Page 32 of The Pleasure Contract

She’s… starting to look concerned. This is not going how I thought this would go. To be honest, I’m not sure I had any idea how this might go. Did I hope this might open the floodgates for Lois to fling herself across our breakfast and kiss me again? Yes. Did I wonder if she might invite me to her chamber for those elusive human ‘cuddles’ Kiahn is always bragging about? Also yes. Did I think she’d be upset about a standard default setting on my Permission? No.

I decide to move seats, pulling out the chair beside her. “Uh,” I start, rubbing at the back of my neck. “So, some people set their Permissions so that they get a log of everything the user… experienced with their Permission. And the recording setting… well… they…”

“They get some homemade porn that they somehow played a starring role in. I get it.”

I’m not familiar with the Earth term, ‘porn’, but I think I follow her meaning.

Lois swallows and twists in her chair to face me. She looks kinda mad.

Which does unfortunate things to the tightness of my pants.

“Had I known that you would know when I activated your Permission, I never would have used it,” she says in a deceptively calm, slow, quiet tone – the kind of tone a guardian uses on a child when they’re trying to explain why they want to break their own horns off when they ride wild traxilliope deer through the palace hallways.

Or so I imagine…

I crease my brow. “Why? Was I- he not any good?”

I actually don’t know what answer I would prefer to that question. If she achieved pleasure with my Permission – she achieved pleasure with my Permission. But also, my Permission is not me, and every fiber of my being is screaming that it should be me and no one else to give her pleasure, holographic clone or not.

The excitement and smugness I felt ever since receiving that notification has soured to this stupid jealousy that I’ve never experienced in my life. I quite literally don’t know what to do with this. Do I deactivate my Permission? Do I change the settings so I won’t know next time?

Will there be a next time?

“I don’t know. I didn’t get very far with him.”

My mouth opens and then closes.

It is my turn to be a bog-fish, it seems.

“Why? Did you not like… what was on offer?”

I’d never considered this before – never had to.

The first ever time I give my Permission to someone, and she is left… unsatisfied?

Lois does not answer. Instead, her eyes flick very briefly to my crotch before flying away again as her teeth sink into her bottom lip. What the fuck does that mean?! “I… if you were displeased with my cock-” Four Goddesses above! Those were hard words to say out loud. “-My Permission still has two hands and a mouth to service you,” I offer, before leaning back to gesture at one of my thighs. “You may also ride your pleasure out on either of my thighs – they are very strong – or my face – it is very willing. Fuck, it would be an honor for you to rub yourself against my horns if that’s how you can best reach your peak. I can change my Permission’s settings so that they are polished smoothly-” I pause, trying to gather my frantic thoughts before narrowing my eyes. “Or should they be more textured?”

“Az-”

“Is that what feels best for a human female’s pleasure?” I ask, reaching up to rub at my second left horn.

“Az-”

“I’m sure some kind of textured horn-sleeve could be fashioned. We could even incorporate vibration if-”

“Az!”

Lois sits straighter, looking beautiful, regal… irritated.

“I couldn’t use your stupid Permission because the whole thing – the whole process – and trying to keep my mind focussed was just too weird to me. It was you, but it wasn’t you. You’d say the things I think you’d say… But was I right? What if you’d say something different? Do something different? It all felt very… inauthentic.”

“Ah.”

She wants… me?

“And you kept getting naked!” She accuses, lightly slapping me in the chest. I rub the area as if she’d really hurt me, when, of course, we both know she hadn’t. “One minute you were fully clothed and then ‘poof!’ your massive Xaviann dong is out there taking up half the simulator space!”

It’s at that moment that I try extremely hard not to let a smug smile creep across my lips, and, quite frankly, I believe I am due some kind of military award for keeping it at bay in this moment. “And, that is a… bad thing?” I ask, still absently rubbing at my chest where she last touched me.