Even Villains Fall in Love Read Free Page A

adjust
one fine-tuned aspect of the personality. After all, he didn’t want
Tabitha as a slobbering monster with no morals. As a villain, she’d
be downright scary.
    Love was a complicated thing, a complex process
in a constant state of flux. Most people didn’t understand how to
perfect the three-part harmony of lust, attachment, and commitment
that produced true love. He was ahead of the game there, lust had
fueled Tabitha’s first kiss. Even now, the memory was enough to
make him harden with need. Any villain of moderate intelligence
could whip up a basic love potion to produce lust—a combination of
adrenaline, dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. But, like any
bad cocktail of drugs, there was a time limit on chemical mixes.
The body eventually adjusted and then love faded.
    Third-stage love involved free will and
commitment. He couldn’t take away Tabitha’s free will without
risking her mind entirely. Driving down the street, she might need
to swerve suddenly to avoid a deer or oncoming car. Without free
will, she wouldn’t be able to protect herself.
    So he’d focused the machine on the second stage
of love, attachment. Mad lust kept the bedroom games fun, but
attachment made sure she only wanted to play with him. His machine
focused magnetic waves on the glands that controlled production of
vasopressin and oxytocin. A second magnet sent a pulse wave that
triggered memories of their time together. It was as good as
staring into her eyes for hours at a time. Tabitha lived in the
soft glow of fond affection, always thinking of him.
    If it weren’t for the Morality Machine, the
first kiss would have been their last. Tabitha would have found
some other man, someone she didn’t instantly write off as beneath
her. She would have found love the old-fashioned way, and he would
have died of a broken heart. The core of the Morality Machine
winked at him under the spotlight. Such an elegant machine. The
black matrix around the crystal looked like a spider web lain out
by MC Escher. The crystal heart shone translucent blue and showed
the perfect moment: Tabitha kissing him.
    The image wasn’t part of the machine, more a
screen for what the machine did. Tweaking it would be hard. With
the proper fix, he could boost her sex drive, tinkering with the
first stages of lust. If he did that the crystal image would
probably change to one of their more erotic forays into emotional
expression, and that would leave Tabitha panting with need every
hour of the day. Who was he kidding? He wouldn’t let her out of the
bedroom like that! Super powers be hanged, he’d find a pair of
cuffs and... Evan took a deep breath. Later.
    Election Ray first. Sex later.
    If he turned it up right now she’d come home,
and he needed to get some work done.
    “Daddy?”
    Evan jumped out of Angela’s way. “Yes? Why
aren’t you sorting widgets?”
    “Is that Mommy?” She pointed at the crystal.
    “Yes, it is. Isn’t she pretty?”
    “Why do you have a picture of Mommy in the crazy
spider web?”
    “Because I love Mommy, and I want to think about
her while I work,” Evan said as he steered his precocious child
back to the pile of unsorted screws.
    “Where’s my picture?”
    “What?”
    “Mommy has a picture. Where’s my picture? Don’t
you love me?”
    The other three girls gasped.
    “You don’t love us, Daddy?” Blessing asked.
    “Of course I love you!” Evan knelt down as his
brain raced to dig himself out of this hole. They were too much
like their mother. Far too perceptive for his peace of mind. “I
didn’t have the pictures I want of you,” he said slowly,
constructing the lie as he went. “Why don’t you girls color Daddy
some pictures and we can hang them up for me to see every day?”
    Maria clapped. “Can we decorate?”
    “Sure, why not? Hert, do we have a decorating
minion?”
    “We have several programmed for color awareness
and spatial reasoning, Master. Those are useful tools