With that advice, the three professors continued with their interrogation.
Finally, Bresnan had completed his task of removing the sub-melody and played the section with and without the undertone of deceit.
“I still prefer it with the undertone,” she admitted.
Bastion agreed with her, while Simon and Pinchot liked it better “clean”. Bresnan refused to choose, so it fell to Martin to decide the fate of her piece.
He declared his preference for the undertone to remain with detailed, analytical reasoning that prevented Simon or Pinchot from declaring his vote biased or uninformed. She kissed Martin on the head for his grand support.
“Do I get a vote?” Adam asked from the door.
“Did you hear the clean version?” Pinchot asked.
“The stripped version? Yes. It lacks truth. The reason those undertones need to be in this sunny piece is because they are the ugly truth hidden deep beneath the warm and tender lies. While the audience may not consciously hear the strand, their brains will register it and create the slightest sense of ill ease, an uncertainty in Chadwick, despite his good looks and charm. It is the musical equivalent of intuition. It is the bearer of truth hidden deep beneath the lies.”
Pinchot sighed. “I give way. Leave it in.”
She kissed both Pinchot and Simon for conceding the point.
Do I not deserve a kiss as well? Adam asked in her head.
You deserve more than kisses, but we need to send some people home first.
“Shall we eat now?” Adam suggested.
“And where is Andrew?” Bastion demanded. “I am rather fond of his announcement that dinner is served in his grand, elegant baritone voice.”
“I have sent him off on a special mission,” Adam explained. “So you must do without his grand voice. However, I will ask him to announce dessert if you wish.”
Amanda smiled when she noticed the table setting included plates for the Johnsons. Martin took a seat between her and Bastion.
Sondra entered with the plates of food and noticed at once that her son had recovered from his heartbreak. She smiled her appreciation to Amanda, having no idea it was Adam who deserved her thanks.
Amanda turned and admired her incredibly handsome fiancé. He was always thinking of others. He was superior to any human—smarter, kinder and far more generous. Not only was he filled with good intentions, but he had the drive and ability to see them to fruition. She was, without question, the luckiest woman on Earth.
His eyes sparkled with delight as he kissed her hand.
She didn’t care he’d heard her long string of compliments. He deserved to hear them. When he listened to her thoughts, he made better sense of her wants than she did. Until he had asked for her hand, she hadn’t realized how much she had wanted to marry him. She didn’t understand why it should matter. He had promised to remain with her forever, and his word was far more reliable than a marriage certificate.
Nor could she think of a reason why he should feel a need to marry her. He was certainly not prone to jealousy, and he had to know that no man could ever alter their love. No, there was no reason but one. He must have heard a deep undertone in her thoughts that she hadn’t even been consciously aware of. She wanted to be his wife and the mother of his children.
She immediately regretted her last thought, since he could not have children.
But you can, my love, he replied in her head. And I can love them as my own.
She stared at him, wishing they were alone.
We will discuss this further after our guests have left. But if you wish to have children, I am certain any of the men at this table would be very glad to offer the sperm needed to create fabulous little musicians, he teased.
She mentally replied, Three of the four are gay.
They love you so much, I doubt they would object. However, Bresnan is certainly up for the challenge, and I think a strong partnership between you two would help both your careers. You could write and he could showcase your works.
Adam could sense her discomfort and assured her, We’ve plenty of time to discuss these matters. None of these possibilities are imminent. First, we must marry.
She smiled at that. “May we be married this weekend?” Her question caused Bastion to almost spill his wine.
Adam kissed her hand. “I need a little more time than that to arrange the wedding.”
“I don’t want a wedding. Can we not get married by a French bureaucrat?”
The whole table laughed at her request.
Andrew entered at that point, and upon noticing Sondra laughing so hard she was in tears, asked, “What’s so funny?”
Simon repeated Amanda’s question, and Andrew laughed as well.
“I’m serious,” she insisted, which only made everyone laugh harder. Even Martin laughed.
“What’s so funny about my request?” she asked Martin.
“I don’t know. I’m laughing because they’re laughing.”
“All right, will someone please tell Martin what’s so funny about my request?”
Simon offered to do one better, and asked Sondra and Andrew to pretend to be a couple wishing to be married.
Andrew and Sondra stood up, and Andrew politely tried to get Simon’s attention, but Simon declared himself on break. They waited and waited.
Bastion grew tired of waiting. “Let us assume you have kept them waiting an hour.”
“Two!” Simon declared. “I had a fight with my lover this morning and I’m in a bad mood.”
Pinchot’s eyebrow rose at that claim.
Simon turned to Andrew. “Well, what do you want? I do not have all day!”
“We wish to be married,” Andrew replied.
“Where is your paperwork?”
“Paperwork?”
“Yes, paperwork. You do not think you can get married without paperwork? Three meters! Do not return with less than three meters of paperwork.”
Andrew disappeared into the library and returned with an armful of sheet music.
Sadly, Simon declared himself on break again.
“After another two hours of waiting...” Bastion said, to move the amusing skit along.
“Three hours! For my lover has not called and apologized for his dreadful behavior, and I am most unhappy!” Simon declared, and stared defiantly at Pinchot.
Before Pinchot could reply, Andrew asked again to be married.
Simon accepted the pile of paper and found fault with everything. A comma was missing, a word misspelled. Finally, he declared Andrew’s record number was wrong and it would take two weeks to resolve. “Now go away!”
Andrew and Sondra sighed and sat back down.
“They cannot possibly be that bad,” Amanda insisted.
Everyone nodded that they could.
“You do realize the word bureaucrat is French? We are the masters of bureaucracy. We have honed it into a fine art.”
“You would be better off flying to the States to get married,” Pinchot admitted.
Adam frowned at that suggestion. “I would prefer to remain in Europe. However, we might need to marry in England, since I am a British citizen.”
“Ah!” Simon declared. “And after three months of bureaucratic delay, I would have finally told you what I could have told you on the first day. You cannot be married in France, for neither of you is a citizen of our great country.”
“Well, Martin thanks you for enlightening him on what was so funny,” Amanda said, and proclaimed herself starved.
Bastion ordered her to set the dish down, then stood for a toast. “A toast to our new couple. We wish them the happiest of lives as Amanda focuses on her craft and creates music that future generations will cherish. Make us proud, Amanda. That is all we ask.”
“That is a very tough task!” she complained. “Can I not simply love Adam with all my heart, since that’s easier?”
“You have a talent, and you will not waste it,” Bastion scolded her.
“I will not allow her to waste it,” Adam promised him. “I will place her in your hands to be trained and gently prodded into the finest musician this world has ever known.”
Bastion scowled. “Do not call her that—her head will swell and her talent will suffocate in the hot air. I have seen it before. Anon once showed great promise, and once his head swelled, he ceased to improve. Now he shall be merely good, but never great.”
“Amanda is not Anon,” Adam said. “She takes compliments very well. However, if I perceive any swelling in her head, I will let you know, and you can remove it with one complaint.”
“Shall we eat and stop talking about Amanda as if she isn’t sitting here, starving to death?” she suggested.
After dinner, Andrew announced dessert in his baritone voice and rolled in a dark chocolate fountain with a selection of fruit, caramel, nuts, cheesecakes and ice cream for dipping.
***
By the time Adam carried Amanda to bed, she felt fat, happy, and tipsy.
He took his time undressing her.
His touch caused her to shiver with pleasure. “I could never do it,” she finally said.
“Do what?”
“What, you can’t read my mind now?”
“Say it out loud,” he insisted.
“I don’t want anyone but you.”
“But you do want a baby.”
She remained quiet.
“Admit it.”
“I would like to have a baby, but I want you far more.”
“This isn’t a case of picking A and losing B. You have me. That is a certainty. I was born from your thoughts. Your heart, your feelings gave me life. It is not possible for you to lose me. I am part of you. However, it is inevitable that I will lose you, since you are human, and no matter how well I care for you, your body will someday die. I want—I need—for a part of you to go on. I need your children, Amanda, for without you I will lose my anchor and purpose to exist.”
Struck by the harsh reality of his words, knowing the agony she would feel if she ever lost him, she knew his pain would be the same, and her death was presently inevitable. She pulled him to her. “I will not allow you to lose your purpose! I will give you so many babies you will have trouble keeping track of them all.”
***
With great determination, Amanda began to flirt with her four friends, and discovered Adam was correct. They were not so impervious to her attention as she’d thought.
However, her flirting did have unintended consequences. One day before her wedding, Bresnan begged her to marry him instead.
“Bresnan...” She sighed and caressed his face.
“You love me. I know you do!”
“I do. But I love Adam as well, and he can afford a wife. You cannot.”
Bresnan kissed her with passion, and for Adam she did not resist the responding emotions that echoed inside her, nor did she resist when he pulled her upstairs and into his old room.
“I taped over the security cameras,” Bresnan whispered. “He will not know.”
Amanda removed his shirt and splayed her hands on his chest as he kissed her hungrily, all the while trying to remove her skirt. When he finally had her undressed, he lowered her onto the bed and proved to be a very gentle and considerate lover.
When they were near climax, he begged her again to marry him.
“We will always be lovers,” she whispered. “You will always be welcome in my arms.”
With that promise, he brought them both to climax.
As he pumped his sperm deep inside her, Amanda prayed one would take hold and give Adam his baby.
Chapter Forty-Three
The wedding was far more lavish than she wished, and filled to the brim with people she’d never met, all claiming to be great friends of Adam’s.
“How do you come to have so many friends?” she demanded.
“From years of performing good deeds.”
That would explain the sincere appreciation she had seen in so many of the guests. She kissed him. “You are so wonderful!”
“If I am, it is to your credit.” He returned her kiss with his own.
A press photographer captured the shot.
He smiled. “I bet that makes the cover of the British tabloids.”
She wished her friends from France could have come, but for some reason they wished to stay and plan a smaller party for her there.
“They do not enjoy traveling, and they absolutely detest British food,” Adam explained.
“Bresnan doesn’t mind traveling.”
“Bresnan is two sheets to the wind. He is quite depressed today, despite your sweet promise to always be his lover.”
“He needed reassurance.”
Adam kissed her. “It was an excellent offer. One which I will help you keep.”
“I cannot keep promises on my own?” she challenged.
He pulled her onto the dance floor. “Not this one. Not without my help. Bresnan likes me too much to continue this affair for long. In fact, he is determined he will never touch you again, even if it means transferring to a different school.”
“No!”
“Don’t worry, I will turn him around.”
“How?”
Adam smiled at her. “You know...I’m considered to have a most formidable charm.”
She smiled. “You do. I cannot imagine how anyone could deny you anything.”
“Well, the question at this moment is whether you wish me to deny you the opportunity to speak to Sean Darmont. He is standing to the side, trying to gather the courage to ask for a dance.”
“I would like to talk to him,” she admitted, then noticed Adam’s worried expression. “Trust me. I will not saddle you with cowardly children.”
He smiled and stroked her cheek. “No child of yours could possibly be cowardly.” Escorting her from the dance floor and into the gardens, he stopped by a bench. “Stay here, and when you tire of his company, I will bring you a drink and chase him away.”
“My savior!” Once Adam left, she sat down on the cushioned bench and removed her shoe so she could massage her toes.
“Allow me to do that.” Sean knelt down and caressed her foot.
“Sean! Why on earth would you come to a wedding? I would think you’d detest such things.”
“I do, but I needed to see you, to apologize for the ass I have been.”
“I was disappointed you didn’t even say goodbye, but then I realized if you truly loved me, which I believe you did, then seeing me so near death might have been too much for you to endure.”
He stared at her. “I’m sorry. When the doctor told Bastion you would never recover, would be an invalid at best, I crumbled. He might as well have declared you dead. I left the hospital to regain my footing, but I couldn’t find it! I spent a week out in the Alps on my own and I still could not recover. I was astounded by the cruel joke life had played on me—to show me true love and then to snatch it away at a moment’s notice.”
“I understand.”
“Do you? When I returned from the Alps, I tried to see you, but there was a list and I was not on it. The fact that I was not on it spoke volumes to me.”
She sighed. “I didn’t write the list. I didn’t even know there was one. I did ask about you. Luke said you left after hearing I was permanently ill, and had not returned. I thought it simply too much for you. You are not a man to love an invalid.”
He stared at her. “And you are not an invalid.”
“No. Adam promised me he would see me well, and he made it happen.”
“Well, he is being amply rewarded for his efforts.” His resentment and anger resonated in his words.
“Funny, I feel like I’m being rewarded.”
Anger flickered in his face. “So you love him?”
“I have always loved him.”
“But are you in love with him?”
“Yes, deeply and passionately.”
Sean dropped her foot and stood up. “Then I wish you all
the happiness in the world.”
“Thank you, and I wish the same for you.”
He reached out and took her hand. “If you ever need my help in the future—for anything—you will have it. I will not fail you again.”
Amanda stood up and placed her arms around his neck. She smiled and kissed him. She had meant for it to be a sweet friendship kiss, but Sean turned it into one of passion, and he still had the ability to tingle her toes.
“Sean, glad you could make it,” Adam said as he approached them with three glasses of wine.
Sean broke off the kiss and took the offered wine glass as he tried to make his excuses to leave.
“Don’t go yet. I have something you might wish to possess.”
Sean’s eyes went to Amanda.
“Other than my wife—and I cannot fault you there. I would think any man a fool who did not wish to have my wife.”
“There are clearly many foolish men, or you could not have dallied so long before giving her your name.”
“Sean!” Amanda scolded.
“No, it’s a perfectly fair observation. I did drag my feet an abominably long time. I had reasons, but from your perspective, I must look very foolish. You might even think I do not appreciate how wonderful and unique my wife is, but I assure you I do. And my goal in life is to ensure she is always happy.” He noticed her shoe in the grass. “And to make certain she wears shoes,” he added, and knelt down to put her shoe on her left foot.
“You said you had something I might want?” Sean reminded him.
“Yes...a recording of Amanda singing her aria with a group of friends in my house.”
“The quality won’t be sufficient.”
“I don’t intend for you to sell it. In fact, I’ve taken extra precautions to prevent you from doing so. I’m offering it to you in friendship, and because I know it will please my wife to give you this gift. You were once a great admirer of her voice.”
Amanda took his hands. “Please accept it.”
“If you wish me to have it,” Sean replied.
Adam handed the disc to Amanda, who then presented it to Sean.
He took the disc and placed it into his vest pocket. “Don’t forget what I said,” he told Amanda, then looked at Adam. “You are much too cavalier with this diamond,” he warned, and stormed off.
Birth of Adam (Artificial Intelligence Book 2) Page 28