The

I had to lean against him and put my arms around his neck. My face pressed against his broad, golden chest. His heart thumped rhythmically. He smelled of sweat with faint traces of sun lotion.
He put his arm underneath mine, supporting me.
It was the only way I was likely to be embraced by a natural male, much less one this beautiful.
We progressed slowly. I held onto the walls. He held me up.
"What is your name?" His voice echoed distorted, through his chest.
"Ariadne. Ariadne Knossos." If he didn't know what I was before he would know now. Artifacts were always given mythological or pseudo-classical names. It was another way to make us different.
"Ariadne? Really? How appropriate."
Ah. Two minds that thought like one. My throat closed.
I didn't want him to despise me. Not him. Even though I was in pain, I could feel his attraction. He was beautiful and brave and even if he'd allowed himself to be bought, he'd had the decency of crying for the woman who'd paid him—annoying though she'd seemed.
I wanted his attention, his admiration. Long denied hormones surged to the surface or my being.
I'd been taken out of the crèche just at the onset of puberty and my work hadn't required me to come in contact with men. For the company who'd created and employed me, I had been little more than an animated message system. The body and the gender had come as part of a package they didn't find it worth to break up. From the moment of my official activation, on leaving the crèche, constant traveling had kept me from relationships with my kind. As for male nats, I shied away from them. Too many female artifacts were created as pleasure toys and anyone I approached would only think of me like that.
I'd rather be celibate and keep my dignity.
But now, free and almost thirty, here I was with my face pressed up against the most handsome nat I'd ever met and my libido—or something—surged. In my present state I couldn't seduce him. But oh, I wished I could.