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  “Ah, God…please!” Mei-Li arched her back. She was getting close—so close to the edge. Gone was the conviction that she couldn’t come this way. Six had proved her wrong there. She was going to come—going to come so hard she didn’t know how she could stand it. His tongue inside her felt so good but she just needed something else…something more…

  Suddenly she felt the fingers of his metal left hand slide into her folds. Two fingertips found her clit and settled one on either side of the sensitive little button. Then, just as Six was thrusting his tongue even more deeply into her, they began an almost imperceptible but incredibly intense vibration as they had the night he had first touched her.

  It was exactly what she needed. With a low wail, Mei-Li thrust forward, giving herself completely, riding his face shamelessly as the wave of pleasure that had been threatening her suddenly broke, drenching her completely.

  “Six,” she cried. “Ah, God—Six…Six!” Her hands, still pinned to her sides, itched to grasp his thick, dark hair. Her fingers open and shut and her toes curled helplessly as he pressed deeper and deeper into her, thrusting with his tongue as though he was trying to reach her very soul. At the same time, his metal fingers stroked with gentle intensity around her clit, drawing another orgasm from her and then another.

  Mei-Li didn’t know how long it lasted—only that she didn’t know how much more she could take. Six seemed to never tire of giving her pleasure. She bit back a moan as she watched him on his knees before her, his broad, bare shoulders splitting her wide as he knelt between her thighs to worship her pussy with his mouth. He seemed to revel in her scent and taste, licking and sucking— thrusting to kiss and taste as deeply as he could. And all the time the vibrating metal fingers teased her until she cried his name again and again and begged until she was hoarse.

  At last, he drew back, panting and looked up at her. His cheeks and chin and mouth were shiny with her juices and his eyes were nearly wild with desire. Mei-Li thought for certain that he would mount her now. She was, after all, in the perfect position—her pelvis tilted up towards him, her pussy spread and ready and open. She knew she shouldn’t want him to do that—shouldn’t want him to fuck her—it was going to make everything complicated. But they were too far gone to stop now. Lying back, she didn’t even try to struggle with the sousa’s bonds that held her to the bed. She simply waited for him to take her.

  “Release,” he said and Mei-Li suddenly found that she could move again—the restraints the sousa had put on her were gone.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  “What?” Mei-Li looked up at him uncertainly. “What are you doing?”

  He ignored her and rose abruptly from his crouch, trying to put some distance between them. Gods, why had he done it? Why had he not been able to control himself?

  Mei-Li was staring at him. Her nipples were still tight little points and her sweet, wet pussy looked swollen from his assault. Six looked away, shame flooding him. And still, despite the self-loathing he felt, he wanted her. Gods, what was wrong with him?

  “Six?” Her soft voice was tentative. “Six, are you all right? You look like you might be hurting.” She reached up, caressing the throbbing ridge of his cock, making him bite back a groan. “Do you…do you need some help?”

  “No.” Deliberately he stepped away from her touch, though he craved her soft, cool fingers wrapped around his shaft like he craved his next breath. “No, don’t. I do not…do not deserve a release.”

  Mei-Li shook her head. “Why not?”

  “How can you ask me that after what I have just done to you?” He ran a hand though his hair distractedly.

  “Okay, well…you did get a little out of control.” Mei-Li got up and picked up the red garment he had pulled off her. “But you didn’t hurt me.”

  “I took what you were not willing to give,” Six said in a low voice, choked with shame. “I held you down and did as I pleased because I couldn’t control myself.”

  She bit her lip, a distractingly erotic gesture that he tried to ignore.

  “I wasn’t sure how I felt about it at first—I’m still not completely sure,” she said softly. “I asked you to stop and you didn’t—that’s not okay. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want you to, um, continue towards the end. I’ve never…” Her voice dropped and her cheeks got red. “I’ve never come so hard in my life, Six. And I didn’t even know I could come that way. You…I’ve never had anyone so…so intensely focused on my pleasure before.”

  “It was my pleasure I was concerned about—don’t you see?” he said roughly. “All I cared about was taking what I wanted. Which I did. Gods.” He turned away, trying not to look at her. Trying not to see how lovely she looked with her nakedness framed in the deep red garment she had thrown over her shoulders. Trying not to taste the last, faint traces of her sweet honey on his lips or smell her devastatingly feminine scent which still lingered in the air.

  But he couldn’t help himself—his fingers itched to take her by the shoulders, to pull her to him and kiss her again. Somehow Six managed to restrain himself. You’ve taken enough already, he reminded himself grimly. But it was hard—incredibly hard not to act on his impulses.

  He ran a hand through his hair. Gods, why can’t I stop this? Just being in the same room with her floods me with sensations.

  Not sensations—emotions—admit it, whispered a voice in his brain. Just admit it now, Six.

  He didn’t want to but he feared he had no choice. The evidence was as clear as it was damning—his implant was failing and he was feeling. Feeling with an intensity that frightened the Seven Hells out of him.

  “I don’t know what to say,” she said in a low voice, interrupting his grim thoughts.

  “I do.” Six took a deep breath. “I have violated our Claiming contract by tasting you before our tasting week officially began. Therefore, you are freed and our Claiming Period is now over.”

  “What?” She looked at him, her dark eyes going wide. “But…but where—?”

  “I will take you back up to the medical barge. There I can get my implant replaced and take you home.”

  “But I never said I wanted that,” she exclaimed. “I never said I wanted to go home—not like this, anyway.”

  “It does not matter what you want—the facts are irrefutable,” Six said stolidly. “My emotion damper is failing and I have become a danger to you, as well as a criminal among my own kind.”

  “Why, because you’re having emotions? Because you’re feeling?” she cried. “What’s so wrong with that, Six? What’s so wrong with letting yourself care and want and need other than the fact that a pack of sentient machines says it’s wrong?”

  For a moment he was at a loss for words. Then he shook his head.

  “The Collective knows best. They made the law against emotions for a reason.”

  “What do a bunch of computers know about emotions? About feeling or caring or love?” Mei-Li demanded. “What have they ever known?”

  “They knew enough to stop Z4 from going to war again—to stop all the organics here from killing each other.”

  “That war happened hundreds of years ago!” she shouted. Her cheeks were flushed now, her dark eyes snapping with anger. “Why don’t you just admit the real reason you’re sending me home?”

  Six rounded on her. “And what reason is that?”

  “You’re sending me home because you care about me. Because you’re starting to have feelings—not just feelings in general—although I think that scares you too. But feelings for me. The same way…” She lifted her chin and her face got very red. “The same way I’m having feelings for you,” she finished in a low voice.

  The words hung in the air between them and Six had the sense that she had risked herself greatly in saying them. He didn’t know how to reply—his heart pounded powerfully beneath his ribs and his chest felt tight. Mei-Li cared for him? She had feelings for him?

  He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. This was what he h