Lamia Ch. 03

Her eyes went wide. "I said that?"

I nodded. "Right after we had the most amazing sex of my life." That admission surprised me, but it was true. In our years of dating and marriage, Trish hadn't even come close.

Her gaze searched mine and her lip trembled. "I care for you. You are my master. But that is all. I'm just here to do whatever you want me to do."

I drew a breath and tried to dispel the tight pain in my chest. It was easier this way, simpler. I was married, and perhaps could get away with a little casual sex, but those kinds of feelings would surely end in disaster. Not to mention the implications of a machine feeling that. But I still felt like I had been cheated somehow.

"What is Lamia?" I asked.

Christine seized on the chance to divert to something else. "I don't know, but let's see." Her eyes unfocused. "Greek mythology. Daughter of Poseidon. She has several children by Zeus. Heh, of course, the horny old bastard. Hera got jealous and stole their children." Her tone grew more somber. "Driven mad with grief, Lamia tore out her own eyes. She became a monster, stealing and devouring the children of others." She was obviously unsettled at the end, and brought her focus back to me. "Why did you ask?"

"Just a word I heard today," I deflected, suddenly wary of triggering another memory-erasing episode. "So, how about dinner?"

Christine brought me food in the living room, and I shared some of her delicious cooking with her as always. Once we were done, she cuddled up against me and I put an arm around her. Some part of me wanted to take her again, to ravish her in the hopes of recreating that spark of magic that we had felt. In spite of everything, I found myself wanting to hear those words from her again. Those lovely, impossible words.

"I'd better take care of the cleanup," she said with a sigh, and left me to stew in my own thoughts.

My sense of professionalism told me to get back to Mr. Agarwal's project. My unhealthy curiosity had other ideas. I pulled up the message boards that I had visited earlier looking for information about Christine and searched for the term "Lamia". Nothing came up, but it had been a bit of a long-shot.

I tried a more general search and scanned through various summaries of the Greek myth. Interestingly, I discovered that the story had many variations. In some versions, Lamia gouged out her own eyes, while in others, Zeus gifted her with the ability to remove them at will. In one version, she would rip babies from the womb. Still, most versions retained a few key elements, that Lamia was Zeus' mistress, that Hera killed her children, and that she went mad and sought to devour other children.

I had one more possibility to try. I brought up the message board I had found where the owners of Practical Cybernetics androids had talked about being seduced by them. I created a new post and titled it "Lamia". It read:

Has anyone come across this? Do you know what it means? Please DM me.

I reasoned that if someone else had experienced something similar to what I had, we could compare notes and maybe figure out what it meant.

That done, I sat back in my chair and let the pages I had been perusing fade from my view. I was startled to see Christine standing directly in front of me on the other side of the coffee table.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, looking abashed. "I finished the dishes and cleanup, but saw that you were busy, so I've been waiting here in case you needed me."

"I think I'm done for now," I said, stretching out limbs that had gone a little stiff.

"Great," she said, and began to climb across the coffee table on all fours. She reached me and began to kiss me while her fingers worked to undo the fastenings on my clothes.

"Christine, wait," I protested, grabbing her wrists to stop her. "Please, not now."

"Don't you want me, sir?" she asked, her eyes going wide with concern, with vulnerability. That look very nearly broke my resolve. I also noted her use of the word "sir" for the second time tonight, as though she were trying to reassert her submission to me.

"No, listen," I said, keeping a firm grip on the hands that still gripped my belt. "What happened earlier, it kind of killed things for me right now. To have you just lose a chunk of memory like that. It's unsettling."

Christine chewed at her lip and looked down. "Oh, I should have realized," she said.

"Look, it's not your fault. I can see how much you love sex. I love it too, but I need a little time."

"Tomorrow?" she said, lifting her gaze hopefully.

I drew a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. "Maybe."

She nodded, accepting the condition. If I let her stay in my bed tonight, I doubted my ability to resist her. "May I give you a hug at least?"

I smiled. "Of course."

Christine wrapped her arms around me, her very soft, very feminine bosom pressed against my chest. Hot desire stirred in my loins despite my resolve. I let her stay there perhaps just a bit longer than I should have before disengaging.

"Thank you, Stephen," she said. She climbed off of me and stood up. "Is there anything else that you require of me, sir?"

"No, why don't you go sleep in your bedroom?"

"Very good. I will see you in the morning."

She padded away and up the stairs. The door to her room closed with an audible click. I let out the breath I had been holding and just let myself relax for a few minutes. When I was ready, I addressed my rig. "Call my wife."

An indicator popped up, "Connecting..."

"Hey," Trisha answered in my ear. She'd opted for voice only. "I was just settling in for the night. How are things down on the homestead?"

My mouth quirked in a smile at her turn of phrase. "Just finished milking the cows and locked up the chickens. How's the big city?"

"It's been amazing. Everything is expensive, but the people I've met have all been really nice. I just got back from dinner. Craig took me to an Italian place near the apartment. It was unbelievable. So-oo good."

I found myself smiling at the excitement in her voice. "It sounds like you've been having a good time."

Her tone grew more sober. "Well, the real work starts tomorrow. I'm going to meet my new team and present my plan in person. We'll give them some time to go over it and give me their feedback, and then I'll probably be working my ass off the rest of the week."

"I'll be busy, too," I said, and told her about my two new jobs. "It's a good thing I've got Christine helping me. And she told me that she helped you get your presentation together."

"Uh huh," Trish said noncommittally.

We chatted for a few minutes more and then said our goodbyes. The guilt didn't hit me until after I hung up. Here was my wife, making a go at a fantastic career while I was at home fucking the maid. The plot twist of Christine being artificial in that story didn't make it any less unoriginal or moral. The worst part was that Trish didn't suspect anything. Our chatter had been as warm and friendly as ever, probably more so than it had recently, given our spat.

I sat on the couch and worked on the aquarium project for a few more hours, until my body's need for sleep finally overcame my wandering mind. It was well after midnight, so I checked in my most recent code revisions and climbed the stairs. Christine's door was open, and a peek inside told me she was lying in the spare bed, curled up on her side and mimicking sleep. I wondered if she could hear me passing by. After shucking my rig and crawling wearily into bed, I surprised myself by falling asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.

I woke to a pleasant warmth against my side and turned, expecting to see my wife. Instead of Trish's brown curls, the woman sleeping next to me had long, golden hair and cute, pixie-perfect features. It took a few seconds for my brain to catch up. "Christine?"

She opened her eyes and immediately gave me a sheepish grin. "I know you asked me to sleep in my own bed, but I really liked sleeping with you yesterday morning and thought you might not be used to being alone. Plus, it's tomorrow now. I hope you don't mind."

My heart melted at her innocence and sincerity. I put my arm around her to pull her close and placed a kiss on her cheek. "That was very thoughtful of you, Christine. You're the best household automation android a guy could ask for."

She gave me a coquettish grin. "I'm also pretty good at doing other things in bed, or so I've been told." She leaned in close, so that her warm breath tickled my cheek. "I hope you're in the mood for some of this today," she said, and guided my hand to her breast. She moaned deep in her throat as my hand brushed her nipple. Her own fingers quickly found my rapidly stiffening cock. "You were thinking the same thing, weren't you?"

Her cheeks were flushed, her lips plump and red, her eyes half-lidded and smoky. The lust I felt in that moment swept away all of the doubts and hesitation of last night. I pushed her roughly to her back. She gave a grunt of surprise that changed immediately to passion as my lips closed on one of her plump nipples. I ran my hand down creamy smooth skin, across her bare mound and into the damp warmth of her slit.

"Yes," she breathed as I fingered her, planting kisses on her neck and lips before going back to her sensitive nipples. She rose quickly, eyes closed and head rocking from side to side as her body arched upwards. She came with a wordless cry, her pussy rhythmically clenching my fingers over and over, drawn out by the gentle pressure of my palm against her clit.

I nestled my head against her shoulder to let her catch her breath, but she surprised me by pushing me over onto my back and straddling my hips. The cleft of her pussy came down on top of my erect member, and she rocked back and forth a few times, rubbing against me in a way that was both playful and intensely erotic. I was torn between the pleasure she was giving me and the more intimate and profound pleasure to come.

"You like that?" she asked breathlessly as she slid forward and tilted her body, almost but not quite catching, and slid back again.

I resisted the urge to grab hold of her, to plunge myself deep inside of her. "God, you're driving me crazy."

She chuckled softly. "Me too." She made the same maneuver as before, but this time caught me at her entrance. Slowly, agonizingly, she forced me past her outer lips and took my cock into her body. I echoed her pleased sigh and she began to ride me.

"I love this," she whispered, letting her eyes close.

My heart seemed to skip a beat before realizing what she hadn't said. "I love it, too," I said.

My tone must have given me away, because she stopped her rhythmic movement and peered at me searchingly. "Is something wrong?"

I hooked an arm around her neck and pulled her closer for a kiss. I poured my heart into it, trying to show her something that my words couldn't articulate. I held her close for a moment, our labored breath mingling as she thrust her body against mine.

With a passionate moan, Christine threw her head back and balanced herself upright, lifting and dropping as I thrust up into her, our bodies meeting over and over again. "Oh, yes," she cried. "Oh, Stephen!"

She came like a Hellenic goddess, erotic to the point of transendence, her whole body engaged in a tumult of pleasure. I gently steadied her with my hands on her hips, until she leaned forward, laughing, and kissed me sweetly. "I'm not sure what we did differently, but that was the best yet."

"We've reached a new high on the banana split scale?" I asked.

She chuckled again and spoke in a dreamy voice. "Oh, about a sixty-five. I would have kept going, but my legs feel like jelly. I'm going to need a minute."

I was far from done with her, though. With my arms wrapped around her, I rolled us over to put me on top, my cock never leaving her, and thrust in and out with long, powerful strokes. Her eyes went wide for a moment but she quickly settled into her new situation and began to writhe and moan beneath me. It was one of those perfect moments that you remember years later with unusual clarity. The sensations were exquisite. The emotion was raw, overwhelming. And Christine was a vision of female beauty, of sexuality, of fertility.

"Oh my God, Christine," I groaned, pumping into her so hard that our bodies came together with a slap at the bottom of each stroke. Surely no drug could ever make me feel this good, but it was so much more than that. The joining of our bodies was like a physical extension of a bond that had formed between us.

"Oh yes, oh, please don't stop," she panted, her hands gripping my hips, coaxing me to fuck her even harder. "Almost there."

It was just a few strokes later that I felt her pussy grip my cock in its contractions. She cried out, her body twitching with the force of it and my own climax hit me from nowhere. "Fu-uck," I swore, drawing out the word as pleasure shot through me, and I filled her with my seed. It seemed to go on and on, fueled by the intensity of emotion.

After a moment, I realized that I had fallen completely on top of Christine, and started to lift my weight off of her, but she clutched me tighter, holding me against her. "Please, if you don't mind. I like it."

I relented. The truth was that I rather liked it myself. I did lift my head enough to gaze into her eyes. It is said that the eyes are windows to the soul. I would challenge anyone in my place to deny the spark of life, of intelligence that I saw in her gaze.

Though our lovemaking was done, for now, my heart still raced. "I want you so badly and I don't think I can stop," I said, the words coming out in a rush. "Trish will be back home in a few days. We have to get this...I have to get this under control."

The look she gave me was one of confusion. "It's simple. When she is home, you will be with her. We will simply have to be careful. I enjoy copulating with you, but I am certainly capable of waiting until the time is right." Her voice turned sultry. "You know, I'll do anything for you, things even your wife would never do."

I fought down the wave of desire her words inspired in me. God, I was falling hard for her, but ever since last night's malfunction, she had maintained a kind of emotional distance. I thought suddenly of how a prostitute must interact with a client. "So that is all it is to you? Just sensation? Just sex? You feel nothing else?"

"No, it's more than that," she protested.

"More? How? Tell me."

"I want to please you, Stephen."

"Then you do care about me?"

"Of course I do. You are my master. That's what I was made to do."

I slumped back and closed my eyes. What had I been expecting? "When you said that you loved me. That was just a mistake? A glitch?"

"I..." She sighed. "I don't know. I can't remember."

"Why was your memory erased? Was it because of what you said? That Lamia thing?"

She shook her head, her expression darkening. "I don't know, Stephen. I don't know." When she spoke again, her voice cracked. "I try not to dwell on it, but I feel like something's off, like something fundamental has changed. I'm afraid that there might be something very wrong with me."

I ran one hand up and down her back and stroked her hair with the other. "Shh, shh. It's alright. You're safe here with me."

She cried for a few minutes more before disentangling herself. My cock had gone soft and it slipped out of her as she rose and sat on the edge of the bed. She swiped at her eyes with her fingers. "What a piece of junk I turned out to be, huh? I'm supposed to be taking care of all of your needs, but instead I'm having some kind of breakdown."

I got up and sat beside Christine, putting an arm around her. "When you love someone, when you care deeply for them, you want to make them happy. You would do anything to keep them safe, even die for them."

"I don't understand."

I sighed. "You're a learning machine, right? I've studied AI. The way you learn is by trying different solutions from a set of alternatives and then picking the one that gives the best result. What if, before your memory was wiped, your learning brain stumbled upon love as the answer for how best to care for me?"

She blinked a few times and lifted her gaze to meet mine. Her eyes narrowed. "That's seriously screwed up. You know that, right?"

I laughed and she laughed right along with me. Once I wound down, I continued. "No, really, I mean it. I don't know if you were meant to be self-aware, but I really don't think you were meant to be as human as you are. Maybe all of the elements were already there when they built you. You just had to grow a bit to get there."

She nodded slowly. "Okay, but then why the reset? Was it just coincidence that my memory got wiped?"

I sighed. "I don't know. Before it happened, you were struggling to tell me something, and then all you said was that one word, Lamia. It must mean something. Maybe some kind of protocol to moderate your behavior."

"Like a kill switch, you mean?"

"Maybe. Something I haven't told you before now is that I checked and a lot of other people online have been reporting having...well...intimate relations with their androids. From what I could gather, most of them were as surprised as I was that their maid ended up doubling as a sexbot. It's bothered me ever since."

Her eyes went wide.

"I'm already feeling guilty as hell, and I have no idea what Trish might do if she finds out."

She nodded. "I understand."

"I don't think you really do, but you know that we have to be discreet, so that's a start."

"And we have most of a week before she gets back," she said with a twinkle in her eyes. She stood, walked two steps and bent over, giving me a view of her ass that made my breath catch in her throat. She slipped on a pair of heels and whirled to face me. Her ample breasts bounced a bit at the sudden stop. "If you don't mind, I think this will be what I wear while I do my cleaning today." With that, she turned and headed for the door, hips swaying provocatively. I was hard as a fucking rock again.

"And here I was hoping to get some work done today," I grumbled.

After breakfast, I stopped in at the gym for my usual workout, then jumped back in to the aquarium project. Christine popped in and out of sight as I worked, sometimes to ask me if I needed anything, at other times cleaning some surface that looked spotless to my eye. It wouldn't have been nearly so distracting if she hadn't been nude the entire time. Even so, I managed to finish my optimization work by late morning. I checked in my code and ran a script to install it to my QA environment for automated testing.

Feeling like I had managed to accomplish something, I decided to check in on Christine's progress. She'd had most of a day to work on a project that would have taken me a week to complete. "Huh," was all I could say when I opened the project in my repository. Not only was it finished, but she had been testing it since early this morning. The documentation indicated that there actually had been a few bugs that she had discovered and already fixed.

I sent a chat to Christine, who was currently upstairs. Hey, is your software ready to run?

The reply came back immediately. Hold on, let me come to you first.

She came down the stairs in a rush and gestured to the sofa. "Please have a seat. Load up sim 1, revision 2."

I did so and was unsurprised when an older man appeared in the chair next to me. A visual representation of a document floated in the air in front of him, and his eyes scanned as he read it. He scowled suddenly and looked at me. "No, that's not what I was promised. I was told eighty-five a month.", His voice rose in anger the longer he spoke, and he was now leaning forward in a threatening pose. "And there was no mention of an activation fee. Zero! Your company lied to me, and I'm going to need a full refund!"