Free More Than a Man by Emily Ryan-Davis

sum of traits you asked
for. Last question. What was your first pet's name?"
    She balled up her fist and punched his
shoulder. Grinning, he caught her hand, kissed her knuckles, and
said, "You did agree to play the game."
     
     

Chapter Five
     
    Her parents owned a gracious home in a
neighborhood known for its gracious homes. Everything from the
community’s manicured lawns to the neighbors’ upscale cruisers in
the parking pads screamed money. Though she'd spent a good portion
of her childhood in this house, Noelle always felt vaguely lacking
when she came home. This was the home they’d purchased to receive
Joy from Babyporium when Noelle was ten years old. This was Joy’s
home, not Noelle’s.
    She swallowed past a familiar knot of
anxiety. She might be their born daughter but Joy was created to
their specifications. Joy was everything her mother wanted. Noelle
always felt like she measured up just a little short, as if she had
disappointed her parents in some indefinable way. The State didn’t
allow a created mate more than one born child, so they’d gone to
Babyporium. What was lacking in her that they needed to create
another child to fill that lack?
    Before they moved to this estate, they'd had
a tidy three bedroom house closer to the center of Veda City. She
missed that house. She missed the riot of color along the back
fence where flowering vines tangled with bushes that seemed to
burst randomly into bloom and she missed the scrubby yard with more
weed than grass. She hadn't wanted to move, but move they had.
Better schools, better opportunities. A better daughter.
    Huffing out a breath, irritated with herself,
she tucked her cruiser behind her father's utility vehicle. Aya was
stone silent beside her. He hadn't said a word through the entire
drive. The silence didn't feel like anger, but rather like
disappointment. She wasn’t sure what happened between RetroThreads
and her parents’ parking pad.
    She peeled her fingers off the steering
column and turned to face him in the evening gloom. "Aya," she
began hesitantly.
    The force of personality behind his shadowed
green eyes knocked her off track. The words slid down her throat
and she lost whatever she'd been about to say. What was in those
eyes? Patience, certainly. Determination. But something else, too.
Something almost heartbreaking. She just couldn't put her finger on
it. Uneasy, she looked away.
    He splayed his fingers on his thighs, the
muscles of his forearms going taut. "What, Noelle?"
    She shook her head to clear it and made
herself meet his eyes. "You know how this afternoon you asked about
my family?"
    His thick black brows lowered. "Yes."
    "I told you Mom wants what she thinks is best
for me. One of those things is a husband. But she wants to design a
man for me. She isn't going to be happy I did this without her
input. She isn't going to want to like you, and she's very
stubborn."
    His forehead smoothed out. "So are you. I
don't have to love your mother. I want to like her, I want to get
along with her. But if she doesn't want that, it isn't a
requirement."
    Noelle shook her head again, this time in
frustration. "I know she wants me to be happy. She believes I'll be
happy with a carbon copy of my father. I love Dad, but I'd go
insane if I married someone like him. Mom just doesn't get that,
and Mom can be very ugly when she's angry. She's definitely going
to be angry."
    He shrugged, looking unconcerned. She
scowled. "This is important. I'm trying to warn you. My mother is
going to make this difficult. She's not going to be nice, and
she'll probably be nasty. Dad will do his best to blunt the edge,
but Mom is going to see you as a mistake."
    His nostrils flared and temper moved briefly
over his face. He controlled it immediately, all expression wiped
clean. "Let me be clear. I am not here to make your mother happy.
It would be nice if we get along. I will do my best to do so. But
her opinion of me doesn't matter. It only matters to the