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The sun had set when they arrived in front of Irene’s new quarters, looking to the right and left to ensure no one saw them. Their minds were too drunken with each other to work within the normal parameters.
“That’s Lila’s and Raya’s room,” Irene pointed to the door across the couloir.
“Oh, my God! Raya’s still here?” Vincent gasped.
“Come in, you’ll wake the second shift,” Irene whispered, pulling him inside. Before closing the door, she took Cupcake and threw her out unceremoniously. The cub had grown to a lynx’s size now.
Vincent was curious about the shift, but there were other priorities. “Raya’s still here?” he asked again.
“Yeah… what had you expected?”
“Dunno… to go back to her husband?”
Irene went to a table and poured herself a glass of lemonade and mint, the scent reaching Vincent’s nostrils. “He was involved with the nanny… got her pregnant… You know they have an open marriage, right?”
“Yeah…”
“She decided to give them some space… Bought them a house with the money you gave her and returned here to work to pay it back… Her code of honor demands it… In a few years, she’ll be free of debt. I’m giving her the best bounties to speed up the process… She’s out for a few days. All the Amazons are with her.” She finished the lemonade and poured herself another one.
Vincent swallowed a lump. A few years? He wanted to ask Irene what Raya thought about him, but that was not the best moment. He was finally alone with a girl he loved after a separation that felt like years, not a month…
He approached Irene and kissed her. She struggled against, at first, her mouth still holding a bit of lemonade, but then melted in his arms. “I need another drink… I’m too nervous,” she pushed him away, grabbing the pitcher to fill a third glass.
Wait! Mint? Catnip is minty, isn't it? Is she susceptible to catnip now?
“Now, where were we?” she returned to him with a wide grin, almost feral.
She pushed her hands against his chest, making him step back, trip, and fall on a couch. The next second, she was mounting him, growling and tearing at his shirt. They kissed with no pause until their skins were all that touched each other. Grabbing his neck, Irene looked at him, and they made love slowly, keeping eye contact and taking their time. It held forever, yet Vincent wished it would never end. It was the most sublime sensation he had ever felt.
After the climax, she hid her face into his shoulders and cried while he caressed her hair.
“It was hell,” she whispered. “Kiara told us you’re alive, but there was no way to know if you’d return…”
Vincent nodded. It had been hell for him, too, only a different kind. He knew he could return but could not know when or if she was safe. She took Irene in his arms and carried her to the bed. “I’m done for…” she whispered, showing him a limp hand, barely able to move its fingers. “I had no idea it could be so intense…”
He kept his left arm around her and called an engagement ring from storage. It had a green modavite as a gem and had been cut by his father. Vincent looked into her eyes, and she smiled, forwarding her finger so he could slip the ring on it before she tucked herself at his chest.
In the next minute, Irene’s breath slowed down; she had fallen asleep. Vincent stood there, leaning on an elbow, looking at her, inhaling her skin’s scent, a musky yet fresh aroma mixed with the lemon on her breath.
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After a while, Vincent fell asleep too, but woke up after a few hours. His ‘thing’ was dangling around, a sensation he hated. He got out of bed quietly to put back his boxers. There was a noise at the door, a scratching, and a vibe from Cupcake; the tiger wanted to go back into the room. He opened the door for her, and in an instant, the animal rushed into the bed and cuddled into Irene, growling at Vincent.
“You damn’ beast!” Vincent cursed in a low voice. His half of the bed was now occupied. He prepared to sleep on the couch, but as he closed the door, he noticed a stripe of light under Lila’s door. Dressing in a new T-shirt and pair of shorts extracted from his ring of holding, he crossed the corridor, knocking softly on the doorframe.
Seconds later, Lila opened, dressed in a half-transparent nightgown. The lamp in her room, combined with the light of the asteroid and planet belt, made her skin look like both gold and silver covered her. Her eyes widened. She kissed Vincent, stepping back into the room, and he followed.
“I need a shower first,” he warned her.
“You’re OK,” she whispered, kissing him again. “You smell nice…”
His palms found themselves fondling her breasts on their own. Her neck was so long and thin… kissing it was only natural. “Stop!” she pushed him back… “Stop, or I’ll lose my head… I’m unavailable… It’s that time…”
Vincent nodded. Birth control on Stellarterra was mainly done by following the natural rhythm, which was rarer due to the increase in life span and predictable with clockwork precision.
“But I can still care for you,” she whispered, her hands becoming greedy.
Catching her hands before they found their target, Vincent kissed the inside of her palms. “We could just talk and cuddle,” he proposed. He really did want to know her better. Lila De Rosa… Vincent didn’t even remember her surname before he went on Earth. He suddenly felt guilty… a low-life rascal… like his sister often called him when he was chasing skirts in his teen years… He should have said no when Raya and Lila had come into his room… instead of thinking with his dick…
“Give me a minute, then we can cuddle,” she smiled, going to her desk. “I was writing a list of different healing words in several languages. If the one you heal understands you, it increases the spell’s potency.”
“That’s interesting,” he said, approaching and massaging her shoulders while looking around. He couldn’t see Raya’s personal items, mainly the weapons. “How’s Raya?”
“Still in love with you,” Lila said deadpanned, continuing writing. “And mad with you.”
“We were not in love, Lila… we slept together twice…”
“That’s what she says too. Quote: We banged twice. He was just a living dildo with a cute ass attached to it… I don’t even remember his face… Why did he behave like I was the love of his life? And then she cries every time…”
“Letting her go was the decent thing to do,” Vincent sighed. “Look, I’ll not lie… Raya’s what I thought an ideal woman was… err… until recently… Like a fellow soldier, a friend you can take along in battle, then… you know, have sex…”
“Like your merc pals, only with a pussy and without the belching contest?” Lila asked, raising her eyes from her notebook.
“They did a belching contest?” Vincent facepalmed.
“The bald, scarred guy won.”
“Thug… He and I go way back. We know each other from the army. What did he belch now, a Shakespeare sonnet?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Lila left the chair, taking his hands in hers and searching for his eyes. “You said: ‘I thought she was the ideal woman.’ Past tense. What is your ideal woman now?”
“Someone to care for and grow together in each one’s hearts,” he answered, kissing her forehead. “I don’t think I can quantify love anymore.”
She smiled. “True… For a while, I thought love was like friendship, about reading the same books and liking the same music…”
“What books and music do you like?” he asked.
“I like manga… and Vivaldi,” she said.
“Nice. I like those too,” he smiled.
“From the first time I saw you, I knew you were a Vivaldi guy… I had to feel your strong arms wrapped around me…” Lila transitioned to a vaudeville tone.
“You’re a good actress,” Vincent said, kissing her neck.
“Stop!” she slapped the top of his head. “I told you I’m indisposed. Don’t stir trouble.”
“Can’t wait,” he whispered in her ear, nibbling on the lobe.
“Next week…”
Checking the hour on her phone, left on the nightstand, Vincent noticed the intranet and the phone signal were down. “What’s up with the signal,” he asked. “It was down since we arrived.”
“There’s a glitch only Jorge can fix, and he’s out with the Amazons. They’re escorting a Mongol prince somewhere… Now we can cuddle,” she said with satisfaction, closing the notebook. They both went to bed, where she tightly wrapped a blanket around them. Sleep avoided him this time, and as Lila’s head lay on his chest, many thoughts nagged him. Was it OK to have multiple partners? Partners he cared for… because there had been multiple times in his early twenties when he saw more girls at the same time, only they were just casual playmates…
But there was a thing he could do to take his mind away from that: reading his stats and seeing what had changed.