A/N: As promised, more android smut. I wish there were a way I could write this and keep it a T rating, because I do think it's significant to the story, but I can't, so I won't. Mind the M rating!

She broke away and nuzzled his smooth cheek. "Don't listen, computer."

"Restate your request."

"Data, I..." She stopped and looked in his eyes, yellow with bits of blue and beige, searching hers in the dark. She wanted to tell him, but the words were stuck like a plug in a drain. "You know I... you know I do, don't you?"

He looked baffled. "I know you do what?"

Her brows contracted. She'd faced a mountain climb with no equipment and three armed Ferengi with less fear. "I..." It was too hard. She still couldn't break down the walls she'd built for protection. "Don't make me say it. I'd rather just show you." She rose and took his hand.

Comprehension struck him. He could no more say the disquieting phrase than she could. He followed her to the bedroom, the music still lazily spooling out from the speakers.

You're a girl and I'm a boy…

She clutched at him as the doors whooshed shut behind them. "You know I do, don't you?"

He held her close and she wrapped her arms around him as if she never meant to let go. "I suppose I do."

"You suppose?" she said into his shoulder.

He rested his head on hers. "Yes. I know."

The fight in her was dissolving under the force of desire and love. She felt it – if only she could say it. The words frightened her. To her, it was a guarantee that she would lose him, if she admitted aloud that she loved him. She was not one for giving in, not even to herself. The feeling was shrinking down to a tiny kernel of fear, self-doubt, and mistrust, but it was still there, like the nagging notion that she didn't deserve this, his arms around her, his lips behind her ear, the warmth and security he made her feel.

She remembered him circling toward the Ferengi combatants, ready to fight for her, gentle Data, who wouldn't harm a fly unless forced to. She wanted him, wanted his gentleness, his love, the love he said he couldn't feel but somehow showed her in his every word and action.

She was murmuring incoherently into his shoulder. He drew away. "What did you say?'

She lowered her eyes, afraid of what they'd reveal. "I want you to take me… I need you."

"Of course, Tasha. I want only to please you."

She could let go of that much, then, knowing that he wanted to be with her as much as she wanted him. She believed him when he said it was without expectations.

He led her to the bed, undressed her, lay her down, and she was as pliant as an underwater flower. She felt her stubborn will drain away, coaxed by his tenderness.

Data undressed and lay beside her, his opalescent skin gleaming in the darkness, his golden eyes candid and innocent. "Tell me what you want, Tasha."

Words. Again, words, when all she wanted was to submerge herself in feeling. She didn't blame him – she couldn't. How could he possibly understand? "I want you to hold me, touch me – I want to feel you love me."

He complied without hesitation, holding her close, knowing well that he was capable of what she asked. She went boneless and passive under his caresses, filled with an urge to surrender as pervasive as her urge to fight had been.

He touched her belly and her breasts, her arms, her neck, long, sweeping caresses that soothed and aroused her at once. He kissed her, swept kisses down her body where his hands had played. He neglected no part, as attentive to the inside of her elbow as he was to each breast – she smiled at his thoroughness.

Her smile faded as he moved lower, kissing the hollows above her hipbones, the soft skin of her inner thighs. She gasped and shivered as he buried his head between her legs. She dug a hand in his hair, tugged hard as she thrust against his mouth instinctively. Now she truly gave in to the pleasure he was sowing in her, heat spiraling up from her core like the shoots of a young plant. He lapped at her, his tongue broad and flat, making her redden and swell, and then pointed and precise, teasing her opening, dragging a moan from her. She dug both hands in his hair as he added his fingers, pushing inside her while he licked and sucked at her. She bucked wildly against him, and then was suddenly motionless as the shockwave burst her apart, her cries echoing the detonations inside.

She collapsed and let him go, aftershocks making her quiver. He looked up at her for acknowledgment, raising himself on his forearms. Her eyes were unfocused, her mouth slack. "More," she whispered.

He came up to meet her, cupped her thigh and mounted her, warm and smooth against her slick mound, sliding through her folds and submerging her in a pool of molten sensation once more. He circled his hips on hers, glazing his shaft with her moisture, rubbing his erection full length against her engorged clit. She spread her legs wide, aching for him to penetrate her, moaning as the tension mounted higher. Still he delayed, bending to suckle one breast until the nipple was wet and stiff and her eyes were rolling back in her head. She began to beg him, broken, unfinished words that turned into a shattered cry as he took her thighs in his hands and sank into her. He held himself flush against her, grinding against her pubic bone, arching to touch her deep inside. And then he began to move, slow strokes meant to drive her wild and burn away all thought, leaving her conscious of nothing but his body striving in hers, completing her. She clutched onto him, wrapped her legs around his waist and sank her teeth into his shoulder, unbarred, knowing she couldn't hurt him. She muffled her cries against his skin as he drove her towards the brink again, relentless and slow. She was close, riding the edge, caught in a tunnel of fire that was ready to engulf her. She urged him on, nails scraping at him, and he grew fierce, piercing her with sweet, sharp thrusts, until the tunnel closed in around her and set her aflame, and she was crying out again. He took her lips in his, drinking in her cries, plunging through the muscles clenching around him, and at the apex of a thrust, emptied himself in her.

He rolled onto his side, cradling her spent, limp body, all gentleness again, rocking her against him. Her legs were still wrapped around him, their connection unbroken. He kissed her cheeks, her nose, and her closed eyelids, as she murmured something indistinct over and over. He finally caught the words.

"You…you…you…"

She had said the first and the last part aloud. But it was the little word in between that scared her the most.