LoveMachine (3 page)

Chapter Four

She found him in her father’s library, in the same place he
had stood the night before when she’d been calling her former lovers on the
phone. Instead of dusting books, Blue held one open. It was a hardback copy of
Life,
The Universe and Everything
. As Cally entered the room, he turned a page.

“Have you read the entire library yet?” she asked him.

“Not yet,” he said without looking up. “You do not mind, do
you? Ilsa gave me permission but the books are also yours.”

“Go nuts. Read as much as you like. From what Ilsa said,
though, I thought you had higher-brow taste than Douglas Adams.”

“I find it very instructive.” Blue closed the book and
replaced it on the shelf. “You have been discussing me with your sister. May I
ask a question?”

“Yes.”

“Did you tell her I assisted you in experiencing multiple
orgasms last night?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“First, it’s none of her business and second, I thought I
should probably talk it over with you first.”

Blue said, “That is very interesting.”

“Is it?” Cally came farther into the room, closer to Blue.
She stood facing him, her hands on her hips. He towered over her. “Did you tell
your fellow house robots about what we did?”

“It is, as you say, none of their business.”

“My sister gave you a personality. She downloaded something
into you and now you’re unpredictable.”

“Do you object?”

“Is that why you’re suddenly all knowledgeable about sex?”

“Cally, I would not say that I was knowledgeable about sex
at all.”

Cally thought she heard an edge of something like sadness or
wistfulness in his voice. But it was her imagination, right? She was projecting
her own feelings about what he must feel onto him?

“What
are
you?” she asked with something like
desperation. “Are you a robot? A computer program? Are you becoming human?
What?”

“I am not flesh and blood. I am…attempting to understand
what other thing I might be.”

“Don’t you know?”

A person, at this point, might run his hands through his
hair or sit down. Blue did neither. He stood still where he was and paused,
considering her question.

“I have been contemplating Descartes’ proposition, ‘I think,
therefore I am’. I have always had some autonomy of thought. It is important
that a good servant perceive what is required to be done and make what may be
called decisions about which task to undertake in what order. However, recently
I have observed my capacity of thought and reasoning overreaching the level
required merely to do household tasks.”

“You like philosophy and science fiction.”

“I have interests and what you might term curiosity. I am
able to explore abstract concepts. I have observed instances where I may be
said to be exercising the function of free will.”

Blue might be standing motionless but Cally couldn’t. She
rubbed her forehead. “Was that what you did to me last night? Exercised the
function of free will?”

“I wanted to pleasure you. Yes.”

“You were very good at it.”

“Thank you. Would you like me to do it again?”

A flesh-memory of the pleasure swept through her, nearly
making her weak at the knees. “Are you insane? Of course I would.”

“Excellent. Would you care to lie down on the couch or would
you prefer to stand?”

“Um…let’s go up to my room. It’s a little bit more private.”

“Agreed.”

Blue preceded her to the door and held it open for her but he
walked by her side down the corridor and up the stairs to the fourth floor.
Cally watched him out of the corners of her eyes. He moved silently, as he
always had. He was taller and bigger than she was, over six feet tall, and in
the broad-shouldered, narrow-hipped shape of a strong, muscular man. Though his
blue skin was smooth, without bulges for muscles, she knew how powerful he was.
She’d seen him shoveling the driveway this morning.

Blue said nothing as they walked. She supposed he thought
chatter was unnecessary. They had discussed what they were going to do and now
they were going to do it. It was utterly different from how this walk to her
bedroom would be with one of her human lovers—there was no attempt at
seduction, no macho posturing, no dirty talk about how he was going to rock her
world. No waffling about love or commitment.

Instead there was a silent purposefulness, a
single-mindedness. To Cally, it felt even sexier. She wondered if he was
already calculating his movements, planning what would give her the most
pleasure.

She shivered.

“You are cold?” Blue asked her immediately.

“I’m horny.”

“It is a psychological state as well as a physical one?”

“Definitely.” They reached the top of the house and Cally
paused outside the door of her room. “Blue, you say you can think and choose.
Can you feel emotions?”

Blue paused too. “It is difficult to answer your question
with any certainty. I have been attempting to learn precisely what emotions
consist of but although I have found countless references to them, there is
little objective description. If one has never felt something before, nor known
indeed that such things even existed, it is problematic to identify whether
what one may experience is emotion or not.”

“I think I understood that.”

“Perhaps you can explain it to me in a satisfactory way.
What do you think emotions are, Cally?”

“They’re—they’re—” She closed her eyes and said the first
thing that popped into her mind. “They’re things you can’t control.”

Blue didn’t answer right away, long enough so she opened her
eyes again to see if there was anything wrong.

“If you are correct,” he said at last, “then perhaps I do
experience them.” He reached past her and opened her door. “After you, Cally.”

Cally went into her room, trying to figure out why she’d
asked that question in particular. It was all part of trying to work out what
she was dealing with here, she decided. Was Blue a man or a machine? Not that
it would matter when it came to getting multiple orgasms off him. But it would
help her to know how to talk to him.

Blue closed the door behind them. Cally should be tossing
off her clothes now but she paused again. “So how did you learn what you do
know about sex then? I can’t imagine Ilsa taught you about it.”

“I have researched the topic.”

“In books? On the internet?”

Blue still didn’t make any movement toward her. He stood
near the door. He could have been a talking piece of furniture.

He was still a very big presence in the room.

“Yes, in books and online,” he said at last. “But I must
confess my research was precipitated by observing you.”

“Me?”

He paused again. “I hesitate to mention it. I believe it may
offend your ideas of privacy.”

Cally sat on the bed. Blue was actually uncomfortable. Now
this really made her curious. “Tell me,” she said.

“It was at approximately two a.m. on the morning of
September 3 this year,” Blue said. “The evening was unseasonably warm, ranging
between 73 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit, which in Celsius is—”

“Stop stalling, Blue. Come out with it.”

“I was observing the full moon. It appeared unusually large
that evening due to the declension of—”

“Blue.”

At last, he moved. He came to sit beside her on her bed. The
mattress, firm as it was, dipped under his weight.

“You came outside,” he said. “You were wearing a white shirt
designed for a man, which was too big for you and which does not belong to a
member of this household. You walked past where I stood and sat on the bench
near the apple tree. I did not wish to startle you. When you sat on the bench,
you stared at the moon—it was, as I mentioned, unusually large and
beautiful—and then you shook your head. You leaned back on the bench and you
parted your legs.”

Cally remembered that night now. She’d met Thom at Chico’s
and they’d come back to the house together. Thom had talked big but he hadn’t
been able to follow through on his boasts and when he was asleep, snoring,
Cally had gone out to the back lawn to be alone. Or so she’d thought.

She’d been dissatisfied with more than Thom that night.
She’d been dissatisfied with everything—herself, her life, her loneliness. She
had plenty of money, she had plenty of time. She didn’t need a job but she had
one anyway. She lived in a big house with two other people, she could have a
different man every day of the week and yet she was always alone.

The moon was the biggest she’d ever seen. It sat, swollen
and silver, above the horizon and she’d stared at it. She’d wondered if it felt
lonely.

Then she’d told herself to snap out of it and sort out the
real reason she was dissatisfied.

“I had no idea you were there,” she said.

“Your shirt fell open and you were naked underneath. You
began stroking your skin. You touched your breasts.”

“You were watching.”

“In the moonlight your skin appeared to be silver.”

“Did it arouse you, Blue?” Her voice felt rough in her
throat.

“I was…interested.”

“Would you like to do what I did?”

“Yes.”

Cally reached down to the hem of her shirt, intending to
pull it off, but Blue put his hands gently on hers to stop her. Instead he
removed her shirt himself, catching her hair as it slipped through the neck
hole and arranging it behind her shoulders. He reached round the back,
unfastened her bra and carefully pulled it from her body.

Cally’s breasts were tight and aching. “Did they look like
this, Blue?”

“Your nipples are more erect now.”

“I’m more turned-on. Show me what I did.”

Blue’s body was already turned toward hers on the bed, his
glowing eyes focused on her. In the air, he shaped one of his hands into a
curve as if he was practicing touching the fullness of her breast, as if he was
remembering what she had done to herself. Then he feathered the tips of his
fingers over her skin and at that single touch, Cally gasped.

His fingers were as she remembered—room temperature—and yet
they felt supple and delicate, like real skin. He raised his other hand and
molded it around her left breast. She could feel her heart beating against him.
With a sureness of touch she hadn’t quite expected, not after his apparent
shyness in telling her how he’d watched her, he squeezed her gently, caressed
her and rolled her nipples between his fingers and thumbs. She recognized her
own touch, the things she did to herself that she knew pleased her most—but
there was more too. There was Blue’s purposefulness and restraint. His careful
control over his power and his total absorption in what he was doing. He rasped
his thumbs against the tips of her nipples, just the right amount of pressure
and roughness, and Cally gasped again.

“You like this,” he said.

“I like it very much. Have you ever touched a woman’s
breasts before, Blue?”

“Never.”

“Do you like it?”

“I am conscious of a high level of interest.”

Cally couldn’t help chuckling, despite the wonderful things
he was doing to her tits. “You’re a typical man then.”

“Am I?” He pushed her breasts together and squeezed them.

“You’re improvising,” she said.

“You have a texture quite unlike anything I have ever
touched before.” He continued to caress her, almost massaging her, tweaking her
nipples until they stood even prouder. He pulled gently on one of them and
Cally squeaked.

“Don’t stop,” she said quickly when he paused at her noise.

“Fascinating.” He dipped his head down and put his lips
around her nipple. The feeling was extraordinary—his lips were cool but inside
his mouth it was warm, almost hot.

He sucked at her and Cally groaned loudly. She held him to
her, her lower body squirming on the bed while one of his hands worked her
other breast, and the other loosely clasped her upper thigh.

“I didn’t know you could do that,” she gasped when he
released her nipple from his mouth with a slight pop.

“It is not what I was designed to do. However, I do have
some rather adaptable capabilities.” He applied himself to her neglected nipple
and Cally squirmed even more. White-hot jolts of pleasure shot down her body
from her nipple to between her legs.

“Your mouth is so warm,” she murmured.

“My system operations create a certain amount of excess
heat. I can slow down my ventilation, if you prefer, so my exterior is closer
to your temperature. It may feel more natural for you.” Blue’s touch on her
breast became instantly warmer. “You did not spend this much time stimulating
your breasts when I observed you.”

“I’m not as good at it as you are.”

“Intriguing. So you do not know what gives your own body the
most pleasure?”

“There’s a certain amount of pleasure in…unpredictability.”

“I understand.” Blue indicated the button of her jeans.
“Does that mean I should not ask your permission to proceed?”

Chapter Five

“Blue, I think it’s rapidly becoming clear that you can do whatever
the hell you want with me.”

He made a small sound, the first inarticulate noise she had
ever heard him make. It could have been satisfaction, or amusement. Or merely a
blip in his vocal processors. Regardless of what it was, he unfastened the buttons
of her jeans and when she leaned back to allow him, he pulled them off her
legs. He efficiently removed her socks and then her panties. The room was
heated against the winter outside but the air felt cool on her aroused sex.
Cally lay back on the bed, wriggling her body to the side to make more room.

“Lie down beside me, Blue.”

He did, propping himself up on his elbow so he could look
down at her face and have one hand free to touch her. His palm ranged down her
body, spanning her neck and tracing the slope of one breast, down to her belly,
where it lay spread out on her skin. His thumb rested above her navel and his
long fingers reached to where her dark, neatly trimmed pubic hair began. She
was beginning to get used to the contrast of his bright blue color to hers. His
whole body was warm now; she could feel it against her.

“I can’t believe I didn’t see you watching me that night,”
she said. “I can’t imagine not seeing you now. You’re such a presence, Blue.”

“I have perhaps not always been so.”

“It wasn’t dark and your eyes must have been visible. Or did
you shut their light off?”

“I did not conceal myself. I am aware I should not have
watched. But I was fascinated and you seemed preoccupied.”

Gazing at the lonely moon. She shouldn’t have brought it up
again. Cally put her hand over Blue’s and pushed it downward, toward her sex.
“I’m glad you did if it helped teach you how to make me come like a freight
train.”

Blue took the hint.

This time she kept her eyes open and she watched him slowly,
patiently bringing her to orgasm. She saw his single-minded concentration, how
every part of his body was still except for the parts touching her.

Even watching, she couldn’t quite understand how he created
these sensations in her pussy, through her entire body. This time he teased her
as if he’d learned her limits of endurance and was keeping her teetering on the
edge of coming, until she gritted her teeth and gripped his shoulder, held her
breath as he merely feathered the slightest of touches over her clitoris, the slightest
of dips into her sex. She thrust her pelvis up at him, straining for more, for
release, until she heard her own voice in her ears.

“Now, Blue, now, please, don’t make me wait.”

And now he let her tumble over, crying out and clenching her
legs and her sex around his hand, again and again in spasms until she was
spent.

Cally caught her breath, still holding on to Blue. She had
pulled him half over on top of her and she could feel the solid length of his
body along one whole side.

“That was amazing,” she said.

“Thank you.”

She took his hand and held it to the side of her face. It
smelled of her and a faint minerally scent that might be Blue’s own. “Why are
you doing this?” she asked him. “Is it all curiosity?”

“It is gratifying to please you.”

“But do you get any pleasure from it yourself? Can you feel
it when I touch you like this?” She stroked his smooth blue chest.

“I can perceive the sensation of your fingers against me. It
is useful for a robot to have a sensitivity of surface so it can avoid hazards
that might damage it.”

“But does it feel good, Blue? What about when I kiss you?”
She pressed her lips near where she had been stroking him, near the place where
his nipple would be. His skin, or surface as he called it, was warm and pliant,
with a hard core of strength underneath.

“It does feel good,” he said. His voice was quieter.

“Then I’ll do a lot more of it.” Cally pushed at his
shoulders so he was lying on his back on the bed and she began kissing his body
in earnest. His shoulders, his chest, his strong arms. “How does it feel?” she
asked him, barely pausing. “Describe it for me so I can tell how sensitive you
are.”

“Your lips are warm and soft. The varying pressure they
produce is pleasant. I can also feel your chin and the tip of your nose, which
are not so variable nor warm. Your hair is brushing against me in a separate
sensation—it is lighter yet equally stimulating. When you lean against me, your
breasts press against my body, which I find quite exciting after the activity
we have shared.”

Cally glanced at him sideways. “You get all technical when
you’re not sure what your reaction should be, don’t you?”

“I’m still learning,” he said quietly.

“So am I, I think.” Cally put her ear to Blue’s chest and
listened. She knew he had to take in some air to speak but there was no whoosh
of air in and out of lungs, no beating of a heart. Instead, there was a low
ticking sound, a whirring of unseen workings deep inside.

Blue stroked her hair as if discovering how it felt. She
carried on kissing him, down the side of his ribs to his belly. Experimentally,
she nipped at his skin and he jumped.

“What?” she asked, backing off a little. “Did I hurt you?”

“No.”

“Did it tickle?”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“It means this.” Cally tickled him in the same spot, below
where his ribs would be if he had any. Blue jumped again, a small sound
escaping his mouth.

“You’re ticklish!” she said.

“It seems to be an involuntary reaction. How interesting.”

“I didn’t think robots could be ticklish. What about the
other side?”

She tried it. He was.

“You are absolutely ticklish, Blue.” Cally laughed in
delight and began tickling other parts of him—his smooth, strong legs, his
knees, under his arms, the soles of his feet.

“Why would I be created to be ticklish?” Blue jumped again as
she tickled his left elbow. The sound he made was very much like a chuckle.

“My father had a good sense of humor. He probably thought
you deserved a laugh.” She sat back on her heels and considered him. A big,
strong, blue robot lying on her bed. A big, strong, blue ticklish robot.

“I wonder if you’re capable of any other involuntary
reactions,” she said. “Like an orgasm.”

Both she and Blue looked at the space between his legs. It
was completely smooth, save for a discreet bulge. Sort of like a Ken doll’s.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about this,” said Blue.

“I don’t blame you,” said Cally. “I’d be pretty pissed off
if I were you.” She regarded his crotch some more. “Maybe my father had a
bad
sense of humor.”

“I don’t blame your father. He did not foresee my current
autonomy of thought or my interest in human sexuality.”

“And he probably thought it would be pretty disturbing to
have a well-hung robot walking around the house.”

“Human sexual organs give their owners pleasure but
pleasure-giving is not their primary function. The pleasure exists to heighten
the reproductive urge. The truth is, I have no reproductive requirements. If I
needed to replicate myself, I would build another robot. Your father
constructed my fellow robots and me with secondary sexual characteristics to
make us more acceptable in human society. But we had no need for genitalia.”

“You’re very logical,” said Cally. “But you don’t have any
need to be ticklish either. And you are.”

“True.”

Cally lay beside Blue, trailing her palm up and down his
chest. “Do you want to have a penis?”

“As I mentioned, I have been giving it a great deal of
thought. The research I have carried out suggests human males find their
reproductive organs to be a source of great fulfillment but also of great
frustration. There is a consensus that sexual urges are often a distraction
from more rational, purposeful thought and action. Humans have expended as much
energy repressing their sexuality as they have expended in satisfying it.”

“You mean, if you had a dick you’re afraid you’d let it do
the thinking for you.”

“Very succinctly put, Cally.”

“But you’re being all technical again. It’s a pretty simple
question. Do you
want
a penis?”

He paused for a long time, so long that if he had been a
human, Cally would have suspected him of going to sleep.

“If I had a penis,” he said at last, “would you have sexual
intercourse with me?”

“In a heartbeat.”

“Then yes, I do want one.”

Cally couldn’t help laughing again. “Blue, you are much more
typically male than you think you are.”

“I think I’m glad to hear that.”

“Okay, so how are we going to make you a cock? I don’t think
Dad left any penis blueprints around anywhere, though we can check.”

“I believe I can build it myself.”

Cally looked at Blue. When all was said and done, he was
actually pretty amazing. “Can you?”

“I will need some assistance. Ilsa—”

“My sister’s not helping you.”

“She knows more about my construction than any other living
human being. She’s the one who does routine maintenance work when we cannot do
it ourselves. And though we have never discussed the topic, I think she would
not object to—”

“My sister is not building my lover a cock. It’s weird
enough my father built you.”

He touched her hair. “Are you concerned that you and I are
related? You need not be. Although your father built me, I’m not his child as
you are. Creation is different from procreation.”

“Okay, well, that’s a reassurance. All I know is Ilsa is
never getting her hands on your penis. I’m not even sure she knows what a penis
looks like, anyway. I’ll help you.”

“Are you certain?”

Cally sat up and reached for her discarded shirt. Nice to
know even the robots shared her family’s opinion of her.

“I know you don’t think I’m bright enough but I’m the best
you’re going to get in this house. Of course, you could always ask Red or
Green—”

“I was not commenting on your intelligence. I merely asked
because you have spent years distancing yourself from your family’s inventions,
out of choice, and I was surprised you would change your habits for me.”

“It’s not a habit, Blue. I don’t invent things like my
sister or make loads of money like my brother because they’re geniuses and I’m
not. I’m a normal person, with a standard job as a recruitment consultant and
no special talents whatsoever. I didn’t choose to distance myself from my
family. I was born different from them. End of story.”

“You forget I have been observing you and your family for
some years, Cally.”

“So you’ve seen for yourself. I’m the stupid one.” Her shirt
was all tangled up; she tugged uselessly at the sleeves.

“You have talents that the rest of the family do not. Your
sister is not so good as you at experiencing and understanding human emotions.
And your brother is not able to feel joy and live in the moment as you are.
Neither has your gift of empathy or imagination.”

“Those aren’t gifts.”

“They are exactly the qualities I have had to work the
hardest to try to possess. I think you underestimate yourself.”

Cally gave up trying to put on her shirt. “Thank you, Blue.
I don’t believe you for a minute but it’s a nice thing for you to say.”

“I might add that you are more than intelligent enough to
build me a penis.”

She couldn’t help it. She laughed.

“It’s a good thing you’ll be there to help me,” she said.

“Then you will do it?”

“Yup, I will.” Cally launched herself off the bed, naked and
all. “Come on, Blue. Let’s construct you a dick.”

“Can it be a big one?” Blue asked.