“Go get ready.”
“Yes, Logan.”
Dread knotted in her gut as the android rose to his feet, meeting her eyes over Logan’s shoulder. There was a promise in his dark gaze that made him feel very distinctly like anything but a toy.
“Hey.” Logan caught her chin, drawing her attention back to his familiar face. “It’s gonna be fine.”
She smiled weakly, nodding.
As he led her to the bedroom by her hand, she thought of all the times he’d gone out of his way for her. All the times she wondered what he saw in her that made him willing to put up with so much. In truth, she’d never felt like she deserved him. She’d always been trying to earn him.
Now, he’d handed her a way to earn his affection on a silver platter, and she wanted to throw up on it.
A squeak escaped her when they entered the bedroom to find the android sitting on the edge of the bed, completely naked, pumping his unreasonably generous cock in one hand with an impassive look on his face. Logan laughed at her reaction, snagging an arm around her waist and pulling her close.
“Don’t be skittish,” he teased, holding her in front of the android by her shoulders. She had no choice but to watch him work himself. “Get a good look.”
Helplessly, she did as he bade her. The android was long-limbed and just as muscular as she’d guessed, with more freckles dusted over his arms and legs. They were denser on his forearms, as though he regularly wore short sleeves and they’d been caught in the sun more often than the rest of him. The attention to detail was so uncanny. His skin was synthetic. It couldn’t freckle or tan or burn in the sun, but they had gone to such lengths to create the illusion that it could. To make him seem human.
He really doesn’t look like a toy.
Logan swept her hair over one shoulder and began to kiss her neck. She closed her eyes, trying to forget the massive wall of muscle jerking off in front of her, wanting to lose herself in what was familiar to her. His hands found the hem of her shirt and dragged it over her head. She trembled as her bra followed, reminding herself that the thing in front of her was not a strange man, but a machine. He didn’t care about her nudity. He didn’t care about anything. He just did what he was told to do.
She’d always had a hard time with nudity. Her every thought bayed for control, and being nude made her feel anything but. She couldn’t control whether or not her thighs dimpled with cellulite, or her stomach bloated, or if her legs grew stubble the same day she shaved them. It was an unfortunate facet of her nature that she strove for perfection, and being human meantshe could never quite achieve it, could never quite silence the discontented hum of failure in the back of her mind.
She couldn’t control what people thought when they looked at her, either. It haunted her, wondering and fearing and knowing she would never be pretty enough.
Logan dragged her pants and panties down her legs in one go, baring her completely. She gasped softly, wrapping her arms around herself as though there was any point in modesty.
He chuckled again, pressing a kiss to the outside of her thigh. “Open your eyes, baby.”
Reluctantly, she did as he asked. “Does he really have to do that?” she asked as her eyes fell on that pumping hand again. “I mean, he’s a machine. Doesn’t it just… get hard on demand?”
“What would be the fun in that?” Logan tugged her toward the bed. “He’s programmed to need the same stimulation a human man would to get going—although, I will admit he’ll never go soft unless he wants to.”
He guided her back to the bed as the android rose to its feet, its cock bobbing in the air. She sucked in a breath as her butt bounced against the mattress, scrambling back toward the center of the bed.
“Actually, I-I don’t know if I can do this,” she stammered as the android’s knee dipped the bed. “Logan, I don’t think I can do this.”
She tucked her knees against her chest, darting a frantic glance at her fiancé. That flat look of disappointment returned to his face.
“Just let him touch you, Ophelia,” he said, his voice tight with frustration. “Give him a chance before you flip out.”
Flip out?He’d never used those words to describe her before, even when she’d been having panic attacks. His frustration made her feel unmoored.
“Okay,” she said in a tiny voice.
The android loomed over her. She jumped when he gently gripped her ankles, dragging her down the bed and spreading her open to his gaze. Panting, she turned her face to the side and squeezed her eyes shut.
She could get through this. She could.
The bed dipped as the android stretched over her… and then nothing. He didn’t touch her.
“Thirty-One, are you malfunctioning?” Logan asked.
“No,” he said, his voice so close.
She cracked her eyes open to find him peering down at her steadily.
