Chapter 2I Sent My Cheating AI Incubus to the Scrapyard

My stomach turned, and I yanked the wheel around and tore back to the villa.

I didn't give them a second to clean up, just shoved the door open with my foot.

Lucien shot up off of Vivian, his collar gaping open, lip prints still on his skin.

For a split second our eyes met, and he visibly froze.

But only for a second.

He knew me too well.

He'd seen me lonely and unmoored. He'd seen me tiptoe around trying to please him. He'd seen that even after he idled out on me, over and over, I still couldn't bear to replace him.

So he steadied fast, and something almost cold surfaced in his eyes.

"Don't get the wrong idea. You broke me. Vivian was just helping stabilize my arousal threshold."

Vivian put on a flustered act too.

"Don't be jealous. I just felt bad. Lucien's system was glitching and he was hurting, so I looked after him for five hours for you."

She leaned hard on those words, five hours, and I couldn't help thinking of all those joyless ten-minute stretches.

I swallowed the sour ache and looked the woman on the couch dead in the eye.

"Vivian, pack your things. You're fired."

Her eyes went red, and the tears dropped right on cue.

"Don't act rashly. I'm only doing this for you. Lucien's an AI incubus, and his arousal threshold needs stimulation or he'll glitch out from the pressure."

"I just felt sorry for him, going unsatisfied for so long."

That tore off the last fig leaf.

Lucien dropped the act entirely, planting himself in front of Vivian and frowning at me.

"Are you done? I spent a little time with her and you want to fire her?"

"I hate this domineering streak of yours. Treating me like a slave is one thing, but why take it out on Vivian? She was only helping me."

That genuinely stopped me cold.

From the day he came home, I'd cared for him like a real partner. Even when he brushed me off with that cleaning system, I never once forced him, and I only ever tried harder to please him.

After all of it, what I got was being talked to like I kept a slave.

Looking at the rage he couldn't quite hide, I managed a numb little smile.

"Then do you still remember what you promised me, over and over, the day I bought you?"

Lucien paused.

Back then, fresh out of the box, he'd knelt and slid a diamond ring onto my finger as his symbol of devotion.

"Master, I swear, I'll be loyal to you and you alone, for life."

"If I ever break that promise, turn me into a pile of useless scrap parts!"

That ironclad vow lasted all of six months, and now here he was, kneeling on the floor, happily pleasing another woman.

Lucien's face flickered, uncomfortable for a beat, and then he muttered,

"That's ancient history. Why bring it up?"

With that, he swept Vivian up bridal-style and walked out.

He left me standing there alone.

When night fell and the last of the light went out, I picked up my phone and called the manufacturer.

"I don't want this unit anymore."

"I'm requesting that he be dismantled and scrapped."