#SFRMonday: He’s programmed to kill, not to love ~ LIBERATION’S KISS by @Wendy_Clark #scifirom
Please welcome Wendy Lynn Clark to the blog with her Sci-Fi Romance Liberation’s Kiss.
LIBERATION’S KISS
Robotics Faction #1
by Wendy Lynn Clark
The only one who can keep her alive is the man who was sent to kill her.
The Old Empire has crumbled. Strong factions prey on the weak, and strongest of all are those who ally themselves with the mysterious Robotics Faction…
Cressida Sarit Antiata is twelve years old when her diplomat parents learn that her name has appeared on the Robotics Faction Kill List, a classified document of dangerous individuals marked for execution. Calling in all of their connections, her parents smuggle her to a small but wealthy ore-producing moon where she grows up in anonymous luxury, secure that her data is safe.
Until now.
Xan | Arch is an x-class android with one mission: execute the target n81, also known as Cressida Sarit Antiata. Although he possesses biological skin, hair, fingernails, and eyes – and extensive conditioning to pass as a sweating, swearing, rough-and-tumble everyman – beneath the surface, he is all machine.
When he arrives at the moon, something unexpected is waiting for him. Something that circumvents his execution order and forces him to protect Cressida instead. Something that gives him the free will to question his makers, control his destiny, and awaken his heart. Together, they might escape their destinies and forge an entirely new future.
Available from:
Amazon US | Nook | iBooks |Kobo
and more at http://wendylynnclark.com
“You’re like a grenade that could go off at any time! How can you just sit here like nothing is wrong?”
“Are you going to run away?” he asked quietly.
She realized that she’d already taken several steps away. She wavered, the historical instinct to run fighting the impulse to trust, just a little longer, that it was all a mistake. That there was something more. She retraced her steps until she was standing before him. “No.”
His jaw moved. Thoughtful. He nodded. “I’m sorry.”
“Just explain so I can feel safe again,” she said. “Are you not a grenade?”
He scratched his head, a rueful smile curving his lips. “Honestly? I don’t know.”
She hugged herself. “That doesn’t make me feel better.”
He flashed to her and sobered. “I don’t know who the person was that installed the other program, so I don’t know their intentions. I don’t even know if they’re human. I don’t know the scope of their program, or what defenses it has against hacking if I am recaptured. The Faction will certainly want to deconstruct the code, which may require disassembling me completely. I don’t know.”
She swallowed. “Disassembling?”
“That is the usual consequence for an android that goes off assignment.” He sighed. “That goes rogue.”
She knelt down. “But it wasn’t your fault.”
His brows drew together. “What does fault have to do with anything?”
She sat back on her heels.
“I don’t really care either way.” He cupped the back of his neck. “It’s not like I have a biological imperative forcing me to stay alive and transmit my genes. Up until a day ago, I, like all of my brethren, had only one imperative: to enact the will of the Faction. And now…”
He released his hold and filled his eyes with her. His expression changed to awe, almost pleading, and his voice turned raw, as if she could answer his questions.
“What is it about you that makes me so fucking compelled to hold you? Even now, when you distrust and fear me, I just want to yank you into my arms and squeeze you until your eyes glaze with pleasure and your breath comes in gasps. It’s not an assignment. It’s not the will of the Faction. I just want you. I want to memorize every single molecule, from the inside to the outside, from the chemical bond to the neuro-physical configuration, so that I could be your resurrect if you needed it. It feels like burning under my skin, but when I query my dermal receptors, they report nothing but ambient temperature. I don’t understand these sensations. I need you.”
Wendy Lynn Clark is an award-winning author of contemporary and science fiction romance. Find out more by visiting her online home at http://wendylynnclark.com.
Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter
