Chapter 9: She Gives, She Takes

Constance surprised me by squirming past Miki and putting an arm around my waist. "I don't know what to do," she whispered.

"What's the problem?" I asked as we left the meeting room.

"I know that I'm supposed to have sex with you," Constance said. "And I trust that you aren't going to use me to close deals or reward some pervert like my father was always threatening to, but ... I'm not ready."

Miki giggled. She turned and kissed the older woman on the cheek. "Mark won't insist on forcing you to have sex with him tonight. If you need to wait you can. Lenore and I both forced him to wait when we first accepted his invitation."

"Why?" Aine asked. She was walking directly behind me. Her right hand was on my shoulder and I could occasionally feel her breasts brush my back as she tried to stay very close to me.

"Is there a reason you are crowding me?" I asked Aine playfully.

I felt Aine's hand tremble. "Listening to that man speak. He didn't care about me at all. I could die right now and his only concern would be that my body be disposed of. I never realized people could be so uncaring."

"I wish I could say something uplifting, but he made it clear that its not his job to care," I said. "It can be mine, but you have to show that you care about everyone in our home. I can't have someone who does things that cause the others to fight."

"I always heard that conflict builds character," Aine said as we found the hallway leading to our home. I turned only to find that Jessica and Jason were waiting just ahead of us.

"Oh god," Jessica said mockingly. "Don't tell me that we are your neighbors."

"I think we are in a bad neighborhood," I said to Ashley. "Look at the natives."

Ashley giggled as Aine stepped around me. Lenore had already run forward to give Kathy a hug. "I get my babysitter back!"

"That's my concubine," Jessica replied haughtily. "And I hope you remember that you can't just call her over anymore."

"I had hoped that we'd remain friends," I said. "Yes, we are in the army now, but that shouldn't keep our concubines apart. We want them to desire to support us and make us happy."

Tatyana laughed. "You do realize that I see enough people here to stage a play. Well, there aren't enough men."

"I'd play a man's part if it pleased Mark," Miki said. "It wouldn't be too hard to wrap my chest to hide what little I have."

"I love what you have," I said. "I know some men turn into mindless children when they see a woman with large breasts, but I always end up picturing them hanging down to the woman's knees eventually."

"They don't sag that much," Aine said.

"I never said they did. However, I have seen pictures of women with sagging breasts and its not very attractive. Maybe I'm strange, but Miki and Ashley both only have small B cup breasts and I love them," I replied.

"You always did say that more than a handful is a waste," Jason said. "Fortunately for Jana and Letty I love their double dees. I am going to see if I can make sure they never sag."

Our walking had led to our door. I looked at everyone and smiled. "AI, my concubines have temporary permission to go in and out. Once I enter they can't leave until I give new orders, but as long as I'm standing in the hallway they can move about. Also Aine is now authorized to request lingerie from the replicators."

Jason laughed. "Oooh, you are so giving."

"I like it," Ashley said as Lenore ran to the door. "Mark is showing that he trusts us."

"Why don't we all enter someone's pod?" Jessica's new man asked.

Jason looked over at the man. "Dude, I got to spend only a few minutes. I haven't even finished exploring. It would be a bit uncomfortable to have a visitor before I had set anything up."

I nodded. "I'm afraid I don't know your name. But Jason has it right. I've already started looking into the ways to make the pod feel more like a home and turn it into a place I can use for entertaining, but for now I don't feel ready."

"Jesse," the man said. "My name is Jesse."

Jason pointed at Jessica. "You got someone with the male version of your name? Say it isn't so!"

Jessica laughed. "You want to hear what makes it worse. I didn't even know his name until I turned in his CAP card once we were on board Glowworm. That pickup was hectic."

"And not fun," I said as Aine put her arms around my waist again. "I felt like my treatment of Constance was unfair."

"No, it was what I needed," Constance said. "You have been firm with me, but you aren't trying to change who I am. I only wanted time to be sure."

"Of what?" Aine asked.

Constance stepped forward. She turned around and put her hands on my shoulders. "Maybe I have an overly romantic image of being with a man. Maybe I read too many of my mother's bodice ripper novels when I was still in elementary school."

"Girl, you shouldn't have been reading them when you were so young," Letty said with a gasp. "My mother would have beaten me to drive out the unholy urges those novels generate in young girls."

"Older women too," I heard a voice say from behind us. I glanced over my shoulder to see Morgan holding Beatrice as they stood and listened.

"Spy!" Jason cried playfully. "We must give the spy the torture of a thousand tickling hands."

"One, we don't have one thousand hands here," Jana said. "Two, there is no such torture."

"But it might be fun to suffer it," Beatrice said playfully. She winked at Jason and then put her arms around Morgan.

Morgan laughed. "I promise to make her suffer the torture of four tickling hands later. I wasn't spying. We just ended up behind you as we walked here. I wanted to chat with Robert."