Something was wrong.
Taylor was sure of it now.
Tessa customarily climaxed around the same time he did, sometimes a little before or a little after. Her body would tighten up and she would gasp and moan and cry out his name. He had assumed that she was climaxing with him.
But that was not the case. At least, Taylor didn't
screan
that she was. He finally figured out that
that
was what had been bothering him for weeks and weeks, the vague sense that something was wrong with Tessa. He had assumed she was climaxing from her physical reactions, but even without actively
screaning
her he subconsciously sensed a problem.
And so this time when they did climax together, Taylor, for once not focusing exclusively on his own pleasure,
screaned
her intensively.
"Oh Michael! Oh Michael... Michael.... Michael!" She cried out, her body going as stiff as a board. But as he
screaned
her he didn't sense the typical bright green glow of a healthy physical response. Her glow was faintly green at best. If he was
screaning
her right, Tessa didn't feel much of anything.
As they lay in bed with their arms and legs intertwined, Taylor asked, "How was that?"
"Incredible," said Tessa.
"Are you sure?" Taylor asked.
Tessa gave him a puzzled look. "Aren't you?"
********
Tessa was torturing him again for information about his past lovers. This time she was fixated on Jennifer Hale, Taylor's first officer on the
Westerner
and the
Devonshire
. The most sensitive events had happened during his journey to the year one billion, and were technically classified, but Tessa once again wore down his resistance. She rode up and down on his penis, using her unique skill to massage him tightly or loosely as she saw fit. Before long she had Taylor groaning with pent up desire.
"Tell me about Jennifer Hale. You had sex with her, didn't you?"
"Yes... no....." Taylor cried.
"How can it be yes and no?" Tessa demanded, her heavy breasts bouncing as she rode up and down him.
"She... she was not herself," said Taylor. "We were prisoners, in the year 500,000. Aliens gave her an isotope which turned her into a squid creature."
"Is that it, Michael? Did you fuck a squid creature?" She gave a malicious grin as her vaginal walls tightened around the head of his penis, making him gasp.
"No! I mean, they could change shape. She was given the isotope and changed into one of them, but then reassumed human form, as Jennifer," Taylor said, panting slightly. "The aliens... they had no idea of feelings, or sensations. They had lost all that. They wanted to be stimulated, to feel things. They forced us to have sex with each other, and with them. Jennifer-"
His voice broke off.
"Yes, Michael? Go on!"
"She demanded I have sex with her, in front of my crew. She demanded I make her feel something. If I failed to perform, if I failed to make her feel something, she would give me the isotope." Taylor swallowed heavily. He remembered the intense pressure had been under, the intense need to perform, under the harsh yellow spotlight of the broken planet of Corta. He remembered being forced to make love to Jennifer, or the creature that Jennifer had become. On the outside she looked exactly like his first officer, but on the inside she was all cold and dark.
"And did you?" Tessa demanded.
"Yes! Yes," said Taylor. "I... I made love to her. Somehow, I gave her some kind of orgasm-"
Suddenly he sensed something in Tessa. No, he
screaned
it. She was becoming excited. Very excited. She was glancing again at that hook the ceiling, the hook in her ceiling which had recently appeared during their lovemaking.
"But if you hadn't, they would have killed you, right? You did it under tremendous fear and stress, right?"
"Yeah," said Taylor. He noticed her insides gripping him more tightly now. "Oh Tessa! Tessa... Tessa... Ooooooh!" He groaned as he released inside of her.
********
After they rested, they had one more round that night. Taylor climaxed again, and so did Tessa. Apparently. As they lay together arm in arm, Taylor said, "Tessa, did you climax with me tonight?"
"Of course, dear. Several times."
"No, you didn't."
Tessa immediately stiffened. "What do you mean?"
"One thing I haven't told you is that the squid creatures in the year 500,000 gave me the isotope."
"They did? You, you're a squid-"
"No," said Taylor, shaking his head. "It was a smaller dose. It had an unintended effect. It gave me the ability to see things within people."
"What... what kind of things?"
"The kind of things which tell me that you're not enjoying sex like I am," said Taylor.
Tessa suddenly backed away from him. "What are you?"
"I'm Michael. Michael Taylor. Who are you?" Taylor asked.
To his astonishment Taylor suddenly realized that Tessa was crying. "You're right. You're right, Michael. I... I can't experience sex like you do."
"Not at all?"
Tessa held up a restraining hand. "Yes, of course I can feel things. I just can't climax."
"Have you seen a-"
"Many of them. They say it's all in here," she said, tapping her head. With her other free hands she wiped away the tears. "Certain things turn me on. I thought, I thought-"
"That's why you wanted me to have sex with Maggie," said Taylor. He saw her nod through the tears. "But that didn't work for you, did it?"
"I enjoyed it, Michael. Really I did. But no, I couldn't climax."
"And that's why your marriage to Michael ended. Why you never found another man."
Tessa nodded, wiping away more tears. "I... I found one thing which works for me."
"One thing? What thing?"
"You... you have to promise not to leave me if I show you."
"What thing, Tessa?"
Tessa, visibly shaking, got up out of bed, still completely nude. She went to a closet and quickly came out with something. It was a metal bar with a chain on the middle of it. The metal bar had cuffs on either end. She went over to the hook in the ceiling and, using a steplift, attached the chain to the hook, suspending the horizontal bar from the ceiling.
"Tessa, what is that for?"
She didn't answer him, but again returned to the closet, her heavy ass cheeks flexing with every step. When she returned, she carried a heavy black whip.
Taylor looked at the bar, and the metal cuffs, and the black whip, and suddenly he shook his head. "No, no." He quickly got up and started getting dressed as rapidly as he could.
"Michael, it's not like that!" she said.
"No? How is it like?" he asked, raising his pants with shaking hands.
"I don't need it, Michael!" she cried. He didn't respond, reaching for his shirt. As he put it on she said, "I don't need it, Michael! We can just do it the way we've always been doing it!"
"But you won't climax that way," said Taylor.
Tessa bit her lip. "That's not important."
"It is to me," said Taylor, slipping on his shoes as he headed to the door.
Tessa, still completely nude, barred his way. "Please, Michael, don't leave me!"
"I... I have to think, Tessa," he said.
"Think?" she asked uncertainly.
"Please," he said quietly. He gently moved her out of the way and left.
********
Sophie came as soon as she was called. She found Taylor rocking in his easy chair in his apartment. She saw immediately something was wrong. She got into his lap and started kissing him. he responded, but it was clear that he was totally distracted.
"What is it?"
"It's Tessa," said Taylor.