MaleAndroidCompanion (9 page)

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Gia had arranged for their late dinner to
be served on the balcony in the privacy of her bedroom. Two candles sat on a
lacy tablecloth, flickering in the soft breeze, adding to the ambience of the
star-studded night.

Distant laughter and music touched her
ears. Somewhere down below, one of her neighbors was barbecuing, adding to the
juicy scent of the feast before her. Glancing across the table toward Marc, she
placed the cool rim of her flute against her bottom lip and sipped at the
champagne. The last bite of food on his plate disappeared into his mouth.

Android or not, he had a hearty appetite.
All of the seared prawns were gone, as well as the braised short ribs with root
vegetables and pearl onions. For a moment, she wondered where he packed all
that food, and how exactly did he dispose of it?

Uhhh… Not going there.

Picking up his napkin, Marc dabbed his
mouth before settling back in his chair. A contented expression spread across
his face. “
Ahhh.
” He stretched, loosening the sash around the satiny
black robe he wore that matched hers. The sides fell apart, giving her a good
view of his impressive broad chest.

“Good?” Her glass nearly fell over as she
set it upon the table, but she righted it just in time.

“Delicious.” He scrutinized her barely
touched plate. “You didn’t eat much. Something wrong?” His expression fell.
“I’m sorry.”

“No need.” Before dinner she had returned
Karen’s telephone call. The picture of her, Doug and Mary outside her dressing
room had been plastered across the nine o’clock news. The cat was out of the
bag. “I had to do a quick interview with my publicist and speak with a billion
reporters.” Well, not a billion, but even one of the intrusive journalists was
one too many. “My dirty laundry has officially been hung out for everyone to
see, including my parents.”

Her mother’s call had come in shortly after
Gia’s shower and Marc’s incredible backrub that included warm oil and another
tumble between the sheets. As expected, her mother was beside herself until
Gia, in an attempt to ease her mom’s mind, mentioned Marc, her new boyfriend.
Before she knew it she had promised her mother that he would be accompanying
her to Oregon. Of course, she couldn’t take the android home. Even if her
sister and mother fell for his good looks, her father and brothers would see
through the façade.

Marc’s backbone went rigid as he
straightened in his chair. Reaching across the table, he placed his warm palm
atop hers. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. Is there anything I can do?”

“Make it all disappear?” she said, half
joking, but in reality she wished she had never taken Doug up on that one
lonely night after fifteen hours of filming. What she needed now was for the
public to forget about her, Doug and Mary, but she worried that wouldn’t happen
anytime soon.

“I wish I could, honey.”

She sighed. “Me too.”

Picking up her dessert fork, she stabbed at
the tiramisu sitting by her water glass, but she couldn’t bring herself to eat
any. “According to Antares, the number of paparazzi outside the mansion has
grown tenfold.” She forked the dessert once more, tearing it apart. “Twice he
caught a photographer scaling the wall. They even managed to drop a robotic
camera over the fence.” She could just imagine a host of security guards
chasing after the small mechanical menace. Her new system should have stopped
anything from crossing her property.

A barrier of hedges and tall trees hid the
mansion from seeking eyes, but not from those individuals intent on taking to
the sky. She cast her gaze upward. Fortunately, no invasion had approached from
above tonight. In the past, a silencer copter and a miniature duplicate of a
plane had silently snuck up on her and she hadn’t discovered its presence until
it hovered right above her.

Would they ever leave her alone? Gia sighed
again, already knowing the answer. Invasion of privacy was with the price of
fame.

“Are you happy with your life?” Marc asked.

“Happy?” She pulled her hand out from
beneath his, suddenly feeling self-conscious. Did she even remember how it felt
to be happy since she left Oregon? “At first, yes. Everything was new and
exciting. I hate to sound superficial, but it was nice being the center of
attention.” Yet lately she wanted something more out of life. Peace and quiet
and a family topped the list. “I guess I expected to have my cake and eat it
too. Attention when I wanted it. Privacy when I didn’t.” She shrugged
nonchalantly. “The money’s good.”

But for how long?

She had instructed her accountant to invest
a majority of her funds, most of it through the family bank, so even after her
looks and body failed her, she would be financially stable. Still, money wasn’t
all there was in life. If her previous relationships were a picture of what was
in store for her, the house, white picket fence, husband and a handful of
children was out of her reach. A celebrity’s life wasn’t cut out for such
fairytales. Something she hadn’t paid attention to when she’d charged headfirst
into this career.

“What do you want out of life?”

“Want?” She stared down at the mess she’d
made of her dessert and set the fork down on the table. What she really wanted
this minute was to stop talking about this depressing subject. Looking up, she
came eye to eye with Marc and her body heated. She licked her lips, remembering
the taste of him on her tongue. Reality seemed not to exist when she was with
him. “I want to know what a M.A.C. can teach me that I don’t already know.”

A slow, sexy smile curved his mouth.

God. She loved that dimple.

Pushing to his feet, he moved around the
table and took her hand. His lips were warm against her knuckles as he looked
down at her beneath heavy eyelids. “You’re not too tired?”

Exhausted was more like it, but she
replied, “No.” Fatigue wasn’t relevant. After today’s events she wouldn’t be
able to sleep anyway. Marc might as well wear her body out so that when sleep
came maybe her mind would be too debilitated to dream. “What do you have in
mind?”

His lips found their way to hers. Soft and
inviting. As he moved them, featherlight over hers, he said, “Making all your
fantasies come true. So what are they?”

Just the idea warmed her body and made her
nipples pucker with anticipation. “My fantasies?” No one had ever asked her
that question. Not that she’d dare speak her darkest dreams aloud.

He nipped at her bottom lip and her stomach
fluttered softly. “What do you dream about?” His tongue laved the sting, making
the ripples in her belly tighten. “Tell me what heats your body, makes you wet
with just a thought.”

Chapter Five

Gia’s pulse jumped. Heat rushed up her
neck, spreading across her face like a brushfire. In her last movie, the world
of bondage and domination had been introduced to her up close. It had been
pretend and no sex had been involved, but it had still aroused her to be tied
up with the thought of being helpless and at the mercy of another.

She swallowed nervously.

Even the thought of the strange lifestyle
made her hot, brought out forbidden urges that stirred something primitive in
her.

Strong arms folded around her, held her
close, held her securely. “You’re safe with me, Gia.” He paused. When he spoke
again his tone had dropped an octave. “Tell me.” His breath teased her skin.
“What is your passion—your erotic, sexual passion?”

The silence between them lengthened and
stretched. He placed his palm over her left breast, the heat of his touch
burning through the thin material of her robe to radiate deep into her skin.

“Relax, baby. Your heart is beating too
fast.” He smoothed his cheek against hers. “Tell me.” His voice held a low,
wicked fascination that sent a chill up her spine.

“No,” she murmured.

If her fantasy was revealed, the world
would discover that she secretly wanted to be bound, teased and to climax
beneath the skillful hands of a man who knew how to pleasure a woman—namely
her.

He slipped his hand beneath her robe, found
her breast and slowly began to fondle the full globe. His wicked fingers found
a sensitive nipple and gave it a tweak. “Tell me.”

Her mouth parted, sucking down a breath she
hadn’t realized she was holding. She stared into his mesmerizing eyes. God, he
was so good-looking. Sexy. And undeniably enticing.

What would it hurt to step outside the
boundaries of normal? Marc was an android, not human. He was programmed to
please her. Hadn’t the salesman said, “Whatever your kink, the 2095 will
comply”? If worse came to worst she’d have Marc reprogrammed.

Was that even possible?

Gia hesitated for a moment longer. Inhaled
and exhaled.

“I want to be overpowered, bound and
helpless, at the mercy of my lover.” Her heart crashed against her chest,
pounding with her confession. She sucked in another breath and raised her chin
a little higher as she steeled her shoulders, expecting a sound of disgust or
worse, laughter. Hell. She half expected the sky to open up and lightning to
strike her dead or at least to be punished in some way for her wicked thoughts.

A pregnant pause followed.

No laughter or repulsion greeted her, just
the gentle breeze feathering back her hair. In fact, she could have sworn
Marc’s eyes shimmered with a heat she felt sliding across her flesh, awakening
every nerve ending.

She licked her lips. “I’ve wondered about
it. What it felt like.” There. She had expressed her deepest, darkest fantasy.

The intensity in his gaze thickened. “How
far do you want to go with this, Gia?”

How far? What did he mean?

“Experiment behind the bedroom doors, or do
you want to venture outside the comfort of your home?” When he released her
breast, the ends of her robe fell together. He brushed a tendril out of her
eyes before threading his fingers through her hair to cup the back of her head.
“I can show you a world you never knew existed.”

Anxiety tightened every tendon and muscle
in her body. She swallowed hard. “No one can know about this.” Absolutely no
one.

His hand firmed on her head, dragging her
closer so that their mouths were a breath away. “No one will,” he promised. His
kiss was featherlight, just a whisper across her lips. “I can take you to
places where identities are concealed.” The low, husky cadence of his voice
sent goose bumps across her arms.

“Maybe we should start slow,” she heard
herself say, while deep inside his words stroked a flame that threatened to
ignite into a bonfire. A shiver raked through her and her pussy contracted,
arousal dampening her thighs. Her nipples stung with her heightened excitement.

Temptation was sinful.

He released her and took a step backward.
“Strip.” It wasn’t a request but a command that she felt move through her
veins, hot and wild.

She felt her eyes widen. “Here?” Her gaze
darted around the balcony and then across the neatly groomed yard shrouded in
shadows and patches of moonlight.

“Here.” He reached down and cupped his
groin through the parted robe. “Now.”

Gia couldn’t take her eyes off his hand as
his fingers circled his rigid cock peering through the slit of his robe. He
moved his palm from balls to tip.

She reached for the sash of her robe. “What
if we get caught?” Even before he answered she was shrugging out of the
garment, a pool of silk at her feet.

“You have to trust me to keep you safe.
Trust is the cornerstone of BDSM. Without it you have nothing.”

A cool gentle wind swept across her nudity,
stirring her arousal. “How do you know so much about this…this subject?”

He thrust his hips, his erection moving
through his tight grip. A pearl of come beaded from the small slit. “Remember,
I’m trained for pleasure.”

She inhaled a shaky breath. “Yours or
mine?”

Gaze fixated on him, her mouth watered for
the taste of him while her hands itched to yank the robe off him and have her
way with him.

“Both. Through my pleasure you will find yours.
Now get on your knees.”

A smile touched her lips as she knelt. The
polished wood deck beneath her skin was hard and cold, sending a shiver through
her. Yet it was being naked in the night and the possibility of being caught
that provided an extra edge of excitement, which in turn released another
tremor.

Removing his hand from his robe brought the
ends together, hiding him from her view. Slowly, he closed the distance between
them.

The vision before Marc was better than he
had ever dreamt. Gia’s full, succulent breasts rose and fell softly. Dark
desire in her gaze flickered in the candlelight as she stared up at him. It was
unbelievable that he, a geeky scientist, would be the one to introduce this
beautiful woman to bondage, dominance and even perhaps sadomasochism. Everybody
had sexual fantasies that involved at least some degree of pleasure-pain. She’d
enjoyed his spanking and her eyes had glistened with desire when he slapped her
clit. The image of the way she cried out and arched into him flashed in his
mind. Blood, hot and needy, surged into his cock, filling his balls to the
point they pulsed with an ache that made his jaw snap together.