LoveMachine (8 page)

Through the boxer shorts, his cock was even more evident. It
poked up, tenting the material. She tugged his jeans over his hips and down his
legs, caressing his skin as she removed them.

“Mmm, underwear,” she murmured, licking her lips as she
positioned herself between his legs again. She wrapped her hands around his
penis and stroked the material up and down his sensitive flesh.

“Mmm,” repeated Blue, tipping his head back, “underwear.”

“Even better working around it.” She leaned forward and
flicked her tongue through the front opening of the boxers, finding the head of
Blue’s cock. She licked him with tiny, fleeting touches as she continued to
stroke him through the material, talking in small bursts. “Now whenever…you put
on…boxer shorts…you can think…about me doing this.”

“It is an incentive.”

Cally teased him for as long as she could but as great as
anticipation was, the actual sex part was way better. She hooked her fingers in
the elastic of his boxers and tugged them down his legs. Then she looked up at
him sprawled in the chair.

“All that said, I really like you naked too,” she said.

“Come here.” Blue beckoned to her and she climbed back onto
his lap, his erection cradled between her thighs. He kissed her, long and slow
and deep. And then deliberately, he pushed her robe off her.

“You’ve taught me so much,” he told her, his golden eyes
looking straight into hers. “I must thank you, Cally.”

“Don’t thank me. I’m learning too.” She smiled up at him.

“I will never forget.”

His words were so strangely intense considering the teasing
she’d been doing that she tried a joke. “Forget? You? I didn’t think that was
possible unless you wiped your memory banks or something.”

“You are right. Forgetting is a human luxury.”

“Human fault, you mean.”

Blue kissed her again, long and slow and sweet. “I shall
remember,” he murmured against her lips, and he lifted her up and onto his
cock, pushing up into her. Also long, and slow, and sweet.

At first Cally worried about his strange mood, which he’d
seemed to put on with his first clothes. But then the sensations he was
creating were too good, too overwhelming, to worry at all.

He held her almost reverently, as if he cherished her. A way
she’d never been held before by a lover. And he moved within her as if timing
his thrusts to the rhythm of her heartbeat.

Cally held on to him, feeling the heat in his smooth skin
and the strength of him against her. She came right away but he kept on
thrusting into her, bringing her to one peak after another until she was nearly
limp with pleasure. Kissing her the whole time, taking her mouth with his. Only
when it was too much, when she’d faint if he didn’t stop, he tightened his grip
on her and his movements gained urgency until he shuddered out his climax.

They clung to each other until Cally could finally say,
“Wow.”

“You’ve expressed my thoughts exactly.” Blue kissed her
forehead and buried his face in her hair. After a long moment, he loosened his
hold on her.

“I think it’s time,” he said. “Let’s go.”

Chapter Eleven

They took a taxi to Chico’s. Cally snuggled up to Blue in
the backseat. While they’d been busy in her room all weekend, the weather had
taken a turn for the colder. Snow was beginning to flutter from the sky, the
taxi’s heater was making alarming rattling sounds and very little heat reached
the back. Cally was dressed in boots and winter coat, Blue only in his borrowed
jeans, sweater and sneakers, but he was much warmer than she was. He held her
hands captured in his own.

In the darkness of the cab, his eyes were bright. She caught
the driver looking at them in his mirror a few times but he didn’t say
anything.

“We should have driven my car,” she said. “My heater works.”

“Then you couldn’t have had a drink.”

“It doesn’t matter. Anyway, you could have driven home.”

“I’ve never driven a car.”

“You haven’t?”

“There hasn’t been any need for me to learn.”

“Blue, I am so totally going to teach you to drive. You’ll
love it. We’ll get you a driving license and we can go zooming all over the
place.”

“Does a machine need a license, I wonder, to operate a
machine?”

At that, the taxi driver definitely did glance back at them
in his mirror. “Speaking of driving,” Cally said loudly, “keep your eyes on the
road, please. It’s getting slippery.”

“And can we have the radio turned up?” asked Blue.

The driver grumbled and turned up the classic rock station.
It was playing Rush. Blue looked out the window at the snow starting to swirl
around them and hummed, perfectly in tune, along with the song.

“You’ve heard this before?” Cally asked.

“Yes, I heard it on the twelfth of August 2009, when I was
outside repairing the perimeter wall and a car drove by with its window open.”
Blue drew her closer to him. “The world looks beautiful out of a moving car’s
window. There’s an optical illusion that makes it appear as if the landscape is
moving and you are not.”

“It’s not an illusion, Blue. The whole world is moving
around us right now.” She sighed contentedly. The Rush song ended and something
by Boston came on, which Blue also knew. The music vibrated subtly through his
body and into hers, making her sing softly along too. She was warm in Blue’s
embrace, they were going to have a fun experience together and she’d sleep in
his arms tonight.

Ilsa had been right. Cally was happy. She didn’t want to
analyze it or question it—those things made the happiness more fragile. She
wanted to enjoy right now, watching the snow travel and Blue’s eyes light up
the world.

The cab pulled up outside of Chico’s and Cally leaned
forward with money for the fare. Blue plucked it from her fingers. “I’ll take
care of it,” he said.

“But—” Then she remembered—it was more important for him to
learn about everyday things like paying cab fares than for her to assert her
equal rights.

Even so, he managed to be out of the taxi in time to meet
her coming out of it and put a strong arm around her waist. There was over an
inch of snow on the ground already.

“How much snow are we going to get tonight?” she asked him.

“It shouldn’t be a problem.” He stood looking at Chico’s for
a moment. She had to admit, it didn’t look like much—a square, red-brick
building with green awnings over windows full of neon beer signs. And yet this
was the place where she’d spent so many hours in the past few years, especially
since her dad had died. Instead of reading or walking in the snow or listening
to music or trying to understand the other beings who existed under the same
roof she did, whether human or robot…she’d been here. Picking up strangers.

Anyway, she and Blue were going to have fun tonight. It was
his first time out in public

“Are you nervous?”

“I have nerves, as they say, of steel.” He sounded cheerful.
“Come on, let’s go.”

He began walking through the snow toward the bar, his arm
still around her waist. On the threshold of the bar, he stumbled and recovered
before he had to catch himself on the door ledge.

“Are you okay?” Cally asked. She’d never seen him misstep.

“It’s an adjustment to walk in shoes,” he told her. “I am
fine.”

He pushed open the door and waited for her to go in ahead of
him.

The interior of the bar was, as always, dark, lit by the
neon beer signs and heavy-shaded lamps hanging over the booths and the bar. It
smelled of beer and the ghosts of a billion cigarettes that had been smoked
here before the smoking ban. It wasn’t crowded, not on a Sunday night. Music
blared from the jukebox and when Cally walked in, half a dozen people raised
their arms in a wave of greeting and Sherri, the bartender, reached for the
Jack Daniel’s.

Then they froze, staring at the being behind her.

“Hey, everyone,” called Cally. “This is my friend, Blue.”

“Hey,” said someone from the back. There was a chorus of
other mutters, not quite drowned out by the jukebox. Cally shook her head. Was
it too late on a Sunday night to greet a stranger? A bit pathetic, really.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered to Blue. “It’s usually busier
than this and they’re not exactly being
Cheers
tonight.”

“What’s
Cheers
?”

“I’ll show you later.”

She led him up to the bar, where Sherri had already put down
the bottle of Jack Daniel’s and was leaning on her elbows, watching them
approach.

“Hi,” she said. “Cally and…Blue?”

“Hello,” said Blue.

Sherri looked him up and down. Cally had watched her do this
before, mostly when a new hot guy walked into the bar, and her chest swelled
with pride. Blue’s perfect body in his snug jeans and sweater, the flakes of
snow melting on his broad shoulders and his smooth bald head. His handsome
face, the glowing eyes that literally lit up a room. Blue regarded the
bartender calmly, with the stillness that no human could achieve.

“Nice to meet you,” said Sherri at last. “Jack and Coke,
Cally? What will you have, Blue?”

“Nothing, thank you. It is nice to meet you.” He let go of
Cally’s hand and held out his to shake Sherri’s. She reached over the bar.
Cally saw Sherri glance at her palm when they had finished.

Then Sherri reached for the JD again. “We’ve never seen you
in here before, Blue,” she said.

“I’ve never been here. Or indeed in any bar. Or anywhere, to
be precise.”

“Are you…I mean, forgive me for asking but are you one of
those robots we’ve heard about? Up at Cally’s house?”

“Does Cally talk about us?” Blue asked. “When she comes
here?”

“No,” said Sherri and Cally at the same time. “I mean, it’s
not anyone’s business,” continued Cally.

“It doesn’t mean we haven’t been curious,” said Sherri. “I
always thought the rumors were a little exaggerated, myself. Now I can see they
aren’t.”

“You are very kind,” said Blue.

Sherri didn’t take her eyes off Blue the whole time she was
pouring Cally’s drink. Cally’s pride started to melt off a little bit into
irritation. Yes, he was hot and yes, he was a little unusual but he wasn’t a
museum exhibit of Hot Robotic Manhood. He was her lover and not open to other
offers. At least she thought not. That wasn’t why Blue had wanted to go to
Chico’s, was it? To check out some new talent? After all, he must have often
seen her going out to do just that.

She looked hard at Blue’s face—even harder than Sherri was
looking at it. He was smiling politely and that was all.

“Are you sure I can’t get you something, Blue?” Sherri
asked. Cally wasn’t imagining the flirtatious tone.

“Nothing. I do not drink. Thank you.”

“Okay, if you’re sure. Here you go, Cally,” Sherri said,
pushing the drink over the bar toward her.

“Thanks.” She reached for her purse but Blue stopped her.

“I will buy your drink,” he said.

“But you don’t have any mon—”

“I invited you to accompany me here and therefore I will pay
for your drink. That is the customary procedure, isn’t it?”

“Okay,” said Cally, mystified.

She watched as Blue produced a credit card from his back
pocket. “May I use this?” he asked.

“Um…okay. As it’s you.” Sherri took the card and put it in
the machine.

“Where did you get a credit card?” Cally whispered to Blue.

“I applied for it. I have an excellent credit rating.”

“Have you been hacking into computers?”

“Of course not. That’s illegal.”

Cally regarded Blue with admiration as his credit card was
approved by the reader. “Unpredictable,” she said as he pocketed it again.

“Where would you like to sit?” Blue asked her.

“I usually like the table in the corner, under the Lone
Moose Brew sign.”

“All right.”

But they’d barely taken two steps toward the table when
someone grabbed Cally’s shoulder. Warm, wet breath touched her ear.

“We’ve been wondering where you’ve been,” said a voice.
“What you’ve been doing. And
this
is what you’ve been doing, is it?”

“Sam.” Cally turned. Her former lover was standing very
close behind her. He’d probably been quite nicely dressed when he left his
house earlier but his shirt was wrinkled from what had obviously been several
hours’ worth of drinking at the bar. His brown hair was disheveled and his
normally handsome face was flushed.

“I’ve been trying to call you,” he said. “For weeks now.”

“I’ve been busy.”

“And
this
is what you’ve been busy with?”

“My name is Blue,” said Blue pleasantly. He held out his
hand to Sam.

Sam looked at it as if it were rotten meat. Cally was about
to protest his rudeness when he finally took Blue’s hand and shook it,
grimacing.

“What’re you made out of, anyway? Silicon? Latex?”

“My skin layer is a complex polymer. I can give you the
formula if you are interested.”

Sam pulled his hand away and flapped it in the air as if he
were shaking off something nasty. “No thanks.” He turned to Cally. “Please tell
me what I’m thinking isn’t true.”

“It depends what you’re thinking,” she said with gritted
teeth. She wasn’t violent but Sam was heading for a kick in the shin. She was
surprised Sherri hadn’t sent him home yet. He was clearly hammered.

“I don’t understand you at all,” Sam slurred. “You and I
could have been something, Cally. We were great together, weren’t we?”

“It’s over now, Sam.”

“Just because I wanted something more than the occasional
screw. You dropped me like a hot potato.”

Beneath the drunkenness there was a thread of pain in Sam’s
voice and Cally felt a stab of remorse. “Sam, I knew you wanted more commitment
from me. But I wasn’t ready to give it. I’m sorry if I hurt you.” She touched
his elbow, not because she was in any way attracted to him anymore but because
she was sorry. She’d been upfront with Sam that she didn’t want a relationship
but clearly she’d been leading him on in some way. She should have realized and
ended it earlier than she had. “It really wasn’t you. It was me.”

He shook her touch away. “Shit yeah, it wasn’t me. It was
you. You’re the one who’s all hot on no-strings-attached sex. It’s pretty
obvious what you want. You went straight from me to getting yourself a walking,
talking, man-shaped dildo.”

Cally recoiled as if she’d been slapped. “Take that back,”
she growled.

“Why should I? It’s the truth. And then you have the—the
nerve to come in here with your sex toy.”

“Blue is not a sex toy.”

“What is it then?” Sam turned to Blue. “What are you?”

“I am a multifunctional android unit designed to provide a
flexible range of domestic, professional and information services, which has
been modified to include certain social, intellectual and sexual capabilities.”
Blue’s voice was bland and impersonal.

“He’s
himself
,” Cally said furiously. “He’s
Blue
.”

“Yeah, I can see that. He’s the same color as those things
you put in toilet bowls.” Sam put his arm possessively around Cally’s waist.
“Cal, stop messing around with this lump of plastic. Let me show you what a
real man can do.” He pulled her toward him, nuzzling his wet lips on her neck
and slipping one hand inside her coat to squeeze her breast.

Cally didn’t have time to push him away—before she could
even react, Sam was plucked away from her, dangling in the air, held by the
scruff of his neck by Blue. Sam let out a strangled yelp.

“Leave her alone,” said Blue and without any apparent
effort, he carried Sam the length of the bar to the door.

Sam was flailing his arms and legs, trying to make contact
with the floor or with Blue but Blue avoided the blows and held Sam aloft with
one hand while he opened the door with the other. As the entire bar watched, he
deposited Cally’s drunken ex-lover in the accumulating snow outside. Then he
closed the door.

Silence. Even the jukebox had gone quiet—some time ago,
Cally realized. Probably about the time Sam had approached them. In the back,
someone clapped once and then stopped.

“Enjoying the show?” she called, planting her fists on her
hips. Blue rejoined her. His clothes weren’t even rumpled.

“Perhaps it is time for us to leave,” he said.

“I’ll call a taxi.” She reached for her phone in her bag.

“No need.” He put his arm around her shoulders as they left
the bar. “Goodbye!” he called back as they went outside. Cally couldn’t hear if
anyone answered or not.

Thankfully, there was no sign of Sam other than a wobbly
trail of footprints in the snow heading down the street.

Cally sighed, her breath clouding in front of her. “Sam was
being an asshole. I’m sorry about that, Blue. But otherwise, it didn’t go too
badly, did you think?”

“It went much as I expected.” Blue led her to a taxi that
sat idling at the curb. He opened the back door for her and absolutely no heat
came out.