forgetting everything else but Kelsey. It was easy, so easy when you looked and felt right. So easy and she didn't want to think about anything else but Kelsey, dear, sweet, darling Kelsey.

She received him in her arms, with a wild desire, a wild hunger to cover his face with kisses. She felt the intensity taking hold of her, gripping her body, quickening the pounding throb of machinery that was hidden now, hidden away deep and silent and beating now like a human heart.

She kissed his cheek. Her lips strayed over his skin. Her lips glided over his face, felt the moist trembling of his lips.

She felt his trembling, his shuddering sigh, the way his arms convulsed and gripped her, and then she saw the unsettled look, the light in his eyes as he clung to her and at the same time seemed to push her away.

He was frightened. He was trembling, and he was afraid, and his face was flushed.

"What's the matter, darling?" she whispered.

He stared at her. His lips were trembling. "I—I don't know. What is it? It was never like this."

"What was never like this?"

"Love—I mean—you—what is it?"

"Real. It's real, darling Kelsey. That's the difference, isn't it?"

"Real?" His face had an uncomprehending look, the cheek muscles trembling as he spoke, his voice hollow and frightened. "Something," he whispered. "What is it? I've never felt anything like it. It—it's too much, maybe. Too much or something—I don't know—"

His face was white. He was sliding away from her.

Already I am losing him, she thought. He's going away. Somehow he senses what is wrong, without knowing what it is he knows. In spite of the beautiful surface, he senses that I am not real, not human, not a being at all.

"No, please," she whispered.

She moved desperately and clutched at him and held him tightly, shocked at his stiffness now, his reluctance, his trembling. She felt tears inside, though they could never show. "Please, please," she whispered.

His voice was shaking. "Listen—it's too much. You scare me. Wait a minute now, let's talk about this. I want to know—"

"How can you be scared of love?"

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