He wanted to make her come.
“Well?” Mei-Li kept her hands at her sides though it was clear she would have preferred to cover herself with them. “Do you…do you like what you see?”
“Mei-Li,” he said honestly, his voice coming out hoarse for some reason. “Let me put it this way—if I could have emotions, I assure you I would be having them now. You are…perfect.”
“Oh…” An embarrassed little smile touched the corners of her mouth and she dropped her eyes. “Thank you, I guess.”
“You are welcome. Will you please come into the pool with me?” Six asked. “And don’t worry—I promise to give in to your earlier demands. Everything I am entitled to do to you, you may also do to me. It is only fair.”
“Oh, right…” For some reason she sounded uncertain again. “It’s, uh, only fair.”
“Exactly.” He reached out a hand to her. “So come to me.”
* * * * *
“Come to me,” he said and Mei-Li found that she was doing just that, despite the little voice in her head screaming at her to grab her towel and run.
The water was hot and she took in a hissing little breath as she stepped into it.
“Is it too warm?” Six was looking at her with what appeared to be concern. “I can cool the temperature for you.”
“No, no—it’s fine,” Mei-Li assured him. “I like it warm—it’s like a hot tub.”
Actually, what was really heating her up was the sight of the big Kindred lounging naked at the far end of the pool, which was by far the biggest bathtub she had ever seen.
The top half of him was out of the water, his bare, muscular chest and broad shoulders beaded with little droplets that somehow made him look even more mouthwatering. With his shirt off—well, with all his clothes off—she could see that the metal on his left hand extended up to his elbow and then stopped and become regular flesh. But to her shame, that wasn’t what kept drawing her gaze.
Though she tried not to see it, his bottom half was visible through the clear, pale blue water of the bathing pool as well. God, he was huge—and he looked more than halfway hard too. Why couldn’t he have run a bubble bath at least to cover up some? she thought, trying to look anywhere but between his muscular thighs as she sank slowly into the hot water. At least that way maybe I wouldn’t be tempted to stare.
As if staring was the only thing you had to worry about, whispered the little voice in her brain. You’re going to be scrubbing that happy stick in a minute, Mei-Li and then we’ll see how much good a little layer of bubbles would be. Spoiler alert—the answer is absolutely none at all. Not only that, but he gets to wash you all over too. How’s that going to be?
Shut up! she told the voice, trying to push the idea of scrubbing the big Kindred all over and being washed by him in turn to the back of her mind. Try not to think about it. Just enjoy the nice hot bath. Think how soothing it is—how it unknots your tired muscles… But if that was true, why did her whole body feel as tight as a wire and why was her heart pounding in her chest as she waded up to him?
At last she reached him in the deepest part of the pool. If she stood up straight the water would have been just below her nipples. Instead, she crouched a little so it came almost up to her shoulders. It might be cowardly but she didn’t feel comfortable enough with her own body to just stand there in front of him bare breasted like it was no big deal.
Six must have sensed her tension.
“What is troubling you?” he asked. “My scanner indicates a raised heart rate and elevated breathing. Are you certain the water isn’t too hot?”
“Actually, it is kind of warm in here,” Mei-Li said. As if that was the reason she was sweating.
“I will add more cold water,” he said. He waved his hand over a panel on the side of the tub and murmured, “Cool.” At once, Mei-Li felt a thin, ticklish current of chilly water winding through the heated pool. She shivered and gave a nervous giggle as it touched her thighs.
“Oh!”
“Better?” Six asked, gazing at her with that expression that looked so much like concern again.
“Much.” Mei-Li tried to smile. “Thanks. Um, you have a really nice bathtub. I didn’t expect anything like this at all. I mean, the rest of the house is so…utilitarian.” Then she realized she was babbling and made herself stop.
“The bathing pool is one of the few things we still have from our early Kindred roots,” Six explained. “It was always used for the Claiming Period but since we of the Dark Kindred have not had Claiming Periods for centuries, we mostly use them for relaxation.”
“It’s certainly, uh, very relaxing.” Mei-Li wished her voice wouldn’t come out so high and forced.
Six regarded her with a level look. “If you do not mind me saying, you do not appear relaxed in the least. Are you concerned with the fact that I am now allowed to bathe and touch you?”
“I…well, I…” She cleared her throat. “I’m just a little…I mean, it’s been a long time since I’ve, uh, been with anyone. And I just…I mean…”
“I have never been with a female,” he said, surprising her with the admission.
“Um, you haven’t?”
He shook his head. “Nor did I ever expect to want to be with one. Or to want to be with anyone, for that matter. But you…stir something in me, Mei-Li.” He frowned. “I don’t know exactly what to call it. Clearly it is not an emotion and yet…Never mind.”
“I’m glad you’re uh, stirred,” she said. “I’m just plain nervous. But I guess we should get this over with. Are you uh, going to scrub me or what? Do you have a washcloth and soap or a sponge or something like that?”
“I do,” he said gravely, reaching for a strange, lumpy looking grayish sponge thing about as big as his fist which was sitting on the edge of the pool. “But perhaps it would allay your nervousness for you to scrub me first?”
Mei-Li frowned. She had been dreading this entire encounter for hours, ever since she found out they were suddenly diving in (ha-ha no pun intended) to their bathing week early. But the idea of being in control, of being the scrubber instead of the scrubbee held a certain appeal.
“Actually…it might,” she said, nodding. “So give me the, uh, the sponge thingy, whatever it is.”
“This is a spoing,” Six explained, handing it to her. “You put your hand inside it and rub your flesh.”
“Oh, like a sponge glove?” Mei-Li took it from him and was about to insert her hand into the small slit in the center but stopped. “Hey, this isn’t like the beanbag bed that eats dead skin cells is it? There aren’t any teeth in here or anything, right?”
“Do you think I would give you something that would hurt you?” Six looked almost offended. “It is quite safe.”
“Of course. Sorry.” Gingerly, she slipped first her fingers and then her entire hand inside. The minute she did, the spoing molded to her hand, fitting like a glove. “Oh—it kind of…grabbed onto me.” Mei-Li tried to keep her voice light but her heart was pounding.
“Yes, it does that,” Six said patiently. “The firm grip allows you to scrub without fear of it slipping off when you get covered in its slippery secretions.”
“Slippery secretions? Don’t you mean soap?” Mei-Li looked around. “Where is the soap, anyway?”
“If you are referring to a cleaning agent, the spoing manufactures its own. Simply begin to rub your flesh—or mine if you prefer—and you will see.” He held out one muscular arm for her, indicating that she should try it on his skin first if she was nervous to use it on hers.
“So…it’s like a soap filled sponge,” Mei-Li said, rubbing the gray, lumpy surface of the spoing lightly across his extended arm. His skin was a natural, smooth tan with very little body hair which was nice—she wasn’t a big fan of hairy men.
As soon as she touched it to his skin, the sponge-glove creature began emitting thick dark blue foam. Mei-Li sniffed it, wondering if it was the source of Six’s incredibly alluring scent. But though it smell
ed good, it didn’t have the distinctive sharp, clean scent with a hint of dark musk she had come to associate with the big Kindred. Hmmm.
“I think that my arm is clean now, Mei-Li.” Six’s deep voice brought her back to the present and she realized she’d been working on his right arm for some time.
“Oh, uh—sure.” Now that she was actually scrubbing him, Mei-Li found the task wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable as she’d thought it would be. After all, what was the big deal? So they were both naked—so what? At least she had the big, lumpy sponge between her hand and his bare body so it wasn’t like she was actually touching him. This was going to be easy.
She stood on tiptoes to reach his shoulder—trying not to notice that her bare breasts were visible when she did—and then motioned him to turn around so she could do his back. She couldn’t help admiring the width of his shoulders and the broad, muscular expanse of his back as she scrubbed him with the blue foam. His body really was a work of art—she wondered how he kept so incredibly fit. There wasn’t an ounce of spare flesh anywhere on his massive frame. It was all rippling muscle and smooth, tan skin—well, except for the silver metal of his enhancements, that was.
Speaking of his enhancements, she was coming back around to his front now. Her hand hovered uncertainly over the metal that covered his left hand and forearm. Should she scrub it too? Would it be hurt by the soap?
“Is there a problem?” Six asked, breaking the silence that had somehow grown between them as she tended to him.
“I, uh, was just wondering if…I mean, I don’t want to hurt your…the metal parts of you.”
“My enhancements are fully waterproof, I assure you,” he said.
“Oh. So the inner machinery can’t get wet?”
He frowned. “There is no inner machinery. The enhancement lies over my existing arm—it does not replace it.”
“What? So you have an actual working arm and hand under there?” She tapped the silver metal with her free hand. “Really?”
“Of course. Look.” Raising his hand out of the water, he flexed it in a certain way and suddenly the metal began to part from his skin. It separated itself into concentric bands first and then opened up to reveal a normal hand and arm underneath.
“Wow…” Mei-Li looked at it closely. “I thought it was a replacement part, like the ones we saw in Yipper’s lab.”
“No, it simply gives me greater strength and greater sensitivity.”
Mei-Li raised an eyebrow. “Greater sensitivity?”
“The same way your new lenses allow you to see more detail,” he explained. “My sense of touch is greatly increased on the hand wearing the enhancement.” He flexed his fist again and the metal slid smoothly and silently together, once more covering his flesh.
“That’s amazing,” Mei-Li said. “It’s kind of nice to know you’re a real boy after all.”
“What?” he looked confused.
“Never mind. Do you mind if I ask, is your eye—?”
“My ocular scanner is also built over the original structure,” Six said shortly. “But I do not take it off.”
“Oh…Never?” Mei-Li couldn’t help the wistfulness in her voice. She had grown used to his Terminator-like appearance but it still might have been nice to see him without all the hardware.
“Never.” Six sounded so unyielding about it that she decided it wasn’t worth arguing.
“Okay, then—back to the bath. Raise your arm again—I see a place I missed.”
“You do?” he raised his left arm again and she went to work on his side and armpit. To her surprise, Six made a strange sound and jumped back as she ran the sponge over his ribs.
“Did I hurt you?” she asked.
He shook his head. “No, not hurt exactly…it simply felt…strange. Forgive me—please go on.”
He raised his arm again and once more she began scrubbing up and down his muscular side. Six held still for the operation but she had the feeling he was forcing himself to do so—willing himself not to move. Even so, after a moment she saw the corners of his mouth twitch upward and a surprised sounding snort of laughter came from him. He jumped back from the sponge again, looking at her uncertainly.
“I’m sorry…I don’t understand…”
“Oh my God!” Mei-Li laughed herself. “You’re ticklish.”
“I am what?” Six frowned. “Is that some kind of medical condition?”
“No—it just means you’re sensitive. Here, let me see the other side.”
But the big Kindred was scooting away from her.
“I do not think it is necessary. I can bathe that area myself.”
“Oh, no you can’t,” Mei’-Li said with mock severity. “The contract says you get to wash me all over so I get to wash you all over. Like you said—it’s only fair.”
“I didn’t know I would have this kind of reaction to being bathed by another,” Six protested, still retreating.
“That doesn’t matter—rules are rules,” Mei-Li lectured. She was chasing him slowly but surely around the perimeter of the pool by now, with the lumpy gray sponge held out menacingly in front of her. It was ridiculous and kind of funny—like a mouse chasing a lion. For the first time since she’d stepped into the pool, she found she was enjoying herself.
“But I don’t—” Six began, coming to rest in a corner of the pool.
Mei-Li pounced. Surging forward, she slid the slippery sponge between his muscular upper arm and his torso, tickling his ribs mercilessly.
Six’s one exposed eye was wide and shocked as great gusts of laughter suddenly erupted from his deep chest.
“Mei-Li,” he gasped, trying to get away from her. “Please…no…”
But Mei-Li was a veteran of too many tickle fights to count—though most of them had happened back in grade school when she went to slumber parties, she still had all the right moves. Though Six ducked and dodged, she too small and quick for him—the minute he shielded one side of his big body, she attacked the other side, tickling until he was red in the face from laughter and begging for mercy.
Mei-Li was laughing too in sheer delight. The last thing she’d expected during the scary sex bath was a playful interlude but she was enjoying herself to the hilt. Also, she liked Six’s laugh. It was deep and rumbling and completely genuine—as though he couldn’t believe he was laughing and yet couldn’t stop. Which made sense, since she continued to tickle him.
At last the big Kindred was doubled over with laughter, tears streaming from his eye.
“Please…” he gasped, holding out a hand in a gesture of defeat. “Please don’t…don’t do that anymore. I don’t…I can’t…” But he couldn’t finish.
“It’s called tickling.” Mei-Li stopped but stood over him with the sponge glove on her hand as though she might decide to start again at any time. “Do you yield?”
Six nodded quickly. “I yield—I yield to you. Only please, stop tickling me!”
“All right, I’ll stop…” Mei-Li winked at him mischievously. “For now, anyway.”
“Thank you.” The big Kindred straightened up carefully, keeping an eye on her in case she decided to resume.
“I’m guessing you’ve never been tickled before,” Mei-Li said, deciding to take mercy on him and stop for good. “That’s not surprising considering—Z4 hardly seems like the kind of place for pillow fights and tickle wars. What did you think of it?”
Six shook his head in wonder, the corners of his mouth still twitching upwards as if a few bubbles of laughter lingered somewhere inside.
“I have never felt such intense sensations. And it caused me to make such strange sounds…”
Mei-Li grinned. “It’s called ‘laughter.’ You were laughing.”
“You were laughing as well,” he accused her. “And I was not ‘tickling’ you.”
“I was having fun—weren’t you?”
“Fun?” He shook his head again. “I…do not know the meaning of the word.”
“Now you do,” Mei-Li
pointed out. “Or one meaning, anyway. Tickling, laughing, being silly together…that’s fun.”
But Six was still looking confused. To Mei-Li he looked like the victim of a hit and run who was mildly stunned and doesn’t quite know what happened to him. Only in his case, she supposed, it was tickle and run.
“Have you really never laughed before?” she asked, honestly curious. “I mean before you were, you know, the way you are now? Emotionless?”
He frowned. “I…do not remember. Perhaps before my transition to one of the Enhanced. But those memories are stored away and I do not choose to examine them.”
“So you can get rid of your memories? Just…store them away? Just like that?”
Six looked away. “It is one of the steps of becoming one of the Dark Kindred. It was mandatory but I did not mind. I was…more than willing to give up the memories of my life before I became one of the Enhanced.”
Mei-Li opened her mouth to ask why…and closed it again. She remembered Yipper saying something about Six having a tragic past. Was that what he had chosen to forget? And what exactly was it that he had pushed away and closed off?
I’ll probably never find out.
“Anyway,” Six said, straightening up some more. “I believe it is my turn to bathe you now.”
“What? But I only did half of you,” Mei-Li protested. Not that she actually wanted to scrub Mr. Happy down there under the water but still, every minute she spent washing Six was a minute he wasn’t washing her.
“Half is enough for tonight.” He sounded stern. “We still have other bathing rituals to get through and the water will be getting cold soon.”
“Oh…all right.” Reluctantly, Mei-Li tugged at the lumpy spoing until it came off her hand with a sucking sound. She handed it to the big Kindred but he shook his head.
“Upon reflection, I believe the rough texture of the spoing might scrape or otherwise damage your tender skin. May I bathe you with a nissel cloth instead?” From the edge of the tub, he produced a flat, thin thing that looked a little like a square of glass. But when he dipped it in the water, it went soft and floppy and took on the appearance of a wet, see-through washcloth.
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