The Great Escape Chapter 12, Part 9 of 10

The Great Escape
Chapter 12, Part 9 of 10

"A car. It'll be here in five minutes. Come on."

They left with quiet goodbyes to Danielle, who'd been so absorbed in the problem that she had forgotten to tell Rosa what she had invited her over to discuss.

After seeing their guests safely in the car, Roger went to take a shower and go to bed. A few minutes later, Danielle finished what she was doing. Leaving the house computer to perform mammoth calculations, she needed her fiancé. Brainwork always made her horny.

She looked around and found him in the shower. She opened the door and stepped in.

"Why are you clothed?" he asked.

"I have a fiancé who takes care of me, feeds me, waters me, even cancels a restaurant for me. I'm pretty sure he'll undress me as well."

"Too right! But what about the no-sex rule this month?"

"Screw the rules."

Fumbling with the wet zip and buttons, he decided to pull it down, trapping her arms by her sides, revealing her well-filled black bra. He released her tits from the confining cups. Her breasts stood out proudly with big rose-pink nipples. Tits so suckable he couldn't resist.

The water from the shower cascaded over his back and the shelf of her breasts as he kissed and sucked the beautiful globes. Meanwhile, he put his hand up her dress, pushed aside her knickers, and pushed a long, delicate finger into her snatch, making her buck and whine.

Satisfied with his work getting her moaning and ready, he turned her around and pulled her dress down. She kicked it into the corner of the shower. He turned off the water and put on the steam. She felt the heat flow through her.

Danielle leaned with her forearms against the wall of the shower, arching her back, pushing out her gorgeous, inviting bottom. He stood behind and reached around to massage her tits, stroking and squeezing the nipples. He was gentler than he had been when he sucked them. It added to her arousal, already very strong, giving her a delightful glandular sensation.

She'd had enjoyed nipple orgasms before, when he sensitized her nipples by licking them and then sucked hard, finally squeezing them gently. The same movement, repeated for ages, brought her over the edge.

He was working his magic now. She shut her eyes and leaned her forehead against the misted glass. Her arousal was rising to greet the nipple orgasm when he distracted her by moving one fondling hand down to diddle her clitoris, where she was also already sensitized. She bucked and tried to grind his hand as he rubbed his fingers sideways across the erotic nub, giving her sparks of joy.

Hot steam infiltrated her vulva each time his rubbing digits pulled apart the curtains. She sighed and breathed deeply, arching further and turning her cheek to the shower wall.

She'd forgotten about the ache in her tits. His gentle squeezing had ripened her, and while her mind was in the right place to have a clitoral orgasm, the nipple orgasm stole up on her unbidden. It was like a welcome stranger. She gasped and then called out. The play of joy spread over her breasts and belly. She shook her head.

Then her pussy sparked with its climactic eruption. Her legs shook, and she felt his arms holding her up. She leaned against him as her body melted, joy cascading over her skin.

He pushed her forward against the shower wall again. Her bum was sticking out, and he stuffed his stiff cock into her vacant pussy. His cock rubbed on her special spot with every thrust, and she moaned from the exquisite pleasure. He reached around again and gave another vigorous rub to her clitoris. It was sensitized, and she came again immediately, crying out. She came again a few seconds later and again, each time bucking and shaking with joy.

Roger's arousal was proliferating. He thrust faster, holding her hips, breathing heavily. Danielle pushed back in rhythm, the sweet joy of her mounting orgasm driving her onward. They sped up together, fucking in a frenzied rhythm, goading each other on to the final peak.

Her tits were pressed against the wall. He reached for a nipple and gave it a hard squeeze.

The electric jolt sent a nervous signal straight to her pussy. Danielle wailed. Her chirruping voice extolled her pleasure.

He squeezed the other nipple. She shook her head in mixed pain and pleasure and came again, the jolt shocking another orgasm from her. Still, his cock pressed her sweet spot, and she bucked in response.

She found her voice at last. She stopped moaning to say, "Harder, Darling. Fuck me harder!"

He pulled out and slammed back in. She cried out in pleasure. He did it a few more times.

Then a few more, pushing her shoulders down until she was bending almost double. His thrusts lifted her onto her toes. Another few hard thrusts, and then he couldn't wait any longer.

It was nearly his time.

Roger grabbed her waist and fucked her to the last of his strength, going faster than before, rising swiftly to the final moment. She shut her eyes and let the pleasure wash over her, and then, when she stopped trying for it, the orgasm came, a rippling, swelling, pussy-squeezing convulsion that weakened her knees and hunched her back.

Roger came at the same time, groaning with joy. With tightened muscles and spasms in his hands, he pumped his seed into her and jerked the last few tension-busting thrusts. When he pulled out, her welled-up ejaculation splattered to the floor.

Breathing deeply, winding down from their ecstatic peaks, he caressed her and then turned her around. Face to face, they kissed and held each other tightly.

"I love you, Darling," he said.

"Mutual," she murmured, her head resting on his shoulder.

He turned the shower on again, and when they were clean and dry, they went to their calm, crisp bed for a well-earned rest.

Lying side-by-side, facing each other, outside the blanket but still warm from their lovemaking,

Roger looked at her smile. Her eyes shut, and her cheeks still flushed.

"You're amazing, Darling," he said. "You know what I love most about you?"

"My tits."

"No, and if it were something anatomical, it would be your butt."

That pleased her. She pulled him nearer to share her heat.

"All right then, my mind."

"No, but closer."

"Go on."

"It's your Protean ability to be a science genius one minute and a sex-kitten the next."

"And what I love about you is your command of English. Everything you say is redolent of masterful erudition."

With that pleasant exchange, Roger pulled up the blanket and turned off the light, and they went instantly to sleep.

Danielle woke at 4 a.m., crying, "I've got it!"

"Got what?" Roger asked, rudely shocked from his sleep.

"Oh, sorry, Darling. I didn't mean to wake you."

"Got what?" He repeated, turning on the light. Bleary-eyed, they blinked at each other.

"Just the solution to a problem. Let's go back to sleep."

"Write it down."

"I'll remember it."

"You will if you write it down. Not otherwise."

He was right. She called up a holographic screen and wrote with her finger, projecting black scribbles onto the wall.

Roger went to the bathroom. Danielle had filled half the screen when he returned, the last symbol trailing off in a scrawled line down the page. She was yawning with her eyes shut.

"Is that it all?" he asked.

"It's enough."

"Is it right?"

Danielle had nodded off. He repeated the question.

"What, Darling?"

"Is it right? What, for instance, is this thing?"

She opened one eye to squint up at a symbol he circled in red with a twirl of his finger.

"Eigenvalue," she mumbled sleepily.

It meant nothing to him, and none of the equations did, but he didn't want his fiancée to wake up the following day to look at a pile of gibberish.

"Is this meant to be the letter 'd'?"

Again, she opened her eyes to see.

"Delta second derivative partial diff."

He tried one more.

"Is this a '2 or a 'Z'?"

"Zee? Oh, zed. Zed, of course, complex numb time dimension argument."

Now, she turned on her side and stole his pillow to cuddle. As she drifted asleep, he scrubbed out the letter and wrote it more clearly; then, he saved the projection. Danielle was curled around his pillow, naked and beautiful, content as a kitten. He pulled the blanket up to cover her.

"Mumm, warm and snug," she mumbled, half-conscious, "... love you."

"Love you, too."

He put out the light and snuggled close. In seconds, he was asleep as well.

Danielle's work

Danielle awoke to an empty bed. Roger had gone to the university and left her to sleep. She remembered her insight clearly but checked the whole screen to make sure. She spent fifteen minutes she could hardly spare making corrections before forcing herself to dress and go to the college for her weekly class on a Monday morning.

After class, she went to see the department head to discuss her resignation at the end of the term. Of course, he found it difficult to believe anyone would contemplate leaving Cambridge.

However, he confessed, relieved that Danielle was going to Celetaris, not to a second-rate place like Oxford or Harvard.

Tempting her to stay, he ran through a list of the cutting-edge research that was going on at the university. It was a long list, backed up by an equally long list of first-rate people and local companies working in hyperspace science. Hyperspace science was practically invented in Cambridge, he reminded her. Could she leave all that behind and take a risk at a new settlement?

It was a fair question, and although Danielle had made up her mind and steeled herself to resist his blandishments, she promised she would think it over again and give a final answer at the end of the week.

On her way home, Danielle was excellent. She remembered to buy food, set the oven to cook it, and, with luck, took it out to feed her guests when they arrived promptly at seven o'clock.

She also remembered sending a message to Li Qu Yuan in Hong Kong, giving him details about their work.

Over dinner, Danielle suggested to Rosa that she do her PhD at Celetaris. She wondered if Herman might also be interested. Rosa wanted to know more, but Herman didn't explicitly reject the offer and seemed unimpressed, even though the separation would make collaborating on the hyperspace project hard.

The evening initially paled, but the science community was re-established as soon as dinner was over. Their minds were engaged with the problem, and their personalities were submerged in pursuing an intellectual goal.

They made some progress that night, principally in a proof Herman devised to show that the problem was tractable. They agreed to meet again every night that week.

Meanwhile, Roger and his housemate, Simon, went to the pub for a few beers and a game of darts. Seven years in England had modified Roger's accent. They also changed his palate, introducing him to the rich complexity of English ales—warm, flat, slightly sweet, with infinite tastes—and spoiling thin, gassy kinds of beer for him.

Others of their friends were in the pub, and when Simon spread the news that Roger was engaged, he was treated to so many pints and Scotch whiskies that he had to be carried home and plonked fully clothed on his bed to sleep it off.

The following day, Danielle arrived at work on time. When she logged on at her desk, she saw the first message from her boss, Stephen Oakeshott, who owns Oakshott Industries. It asked her to come to his office as soon as possible.

His office was at the top of the tower, twenty stories above the physics lab. She knocked on his door and went in.

A gentleman of the old school, Stephen Oakshott was ruddy-faced, sandy-haired, phlegmatic, and mild-mannered. His bark was far worse than his bite. This morning, however, he seemed agitated.

"Good morning, Goldrick," he said. "Sit down."

She sat down, calm and composed. She enjoyed her interviews with her boss, who called her 'Goldrick' and treated her the same as the other astrophysicists, all of whom were men. She called him 'Stephen' and considered him a kindly uncle.

"Congratulations on your engagement, Goldrick. Roger's a good lad. I hope he deserves you."

"I almost deserve him," she said.

"Really? Well, that's as maybe. I called you here to ask you to explain this piece of impertinence."

He stood behind his desk, waving a sheet of paper.

"I guess it's a printout of my resignation letter," she said.

"Resignation? It's an insult, an affront ... treachery! I don't accept it. This is what I think of your resignation."

He tore the letter in half and dropped it in the bin.

"Now you're unresigned, Goldrick. Don't think of resigning again, or I'll sack you."

"It was only a hard copy, Stephen."

He sat down and pushed the intercom button on his desk: "Thingy," (he always called his assistants "Thingy.") "Please ask the computer wallahs to delete Goldrick's resignation letter."

"Stephen, I've accepted a post on Celetaris. You can't stop me from going there."

"Don't want to stop you going there, Goldrick. Just not letting you quit the firm."

"How can you do that, Stephen?"

"Going to pay you a retainer."

"A retainer. Why?"

"Wrong question, Goldrick. Ask how much?"

She graced him with one of her indulgent smiles.

"All right, Stephen. How much?"

"Four hundred pounds."

Her smile broadened.

"Galactic."

Her smile froze.

"Per month."

Her jaw dropped open.

"Don't be absurd, Stephen, that's half my current salary. Why would you pay me if I'm not working for you?"

"Stops you working for any of my rivals and makes you beholden to me. You'll come back here when your ridiculous dream of living on a barbarian colony at the galaxy's edge is over."

"I can't accept it, Stephen. I'm not going to any of our rivals. I'm taking an academic position.

I'm going to teach."

"Poppycock, Goldrick! You've got a good brain. Why waste it at a university?"

There was no answer to that, so she tried another tack.

"Why offer me so much anyway?"

"What do I always say?"

"Feed the egg-heads."

"Feed the egg-heads!" he shouted triumphantly, thumping his fist into his palm.

"Feed 'em. Water 'em. Give 'em fresh straw and clean out their stables. Keep the egg-heads happy, and they'll keep us rich. ... Five years you've been one of my best egg-heads, Goldrick, and we've done exceptionally well, especially with the Beltway. Now we're going to be richer and busier than ever!"

The Beltway was a ring of hyperspace pathways connecting a group of wealthy colonies.

Danielle's team contributed significantly to the design, which helped it succeed, raised the company's profile, and attracted investors.

The Beltway's success was one reason Danielle sought the academic post on Celetaris: she felt she'd done all she could with conventional hyperspace pathways and needed a new challenge.

"Stephen, thank you very much for your offer, but I can't accept it."

"Not an offer, Goldrick. Paying you, whether you want it or not."

"It's too generous, Stephen, and I don't want to be bound."

"Aha!" he said, leaping out of his chair again.


To be continued