Chapter 14: Settling In

" ... and I pledge my efforts and honor to the House of New Hope," Alice finished in acceptable Nalu. Poli and Gensoniraet formally nodded, and I said "welcome to the House."

Poli and Alice hugged, and then Alice hugged me. We've developed a simple joining ceremony for the House; Alice was the last member to formally join.

We had a celebratory dinner. The Nalu, not entirely surprisingly, were omnivores, and ate chicken and salad with gusto. They didn't like alcohol, although Gensoniraet said that some Nalu did prepare fermented fruit drinks. He shuddered when describing them.

"With enhancements we can get rid of most of the undesirable aftereffects, but why bother? It's a toxin, and if you want a general depressant, there are many that are metabolically easier."

"You are right, but I still like a bit of white wine with chicken." I said. Alice, though not 21, was drinking a glass as well. Who was I to say no to a full member of the House? More importantly, I wasn't about to treat my live-in lover as a child.

After the Nalu left, Alice and I resumed discussing her schedule.

"No luck finding a full time job. The shops here are mostly full-staffed. I suspect they are reluctant to hire a woman as a mechanic, too. I will have to make do with the part-time job at Sam's Oil and Tire. Not the best-paid job, but it will give me some local references."

"You don't have to do this. Even with your recent reduction in sleep time, your day is still pretty full with the language and plasm-shaping exercises. Plus I hope we can spend more time together."

"Mitch, I love you, but I don't want to be a completely dependent woman, either. Plus I worked hard for my skills, and I like working on cars. I don't want to lose the skill; and some level of independent income helps me. Please, Mitch, I am not rejecting you, but I really want to do this."

"I am not afraid you are rejecting me. And I understand what you are saying about your skills. It would be a pity to lose them. I just worried that you felt pressured to work — please note that even if you were not my lover, and soon I hope more, as a House member you would be supported by us. I hope to have some sort of corporate structure for the House soon. Poli has a legal identity, so the three of us will be partners or shareholders."

"Thanks, I appreciate that, and I agree that House work is more important than my wish for independence; if or when I have important work for the House, I promise to give it my top priority.

"The idea of a 'House Corporation' is intriguing, but what did you mean by 'more?'"

Darn, I should have known she would catch that. Well, no time like the present.

"I know it's been only a few months, but I feel like I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I apologize for the lack of romantic setting, and even more that I don't have a ring for you, but will you be my wife?"

Despite being a successful scientist and a House Leader, I was as anxious as I ever recall waiting for her response. Fortunately, Alice was never one for delay.

"Oh, Mitch! Yes, yes, yes, I will marry you!" She fended off my attempts to kiss her.

"But, can we make it a long engagement? There are so many things right now, I can't even think of planning a wedding. And telling my parents would be a lot easier in a month or two, so it doesn't seem quite so sudden. And frankly, I don't even know who I'd want to invite, and how elaborate it needs to be. I just want to postpone any kind of planning.

"I hope you are okay with an open date. But rest assured, I will be your wife! And it was as romantic as I want; I will hug the memory of your proposal to me at night — unless I have something better to hug!"

She finally let me kiss her, and I continued nibbling down from her lower lip, to her exquisite golden neck, now blushing from increased blood flow, to the loose neckline, until I finally growled and pulled up her t-shirt.

Alice laughed and skipped away from me as I held the shirt. Fortunately, as I chased her bouncing butt, she was running toward the bedroom. When I caught her she was ripping her jeans off, taking the panties, and then the socks with them. I helped getting the bunched cloth down her left leg, and then started licking her starting from that ankle.

My licks and sucks made Alice's breasts flush. I delighted in her lust as her flesh warmed up and her muscles spasmed slightly. Alice's breath accelerated and was whining slightly. By the time I got to her knee her smell was nearly overwhelming, and her inner lips were exposed as her labia swelled. Alice made protesting noises and tried to pull me up by my hair, but her attempts were weak and indecisive, as though not sure if letting me continue might not be better. I resisted her attempts, and licked several times at the juncture of her leg and pelvis.

Alice stopped trying to pull me up to her level and spread her legs. She also arched her back and pushed her groin forward, showing me the target. Not that needed it; her smell was pulling me stronger that her hands on my hair were doing earlier.

Finally I stiffened my tongue and pushed between her lips, trying to find her opening. Her taste was wonderful, and I spent many seconds licking all around the hole, not quite going in. Alice's protests kept increasing in volume, until I stabbed in, not so accidentally touching her clit with my nose.

Her pelvis bucked. As I dropped my shield for such encounters, I risked a busted lip, or perhaps nose, but I was willing to take the risk. Actually, familiar with Alice's enthusiasm, I now kept one hand around my chin; between that and my tough skin I was usually safe.

I licked and sucked Alice through two orgasms before she relaxed. I now moved up to line up my cock with her slit. I once again reminded myself to look up male sexual enhancements in the Grimoire; for now I still had to hoard my orgasms. Alice was usually good for at least four for each bout; I was done after two.

After we showered I insisted on going out looking for a ring.

"What's your hurry? Are you afraid I will change my mind?" Alice teased me.

"Yep! I want you ringed and safe, lest some handsome young student steal you."

"In case you haven't noticed; you are handsome. And far more interesting than some callow student. But if you're that worried, why not cast a love spell on me?"

"Oh, don't think I haven't looked. Alas, there is no such spell there, and Poli says she doesn't know any love spells, either. I ask you, what good is a grimoire if it has no love spells?!

"Hurry up, the stores probably close at 5 today, let's go."

Alice was still chuckling at me when we arrived at the mall jewelry store. As befits my rather direct bride, she spent all of five minutes looking at rings before settling on the second cheapest one with a tiny chip of diamond. The attempts of the saleswoman to hype up the romantic possibilities fell on deaf ears; and when she appealed to me, I shrugged. "I am here just for my credit card. Whatever she wants, she gets."

We didn't try to haggle, and half an hour later, Alice walked out with a properly sized ring on her left hand. Even though she claimed she didn't need it, I could see from her smiles and periodic glances at her hand that she liked it.

On the way back to the apartment, I saw Jenny.

"Hello, Professor Acker!" she sang out from about 30 yards. It was a warm day, and Jenny was dressed in a light and skimpy white dress. The redhead looked very good, but I tried to pay no attention, as a happily engaged man, not to mention a faculty member.

"Hi, Jenny! How are you? This is my fiancée, Alice."

I saw Jenny's smile disappear as she looked at the brown-haired dryad at my side. Alice was staring closely at Jenny.

"Jenny, I heard so much about you! Glad to meet you at last." She gave Jenny her hand, and Jenny shook it, rather limply.

"Very nice to meet you. Did you get engaged recently? I don't recall seeing you on campus."

"Oh, very recently. And you wouldn't have seen me, I am not a student here — Mitch and I met up north. But I moved down here to live with Mitch, and I just started working part-time."

Jenny deflated with a heavy sigh. "I am not a student either. Professor, I wanted to tell you I got my approval letter — I have enough credits, and am now a Master of Arts. Or will be as soon as the faculty senate has the next meeting. I am starting work as a paralegal at my old employer and I am no longer a student at Coleridge. But, well, it doesn't seem to matter...

"I really enjoyed your classes, Professor."

"Now that you are no longer a student, please call me Mitch, Jenny."

"Well, okay, ... Mitch. Seems a bit strange, after I've been thinking of you as Professor Acker so long. I apologize again for my inappropriate language at the beginning of the semester.

"Well, congratulations, again, and have a good..."

Alice interrupted, "Do you mean when you offered to suck him off, in class?"

Jenny blushed scarlet and stared accusingly at me. "You told her?!"

"Yes, he did! And I thought it was both funny and sexy!"

I wasn't sure what was going on. Alice let go of my arm and grabbed Jenny's hand. Instead of being smugly possessive, she was smiling at Jenny, who in turn was nonplussed.

"Really?"

"Oh yeah! And I visualized myself, in class, doing it to Mitch. What did he look like?"

"Oh, he looked like he was about to choke! He flushed..."

Oh no! It looked like Alice was flirting! After whispering to Jenny (perfectly clear to me, of course) "Pity about all that student-teacher rules, there is so much potential", she turned to me and said, "Mitch, dear, I will catch you at home later. I don't want to delay you from your conference call."

Well, that was a nice kettle of fish! Ditched by my fiancée on the day of my engagement, and sent off to a non-existent conference, all so she could flirt and gossip with my, now former, student. I had implicit trust in Alice, but I found her almost scarily straight-forward. She was like a man in some respects, although all woman where it counted! I looked at Jenny's and Alice's backs as they continued walking away, hand-in-hand. Both beautiful; Alice looking so young and innocent, but was probably being the aggressor. I wondered if Jenny had any bisexual tendencies, and then had to try to scrub my mind of visions of the two of them, to avoid a rapid inflation of my resurrected penis.

Since I was left all alone, I thought I would actually use the time to check on my business. I had a great email, and another intriguing one. USS was making another license payment — apparently their new software was selling very well. That was great, since the payment was in the seven digits.

The other news was from Genefice, the biotech company. They were in confidential talks about a possible acquisition by a much larger competitor. My software was considered a major asset, and, ironically, they actually wanted a conference call today if I was available. Alice's invention was correct. Or did she know something? The email was timestamped only five minutes ago.

Two emails and a brief cell phone exchange later, we had a bridge going. With two bankers, two lawyers, four scientists and one programmer on the phone, I felt underrepresented without even one lawyer on my side. Still, I didn't want to disturb Clara on the weekend until I knew what was going on.

One of the investment bankers started, "Dr. Acker, your patents and your licensed software are an important element of Genefice's proposed strategy, and thus they contributed to their valuation. Your existing contract with Genefice has some ambiguous language regarding change of control, and there are also some obligations for your support services, that our client feels can be beneficially performed in-house, since he has a significant software development staff.

"What we would like is an explicit agreement approving the assignment of your license to the acquiring entity, and also the cancellation of custom development and support services, with some transition period, of course. In return, we would make a one-time payment, contingent on the acquisition being executed."

"I appreciate the summary. I just wanted to correct a point — the contract with Genefice is not ambiguous in change of control provisions; it specifically states conditions for revenue sharing, and such conditions must survive any change of control. Of course, I will have no problems with the assignment of my license assuming the acquiring company abides by these conditions."

"Well..."

The negotiations were inconclusive, but we at least put basic business conditions in place. They didn't want any open-ended commitments, and preferred to pay me off right now. I had no problems, in principle, but our ideas of fair compensation were not close. I promised to have my lawyer go over the draft agreement, but I named a minimum price that I would accept. They were not willing to contemplate it, and we were at a stand-still.

I was willing to wait. I thought my software was a pretty interesting way to enhance Genefice's modeling of their therapies, and would prove to be lucrative over the years. If the buyers wanted a quick agreement, they would pay. Otherwise, they would not get my software.

Their lawyer mentioned litigation, and even the possibility that "in their opinion, my agreement would not be necessary".

I knew they were just trying to see if I could be pushed. I actually laughed at him. "With all due respect, if you suggest to your clients that they commit a material breach of their contractual obligations, I look forward to seeing you in court. As for litigation — you know as well as I do how many years that will take. Not that you have any grounds — but again, looking forward to seeing you in court."

I decided to call Clara, to give her the heads up on the draft agreement, and to describe our conversation. "You should have called me," she grumbled, "but I think you did fine. Email me a copy of anything you get."

Alice came back full of energy.

"Did you do anything with the lovely Jenny?" I asked.

"We just talked! Get you mind out of the gutter ... there is not enough room here for both of us!

"I would have liked to 'do something', but we just talked. And what do you mean 'lovely Jenny?' What am I, chopped liver?"

"Well, she is lovely, you are breathtakingly beautiful."

"Oh, you are full of it," Alice said, but I could see she was pleased.

"That girl is really infatuated with you. She is in love with your mind, thinks you are a hunk and a half, and a knight in shining armor in your spare time. By the way, what's this about saving a girl from the rapists? According to Jenny, you took on three armed desperados, got wounded, put all three in a hospital, and rescued a little blonde cheerleader in the nick of time.

"So I am marrying a hero of the campus?"

"She exaggerates. I heard something, went, rashly, to investigate, and ended up getting scratched by one of the guys who turned out to go to the parties and spike girls' drinks with valium or something like that. I was bright enough to call 911 before running in, and the police came and sorted everything out."