"I guess I'll be it then," said Colby.
"Could I be the official girlfriend?" Khushi ventured. Ayana immediately scowled. Khushi elaborated, "It would mean so much to my parents. In exchange, I can offer you pastries that are supposed to increase Zach's sperm production, according to my mother."
"Well, my parents don't care," said Colby. "Does anybody else care?" There was a chorus of no's.
"What about the four who aren't here?" asked Alexis. "Aanya's parents think she's a lost cause. Heh. Pretty funny because sex with Zach has turned her into a wild insatiable bitch in the sack who likes to be choked and slapped around."
"TMI, Alexis," said Colleen.
"Oh whoops," said Alexis, not looking sorry. "Michaela, no. Berte, I don't know. Could you text her Zach?"
"Sure," said Zach. He texted Berte, "Do you mind if Khushi is my official public girlfriend? There can only be one, and apparently her parents care."
Berte texted back after a moment, "No problem. I can tell my parents it's a secret."
"The communists still think Anming is carrying somebody else's child," said Alexis. "So no problem there."
"Okay," said Colleen. "You're the official girlfriend, Khushi." Another scowl from Ayana.
"This has the added benefit that you can announce I'm already pregnant," said Khushi.
"That we could," said Colleen. "I'll let the publicity office know."
Obviously, by the look on her face, this whole thing did not meet with Ayana's approval. But, clearly, she didn't want to mix it up with Khushi in such a public forum. She stewed and squished her face up in a most unflattering way. Everybody ignored her, not wanting to meddle in the couple's affairs.
"Any other business?" Colleen asked. "Okay then, thank you, everybody."
Ayana stalked off spinward. Khushi glided over to Zach with a lusty smile and twinkling eyes. "Zach, have you got those pastries handy? I hope I didn't just lie to my crewmates."
"I have them ready," said Zach. "The fatted calf, that's me."
The women were dispersing, except for Colleen who was still working here. Khushi nearly touched faces with Zach and whispered, "Ayana is a little upset with me at the moment. Can you think of any place I can hide until I go on duty?"
"Colby and Anming fixed up their old quarters as a hideaway for me," said Zach. "We could go there."
Khushi's big smile and flashing eyes caused Zach's scrub pants to bulge slightly. Cautiously, they proceeded spinward, staying out of Ayana's sight. She was probably walking to the quarters she shared with Khushi. His private place was just past Colleen's quarters. They reached their destination quickly. Zach threw open the hatch.
At first it was dark inside. Then some mood music came up. It was a click track, and a nice girl was rapping about being horny, and then a guy started rapping, "I'm going to beat the puss up." Dim lighting came up in the room around then, as Zach and Khushi were standing there listening to this increasingly questionable song. There was a king size bed with a pink comforter against the far wall. There was a bedside table with an array of lubes and sex toys on it. Then the lighted sign came on. It said, "INSEMINATION STATION!" in big letters with an arrow cycling down from it towards the bed. Khushi looked at him, gobsmacked. Zach doubled over with laughter.
"What is the meaning of this?" said Khushi. "Is this some kind of joke?"
"I've never been in here," wheezed Zach. "This was a little joke for me from Anming and Colby. Ugh, where did they find that music."
"Well, I suppose it is sweet that they went to all this trouble to play a prank on you," commented Khushi. She and Zach quickly shut the music off and unplugged the "INSEMINATION STATION!" sign, which was truly garish and hypnotic. Zach wondered how they had built it. But of course, Colby was an engineer, and Anming was the smartest person who'd ever lived. Nice to see they were keeping busy in their spare time.
"Well, my erection's gone," Zach chuckled. Khushi swung the hatch shut after them and smiled at him in a somewhat predatory way in the dim light. She pushed him to the floor and stood on the bed to dance for him. She always had some nice Indian dance music ready to go on her phone. She turned it on and danced very jubilantly for him this time. As she shimmied out of her clothes while dancing for him, her glorious D breasts swung out. Their nipples traced magical zig-zags in the air of the room.
The music stopped. She ended the dance by throwing herself onto the bed with a tinkle of laughter. "Can I nurse?" Zach asked. His mouth was watering.
"You missed your special ones, didn't you?" Khushi said. She put a nipple in his mouth. Zach latched on. They lay comfortably side by side while he continued to suckle. "Soon they'll be full of milk for our baby. I'm sure there will always be some left for you."
"Mmm," said Zach, and closed his eyes. He spent about fifteen minutes on each teat. Khushi stroked his hair and sang Hindi lullabies to him. He was fully relaxed. She undressed him lovingly and undressed the rest of the way herself. She spread massage oil from the bedside table on him. She massaged his back, shoulders, arms, legs, feet, and scalp. She flipped him over and massaged his front, ending up at his penis. She stroked it to a straining hardness and climbed on. She was very responsive on him, orgasming a few strokes into her ride and not hardly stopping for an hour. He liked to think that she missed him in particular. If this was her being thirsty for men in general, though, he felt honored to represent his gender. He loved to feel the excitement and climaxes coursing through her loins as she expertly took her pleasure atop him. She was sweaty with the effort of her continuous excitement. A virtuoso, she teased his final pleasure out of him. As he violently strained and shot up into her, she muttered something that sounded profound in Hindi. She collapsed in a sweaty pile of sated female beside him on the bed. "What did you say?" he asked.
"It's embarrassing how good you make me feel. How much I surrender to you when I feel your stiff cock impale me and touch my soul. I can't live without you, Zach," Khushi said quietly, half sleeping.
"I'll always be here for you whenever you want me and whatever you need from me," Zach said. It was heaven to doze together in each other's arms. His alarm rang for his appointment with Charisse and Alexis at 4 PM. He had just enough time to shower and meet them. He reluctantly left a naked Khushi still dozing peacefully in the big cozy pink bed.
Zach and Charisse were laying nude side by side on the bed. Alexis was sitting nude against the wall. "It's a kind of punishment," Zach said, "to look at your black eyes while we're making love. I can't seem to forgive myself. So I'm going to have Colleen whip me."
"You can't be serious," said Charisse. "What would that accomplish?"
"You could call it an experiment," said Zach. "Colette's trying to settle my nerves about whipping her."
"You whip her?" said Charisse with a look of disgust.
"Not all the time," said Zach. "She's not into pain. It's for when she breaks the rules. The whipping is a tangible way of expunging her guilt or regret, or that's how I understood her. I want to try it. I have to get rid of this ugly feeling in me somehow."
Zach continued, "For the first time in my life, I feel like I need a whipping. The fact of the matter is, I didn't choke you or bang your head on the floor out of love or even passion. I did it out of frustration, and the anger that rose in me from it. I did it out of outrage. Perhaps it started from a passionate place of wanting to demonstrate something. But all I ended up showing you was the worst side of myself. I'm not committed to that. I need to pay for that."
"Well," said Charisse. "You should know I forgive you. A foot rub would help."
Zach sat up and started rubbing her feet. "Colette also said you should get a whipping for your part in the matter. Actually, she mentioned that first."
"I agree," said Alexis. "You say you don't want Zach to get hurt, and yet you tormented him very expertly, going right for his weakest spot that you knew was there. He was vulnerable and you exploited him. You gave yourself those black eyes as surely as if you'd bashed your own head on the floor. And now Zach has lost confidence in his goodness. The crew's confidence in Zach's goodness is shaken. Soon the world's confidence in Zach will be shaken, and the world will not be kind. If you ask me, whipping's too good for you."
"Harsh!" said Charisse. "I know the black eyes were wrong. Yes, they're my fault. And now I'm suffering the actual black eyes, let's not forget. I've already taken responsibility. I'll make this right, you'll see."
"Making this right is the minor thing," said Alexis. "Your manipulation of Zach came from a truly dark place inside you. I fear we haven't seen the last of it. It was some kind of bitterness that you think you could never have a man love you forever and ever. Then, to reinforce your bitter story, you push away and discredit the one man I've ever met that you might be able to build a long happy life with. Or, fear, or something. I mean, you're this close! He already loves you."
"Alexis, the armchair psychologist," said Charisse. "All right, now I feel rotten about myself." She stood up from the bed and grabbed her ankles with both hands. "Do your worst."