“So there isn’t really a Pleasure Institute of Chicago?” I tried to put contempt in my voice for their choice of a name, but in actuality, it seemed like there should be something like that.
“Nope,” Brady said. “All fake.”
“But why?” I asked again.
It must’ve taken them an enormous amount of effort to get space in this building. If it were any other men, I’d think maybe one of them worked here, but as far as I could remember, they were three country bumpkins who lived in a town so remote it was miles from the smallest and farthest of the Chicago suburbs. I couldn’t remember the name of it, but I knew it was northwest of here.
“We wanted to prove a point,” Cole said.
“Wedidprove a point,” Gideon corrected.
Even though it had been Cole and Brady who had lied to my face, he was the one who bothered me the most. He just looked so full of himself, standing there in black jeans and a tight tee that showcased the muscles of his chest and biceps. I’d attributed the firm, steady pressure of the robotic hands to machine strength, but now I could see exactly where that strength had come from.
“Which is?”
“That we can best your high-tech toys,” Brady said with a grin. Unlike Gideon’s smirk, I didn’t want to smack it off his face.
“No one said that.” I spoke without thinking, which was never a good idea during a livestream.
“You did, sweetheart.” Gideon’s blue eyes were dark as he stared me down. “I believe we have several thousand witnesses.” He gestured toward Penny and my phone.
“Tens of thousands,” I corrected. “Okay, you give a good massage. But I stand by my comments. Would you really have spent so long and been so thorough if you hadn’t been trying to teach me a lesson or whatever your goal was?”
“Depends on who I was touching,” Gideon said. The audience was probably melting over those words—as I’m sure the bastard knew.
I switched tactics. “I use tech all day long. It’s brought nothing but good things to my life. What am I supposed to do, give all that up and replace it with a guy like you?” I should’ve said guys, plural, but this Gideon guy was really getting under my skin.
It was Cole who answered. “I’m glad you brought that up.” His evil smile didn’t have quite the potency of Gideon’s, but I instantly knew I’d made a mistake. “That’s exactly what we want you to do.”
“What?” They weren’t making any sense, but my muddled mind wasn’t helping the situation. It was jarring to be in the midst of pure, unadulterated pleasure one moment and then to be yanked out into this weird and hostile reality the next.
“We want to replace your tech. We want to prove to you that we’re better,” Brady said.
“Better than what?” My voice was faint again, damn it.
“Than all of it,” Cole answered. “Lila James, you’ve said some very unpleasant things about us, and about men in general, so we’re calling you out. Technology has its place, but it can never replace a human being, or at least it shouldn’t.”
He stood so tall over me that I wished I was wearing five-inch heels. “We challenge you to do without all your high-tech toys. Leave your tech behind and let us show you that you don’t need it. In fact, we’ll replace all your damn tech. Stay with us for a week. If, at the end of it, you’re not convinced that real people are better than your devices, we’ll issue a full and very public apology.”
“Staywith you?” These guys were fucking nuts if they thought I was going to move in with one, or any, of them.
“At the inn that Cole and I own. Did you doanyresearch on us before you attacked us?” Brady sounded vaguely disappointed in me, which was absurd. If he had any regard for me at all, he wouldn’t have been a part of this.
“I’m not going out to the middle of nowhere for a week.”
“Told you,” Gideon said. “She’s addicted.”
“Totech?” Exasperation tinged my voice. They kept changing the narrative and keeping me off balance—something that had never happened before. “I use what makes my life better and discard the rest, the same as anyone else. Same as you, I’m sure. Unless your inn is straight out of the 1850s.”
“We use technology, too, but in reasonable amounts,” Cole insisted.
“We’re not slaves to it,” Gideon added.
“Neither am I.”
“Prove it,” Gideon snapped. “Unless you’re afraid your followers will see that our way is better?”
“Right. Because you’reDown to Earthand I’m, what—a woman who doesn’t know what’s best for her? That’s always a good look, when a man tells a woman how she should live her life.”