Nigh Invulnerable Pt. 04

Author's note:

See part 1 for blurb. Also, if you haven't already read parts 1-3, 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.

***

Twenty-Nine

"This place is incredible," Yasmine breathed reverently.

Quinn seemed similarly impressed and whispered, "I feel like if I order an appetizer, you're going to call that my quarterly bonus."

"Would you stop," Isabella gushed. "I can't wait until you finish this app and go to work for Greg so you can knock off this oppressed proletariat bullshit."

Quinn looped an arm around Isabella's waist and said, "You know I'm only fucking with you... boss."

"Why I outta..." Isabella growled as she hurried ahead to the hostess's stand of the decidedly upscale restaurant in downtown Philadelphia.

Quinn guffawed and Yasmine hid a smile behind her hand while Felix, who was still not entirely certain how a low-key lunch with Yasmine had turned into a luxurious dinner with all three women, followed a comfortable distance behind. He intentionally kept his focus on Yasmine rather than her companions, the lingering guilt he felt over their transformations and an almost total inability to avoid staring at their quite literally otherworldly beauty combining to convince him that things were just easier that way.

They were quickly seated in a private room, thanks to Isabella's not insubstantial influence across the tri-state area. As they perused their menus, Felix was amazed at the dynamic which seemed to have grown between the women during his extended absences from their presence. Had he not known differently, he would have sworn they were lifelong friends. Or, at the very least, former college roommates who had quickly become permanent 'besties'. Isabella's brash confidence made her the natural ringleader, but her perpetually playful nature ensured neither of her companions ever took lasting offense to her occasional jabs. Quinn was the group's motivator with her tireless drive. The group's conscience was Yasmine, with her quiet determination and indefatigable spirit. It would have been easy to also dub Yasmine the group's brains, but the truth was that all three women outstripped Felix by a comfortable margin in the intellectual horsepower department.

"What shall we drink to?" Isabella asked joyously from her spot across the table from Felix as their cocktails were delivered.

"To no more nights worrying about if Felix is going to come home," Yasmine murmured softly as she held forth her cucumber gin smash.

Quinn raised her shaken margarita and nodded somberly before adding, "To getting our friend back, hopefully for good."

"Here, here," Isabella announced, lifting her glass of chianti high.

Felix hoisted his glass of bourbon served neat in salute and said, "To cherished friends."

"We're a bit more than friends," Isabella said mockingly, her eyes darting playfully down to where her full breasts filled out her alluringly cut dress for emphasis. "Unless I'm having a particularly vivid, very lengthy, and thoroughly wonderful hallucination."

"I said cherished," he replied lamely.

"Speaking of which," Isabella continued after taking a healthy swig of her wine. "When are you finally going to take our dear Yasmine to bed? I feel certain the budget she drew up at the beginning of the year didn't include buying a new vibrator every other day because she can't stop thinking about how it will feel when your magnificent penis fills her up."

"That's not happening," Felix muttered.

"Why not? Isn't she pretty enough?"

"Please..." Yasmine whispered fiercely.

"No," Isabella retorted forcefully. "I've held my tongue long enough. You're amazing, my dear. And its patently obvious that you're thoroughly besotted with our dear hero."

"That was a low blow," Felix growled angrily. He turned to Yasmine and said, "You're gorgeous, my dear. And you're amazing in every other way I can think of. You must understand this has nothing to do with you."

"The old, it's not you, it's me schtick," Isabella observed sotto voce.

"Isabella," Quinn warned. "That's enough. You're embarrassing her."

"Me?" the feisty Italian complained. "What about him?"

"We're not having this conversation," Felix said before polishing off his drink and looking around for a waiter.

Isabella turned to Yasmine and whispered, "I'm trying to help you. Just trust me."

Yasmine sighed and dropped her gaze to her lap.

Quinn looked around the table helplessly before saying to Isabella, "Didn't you say a few of your nieces and nephews were coming to visit this weekend?"

The older woman's face lit up and she said, "On Friday after school. But we'll be at my place in the city. The youngest is nine and I'm not sure he could be trusted to keep quiet about the gigantic man staying in the guest room who looks exactly like the superhero the news keeps talking about."

"Don't be silly," Felix interjected. "I'll just go back to my apartment."

"No!" all three women said at once, thoroughly startling the waiter who was delivering their entrees.

Quinn continued, "It's too dangerous, Felix."

Isabella nodded and said, "It really is quite all right. They get bored out in the country fairly quickly and start asking uncomfortable questions."

Yasmine smirked and said, "Like... about the birds and the bees?"

"No," Isabella replied with a throaty laugh. "More like, 'when will we be old enough to drive the four-wheeler?' or 'will you buy me sexy underwear?'. Or, my favorite, can my significant other come visit?'."

"Sounds like a blast," Felix observed pithily.

"They're actually really great," Isabella said gushingly. "I wish they came and visited more often."

"I remember that picture in your hallway," Yasmine said with a warm smile. "How many siblings do you have?"

Isabella's face fell somewhat, and she said, "None. I guess it's a bit of a fabrication to call them my nieces and nephews. They're actually my cousins' kids. My family tends to go big, historically at least. My mother wanted a big family as well, but that all kind of went up in smoke when she died in childbirth."

"I'm so sorry," was all Yasmine managed to reply, tears springing immediately to her eyes as she made to get up.

Isabella's hand snaked out to grab Yasmine's arm and hold her fast. The former said, "Don't sweat it, honey. I tried to tell you guys about my family tons of times, but it's not like it's easy to organically bring up that both of your folks were dead by the time you graduated from high school."

An awkward silence loomed for several moments before Felix tentatively asked, "What happened to your father?"

"Technically, it was heart disease. But the truth is that he just kind of broke inside when my mother passed. He did as good a job as he could raising me, but big families ran in my mother's side of the family. He agreed to have kids for her sake, not because it was something he always wanted. He got the diagnosis when I was a freshman in high school, I suspect he figured I was mature enough to manage without him. Between the time of his diagnosis and when he was rushed to the hospital with the heart attack that ended his life, he never once saw a doctor."

"Jesus," Quinn breathed. "I'm so sorry, honey."

Isabella sniffed and said, "Thank you. But don't be too broken up by it. After all, that was two-and-a-half decades ago. I took the inheritance he left me and made a life for myself. One that affords me the ability to have my wonderful nieces and nephews visit me often, not to mention being able to harbor the world's first superhero who just so happens to fuck like a porn star while still being an unfailing gentleman."

"And Yasmine's blushing again," Quinn quipped. "I've never seen someone with your skin tone blush so frequently."

"I'm actually very light skinned for my family," Yasmine offered quietly. She pulled her phone from her purse and, after flipping through her photo album for a moment, passed it to Quinn. The picture shown was of a seated middle-aged married couple with three teenagers standing behind them. True to her word, Yasmine's warm golden-brown skin was by far the lightest. Her father's skin was a deep umber, and the family spanned the difference between them with her mother being the second lightest.

"You have a beautiful family," Felix said as the phone made its way around to him. "Do you see them often?"

"Not as often as I'd like. They're all still in Dearborn."

"Forgive me for asking," Quinn began hesitantly.

Yasmine chuckled and said, "I propose a new rule. We stop beginning conversations that way. It seems to have become something of a habit with us."

"Fair enough," Quinn allowed as she pushed back her plate. "What I was going to ask, likely indelicately, was if you were made to stay away because of... religion."

Yasmine snickered in spite of the weighty subject matter at the look of disquiet on Quinn's staggeringly beautiful face. At length, however, she got control of herself and said, "What do you mean?"

"Your family is obviously middle eastern in origin."

"We say Persian. My grandparents fled the Shah's reign of terror."

"Were they religious refugees?"

Yasmine smiled and said, "They had always dreamed of coming to America. The crisis merely provided the impetus for them to take action. But my parents' faith is significantly more tempered than my grandparents. The same held true for the following generation. They do not reject me because I chose to not be one of the faithful, despite the fact that they would certainly prefer things were otherwise. They do not, in point of fact, reject me at all. The only reason I don't see them more often is because it is expensive to make the trip across five states. But I do miss them."

"We could all go together," Isabella offered. "After my family leaves."

"Thank you," Yasmine responded warmly. "But I think we have more pressing business here."

"Anytime you want to go," Isabella continued. "Say the word and I'll make it happen."

"I couldn't ask that of you."

"You didn't ask. I insisted. You're my good friend, Yasmine. And I have too few of those to pass up the chance to do something nice for one of them."

"Thank you," Yasmine said reverently. "I feel the same way."

"Then stop trying to fuck off to your apartment every chance you get. Not only are you welcome at my place, I want you there." She glanced around the table and added, "All of you." Isabella's eyes then fell on Felix, and she said, "Well?"

"Well, what?" he asked in genuine confusion.

She waved around the table and said, "We're all sharing. It seems to me you know a hell of a lot more about us than we know about you."

"What is there to know? I enlisted in the Star Troopers; fought in enough battles to recognize it was hopeless; volunteered for a suicide mission that instead sent me almost a quarter millennia into the past. Then I met you lovely ladies."

"Surely there was something to your life before you enlisted." Isabella prompted. "Other than the miserable cunt who duped you into enlisting in the first place."

Quinn looked at him apologetically and said, "Sorry. We were just hanging out drinking one night and I mentioned Ursula. I thought you'd already told them."

Felix shrugged and said, "I have nothing to hide. She used me. End of story. It's not like any of you could be capable of anything like that."

"Are you sure?" Isabella asked pointedly.

"Of course. Ever since we were in school together, she had never hidden the fact that she only cared about herself. In truth, it was my fault for allowing myself to believe she had changed."

"I meant," Isabella pressed, "are you sure that you don't believe that any of us is secretly evil and trying to use you for selfish reasons?"

He looked severely around the table before saying, "You three, along with my parents, are the best people I have ever known. None of you has anything in common with her."

"Well," Quinn interjected teasingly. "Yasmine does have really spectacular boobs."

"She is very beautiful," Felix agreed. "But while I can't disagree with the sentiment that you are all four women, she was certainly not a lady. Whereas you three are without compare."

"So why are you being such an insufferable bastard?" Isabella asked pointedly.

"Forgive me," Felix replied tersely. "It was not my intention to offend."

"Oh, you profoundly irritating, spectacularly attractive, annoyingly self-sacrificing man."

Felix looked around helplessly and said, "Tell me how to make this right."

"Love us," she replied simply. She then saw the look on his face morph from anguish to abject fear and hastily added, "Not happily ever after love, Felix. Although I doubt any of us would say no to that. I just meant the lots of orgasms type of love."

He looked toward Yasmine worriedly and said, "But..."

Quinn tossed down her napkin and said, "Come off it, Felix. It's obviously up to the two of you, but do you honestly think that she gives a damn about the Conditioning? She wants you, you dumb jerk. Not what could happen to her if you actually got over yourself and made her happy. If you're so fucking worried, use a goddamned condom."

"Here, here," Isabella announced a little too loudly. "And after you give her a go, I want next. Unless my performance was so subpar that I don't deserve an encore."

"Don't be ridiculous," Felix huffed. His eyes flitted to Quinn for the briefest of seconds before he added, "Our afternoon together was, with one exception, the greatest experience of my life."

"Same," she replied coquettishly. "Save I don't need the qualifier." Her glance then fell on Quinn, and she added, "But I know you, Felix. You very much like Yasmine. And, as you said, we had a glorious time together. It would be a terrible shame if we didn't find hundreds more orgasms together. None of that will happen, however, until you and Quinn figure things out."

"What?" Quinn and Felix asked in unison.

Isabella finished off what remained of her wine before saying, "You obviously love each other. There's no point in denying it even though I can tell by your faces that you will. I just know that you two have to figure things out between yourselves before either of us will get a shot at the aforementioned orgasms."

"I can't believe you're doing this to me," Quinn muttered.

"If you're still upset tomorrow," Isabella replied confidently. "I swear I will genuflect before you and sincerely beg your forgiveness. But that's tomorrow." She reached into her purse and extracted something. She held it firmly in her fist before she added, "Tonight, I very much hope that you'll remember just how much you care about each other and allow yourselves to seek the happiness you both very much deserve."

She reached her fist forward and gently placed an envelope which obviously held a key card to a hotel room on the table before she collected Yasmine with her eyes and both women departed without another word.

Thirty

"Can I get you something to drink?" Felix asked haltingly from his spot on the bed.

Quinn smiled shyly from the couch across the room and said, "No, thank you."

Another awkward silence descended. The seventh, by Felix's reckoning, since Isabella had dropped the key card for the adjoining hotel on the table and left with Yasmine. He was having difficulty choosing between gazing at Quinn in wonder and avoiding her eyes altogether. Both had their pros and cons, and the committee in his subconscious responsible for keeping him out of trouble in such instances had yet to deliver a final report.

"So," he huffed. "How's it going working for Isabella?"

"Great," Quinn enthused. "The app I'm building is really cool and she's giving me total architectural freedom. I also think it's going to help her tenants, especially the low-income ones who rely on their phones to do everything."

"How many units does she have, anyway?"

"Hundreds, across dozens of buildings. She told me she started with a single building near where she lived with her dad and just kept reinvesting the profits in more buildings. And she's a good landlord, despite her wealth. Since I started helping her, the feedback option we put into the first version of the app has allowed her to identify and terminate three superintendents who were embezzling and another who was being a racist asshole."

He mimed a gun pointed at the side of his head and said, "Terminate?"

"Fired, you dork," she corrected with a throaty laugh. "How is it you're from the future and yet you're still a caveman?"

"I can't escape the Y-chromosome."

"There is that," she agreed before she gave him a deliberate once over. "But it's not all bad."

"How do you figure?"

She appeared to hesitate for a moment before patting the couch next to her and saying, "Come here."

He hefted himself off the bed and, after snatching a bottle of water from the minifridge for each of them, crossed to the couch and sat on the opposing end. She frowned at the space between them before sighing wearily and turning to face him. She accepted the offered bottle and took a long swig before setting it on the table behind her. The movement brought her newfound curves into stark relief as her dress pulled snug against her much larger breasts and the pronounced curve of her hips above her delightfully rounded derriere. As she turned back to face him, he was somewhat tardy averting his eyes and thus found her grinning slyly when he finally lifted his gaze.

"You needn't be so afraid of looking at me Felix."

"I know," he agreed. "If for no other reason than as a reminder of what I'm capable of."

"Would you please stop?" she snapped. He looked away in shame but said nothing. She groaned softly before continuing. "Every day I regret what I said the day you found me. You had already loaded yourself up with a heaping helping of self-loathing, and my anger supercharged it like throwing dynamite in a campfire."

"I don't understand,' he muttered. "You had every right to be angry at me. Ursula made mention of a change, but I was so angry over her telling me to fuck off I never bothered finding out what she meant. If I had, if I had been less self-absorbed, this never would have happened."

"But what if you told me everything that could happen, and I had still asked you to make love to me?"

"I," he began haltingly. "I don't know."

"It's hardly academic, Felix. Isabella spoke the truth tonight. Yasmine cares for you deeply, and she desires you like no one she's ever met."

"I can't do this to her."

"Why not?" Quinn snapped. "Because I jumped down your throat at the ball game?" Felix shrugged helplessly, prompting her to add, "I'm sorry I reacted the way I did. It was selfish and unfair."

"How can you say that?"

"Because I love the way I look now. It's as though a guardian angel had been carefully taking notes of every passing fantasy I'd harbored over the last decade and made it all come true. I've always felt like I was a little too bony, but never could manage to motivate myself to go to the gym and do something about it. I hated how pale I was, but genetics had decided long ago that it was either that or be sunburnt. Thanks far, far, far northern European genes. And I was definitely always super self-conscious about the fact that I basically looked like a twelve-year-old boy unless I was wearing a swimsuit. Even naked, my tits were barely recognizable."

"You had amazing breasts," Felix objected. "I seem to recall, quite sincerely, insisting I be allowed many hours to properly worship them."

"I know," she agreed with a sigh. "Whether or not you are an amazing lover, and a wonderful man, was never in question. But you were the first man who ever truly made me feel beautiful."

"I wasn't lying to you, Quinn. You were beautiful."

"I know, babe. The point I'm trying to make is that I'm very, very, happy with this change. It's how I always dreamt of looking."

He gazed into her eyes for several long moments before saying, "I believe you."

"Will you stop apologizing then?"

He nodded somberly and said, "I will certainly try."

"Thank you."

He gave her a wan smile and said, "I really am happy that you like it. I mean, the change. The Conditioning. I'll shut up now."

She guffawed and moved closer to him before taking his hand. She said, "Does this mean you'll stop avoiding me? Or is all the looking off in the distance and spending days at a time in the slums truly because this form repulses you" She gestured down her body for emphasis.

"Of course not," he breathed. "You're exquisite. It is inconceivable that there is anyone in the past, the present, or the future more beautiful than you."

"I know of a certain feisty Italian who might beg to differ."

He smiled and said, "She is indeed quite stunning. But not more so than you."

Quinn smiled at the compliment and said coquettishly, "In that case, I have a question for you."

"What's that?" he said as he laced his fingers with hers.

"If you truly believe I'm happy about this change, and you truly don't blame yourself for what happened, and you truly find this body attractive..." she paused and regarded him intently.

"I do," he answered without hesitation.

"Will you let me share it with you?" she asked sultrily, her eyes darting to the bed to make her point before she climbed astride his thighs.

"Honey?" he gasped as she ground her core against his confined hardness, forcing her dress to ride up and expose the delicate wisp of satin and lace covering her pussy.

"Make love to me, babe," she whispered as she pulled the straps of her dress down to expose her full breasts. "Please."

He threaded his hands in her hair and pulled her down for a kiss. Her lips opened to him at once and her tongue invaded his mouth with an eager desperation. He felt her heat through the fabric separating them and his enhanced senses immediately keyed in on the scent of her arousal.

"On one condition," he growled as they broke their kiss.

Her heated gaze dimmed, and she looked away before whispering, "Very well."

He gripped her chin and pulled her gaze back before saying, "Don't do that, honey."

"But you said..."

"I was attempting, poorly, to excite you. I was going to say that the condition is that you allow me to taste you."

"Oh," she replied in a small voice.

"Quinn?" he asked gently.

She sighed and said, "Felix?"

"I've never wanted anyone more than I want you. It doesn't matter what you look like, I just want Quinn Reid. I don't know if what Isabella said tonight is true. I've never been in love. I have no frame of reference." Quinn smiled shyly at the memory of her friend's announcement. "But it definitely isn't not true."

"Same," she whispered, her smile growing.

He kissed her lips briefly before beginning to trail kisses down her neck towards her genuinely remarkable breasts. He smiled into the valley between them and murmured, "Is that a yes?"

"Hmm?"

"Do I get to taste you?"

"I guess," she mockingly relented.

Without a word, he slid his hands beneath her delightfully taut derriere and hoisted her up until her thong-covered pussy was in striking distance of his waiting lips. Her surprised yelp turned quickly into a contented sigh as he licked heavily along the soaked fabric covering her mons. Within seconds, the satin was dripping with their combined excitement. She took advantage of how he was cradling her and spread her thighs wide, her feet coming to rest on his shoulders and her hands threading into his hair as she gazed lovingly into his eyes.

"You smell exquisite," he murmured without pausing in his efforts.

"How can you make talking about how my pussy smells sexy?" she asked with a giggle.

"You taste even better," he continued, undeterred. "It's unfortunate you did not finish your meal, because this is all we're doing for the next week."

"I appreciate your dedication," she sighed. "But if you think I'm waiting that long before I remind myself of how you taste, you're out of your goddamned mind."

"Then we'll compromise," he grunted before moving his hands from beneath her, quickly snapping the tiny waist of her thong and ripping it off, before catching her. The entire operation took less than a tenth of a second and had the unintended side-effect of him delivering a sharp double-slap to her spectacular ass.

"Hey," she grunted. "I liked that thong. And, while I'm not opposed to a bit of light spanking, let's not forget the whole super strength thing."

"My apologies. In the future, might I recommend removing beloved garments before you take out your magnificent breasts? I have it on good authority that no court in the world would convict me of property damage in this instance."

"Fine," she huffed mockingly. "But I still want to taste you."

He stood quickly in response and spun her body in his arms until he was gripping her by the waist.

"I think I'm going to like dating a superhero," she said with a chuckle before opening his trousers and wrapping her lips around the head of his waiting manhood.

It was quickly obvious that she trusted him implicitly. Her legs wrapped around his head as he dove back into her soaked core, but she was content to allow her hands to freely roam across his body despite the fact that she was suspended upside-down. It took some effort for him to focus on pleasuring her, so effective were her own ministrations. She alternated languidly between delicately sucking his balls while she stroked his manhood, eagerly taking him to the back of her mouth as she massaged his ass, and slobbering on the head of his cock while she jerked him off with both hands.

He wrapped an arm around her to support her weight and used the other hand to tease her entrances. She moaned in eager satisfaction as he slowly sank a finger into her core, quickly followed by another as he teased her puckered star with the third. All the while, he kept up his attention on her clit to bring her patiently to the brink.

"Please," she whispered as she stroked him urgently. "I want you to cum with me."

"What about..." he asked worriedly.

"I don't give a fuck about the Conditioning, babe. I just want to taste you. Please."

He let go the last of his reservations and dove back into her core with gusto. He pushed a finger further into her forbidden entrance as his tongue lathed her clit. He felt her lips slide down his throbbing manhood as he let loose the control he had been exerting to hold his release at bay. His hips thrust of their own accord, and her happy moans told him this only turned her on more.

He roared into her pussy as his release overtook him and he erupted into her waiting mouth. She rewarded him by snapping her thighs closed tightly around his head and bathing his face with her essence. His hips continued to thrust with each jet of his seed, and he heard Quinn gasp as she pushed herself back. He had a moment of panic at the thought of choking her, but that quickly vanished as she moaned loudly and began jerking him off between them as she sucked one of his balls into her mouth. He continued his attention on her pleasure bud until he felt her soul-cleansing full-body shudder which heralded the conclusion of her release.

He lifted her by the hips, holding her out like Lady Justice's scales. She looked up at him and an unselfconscious snicker escaped her lips at his expression. She was, quite literally, dripping in his cum, which covered her from her navel to her forehead. What's more, it was sheeting down her body like rain dancing over a car's windshield.

She glared at him and said, "Don't you dare apologize." She scooped up a dollop which had collected beneath her starboard breast and brought it to her lips to slurp up noisily. "That was un-fucking-believable. Please don't take too long to take the others to bed, because I can't wait to tell them about this."

He flipped her over to set her on her feet before regarding her somberly. He said, "I would have thought..."

"What?"

"That we'd be... together."

"We are together, babe. I... really like you. A lot."

"I couldn't agree more, beautiful."

"But that doesn't mean I don't want Isabella and Yasmine to feel the same way."

"But wouldn't you feel..."

"Jealous? Of course not. I just want us all to be happy."

"I don't understand," he whispered.

"Yes, you do. You've just got a few decades of super-repressed religious-infused totalitarianism telling you what we propose is impossible. I'm not glumly accepting that my... boyfriend..."

"Partner," he corrected gently.

"... is going to cheat on me," she continued. "I'm openly and honestly asking my partner to also make my best friends just as happy as he's made me. We can't be jealous, babe. Not because we're immune, but because of the incredible man you are. You could never allow such a thing to happen. There's also the fact that we'll have no secrets from each other. Not to mention that we'll all be in the highly enviable position of fucking, or making love, to the handsomest, kindest, strongest, hottest, most fuckable, most loving man on the planet. Plus, are you really going to turn down the possibility of having a foursome with us?" She gripped her dripping breasts and said, "Imagine cumming across all of our tits like that?"

"Very well," he relented. "But I will use protection with Yasmine."

She smiled and patted his shoulder lovingly before murmuring, "No, you won't. At least not forever. Not because you won't be willing, but because she will ask you not to." He opened his mouth to retort, but she said, "Now. I propose we hit the shower, because I want to kiss you again and I'm sensing a bit of reluctance on your part when I'm literally glazed in your surprisingly tasty cum."

"What can I say?" he retorted lamely. "I'm a product of my environment."

She strutted toward the shower for a moment before looking coyly over her shoulder and saying, "Coming?"

"Isn't that what got us here in the first place?" he scoffed as he followed behind her, thoroughly enjoying the view of her incomparable backside moving in a delicious figure of eight.

Thirty-One

"Wait a minute," Felix groaned when Quinn led him into the hotel's parking garage the next morning. "How do you have a car here?"

"Isabella called a car to take her and Yasmine home last night. She passed me the key when we were walking in."

"So last night was entirely a set-up?"

"Are you complaining?"

"No," he admitted. "It was delightful, and I regret nothing. But I do feel a bit manipulated."

"I agree. About the delightful and not regretting parts. Although I'm frankly shocked I'm able to walk properly after what we did in the shower. That being said, I didn't actually answer in the affirmative to your inquiry about setting you up. All I knew was that she made a point of handing me the keys when we walked in. I just figured she was planning on having a few drinks and that I'd have to limit myself to one."

"I could have driven. I'm not certain, but available evidence would suggest I'm no longer able to get drunk for more than a few moments."

"Regardless, the point I'm trying to make is that last night was all Isabella's doing. You should thank her properly. After you make our dear Yasmine happy, that is."

"You're really serious about that?"

She came to an abrupt halt and glared at him for several uncomfortable seconds before saying, "I need you to do something for me." He opened his mouth to reply, but she silenced him with a look and continued, "Think hard before you agree to this, because I know it's not in your nature."

He nodded somberly and said, "What is it?"

"If we're going to be in a relationship, and I'm specifically talking about the relationship between Felix Dvoryanin and Quinn Reid, I need you to trust me; to believe me."

"I do," he began.

"Then why are you constantly doubting the things I tell you. You spent the better part of two months refusing to believe either Isabella or myself about the fact that we weren't upset with you about the change we underwent. And now you're doubting what I told you about Yasmine and Isabella. Either we trust each other, both in the traditional sense and with our hearts, or we don't. I need you to stop doubting me just because I tell you something that's uncomfortable, or even something that you never dared dream was possible."

He was silent for several long minutes. They were, in fact, already underway before he spoke again. "I apologize."

"Hmm?"

"I'm sorry I doubted you. It just takes some getting used to."

"What's that?"

"Trust. I trusted my folks, of course. But, other than that, I never had reason to trust... anyone. I guess I just got used to presuming the worst-case scenario, since that was usually what ended up happening." He reached for her hand where it rested lightly on the gearshift, lifting it to his lips to gently kiss her flawless skin. He whispered, "I'll do better."

"That's all I can ask, handsome. Now... let's talk about how you're going to seduce Yasmine."

Before Felix could reply, the car's Bluetooth system announced an incoming call from Isabella. Quinn looked at Felix questioningly before answering. "Before you start pumping me for lurid details, you should know that the world's most wonderful man is seated beside me and can hear your every word."

"Those details will have to wait, much as it pains me," Isabella said breathlessly. "I just got a call from one of my supers. A building next door to one of mine is suffering from some manner of gas leak. He said a whole host of firefighters are there, but no one is entering the building. Something about not having effective breathing apparatus due to budget cuts."

"Send us the address," Felix snapped.

"Already sent handsome. Just please be careful. I actually briefly considered buying that building, but my inspector said it should be condemned. There's no telling how noxious the fumes could be. I know you've bragged about being able to hold your breath for a while. Now might be the time to prove it."

"Noted," he replied grimly.

"Quinn, honey," Isabella continued. "I know our darling Fenrir the Invulnerable is loath to expose any of us. And, in this case, I'm not entirely certain his caution is unwarranted. All things being equal, I wouldn't mind Major Huge Cock stepping out of one of my vehicles to save the day."

"But..." Quinn began.

"Zip it," Isabella snapped. "I wouldn't have brought it up if I didn't have a plan. I sent you a different address. It's to one of the apartments I keep in the city. The parking attendant will be waiting for you at the curb with alternate transportation. Just be very careful, sexy. I meant what I said about expecting more orgasms from you."

"I will," Felix replied with a small grin.

"Good luck, loves," Isabella said before she hung up.

***

Felix pulled to a skidding stop a few hundred meters from the throng of first responder vehicles, still not having quite gotten the hang of the motorcycle's bafflingly illogical transmission. He pushed the bike down an alley in hopes of making a circumspect escape after his mission was complete. He left the helmet in place as he hurried toward the building, having recognized during the short journey that it was both reasonably comfortable and gave him a small measure of anonymity.

He bypassed the large group of first responders standing helplessly out in front of the building. A few of them were trying to gesture to the building's inhabitants, but it was of little help. Whatever gas had been released into the structure was so dangerous that none of the public servants were within a dozen meters of the building.

He began to gag as he approached the back door, so he took a handful of steps backwards before hyperventilating for a few moments and then gulping in a large breath to hold. He hurried to the door, only to find it locked. He proceeded inside, confident in the assumption that the building's owner would not be too perturbed that he tore the door from its hinges and tossed it on the ground behind him. The entryways to individual units he found on the first floor met a similar fate, but he managed to sweep all the apartments within a few minutes and carry the six people he found out into the alley behind the building.

As he stopped to replenish the oxygen in his lungs, he realized that none of the people he was extracting were waking up. He knew in an instant that his hopes of accomplishing his mission in secret were done and dusted, so he raced around the structure. He nearly crashed into a group of fire fighters who were banging on the door of the building as they choked on the gas that made it through their faulty equipment.

"Hey," Felix shouted. "There's a bunch of victims out back."

The group yelled after him to stop, but he ignored them and, after once again filling up with oxygen, he raced back inside to start clearing the second floor.

He was intercepted as he burst from the building with an octogenarian over each shoulder. He ignored the red-faced cop as he gently set the pensioners down on the grass. As he turned to re-enter the building, however, he found that the self-important officer had removed his pistol and was pointing in his direction.

"Halt!"

"Really?" Felix huffed. "There's two more floors to clear."

"Sir! That building is unsafe to enter! I'm going to have to put you in custody for your own..."

The officer's words faltered as Felix surged forward and disarmed him, somehow managing to only mildly sprain the fool's index finger in the process. Felix opened the revolver and snapped the cylinder off before handing the remainder of the now useless weapon back to the sputtering patrolman.

"I think you're out of your depth here, officer. Why don't you take the rest of the day off."

By the time the third floor was cleared, the first responders had set up a triage unit in the alley and had already revived several of the victims.

He got the attention of one of the paramedics as he was gulping in air and said, "Any idea how many people were in that building before all this started?"

"Not really. Thankfully, school is in session so most of the kids were gone. How many units are left?"

"The whole fourth floor."

The woman nodded before saying, "Just so you know. The press got here about five minutes ago. They know you're here."

"How do you..." Felix began, but the woman just gave him the look a thoroughly exhausted mother gives her child when they ask 'why' for the fiftieth time.

"Dude," she hissed. "Who else could enter a building where the gas knocks you out in twenty seconds flat and stay inside for ten minutes? Unless that motorcycle helmet doubles as a diving mask."

"Fair enough," he conceded. "Can you folks hold them off for me?"

"They aren't allowed back here yet. But I wouldn't dawdle in there."

"Right," Felix grunted. He then thought to add, "Thanks."

"Thank you. I don't have the foggiest fucking idea how we would have gotten these people out if you hadn't come along."

He gave her a curt nod before taking a breath and racing back into the building. As he checked along the fourth floor, he wondered as to the nature of the gas leak. It was clearly analogous to carbon monoxide, which could explain why everyone he had located thus far was unconscious, but he suspected something more sinister. Otherwise, the first responders likely would have been able to, at the very least, attempt to clear the building in shifts. He knew there must be something corrosive in the gas, something which made mere mortals completely incapable of breathing the fumes without passing out or coughing uncontrollably.

As he finished clearing the last of the fourth floor, he heard a sound from above him. This confused him greatly as the building did not have a fifth floor. But, as he stood still and listened, he heard the distinct sounds of furniture being dragged across the floor. He hurried outside with the last of the victims he had found, exchanging the unconscious body for another gulp of oxygen before he ran back up the stairs. He checked every unit but found nothing resembling a staircase. It was only when he kicked in the door to the utility closet that he found a ladder built into the wall.

He ascended the rungs carefully, wary of what he would find above. His caution proved unnecessary, however, as the trio of men in the attic were clearly not in a position to hear anything. Each looked, for all the world, like they were preparing to attend a costume party dressed as deep-sea divers. They wore full body garments which appeared to be made from either plastic or vinyl. In their mouths, they held regulators which were attached to the SCUBA tanks each wore on their backs. Diving masks covered their eyes and nose. Departing somewhat from the diver-motif was the earbuds each wore. Even from his position on the ladder, Felix could hear the telltale cacophony of EDM.

Aligned before the threesome was a table filled with what looked, for all the world, to be a chemistry experiment. Plumes of smoke rose from several graduated cylinders which were angrily bubbling away on burners as the trio kept busy adding ingredients according to laminated sheets of paper each held. Felix could have watched the scene for quite some time, if only out of pure morbid curiosity, but he was growing weary of holding his breath. He walked up behind the trio and yanked free the hose connecting their regulators to their oxygen tanks. He then took a moment to tear away the plastic which was covering the vented gables at each end of the building. For good measure, he kicked the gables free altogether to more quickly vent the space. When he returned to the group of men, one was waving a gun around frantically. Felix showed significantly less care disarming him than he had the officer below, and he heard the corresponding agonized scream as most of the man's fingers snapped like kindling.

A witty remark died on Felix's lips, the recognition that he needed to save his air trumping his desire to say something memorable. He realized it mattered little in any case as the three men had quickly succumbed to the poisonous atmosphere they had created.

Thirty-Two

Felix managed, with a bit of luck and quite a bit more help from the first responders, to escape from the building without being intercepted by the press. The police, however, were a bit more reluctant and he had to promise to come in for questioning the following day before they reluctantly agreed to let him go. For Felix's part, he would have been more than happy to let the first responders take all the credit for the rescue. To his way of thinking, there was no upside to his exploits being the subject of conjecture for entertainers and influencers.

He was especially anxious to get away because the entire area was giving off a vibe of undeniable 'wrongness', one which, inexplicably, worsened the more people he had rescued. As he started to depart, the sensation seemed to, if anything, grow more pronounced. He was brought up short by a moment of indecision, caught between the desire to flee and the need to right whatever wrong had descended over the area.

Ultimately, Felix split the difference, hurrying around a neighboring building and easily leaping five meters to catch the bottom landing of a fire escape before scurrying up to the roof. He slid to a stop at the edge of the roof and surveyed the scene below. It quickly occurred to him that he was quite visible, thanks to the sunny day, so he crouched down until he could barely make out the crowd assembled in front of the poisoned building. Most of the onlookers were the garden variety looky-loos: people for whom the possible demise of dozens of their neighbors would represent the height of their week. Based on what he had found in the attic, it also would not have surprised Felix if there were a few people in the crowd quite worried about their illicit investment. As he scanned the people assembled below, he realized the wrongness he had been feeling was coming from amongst them. One of their number, to be specific.

He pulled his phone from his pocket to find nearly forty text messages. A handful were from Quinn and Isabella, along with the normal complement of pleas from spammers to please purchase an extended warranty for his vehicle. But the vast majority of the messages were from the individual who was also anxiously struggling to get past the police barricade, to the point where Felix was surprised that the cops were still putting up with her. With a weary sigh, Felix placed the call as he kept his eyes on the crowd.

"OhMyGodWhereAreYouAreYouOk..." Yasmine exploded.

"I'm fine!" Felix cut her off sharply. He heard no response for several seconds until his enhanced hearing picked up the sound of choking sobs over the din of the surrounding crowd. He lowered his voice and said, "Yasmine?"

"I'm so sorry," she whimpered. "I know it was dangerous of me to come. I was just so worried."

"It's fine, honey," he soothed. "But you need to get out of here." He saw her look around in confusion before she started walking aimlessly away from the building. "Where did you park, sweetie?"

"I..." she began haltingly. "I can't remember. It was definitely a few blocks away."

"We'll figure it out," he murmured comfortingly. "Do you know which way west is?"

"What?" she grunted.

"You're currently walking northeast, honey. West is down the street off to your left."

"Where are you?"

"Nearby, but you can't see me. I'm trying to guide you to where we can meet up."

"Oh... ok," she stammered as she started to head toward the sunset.

"Just keep heading in that direction. I'll meet you at the end of the second block."

"Do you promise?" she asked with gutting vulnerability.

"I'll never lie to you, honey."

"Can you stay on the phone with me?"

"Of course."

He kept his word, watching her closely as she stumbled toward the rendezvous. He had to hop from one building to the (thankfully one story shorter) next across two lanes of traffic. This task turned out to be child's play compared to the effort of descending from the four-story building upon which he found himself without the benefit of a fire escape and while staying on the phone. He tried to make use of a downspout, but quickly lost his grip when the pipe threatened to break free of the ancient building, so he ended up crashing ungracefully to the broken pavement of the alley.

Yasmine, who had just reached the alley's entrance as he accepted the fact that he would have to endure a fall, shrieked, "Felix!" and raced in his direction.

He stood quickly, shaking off what he suspected was a severely sprained ankle, and approached her as he pulled off his helmet.

She skidded to a stop before him and huffed, "You're hurt."

He shook his head dismissively and said, "Just an awkward landing. I'm far more concerned about you, honey."

"Are you insane! I was standing in a crowd having a... well, I guess you'd have to call it a panic attack. But you just fell off a skyscraper."

"Four stories is hardly a skyscraper. The building I lived in before the Conditioning was over fifty times that height."

"That's not the point," she snapped fiercely as she punched him in the chest. "You scared me to death, Felix." Her voice broke as she stopped speaking, which only served to underscore her tear-streaked cheeks.

Without a thought, he pulled her into an embrace. Her arms snaked around him, holding to him like her entire existence depended on his presence.

"It's ok," he whispered. "Everything's ok."

"I was so scared," she murmured.

He noticed a few people giving them an extended look as they passed the alley's entrance. He said, "Come on. Let's get out of sight."

She said nothing, only holding him tighter. He considered trying to gently pry her loose, but he knew instinctively that she would fight releasing him with every fiber of her being, so he instead scooped her up in his arms and headed in the direction of the motorcycle. She yelped softly at the movement, but she quickly adjusted and nestled into his shoulder.

When he reached the bike, he managed to set her on her feet without too much resistance. For want of a better strategy, he held the helmet out to her.

"What about you?" she asked hesitantly as she stowed her glasses in her bag.

"Out of the two of us, I think I'm the only one who could reasonably make the argument that I can forgo a helmet's protection."

She accepted the helmet without another word and pulled it on while he climbed onto the bike. She quickly climbed on behind him and wrapped her arms around him tightly. He tried to focus on finding a path through the maze of alleys rather than the heavy feeling of her breasts pillowing against his back, or the proximity of her hands to his groin. He immediately discarded the idea of heading to Isabella's villa outside the city, recognizing the need to both get out of sight and give Yasmine a place where she could find some measure of peace.

"Where are we?" her muffled voice asked from beneath the helmet as he shut down the bike.

"My place. Are you ok to walk?"

She nodded solemnly, so he led her into the lobby and jabbed the call button for the lift. They thankfully did not encounter anyone either waiting for the lift, or during the ride up to Felix's floor, and he managed to close the door to his apartment behind him before his elderly neighbor across the hall managed to get her deadbolts undogged to burst out into the shared space to confront him.

Yasmine walked through his tiny apartment and sat on the couch before belatedly pulling the helmet off and tousling her hair to no apparent effect. She retrieved her glasses before looking around nonjudgmentally. Her gaze returned to him as he approached and offered her a glass of water before kneeling before her.

She took a quick sip before returning the glass and whispering, "What are you doing?"

"Making sure you're ok. My mother suffered from panic attacks sometimes. I know they're no joke."

"I'm really fine. I was just so scared for you."

"I was fine. I just had to hold my breath. It's no big deal."

She said nothing, but he could see the tears welling in her eyes. He reached out to swipe one from her cheek and said, "What's wrong, honey?"

Her whisper was so soft, he barely heard it in spite of the scant distance separating them and his enhanced hearing. "Why do you call me that?"

"Because I care about you. Does it bother you?"

She frowned and said, "Of course not. It's just..."

"What is it?"

"I... I can't tell you."

Felix sighed and pulled her into his arms, kissing her hair gently as he rubbed her back. She once again gripped him with every fiber of her being. He whispered, "It will be ok, Yasmine. I swear it."

"How can you promise that?"

"Apparently I'm some sort of superhero," he countered. "People say I can do all sorts of amazing things."

"They're right," she murmured. "You're incredible." She took a deep breath before softly adding, "Perfect," and once again falling silent.

Felix just held her for several long minutes, genuinely unsure of how to proceed. His instincts told him she wanted him with a desperation approaching mania, but he had little experience in such matters and thus no basis for trusting those instincts. Prior to the Conditioning, he had spent a lifetime during which the fairer sex either could not be bothered noticing his existence, or cunningly calculating how he could be manipulated for personal gain. Despite his recent experiences with Quinn and, to a varying degree, Isabella and Jiang, he was still a babe in the woods with respect to being desired. And the concept of a woman having feelings for him above and beyond physical attraction was even more alien. He was literally better equipped, both physiologically and emotionally, to cope with fighting off a hoard of Chalawanians than he was to comfort a woman for whom he cared deeply.

These thoughts brought him to the realization that he very much included both Yasmine and Isabella alongside Quinn as women whose happiness he valued above his own. What's more, the fact that Yasmine differed in one very notable qualification from the other two in no way diminished the way he felt about her. They each asked for, or needed, different things from him. And their methods of requesting, or requiring, those things differed to an even greater degree. But rather than making him love them less, it merely served to add that so commonly elusive spice to their combined existence.

With this epiphany, he knew he could no more deny Yasmine's love, regardless of the form in which it was offered, than he could harm her physically. To do so would only diminish their combined happiness. This left the not at all insignificant question of what impact his Conditioning could have on her. He knew without even considering it that the potential transformation had nothing to do with her love for, or even attraction to, him. This line of thinking led him to the existential quandary of if he could allow the transformation to be inflicted on her should she request it. But even as he considered the question, he saw the inherent flaw. It was her body, and he could no more deny her the transformation if she wished it than he could force her to carry the child that resulted from such a union to term.

These thoughts flitted through his head with the speed of an FTL ship racing across the cosmos. He gently lifted her chin and smiled at the beautiful, if tear-streaked, face which gazed up at him.

"You're so gorgeous, honey," he whispered.

"How can you say that," she whispered morosely. "I'm nothing like them."

He did not insult her by asking to whom she referred. "Yes, you are. Because I care about you just as much as I care about them."

"But I know you can't... I mean you don't want to..."

"How do you know?" he interrupted gently.

"Because you said you would never..."

He regarded her somberly for a moment before pulling her close and kissing her forehead tenderly. "I'm sorry I said that. I was trying to protect you, but that doesn't excuse the fact that I refused to consider your opinion."

She sighed before saying, "I appreciate that, Felix. But I don't want you to do something just because of what I might want."

"What of what I want?"

"In what world would you ever want someone like me?"

He smiled warmly at her and said, "This one," before slowly lowering his lips to hers.

Thirty-Three

In all of the unimaginable, impossible, fantastical events which Felix had experienced since his Conditioning, nothing had prepared him for the jolt of energy which coursed through his body the moment his lips first touched Yasmine's. The phrase 'exquisite softness' had both been coined with her in mind; and fell light years short of properly conveying the life-altering sensation that was kissing Yasmine Akbar. In an instant, he became one with all the moments where her constant shyness had threatened to overwhelm her, and every hardship she had overcome.

He could feel her hesitation, and her restraint, with every fiber of his being. He was certain that she wanted nothing more than to ravish him, but something deep seeded within her held her back and forced her to be content with the most chaste of kisses while her body remained statue-still. Far from being confused by her conflict, Felix understood it completely. Since the Conditioning had fully taken effect, about two weeks after he had left Earth, he had felt a constant hunger whenever in the presence of a female of childbearing age. He had, thanks in part to his deepening depression prior to traveling back in time, learned to control, in all but the most intense of situations, those urges to fuck, to procreate, at all costs. He had no reason to think his partners in those rare situations had any complaints, however, and his desire for Yasmine was only intensified with the discovery that she struggled with those same impulses.

He deepened their kiss slowly, knowing instinctively that she both yearned for, and was terrified of, heightening their passion. He licked along the seam of her lips and was rewarded with a contented sigh and her tongue tentatively greeting his own. He felt another jolt of energy, similar to the experience of feeling her lips for the first time, when he added taste to those senses which had gotten the tiniest sampling of the remarkable woman in his arms. Yet the movements of her tongue were hesitant, almost scared, and her body still retained its rigidity.

He released her lips and whispered, "Are you ok? Is this too fast?"

"Yes," she whispered meekly. "I mean no." She sighed wearily and added, "I'm fine, and this isn't too fast."

"Just fine?" Felix asked teasingly.

"I'm amazing," she replied, somewhat louder and with a hint of a smile. "You're amazing. I've wanted this since..."

"Since when?" he asked as he rose from where he had been kneeling on the floor to sit beside her on the couch.

"Since you asked me to lunch?" she replied coquettishly.

Her hand reached out slowly, as one would approach a scared animal. After what seemed an endless wait, her fingers grazed his shirt where it stretched taut across his shoulders. She jerked her hand back, but he smiled encouragingly and reached out to her knee. Her breath caught at his touch, but she recovered quickly and stroked his shoulder firmly as a small sigh escaped her lips.

"Yasmine?"

"Hmm?" she replied without looking at him.

"Yasmine?" he repeated gently. This time he attracted her attention. He nodded happily and said, "You're in control here honey. We can do as much, or as little, as you want. Just know that you shouldn't feel pressured to do something you're not comfortable with or worry about overstepping if you want to do something more adventurous."

She frowned and said, "I haven't done anything like that."

"That's fine," he interjected, trying to sound comforting.

"I haven't done much of anything," she continued as though he had not spoken. "I've only been with four guys. And only one of them more than one time."

"I'm so sorry if that's been something which caused you unhappiness. I can certainly sympathize with an involuntarily lonely life. But none of that matters in this moment."

"But I don't know about any of that adventurous stuff you mentioned. Porn never really did anything for me, so I genuinely have no frame of reference."

"Making love is about two people gifting each other happiness, Yasmine," he whispered as he pulled her close, his lips turning up at the way her eyes widened at his words. "Crazy positions are for people who are just trying to make themselves feel good." He kissed her briefly before adding, "Or for people who care about each other and want a little adventure. But you needn't worry about that ever again."

"Do you promise?" she asked with gut-wrenching vulnerability.

He gazed at her seriously and said, "I will never hurt you, Yasmine. Ever."

"I know," she murmured in advance of surging forward to capture his lips.

Gone was the tentativeness of their first kiss. Her mouth opened to him before their lips even met and her tongue slicked against his hungrily. Her hand slid down from his shoulder and across his chest. A moan burst from her lungs as his hand danced across her hip and gave the tiniest of tugs to pull her closer. She managed with minimal difficulty to straddle him despite her ankle length skirt. His hands settled on her hips as she tilted her head to deepen their kiss. The feeling of her heavy breasts pillowing against his chest caused a surge of lust and his already turgid cock hardened to the point where he would have been unsurprised to discover his trousers had been permanently damaged.

"Ugh," Yasmine grunted as she ground her core against his groin. "Touch me," she mewled. "Please."

His hands dipped beneath her thick sweater to graze along the softness of her belly in search of her full breasts. Her sturdy bra did a respectable job in supporting her bountiful assets, but he cursed its existence. He struggled to unclasp it as Yasmine tried her best to scramble his brain with the tiny kisses she peppered along his neck before latching her lips onto his ear and sucking eagerly. He finally succeeded in unlatching her bra and slid his hands around her ribs beneath.

"Yes," her breath came out in a hiss as he filled his questing hands with her spectacular breasts.

"You're incredible," he whispered. "So beautiful."

She gave him a crooked smile and said, "I haven't even taken any clothes off yet." Her smile then faded, and she looked away before whispering, "Or would you prefer I didn't..."

"Don't do that, honey," he interrupted firmly. "You're fucking gorgeous, no matter what you're wearing. I'd love to see you wearing nothing but a smile, but I already told you that you're in charge today."

"What if I want you to... to be in charge?"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," she replied in a small voice. "I don't know what to do, Felix. I just know I want to do it with you. I want to do everything with you."

He kissed her deeply in response, boldly fondling her tits as he savored the softness of her lips. She began slowly moving in his arms, almost as though she was dancing. He smiled despite the import of the moment and broke their kiss to glance down at her swaying hips.

"Not that I'm complaining, because that feels pretty incredible, but what are you doing?"

"I'm just so happy," she murmured.

"Same," he replied with a smile. "But not as happy as I'll be when you take your sweater off."

"Are you sure?"

"You doubt me?" he replied with mock offense. "How dare you. This is an outrage. In fact," A wide smile spread across his face and he continued, "I'm going to hold my breath until you take off every stitch of clothing."

He gulped in a lungful of air and then sat motionless before her.

"Be serious," she huffed, delivering an ineffective swat to his chest for emphasis.

He merely quirked an eyebrow at her, but otherwise did nothing.

"Felix!" she snapped with a twinge of anger, but she only got a shrug in response. After ten additional long seconds, she added, "Stop it, Felix. I'm serious." He shook his head as his smile grew wider. He slid his hands down her stomach and gave the hem of her sweater a small tug. She groaned loudly and yanked her sweater over her head, leaving the t-shirt and bra undisturbed. "There! Happy?"

He shook his head demonstrably and reached up to tweak her nipple through the too-many layers of clothing. She sighed wearily before quickly removing the rest to give him his first glimpse of her magnificent breasts. He leaned forward quickly and pulled one of her prominent nipples between his lips to tease the pebbled bud with his tongue. She leaned into him, sighing in contentment. He switched his attention to her other breast, leaving a hand behind to gently tug on her moistened nipple. She ground on his hips libidinously as he swapped multiple times between her titanic tits. In response, she reached between them to stroke his chest before ultimately leaning back to regard him intently.

"Felix!" she gasped. "Are you still holding your breath?" He grinned at her and nodded as he tugged at the waist of her skirt. "You're impossible," she huffed as she stood before him. She quickly unzipped her skirt and pushed it, along with her full-coverage panties to the ground. Her knee length socks quickly followed until she stood nude before him. "There," she huffed. "Are you happy now?"

He gulped in a lungful of air before murmuring, "Getting there." With superhuman quickness, he scooped her up and stood from the couch in a single motion before taking the handful of steps across the cramped apartment to reach the bed.

She leaned into him with a sigh and said, "I still can't believe you held your freaking breath to get my clothes off."

"Just don't ask what happens if you try to deny me my orgasm."

"Oh," she asked with sudden worry. "Is that a problem for you?"

"I meant your orgasm, my dear. Or, more specifically, orgasms. All... let's see... how many orgasms do you deserve?"

"Oh, I've never..." she began.

"Then we'll start small," he finished as he placed her gently on the bed, "with three."

"But that's... wait," she yelped as he spread her thighs and settled between them with his mouth just centimeters from her healthy tuft of pubic hair. "What are you doing?" He answered her with only a wink before delving his tongue into her core. "Wait," she gasped, causing him to pause with his tongue teasing her entrance. "I meant to shave, and wash so there wouldn't be a..."

"I love the way you taste," he murmured into her lady garden. "And you smell divine. As for your pretty curls, I love how this feels. You're exquisite, Yasmine. All of you." He licked slowly along her slit before adding, "Please. Let me pleasure you."

A chattering sigh escaped her lips, and she sank back onto the bed and covered her eyes with her forearm. He continued to tease her opening and lick along her seam for several moments, waiting for her to uncover her gaze. But, as it became increasingly apparent that she was intent on enduring the experience rather than enjoying it, he stopped and waited.

After several long moments, she asked, "What's wrong?"

He waited until she moved her arm and looked down at him before saying, "I want you to watch."

"But I'm gross, Felix," she wailed softly.

"You're incredible, Yasmine. Stunningly beautiful in every way."

"But what about," she began before gripping her belly and shaking it angrily.

"All of you," he replied simply. "Don't focus on your body, honey. Focus on me pleasuring you. Just look into my eyes and let yourself feel good."

She appeared about to retort, but instead sighed wearily and said, "I'll try."

"Thank you," he whispered. "Take the pillows and prop yourself up so you can watch me taste you."

She followed his instructions and seemed to be focusing the entirety of her being on nothing but his hooded gaze, as though she could filter out the rest of existence. He smiled with his eyes and got back to the task at hand. With every swipe of his tongue, he sank deeper into her folds, but he judiciously avoided her clit as he carefully watched her eyes. After ten patient minutes, he finally saw the tension leave her gaze and her breathing started to grow labored. He winked playfully at her as he traced his tongue toward the promised land.

"Oh, Felix," she sighed when he sucked her pleasure bud between his lips.

Her hips bucked slightly when he flicked the tip with his tongue.

He released her briefly to whisper, "That's it, honey," before recapturing her clit with his lips.

Her sighs quickly turned to moans as he continued to flick her pleasure bud. Despite the all-consuming desire he felt to bring her to a memorable orgasm, he forced himself to remain patient. He knew that, in spite of the gains he had made, she was still hovering on the knife's edge of shutting down again and that only a properly earned release would suffice. He did, however, allow himself to appreciate the slow evolution of her body as she simultaneously relaxed and became more turned on. Her nipples pebbled alluringly in advance of a sheen of sweat forming on her massive mounds. As her pleasure mounted and her breathing grew more ragged, her spectacular breasts began heaving in a way that painfully reminded him that he was still fully clothed, and his throbbing member was wedged painfully beneath him.

Yasmine's release arrived with a sudden quickness; a clipped, "Felix?" escaping her lips its only herald. Her body bucked beneath him, and her hips gyrated as her essence surged, coating his beard. Throughout it all, her eyes stayed locked on his as he kept up his patient pleasuring of her clit until he felt her relax beneath him.

He climbed her body and, after a brief hesitation, kissed along her neck. He had been intent on kissing her with every iota of passion he was feeling until he remembered that he was literally dripping with her juices.

This line of thought became all the more relevant when she whispered, "Kiss me."

He rose up and pointed at where a drop of moisture fell from his beard onto one of her breasts. He smirked and said, "What about...""

"I don't mind," she replied with a coquettish smirk. "I like to taste myself when I..."

"When you what?" he asked playfully.

"When I touch myself," she answered meekly.

"And what do you think about when you touch yourself?" he teased.

"You," she replied boldly. "Always you."

"And when you pleasure yourself to thoughts of me, am I dressed like this?"

"No," came a more confident reply.

"Would you like me to..." he began, but she cut him off saying, "Yes!"

He grinned at her and climbed to his feet, his head only missing the ceiling by the slimmest of margins. He shed his jacket and then winked at her before yanking his t-shirt off like a ball player's tear away. His trousers got the same treatment, and he tossed the ruined garments on the floor before placing his hands on his hips and looking down at her past the preposterous tent in his briefs caused by his arousal.

"Oh, wow," she breathed reverently. "They told me it was... but I..."

"Would you like to see more?" he asked teasingly.

"Yes," she pleaded meekly. "So much."

He glanced down with a smirk and said, "Be my guest."

She rose up to her knees, her eyes never leaving his bulge. Her hands slid up his thighs, leaving a trail of goosebumps in their wake, en route to his groin. She touched him gently several times with her fingertips before she grew bold enough to grip him through the thin material. She stroked him once, earning a grunt of approval.

"Go on," he encouraged.

She rolled his briefs down until he sprang free, just missing her eye as his tip gently slapped her temple.

"Oh," she giggled before gripping him in both hands and beginning to slowly stroke him.

"Is this what we were doing in your fantasies?"

"No," she murmured, her eyes never leaving his engorged tip. "We were... making love."

"How?"

"Um... missionary?" she whispered. "I know it's boring but..."

"It's amazing. I can't think of anything better than looking into your eyes as you cum on my cock."

"I can't believe this is happening," she breathed as he laid her out on the bed and settled between her thighs. As he notched his tip into her opening and looked to her for final consent, her eyes widened and she gasped, "Condom!"

"Of course," he replied comfortingly.

"In my purse," she continued, somewhat subdued.

She watched him intently as he retrieved the indicated prophylactic and sheathed himself. When his eyes returned to hers, however, he spotted a hint of sadness.

He knelt beside the bed and whispered, "What is it?"

"It's nothing," she deflected.

"It doesn't look like nothing, honey."

"It's just..."

"You can tell me, Yasmine. I promise I won't abuse your trust."

"It's just," she repeated. "I wish you didn't have to..."

"Have to what?" he prompted.

"I know the only way you'll have... sex with me..."

"Make love," he interjected as he dropped a kiss on her forehead.

"Is if we use a condom," she continued. "And it's fine. Really. I'll take you in whatever way you'll have me. I just want you. More than anything, I want you."

"Do you think I'll refuse you unless I can wear this?" he asked gently, indicating his midsection. She nodded somberly but said nothing. He smiled at her and said, "What do you want?"

"I want you," she whispered fiercely. "Only you. I want you like I've never wanted anything in my life, and I don't want anything to come between us."

"What about the transformation?"

"I'm not naked in your bed because I want to be transformed," she snapped heatedly. "I'm here because I... care about you."

"I care about you too honey. I just wanted to make sure that's also what you wanted."

"Oh, no," she mocked. "Please don't make me staggeringly beautiful. That would be terrible."

"You're already beautiful, honey," he whispered.

"Then make love to me," she murmured as she reached out and rolled the condom off his manhood. "Just me, and nothing else."

"As you wish," he replied with a tip of his head.

He positioned himself once more between her thighs and sank into her achingly tight channel slowly. He knew it was likely, at a minimum, uncomfortable for her, but she ceaselessly nodded encouragingly as she stared in wonder at where they were joining. He stilled his hips when he still had ten centimeters exposed to allow her to adjust, but she only nodded more fervently.

"Please," she hissed. "I want it all."

He kissed her tenderly as his hips continued forward until he was fully sheathed. She moaned into him and reached out to grip his hips, as though needing to prove that she had taken all of his length.

"So full," she murmured. "So perfect."

He pulled out slowly before penetrating her again, eliciting a grunt of pleasure from her as their hips met. He built his pace up slowly, but her rising pleasure quickly surpassed him as her release bloomed within her. Her inner walls fluttered along his length and sound joined the party of his ecstatic senses as the wet sounds of their eager coupling filled the room.

"I'm going to cum," she wailed in warning.

He picked up the pace, fucking her energetically into the mattress to heighten her pleasure. She screamed his name as her orgasm consumed her. He rammed his hips forward and held himself still within her depths as he feasted on her sensitive nipples while she writhed beneath him.

At length, her pleasure subsided. He broke their kiss and pushed himself up to gaze at her satiated body in wonder. She truly was a beautiful woman, curvy in a way which filled him with lust and a warm smile to go with the sense of exoticness imbued by her dusky skin.

Her eyes opened and she smiled sleepily up at him before saying, "Your turn."

He returned her smile and said, "How do you want me?"

"As often as possible," she countered playfully.

"That's not what I meant."

"I want you just like this, baby. Because I want to look into your eyes when you cum inside me." He smiled and began to thrust into her once more. She sighed in contentment and whispered, "Harder." He picked up the pace until her curvy body was quaking beneath him and the bed was slamming against the wall, but she just kept endlessly pleading with him to go, "Harder."

"Say it again," he grunted as he drove into her.

"Harder," she wailed eagerly.

"No," he hissed. "The other part."

"I want you to cum inside me, Felix," she moaned wantonly. "Please."

"Oh, honey," he gasped as his pleasure crested and he exploded into her depths. He felt her get swept up in the tsunami of his release, their orgasms feeding off one another like a wildfire. His hips spasmed of their own accord, each thrust delivering a fresh eruption of his seed into her eager womb until their combined essence was flowing from her entrance like a pearlescent waterfall.

When he was spent, he collapsed into her waiting embrace and kissed her tenderly. She pulled him close and returned his kiss with all the passion and love he felt for her.

At length, their lips parted and she whispered, "That was better than I ever dreamed possible."

"Same," he replied softly. "You're amazing, honey."

"So are you," she replied warmly. "Now sleep, my champion. You've had a hard day." He started to move off her, prompting her to add, "No, stay here."

"But..."

She stilled him with a particularly emphatic squeeze of her Kegel muscles and said, "No arguments, Felix. You're right where you belong."

"As you wish," he murmured happily as he drifted off to sleep.

Thirty-Four

"Where the heck have you been?" Isabella called out as Felix opened the door to her villa and led Yasmine inside. "We were starting to get worried."

Felix leaned down to his companion and said, "Get ready."

"Felix?" Isabella's voice called out again in advance of the clip of her heels as she headed toward the front entry.

"For what?" Yasmine whispered.

The moment Isabella rounded the corner, she shrieked in delight and hurried forward to pull Yasmine into a hug.

"I'm so happy for you," the older woman gushed.

"How did you..." Yasmine began, but she was cut off by an excited whoop from the top of the stairs before Quinn thundered toward them.

Felix watched the three women he cared about more than life itself embrace warmly and unabashedly celebrate Yasmine's happiness. At some point he heard a muffled, "Tell us everything," before the group moved toward the kitchen like a colony of penguins escaping a predator. He followed after them with a smile on his face. When he reached the kitchen, wine had already been distributed and the women were huddled close together whispering.

He chuckled and said, "Should I be elsewhere?"

"Why?" Isabella flouted. "It's not like you weren't there for the whole thing."

"Just offering," he replied as he crossed to the sink to pour himself a liter of water and drain it down. He was content to observe them for uncounted minutes. As he watched, he realized he had never before allowed himself to genuinely appreciate their beauty: Quinn, with her jaw-dropping mixture of girl-next-door beauty and effortless sexiness; Isabella, with her devastating voluptuousness and sultry confidence; and Yasmine, with her exotic curviness and indefatigable spirit. Prior to the Conditioning, he had long regarded Ursula as, not only the most attractive woman he had ever met, but the most beautiful woman who could possibly exist. Since travelling a quarter millennium back in time, however, he had encountered quite a few women who proved beyond the possibility of doubt that beauty was indeed more than skin deep. All three of the women who he, somewhat to his surprise, considered to be 'his', were immeasurably more beautiful than Ursula had been on her best day. And that was prior to their Conditioning-fueled transformations. Now, Quinn and Isabella possessed the kind of beauty which could cause traffic collisions or men to mindlessly abandon their companions just to get another peek. He was able to admit, at least to himself, that he was anxiously anticipating what changes Yasmine would undergo. Not because she wasn't perfect the way she was, but because of how her friends had both transcended perfection to find a higher plane of beauty.

"What are you grinning about?" Quinn asked, interrupting his reverie.

"Just about how happy it makes me to see you three like this."

"I suspect you'd rather see us all naked in your bed," Isabella quipped. "Perhaps playing together a bit for your benefit."

"It's not that," he retorted quickly. "I just love seeing you guys happy. It feels like it's been all too uncommon of late. I know that's partly my fault, and I'm committed to improving things. Hence, my smile at the sight of you three like this."

"Let the record state that Captain Big Cock did not turn down a foursome," Isabella announced.

"Would you stop?" Quinn huffed. "You're going to drive him back to the slums with talk like that."

"And don't call him that," Yasmine added.

"Why?" Isabella retorted playfully. "We all certainly know by this point that he's got a big cock. A gloriously big cock that has gone far too long since filling me up."

"The size of his penis is not in contention," Yasmine snapped. "But it makes him uncomfortable when you say that, so I'm asking you to please not do it anymore."

"Can I call him that in the bedroom?" Isabella replied coquettishly.

Yasmine sighed and said, "Only if he says its ok."

"I have no doubt that he'll do whatever I tell him. Especially if he's balls deep in my ass."

"Gross," Yasmine squeaked.

Isabella pulled her close and said, "Honey, and I mean this with all possible affection and sincerity, don't knock it 'til you've tried it. It's glorious. And it will feel that much better when it's Felix's spectacular cock stretching you. Haven't you ever pooped, and it just felt spectacular?"

"I literally can't believe I'm even hearing this," Yasmine huffed. She looked at Quinn and pointedly added, "Can you?"

"I mean, anal isn't that bad," Quinn replied with a shrug. "There was even this one time where it felt pretty damned good."

"What are you two even talking about?" Yasmine groaned.

"You've just got to pre-game a bit," Quinn allowed.

"What?" Yasmine gasped.

Isabella conspiratorially whispered, "I could recommend some really quality enemas you could use so you can do ass-to-mouth without getting cholera or something."

"I'm going to throw up!" Yasmine yelped. She looked to Felix and said, "At least you will tell me I'm not crazy. They're the insane ones, right?"

"Sodomy was strictly proscribed in my home country," he offered. "But, having tasted the forbidden fruit, as it were, I'm not sure I can sign off on the conclusion that all anal sex is, as you say, insane."

"Oh my God," Yasmine groaned.

He crossed over to her and pulled her into his arms before saying, "Don't worry about it, honey. Remember how we talked about our connection being the important thing?" She nodded somberly, allowing him to continue, "We could do nothing more than we did earlier today forever and I wouldn't feel poorer for it. I think Isabella is just having a bit of fun with you."

"I mean," Isabella retorted. "She as much as called me a deviant for wanting to feel your enormous cock fill my ass with so much cum that I'd..."

"We get the picture," he interjected gently. He returned his attention to Yasmine and said, "What I said earlier will always be true. You're always in charge, honey. We can do as much, or as little, as you desire."

"Aww," Quinn gushed as she molded herself against Felix and kissed his cheek. "You're the best, babe."

"But what if we're all in bed together?" Isabella muttered. "Can't we work up some kind of a rotation, so I get to call the shots occasionally?"

"Would you drop it?" Quinn whispered. "I mean, honestly, do you seriously think the only way you'll get off is if you dictatorially control our love lives? Just go with the flow, honey. I'm sure you'll get plenty of cock-time with our handsome champion." Isabella whipped out her phone and typed furiously for a moment, prompting Quinn to add, "What are you doing?"

"Seeing if 'cock-time' is trademarked. I'll bet with a cartoon chicken as your logo, you could totally get away with a hook-up app with that name. And... got it!" She grinned wickedly before adding, "Quinn, honey? You interested in earning some money on the side to write an app for me so we can make a billion dollars?"

"Not particularly," she replied with a smile. "Besides, aren't you already a billionaire?"

"Hardly. I'm merely comfortable. But if I'm going to be bankrolling a superhero, I'll need significant cash reserves."

"Then I'll send you some names of people who might be a little less wary of building an app that will basically act as a supercollider for dick pics. Fair warning, you might end up with an app catering to gay men."

"Even better," Isabella replied with a smirk. "Although now I also have to trademark 'supercollider for dick pics'. You missed your calling not going into marketing, Quinn."

"You're really going to make a dating app?" Yasmine asked.

"A hook-up app, and yes. I meant what I said about our fair, well-hung boy over there. It always rankled me how rich superheroes in the movies could do things like build their own planes from scratch. There are countries that can't pull shit like that off, and they have far greater resources than even the wealthiest people. The U. S. spent nearly seventy billion on the F-22, but comic books act like these guys can crank out a few equivalent pieces of tech every fiscal quarter. That would bankrupt the ten richest men in the world put together, to say nothing of one broad from Delaware who made a few bucks providing affordable housing for less fortunate families. Hell, nearly all of my theoretical net worth is tied up in real estate. If we're going to provide even a modest tool set for Felix, we'll need cash. And plenty of it."

"Fine," Quinn grumbled. "I'll help build it. Just don't be surprised if I need a palette cleanser after a couple hours of looking at penises far inferior to ours."

"Oh, it's ours now, is it?" Felix asked with a chuckle.

"Did you mean what you said," Yasmine interrupted, her gaze falling on Isabella.

"Probably," the feisty Italian retorted with a grin. "But perhaps you could be more specific."

"About us... sharing?"

"Of course. Hopefully more often than not, unless either of you are opposed," she replied, her gaze bouncing between Quinn and Yasmine.

"Something else where I don't get to have an opinion," Felix grumbled.

"Look, Colonel Unusually Large Phallus" Isabella snapped.

"Not an improvement," Quinn grumbled.

Isabella appeared to deflate and sank back against the counter with a defeated sigh. Her three companions rushed to cluster around her, Yasmine managing to first speak the words on all of their minds, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Isabella deflected. "Just ignore the mindless raving of the crazy old woman."

"You're not old," Quinn retorted.

"Yes, I am," Isabella replied with growing confidence. "This new body might not show it, but I've got at least a decade on all of you. Nearly twice that on our sweet Yasmine. I understand why Felix wouldn't want me anymore..."

"What are you talking about?" Felix barked in surprise.

"What do you think I'm talking about?" she snapped. "You were with Quinn last night and Yasmine today, but you haven't even given a passing thought to annoying, abrasive, acerbic, not to mention old Isabella in damn near two months. And I swear on my eyes that I'm not jealous. I literally couldn't be happier that you made them so happy, Felix. But I can want what they have without hating them for having it. I guess I just figured suggesting a foursome would be a way where I could cheat my way into sleeping with you again."

He sighed and looked at her lovingly before saying, "Prior to last night, I hadn't been with anyone in two months either. The fact that I was being childish, and selfish, and misogynist, doesn't excuse the fact that I made any of you feel like I wasn't interested. You're the best friends I've ever had. You're all also incredibly beautiful, through and through." He leaned down to kiss Isabella tenderly and was relieved to feel her sigh into him. He smiled as their lips parted and said, "You don't have to play games to seduce me, honey."

"What if I want to play games?" she asked coquettishly.

"Well then by all means, do so. I just didn't want you to feel like I didn't want you on your own merits."

"So, the foursome was just a ruse?" Yasmine asked.

"Hell no!" Isabella replied loudly, her outsized personality coming back in an instant. "Let's do this harem shit right. We'll each greet our handsome hero at the door each evening after he's done saving the world and he can choose which of us he ravishes first."

"I see," Yasmine said somewhat morosely.

"What is it?" Quinn asked worriedly.

"It's nothing," she deflected.

"Come on, honey," Isabella prompted. "If it was the foursome stuff, don't sweat it. What Felix said goes double for me. I'll never try to pressure you into anything you're not one-hundred percent on board with. If you don't want to share, that's fine. I mean... you need to share as in being ok with all of us being Felix's lovers. You just don't have to watch any of us..."

"It's not that," Yasmine replied quietly.

"What then?" Quinn asked gently.

"I just thought that when she said share... she meant, you know, that we'd all be together. Like... together, together."

Isabella regarded her for a moment before a wide grin spread across her face and she gushed, "Oh my God! Honey! Are you bi?"

"Maybe? But we don't have to..."

"That's so great!" Isabella exclaimed before she took Yasmine by the shoulders and kissed her firmly.

Quinn looked past them to Felix and said, "You dumb bastard. You could have been having crazy foursomes this whole time! But, no! You insisted on lurking in the shadows and calling it 'training'."

Thirty-Five

"Holy shit!" Quinn exclaimed. "That's incredible."

Felix grinned and headed in her direction to collect a kiss.

"I know this probably isn't really in line with what you feel your calling in life is, but you could totally make it to the show with an arm like that."

"Oh really?" he teased. "Did I light up the radar gun, as they say?"

"One-hundred-and-fifty kph," she allowed. "But that was with no windup. You just chucked it like a midfielder throwing across the diamond. "If you really worked on your form, I bet you could get over two hundred."

He chuckled and hefted another baseball before winding up and throwing it with all his might. The pair watched in wonder as it sailed across the wide meadow and struck the base of a tree nearly two hundred meters distant.

"Or an outfielder," Quinn added. "And they play every day.

He grinned down at her and said, "I thought of something else we could try."

"Oh, no you don't," she huffed, taking a step away and covering the apex of her thighs warily. "We all agreed that Isabella gets next. And she's out of town on business for two more days."

"I didn't mean that," he retorted merrily. "Although, thanks. It's hard enough keeping a lid on my lust around the three most beautiful women in the multiverse without you rubbing it in."

"Oh, hush," she snapped companionably. "It's not like you're the only one not getting any. In any case, a box arrived today with decidedly non-discrete packaging which left no doubt in my mind that it's filled with sex toys. Maybe there's a pocket-pussy in there for you."

"I'm good," he grunted. "I went the better part of two decades with only my hand and state-censored pornography. I can wait for five days."

"In any case," she continued, "I suspect it will be worth the wait."

"I meant to ask, by the way. You seemed to imply as much the other night, but are you also bisexual?"

"I don't know," she sighed. "It's weird. I never felt attracted to a woman before, but ever since I basically moved in, I've felt this undeniable attraction to Isabella. And now I'm feeling the same thing for Yasmine as well. Yesterday, I had this insane sex dream about going down on Isabella. And, when I tell you it was an epically detailed dream, I'm talking about still being able to taste her, even smell her, long after I woke up. And it was incredible. You weren't even in the dream, but I woke up soaked in sweat and had to do three rounds with my vibrator to clear my head."

"Are you suggesting that you sometimes have sex dreams about me which require some post-slumber cool-down?"

"Don't fish for compliments," she retorted with a smirk.

"Meaning yes."

"I thought we were talking about whether or not I want to have the interesting kind of group sex with you, Isabella, and Yasmine. As opposed to the taking turns while we hope you last until we get a go kind."

"You know I could last."

She glared at him and said, "Are you suggesting you're opposed to us all being together?"

"Of course not," he replied.

"What about the bisexual stuff?"

He shrugged and said, "I mean, it hasn't been something I spent my whole life dreaming about, if that's what you're asking. Homosexuality will be punished quite brutally in the future, so the kind of stuff you're talking about isn't really part of the culture." Quinn started to speak, so Felix hastened to add, "But if you're asking if it would make me happy to see the women I care about more than life itself writhing in ecstasy, especially if that pleasure is given from someone they care about just as much, then the answer is a resounding yes. Love isn't a commodity. It isn't diminished if you indulge in it, it's multiplied."

"You keep tossing that 'L' word around, and I might start to think you mean it."

He pulled her close and kissed her before saying, "You know I mean it, honey. Just as you know you feel the same way about me. About all of us, really."

"That's not how that's supposed to work, ass. You're supposed to have this whole speech worked up where you declare your undying love to me as I try to contain my excitement because I know from your first word exactly what you're doing."

"I'll get to work on that," he replied seriously. "But in the meantime, I guess you'll have to carry the burden of knowing I love you without the benefit of a story you could tell your grandkids while I wrestle with coming up with words profound enough to justify making you wait."

"You're impossible," she huffed as she smacked his chest.

"Doesn't mean I'm wrong," he whispered before capturing her lips in a scorching kiss.

Felix had just started to give serious thought to just how far he could go with Quinn without violating the promise he had made to Isabella that she would be 'next' when they heard a voice calling out from the direction of the house. He reluctantly relinquished Quinn's lips and turned to find Yasmine approaching them.

"My God," Quinn breathed. "How is it possible that it's been three days and she's still getting more gorgeous. I could have sworn my change took place over, at most, two."

Yasmine's change had taken a different path from either Quinn or Isabella. Where the other two had, in the simplest possible terms, grown younger and more voluptuous; Yasmine's change was far more striking. She had grown nearly twenty centimeters, exchanging her prior overt curviness for a slenderness that bordered on willowy. With this change, her breasts had dropped at least two cup sizes (while still falling comfortably into the realm of 'large') and her hips had narrowed. Her hair had also lost its natural frizziness and was now arrow straight, not to mention quite a bit longer. All of these changes, however, paled in comparison to her skin, which now came far closer to matching her father's deep umber than her mother's soft duskiness.

"What is it?" Yasmine asked worriedly as she slowed upon noticing their faces.

"You got more beautiful," Quinn gushed.

She glanced between them and said, "You really think so?"

"Of course," they replied in unison before Felix continued, "You're gorgeous, honey. We're now officially barred from going to New York because modeling agents would knife each other to get their first crack at you."

Yasmine smiled shyly and whispered, "Thank you." She took a breath before adding, "I finished my last class for the day and figured you guys might want to take a break from training for lunch."

"Suits me," Felix said, looping an arm around each of their waists to lead them to the kitchen.

Upon entering the house, they split up to share the work of preparing salads for the women and a stack of sandwiches for Felix and his preposterous metabolism. As they worked, Yasmine flicked on the television, intent on queueing up a music station, but the blaring local news quickly caught her attention.

"Look," she whispered.

Her companions turned to find a grim-faced reporter standing at the entrance to a tunnel, a veritable beehive of first responders swirling in the background as they tried, apparently ineffectively, to douse an active conflagration located in what appeared to be the entrance to a tunnel.

"Where?" Felix whispered.

He turned to find Quinn tapping furiously on her phone before she said, "It's a derailment in a tunnel about an hour west of here. This says that they're having trouble controlling the fire enough to get to the crew."

He glanced between them for nearly an entire second before he allowed himself to say, "I have to try to help."

***

"I need your jacket," Felix whispered from where he had, as near as makes no difference, materialized behind a first responder who was helplessly watching the conflagration at the tunnel's entrance.

"The fuck you say?" the burly fireman grunted as he started to turn. His eyes bugged out behind the plexiglass shield covering his face when he spotted Felix, who was still wearing his now emblematic chrome-like reflective helmet and gun-metal grey riding leathers.

"Your jacket," Felix repeated. "Unless you'd rather run through the fire."

The firefighter gave Felix a long look before belatedly whispering, "Fenrir?" Felix nodded in reply, prompting the former to gesture with his chin and add, "Follow me."

Felix had a moment of doubt, but ultimately allowed himself to be led to a large ladder truck. He saw recognition bloom on the faces of many of the first responders he passed, and he nodded at each in turn. When they reached the center section of the truck, the fireman leading him began rummaging around in the lockers beneath the passenger area. He ultimately produced a firefighter's jacket and held it up to Felix.

"This one might fit you," he muttered as he handed it over. "You want pants or boots?"

Felix nodded appreciatively and was shortly getting dressed in a full set of protective gear, save the helmet.

His helpful clothier said, "You sure you don't want the helmet?"

Felix nodded and said, "This one's full race spec so it's likely more than sufficient. In any case, I don't intend to be in the fire any longer than necessary. What do you know?"

"No one can figure what started the fire. The train wasn't carrying anything unusually flammable. You don't seem much for talking to the press, so I guess it's safe to tell you that the Chief suspects foul play. How you planning on getting the crew out?"

"No fucking idea. How many are there?"

"The company man who showed up nearly as quickly as we did said six."

Felix glanced at a row of oxygen tanks in the truck's storage locker and said, "Can you spare a few of those so I can give them something to breathe while I figure out an escape?"

"Sure, although they weigh over fifteen kilos each. More with the respirator and mask."

Felix shrugged and said, "In that case, lets add in jackets for each as well."

The first responder shook his head disbelievingly but got to work getting the requested equipment together. In short order, Felix was hefting a large bundle of gear in each hand in preparation for entering the flames.

He glanced at the fireman and said, "Thanks..."

It was possible his helpful benefactor replied, but Felix was already traveling over fifty kilometers per hour and still accelerating as he raced toward the fire. He was grateful he got a good look at the entrance of the tunnel before he entered the flames since his visor immediately blackened thanks to the intense heat. Felix seethed at his loss of vision, cursing his helmet's failure. It was not until he emerged from the heat and flipped up the visor that he was able to admit that the equipment had indeed done an admirable job of protecting him from burns, despite the loss of the ability to see.

The tunnel was filled with acrid smoke, and he recognized just how poisonous the air likely still was. He continued to hold his breath and headed along the ruined train at a healthy clip. Even a kilometer along the tunnel, the heat was still crushing, and the smoke was nearly impenetrable to even his enhanced vision.

It was not until he finally reached the line of engines at the head of the train that he risked taking a breath. The air was super-heated and filled with smoke that ripped a cough from his lungs. He tore his helmet off and managed to gulp in a few breaths from one of the tanks he carried. This reset of his blood's O2 level allowed him to forgo the tank as long as he breathed shallowly.

"Hey!" he shouted. "Can anyone hear me!"

He listened for several minutes but could hear nothing over the distant rumble of the fire. He left behind his cargo and leapt onto the rear of the three engines before quickly searching the conductor's compartment. He found no signs of life so quickly moved onto the next engine. His fear heightened with each engine he searched, spiking when an investigation of the final engine yielded no results.

"What the fuck?" Felix grunted.

He then spotted a notably intact cargo car a few positions behind the trailing engine and inspiration bloomed within him. He raced in that direction, scooping up his supplies as he raced past. Upon reaching the car he had spotted; he spent a few precious seconds searching for how it opened before slamming his fist against the steel hull in frustration. It was then that his enhanced hearing caught the sound of a soft cough. A frantic search finally unveiled an entry, and he spotted a ruined padlock on the ground. He yanked the handle open and sighed in relief at the sight of six worried faces staring back at him.

Thirty-Six

"Well... shit," Felix huffed as they rounded the penultimate bend at the far end of the tunnel to find that a large group was approaching them.

"What's wrong?" the conductor of the now ruined train asked with a raspy voice.

"Figured I'd have a chance to slip away undetected. Guess the geniuses running the rescue operation finally clued into the idea of entering the opposite end of the tunnel. A bit late."

"Don't be too angry with them," Sam, a woman in her mid-fifties who had, somewhat ironically, been on the trip performing a safety inspection interjected softly. "We must be over five clicks from the other entrance and the air here is still almost certainly poisonous. They're risking their lives to save us. The fact that you already did the job doesn't lessen their commitment."

"Fair enough," Felix agreed as he began the impossible task of trying to fade into the background in hopes of escaping before either the leadership of the first responders or, even worse, the media got their talons into him. The effort was likely for naught, due in large part to the fact that Felix was awkwardly carrying two of the crew who had been injured in the crash. He briefly thought that he was in luck when he spotted a vehicle making its way along the narrow path beside the tracks, but quickly realized it was the sort which carried self-important men to places where they could inflate their own egos rather than the kind which could transport the wounded to a hospital.

He came to a halt when they reached the vanguard of the oncoming crowd and gently set the two men he carried on the ground before shedding what remained of his borrowed equipment and donning his now ruined helmet. They were quickly surrounded by first responders who, thankfully, focused on the crew rather than their rescuer and Felix began to harbor illusions of beating a hasty retreat.

He was called up short, however, when a boisterous voice called out, "Felix!"

Before he could think to do otherwise, his steps faltered and he turned slightly in the direction of the distantly familiar voice. Making his way toward Felix was a man who the crowd parted for almost eagerly, despite the fact that he could not have looked less like he belonged. He walked right up to Felix with a smile on his face that likely had CEO's around the world slobbering for the chance to sign over the bulk of their worldly possessions for even the slimmest chance of existing in this man's orbit, if only for the briefest of instants.

Felix shook the man's hand and, before his mind had a chance to point out it might not be strategically wise, allowed a single whispered word to escape from his lips. "Xavier?"

"You remembered," Xavier boomed, his million-watt smile scanning across the eagerly watching crowd like a searchlight swinging across the heavens. Xavier looked to one of the men behind him, dressed in what was likely a thousand-dollar suit, and enthused, "Didn't I tell you we were old friends?"

"Of course, sir," Xavier's sniveling lackey replied quickly.

Xavier turned back to Felix and said, "Thank you!"

"You're welcome?" Felix allowed as his eyes flitted around nervously in search of an escape route.

"You saved my people!" Xavier declared far louder than was necessary considering less than a meter separated the two men.

"Your people?" Felix grunted.

"Absolutely! I own twenty-seven point..."

Xavier's gazed bored in on the lackey pointedly, causing the latter to whip out his phone and tap furiously for several seconds before providing, "Four-two-one! Twenty-seven point four-two-one percent of the parent company. Sir."

Xavier continued to glare at the man for several additional seconds, long past when his stare grew awkward, before turning back to Felix and adding, "I'm not CEO or anything. Too much effort. I'm sure you understand. But that doesn't reduce the responsibility I feel for my people. I just can't tell you how grateful I am that you were able to save them."

"It was nothing," Felix deflected.

"Au contraire," Xavier boomed. "Those people would have died except for the miraculous intervention of the infamous Fenrir the Invulnerable! Such a fascinating name for a superhero. How'd you come up with it?"

"I didn't."

"Even better. A name chosen by those you protect."

"It was the criminals who started that dumb name."

"My goodness!" Xavier enthused. "You're just too much."

"Well... you're welcome... I guess." Felix grunted before pushing his way toward freedom. He felt Xavier's hand land on his shoulder in a gesture which the latter surely thought would bring former to a halt, but Felix kept going without even bothering to shake off the unwelcome touch.

"Wait!" Xavier cried as he tried in vain to draft off Felix's unrelenting passage through the crowd.

"Got places to be," was Felix's only reply as he quickened his steps.

He had just reached the end of the tunnel when Xavier, now full-on sprinting, managed to get in front of him and plaintively wail, "Wait!"

"What?" Felix snapped. "I have no intention of hanging around until the press shows up, Xavier."

"But I haven't properly thanked you yet."

"Those people aren't dead. That's all the thanks I need."

"That's hardly fair compense for so heroic an act. Let me take you to dinner. We'll pull out all the stops. Nicest restaurant in New York. You and your significant others."

Felix started to decline, but then the full meaning of Xavier's words sank in. He glared at the smaller man and hissed, "What did you say?"

"What?" Xavier retorted jubilantly. "I've been keeping tabs on you. Obviously, I recognized you immediately when I saw the coverage of the shooting in Wilmington. I've been trying to find you."

"Why?" Felix seethed, his eyes filling with rage.

Xavier blanched momentarily before recovering and saying, "I wanted to catch up. Not to mention the fact that you're obviously a chick magnet. Even being in your orbit has incredible advantages. That threesome I had that night in the chalet was next level."

"I'm happy for you," Felix grunted. "Look, if this is about Jiang..."

Xavier's face broke out in a huge grin, and he said, "You think I'm mad you fucked her? Nothing could be further from the truth." He then appeared to consider his words before adding, "Like I said, that threesome was epic. Let me take you and your ladies to dinner. I'll even put you guys up in one of my hotels for the night. Come on, dude. What do you have to lose?"

***

"Holy fucking shit!" Isabella exclaimed from the doorway to their suite. Her words were then punctuated by the slam of the door behind her.

"What's wrong?" the room's three occupants gasped in unison.

"Yasmine!" Isabella continued; her eyes wide in wonder.

"Yes?" the object of Isabella's near-manic attention stammered worriedly.

"You're gorgeous!"

"Thank you?" Yasmine managed to say before being enveloped in Isabella's crushing embrace. The former quickly captured the latter's lips, kissing her noisily as their companions looked on gleefully.

"I told you," Quinn exclaimed.

"I know," Isabella huffed after relinquishing Yasmine's lips. "But it's one thing to hear that she's beautiful, but it's something else altogether to feast your eyes on a legit supermodel." She turned her attention back to Yasmine and added, "What do you think?"

"It's pretty weird, if I'm being honest."

"How so? Don't you like it?"

"I love it. But it's still an unexpected juxtaposition. I had been expecting something more akin to what happened to you two. Neither of you underwent a significant change in height. I know I was a lot heavier before the change than either of you..."

"Hush," Isabella chided. "You were beautiful."

"Thank you for saying that, but it's not debatable that I was, unquestionably, heavier than either of you. I figured maybe I'd shed a few pounds. I honestly even worried a bit about the possibility of my boobs getting bigger. I know Felix is a fan of large breasts, but getting bigger from my previous body would have been a little ridiculous."

"Well, maybe," Quinn allowed. "I can admit I wouldn't want to lug around H or I cups either. Would have been fun to play with though."

"Strong agree," Yasmine said with a definitive nod. "So, anyway... the change was nothing like I expected. But, even stranger, it was exactly what I always dreamed of."

"Same," Quinn agreed. "I guess this just proves that you have a better imagination that I do. All I ever wanted was to look like the girls I went to high school with, the ones who all the boys slobbered after. And let me tell you, a ten in Scottsdale, Arizona doesn't take a back seat to anyone, anywhere."

"Me too!" Isabella gushed. "I mean, no big mystery why a skinny Italian girl would want to look like Sofia Loren at her apex."

"So... I've got a theory," Yasmine offered.

"I knew it! Isabella exclaimed. "Let's hear it."

"First," Yasmine began, her attention swinging to land on Felix. "Did all the Star Troopers look like you?"

"Not even remotely. I guess you could say everyone was quite fit, but there was certainly a fair bit of variety. A squad of troopers looked not unlike a team of your American football players. Some were very muscular, almost like bodybuilders, whereas others were wiry. But most had body types like mine, unusually muscular without being muscle-bound. Why?"

"And you, our handsome hero," she prompted. "I know you said your body prior to The Conditioning was... not svelte."

He snickered and said, "You could say that. You could also say that I looked like a hundred kilos of wet dog hair. I had a glandular condition..."

"Are you sure it wasn't that you were 'big boned' or 'well fed'?" Yasmine scoffed, making finger quotes for emphasis.

He sighed and said, "In my case, it was the literal truth. I underwent a period of severe malnourishment during a famine that happened when I was in my early teens, and it just wrecked my pituitary glands. For most of my adult life, I lived on a daily ration of less than fifteen-hundred calories. But even with that rationing, it was literally impossible for me to appear to lose weight. And that was despite the fact that, in actuality, I weighed less than any of you."

"Is that famine when you lost your mother?" Quinn asked gently.

"Yes," Felix agreed, nodding somberly. "When it became clear just how bad the famine was, she stopped eating so that I could have her ration. My father and I tried to talk her out of it, of course. But she was intractable. My father stopped eating for a time as well, but she eventually convinced him that I would need him if any of us managed to survive. We watched her waste away over the course of two months until she weighed less than thirty kilos. She was still with us when the famine finally ended. In a way, it was a blessing. She knew that her sacrifice wasn't in vain, if you can call my father and I surviving worthy of..." Felix's detached recitation broke off when he noticed tears flowing down Yasmine's face. "What's wrong, honey?"

"What's wrong!" she shouted. "I'm such an unforgivable jerk, is what's wrong. I poked fun at your condition. But it turns out that, not only was your body shape something you could do nothing about, it was something your mother literally died for. I'm such a contemptible piece of..."

Her words devolved into unintelligible mumbling as Felix reached her and crushed her to his chest before saying, "Don't be preposterous, honey. You couldn't have known."

"Doesn't change the fact that I, as near as makes no difference, mocked your mother's memory."

"No, you didn't," he soothed. "Mocking requires intent. At worst, you were having a bit of fun with me. Which is not only encouraged, its required."

"Why's that," she muttered disconsolately.

"Because how else will we ensure we keep each other grounded. Let's face it, I backed my way into being akin to a character from a comic book movie and you three are literally the most beautiful women on the planet. If we don't take each other down a peg from time-to-time, we'll turn into self-absorbed assholes."

"Here, here!" Isabella exclaimed. "I hereby appoint myself the Chief Giving Everybody Shit Officer."

"Second," Quinn interjected.

Felix softly added for Yasmine's ears alone, "Genuinely, honey. It's no big deal. I only regret not telling you all sooner."

"Are you sure?" she asked meekly.

"Positive," he said firmly. "Now, I believe you were on your way to sharing yet another epiphany with the group when I sidetracked us."

She nodded and said, "Is this..." she paused to caress his pectoral muscle lovingly, "how you always dreamed of looking if you found the genie's lamp?"

"I guess so," he allowed. "I wanted to be stronger, and skinnier."

She looked around and said, "I don't think The Conditioning imparts a specific genetic modification. I think it instead somehow intuits the subconscious of the person in question and uses that as a template for the transformation. How else would we all have undergone such radical, and disparate, changes which just so happened to perfectly align to our most closely held fantasies?"

"Incredible," Felix said reverently.

"What?" Yasmine replied, taken aback.

"How in the hell has your university not made you a department head yet? You're literally the smartest person I've ever met."

She managed to blush despite her dark skin and whispered, "Thank you."

Isabella allowed the moment to linger before saying, "Now that that's out of the way, who wants to explain how it came to pass that we're having dinner with the world's second richest man in..." she checked her watch before adding, "forty-nine minutes. And why none of us are dressed yet?"

Felix grinned and said, "I happen to prefer you three being undressed."

Isabella glared at him hungrily and said, "Oh, no you don't. I will not pass up this opportunity. I've waited seventy-three days since enjoying your remarkable cock. I can wait four more hours. But know this, Mr. Dvoryanin. Tonight will try even your remarkable stamina."

A wide smile spread across Felix's face, and he said, "I can't wait."

Thirty-Seven

"What the fuck are we doing?" Felix muttered as the lift doors closed. "There are so many ways this goes wrong."

"Would you relax?" Quinn snapped. "It's going to be fine."

"Unless you object to walking into this place with the three of us on your arm," Isabella muttered.

"You're kind of making my point, honey," Felix replied. "You're stunning. And not just run of the mill spectacular looking. I'm talking about the kind of supernatural attractiveness that will make people choke on their food or walk into walls. Not exactly a recipe for keeping a low profile."

"Is that all this is about?" Yasmine asked gently. "Or are you embarrassed of us?"

"What?" he asked too loudly. "How could you ask that? You're all incredible. And not just your beauty. In every possible way, you're each a million times more than I deserve. Taken together? I'm not even worthy of being in the same building with you."

"Would it help to know we feel the same about you?" Isabella replied warmly. "About all of you. You guys are the best friends I've ever had. Add in the fact that you're all devastatingly either beautiful or handsome, depending on whether or not you're attached to the world's greatest cock, and it's like a dream come true."

"Agreed," Felix replied gravely. "But that still leaves the not insignificant matter of the fact that being seen like this in public will inextricably link each of you to me. There's no way a place like this doesn't have a photographer on retainer. Our picture will be on social media before we even get our cocktails."

"I get your hesitancy," Quinn said thoughtfully. "But what choice do we have? I love your place, Isabella. But we'll go insane if we stay holed up there forever."

"You wouldn't have to," Felix complained. "I'm the one who needs to keep a low profile. You guys will certainly draw attention wherever you go, but it's being seen with me that turns that into genuine potential danger."

"Do you love us?" Quinn groaned in reply.

"Of course," he said immediately.

"Wait..." Isabella cut in. "What?"

"Later," Quinn interrupted, her attention never leaving Felix. "Do you intend to stay with us?"

"For as long as you'll have me."

"Then you can't think we'd want to go forever not going out with our boyfriend."

"Partner," Yasmine murmured just before Isabella said, "Lover."

"Whatever," Quinn snapped. "The point is, we feel the same way about you that you do about us." She glanced around before adding, "Right?"

Yasmine smiled shyly and said, "I love all of you."

"Same here, beautiful," Quinn replied before sharing a brief kiss with the taller woman. She then turned to Isabella and repeated, "Right?"

"I wasn't sure before," Isabella replied somberly. "Before my trip, that is. But I missed you guys like crazy. And I don't just mean the sex. I miss just being with all of you. I never knew it was possible to feel like this."

Before anyone could react to Isabella's statement, the doors to the lift opened to reveal the entrance to the hotel's five-star rooftop restaurant. Felix pulled Isabella close with one arm and kissed the top of her head briefly before murmuring, "I couldn't agree more, honey."

She smiled up at him briefly before turning to head into the restaurant. As their group clustered around the hostess station, he could feel the admittedly quiet conversation in the restaurant come to a screeching halt at the sight of his three companions and their otherworldly beauty.

"Remember," Quinn whispered. "Don't volunteer anything. Just because this billionaire knows a few things about Felix doesn't mean he knows anything about the rest of us."

The other three nodded minutely and they followed the hostess through the restaurant to a private room with floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides. As they entered, Xavier stood from a large table to greet them with a triumphant smile on his face.

"My friend!" he exclaimed as he wrapped his arms around Felix. His joy was such that he seemed not to notice the fact that his embrace failed to move the object of his affection so much as a millimeter.

"Xavier," Felix replied quietly. His eyes then scanned across the table, and he added, "Jiang," when he spotted the familiar looking voluptuous Asian woman, now appearing to be in her late teens.

She offered a reserved smile and said, "Felix. Nice to see you again."

"Please," Xavier said with a grandiose gesture to the large table. "Sit."

Felix seated his women before taking his own spot across from Xavier. The latter's eyes scanned across the former's side of the table several times before he ultimately said, "Aren't you going to introduce your escorts?"

Felix's features clouded and he growled, "They are not escorts, sir. They are my partners."

"Settle down, big guy," Xavier replied effusively. He waited a long beat before gesturing to his own companions. "Felix is already intimately familiar with her, but since he seems disinclined to make introductions, this lovely lady to my left is Jiang Chou. She and Felix enjoyed a scorching evening together..."

"He told us," Quinn snapped. "So, if you're trying to embarrass him, you can just move on."

"How charming," Xavier retorted, undeterred. "To my right are the Gunderson triplets."

Felix nodded at the three women who reminded him distantly of the volleyball players he had met on the beach shortly after his journey through time, two of whom had shared Xavier's bed that same evening. The primary distinction between those women and the trio across the table from him was that the former were universally lithe and athletic whereas the women joining Xavier on this occasion were significantly more voluptuous. They had long white hair and their revealing, not to mention matching, outfits revealed intricate identical tattoos on their ribs.

Isabelle leaned across Yasmine and whispered, "I suspect our host expects you to recognize them. They're moderately infamous former reality TV stars who gained a bit of notoriety recently."

"What for?" Felix whispered, a bit less successfully than his beautiful companion.

Xavier smiled broadly and said, "They decided to stick their thumb in the eye of this country's preposterously puritanical norms. I think it's marvelous that they had the confidence, and the courage, to follow their hearts. The fact that they capitalized on middle America's hypocrisy only makes their financial success that much sweeter."

"I'm lost," Felix admitted.

"They started releasing explicit content on the internet," Quinn supplied.

"Oh, well that's..." Felix began.

"Where they have sex with each other," Isabella clarified.

"I see..." Felix managed to stammer. "Well... if it makes you happy."

"More importantly," Xavier added gleefully. "It makes them rich. Right girls?" They nodded in unison, further heightening Felix's unease. He turned his attention back to Xavier in time for the latter to add, "And whom do we have the pleasure of dining with this evening? Other than the great Fenrir the Invulnerable, of course."

"I kind of hate that name," Felix grunted.

"Why?"

"Because it's stupid. I'm not a wolf from Norse mythology. I'm not even from Scandinavia."

"But that's where you first rose to fame, Mr. Strongest Man in Denmark. It's also somewhat fitting that both you and your namesake infamously mangled a foe's hand. I think you should be pleased with it. It's certainly preferable to be named after what's in truth little more than a badger. I mean, honestly. What villain would genuinely be frightened of a wolverine?"

"Whatever," Felix grunted.

"So, back to the question at hand," Xavier prompted, his eyes flicking to each of Felix's companions.

Quinn sighed and said, "You might as well get it over with, babe."

"Quinn, Isabella, and Yasmine," Felix offered, gesturing to his companions in turn.

"An absolute pleasure to meet you all," Xavier said loudly. "Anyone care for a cocktail?"

***

It was more than two hours before their entrees were delivered, and neither Felix nor his companions ever had any doubt that the meal's leisurely pace had been entirely dictated by their increasingly enigmatic host. He kept them constantly on their toes, alternating between finding new and interesting ways to brag about himself and probing his guests for information with very limited success.

As the plates for the main course were cleared away, Xavier asked, "So, Felix? You've been in this country a few months and you seem to have settled nicely into this niche of low-level superhero. I'm curious, however, if that's what you truly want to do."

Felix shrugged and said, "Hadn't given it much thought. I didn't really set out to become anything. I just see people in trouble, and I try to help."

"I should say so. Your exploits are becoming the stuff of legend. Hell, I was in Shanghai when you foiled that bank heist, and you led the news. Whether you prefer the moniker or not, the whole world is talking about Fenrir the Invulnerable."

"Fuck," Felix grunted.

"What?" Xavier retorted loudly. "You're living every little boy's dream. You can't be stopped by bullets... or fire... or poisonous gas. You're obviously incredibly strong." He grinned before adding, "One might even say the strongest man in world, should you choose to enter the next round of that competition." Felix made no reply beyond shrugging and hoping very sincerely that Xavier would soon get to the point. "Then there's the whole faster than a Jamaican sprinter component," Xavier continued. "I mean, all your missing is flight in the checklists of traditional superpowers." He paused for a long moment before lowering his voice and saying, "You can't fly, can you?"

"I'll never tell," Felix muttered before taking a gulp of his cocktail.

"My point is; kids all over the globe would kill to be you."

"Only seems fair," Felix muttered. "Considering how many sentients I was made to kill."

"You know what I mean. Add to that the fact that you've got three beautiful women...."

"I don't have them," Felix hissed fiercely.

"Whatever," Xavier deflected.

"I mean," Isabella muttered sotto voce to Yasmine, "he can have me anytime he wants."

Yasmine snickered into her hand before managing to shush her companion.

"See?" Xavier said with a grin.

Felix turned to glare at him and seethed, "They can say they're mine. You may not."

"Jeez," Xavier groaned, his eyes scanning around the table dramatically. "Touchy much?"

"As often, and wherever, he wants," Isabella whispered to Yasmine, a wide grin on her face.

"You're not helping," Yasmine replied sharply.

"What, exactly, do you want from Felix?" Quinn cut in, her stare boring in on Xavier.

"Why... to help him, of course."

"How... exactly?"

Xavier's eyes swung to Isabella, and he said, "I know you've been housing Felix and providing him some, modest, equipment. All very admirable for someone of your means." Isabella suddenly seemed to find something in her eye and made use of her right middle finger to remediate the situation. Xavier smiled and added, "I meant no offense, dear lady. I'm merely pointing out that I am in a position to offer Felix a great deal more. Protective equipment, transport, facilities."

"And what would you expect in return for such generosity?"

Xavier turned to Felix and said, "I'd hope you could be convinced to intervene should any of my interests be threatened. In truth, I'm asking little. You saved the crew of the train without encouragement from me, after all. I'd just be asking that you consider expanding your sphere of influence, as it were. No reason you couldn't, for instance, hop on one of my new supersonic private jets to assist in a hostage crisis in Myanmar, should such a tragedy come to pass."

"I won't be anyone's errand boy," Felix said darkly. "I'm not sure what kinds of things you're into, Xavier. But if I find out you're fronting for someone immoral, I'm more likely to toss you out the window," he gestured to the seventieth-floor view behind Xavier for emphasis, "than I am to help you."

"I would expect nothing less," Xavier retorted easily. "I assure you; my business interests are all fully above board. I aim to improve the human condition. If it happens that I also enhance my own standing in the process, so much the better. I suspect that if the number of ventures I invest in which fail spectacularly were to ever get out, no one would believe it. My position," he waved at the opulence surrounding them, "comes thanks to a few, shall we say, opportune business decisions I made early in life. Thanks to that good fortune, I find myself in the position to benefit my fellow man." He smiled at the majority of the table's occupants and added, "And women."

"So, it's nothing more than random chance that you're the second richest person on earth," Isabella replied coolly.

A flash of irritation crossed Xavier's features, but he quickly regained his composure and said, "Of course not. I was merely attempting to illustrate that I am not afraid of spending money on a just cause, regardless of the profit margin. As to your other point, I have no intention of staying in second place for long. Which brings me to the one other accommodation I would ask of our guest of honor."

"And that is?" Felix said evenly.

"Some of your remarkable DNA, of course," Xavier replied as he stood and collected his companions with his eyes. He gave Jiang a long look before scanning across Felix's companions. When his gaze finally found Felix's, he offered a smile which did not reach his eyes and added, "Let us not mince words. It is quite obvious the effect you, or more accurately your DNA, has on women. Your genes could be the key to unlocking a whole new era of medical science. With your help, we could solve countless diseases and, as likely as not, effectively put a halt to the aging process. Think of it, Felix! You could help billions!" Xavier took a few steps toward the door before adding, "But you don't have to give me your answer tonight. Think on it for a few days. In the meantime," he paused, his eyes dipping to Isabella's plunging cleavage before he headed for the door. Without looking back, he called out, "Enjoy the suite. We'll talk soon"

Thirty-Eight

"Remember the last time we were in a lift together?" Isabella murmured as they left the restaurant.

"How could I forget?" Felix sighed reverently. "I knew I was right to be worried that dinner with Lord Xavier, the First of His Name and Grand Narcissist of the Universe would go sideways. I should have just told him to piss off."

"Not that time," Isabella groaned, swatting Felix's chest.

"Oh," he sighed with a goofy grin. He pulled her close and kissed her forehead. "Sorry. Sometimes it's hard to shift gears."

"You're sure you remember?" she asked somewhat meekly.

"I remember a certain challenge you issued. One which you seemed to reassert earlier this evening."

She smiled coquettishly up at him and pleadingly whispered, "I haven't had sex in over two months."

"Wow," Quinn murmured.

Isabella shrugged and turned to her before saying, "As I told Felix the last time we were together... he ruined me for all other men. Why in hell would I accept an inferior substitute when I still had a chance at the brass ring?" She looked around before adding, "Am I wrong?"

Yasmine shook her head somberly and Quinn said, "Nope," popping the 'p'.

"And it's not just your size," Isabella continued. "It's how loved you made me feel. And I don't mean in the roses and chocolates, let's find a chapel, kind of love. I mean in the thoroughly fucked kind of way. And not because you're the literal goddamned demigod of sex. Or at least not just because of that. It's because you give ten thousand percent, and it's entirely dedicated to your partner."

"Been practicing that long?" Quinn quipped after a pregnant pause.

Isabella whirled on her and said, "You shut it. I love you, but you already got your second go at him. I'm rocking an epic dry spell here."

"I hadn't had sex in over four years before Felix made me his," Yasmine said softly.

"Before Ursula..." Felix began.

"The betrayer," Quinn interjected solemnly. "May her nether regions grow dusty and arid with neglect and may her name be forever cursed for her wickedness."

He snickered and repeated, "Been practicing that long?"

"She's so fucking lucky she'll never meet me," Quinn seethed. "Bitch did my boyfriend wrong. I'd break my goddamned hand smacking the shit out of her."

"I appreciate your willingness to assault someone who won't be born for more than two centuries," Felix said with a smile. "But the point I was somewhat leisurely making was that, prior to The Conditioning, I had been mired in a much longer dry spell than our dear Isabella."

"Never again," Isabella said huskily.

"For any of us," Yasmine added happily.

The lift doors opened at that point to reveal a lobby containing the doors to only two suites, each of which took up half the floor. Quinn strode forward purposefully and opened the door to their luxurious accommodations for the evening. She then turned back and, after a brief glance around to confirm that they were alone, reached behind her head to open the clasp behind her neck which caused the front of her dress to slide enticingly over her braless breasts like a satin waterfall as she backed into the darkened hallway.

"Wow," Yasmine breathed, her steps quickening as she chased after the blonde stunner.

"You coming?" Isabella asked coquettishly as she strode forward purposefully while unzipping her own dress.

"A horde of Chalawanian berserkers couldn't keep me away," Felix groaned as he slammed the door behind him and strode into the living room while quickly shedding his suit.

There he found the world's three most beautiful women eagerly undressing each other, the last of their dresses hitting the floor just as he reached them.

He glanced around momentarily before grinning at them and saying, "Were none of you wearing underwear?"

Isabella grinned and said, "Took you long enough to notice. Jerk. What's the matter, too busy staring at the incest triplets?"

"Leave him alone," Yasmine chided. "He was focused on Xavier."

"I mean, I guess he's kind of good looking," Isabella allowed. "If you're into uptight egomaniacs who dye their hair."

Felix grabbed her by the shoulders and said, "I'm into you," before kissing her firmly. Their kiss quickly deepened as she molded herself against him desperately. Quinn and Yasmine peppered kisses along Isabella's back as she moaned into Felix.

When their lips parted, she whimpered, "Please."

He scooped her up in a bridal carry and proceeded to the bed. It never occurred to him to worry about Yasmine and Quinn feeling left out as they had been adamant that Isabella 'got next' when their foursome was rejoined.

He laid the Italian stunner out on the bed and climbed between her thighs before once again capturing her lips. Her sigh filled his lungs as their tongues slicked together. He pulled back and smiled down at her lovingly.

"Are you ready?"

The happiness on her face was absolute as she whispered, "You don't ever have to ask me that again, babe. I will always be ready for you." She reached between them and slid his pulsing knob through her drenched folds before smirking at him and adding, "See?"

He sank into her in a single tantalizingly patient motion, not stopping until their centers met.

"Oh my God," she gasped. "It's so much better than I remembered."

Quinn slid onto the bed and knelt beside them; her eyes fixed upon where they were joined. She whispered, "You guys are so beautiful together."

Felix rose up to his knees to slowly begin thrusting into Isabella's slick heat. Quinn took the opportunity to move in and flick her tongue over Isabella's turgid nipple. Yasmine quickly joined her, causing Isabella to moan in ecstasy. Felix's hands roamed freely, cupping spectacular breasts and groping perfectly formed asses at his leisure as he gradually increased the pace of his thrusting.

As Felix watched, Yasmine's hand moved slowly across Isabella's stomach like a lioness stalking her prey. When the younger woman's hand encountered her more mature lover's perfectly groomed triangle of dark curls, she jolted to a stop like a thief who heard a sound in a supposedly empty house.

"Keep going," Isabella hissed, her eyes shut tight as waves of pleasure coursed through her body.

Yasmine's elegant fingers continued their journey, her actions emboldened by her soon-to-be-lover's encouragement. She spread her fingers like the logic-driven character from a sixties science fiction show and sluiced into Isabella's soft folds and around Felix's pistoning cock. Yasmine rocked her hand back and forth, pleasuring Felix's manhood and Isabella's pussy with her fingers while her thumb went to work.

"Oh, fuck," Isabella grunted. "That's my clit!"

"I know," Yasmine murmured before moving in to deliver a scorching kiss.

"Fuck, that's hot," Quinn whispered as she watched in awe while still actively worshiping Isabella's magnificent breasts.

Felix felt Isabella's inner walls tightening around his shaft, so he quickened his thrusts. The sight of his three lovers eagerly pleasuring each other was something for which he was unprepared. He had known, of course, how beautiful they were, a genuine visual feast of angelic beauty, just as he knew the unrivaled physical pleasure each was capable of both gifting him and receiving from him. But it was the way that their love for both him and one another drove their passion beyond the realm of his crude senses that nearly unmanned him, and it was not without difficulty that he held off on allowing his own pleasure to crest with his lover's.

Isabella's satisfied moan, somewhat muffled by Yasmine's kiss, announced the arrival of her release. Felix drove himself into her velvety depths, holding himself firm within her most intimate embrace as her slick channel pulsed around him. Yasmine and Quinn retreated, allowing their lover's orgasm to run its course rather than trying to overwhelm her with stimulation.

Isabella's pleasure receded with the patience of the tide, but her eyes eventually opened and fell upon Felix as a wide smile bloomed on her face.

"I love you," she whispered. Her eyes then widened alarmingly, and she hastened to add, "Wait... I meant..."

He bent down to her and murmured, "I love you too," before tenderly kissing her.

As their lips parted, he smiled playfully at her and said, "You were saying?"

"I sort of vowed to myself that I would never let this happen."

"You swore you'd never fall in love with a man from the future after he turned you into a sexpot with his magic cum?" Quinn asked in mock wonder. "That's insanely specific. You should probably go to Vegas with clairvoyance like that."

"You know what I mean," Isabella huffed. "I said I would never let myself fall in love. Not after..."

Yasmine leaned in and kissed Isabella before saying, "Love isn't what destroyed your father, babe. He lost himself in his grief. But that won't happen to you."

"How do you know?" Isabella asked worriedly.

"Because we all love you."

"And we'll never leave you," Quinn added reassuringly.

"Ever," Felix declared confidently.

"I love you guys so much," Isabella blubbered, pulling all three into an awkward embrace. After a long moment, she chuckled and said, "Leave it to the crazy old biddy to get all mushy with a spectacular cock filling her up."

Felix shrugged and said, "If you can't be vulnerable when you're making love, then when can you?"

She grinned and said, "I really do love you all. And," she added, her voice rising in volume, "I do believe it's my duty as the senior partner, for want of a better term, to point out that there's a hard cock going to waste right now. Who's got next?"

Quinn grinned and said, "I nominate Felix."

"Excuse me?" he stammered. "I suspect at least one of us doesn't understand the question."

Quinn playfully shoved at his chest, and he dutifully allowed himself to be pushed onto his backside. Yasmine quickly joined Quinn between Felix's thighs and he groaned in ecstasy as the former lathed one of his balls with her tongue while the latter took his slick cock into the heated confines of her mouth. As he watched in wonder, Yasmine worked her way up to Quinn's face. She ran her tongue along Quinn's jaw to her ear while Felix watched the latter struggle to focus her attention on his cock.

Upon reaching Quinn's ear, Yasmine whispered, "Will you teach me?"

Quinn pulled back and said, "Teach you what, honey?"

"I don't know how to... pleasure a man."

"I beg to differ," Felix interjected.

"I meant... with my mouth."

Quinn smiled warmly and said, "Of course."

Isabella quickly grew interested as well and shortly Yasmine was surrounded. Under their quiet tutelage, she slowly transitioned from daintily licking his tip; to sucking eagerly on the head of his manhood; to taking a third of his length into her mouth and stroking him with one hand while her other caressed his balls.

"Fuck," he hissed. "That feels incredible."

"She's a natural," Isabella said proudly. "But I still want some."

Yasmine pulled back, taking in a gulp of air as a gossamer strand stretched from her tongue to Felix's towering manhood. Isabella swooped in and wrapped her lips around his cock, sinking slowly down as Yasmine looked on in wonder. She kept going until her nose was finally pressed firmly against his groin. Her return trip was just as patient, deliberately relinquishing his throbbing hardness a centimeter at a time until she finally released him.

"That was amazing!" Yasmine gushed. "But how?"

Isabella grinned crookedly and said, "Lots of practice, and a very underdeveloped gag reflex. But don't worry honey, I'll teach you."

"Can you do it again?"

"Of course," she replied with a wink.

As his manhood disappeared once more into Isabella's throat, Felix glanced around helplessly for something, anything, which would help him hold his release at bay. He spotted Quinn, seated upright and watching Isabella with rapt fascination.

He tapped her knee and said, "Come here."

She smirked at him and said, "I'm already here."

He reached over and gripped her by the waist to hoist her up and onto his waiting face. Her yelp of surprise devolved into a sigh of contentment as his tongue delved into her folds. He gazed up, past the barest hint of abs and her spectacular breasts, to find her looking down at him with hooded eyes. His hands slid up her body to grope her tits as his tongue found her clit.

"Yes," she hissed as she boldly ground her mons against his face.

Felix soon discovered that Isabella's remarkable talent combined with Yasmine's awed encouragement was superior to his control. Rather than fighting the inevitable, he gave himself over to their efforts. His hips bucked uncontrollably as he erupted down her throat. She quickly pulled back, her lips holding his pulsing head firmly as he filled her mouth to her triumphant moans.

She pulled back when he was spent, releasing his still turgid member into the relative coolness of the room. Quinn, having risen off him during his spasming ecstasy, pivoted around before sinking back onto his tongue.

"Jesus, that's hot," she whispered reverently. "I want some."

Felix felt someone moving above him, straddling his hips. Shortly, he felt wetness dripping onto his chest but his curiosity as to the source vanished as he felt one of his lovers taking him into the embrace of her femininity.

Quinn sighed mightily before rising off of him once more. As she did, his eyes were greeted with the sight of Isabella eagerly licking what he could only assume was the remnants of his release off Yasmine's beautiful breasts. Quinn spun around to join her on Yasmine's other breast before they transitioned to sloppily kissing each other above him.

"I've wanted you since the first moment I saw you," Quinn whispered desperately before clambering over Felix to push Isabella back onto the bed and dive between her thighs.

"Oh, Jesus," Isabella hissed as her hands threaded in Quinn's light blonde tresses.

Felix's attention was quickly brought back to the veritable super model riding him eagerly. He smiled up at her and reached for her flawless tits.

"You sure you don't mind them getting smaller?" she stammered as she picked up her pace.

"You're perfect, honey," he replied somberly.

"You said that before I changed."

"And I meant it then just as sincerely. But, to answer your question, I don't mind in the least. You're incredible, Yasmine."

He held her hips firmly as she rode him, savoring her impeccable body as she sought her release. His fingers eventually found their way to her clit. She moaned in satisfaction and leaned back until her hair was tickling his knees. He treated her clit to the same treatment Yasmine had treated Isabella to earlier, massaging her labia and giving her clit the friction it so desperately sought.

"I'm cumming," she gasped as her inner walls clenched around his cock. She swung forward to land in his arms bonelessly, desperately moaning as he gripped her hips and drove his manhood up into her gushing core.

As the tension left her limbs, Felix stilled his hips and pulled her close for a passionate kiss. He swallowed her sigh as their tongues slicked together languidly. At length, she collapsed against him and tried to catch her breath.

He looked over to find Isabella and Quinn sixty-nineing with the latter on top. It was a wonder for Felix just to watch them. Having lived his entire life in another culture, he was free of any of the typical American male fascination with 'two chicks getting it on'. This left only the happiness he felt watching two women he loved make each other happy, plus the educational benefit of studying Isabella's technique.

"Go on," Yasmine whispered.

"Pardon?"

"They want you to join them," she replied confidently. "We all do. Always."

He kissed her briefly before rising and positioning himself behind Quinn. Isabella smiled up at him and flicked the tip of his cock with her tongue playfully. As he slid into her, Quinn sighed in contentment. This sound was quickly eclipsed, however, by Felix's moan at the sensation of Isabella lathing the underside of his manhood as he sank into Quinn's silken heat.

"Bog, that feels good," he groaned.

He built up his pace quickly, savoring every moment of the experience. The spectacular sensation of Quinn's inner walls rippling along his length was only heightened by the intermittent pleasure Isabella doled out with her tongue.

Yasmine quickly rallied and joined Quinn at the apex of Isabella's thighs. This allowed Felix to pull his busty blonde vixen up until her back slicked against his chest. He groped her tits lasciviously as he sped up his hips.

"I want you to cum with me," he whispered in her ear.

"Oh, babe," she whispered urgently as her core tightened around his manhood. "Please."

He loosed his control and gave in to the primal urge which had been clamoring for release since the moment Quinn had revealed her flawless breasts in the doorway. With a roar, he exploded into her waiting womb. He held her close as their pleasure consumed them, rising up on his knees. His hips continued fucking almost animalistically, countless eruptions of his seed filling her.

He sank back onto the bed as his release finally crested, Quinn's limp body held firmly in his arms as she gasped for breath. He felt their combined release flowing from her core and pooling at his groin as he slipped from her silken embrace. She turned her head to claim his lips hungrily, their kiss quickly deepening until she yelped into him. He pulled back to regard her queerly, but she merely glanced toward the apex of her thighs. Before Felix's gaze could follow hers, he felt Isabella's tongue lap up a dollop of their combined pleasure from his groin before taking his softening cock into the exquisite closeness of her throat. Looking down, he spotted Yasmine eagerly lapping at Quinn's creamy pussy, the smile in her eyes shining brightly.

He smiled at Quinn and whispered, "I love you all so fucking much," before claiming her lips once more.