Thea said, “The ships are almost built, master. Which leaves us with a problem. One we haven’t discussed yet.”

  I nodded, “I know. I wouldn’t ask you to split yourself three more times. There’s really only one question to answer, how much do we trust our allies?”

  Thea sat up straighter on my lap to search my eyes with her bright green ones.

  “You’re talking about making Rose, Angel, and Serena like me, creation energy matrixes.”

  I nodded, “I don’t see another way. We’ll need one for each of the ships. You’re currently running the ship and so much more. Taking care of us, the country, the experiments, the jail, and so much more. Your copies, if we went that way, would have nothing to do but run the ship, which I imagine would be hell. Plus, you’re my love, and unique, I don’t want there to be more of you.”

  She nodded with a smile, which turned wicked for a moment, “Are you sure, having four of me in your bed could be fun.”

  I laughed, and then gave her a light swat on the ass.

  She blushed, “I love you too, master. I do trust them, but we won’t be the only ones controlling meta-energy at that point. Their teams probably won’t understand it, but the A.I.s will as they absorb all that knowledge and make it their own.”

  I shrugged, “The knowledge would no longer be exclusively under our control, but I think we can trust them with it. We’ll have to add safeguards to their matrix, so they can’t destroy the universe if they lose it, but otherwise they’ll be unfettered and unchanged. I’ve also decided that it was a mistake to hold back on Amber, as the only one we didn’t upgrade to titan. She’s trustworthy, and would make a good second mad scientist titan, don’t you think?”

  She bit her lip, “Are you sure?”

  I laughed, “Am I that much of a control freak? Yes, I’m sure. This is more than just keeping humanity safe from titans and themselves, to spread them out to Mars and other worlds. This is about keeping the human race safe from the Lovians, an alien race that is likely one of the most powerful in the universe. I can’t do it alone, so I need to trust someone. I can’t think of anyone better than those three, can you? Four creation energy ships won’t be enough, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

  She nodded, “I would suggest making their creation construct half the power of mine, so they don’t get too bored. We can compensate for the ship’s power with the secondary reactor far out of phase and full of undefined creation energy.”

  “That sounds fair, I don’t want to drive them nuts. There’s also another benefit, it will quadruple our research speed of the universe in addition to the added knowledge of the Lovians.”

  She tilted her head, “It also has social implications. Angel and Rose are already part of their circles, but Serena is a class three and when she becomes a class four it could change the dynamic.”

  “That’s a good point. All we can do is invite them to join us in defending the Earth against the Lovians. It will ultimately be up to them to decide whether or not to do so. If one or more says no, then we’ll find another way. One that doesn’t involve duplicating you.

  “Another downside is Amber will be even more hunted, as I don’t imagine it will take her a moment to grasp the reality of the universe with the upgrade. But then she’s already wanted and a supervillain. Anything else going on?”

  She nodded, “The titan rollout is almost done. When we make the announcement, the governments will likely demand the borders be closed, and who knows what else. So be ready for that, even though we’ve solved most of those issues already with the move to Mars, there’s bound to be backlash we weren’t expecting.”

  “Am I doing that? Announcing it, I mean.”

  She wasn’t wrong about that, humans weren’t logical, and there was no way to predict all the different possible responses of all the governments to the information. I had no doubt it would add stability to the superhero world, I just hoped it wouldn’t raise tensions between countries again.

  She shook her head, “Rose will do it. They all know her, and they’re afraid of her since she took their nuclear arsenals away from them.”

  I chuckled, “Fair enough. Probably better than a grand announcement from a mad scientist anyway.”

  She giggled, “Yes, master.”

  “Anything else, love?”

  She bit her lip, and she looked at me beggingly.

  Well, hell. What’s a man to do?

  “Knees, love, and make it good for me.”

  She blushed, and then didn’t break her gaze into my eyes as she slid to her knees and licked her lips.

  My life was crazy sometimes.

  Chapter Eight

  The night sky was partly cloudy, but the moon was bright to the east and a few stars were peeking through the cloud cover that night in Hawaii. I’d just walked into Kaya’s apartment building, and I had that tightness in my stomach. That disturbing and wonderfully thrilling anxiety that came with a first date, even as I was fairly confident things would go well.

  My ladies were enough, any one of the three would’ve been, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t be enriched further as a circle. There was a certain excitement there as well.

  I was speechless for a moment as she opened the door. She truly was stunning, literally so in the moment as I’d lost my voice. Her exotic and delicate eastern beauty was almost too much. She had the kind of beauty where it was natural to look for flaws and wonder if it was even real, except I knew her quickening had not changed her that way. She’d already been one of the rare few beauties to define the top end of the scale, if slightly immaturely so when she’d been sixteen.

  Back then her beauty of face had had a certain doll like quality to it, which she’d lost in the last three years as she’d reached nineteen. Now she was just… wow. Her chocolate brown eyes were demure and somehow expressive at the same time, and her long, lustrous, and straight black hair glistened in the light.

  She had fair skin, and an athletic hourglass body at a petite five foot three. A tight and perfectly proportional body for her height, with generous B cups and a tight pear-shaped ass, though much of that was still a mystery to me. Kaya was a conservative dresser, though conservative did not mean dowdy, and she was alluring as hell. Perhaps more so, leaving so much to the imagination. She had on a flowing black skirt with pink blossom flowers, and a loosely conforming pink blouse. Her hair was up and pinned with long needles lending her a bit of sophistication to the look, as well as revealing the fair skinned gentle curves of her neck and petite ears. She had on dangling diamond earrings as well which must’ve been a family heirloom, because I knew she couldn’t afford them. On her feet she had on a pair of black shoes with two-inch heels.

  A part of it was I no longer held onto that clinical edge at all, and being a romantic date that night between us I felt free to enjoy the view she was offering. And what an amazing view it was.

  I covered for my lack of wit by holding out the roses I’d brought, and my tongue was finally released as she smiled demurely and took them.

  “You look lovely tonight, Kaya.”

  “Thanks, Jon. Come in for a moment, while I put these in water? They’re beautiful, thank you.”

  I stepped in. I’d been there before of course, when she got it. It was small, but extremely neat and uncluttered.

  “I hope you like Italian, I made reservations at Veneto’s.”

  It was a romantic Italian restaurant on the water, right there in Honolulu.

  She replied, “That sounds wonderful,” as she put the roses in a vase, and ran a little water into it before putting it on her kitchen table.

  She smiled in a reserved way as she came back my way, and though it was subtle she clearly approved of me taking the liberty of securing her delicate hand in my own.

  “Ready?”

  She said softly, “I’m all yours for the night.”

  There was a suggestion in that, and it wasn’t innuendo or an invitation for physical intimacy. It was her way of telling me I was in her hands, and she wanted me to take the lead on our date and make the decisions on where we went and what we did. She didn’t want to be consulted, just treated like a lady with respect. I could see even deeper than that, and I knew she was hoping to be wooed and swept away, and her emotions had her halfway there already. Of course, on the outside she was all demure reserve and a lady in the classic sense of the word.

  And as usual, I was thinking far too much, but she already had me on my toes.

  We teleported to the restaurant, and despite our reservations there was a five-minute wait according the blonde hostess in a black dress. They were running behind, so I led her over to the bar and we ordered a couple of drinks, iced tea since she was still under twenty-one.

  “So, how are you settling in?”

  She said, “Very well. The college courses and volunteering at the center is like a dream. An effort, but one I’m enjoying the challenge of.”

  “Any hobbies for your off time?”

  Hobbies wasn’t something she had in the past, obviously. Since she’d been stuck in the system for years. Not as an adult, anyway.

  She nodded, “I’ve come to enjoy the beach, and Alina and I have gone sailing a few times which was a lot of fun. But between me and you I think she cheats. The wind always blows in the direction she wants to go. I enjoy gardening as well. How about you, when you’re not busy being a mad scientist.”

  I chuckled at her cheat comment, then when she finished speaking, I replied, “I am passionate about my inventions and research, but I do have hobbies. I like relaxing by the pool and spending time at the beach in my off time. I also enjoy spoiling my mates. I suppose I’ve been so busy my personal hobbies have fallen by the wayside, being so focused on stabilizing the Earth since I quickened. I like outdoor stuff, water sports, rock climbing, skiing, camping, and things like that, but it has been a while.”

  She smiled lightly, “Maybe we can share that, I love the outdoors. I get a little restless if I’m stuck inside longer than a day.”

  I couldn’t imagine the delicately gorgeous lady in front of me roughing it in the sticks in tents and sleeping bags, but I could see her enjoying water sports, skiing, and the like. Her body was tight and athletic, a perfect toned hourglass that looked soft in all the right places, and only those places. She didn’t get that way by being a sedentary person. Supers didn’t really get out of shape at all, but they did have to be active and work out to maintain that kind of peak fitness. Especially those like her and I, who’s powers weren’t grounded in the physical.

  “I’d like that. It’s been a while, but I don’t think I’ve changed that much as far as personal hobby interests.”

  I had turned into a bit of a workaholic and had been too focused on work for a long time. Outside of my focus in the circle the last year. Now that the world had stabilized, and the titan rollout was going to stabilize it more, perhaps I could slow down a bit and stop to smell the roses, as they say. I could certainly afford a vacation, and I could conjure any equipment for outside hobbies I wanted on the spot.

  Our conversation cut off for a moment, as the cute and slightly older blonde hostess collected us and led us to a two-person table. The lighting was dim in the restaurant proper, giving the illusion of privacy as each table had a gentle pool of light of its own from the candles. Each table also had a flower in a thin and small glass vase, and it was covered in white tablecloths and linen napkins wrapped around the silverware.

  I took a risk and ordered a shrimp primavera dish and salad for us both when the waiter arrived, which was very old-fashioned and most women would find presumptuous, even insulting. But I knew I’d made the right decision and hadn’t read her wrong at all, when she looked pleased by it and there wasn’t even a negative reaction below the surface. She was a lady down to her fingertips, but she wanted a man to take charge while treating her right. At least, when it came to the relationship, I imagined if I tried to control her personal life at all she’d react negatively to that. But in that moment her words of her being mine for the night hadn’t been empty or merely flirtatious.

  She longed to be cherished and taken care of, cared for as she deserved to be. To be loved. Not all that different from Alina that way, except the way it was expressed was completely different. Alina wasn’t at all submissive or reserved outside the bedroom. If I’d ordered dinner for Alina, I’d have been in the doghouse.

  She’d truly placed herself in my hands that night, and it was my responsibility to sink or swim and to show her a good time.

  She also seemed to be eating up my attention, and she was enjoying the way I was looking at her with so much interest and bald admiration. She truly was my focus for the evening, to the exclusion of everyone around us. Not a hard bar to meet, when the view and company was so exquisite. It was the first time I was acknowledging my attraction to her in my actions and gazes, and it was ramping up the sexual tension between us by quite a bit.

  In some ways I knew her very well, she’d been my patient. But that had been a long time ago, and she’d flowered and grown over the last year. There was still so much to learn.

  We continued to get to know each other over dinner, and she seemed as eager to learn about me, and was mesmerized my me, as I was by her.

  The date was going extremely well so far, as I paid the bill and we left for a walk on the beach. It was dark and there weren’t a lot of people around as we walked along the shore. The moon was full and bright in the sky, lending a silvery sheen to the rolling waves and still waters further out. It was also warm, and her hand felt like it belonged in mine as we entwined our fingers and squeezed.

  Such a thrill, in merely holding hands with a new love interest. My heartrate was slightly elevated, and I felt alive with this amazing woman by my side. Not more so than my three fiancés, but it was new and different, unique and captivating. It was partly shallow mind chemistry and the stirrings of lust, but it wasn’t just that. We’d known each other for quite a while, and she’d be a close friend of the family.

  The stirrings of love and lust, with a close friend as opposed to a stranger.

  Our conversation fell off, as we just enjoyed the night, company, and our touch. I stopped and turned toward her, and she looked up at me with those exotic dark chocolate eyes, an invitation in them as well as her body language.

  I seized the moment and leaned down for a kiss, stopping just short of her lips to give her the choice. She went up on her toes to close that distance, and her arms went around my neck as I placed mine on her tightly curved waist. Her lips were soft and yielding, as she once again gave me the lead, and she let me determine the depth and passion of our kiss. I started out lightly, almost teasingly, but it wasn’t long until she had her body pressed against mine as our lips devoured each other.

  The nascent and kindling lust that had been growing all night exploded in that moment, as she let out a sigh and moan into my mouth as I deepened the kiss. My hands feasted on her curves, and she let out a little gasp as they found their way onto her tight little pear-shaped ass and squeezed firmly through her skirt. Her body rubbed up against me rather aggressively in approval as I took liberties with her body. Her sweet moan as I teased them back up her sides and brushed the sides of her breasts made my cock twitch and reach its full growth. She was young, nubile, sexy as fuck, and so very beautiful. Shallow things less important than the kind of woman she was inside, but at the moment of our first kiss and as we stroked each other’s bodies it very much made a difference.

  She was irresistible, and the instinctual part of me demanded I take her as mine, make her mine, and claim her for my circle.

  When it broke, she made no move to move back, nor did I release her from my embrace as I looked down into her eyes. The heat between us was palpable, almost physical.

  She said softly, “I had a wonderful time tonight, Jon. Better than I’d hoped or imagined, I had no idea just how much you were attracted to me. Let me return the favor and show you.”

  At first, I didn’t know what she was talking about, then I felt a yearning grow inside me that couldn’t possibly be called simple lust. A deep desire to connect, to be claimed and cherished, a sense of powerful attraction and a need to be hers. It was an overwhelming desire, anchored both in the deep and shallow. It didn’t take me long to figure out she was projecting those sensations and emotions into me, an echo of what she herself was feeling in that moment. The thrill I felt at the large bulge against my stomach was a dead giveaway, and behind that ladylike reserve she was practically panting for it. For me.

  It was her that wanted to be claimed and cherished by me, not my emotions at all, and she was so turned on in that moment I could feel her heated sex, and the flush of pleasure and need it was causing in her body.

  It was completely overwhelming to feel and sense what she was, and it had my mind spinning in a haze of lust. I was so hard it hurt in its confinement.

  My lips found hers again, as I teleported us back to her apartment. Her wild and needy emotions, and the way she kissed me was all the consent I needed, and I broke it just long enough to pull her blouse off. She reached behind her back and unsnapped her bra, even as I tore the shirt over my head as well, since clearly unbuttoning it would take far too long.

  Her breasts and body were even better than I’d imagined. Her generous B cups were torpedoed, and they stood proudly away and slightly up from her body. Her nipples were the size of nickels and already quite strained, and her pink areola the size of a silver dollar. They looked delicious, and my eyes roved further down as she shed her skirt, quickly followed by her panties.

  Her own eyes were locked on the length and generous girth of my cock, and there was a shocked needy hunger in her dark chocolate eyes I’d never seen before but had felt just moments before on the beach. At that moment behind closed doors the lady left the room, and she was finally revealing all of her emotions and desires fully to me. The warm come fuck me look on her face was absolutely devastating, and it made my cock jump wildly.