MaleAndroidCompanion

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.

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.