Nigh Invulnerable Pt. 02

Author's note:

See part 1 for blurb. Also, if you haven't already read part 1, I strongly recommend doing so before proceeding.

All sensuality (on page or otherwise) takes place between characters who are eighteen or older.

***

Copyright © 2023 Jake Lazarus

All rights reserved.

This book, or any portion thereof, may not be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the author (except for the use of brief quotations in a review).

This is a work of fiction.

Names, characters, businesses, products, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner.

Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

***

Nine

"Warning," an insistent voice cautioned anxiously. "Collision imminent."

Felix ignored the voice in the hopes that he could, through sheer force of will, insert himself into a segment of the afterlife free from such annoyances. He was relieved to discover that he had both sensation and movement in his extremities as he slowly tested each in turn. The sensation component was readily obvious thanks to the overwhelming feeling of heat which spread across his body. This immediately put him in the mind of the hell of persistent myth, a possibility he suddenly realized he should have given more consideration considering his recent past involved ending the lives of hundreds of sentients. He quickly realized, however, that the heat was more 'sitting in the afternoon sun' than 'burn your flesh from your bones', so he decided to just enjoy the sensation. He was content to just relax in the oddly warm and weightless void in which he had found himself for at least several dozen years.

"Warning," the voice repeated. "Collision imminent."

He groaned in mild irritation at the realization that he would be forced, at least momentarily, to set aside plans for enjoying his richly deserved rest. A persistent rumble which seemed to come from all directions at once (not to mention the annoying voice of Bog) told him that his hearing was working, so he decided to risk testing his vision. Upon opening his eyes, he discovered that his little slice of the afterlife also allowed for frustrations such as stress and panic as both quickly rose to their maximum values.

He was, as near as he could tell, tumbling gently as he plummeted toward notably Earth-like terrain. Below him was spread out a long beach abutted by a seemingly endless ocean. More concerningly, the ground was close enough for him to make out individual humanoids. A panicked look around told him he was still wearing the suit he had donned before what he assumed had been a spectacular death. The heads-up-display informed him that he was falling at nearly seventy meters per second, and that he would become intimately familiar with the ground below him in less than twenty seconds.

He flipped rapidly through the unfamiliar display until he found the controls for the thrusters which had been designed for zero-gravity EVA, hoping they would be sufficient to slow him down somewhat. He took a seemingly endless six seconds to use the air rushing past him to rotate his body in such a way that the primary thrusters were pointing toward the ground before instituting a full burn. His fall was arrested almost at once and he breathed a deep sigh of relief, especially when he noted that he was a mere forty meters from the ground. His victory was short-lived, however, upon noticing two critical issues. The first was that the burn which had arrested his fall was now carrying him rather worryingly higher. The second was an angrily blinking indicator on his heads-up-display informing him that the fuel for the jets was being burned at a frightful rate.

Things came to a head moments later when his jets started to sputter, and his downward journey resumed. There was a small relief provided by the intermittent jolt of upward acceleration as the jets consumed the last of the fuel, but it was all too brief. The last of the fuel burned off when he was still nearly fifty meters from the ground. Fortunately, his terminal velocity plunge had been arrested. Unfortunately, he was still further from the ground beneath him than a midfielder kicking off a football match was from the opposing goal.

As his freefall resumed, he began rapidly scrolling through the menus available to him, frantic to find a solution before he crashed into the ground. Two seconds later, amid a cacophony of warnings and alarms, he spotted a menu labeled parachute. He hurriedly keyed it and, in response, was greeted with a screen asking him to confirm his selection. He barely had time to shout, "What the fuck!" before he slammed into the unforgiving ground.

***

Felix came awake to a loud groan of pain, quickly followed by the realization that the groan was coming from his own lips. All he could see was blackness when he opened his eyes. His ears seemed to have been similarly impaired save for a persistent ringing. Attempts to check the functioning of his extremities quickly ground to a halt when he realized he was unable to move.

"Just fucking perfect," he grumbled. "Apparently my fate was to be sent to the hell-of-getting-turned-into-a-quadriplegic-upon-arrival. That'll teach me to fight for the future of humanity."

Felix's theory about being paralyzed died a quick death when he realized that his extremities were throbbing in pain, along with the rest of his body. He tried to access his suit's heads-up-display, only to find that the entire system was nonfunctional. He felt his anxiety spiking at the thought of being trapped like this for eternity, but his panic quickly took a back seat to anger at his predicament. A seldom heard voice in the back of his mind, after begging his wider consciousness's pardon and requesting permission to be heard, pointed out that he was lying face down. He tried to turn over, only to once again discover that his arms and legs were both inoperable and in an advanced state of agony.

To add to his frustration, Felix felt himself starting to get lightheaded. A quick review of his circumstances led him to the realization that his suit was built to keep atmosphere from escaping at all costs. Now that the suit's electrics appeared to have failed, there was nothing to keep the flow of oxygen going. The natural extension of this line of thought was that he had only the scant amount of air which fit into the suit, along with his oversized body, to breathe.

He felt his determination swell and resolved to free himself from the suit, no matter the cost. He pushed down with his arms and legs with all his might, heedless of the searing pain he felt or the audible crunching of broken bones he could hear. Within moments he both sensed movement and saw the barest twinges of light through his visor. He kept pushing himself upwards until he could see the sky above him. At this point, he abandoned his attempt to rise and switched his focus to triggering the emergency release located behind his right ear.

Felix's attempts to use his right arm to free himself resulted in a regretful report from the administrative region near his shoulder informing him that no movement was possible. He knew his left arm was hardly in better condition, having nearly passed out from the pain caused by his almost certainly shattered collarbone. He took a calming breath, sending out a quick apology to his battered body for the further damage he was about to impose. Gritting his teeth, he cranked his left arm over his head, a move made both easier and nearly impossible thanks to, respectively, the increased flexibility and consciousness-threatening anguish caused by his injuries. Just before he felt the comforting shroud of unconsciousness descend over him, he heard the sigh of incoming air signifying that he had succeeded in opening his suit.

***

Distant memories: indistinct and formless. As though he was reading the story of another man's life.

'Give me all that spunk. Fucking cover me in it.'

Severed dreams: a life, and a future, promised and then cruelly snatched from his grasp.

'Just think of that massive load filling my pussy...'

Regret for his reckless decisions gives way to acceptance of his ownership over the path his life took.

'I want you to cum inside me, Felix.'

Felix jolted awake, the cacophony of unremembered dreams hammering at the inside of his head. He tried to shake his head to clear his thoughts, only to discover that he was still trapped in the iron maiden of the Cygnian-designed Star Trooper armor. He could smell the salt of the ocean filling his nostrils. That, plus the fact that he had not suffocated, reminded him that he had succeeded in opening the suit.

He tossed his head and felt the back of his helmet fall away as the clamshell closing mechanism for the suit's two halves began separating. He managed to push himself up from the suit, dimly recognizing that his shoulder was no longer either throbbing in pain or malfunctioning. Upon freeing himself fully from the suit, he surveyed his surroundings. A chuckle escaped his throat as he took in the modest sized crater he had created when he crashed into the dunes. The suit he had worn was only visible if one was standing beside the hole he had created. And he could tell by the way the sand was pouring into the crevice, it would soon be buried.

He rose to his full height and gazed around at his surroundings. Just over the dunes to the west, he could see the ocean. The weather felt warm, but not oppressively so, and the sky was clear. On the whole, he silently declared to himself, he found this particular slice of the afterlife to be quite agreeable. He thought to test out the water, wondering if eternity would grant his modified body the ability to swim, something that had been far beyond both his emotional and physical capacity in life.

His metaphysical musings were interrupted by a voice carried on the wind. This brought a smile to his face without him realizing that yet another fear about the afterlife had been quelled. Despite the fact that Felix had always been something of an introvert, and a loner, he knew that an afterlife devoid of companionship of any kind would most certainly be one of the circles of hell, no matter how picturesque.

His general sense of contentment grew when he began walking toward the surf and spotted people near the water. He headed in their direction without a second thought, eager to know more about this realm. He skidded to a stop however when his keen eyesight picked out the fact that, as near as he could tell, none of the several dozen people he could see from his current vantage point were wearing clothing of any kind. This realization was quickly followed by the undeniable truth that he was also quite nude thanks to the fact that the suit with which he had been provided had been far too snug to allow so much as a pair of briefs. He decided, perhaps aided by a dusting of self-centered delusion, that his version of the afterlife was influenced by the nature of his death, and that everyone here was nude merely to make him more comfortable.

He accepted this line of thinking without further introspection, deciding that the afterlife was no place to waste time on doubts and insecurities. He continued his measured steps in the direction of his fellow Valhallans. His steps faltered again, however, when his attention was drawn to a handful of people splashing each other in knee-deep surf. Felix was able to freely admit later that his, at the time, earth-shattering revelation should have been patently obvious. But, in that moment as he stood gob smacked at the edge of the dunes, he was overcome by an all-consuming wave of desire at the realization that the 'people' he had spotted were, in fact, very nubile, very attractive, very nude, women. His manhood swelled of its own accord, heedless of any shame he may have felt at the display, and he began walking in the group's direction.

In hindsight, he was able to admit that he likely looked not unlike a wicked creature of myth. While he had mysteriously healed from the injuries caused by his crash, the viscera had remained. He was also covered in sand, a good deal of which was caked on due to the dried blood which covered his torso. His enhanced muscles were bulging, thanks in large part to his arousal-induced racing heartbeat. Then there was the decidedly not small matter of his coupling gear, the head of which proudly stood more than twenty centimeters from his pubis.

"Good Christ almighty, buddy," a baritone voice rang out off to Felix's left. "You'd best put that thing away before you put someone's eye out."

Ten

Felix whirled around to find the source of the voice and spotted a couple walking toward him arm-in-arm. The man was reasonably fit and appeared to be in his late thirties. He stood several dozen centimeters below Felix's enhanced height and had short blonde hair. The woman matched the man in height and age, with what Felix thought of as ethnically Chinese features. She was slender with dark, shoulder length hair and notably large breasts for someone from eastern Asia. Similar to the other beachgoers, both were adorned only in sunglasses.

Felix's brazen staring was interrupted by the man saying, "Are you all right, fella?"

The couple reached Felix's side and the woman matched his open leering as she regarded his engorged manhood. At length, her gaze trailed up his body and she said, "Be nice, Xavier. Perhaps he just arrived and is finding it... hard... to get acclimated."

"I'll say," the man replied with a chuckle before he pointed behind him and said, "Why don't you join us?" The woman looked at her partner with a questioning expression, prompting him to add, "What? Sooner or later, those chicks pretending to innocently splash each other while they wait for some sugar daddy to take notice of them are going to spot our friend here. This way, we'll all get to enjoy the floor show when they fall over each other trying to move to the front of the line to take a ride on his pride and joy."

Felix dumbly followed the couple back to their belongings, his thoughts warring between embarrassment over his lurid display and unfamiliar racing thoughts about taking the group of girls en masse and impregnating the lot of them. Taking a seat on the sand helped with the former problem as his unrepentantly turgid cock was no longer on such obvious display, but their position took him even closer to the girls in question and he was having difficulty focusing.

This task was not made easier by focusing on the couple who had, for want of a better term, rescued him. The woman was unquestionably beautiful, mature and confident. He was also unable to purge from his mind the amazing sight of her hairless pussy, her pouty lower lips on full display. It was a sight he had never seen before and he wondered if her hairlessness was hereditary, or if she had somehow, impossibly, managed the task of removing the hair from her most sensitive area. She adopted a lotus style position as she took her seat on a towel, almost pleading with him to continue to devour the sight of her startling femininity with his eyes.

"So, what brings you to this little slice of paradise?" the man asked distractedly, his eyes firmly on the quartet of young women who were now batting around a volleyball in the surf.

"Just lucky, I guess," Felix allowed.

"I'm assuming based on your accent that you're not from around here."

Felix shook his head and said, "Nope. Just arrived, as it were. You?"

The man shrugged and said, "I'm sort of from all over. Got here a few days ago. If I'm honest, I'm just happy to be away from all the trials and tribulations of everyday life."

"Tell me about it."

"What do you do? Professionally?"

"Once upon a time I was a teacher. But then I made the dumbest decision in history and decided to enlist.'

"Can I assume that the grass was in fact not greener on the other side?"

"Not as such. Didn't see much grass, now that you mention it. A few cities, a couple of beaches no where near as nice as this. And not just because no one is trying to kill me here."

"Day ain't over yet," the man countered. "One of the volleyball stars has been making eyes at you. Perhaps she's a succubus who aims to fuck you to death."

The woman frowned and said, "Do mean to imply that she must be evil because she's a woman?"

"Not at all," he replied jovially. "Just that it is profoundly likely."

"I can't believe I let you fuck me," she groaned.

"You know you love it," the man retorted good naturedly. He then turned his attention back to Felix and stuck out his hand before saying, "I just realized we haven't been properly introduced. Xavier St. John-Smythe."

"Felix Dvoryanin."

The woman waited a few beats before sticking out her own hand and saying, "Jiang Chou."

Felix took her hand as well, trying to ignore the jolt of adrenaline he felt upon touching her skin, and said, "Pleasure to meet you both."

"So, what prompted you to seek out a nude beach?" Jiang asked coquettishly.

"Isn't it obvious?" Xavier boomed. "If I had a cock like that, I'd never wear pants again."

"You hardly wear pants now," Jiang retorted dryly as she glared at the now growing group of women whose frolicking seemed to be migrating in their direction.

"Didn't hear you complaining last night," Xavier muttered quietly. He then turned his attention back to Felix and said, "Where are my manners? Do you want a beer, or something?"

"Sure," Felix replied gratefully. "I can't remember the last time I had anything to drink."

As Xavier passed the dark green bottle over, the truth of his statement hit Felix. The ship he had been assigned by the Cygnians had contained no provisions. It seemed to be an article of faith amongst his now former oppressors that the Star Trooper Conditioning, which made it technically possible for him to go without food or water for weeks at a time, meant that he should be made to go without whenever possible. His hunger, and his thirst, should have been irrelevant in the afterlife, but the fact that he had arrived in this place in his suit seemed to suggest that he had been literally taken bodily into the afterlife, as opposed to a more metaphysical transition. He drained the beer in a single long pull and stifled the resulting burp self-consciously.

"Holy shit," Jiang murmured. "That was incredible."

Felix shrugged and said, "Like I said, I was a little thirsty." She snatched another bottle from the cooler and held it out to him reverently, but he held up his hand and said, "I couldn't drink all your beers."

"Sure, you can," Xavier cut in gregariously. "We've got plenty more back at the house. Besides, I think you just picked up a few additional admirers."

Felix glanced in the direction of the crowd and was quickly rewarded with a chorus of giggles. There were now six women in the surf. They all appeared to be between the ages of nineteen and twenty-one and had uniformly blonde hair and lithe, athletic bodies. Another round of laughter exploded as their gaze shifted to something to Felix's right. Upon turning in that direction, he spotted Xavier waving the girls over. He turned back just in time to see them hurrying to join them. His mouth dropped open as he beheld the spectacular sight of a dozen breasts, ranging from pert to perky to plump, jiggling gloriously as they scampered closer.

"Oh, my," Jiang whispered as Felix's erection sprang back to full tumescence and began slowly leaking arousal.

The group of girls came to a breathless halt off to Felix's left. An awkward moment loomed, but Xavier was apparently either immune to, or energized, by such discomfiture. He drank in the bevy of beauties for a moment before saying, "Let me guess... you lovely ladies are the Danish national bikini waxing team."

A guffaw of laughter arose from the group, although Felix noticed movement from one of the girls in the back. As he focused on her, he spotted an almost certainly subconscious move of her hand to obscure her trimmed thatch of blonde curls in an apparent act of embarrassment in comparison to her uniformly bare companions.

"We are Norwegian," the woman closest to Felix replied in an enchanting accent.

"Meaning I was right about the rest," Xavier joked. "Good to know." He gestured in Felix's direction and added, "I think my friend here could make use of your services. His pride and joy needs a bit of help to stand out, if you know what I mean."

The spokeswoman took a step forward and unapologetically glanced between Felix's thighs, apparently operating on the completely logical and reasonable mindset that turnabout was fair play when it came to leering whilst visiting a nude beach.

"Herregud," she breathed reverently. "Meget stor!"

"Huh?" Felix grunted, but he was quickly overwhelmed as the remaining women surged forward and he started to feel like an animal at the zoo. This, as much as anything, finally started to attenuate the raging arousal he had felt surging throughout his body since he had first spotted the women.

"Ladies," Xavier cut in. "We were just going to retire back to our chalet. You're all welcome to join us, of course, as is Felix and his spectacular cock." Felix heard a titter of laughter arise from the group, but he did not fail to notice that none of them turned down Xavier's invitation. The latter got to his feet and said, "By the way. No pressure, obviously, but I must insist that while the beach is clothing optional, the chalet is clothing restricted."

"I assume you expect to have sex with us?" the ringleader retorted haughtily.

"I would love to have sex with all of you," Xavier replied self-assuredly as he scooped up his towel and the cooler before glancing back at them and adding, "Coming?"

"Hopefully," one of the other girls murmured with a smirk.

Felix watched the group hurry over toward where they had placed their belongings, appreciating the view as they departed nearly as much as he had enjoyed their initial approach. He then shook his head to attempt to clear away the surge of lust he felt in hopes of preventing his cock from once again surging to tumescence.

As he stood, he somewhat belatedly noticed that Jiang was still seated, a sour expression on her face. He glanced between both her and Xavier's retreating forms several times before saying, "Is everything ok?"

"Oh, sure," she barked snippily. "Never better. I just got relegated to the D-league without so much as a by-your-leave."

Felix looked around helplessly before taking a seat at her side and saying, "I apologize. I didn't mean to intrude on... whatever it is you and Xavier have going on. I'm just new here and..."

Jiang turned to face him and firmly said, "Don't do that."

"What?"

"Apologize for something you had no part in causing."

Felix shrugged and said, "I mean, I played a little part."

She glanced purposefully between his thighs and muttered, "Not so little from where I'm sitting. I mean, seriously, is that thing a prosthetic or something?"

"Nope," he replied with a chuckle. "I grew it myself."

"I'll say."

"I meant what I said," he injected, bringing them back to the subject at hand. "I never meant to cause you any trouble. Either of you."

Jiang quirked an eyebrow at him and said, "You really mean that, don't you?"

"Of course."

"Then what was with all the throbbing, leaking, pulsing-ness?"

He shrugged and said, "It's been a while."

She regarded him suspiciously and said, "Is that so?" He nodded somberly, but she was unconvinced. "You're telling me that a man, looking like you do, equipped the way you are, has even the slightest bit of difficulty finding pussy whenever, and wherever, he happens to be in the mood?"

He shrugged and said, "Not exactly a lot of opportunity in a war zone."

"Do I mean to understand that you've yet to be welcomed home and properly thanked for your service?"

"Nope. As I said, I just got here."

"Well," she murmured as she got to her feet and held her hand out to him daintily. "That is something we shall have to rectify."

Eleven

The chalet, as Xavier had called it, turned out to be one of the most lavish residences Felix had ever seen. It contained at least a half dozen bedrooms in addition to a wealth of common areas and an enormous pool. The music was already booming when he arrived with Jiang and several of the stragglers from the group of young women. Felix was led into the house and soon smelled the heavenly odors which promised sustenance.

Jiang interrupted his apparently inelegant attempt to find the source of the scent, saying, "Let me guess... you also can't remember the last time you had anything to eat?"

"Am I really that transparent?"

"Yeah," she replied brightly as she led him into the kitchen and pulled out a platter of food which, after she encouraged him with a wave, he began steadily demolishing. She stepped back to watch him approvingly and added, "But I don't mind as long as you're occasionally looking in my direction when you get that look on your face like you want to devour something."

Felix glanced in the direction of the pool deck, where Xavier was handing out cocktails to a growing group of nude women. "What about..."

"Fuck him," she growled. "If he wants to peacock around, I'm in no position to stop him. But he doesn't own me anymore than I own him. How about you? I know you said you haven't been with anyone since you left the service, but did you leave anyone at home waiting for you?"

Felix frowned and said, "I believe the term is, 'Dear John'."

"Oh, baby," she gushed. "How could anyone think they could do better than you?"

"She said she was unsatisfied with the fact that I only gave her part of my signing bonus. I guess she felt the night we spent together should have meant more to me than, oh... I don't know, my father."

"I don't know the woman, but she sounds like an asshole."

"You're not wrong," he allowed. "But I don't want to talk about her. Suffice it to say that there was no one waiting for me even before I..." he shrugged, looking around at the opulence of their slice of paradise. "Well... you know."

"Was it hard... being in the service?"

"You have no idea," he grunted.

"Let me guess... something else you don't want to talk about?"

"Indeed," Felix admitted as he polished off his third sandwich. "Sorry to be such a stick in the mud."

"It's fine," Jiang replied agreeably. "I'm sure I can't imagine what it was like to serve, especially in a war zone." She took a deep breath before adding, "What should we talk about instead?" He opened his mouth to speak, but quickly closed it. She grinned and said, "I saw that."

"It's nothing."

"I highly doubt that," she retorted. She waited for a long moment before groaning playfully and saying, "Come on. Tell me."

"It's just foolish nonsense from an ignorant trooper."

"Even better. Out with it. I assure you; I am very hard to embarrass. Were you wondering whether I'd be agreeable to sharing you with one of those Valkyries by the pool?"

"Hardly," he muttered before sighing wearily and adding, "Fine. But you asked for it. How do you remove the hair on your..."

"On my what?" she replied playfully.

"Your womanhood," he stammered.

"You mean my pussy?" she clarified, sliding her hand down her belly to just above her mons for emphasis.

"Yeah. I guess. Where I come from, its apostasy to remove one's body hair."

"Does that extend to cutting it?"

"That is... discouraged. Although allowances are made for troopers," he argued, with a gesture toward his own close-cropped beard and hair.

"Fascinating," she replied. "So, all women in your home country have long hair and enormous bushes?"

He shrugged and said, "Well... yeah."

"What about their underarms and their legs?" she asked, again gesturing to her own body to make her point.

"Same," he confirmed.

"So, this must be a bit of a shock for you. I noticed the girls outside also tended to favor the hairless route. I think you'll find that it feels much better, for both of us, when there's no hair to get in the way. Would you like a closer look at my pussy, or perhaps to touch it?"

He chuckled nervously at her obvious jest and said, "Maybe we should rejoin the party before we're missed."

She shrugged and murmured, "The offer stands if you change your mind," as she followed him out onto the pool deck.

Felix emerged from the chalet to find that night had fallen, something which would have surprised him were it not for the fact that he was determined to make no assumptions about the afterlife. Perhaps, he reasoned, days here only lasted a few hours. Or, alternatively, it was conceivable that transitions between day and night no longer existed, and the only remaining options were midday or night.

He was interrupted from considering the matter further by voices calling out to him from the pool. He headed in that direction, grateful for the potential cover the water could provide for his sure to shortly reappear arousal.

"Hang on there buddy," Xavier's voice rang out. "If you put that cock of yours in the pool, there won't be any water left for the rest of us."

"I know something else he could put it in," an indeterminate feminine voice called out.

"Behave," another voice chided. "There's more than enough to go around."

Felix stepped carefully into the pool, making certain he stayed in an area where he could stand comfortably. The cool water helped tamp down his arousal and he was able to take a moment to appreciate the natural beauty around him. Ultimately, four of the women they had encountered on the beach had elected to join the party. That group was currently engaged in an energetic game which seemed unacceptably risky to Felix's non-swimmer brain, but they all seemed confident in their abilities. There was a great deal of splashing, and dunking, taking place; all of which served to help accentuate the athletic prowess of his companions while in no way detracting from their undeniable attractiveness.

As Felix looked on with keen interest, a fervor arose where Xavier was talking loudly with several of the women. Felix had difficulty following their conversation, due (he was certain) to a gap in vernacular between them. He felt like they were discussing an animal once used for nourishment before the growing of livestock was banned. His detached curiosity was quickly replaced by a spike of anxiety as he found himself drafted into the game they had apparently been discussing. Xavier, his own not insubstantial coupling gear in a noticeable state of arousal, dove into the pool and surfaced a few meters from Felix. One of the Norwegian women quickly swam over to him and climbed onto his shoulders. Felix's appreciation of the woman's beauty was quickly interrupted, however, when another beauty surfaced close enough to him that he was certain she could feel his manhood brushing against her belly.

She smirked at him and said, "Do you mind if I ride you?"

She seemed to interpret his gob smacked expression as assent and began climbing up his chest. She stalled out, however, trying to chin herself up on his shoulders and ended up grinding her perky B-cup breasts against his chest several times before dropping back into the water in frustration.

He managed to shake off the fog of arousal, which she unquestionably felt sliding against her belly as she bobbed in front of him, and muttered, "Need a hand?"

She nodded happily and said, "A hand... a cock... I'm easy."

Her playful expression turned into a yelp as he took her by the waist and easily lifted her over his head to set her on his shoulders with less effort than a haggard father would require performing the same feat with their toddler.

"Holy shit," she yelped gleefully. "That was incredible."

Felix heard more murmurs trickle through the assembled group, but the majority of his attention was focused on the nubile woman's exquisitely bare, and noticeably slippery pussy, which was now grinding against the back of his neck. He groaned in frustration; certain she was teasing him intentionally. Just as he opened his mouth to ask what the point of the charade was meant to be, he noticed Xavier surging in his direction wearing a determined expression that was shared by the woman on his shoulders.

"What are you..." Felix managed to stammer before their apparent foes slammed into him and knocked them both over.

He was so surprised that he failed to take a breath before plunging beneath the surface of the water. The woman on his shoulders quickly slithered away, leaving Felix disoriented in the dimly lit depths. He felt panic rising as he fought for breath and the urge to thrash around mindlessly was almost overwhelming. But, similar to what he had experienced in many of his battles, the anxiety was met by the tremendous force of his will. He tamped down his panic, reminding himself that he was quite capable of surviving, even fighting, for extended periods of time without breathing. He waited until he finally sank to the bottom before slowly rotating his body into a crouching position and shoving upwards with all his might.

He burst from the water like a nuclear missile being launched from a submarine and landed lightly on the side of the pool. Screams of fright and amazement went up from everyone around the deck and he was quickly mobbed by a dizzying array of naked, feminine flesh. He felt not a few hands graze his still turgid manhood as they fawned over him, but his discomfort in being surrounded outstripped his unsettlingly specific desire to plunge his seed into their fertile bodies.

The excitement over his, as one of the Norwegians had dubbed it, performance quickly faded, and he was able to take a seat by the pool and guzzle down a few liters of beer. He watched in rapt fascination as the blonde women played a carefully choreographed game with the obvious dual purpose of finding their way into Xavier's bed while not burning any bridges within their friend group. This began with the foursome seated around Xavier, dutifully laughing at his witticisms, and stumbling over each other to cater to his every whim. Felix could admit that the man was certainly charming, and not at all unhandsome. It was little mystery that the women flocked to him, despite Felix's preposterous physique. Xavier was confident, and gregarious, and outgoing, and confident; whereas Felix was none of those things.

After an hour of subserviently prostrating themselves before Xavier with little result, the foursome seemed to split into two camps. The first pair's strategy seemed to be rooted in jealousy. They sauntered over to Felix and began fawning over him just as they had for Xavier. The second group, however, quickly raised the stakes. One blonde with C-cup breasts and strikingly long blonde hair pulled another (who resembled the first to such a degree, Felix would not have doubted they were sisters... or at least cousins) into a passionate kiss. Things escalated quickly, with tongues slicking together and hands caressing erogenous zones. Within moments, the second woman was pleasuring the first orally while the latter beckoned Xavier to come closer.

Felix heard a whispered, "Well, shit," come from one of the women seated before him just as Xavier buried his now throbbing cock in the indicated mouth.

Within moments, the pair before Felix muttered their goodbyes and disappeared into the night. Felix looked around helplessly, wondering if he should also leave, only to find Jiang waving him inside. He gave a last look to the threesome display on the pool deck, his loins surging at the sight (and, he realized with amazement, the scent) of the cunnilingus-giver's dripping pussy which was pointed enticingly in his direction.

As he entered the chalet, Jiang said, "Those other two would have given you the same treatment if you had even hinted you were interested."

He shrugged and said, "Honestly, I'm just exhausted. I was about to head out and look for a place to sleep."

"Don't be stupid," she said with fierce intensity, before her features softened and she gave him a comforting smile. "We have plenty of room. Why don't you just take the bedroom at the bottom of the stairs? It'll be quiet down there."

"Are you sure?" he objected. "I don't want to impose."

She grinned and said, "Quite sure." She closed the distance between them then stretched up to place a delicate kiss on his cheek before adding, "Good night, handsome."

His sub-conscious self-defense protocols once again kicked in, assuring him she meant nothing by the breathy remark. He made do with awkwardly nodding to her and heading off in search of the indicated bedroom.

Twelve

"Do you mind if I ride you?" a soprano voice with an alluring accent asked Felix softly.

He turned his gaze from the blue-green waters of the ocean, brilliantly lit by the early afternoon sun, to regard the stunningly beautiful blonde who stood naked by his side. Her voice was filled with mirth, but the look of hunger in her eyes was undeniable. She shimmied up against him, trapping his arousal against her taut belly and allowing him to feel the turgid peaks of her nearly invisible nipples brushing against his ribs. His long arms found her ass and possessively gripped her perfectly formed globes. She responded by reaching between them to grip his manhood, stroking him slowly as she gazed up at him expectantly.

He lifted her up to taste her nipples, which only heightened the way her body felt as she ground her bare pussy against him. She gripped his head like a life buoy, lathing his ear with her tongue. As she lifted herself up, his cock sprang free beneath her ass. He grunted in pleasure as he felt a dainty hand wrap around his shaft and begin to stroke him. His sense of gratification was only heightened when he came to the realization that the woman in his arms could not be the one fondling his manhood.

He released his companion's nipple and glanced to the side to gaze upon the newcomer. She was giving him a playful look as she continued stroking him with a hand still wet after she had emerged from the pool. Her brilliant blonde, almost white, hair laid flat past her shoulders and Felix could see droplets of water twinkling as they dripped from her noticeably larger breasts, despite the near darkness on the pool deck.

She grinned at him and said, "Can I join in?"

"I was here first," his initial companion complained, her body suddenly, mysteriously, also wet from the pool. Felix shook his head to clear the cobwebs, no longer quite certain their tryst had begun either by the beach or during daylight hours.

"Couldn't we share?" the taller woman asked lustily.

The first woman appeared to consider it for a moment before giving the newcomer a gleeful smile and saying, "Ok. As long as I get to fuck him first."

"Deal!"

Felix could barely believe what he was hearing. He did not, however, spend long languishing in a confused haze. The woman in his arms slithered free and dropped to the ground. Her downward journey did not stop there. She grabbed her friend and within moments they were both on their knees before him.

They started slow; one of them slurping on the swollen head of his cock while the other worshiped his balls or licked his shaft. This alone would have sent Felix over the edge in no time. But as soon as precum started leaking from the engorged tip of his manhood, they switched tactics to share his essence. He watched in amazement as they sloppily made out around the head of his cock and their fingers traced along each other's bodies.

Just when Felix thought the pleasure they were giving him had reached its apex, he felt his cock slip into the throat of his partner. He glanced down at her in amazement, threading his hands into her dark tresses and grinning in response to the playful smile he saw in her almond-shaped eyes. He watched in astonishment as she took him painstakingly deeper until his cock filled her throat. A small, almost inconsequential, part of his mind insistently asked what happened to the Norwegian women, but he was content to ignore everything except for the spectacular blowjob he was receiving.

Just as he felt himself bottom out, she looked up at him with worry in her eyes and he heard a gruff voice that sounded uncomfortably like his own whisper, "Someone's here!"

***

Felix gulped in a deep breath, feeling not unlike he had been oxygen deprived for hours. He was lying in a too-small bed, covered in a thin blanket and sweating profusely. Most confusing of all, the sensation of almost unbearable pleasure from his dream still mysteriously lingered. He glanced around the unfamiliar room anxiously, the inky blackness obscuring his ability to discern why he was filled with such a sense of doubt.

His racing mind started to slow, and he took in his surroundings absent the anxiety which was now, thankfully, fading. All at once, his shrouded, jumbled thoughts were replaced by certainty and complete awareness. He whipped the sheet away and stared incredulously at Jiang who was kneeling between his thighs as she languidly fellated him.

"What are you doing here?" he hissed urgently.

She came slowly off his cock before murmuring, "I would think that would be obvious."

"What about Xavier?"

"He's upstairs fucking those blonde bimbos," she replied evenly.

"Meaning he is aware of what you're doing, or he is unlikely to find out?" Felix pressed.

"Do you honestly want to debate this?" she asked in irritation. "Or would you rather I keep sucking your dick?"

"I just don't want to make any trouble."

"To hell with Xavier," she muttered in between batting the head of his cock around with her tongue. "He chose his entertainment for the evening, just as I did." She began rubbing the head of his penis along her lips as though she were applying lipstick before adding, "That just leaves the question of what you'll choose. Just know that if you choose wisely, I'll give you the fuck of your young life."

He gazed down at her, taking in the hungry look in her alluring eyes and the way her full breasts pressed provocatively against his thighs. She noticed his look and rose up to her knees to pose for him, holding her breasts with both hands as she slowly rotated her hips, as though to music only she could hear. Her hands slid wantonly down her body to her smooth lower lips, one finger dipping briefly into her core before she lifted it to her lips while the other hand took the first's place.

She sighed around her finger as she slurped her own essence before popping the finger free and saying, "What's it going to be, stud? Want to go jerk off in the shower?"

"Fuck no," he breathed as he reached for her. She yelped in happy approval as she fell into his arms and eagerly claimed his lips.

Her tongue invaded his mouth like a vengeful hoard, batting his aside as the breath from her moan filled his lungs. He felt her hand moving urgently between them, seeking out his throbbing manhood to line him up with her entrance. It took all his will to not thrust his hips forcefully upwards to bury himself in her heat as he felt his tip breach her feminine folds. He was glad for his restraint as he savored the unrivaled sensation of her inner walls stretching to accommodate him with tantalizing slowness.

"Gods, you're big," she hissed as they passed the half-way point. Her look of fervent concentration turned to a triumphant smile when she spotted the shadow of worry cross his features. She leaned down to flick one of his nipples with her tongue before adding, "Lighten up, big guy. Obviously, that's a good thing. You feel fucking incredible."

"So do you," he rasped as his hands found her soft breasts.

A groan erupted from her lips as their centers met and she began swiveling her hips to heighten their pleasure. Unable to hold out any further, his hips bucked beneath her to drive his cock even deeper into her silken embrace. Her eyes widened in surprise as she gazed down at him. This quickly morphed into something more akin to a challenge as a wicked grin spread across her face.

"I see how it is," she murmured as she pulled her feet beneath her to squat above his throbbing hardness. "Let's just see how long you can last."

She planted her hands on his chest and leaned forward before beginning to fuck him in earnest. Her hips were like a blur above his own, slamming her dripping pussy repeatedly down on his turgid member. He was content to let her set the pace and concentrate on the exquisite sensations which were radiating out from his manhood.

He sensed she was beginning to tire rather quickly. Hoping that her release would free her to back off from whatever competition she envisioned them having, he reached between her thighs to pleasure her clit as his other hand pinched one of her prominent nipples.

Her orgasm built quickly, and in no time she collapsed against him as her body spasmed in release. He held her by the hips and thrust into her to increase her ecstasy. Her moan turned into a scream and her inner walls clamped down so hard that he was forced to still his hips.

As her pleasure receded, she glared down at him and murmured, "Touché, sir. Tou-fucking-ché. I guess we're just going to have to take things to the next level."

She rose up, allowing his penis to slide from her slick heat. Reaching to the bedside, she retrieved a small, clear bottle filled with an apparently viscous substance. She squirted some of the liquid onto her fingers before reaching between her thighs. The mysterious substance was still on her fingers as she began to stroke his shaft, and he groaned in pleasure at the sensation.

"We're just getting started, stud," she whispered.

She lifted herself up, never relinquishing his shaft, and positioned herself above him. He grunted in amazement as she held the head of his cock against her puckered star and began to lower herself.

"Wait," he hissed, quite certain she was about to make a grievous and painful error.

Her eyes widened and she said, "You've never done anal before?" He could only shake his head dumbly in reply. She snickered and added, "Good. Then you definitely won't last. Buckle up, stud. You're about to enter a whole new world." She rubbed the head of his cock against her forbidden entrance before murmuring, "Literally."

She resumed her downward journey and within seconds, a chattering sigh escaped Felix's lips as the head of his cock disappeared into her ass. She was even more deliberate taking him this time, but she eventually took him to the root with a satisfied grunt.

She placed her hands between his knees and began fucking him slowly. The sight was one that nearly rendered him unconscious. His eyes drank in the way her glistening pussy undulated as she fucked him with her ass. The feast for his eyes was just as good as he let his gaze travel up her body to find her large, soft breasts bouncing lewdly with every movement of her hips. The pièce de résistance, however, was the unguarded ecstasy he saw in her eyes as he felt her begin to build toward another release.

He traced his fingers down her body to find her smooth slit. As soon as his fingers teased her folds, she hissed, "Yes!" He then brought both hands to bear, one flicking her clit while he fucked her with two fingers of the other hand.

When her second orgasm arrived, she screamed in a language he did not understand and collapsed onto the bed between his knees. He sat up quickly, hoping to avoid a most uncomfortable injury to his manhood. He slipped from her ass as she writhed on the bed, so he shifted around to lie beside her and feast on her nipples.

"How have you not cum yet?" she whispered breathlessly. "I thought you were rocking a lengthy dry spell, thanks to the service."

He shrugged and said, "I can't explain it. But please don't think we have to..."

"Oh, no you don't," she muttered as she rose up from the bed. "I will not be defeated!"

He chuckled and said, "What game are we playing again?"

By way of answer, she rotated her hips around and took his manhood back into her mouth. He yelped in surprise at the brazenness of the act but was unable to make words form as she quickly forced the head of his cock into her throat.

He finally regained the ability to speak and rasped, "What are you doing?"

She pulled back and regarded him with waning patience before muttering, "Ass to mouth... what's it look like?" before taking him back into her throat's embrace once more.

He tugged at her hips and whispered, "Two can play at that game," but she resisted playfully and started to suck him faster. He chuckled and said, "I see how it is," before gripping her hips firmly in both hands and lifting her onto his face.

He both felt and heard her yelp around his cock before she pulled back and echoed, "What are you doing?"

"Tasting your incredible womanhood," he replied softly. "What's it look like?"

"Oh, no. This is supposed to be about you."

"I beg to differ."

She tried to roll off him once more, so he gripped her hips again and quickly stood up from the bed before sinking his tongue into her pussy once more.

"What are you doing?" she shrieked.

"Enjoying the spoils of victory," he murmured before flicking her clit with his tongue.

"Oh, hell no," she grumbled before he felt her take his cock into her mouth once more.

The sensual contest went on for several minutes, with Felix eagerly lapping at Jiang's gushing pussy as she sloppily worshipped his cock and balls. He was able to hold off his release due only to the concentration he had to devote to not dropping the woman in his arms who was both glistening with sweat and writhing in ecstasy.

After what was either her fourth or fifth orgasm of the evening, he set her spent body down on the bed and gazed down at her in amazement as he slowly stroked his cock. She stared up at him in wonder, her breasts heaving as she caught her breath.

"What are you?" she huffed reverently.

"Just a man spending an amazing evening with an incredible woman," he replied lamely.

She grinned crookedly and said, "You win, Felix. You have officially ruined me for all other men."

"Sorry?" he offered with a shrug.

"Oh, don't be. I'm very fucking impressed."

"Good."

"But I do need you to cum, babe. If only so I know that you're human." She rolled over and glanced back at him over her shoulder before adding, "How about you come over here and fuck me into oblivion." He smiled and crawled onto the bed above her. He gripped her hips to pull her into a kneeling position, but she said, "I can't hold myself up. I want you to fuck me into this mattress. I want everyone in the future who stays here to know that Jiang Chou got the fuck of her life here."

"As you wish," he whispered as he sank into her ass once again.

"Fuck... you feel good," she murmured.

He quickly picked up his pace as he peppered kisses along her neck and back. He gazed down at her amazing body, noting the way her breasts pillowed out beneath her and the spectacular way her ass jiggled each time he slammed into her. He quickly felt his release building, thanks as much to her litany pleading for him to fill her up as it was from the physical pleasure she was giving him. Within moments, his vision had narrowed to a single point, and he heard the roaring of his rushing blood in his ears. His roar shook the windows as his orgasm slammed into him like the concussion from a fission grenade. It felt as though he was literally pouring his soul into her as he erupted deep within her ass. His orgasm seemed to stretch into infinity as his essence overflowed the pulsing embrace of her puckered star. He felt his warmth pooling where her legs were trapped together by his thighs. A dim part of his awareness reported that she was writhing beneath him in her own rapturous bliss, and that her labored breathing might soon become critical.

He managed to roll off her before he risked harming her and lay panting at her side. She rolled over as well and rested her head on his shoulder. As he watched in wonder, she sank two fingers into her creamy pussy before lifting them to her mouth to sample their shared essence. She quickly went back for more, scooping his seed from her ass with mindless abandon. She moaned in contentment as the first pearly drop hit her tongue and, within moments, she was alternately finger fucking herself and slurping their cream from her fingers as she worked herself toward another orgasm.

Felix tried to dedicate the scene to memory, recognizing it at once as being just what she had promised: the greatest fuck of his life. But unconsciousness came for him like Death on his trusty pale horse. The last thing he experienced before he passed out was Jiang moaning in pleasure as she furiously finger fucked her creamy pussy; her mouth glistening with the essence she was messily scooping up and bringing to her lips.

Thirteen

For the first time in longer than he cared to admit, Felix awoke with his heart not pounding fervently. Between disastrous battles, bad dreams, and near constant pain, there was no shortage of things which caused nearly all of his days to begin with him leaping from his bunk covered in sweat and trying desperately to catch his breath.

He stretched languidly, noting absently that his bed had fewer occupants than it had had when he drifted off to sleep. He looked around, in many ways seeing the room for the first time since he had only had the use of a single underpowered lamp the night before. The level of opulence on ready display was something which was wholly unfamiliar to him. Wide swaths of floor sat empty. The sunlight pouring in through the oversized windows allowed him to see the room had a preposterous overabundance of lighting sources. This paired with the mirror which was larger than his room had been at home left little doubt in his mind that this particular slice of eternity had been designed for someone who was profoundly vain.

He managed to find somewhere to clean up in an adjoining room. He was momentarily confounded by the shower, even in the afterlife finding it hard to believe that he was meant to waste a half dozen decaliters simply to clean himself. He found he was glad for the extravagance, his late-night liaison with Jiang having left him in need of a deep cleaning thanks to repeatedly finding somewhere else where a random bodily fluid had dried on his person.

As his thoughts returned to the previous night, he found himself still in disbelief that such a thing was possible. Jiang had engaged in acts which, prior to dying spectacularly and being transported bodily to the afterlife, would have led to lifetime imprisonment. And she had done them without shame, indeed without even behaving as though they were unusual. As the memory of the incredible sensation of her forbidden entrance clenching around his manhood returned, he felt himself growing hard.

He stared down at his rising erection and said, "Haven't you had enough for a little while?"

Since no answer was forthcoming, he decided to exit the shower and find out what the day held in store. He dried quickly and then spent several minutes looking for clothing before realizing there was a house rule forbidding such extravagances. Thoughts of Xavier immediately reminded him of the potential for an uncomfortable interaction. He hoped that things would be as simple as Jiang had made them seem, but Felix had known too many jealous men in his life to believe a simple thing like logic could be counted on to prevent confrontation.

He climbed the stairs from the basement warily to find the main floor of the house deserted. He knew, however, that there were four people on the top floor. He had no idea how he knew, but he was certain, nonetheless. He briefly considered just walking from the house and not looking back. After all, he reasoned, he had no intention of spending eternity with Xavier and Jiang, despite the incredible night he had shared with the latter and the former's apparent superhuman ability to attract beautiful women. Felix's intimate encounter with Jiang was something he would never forget, a tour de force in sexual fantasies. She was also undeniably attractive, with large natural breasts and a trim figure to go with her exotic features. Yet she also had a difficult to define quality which made him, if not uncomfortable, then at the very least wary. Her eyes always twinkled with hidden knowledge which existed somewhere between playful and cruel, and he had little doubt that she regarded him as nothing more than a sexual conquest.

He trudged into the empty kitchen and pulled some food leftover from the previous night's party from the fridge. After taking the added precaution of making a reasonable looking plate (so that he did not once again cause ten thousand calories to disappear without coming close to getting full), he quickly caused the food to disappear. He tried to ignore the questioning voice in his head which pointed out that he was still just as hungry as before he had eaten anything, despite the plate he had prepared containing twice as much food as he had been allotted per day several lifetimes ago when he lived in a tenement and spent his days teaching.

He stood and saw to the mess he had made. His keen hearing picked up sounds from the upper floor which led him to believe that Jiang and Xavier had reached a truce in whatever game they had played the night before and were now getting energetically reacquainted. He shrugged and looked around for something upon which to write so that he might leave a note explaining his departure. But, as he considered it, he realized he was at a loss for anything to say. His upbringing ultimately prevailed, and he left a short missive thanking them for a memorable evening before walking out the door and toward the muted waves he heard in the distance.

***

"Has swimming always been this easy?" Felix muttered to himself as he dogpaddled in lazy circles a few dozen meters from the beach.

His journey upon leaving Xavier's chalet had taken him first to the surf. He had then chosen to head south, wanting to feel the sun on his face, for a while until he spotted a couple playing in the surf and thought back to his absence of panic in the pool the previous evening. He had headed into the waves at once, slowly experimenting with various methods of moving himself through the salty water until he had found something that reliably worked. The next hour had been spent doing little more than catching up after a lifetime of being afraid of the water.

He found, however, that while he was more than capable of moving his body in whatever direction he desired, he was almost completely incapable of floating. The explanation for this was obvious once he gave it a few seconds' thought. His conditioned body had, as near as makes no difference, zero-percent body fat. The only way he could achieve even a measure of buoyancy was to gulp in a lungful of air and hold it, thus providing a modicum of floatation. He knew, however, that this would be unsustainable in the long term. He resolved, therefore, to stay relatively close to land whenever possible.

He waded from the water and sank down on the sand, content to watch the same couple which motivated him to re-try swimming attempting, and ultimately failing, to hide the fact that they were making love in waist deep water only a few meters from his position. The woman especially seemed to revel at his attention, and he would not have been at all surprised to learn that the entire sordid affair had been arranged solely because the couple was excited by the thought of performing for him. For this reason, Felix did not avert his gaze. He found something about their coupling oddly comforting, as if it served as a proof that humans could indeed make love, as opposed to the instinctual rutting or manipulative fucking which had sullied his recent intimate encounters.

His reverie was snapped when he heard the distinctive sound of a woman in distress. At once, the beautiful sight of the obviously in love couple sharing a tender moment amongst the waves was lost. He leapt to his feet and scanned his surroundings for the source of the sound but was unable to spot anything amiss. Without conscious thought, his feet began taking him in the direction from which he was somehow certain the sound had originated.

As he jogged, his ears started funneling data into his brain. He knew the intimacy of the couple behind him had crescendoed and they had fled the chilled water, just as he knew that a series of machines of unknown configuration, but likely used for transportation, were moving past his position a few hundred meters distant in the direction in which he was traveling.

As he drew even with the dunes, he heard the same voice which had initially drawn his attention shout, "I can't believe you did this to me."

"Come on, babe," a baritone voice replied, a not insignificant amount of anger in his strangely accented voice. "I don't know what the big deal is."

"You don't know what the big deal is," she snapped. "I don't understand why you're going to all this trouble to trick me into coming here. It's not like you haven't seen me naked."

At this point, Felix's journey finally brought him within sight of the couple. They were standing on a wooden structure which contained several apparent restrooms along with what appeared to be storage lockers. Felix could hear at least two women speaking softly amidst running water from within one of the enclosures. The pair which had attracted his attention seemed to still be unaware of his presence. The man was somewhat short, likely not more than one-hundred-seventy centimeters and had a hairstyle which Felix only missed guffawing in response to by the slimmest of margins. The concept of shaving part of one's scalp while growing the rest quite long was wholly foreign to his home country, and he was quite certain that any man putting his hair up in a topknot which was then folded into a bun would have made it less than a block before being picked up by the morality police. The woman matched her partner in height, although she likely massed forty kilos less than he did. She had shoulder-length light brown hair and a slender build. Her age was difficult to tell, due in part to the wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses she wore, but Felix suspected she likely matched her partner's apparent age of mid-thirties.

"You will listen," the man continued, obviously growing quite irritated. "I'm the man, and you're the woman. We're going to enjoy this beach, and you're going to get naked."

Fully expecting the woman to hand the obnoxious oaf his ass, rhetorically speaking, Felix was stunned when she dropped her head in defeat and started to angrily yank at the drawstring of her shorts.

Without a second thought, he surged forward toward the couple, his eyes never leaving the man who his subconscious had unrepentantly labeled as his enemy.

"Jesus Christ," the man yelped upon spotting Felix's headlong rush. "What the fuck is your problem?"

"What is your problem, sir?" Felix spat, emphasizing the last syllable. "What kind of a man could ever bring himself to talk to a lady that way?"

"I'm all man," his opponent blustered comically.

"Is that so?" Felix replied dismissively.

"More of a man than you!"

Felix smirked and looked down at the man's still clothed midsection, recognizing immediately that he hated himself for using his post-Conditioning body in such a blatantly toxic way but unable to allow the man's assholery to stand unchallenged, no matter the cost to his own self-respect. Felix's glance caused the man to glance down, and he grinned despite his self-loathing at the barely disguised awe he saw in his enemy's eyes.

When the man's gaze returned, belatedly, to Felix's eyes, the latter spoke with quiet intensity. "Apologize."

"What the fuck for?"

"For being a lout, and an oaf, and a generally wretched example of the human animal."

"What the hell are you talking about, dude?" the man asked in bewilderment.

"I won't ask again," Felix said menacingly, his fists balling at his side.

The man held up his hands in surrender and said, "Whoa, big fella. I didn't do anything to you."

"It is not me you should be apologizing to, slime."

"Fucking Russkies," the man muttered.

"What was that?" Felix snapped.

"Nothing man."

"Apologize to the lady, and I will leave you in peace. Otherwise, I will start breaking your fingers until you reconsider. Shall I demonstrate?"

"No!" the man yelped as he shoved his hands behind his back.

"Then what are you waiting for?" Felix growled.

"Well," the man retorted angrily. "For starters, the stuck-up bitch seems to have run off."

Fourteen

Felix hurried in the direction of the road, oblivious to the agonized screams of the now-former enemy he had left in his wake. As his heart rate started to slow down, he was able to recognize that he had undeniably lost his temper. Considered objectively, his actions had hardly been warranted considering they were in response to mere words. But, as the sounds faded in the distance, he could not bring himself to regret breaking the man's dominant wrist... in three places.

He walked quickly through the collection of unfamiliar machines which were evidently intended for ground transport, based on the similar appearing machines speeding past on the nearby strip of tarmac, without spotting any sign of the woman. He continued toward the aforementioned road and started walking in the direction the cars were travelling. He heard a disquieting bleating come from several passing vehicles. The first such instance nearly caused him to dive for cover as though he was under bombardment, but he soon grew used to the constant noise.

After a few moments, he spotted another figure about one hundred meters ahead and he hurried to catch up when his keen eyesight picked up on the fact that he had found his quarry. She seemed to sense his approach and turned to regard him as one would an insect that had just stung them. He slowed quickly and came to a stop a few meters from her, not wanting her to feel any more uncomfortable than she already did.

"What?" she growled after a pregnant pause.

"I... um... wanted to see if you... um... needed anything."

"You mean besides humiliating my boyfriend and almost certainly destroying my relationship?" she retorted angrily. "Nope. I think you've done quite enough."

"That... man... was no boyfriend to you. Not if he spoke to you like that."

"How he does, or doesn't, speak to me is no concern of yours. I neither requested, nor required, your assistance, sir."

Felix sighed and said, "I didn't say you did. But that guy back there was being a cataclysmic jerk. He had no right to speak to you that way."

"What business it is of yours?"

"What kind of man would I be if I heard someone behaving like that and did nothing?"

He noticed her glance drop briefly before she looked away in frustration. Without looking back, she huffed, "Is there any way you could cover yourself?"

"I'm afraid not. My suit was destroyed shortly after I arrived in the afterlife and I've yet to figure out where I'm meant to acquire new clothing. Or lodging. Or sustenance. Or even if the latter is required."

"What?" she snapped.

"Which part did you not understand?"

"All of it," she seethed. She stared at him warily before adding, "Are you high?"

"You're asking if I've altered my consciousness with illicit pharmacologicals?"

"What else would that mean?"

"I apologize if I'm having trouble understanding you. Your accent is unfamiliar to me. I suspect we came from different time periods... perhaps even different realities."

"Listen... buddy... I've had a long day and, thanks to your little performance back there, I suspect things will get much worse before they get better."

Felix glanced back toward where he had left her companion writhing in pain before saying, "I don't suspect he'll be bothering you anymore."

"What you'd do," she mocked. "Kill him with your enormous... muscles..."

"I barely touched him," Felix deflected.

"Great," she groaned. "Another alpha male asshole." She took another look at his midsection before adding, "Listen... mister... Johnson. Thanks... I guess. But my ride's going to be here in a minute. So... nice meeting you..."

Despite her unusual accent, he had little difficulty discerning her obvious anger with him, or her dismissal. He was also becoming increasingly aware that his understanding of this version of eternity had several notable gaps, so he resolved to fill in whatever knowledge the woman before him was willing to impart before she disappeared forever.

He tried to appear as unthreatening as possible and said, "I really am sorry if I made things difficult for you back there, but I'm not sorry that I intervened. Behavior like that is an afront to all sentients."

"Whatever," she sighed.

He plowed on, "I meant what I said earlier. If you could give me some advice on how one is meant to behave in this realm, I'd be very grateful. I just arrived yesterday and it would seem that several of my assumptions are, to put it mildly, misguided."

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about."

"It would seem that I'm a stranger in a strange land. All I'm asking from you is a little help."

"What? Because you quote, unquote, saved me?"

"Of course not," he replied softly. "Just because I suspect you're a good person, and because I am clearly in need of a bit of assistance." He looked around helplessly as a vehicle pulled off the road and came to a stop beside them. "But if you wish me to leave you in peace, you need only to say the word and we'll never speak again."

She glared at him for several long moments before saying, "Fine. But I've got pepper spray right where I can get at it. If you lay a finger on me, I swear you'll rue the day we met."

He smiled and said, "I would never dream of it," despite not having the foggiest idea about the nature of this 'pepper spray' she referenced.

She shook her head wearily and said, "Well, come on then. You'd better wrap this around yourself if you expect," she glanced down at a device in her hand before continuing, "Nils to ever let you in the car." She threw her towel at him and headed toward the vehicle.

***

Felix passed the first several minutes of their time in the strange vehicle staring around the interior in wonder. He was amazed both at the luxurious feel of the soft fabric and the fact that the entire craft seemed to be made of windows. Not only could he see three-hundred-and-sixty degrees laterally, the roof was also made of a transparent material. Even more incredibly, the diminutive man seated in the craft's forward compartment seemed to be in control of the vehicle's motion. This despite the fact that they were surrounded by hundreds of other apparently similarly directed vehicles. The staggering potential chaos which could result from such a scheme both terrified and amazed him.

His wonderment at the vehicle in which they were travelling was interrupted by his companion asking sharply, "All right. You duped me into giving you a ride. How about you tell me what's really going on."

"I spoke truthfully," Felix replied reasonably. "Why would you think otherwise?"

"Oh, I don't know, because everything you said sounds like what I imagine a really bad trip must be like."

"Is that what's happened to you?"

"I've never done psychedelics," she deflected.

"I meant what happened back there," he replied, hooking a thumb in the direction from which they travelled. "I get the impression you are not native to this realm. At least this portion of it."

"Where are you from?" she asked frustratedly.

"I am originally from the Taymyr Administrative District."

"Where?" she asked snippily.

"It is in eastern Siberia, part of the Chinese Confederation."

"You're from Siberia?" she retorted with a chuckle. "What, did you get picked up for protesting against the war and sent to the frozen tundra because you weren't important enough to poison?"

"It is obviously not permitted to protest the war," he replied diffidently. "But what makes you think Siberia is cold? My father tells me snow used to be somewhat common in the winter, perhaps a few times a year. But I cannot remember the last time that happened."

She stared at him severely for several minutes before she ultimately fiddled for a few moments with the device which had yet to leave her hand before turning it toward him. He quickly discerned that it was a crude computer which required touch in order to interact with the information presented. He read slowly, it having been several decades since he had last read Roman characters, but he quickly discerned that the device insisted that the district of his birth had a climate found only on Mars in his reality. Just as he started to delve deeper to use the device to understand this realm, he saw something which made his blood run cold.

He handed the device back with shaking hands and said, "How long ago did you die?"

"What the fuck are you talking about?" she huffed.

"It's a straightforward question," he retorted snippily. "My death occurred sometime in the spring of 2262 roughly forty-two-point-three light days from the star we know as Vega."

She nodded theatrically and said, "Obviously."

He quirked an eyebrow at her and continued, "I enlisted in, and was conditioned for, the Star Trooper program in late 2261 and survived four engagements with the enemy before I volunteered for a mission with a low probability of survival. Not surprisingly, I was killed during the mission although the possibility exists that I was nonetheless successful in saving both humanity and the Cygnians."

"Cygnians?"

"The alien civilization which introduced itself to humanity in 2237, and which sought our... assistance... in their war with the Chalawanians."

"Let me guess. These Gleep-glops... your allies..."

"Cygnians," Felix supplied.

"Whatever. They're about one meter tall with oversized heads and silvery bodies?"

"I wish. The truth is no human has ever seen one outside of an encounter suit. But most scholars believe they are vaguely insectoid in shape and social structure."

"How about the enemy?"

"Them I've seen. Tough bastards with three limbs, any of which can be used as we would use arms or legs. Come to think of it, they have three of everything."

"So, lemme make sure I've got this straight. You're from two-hundred-and-thirty-five years in the future. You're some kind of soldier who is fighting in a war between three different species..."

"Oh, far more than that. The Cygnians and the Chalawanians are the primaries, but both sides have engaged the help of dozens of species."

"Right," she drawled before pushing ahead. "And your belief is that you got killed during this war?"

"How else would I have ended up in Valhalla?"

"Ha!" she barked. "What makes you think this is Valhalla?"

"Occam's razor offers little in the way of an alternative hypothesis. I was fighting in a battle in space. I rammed the enemy flagship whilst simultaneously engaging my ship's faster-than-light engines. Next thing I know, I'm plummeting towards Valhalla. Once I got myself out of my suit, I encountered a dizzying array of beautiful people who seem to want nothing more than to have sex with me."

"Present company excluded," she muttered.

"Indeed," he agreed. "In any case, what was I supposed to think?"

She shrugged and said, "I guess it all sounds reasonable. Assuming, that is, that you aren't either fucking with me in what is unquestionably the most asinine attempt in history to get in a woman's pants..."

"I assure you that's not the case," he interjected.

"... or completely bug-fuck insane," she continued, undeterred. "The only problem with your hypothesis is me."

"Pardon?"

"Where do I start?" she huffed. "One, this isn't Valhalla... it's Denmark. Two, Siberia isn't part of China... or temperate... or somewhere anyone would choose to live. Three, not only have we not encountered any alien races, we have, as near as makes no difference, abandoned any attempts to do so. Four, and most importantly, I haven't died so this can't be the afterlife." She paused for a moment before adding, "So, future man with the body-builder physique..."

"This isn't really my body," he interrupted with a gesture toward his eight-pack. "This was the Conditioning I mentioned. They did this to us to make it so we'd survive a few more battles before a Chalawanian energy beam liquified our internal organs as it slowly atomized us."

"Jesus," she breathed, a look of horror spreading across her features.

"But that's all in the past now."

She shook her head, as if to purge the visual, before saying, "What I was trying to say is... if this isn't the afterlife, and it can't be because I'm here and I'm not dead. Neither, in case you're wondering, is my now-I-suspect-former boyfriend. So, what does that little nugget of information do to your Occam's razor?"

He pondered her question for several moments before looking at her helplessly and saying, "I'm not sure."

Fifteen

The remainder of their ride passed in silence, as Felix was overwhelmed by the in escapable conclusion he had reached thanks to the new information shared by his companion.

'The past?" his mind posited, for want of a better theory. 'Is that even possible?"

Even as he had the thought, the more logical part of his mind snippily informed him that he was being a fool. He had, after all, triggered a cataclysmic explosion whilst piloting a vehicle capable of both time, and faster-than-light, travel. Truth be told, neither relocating over a quarter quadrillion kilometers through space back to the planet of his birth nor travelling nearly a quarter millennia back in time were beyond the capabilities of his erstwhile ship. And the number of kilojoules likely released by the collision with the flagship's energy shield almost certainly exceeded his reactor's output by many orders of magnitude. The more Felix thought about it, the more he realized that the aforementioned Occam's Razor suggested it was far more likely that he had somehow, improbably, survived the collision and, having been catapulted across time and space, wound up near a livable planet than it was that he had been transported to the afterlife.

Felix climbed numbly from the vehicle when it came to a stop, his mind unable to process the buildings surrounding him as he grappled with the startling revelation. He almost did not hear a small voice speaking behind him as he stumbled over to some stairs and dropped to the ground.

"Are you going to be ok?" she asked worriedly.

He looked up at her in horror, almost as though he was seeing her for the first time. He recoiled visibly as the memory of their, for want of a better term, affiliation returned with perfect clarity to the forefront of his memory. His gaze softened and he truly looked at her for the first time. She had removed her sunglasses and he could see worry-lines around her brown eyes. Beyond that, he could see something which was so uncommon, so rare, that he almost failed to recognize it: endless, limitless selflessness. With this realization, he came to understand at once just how demanding he had been of her time.

He waved dismissively and said, "I'll be fine. Thank you for all you've done."

She stood unmoving for several moments before finally sitting down beside him and saying, "You really believe all that stuff about the interstellar war and the time travel, don't you?"

He looked at her and said, "I really appreciate the information..." He smiled shyly and added, "I just realized I don't know your name. I am Felix Igorevich Dvoryanin."

She stuck out her hand and said, "Quinn Reid."

"Pleased to meet you, Quinn Reid," he replied as he gently shook her hand. "But I've taken up far too much of your time."

"You didn't answer my question."

"In the grand scheme of things," he chuckled ruefully and added, "That phrase took on a new meaning today." He shook his head before continuing, "Does it honestly matter what I believe? I am a stranger, a boorish one at that." He glanced around, seeing the large resort on whose steps he was seated for the first time. He looked back at Quinn and said, "You were on holiday, no?"

She shrugged and said, "You certainly changed the course of it. But, as I'm sure you have figured out by now, things weren't going great with that aspiring naturist before you arrived. I likely would have broken things off with him when we got home in any case."

"Regardless, I have ruined your vacation."

"Perhaps," she allowed as she got to her feet. "But you have also made it unquestionably more interesting. Besides, didn't you say you were a stranger in a strange land? What kind of a self-absorbed bitch would I have to be to respond to your intervention in a situation which might have gotten ugly by leaving you alone and helpless?"

"A wise one?" he offered.

"I never was one for wisdom," she replied as she stuck her hand out to him in a gesture intended to help him up despite the fact that he out massed her by at least a factor of two. "Come on, Felix. Let's get you some clothes before you flash some impressionable youngster and frighten her into a lifetime of celibacy."

It was harder than Felix expected to get to his feet with her 'assistance' without instead pulling her to the ground, but he managed it. Upon reaching his full height, he looked down at her and muttered, "What's that supposed to mean... frighten them into celibacy?"

"Dude," she huffed. "You were sitting with your legs spread wider than a spatchcocked chicken. Half the town saw your... well... I'm sure they saw more than they bargained for. Come on."

***

"Two years?" Felix boomed before immediately looking contrite after Quinn glared at him.

"Yeah," she whispered fiercely, her reproachful look still very much present. "So what? I'm freaking thirty-four years old and all I've got going for me is a steady job which I don't particularly like and a cat who I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to. Why would I dump him when I've got zero other prospects? Not everyone is built like a Greek god."

"As I already told you," Felix interjected. "I did not always look like this. It has in fact been only a few months since the Conditioning. Before that, I was much shorter, and far less muscular. I looked a lot more like that gentleman," he indicated a corpulent man at the bar with three empty beer glasses standing as a picket line surrounding the platter on which the steak he was rapidly demolishing sat.

She regarded him suspiciously and said, "That's..." before suddenly snapping her mouth closed and falling silent.

"Impossible?" he guessed. Her only reply was a frown, so he persisted, "We've already agreed to accept the hypothesis that I'm both from the future, and that I've been more than a billion times further from Earth than any human has yet managed in this time. Isn't the idea of some alien substance being injected into my brain stem and fundamentally altering my physiology a relatively small leap by comparison?"

"Granted..." she began, but she fell silent upon spotting his frown.

"What I was getting to," he continued, "was that I understand the concept of feeling as though you should take whatever you can get better than you could possibly imagine."

"Why?" she replied sharply. "Did you also work in a profession dominated by the opposite gender to such a degree that everyone views you as a novelty?"

"No," he allowed. "But in my time, there are strict limitations on births. Not all families are even permitted to have one child."

She nodded and said, "China does something like that today."

"You forget," he replied with a sigh. "I am from China. Well, part of it. In my time, China comprises the entirety of the continent."

"Yet you speak English. Well, nearly."

"I assure you I occasionally have difficulty with your accent as well. I read a study once which claimed that a side effect of both globalization and the internet was that they significantly slowed the evolution of language. I suppose that explains our ability to communicate at all."

"But why English. As opposed to, I don't know, Chinese?"

He shrugged and said, "Good question. Not much is said in the history books about how English became the lingua franca for nearly the entire world, or how things remained that way after the collapse of the United States. It just... is. Or was. Or will be."

She snickered and said, "Even in 2261 when time travel is a known quantity, you still haven't worked out the vernacular for talking about it?"

"Well, to be fair, I'm not sure any other humans are aware that the Cygnians have time travel figured out. They're not exactly forthcoming with their technology."

"I thought you said they were... will be... your allies."

Felix scowled and said, "That was what the vid-casts said. Having been on the literal front lines, however, led me to believe we're far closer to pets, or perhaps beasts of burden, than allies. They don't work with humanity; they use us as cannon fodder. When, and how they see fit. All in return for tech which allows us to colonize the stars, so long as they approve of the planets.

"But that war is the future's problem, apparently. Getting back to my original point, if I may?" She waved her hand agreeably. "I understand better than you could possibly imagine why you would stay with your boyfriend so long. You see... I enlisted at the encouragement of a woman."

"I'm guessing she's not waiting on pins and needles to hear about the outcome of your mission?"

"Not as such. She convinced me to enlist with promises of marriage and children. Quite the inducement for a man who, thanks to an array of challenges, had zero reason to believe either would ever be a possibility for him. A few months after I shipped out, she sent a single reply to the daily messages I had been sending. Long story short, she had gotten what she wanted from me, namely a chunk of my signing bonus, and was through with me. I suspect she figured swapping twenty thousand credits for a couple of nights with me was an acceptable trade off."

"You really think it was just about the money?"

He shrugged and said, "I can't imagine what else her motivations could have been. We'd known each other since high school, and she'd never shown the slightest interest in me physically before she got this enlistment idea in her head."

Quinn shook her head sadly and said, "I'm so sorry, Felix. That really sucks."

"Water under the bridge, and all that. I can't disagree that I was powerfully disappointed. But, in a strange way, she really lost out. She's still living her same crappy life, albeit a bit richer. Whereas I managed to escape that reality altogether."

"Not to mention the whole body of a Greek god thing."

"There is that," he agreed. "But I can't help but notice that you keep turning the topic away from yourself."

"What's there to tell?" she replied in exasperation. "I moved away from home after high school to become a software developer. I've been doing it ever since."

"What do you do for fun? Please tell me it was more than that... person with the man muffin."

"Man-bun," she replied with a bark of laughter. "And, yes, there was... is... more than him. Although, as you alluded to earlier, sometimes it's just nice to have someone who can be somewhat relied upon not to laugh at you when you're horny and looking for a hook up."

Felix shrugged and said, "I hope he was good in bed, at least."

"Good is such a subjective word," she replied with a weary sigh.

"I'm very sorry, Quinn. I've only known you a few hours and I already know you deserve so much more."

She waved at him dismissively and said, "Back to you. You're in the hellscape that is post-pandemic humanity. What are you going to do? I get the impression you were still using money in the future, so I suspect you're familiar with the single-minded obsession we're required to have with respect to the all-mighty dollar. Then there's the small issue of you not being a citizen of any country. And, let me tell you, that's going to be a big problem nearly everywhere."

"I've been giving the matter some thought, but I'm honestly at a loss."

"Don't you have some amazing knowledge of the future you could leverage? Hell, you could go full Marty McFly and bet on sporting events."

"Except I didn't follow sports."

"Don't tell me baseball didn't survive."

He looked at her helplessly and said, "I'm not sure. What's baseball?"

"What's baseball!" she shouted, heedless of the stares she got. "Only the best sport ever!"

"Forgive my ignorance, in that case. Regardless, I think any kind of wagering is a non-starter. As is any technological knowledge. While we enjoyed tech far more advanced than what is available now, I know no more about how it works than you do with reference to your phone. As I said, I was a math teacher."

She glanced around in frustration before her eyes fixed momentarily on one of the ubiquitous screens placed liberally throughout the bar in which they sat. She looked intently back at Felix and said, "Exactly how strong did this Conditioning make you?"

Sixteen

"You think I'm the strongest man in the entire world?" Felix hissed anxiously upon reading the banner at the end of the queue in which they stood.

"You said you had no idea how strong you were," Quinn whispered quietly. "But that you were unquestionably stronger than any human you'd ever known." She gestured meaningfully at the registration table for the regional qualifier for the World's Strongest Man competition and added, "If you're right, then you could win twenty thousand euros. Plus, if you're interested, you could then compete in the finals where the prize money is much higher."

"And how exactly does one go about winning this contest?"

"I've seen it on TV a few times. In all honesty, I'd always thought the whole thing seems like a frat party on literal steroids. They do all kinds of crazy shit. Throwing trees; dragging tractor trailers; carrying cars around. It's bonkers."

Felix glanced around at the other hopefuls, noting that they tended to outweigh him by a significant margin. Where he was shaped like an athlete in a sport which prized brute strength over things like stamina or speed; the other contestants tended to be shaped like the barrels Quinn claimed they would be tossing. While he had no doubt he could take the lot in a footrace, he greatly doubted that he was even in their same league when it came to strength.

Despite his misgivings, Felix stayed in the queue and waited his turn to register for no better reason than it gave him a chance to spend more time with his newfound companion. He sensed a hidden strength in her that he found both admirable and captivating. Even a far less intelligent man would have known at once that she was profoundly disappointed both at her boyfriend and at Felix. Ironically, she was upset at both of them for the same incident, but for very different reasons. Yet she continued to stick with him even though he had repeatedly offered her the chance to leave him to fend for himself. He was not even entirely certain she knew why she was driven to help him, but he knew instinctively that she would remain by his side until she was convinced that he could no longer benefit from her assistance.

"Name and country?" the woman seated behind the registration table repeated, snapping Felix from his reverie.

"Felix Dvoryanin," he snapped reflexively. "And I'm from..."

"He's from Russia," Quinn supplied. "But he's appalled and horrified by their wars of aggression, so he wishes to compete as an unaffiliated international athlete."

"Fair enough," the woman replied. "Prior experience?"

"During the Battle of Taanab, I picked up a chunk of ice the size of this table and used it to shield three of my fallen comrades from enemy fire until we were relieved."

The woman looked at him suspiciously before ultimately saying, "And?"

Felix paused for a moment before adding, "Once our relief had been spotted, I threw the chunk at our enemy, crushing three of them instantly and distracting the remaining two long enough for me to close and rip out their brain stems."

"Jesus!"

"You asked," Felix said with an apologetic shrug.

"Fair enough. I'll allow you to compete, but it will be in the open category which means that if you're in the bottom fifty percent according to your overall score at the conclusion of each round, you're out. So, you'd best bring your A-game to the first event."

"Thank you for the opportunity," Felix allowed.

She handed him a number and shooed him in the direction of a group of nervous-appearing candidates. Felix stood apart from them as he attempted to ignore the fact that he was, by a comfortable margin, the least strong-looking person there.

Quinn seemed to sense his unease and said, "Hey, don't sweat it. These guys have just spent their entire lives working on their bodies in preparation for this moment, whereas you... what did you call it again?"

"Underwent Star Trooper Conditioning," Felix grumbled. "And you're not helping."

"Sorry," she replied contritely.

"Hey," he said gently. "I really do appreciate everything you've done for me. If it wasn't for you, I'd still be standing by the side of the road naked." She looked away shyly and mumbled something unintelligible as he tried to ignore the blush that spread across her cheeks. He added, "I mean it, Quinn. I hope someday I can do something to make it up to you. This sounds incredibly pathetic, and it is definitely somewhat influenced by the fact that I hail from a future in which everyone basically lives inside their AR goggles, but you're almost certainly the best friend I've ever had."

She started to reply, but the loudspeaker came to life and announced that each contestant should head to their first event. Quinn ultimately shrugged and said, "Good luck."

He smiled warmly at her and said, "Thanks. I suspect I'll be back in no time."

Felix checked the sheet he had been handed which indicated his first event was something called 'Toss' and headed toward a banner of the same name which was erected above a wall which was comfortably twice as tall as he was. Aligned before the wall was a large stack of cylinders which were shaped not unlike the torsos of many of his fellow competitors.

A chuckle arose from several of the other hopefuls when Felix's name was called first. He walked up to where a referee indicated and spent a moment gauging the wall's height before picking up one of the cylinders in one hand. He shook it a bit to get its measure before taking another look at the wall.

"Ten seconds," the referee announced as the snickers of the other strongmen grew in volume.

Felix glared at them before swinging the cylinder back behind his hip and, with a mighty roar, launching it in a motion not unlike bowling (assuming, that is, that one enjoys being ejected from a bowling alley after shattering the acoustic tiles which make up the ceiling). The cylinder flew true and cleared the wall with several meters to spare before landing uncomfortably close to a neighboring event.

The snickers of his co-competitors fell silent instantly, causing Felix to worry he had erred greatly. He looked around anxiously to spot Quinn smiling happily and giving him a thumbs up.

He glanced to the referee and said, "Was that right?"

"That was not the typical form we're used to, but you met the event parameters. You have fifteen seconds to make your second toss."

"Oh," Felix replied with a grin. "I get to try it again?"

"The competition is judged based on how many you can toss over the wall before a failed attempt."

Felix yanked the second cylinder off the stack and flung it easily over the wall before saying, "How many does it usually take to win?"

***

"What the hell are you doing?" Quinn hissed after she fell into step with a jubilant Felix as he walked to the second event.

"I thought the point was to win," he replied nervously. "So that I could fix my money problem."

"Sure. Winning would be nice. But if you set world records in every event and completely embarrass all the other competitors, it's bound to draw more attention than you want."

"What are you saying I should do, then? Lose?"

"Of course not," she whispered fiercely, her eyes darting toward the other contestants. "Just try not to flip the bat, as it were."

"What do bats have to do with this?"

"Oh, right. You've never heard of baseball. Well, just try not to show off quite so much. Maybe adjust your performance to your competitors."

"Ok," he sighed. "I'll try."

"All coaching aside," she added conspiratorially. "That was pretty incredible back there. I don't think they typically have to go fetch all the kegs before the second contestant."

"What do you mean?"'

"Did you not notice that no one else managed more than eleven?"

"How many did I do?"

"Forty! Which was all they had."

"Oh," he replied lamely.

"Like I said," Quinn added with a brief caress of his bicep before she yanked her fingers back as though she had been scalded. "Win, but don't lap the field."

"Pardon?"

"They don't have racing in the future?"

"Not to my knowledge. Sporting events are not encouraged."

"You have so much to learn," she said warmly before gesturing to a banner reading 'Loading Race' and adding, "Remember, try to adjust your performance so you just barely win."

He nodded and proceeded to the event. The random ordering allowed him to observe several of his opponents before his turn arrived and he was able to gage their performance. The event seemed reasonably straightforward: move a grouping of awkwardly shaped objects across a sandpit and load them onto a vehicle. With Quinn's advice in mind, Felix paid close attention to the times of those who went before him so that he could be sure to make his time closer to the remainder of the field.

When his turn arrived, he took his place next to the stack of prodigiously perforated metal cubes and waited for his heat to start. When the horn sounded, he hefted one of the objects onto his shoulder (unlike the other contestants who had struggled to hold them in both hands) and began walking slowly toward the vehicle. He measured his steps carefully, counting seconds to himself as he walked across the loose surface. Loading the half-dozen objects was a study in patience as he tried to maintain his count.

He looked around anxiously for the clock after loading the final object on the vehicle and was stunned to discover that he had missed his target time by nearly a full minute.

Quinn ran up to him and hissed, "What the hell? You looked like you were stoned out there."

"The objects were metallic," Felix informed her. "Not stone."

"Not stone... stoned. As in high?"

He shook his head and said, "I don't follow."

"You looked like you were on drugs. I know I said try to not embarrass everyone, but I think you took it a bit far. You'll be lucky if you make it to the next round."

He glared at her and said, "You're welcome to give the next event a try if you think you could do better."

"I'm not the one who got shot up with super-soldier serum, buddy. Maybe just try a little bit harder on the next one without going full hulk."

"I can't believe people do this for fun," he grumbled.

She punched his shoulder affectionately and said, "They don't do it for fun, silly." She pointed toward the large stage at the center of the event with its accompanying banner which read 'First Prize - 20,000 €' and added, "They do it for money."

"Fair enough," he huffed. "What's next?"

"This one should be much easier for you," she replied as she pointed to a banner which read 'Deadlift'. "You just have to lift the most."

"Thank goodness," he sighed.

Twenty minutes later, his confidence had taken a significant hit after two other competitors managed to best him in the event.

As he rendezvoused with Quinn, he waited for her to mock his failure, but she chose a different tactic. "Much better," she whispered.

"I wasn't trying to lose," he grumbled. "Those two have the strength of Chalawanians. I can never defeat them."

"Oh, ye of little faith."

"Why on earth would you be confident? They're monsters. The hairless one has arms larger than my thighs."

She shook her head, an indefatigable smile on her face. "Those two meatheads have spent their entire lives preparing for that specific event. They're not strongmen, they're power lifters. They have no stamina." She thrust a finger in the direction of a train car resting heavily on nearby tracks. "Pulling that thing takes stamina, and those two can't handle it."

"If you say so," he deflected gruffly as he turned toward the indicated final event.

"You'll see," she murmured before smacking him on the butt playfully.

Seventeen

Felix was intently studying the device attached to the wall of his hotel room's bathroom, one which began making a frightful racket and emitting hot air whenever he removed it from its cradle, when he heard the piercing chattering of his new cell phone from the other room. In his rush to reach the device before it stopped ringing, he managed to mistakenly kick the bed, sending it skittering across the floor to slam into the wall. He further compounded the feeling of being little better than a baby deer on ice by snapping the power cable like a piece of thread in his rush to snatch the phone from the bedside table.

"Damnit!" he snarled as he swiped to answer the call.

"What's wrong?" Quinn asked worriedly amid a not insignificant amount of background noise.

"Just your old pal Felix showing all the grace and poise of a cow trying to walk down steps."

"Exactly how in the hell would you have seen that?" she asked with a chuckle. "You said you don't eat animals in the twenty-third century."

"What makes you think the videos being created and posted on the internet today are not still available in my time?" he retorted in the same joking tone. "In any case, I never said humans don't still consume animals. I merely said I did not."

"That's very admirable. I keep telling myself I should stop contributing to the horrific treatment visited upon the animals we eat. But then I walk into a restaurant and the steaks smell so good." She paused for a moment before adding, "I know. I'm a horrible person."

"Hardly," Felix interjected. "Having sampled steak, I can hardly disagree with your sentiment. Besides, my reason for not eating animal meat in my time was hardly an ethical decision. It was a financial one. Animal meat sold for hundreds of times what synthetics cost. I was a poor schoolteacher who still lived with his father; and even then I barely made ends meet."

Quinn laughed and said, "I see what you did there."

He frowned and said, "You lost me."

"Making ends meet... and we were talking about meat." After several seconds of silence, she added, "Don't they have puns in the future?"

"Of course," he replied as his confusion faded. "But I can't claim to be very clever in any century."

"We'll see," she allowed. "Any more incidents of being accosted by adoring fans?"

"No," he replied, the memory of a group of girls coming up to him at the dinner he shared with Quinn the previous evening still fresh in his memory. They had fawned adoringly over him, gushing endlessly about how impressed they were with his prowess in securing victory in the World's Strongest Man competition. The interaction had been especially grating from Felix's perspective when it became clear that Quinn was more than happy to cede his attention to the interlopers. This stood in stark contrast to Felix's genuine desire to focus the entirety of his consciousness on the woman who had so quickly become so important to him, and who all too quickly was scheduled to indefinitely depart his presence.

"You sound sad. I seem to remember several of them were quite attractive. They made quite clear their willingness to... shall we say... entertain you?"

"I was having a wonderful time before we were interrupted," Felix grumped.

"Well," Quinn replied, still a bit flustered. She then brightened unnaturally and added, "Have you decided what you're going to do next?"

"I have a few ideas," he replied as his eyes fell to the folder on the table which contained his paperwork for a ship which would take him to Quinn's home country.

"Well... I'm on the way to the airport for what is sure to be the world's most awkward trans-Atlantic flight, thanks to getting to sit next to Mister Sprung-A-Nude-Beach-On-Me-And-Thought-I-Wouldn't-Mind."

"Have you not spoken to him since the beach?"

"I have not," she admitted sullenly. "I feel bad though... like I should have called him if only to let him know that we were no longer together."

"If he didn't come to you on his knees begging your forgiveness, then I can't imagine he doesn't know the score. I still wish you hadn't forbidden me from taking the flight with you in case he tries to make trouble for you."

"I already told you," she huffed. "You could never get on the flight without a passport. Not to mention the fact that had he done something shitty, and you got all noble and tried to put him in his place, you'd have been thrown in fucking Guantanamo for a fabagazillion years."

"What's a Guantanamo?"

"Where the U. S. government puts the people they want to imprison forever with no accountability."

"Fine," he grumped. "But I still don't like it."

"I appreciate the thought, Felix, truly I do. But I assure you I'll be fine. Regardless of how much of a creep he came off as; I did date him for over two years. No matter how much of a pushover I am, I wouldn't have put up with a complete asshole for that long."

"You're not a pushover, Quinn," Felix replied softly. "I keep telling you... you're one of the most remarkable people I've ever met."

She was silent for several moments before finally saying, "I just got to the airport. Let me let you go so I can try to figure out why I couldn't check in online. I'll text you once I'm through security."

Felix frowned at her deflection but said merely, "Do svidaniya," because Quinn had let slip a fondness for 'foreign' languages (despite the fact that, in truth, he spoke no more Russian than she did). He could hear the smile in her voice as she bid him goodbye and hung up.

He looked around his room and realized he had nothing to do before he was due to depart in four hours. In addition to the ticket for the trans-Atlantic crossing, he had also purchased a few weeks' worth of clothing and various other necessities such as his phone with the winnings from the contest. He had chosen to cross by sea rather than air because while the former willingly sold him first-class passage while pointing out he would almost certainly have trouble entering the U. S. without a passport, the latter would not even risk selling him the ticket.

He had just settled down to read some news in an attempt to familiarize himself with the world in which he would need to be able to pass as a native when his phone rang again. He answered quickly and greeted Quinn jovially, but his smile disappeared immediately when he heard what she had to say.

***

"I still can't believe you talked me into this," Quinn grumbled as the modest sized cruise ship they now shared slowly slid away from the dock.

"To be fair," Felix replied carefully. "I did offer to buy you another plane ticket after that... person... you dated for the last two years cancelled the one you were meant to use. The one, I might add, that you purchased."

"They only had first class left. I couldn't let you spend that much on me. Besides, as you helpfully pointed out, you were forced to pay double occupancy on your room anyway, so my solution didn't require you to spend anything additional."

He frowned and said, "I never meant to..."

"I'm sorry," Quinn said quickly, effectively silencing Felix. "You did something extraordinarily nice for me and I'm behaving as though you engineered this entire thing as a way of trapping me into sharing a bed with you for the next five days."

"The thought never entered my mind," he said formally.

She sighed and said, "I know." She looked around awkwardly for a moment before saying, "Why don't we go explore our home for the next week?"

He gestured toward a bar and said, "Shall we?"

She shook her head and said, "I don't really feel like drinking right now," before heading toward the bow.

He sighed and followed after her like an exhausted new parent stumbling around their living room at four in the morning carrying a colicky baby. The remainder of the day was an exercise in patience as he tried to combat Quinn's indefatigable self-deprecation. This task was made all the harder by the fact that he was unable to navigate the Gordian knot which was the juxtaposition between her inability to consider that he might be interested in her for anything other than friendship, and the fact that nothing would make him happier. He raged internally at his reckless, foolish choice of words in his response about sharing a bed with her. His instincts had dictated that he take the noble position, not realizing until it was too late that she would take his deflection as a rebuke of her as an object for his romantic affection rather than him being a gentleman.

Things continued without noticeable improvement over the next forty-three hours (not that Felix was keeping close track). He had figured out how to separate the beds in their suite (which Quinn inexplicably dubbed the 'Ward and June' configuration) so he had not been forced to sleep on either the too-small couch or the too-uncomfortable floor. The only bright spot was that during the moments when the awkwardness caused by their situation became less oppressive, especially when they were away from their stateroom, they had a genuinely marvelous time together. He had never known another human with whom he felt so at ease. Their banter was relaxed without being neutered and, as a result, they found themselves discussing things neither had ever shared with another sentient.

It was late on the second full day at sea, while they were seated in one of the forward lounges and watching the roiling maelstrom of a (according to the crew) mild north Atlantic storm in rapt fascination, when he felt a change take place. Waves were routinely crashing against the windows of the deck seven salon as the ship struggled to maintain their heading. Felix and Quinn were having proper English tea while the latter snuggled into a fluffy blanket the former had purchased. The area was mostly empty, many of their fellow passengers having loaded up on sleep-inducing motion-sickness medication and taken to their staterooms. Blissfully, Felix and Quinn were unaffected by the ship's motion due in large part, he suspected, to the Conditioning and excellent genes, respectively. As they sat in companionable silence, he happened to spot a vid-cast playing on a small screen behind the bar. He quickly recognized the hallmarks of sport (hulking men performing remarkable feats to the delight or lament of the gathered throngs of observers).

He turned to Quinn and gestured toward the screen before saying, "Would that, by any chance, be this baseball which you seem so passionate about?"

A quick glance over her shoulder was quickly followed by her bolting from the couch and hurrying over to the bar. She looked back at him, her face lit up brilliantly with unrestrained joy. "I didn't know they got games on this thing!" She turned to the bartender and started grilling him like the bad cop in a police procedural. "What's the score? What inning is it? Who started? Can we watch games in our suite?"

The bartender backed up slowly throughout the interrogation, finally sputtering a weak 'yes' in response to her final question in an obvious attempt to get the clearly deranged and dangerous woman away from him.

Quinn turned back to Felix and said, "Let's split up."

His face fell and he started to turn to walk away, but she slugged him not ungently in the arm and said, "Not like that, dummy. I meant... you hit the buffet and grab us some stuff to snack on. I'll find a bar where I didn't just accost the bartender so that we'll have a better than even chance of our drinks not getting spit in. We'll meet back at the room in five minutes."

"But... I don't understand," he replied lamely.

"I'm teaching you about baseball!" she declared gleefully before racing off toward the bar located amidships.

Felix turned to the no longer cowering bartender and shrugged his shoulders apologetically. The latter merely frowned at Quinn's departing form and said, "Good luck with that one."

Eighteen

"Yes!" Felix and Quinn shouted in unison as they leapt off the couch in their suite and into each other's arms after watching the ball sail over the fence to end the game in a walk-off. As the jubilation of the shared moment began to fade, he waited for the awkwardness which had so frequently permeated their interactions to date to descend. However, unlike so many previous exchanges between the pair, this time Quinn declined to pull away. Instead, she took a long extra moment to bury her face in his chest and hug him even tighter.

He savored the way she felt against him, committing every moment he spent in close contact with this remarkable woman to memory. Ever since the fateful moment two days prior when he had pointed out the game, things had changed immeasurably between them. It was as if the crucible of baseball had given her a reason to allow him past her defenses, and things had gone from friendly with frequent bouts of awkwardness to the cusp of intimacy within the span of minutes. They had spent their time alternating between sleeping and snuggling together on the couch, binging on junk food while she gave him a masterclass in what he still viewed as an impossibly baffling sport.

He marveled at how much he had learned about her when nearly every conversation they had shared had been about baseball. She had told him previously she had left home after high school to start her career as a software developer, but he had learned over the previous day that she had been motivated by more than mere wanderlust or a desire to get away from a toxic situation with her parents. She was the youngest of four (her siblings being twelve, nine and seven years older than her), and she was convinced that her parents had never intended to have a fourth. Her childhood was littered with stories of her parents leaving her with her older siblings while they began their long dreamed about world travelling (bucket list items that she believed her existence had delayed by a decade). Her love of baseball had been fostered, in part, by thousands of hours spent in front of the television as she was constantly handed between her eldest siblings while her parents toured the seven seas.

This abandonment had created fertile ground for the idea that her family considered her to be an unwanted obligation to bloom in her mind. The morning after high school graduation, she had packed up the car she had bought with her own money (earned first by babysitting and then by contract development work) and driven thirty-six hundred kilometers across the country to begin working for the first firm that had offered her full-time employment. She prided herself on the fact that she had neither asked for, nor accepted, a single penny from her family since that day. The fact that she had seen her family fewer times than she had fingers in the fifteen years which had passed since her exodus did nothing in her mind to dissuade her from the belief that she was both a burden and unloved.

All Felix had learned had both further cemented in his mind that she was the most admirable person he had ever met and filled him with sorrow for all the heartache she had suffered. It was undeniable that she was even more desperately lonely than he had been before enlisting, and he wanted nothing more in life than to be able to unravel the mystery of how he could ease her pain.

"Are you trying to get to first base with me?" she murmured belatedly into his too-snug t-shirt.

He looked down at her and said, "I thought I'd figured out this game of yours, but I'm unsure how the rules apply to this situation."

"Oh right," she replied softly. "I guess if baseball ceased to exist, then so too did the sophomoric base count to level of sexual conquest metaphors."

"Now I'm really confused."

She grinned up at him and said, "It's really quite simple. Each base corresponds to how far you get with a girl."

"Only girls?" he asked playfully. "This isn't something which can be applied in the other direction?"

"I guess it could at that," she allowed. "Although second base wouldn't make a ton of sense."

"Second base? You still haven't explained first base. Isn't that a balk, or something?"

She snickered before replying, "Not exactly."

"So, when do I get to find out what first base is?"

She sighed, as though having made a profound decision, before murmuring, "First base is when you... kiss... a girl." Her eyes dropped with the final two words, and her voice would not have been audible to any but Felix's enhanced hearing.

He lifted her chin and spoke softly. "A girl? Or Quinn Reid?"

"That old broad?" she muttered, still unwilling to meet his eyes.

"That amazing, incredible, beautiful woman," he corrected.

She licked her lips anxiously, prompting him to begin the deliberately slow journey toward her. He watched her with a closeness impossible to an un-Conditioned human, tracking her pulse and breathing as he watched for any sign of objection. After the longest seven seconds of his life, he saw the hint of a smile flash across her face as her tongue darted out once more.

Their lips touched hesitantly, but he immediately felt a jolt of energy explode within him. He tamped down the primal fires burning within him, urging him to make this woman his with reckless abandon. The desire which, since the Conditioning, was seemingly always roiling within him like a hurricane inexorably building in intensity, especially when he was around beautiful women, reached gale force. It had been something which he thought he had learned to control, especially around Quinn. But the moment he felt her achingly soft lips touch his own, the beast had nearly succeeded in breaking free.

He felt her pull back to regard him warily and he realized he must have been indefensibly distant during their kiss. Regret began to fill him as the knowledge that he had flubbed his one chance began to consume his consciousness. He grinned awkwardly at her, which earned him a queer expression in return.

She sighed and said, "So... that's first base."

He knew he had, at most, a single chance left to redeem himself. He whispered, "I don't think so."

"I think I know more about this than you do, Felix," she huffed. "First base is kissing."

"That wasn't a kiss," he growled softly before leaning down to claim her lips once more.

This time he blocked out everything except her: the softness of her lips; the captivating scent of her hair; the way her breathing quickened and her heart raced. He allowed her to dictate the pace at which their kiss deepened, but he made sure with the entirety of his being that she knew that there was nothing in the universe that he would rather be doing.

When the tip of her tongue teased along the seam of his lips, he threaded his hands into her long light brown tresses to tilt her head and give him better access to taste her. Far from being a fainting maiden, she gave as good as she got. Her hands managed to simultaneously grip his shirt and caress his pecs as she tugged him closer. His hands grazed down her body, sliding past her hips to find her ass which was covered only by a pair of delightfully demure sleep shorts.

She broke their second kiss panting and started peppering kisses down his neck. He lifted her easily and groaned at the sensation of her legs wrapping around his waist.

He kissed his way to her ear before whispering, "I take it you found my second at-bat more satisfactory than the first?"

"You could say that," she sighed contentedly.

"I'm so glad to hear that," he replied with a grin. "Does that mean I get to find out what second base is?"

Without a word, she pulled her long-sleeved t-shirt over her head and revealed herself to him for the first time. He gazed at her adoringly, taking in the sight of how her B-cup breasts were accentuated by her notably toned tummy. He lifted her higher and took one of her tiny nipples between his lips as he murmured, "I think I'm going to love second base."

"Just wait until you find out what third base is," she whispered as she pulled him into her chest.

"Third base can wait until I've had six or seven hours to worship your incredible breasts."

"Two issues with your plan," she stammered in reply, her breath catching each time he flicked one of her nipples with his tongue.

"One?" he whispered as he switched to her starboard breast and bit down gently on her nipple.

"I want to do this to you," she moaned.

"But I don't have..." he began.

She cut him off saying, "Can it, Mister Strongest Man in Denmark. Your tits are bigger than mine. And if you think I'm passing up the chance to enjoy the finest chest this side of a superhero movie, you're out of your goddamned mind."

"Have it your way," he playfully mocked as he set her on her feet and pulled his shirt off. At least that was his intent. What actually transpired was that he tore his shirt into three pieces in his haste to remove it.

"Crickey," Quinn breathed before she lunged at him and began sucking one of his nipples.

He continued toying with her nipples while allowing himself to admit that what she was doing with her mouth felt incredible. Between the hisses when she bit him and the sighs when she licked away the sting, he managed to ask, "What was two?"

"Hmm?"

"You said there were two reasons I couldn't spend every second between now and sunup worshiping your magnificent breasts."

"Oh," she replied as she pulled back, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. "It was because I hadn't told you what third base was yet."

"And?" he asked as he tickled her nipples.

She dropped to her knees and, with agonizing slowness, tugged his sleep shorts down. When his steel hard erection escaped its confinement, she sighed at the sight of it swinging wildly until it came to rest pointed just below her chin. She reached out tentatively, almost as though she were afraid to touch him.

"You don't need to do this, honey," he said softly in response to her hesitancy.

"I want to," she whispered reverently. "I don't think I've ever wanted anything more."

"I'll never hurt you, Quinn."

"I know," she replied confidently as her hand gripped his shaft.

Her other hand soon joined the first as she began deliberately stroking him. A loud hum of satisfaction rumbled in her chest when she leaned forward to collect the moisture pooling at his tip. He was once again forced to tamp down his instincts which were screaming at him to thrust his pulsing cock home and fill her throat with his seed. Instead, he brushed the hair from her face and gazed down at her adoringly as she engulfed the engorged head of his cock.

After several moments lavishing praise upon his manhood with her tongue, she pulled back and whispered, "Felix?"

"Yes?"

"I need to ask you something, but I don't want you to think I'm a tease."

"I could never think that of you."

"Third base, as I'm sure you've guessed, is mouth stuff. Like blowjobs and eating girls out and..."

"I've led a very sheltered life, honey, but I am familiar with, as you say, mouth stuff. However, you don't have to..."

"I know," she replied warmly. "I believe you. And I really do like sucking your dick. And I can't tell you how much the thought of you going down on me turns me on."

"Fair warning," he interrupted playfully. "The amount of time I intend to spend worshiping your breasts pales in comparison to how long I'd go down on you for. We're talking weeks. And this from a man who can go significantly longer than that without sleeping, eating or drinking. Plus, there's the part where I'm pretty sure I could hold my breath for at least a half hour."

"You're not making this easy," she groaned.

"My apologies, my dear," he replied sincerely. "The floor is yours."

"I want all those things, babe. But not as much as I want you to make love to me."

Without a word, he carefully scooped her up and carried her to the bed. Upon laying her down, she shimmied out of her sleep shorts, baring herself to him unselfconsciously. He climbed between her legs and kissed her deeply. Their passion skyrocketed, quickly becoming something far deeper. Without their lips parting, she reached between them and lined him up with her entrance. He sank into her slowly, their shared connection telling him unerringly exactly how she wanted him to move.

"Fuck," she hissed as he bottomed out. "You feel amazing."

"You feel better," he whispered fiercely. He gazed down their bodies to where they were joined and added, "You're so fucking beautiful."

She nodded at him eagerly, prompting him to begin slowly moving within her exquisitely tight velvety channel. He could feel every ripple along his shaft from her inner walls and knew she was already on the brink of release. He lowered his forehead to hers and said, "I want you to cum for me, Quinn."

"Oh Felix," she sighed. "What are you doing to me?"

"Only a fraction of what you deserve," he replied with soft confidence. "Cum for me, beautiful."

"I want you to cum with me," she panted. "Please."

He sped up his hips to quicken his release as he watched the bliss build on the face of the remarkable woman with whom he was joined. He watched her eyes grow wide and the pulse at her neck quicken. He knew she was on the brink, so he allowed his own pleasure to crest. His release consumed him, and, with a roar of pleasure, he erupted deep within her womb.

"Felix!" she screamed as her own orgasm exploded deep within her at the sensation of his molten seed filling her core. He claimed her lips hungrily as his hips continued to thrust of their own accord, kissing her deeply as he felt the spasms of their combined release shake the bed. Her nails raked at his flanks as she tried to pull him deeper and he could feel the moisture dripping down his skin momentarily before the blood dried thanks to his unnaturally rapid healing.

At length, a mighty sigh escaped his lungs as his pleasure receded. He gripped her waist and rolled to the side, taking her with him lest he come unseated from her slick heat. They kissed a final time before she wearily rested her head on his chest and fell peacefully to sleep.