Under the Skin by Kannan Feng Read Free Book Online Page A

was enchanted by the blush on the Inoue heir's cheeks. He reached up dreamily and touched the side of Minoru's face. Minoru felt warm to his touch, but he couldn't tell if it was from desire or embarrassment. “I don't want you to stop looking,” he said.
    Minoru was flesh and blood and fire and temper, and then his fingers were just a hairsbreadth from the inputs themselves. When Minoru's finger touched the small opening, Padraic almost yelped in surprise. The metal was warm, and Minoru's touch made it feel hot. He almost wished he could tell Minoru to stop.
    "It's an opening into your body, into your mind..."
    Padraic half-smiled. “Into my soul, too?"
    Minoru laughed a little. “I hope not."
    Padraic watched with fascination as Minoru bent his head and licked the edge of the plating, where it met with flesh, and he almost arched off of the bed.
    "No...” he whimpered, and he felt Minoru nuzzling against the over-sensitized flesh comfortingly.
    "Better?"
    "Almost, ah, God, no, stop...” Padraic planted his hands against Minoru's shoulders and pushed, and after a moment Minoru relented, sighing.
    "It feels... weird,” Padraic said lamely. “Scary.” The moment he said that, he felt dumb as hell. Scary? Nothing that Minoru was going to do was going to hurt his tech, he knew that, but it was still hard to stand.
    Then again, when he thought of the look of intense desire that crossed Minoru's face whenever the Inoue heir laid eyes on good tech, maybe he had every right to be concerned.
    "I apologize,” Minoru said, looking faintly irritated with himself and sounding genuinely remorseful. “It is an intimate thing. I took liberties."
    Stiffly, Minoru got up and put away the tools that Padraic had strewn all over the floor. Padraic was alone in a bed that suddenly seemed far too large. He stared up at the ceiling, his fingers lightly touching the plate of his interface. He found himself wondering how it would have felt to let Minoru actually work with it, to have those long, lean fingers touching wiring that touched him more intimately than any human hands could.
    Because he didn't want to think about Minoru's intense gaze and maddening touch, he thought about his tech instead. He was surprised where he had ended up.
    Padraic realized that he couldn't remember the last person who had ever so clearly seen his tech and his body. The first implants that he had gotten were from a small clinic in the Third Ward, with Arch practically holding his hand. Arch had taken him for a drink afterward, and that was perhaps the most sweetness he had ever gotten from his tech.
    There were also men who had frowned and told him to keep his shirt on, for the love of God, and one man who had simply pushed him away and gotten dressed when he had brushed against the plate. He remembered how it felt to be left alone in that hotel room, wondering whether it was worth it, and deciding that even if people always left, his tech was still there.
    As a matter of fact, he had gone back to his apartment and started working on an upgrade.
    He was slowly coming to realize, however, that having tech and being with someone weren't necessarily mutually exclusive. He turned over to look at Minoru, who was peering between the window blinds at what Padraic guessed was nothing at all.
    "Minoru?"
    "Yes?"
    "I'd... like it if you took more liberties."
    Minoru simply looked at Padraic for a moment before reaching for the interface. Padraic stifled a flinch, but Minoru's touch was only considering.
    "I'll cap these,” he said quietly. “You deserve my full attention.” When Padraic reached for the soft caps from the tool kit, Minoru brushed his hands away. “Let me."
    It was a sort of penetration, a shockingly personal act, and Padraic couldn't stop himself from whimpering.
    Minoru finally finished with the plugs, and then he leaned over, cupping Padraic's face with a cool hand and holding him steady for a deep kiss.
    Instead of submitting meekly to the kiss,