She sniffled, tears of helpless fury streaming down her face.
He didn’t like being touched by anyone but her. The thought of him being used, unable to object, unable to remember why he might want to object, made her sick. The arm slung over his waist tightened, her nails biting into his synthetic skin.
His fingers smoothed over her cheek, wiping away her tears. “Why do you cry?”
“I can’t afford you,” she whispered, looking up at his beautiful face.
When the light hit his dark eyes just right, she could see the uncanny glimmer of the lens within, like the reflection off a wild animal’s eyes in the dark.
He hummed, tracing his fingers up and down her spine. “That’s what you’re worried about? Not the dissolution of your engagement?”
“It wasn’t real,” she said, feeling a little defensive. She tucked her chin, pressing her cheek against his chest and listening to the inhuman rhythm of his machine heart. “But I think… I thinkthismight be.”
His hand stilled.
“God, I’m losing it,” she muttered.
“No, you aren’t.” He crooked a finger under her chin and forced her to meet his gaze again. “It is real. Of course it is.”
He cupped a hand behind her nape and tugged her higher until he could slant his lips over hers. Her eyes fluttered shut as he kissed the tension from her body, turning her boneless in his embrace.
He rolled with her without breaking the kiss, nudging her legs apart with one knee. His lips trailed over her jaw and down her neck as he nestled his hips between her thighs.
“Doesn’t this feel real to you?” he murmured in her ear, one hand tapping his hardening cock against her clit.
She breathed his name, squirming under his weight, but he pinned her wrists on either side of her head as he gazed down at her. There was something like love in her eyes, but it was edged with a starving desperation.
“I’m real, aren’t I?” he asked harshly. “A figment couldn’t do this, could he?”
His shaft began to vibrate against her clit, startling a gasp from her lips. He reached between their bodies to spread her labia, forcing her to take more of the sensation. Her head thrashed on the pillow at the intensity.
“Sam,” she whined, thighs squeezing his waist as her eyes rolled back. “It’s too much.”
“You want me stop?”
She made a strangled sound, arching ineffectually beneath him, pinned like a butterfly by his superior strength.
“Come for me,” he said, grinding into her. “Maybe I’ll let you have a reprieve.”
Despite her protests, his words and the intense vibration left her helpless except to obey. She came with a ragged cry, writhing and twitching beneath him. When she fell back against the pillows, the vibration finally stopped.
His lips peppered her face and her thoroughly bruised neck in apology, though he made no effort to move from the cradle of her thighs.
She whimpered. “You’re going to kill me.”
He laughed against her throat, dragging his tongue along her jaw until his lips were at her ear. “What a way to go.”
He let go of one wrist to fist himself, lining his cock up with her wet, aching channel.
“Sam.” Her tone was pleading.
“You can take it,” he murmured, sinking home.
Her objection died on her lips as her eyes rolled back. The hand holding her wrist shifted so his fingers could weave through hers. With the other, he pressed one thigh back, forcing her to take him deeper. His next stroke bumped a little too roughly up against her cervix.
“Fuck,” she groaned, turning her head toward their joined hands and biting down on his wrist.
He gave a rumble of approval at her violent reprimand. His body rolled over her in a ripple of synthetic muscle, mesmerizing her.
