The Road is a Harsh Mistress Pt. 02

Author's note:

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

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

Thirteen

"Dad?" Zach asked over the dinner table with an edge of worry.

"Hmm?" Mike asked distractedly as he stared mesmerized at the surface of his coffee.

"Is everything ok? You seem... out of it."

"Yeah, bud. I'm fine. Just a little tired."

"Is this related to that text you sent me at two AM?"

"After a fashion," he admitted. "I hope I didn't wake you up."

"Are you kidding?" Zach chortled. "It would take a heck of a lot more than a text to wake me up."

"Consider yourself fortunate," Mike replied sagely. "The day will come when sleeping through the night becomes more rare than a full moon."

"You always talk like you're a million years old. But you can't be more than, what, sixty-three?"

"He's not sixty!" Alexis yelped.

"Ok," Zach allowed. "Fifty-seven, then."

"Zach!" she shouted.

"Calm down, kids," Mike interjected with a smile. "You both know very well I'm eighty-four."

"Daddy!"

Zach laughed and said, "In all seriousness, he's forty-three, Lex."

"Whoa!" she whispered in awe.

"And on that note," Mike groaned as he stood up from the table. "Anyone for seconds?"

"What about you, Dad?"

"I ate while I was cooking," Mike deflected. "If you guys are done, I need Alexis to clear the table and Zach, you can load the dishwasher. And no staying up late tonight. The first day of school is right around the corner."

"Can we go get..." Alexis began.

"There's ice cream in the fridge, honey," Mike interrupted. "But, absent something on par with an alien invasion, we're going to stay in tonight."

"Aww," she complained while hurrying to the freezer to extract a tub of mint chocolate chip.

Mike hung around the kitchen for a moment while the children finished up and he made another cup of coffee (his sixth of the day). His body and mind were firmly aligned in their insistence that he go to bed, but he was determined to keep himself away until at least ten lest he wreck the rest of his week by throwing his schedule off kilter. Yet he knew that his current state of consciousness could only be described as 'awake' if the beholder was using the most liberal of definitions. He had almost literally sleepwalked through his day at work, producing almost nothing of value beyond his attendance in meetings and avoiding writing any code (since it would undoubtedly need to be rewritten).

Since he knew that sitting down (even for a brief moment) would result almost at once in him slipping into unconsciousness, he kept himself moving by getting ahead on his never-ending list of household chores. He was thus in the midst of scrubbing the tub in the guest bathroom when he heard his phone ding. He decided to finish the task at hand, since he knew it was as likely as not that he would forget what he had been doing if he deflected his attention for more than a few moments. When the job was done, he stood with a groan and stretched for the ceiling to crack his back before yanking his phone from his pocket to spot a text from Leia.

please tell me you got some rest today

A yawn escaped his lips as he read the message, prompting him to chuckle at the irony of the situation as he considered his reply.

slep is four the week

weak

fpr

shit

His phone rang before he could make another attempt to self edit.

"Dude," Leia snickered. "You're just walking proof of that study that there's an equivalency between hours of sleep lost and shots of grain alcohol. Please tell me at least that you aren't doing any more car stunts until you get some sleep."

"To be certain," he agreed. "I know at least some of my limits."

"Did you get any sleep after you dropped me off at five o'clock in the God damn morning?"

"I decided it was more prudent to power through. Besides, it's not like I didn't get any sleep last night. You forget, I'm basically senile so I tend to hit the sack shortly after sundown."

"Yeah, right. A senior citizen could never have executed that ten-second long four-wheel drift you did last night when Nevaeh asked if that stunt you pulled off with her cousin was the result of luck rather than skill. All while repeatedly staring over your shoulder at her, I might add. Even though the embankment was close enough that I'm pretty sure I could have reached out and touched it."

"That was a bit of a dick move," he conceded.

"Au contraire. It was one of the more impressive things I've ever seen, and Nevaeh texted me about a dozen times asking for your info. Both so she could apologize for coming off a little bitchy, and to properly thank you."

"There was nothing wrong with how she treated me, and I hope you told her as much. She's going through something extremely traumatic. All the more reason my show-boating was in very poor judgement."

"You're her hero, Mike. You're allowed to indulge a bit when given the opportunity to demonstrate your skills in front of a couple of attentive chicks with big tits."

"You make my point for me," Mike huffed. "I should be above such sophomoric displays. After all, as is so often pointed out by nearly everyone in my orbit, I am certainly old enough to know better."

"Why do you keep doing that?"

"My age is not up for debate, Leia. I can produce several official documents which will prove how old I am."

"I'm not talking about your age. I'm talking about how you're constantly putting yourself down."

"As one of my former roommates used to say, that ain't hatin'... it's just factin'. But enough of my complaining. Did you manage to get any rest today? And what of that senior manager and the date your H. R. department should be arranging between his genitals and a wheat thresher?"

"I called out because I didn't get any sleep last night, which is also what you should have done."

"This is hardly the first sleepless night I've ever endured. Alexis especially was extremely resistant to my efforts to sleep train her."

"I can't help but notice the emphasis you placed on your pronouns in that sentence."

"Huh? You mean, like, he/him?"

"Not your pronouns, you dork," she chuckled. "I meant the way you said 'I', rather than 'we'."

"Connie was in no condition to care for a baby. As often as not, it was her I was taking care of during those late nights."

"How awful for you," she murmured.

"I wasn't the one who was sick."

"But you did everything for everyone. Didn't you?"

"Of course," he replied reflexively.

Leia was silent for a long moment and, despite not being able to see her over their phone connection, he had a strong suspicion that she was expending a good deal of effort searching for the right words. When she finally broke her silence, her voice was so quiet that he almost missed the fact that she had spoken at all.

"I'm glad you have your car."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I know your children make you happy Mike, and likely the rest of your family as well. It also wouldn't surprise me to learn that you get a fair amount of satisfaction from your job. But I can't think of a single other thing in the admittedly small portion of your life you've shared with me that's just for you. It seems like, with that singular exception, everything else that defines Mike Carter is just a vestige of what you represent to someone else."

Mike sighed wearily before admitting, "Connie always told me that car was the height of selfish vanity, that it told the whole world that I always put myself first. Even though it's certainly a far cry from a sports car. It's merely a family car with a little extra under the bonnet. In truth, if I hadn't gushingly bragged about the damn thing to Connie, she never would have known it was anything other than a boring daily driver."

"It certainly proved its utility last night when you saved Nevaeh. Again."

"Why do you keep doing that?"

"What?"

"Going out of your way to repeat your claim that I rescued someone. As you've mentioned more than once, you would have escaped Tripod's sex dungeon without my help. And you certainly wouldn't have left anyone behind when you did so. So my contribution was inconsequential."

"I'm gonna hit the head," Leia announced jarringly. "Promise you won't hang up on me?"

"I would never..."

"Ok," she interrupted. "Be right back."

Mike heard the unmistakable cessation of background noise (informing him that Leia had muted her end of the call), so he took the opportunity to take a bio break himself.

She restarted their conversation by saying, "What do you tell your friends when they ask how you're doing?"

"One of my best friends actually called out of the blue the day I... I guess I should forget the word rescued... the day I encountered Vicky. I told him I was operating within acceptable fault tolerances After telling him... six months late... that my wife had left me."

"Freakin' engineers," she quipped before her voice once again turned serious. "And you shouldn't forget the word rescued. Because that's what you did. Whether or not I might have gotten out on my own is immaterial, because you saved all of us. Including, ironically, Victoria. Then you saved Nevaeh again last night. You're an incredible man, Mike. And you're so much more than the things you do for people."

"Perhaps," he evaded. "But what about you? You dropped everything in the middle of the night to go help her as well."

"Indeed I did. The difference is that I feel good about what we did. Really good. Whereas I get the sense that your mindset is closer to wondering what's next."

"It is what it is."

Leia was once again silent for a moment before saying, "You'd tell me if I was overstepping. Right?"

"You're not," he replied quickly. "I genuinely enjoy talking to you, Leia. I find it very soothing." He paused for a moment before sighing and muttering, "Now I'm the one overstepping."

She ignored his recrimination and pressed ahead, "So you wouldn't mind if I asked you something kind of... um... personal?"

"Not at all."

"Did Connie ever make you happy?"

Mike felt his head whip around to check his surroundings, despite the certain knowledge that his wife had not entered what had once been their house in over nine-months. The simple fact was that what had once taken conscious effort was now so ingrained as to be indistinguishable from instinct. As for the answer to Leia's question, it was something which was at once something he had repressed and something which he could never forget. It took conscious effort to quell his impulse to change the subject. Whether his desire to answer her question with complete openness was borne of a need to unburden his soul, or simply the desire to continue the conversation with this woman with whom he seemed to effortlessly resonate, he could not say. He simply knew that deflection was not an option.

"I'm sorry, Mike. I shouldn't have asked you that." Leia said softly after Mike's delay.

"Don't be sorry. I told you that you could ask me anything. It's just... I never talk to anyone about my marriage. Former marriage. It's almost like I have to reprogram myself to access those memories."

"Did you guys ever go to therapy together?"

"Nope," he grunted. "By the time things had reached a state where that option occurred to me, it was already too late.

"But, to answer your question, she did make me happy. Once. I was very much in love with her almost from the jump. Especially once it became clear that we had what I thought was great sexual chemistry. We were insatiable for each other. Multiple times a day... in every room of the house... in the car... in a secluded grove at the park... at the lake when we found an empty cove. We never lacked for passion during those early years. We were married a year to the day after our first night together. Then Connie quickly got pregnant with our first child. That was when things changed overnight."

"What do you mean?"

Mike shrugged, despite the fact that Leia could not see him through the phone, and said, "What was obvious in hindsight, but never occurred to me at the time, was that Connie always drank when we were together. We tended to go to her place after work and she would almost always have a couple of six packs in the fridge. It never seemed to be an issue since she never really got sloppy drunk. Hell, I was drinking too, as often as not. We'd have these amazing conversations. No phones to interrupt us, no television on in the background; just two people forming a connection. Things stayed that way until she got pregnant. What I realized after she got pregnant was that we'd almost never had sex when she wasn't drinking. The only exceptions were occasional wake-up sex, but that was quite rare even in the early days.

"When she got pregnant with Zach, she stopped drinking and our sex life vanished overnight. We went from having sex multiple times a day trying to get pregnant to not having sex for nearly a year. Part of it was that pregnancy was hard on her, and I chocked it up to that exclusively with Zach. But the impact this had on me was profound. It was crushing for my confidence, but our relationship also took a big hit because of the constant arguing. And without the intimacy of sex, all we had left was what amounted to a partnership between two people who didn't get along very well anymore."

"Was it more than just sex that you argued about?"

"In point of fact, we never argued about sex," Mike replied with pride. "I was too stinkin' proud to ask why things had gone silent in that department. It was only later, after Alexis was born, that she told me the truth. But when she was pregnant with Zach, I assumed it was because she was uncomfortable, or dealing with morning sickness, or that the body image issues she dealt with as a result of the pregnancy made her unable to get in the mood. By the way, those reasons are all totally valid. Hence why I didn't bring it up. I never wanted to be the guy who gave their partner the impression that my problems trumped her own."

"So... what was it that was causing the arguments?" Leia asked quietly.

"We fought because, despite her promises before the pregnancy that she'd stop smoking when I knocked her up, she refused when the moment of truth arrived. I constantly asked her to stop smoking for the health of our child, but she told me I wasn't the boss of her and kept up her two packs a day habit."

"That's terrible. You must have been sick with worry for your son."

Mike sighed wearily and said, "I was, but what could I do? Far more often than we realize, our social and relationship interactions are propped up on respect for ourselves and each other. She didn't respect me, and might not have respected herself, which meant it was impossible for me to convince her to do anything she didn't want to do. That didn't stop the arguments, though.

"Once our son was born, she went into deep postpartum depression for which she started taking medication. She also immediately started drinking again and got drunk nearly every other day, with the gap days spent sleeping off the previous day's bender. By the time Zach was walking, she was taking so many medications I could barely keep up with them all. I begged her to see a therapist, and that she couldn't just treat her issues chemically. She told me she was handling it.

"So, the vast majority of the work caring for the baby fell on me. Connie stopped working right after she got pregnant. So, in addition to doing all of the childcare, I was also the only one bringing any money into the house. It was really tough for a while, but I was soon able to get a job which allowed me to work remotely. This didn't fix things; it just turned an impossible situation into one that was merely intolerable."

"What was it that she told you later?"

"Pardon?"

"You said Connie told you the truth about why she didn't want to have sex during the pregnancy after Alexis was born."

"Oh," he grunted dispiritedly. "That's not really a nice story. Suffice it to say that her judgement had to be significantly impaired before she could tolerate the sight of me unclothed. So say nothing of actually touching her."

"God damnit," Leia muttered.

Mike pressed on rather than grappling with the emotional turmoil of her pity. "Things went the same with Alexis, despite her renewed promise to stop smoking. Perhaps I was a fool to believe her, but she was so vulnerable when she asked if we could have another baby. So sincere. She bemoaned missing out on so much of Zach's childhood, and said she wanted another chance to be a good mother. How could I say no? The fact that her second pregnancy went the same as the first was almost a blessing in disguise. We never fought about the smoking; never bickered about the imbalance in our relationship. I'd already been there and gotten the t-shirt. In part, I think that's why things got so much worse afterwards. I allowed the dynamic between us in which I did, as near as makes no difference, everything, become the new baseline."

"Mike," Leia gushed. "I'm so sorry."

"That was, as they say, only the beginning. I believe, however, that I have answered your question."

"You have indeed," she agreed. "And thank you for trusting me with that."

"Of course."

"This is likely going to sound a little strange... but, in an odd way, I'm happy for you. What you described sounds many times worse than anything I've endured. I would gladly exchange a few weeks of captivity rather than endure years of neglect and abuse. But, despite all that shit, you didn't crumble. You stood strong and willingly took on the task of raising your children and providing for them all by yourself. And that's before you became an actual single-dad. That's remarkable. And extremely admirable. I feel very fortunate I was lucky enough to become your friend."

He was glad they were speaking on the phone, rather than face to face, because he realized that it had suddenly gotten very dusty in his office. He waited a few more moments to be certain his voice would not crack before saying. "I couldn't agree more." He waited a moment to further collect himself before saying, "I'm sorry, by the way."

"For what?"

"I just sort of played back in my head everything I said, and I realized it must have sounded like a cheap romance novel there at the beginning with all the talk of our sex life."

"Don't be sorry, Mike. It was an integral part of the story. And I agree with you, by the way. Intimacy is a fundamental part of any romantic relationship. I don't believe any such partnership can be healthy without an active sex life. I was happy for past-Mike at the beginning of that story. I've always dreamed of finding someone with whom our shared attraction was so fervent that it threatened to boil over if we didn't basically tear each other's clothes off at every opportunity. I've never had that, but you have, however briefly. I envy you for it."

"I'm not sure what to say," he murmured.

"You should say goodnight," Leia replied. "I know you're exhausted, so I should let you get to bed. Just promise you'll call tomorrow so we can continue this amazing conversation."

"You're not sick of me yet?"

"Not even a little bit," she corrected warmly. "Good night, Mike. Sweet dreams."

"Yeah, right," Mike muttered. Then, after realizing he had spoken out loud, tried to cover his lapse by raising his voice and saying, "Good night, sweetheart."

It was only many minutes later, after he had locked up and while he was brushing his teeth, that he realized what he had said. At that point, he gave thanks for his overwhelming fatigue... because he knew that otherwise he never would have managed to fall asleep.

Fourteen

"What the hell," Mike muttered in response to a notification popping up on his desktop. He navigated to his email program and opened the item in question, scanning the text quickly before adding, "That can't be right."

For the first time in several weeks, Mike's sleep had been interrupted; either by biological imperative or by unwelcome recollections. He had taken to his bed the previous night as Leia had insisted and had slept like a primary-schooler (it being an article of faith with him that the phrase 'slept like a baby' was one of the stupider inventions in the history of language). Upon waking, he had felt something which he suspected could be best described as 'refreshed', although it had been so long since he had experienced that sensation that he was no longer qualified to render an informed opinion. After a quick shower he had prepared himself his default breakfast of a cup of joe and shuffled into his office intent on making up for the previous day's lack of productivity.

That all came to a screaming halt with the message from his mortgage holder informing him that they had the legal authority to begin the eviction process in seven days since he was now in default.

A frantic seventy-five minutes later, Mike had discovered that the lien-holder on his car and each of his various utilities were similarly bent out of shape over his failure to pay on time. It took very little time for him to first diagnose the problem, and then assign blame. The plain truth was that Vicky's parting gift in the form of grand larceny (when he had lent her his phone during their return from Tripod's sex dungeon) was in fact more insidious than simply emptying his accounts. His investigation laid bare that she had given herself a backdoor into his accounts and had continued her efforts to rob him blind while his attention had been elsewhere. His retirement accounts, formerly sitting in the mid six-figure range, had been emptied, along with a little gremlin which was somehow immediately transferring every dollar his company direct-deposited to an offshore account. The only reason he had not noticed the theft earlier was that he used a credit card for day-to-day purchases so that he could build up airline miles which could be used to offset the cost of his childrens' vacations (but which, crucially, he had never bothered linking to his phone).

His bank was quite helpful in suspending his accounts. They were less helpful when it came to helping him track down information about the offshore account, and they developed outright deafness when he asked what they would do about restoring the stolen money. His next set of calls were to those institutions who now considered him in default. They were attentive, but unsympathetic, and just kept asking when he intended to pay. It took all of his will to resist the urge to throw his phone across the room when he hung up with the last of his utility companies.

As he sat seething at his desk, his gaze fell upon the cabinet he had temporarily disassembled to conceal the safe he had purchased to conceal the Artifact. Without conscious thought, he jolted up out of his chair and crossed the room. The process to open the safe was laborious, mostly because he had specifically configured it that way, but he took his time rather than risk having to restart. He sighed in relief when the door finally swung open and he extracted the safe's sacred contents.

Mike groaned to himself in frustration when he glanced at the legal pad he had purchased and saw just how little work he had done with the Artifact. It was easy (and truthful) to claim that he had been busy, but with the pressure of his moment of need wrapped around his chest like a vise, he cursed his lack of discipline.

"No use crying over spilt milk," he grunted as he pivoted to his personal desktop, connected his VPN, and brought up a Private browser window. "Time to engineer the shit out of this."

By the time Alexis poked her head into his office to inquire about lunch, Mike had framed out the beginnings of a plan. He had also dug an old laptop out of the stockpile of such devices he kept in his closet and (after disabling its ability to connect to the internet and encrypting its hard drive using the best tools at his disposal) put it into service to keep track of his notes. He had also connected a webcam to the device and taken thirty long minutes to figure out how to bump up its framerate up enough to capture the Artifact's debugging output, since any video he took with his phone would immediately be saved to the cloud.

His plan, in broad strokes, was eminently simple. Nearly all of the complexity, in fact, was centered around keeping his activities secret. It turned out that it was well within the Artifact's ability to predict the stock market. With that knowledge in mind, Mike was able to craft a wish (or, as he still thought of it, write a script) wherein he could position himself as yet another day-trader, albeit one who made very specific buys at very specific times. Anyone monitoring his activity would discover that more of his gambles than not lost money. What he had spent hours ensuring, however, was that it would be impossible for said observer to notice that his winners won more than his losers lost. A lot more.

After making lunch for his children, Mike plucked a paring knife from the block in his kitchen and returned to his office. He reopened his safe (since he had early one made the commitment that the Artifact would never be anywhere but in his possession, or in his safe), and carefully typed in the latest version of his script. As an engineer by training, and a developer by necessity, Mike knew that one of his forte's was not testing. He therefore forced himself to spend nearly an hour going over the Artifact's debugging output, even employing a trick an author friend used for proofreading by pressing a pair of earbuds into service and listening to his computer read back the output. He was glad he did, as he found three additional areas which required tweaking.

It was nearly dusk by the time Mike finally admitted that the script was as done as he could make it. After carefully retyping the script into the Artifact and reviewing the output to ensure it was perfect, he made a shallow cut across his hand. Once the blood started to well up, he rubbed it across the screen of the Artifact and then pressed the ENTER button. He noted with satisfaction the notice on the screen reading, 'INSTRUCTIONS ACCEPTED'.

Mike replaced the Artifact in the safe, and retrieved the external hard drive which had just materialized there. He connected it to his 'Artifact' laptop and decrypted it before opening the first document; labeled 'ACCOUNTS'. This contained URLs, usernames, and passwords for twenty-seven brokerage accounts: each with a different company. The document also included instructions for accessing a separate set of accounts in the Cayman Islands. Navigating to a subfolder on the drive, he found several thousand files; each named by date. These contained a page for each of his accounts showing what might appear to a layperson to be hieroglyphics but was actually a listing of stock symbols along with a corresponding timestamp and share count. Further across the page was listed the sell threshold and a gain/loss column. At the bottom of the page was listed the amount he would schedule for withdrawal and subsequent deposit in his offshore accounts at the conclusion of the trading day (assuming the account in question was scheduled to be profitable that day). Sometimes investments were designed to span days, or even years. In these cases, it was clearly indicated. Most, however, were targeted for him to hold the shares anywhere from hours down to a few seconds.

Each day, his losing investments would lose on the near order of a third of their value. The winning investments, however, would average a three-fold increase. The specifics would vary by account, but in aggregate he projected to increase his money by an order of magnitude within two weeks (despite the fact that each days' losing accounts would double the number of the winning accounts). Even more preposterously, thanks to the wonder of the compounding investments, he would cross the billionaire threshold in less than two months with plenty to spare to fix his near term financial problems. All with an initial investment of less than thirty thousand dollars.

As he conceptualized his scheme, he had initially thought it the height of recklessness to 'borrow' money from his childrens' college fund to provide the initial seed money. But, after hours of testing (not to mention the undeniable miracle of the hard drive appearing in his safe), he no longer had any doubts about the Artifact's ability to do what it claimed.

He turned to his personal laptop and ensured his VPN was connected before proceeding. It took him a few minutes to navigate the unfamiliar websites of the brokerage firms and the offshore bank's portal. The entire exercise frustrated him, but he clearly remembered testing scenarios where he had lost everything because the wrong governmental agency had caught wind of his activities. Once he was done connecting to each of the accounts, and he had transferred the money from the college accounts, he set up the first day's orders before sitting back with a loud sigh. All that remained was to wait anxiously until the end of the following day to verify that his scheme actually worked (and that he had not made a dreadful mistake). He was confident that he had done everything correctly, but his inexperience in the market still filled him with anxiety at the thought of wagering so much on what seemed to be such a preposterous way of running an economy.

Fifteen

"The sheer amount of uniform drivel on offer here is staggering," Mike groaned as he flipped through endless pages in the bookstore app on his ereader, each featuring dozens of AI-generated covers featuring cat-girls with heaving breasts and empty heads.

He had just told Zach, for the third time, to hang up with his now-girlfriend, but he could not find it in himself to get too upset. It was obvious the young man was smitten with the majorette, and he was warmed by his son's happiness. He chuckled at the memory of Zach's face when he had threatened to repeat 'the talk' where both he and his girlfriend could hear it. His son had, not surprisingly, ended the call seconds later, giving Mike leave to return to his reading as he waited to get tired and put an end to what had been a truly taxing day.

His phone buzzed on the bedside table, notifying him of an incoming text message. He glanced at his phone to see Leia's picture, and could not help grinning to himself.

hey... you up?

wait... that sounded like a total pick up line

good evening, kind sir. are you presently otherwise engaged or might you be available to converse with me forthwith?

Mike's bark of laughter filled his room, prompting him to look toward his door worriedly. He listened for a moment, but the only movement he could hear was the steady patrolling his German shepherds did throughout the night according to a schedule he could not discern.

After his laughter subsided, he responded:

pretty sure I just woke the neighbors laughing

what's up?

Her response came back immediately:

do you mind if I call?

He got up and headed out into the hall, peeking into each of the kids' rooms to ensure they were sleeping. He then made his way down to his office to grab his earbuds. As he climbed the stairs, he replied:

of course not

His phone rang as he closed the door to his room, and he hit ACCEPT immediately.

"Oops," Leia's voice came through his earbuds.

Mike glanced down at the screen to see Leia looking at him with a queer expression. However, before he could decipher her look, he noticed her tank top and his higher brain functions went to DEFCON ONE. It was clearly something designed more for comfort than concealment, and it showcased a devastating amount of cleavage. She noticed his eyes and glanced down before working to tug the garment higher with one hand, briefly exposing her port-side nipple in the process.

She looked back up at him sheepishly and said, "Well... you'll never believe that was an accident after the 'hey... you up?' SNAFU. I guess the only saving grace is that this wasn't the first time you've seen my tits."

"I saw nothing," Mike replied regally. "You are a lady, and thus immune to nudity."

She chuckled and said, "Bullshit. You got an unobstructed view of my body for at least five minutes at Tripod's compound. I'll bet you could describe everything from memory."

"Truly, I feel terrible that I made you uncomfortable."

"Come on, Mike. I'm just fucking with you. You're a great guy. Why would I mind if you checked me out?"

"I'm not saying you did. Mind, that is. I'm just saying that you are far from the first victim of my leering, despite my rather strenuous efforts to the contrary." He looked away from the phone and muttered, "I regret that I was unsuccessful."

She sighed and said, "Mike? Will you look at me?" He belatedly looked back to the phone. She smiled wanly at him and said, "I'm sorry if my joke made you feel any less than the wonderful person you are. You never made me feel uncomfortable. You weren't a creep. Ever."

He paused a moment longer before saying, "Sorry about that. Kind of a weak spot of mine."

"It's really fine. Just..." she paused for a moment before continuing, "I guess I'm kind of a sarcastic person. I make jokes whenever things get awkward. Please don't take offense."

"As you wish," he replied solemnly.

"That better have been a movie quote, and not you subconsciously deciding annoying Leia isn't worth the trouble."

"I assure you it was the former."

"Good," she replied firmly. "So... how was your day?"

"It was completely bug-fuck insane. But, if you don't mind, I'm sort of trying to distract myself into not thinking about it until things settle a bit. If I swear on my eyes that I'll tell you everything tomorrow, do you think we could talk about you for a change?"

"If we must," she sighed dramatically. "But I intend to hold you to that promise to call me tomorrow. Let's see... my day... what to tell... Oh! I know. I ran into an ex-boyfriend and he hit on me in a way that made me question my sanity for ever even speaking to him, much less allowing him to shove parts of his anatomy into more one of my orifices."

"Whoa," Mike exclaimed quietly. "Warn a guy before you grab the wheel and steer us into oncoming sex talk."

Leia snickered and said, "You loved it. Hell, your eyes got bigger than when I nip-slipped you."

"No, they didn't."

Without preamble, Leia tugged her tank top down again to briefly expose her starboard nipple. "Yes, they did," she declared as she righted her shirt.

"Jesus, woman," Mike exclaimed.

"Don't act like you've never had a friend before where you both occasionally flashed each other to lighten the mood."

"I've never had an anyone who would do that. Hardly surprising considering the risk they'd be taking if I got it in my head to reciprocate. I can assure you, however, that you have nothing to fear."

"Considering I wholly disagree with your assessment of yourself, I'm going to go ahead and assume that you're offering to give me a show whenever I request one."

"You're insane," he muttered.

"Perhaps," she allowed. "But I maintain that I'm the fun kind of crazy. Want me to show you my tits again?"

He smiled and said, "No, but thank you. It's a true friend who's willing to flash someone in a bid to cheer them up."

"I like the sound that," she said quietly. "True friends, I mean."

"Absolutely," he declared. "And, on that note, I wasn't a good friend to you the other night. I completely monopolized our call complaining about my marriage. Former marriage."

"No, you didn't."

"I most certainly did. I must have taken up eighty percent of that call with my bitching, and I apologize. So, tonight's your turn."

"There isn't much to tell from my end. No siblings. My folks are dead, but it happened when I was in high school. I went to live with my only remaining grandparent, my maternal grandmother, after the crash. She passed a few years ago, while I was deployed. I spent the better part of a decade in the service, but I wasn't really close with anyone I served with. I've been with my boyfriend, I think, for eleven months."

"You think?"

"We met on a dating app," she continued, ignoring his question. "We matched on a mutual interest in history. Things were mostly fine up until I was abducted, but we weren't really progressing. We still haven't even got to the point of discussing moving in together, much less any talk of love. Hell, we could barely manage to vacation together, and that was just on one of those big dumb cruises."

"So why aren't you sure you're still together? Related, why are you speaking of your relationship in the past tense?"

"Because I haven't seen him more than a handful of times since you rescued me, and the times I saw him he couldn't get away from me fast enough. Part of me sympathizes. After all, I went through a profound physical transformation. And that was after I vanished for more than a month. I just wish he'd freakin' talk to me."

"There's no excuse for that kind of behavior, Leia. And, after how he treated you when Tripod sent you back during your ordeal, you must know that he doesn't deserve you. Not remotely."

"You'd think he could get over being freaked out long enough to toss a fuck my way. I mean, I'm basically giving him a green light to have sex with the body of a porn star, regardless of how he feels, or doesn't feel, about me as a person."

"Leia, honey," Mike implored warmly.

"What?" she gasped.

"You're an amazing person. A beautiful person. And that has nothing to do with your transformation. This, how did you put it, repugnant pile of cockroach excrement, doesn't deserve a moment of your time. Much less to even catch a glimpse of your outer beauty. And the less said of you sullying yourself by allowing him to touch you, the better."

"You don't like the thought of him fucking me," she teased defensively.

"I loathe the thought of you not being happy. But, once you're done with this shit stain, I look forward to hearing tales of the next man who catches your eye, especially if he treats you right." Mike saw her smile and heard her next words in his head before she even spoke, so he hastened to add, "PG-rated tales."

Leia frowned theatrically at him. "If you're going to be my closest friend, that comes with certain expectations. For one, I won't be shy about getting naked around you if the need arises." She reached for her tank top. But, thankfully for Mike's diminishing mental state, she merely tweaked one of her notably turgid nipples rather than once again exposing herself. "But there will also be the times where I need you to tell me whether him asking me to go ass-to-mouth means our relationship is deepening, or if he's simply trying to leverage our honeymoon phase to get all he can before he turns me in on the new model."

"People actually want that?" he gasped.

"Anal?" she chirped. "Hell yeah. It's pretty fucking awesome in the right context."

"I know that," he groaned. "I meant the other thing."

"Maybe?" she replied in a small voice. "I mean, I know there are dudes who want that. Expect it, even. But I've never progressed past the phase where I do sex stuff because it feels good. It's something I've been thinking about more and more since I got back."

"How do you mean?"

"How's it supposed to work? You know, with boobs."

"How on earth would I know?" he chuckled. "Please don't take that as a rebuke, but I'm hardly a subject matter expert."

Her face seemed to fold in on itself with embarrassment as she asked, "I hope you won't be mad, but when I was looking for you, I came across some of your ex's socials."

"Why would I be mad?"

"I just wouldn't want you to think I'd invaded your privacy. I know you're reluctant to talk about her."

"Not always," he allowed. "From most people? Sure. But you're not most people."

"That's right," she replied with a smile. "We're BFF's now, am I right?"

"Ride or die," he agreed.

"Well, then. In the spirit of our deepening bond, I hope you'll help a girl out."

"If I can, I will."

"Your ex-wife has always been busty, right? She's got pics on her socials going back to before you were married, so her tits likely always got a lot of attention. Especially with how hse dressed. So, how do you form a relationship with someone who is attracted to one part of your body without wondering if that's all they care about?"

"I wouldn't know. No one's ever found me attractive."

"Don't be so sure," Leia murmured. She then spoke up and said, "But you fell in love with your wife, right?" Another nod. "How could she be sure you were falling for her, and not her boobies? I know you're seriously into tits. Was there ever a time when you wondered if all you were feeling was lust because she aligned with what you were attracted to?"

"In her case, I'm not entirely certain that isn't what happened. At least in the beginning. But, in general, I've always found love to be something of a leap of faith. At a certain point, you just have to believe, down deep where you keep your most profound fears and most powerful secrets, that your partner feels the same about you as you do about them. It's true that I was infatuated with Connie's breasts when we first met. It was what I first noticed about her. But by the time we started dating, they had just become part of her. It wasn't why I fell in love with her, but it was something I loved about her. Does that make sense?"

"Not really. But maybe that's just because I've never been in love."

She looked at him with such vulnerability that he felt he would do anything to assuage her loneliness. He said, "You'll fall in love one day. And when you do, it won't be because of your body, or your skin, or even your sarcastic wit. It will be because you are an amazing person."

She sighed and said, "Can I ask you something? Before you blindly say yes, it's kind of personal."

"I'm not taking anything off for you," he responded playfully.

"Meaning it's not necessarily off the table for other nights. Noted. But if you're going to make me wait for it, I'm going to insist on full rigidity. We're talking leakage."

He bowed slightly and said, "In that extremely unlikely scenario, I swear to provide all that and more."

"I'm going to hold you to that."

"What was your question?" he deflected.

"Can you tell me how you and Connie met?"

"Sure," he replied sincerely. He thought for a moment before beginning, "I was a lowly software developer, working at a start-up that was doomed to get swallowed by the gig-economy a few years later. She worked down the hall doing data entry and answering complaint calls. We saw each other frequently at work, but I always assumed she had no idea I existed.

"I certainly noticed her, however. She always dressed in the most outrageous outfits. Perhaps it was just the culture of our start-up to encourage employees to express themselves. But I tend to think she would have done it anyway. She almost always wore short plaid skirts over fishnet stockings. This was paired with high leather boots and t-shirts for bands I had never heard of. Her hair color changed frequently, as did her hair style. That outfit was not one of my turn-ons before she started at the company, but that quickly changed. I couldn't wait until I saw her in the halls each day. She had the most captivating way of strutting that never failed to catch my eye. But we never really interacted until we got put on a project together.

"It was an urgent integration with an inflexible, and wildly unrealistic, deadline and the whole project team quickly started working nights together. Connie and I were paired up, as she was tasked to do testing on the code I was writing. Apparently, she'd done some light coding at a past job, so she was familiar with the functionality and syntax even though she had decided she had no interest in being a developer. We spent a lot of time working one-on-one in my office, and we would regularly eat lunch in my office or grab dinner after we decided to knock off for the day.

"During all this time together, we learned a lot about each other. She told me about how things were going south with her boyfriend, and she was pretty sure she wanted to break up with him because the spark was gone. When she asked me if I had a girlfriend, I tried to quickly move past this line of conversation by briefly answering in the negative, but she pushed for more details. I told her that I had been in a long-term relationship that ended about a year prior when my then-girlfriend had dumped me out of the blue and immediately started dating someone else.

"As we spent more time together, I started to wonder if she was hitting on me. There was nothing overt happening, it was more little things that started to add up in my head. She started sitting next to me instead of on the other side of my desk. She also began touching me more, like laying her hand on my arm to get my attention rather than speaking. And her outfits were changing. She started wearing button-up sweaters to work. Then, when she sat down in my office, she would take off the sweater to reveal tighter than normal t-shirts which featured plunging necklines that showed off a generous amount of cleavage. It was all innocent enough taken piece-meal, but when you combined everything together (especially the part where she always put her sweater on when she left the office or when someone else stopped by) it seemed undeniable that she was hitting on me. I started paying for all our meals, which she accepted with a smile and even more friendly touching. She also started to hug me at the beginning and end of each workday, although never if there was anyone else around."

"How long did things go on like that?" Leia asked warmly.

Mike shrugged and said, "A few weeks, I guess. As the end of the project approached, we found ourselves in the office the night before the deadline. Just as we had started to discuss ordering in for dinner, the power in the office went out. We all packed up our equipment and headed for the parking lot.

"When we got to our cars, everyone was looking around as though the answer to our problem would fall from the sky. Finally, the product manager suggested we head to a nearby restaurant, but that seemed to me to be a terrible place to get important work done. Everyone else seemed inclined to go along with her suggestion, but I was genuinely concerned about delivering my portion of the project, so I told them I was headed home.

"The rest of the team followed the PM, despite my objection, but Connie hung back as they bid me good evening. She knew that we really needed to be together because we were working hand-in-hand while she was doing acceptance testing on my code. I remember her looking at me with a wicked grin when it was just the two of us left in the parking lot and making a comment about the effort I was putting in to get her to go home with me. I tried to play it off, but her eyes stayed locked on me as she called the product manager to say she would finish up the project at my place since her internet was terrible and we needed to work together.

"She rode with me to my place, saying that her car had been acting up. Once we got there, I set us both up at the kitchen table and I started feverishly working through the rest of the project. Connie didn't have much to do until I finished the next component, so she started poking around my apartment. Twenty minutes later, I was finishing up a component when she returned to the kitchen. She had her work outfit over her arm and was wearing one of my t-shirts and a pair of my basketball shorts. In hindsight, I'm sure that neither the fact that her wispy underthings were on top of her stack of clothing nor the way my shirt was tucked beneath her breasts to underscore the fact that there was nothing under there except her was an accident.

"She pretended there was nothing in any way noteworthy occurring and switched back to focusing on our project. She found a few small issues with her testing which I was able to fix reasonably quickly, and we finally delivered the finished code to source control at around three in the morning. At that point, I offered to drive her back to her car but she complained that it was already so late, and we'd both be depriving ourselves of an extra hour of sleep if we did that, so why couldn't she just stay at my place."

"Cripes, Mike," Leia gushed. "I know you two eventually hooked up, but even in retrospect I'm halfway to a panic attack over your obliviousness to all the signs she was giving you."

"I know," Mike exclaimed. "I'm flirting-blind. Always have been. I haven't been in many relationships, big surprise, but each of them saw my better half making the first move."

"Noted," Leia mumbled. "Please continue."

Mike quirked an eyebrow at her, but obligingly continued, "I protested that I only had one bed and offered to sleep on the couch. She told me I was being ridiculous and that, since we were both adults, we could just share my bed. Suffice it to say that I didn't get a lot of sleep."

Sixteen

"The next morning," Mike continued, "I discovered that my baser instincts had taken over in the night as I was both fondling her and assaulting her with my arousal crammed against her backside. This might have been driven in part by the fact that she'd somehow shed the shorts during the night and her shirt had ridden up to leave her breasts exposed. I was horrified at my intrusion, but she insisted she was flattered. She hopped out of bed and whipped the shirt over her head to toss it at me playfully before she strutted toward the kitchen to retrieve her clothing. She was still nude and poking around in my kitchen when I left my bedroom five minutes later, so I ducked back into my room to give her more time to get dressed."

"You dumb bastard," Leia mocked.

"Shut it," Mike retorted good naturedly. "I assume she shortly thereafter decided to pause her efforts at seduction because she was dressed when next I emerged. I took her to her place to get changed and then took her back to the office where we got major accolades for our efforts in finishing the project. Apparently, the rest of the team wrapped up around eleven PM the previous night, but I definitely felt like I had won out in the end. After the meeting, she pulled me aside and insisted that we celebrate after work. I was still tired from the previous night, but I wasn't that stupid. I told her I would love to come."

"I bet you did," Leia chuckled.

Mike snickered and said, "You're not making this any easier."

She placed her hand in the air in a scout's sign and said, "I'll be good."

He smiled and said, "When we got to the bar Connie slid into a booth in the corner and patted the bench next to her. I sat down leaving a few inches of space. She slid over so her fishnet covered thigh was pressed up against my jeans and asked, 'Do you know what I really like about you Mike?'. I told I had no idea. She said, 'I'm attracted to your brain.' I said, 'Did you say you're attracted to me?'"

"Wow," Leia interjected quietly. "How did you ever manage to impregnate someone?"

Mike sighed and said, "Do you want to hear this or don't you?"

"I wouldn't miss this for the world. By the way, don't worry about editing out the naughty bits once you get to the part where you pull your head out of your ass and realize she desperately wants you to fuck her brains out."

"You have my word," Mike said solemnly. "Where was I?"

"At the restaurant, when she finally stopped waiting for you to see the signs and told you she was attracted to you."

"Right. She ignored my fumbling response and pressed on. 'I can't believe we've worked together so long without us spending time together before this project. Even after all the time we spent on this project, I feel like a barely know you.' This kicked off a lengthy evening of drinks and conversation. She told me about her parents, who she hated. I told her about my parents who even then lived near a lake in the mountains, and who I saw every week or so. She told me about her sisters, who she hated. I told her about my brother and sister and their families. Finally, she told me about her boyfriend, who she hated."

"I'm sensing a theme," Leia murmured.

Mike continued, "She then looked me square in the eye and said, 'I really like you, Mike.'. Before I could form a response, her hand moved to my crotch. She stared into my eyes and licked her lips. I'm proud to say that I listened to my lizard brain in that moment, and I leaned in to kiss her."

"Good for you," Leia said enthusiastically. "What happened next? Remember, no editing."

"She... um... fondled me..."

"What did we talk about?"

"Her hand was on my, um, penis..."

"Still not there."

"She grabbed my cock..."

"There we go."

A long sigh left Mike's lips before he continued, "She gripped my, um, cock, through my pants while she teased my lips with her tongue."

"Perfect," Leia purred. "Just like that."

Mike spared a moment to look at Leia, noticing the blush spreading across her chest and the way her eyes constricted. He felt himself hardening as he studied her, and reached down to adjust himself. He noticed her eyes narrowing and hastened to continue the story.

"I opened my mouth to her and caressed her tongue with my own. She kept rubbing my cock through my pants, trying to find its shape through my jeans. I decided I was on a roll and reached up to caress one of her tits. She moaned into my mouth and started trying to open my zipper. I finally realized we were still in the bar and there were plenty of people around us (even though, somehow, none of our coworkers had ever showed up). I pulled back a bit and she slowly opened her eyes and licked her lips. She asked, 'Do you want to get out of here?' I'd never asked for a check so quickly in my life."

"We got to my place quickly even though I carefully obeyed the traffic laws since I had had a few drinks. But I was stone-cold sober due to that amazing kiss. There was also the small matter of her rubbing my cock through my jeans the whole way. I put my hand on her thigh and caressed her through the fishnet stockings, coming ever closer to her pussy hidden just beneath her skirt but not daring to go that far while I was driving.

"Once I locked the door behind us, the hesitation was gone. We were all over each other with me focused on unveiling her tits while she went to work on my zipper. Once she got my pants undone, she dropped to her knees in front of me. She inspected my cock for just a moment before reaching forward to gently grasp my shaft and licking the precum from the tip. She unhurriedly licked around the head of my cock with a swirling motion before grabbing my ass with each hand and forcing all of my cock into her mouth. I reached down to sweep her hair back behind her ears so I could caress her face. She responded by sucking harder, sliding her lips along the length of my shaft as her tongue massaged the underside of my cock. I gently pulled out of her mouth and pulled her to her feet.

"I kissed her deeply while I pulled up her skirt so I could grab her ass. She moaned into my mouth again as my cock found its way between her legs to rub against her panties, which were already soaked. She begged me to fuck her as our lips parted, but I told had other plans in mind. I bid her to lie on the bed and I dove between her thighs as she fell back onto her elbows. She whimpered softly as I gently kissed her pussy through her panties. I licked and kissed along her lace covered slit until I could taste her sweet muskiness through the fabric. By this point, she was pleading for me to stop teasing her. I pulled down her panties, but I wasn't quite done tasting her. I reached up to undo her boots, which were still ensnared by her panties. Once I freed her from those, I unzipped her skirt, so she laid before me wearing nothing but her stockings and garters.

"I crawled up her body to kiss her deeply while I caressed her breasts. I then stood up and finished removing my remaining clothing which prompted Connie to reach up and grab my rock-hard shaft and start to slowly pump it. At that moment, I realized I was unprepared. Not that I wasn't hard as a diamond, or that I was not just as anxious to fuck her as she was to be fucked, but that I did not have any protection with me. When I told her I didn't have any condoms, she eyed me suspiciously and asked, 'Are you just trying to get out of wearing one?' I told her, 'No! I just haven't slept with anyone in forever and I wasn't wasn't expecting this.' She shrugged and said, 'You're a good man, Mike. I trust you to pull out before you finish. Now, fuck me!'

"I needed no further encouragement. I positioned myself at her soaked entrance and slipped the tip in while I rubbed her clit. She wrapped her legs around me and thrust me deep into her molten core. I lost my balance between her legs and fell forward before I caught myself just above her face. I kissed her deeply as I started slowly thrusting. As I picked up my pace I watched with fascination as her breasts started to jiggle delightfully. She noticed my gaze upon them and reached up to squeeze them together. 'Don't' I told her. 'I love how they move.'

"She smiled at me and released her spectacular tits before reaching up to stroke my shoulders. At that I bent down and started alternately sucking her nipples, must to her apparent enjoyment. She started thrashing around beneath me as the combination of the firm, steady strokes of my cock and the way I was lavishing attention on her tits catapulted her into an orgasm. The sensation of her surge of wetness when she orgasmed almost caused me to break my promise. I stilled within her to stave off my own pleasure, not wanting to ruin her orgasm if I pulled out too soon. Instead, I kissed her deeply until she relaxed beneath me.

"After what seemed like hours, she ended the kiss by taking my face in her hands. She thanked me and asked how I wanted to cum. I knew what I wanted to say, but I didn't want to ruin our evening. All throughout the project, I had been fantasizing about her. All of those fantasies ended the same way. A finish so sensual, yet so naughty. It would be the culmination of the perfect evening. But I worried that it would turn her off, that she would accuse me of wanting her to be some kind of porn star. Instead, I chickened out and asked what she wanted. She frowned and said, 'Don't do that Mike. You just gave me one of the most amazing orgasms of my life. I want to do the same for you. The only way you can offend me right now is to not tell me the truth. You can have whatever you want. If you want to cum on my face, then tell me and I'll gladly get on my knees and beg you to glaze me like a donut. If you want me to go down on you so you can finish in my mouth, then say the word and I'll swallow every last drop. I'll even let you finish inside of me if you want. I don't think it's the right time of month for you to knock me up, so it'll probably be fine. It's up to you, lover. Just be honest with me and let me make you happy.'

"Those all sounded so tempting... especially the last one. I'd never cum inside a woman without protection and imagined it would feel amazing. However, I could not help but notice that she had used a lot of qualifiers in that statement. The whole time she had spoken I remained deep inside her, still hard as a rock. I started slowly thrusting into her, took a deep breath and said, 'Those all sound pretty great.' She smiled dazzlingly and said, 'So, what's it going to be?' She saw me glance down at her tits, so she reached up and grabbed them again as she said, 'You want to cum on my tits don't you?' I thrust into her as deep as I could, making her gasp with pleasure, before saying, 'I want to give you another orgasm... and then I want you to make me cum with your mouth. Then I'd love to watch you let it all spill down on your magnificent tits so you can rub it in before you lick them clean.'"

"Sweet Jesus, that's hot," Leia breathed.

"You're sure this isn't too much?" he asked worriedly.

"God no," she sighed in desperation. "Please keep going."

Mike continued, "She reached up for me and brought me down until I was inches from her face and said, 'That's more like it, lover. You'll get plenty of chances for me to make all your fantasies come true. Now give me that orgasm.'

"I got back up in a kneeling position and pulled out of her which caused her to whimper quietly. I got off the bed and then grabbed her ankles to pull her over until her ass was on the edge of the bed. I then held her feet and sucked her toes into my mouth as I thrust as deep as possible into her sopping wet pussy. She immediately started spasming in a run-up to another epic orgasm. She started to grab her enormous breasts to stop their hypnotic jiggling, but stopped herself when she saw where my eyes were glued. She said, 'You want to see your seed all over these big tits don't you? You want me to suck you off until you explode on my tongue. But you're going to cum so much that you'll end up covering me with all that spunk. Make me cum lover, and I'll give you an orgasm you'll never forget.'"

"Mike," Leia whispered needily.

"That nearly took me over the edge, but I was a man on a mission. I grabbed her legs and began thrusting quicker. I continued sucking Connie's toes while I held her foot with one hand. With the other hand I reached around her leg and started rubbing her clit. This triggered her orgasm and she screamed wordlessly, flinging her arms out beside her to grab double handfuls of the sheets. I slowed my thrusts, but continued slowly fucking her through her orgasm, giving a little extra thrust at the end of each stroke to maximize the jiggle which was bringing my orgasm ever closer.

"She opened her eyes again after her pleasure subsided and grinned wickedly before saying, 'Your turn!' She swung her legs around, pulling me out of her in the process. She scrambled off the bed to kneel before me and take my cock in her mouth to the hilt. She started sloppily moving her lips along my shaft, bringing one of her hands up to catch the saliva leaking from her mouth so she could coat my balls. Her other hand was busy with her own sex, alternating between rubbing her clit and fingering herself. She started moaning around my cock as she brought herself close to yet another orgasm. All this time she was looking pleadingly into my eyes. At first, I thought she was pleading for my seed, but I slowly realized it was even better than that. She was pleading for me to have, as she put it, 'the best orgasm of my life'. Her entire being was consumed, in that moment, with giving me maximum pleasure. Even her ministrations on her own sex were so that she would present the sexiest possible image for me as I gazed down on her. I fell in love with her in that moment as I started to shoot a massive load of cum into her mouth.

"Oh God," Leia moaned softly.

"She did everything I had asked for and more," Mike continued excitedly. "She continued pumping her mouth along the length of my cock, gently sucking to ensure that she was getting every last drop of cum. She maintained eye contact with me and smiled with her eyes as she held all of my seed in her mouth for a few moments. I could feel her swishing it around the head of my cock and it felt amazing. Just when I thought she had forgotten and was about to swallow she slowly started to let the cum leak out of the sides of her mouth, around my cock. She had a huge smile on her face as she did it and I struggled to keep my eyes open through the massive amount of pleasure she was giving me. She slowly pulled back until I slid from her mouth, a thick gossamer strand of cum spanning the distance between her outstretched tongue and my cock. She continued to pull back until the surface tension broke, leaving a small drop of cum hanging from the end of my swollen manhood. She pouted slightly and then leaned forward to kiss the head of my cock, collecting the last of my seed. She smiled at me and said, 'You taste delicious. I'm almost sad I didn't swallow it all. But if I had then I couldn't do this.' She looked down to her tits causing a waterfall of the cum she'd been holding in her mouth to cascade over her magnificent breasts. She slowly started rubbing my seed around her tits, focusing especially on her erect nipples. After a few moments of doing that, her tits were glistening with my semen. She lifted first one breast and then the other up to her mouth so she could lick off as much cum as possible, sucking each nipple deep into her mouth as she moaned in pleasure. I sank down to my knees while she was doing this and knew that I'd never forget this scene. When she finished, she looked up with a playful grin and said, 'How was that?' I told her it was perfect, and I leaned in to kiss her. Her eyes widened and she said, 'You want to kiss me right after you came in my mouth?' I kissed her before replying. 'Of course,' I whispered to her solemnly. 'I love you.'"

"That was beautiful, Mike," Leia whispered breathily. "Thank you for sharing it with me."

"You're quite welcome, although I already feel the need to apologize for being so graphic."

"It was perfect," she murmured. "Just like you."

"Then it was my honor."

"Always the perfect gentleman."

"You look tired, Leia. Should I let you go to sleep?"

"Only if you promise to talk to me again tomorrow."

"I promise."

She smiled at him and said, "Goodnight, my hero."

He bowed and said, "Goodnight, princess."

Seventeen

"Hey Mike!" a sing-song voice rang out in the crowd.

Mike looked around to find a petite woman climbing the stadium stairs and waving wildly at him. He returned her wave unenthusiastically, hoping that would be the extent of their interaction, but he soon found himself scooting over to make room for the newcomer.

Mike had met Olivia almost by chance the prior spring at the introductory meeting for parents of children starting high school who were interested in marching band. He found her enthusiasm for her children's well-roundedness remarkable, if a little unsettling. Olivia's four children were in an average of two-point-three extracurricular activities per child and her calendar was more complicated than a CEO's. Despite her hectic schedule, she always seemed to be full of energy and ready for the next challenge.

"Oh. My. Goodness. I'm so glad I spotted you."

"How was your summer?"

"Busy," she sighed. "But amazing! Eleven different summer camps. I swear, I must have driven my van the equivalent of New York to L. A. and back in two months. How about you?"

"You know... lots of trips to the lake. Alexis wasn't comfortable doing sleep-away camp this year. Zach put all his chips on doing drum corps, but he didn't make the cut. So, we really just hung around town."

"That's too bad. At least you had the lake."

They sat in relative silence as they watched the students on the field milling around in preparation for their first public performance of the year. Their season would run through November and was filled with enough competitions and football games to fill up as many as twenty hours per week for the dedicated thirteen- to eighteen-year-olds.

Olivia broke the silence to say, "I didn't see your name on any of the committee sign-up sheets."

Mike sighed inwardly. Zach was in his second year in high school, so Mike was uncomfortably familiar with the time commitments expected of parents. The prior year, he had volunteered for the equipment committee, thinking it would involve the occasional placement of show elements on the field before performances. He had ended up spending seven consecutive weekends during the portion of the season leading up to the competitions building platforms and billboards which would have made a Broadway show jealous. He had sworn he would never again fall victim to such folly. Olivia had won a close election for president of the band parent's association the previous spring and had immediately started her campaign to extract even more time and effort, not to mention money, from the parents.

"It's a really busy time at work," Mike offered lamely. "I didn't want to leave anyone high and dry, but I'll help out the equipment team whenever I can."

"We really appreciate it," she replied primly. "But I mention it because I know you're in IT. I thought perhaps you could contribute on the technology committee. We're trying to upgrade our website, especially with our ability to collect donations and run fundraisers."

Mike bit his lip to prevent himself from accusing her of trying to get for free that for which his company normally charged two-hundred dollars per hour. After all, he reasoned, that was the point of asking for volunteers. But he had given the proposal the technology committee had put together a quick look, and he knew it was a massive effort which would take experienced professionals weeks, if not months, to implement.

"I'll talk to Lewis about what I might be able to do to help."

"That'd be great," Olivia responded breathily. "Well, I just spotted Anthony. I've got to touch base with him about a little issue of a check bouncing." She whispered the last two words.

Without another word, she stood and bounded down the steps. Mike felt sorry for her next victim. He glanced down at Alexis, who was busily demolishing a cup of frozen lemonade and watching the older kids with wide-eyed wonder.

She noticed his attention and said, "Where's Zach?"

Mike pointed at the cluster of trumpet players off to the left of the field and said, "He's toward the left side. Standing next to the boy with the big hair."

"Oh!" she gushed. "I see him."

"Keep your eyes glued to him. It can be easy to lose track of him once they start the show."

"I will," she said solemnly.

He wrapped his arm around her and kissed the top of her head. As his eyes returned to the field, he felt a spark of recognition and for several moments he was certain that Leia had just entered the stadium. As the woman in question moved closer, he realized his mistake, but he was left with the feeling which had come over him at the thought that she was here.

He had thought about little else after their conversation the night before. It had been, by a comfortable margin, one of the most memorable conversations of his life. He thought ruefully of how he had described to Leia the conversations he had had with Connie early in their relationship. But speaking with Leia had laid bare just how many of those ostensibly memorable conversations with Connie had, in truth, just been an interpersonal bastardization of the concept of alternating current: two people taking turns speaking rather than truly communicating. And, while he had monopolized the conversation with Leia, it had only been at her genuine urging because she was so interested in what he had to say.

The feeling of having recognized Leia did, however, cause a moment of discomfort. The woman he had mistaken for her was quite young, likely only in her mid-twenties. Leia had told him she was thirty-four, but it was undeniable that she looked to be at least a decade younger due to her transformation. The fact that he would draw this conclusion reminded him of something he had been trying his very best to ignore. Namely that he was, without the possibility of doubt, attracted to Leia. And it was more than the fact that she was breathtakingly beautiful, it was the connection he had felt instantly with her. The first time he had touched her skin, a comforting taking of his hand on her part, he had felt a jolt of energy course through his body. Every time they spoke, be it in person or on the phone, he felt a calm descend around him. But he wondered what it portended that he was attracted to what was, at least from appearances, a much younger woman.

As he pondered this, he had an even more startling revelation. He had not once since arriving at the exhibition had to chastise himself for a wandering eye. This was no small feat, considering that it was not at all uncommon for the mothers in his school district to be both extremely attractive and alluringly dressed. Even now as he thought about it, he saw several women wearing short shorts and snug tops which showed plenty of cleavage and bared their midsections. But Mike had not noticed. Even now as he pondered the situation, he found he had no interest in the women around him. But he could effortlessly recall the way Leia's eyes twinkled when she laughed.

"Is this seat taken?" a soft voice said to his left, snapping him from his reverie.

He looked up to see Nicole, the mother of the object of Zach's affection, standing at his side. "Of course not," he replied warmly. "Have a seat."

Nicole was someone who Mike had noticed at once during his first experience as a high school band parent. She had long raven hair and enough facial piercings to give someone with aichmophobia heart palpitations. She had also been unfailingly friendly in all their interactions.

"Sorry to interrupt like this," Nicole whispered. "But I couldn't help but notice that Olivia already accosted you. I'm hoping she won't circle back around before I manage to escape."

"Don't tell me you also neglected to offer to spend every spare moment for the next three months catering to the whim of Dear Leader," Mike replied conspiratorially, with a gesture in the direction of the band's conductor.

"Perish the thought. I'm sure my other children would be fine fending for themselves once again this year while I spend hundreds of hours sewing costumes for the auxiliaries. Have you noticed that, with the exception of Olivia, every other committee head either has only one child, or they're working on shoving the youngest out the door?"

"No, but it's not surprising. Price we pay for living in an upper middle class suburb, I guess. Lots of folks like us, but just enough folks who spend their spare time wondering what they'll do between their Monaco and Tahiti vacations sprinkled in to keep things uppity."

Nicole chuckled and said, "I actually overheard someone complaining that the house they're renting while they build a new house on ten hectares, doesn't have a pool. Do you know how much it would cost to buy ten hectares in this school district?"

"Five million?" Mike guessed.

"At least. Imagine having that kind of cash laying around. I know for a fact that their old house, which clearly was just a step above a dump in their eyes, sold for a million and a half. Even considering appreciation, they're still looking at a mortgage for at least six million. What must that monthly payment be?"

"You know what they say. If you have to ask..."

"You can't afford it. Don't I know it. I just feel like we have aliens for neighbors sometimes. No doubt they spend all day watching the fascist news network. I can't tell you how nervous it made me when Quinn told me she was going out with Zach, and how relieved I was when I found out you weren't an asshole." She winced as she noticed Alexis on Mike's other side and whispered, "Sorry."

"It's fine. Same here, by the way. You never know what you're going to get in this area, but Quinn has never been anything other than perfectly behaved."

"Same for Zach. Clearly, he had a good male role model. You should be proud."

"Same to you. They're good kids. Looks like they're ready to get started."

The band had slowly coalesced from an unorganized mob to an organized one and the director was issuing instructions which, while they seemed to be in English, were completely incomprehensible to Mike.

As the band ran through their show, the assembled families watched in rapt fascination. The complexity of the music and the intricacy of the formations was stunning, especially when one considered that most of the people on the field were not yet old enough to drive a car. Zach's solo brought the crowd to its feet, as did Quinn's juggling of three spinning batons.

As the band concluded their show, the families in the stands rose to their feet and started to gather their belongings. Mike did not hurry toward the gate, having no wish to struggle through the throng of humanity just to get home a few minutes quicker. In any case, he knew it would be close to a half hour before Zach was able to join them. Watching his son mingle with his bandmates on the field, he noticed Quinn streaking across the field in his direction. As the two met, Mike could practically hear them enthusiastically congratulating each other on their performance.

"Would you look at that," he muttered to himself when Quinn stepped in and bussed Zach on the lips, to a roar of appreciation from Zach's section mates.

"Pretty sure that's a first kiss," Nicole observed.

"Good for them," Mike said with an appreciative nod.

He then noticed Nicole eying him and hastened to add, "I've already had the talk with him about always respecting his partner first and foremost. And how, no matter what, everything is always her decision."

"I wasn't suggesting otherwise, but that's good to know." She shook her head resignedly and added, "I'm not sure I'm ready for this."

"Me either. But either we trust them to be the humans we raised them to be, or they'll always be children."

"Very true. I might be calling you for advice. My talks with Quinn haven't really progressed past the 'you're not ready' phase."

"Anytime," Mike said warmly before watching her head down the steps.

Eighteen

For what seemed like the hundredth time, Mike glanced over at where his phone set on his desk and willed it to do something, anything. But, despite his silent demand that it do otherwise, it looked exactly the same as it had for the last half hour: showing a pair of text messages he had received from Leia.

I can't talk tonight

I just need some time to figure some things out

The messages had arrived right after Alexis got off the bus following her first day of school. He managed, albeit barely, to keep his attention focused on his daughter; listening intently as she outlined all her likes and dislikes about the fourth grade. But it had wrecked him to ignore his friend in need. Zach had taken one look at his father when he got home a few hours later and immediately offered to order them all something for dinner. Mike had taken pains to be present for his son as well, but Zach had insisted that such discussions could wait until his father had a chance to take care of whatever had him so distracted.

After hugging his son tightly, Mike had rushed into his office and begun doing what he could to help his friend. He realized almost immediately, however, that he was a poor friend indeed, because he did not even know her last name. Nor did he know where she lived (beyond the nebulous label of 'Midtown') or the names of any of her acquaintances. He had sent several texts pleading for a chance to help, including requesting information on her whereabouts and to know what had befallen her. Yet no response ever arrived. He even gave brief thought to employing the Artifact, but rejected that thought immediately as the only available suppliers for the blood it required were his children (and he knew he would never cross that Rubicon).

As Mike was starting to give serious thought to just driving to Midtown in hopes of finding her by random chance (with no consideration given to how absurd that strategy was when considered dispassionately), his phone buzzed insistently from its place on the wireless charging pedestal on his desk. He grabbed for the vibrating device with such haste that he knocked it onto the floor. After cursing mightily and scrambling to get out of his chair, he scooped the phone up and saw that the notification was from his security app. Quirking an eyebrow in curiosity, he opened the app to see that an unfamiliar car was stopped in front of his house. He stared at it for several seconds, able to see even in the low-res video that the car was running with a person inside. Just as he started to get up to investigate, the car pulled away. He assumed it was a delivery driver who had arrived at the wrong street (a not uncommon occurrence considering the vacuum skulls who had planned his neighborhood had decided it would be quite charming to give all the streets the same name, while changing only the indicators... many was the time when someone had knocked on his door in search of Twenty-One Nottingham Street, only for him to have to inform them that his house was located at Twenty-One Nottingham Way).

He tried to put the matter of the drive-by from his mind to focus instead on how best to find Leia. Fifteen minutes later, however, he got another notification from his security app. This time, when he looked at the video, he saw a figure dressed in all black walking purposefully up his driveway. The figure walked right up to his door before coming to a stop. After a brief pause, the figure pulled out what Mike quickly realized was a phone.

Seconds later, he received a text message from Leia:

I know you can see me

are you going to let me in or not?

Mike sighed in relief and opened the door, allowing Leia to step quickly inside before pulling back her hood. Before she could speak a word, he pulled her into his arms to embrace her tightly.

"Are you ok?" Mike whispered huskily.

"I'm better now," she murmured into his chest. "Sorry for just showing up like this..."

"Don't be."

"But I figured you'd be as likely as not to head out in an ill-fated search for me if I didn't respond to you. I know I should have just called, but I just needed to be around another person. You know?"

"More than you could possibly imagine."

"Thank you," she whispered. "I'm not sure what I did to deserve your friendship, but I'm glad I did it."

"Same," he soothed. "Listen... do you mind if we retire to the porch? The kids should be asleep, but you can never be certain when they'll decide to try to pilfer a late snack."

"It's your house," she replied with a shrug.

Once they were seated in the darkness of the porch and he had set a drink by her elbow, he said, "You can stay as long as you like, by the way. And while I'll never pry, I'm here for you. Whatever you need."

After a lengthy pause, she sighed wearily and said, "I got fired today."

"What!"

"That complaint I filed with H. R. kicked over a hornet's nest. Apparently that ruptured testicle of a senior manager who sexually harassed me is the nephew of the C. F. O. for my now-former company. So rather than disciplining, or even firing, him; they shitcanned me, and deleted all evidence of my complaint."

"Fuck. Leia, I'm so sorry."

"Thanks. At this point I'm wondering what I should do with the recording I made of my conversation with H. R., and how long it will take them to figure out I never got around to closing that hole in their firewall that I uncovered last week."

"You are truly a formidable woman."

"Tell that to my ex-boyfriend, who decided that me calling him asking if we could just get together for coffee and maybe figure out what's going on between us was the perfect opportunity to tell me that he's been seeing someone else for the last month."

"Tell me we've got a way to make his life miserable."

"I'm not really that vengeful," Leia retorted. "I mean I did forward to his new girlfriend a video I pulled from his building's security system of he and I in the elevator the day you rescued me. He was acting like a Looney Toons character until he recognized me. Openly and unapologetically leering at my tits and ass, even adjusting his cock. Then, as though he knew that I'd eventually find and exploit the video, he realized who I was and his reaction made it patently obvious that he'd completely oblivious when he started hitting on me."

"That's brilliant."

"I know," she replied with a smile in her voice. "I also cancelled all of his recurring payments in his banking app. Hopefully he'll rack up a shitload of late fees before he figures out what happened."

"Remind me to never cross you."

"I'd never do anything like that to you," she murmured. "After all, you're my best friend. My only friend."

"Oh, honey," he whispered.

"I'm ok, Mike. Honestly. I wasn't really fond of either my job or my boyfriend. It was just kind of a lot to happen all in the space of a few hours."

"I'm really glad I could be here for you."

"I'm glad I'm here for you too," she replied softly. She was quiet for a moment before chuckling and asking, "So... how was your day?"

"Until I got your texts, I would have said it was going great... even if it started in a most unexpected fashion."

"Lots of guys deal with nocturnal emissions, Mike. It's nothing to be embarrassed about."

"You're hilarious," he grunted. "It was actually someone at work complaining about my PTO."

"Did you run out with everything related to the divorce?"

"Quite the opposite. I work remotely, and my schedule is very flexible, so I can always figure out a way to get my work done (even though sometimes it means burning the midnight oil). No, their complaint was that I don't use it. Apparently, someone in upper management noticed that I was sitting on more than a fiscal quarter worth of time off, and sent word down from on high that I was to start using some of it. They were careful to note, however, that there were plenty of perfectly acceptable places to vacation that still had reliable internet access."

"How much PTO do you get?" she enquired suspiciously.

"I don't know. A couple/three weeks a year?"

"So, you really haven't taken any time off this year?"

"I haven't taken any time off in five years."

"But Mike," she exclaimed. "How is that sustainable? How are you honestly even sane?"

"Why would I have ever gone on vacation? It would just have been a case of dealing with all the shit I had to deal with at home, but without the infrastructure. I make sure the kids do everything possible with my family, and I didn't begrudge Connie the trips she picked for herself, but I eventually decided it just wasn't worth the effort... not to mention the money. Work doesn't stress me out, Leia. Work is a place where I can actually fix things. But there was no vacation from the rest of it. Even if I took time off work, I'd still have to deal with..."

"Her," Leia finished. Mike nodded gravely in response, prompting her to add, "But that's all done with now. Right?"

"I guess," he deflected.

She was silent for long enough that Mike felt the first twinges of discomfort at the edges of his consciousness. He was only partially aware of his motivations as he leapt to his feet and collected their glasses to refill them while also taking a bio break. When he returned to the porch, Leia had not moved. She murmured her thanks as he placed her glass by her elbow and waited for him to take a seat.

"Can I ask you something... sensitive?"

"Of course. I have no secrets from you."

"Why did you and Connie get divorced?"

"Because she left me, and refused to return."

"Please, Mike," she began. "I'd really like to know. If you're willing to tell me."

"I got an unexpected bonus at work, and Connie overheard the call when I was so informed. Not that I was one of those assholes that maintained that it was 'my' money because I was the one who did the job, I just tended to take her refusal to accept any responsibility for keeping up with our finances as her silent assent for me to be the authority where our money was concerned."

"Eminently reasonable," Leia murmured.

"In any case, she decided that our bank account getting an unexpected twenty-five thousand dollar infusion meant it was the perfect opportunity for her to get the plastic surgery she'd quote, unquote, always wanted. Surgery, I'll point out, which she'd never mentioned in my presence. I argued we should pay off the credit cards and stick the rest in the kids' college funds, but she wouldn't hear a word of my objections. Then, just when I'd decided to cave in, she upped the ante. Significantly. Irretrievably."

"You don't have to keep going, Mike," Leia reassured him with a soft voice.

"It's fine. I assure you, the finale was far from the most upsetting part of my marriage. Connie had disappeared after announcing that she was getting a tummy-tuck, and implants in her ass, tits and lips."

"Good lord."

"My thoughts exactly. She came bounding back into the room, ecstatic that she got an appointment just a few days later. Then she informed me that she'd made an appointment for me as well. I told her I wasn't getting plastic surgery, but she was adamant that unless I got penis enhancement surgery, she'd never lay a finger on me again."

"Jesus. I'm so sorry."

"Not curious to know if she had a point?" Mike muttered.

"I already know she didn't."

"How could you possibly know that?"

"Because you either care about someone or you don't. If you don't, then you're forced to rely on things like body parts which light up parts of your brain which were hardwired in your youth. Please refer to our earlier conversation regarding men's response to my ridiculously sized mammary glands should you require proof. But when you care about someone, none of that should matter anymore because it should be at least as much about their pleasure as your own. I've never been in love, but I've dated enough to know that much."

"I agree. There was a time when I thought Connie agreed as well, but that was obviously a long time ago. That afternoon, however, I think I caught her completely off guard. In fact, I suspect it was one of the genuine surprises of her life when I flatly refused to get the surgery. She acted as though she hadn't heard me and flounced out of the room. She left later that night without saying another word to me."

"Was that the last time you saw her?"

"We talked on the phone a few times as the days of her absence stretched into weeks. As often as not, she'd refuse to even speak to me unless I agreed to her demands. The rest of the time, we'd just fight about how she claimed I had turned everyone against her. Eventually, I just got to the point where I asked her when she was coming back. And her answer was always the same: never."

"She was true to her word. Not only did she never return to the house, but none of us ever saw her again. The divorce papers were a total shock, especially the part where she was going for full custody. I was really fortunate to have my family. I was in kind of a dark place, you know?"

"You mean you were depressed about her leaving, and unsure what that said about you?"

"That would indeed have been a logical mindset for me to have. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite that simple. You see, I had something of an epiphany a few years ago, or perhaps a revelation. I realized I wasn't going to be happy anymore. That I'd somehow burned through my lifetime supply, and that this wasn't the kind of thing you could duck into the pits and get more of. And it helped, this realization I'd had. Because it eased the angst I had been dealing with, striving for something I could no longer achieve. It brought with it a sort of resigned peace.

"It was only later, after I'd reoriented my thinking, that I realized there was another side to that coin. In hindsight, I think I'd have taken the angst over never being happy, rather than the soul-crushing depression of knowing nothing will get any better. Ever. It's a sobering thought when you realize that the reason you're studying an on-ramp so closely isn't because you want to perfectly hit the apex; it's because you're trying to figure out the exact angle you'd need to achieve when hitting the embankment at high speed to ensure you won't ricochet off rather than instantly turning your car into a fireball."

"Jesus, Mike," Leia sobbed.

"Don't worry," he scoffed. "I'm not suicidal."

"Could have fooled me!" she exclaimed.

"Suicidal people want to kill themselves. I merely said I fantasize about it occasionally in moments of weakness. In any case, I would never do anything which would orphan my children. Or, worse, place them in the position of needing to rely on Connie."

"Mike," Leia whispered desperately. "There has to be more to it than that. If you define your life around your kids, then you'll be devastated when they leave to find their own path."

"Thanks," he grumbled.

"I'm not trying to sadden you. I'm trying to fucking convince you that you're allowed to be happy. She tried to take that from you when you were married, to behave as though a partnership is a zero-sum-game where she can only win if you lose. But she left. She told you to go to hell. You owe it to your children, and you owe it to yourself, to say the same to her."

"But she's gone. We're divorced."

She reached out to take his hand, squeezing it comfortingly. "That's true. But you're still behaving as though she's going to come out here any second and start lambasting you for some imagined slight. You're in denial, babe. And it's preventing you from mourning the loss of whatever good might have once existed in your relationship."

"Babe?" Mike retorted with a smirk.

"Sweetheart? Princess? Honey?" she teasingly shot back.

"Point taken," he grunted.

"Don't you dare apologize. Babe. I'll let you know the next time (which will also be the first time) you make me uncomfortable. Speaking of which, I have another question for you."

"I thought we'd dispensed with asking permission to pose a question," he quipped.

"Fair enough."

"How did you beat her? You know, in the divorce? I've always heard that moms have a huge built-in advantage."

"My family basically treated it as a given that I'd fight her tooth and nail, something I was thankful for considering I'm not at all sure that's what I would have done absent their help. They lent me a ton of money and found me a really great lawyer. In the end, the fact that Conie hadn't seen the kids in four months by the time our court date rolled around kind of sealed the deal. Well, that plus the fact that she didn't bother showing up. Technically, we have joint custody and she owes me several thousand dollars for child support, but I (again, technically) owe her basically the same amount in alimony so I guess it's a wash. My lawyer wanted me to go for the jugular and present all the evidence I'd accumulated regarding her numerous affairs, but I didn't want that information being a matter of public record. For the kids' sake."

"And for yours," Leia interjected. Then, without even pausing for breath, she asked, "Do you still love her?"

"Maybe," he whispered sullenly. "I honestly can't tell some days. How's that for pathetic?"

"Why?" she gasped quietly. "Wait... I don't mean why do you believe you still love her. I mean why aren't you certain?"

He shook his head and said, "What's your definition of love?"

"Same as everyone, I guess. Being so fully at one with a person that their happiness becomes indistinguishable from your own; so consumed by their soul that a smile from them can brighten the darkest day. I heard it described once as the sensation of being on the brink of a hall of fame orgasm, except all the time; even when you're not making love."

"That's beautiful," he murmured. "Way better than mine. And you hit on part of the problem. Even after everything that's happened, I still want her to be happy."

"She's an abuser, Mike," she replied gently. "She's also a fundamentally narcissistic person, incapable of feeling empathy. But that didn't make you wrong for wanting to make her happy. Because you don't share her affliction. You have loads of empathy. You're also not a sociopath. As a result, you found it profoundly unsettling when the most prominent adult in your life was always unhappy. The fact that she blamed her unhappiness on you certainly didn't help things, but you'd have felt uncomfortable even if she didn't. Because it's normal to want people to be happy. But I'm not sure that's the same as love. That's also all in your past now. She's gone, honey. You have to admit that to yourself, right down to your soul. Otherwise you'll never be able to move on. You need to allow yourself to let her go, let your marriage go. And you need to let yourself be happy."

"That sounds great. Now all I have to do is figure out how."

"Well... you could spend time with your friends," Leia offered coquettishly.

"Leia... I..."

She squeezed his hand and said, "I'm not trying to seduce you, Mike. Although, in the interest of complete transparency, I would very happily reciprocate any advances you made. But I don't think that's what you need right now. You need to figure out how to let yourself be happy again. I was in the Navy before I got into consulting. I even did a tour in Afghanistan. I was in a bad place when I came home. I eventually got through it, but it was the suck because I didn't have anyone I could trust.

"There's a scene from one of my favorite shows where the old fuck is talking to his second in command, the latter of whom is going through a tough time. He talks about a guy being stuck down in a hole. A priest walks by and the guy yells for help. The priest says he'll pray for him and goes along his way. A cop walks by and the guy yells again. The cop says he'll go for help. Then his friend walks by. The guy yells up again and he's stunned when his friend jumps in the hole. The guy says, 'What the hell, man? Now we're both stuck down here!' The friend says, 'Yeah, but I've been down here before... and I know the way out.'

"You're not alone, Mike. In fact, I'm not leaving until I'm confident you've figured out how to be happy again."

Nineteen

Mike had managed to delay the inevitable the next morning due to the fact that he and Leia had stayed up talking until the early morning, and she was still sleeping in the basement's guest room when the children rose for school. Mike barely made it through the routine of walking his daughter to her bus stop and making sure his son was reasonably prepared to face the public before his ride arrived soon after. Parental duties fulfilled; Mike returned to bed.

He woke again to the warbling of his alarm a few hours later and stumbled downstairs in search of coffee. He had just set a kettle on to boil when he heard a noise behind him. He glanced over his shoulder and nearly dropped the French press when he spotted Leia sitting at the breakfast table.

"Christ!" he gasped. "You scared the hell out of me."

"You thought I'd gone?"

"I'm not sure. I didn't see you when I was up earlier. I guess I thought maybe you had gone."

"I gave you my word, Mike. Not something I do easily, or carelessly."

"You honor me."

"How very formal," she answered with a smirk. "How'd you sleep?"

He smiled and said, "The quality was nominal. The quantity was lacking. You?"

"The same. What do you have on tap for today?"

"Well," he declared, glancing theatrically at his watch. "Looks like today ends in a 'y', so... work?"

"No thoughts toward bowing to your company's wishes and actually taking some time off?"

"Not particularly. What about you?" The moment the words left his mouth, he winced in regret at his oafishness and gasped, "I'm sorry, Leia. That was insensitive."

"It's fine, Mike. Like I told you last night, I didn't particularly like that job. I am, however, actively engaged in the pursuit of the next job I likely won't care for. You sure you wouldn't rather take a personal day? It's not like they could complain when it was just yesterday when they leaned on you to use some P. T. O., right?"

"Fine," he grumbled before pulling out his phone to email his boss and PM. After he hit send, he looked back at Leia and said, "Happy?"

"Getting there. Next item on our agenda might be a little uncomfortable but ignoring it will only make things worse. What are you going to tell your children about me?"

"I honestly don't know. I am very glad that you're here, and I meant it when I said you should stay as long as you like, but I'm not sure what to tell them except I don't really want to position you as a prospective nanny."

"Why not? I bet I'd be a great nanny."

"You're a freakin' black belt in InfoSec, Leia. Not a domestic servant. You should be spending your time trying to take over the world, not chasing my kids around. Plus..."

"What?"

"We've got a... rapport, I guess you'd call it, that will be incongruous with what's ostensibly an interview."

"Is that what we have? A rapport?"

Mike frowned and said, "I'm open to suggestions. You show up unannounced because we're each other's only true friend anymore. Then, rather than doing what a true friend would and helping you solve your problems, I succumb to an unscheduled bout of depression from which you effortlessly rescued me. Oh, and, by the way, drop the bomb that you're totally open to a roll in the hay."

"Why is that so surprising?"

"Because you're an impossibility, Leia. You're nice, and strong, and kind, and empathetic, and nurturing, and funny, and caring. You're also supernaturally beautiful. You're a unicorn. What could you ever see in me?"

She sighed and said, "You're not ready for the answer to that question. All that is required now is that you believe me; both about us helping each other get through this dark time, and about (as you put it) that roll in the hay. That being said, I don't know that there's any reason we couldn't pull off the nanny thing. I could do as you do and get my work done while they're gone so I can be there for all of you when they're not. Correct me if I'm wrong, but at your children's ages, a nanny doesn't need any special skills beyond patience, attentiveness, and an active imagination."

"No, you're right. But I can't ask you to take that on. Even if I'm always around when the kids are home, they'll assume you're what we tell them you are and monopolize your time accordingly. Vicky wasn't a great nanny, but even the short time she was here opened the kids minds to the possibilities of having an adult at what amounts to their beck and call."

"It'll be fine. Besides, I think it will align quite well with what I have planned for tonight.

"That was... amazing!" Alexis enthused as they rose from their seats to head for the exit of the amphitheater.

Mike looked to Zach with a raised eyebrow, prompting the latter to say, "It was really great. Thanks, Dad."

"Don't thank me. This was all Leia."

Alexis took a deep breath and shouted, "Thank you Leia! That was the best concert I've ever been to!"

"That's the only concert you've ever been to," Zach interjected.

"That's not true! I went to your concert just last night."

"Fair enough," Zach replied affably. "What'd you think of all the costume changes the band did?"

"It was awesome. Especially when he made himself fat." Alexis cast an apologetic glance in her father's direction.

He pulled her close and said, "I agree, sweetheart. That was one of my favorite parts too."

"What was that thing he had strapped to his belly?"

"An accordion," Leia replied with a grin. "Did you really enjoy the show?"

Alexis said, "Yes! It was so funny. Where are we stopping for ice cream?"

"And there it is," Zach murmured.

Leia only snickered in reply.

The trip back to the car was long, but exceedingly pleasant. Leia did not pry into the lives of Mike's children, which subtly encouraged them to volunteer everything about themselves. Mike even learned a few things in the process, including yet another bit of turnover in the best friend department for Alexis and some palace intrigue with respect to intersectional rivalries in Zach's marching band.

Once they got to the car, the conversation waned thanks to the late hour. Alexis was asleep before they merged onto the highway and Zach had lost himself in his phone. Mike and Leia traveled in companionable silence, but he could feel the tranquility her nearness afforded.

The children had accepted Mike's story about Leia interviewing for the open nanny position with nothing more than a raised eyebrow from his son. Any suspicion they may have had quickly disappeared when Leia had produced concert tickets and told everyone they had five minutes to get ready. The move had been brilliant on her part. Between the urgency to leave and the excitement for a new experience, there had been little time to question her appearance in their lives. And, by the end of the evening, both children had warmed to her to such a degree that it was no longer even a question of whether or not she belonged.

They arrived home without fanfare, with Leia accompanying Zach into the kitchen to get a snack while Mike carried Alexis up to bed. They rendezvoused on the darkened porch once the children were in bed and sat in silence for several minutes, enjoying the cool evening air after the heat of the concert.

"Thank you," Mike murmured. "Tonight was... delightful."

"Then my mission was a success," Leia replied warmly.

"You really needn't stay. I assure you we'll be fine."

"Do you wish me to go?"

"That's not what I said. I just don't like the idea that you're staying because you feel you must."

"What about if I want to?"

Mike sighed and said, "It amounts to the same thing. I'm fine, Leia. I won't do anything nutty."

"I did not say I felt like I needed to stay, or even that I am staying because you are for some reason incapable of managing things here."

"Then... why?"

"Because I like you, Mike. I like being around you. I like how you make me feel. And I think you feel the same."

"Of course, I do. But you have a life."

"Barely," Leia sighed. "I can job search from here as well as anywhere. I have no encumbrances to tether me to the life I led. It's as I told you; I got out of the service a year ago and moved here because I had a good time here once on leave. Most of the people I know outside the service are coworkers, or my ex. And the less said about him the better."

Mike reached out to take her hand before saying, "But... what if I can't give you what you want?"

"But you can," she whispered solemnly. "Just by being happy. I won't deny the thought of throwing caution, and our clothes, to the wind excites me. But so does the thought of sitting out here and just being with you."

"I agree."

A companionable silence lingered as they listened to the cacophony of woodland animals. Almost as if of their own accord, their hands slowly pivoted until they could lace their fingers together. The serenity of her touch surrounded Mike like a warm blanket, keeping all the stresses of his life at bay. Without thought, he lifted their clasped hands to his lips and kissed her knuckles.

She exhaled contentedly and said, "That felt nice."

"I don't know what I'm doing," he whispered.

"Yes you do," she soothed. "Because you're doing brilliantly."

Mike sat with his roiling thoughts for a moment before allowing himself to speak. Part of him knew that there was no logical reason for him to fear a deepening relationship with Leia. He trusted her too much to doubt her insistence that she desired intimacy, and he certainly echoed her yearning. Yet he could not silence the voice in his head which insisted that any such union must be doomed from the outset. To his way of thinking, the gulf between them was simply too wide. At least... it was at present.

"Do you mind if I bounce an idea off of you?"

"I am, and I don't say this lightly or with any reservations, at your disposal."

"I want to discuss my thoughts for what I'll do next with the Artifact."

"Next? You've already used it?"

"See?" he joked. "This is what happens when you bully me into telling trashy stories from my past rather than using doing the more pedestrian talking about our day."

"I regret nothing," she simmered.

"Agreed," he conceded with a grin. "But the first script I ran with it..."

"Script?"

"That's how I think of it. That 'check mode', as Tripod called it, is actually a debugger. If you capture the output with a high speed camera, you can review it and dial in your syntax. I added the functionality of an O. C. R. on the laptop I've dedicated to this project (one which, I'll point out, I've set up to both offline and completely encrypted) so that I can have it read back to me to further reduce errors. Speaking of which, I'd love for you to give my setup a thorough review to suggest additional protections which could be employed to make it more secure. I'd happily compensate you for your expertise."

"Friends don't charge friends when they're asked to help. I'd love to review your setup. And it's such a relief to hear how seriously you're treating this."

"I'm still not entirely convinced that I shouldn't have destroyed it from the jump," he admitted. "It's unbelievably powerful."

"You don't have to remind me. So... what'd you end up doing."

"When was it... the day before yesterday? No, it started before that. The day Vicky led me to Tripod's chalet..."

"The day you rescued me," she interrupted.

"I lent Vicky my phone during the drive home," Mike continued. "Obviously it was a very foolish thing to do. Especially in hindsight. At first, I thought she'd just transferred all my cash into one of her accounts."

"What a contemptible cunt," Leia growled. "She just can't help but be as awful as possible at every juncture."

"That wasn't even the worst part. I was prepared to accept her theft at first. After all, you'd given me the Artifact so I figured I was still coming out ahead. The money she took wasn't nothing, a few grand from savings which was serving as my rainy-day fund, but I was due to get paid the next day so I wasn't too worried about it. Then payday came and things got worse. I've been living quite hand-to-mouth since I send every dollar I can spare to my family to repay them for all they'd lent me to cover the legal fees, so the paycheck I got a couple days ago was basically already spent to cover the mortgage and all my utilities, all of whom were eager to inform me that I was late the second the pre-scheduled transfers failed due to lack of funds. It turns out that not only did she empty my checking and savings accounts, she also extracted all the money from my retirement and set up an auto-transfer to redirect any future deposits into an offshore account."

"Jesus. How much did she take?"

"North of a half-million all told."

"Did you call the cops?"

"No. Not because I don't believe she should be punished, but because I don't want any scrutiny right now. Obviously I worked with my bank to shut down both the auto transfers and any access she might still have had, something else I'd welcome your review of, but I also built a script to implement with the Artifact which was designed to recoup my losses using the market. More than recoup them."

"How so?"

"I'm basically a day-trader now," he offered with a shrug. "Albeit one who knows in advance how all his investments will go. I had to pull some money out of the kids' college funds, but I'll be able to pay that back before the end of the month." He allowed a satisfied smile to decorate his features before adding, "I mean, I'll also be a millionaire three times over by the end of the month. And that's after I pay off my mortgage along with the rest of my debt to my family."

"Wow."

"You're welcome to participate in my little scheme," he offered. "If you like. Even though it's designed to ostensibly have twice as many investments lose compared to those that win, any investment will increase by an order of magnitude within a fortnight."

"So a dollar will turn into a million dollars in..."

"Ten weeks," he finished. "And it'll grow to a billion in another five weeks. About three-and-a-half months in total. That assumes continued daily work to set up the buy and sell orders, but that usually only takes about ten minutes. I figure that once I hit what I once heard referred to as 'fuck me' money, meaning rich enough to comfortably do things which would previously have been considered ruinous..."

"Such as buying yourself a hyper-car?" she mused.

"Perhaps," he conceded with a smirk. "Once I get to a number wherein I never have to work again, and couldn't conceive of anything occurring which I couldn't handle financially, I'll just discontinue the day-trader scheme and move everything into something super-stable."

"Makes perfect sense. Far more than what Tripod did with just transforming bodies to suit his ideal."

"That's... what I originally wanted to talk to you about," Mike said slowly.

Twenty

Mike took a deep breath before beginning. "I want to... um... heal myself"

Leia squeezed his hand consolingly and said, "I didn't realize you were sick."

"I suffer from one of the leading causes of morbidity in the country," he muttered, "As I'm sure you've noticed."

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I don't know what you mean."

"My doctor refers to it, rather unkindly, as morbid obesity. I suspect everyone else would use a term I'd appreciate even less. Not that it isn't deserved."

"I've never thought of you that way, Mike. Not even close. My initial impression of you was that you were handsome. Getting to know you, however, disproved that convincingly. You are more than that... so much more."

"I appreciate you saying that," he stammered through his churning emotions. "And please don't take what I'm about to say as in any way doubting your sincerity. But you must remember, my dear... I don't agree with you. Not remotely. In my mind, someone like you would be sullying themselves with someone like me. The fact that you don't agree with that sentiment is of paramount importance, but the reality that I'm disgusted by what I see in the mirror isn't something which can just be shunted aside.

"That's why I started working on another script for the Artifact. Not one which will turn me into an Adonis, or a porn star. Just one which will heal everything that's wrong with me. And everyone I care about. I want to cure us of any, and all, physical, emotional, or behavioral maladies. This includes things like my dad's cancer (which is hopefully in remission, but you never know), and my brother's bad back which he messed up in a car accident. The pill will also be designed in a way that's fundamentally different from most medications. When I said it will cure us, that wasn't entirely accurate. What it does is more akin to altering our D. N. A. such that we become immune. To everything. This means that, in addition to correcting those issues which exist at present, we'll also be incapable of falling victim to anything in the future. Obviously, it'll also correct my weight problem."

"I understand," Leia spoke after a pregnant pause. "I hope you do believe that the desire I feel for you is very real."

"I do."

"And that my hope," she continued, "my yearning to forge a relationship with you is in no way dependent on you implementing this wish. Having said that, who am I to suggest that you forgo this opportunity to make what is obviously a long-held dream come true? After all, I was given a body for which most women would kill. The fact that it wasn't at my behest is beside the point. It happened. And, absent the Artifact's intervention, it's permanent. Why shouldn't you enjoy the same reward? You've certainly earned it."

"I appreciate your understanding."

"Always," she replied with a soothing tone. "So when will you implement this next wish?"

"I still have some bugs to work out. As you've pointed out repeatedly, I am wholly incapable of suppressing that which is in my nature; notably the fact that I'm an engineer. The script to create a pill which cures the ailments I described is fairly straightforward. But, as Tripod discovered, the implications of solely focusing on a singular outcome can be quite troubling. For instance, if I lose half my body weight overnight, people are bound to ask questions. Those lead to someone figuring out I've found a quote, unquote, miracle cure and then I've suddenly gone viral. As with the scheme I came up with for making money, I find myself spending far more time on making it so no one notices what I've done than I do crafting the wish itself. This is especially critical since anyone who takes this pill will effectively stop aging. And, in the case of people who have already entered senility (like my folks), they'll experience something akin to the fountain of youth."

"So how do you prevent anyone from noticing?"

"I toyed around with the idea of simply making the change invisible, but that wouldn't really solve my problem. It's true that my primary concern is how I see myself, the fact that we're part of a society means that my self-perception is inextricably linked to how other people see me. So I've instead been working on a way to instill something akin to very focused amnesia to make it so the beholder would be unaware anything out of the ordinary had happened."

"How will that work?"

"Have you ever seen someone in public who had lost a limb?"

"Sure. What of it?"

"You know how there's a baser part of your brain which just keeps niggling you to look at them? How even though your higher brain says no, you're constantly feeling the urge to look again."

"I guess so."

"My theory was to do that, except in reverse. Allow people to notice that something has changed but in such a way that they don't recognize it as noteworthy. Like when you see a car pass you on the road. It's a red car with a broken turn-signal and a misfiring spark plug, but you've forgotten it before it's even out of sight."

"Seems spurious, but ok."

"I'm still dialing it in, but early testing suggests I should be able to make it work with a bit more effort."

"I'm happy to help, if I can."

He squeezed her hand gratefully. "Thank you."

"How are you going to explain this to your family?" she asked next.

"I had initially thought to tell them my genius college buddy who works in the pharmaceutical industry told me in confidence about a new drug they're testing which promotes weight loss (since everyone who I want to involve with this is carrying at least a few extra pounds). I'd intended to keep the other changes to myself (allowing them to assume they're feeling better due to the weight loss). But that's all done and dusted now that I was forced to implement the money-making scheme first."

"You'll have to tell at least one of them to get them to provide their blood," she concluded.

"Exactly."

"I would have offered mine had Tripod not..."

"I know," he interrupted. "And, again, I'm in your debt."

"Don't be silly. Where your happiness is in doubt, I would endure far worse than donating a bit of blood."

"I would do the same."

"I know," she sighed as she got to her feet. "That's why I'd like you to come with me."

"Where are we going?"

"Come on," she whispered coquettishly. "I'll tell you downstairs."

He followed her down to the guest room, his mind racing with the possibilities. When they arrived, she closed the door behind them and moved to just a handsbreadth from where he stood in the middle of the room. She assumed a posture which looked, to his uneducated eyes, to be very close to attention. "Look at me, Mike."

He smiled and said, "I am looking at you."

"I mean... really look at me. Look at my face, my eyes. Do you see revulsion; or pity; or disgust; or indifference; or hatred; or anger?" He shook his head somberly. She continued, "What do you see?"

"I see kindness."

"Perhaps," she offered. "But you also see desire, do you not?"

"Yes, but..."

"No buts... do you, or don't you?"

"I do."

She stood and indicated the bed. "Then sit."

He did as instructed and watched, gobsmacked, as she unceremoniously removed all of her clothing. When she was standing nude before him, she struck a pose that was old when the Babylonians still believed themselves to be the apex of human civilization.

Her strawberry blonde hair was cut in a pixie, beautifully framing her graceful Nordic features. Her smile was crooked, but that only served to accentuate her beauty. She had an athletic frame and the smooth muscles of a lioness, but this stood in stark contrast to her proud full breasts. Her sun-kissed skin showed no hint of tan lines, and her areolae were barely visible. She had a flat belly with a hint of abs which descended elegantly into a flared waist and a bare bikini area. Her legs continued the theme of sleek muscularity and tapered down to feet which looked slightly small for her frame. She was clearly enjoying his inspection because as his eyes reached her feet, she did a quick twirl to show him the other side. Her ass looked otherworldly: impossibly full yet it jiggled gracefully as she spun. Her back was as toned as the rest of her and offered a delightful view of her E-cup breasts swelling out from each side of her frame.

She turned back around and smiled warmly at him before saying, "That look right there." She moved to join him on the bed, careful to keep a comfortable distance between them. She reached out to take his hand and said, "I know it's not yet time for us to be together. But there are other ways we could make each other happy. We are visual creatures, you and I." She glanced briefly toward his lap before adding, "You are aroused by what you see, yes?"

"Yes," he whispered hoarsely. "You're stunning."

"Thank you. I mirror your sentiment, by the way. I see you the same way. But I understand, and believe, that you must feel the same before we can be together."

"How are you this incredible?"

"Because the best man I've ever known rescued me," she replied with a wide smile. "I propose a gift that we will share. A secret gift known only to us, to sustain us until the time comes for something more. Sneak glances at me; stare unabashedly; leer; ogle. Whatever makes you happy. And you need not wonder if I'm giving my hips an exaggerated sway, or my tits some extra jiggle, just for your benefit. Because I most certainly am. I do it craving your eyes on me. And I ask that you allow me to reveal myself to you, like this, as often as possible; but at least daily. Do you think that would be ok?"

"I think that's wonderful."

"You promise I'm not pushing?"

"Not remotely, honey. You're incredible... like a dream come true."

"I agree," she replied with a smile, but Mike could see the fatigue in her gaze.

He stood and said, "I should let you get some rest."

"If you must," she replied coquettishly. Her eyes then fell to his distended trousers, and she added, "But, before you go to sleep, will you do something for me?"

"Your wish is my command."

"When you get to your room, I want you to masturbate while you think of me, because I will most certainly do so thinking about you. Can you do that for me?"

Mike numbly nodded, unable to form any coherent words.

Leia smiled warmly and said, "Good night, my hero."

He said, "Goodnight princess" and headed up to the master bedroom to follow the lady's instructions.

Twenty-One

"Good morning," Leia said with a yawn as she settled onto the couch opposite the recliner where Mike was seated. "What are you doing up so early?"

Mike gestured at the screen and said, "Monza."

"Pardon?"

"Monza is the name of the circuit where they hold the Italian Grand Prix," Mike explained.

"So, it's a car race?"

"Not exactly. The race is Sunday. Today they're just practicing. Tomorrow they'll do qualifying, where they determine the order of the starting grid. So they're not exactly racing each other except for the fact that they're all trying to get the fastest lap time."

"Fascinating. And this is Formula One?"

"Yup. Pretty much the best drivers in the world."

"Was that your dream when you were a kid?"

"I knew pretty early on I wasn't even in the same universe as those guys. Their instincts and reaction times are beyond comprehension. In truth, I'm merely an adequate driver."

"Didn't seem like it the other night," she retorted companionably. "You're definitely the best driver I've ever met."

"Why thank you," he enthused.

She watched quietly for a few moments before saying, "Who's your favorite?"

"I don't really cheer for a specific driver as much as I cheer for good races. Far too often, they end up being frustratingly processional, where the order of the top cars at the end of lap one is the order at the checkered flag. But that can happen with any sport. One of the reasons I like racing, however, is that I also really dig the engineering aspect. It's like I get to watch a microcosm of the space race twenty or so times a year. These teams spend far more designing and building their cars than they do on the drivers. But, even when the race is kind of a dud, I still get to enjoy the fact that the drivers are undeniably super-human."

"How so?"

He gestured to the screen which was showing a graphic indicating that the favorite for pole was pulling five lateral G's through Parabolica whilst travelling at more than a quarter of the speed of sound. "Drivers at this level have reflexes which would make Top Gun fighter pilots jealous, and nerves of steel. Some may scoff at the notion that they're athletes, but how many baseball players, or golfers, could do that without losing consciousness? Or their nerve? There's also the side of racing most prefer not to talk about. They're certainly well compensated (they're amongst the highest paid athletes in the world) but theirs is one of the few sports where, at each venue they turn up to, the commentators inevitably mention the handful of drivers who perished racing there in the past."

"Have you ever seen a fatal crash?"

"No, thankfully. The sport has actually gotten a lot safer in recent years. But I'll never forget a race in the middle east a few years ago where a driver hit a barrier and his car literally exploded. The footage of him leaping like a wraith from within that fireball is something I'll never forget."

"And he was ok?"

"Just a few minor burns to his hands. He was racing again within fifteen months, albeit in a different series."

"Goodness," she breathed. "Well, here's hoping for a... non-processial, but safe, race?"

"I'll turn you into a fan yet," he declared happily.

"Do you mind if I ask you something else while you're watching?"

"Of course not. What's up?"

"It really can wait if you'd prefer to focus on this."

Mike reached for his phone and tapped it a few times, causing the video on the screen to pause. He looked back to Leia and said, "Now, how can I be of service, milady?"

"Careful with that kind of talk," she whispered. "Aren't your kids home today?"

"Sure. But they won't be surprised by your presence."

"I meant the," she began before lowering her voice, "term of endearment."

"That was more an honorific than anything. But, I take your meaning."

She looked around to ensure they were alone before continuing. "I'm flattered, Mike. Truly. As with... the other thing we discussed last night... you know, the looking?" He nodded his understanding. "I'm following your lead. You have to tell me what's ok, and what isn't. Because I meant what I said last night. There's no such thing as something with respect to... um... us, which makes me uncomfortable. There is no 'too far'. I just don't want to get too comfortable calling you babe, and have it slip out in front of the kids."

"You're right."

"Of course I'm right," she teased playfully. "Just because I've gotten myself off dozens of times thinking about you..."

"Dozens?"

"Yes. How many times has it been for you?"

"You mean..."

"Yes," she interjected. "How many times have you jerked off thinking about me?"

"I'm not sure," he began, but she interrupted him with an annoyed sigh. He pressed on, "But it's definitely in the range of several dozen. At least daily since we met in the diner. And much more frequently recently."

"More than once last night?" she asked coquettishly.

"Three times," he confirmed.

"You should have called me back."

"Please accept my most sincere apologies." He took a calming breath before continuing, "So, what was it you wished to discuss?"

"I'd like to give you access to an offshore account I established a year or so ago when I was still in the service. So you can pull money from there to include in your stock market jiggery pokery."

"You don't have to give me full access hon... Leia."

"Mike," she sighed with a weary smile. "I trust you. Implicitly. Just as I believe you trust me."

"Of course."

"Why wouldn't I give you access? You and I both know it'll make things much easier to facilitate the transfers."

"I guess," he allowed. "But I'll prepare daily statements for you to show you exactly what's being done."

"Again, why? That's just extra work for you, and I have no interest in becoming an auditor." She favored him with a brilliant smile before adding, "Just let me know when I become a millionaire, so we can celebrate."

He returned her expression before saying, "I think I can do that."

"I love how you're making me a rich woman in return for absolutely nothing on my part, and you're acting like I'm doing you a favor."

"You make me happy," he offered huskily. "That's worth a hell of a lot more than money."

She swiped away a happy tear and took his hand, "Then my plan is right on track."

He gazed into her eyes for a long moment before they heard the thud through the ceiling of Alexis leaping out of her bed. She squeezed his hand reassuringly before releasing him.

As they waited for his daughter to appear, he asked, "So does your decision to invest mean you'll be forgoing a job search? And, lest I give you the wrong impression, you're welcome to stay here as long as you need to."

"Or want to?" Leia inquired coquettishly. "And, to answer your question, I will be searching for work. But not to make money. I have enough to tide me over, even without your generosity, until that account has grown by a few orders of magnitude. But I can't stop working. It's just not how I'm wired. So I figured I'd look for deserving nonprofits who are in need of someone with my particular set of skills, but unable to afford to hire the person who can do the job."

Mike looked thoughtful for a moment. "That sounds pretty tempting. Perhaps I should consider doing something similar. You know, once the mortgage is paid off and the kids' college accounts are stuffed with enough cash for them to be able to afford even the preposterous Ivy League price tags."

Before Leia could respond, Alexis came thundering down the stairs in advance of leaping from the penultimate step and sliding across the hardwood in her footie pajamas in a fashion which would have made a hockey forward jealous. She looked to where Mike and Leia sat close together, regarding them intently for a long moment, before she asked, "Waffles?"

Later that evening, after the children had gone to bed, Mike found Leia on the back porch tapping on her laptop. As soon as he emerged, she closed the lid and patted the spot beside her on the glider. He took a seat beside her, and she took his hand in hers.

"Any luck," he asked the darkness.

"I found a few possibilities, but I'm not in a hurry. It occurred to me, however, that the proposition I'm offering isn't something most people will be prepared to accept on its face. Even if I agree to accept the salary they're offering, I'll face headwinds. Even though it was the end of the week, I already spoke to a few recruiters who couldn't help but express suspicion that I wasn't just looking for a way to make a few bucks while I continued searching for a quote, unquote, real job."

"Hopefully, once you get face-to-face with the people at these non-profits, they'll understand that you care about their mission more than money. After all, some of them have to be in the same boat, right?"

"Exactly. At least for the right one."

"Any plans for the weekend?"

"Just hanging out with my bestie and his hilarious and awesome kids. Assuming that meets with your approval."

"Is he bigger than me?" Mike teased.

"Considering your declared course of action, that's rather a more interesting question than it would be coming from most people."

"Funny you should mention that," he mused softly. "I asked about your plans because I was hoping you'd join us tomorrow. We're going up to my folks house because my brother and sister, and their spouses, are in town. It's sort of a mini family reunion."

"And you want me to come?" she asked with unexpected vulnerability.

"Very much so," he answered while giving her hand a squeeze. "But I'm not trying to pressure you into anything..."

"Yes," she interrupted. "I'd love to."

"We'd love to have you, honey. And I know my family will love you."

"You don't know what this means to me, Mike."

"I think I might have some idea. You lost your whole family, sweetheart. Far too young. I'm not saying we can replace what you've lost, I'm just saying we'll try."

"Oh, babe," she sobbed as she leaned into him.

He released her hand to wrap his arm around her, prompting her to burrow even deeper into his side. Without even thinking about it, he kissed the top of her strawberry blonde head, which elicited a contented sigh from her lips.

"How early should we leave?" she asked at length.

"I was thinking around eight. My folks said come as early as we'd like, and everyone else is already there. I figure there's no reason not to have lunch there."

"Then we should probably call it a night. As gratifying as they've been, we've had quite a few late nights recently."

"Indeed we have," he agreed. "But I have zero regrets. In fact, I've loved every minute."

"I couldn't agree more," she murmured into his chest. "But... do you mind if I call you once I get in bed? Just to say goodnight properly?"

He smiled and said, "I'd like that."

"Video on," she announced playfully as she departed with a parting smile.

Mike double-checked the locks as Leia headed to the basement. Finding everything in order, he collected his earbuds from his office before heading to his bedroom to await her call. He had just closed the door when his phone started warbling.

"Hi!" she exclaimed as her video moved wildly in response to her placing her phone on the bed, a few feet in front of where she was seated against the headboard.

Somehow, defying both his understanding of the time space continuum and his learned expectations regarding the behavior of the fairer sex, she had found both the time and the inclination to remove every stitch of clothing.

Considering the circumstances, he was rather proud of the fact that he managed to gasp, "Wow!" in response to the splendor on offer.

"I already told you Mike, I intend to show you my body for so long as doing so continues to bring you happiness."

"That's quite a commitment," he murmured. "Considering I could never grow tired of this."

"I intend to hold you to that," she simmered. "In the interest of our continued journey to learn more about each other, this is how I prefer to sleep. How about you?"

"Pardon?"

"What do you typically wear to bed?"

"Once upon a time, I shared your preference. But eventually I was led to see the error of my ways."

"Let us not speak of her right now," Leia chided gently.

"In any case," he continued. "These days I'll typically go with a T-shirt and either boxers or pajama pants. Gotta be ready in case one of the kids needs something in the middle of the night."

"Perfectly understandable. Then would you mind getting ready for bed? I won't be offended if you set your phone aside while you do so."

"Um... ok," he stammered.

He rested the phone on the bed, screen side up so he could keep an eye on his virtual companion (whose fingers certainly seemed to be drifting ever closer to her erogenous zones). He changed quickly, opting to shuck his trousers and button-up shirt which left him in his boxers and T-shirt. He scooped his phone up and set on his bed.

"More comfortable now?" she asked gently.

"Definitely. How about you?"

She said, "I'm feeling quite comfortable. But I'm not feeling very relaxed at the moment. I can't imagine how I'll ever get to sleep."

"Why... why not?"

"Because the way you're looking at me is making me so fucking horny right now."

"Horny?"

"Yes, Mike. You cannot imagine how turned on I am right now."

He felt himself blush at her words, but managed to stammer, "I feel the same way, honey."

Her breathing grew ragged as she stared unabashedly at him, and a gasp escaped his lips when her hand entered the frame to caress one of her breasts. Her other hand grazed across her stomach before resting on her thigh only a breath away from her perfect pussy.

His words were barely audible as he pleaded, "Touch it."

"Touch what?" she gasped.

"Your... your..."

"You can say it Mike. Nothing you will say could possibly offend me at this moment."

"Your beautiful pussy, sweetheart. Touch it for me."

He gripped his cock as her fingers teased her folds.

"Fuck," she gasped as she her legs fell open wider and her fingers grazed her clit.

She leaned further back into the pillows behind her, causing her labia to open for him. The camera on her phone gave him perfect insight into the moisture which soon coasted her outer lips and her fingers.

He began stroking himself unabashedly, desperately trying to memorize every detail of the beautiful sight she presented to him. She continued her ministrations on her clit with one hand while she slid a finger into her soaked opening. He increased the pace of his strokes as she began to pant with pleasure. His eyes were constantly moving across her body: taking in the expression of ecstasy on her face; the mesmerizing jiggle of her breasts caused by her breathing; the way her fingers teased her clit and thrust into her femininity. She added another finger to her soaked entrance, desperately fucking herself as she massaged her clit.

Her breathing was so ragged, he barely heard her as she whispered intensely, "Oh, Mike. I'm going to cum for you."

This was too much for him to take and he gave himself to his orgasm. Countless jets of molten cum erupted from his cock onto his stomach. He heard a contented moan from Leia as he saw her body tense up with her own orgasm.

At length, they both collapsed in sated bliss, a sheen of sweat glistening on their bodies. After they took a moment to collect themselves, Leia said, "Sweet Jesus, that was hot."

"Thank you, honey. I'll never forget this."

"Same here, handsome. I think I'm going to pass out now, but I promise you'll be in my dreams."

He smiled and said, "A higher honor, I could not ask for. Good night, princess."

She yawned and said, "Good night, babe."

Twenty-Two

"Alexis!" Mike called through the house. "Let's go!"

"Coming Daddy!" she screamed in response.

Seconds later, he heard the cacophonous thunder of her racing down the stairs. He winced in concern for her well-being, but she once again managed her dismount without injury. Zach stuck up his hand as she raced by him, and she obligingly gave him a high five as she scampered past him and toward the garage.

"One of these days," Zach muttered in the direction of his sister's retreating form. "She's going to seriously wipe out doing that."

"Let's hope not," Mike replied. "You all set?"

"Yup. Can I drive today?"

"Maybe after while, but I'll take it to start."

"Rats," Zach grumbled as he followed his sister.

"A chip off the old block?" Leia inquired as she rinsed out her coffee cup.

"After a fashion," Mike agreed. "Although I'd already been driving competitively for about a year when I was Alexis's age. So, as you can imagine, me taking the wheel once I was old enough to drive on public roads was a bit of a fait accompli."

Mike followed Leia out to the garage and they piled into his coupe. Leia continued their conversation about his karting career after they set off, something his children found utterly fascinating. They had seen his trophies at their grandparents' house, of course, but it struck him that they had somehow failed to make the connection between those decorations and the fact that their father had once been an actual race car driver. It was not lost on Mike that Leia had done this intentionally, and his heart swelled another size in response to her gesture. Driven in part by their discussion, he chose an atypical route to their destination. He eschewed the route where he had encountered Vicky, as it had too many sharp switchbacks. Instead, he chose a longer route which featured more scenic overlooks and long straights.

He said nothing to his passengers, but he had also chosen the route in question because it took him past one of his favored automotive playgrounds: an abandoned runway. It had closed a year before and was all locked up, but he had noticed it several months earlier and kept a close eye on it. After weeks of never seeing any sign of habitation, he decided it would not hurt anyone for him to take a look. He had managed to open one of the padlocks, with the help of a pair of bolt cutters he happened to have in his boot, and drive out onto the tarmac for some playing around at high speeds. When he departed, he carefully replaced the padlock with a better one (one to which he held the key). Ever since that moment, he had visited there every few weeks to speed up and down the runway. However, he had never before taken anyone else to the track with him... or even hinted at its existence.

As he passed the exit he normally took to travel to his parents' house, he heard a chorus of, "Where are we going?" from the back seat. The confusion grew even further when he pulled off the highway and onto the crumbling access road which led to the airfield. Without a word, he stepped from the car and opened the gate. As he drove through the gate and locked it behind them, the questions went silent as everyone looked around in wonder. Mike drove slowly over to the main airstrip.

Mike turned to his passengers with a gleam in his eye and said, "Everyone ready?"

"For what?" Zach asked with a grin.

"You'll see." Mike engaged the launch control and built up the revs. When his dashboard lit up, he said, "Hang tight!"

He dumped the brakes, and they were forced back into their seats as the car leapt off the line like a scalded cheetah. Four and a bit seconds later, they blasted past posted speed limit on the highway they had just left, and they had doubled that speed less than eight seconds after that. Mike kept pushing until they approached a sign which marked the end of the runway. He glanced at his dashboard just before he stomped on the brakes, noting with a grin that they had reached the electronically limited top speed for his coupe. Seconds later, they screeched to a stop as everyone in the vehicle surged forward against their safety belts.

"That was awesome!" Alexis exclaimed. This was immediately followed by Zach asking, "Can I try it?"

Mike grinned and said, "You bet. But let's do a few practice runs first. And after we let the ladies out to observe from a safe distance."

Mike drove back to the other end of the runway, keeping the speed at a more sedate level. Once they reached what he thought of as the starting line, he pulled to a halt and allowed Leia and Alexis to exit while Zach climbed behind the wheel and Mike hopped in the passenger seat.

Under his careful tutelage, Zach slowly built his speed up until Mike felt he had the hang of the coupe's energetic acceleration and, more importantly, its powerful braking. He directed him back to the start line for a final run. As they arrived, he noticed that Leia and Alexis were standing on either side of them, with the former holding what looked to be a stripe of yellow fabric.

Zach smiled over at his father, who said, "On her signal, son."

Alexis waited for Mike to give her an approving nod before she dropped the flag, whereupon Zach dumped the brakes and sent the coupe storming down the straight. Mike listened carefully while he kept a close eye on his son's movements. In truth, however, Zach was a more than capable driver. He did not allow so much as a wobble as they raced toward the runway's end. Then, just an instant before Mike told him to hit the brakes, he heard the telltale sound of the electronic limiter kicking in. As the coupe chattered to a halt, Zach turned to him with a jubilant expression his face.

"You did it!" Mike exclaimed.

"Oh my God!" Zach shouted. "That was amazing."

"I'm pretty sure you're the unquestioned fastest sophomore in the county."

"Wow."

"Too bad you can't tell anyone. Ever."

"I know, Dad. I won't say a word. As long as you promise to bring me back."

Mike gripped his son's forearm affectionately. "Count on it." He gestured toward where Leia and Alexis waited before adding, "Why don't we go pick them up. Then, if you promise to obey the speed limit, maybe you can drive the rest of the way."

"They're here!" Mike heard his mother, Tessa, exclaim as he pulled into the driveway of his parents' house and shut down the engine.

He turned to Leia and said, "By the way, I'm sorry."

"For what?" she asked in confusion.

"This," he grunted as he opened his door and stood up.

By the time he'd made it to his feet, his mother had been joined by his father Jubal, his sister Deety, and her wife Vivian.

"Mike," Deety enthused. "You didn't tell us you were bringing a friend!"

Before he could even open his mouth to introduce Leia, Alexis had taken up the mantle and was introducing her around.

After Tessa had warmly welcomed Leia, she surreptitiously pulled Mike aside and urgently whispered, "You didn't tell me you were bringing a guest!"

He pulled her aside and said, "I met her about a week ago under very unusual circumstances."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'll explain the details later, I promise. For now, all you need know is that she was abducted and held in captivity for over a month."

"Oh my God!"

"Indeed. I found myself in a position to aid in her escape, after which she tried to return to her life. But in the last week she lost both her job and her bastard of a boyfriend revealed that he'd found himself a new sucker less than a week after she was taken. Of course, he waited until the day she lost her job to tell her."

"Gracious."

"I told her she could stay with us as long as she needed to."

"Well she's just lovely, and so polite, and so good with the children."

"Please don't make this weird, Mom."

"It's just that you haven't shown any interest in anyone since..."

"Leia is a friend."

"Michael," she chided softly. "I am your mother. I knew your heart when you were going through your troubles with Connie, and I never joined in with the calls for you to leave her when the childrens' future was in doubt... because I knew why you did what you did. But that also means I know right down to my bones that you care for that woman. So don't try to deny it."

"You can't say anything to the rest, especially Deety. She'll be like a dog with a bone."

"You give her too little credit. Her and Paul may tease you when the time is right, but you know they love you to pieces. What's more, they respect their older brother more than you could possibly imagine."

"What makes you say that?"

She patted his arm and said, "Because I'm your mother. We know these things. And don't you worry, I won't tell the others."

"Thanks."

"I won't need to. This is the first time I've seen you happy in, gosh, it seems like a decade. The rest will see it just as I have."

"I just don't want them interrogating Leia."

"You know I'd never allow that."

"Listen, there's something I'm going to need to talk about with you and Dad later. After things calm down."

"Of course. Anything you need."

"I'm in InfoSec," Leia was saying as Mike and Tessa returned to the larger group. "Information Security. I got into that in the Navy."

"Thank you for your service," Jubal interrupted.

"You're welcome," Leia replied with a smile. "I was working at a logistics company in Midtown, but we severed our relationship earlier this week. At this point, I'm looking around for my next role. But I'm also helping Mike out, since he was kind enough to offer me a place to stay while I figure some things out."

"Oh really," Deity enthused, but Mike noticed Tessa whispering in her ear, whereupon Deety lowered her voice as her eyes flitted toward Mike.

"He's been very kind," Leia replied.

"Well," Vivian interjected with a smile. "That's certainly no surprise to any of us. Mike's the best. But we're neglecting the most important question. Do you like burgers? Because you'll be straight-up branded as a heretic with this crowd if you try to suggest vegetarian options."

"I have been known to enjoy a burger from time to time," Leia replied. "But, if I'm being honest, I'm a fiend for mushroom burgers."

"Oh," Vivian gushed as she looped her arm through Leia's and let her into the house. "I'm going to really like you."

After a full day on the lake, the Carter clan and their honored guest made their way back to the homestead. As they did, Mike signalled to Leia for her to hang back a bit.

She intuited his meaning at once. As soon as the others were a comfortable distance ahead, she whispered, "I saw you talking to your parents while the rest of us were swimming. Did you get a chance to ask them?"

"They think the entire thing is completely insane. Not surprisingly. But fortunately, they built a new cell tower east of here last summer, so there's a bit of cell coverage out on the water. I hope you don't mind, but I showed them your picture from before you were abducted. I also showed them one of my offshore accounts which has already shown significant growth since I started the stock market scheme. I suspect they still think I'm nuts, but they agreed to help. My father will provide the blood. He and I will find a quiet moment while everyone's getting cleaned up and I'll make the pills."

"I suspect they'll soon be burdened with an overabundance of faith. You're doing a wonderful thing for them." She lowered her voice before adding, "Babe."

"It's not just them, honey. You're getting one too. You might not have any illnesses which need healing, and your body's certainly already perfect. But I have no intention of allowing you to experience illness ever again. Not when there's something I can do to prevent it."

As dinner wrapped up, he gave Leia the signal that he had discussed with her earlier. She told everyone that she and the children would clean up.

Mike's mother started to protest, but he gave her a pointed look and said, "I need to talk to you all about something. Something important." Realization bloomed in her expression as Mike continued, "Do you think we could all go out on the deck for a few minutes?"

They agreed and picked up their glasses before following him outside. Once they all got situated, he told them about the pills he had created. As he gazed upon his family (each of whom had, not only stood by him, but had actively supported him during the long months of painful divorce), the carefully crafted fiction about his genius fraternity brother who had resigned from the promising pharmaceutical company after they shuttered his project wherein he had invented a miracle cure turned to ash in his mouth. Not only did he loathe the idea of lying to them, he knew they deserved to know the truth before they took a pill which would fundamentally change their lives.

"Mom and Dad already know this," he began, "but there's something else you should know about Leia."

"She was abducted and held prisoner for more than a month," Deety interjected.

"How did you..."

"She told us while the kids were tubing. She also said you rescued her. Something I'm intensely curious about."

Mike gave them the abridged version of his encounter with Vicky just (he was startled to realize) eleven days prior, and how that had led to his opportunity to free Leia and her fellow prisoners shortly followed by Leia's gift to him of the Artifact. As he had done for his parents, he showed them pictures of Leia before the transformation. He saw the scepticism, but it was impossible to deny the fact that the skinny woman with difficult to tame curly hair and no curves had Leia's eyes, and her smile.

"So," he concluded. "The Artifact is capable of transforming a person's physical appearance. It can also be used to predict the future after a fashion. I have used it once already to help improve my financial situation. You'll all be relieved to know that I will repay everything you lent me during the... when I was in need; it will be repaid by the end of the month. I've also allocated a portion of my investment to each of you and, I regret to inform you, you'll each be millionaires by this time next month."

"Wait a minute, Mike," his brother Paul cut in. "Are you sure it's safe to be messing with something like this? How do you know you're not, I don't know, selling your soul or something?"

"I don't believe the Artifact is either good or evil. My suspicion is that it's more of a chaos agent. The man who abducted Leia was quite careless with it, and it almost certainly led to his demise. But it also provides the means, if one is both meticulous and patient, to know the consequences of the actions you take with it. Fortunately for us, I happen to be both. At least, in some contexts. I spent many hours working on the first wish, for want of a better term, before I implemented it. I spent even longer on what I'm offering you this evening.

"I have created, with Dad's help..."

"Why Dad's help?" Deity asked.

"Because the Artifact has a built-in limiter, I guess you'd call it. Something to prevent its overuse. It requires blood to implement the wish, and each person's blood can only be used once."

"And now we're back to this thing sounding like it was built in the depths of hell," Vivian observed. "Honestly, has no one else seen a horror movie before?"

"Again, I believe the Artifact's designer's aim was more chaos than evil. But I admit that I don't know enough about it to speak authoritatively. In truth, my first use of it was borne out of need rather than want. Vicky, the woman who led me to Leia and the Artifact, stole quite a bit of money from me before she disappeared. I needed to do something fast, or I was going to be in quite a bit of trouble with more than a few financial institutions. So I used it four days ago. And, thus far, it's doing exactly what it said it would."

"You said earlier you'd created something?" Gary, Paul's husband prompted.

"They're pills: one for each of you. It will alter your D. N. A. such that you'll be immune to all disease. That means it will cure any ailments you may be suffering from and will make you immune to getting anything in the future. There is also a healing component so, for those of us getting on in years, it should also have a slight de-aging effect as the toxins which cause aging are removed from our bodies. Testing also suggests you'll heal faster should you get wounded."

"Wait," Paul cut in. "Wouldn't that make us, effectively, immortal?"

"You'll still obviously be susceptible to severe injury. But, other than that, perhaps. I didn't delve too deeply into that aspect. I was honestly a bit worried that it would show me the time and place of my own death. But, if you take the pills, there's no reason we couldn't all expect to have this same family reunion a hundred years from now. Think of it, Mom. Sitting out on the porch watching your great-great-great-grandchildren play in the yard while you're still feeling younger than you do now despite being older than any human in recorded history."

Mike smiled as his mother dabbed her eyes. "But this has to be kept absolutely secret. No one can know I gave you this, or that you've taken it. The cost of failing to keep this secret is dire, but at the very least it could lead to financial ruin and jail time. More probably, it would lead to things like dissection at the hands of the government. I built safeguards into this wish which will make both our immediate transformation after we take the pill and our failure to age almost impossible to notice. But, even with that in place, I suspect a Masquerade will be required eventually. If for no other reason than to keep the government from noticing. But the Dean gave us an excellent roadmap for how to make that work. Besides, with the money making scheme I've already implemented, we could afford to buy our own country somewhere long before our lack of aging becomes a pressing concern."

He looked around the room, taking in the expressions ranging from amazed to skeptical, before concluding, "Well, that's my pitch. What do you think?"

They asked him a ton of questions. His parents had spent a lifetime teaching them that there was no such thing as a free lunch, so none of them were prepared to take a miracle on face value. He answered their questions without reservation, even when said answers likely gave them more insight into both how reckless he had been with respect to Vicky and how much he had grown to care for Leia. Mike knew without a doubt that, for everyone surrounding him, this was one of the most important decisions they would ever make. They discussed it for over an hour, but they all eventually agreed to take the pill.

The children had gone to bed during the course of their conversation, so Mike invited Leia to join them to take the life-changing pills. She resisted, saying this was a family matter, but Tessa shut her objections down with a warm hug.

"You're the reason why we've been given this gift," his mother insisted tearfully. "Of course we want you to join us. Here, sit by me."

Mike observed in wonder while all the couples watched each other as their transformations took place. Everyone from his generation now looked to be in their mid-twenties, but his parents' transformation was truly remarkable. The pill had dragged them from senility's doorstep back into what seemed to be their late thirties. Not since the birth of his daughter had he been so filled with happiness. And, reinforcing his euphoria, was the look of unrivaled joy and Leia's face as she watched his own metamorphosis.

He gazed at her with loving eyes and mouthed, "Thank you."

Twenty-Three

The three married couples were quick to say goodnight and head to their respective bedrooms holding hands. Mike knew it was likely that they would all find renewed passion along with their renewed bodies, and the realization made him genuinely happy. He was not the type of weak-minded simpleton who was disgusted by the thought of intimacy between his parents. As a parent who had for many years harbored the hope of rekindling the passion with his wife, he found the thought of a couple who had been married for over forty years still desiring each other to be eminently enviable.

Leia gestured for him to take a seat at her side and said, "Your family is really great, Mike. Do they always welcome outsiders so warmly?"

"You're hardly an outsider, honey," he murmured.

"Yes, I am," she replied softly. "Regardless, I think I'm starting to get more insight as to how you became such a wonderful man."

"Thanks. They really are all pretty great. I consider myself lucky to have them for a family. They all seem to be enjoying their transformation. It wouldn't surprise me to hear strange noises coming from their rooms tonight," he said with a raised eyebrow.

"That's beautiful. You've given them the gift of renewed youth and health. Many is the person who would have taken the artifact and thought only of themselves. See Tripod's preposterous behavior, for example. Yet you're incapable of doing anything which doesn't also include those you love."

He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close.

"This is nice," she whispered.

He kissed the top of her head, prompting her to shift so she could wrap both arms around him and hug him tightly.

"Thank you for coming today," he murmured.

"I wouldn't have missed it."

"Nevertheless, I'm really grateful you came."

After another momentary silence, she said, "Can you feel it?"

"What's that?"

"This delightfully agonizing tension. It's genuinely remarkable."

In each person's life there are a handful of moments that define their destiny, moments of great import where actions taken in the span of a few heartbeats changed that person forever. Mike knew instinctively that this was such a moment, that the rest of his life would be separated into the history, and the future, spanning his timeline in each direction from this instant. His heart was beating so fast the edges of his vision blurred. It was fortuitous that Leia was there to sustain him and lend him strength for this moment, otherwise he might have faltered. He took his free arm and reached down to softly pull her chin up so he could look into her eyes.

"I can't do this anymore."

"Do what?"

"Live my life without knowing what it feels like to do this," he whispered huskily as he lowered his lips to hers.

Their kiss started tenderly. He savored the taste of her lips as he moved his hand from her chin up to slide a strand of hair behind her ear. He felt more than heard Leia's soft moan and she opened her lips slightly. Her tongue hesitantly traced along the seam of his lips, and he opened his mouth to her. Their tongues danced together in perfect harmony, neither seeking dominance but each instead delighting in the exquisite touch of the other. He reached out to her with his thoughts as they kissed, as though he could telepathically communicate how much she meant to him and how profoundly grateful he was that she had come into his life. Perhaps it was his imagination, but he was certain he could feel her mirroring thoughts in his own mind.

Soon, the dance of their tongues slowed. It was as if the kiss had run its course, but neither were willing to let it end. He caressed her face as their kiss lingered, subconsciously pleading for just one more moment. Just as he felt their lips start to part, she pulled him tighter against her body and thrust her tongue back in his mouth. Invigorated, he deepened their kiss, pushing it to the heights of passion. Her hands roamed across his chest, and he swallowed her moans as he reached up to lace his fingers into her hair and pull her closer.

Eventually, regretfully, inevitably; their kiss ended.

She rested her head on his chest and rasped, "Wow!"

He opened his mouth to respond, but she surged back against him to claim his lips once more. This kiss was shorter, but no less passionate, than their first kiss.

She tilted her head up to look at him with a longing which his soul perfectly mirrored. "I never would have thought this would be possible... but that might have been worth the wait."

"Agreed."

"So... now what?" she murmured.

"Um," he began.

"Don't get me wrong, we could sit here making out until we both need lip replacement surgery, and this would still be the best night of my life. But, in the interest of full transparency, I'm really hoping you've got somewhere a bit more private in mind."

Mike stood up and offered her his hand. She rose next to him and briefly kissed him again. He knew they would have to get creative since he was sleeping on the couch and Leia was sleeping in the same room with his children. He asked her to wait for him and walked into the house to grab something off the counter. He returned to the deck and retook Leia's hand.

"Do you trust me?"

"With my life," she replied simply.

Together they walked down to the marina. Upon arrival, he quietly opened the gate and led her out to his parents' boat. He was grateful that his father had instilled into him the need to always prepare the boat for the next outing at the end of each day on the lake, as that meant he did not have to spare a thought wondering about the craft's readiness. He helped Leia aboard before starting the motor and letting it idle quietly while he slipped the moorings. Once they were well away from the dock, he dropped the motor into gear and they idled out toward open water. The moon was new, so they only had starlight to illuminate the mirror flat surface of the lake and the surrounding mountains. Leia sat next to him at the center console, both arms wrapped around his waist as she rested her head on his shoulder. After a few minutes, they were approaching the middle of the lake. He put the motor in neutral and shut off the engine, allowing the deafening silence to envelop them.

Leia whispered, "It's beautiful, and so peaceful."

He held her tightly as they drank in the tranquility of the still water and the rolling mountains. He kissed her hair again and she tilted her head up to meet his lips. Their kiss was no less passionate than the one on the porch had been, and it left them both panting with anticipation.

As their lips parted, she wiggled out of his arms so she could remove her shirt and bra. The dim starlight illuminated the large swells of her breasts as they swayed from the motion. He reached out to gently cup one of her magnificent orbs, feeling the weight of it and marveling at how it overflowed his hand. Tracing his finger across her flawless skin, he found her nipple which was standing proud. He rolled it between his thumb and forefinger, which caused Leia to groan softly.

She whispered, "I've never felt this way about anyone."

He removed his shirt to reveal a torso unencumbered by even a hint of extra padding, and Leia slowly worked her way down his chest, placing soft kisses every few centimeters. She paused briefly to lightly suck on each of his nipples before continuing further south towards his navel. This gave her another opportunity to pause briefly before working her way around to his back. She kissed her way up his spine as she lovingly stroked along each side of his back next to where she kissed him. When she reached his neck, he felt her transition from light kisses to licks which sent shivers throughout his body. She licked along his neck towards his ear. When she arrived, she alternated between sucking on, and licking, his earlobe. He could feel her breath upon him, and he could hear every detail of her sigh as she shared his pleasure. Her journey concluded as she shifted around to his front to deliver another soul melding kiss.

"Mike," she asked somberly.

"Yes, princess?"

"Hmm," she sighed. "I like it even better when you call me that when we're like this. But I need you to know that you have always been devastatingly handsome to me." She stroked her hand down his taut belly. "You didn't have to do this for me to want to make love to you, for me to want you to make love to me. I desired you almost from the start, certainly back to that day at the diner. You have always been beautiful. Mike"

"I know, honey. And I believe you. But..."

"I know your transformation was for you, darling. And I respect that. But I need you to know that your new body has nothing to do with the fact that I want you more than I've ever wanted anything."

"You truly are the most perfect woman in history," Mike rasped.

"Then make love to me; you brilliant, sexy, wonderful man."

Mike led her forward to the seating area in front of the boat's console where they found what amounted to a couch on either side of the bow. They sank down into the cushion on the starboard side, wrapped in each other's arms. He sought out her heavenly breasts, caressing along the outer curvature of each with his fingertips as he lightly blew on each of her nipples in turn. Leia sighed contentedly as he reached out his tongue and flicked her nipple. He expanded his feather-light licks to her areola, feeling the skin pebble as her nipple hardened in response. Switching to the other breast, he started by softly licking her breast beyond the areola and heading inwards in an ever-shrinking circular path. As he continued to rub each breast with his hands, he kissed the spot between her breasts before licking along her sternum up to the nape of her neck. When he reached her neck, she threw her arms around him and hungrily sought out his lips. As they kissed, they struggled to remove what remained of each other's clothing, careful to make sure nothing went overboard.

When they were both naked, Leia said, "How good are your sea legs?"

"Pretty good. What'd you have in mind?"

She winked and said, "Stand up."

He stood in the bow of the boat, between the cushions. Leia picked up a throw-cushion and placed it in front of him before sinking to her knees.

"I hope I'm not killing the mood, but what do you think your mother and brother slash brother-in-law will think about the fact that you secretly built a penis enlargement proviso into those pills?"

"What are you talking about?" he gasped. "I didn't..."

"You honestly expect me to believe you were always sporting the world's most perfect penis, and you're just letting me discover this now?"

He gazed down to where she was kneeling beneath his turgid member and looking up at him past his definitely-not-enhanced manhood. The affection in her eyes was palpable, as was her desire.

"To be fair," he quipped. "It used to have a good deal more insulation. But I'm certainly pleased that you seem to find it acceptable."

"I said perfect," she whispered reverently. "Just like the rest of you."

She started to slowly kiss the area around his groin but kept clear of touching his now throbbing manhood. She kissed his upper thighs, lingering in each spot and savoring the shiver she caused each time her lips touched his skin. The starlight reflected in her eyes as she began to move closer to his erection before dropping lower and running her tongue along his balls as she lightly dragged her nails down his thighs. The sensation was exquisite, but it was quickly overshadowed by what followed.

Leia began her attentions on Mike's swollen member at the tip, moving her mouth close enough that he could feel her ragged breathing. She opened her mouth and surrounded the head of his cock, not making contact but rather transferring the heat and moisture of her mouth to his swollen erection indirectly. Pre-cum flowed forth from the tip of his manhood as she surrounded him without making contact. A drop fell onto her tongue, and she moaned in contentment before lapping along the underside of the head of his cock to collect more of his seed. Taking the head of his manhood into her mouth, she lathed his swollen tip with her tongue. As she started to slowly move her head back and forth, he reached down to hold her face in both hands. He could see her looking up at him in the dim starlight, her eyes were full of affection and desire. Her strokes lengthened, each one taking more of his length than the one before. She reached up to lightly scrape her nails along his balls as he felt the head of his cock touch the back of her throat. Her tongue was active, massaging the sensitive underside of his manhood. The hand which was not teasing his balls was between her pretty legs. Looking past her face he could see her fingers as they teased her clit. He knew he would not be able to last much longer, so he regretfully pulled out of the heavenly embrace of her mouth.

"I wasn't done with that," she pouted playfully.

"I'm not ready to cum for you yet, princess."

"Oh really?"

Without another word, he pulled her from her knees and spun her around to sit on the cushions in the bow. She smiled and opened her legs wide, sliding a finger languidly along her slit as he worshipped her with his eyes. He knelt between her legs and kissed her unhurriedly before moving down to worship her breasts once more. His attention there clearly excited her, as evidenced by her sighs which turned quickly into moans. He held her breasts together so he could suck on both nipples at once. This caused Leia to wrap her arms around his head and firmly pull him further into her bosom as she gasped, "Yes!"

He reluctantly abandoned her incomparable breasts and moved further down her remarkable body. Her navel was next to enjoy the attention of his tongue. When he tongued it, she gasped, "Oooh!"

Every square centimeter of her belly received equal measure of his savoring kisses and licks. Her smooth bikini area begged for his attention. He lifted her legs up by her knees and lightly kissed down one of her thighs until he reached her perfect pussy. He blew gently on the wetness coating her vulva, eliciting a whimpered, "Please," from her.

Mike licked gently along her slit, savoring her exquisite taste. Each stroke of his tongue delved incrementally deeper into her femininity. He slowly lengthened his strokes until he finally stuck out his tongue and softly worked it into her core, earning him a heavy sigh from her lips.

Mike savored how wet Leia was under the ministrations of his tongue, her delectable taste, and the way she kept saying his name breathlessly. She reached down to hold his head in her hands and encouraged him to lick deeper into her. He opened his mouth and lovingly fucked her with his tongue as he stared into her eyes which were barely visible from his vantage point due to her massive breasts.

"Fuck, babe! That feels amazing!" She just kept nodding as she spoke.

He licked lower, paying close attention to her body language in case she was not amenable to his next destination. He pushed her knees up higher with his hands and licked down to her puckered star.

"Oh my God!" she exclaimed as he lightly licked around her anus.

She reached beneath her ass with both hands and grabbed behind his head to pull him forward. He gently forced his tongue just inside of her opening as his nose was buried in her sex, taking her pleasure to the next level. She was thrashing uncontrollably and pleading for him to keep going. He focused on her anus for a few moments more before licking back up across her soaked opening towards her clit. Leia was close to hyperventilating now, and begging him for release.

He slowly inserted two fingers into her opening, feeling for her G-spot. Leia grabbed his head, forcing his mouth onto her clit. He sucked her pleasure button between his lips, licking it lovingly with the tip of his tongue. Leia's entire body tensed up momentarily before exploding in orgasm.

"Mike..." she gasped as her legs clamped around either side of his head.

He continued to lightly flick her clit with his tongue, and caress her G-spot with his fingertips while she thrashed beneath him. When her pleasure receded and she relaxed her legs, freeing him from that most magnificent incarceration, he released her clit with a parting flick of his tongue and withdrew his fingers. She had coated him in her sweet wetness leaving his face and hand glistening. He rose from between her legs as he licked her wetness from his fingers. She reached for him and pulled him in for a deep kiss.

"You taste like me," she observed sweetly. "Thank you for that, dear man. You were magnificent."

"You're most welcome, princess."

She kissed him again as she wrapped her arms and legs around him. His erection, which had never flagged during his focus on her delightful body, was now trapped between them and pressing on her belly.

She broke their kiss and whispered, "I want you to make love to me."

Mike reached between them to line himself up with her opening. Her hand joined his, wanting to share in the moment. They grasped his shaft together and lined it up with her entrance.

"Please," she sighed insistently.

Mike kissed her deeply as he slowly pushed his hips forward. The head of his cock slipped into her opening to their mutual moans of pleasure. She was exceedingly tight, and he grunted in exquisite agony as her femininity gripped his manhood. He slowly rocked back and forth, going deeper on each thrust. Her legs wrapped around him as she held his face with her hands. He continued to slowly stroke deeper into her perfect body as they kissed passionately until he bottomed out in her velvety heaven. Using long strokes, he slowly made love to her as his hands wandered continually over her flawless body. He leaned his head down to suck a nipple into his mouth as he continued thrusting. She held his head as she pulled him to her breast. He sucked her nipple as though life sustaining nourishment would flow forth from her perfect tits.

"I want to be on top," she whispered urgently.

He gathered her into his arms and rocked back until he fell onto the opposing bench seat.

"Are you comfortable?" she whispered adoringly.

"I have never felt better."

She placed her hands on his chest as she knelt on either side of him and ground her hips against him in a circular fashion, swirling his cock around within her. He grasped her hips as she began riding him slowly. She leaned forward until their faces were a few centimeters apart, looking deep into his eyes. He smiled up at her and accepted the deep, passionate kiss she offered.

She straightened up again and began fucking him more vigorously. With a playful smile, she removed his hands from her hips and placed them on her breasts. As her pace increased, the mesmerizing motion of her breasts followed suit. Her body was perfect. She was perfect. He knew he would not be able to last much longer, and he knew instinctively that she was in perfect sync with him. She increased her pace, fucking him more energetically than ever. The motion of her breasts defied physics. She had found the perfect rhythm to cause them to move in large perfect circles before meeting loudly in the middle, leaving him in awe of her splendor. She started to breathe quicker, and he could feel her inner walls squeezing his cock tighter. Reaching down between them, he teased her clit until he felt her fall over the precipice of her release. Her wetness flooded his midsection, and she shouted his name. Her walls squeezed his cock hard enough to delay the orgasm that had been seconds away. Mike lovingly caressed her body while she shuddered through the last of her orgasm's aftershocks.

Leia looked down at him and said, "Thank you. You were... are... perfect." She leaned down and kissed him passionately. "Now," she whispered alluringly, "it is your turn. I would love nothing more than to feel you fill me with your orgasm, but I'm not on the pill. Yet." She got up and positioned herself at the bow of the boat, sitting facing him. "Bring that perfect cock of yours over here, dear man. I'm not done with it yet."

He moved between her legs, and she reached out to grip him and position him at her opening. He then thrust deeply into her, which caused her to groan deeply.

"Yes," she hissed. "Fuck me, Mike. Fuck me hard. I want you to cum. Please."

Mike started fucking her for all he was worth, thrusting deeply into her soaked wetness. She ran her hands up and down his chest while her legs were wrapped around his waist.

"Cum for me, baby. Cum all over my tits."

He was staring at her tits unabashedly, captivated by their energetic motion. Leia reached her arms up and hooked them over the edge of the boat to allow her breasts maximum freedom of motion.

"I need your cum on my tits, babe. Please, Mike. Please cum for me!"

He could take no more. Pulling out, he staggered to his feet between her knees. She reached forward and grabbed his cock with both hands as she opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue lasciviously.

By happenstance, the first eruption of his seed sprayed directly into her mouth. She cackled with unrestrained joy as she adjusted her aim. The following spurts coated her tits with an impossible amount of cum. Her tits glistened in the starlight, and he could see gossamer strands dripping into her lap. She leaned forward and took his cock in her mouth, greedily swallowing the rest of his essence as he held her face in his hands and lovingly basked in her beauty.

"I will never forget this," he whispered reverently.

"Same here," Leia replied with a joy which pierced his heart. "This has been the best day of my life."

He hugged her to him, kissing her deeply and exalting in the feeling of her goodness, affection and beauty surrounding him. After a few moments they leaned back and he realized they were both covered in his cum.

He looked at her with a crooked smile and said, "Sorry about the mess."

"I'm not," she said with a laugh. "Besides... I always wanted to go skinny dipping."

Mike stood with Leia in his arms and, with a squeal of delight from her, leapt over the side into the cool water.

Copyright © 2025 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, business, 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.