Time Differences Ch. 01

Augusta was waiting for me there. In fact, she was naked and lying flat on the bed. She'd let her hair down -- literally -- and her blonde curls were fanned across the pillow. Her bush was the same shade of blonde, and covered her pussy as a soft gold triangle. I stopped to look at her; she no longer looked half so stern. She looked back at me, a little sadly as it seemed to me.

"Good afternoon, Simon," she said.

"Good afternoon," I replied. "You're beautiful."

"Thank you, Simon. But..."

"Yes?" I sat on the edge of the bed and caressed her foot.

"Do you see me as a -- a harlot? A sinner? A Jezebel? A depraved woman?"

"Is that what Clarissa or Miss Halstead are calling you?"

"Perhaps. Most probably."

"Well, whatever. You can be any of those things if you wish."

She frowned. "Why should I wish?" she asked.

"Sex," I said, "is about doing what you enjoy. But even in my time, not every woman feels that it's quite right, in her heart of hearts. Not for a nice woman. That's stupid, really, it's crap -- but if you have to think of yourself as a harlot when you're in the bedroom, to let yourself enjoy it, then go ahead. It doesn't change what you are really, to the rest of the world."

She smiled thoughtfully. "I think that I see. Tell me, Simon -- have you been acquainted with many harlots? True harlots, that is?"

I shook my head. "Never needed them," I said.

"Ah well. You see, I have no idea how a harlot should behave."

"A real harlot is mostly in it for the money, I gather. But that's not the point. What you have to do is whatever you enjoy -- or whatever the other person enjoys. Anything that doesn't hurt either of you is permitted."

She frowned again. "What manner of things?" she asked.

I thought for a second. "I'll show you a few," I said. "Come on."

I took off my own garment, and then looked back to Augusta. She looked puzzled as I took her by the hand, but she let me lead her into what the House had decided was appropriate for a bathroom. I guessed that it had designed this from first principles, but the result was basically a giant wet room, and pleasant enough to use.

"I'm feeling sweaty," I said. "House, a warm shower, please -- medium temperature on my preferences, fairly high pressure."

Augusta gasped as water jets hit us both from all directions, and I guessed that she and the other girls hadn't really thought to explore this technology as much as I had. In a second, we were both soaked, and I found the bar of neutral-scented soap-like stuff that I'd managed to get the House to create with a lot of explanation and trial and error, and began to soap Augusta down. She smiled as I ran my hands over her breasts and back, and then stood with her arms resting on my shoulders as I knelt and attended to her belly and thighs. Then I stood up, put the soap aside, and looked her in the eyes. "Take a step back," I said, "you'll want to lean against the wall."

She looked puzzled, but obeyed. I finished working the last suds out of her bush, then leaned forward and buried my face in her cunt. She gasped and tensed, and I reached round and clasped both her buttocks with me hands. I paused for a moment and looked up at her. "Just open your legs a little further," I said, and she obeyed. My tongue found its way to her cunt lips, and I tasted the salty softness of her, and then I explored further and found her clitoris.

She began gasping, and fondled my head gently. "Oh, Simon," she moaned repeatedly. "Oh, Simon...."

I was determined to carry on for as long as this might take; if our first fuck had been a relief for me and a confusing experience for her, I wanted to make very sure that she'd come back for more. But it turned out that I didn't have much of a problem; evidently, this was a girl with healthy appetites, as I might have guessed from the way she'd talked herself into giving herself to me earlier, despite all her upbringing and naivety. After a few minutes, she squealed and moaned, and slumped back further against the wall. I looked up from her pussy, and realised that she'd nearly fainted. I shifted quickly, supporting her with my hands as I rose to my feet, and then held her against me.

"Heavens," she murmured after a moment. "Is that -- is that natural?"

"It's called an orgasm," I said. "It's why your mother told you that having a man could be fun."

She drew a breath. "I could wish that I had known of such things sooner," she said with a smile.

"I can understand why your mother wouldn't tell you the whole story," I said. "No man would be safe."

She smiled again, uncertainly. "But I took only a smaller pleasure earlier," she said. "Must you -- kiss me in that way to accomplish that?"

I smiled back. "Oh, you can have just as much fun with me inside you," I told her. "That was just an option."

"And should I -- repay you in kind?" she asked.

"Only as much as you wish."

She took a deep breath. "Lean against the wall," she told me, and I obeyed. She knelt down and looked at my cock and balls. "They are still very strange to me," she said, "and I am still amazed that they fitted within me."

"Never underestimate yourself."

She stared thoughtfully at my groin as the warm water continued to run down both of us, then leaned forward and gave my cock a quick kiss, near the base. It twitched reflexively in response, and she pulled back with a start.

"It's okay," I said.

She leaned forward again and kissed my cock and balls quickly, several times. My cock had already been tumescent; now it began to grow hard and long. She gasped, and I caressed her head, murmuring appreciatively. She glanced up at me.

"Is this perhaps such a thing as a harlot would do?" she asked.

"Perhaps," I admitted. "Do you mind being my harlot?"

"No," she murmured, gazing fascinatedly at my cock.

"Oh, you beautiful little harlot," I said to her. She grinned, and I realised that she did want this feeling. "Sorry I can't pay you what you're worth..."

"Then give me such as you may afford," she said, sinking down and sprawling backwards on the floor. I smiled -- okay, to be honest, I smirked; she was definitely getting the hang of this. So I knelt down between her open thighs, took my cock in my hand, and guided it to her cunt. She gasped as I thrust into her again, but it sounded like pure pleasure this time.

"Yes!" she said, "Use me as your harlot! I would be yours, your -- your whore! To hell with Clarissa and her kind!"

I wasn't sure what to say, so I kept thrusting, and she started gasping in time with my thrusts. I put a hand under her head; I didn't want to batter her against the floor with my enthusiasm. I assumed that her back and buttocks were already suffering -- my knees were taking a bit of a hammering -- but she didn't seem to mind; she wrapped her arms and legs around me, and squealed my name.

I held on for as long as I could, but all this was frankly too bloody good after too long without; after a couple of minutes, I levered myself up, straining against her embrace to look down at her face and body, and then came with a groan. But even as I began to collapse against her, I heard a soft moan, and realised that I'd lasted long enough for her to find her own pleasure again.

"Sweet little harlot," I murmured in her ear.

"Vile seducer," she whispered back to me, with another giggle.

After a moment, I rolled off her, and we lay side by side on the floor for a moment as the shower washed the sweat and sex juices off our bodies. Suddenly, she gave me a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Thank you, Mr Ev... Simon," she said, almost formally.

"Thank you," I replied.

I told the water to stop, and called up jets of warm air. Then we used what the House had provided as towels to dry each other down, and went back to the bedroom, where we lay together for a while. I saw that Augusta was frowning.

"Problem?" I asked.

"Oh, Simon," she said, "this is not love, is it?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. It's sex, and it's a comfort... I doubt that it's what your novels would call love, but it's what we've got. And you're getting good at it, by the way."

"I suppose all that is what we must accept. But if you do not love me, why should you choose me before any of the others?"

"Honestly?" I asked. She nodded. "Because you offered," I said. "I'm afraid that you were right about men, really -- we like sex too much to want to refuse it when it's freely offered. And you got in first. And you're a gorgeous woman, so I'm not complaining."

"Then how may I trust you not to accept the same offer from any of the others? They need comfort too, and some among them dreamed of their sweethearts. Perhaps some of them will come to you, too."

"Because I don't want to hurt you now. You made the first claim, and I'll respect that."

"That hardly seems fair to them," she said, and I stared at her, and then laughed.

"So it goes, I'm afraid," I said.

She smiled back at me, but she didn't laugh. "So you say, but perhaps there might yet be unhappiness," she said.

"Well, I don't know what I can do about that," I said.

She frowned. "There may be a simple resolution," she said. "You have made me your harlot, and harlots have no exclusive claim on their men. Perhaps I should simply permit you to give comfort where it is asked."

I stared at her again. "Could you really put up with that?" I asked.

"Perhaps," she said. "After all, this is not love. To be honest, I think that I love the other girls more, as sisters, than I do you as a sweetheart. I would that they should find comfort."

"Wow. I don't know whether to be hurt or flattered. But don't get too generous with me. You ought to know that we men have our limits. I'm... kind of spent now. Pleasuring seven women could exhaust me."

"Oh..."

"Yes, though we do have a saying in my time; 'What a way to go...' Look, don't let's get ahead of ourselves here. I'm sure that we can find some way to keep everyone happy."

She smiled. "I hope so," she said, and then got up and pulled her dress back on. "But now I should go and talk to them more, I think. Better that they hear the truth from my lips than that they speculate foolishly. And..." She paused.

"Yes?"

"I should reassure them that you are not hurting me or keeping me prisoner. I am sorry if they would think that, but they might."

I laughed. "Go on," I said, "show them that you can do what you like. And by the way..."

"Yes?"

"I like what you like."

After she'd gone, I sat on my bed and stared at the wall a while. Then, an idea occurred to me.

"House," I said, "I may need some medical assistance."

"Of what kind?" the walls asked.

"What do you know about human sex acts?"

"The other intelligences and I have studied your anatomy and biochemistry," the House answered, "and I have readings from your recent activities."

I sat bolt upright. "What?" I said, "You told us you gave us privacy!"

"I do," said the House. "When you request it, I pay no attention to you. Attention is not the same as recording data. I exist in order to record data. I cannot stop doing that."

"Okay...." This was something to think about later. "Anyway, I may need to be at my best..."

The conversation took some time, with me talking about things like Viagra and the House asking a lot of questions, but in the end, it understood what I needed. Then something that resembled a tiny insect flew down from somewhere on the walls of my room and embedded itself in the skin of my arm with a pinprick feeling that I barely noticed, and that was that. I didn't feel any different, but from what the House told me, I'd now have the stamina and conscious control of a porn star. It was already subtly ensuring that we were all in pretty good physical condition; now, I could use that in the most interesting possible way, if necessary.

I got the chance to test its work a few hours later.