This work contains themes and scenes intended for mature readers (18+). It explores intimacy, emotional complexity, and adult relationships through contemporary romance and erotic realism. Reader discretion is advised.
Failed Replication
The Mechanics of Sex
Cotton tries to numb her obsession with Jasmin by seducing a stranger, Lila, but the encounter is hollow, forcing Cotton to realize her old coping mechanisms no longer work.
An Excerpt from this Chapter...
They found a bathroom. It was small, tiled in aggressive pink, and smelled of bleach and something rotting in the drain.
Lila locked the door and leaned back against it, pulling Cotton in by the lapels of her jacket.
The kiss was sloppy. Teeth clashed. Lila tasted of hops and lip gloss.
Cotton pressed her into the wood, her hands finding the curve of Lila’s waist. She tried to initiate the ritual—the slow mapping, the control—but her hands were shaking. She wasn’t the priestess. She was just a tired woman in a dirty bathroom.
Lila didn’t seem to mind. She made a low sound in her throat and ground her hips against Cotton’s thigh.
Cotton squeezed her eyes shut.
Don’t think.
But the darkness behind her eyelids wasn’t empty. It was filled with the memory of a grey sweater. Of a cool, steady gaze over an iced coffee. Of a current that felt like gravity.
Jasmin.
Cotton gritted her teeth. She moved her hand down, finding the hem of the slip dress. She touched Lila—cold skin, synthetic fabric—and felt… mechanics.
Friction. Pressure. Heat.
But no current. No circuit closing.
It was like trying to light a match in a vacuum.
Lila gasped, her head falling back against the door. “Yeah. There.”
Cotton worked her fingers with grim efficiency. Subject response: lubrication, increased respiration. It was biology. It was data. It was utterly, terrifyingly hollow.
When Lila came, she shuddered and gripped Cotton’s shoulder, her nails digging in. Cotton watched her face, the way the pleasure distorted her features.
It looked like a simulation.