Forbidden Worlds - Box Set (37 page)

Chapter 3

“Okay, you’ve got a dozen PBandJ bars and enough bottled water to last you the week. Everything is premeasured, so be sure you don’t drink too much. I’d prefer if you held off on eating until you get back to the lab tomorrow. What time would you like me to pick you up?” Marc hadn’t stopped prattling since the moment Tess had climbed into his SUV. She’d been so focused on the sensations of the wind in her hair and the bumps in the road that she’d barely paid any attention to him until now.

He stood in her small kitchen, having just loaded her android diet packs into her refrigerator. Without his lab coat and the blue crepe booties he normally wore over his shoes, he looked completely different to her. His blond hair was mussed from the wind, and his cheeks were flushed with excitement. The success of this experiment meant he’d eventually head his own division of Gentron, supervising the construction of hundreds of models of android bodies that would afford every person, no matter what height, age, sex or skin color, the ability to transfer their consciousness into a perfect, healthy, temporary home. Surely the thought of the fame and fortune in his future had him as hot under the collar as Tess was.

She eyed him from head to toe, for the first time allowing her gaze to linger on his broad shoulders, his strong thighs and the respectable bulge beneath the zipper of his jeans. In her own body, she only dared fantasize about taking him to her bed, but now, as a tall, stunning redhead, the idea seemed far more realistic to her.

Could she? In the name of research, wouldn’t it make sense to explore all the options available to the android body? Surely patients in the future might want to enjoy intercourse with their mates. Wouldn’t it be an added bonus if it were possible?

“Are you feeling alright?” Marc asked, seemingly oblivious to her leering. One thing Sydney didn’t possess was pheromones. She might look like sin, but she didn’t smell like sex. That might have something to do with Marc’s apparent lack of awareness that she could think of nothing else at the moment but jumping his bones.

“Fine. Everything is perfect.”
Dumb. Dumb. Tell him you have a problem that he needs to take a look at.

Could she entice him into her bedroom? Did Tess Ronson have what it took to seduce a man?

“All right, then. I’ll leave you be. You’ve got your panic button.” He touched the small remote emergency notification pendant Dr. Simon had provided for her. Should the body malfunction she had only to tap it, step on it, or even throw it on the floor to activate an alarm that would bring all the members of the research team running.

“You’re leaving?”
Let him go. You’re not ready for this.

“Yeah. Melissa said you wanted some down time, and the protocol requires you to be self-sufficient. I mean...if you want me to stay...”

She did. She really did, but he was right. She had to get to know her new body before she used it in the wicked ways she envisioned. How would it look if she dragged Marc into her bed, pulled his clothes off and straddled him only to find Sydney not capable of providing or participating in the full sexual experience? He’d think she’d lost her mind completely rather than simply relocated it. 

“No. You’re right. I’m fine. Why don’t you pick me up around eight thirty tomorrow morning? Since it’s Saturday we don’t have to worry about getting back into the lab before anyone sees us.”

“That sounds good. We’ll have breakfast together.” He laughed. “Then we can get started on the reflex tests, and maybe you can take a test drive in the parking lot. Your car will be there. Oh...here.” He pulled his wallet from his back pocket and handed Tess a credit card.

“What’s this for?” She studied the card, one of the new no-limit, low-interest cards that had become popular in the 2020s. The glowing holographic letters protruding from the plastic read SYDNEY SIMON.

“Jared had it made. Since you might have trouble accessing your accounts because you’re not...yourself. If you need anything, you’re authorized to shop with this.”

Tess laughed, but the name on the card gave her an eerie feeling. She wondered if the good doctor had anticipated that she’d need a decent wardrobe for her new body and considered hitting the high-end clothing stores at the twenty-four-hour supermall across town. But how would she get there? Damn. Shopping would have to wait until tomorrow at least. Maybe she could ask Melissa to take her.

“Thanks. This will come in handy.”

“It’s a thumb card, so you don’t have to match a signature.”

“Ah.” Sydney’s fingerprints must have already been encoded in the plastic.

“So, that’s all for now. Sleep well.”

Sleep? Who could sleep?

“Thanks.” Tess walked him to the door, regret slowing her steps. She wanted Marc so badly, but it made sense to wait just a little while to indulge. She had too much to learn about Sydney first.

Sighing, she closed the door behind him. She waited in nervous silence for a full five minutes until she heard his car drive off, then she bolted for her bedroom.

Tess stripped in record time, shedding the dowdy workout clothes Melissa had chosen for Sydney. In the dim light of her bedside lamp, she stood before the full-length mirror on the back of her door and studied the woman she’d become.

God, she was beautiful. Though the real human hair on her scalp wouldn’t grow, it could be washed, styled and even dyed and trimmed. She ran her hands through the luxurious long waves of it, letting it swirl over her bare shoulders and swing against her back. A few big rollers would give it a sensual curl, and she decided she’d wear it long rather than up in a functional ponytail the way she wore her own somewhat colorless brown hair.

Closer inspection revealed her light blue eyes bore green and gold flecks that seemed to make them shimmer. Intimate knowledge of Sydney’s schematics told her these were varying depth photocells that allowed her to process the images she saw in three dimensions so she could maneuver normally through the world. A little smoky shadow would bring out the contrasting colors and make her look exotic and a bit feral.

Sydney’s brows swept gracefully over those gorgeous eyes, a shade darker than her hair. Her lips were plump and pink, as was her tongue which she’d need to lubricate with a few sips of water every few hours to maintain a natural moisture and keep her speech from slurring.

Bright red lipstick would highlight the fact that her mouth was wide and expressive. Her teeth could nip and scrape, and just as an experiment, Tess stuck her finger in her mouth and sucked on it. She could create a nice friction with her tongue and the roof of her mouth with its gently ridged palate. 

Next Tess ran her hands over Sydney’s breasts. The rounded globes held saline implants that gave them warmth and weight. The nipples hardened at her touch, and a reciprocal pulse began in her artificial clit. God! She certainly felt like she could come. What would happen if she tried? Sydney possessed all the right muscles for it, though she lacked a womb. Her taut abdomen held bioprocessing units that could convert the protein bar fuel into energy and circulate liquid crystal memory fluid throughout her system, allowing her to skin to send sensory messages to the CPU in her skull.

None of that was sexy, but the outward effect of all that technology blew her away. She looked like a porn star standing there with her hands on her breasts, mouth slightly open, considering how effectively she could deliver Marc a mind-bending blow job.

She wondered if she could convince him to fuck her in front of a mirror so she could watch Sydney’s reactions.
Her
reactions. She had to remind herself Sydney wasn’t a separate person. Just because she had her own credit card didn’t make her anything more than a robot, one in which Tess, the real, living human being, was only riding.

“I’m not Sydney,” she told the reflection that wasn’t hers. “I’m Tess.”

But wouldn’t it be amazing to be Sydney for a week, rather than just Tess in a borrowed body? Who was Sydney? What was she? She’d told her friends and family Sydney was a coworker, a research scientist at Gentron like herself, but Sydney didn’t look like she belonged in a lab coat. She belonged in an evening gown, draped over a piano and crooning sultry love songs, or emerging from a limousine outside a theater on opening night with a gorgeous actor on her arm.

While Tess spent her evenings in the lab or at home catching up on reading science journals and picking at a low-fat pre-cooked diet dinner entrée, Sydney would be out with a different man every night, dancing, taking long walks on the beach and fucking in the back of a Mercedes Benz.

Sydney had the kind of life Tess couldn’t even bring herself to dream about.

Her heart racing from the image of Sydney stretched out on pale Corinthian leather with her stilettos in the air while a sweat-slicked male model pumped away between her creamy thighs, Tess threw herself on her unmade bed.

Her hands seemed to have minds of their own as they caressed her borrowed body. She squeezed her nipples and considered the reciprocal draw she felt in her belly. Oddly, there were no sensory organs there to tighten or contract, yet her arousal grew. She spread her legs wide and let her fingers roam down through Sydney’s coppery curls to the plump lips of her pussy. Sex would require some lube, she decided after a moment’s exploration. Fortunately she had some on hand.

She rolled over on her stomach and rummaged in her night stand for a tube of mood enhancing lotion and the black acrylic dildo she kept there. The huge, silky penis beckoned, but she wasn’t ready for that yet.

First she squeezed some of the lotion on her fingertips and applied it to Sydney’s clit in deep, circular motions. The skin sensors there flared, causing a burning sensation that was a little more intense than it was on her real body. She bit her lower lip and moaned. “Oh, god. That hurts.” She might need a milder product if she planned to do this again.

The stinging crept higher, causing her to writhe on the bed. Logically she should have gotten up and showered off immediately in case the lotion was actually damaging the polymer skin, but something made her continue. She inserted one finger into Sydney’s vaginal canal, spreading the burn up deep inside the tight channel. She bore down, putting pressure on her intruding finger, and she gasped. Tight as a virgin! And she felt every inch of it. Dr. Simon had created Sydney’s sex to accommodate a man...and Tess wondered which man specifically he’d had in mind. Surely he didn’t envision Sydney Simon as his daughter. She was his possession. And she had plenty of room inside her for a good, solid erection.

The burning from the lotion increased, and Tess began to whimper. She squeezed her finger harder, reveling in the control she had over those inner muscles. The sharp tingling worked its way up into her abdomen, and her belly went taut. She groaned, pulled her finger out and reached for the dildo.

Some dangerous part of her brain took over, and while she lay bucking softly against the rising heat of the lotion deep inside her, she grabbed the tube and slathered more lotion on the fake cock.

In a swift, practiced move, she shoved the dildo inside her, spreading the burning lube up high into Sydney’s now spasming pussy. The heat of it made her moan, and desperate desire made her thrust the cock in and out in a rapid motion until the friction of it had her sobbing into the pillow.

What if she couldn’t come? What if this burning never ended and she found no release?

She thrust harder and faster, amazed that Sydney could take the entire the dildo. Tess had trouble with the whole thing and usually only managed a few half strokes before she came in a blinding rush.

This went on and on. She had one, brief, frenzied thought about calling Marc and begging him to come and take the pain away, but before she could consider stopping, something happened.

Sydney’s body stiffened, and every single one of her muscles tightened to the point of intense pain. Something in the middle of her belly began to throb, great bellowing pulses. Her pussy tightened around the dildo and shuddered as a warm rush pushed its way past the intrusion, dampening her trembling thighs and the bed sheets beneath her. For a second her vision blurred, and she let out a long, slow sigh as a wave of intense pleasure cascaded through her.

Shaking from the aftermath of her first artificial orgasm, Tess let go of the dildo and it slid out of her. Sydney’s body relaxed, and bit by bit, the pulsing subsided along with the burning caused by the arousal lotion.

She’d come, spectacularly.

Gasping, Tess ran her hands down Sydney’s body. Her skin was damp and warm. It exuded the little bit of moisture she’d consumed at the lab and would need more to function properly through the night.

Slowly, she sat up and examined the wet spot on the sheet between her legs. The fluid there was pearly white, and it smelled faintly musky. That, mingled with the aroma of the arousal lotion, had to be the sexiest scent Tess had ever smelled.

She smiled to herself. “Dr. Simon, you naughty, naughty boy.”

Chapter 4

Tess didn’t sleep. At first she told herself her excitement over the success of the experiment kept her awake, but as the night had worn on and she grew weary of finding small projects to keep her hands busy, she realized she was afraid to fall asleep.

Technically she’d been unconscious inside the android body right after the transfer and she’d woken up fine, but something made her fear, irrationally perhaps, that if she closed her eyes and really let go, she might drift away into nothing and be gone.

The process by which her consciousness had been removed from her body was still partially a mystery. It worked in much the same way someone could download information from one computer to another—a transfer of electrical impulses and recorded data. But with computers, the information was only copied. The data stayed imprinted on the original memory device until it was forcefully deleted. Jared Simon had discovered the human brain couldn’t be copied. The information, when moved, left nothing in its place.

If I should die before I wake
... Tess thought of the familiar and somewhat frightening children’s prayer. She’d always been a bit afraid of dying in her sleep, without the chance to say good-bye, with no warning of her impending end, and now that fear had intensified a hundred fold.

Fortunately, Sydney didn’t look like she’d been awake all night. The whites of her eyes were as pristine and clear at seven a.m. as they’d been at ten p.m. the night before. She didn’t have bags or dark circles under her eyes and didn’t lack for energy.

After a warm shower—Simon had advised her to avoid super hot water as it might elevate her core temperature and damage some delicate internal components—she brushed her hair and styled it and found an old pair of shorts and a tank top in the back of her closet.

Sydney looked fantastic in the clothes that hadn’t fit Tess in years. She slipped sandals on her feet and reached for an old bottle of bright red nail polish, intending to paint her toenails before Marc arrived.

A knock on the door interrupted her nefarious scheme, and she tossed the bottle back in the drawer. The good doctor probably would not have approved, and they hadn’t tested the effects of nail lacquer on the body anyway, so it was probably for the best.

“You’re very early—” She stopped short when she realized the tall, shirtless body standing outside her door didn’t belong to Marc Roker. “Tye...agh...I mean, Hi. There. Can I help you?”

Her neighbor, Tye Wilson, was a bronzed god. He stood before her in swim trunks with a beach towel dangling from one large hand.

From his slim waist to his linebacker’s shoulders he was a study in anatomy with every perfect muscle clearly outlined by years of intensive body building. He glistened in the morning sunlight.

Tess thanked God Sydney wasn’t capable of drooling.

“Hi there, yourself.” He extended a hand to her. “I’m Tye. I’m Tess’s neighbor upstairs. She said she was having company this week, and I told her I’d stop by and check if you needed anything. You must be...Cindy.”

“Sydney.”

“Sydney. Sorry.”

She took his hand. The firm grip of his sun-warmed fingers made her artificial knees go weak. “Nice to meet you, Tye. Are you going swimming?”
Duh. Swim trunks, towel. He smells like sunblock, and he swims thirty laps in the pool every single morning.

“Yeah, there’s a pool in the complex. It’s pretty nice. Would you like to see it?”

“Uh...maybe another time. I’m waiting for my ride. I have to go to work.”

“On a Saturday morning? Where do you work, the mall?”

She laughed. What Tye lacked in sparkling intelligence he more than made up for in charm. “I’m from...um...New York. I work at the Gentron division there, and I’m filling in for Tess while she’s away.”

He eyed her legs and the thin strip of skin visible between the tank top and the waistband of her shorts. “Tess never dresses like that to go to work.”

“It’s casual Saturday. Company picnic.” Damn. Why hadn’t she at least put on long pants?

He offered her a heart-stopping smile. “When do you get off?”

“Ahhhh...” Oh. She’d like nothing better. Already her nipples had begun to harden. Maybe this hypersexual response was actually a defect she needed to report to Melissa. Or maybe Dr. Simon had wanted his prototype android body to double as a sex-bot. “Sex.
Six
. I get off at six.”

“I’d love to show you around town. If you’re free.”

Tess giggled.
I’m the most expensive girl you’ll ever date
. Sydney made the
Six Million Dollar Man
look like a dime-store action figure.

“How about I pick you up at seven thirty for dinner and a ride around town?”

“Oh...how about just the ride? I’m on a very strict diet.”

The appreciation in Tye’s amber eyes ratcheted up at her confession. He loved women who worked out and kept in perfect shape, one of the myriad reasons why Tess herself had never entertained more than the passing fantasy of holding his attention longer than it took to say good morning. Pale from spending all her time in the lab, soft around the middle from years of yo-yo dieting and standing only about half Tye’s height, she barely warranted a look in the eye from his godliness.

She owed this one to herself.

“Sounds great. Seven thirty it is.” He waved and jogged down the stairs, the muscles of his back bunching as he reached up to drape the towel over his shoulders.

“Aren’t you in for a treat?” Tess said, but she wasn’t sure if she was addressing Tye or herself.

Marc arrived ten minutes later with dozens of questions about how she’d spent her night and if she’d experienced any problems with the body.

She lied and told him she’d slept well and she felt amazing. She’d save the truth for Melissa and for after her seven days in heaven were up.

* * * *

“Congratulations on acing the reflex tests,” Melissa said, folding her legs under her and perching on the overstuffed couch in her office.

Tess sat across from her in a reclining chair, legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles. She’d kicked off her sandals because they’d begun to irritate the backs of her heels. One drawback of wearing a half-size too small. At least Sydney’s skin wouldn’t blister. “It was easy stuff.” She’d driven her own car around Gentron’s sprawling parking lot, run a few laps in the company gym and performed a number of yoga-like maneuvers designed to test the limits of her artificial muscles.

Marc had been pleased with the results, as had Dr. Simon, whom Tess had made a point of avoiding as much as possible. She wasn’t quite sure how to handle the intimate knowledge she’d gained of Sydney’s sexual abilities, and she was still working out how to confront the project leader about it.

“I just have a few more easy things to tackle, and then the rest of the day is yours.”

“Good. I’d like to go shopping.” Tess pulled the credit card out of her back pocket and showed it to Melissa. “Apparently Sydney has an expense account.”

The psychiatrist’s brows rose slightly. “I guess that makes sense. If you have thumb cards, you can’t use them without your own fingerprint. What do you plan to buy?”

“Just some decent clothes. None of Tess’s—none of
my
stuff fits me.”

“Hmm.” Melissa eyed her short shorts. “The outfits I assembled for Sydney aren’t acceptable?”

Tess cocked a brow. “Baggy sweats and T-shirts on this body?”

“You seem to be enjoying the transition. You like being taller and...”

“You can say it. Better looking. I have a date with my upstairs neighbor this evening. He’s drop-dead gorgeous and has never said more than ‘How was your day?’ to me up until now. He asked Sydney out thirty seconds after meeting her.”

Melissa made some notes. “Are you sure it’s wise to interact with someone you know in that way?”

“Why not? At least I do know him. I could pick up some stranger.”

“The point of the experiment isn’t to attract a date. It’s to perform your regular daily routine.”

“I imagine Sydney’s regular daily routine includes dating gorgeous men.” Annoyed, Tess uncrossed and recrossed her ankles. She liked looking at Sydney’s legs, the shape of her calves, her delicate ankles. It felt good to stretch them and slide them against each other.

“I find it noteworthy that you seem to change your point of view. Before, you referred to Tess’s clothes. Now you talk about Sydney as though she’s a real person, someone separate from you.”

“Sydney
is
separate. She’s this. What you see here. I get to borrow her identity for a week.”

“Sydney has no identity.”

Tess flashed her credit card. “Says who? Dr. Simon gave her an identity. He thinks of her as a real person.”

“We’re not here to talk about Jared. We’re here to talk about you and how you feel today. Is
Tess
all right? Are you starting to lose your identity? I brought up the subject several times with Jared about how we should have designed the body to look more like the test subject. In reality, you would have been given a body with the same general dimensions as your own to help preserve your sense of self. I’m concerned that the differences between you and Sydney are going to pose a real problem for you.”

Tess laughed. “Melissa, I’m wearing a costume for a week. This is no different than dressing up for Halloween. Sure, maybe I’ll take on a new persona for a little while, but that doesn’t mean I’m not still me inside.”

Melissa made more notes. “All right. So you’re sure you’re not experiencing any identity confusion.” She didn’t sound convinced.

Tess wanted to banish any doubt from Melissa’s mind, but she remembered the psychiatrist had said once they were done here she was on her own for the rest of the day. She had a lot to do to get ready for her date with Tye. “No. I suppose it’s just hard to choose the right words. My body, Sydney’s body, my clothes, her clothes. Obviously the outside world will see Sydney as a different person from Tess, so I have to be careful how I say things.”

Melissa nodded. “I understand that. In practical use it won’t be as much of an issue. You’re a special case.”

Tess agreed. She stretched her legs again and rose from the chair. “What other questions have you got for me?”

“Not many. How was breakfast? I’m interested in how your mind reacts to the lack of feelings for hunger and thirst.”

“It was fine. The PBandJ bars aren’t bad. I suggested Marc work on some different flavors though, especially if this ever comes into practical use for children.”

“And how did you sleep last night? I’m also interested in REM sleep and if you can remember your dreams.”

Tess stared out the window of Melissa’s office and toyed with a coppery curl. “Fine. I slept great. I don’t remember having any dreams. I guess I was just exhausted by the time I finally went to bed.”

“Hmm. That might be a concern. If you do experience any dreams, let me know ASAP. If the brain isn’t able to attain a REM state, that could cause problems in the long haul.”

Tess had lots of plans to experience a whole bunch of dreams, but she didn’t plan to be asleep for any of them. She turned back to Melissa, offering her a wide smile. “Sure thing. Can I go shopping now?”

Melissa clicked off her pen and set her clipboard aside. “I’m done for now. I’ll see you back here tomorrow morning.”

Tess waved a hand and slipped out of Melissa’s office. With her credit card and her car keys, she was set for a wild afternoon at the mall, starting with the lingerie shop where she planned to pick up enough sexy underwear to get her through the week.

She’d just reached the elevator when Dr. Simon appeared. He acknowledged her with a curt nod, his blue eyes scanning her from ankles to breasts.

“I suppose Melissa has dismissed you for the day,” he said as he followed her onto the elevator.

“Yes. If you don’t mind, I’m going to exercise the credit card you gave me.”

The doctor smiled. He was handsome enough. At forty, he was the oldest of their top-secret research team, yet one of Gentron’s youngest project leaders. Gold-rimmed glasses and a few streaks of silver at his sideburns made him look a little older than his years, but he kept himself in shape, and he dressed impeccably beneath his lab coat.

“I could join you, if you like.”

“That’s all right. I’m supposed to do things on my own.”

“Hmm. That’s right.”

Tess’s mind whirled. Part of her wanted nothing more than to get away from him. It seemed odd to be standing in the small elevator with the man who’d personally designed the body she inhabited. Another part of her mind wanted desperately to know just exactly what his plans for Sydney were. She decided to indulge that wicked half now, just to see if she could make him squirm.

She stepped a little closer to him and directed her gaze down the front of her tank top. “I have to admit, Jared, you did a fantastic job on the polymer skin. Sydney is absolutely perfect from head to toe.” She ran her hands up her sides and cupped her breasts just for an instant, lifting them to deepen her already ample cleavage. “I’m a little concerned about the sensory settings, though. I feel everything. Every breath of air against my skin, the friction of my clothes. It’s...” She gave a breathy sigh. “A bit distracting.”