Just then the door in the back of the garage opened and a short but obviously muscular man with reddish orange hair, wearing only a pair of cutoff shorts and a black armband, walked a bicycle out of the garage's loft. He casually waved at them as he rode the bike about 100 ft down a narrow connecting path and stopped next to one of the carts. Cindy couldn't help noticing the smooth way his muscles rippled as she watched him attach the bike to the rack on the back of the cart. She felt herself beginning to feel aroused and wondered what was wrong with her.
She had always been a little oversexed she thought. ‘That’ and her frustration level explained what had happened with Dave. Though she'd been surprised that Jake had so easily talked her into the wild orgy that had followed. Never mind the open relationship he had suggested they have from now on. Simply seeing a shirtless man go about his business had never used to be enough to turn her on. At least not so strongly as this. As she continued to watch him, the man hopped into the cart and drove past Jake's side of the jeep. Then he rapidly disappeared up the hill.
“I expect he'll be back in about 20 minutes or so if you want to wait for him,” Jake remarked as he looked at her with an amused expression on his face.
“What are you talking about?” she protested. “Why would I want to wait for him?” As she looked into his eyes however, Cindy knew she wasn't fooling him. Nor was she fooling herself. “No, not really,” she finally answered. Then she sighed and added, “I don't know what's wrong with me lately. If this keeps up I'll be afraid to go to the beach anymore.”
Jake however knew exactly what was wrong with her. He hadn't wanted to believe Steve when he had tried to explain how his nanites would affect those around him. Or that in the absence of sufficient conscious control, they would take clues on how to make him happy from his subconscious mind. Thus every unprotected female anywhere near him would find themselves incredibly aroused by the nano-pheromones he'd been emitting. It really hadn't been fair to his friends at the campground. Though of course, he'd been too horny at the time to care very much about that. He wasn't quite sure how to take conscious control of it yet anyway. Nonetheless, he knew his friends really hadn't had much choice about the orgy he'd wanted. Evidently there'd been an effect on the guy's too. Arnie, who was normally possessive of his women had found himself actually wanting to watch both his wife and his mistress with the other guys almost as much as he had wanted a turn with Cindy.
Jake's nanites had begun to enhance and supplement his senses. So he had been as acutely aware of the faint aroma of her sudden arousal as even a dog would have been. Which of course had had an immediate effect on him. He found himself tempted to spend the next twenty minutes or so screwing Cindy right here where the maintenance man couldn't miss the show when he got back. He knew that she wouldn't have been able to resist his advance, nor would she then be in a state of mind to object to letting him watch the maintenance man take a turn. He was also pretty sure that Jess, wouldn't turn down the opportunity.
What he really wanted however, was to actually show the place to Cindy and it would be hard for her to notice much of it if their hormones kept this up. So instead he put the jeep back in gear and continued to drive up the hill while he began to wrestle with his subconscious. It took a several seconds of intense concentration, before he perceived that his nanites had begun building pheromones designed to calm down everyone's hormones. Thankfully this included his own. He wasn't sure how long he could keep this under conscious control. There were too many individual details in too many parts of his brain, that he had never even been aware of before, on which he was already focusing too much of his attention. He had however become aware that it was beginning to make a difference. So for now, all he could do about it was to try not to relax his grip on any part of it.
By the time their sexual tensions had faded, they had navigated the long curve of the drive. Then they could see the house which sat another 200 ft ahead on the right side of the gravel road. The large structure appeared to be built into the side of the hill. The building looked as tall as a modern four story building. Going by the windows however, it was a bit less than that. There were three tall windows evenly spaced on either side of the big double width door. A little bit above which there was one huge window, centered over the door. It was shaped like the top half of a wagon wheel with the spokes being the spaces between the nearly triangular panes of glass. Except that it was too short and too wide, to be half of the circular shape of an actual wheel.
The windows of the matching two story wings on either side of the central section of the building were somewhat smaller. The roofs of the wings extended a couple feet higher than the fenced in deck over the center section's roof. Set back about 10 feet from the front and outer edges of the central roof section and abutting the edge of either wing's roof were much smaller 3rd floor attic sections, that looked like someone had built a couple of log cabins on top of the main building. They couldn't quite see the top of the hill behind the ‘house’. Though from what could be seen of it on either side of the place, the hilltop itself was slightly higher, though not by much.
To the left they had a great view of a winding river cutting through the forest below. Almost straight ahead Cindy saw a path that cut across the road and lawn to a patio like area beside the building. Just before that there was a paved driveway ending in a circle that looped around by the front steps. The gravel road itself appeared to curve to the left and begin going downhill a hundred feet or so after it intersected the path. Even as Jake turned into the driveway, she saw the well muscled redhead riding a bicycle out of the sliding glass patio door which closed itself behind him as he rode down the path.
The massive front door looked like it was was made from a single piece of wood. It didn't look like it had ever been painted. Instead it had a faintly weathered look about it. As they got out of the jeep Cindy took stock of their general appearance. The matching blue jeans and black tee shirts she had insisted on still looked clean and mostly unwrinkled. She touched up her lipstick, slung her handbag over her shoulder and followed Jake up the steps. Just as they reached the top step, the door was opened by a tall casually dressed man with curly blond hair.
“Welcome to Hillside,” he said. “I'm your host, my name is Steve Fontane. You must be Cindy?” Then without waiting for an answer he added. “You can call me Steve.”
Next he stepped aside and they entered a huge room. As he shut the door behind them, Cindy noticed that it was about four inches thick.
“It might be best if I start by telling you a bit about the place,” Steve continued. “Then I'll give you the 50 cent tour.” After a slight pause while Cindy took in the sight of the waterfall at the other end of the enormous room, he continued. “We call this room the ‘Great Hall’. You may notice the natural clean smell, or rather the lack of a smell, provided by the mist emanating from the water cascading over the falls. We divert water from an underground stream to supply our swimming pool, jacuzzi, and of course, the falls. The water flows through our systems only once before it rejoins the stream thus we have no need to sully it with chemicals.”
“Please do take a minute or two to enjoy the view,” he added a few seconds later with a kind hearted smile. “Just let me know when your ready.”
Then Steve turned to Jake and spoke in a voice so soft that only someone with augmented hearing could detect it.
“You learn quick,” he said. “I expected a need to use my nanites to generate a bunch of anti-pheromones. You must be overriding your subconscious. Not bad but at best, it's a temporary fix. Shall we see how long you can keep it up?”
“This place is amazing,” Cindy said after a couple of minutes of wandering around the Great Hall, mostly spent staring at the falls. “It's hard to believe I'm indoors.” Then after a few more seconds spent looking at the falls she added, “I guess I'm as ready as I'll ever be.”
“Hillside, as you see it, was built by my company about 10 years ago,” Steve began. “The building
design was inspired by an old multistory lean-to like shelter that the former owner, an old prospector and hermit, had built over the entrances to the ‘storm & wine cellars’ that he ‘dug’ out of the exposed rock ledge near the top of this old hill. We use the place as a retreat. It provides a place where our corporate executives and those of some of our business partners can get away from it all, let their hair down and relax. Along with a few other guests such as yourself.
I'm not sure how much Jake has told you but this is a place quite removed from the normal pressures and constraints found in most of world. For example, we have a very relaxed dress code around here. Our guests and for the most part our staff can wear whatever they want. Or not, as the case may be. That is to say that other than the identifying logo that our staff are required to wear on an armband, headband or sash, there isn't a single article of clothing that we require.”
”Yeah Steve, I told her that people can get naked whenever they feel like it here,” Jake interjected.
“Hmm OK, but did you tell her about our restrictions on lewd behavior?” Steve asked.
“How could I?” Jake countered. “You never finished explaining it to me.”
“Then maybe I better explain it now,” Steve replied. “Generally, in most of the public areas, we do expect a certain standard of conduct. That basically says if someone decides to do something that we actually classify as sexual activity. They'd be better off going someplace just a little bit more private. Though the Jacuzzi area, certain parts of the grounds and sometimes even the pool, are exceptions. But in any case, if the possibility of running into nude people doesn't offend you Cindy, I'll get on with the tour. But I do need to know if I should skip those areas where we might run into something, ah, well lewd?”
It took a moment for Cindy to realize that Steve was waiting for her to answer.
“I've never exactly been offended by nudity Steve,” she eventually said. “And after this past week, the only thing about lewd behavior that might bother me would be that I may just want to join in.”
Steve led them back towards the front door. Then through a door to one side of it. Which led to a room with some tables by the windows to the left of the doorway. There was a dart board mounted on the cork paneled far wall and a well stocked bar to the right. One end of the bar was attached to the cork paneled wall almost directly below the dartboard. The other end of the bar stopped 3 feet short of the near wall. There were 5 wooden bar stools neatly spaced at the near end of the bar. There was an 8' x 12' green carpet covering the section of the otherwise bare hardwood floor, with one edge running along the chairless far end of the bar and ending at the wall next to the dartboard.
On the bar, in between the edge of the carpet and bar stools, there was a glass mug loosely filled with an odd ball collection of darts. Next to the darts there was a small sign proclaiming, ‘House Rule: Darts may only be thrown at the target from the edge of the carpet. When nobody is on the carpet.’ The only other things on the bar was a glass bowl half full of peanuts, a remote control and an old fashioned round door bell button that was mounted on the surface of the bar itself. There was a tinted sliding glass window in the wall behind the near end of the bar.
On the other side of the room there were a few tables near the windows with a couple chairs apiece. On the wall next to the door there was a very large flat screen TV. Which was currently quietly displaying a close up view of the artificial waterfall in the Great Hall.
“If you'd like a drink at any time, hard or soft, just ring the bell on the bar there.” Steve said as he pointed at the button. “Someone will help you. Speaking of which, would you like something?”
“No, not right now, unless, well maybe some juice?” Cindy said.
Steve tapped the button. There was a single chime like sound.
“How about a tropical fruit punch?” He asked.
“Sounds great!” Cindy replied.
“OJ for me.” Jake added.
A few seconds later a bald black man walked in. The man, who was whistling a very old tune called ‘You Are My Sunshine’, was wearing blue jeans, a red polo shirt, a black armband and a short dingy looking white apron.
“Make mine a beer.” Steve said.
The man just nodded. Then still whistling and without waiting to hear what Jake & Cindy wanted, he quickly custom mixed a 10 oz tumbler of punch, poured another of orange juice and set them on the bar. As he worked Cindy noticed that the logo on the armband was a circle containing a white on black image of a waterfall flowing out of the front door of a building that otherwise resembled what this place looked like from the front. Except that the front lawn was portrayed as an abyss into which the waterfall flowed. Then she noticed that the waterfall looked a lot like the artificial one in the Great hall.
At this point the bald man, having reached the end of the tune as he poured a pint of beer from an unlabeled tap behind the bar, spoke for the first time.
“Hi, I'm Mike, the chief cook and bottle jockey around here,” he said with a cheerful voice. “Enjoy your juice, do feel free to bring them with you. Just leave the glasses on any table in the building, we'll find them.” By which time he had handed Steve his beer, wiped down the counter and poured the last of a jar of peanuts into the bowl on the counter. Mike walked behind the counter to the jar of darts. With a slow spin he pivoted on one foot 270° to the right as his left hand snatched a dart and casually threw it underhanded into the bullseye area about a half inch from absolute center. Before Jake or Cindy could think of anything to say, he walked out the door with the empty jar, whistling ‘By The Light Of The Silvery Moon’.
Steve grinned as he looked at the puzzled look on Cindy's face.
“I suppose I should tell you that most of the public area's are monitored for security and other purposes most of the time,” he explained. “I think that is how Mike knows what's asked for when he's not here. Mind you, I've never actually caught him tapping into the voice log. But he does have access to it and he never seams to get it wrong.”
Steve couldn't help but grin slightly as he thought about how his nanites knew better than to include that piece of information in any status report on Mike's medical nano-augmentation systems. He hadn't actually informed them how much he enjoyed trying to spot the man accessing the log but they knew.
Steve walked over and picked a dart from the mug on the bar. Then he walked to the corner of the carpet near the tables and casually tossed it at the target. The dart sunk into the bullseye about an eighth of an inch from the absolute center. Turning to Jake, Steve said, “Your turn.”
“Yeah, right!” Cindy said with a laugh. “The last time Jake threw darts he was lucky if he even hit the target two out of three times.”
“OK,” Jake said. “Lets test this theory.” He counted the remaining darts and added, “There are 8 darts left.”
Then he held the mug of darts in his left hand as he stood at the edge of the carpet by the bar. One at a time he rapidly plucked a dart from the mug, and threw it at the target. The 1st dart barely hit the lower left edge of the target. The 2nd was almost two inches from the upper right edge. The next 5 darts got progressively closer to the bullseye but the closest he came was an eighth of an inch outside it. Then Jake switched the cup to his right hand and threw the eighth and last dart left handed. It hit the dead center of the bullseye.
“Yup, less than a dozen throws,” Jake acknowledged.
Cindy was speechless.
“The next stop is the theater,” Steve said as he picked his beer up from the bar. “Bring your drinks.”
Cindy followed his example but Jake chugged down the last half of his juice and left the glass on the bar. Steve lead them through the self closing door almost directly across the Great Hall from the bar. It opened onto one end of a hallway that ran parallel with the front of the building. There were windows on the right hand side of the hallway. There was a closed door half way down the left hand side and another at the far end. Steve opened the fo
rmer. Four feet ahead of them was a wall that ran parallel to hallway. There were a few steps to the right and a short ramp to the left. Each ended at an opening at opposite ends of the wall. Both leading to the same raised platform. Which gradually sloped back down to floor level, accommodating 4 rows of 6 adjustable theater seats. The other end of the room consisted of a blank white wall. Behind the back row of seats there was an assortment of electronic devices including VCR and DVD players. Steve pointed at a telescoping lens in the middle, near the top of the wall.
“That's a computer controlled projection system,” he said. “It can project images from any of the tape or disk players on the far wall. It can also project any channel we get on our satellite system. I'd put a movie on for you, but this tour is going to be long enough as it is. Shall we move on to the music hall?”
Jake simply said, “Yes.”
Steve led them back to the windowed hallway. It wasn't until he opened the door at the far end of the hall that they heard the music coming from several flush mounted speakers on the walls and ceiling. It was an instrumental piece with a lively drum beat. The middle of the room was empty except for an athletic blond, wearing a grass skirt. Who was moving her body to the beat.
Both the far wall and the wall on the right had windows. There was a counter top under the windows with an assortment of electronic playback devices and musical instruments on it. The room appeared to be divided diagonally by the kind of furniture that ran along it's edges. Near the windows there were tables and chairs similar to the ones in the bar.
Along the other two walls were an assortment of comfortable looking recliners and loveseats. in the corner furthest from the windows was one distinctive looking leather covered chair. It almost looked like an antique. It had a high back with lightly padded, curved narrow armrests with carved wooden handles. Below the seat the long wooden legs were also made of carved wood. This was a chair designed for good posture rather than one you expected to sink into. The resemblance to an antique was dashed by the pockets built in to the leather covering on the sides of the armrests. As well as by the built in, partially recessed, narrow wooden trays mounted just below the armrest cushions.
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