He takes Ned's hand gladly; one thing he's discovered (or re-discovered, because he knew it intellectually before) is that physical contact is reassuring, even small touches -- at least this has been the case with Lydia, and Ned.

"I... I want to put my feet in the water," he says. Daneel's reasons for this are complicated and confusing, a mixture of curiosity and a desire to experience everything.

The matter of mutual protection is interesting; if there are Laws of Humanics that govern human behaviour, as he and Giskard had discussed on occasion, perhaps that factors in.