Read Man or Machine: 2 (Body Electric) for Free Online

especially if you liked the slender, sensitive-looking type to begin with, with a roguish twinkle in his eyes. He appeared to be permanently thinking up mischief.
    He was from hacking royalty. His parents were legends and they’d named him after a sci-fi computer. He was rebelling by going to Cambridge and MIT. Fraternizing with the establishment.
    Rumor had it he liked dating Harvard undergraduates, the beautiful, thin ones with the flawless hair and the ability to do their own makeup.
    She and Hal hadn’t been doing anything special that afternoon. He had a project to finish and she was fooling around, writing some code, finishing up a program that could consistently figure out new ways to cheat at Monopoly without her being able to detect it. They were in the living room of his shared apartment and all his roommates were out. They were both typing away, squinting at their screens, in the typical bent-over nerd pose, and then Hal had sighed and stretched his arms up over his head, his long fingers woven together.
    He was wearing a t-shirt and his stretch exposed the underside of his arm. Hal was a member of the MIT rowing club. He was tall without being broad but the hours on the Charles had honed his arms into sinewy perfection. There was a shadow between his biceps and triceps and Ilsa could not help it…she traced her finger along that shadow. His skin was warm and smooth.
    “Ils?” he’d said.
    She’d met his eyes. They were blue but she’d never quite realized how blue until that moment.
    “Do you mean it?” he’d said. “Don’t, unless you mean it.”
    “I’m a virgin,” she’d said.
    She remembered everything. How they stood and shed their clothes together, watching each other stripping, t-shirt for t-shirt, jeans for jeans. How every shedding revealed more of his flawless body. How she couldn’t wait until they were naked and touched his chest before they’d taken off their underwear and how he’d groaned and grabbed her and pressed her against him. Skin to skin, the shocking truth of it, the wet heaven of his mouth.
    It took hours. He brought her to his bedroom and locked the door. He removed her frankly embarrassing underwear as if it were the most exquisite lace and he touched and kissed every inch of her body. He was as thorough a lover as he was a programmer, as careful and absorbed, his brilliant eyes taking in all of her, his talented hands teasing and exploring. Understanding, somehow.
    That’s how she’d felt anyway. Before, she’d never fully realized what breasts were for, why her skin was important, why she was built with nerve endings and feelings as well as a brain, how she was naturally tuned for pleasure and urgency. Her body had always seemed like an embarrassing afterthought.
    With Hal she was greedy. She spread her legs and said, “Please, Hal. Now.”
    She was wet and ready and when he slid his cock slowly inside her, she’d felt complete in a way she’d never known she was missing. He weaved his fingers with hers and he put his forehead, damp with sweat, against hers too. Their lips met.
    She’d wanted to sing.
    Now, Ilsa drew in a ragged breath and didn’t turn around. It had been two years and eleven months since she’d left him. Nearly three years. She was older and wiser and he was tied to her bed after trying to discover her secrets, the ones that were more sacred than her body.
    This was confirmation of everything.
    People were too complicated. She was much better off with a robot.
    She composed her face and went to her chest of drawers to get a clean pair of jeans. He watched every movement she made but she did her best to ignore him. Turning her back to him again, she pulled on the jeans and buttoned them up.
    Hal cleared his throat. “Anyway,” he said, and his voice was back to the cheerful insouciance that had been driving her crazy a few minutes ago. “I feel sort of sorry for Mr. Roboto.”
    “His name is Dallas. And why would you possibly feel sorry