The sun was just starting to set as they lay all tangled up in each other’s arms. The radioactive empath who had spent so much of his life detached from humanity felt like a new being.

The void in his dark heart that Galaxy Girl has always managed to fill with just her mere presence.... well, now it overflowed, bubbling to the brim and spilling out. 
If simply kissing her could cause him to feel like this, he could only imagine the effect of other passionate actions. For the first time in his life, his mind wandered to that foreign place. Endorphins, strange new feelings and lots of testosterone still coursed steadily throughout his system. He was emotionally compromised, and what was more frightening: he didn't mind. 
Toxic gently stroked the mop of golden hair that was laid across his chest.  

"You ok?" 
She lifted her head as she questioned.  Her eyes were filled with the slightest hint of worry.
"Ok?" he began. 
"I'm better then ok. I'm in such a fantastic mood, I could donate a million dollars to an orphanage."
"Then why don't you?" 
She asked, pouting up at him fauxly in an adorable fashion.
"Me, donate money to charity? That's about as useless as trying to train a fish to tap dance," he cocked his head and grinned.
"Yeah but you could easily engineer a tap dancing salmon if you really wanted." 
Galaxy Girl countered. 
"I could," he asserted, 
True he did know how to manipulate genes, but growing up watching his father spend hours and hours with his mutant creations had driven him to boredom. 
"But messing with genetics isn't really my gig, you know that. If you're really in the market for vaudeville mutant sea life, talk to my dad."

She laughed at this. 
Her laugher rung in his mind; teeth showing, eyes closed kind of laughter, it was the real deal. He had always loved making her laugh, since childhood, despite their differences. 
The thing emitting from within her was not the haughty and generic hero laugh that was usually at the villains expense... but the genuine, he said something funny laugh. After her laughter died down, he provided her with a more detailed answer to her original question. 

"But yes I'm all right. I do believe I'm on what the mere mortals refer to as Cloud 9."
Her blue eyes lit up brighter than his most high powered particle disintegrator. 

"That was incredible." 
She proclaimed into his partially unbuttoned dress shirt. 
“Now I finally understand why I always fly over so many humans fumbling over each other in alleyways."
Making out in an alleyway.... 
He thought to himself. 
This instantly became something he wanted to try. Out of nowhere the idea of having Galaxy Girl pinned up against a wall in a dark alley during a moment when he was not trying to kill her.... suddenly seemed like such an appealing notion.

Like a fist to the gut he was hit with a heart wrenching epiphany. 
"This can never happen again."
he stated coldly, unwrapping his arm out from under her and sitting up.
"What?" 
She whispers, eyebrows knitting in confusion. 
"You heard me." 
He tried to drain all the emotions from his voice. He couldn’t let her see how much it was hurting him, to hurt her. 
"We can't let this proceed any further."

"Toxic, this isn't funny."       
"Who said I was joking?"
"B-but..." Her lips tremble.
"But we... I..." Galaxy trails off. All his life he’d wanted to hurt her, to cause her pain.... but this was too much. He could practically see her soul shattering in front of him. In that moment, he wanted nothing more than to pull her back into his arms, hold her as tight as he could, tell her he was lying through his pain, tell her how he truly felt, as those feelings bubbled violently within him; and apologize for being... well, him.

He fought back the urge, closing his eyes and reaching deep down into the crevices of his mind. 
He found the switch. An emergency brake for feelings so to speak, and he pulled, he pulled hard. He lassoed back control of his brain, forcing the emotions back into the cage they had escaped from, and thought once again, using only logic.

"I don't understand!?" 
She scooted away from him and pulled the blanket up towards her chest, feeling exposed despite the fact that she was wearing all of her clothing. 

_________________

A/N:
Hey guys, dont forget I'm hosting a contest to win a signed hard copy of your choice (either this book or Bedding Camp) on my Facebook page (link in my bio). I also will be posting updates to this book daily until Sunday. :)
Thanks guys,
-QueenOfGeeks