The Genius

by Elin Peer

  “Shelly?”

  Slouching over the table, I hid my face by placing my hands on my forehead.

  “Shelly, are you okay?” My mom sat down next to me and stroked my back. “You were a teenager back then. We are all self-absorbed and concerned about what others think of us in those years of our lives. But now that you’re older you can laugh about it, can’t you? It’s not like you’d want to have sex with an Nman anyway. It was just a prick to your pride.”

  In a slow movement, I turned my head and looked at my mom. “I have had sex with an Nman.”

  Her eyes grew wide.

  “Not just once but several times.”

  “Honeyyy…” Her face fell in a look of deep pity.

  “You don’t have to look at me like that. I’m not sick.”

  My mom wasn’t stroking my back anymore. “I didn’t say you were sick, but clearly you’re stressed. I want you to go to a place of reflection. This isn’t you.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong.” My voice was low but my tone firm.

  “Shelly, I’m concerned for you.”

  I swung my hands around the kitchen. “You always taught me that different is good. You were right, Mom. Sex is different and at the same time it’s amazing.”

  “Is that why you want to stay in the Northlands? So you can have sex?” The way her upper lip lifted when she said the last word made me shake my head. I had come here to tell her that I was pregnant and that I’d be moving in with Marco, but she wasn’t ready to hear it.

  “Shelly, please don’t go back to the Northlands.” My mom’s voice broke and tears welled up in her eyes as she squeezed my hand. “Please.”

  “I’m going, Mom. It’s the right thing for me and I’ll be okay.” I moved over to comfort her.

  Sheana cried in my arms. “What if one of them hurts you while having sex?”

  “Mom, I’m not having sex with random men. Only one, and I trust him.”

  Using the heels of her hands, Sheana dried away tears. “Just promise me one thing.”

  “What is that?”

  “Don’t marry an Nman like all those other women have. I know that you’re smarter than that, but I want you to promise me, Shelly.” Her tears kept falling.

  I loved my mom, and I wanted to take away the pain that I’d caused her. Kissing her on the cheek and hugging her tight, I whispered the words that would calm her: “I promise I won’t marry him.”

  CHAPTER 22

  Welcome

  Marco

  My apartment had never been this clean.

  It had been a month since we’d found out Shelly was pregnant. Storm had finally moved out and Shelly was back from a two-week visit with her family and friends. We hadn’t had much time together because she’d been busy working and I had sensed she needed some space to come to terms with the new situation.

  “Stop feeling bad about it,” Shelly insisted after I’d shown her what Advance Technologies were paying me to protect her.

  “It has to be a mistake, though, right?”

  “You’re being paid to be stand-by even when you’re not working.”

  “But they are basically paying me two times what I make in a month as a mentor.”

  “You should see that as a good thing.”

  “It’s ridiculous is what it is.”

  Shelly brushed her hair back and picked up a slice of the orange that I’d cut out for myself. “Why aren’t you happy about it?”

  “Because it feels dishonest to take that much money for so little, especially when they’re paying me rent too.”

  She shrugged. “Money is just fictive numbers changing hands.”

  “No it’s not. Only a Motlander would say that. Money isn’t fictive. It’s very real. With this kind of income, I could put down a deposit for a new drone in two months.”

  Shelly smiled. “Then why don’t you?”

  “Because when something is too good to be true it usually is.” I placed a large glass of water in front of her and studied her closely. Shelly still looked as beautiful as when I last saw her, and every part of me wanted to kiss her. Over the past two weeks, I’d thought of this moment a million times, aware that I had to do this the right way or I might scare her. I wanted her to move in with me for real. Not in the guest bedroom as a roommate, but in my bed, as my woman.

  “Don’t be pessimistic,” she said and sucked on a grape. It was all it took for me to grow hard. Trying to distract myself, I focused on the subject we were discussing.

  “Advanced Technologies will realize they’re overpaying and ask to have their money back.”

  “I doubt it.” Shelly smiled and nodded to the plate with fruit in front of her. “Are you going to cater to me like this all the time? Did you do that for Storm too?”

  “No, but I figured I should be good to you on your first night here.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You had me worried. I was starting to think that you were going to stay in the Motherlands.”

  Shelly frowned a little, placing her elbow on the table and resting one chin in her palm. “I thought about it.”

  I stiffened and stared at her, waiting for her to continue. When she didn’t I asked a burning question. “Did you tell your family about me?”

  “Only my mom.”

  My face fell. “Not Rochelle?”

  “She was away at school and had finals. I want to tell her in person. Don’t worry, I’ll see her in a few days at the reunion weekend. Then I’ll tell her.”

  “All right. What did your mom say when you told her about the baby?”

  “I didn’t tell her that part.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I’m only two months pregnant and it’ll take a while before it shows. I told her I’ll be living here for a while longer, and she didn’t take that well. My mother knows I’ve had sex and she was crying about it.”

  The sadness on Shelly’s face told me how much she cared about her family.

  “I had to make her a promise.”

  “Who, your mom?”

  “Yes.”

  “What promise?” I leaned closer, afraid to breathe. What if she had promised that she’d only stay for a minimum of time?

  Shelly sighed. “I promised my mom that I wouldn’t marry an Nman.”

  “You did what?” I exclaimed in a loud outburst. “Why the fuck would you promise her that?”

  “Because she was devastated and you and I agreed that we weren’t going to marry anyway. It doesn’t matter, Marco, we can still raise our child together and be a family of sorts.”

  “Of sorts?” Pushing my chair back, I moved around the table to stand in front of her. All my careful planning about wooing her was forgotten. “It might not matter to you if we’re married or not, but it fucking matters to me.”

  Looking baffled by my strong reaction, Shelly asked, “Where is this coming from? We agreed that we didn’t need to copy other people and that we could find our own way of doing this. We’re living together, isn’t that what you wanted?” She took my hand. “Marco, we talked about it that day by the creek, remember?”

  “I only agreed to that solution because it was a big fucking step up from you going to the Motherlands and leaving me here to never see our child.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I want to marry you, make love to you, and have a ton of babies with you. I want you to be mine and I want the whole fucking world to know it.”

  Shelly gaped, her eyes big and expressing what her words didn’t – she was shocked.

  “I love you Shelly.” There, I’d said what I wanted to say for so long.

  “It’s because of the sex, isn’t it?” she asked and began ranting. “I’m not opposed to it, and you don’t have to say that you love me to get me to sleep with you again. I figure that as long as I’m pregnant we don’t have to worry about you coming inside me or not.”

  Cupping her face with both my hands I kissed her, deep and with insistence. �
��There’s something I should have told you from the beginning.”

  “What is that?”

  “I know that you’re like a unique specimen of mankind and way out of my league, but I love you and I loved you before I knew about the baby.”

  “You mean humankind. To say mankind would imply we’re all men, and as you know women outweigh men in numbers, so to dismiss us in the description of…”

  With a smile I tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear before I interrupted her by leaning in and kissing her again. “I fucking missed you, Brainy. This is so typical of you.”

  “What is?”

  I chuckled low, chewing softly on her lower lip. “To get hung up on the most insignificant details of an important message. Did you even hear what I just told you?” I whispered into her mouth. “I loved you before I knew about the baby.”

  She gave a sweet sound of delight and met my gaze. The edges of her eyes crinkled as her smile lit up every corner of my soul. “I missed you too, Marco.”

  Those words were all I needed and without waiting for more, I picked her up and carried her to my bedroom.

  “You ripped it.”

  My impatience to get her naked had me ripping her shirt to get it off her. “I’ll buy you a new one,” I muttered and kept undressing my woman. The need to merge with her was giving me tunnel vision. I could see only Shelly’s creamy skin and beautiful face.

  “I want you so fucking bad.” Even my voice held a tremor from the state I was in.

  “Slow down, Marco,” Shelly urged, but I couldn’t.

  “I need you.”

  She helped me undress by pulling my t-shirt over my head while I was kicking off my shoes and pants.

  “It tickles.” She laughed when I buried my head between her legs and nibbled at the soft skin on her inner thighs. When I moved my tongue to her clitoris and bored my fingers into her skin to keep her in place her laughter changed to sweet moans. I had never been as hard or aroused as I was in that moment. Shelly was moving into my apartment and I was claiming her. She knew I loved her, there were no more secrets between us, and we were having a child together. I didn’t want to stop to think about things that could go wrong. Right now, I wanted only one thing, and that was her.

  “Oh, Marco.”

  Shelly was arching a little, her head bent back and her eyes closed.

  I kept using my tongue and felt like coming myself when she kept calling my name.

  “Marco it feels so good, yees…”

  As I moved up her body, the slightly salty taste from her creamy soft skin worked as an aphrodisiac and I couldn’t wait any longer.

  Lifting her legs, I pushed inside her wet pussy, my movements eager and demanding. She held her hand on my hip as if to hold me back a little, but I was too horny and pushed deep inside her.

  “Ohhh,” she moaned, grimacing in pain.

  “Shelly, I fucking need you,” I panted and kept pushing in and out with so much force that I was moving her body up the mattress.

  I knew I wouldn’t last long like this, but I had finally told her that I loved her, and the animalistic need to fill her with my semen and claim her was driving me to this crazy ride.

  “Marco, slow down. We have time.”

  “I love you.” Locking eyes with her, I forced myself to turn it down a bit. Letting the head of my cock slide up and down her folds, I bit her shin, which was leaning on my shoulder.

  “Augh.” Her smile was seductive.

  “I could just eat you up.”

  “You’re different today. What’s gotten into you?”

  “You have. That’s why I need to be inside you too.”

  Shelly pushed me back on my haunches and climbed on top of me. Wrapping her arms around my shoulders, she whispered, “I like this position.”

  “I like any position. As long as it’s with you.”

  Shelly silenced me with more kissing, using her hips to rotate on top of me in the most delicious way. My hands were firmly planted on her behind as I closed my eyes and groaned. “Fuck yes, this is good.”

  I could tell that Shelly wanted to control the pace and enjoy me longer, but I still had that pressing urge to fuck her hard.

  If she knew how difficult it was for me not to go full speed, she would know how deep my love for her was.

  My hands played with her nipples while I enjoyed the full shape of her delicious round tits hovering over my open mouth. I let my tongue flicker out, tasting one of her tight little pink nubs and bringing her body closer to suck her nipple into my mouth.

  The sweet sounds of pleasure that came from Shelly had my ball sack tighten, ready to fire.

  Not yet, not yet, not yet, I chanted in my head, forcing myself to lie still and let her ride me.

  Shelly was no longer the shy virgin but a woman growing confident in her sexuality. Working her core up and down the length of my cock she whispered into my ear. “I missed you. I missed having you inside me.”

  I felt deprived when she pulled back and I could no longer taste her nipple. In compensation she gave me a glorious sight of her beauty when she kept rotating her hips on top of me while raising her hands to interlace them in her hair. Holy fuck, my woman was gorgeous and sexy as something out of a dream. If I kept watching her perky tits bounce in the rhythm of her fucking me for one more second, I’d lose control, so I closed my eyes.

  When her moaning picked up in intensity, so did my eagerness.

  “Yes, Marco, I’m so close… more, give me more.”

  Like a racehorse having been forced to walk I was finally given free rein, and I lifted her up enough that I could hammer in and out of her at full speed, making her screams grow louder and my groans deeper.

  “Fuck yes… Fuck yes…” I panted and squeezed my eyes closed while enjoying the symphony of my woman coming hard on my cock.

  “Marco, yes… oh, Mother Nature, yeeesss…”

  The release was mind-numbing with my orgasm nailing me in the back of my spine and making me clench my teeth together to keep from roaring out like a fucking lion. Shelly was already pregnant with my child, but I still felt such satisfaction filling her up, like I was depositing some of me inside her to strengthen our connection.

  After rolling down on the bed to catch our breaths, we lay for minutes, merging our fingers and enjoying the high of the best sex we’d ever had.

  “I love you so much,” I muttered and kissed her on her hair.

  Shelly looked up at me from her position nuzzled up against me. “I told you that you don’t have to say it.”

  “It’s the truth. I’m not the one telling white lies. Trust me. I love you, Shelly.”

  She gave me a skeptical glance.

  “Remember the party game we played where you had to guess what I was thinking?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You guessed that my message was that I liked you. My real message was that I loved you.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, I love you very much.”

  Shelly licked her lips, her eyebrows drawn together. “When did that happen?”

  “That night at my apartment. You were right when you accused me of being possessive. I was falling in love with you. I would have told you if you hadn’t been so quick to cut me off the next day.”

  Shelly tilted her head, a small smile on her pretty face. “It hurts, doesn’t it?”

  “What?”

  “To be in love.”

  Her words were like a gigantic blow and I pulled away from her. With my legs over the edge of the bed, I bent forward, fisting both hands through my hair. She had told me she loved me but it had been a polite kind of love, and here I had bared myself to her. Swallowing my pride, I spoke in a low voice. “Shelly, all I’m asking for is time. Maybe you can learn to love me.”

  The gentle laughter behind me made me turn to see Shelly propped up on an elbow, facing me. Her hair was a mess and her cheeks flushed from our intense lovemaking.

  “Why are you laughing?�
��

  “The reason I know how much it hurts to love someone who doesn’t love you back is because I’ve been in love with you since I was fifteen years old.”

  I lowered my brow. “You’re not serious.”

  “I’m very serious.”

  “But you were so young.”

  She smiled. “Feelings have no age. I fell in love with you back then and when I saw you again, all my feelings came back.”

  My brain was sending out celebratory jolts of electricity that ran from the top of my spine all the way down, creating a sizzle of warm excitement in my body.

  “And what are those feelings exactly?” I asked and rolled back on top of her, my eyes locked with hers. “Tell me.”

  “You want to know how I feel about you?”

  “Uh-huh.” I trapped her with my large body, making sure she wasn’t going anywhere until she had shared what was in her heart.

  “It’s simple. I love you too.”

  “Say it again.” My eyes were searching for any sort of deceit in her eyes.

  “I love you, Marco.”

  “And this isn’t one of your white lies to make me feel better, is it?”

  She shook her head.

  “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

  “You know me; I’ve never been good at expressing my feelings. That’s why when you mistook me for a robot, it was a chance to experience sex with the only man I’ve ever been attracted to without making a fool of myself. Or at least that was my intention.”

  “Fuuuck…” My head fell down to nuzzle against the crook of her neck. “You are serious.”

  “Marco… are you hard again?” Shelly’s question had a tone of surprise in it.

  “Hell yeah, I’m hard. Your words have to be the biggest turn-on I’ve ever experienced. You handpicked me because you were attracted to me. Not because I was the only male available.”

  Shelly laughed and it sounded sweeter than sugar tastes. “Marco, come on, you know that you’re attractive. You saw it when you went to the Motherlands; the women were all over you.”

  “That was ten years ago. I haven’t experienced that since then.”