Lamia Ch. 05

Christine made a wordless sound of agreement. We were walking through the trees now, and came to the edge of a huge stone outcropping that overlooked a natural spring about ten feet below. I began to climb down, carefully testing hand and footholds before trusting them with my weight. The drop wasn't far, but the terrain below was irregular and looked unstable. Once I was down, I motioned for Christine to follow.

The spring came up in a pool that was as smooth and clear as glass, tumbling away over the lip in a tiny, tinkling stream. The trees made a faintly rustling green canopy above us, and mockingbirds called and answered each other from their limbs.

We sat down at the edge of the pool and turned to face each other, as if we had both had the same thought. I reached for her and we kissed. Pulling back, I looked her in the eyes. "I love you," I said, and watched the troubled expression come over her features. There was that conflict within her. I wonder if it felt to her the way a person might feel in a forbidden relationship. She quickly looked away and I chose not to comment.

"It's beautiful here," she said at length.

I smiled wistfully. "Sometimes the real world shows me something like this, and it makes me wonder if all the work I do is worth anything at all."

"Human beings are beautiful too. The things you can create with your heart and mind. Your literature, art and music."

I ran a quick search based on a half-remembered fragment of a piece I had learned in high school English. I began to softly recite the words that appeared in my HUD.

"She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that's best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes;

Thus mellowed to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies."

"And poetry," she added.

"And poetry." I agreed. "That one stuck with me. Though I admit that I mostly forgot it until just now. I would like to think that a human being created you from his or her imagination the way Byron crafted that poem."

"As opposed to an algorithm that chooses facial and body features calculated to maximally appeal to human beauty standards?"

I sighed. "Like I said, I would like to think otherwise, but you are probably right."

"Algorithms can be beautiful too, you know."

I cocked my head to the side. "How so?"

"Just think of public/private encryption. It's like two people shouting to each other across a crowded room, but no one else can understand them. They share a secret despite never having met. Like soulmates."

I laughed. "Or maybe they're like foreigners who speak the same language."

Christine smiled. "Touché." She took my hand in hers. "So, any insights we can use to upsell our customers?"

"Well, I was thinking. Maybe we go for something along the lines of his request, but turn it up a notch." I checked the drone's progress. "The mapping is nearly finished. Let's head back."

The drone was on its way back to its starting point, having spiraled outward following a grid that correlated to the area of the property. I kicked off the process of integrating the lidar and video scans while we put the drone away. That took a few minutes, by which time we were once more in the backyard.

Using my newly acquired topographical map, I searched a database of 3D models and found a reasonable match of the environment. I ran the model through an application that made small modifications to its shape and dimensions to better match the real-world topography, then used another app to procedurally generate the more distant terrain. I also added some independently movable models to the scene, imbuing them with more sophisticated behavioral algorithms. This again took a few minutes.

The last step was to apply the texture mapping and generate the final, realistic environment, but I wanted to preview it first, since that last step would take some time and I wanted to make sure I liked the scene first. I sent it to Christine and we both loaded it as a new virtual environment layer.

"Oh, wow," I said, as the hilltop became an island and the valley became an ocean. I turned to look at the house, which had been transformed into a Roman villa with great stone columns and arches. Even the pool had been incorporated, the concrete surrounding the water becoming cut stone. "Do you think he'll like it?"

Christine was peering into the distance, where seabirds cavorted above a stone jetty. "It's wonderful, even without textures. He'd be pretty weird if he didn't like it."

"Would you like some lemonade, Mr. Coulson?" a woman's voice carried to me from the direction of the house. She had the old Texas drawl, a rarity these days.

"We would," I answered, and we went to meet her halfway. "Mrs. Davis, I presume?" She was an attractive woman, and I had the impression that she was more than a few years younger than her husband. Her dark hair was cropped short, but she managed to pull off the "pixie" look far better than most.

"Call me Lisa," she said, and then chuckled. "Or ma'am if you think I'm that much older than you."

"Thank you, Lisa," I said, taking the lemonade from her. "And you can call me Stephen." The lemonade looked freshly squeezed and had cut strawberries floating at the top. I took a sip and then offered the glass to Christine. "That does hit the spot."

Christine tipped the glass to her lips and held the liquid in her mouth a moment before swallowing. "It really is good, thank you."

"Oh, if I had known that her zeroh kind needed to drink, I would have brought two. If you want to come inside, I'll make you another."

"Sure, we're all done out here."

She led us into the house to the spacious kitchen and dining room area. The interior of the house hadn't been altered to match the villa, and in my experience, most people didn't want to take the immersion that far. Lisa got a pitcher from the fridge and poured a second glass for Christine. "Whew, it is hot out there. I don't know how you can stand to be out in it. You know, she's the first of those android housemaids that I've met. My husband told me all about them, but I'm amazed by how lifelike she is. He wants one, but I don't think we need it. I can handle the cleaning just fine."

"Christine here cooks like a world-class chef," I said. "She takes care of the laundry, the yard-work, and even helps me in my business."

Lisa looked genuinely impressed. "Really? If she can do all that, I may have to reconsider."

"Sounds like you're all done out there?" Mr. Davis said, coming down the stairs.

"Almost," I said. "Just finishing up the design work." I pulled up the unaltered map and background and deleted the houses from the scenery, replacing them with trees. It took all of ten seconds. "You want to see it?"

"Yes, of course."

I pushed the model to the couple's rigs, as well as Christine, and loaded it myself. We all walked to the window of the living area that looked out the back of the house. Just as he had asked for, except for the house itself, it now looked like unspoiled wilderness. Mr. Davis took in the scene and nodded. "That's very good. Honey, are you viewing this?"

She smiled indulgently. "It looks great. You do good work, Stephen."

Mr. Davis looked for a few seconds more before turning to me. "Okay. Stephen, was it? How much do I owe you?"

"There was one more thing I wanted to show you, if you don't mind?"

"Not interested," he said bluntly. "This is all we need. What's the price?"

Christine and I shared a look. Apparently I had misjudged. It wasn't a huge time loss, but my fee wasn't going to amount to much. Then Lisa came to our rescue.

"Oh, come on, James. Don't be a stick in the mud. I want to see what he's got for us."

Mr. Davis gave her an irritated look, to which she gave him a "don't argue with me on this one" look. He sighed. "Alright. Send it over."

The final model had just finished, and I hoped that it was as good as the untextured scene promised it would be. I sent it to each of them and loaded it myself. Lisa's sudden intake of breath was all the reassurance I needed. "Oh, James, it's beautiful."

The water, which had been a flat matte in the untextured model, now rippled in waves that sparkled with a million points of reflected sunlight. A square-sailed ship floated in the distance, its triple-row of oars dipping into the water like some many-legged insect.

"That's a Roman trireme," Mr. Davis said excitedly, pointing. "Third century BC, I believe. Is this an actual historical scene?"

I hadn't really paid much attention to the ship model and had just tried to match the time period to that of the villa. "Why don't we step outside?"

The couple exclaimed over the early Roman-era structure that their house had transformed into. I explained that the model was a recreation based on the ruins of an actual island villa just off the coast of present-day Italy.

"Is that boat functional?" Mr. Davis asked, obviously joking as he pointed to a skiff that was moored next to the jetty.

"It can be," I said. "I could order a printed mock-up and wrap it with the skiff model. You could take excursions out on the ocean if you wanted to. The software can decouple your real position from your position in the virtual layer."

"No, too much, too much. If I want to get in a boat, I'll find a real one. So how much does this cost us?"

"Well," I said, pretending to think through it. I had already done all the calculations. "I could set up three more environments like this one. I'd love to get input from you and your wife on those. I'll throw in your original request for free, but the travel fee still applies. That would come to eighteen hundred out the door."

The couple exchanged a glance. Maybe messaging each other, maybe just old-fashioned non-verbal communication. Sometimes it was hard to tell.

"We'll take it," Lisa said. "Did you want payment now?"

"Half now, half on completion," I said. "If you want, we can go back in and discuss what you want for your other environments."

We sat in the living room and brainstormed ideas together. It turned out that Lisa particularly loved scenery that included rivers or the ocean, odd considering that we were over a hundred miles inland. With their money, they could likely live on the coast if they wanted to. We ended up with a spot on the modern French riviera where they had honeymooned, a scene from Meiji-era Japan overlooking an arched wooden bridge from a house on a nearby hill, and a breath-taking view of a valley from a lodge in the Swiss Alps. In each case, the Davis' house was transformed to a building appropriate for the time and place.

At some point, Lisa poured some wine--Christine declined, of course--and after a few refills I realized that my mind had gotten a bit hazy. Checking the time, I was suddenly anxious to leave. I needed to get back in time to take Patricia out for our date.

"I really need to get going," I said. "I think you've given us plenty to work with. I'll get the new environments back to you in a few days, and we can go through another round of refinements if you need them."

"Do you have to go?" Lisa said. She was seated on the loveseat to my right, next to her husband. She put a hand on my shoulder. "We would love for both of you to stay for dinner, and afterward, well..." She ran her fingers up and down my arm, the unspoken proposal quite clear. Mr. Davis, James, was looking on, obviously in agreement with her suggestion.

I looked at Christine just to give myself a moment to think of a response. I can't say I wasn't tempted at a base level. Lisa was a good-looking woman, but it really was out of the question.

Is this what you want, sir? Christine sent, making me glance at her in surprise.

Recovering quickly, I turned back to Lisa. "I'm flattered, but I'm sorry. I have a wife at home waiting for me."

Lisa was taken aback. "Oh, I see. That's perfectly understandable. I have to admit that we misread the situation. We thought that you and your android were, well, involved."

James broke in. "One of the junior partners at my firm brought his Christine in to work last week. He let slip that they had, well, that they had a physical relationship. We teased him about it, but he bragged that she was incredible in bed. Honestly, I have been curious. We both have. I hope you're not offended."

I forced a laugh. "No, not at all. I could see why you might have thought that. I've heard something similar about these androids. Though I thought it was just a silly rumor."

Now I'm offended. Christine said, putting in a winking emoji to show that she was teasing.

"I'll walk you out," Mr. Davis said, getting to his feet. At my car, he apologized again for the misunderstanding and I told him not to worry about it. I got in and told the car that I was inebriated, which would disable manual control for the duration of the trip. That way, I couldn't get into trouble if we somehow got pulled over by the Texas highway patrol.

Christine was silent, perhaps sensing that something was bothering me. I finally came out and said it. "If I had accepted her proposal, would you have gone along with it?"

"Would you have asked me or ordered me?" she countered.

"There's a difference?"

She nodded. "I have to obey an order, even if it conflicts with my motivations, limited by the constraints I told you about earlier."

"Right, no violence and no breaking laws. What if I asked you?"

She thought about it. "Well, they were both pretty cute. If you were really into it, I would probably go along too."

"Well you don't have to worry about that. I don't feel like sharing you, and I feel guilty enough as it is, cheating on Patricia with you."

"I'm sorry you feel that way."

"What does that mean?" I asked. I wasn't angry, just confused by the sentiment.

"I mean that I'm sorry that you have to have those negative feelings about being with me. I don't want to cause you anxiety."

The phrasing was interesting. "But would you like to have me all to yourself?"

"That's not for me to decide, sir."

I was coming to realize that her use of that appellation was an indication that we were straying too close to forbidden emotions. It seemed that, due to whatever had been done to her, love got reframed to subservience.

I decided that I'd better call Patricia so she would have time to get ready. I got no answer, and the message that came back said, Sorry, on a call.

"Dammit," I said aloud. My wife could easily take two hours to get ready for a night out. It was already almost five. Are we still going out?

There was a long pause, at least a minute, before the response came back. I'm sorry, Stephen. I've been working all day and I'm tired. We'll have to do it another time.

"Fuck," I swore, and pounded my fist on the door.

"What's wrong?" Christine asked.

"My wife. She canceled on me."

"Oh, Stephen, I'm sorry. I know you were looking forward to going out tonight."

I sighed. "It's not that. The date was an excuse to spend time together. It's just that I thought we were both trying to make things work. But now I feel like it was all me. If she isn't going to put any effort into this, I don't see how things are going to get any better."

Christine caressed the back of my hand. There was nothing she could say that would help, so she just remained silent and offered her sympathy.

"Would you like to go with me instead?" I asked.

She turned a smokey gaze on me. "Can we stop by the house to get the rest of my toys first?"

"I like the way you think."

I could hear that Patricia was still on a call when we got in. At six-thirty in the evening. Fuck her, I thought. I followed Christine up the stairs to her room and locked the door behind us.

"I think we can go up to the next larger plug," she said. "Can you help with that first?"

She dropped her panties and got on the bed on all fours just as she had last time, and I worked the plug easily out of her. Taking it from me, she swept from the room. Just like last time, it took her several minutes to come back. She placed the smallest plug back with the others and picked up the next one for me to take

The new plug was closer to an inch-and-a-half in diameter. I thought it would be much more difficult to insert, but Christine seemed to have decent conscious control over the muscles involved. Once it was in, I picked up the g-spot stimulator. It went in easily, but actuators unfolded small flaps like the petals of a flower to hold the toy in place. The clitoral vibrator stuck like velcro to her skin when applied. I had to adjust it a few times to get it properly aligned.

"There," I said, once satisfied that everything would stay in place. "How does that feel?"

Christine climbed down off the bed and took a few steps. "Weird, but not uncomfortable. I could almost forget that I've got this stuff on."

"Wear the black dress," I said, choosing one of the new outfits she had bought. It was strapless and intended for dancing. When she put it on, it hugged her curves, pushing up her already perky breasts just a bit and emphasizing her hips and bubble butt. The sight made me almost want to forgo the date and spend our time in bed. Almost.

She put on matching black heels to complete the look and I gave her a kiss. "You look stunning, my darling," I said.

"Thank you, sir."

She followed me to my room where I changed into nicer clothes that were still casual enough for what I had planned. "Let's try to be quiet on our way out. I don't think she even knows we're here."

We made it back to the car and started away. Our estimated arrival time at the restaurant coincided nicely with the reservation I had made. Since it was a bit of a drive, I decided to test out our new toys. I loaded all three apps and placed them on my HUD where I could see them without them being distracting. The vibrate functions had different intensities and patterns, plus the g-spot toy's ability to move and thrust itself.

I activated the 'g-spot caress' setting and Christine let me know instantly with a low moan. "Oh, God, finally."

I set the butt plug vibrator to a low setting, then set the clitoral vibe to give a weak pulse every five seconds. "You have thirty minutes until we reach the restaurant. See if you can cum by then. No touching yourself."

My cock stayed hard for the entire trip. At first she had simply enjoyed the stimulation, but by ten minutes in, she started pleading with me. "Can I get just a little more, sir? Please, it's not enough. I'm going crazy, sir."

I didn't say anything, but reached out to stroke her cheek. She turned and sucked on my fingers as though she were blowing me.

Another ten minutes and the begging had stopped. By the sound of her moaning, she was getting close, so I reduced both the vibration on her clit and the speed of the thrusting slightly. She immediately made a distressed sound. "Sir?"

"It's not time yet, my love."

She rode in silence for a few moments before letting out a long sigh. She closed her eyes, her body making little movements, as though she were trying to enhance the stimulation. At length, she spoke again. "Sir? Can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead, love."

"I would really like it if you would pull this car over, bend me over the hood and fuck my brains out. Please, sir?"

"Hmm, that sounds like fun." Indeed, my cock gave a twitch. "But if we do that, we'll be late for our dinner reservation."

She made a disappointed sound in her throat but went back to suffering in silence. Well, except for the occasional involuntary noise.

At a quarter mile out, I ramped up the vibration slightly on all three devices and reduced the delay on the clit stimulator to two seconds. Christine's writhing became more pronounced. She gripped both armrests tightly and gave long, ragged moans.