“He shouldn’t have had to say anything. I should know what to do to comfort you. He’s right, I am stupid about a lot of things.” I begrudgingly admitted Booker had a point.

Her hands pushed up the wide plane of my back, shoving the fabric of my shirt up with them. I had to bend down for her to pull it off over my head. My eyebrows shot up as her palms smoothed over the black and gray ink that covered the majority of my torso. She used a finger to trace the mechanical heart that lived in the center of my chest and her palm skated over my side where the skin was inked away and all my motorized insides were revealed.

“I think you would have figured it out on your own, Stark. It took the Tin Man a while to get used to his new heart, so you get a hall pass.”

I caught her wrist in my hand and gently brushed my thumb over the steady thump of her pulse. “Those girls, you listened to them, Noe. You heard them and believed them. You made sure their stories were heard. You gave them more than you had.”

She blinked at me and then gave a little nod. When her chin was dipped down, her gaze stayed focused on the straining front of my jeans and the way my abs were locked tight. Her hand trailed over my side, her thumb tracing the indent on the side of my abs that cut a hard V into my waistline. Her small fingers tapped against my belt buckle and I felt the tiny vibration all the way down to my toes.

“You really want to comfort me, Stark?” There was mischief under the pain in her dark eyes. This was a trap I could spot from a mile away, but fuck me if I wasn’t going to walk right into the center of it anyway, eyes wide open.

“Yeah. Tell me what I can do to make you feel better.” My voice was gruff and slightly unsteady.

She tapped my belt buckle again. “Well, you’ve seen me naked, I think it’s only fair I get the same opportunity.”

I balked at her and my hands spasmed where they were holding onto her. “You want me to strip for you?” It came out slightly strangled, more from surprise.

She laughed, her breath light and warm against that iron heart on my chest. “Well, you’ve seen me at my most vulnerable. Stripped down, bare, nowhere to hide. Return the favor, Stark. I think I would find that very comforting. It would make me feel way better.” She was teasing and she was taunting, but her fingers were insistent on my belt so I took a step back and replaced them with my own.

“You’re fucking with me.” I knew it and she knew it, too, but I still took my belt off and started to pry open my jeans. Her dark eyes were fixed on each and every movement, her dark, feather eyebrows arched with interest. She shrugged and gave me a slight smile that made my stomach flip.

I bent down and tugged my boots off, and when I lifted back up, there was no more humor in her eyes. They were glossy black, shining with something that made my heart beat faster and my skin feel too tight. I pulled my zipper down, carefully. The flesh behind it was rock hard, aching and pulsing in time to my heart beat. I grunted when the pressure was off of my dick and swiftly yanked the denim down my long legs so that I was standing in front of her in nothing more than a pair of black boxer briefs. The tip of my cock was bulging behind the elastic, eager and ready for whatever she had in mind.

I put my hands on my hips and spread my legs so she could look her fill. Her eyes were caught on the ridge behind the black cotton but they moved over the rest of me, hungry and curious. Her hand darted out and touched the front of my thigh. I almost moaned at the contact.

“Tesla.” It skipped over to the side where my muscles were locked so tight they were quivering. “Edison.” Down by my knee. “da Vinci.” The other side of my knee. “Einstein.” Up higher on the inside of my thigh, so close that if she moved her hand at all, her knuckles would touch my balls. “Curie.” Around to the back of my thigh. “Newton.” She let out a breath and I wished to God I’d managed to pull the cotton down already so I could feel that wet heat on the tip of my cock which was already damp and leaking pearly pleasure.

She circled back around to the front of me, her fingers trailing around my waist as she went. “You are a beautiful, interesting man, Snowden Stark. I’ve never met anyone like you.”

Usually when someone said I was interesting, they meant I was weird and they had no idea what to do with me. With Noe, it was clear on every line of her pretty, expressive face that she meant what she said. She was fascinated by me, intrigued and confused. She wasn’t alone, because I felt the same way about her.

She put her finger in the waistband of my underwear and tugged. “Off. Fair is fair.”

I sucked in a breath because her hand was so close to my dick. All she had to do was move a millimeter to the right and she could hold, touch, stroke it. I felt my pulse pound at the thought. Throwing my head back so I was looking at the ceiling and not at her, I did as she asked, tugging the black material free around the throbbing, thick flesh that immediately jerked and bounced against my lower stomach. I heard her suck in a sharp breath and all that emotion filling up the space between us shifted, turning from something thick and oppressive into something that fluttered and danced over my skin.

Anticipation.

Neither one of us moved or said a word. Visions of me standing in the room as she came out of the shower were like flashpoints in my brain at this moment. Both of us wanting, neither of us sure, forced to make a move but unyielding in our actions. My cock swayed between us, huge, heavy, hard, and wanting. I couldn’t remember a time in my admittedly scarce and limited sexual history where my body reacted so strongly to another person. I was usually vaguely interested, but with Noe, I was more than that. I was invested. It was like every single part of me was attuned to every single part of her. I breathed when she breathed. I blinked when she blinked. My heart beat when hers did, and my dick, well, it grew, preened, practically screamed at her for attention. I’d never been so needy, so desperate for contact with another person. I was used to craving distance and space. With her, there was only one way she would ever be close enough.

She exhaled and looked up at me as she lifted her hands and slid her tiny t-shirt up over her head. I couldn’t hold back a groan at the sight of her pert, pointed nipples. She was built sleek and lean. I loved it. She was built for performance and speed, like all of my favorite machines.

“I heard a lot about you before you came looking for me, Stark. Rumors, whispers, speculation. I had this idea of who you were, this dream of the kind of guy I wanted you to be. I put you up on this fantasy pedestal, up so high no one, including me could touch you.” I watched wide eyed as she pulled the lace of her panties down her legs so that she was suddenly as naked and exposed as I was. Most of her bruises had healed, but she was still just as marked up as I was. Hers were far harder to see since they lined her insides and slashed across her soul. She was the prettiest thing I’d ever seen. “When you shut the door in my face, when you told me not to pick fights I couldn’t win, you tumbled off that pedestal so fast I didn’t even see you hit the ground.”

I swore under my breath. “I’m sorry.” I wanted to touch her, to taste her. I wanted inside of her, and for the first time in my life, I ached to let someone inside of me.

She gave her head a quick shake, the red strands whipping out. “I’m not. No one could touch you up there, no one could reach you on that pedestal. Down here with the rest of us, I have no problem getting my hands on you.” Her eyes lifted to mine, darker than the night outside the window behind us. “You want to make me feel better, Snowden, then do it. Make me feel better.”

I’d been compared to a lot of different things in my life. A robot. A machine. An automaton and she just called me the Tin Man. I didn’t feel like any of those cold, metallic things at the moment. No, now I was something else. Something animalistic. Something primitive. Something raw and unleashed.

A growl ripped out of my chest and I moved on her like she was prey that was going to turn and flee, leaving me hungry and empty. My mouth was on hers, my hands spanned her narrow waist, lifting her up so she could twine her legs around my hips. My cock hit her warm, wet center and leapt with undisguised excitement. Our chests pressed together as I moved her toward the giant bed in the middle of the room. My heart thundered as hers raced. Her nipples were tight and poked impatiently against the ink on my skin. I wanted them in my mouth. I wanted them against my teeth. I wanted them covered in the thick, sticky liquid that was already seeping out of the slit at the tip of my dick. The lights from the window outside painted her skin various shades of blue and red. She was Technicolor, brighter than anything I’d ever had my hands on, and far more precious.

I devoured her. My teeth and tongue eating up every surprised sound she made. I kissed her harder, teeth clicking, tongues dueling, sighs mingling, as I tried to get in as deep as I could go. It wasn’t a skilled kiss. It was sloppy, messy, desperate. I kissed her like I was trying to eat her whole, which I was. I wanted to inhale her, consume her. I wanted to take everything she was offering and never give it back. I was greedy, trying to get my hands on everything she was and refusing to let go, even as she wiggled against me impatiently.