by T. J. Quinn
“So, the ruins you mentioned are on this continent?”
“Yes, they are, close to the mountain range that runs through the continent.”
“Is it close enough to come and go from your house on a daily basis?”
“No. Even if we could use a flying pod, it still would take us a few hours to get there. This planet is larger than the Earth.”
“Why can’t we use the flying pod?”
“There’s no clearing to land on. The vegetation grows wildly all over the place,” he explained.
“And how do you plan on getting there?” she asked, furrowing her eyebrows.
“We’ve developed a small vehicle that opens its own way through the vegetation. It will take us there, but it will take us a few days.”
“We’ll have to set up a camping site near the ruins then,” she concluded.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“I don’t think that’s the best environment for Luciana,” she commented, a bit worried.
“No, I don’t think it is either, at least, not until we have enough information on the place.”
“Where are we leaving her, then?” she asked, not very pleased with the idea.
“Remember Bretdon and Ophelia are living here. I’m sure they will be more than pleased to take care of her while we’re away.”
She nodded, still not convinced with the whole idea.
“Luciana will be fine. She will have a lot to explore, and she’ll be completely safe here. No one would ever harm her.”
“I’m sure of it. But we’ll be away for several days, and that’s what doesn’t please me,” she replied.
“Well, we’ll work on making a clearing as soon as we get there so that we can use a flying pod to come back to the city and visit her,” he suggested. “We don’t have a deadline, so we can take all the time we need.”
She nodded.
They finally landed in the city, and soon they were leaving the vessel to be received by a welcoming committee.
Luciana was thrilled. Gideon was also there to receive her, and they hugged as if they hadn’t seen each other in years.
Ophelia was surprised at the obvious connection between Sabrina and Jarcor, but she kept her questions for a more private moment.
Jarcor invited them and a few more friends for dinner that same night at his house.
“I’ll order the food. We have a couple of restaurants in town, owned by cyborgs. They cook really nice food, and they have takeout,” he explained, on their way to his house, one of the biggest in town, located on the top of a hill.
“Why? Don’t you have food in your house?” she asked, surprised.
“Yes, of course, I do. But I can’t cook anything other than a very basic pasta, or a steak on the grill,” he replied, while he drove through the town’s streets.
Sabrina was amazed by how many houses there were, considering they hadn’t been there for that long.
“I can cook and I will. There’s no reason to bring food from a restaurant,” she protested.
“We’ve been traveling for days. I’m sure you will want to get some rest, while you acclimatize to the planet. Oxygen levels in the planet’s air are higher than on Earth, and that can make you feel a bit strange.”
“I’m fine. I’m sure I’ll be able to cook dinner for your friends. How many did you invite?”
“We will be eight, nine if you think Luciana will manage to stay up late,” he explained.
“I don’t think so. Her excitement will make her tired, and I will send her to bed early tonight,” she explained. “So it’s settled then, I’ll cook for us. You can help me with some of the unfamiliar ingredients.”
“Sure, if you’re sure that’s what you want,” he agreed.
Chapter Seventeen
All of a sudden, Sabrina realized she was acting like the hostess and not one more guest in the house. Her cheeks lit up with shame, and she gulped.
“Forget about it. I just realized food here will be very different from the one I’m used to. It’s not the time to experiment, not when you’re having guests. I’m sorry,” she mumbled, without looking at him.
He had just parked the vehicle in front of the house, and she quickly hopped out of it and helped Luciana to do the same.
“Very well, if that’s what you want,” he replied, in a calm tone.
His words and his frosty tone proved to her she had been overstepping her place in his house, and she flushed a bit more. She had to keep in mind she was nothing but a guest there. One that had given him a child, and with whom he liked to spend some time in bed, but not much more than that.
“Could you please show us to our rooms? I would like to unpack before your guests arrive,” she asked, in a casual tone, refusing to look at him, pretending to be busy, collecting her bags.
“Yes, certainly. Let me help you with that.”
“Thank you.”
They entered the house, and an android welcomed them at the door.
“He’s John, and he helps me here in the house,” he explained. “I bought him on an intergalactic fair a couple of years ago. He keeps things running, and cleans up the place, but he can’t cook,” he explained, introducing the robot. “I guess I could upgrade him to assume that chore, but I haven’t felt the need.”
“If you allow me, I can cook for us. I don’t want to disturb your life, and I’ll try to stay out of it as much as I can, but since I need to cook for Luciana and me, I would have no problem cooking for you as well,” she suggested, still in an even tone.
She knew the only reason he had brought her to his house was Luciana. He wanted to spend more time with his daughter, and she could understand that perfectly.
“That would be nice, thank you,” he accepted, as he walked into the house and headed to the upper floor.
The house’s decor was quite minimalist, plain white with very few colorful details, and it looked more like a hotel than a home. There weren’t any personal objects around the place.
“When did you move to this place?” she asked, curiously.
“This was one of the first houses we built. Some of my friends lived here with me while they were building their own homes, and that’s the reason this place is so big,” he explained, looking around. “This is the first house I’ve ever owned. It’s hard to build a home when you have no idea what one looks like. During my years in the army, I learned to keep only a few personal objects, since I was ordered to move quite often,” he added.
“I see.” That explained a lot.
He opened a door on his left. “This is Luciana’s room,” he said, stepping aside to allow them in. “I asked Savannah and Elena to prepare the room for her,” he explained, as they entered the room.
The place was every little girl’s dream room, and Luciana wasn’t the exception. It had a lovely bed, with pink sheets and covers. A dollhouse big enough to play inside stood against one of the walls, and there was also a vanity table, right next to a huge box filled with all kinds of toys.
“Papa, this is all for me?” Luciana asked, both her hands over her flushed cheeks, delight written all over her face.
“Yes, do you like it?” he asked, sounding a bit uncertain. “The toys were built by a very talented cyborg. We still don’t have many children on the planet, but he keeps making them, sure we’ll have a lot more,” he explained, with a frown.
“I love it. This is the best room a girl could have in the whole universe,” she assured him, as she walked right into the dollhouse.
Jarcor smiled as he laid down Luciana’s bags. “Why don’t you explore it, while I show your mother where she’ll be sleeping?” he suggested.
“Yes, sure,” she replied, not really paying them much attention.
Jarcor guided Sabrina down the hall, a couple of doors away from Luciana’s room. He opened the door and invited her in.
The room was ample, with a huge bed on its center, a couple of chairs and not much more.
“This is my room,
” he informed her. “I want you to stay here, with me,” he stated, looking at her intensely.
She opened her mouth to demand her own room. She didn’t want Luciana to conceive wrong expectations about their relationship. It would hurt her too much when things finally reached the inevitable end. But, for some reason, she was sure asking Lucas for another room would hurt him. And she couldn’t do that. She would have to find a way to manage things with Luciana.
“Do you have a closet or something similar?” she asked, looking around.
She didn’t see it, but she was sure she had heard him sigh with relief. Pleased she had made the right decision, she looked at him again. He was opening a door into what looked like a dressing room. There weren’t many things in it since most of Lucas’ clothes were jumpsuits, so it had a lot of room for her things.
“You can put your things here. John can help you with that.”
“I can handle it myself, thank you.”
“I’ll leave you to it, while I go order the food for tonight,” he said, walking out of the room.
Sabrina sighed and started to unpack. She loved the man, there was no doubt in her heart, but she still couldn’t really say she understood him. Lucas hid most of his feeling under all those layers of coldness and ruthlessness he showed the world. It was hard getting past them, but she hoped she would, someday.
When she was finished, she went looking for Luciana, to unpack her things. But when she got into her room, Luciana wasn’t there, and all her things were already unpacked and stored away in her own dressing room.
She guessed John had had something to do with that and with a smile she went looking for the other members of the house.
She found them in the kitchen, working on John, judging from the android’s stillness and the computer father and daughter were handling.
“Busy?” she asked them, with a smile.
Luciana didn’t even look at her, so concentrated on what she was doing. “We’re upgrading John so he can cook, mamma,” she told her.
“I thought I would be cooking,” she protested.
“You’ll have other things to do, mamma,” she assured her.
“Have you ordered the food?” she asked Lucas.
“Yes, of course, it will arrive fifteen minutes before our guests.”
“Good. I’ll set the table then. What did you order?”
“Soup, meat with vegetables and for dessert, cake, fruit, and cheese,” he informed her.
“Great.” She had seen some flowers in the gardens outside, so she could at least, decorate the table. “Are there any poisonous flowers in your garden? I would like to cut some.”
“No poison, cut all you want,” he replied, absently, focused on the screen.
“Good.”
She went outside and wandered around the garden picking some of the flowers to make a few floral arrangements to decorate the huge table she had seen in the dining room.
Back in the house, she found the plates, glasses, and silverware and a few minutes later she had given the room a festive air. The flowers had given it a much needed colorful touch.
“That looks great,” Lucas told her, from the doorway.
“Thank you. Are you done? Where’s Luciana?”
“Yes, we’re done. John is cooking some dinner for Luciana while she takes a shower. She made sure he got the recipes to her favorite food,” he explained, with the hint of a smile on his face.
She chuckled. “Of course, it couldn’t be any other way. Now that I’m finished here, I’ll go do the same.”
He nodded and watched her walk out of the room, rubbing his face. For a moment, while he was showing her his room, he had been sure she would refuse to sleep with him. He didn’t remember ever feeling more relieved when she had accepted it as if she had expected to do so.
He had felt hopeful when she had offered to cook for his friends, but when she backed up, he had suddenly felt unsure of where he was standing with her.
Determined to be with her as much as he could, he decided to join her in the shower. After all, things didn’t work the same way as back on Earth, she would certainly need help.
She was already inside the shower stall when he joined her in the bathroom. Rapidly, he got rid of his clothes.
“May I help you?” he asked, pushing his naked body against hers.
She trembled and nodded. “I have no idea how to get this to work. Why couldn’t you have made this a lot simpler?” she protested.
He chuckled in her ear, sending chills down her body. “We bought it from some very weird aliens,” he explained, “but it’s actually quite simple. Here you choose the water temperature, and this is for how hard you want it to fall on you – from a little spray to a real cascade,” he added, pushing the buttons.
Soon a gentle spray was falling on them, and his hands had moved to her body, taking over every inch of it, caressing and kissing as if he could never have enough of her.
She leaned her hands on the wall in front of her and let him, too aroused to do much more than just feel the rush of pleasure blast through her whole body.
After a while, when her need for him overcame everything else, she turned around and wrapped her arms around his neck, her body pressing itself against his, begging for him to make her his.
With a wicked grin, he didn’t make her wait. Picking her up by her hips, he pushed her back against the wall and slid his big cock deep inside her.
She let out a small cry of pleasure, as she tilted her head back, her eyes closed and rapture written all over her face.
With his face buried in the crook of her neck, he thrust himself deep inside her, countless times. Nothing felt better than her walls clenching hard around him, and her legs pulling him deeper and deeper inside her until they couldn’t tell where he ended, and she started. They were one single being, trembling and moaning as the waves of pleasure washed over them, as powerful orgasms blasted through them.
‘It’s a good thing he’s a cyborg,’ she thought as she rested her forehead on his, shivering and heaving as the waves slowly subsided, ‘a simple man would have fallen to the floor underneath the power of those overwhelming orgasms that still shook them.
They bathed quickly after that, aware that Luciana would come looking for them and they had guests later that night.
Sabrina was getting dressed in front of the vanity table when Luciana burst into the room.
“Mamma, did you see how cool the shower is?” she asked, excited. She was already wearing her favorite pajamas.
“You have to learn to knock before you enter our room, young lady,” she warned her daughter with a tolerant smile.
Luciana froze and frowned. “Why? I’ve never knocked before.”
“I know, but things are a bit different, and I would appreciate if you could knock from now on,” she asked, in a gentle tone.
“You’re sleeping with papa? Like Bretdon did with Ophelia, back on the ranch?” she asked, tilting her head, with a naughty grin on her face.
Sabrina felt the heat coloring her cheeks, and she thanked the universe Lucas had already left the room. “Yes, sweetheart, that’s it.”
“Then, I’ll knock. I would hate walking in on you when you guys are kissing,” she said with a scowl of sheer disgust.
Sabrina chuckled. “Are you ready to have dinner and go to bed?” she asked her daughter.
“Yes. John is making me a hamburger with French fries. Of course, there are no cows here nor potatoes, but I programmed him to look for the most similar ingredients,” she replied, with a naughty grin.
Sabrina finished dressing and combing and turned to look at her daughter. “Let’s go check your food.”
Chapter Eighteen
Lucas was in the kitchen checking what John was doing. He was already serving the food on a plate, and Luciana immediately took a seat at the table, anxious to try the food.
The android had done an amazing job. The hamburger looked identical to any they would find back ho
me and the fries, looked the same, though they tasted a bit different, more like yucca than potato, it was still very good. Luciana relished the food, and when she was done, she went straight to her bedroom, ready to get to bed.
“Don’t stay up on your computer,” Sabrina warned her, as she kissed her goodnight. “I’ll come in and check you in a little while,” she added, knowing how much her daughter enjoyed a challenge and checking Arcadia’s systems was certainly one.
“Oh, mamma, you know I don’t need that much sleep,” she protested.
“I know, but even so, you had a very tiring day. Your body will appreciate the rest,” she assured her.
Barely convinced, Luciana said goodnight to Lucas and John and went straight to her room.
“You know she’ll disobey you, don’t you?” Lucas asked, closing the distance between them and wrapping an arm around her waist.
She sighed. “I know. Her mind won’t let her rest until she has done all she wants to do. At first, it worried me a lot, but I guess I got used to it over the years. She’s special, and her education has to be special too. But I still try, sometimes,” she explained, with a faint smile.
He kissed the top of her head. “She’s an amazing kid, you have nothing to worry about.”
She smiled and hoped he was right. At that moment, the food arrived, and Sabrina instructed John on how to serve it and when. She was finishing her instructions when the first guests arrived.
They had a wonderful night. Sabrina loved to chat with Bretdon and Ophelia again and get to know the other two couples. They all had kids, but they were a lot smaller than Luciana.
They all appreciated all the intel she was able to give them about what to expect from their babies during the following years.
“So, when are you planning on going to the ruins?” Khajal asked, when they were back in the living room, enjoying some beverages.
“There’s no rush,” Lucas started saying, but Sabrina contradicted him.
“Actually, I would like to go there as soon as possible. Now that I’m here, I’m eager to take a look at them,” she explained, with a faint smile.
Lucas frowned. “When would you like to go?”
