Her Superhero Lover

“So, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying there may be some side effects. Who knows, you might end up with light brown hair like mine, although I think that’s unlikely. They’re mostly focused on internal body systems, such as the lungs, heart, bones, muscles, and such.”

Renee looked down at her skin, which was flawless and unmarked. “Why? Why’d you risk bringing me here? Why’d you inject me with these nanobots?”

Grady took a deep breath, and looked her in the eyes. “Because I’ve fallen in love with you. Because I wake up every morning, and I’m crying. Either I’m crying that you’re not there in my arms, or I’m crying because I’m so happy that you are. Because all of my powers, my abilities, all of it are meaningless without you in my life. And because I would move heaven and earth to make sure you are happy.”

Renee was floored, shocked at the heartfelt honesty in Grady’s voice. In her twenty four years on Earth, she’d never heard what Grady was telling her now. She’d had men tell her she was pretty, she’d had men tell her they wanted to have s*x with her (mostly with cruder language). But never had a man so completely and honestly said he’d fallen in love with her. She blinked, and said the first thing that came to her mind. “Grady……”

“Yes?” he asked, his voice tentative and filled with doubt. She reached out and took his hand, and placed it on her chest over her heart.

“This is yours. You’ve had it for weeks now, and I cannot imagine a day without you. You’ve swept into my life like some sort of Prince Charming, and now I find out you’re actually a superhero. But it doesn’t matter, you’re Grady Voelker to me, and I love you.”

Grady pulled her into an embrace, and she could feel for the first time how scared he had been. His muscles still trembled from the adrenalin and the fear since the shooting, and she wasn’t sure but she thought when he buried his face into her hair, he may have been crying. She closed her eyes and listened to his heartbeat, and felt the warmth of his skin against her cheek, and the smell that was distinctly Grady.

Their embrace broke, and Renee stepped back, looking up into his eyes. “So this is your secret lair, huh?” she asked, smiling. “Well, aren’t you going to give me a tour?”

Grady wiped at his eyes and laughed, nodded. “Sure. First off, we’re in Del Mar still, at an office building that is owned by Voelker Consolidated.” He led her over to a heavily tinted window, which was black with the night outside. “Come daytime you’ll be able to see quite a view of the Pacific from here. We’re on a cliff and surrounded by private land, so it’s really quiet. The bottom floor of the building holds my accounting department, which helps to explain why I have this building to the shareholders. The top three floors are my own private labs. Since I’ve actually turned out some things that I’ve let some of the other branches of the company use and release, nobody creates too much of a fuss.”

“Well, that and you own the company,” Renee quipped. Grady laughed and nodded.

“That too, although like most modern corporations I don’t own it all. Technically I own forty percent of the company, my mother owns another twenty percent, and the rest is owned by various public groups, charities, trust funds, investment houses and the like.”

He led her away from the window and back over to the cabinet where his costume was still on display. He touched a control surface next to the open door of the cabinet, and three more doors rolled up, revealing a high powered and futuristic arsenal. “Like I said, I’m damage resistant, but I’m not totally invulnerable. So, I have these for those situations that may arise that call for a bit more than what I can do with my bare hands. Some of this stuff is in the experimental stage still, like this.” He picked up something that looked like a very wide bracelet with finger rings attached. It wasn’t quite a gauntlet, but it wasn’t decoration either. “If I can get the power supply down right, this will amplify my hand strength by a factor of four, and give me the ability to also apply a concussive force with every punch. Kind of like having a hand grenade go off, but without the smoke and fire. I developed it for breaking down walls in one shot. Depending on the building, that’s kind of hard for me to do right now. You get some of these older houses, or a multi-story building made of concrete and steel, and I’m going in through the front door or a window just like anybody else.”

“Just how strong are you, anyway?” Renee asked. Grady closed the cabinets and pointed towards the stairs.

“Two floors down is my real training gym, not that one in my house in Imperial Beach. You can guess, it’s all custom made. Right now my best bench is about three thousand pounds, and I can’t really give you a guess on any of the other big lifts. I tried to find my best deadlift one time, and I cracked the concrete under my feet. I need to find a first floor place with a rock or steel floor if I wanted to really check. Hmm, that’s an idea, I could buy one of the aircraft carriers the Navy is decommissioning. If it can take the force of an F-14 landing on it, I’m sure it won’t mind me doing a workout.”

Renee cocked her eyebrow and looked at him. “You have the money for an aircraft carrier?”

“Well, not personally in my bank account….. but I can write a check for a down payment,” he deadpanned, before breaking out in a wider grin. “I’m just glad you love me for things besides my checkbook.”

“I do,” Renee said, turning and wrapping her arms around his waist. She kissed the swells of his chest muscles, pausing to bite gently at his nip*les. “But, this base of yours is missing something?”

“What’s that?” Grady replied, stroking her hair as she kept kissing and licking.

“A bed.”

Grady picked her up and swung her around, carrying her towards the stairs. It was about halfway across the room before she realized he wasn’t walking, but instead flying across the room. “You haven’t seen the floor below yet.”

She saw the genius of his precautions, as the stairwell turned out to have no stairs in it. Instead he floated them both down, where she found that the floor below was furnished into a plain but decent studio apartment. The one corner had a king sized bed, which he carried her over before laying on the crisp cotton sheets. He hovered over her, his hair still almost blindingly bright. “Better?”