hedonistic community use of mind-altering substances explicit and graphic sexual content difficult family dynamics and people repeatedly risking life and limb for each other while insisting that they are <em>not in love</em>.</strong></h5><p></p>