Chapter 77

Time: Monday, April 11, 2019 6:48 PM

It was an hour after sunset in the bee park, and Mark was cuddling with Emily, Hannah, and Holly on the one giant bed in their small home by the pond. The pond was frozen now and smooth as glass. Yesterday afternoon Mark had led an unplanned expedition to the bee park to drop off winter coats, and his team had four pairs of ice skates as a surprise. They had tried it this morning at sunrise for about a half hour. It was fun. And then they had come in and listened in horror as Brandi was killed. The skates were forgotten now.

When Toshi and Frida and Mark were here at the bee park for their first stay, from January 17^th to February 1^st, Mark had kept a careful record of the sunrises and sunsets. Their times were moving so slowly he had thought the park might be on a full Earth-year solar schedule. On their arrival, the sun was up from 5:44 AM to 6:15 PM, and when they departed fifteen days later, the range had moved slightly to 5:52 AM to 6:09 PM. Mark had guessed they had arrived in late summer and were approaching the fall equinox.

How wrong he had been. From the observations now, Emily estimated that Mark’s original party had arrived at the bee park the day before local summer solstice, and their fifteen days here was most of the summer. The park was on an incredibly fast 84-day yearly cycle, three weeks per season, and it was now midwinter, Today the sun rose at 6:11 AM and set at 5:48 PM.

Against Mark’s gentle advice to take a vacation from computations, Emily had brought her laptop with her. Her estimate now was that the bee park was simulating the same latitude as their surface position, 44.5 degrees, but with a planetary tilt of a mere four degrees. There would only be slight variations in the daily cycle of sunlight throughout the year.

The concept of slight variation did not apply to temperature. The park was in its deep midwinter slumber and the overnight low was -9C. When the three women had arrived with Frida yesterday, their first thought was to go back home, but Frida convinced them to follow her to the small house by the pond, and there they found a warm dwelling with its kitchen cabinets packed with the locally grown fruits and vegetables. The cabinets had been empty when Mark, Toshi and Frida had first visited here, but now they were full. The new arrivals guessed the servos had harvested the produce.

And the bee hives were accessible too, full of sleepy bees that didn’t seem to mind when Frida removed one of their many frames full of the magical sweet honey. So the women decided to proceed with their plan. They would attempt the mind boost in the local midwinter.

And now Emily was curled up in Mark’s arms, and Holly had just exchanged positions with Hannah. Hannah was petting Mark’s back and Holly was at the bottom of the massive bed caressing his feet. Mark was being petted by three beautiful women who were all expecting to become quite horny as the evening wore on. Mark shook his head and laughed at the thought at what a fantasy this would have been in his former life. And he remembered the big grin Tom had flashed him yesterday when Emily first made her request that Mark join them for their experience with the new drug.

Emily leaned close and kissed his cheek before resuming petting his chest and shoulders. They were light tender strokes, very affectionate. They had portable lamps with them but they were off. Their plan was to follow the natural rhythm of the park as closely as possible, and the fake quarter moon and starlight was sparkling off the snow. They provided ample light for their needs.

Emily leaned over and kissed him again. Mark kissed back on her cheek. “How are you feeling?”

Emily gave a long sleepy sigh back. “It actually feels kind of nice, a little like being drunk but much more peaceful. Deeply peaceful ... I’m so glad you’re here.”

Mark nodded, his hand moving to caress Emily’s ear and the side of her head. He repeated a previous description. “It never gets too disorienting. The boost is much less ... stressful ... compared to what happened before Christmas.”

Emily giggled. “Not with sexuality though. I’m lying here next to you and my mind is spinning around with a whirlpool of thoughts of what I want to do with you.”

“Me too!” growled Hannah from behind his back. Her hand drifted lower and she pinched his buttock very firmly. “Oops! That wasn’t too hard, was it?”

Mark grinned and chuckled. “No. I’m still in the middle of an ideal male fantasy.” He felt Emily stiffen in his arms and he asked, “Hey, you okay?”

“Me? Yeah. It wasn’t you. I thought of Brandi again.”

The bedroom was silent for a moment, until Holly added, “How could we have been so stupid?”

Hannah’s words seem to speak for all of them as she continued. “I mean, we all thought we were doing the right thing. We wanted to give Alfonso a chance to redeem himself. We wanted to offer a token of trust. Brandi was our token. We all thought it would be okay. Her offer was very gentle. There was no reason to shoot. Who could have thought the man would go berserk?”

A single tear was rolling down Emily’s cheek. “We all should have thought,” she mumbled. Mark kissed her tear away.

Holly stirred at the bottom of Mark’s legs and reached over to also pet Emily’s feet. “You know, hindsight is a wonderful thing for showing how stupid you can be.”

Hannah sighed. “Life’s hard lessons. I just wish ... It just doesn’t seem fair Brandi...”

“Well of course not,” grumbled Holly.

The room became very quiet, and for a while the three women were content to keep petting Mark. Eventually it was time in their informal schedule to rotate again, but Emily was showing no desire to move from the prime position of being held in Mark’s arms. Instead, she wiggled her breasts at him, and when he missed the hint she renewed it more directly by taking his hand and holding it firmly against her chest. Mark could feel her heart beating. He could also feel her nipple against his palm, large and in an advanced state of arousal.

“Marry me?” Emily mumbled as she turned to rub her body against Mark’s.

“Me too,” called Hannah from behind his back. Her hand slipped into Mark’s pajamas and she started to caress his ass, probing and searching for the scrotum between his thighs.

Holly giggled at his feet. “I don’t think I’m ready for marriage, but if you want to have sex with me...”

Mark gulped. “People, remember our agreement!” He shivered as Hannah’s hand found and cupped his scrotum. Meanwhile pregnant Holly began licking the instep of his foot. It was a dry, catlike tongue, and the sensation was super erotic.

Emily laughed as she continued to gyrate the length of her body against his. “And exactly what was our agreement?”

“That I wouldn’t take advantage of you, of any of you!”

Emily gave a sleepy giggle. “And you’re not. Hannah and I are asking you to marry us. How is that taking advantage of us?”

“Uh...”

Holly began to move at Mark’s feet, coming up his legs. She growled sexily. “And my urge to ride you is becoming irresistible.” Her hand traveled up the inside of his thigh, brushing against Hannah’s arm before grasping his erect penis. “Mark,” she asked in a little girl voice. “I wouldn’t be raping you if I sat on this, would I?”

“People, wait a minute!” Mark sputtered.

“That’s fair,” Emily announced with a giggle. “Mark, you have your one minute. Now, why are we waiting?”

Mark had never seen Emily so playfully happy. Her joy was contagious, and he almost caved in. But he loved her too much. “Emily,”

“Yes?” She stopped him from continuing with a finger on his lips. “My love.”

“Our love,” said Hannah dreamily behind him.

“Our love,” Emily continued. “Yes, agreed. Hannah and I have talked this over with Jada and Toshi and Frida. Don’t’ you remember all the laughing smiles your wives were sharing with us before we left?

Mark was stunned. What had his wives done? “Well, I guess I do. And they were shielding something from me in our links. I didn’t press.”

“No, of course not. You’re much too polite for that. That’s part of the reason Hannah and I love you so much.”

“Emily,” said Holly with a bit of a whine. “I don’t want to wait much longer.”

“Patience, Holly. This won’t take long. Especially for you. You’ll be outside the link.” Before Mark could puzzle out what Emily was talking about, she moved and held his head closely to her throat and the top of her breastbone. “Dearest Mark, I’m being totally serious. Hannah is too. Will you marry me?”

“Yes, Mark,” Hannah added. “Will you marry me?”

“Emily, Hannah, I can’t accept your proposals when you’re drugged!”

Emily shook her head fiercely. “This isn’t the drug! I’m feeling extremely horny, but the love and hope of having you as my husband is allowing me to suppress all that. I want my wedding night with you to come later.”

“Yes, me too,” laughed Hannah. “I’ll want privacy on our wedding night!”

Holly was also laughing as she crawled between his legs. She started frigging his stiff cock. A shocked Mark felt her wet tongue and lips slurp his velvety glans. Holly purred. “I on the other hand have no such ability to suppress. You will let me ride, won’t you, Mark?”

Emily pushed Mark flat on his back. With Holly exploring his groin with her mouth and nose, Hannah and Emily pushed their heads together against Mark’s head and formed a tight triangle. The three-way link formed almost immediately.

“Yes! I knew we had enough light!” the core of Hannah’s mind thought triumphantly into the triple matrix of consciousness.

“Wow,” thought Emily’s core. “I can feel Holly’s lips on my ... our ... my penis. So this is what it’s like to be a male.” Her core was full of love and laughter and playfulness. “Nice!”

“It’s as if my mind is blossoming,” thought Hannah. “I feel like a blooming flower. I love this. The intimacy! Oh Mark, all my shyness is gone!”

Mark’s core was still struggling to comprehend the perspective of the majority of the linked mind. “But ... But ... Are you suggesting it’s okay for me to make love with Holly because we’re NOT getting married?!”

“Yes!’ “Yes!” came two giggling thoughts in return.

“You know, that’s so absurd it almost makes sense.”

A playful afterthought from Emily’s core. “You can be so clever, Mark! Another reason why I love you so much.”

“Sweet husband-to-be,” thought Hannah. “Love is patient. That’s what I was always taught in Sunday School, and now I see the truth of it. I want to be patient and kind with you. I want to share everything I have and everything that I am with you, my mind, my body, my life. The sex is a big part too, but I want to wait. The anticipation will be part of my pleasure.”