Page 67 of Dustwalker

Reluctantly, she broke the kiss, tilting her head back to study his face. This wasn’t Warlord or some random bot. He was Ronin. Patient, considerate, trustworthy Ronin.

Lara didn’t want to think about what her sister had suffered, didn’t want to feel the heartbreak of losing the only person she’d ever loved. Her life had been full of pain for as long as she could remember—the pain of abuse, of hunger, of loneliness, of never being good enough to deserve all that Tabitha had done for her. It gathered in her now, twenty-three years of struggle and uncertainty, writhing in her stomach and constricting her chest.

When it was spread across the years, she could handle the suffering. She was strong enough for that. But all of it coming on at once, building into immense, dark storm clouds in her heart, would break her. She needed to escape before that storm swallowed her, needed to combat it with feelings only Ronin could awaken within her. Needed to feel safe. Cared for.

Loved?

Anything to distract her from the reality that she was now truly alone.

“Make me forget,” she whispered, lower lip quivering. “I can’t… I don’t want to think. Not now.”

Ronin didn’t hesitate. He lifted her like she weighed nothing, covering her mouth in a kiss that stole her breath even though he didn’t have lungs, and laid her on the bed. It creaked as he climbed atop it and settled between her thighs, propping himself up on an arm. The dizzying speed of his movement stopped as abruptly as it had begun, and his touch became a sensual caress.

He wiped the moisture from her cheek and trailed his hand along her jaw, following it to her neck. His fingers moved down until they brushed the collar of her shirt. Heat blossomed everywhere his skin met hers, pulsing with each beat of Lara’s heart.

His mouth coaxed her quivering lips into a tender kiss. Every caress was lingering, and she savored every moment. Gradually, he deepened the kiss, his mouth growing firmer, more possessive, leaving hers burning with a want for more.

She placed her palms on his abdomen and slowly smoothed them up his tear-dampened chest, fingers stroking every contour. Though she’d hit him several times, she’d never touched him like this, with gentleness, with curiosity, with need, and she was surprised by the feel of his skin. It looked so much like a human’s, had the same warmth and give, but it seemed thicker. She felt hints of the metal plates beneath it. They were shaped nothing like a human skeleton, but reminded her of bones nonetheless.

Running her hands over his broad shoulders and up his neck, she took hold of his face. Their lips separated.

Ronin gazed down at her. His expression wasn’t blank now, and she had no doubt the emotion in it was real. With his jaw clenched, his lips pressed thin, and his body rigid, Lara knew he was holding himself in check. Awaiting rejection. The blanket rasped as he bunched it in his fist.

How many times had she told him he was just a machine, that he was incapable of emotion?

Yet time and again, he’d proven her wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong. She’d been too much of a coward to admit it even to herself. Ronin felt as deeply, as strongly, and as passionately as any human she’d known.

She brushed her thumbs over his cheeks, and then across his thick, dark eyebrows to smooth the crease between them. From this close, the varying shades of green woven into his irises were clear, adding new layers to their unique color.

Lara finally saw him the way he’d always seen her.

Alive.

Guiding his face down, she kissed him again. The tightness in his mouth vanished when she ran her tongue over it. His lips parted, and she imagined the gasp he might’ve released were he able to breathe. An instant later, Lara let out a gasp of her own when he shifted his hips, grinding his bulge against her center. Delirious heat spiraled through her body, triggered by a flash of pleasure.

Her clothing was suddenly too hot, too restrictive, too abrasive. Releasing him and breaking the kiss, she grasped the hem of her shirt and pulled it off over her head. She tossed the garment aside and rested her arms on the bedding to either side of her head.

Ronin’s eyes were fixated on her chest in the same stare he wore while watching her dance. Not long ago, it had infuriated her. Lara knew better now. She thrilled in the weight of that stare, in its unwavering intensity.

Finally, he brought a hand up and brushed his fingertips over her nipple. It hardened immediately at his touch. Lara released a shaky exhalation.

His gaze remained rapt on her breast. Was he studying her reactions? Though he didn’t touch her again, her body anticipated more contact, desperate for his hands to run over it. Heat pooled in her core, and her skin tingled with need.

“Ronin.”

He met her eyes.

“I won’t break.” She grabbed his wrist and forced his palm down onto her breast. “Touchme.”

Something changed in his gaze, and like someone flipped a switch inside him, Ronin turned on.

He kneaded her breast, stroking and pinching her nipple. Delightful sensations thrummed through her and fluttered low in her belly. Restless energy suffused her.

Lara slid her thighs along his hips as he settled more of his weight atop her and dipped his head. He kissed her lips, her cheek, her jaw andneck, her shoulder. Every time his mouth teased her skin, it sent an electric current through her, making her clit twitch.

She closed her eyes with a sigh, arching into his touch, and undulated her hips to feel his hard length through their pants. His hand claimed her other breast. With his every caress, she gave a little more of herself into his keeping.

Moving her hands down his torso, she clumsily unbuttoned his pants and reached in. When she wrapped her fingers around his shaft, Ronin’s hips jerked