Page 17 of Elanie & the Empath
“I’ve felt that.” She met my stare, one of her perfectly shaped eyebrows rising just enough to make the implication clear. “Before. When you?—”
“Right.”My voice cracked. “That’s what can happen when a female gets aroused. Blood flow increases to her clitoris, which causes the warmth and the…pulsing. And if you or your partner stimulates your clitoris, like this.” When I started to move my finger in small, repetitive, caressing circles over the paper, Elanie’s eyes went wide, her pupils dilating, her lower lip snagged between her teeth again. “It can make you feel good, often resulting in increased lubrication. And if you do this long enough and with the right amount of speed and pressure?—”
“Yes?” Her chest heaved while my heart battered my ribs so hard I thought one might have cracked.
“You can reach orgasm.”
And just when I thought I couldn’t withstand another second of the thick, sweltering tension swirling around us, she asked, “What does an orgasm feel like, Dr. Semson?”
My brain broke. Melted out of my ears. Unlike Elanie, I was not half robot. I was all man. And I’d hit my limit.
“It’s different for everyone,” I said so quickly the words ran together. “But in general, it feels very good. I’m sorry, Elanie, but I have another patient.”
Her shoulders fell, disappointment clear in the gesture.
Saints save me,but I did not want to disappoint her. From the sounds of it, Blake was doing enough of that already.
“We can talk about orgasms at your next visit,” I said, knowing full well that we should definitely not have a next visit. I was not calm. I was not in control. And I was really, really—I tugged at my collar—hot.
Especially when she sighed and said, “Fine. But in the meantime, do you have a mirror I could borrow?”
7.ELANIE
I chargeddown the staff quarters hallway back to my pod, trying not to look like someone who had their doctor’s mirror hidden behind their back. Knowing that if a single being saw it and asked me what I was about to do with it, my biosynapses would frag themselves in a puff of white smoke.
“Hi, Elanie!”
My breath froze in my lungs while I turned my head to find Rax waving at me as he stood outside a security storage closet.
While Morgath rolled his eyes and slapped a scanWand into his brother’s other hand, Rax said, “You look nice today.”
I didn’t break my stride, just said, “thanks,” and kept walking.
“Did you hear that?” Rax asked Morgath. “She said ‘thanks.’”
Morgath snorted, then muttered, “You aresucha hopeless dingus.”
When I finally reached my pod, I was panting, sweating, even trembling. I ducked inside, slid my door shut, andplastered myself against it. Dr. Semson’s mirror shook in my hand.
On an analytical level, I knew that looking at a body part with a mirror wouldn’t make any noise. But some illogical part of my consciousness believed that Rax and Morgath would somehow hear me doing it. That every being on deck twelve would hear me.
Accessing the remote app in my VC, I turned on my TV, cranked up the volume, and tiptoed silently to my bathroom. Turning around in a full circle, I considered the counter, the tub, the toilet. Where should a being sit for something like this? Or would it just be best to stand? Yes. Standing made the most sense.
Reaching back to release my zipper, I let my pants fall to the floor. Then I pushed my underwear down my legs. Stepping out of the puddle of fabric, not bothering to take off my heels, I placed one foot on the edge of the tub, closed my eyes, and took a sharp, fortifying breath.
Positioning the mirror between my legs, I cracked one eye open, then the other. And then…I looked.
What looked back at me was nothing like Dr. Semson’s drawing. There was hair, for one thing. And two mounds of flesh hid everything else. Mounds that I would have to pull apart to see anything deeper.Stars save me.
Slamming my eyes closed again, I reached between my legs with my other hand and carefully spread myself apart. When I peeked down this time, I dropped the mirror, watching thesituationbetween my legs get farther and farther away as the mirror clattered to the floor.
I cried into my VC.
she commed back.
Five billion nanoseconds elapsed without a response.
