When Mark awoke the next morning, the aching in his crotch had subsided, but he still felt rather sleepy and worn-out. It didn't help that Naira had cuddled up against his back, and her body heat had added to the already very warm room, making for a rather uneasy sleep.
Slowly and carefully, striving to not wake up Naira, he freed himself from her embrace and got out of bed, the room only illuminated by what little sunlight came in through the shutters. He found his boxers on the floor and put them on, then silently snuck out of the room and towards the bathroom with the shower he already knew.
This time, he was a little more careful and locked the bathroom door behind himself, not eager for another surprise like the one Mona had given him yesterday. He adjusted the water temperature to something nice and refreshing and then enjoyed some quality time under the shower.
When he was eventually done and returned to the bedroom, Naira had woken up, though she was still curled up in the sheets. “Good morning, my bedfellow,” she smiled as Mark entered and beckoned to him. “Come sit with me a little longer.”
Smiling back, Mark walked over to her, stopping by the bowl on the little table to grab two dates. As he sat down, he handed one to Naira and put the other in his own mouth. Quietly chewing down on the sticky, sweet fruit, he looked down at the woman who had worn him out last night, at her beautiful, shapely body whose hourglass form was visible even underneath the bedsheet.
Naira looked back at him, slowly extending one hand and running it over his chest. “Thank you again for last night,” she said. “I really enjoyed your company. It's not easy to find someone to just share the sheets with if you're running a medical practice like me. People can find out who you are, and then you get into all sorts of trouble.”
“Yeah, I suppose that would suck,” Mark agreed. “I already know from Holly that quite a few of you lead relatively regular lives, and only some really focus on increasing your numbers. But I suppose there must be still many of you already, at the rate you're able to give birth.”
“Not as many as you might think,” Naira sighed. “You see, while our daughters grow up quickly in our wombs, that doesn't necessarily mean they grow up healthy. Around three in ten of our family are infertile, for example, and our cancer rates are much higher than those of normal women. Some of us develop tumors or leukemia at a very young age, if we're unlucky.”
Mark raised an eyebrow. “I had no idea. Can you do something about this?”
Looking down, Naira shook her head. “There's not been much research into our peculiar biology,” she said, “and there is much we don't understand. All we know that one of the factors for problems is the father's seed. If one of us has a healthy daughter with one particular man, all of us probably can do the same, and if the seed of someone else leads to problems, chances are these problems will come up no matter who of us has a daughter with him.”
“So that really is why you were so eager to take my sperm,” Mark smiled. “And I thought you were joking earlier.”
“That's also what Stephanie had in mind when she made up the rules about you,” Naira said. “If your daughter with Tanya turned out healthy, you'd probably be a person of interest for many of us. Well, and I suppose you are now.”
Mark's smile turned slightly wry. “That's not exactly what I had in mind about being known for in the world.”
With a grin, Naira poked him in the side. “There are worse things to be famous for,” she giggled. “Well, you'll get used to it in any case. And now...” She stretched her arms above her head and peeled herself out of the bedsheet. “I guess it's time for me to get this day started. The others should arrive soon.”
“Yeah, you mentioned that yesterday.” Mark looked down in thought. “Are you expecting many of your family to come here?”
“Naah,” Naira said. “Just a few of those who live in the area.”
***
Half an hour later, a bus full of women arrived.
Mark couldn't believe his eyes when he saw them approach the mansion from the second-floor window. There were at least sixty of them, maybe more, and all of them seemed to be in their twenties and thirties. Around half of them appeared to be of Caucasian descent, the other half split into all sorts of ethnicities. He saw black women, some of Latin American appearance, Asians, a few darker skin tones that could have been Indian, and even one or two that looked like native Americans to him. Only two of the women seemed to be in the early stages of a pregnancy – one of them black, the other with very fair skin and copper-red hair.
Naira met them downstairs in the parlor, handing them slips with numbers and then guided them into the salon, where someone had already prepared finger food and drinks for them. Taking her first “patient” upstairs, a smallish woman in her thirties with thick, dark-brown hair, they passed by Mark, and he couldn't help noticing the interested look the woman was giving him. She didn't stop to talk, though, and followed Naira into the makeshift practice Mark had helped with the day before.
As he was still looking at the closing door, Tanya appeared on the far side of the corridor. “There you are,” she called to him. “I was just looking for you.”
“You were?” Mark approached her.
“We still haven't finished talking, I think,” Tanya said. “Or at least I was under the impression that you weren't quite done when we were interrupted yesterday. I hope you've had a, uh, good time in Naira's company?”
Mark smiled. “Yeah, she kept me quite busy, I suppose. But yeah, I would appreciate the opportunity to talk to you a little more.”
With a nod, Tanya took his hand and squeezed it lightly. “Then let's find a room,” she said. “From what I've heard, all the bedrooms will be occupied soon, but think the study should be free by now. Come with me.”
She led Mark across the hallway and to a smaller staircase that led up even further. They both ascended the stairs and eventually arrived in yet another corridor, one with a significantly lower ceiling than the ones on the lower floors of the mansion. Tanya opened the first door to the right, and they came into what looked a little like an old-fashioned office, with two desks facing each other in the middle of the room and two chairs on each desk. A window covered most of the opposite wall, letting lots of sunlight in.
Tanya walked over to the right desk, sitting down on one of the chairs and offering Mark the other. As he sat down, she crossed her legs and comfortably leaned back a little. “Alright then,” she said. “Yesterday, I think we were talking about you and me and how you could take part in raising Marcia.”
“That's right,” Mark nodded. “Naira filled me in on the reasons why it's not a good idea if the two of us have any more children together, by the way. The whole thing with the identical twins.”
“Ah?” Tanya's eyes widened in surprise. “I didn't think she would have wanted you to know that. Well, at least this time it's her and not me who spilled our secrets.” She gave an amused chuckle.
Mark smiled for a moment, but then his expression turned a little more serious. “I still want to do my part as a father,” he said. “I believe that children need both parents to grow up well and happy, and I really wished you'd allow me to do Marcia that favor.”
Shaking her head, Tanya sighed softly. “It's really not an option”, she said. “I've considered it, trust me, I've really considered it, and yes, there is a way we could make it happen, but...” Again, she shook her head. “It's too dangerous. Too dangerous for you, for me, and especially for Marcia.”
