by Roxy Mews
A sudden loud thunk behind her made Paisley squeal.
Robohippie was on her balcony.
“How did you get over here?”
He shrugged. “I jumped.” He tapped his legs. A clang happened when his fingers tapped his calf. “Mechanics. They aren’t the ones I need fixed.”
“Oh.”
Like at the palace, Robohippie wasn’t exactly bad looking. His beard was combed and might have even had a bit of gel in it. His eyes were bright as he did that funky blinking that Paisley recognized as one of Quinn and Coral’s robotics. He craned his neck to look around her, then stood straight. To his credit, he looked her in the eyes like his sidekick.
Oh, the magic of a towel to make men have a conversation with your face.
“One option is I could break the door, but the hotel staff would probably not be happy with us.”
Paisley thought once again about disappointing Coral or causing any more trouble for her friend, who at this very minute was talking her up at the DMA in hopes of getting her a temporary receptionist job.
“What’s the other option?”
“There are infinite possibilities beyond just another,” he continued after her glare. “I could pass you over to Ben and we go out through our room.”
Looking over the ledge of a twenty-eight-story building made a person realize how precious life was, and how little a robot probably valued it.
“That does not sound like a great idea.”
“Do you think I’d drop you?”
“Maybe.”
“I wouldn’t drop you.” He looked her up and down again. “You are fairly oily though. If you don’t want me to hand you over to my friend, then maybe we could use my body as a bridge.”
Getting handed over was not ideal.
“Let’s try the bridge thing.”
Robohippie climbed over the ledges and lay on his back between the balconies. He craned his neck up and over his prone body and called out, “Climb aboard.”
Paisley cocked an eyebrow. Of course he’d lie dick up. She thought about her options and decided that at least this way she wasn’t flashing her hoohah to the entire world. She just had to slide it across Robohippie.
Tightening the towel as much as she could, Paisley gripped the ledge of the balcony and lifted her legs up and over the side until she was kneeling on Robohippie’s shins.
“That is anything but comfortable.” He groaned.
She rocked her kneecaps back and forth just to make sure he was as uncomfortable as she was, before she started to crawl over top of him.
It wasn’t more than three feet separating the balcony ledges, but sure enough Paisley had issues anyway. She felt the towel begin to shift. She tried to take shallow breaths to prevent the fabric from slipping further, but the tail end she’d tucked in started to give way. Trying to grab it shifted her body weight to the side and she lost her balance.
A strong arm came over her back and pressed her flat against the man acting as her go between. The breeze picked up again and thanks to Robohippie’s arm sliding conveniently under the fabric, it lifted and fluttered off toward the ground.
Paisley groaned. “This is so not my day.”
Robohippie looked up at her again. “Really? Mine seems to be picking up.”
His day wasn’t the only thing picking up. Paisley felt him harden beneath her. To the guy’s credit, his hand stayed on the small of her back and didn’t budge. He just held her there.
Paisley cleared her throat. “What do we do now?”
Then he let go. “If you’ve regained your balance, you keep going as you were.”
“I can’t keep going as I was. I don’t have a towel any longer.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sakes.”
Paisley felt hands loop under her shoulders and lift her high. She flailed as Mr. Hottie pulled her easily onto their balcony.
“Way to ruin a guy’s fun, Ben.” Robohippie did an easy flip and was behind Paisley again.
She was pressed against Mr. Hottie, with Robohippie so close to her back she could feel the heat from his body. He either didn’t have a cooling system like Coral, or he was choosing not to use it.
Paisley’s body temperature started rising too. She was oiled and naked and pressed between two damn fine specimens of maleness. Were this anywhere else, with any other hotties, she would have taken advantage. Also, if she had been the one in control of the situation, it would have already started happening.
She wasn’t sure what she felt at this point, but in control definitely wasn’t it.
Paisley pushed away and stepped to the side to allow herself a little room to breathe. “Can I borrow one of the hotel robes to go down to the desk and ask for a new key?”
Ben cleared his throat and turned away to avert his gaze. “Sure thing.”
Paisley tried to cross her arms again, but she hadn’t rubbed enough of the oil off on Robohippie to get a good grip and her boobs popped right through.
A hand on her upper arm had her jumping. “Excuse me. I’d like to change before we accompany you down to the desk. I appear to be covered in oil.”
“You don’t have to come with me.”
Robohippie grabbed a pair of jeans and a tee and his rainbow suspenders. “Don’t be ridiculous. You’re Coral’s friend. We can’t have something happening to you on your way down there. You look far too appealing.”
Ben handed her a robe and she gratefully covered up.
“Yes, because I’m so safe up here,” she muttered.
Robohippie stripped down to his boxers. Oh, he had skin. He had lots of skin. He even had it below his boxers as he stripped those off.
Paisley stared. Really…it was only fair that she looked at this point. “Why are you taking off your boxers?”
“They had oil on them too.” He looked up at her and grinned. His cock was hard as a rock and it nodded at Paisley. “Just not from the same source.”
“Fuck. Please put something over that beast.” Mr. Hottie walked to block her view of Robocock, which disappointed her more than it should have. “You know it’s not required that you get naked anymore, right?”
Paisley looked over Mr. Hottie’s shoulder and saw Robohipster flip his friend off. He looked pissed as he pulled the jeans on. Without underwear. Paisley got a little internally oiled up too.
She needed to go get laid. It had been far too long since she’d had sex. Paisley gulped back a little drool at the bulge as Robohipster zipped up. It had been too long since she’d had sex with a well-equipped man, anyway. Normally she’d grab someone and scratch her itch. Especially since Coral wasn’t coming over until after she was done with submitting the new paperwork proposals to the magistrate’s robotics committee. There was plenty of time for mancandy handling.
Unfortunately there wasn’t much of a bar scene in the middle of the day. She’d just have to focus on getting her résumé together and looking on the job boards for something that would work for her. Maybe she could get a job at the hotel.
“I wasn’t going to go down to the front desk looking like I was wrestling up here. They might be concerned about the state of our room, and I don’t want to cause any extra investigation into myself.”
“I’m just glad I don’t have to go to the front desk naked.” Paisley tied the sash around the bathrobe tighter. They usually only had a one size fits most size in these rooms. Paisley had hips, but she wasn’t really big anywhere else. The robe kept slipping, so she just gave up and held the front together with her hand.
“Ready.” Robohippie used some of the oil he’d gotten on his hands to slick his hair back. He ran his fingers through his beard, and gestured with an arm that he would follow the group out.
Mr. Hottie led the way, and Paisley got the distinct impression they were forming rank around her.
“You kno
w, you don’t have to walk me down to the desk.”
“I’d really rather we did, Miss…” Mr. Hottie was actually asking her name.
She should probably return the courtesy, especially since she climbed naked over one.
“Compton. Paisley Compton. And what are your names?”
“I’m Ben Renolds.”
Robohippie wasn’t as forthcoming.
“Why are you so suddenly interested in my name?” he asked.
“Your dick got hard under my naked oiled body. I figured we’re on a level where knowing your name wasn’t too personal.”
Of course, that was the moment the elevator doors opened. Her snarky comeback and admission to climbing naked all over someone whose name she didn’t know was overheard by a very official-looking person with a blazer and a hotel nametag touting the title of General Manager.
Paisley could count this place off her employment opportunities.
The GM looked between the three of them. “Um…we had an alarm go off that there was someone trying to get into a locked balcony.”
Paisley raised her hand. “That would be me. I got locked out.”
Robohippie leaned around her. “We helped her climb over to our balcony to come get a replacement key.”
“Okay.” The manager didn’t seem like she wanted any more details to the story, so Paisley didn’t offer any.
She wondered what the craziest thing the manager had ever dealt with in the hotel was. She really hoped there were far more interesting things than this.
The manager walked a few feet down the hall and unlocked a wall panel with a key she pulled from a zip line at her hip. A few clacks on the kiosk in the wall and a picture of Paisley pulled up. It wasn’t a bad pic, but she wasn’t sure how much she looked like it at the moment.
When the manager turned around to compare the two, Paisley tried to imitate the close-mouthed grin on her ID.
The lady typed a few more things and then a key card zipped from the printer.
She handed it over to Paisley.
“If you want to disable the locks, just select the occupied setting on the alarm. It will disable all locks in the room until you reset it on your way out.”
This hotel was really high end.
“Yes, ma’am. Thank you.”
The woman didn’t look like she was used to being thanked. “You’re welcome. Is there anything else I can do for you?”
Paisley grabbed for the card, but her fingers slipped right off of it. She grimaced, and held out the pocket of her robe. “Could you put it in my pocket for me?”
The manager dropped it in her pocket and turned back toward the elevator. No doubt Paisley would be a breakroom conversation topic.
At least she managed to hang on to the lapels of the robe and keep it together.
“I’m all good now, Ben. Thanks.” She turned to Robohippie. “And since you won’t tell me your name, I’m not saying thanks.”
“I’m the one you climbed on naked. That was thanks enough for me.”
Paisley decided that was enough socializing and stayed silent as they all walked back.
She was doing well at her stoic exit until she had to use the card to open the door. She couldn’t get a grasp on the darn thing. Oiled up plastic was not an easy grab, and the robe was so big, the pockets were halfway down her legs.
She finally got the slippery little bugger out of her pocket and immediately dropped it.
“Fucking seriously.” She cursed a few more times as she repeated the juggling routine.
Robohippie and Ben had waited and watched her struggle for a full minute before the man in the rainbow suspenders pressed his index and pinky fingers on either side of the lock.
The light immediately turned green and Paisley heard the telltale click that it was opened.
Before she could think about it, Paisley kicked the keycard across the threshold and said a quick, “Thanks.”
When the door closed behind her, the reality of what just happened made it to her brain. Using her hand tucked in her robe, she swung the door back open. Luckily her two “rescuers” were still in the hallway.
“Hold on. You can open hotel locks.”
Robohippie shrugged. “Only the keycard kind.”
“So you could have come around and opened my door when you realized I was locked out. Why didn’t you just do that instead of making me climb over to your balcony? Why wasn’t that one of your suggested options?”
“You said you didn’t want to hear all of the infinite possibilities. So I suggested the two that sounded best to me. My way was so much more enjoyable.”
Ben slapped himself in the head. “If I’d had any blood in my brain I would have realized that.”
Then Ben smacked his roommate.
Paisley turned to make her offended exit to her room. The door had shut behind her, and her oily keycard was on the floor where she had kicked it inside.
“Want to use my magic fingers? Or do you want to climb on top of me again?” Robohippie’s smile was more manufactured than his skeleton. “I want to give you all your options this time.”
Paisley hated a smartass. She hated it even more when she needed one’s help.
“Fingers please.”
He did his magic and Paisley was finally able to get on the inside of her room. That whole thing wasted an hour. She looked at the bottle of oil she had swiped from under the sink. She’d give it back to Coral, and stick to lotion from now on.
Before she could go and wash her hands to be able to pick up the remote and turn on the TV, the men’s voices caught her attention. They were still in the hallway.
“Ben, it’s not a big deal. She liked it, trust me. If anyone knows how to tell when a woman is enjoying things, it’s me.”
“That’s not the point. We are supposed to be making a good impression, and you are either accusing Coral’s best friend of espionage, or making her climb naked over you.”
More shuffling.
“Can we go get something to eat? I’m hungry.”
“Yeah. Me too, but she went in her room and shut the door.”
Paisley heard a slap. She was glad someone hit the guy. Damn, he deserved it.
“Can you think about anything but sex?”
“It was part of my initial programming. What do you want from me? It doesn’t mean I can’t focus my attention on other matters too, but if I could get laid, it would be a lot less prevalent topic of conversation.”
“If you could have sex that didn’t take half the day, I would say go for it.”
“If it doesn’t take a few hours it’s not really worth having, minuteman.”
“Don’t call me that,” Ben said.
Paisley was going to have to rethink her nicknames for these two. If Mr. Hottie really was a minuteman, he lost a lot of hot points.
They went back into their room after that, and Paisley looked at the ear print she left on the door with a frown. Robohipster wasn’t the only one who needed to get laid.
Paisley’s vagina reminded her that there had just been talk about Robohippie’s Robocock being able to last for hours, but her brain reminded her that this guy also thought she was involved in Anti-Mech rallies.
At least she’d learned that he needed to get on Coral’s good side. She wasn’t so sure she was interested in Ben as a conquest anymore, but finding out more about both of these guys would be something to keep her mind busy while she waited for Coral to get off work.
First things first. Time for a shower and a lot of oil-reducing face wash. She needed use of her hands back again.
Chapter Six
Coral knocked on the hotel door promptly at five thirty, just like she’d said she would. Having a bestie who could calculate traffic levels and stoplight patterns really did make her punctual.
Paisley was never late when she was with Coral.
“Did you finish your résumé?” Coral asked as she entered the room.
You would never know she was a robot unless she told you now. The wide-eyed innocent data-craving android had been replaced with a driven woman on a mission to make life better for all those who had been labeled as unimportant by society.
Paisley worried that Coral was working too much on labels and not enough on the equal rights portion, but that was politics for you. Get a computer brain into the mix and the specifics were really nailed down. The rights bills she was helping compose also didn’t have hundreds of pages of garbage tacked on to them.
Every time someone tried to add an addendum to the laws, Coral would ask them what it had to do with her original goal for the bill. If they couldn’t reply with a good enough answer—which they never could—it didn’t make it in.
Try and argue with a computer. It never went well.
Paisley handed over the résumé she’d printed in the lobby.
Coral scanned it in a second and then pulled a pen from her purse and started to mark it up. Some people would be offended, but Paisley knew her friend had her best interests at heart. Coral downloaded the most recent sorting software the DMA used to discard problematic applications and the women set to work knocking out all the trigger words.
“You’ve got a couple of adjectives that would pull you from the interview calls. Negative terminology isn’t well received, even when used in a positive way. Change those few things around and you’ll at least get through the door.” Coral pulled a highlighter out of her purse and colored a few spaces. “Those might not be relevant to a higher-end position. No one cares that you worked as a singing telegram.”
“I thought it would show people skills.” Paisley shrugged but decided she’d pull it anyway. She could just expand on her explanation of duties at the palace.
“You can add programming consultant to your duties at the palace as well.”
That stopped Paisley’s notes. “How do you figure that?”
