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“And you wantme?”

Luthor pauses in his flurried excite in my disheveled hair, wrinkled clothes, and sleep-encrusted eyes “Of course you,” he says si

I stand perfectly still in our little studio as Luthor sketches me He wants to make the statue in a “classical ” pose, as he says it, and he keeps telling e my arms, or hunch my back more, or hold up one hand

“ No, no, no,” he says, frustrated I’ in the saet frustrated with my voice when I can’t reach a note “Like this ”

He strides across the floor and pullshtly behind lance down at him; he doesn’t see me as a person in this moment—I’m not Selene, I’m a model

Luthor slips behindone hand intomy chest jut forward

Slowly, he walks around, inspecting ently, tapping ht fro down my cheeks

“ Perfect,” he whispers “You’re perfect ”

I glance down at him, careful not to move my body orpast my skin, into the very heart of who I am

Orion approves Luthor’s design quickly, and if he thought there was so odd about his selection ofAfter lunch, workers froe pillar of brown clay, and Luthor tells theht there, in the center of the floor, where the light froht

He brings in buckets of water and lays out his tools in a neat arc next to the clay “ We could go down to the pond with Kayleigh and Harley,” I suggest

Luthor shakes his head, his attention focused on lining up each tool correctly They look almost like Doc’s medical instruments: a dull-bladed knife, tiny needlelike picks, a scalpel “I want to work here,” Luthor says “With you Alone ”

As if on cue, Victria barges into the studio “So, ” she says loudly, her voice bouncing off the walls, “this is where you two have been hiding ”

Bartie trails behind Victria He carries his guitar on a strap across his shoulders, one hand unconsciously stroking the strings

“ We’re working,” Luthor says pointedly