Steampunk Desires: An Erotic Romance (The Complete Collection) (19 page)

“Giles!” she called.

“Yes, madam?”

“Take this back to the observation room,” Harriet told him, “and do it quickly. This is very important.”

Giles did as instructed, and she paced the floor, wondering where her test subjects were. She glanced at a clock. Surely they must be here by now.

“Giles!”

“Yes, madam?” Giles grunted as he moved the heavy gauge.

“Have you seen my test subjects?”

Giles grunted again and put the gauge down, dusting himself off out of habit and straightening his bow tie. “Yes, madam; they’re in the observation room.”

“Oh! Giles, why didn’t you tell me?” Harriet asked sharply, tensely.

“I assumed you knew,” Giles said with a dismissive shrug. “They said you sent them.”

“Never mind,” Harriet said impatiently. “Get that in there as quickly as possible.” She raced to the observation room. Inside, Francine and Mary sat on the bed, both looking exhausted and sick. They regarded her with sunken eyes as she entered.

“We have a very important test to perform,” Harriet told them perfunctorily. “I need you two to get off.”

The two exchanged exhausted glances and groaned aloud.

Harriet summoned whatever empathy she could and continued through gritted teeth, “I know it’s hard and you don’t feel good, but I have to have this test data right now. The fate of the ship depends on it.”

The two looked at each other again and seemed somewhat bolstered. “All right,” Francine said wearily.

“Good. Do you have your power collection apparatuses?” Blank stares answered her.

“Ugh, your brass socks, your brass socks!” Harriet said, throwing her head back in frustration. The other two glanced at each other and then shook their heads guiltily.

“Giles!” Harriet shouted. The door opened and Giles trudged through with the gauge.

“Just in time,” Harriet said. “Put that right there,” Harriet said, gesturing next to the bed, “and then run downstairs and fetch the PCAs for these two.”

Giles made a face. “Wouldn’t one from up here be satisfactory, madam?” he asked.

“No, Giles. I need theirs to take out any error in the measurement. Ask Edwin to help you.”

Giles’s expression continued to convey distaste as he made for the door.

“Run!” Harriet barked. Giles took off.

“Now,” Harriet said, “I need you two to do the same thing you did this morning, whatever it was.”

“What do you mean, what we did this morning?” Francine asked.

“However the two of you contributed this morning, do it again,” Harriet said with an impatient sigh. “I need you to be consistent in your activities.” The two nodded, and Harriet tapped her finger on the desk impatiently, watching the seconds tick by on the wall clock. Then she began pacing. Giles returned two minutes later, his collar damp, his hair out of place, his breathing heavy.

“Finally, Giles!” Harriet said, gesturing to her test subjects impatiently. Giles caught his breath and handed the brass socks to the two women and then turned to go.

“Thank you, Giles,” Francine said softly. Giles paused, his face brightening, a hint of a smile appearing at the corners of his lips. He nodded silently and left.

“All right, plug in,” Harriet said obliviously. The two plugged the cords on the ends of their brass socks into ports on the modified gauge. Harriet observed the needle closely: it pointed straight up. Harriet had repositioned the scale to read zero when vertical, positive to the right, and negative to the left.

“Insert,” Harriet prompted, and the two women tiredly slid the brass socks into their vaginas, both too tired to jump when it locked itself in place. The needle drooped slightly below zero.

“Hmm,” Harriet said, scribbling on a piece of parchment. Abruptly noticing that nothing else was happening, she waved her hand impatiently to the two, saying, “All right, get on with it!”

Francine and the other crewman sighed. “Come on, Mary,” Francine said, “let’s get this over with so we can go back to bed.” Mary nodded and moved closer on the bed. The two began to explore each other’s bodies with their hands. As soon as they made contact, the needle drooped further.

“Strange,” Harriet muttered to herself as Francine leaned forward to kiss Mary’s lips. As soon as they met, the needle dropped still further. Harriet’s face screwed itself into a puzzled expression, and she held up her hand. “Wait.”

The two stopped, looking at her expectantly. Their lips parted, but the needle did not budge.

“Very interesting. Continue.”

Mary exchanged glances with Francine and leaned forward to caress her neck with her hand, running her fingertips slowly over the soft skin. The softness of her partner excited Mary, and Francine shuddered lightly under her touch. The needle drooped further still.

“Wait,” Harriet interrupted again. The two stopped, irritated, and looked at her. The needle remained motionless. Harriet made some notes and gestured for them to continue.

Francine laid Mary down on the bed and rested her cheek on Mary’s breasts, stroking her side soothingly. Her lips made for Mary’s nipple and took it gently into her mouth, suckling it sensuously. Mary let out a breath of anticipation, and Francine’s head lowered with Mary’s chest as she exhaled. Her fingers continued to stroke gently across Mary’s skin, moving slowly downward.

Mary reached down and stroked Francine’s hair, appreciative of the feelings she was having. In this aroused state, even being sick didn’t seem so bad. She fondled Francine’s ear, and Francine moaned, Mary’s nipple still in her mouth. The movement of Francine’s hand across Mary’s body became more insistent, moving closer to her groin. The vibrations of Francine’s moan stimulated Mary even further, and her body writhed lightly against the bed.

Harriet watched as the needle continued its leftward journey. Already it was at negative fifty percent and still dropping.

Mary tugged gently on Francine’s ear, and Francine rose to press her lips to Mary’s, but not before flirtatiously running her fingers over Mary’s sex. Mary gasped and pulled her in close, and the two wrapped their legs around each other, their crotches pressed tightly together, each of them basking in the warmth of the person next to her. Still the needle dropped, and Mary rolled over to be on top of Francine. She turned and straddled her, her sex above Francine’s head as she ran her tongue over Francine’s navel.

Francine shuddered, but Mary was only starting. Her tongue lingered at Francine’s bellybutton and then strayed toward her crotch. The smell was inviting, a warm, seductive scent that beckoned to Mary’s tongue, yet Mary paced herself. Her tongue retreated to Francine’s navel again, lingered, and strayed once more. Francine grunted and pressed her legs together in anticipation, but the sickness that had left the two of them feeling terrible had, for a moment, cleared, and Mary wasn’t about to get distracted or to give in to Francine’s growing needs. Again her tongue retreated, and Francine moaned earnestly. At last, Mary let her tongue graze over the folds of Francine’s sex, yet she wouldn’t penetrate. Francine writhed, trying to drive Mary into her, but without success.

‘Two can play at this game’, Francine thought desperately, and she reached up with her tongue to flick across Mary’s clitoris. Mary jerked in surprise and unexpected pleasure as Francine settled back down on the bed. But Mary’s concentration hadn’t faltered, and her tongue retreated back to bathe Francine’s belly with sensuous caresses. Francine wriggled, frustrated, and again reached up to get back at Mary. This time, her tongue flicked up between Mary’s folds, distracting her, and she shuddered, sagging down onto Francine’s body. With Mary’s sex now within easy reach, Francine began to lap over her vagina like a mother cat washing her kittens, with long, gentle but determined strokes.

Mary’s head clouded. What had she been doing? Oh, it didn’t matter. This felt so good! She lowered her face to rest…and her chin landed gently on Francine’s clitoral hood. Francine gasped mid-stroke, just long enough for Mary to remember what she was doing, and she grinned wickedly to herself. Oh, yes. That’s what she’d been doing! With the passion wrought from the attention she’d just received and an almost sadistic enjoyment of making her partners squirm with delight, she pursed her lips and brought them down on top of Francine’s clitoris, kissing, licking, and sucking for all she was worth.

The needle struck the left side of the gauge, lingered just a moment, and then returned to zero. Harriet frowned, watching as Francine’s orgasm wracked her body. Francine groaned into Mary’s sex, and then instinctively reached forward and bit her clitoris. Mary’s body went rigid as her orgasm ripped through her body. Still the needle remained motionless at zero. Harriet got up from where she’d been leaning on the desk and rushed to it, tapping it vigorously. It didn’t budge. A light came on in Harriet’s mind, and she opened a panel at the bottom of the gauge. Inside was a sealed glass jar. A miniature gauge next to it read zero. Harriet backed away from the jar and leaned against the wall, her eyes widening. Oblivious to the two now soaking up the rays of their afterglow, she walked in a daze to the door, opened it, and left, leaving the door ajar.

Harriet’s thoughts came slowly, in fleeting glimpses: an image of the engine room. An image of the captain, steering the ship but without success. An explosion as the ship crashed into the newly built Eiffel Tower. The last image stopped her dead in her tracks, and she gasped, the flames licking at her mind’s eye and paralyzing her. She came to, cleared her head and shuddered, and then took off at a sprint for the stairs, passing an astounded Giles on her way. He’d never seen her move in any manner other than her brisk walk. As he gaped, she flew down the stairs, rounded the corner at the landing, and found herself on the propulsion deck. She stopped. Where was she? Forward or aft? Confound it, they both looked the same! It didn’t matter; she’d figure it out. Wait. There were few women here. This was probably the forward end. She took off, running down a hallway that traversed the entire port side of the ship. She made her way to another hallway that bisected the ship to her left. She turned and raced down it. Halfway down the hallway were two doors, one on the left and one on the right. She turned to the one on the left and threw it open.

Edwin jumped up from his roll top desk, upsetting his papers and sending them flying all over the floor.

“Harriet! What are you doing here?” he asked, surprised and alarmed.

“Ed!” Harriet said as she caught her breath, “it’s worse than I imagined! They drained a backup capacitor before they both reached orgasm! The ship is in danger!”

“Whoa, whoa,” Edwin said, trying to understand everything Harriet was saying. “Slow down, Harriet,” he said, summoning as much self-control as he could muster. “Breathe. They drained a backup capacitor. What does that mean? I’m a sailor, not a scientist.”

Harriet took several breaths and nodded. Edwin wasn’t a dunce, she reminded herself, and he was the one whose help she needed. “A backup capacitor has enough energy to provide control during landing for about ten minutes,” she began.

Edwin frowned. “That doesn’t seem like much,” he said, puzzled.

Harriet shook her head and sighed, trying hard not to become impatient. “Landing takes way more control than normal flying,” she said, pacing her words and bobbing her head in time so as not to rush. “Edwin, ten minutes’ worth of landing is a week’s worth of cruising!”

Edwin’s eyes widened with the sudden realization, and his mouth opened. “A week’s worth?” he asked weakly.

Harriet nodded gravely, and Edwin took several breaths to collect himself. “We’ve got to warn the captain,” he said. She nodded again.

“And Edwin,” she said forebodingly, “If any of your crew are even slightly sick, they will deplete the stores faster than they can replenish them. I’ve never seen the energy drop so fast, and it might have gone even faster if my test setup hadn’t run out of energy!”

Edwin swallowed hard. “Oy, Harriet, you’ve got to stop barging in here and giving me bad news!” he said ruefully, trying to lighten the mood an iota.