Male Android Companion
Mackenzie McKade
Hollywood, California, 2095… Gia Easton has had it. After catching her ex-boyfriend/agent with her best friend, the beautiful actress is through with men, but not sex and especially not now. Her family is expecting to meet her latest squeeze and won’t take no for an answer. That’s why she’s standing before the new and improved line of Male Android Companions (M.A.C.). The Institute of Robotics promises the androids are as good as the real thing without the hassle or heartbreak.
Satisfaction guaranteed!
The starlet has just mistaken Marc Anthony Charleston, M.A.C.’s creator, as one of his humanoids. When she selects him to take home, he’s in no hurry to correct her misunderstanding. Besides, she’s getting more bang for her buck—and so is he.
Ellora’s Cave Publishing
www.ellorascave.com
Male Android Companion
ISBN 9781419934674
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Male Android Companion Copyright © 2011 Mackenzie McKade
Edited by Jillian Bell
Cover art by Syneca
Electronic book publication July 2011
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Male Android Companion
Mackenzie McKade
Chapter One
Gia Easton’s feet screeched to an abrupt halt. The jolting movement jarred her teeth and left her body swaying. Wide-eyed, she gasped, but no air reached her lungs. For a moment her mind went blank. She wasn’t prepared for the sudden gush of air filling her airway as she was forced to face the heartbreaking scene before her. The two individuals she trusted the most in this godforsaken city were naked and fucking in her dressing room, on top of her makeup table no less. She blinked, trying to dismiss them, but the bright lights surrounding the mirror cast both her boyfriend and personal assistant in the spotlight.
With one hand, Doug fisted Mary’s long blonde hair, tugging her head back so that her slender neck arched, her eyelids closed. His other hand grasped her rounded hip, fingertips pressing into sun-kissed skin while he stared down at the juncture where their bodies came together. The satisfied grin Gia had seen on his face so many times made her stomach lurch, dizziness threatened. She squeezed her eyelids together to block out the sight.
This can’t be happening.
Pulling a deep breath through her nose, she fought the resentment and bitterness building at an alarming rate. Instead of finding relief, she inhaled the musky stench of their deceit. The sting of betrayal was more powerful than she could stand. Her fingers curled into fists and memories rose behind her eyelids.
Mary had been her closest friend since Gia arrived in Hollywood five years ago. They had roomed together, gone to auditions together. Laughed and dreamed together. For the first time, Gia had felt she had found a real friend. She had even given the woman a cushy job as her assistant. The thought dissolved when the blonde’s pouty lips parted on a moan, the feminine sound laden with passion and lust.
Gia licked her suddenly dry lips. Her mouth felt like a barren desert. How long had their affair been going on behind her back?
“That’s it, baby.” Doug began to thrust hard and fast between Mary’s thighs. “I want to hear you scream.”
Tears swelled while a ball of acid stung Gia’s throat, making it difficult to swallow. The son of a bitch had spoken those exact words to her last night. Several quick blinks did nothing to drive away the welling emotion. Instead, she stared through misty eyes as a single tear raced down her cheek.
With each pant, hard lines creased Doug’s forehead. His fingertips were white against Mary’s flawless skin. Ribbons of muscle bunched down his back, leading to a rock-hard ass. An ass Gia felt like kicking so hard that his balls jammed in his throat while she ripped out every strand of his chocolate-brown hair.
Red-hot anger vibrated through her, heating her face and stiffening her backbone. He wasn’t worth the anguish clawing at her chest.
“Fuckin’ bastard,” she growled, not caring if they heard. As she inched backward, her four-inch stilettos clicked against the marble floor. They must not have heard them when she came in, busy as they were.
Startled, Doug’s head jerked up. His gaze connected with her stormy one, reflected in the mirror. “Gia.” Her name was a whisper on his cheating lips.
Awkwardly, he stumbled back and spun around so quickly that it threw him off balance. He swayed in an attempt to steady himself. At the same time a tight cry left Mary’s kiss-swollen lips. As Doug took a step toward Gia, Mary scrambled off the table, knocking over an expensive powder compact. The cosmetic shattered on impact, glass scattering. A creamy cloud rose to thicken the air and the scent of lilacs filled the room.
Gia had loved the flowery smell. Now the cloying sweetness, coupled with their betrayal made her sick. The only thing she found pleasing was that the bitch’s expression matched Doug’s—one of pure panic.
A sensor flashed, filling the room with a bright light that triggered the automatic filters. Electricity sparked and sizzled, and then the familiar hum that indicated the cleansing that would extract all particulates from the air thrummed through Gia’s head.
A robotic vacuum appeared from behind a trap door in the wall and the small, discreet cyborg zoomed toward the mess on the floor. Doug swung his head side to side, desperately scanning the room.
What? Did he think Gia brought a camera crew in to immortalize her total devastation?
Doug took a step and almost fell over the android’s hose, which was moving like a snake in search of glass and debris.
“Baby. I-I—”
Cautiously, he glanced around again. This time he grabbed a hand towel off the makeup table to drape like a loincloth over the part of him that Gia had the incredible urge to chop off at that moment.
Cheating bastard.
Her only satisfaction was that the hard-on he sported had lost its firmness with each second that passed. Once again, he almost tripped over the vacuum crossing his path as it made a beeline toward its hidden home in the wall.
“Baby?” Fury pinched her lips. Her hot glare swept over Mary, who was trying to cover her assets with her arms and failing miserably. Then Gia pinned her anger squarely on Doug. “Don’t you ever call me baby again.” Her voice trembled with unleashed rage. �
�I’m out of here.” With a snap of her shoulders, she whipped around and headed for the door.
“Gia. Dammit, Gia, wait.” She heard Doug’s feet shuffle across the floor in pursuit of her. “This isn’t what it looks like.”
His hollow words brought her to a grinding halt. Slowly, she turned in disbelief. Animosity shivered through her as her brows rose and her eyes widened.
“Not what it looks like.” Disdain hung on her every word. Then the air in her lungs escaped on a burst of laughter that held no humor. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Right?”
“Ah, baby.” His voice softened. “Doll.” Beneath hooded eyelids, he gazed at her with a look Gia had once thought sexy. But now she saw him for what he really was—a lying, cheating, lowlife scoundrel of the worst kind. He took another hesitant step closer, shrugging. “You know how it is.”
Oh my God. He did not just say that.
Crossing her arms over her breasts, she lowered her chin, her glower not wavering. “No. I’m afraid I don’t. Maybe you should explain it to me.” He never took his eyes off her as she waited impatiently for him to play the “I’m just a man” card.
Feigned remorse touched his pouty lips, lips she had spent hours kissing and teasing, but now all she wanted was to plant her fist in his kisser and call it a day.
“She came on to me.”
The minute the lie left his mouth, Mary’s eyes got as big as saucers. “That’s not how it happened.” Her outburst made Doug’s face turn a little green around the edges.
What? Did he really think Mary was going down without taking him with her? Silly boy.
Grabbing Gia’s robe off the hook on the wall, Mary shrugged into the garment as she closed the distance between them. “Gia. Please, I need to explain—”
Gia’s outstretched palm silenced her personal assistant’s words as well as her approach. “I’m past explanations.” You know what? Make that ex-personal assistant. “You’re fired.” Gia didn’t need people she couldn’t trust around her, and she certainly didn’t need these two.
“But—”
Gia turned on her heel, dismissing Mary, desperate to get out of the dressing room and as far away from both of them as possible. Outwardly, she might have appeared poised and hopefully strong, but inside she was silently screaming. When her fingers folded around the doorknob, she made a last ditch effort to remain composed. She paused and glanced over a shoulder. “Doug, you’re fired too.” Her voice sounded eerily calm even to her.
“Come on, baby. You know you can’t do that.” He took several quick steps toward her. The withering scowl she gave his hand as he reached for her stopped him cold. Stillness shimmered around them and then his eyes narrowed. “I’m your agent.” Low and hard, his voice became all business. “We have a contract.”
She flinched, feeling the sharp slap to her pride. Had he ever really cared about her or had it always been business?
“Gia.” This time he attempted to circle her wrist, fingertips grazing her skin before she jerked away, placing a wider distance between them. “What about Starlight?”
The movie promised to be the film of the year 2096. Gia wanted the leading role so badly she could taste it.
“Baby, I can make it happen for us—you,” he added quickly. “Baby, I need you.” The whine in his tone was like fingernails across a slick surface. It grated on her nerves, making the fine hairs on her arms rise.
She growled, “Fuck the movie and fuck you.” Right now she couldn’t think through the red haze building in her mind. She had to get out of there.
His broken chuckle sounded tight and strained. “You can’t just fire me.”
“Well, I just did.” Money she had. Real friends were few and far between, especially in this business. Hell. What was she saying? Her entire life had been one big failure when it came to relationships.
Doug was no different from her past lovers. None of her partners ever wanted more than to possess her. Exceptional beauty had been her gift and her curse. As she had learned throughout the years, a relationship based on physical appearance rather than inner appeal was destined to fail. Since high school, boys—men had been more attracted to her looks than anything else she had to offer.
The unanswered million-dollar question remained. How could she find a man who was more interested in her intelligence and what lay in her heart than the size of her boobs?
Gia mentally pulled herself together. “I’ll have my attorney contact both of you.”
Yanking the door open, she stepped outside and pressed her back against the cool metal. A breeze feathered her long hair, chilling her as it swept over her nearly naked body, which reminded her that she still wore the silky black negligee she’d donned for the final scene of the movie she had just finished shooting. The material dipped as low in the front as it did in the back, hiding very little of her full breasts. Another brisk wind parted the slit in the gown, exposing an entire leg and hip.
That’s when the first bright light blinded her. One after another, camera lights flashed, snapping and going off like an army of machine guns.
“Look over here, Miss Easton,” someone yelled.
On autopilot, she turned and another series of flashes erupted, leaving black dots burning her vision.
What happened to the closed set? Where did these people come from?
Probably another one of Doug’s media ploys, but this time it was blowing up in her face. Gia’s startled gaze whipped around the crowd, looking for her bodyguard, who she had dismissed earlier when she thought of spending a little time with Doug behind closed doors.
Mary had beaten her to it.
Every nerve in Gia’s body tensed. For the first time since her overnight fame, she’d forgotten about the paparazzi. Willing her frazzled nerves to soften, she forced a strained smile, but it slipped when Doug burst from the building in nothing but his teeny-tiny towel, which was flapping in the wind. He struggled with the scrap of cloth. Gia would have laughed if she wasn’t dealing with her own tattered emotions. Wrapped in one of Gia’s robes, Mary followed close on Doug’s heels, sporting a deer-in-the-headlight stare when she saw the cameras.
The photographers went wild. An all-out frenzy. As a fiery orange sun dipped in the sky, camera lights exploded like fireworks.
“Miss Easton, any comment?” A tall, blond man shoved a microphone toward her mouth while another one blurted, “Did you catch them in the act?”
Gia’s heart beat madly. Perspiration threatened to bead her forehead. How the hell would she get out of this unscathed? She had to deal not only with the betrayal, but with the public knowing her humiliation. Everyone knew the darlin’ of the silver screen was dating her agent. Little by little, the fragile hold she had on her control began to slip. Unshed tears burned behind her eyelids. Doug had been the first man she had trusted in Hollywood.
Lies. All lies.
Gia shuddered, the tremor shaking her entire body. With as much courage as she could muster, she squared her shoulders and tossed back her long hair, smiling sweetly for the cameras. No way would she go down without a fight. Acting was her forte and this crisis just another scene in her personal messed-up movie.
She could do this—she had to.
“Awkward.” Gia kept the word light while she fought to keep her innocent expression from crumbling.
Doug had professed his love, even promised to accompany her next weekend to her parents’ thirty-fifth anniversary.
Love. She almost huffed out loud. What a fucking joke. A twitch teased the corner of her right eye. The spasm was hard to resist. She reached to smooth it away, but stopped midway.
Everyone would be at the family home in Forest Grove, Oregon, to celebrate, including Aunt Clare, who nagged her incessantly about marriage and babies. Gia was the only one of her siblings who wasn’t married and settled down.
“Does this mean your relationship with Mr. Temin is over?” one reporter asked.
Gia calmly turned to Doug with a look of indiffe
rence while she ground her teeth behind her lips. “It’s true we have agreed to sever our business relationship.”
Doug adamantly shook his head and the cameras caught the movement. As a barrage of paparazzi descended upon him, he and Mary disappeared back into her dressing room, which meant once more the media whirled like a pack of wild animals toward Gia.
“What about your personal relationship? Does this change anything?” the blond reporter dogged her.
Oh hell no. The more the merrier. NOT. Gia barely held back her sarcasm. What the hell did the man think?
A woman close to Gia’s twenty-five years of age asked, “How are you feeling? Are you hurt? Mad?” She crammed her microphone in Gia’s face.
A step backward put the much-needed space she had to have between them. Yes. Gia felt all those things and more, but those were emotions she didn’t care to share with a bunch of strangers or see strung across the tabloids. Instead, compelled laughter squeezed from her tight lips.
“This is Hollywood, people. Nothing is what you believe it is. Please don’t forget that. Now if you’ll excuse me. It’s been a long day.”
Another camera snapped, bright light causing her to stumble backward. Damn these people. All she wanted was a couple of minutes to sort through her tattered feelings. When a hand grasped her wrist, she tensed, jerking back before she realized her bodyguard held her.
Antares looked down at her with jet-black eyes. “Miss Easton, do you have need of my services?” The android positioned his imposing six-foot-four frame between her and the hungry journalists who screeched to a halt. Their flashing cameras even paused when the bald-headed robot turned and narrowed his foreboding gaze on them.
A sigh of relief filled Gia’s lungs. “Thank you, Antares. I have to get out of here,” she murmured while making a last-ditch effort to hold on to her composure.
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