Page 52 of Ezra
But frightening her isn’t something I want to do either. Instead, I gently crack open the door and step inside.
“Katrina?” I ask. “You called for me?”
The room is dark, save for some artificial light from the city streaming in through the blinds. I switch my optics to heat infrared just in time to see her frantically close her legs and sit up with a jolt, hiding her hands beneath her blankets.
“What? O-oh. Sorry. I must’ve been muttering in my sleep.” Her temperature rises, and the way her heart rate increases only confirms what I already know to be true. “Hope I didn’t disturb you.”
Liar. “I can hear everything in this apartment,” I say softly as I approach the bed, which causes her heart rate to spike. “I can see everything in the dark.” She peers up at me as I stand over her. “And I know when someone is lying to me.”
“H-how?” she demands, curling up defensively. “How could you possibly know that?”
“Vital diagnostics,” I reply. I don’t tell her that her reactions give her away just as easily, without even needing to scan her. Or how satisfying it is, knowing she’s attracted to me too. “I heard you moanmyname, Katrina.”
Katrina tenses, her expression somewhere between helpless and mortified. “I...” She sucks in a breath. “Last night, I...saw you.”
I’m surprised. Perhaps I should’ve been more careful. I’m not sure how I missed hearing her slip out of bed. I must’ve been too distracted by my thoughts of her. While I’m not embarrassed, I know masturbation is a private affair for human beings. Her beauty, her fire, her intellect, all made it impossible for me to refrain from acting on impulse.
“You saw me?”
“You were...” She struggles to get the words out, choosing to make a brief hand motion instead. “I didn’t know androids did that. You looked right at me. I thought maybe you saw me then.”
“I didn’t, no,” I say. “I would’ve spoken to you if I had. Did witnessing me upset you?”
“No! No, it was— You were?—”
As adorable as she is when she’s tongue-tied, I didn’t come in here to interrogate her. Not unless she likes that.
“So you thought to do the same,” I muse. “And uttered my name.”
My scans indicate her heightened body heat. “S-so? You said mine first. At any rate, the moment’s over, and I want to sink into this bed and die. Could we maybe forget this happened? Please?”
There isn’t anything to be ashamed of. “No.”
“No?”
“You called me once, asking for my help. I came,” I reply, securing my sleeves above my elbows. “You called me again tonight. Well, here I am, Katrina.” She tries to look away, but I won’t let her, gently tucking my fingertips beneath her chin and guiding her back to me. “So tell me what you want.”
Her breath catches, gaze flitting down to my mouth before meeting mine. Silently, I will her to be brave and brush my thumb across her lower lip. “Tell me,” I repeat, “what you want.”
She’s wound up tight. For a long moment, I try to determine if she feels trapped or liberated by my words. Then she whispers, “You.”
And that’s all I need to hear.
I take her into my arms, plucking her from the bed as I lower myself onto the mattress and situate her in my lap. She weighs little to me. She wears a large T-shirt that hangs off one shoulder, underwear, and nothing else. I zoom in on the obvious patch of wet, where her lubrication has soaked through her panties. In an instant, every system is in overdrive. How easy it would be to rip them off, pin her beneath my frame, and sink into her, one slow inch by inch.
“I am the cause of this?” I press my lips to her ear, whispering as I slowly spread her legs open. I brush my hand lightly over her thigh, and her breath hitches.
“Yes,” she whispers. “I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind, seeing you like that.”
I gently pull her panties to the side, clenching my jaw to refrain from the near-mechanical groan of torment when I see her dripping sex. She’s all natural.
I glance up at her. I’m impatient, holding myself back. “Even though I’m not human.”
Katrina bites her lip. “I like that about you.” She gasps when I spread her just a little further and tease her, tracing my fingertips over her folds; first one, then the other. “I like it moreand more, every day.” The way she responds with the slight buck of her hips isn’t lost upon me.
“Are you sure you want an android to touch you?” I rumble. “Toy with you, like this?” I spread her lips apart with two fingers, circling her entrance, on the precipice.
Katrina gazes at me, lips slightly parted. “Touch me,” she breathes. “Please.”
