THE BIOPUNK REVELATION OMNIBUS

BOOK 1-3

MARCUS SLOSS

TYLER BOWMAN

Copyright © 2023 by Royal Guard Publishing LLC

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. References to real people, establishments, organizations, or locations are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used fictitiously. Any similarity to persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

CONTENTS

The Biopunk Revelation

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

The Biopunk Revelation 2

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

The Biopunk Revelation 3

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Afterword

THE BIOPUNK REVELATION

A SCIENCE FICTION THRILLER

CHAPTER 1

“MARTIN, what in the world are you doing here?!”

When he looked back on everything, Martin Kennedy decided that hearing that screech was the first indicator that his life was about to take a wild, unexpected turn. He’d never meant for any of this to happen.

And he certainly hadn’t meant to barge into his friend Keith’s work office unannounced, thinking that Keith wasn’t even there.

That wasn’t the most troubling thing about entering Keith’s office. The really disturbing thing was seeing two identical women standing in front of Keith.

Could they be . . . no, it couldn’t be.

Martin closed the door quickly and went back to his desk still trying to slow his heart rate. He grabbed a bottle of water and downed it, wondering if he was just seeing things, or if he really witnessed what he thought he had.

At a place like Replica Imagination, anything was possible, even cloning. Their logo explained it all—Imagine a second life. The company specialized in animal cloning, being formed when it was legalized in the year 2021. However in those ten years since legalization, the industry had seen an amazing amount of advancements that made animal cloning not only efficient but relatively inexpensive.

Replica Imagination, or RI for short, specialized in cloning family pets, often once a cherished cat or dog died. RI could clone the deceased animal by using DNA pulled from the animal’s fur. At first, there was a real hurdle for the industry in that the clone DNA wouldn’t contain any of the animal’s memories or intelligence. That was eventually solved with the help of a device that was inserted into the ear canal to do a complete biometric scan of the deceased’s brain. Those brain scanners brought about a clone that was a nearly perfect copy of the original pet, allowing some families to keep their favorite furry friends for decades.

RI had jumped on this business opportunity, and they’d perfected the cloning process into something that could be done within ninety minutes from start to finish. They’d also created a clone replicator that was easy to use and relatively inexpensive to operate, which led to the first branch locations of RI being set up in nearby strip malls. As of today, RI had nine different locations around the local tristate area as well as one headquarters, which just happened to be within walking distance of Martin’s apartment. Families could now head to an RI location and return with a brand new clone on the very day their original pet had died, a marked advancement over previous methods.

Of course, cloning animals was the current legal limit of what was allowed. Human cloning was still banned, and it was a touchy subject for most to discuss the cloning of organs for terminally ill patients. This was one area that Martin thought might change in the coming future, as attitudes about cloning were beginning to relax compared to where they were twenty years earlier.

For the most part, Martin’s mindset on cloning mirrored the country’s at large. He enjoyed the benefits of being able to clone pets and thought cloning organs would be the next exciting breakthrough. He wasn’t entirely sold on human cloning though. What about the morality and ethics of cloning humans? Were clones just as equal as the original?

More importantly, was the clone seen as its own distinct person or was it just a continuation of the original?

It was these kinds of questions that put Martin on the fence about human cloning. While there were many at RI who were fully onboard with all aspects of cloning, including humans, he was content to occupy a middle ground for now and focus on making the company the best it could be.

His job at RI was an important one, being a mid-level analyst for the cloning process. Martin wasn’t the one that actually did the cloning but he studied the aftereffects of the cloning process, making sure to compile any data about the clone and ensure there were no glaring defects.

It was a job that he’d had for nearly a year now but that didn’t mean that he had free access to roam the entire headquarters facility. Security was pretty tight, and there were some areas that he definitely couldn’t go. The main testing lab at RI, where the original cloning replicators were located, was off limits to anyone below VP level with the only exception being the testers of the replicator itself—a glaring security feature that had many questioning what the cloning process entailed exactly.

RI was so strict on security that trying to see the replicator in action was actual grounds for termination, as some curious employees had found out the hard way. And then there were just some employees who happened on things they weren’t supposed to see at all.

Like why two perfectly symmetrical clone women were standing in Keith’s office just now. How could someone like Keith, who was on the forefront of scientific activity at RI, be involved in something so heinous? And did the rest of the leadership of RI know about it too? Was that the reason why they disliked Keith as much as they did?

Martin received his answer ten minutes later when Keith showed up at his desk. The older scientist gestured for Martin to follow him without saying a word, and the two men crossed back over to Keith’s now empty office.

Martin’s mind was spinning and he blurted out the first thing he could think of once the door was shut.

“What the hell was that all about, Keith? What are you involved in?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” said Keith, crossing his arms. “Why did you just come barging into my office?”

It was a side of Keith that Martin had rarely seen before. Keith was one of Martin’s closest friends at RI, and he was always willing to share details about his work, being a true believer in the cloning process. Up until now, those secrets hadn’t contained anything illegal, and Martin was just shocked that Keith had it in him.

“The lights were off,” answered Martin. “I just wanted to put a report on your desk. I didn’t expect to see you in here with . . . those two clones. Two human clones!”

“Keep your voice down,” urged Keith. “This is a need-to-know type of deal, okay?”

“Answer my question, Keith. Are you cloning humans? Are you breaking the law?”

Keith let out a deep sigh. “It’s complicated. Very complicated.”

“It’s not that complicated that a yes or a no won’t suffice!”

“But there’s things I can’t tell you. Things you’re not supposed to see. Damnit, I wish you would have knocked!”

“I wish you would have locked your door! What’s going on? When did all this start?”

“Listen, I can’t talk to you about it right now. Yes, those were clones. Human clones. I need you to trust me on this though. You can’t tell a single person. Not your friends in your department, not even your own mother. If this gets out, well, the consequences could be severe.”

“How does it even work?” asked Martin. “How do you get humans through the replicators?”

“It’s no different than cats or dogs,” explained Keith. “Which is the beauty of all of it. The actual facilities of the replicator are adequate for human cloning and the machine is easy to run for its complexity.”

Martin raised an eyebrow, his curiosity piqued. “Just how easy is it to run? Could anyone do it?”

“Just about, Martin, just about. We simply place the hair specimen into a petri dish and insert it into the replicator. Then you add the brain scanner into the docking station. It’ll ask for an access code written on the back of my badge and once entered, the machine will begin to analyze the DNA. At that point, you point the replicator to the stored brain matter and hit submit. The replicator will begin the process using an infusion of life’s elixir to create the body mold—”

“Wait a second, life’s elixir?” asked Martin. “Is that the stem cell stuff?”

Keith nodded. “Correct, that’s the harvested stem cell material that’s used to create the actual clone. We call it life’s elixir not just out of irony but because it really does create life. Anyway, once the life’s elixir has filled the mold, it only takes ninety minutes of ‘baking’ before a fully functional clone has emerged on the other end. The clone is fully identical to the original but there are a few side effects.”

“I’ve heard all about that,” said Martin, keeping his voice low. “Are you talking about the libido thing?”

“That’s right. You see, one side effect of the entire process is that most of the clones start off with surging hormones. We’re not entirely sure why that happens but they remain elevated in the clone’s life for a period of time. In dogs and cats, this is most pronounced with testosterone and estrogen, which have a slightly higher than normal baseline.”

Martin gave him an odd look. “Which causes all the leg humping I heard about. What does it do to humans?”

“Some very curious side effects. Let’s just leave it at that.”

“This is so fucked, man. So fucked.”

“I’ll tell you about it later. Listen, this program is doing some very good things. It’s not just breaking the law for no reason.”

Martin snorted. “Does it matter? Breaking the law for any reason is going to be a problem sooner or later.”

Keith smiled. “Not when you realize the true possibilities of cloning. That’s all I can say for now. If you really want to know more, come to my office tonight, after hours. Around seven. I’ll tell you what I can. It won’t be the whole thing. It will barely scratch the surface. But you’ve never given me a reason to doubt you.”

“Nor will I,” said Martin. “Seven tonight?”

Keith nodded his head. “Don’t be late.”

CHAPTER 2

MARTIN’S HEAD was in a fog as he walked back to his desk. He had so many questions for Keith, more than he could begin to cover in less than an hour. His curiosity was definitely stoked, and he wanted to figure out the answers that Keith could provide.

Martin was careful not to attract any attention on his way back. The company VPs were sticklers for what they called “time theft” or being at work without actually working. He slipped into his chair without attracting any managerial attention, but that didn’t mean his nearby friends didn’t notice.

“You’re tempting fate right now. You’re lucky Claire didn’t see you.”

Martin looked up to see his two closest friends at RI, Shawn Reeves and Tim Holler. Tim was another analyst in Martin’s department who’d been there for several years. He was friends with most of the men at RI due to his crude sense of humor. Shawn was in accounting, which was just around the corner from the research analysts. The three of them had been pretty thick ever since Martin’s hire.

Martin shrugged. “She didn’t catch me, did she? So it’s no big deal.”

“I’d let her catch me anytime,” said Tim while wiggling his eyebrows. “I think someone as bitchy as Claire has a serious kinky side.”

That made both Martin and Shawn laugh. Claire Pulliam was one of the VPs at RI, and she had a reputation for being an evil bitch. She earned her reputation because she once fired a single mother with three kids who showed up five minutes late twice in one week. Anyone who got on Claire’s bad side often didn’t last very long at RI.

“Only you would find someone like Claire attractive,” said Martin with a roll of the eyes.

“I can sense her inner freak,” said Tim with a grin. “And I think it’s time she met my inner freak.”

“You’re ridiculous,” said Shawn before he turned to look at Martin. “So where were you just now?”

That was a loaded question, and Martin decided that while he wasn’t going to outright lie, he was going to skirt the truth.

“I was just sidetracked by Keith Daughtry. I was talking to him for a little bit.”

The other two groaned.

“That dude again?” asked Tim. “He might be brilliant but he’s pretty weird.”

“He is a little weird,” conceded Martin. “But the guy is smart as hell. And RI would be a lot further behind without his knowledge.”

“Whatever,” said Tim with a dismissive wave. “Did he give you any good gossip or anything?”

Martin shook his head. “Nothing really interesting today.”

Tim smirked. “Bummer, dude. Total bummer.”

Despite feeling like his poker face was transparent, neither Shawn nor Tim seemed to detect that he was lying. It was just better that way. Tim could be a gossip anyway, and if word got out about what Martin just witnessed, there could be some really serious consequences for all three of them.

“Hey, by the way, are you going to come to that lunch party for Annabelle?” asked Shawn with a more serious voice. “It’s set for Friday.”

Martin nodded his head quickly. “I’ll be there. I guess this is really it, isn’t it?”

Both Shawn and Tim were at a temporary loss for words. Martin didn’t blame them. There wasn’t a single person at RI who didn’t sympathize with Annabelle Henry. Annabelle was one of the top researchers at RI and a very enthusiastic supporter of all advancements in cloning. Unfortunately, Annabelle was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer over a year ago and had already undergone chemotherapy treatments. Everyone thought that cancer was in remission until about three months ago when it suddenly reappeared with a vengeance.

Unfortunately, none of the options given to her seemed to be working, and although no one wanted to admit it out loud, Annabelle was dying. The cancer treatments had aged her considerably despite the fact that she was in her late twenties. She had no hair thanks to the chemo and she always appeared frail and weak.

There was a rumor that she would soon be leaving RI. It was said that she’d told a few friends that she needed the rest and she couldn’t uphold the commitment to work but everyone could read between the lines. Annabelle just wanted to spend what time she had left at home resting, and no one blamed her for that.

Ironically, if there hadn’t been a ban on human organ cloning, Annabelle very possibly could have had a new pancreas made to finally defeat the cancer. That realization wasn’t lost on most of the employees of RI.

They spent another minute talking about Annabelle’s party before someone appeared behind Shawn and Tim.

“Is there a reason you gentlemen are talking right now instead of working?”

Shawn and Tim turned quickly and nearly paled when they saw they were face-to-face with Claire Pulliam. Even though she looked anything but amused, Martin couldn’t help but admit that Tim had a point. Claire was beautiful if only in an unattainable sort of way.

Unfortunately, her personality squashed any points that her beauty got her.

“Sorry, Claire, we were just leaving,” said Shawn as he forcibly dragged Tim with him. She turned to watch them leave, appraising them silently before her attention turned back to Martin. She watched him almost a moment too long, making him feel uneasy before she went back to her office. Not a minute after she was gone, Martin’s phone vibrated with a group text from Tim and Shawn.

Tim: God, I’m in love with that evil bitch.

The rest of the day was uneventful. Martin left work shortly before five and headed home to his solitary apartment. He ate dinner by himself, watching a little bit of television.

There was one routine he always performed at this time of day, and today was no different. Just next to him was a framed picture of a lovely brunette with glittering brown eyes.

Her name was Kelsey Jennings, and at one point in time, Martin was almost positive he was going to marry her. She was an incredible fit to his personality and they had so much fun when they were together. After they’d started sleeping together, the passion was off the charts. Kelsey was no pornstar in the bedroom nor could she contort herself into various acrobatic positions, but she made their sex great because of her passion and her enthusiasm.

In short, Kelsey was everything he could have asked for in a woman and more.

That’s why her death two years ago devastated him to his very core.

Martin closed his eyes. He always hated dwelling on the moment he received that awful news. On that terrible day, Kelsey had been on the way home from dinner with her parents. It wasn’t that late in the evening but some drunk had already been hitting the sauce for hours before he decided to get behind the wheel. His car plowed into Kelsey’s when he ran through an intersection. The drunk survived, of course, but Kelsey was killed instantly.

Martin hung his head. That was the moment life lost most of its meaning for him. The past two years since the accident had been missing the exhilaration and the vibrancy that Kelsey brought to his life.

He saw her everywhere. Memories of their time together were always present—from the apartment they shared to their favorite places to eat, Martin couldn’t outrun her memory. It got so bad that he thought about moving cities just to get away from it, but he ultimately shelved that plan.

As bad as it was, Martin cherished her memory. He didn’t want to leave her in the past. If anyone deserved to be remembered, it was Kelsey.

That’s why he kept her picture near to him at all times. Proof that she would always be remembered.

As he ate the rest of his dinner and waited for the time to get closer to seven, he couldn’t help but pay absentminded attention to the news on the TV. Immediately, he was struck by the story of the evening.

“And in more recent news, former heavyweight champion, Jack “Punching Bag” Baggen, was rushed to hospital this morning after reports of pain in his stomach and shallow breathing. The boxer has been battling cancer for two years, and a spokesperson for the family claims that Jack Baggen is now starting the fight of his life. This story is still developing.”

Martin let out a groan at hearing the news. Jack “Punching Bag” Baggen had been one of his childhood idols. He was at one point the greatest heavyweight boxer in the world, often mowing down opponents in the first round with his powerful jabs. One of Martin’s most cherished memories was seeing Jack Baggen’s last fight shortly after he graduated from college. Jack knocked his opponent out in the second round that night, and it had been a fitting end to a long career.

But now, Jack was definitely on the decline. After his retirement, he’d gained a ton of weight and stepped back from the limelight. The cancer diagnosis shocked just about everyone, and it was a new sight for the public to see the former champion hairless and frail as his body was wracked by the cancer treatments.

It was just one more piece of bad news in a life that had been full of it so far.

At least Martin had something to look forward to tonight, even if the waiting frayed his nerves.

Six o’clock arrived and he was pacing around his living room. Why was he this anxious about watching the process? Was it because of what it meant? Would actually seeing the cloning process unfold in front of him answer his questions about cloning or would they only generate new questions?

Six-thirty arrived and he was already putting his shoes on. He hoped that security at RI wouldn’t be an issue, and he wondered if he should put on a hoodie to hide his identity. He resolved to go in the side door where there was a lack of cameras.

Six-fifty arrived and Martin was about to slip out the door for the short walk to RI. That’s when he felt his phone vibrate. He pulled it out and quickly read the message, his mouth falling open in confusion as soon as he did.

Keith: DON’T COME HERE TONIGHT! Talk more in the morning!

Now Martin was just confused. What happened between this morning and now? And why did Keith’s message look so frantic?

Had they been discovered?

CHAPTER 3

MARTIN NEVER HEARD anything else from Keith for the rest of the night. Something was clearly off about Keith’s message, and Martin got the impression that they might have been discovered. For whatever reason, Martin didn’t text his friend back. Even thinking about doing so raised the hair on the back of his neck.

The answer would have to wait until morning. Sleep didn’t come easily that night and after a short breakfast the next morning, he rushed into RI to find an office that was abuzz with gossip.

Martin had barely made it to his cubicle before he heard the news.

“Keith Daughtry has been fired. Can you believe it?”

“No surprise there. The CEO really hated him. I’m surprised he lasted this long.”

“He was one weird guy. He was probably caught trying to build a replicator in his basement.”

“You mean his mom’s basement.”

“You’re such a dick.”

Martin paled as he listened to the gossip, his movement temporarily frozen as he tried to digest the terrible news. Could it really be true?

Did Keith get fired?

That simple question was confirmed by Shawn and Tim when they stopped at his cube five minutes later.

“Martin, did you hear the news?” asked Shawn. “They fired weirdo Keith last night.”

Martin acted like it was the first time he’d heard it. “What? Are you serious? Why? What did he do?”

Both Shawn and Tim shrugged. “No one knows. Leadership hasn’t said a word about it yet but they’re already taking the nameplate off his door.”

Martin gulped heavily. He knew that Keith took an incredible risk by telling him about the human cloning the company had performed. Did someone find out about it? Is that what got Keith fired?

“Dude, why do you look so pale?” asked Tim. “You’re practically sweating.”

“Sorry,” said Martin quickly, shaking his head. “I’m just startled by the news. I mean, Keith might have been a little out there but he was brilliant.”

“I guess brilliance means nothing when you’ve pissed off the CEO enough times,” replied Tim.

“Yeah, but now a talented man has been let go for no reason. Doesn’t that piss you off just a little bit?”

Shawn gave him a confused look. “I’m sure he did something bad to be let go just like that. Besides, is it really so hard to believe that crazy Keith might not have rubbed everyone the right way? The guy was weird, everyone knows that. And we have plenty of brilliant minds at RI to go around.”

Martin opened his mouth to argue but he shut it just as quickly. He realized that the more he stood up for Keith, the more it made him look guilty by association.

If that was the case, wouldn’t they soon be coming after him too?

Try as he might, Martin just couldn’t manage to relax for the rest of the day. He heard every rumor in the book about Keith. There were some that were too fantastical to consider, like the one that he wanted to start his own company modeled off of RI. Some of the rumors hit a little too close to home though, and one sent a chill down Martin’s spine when he heard that Keith was allowing unauthorized visitors into the replicators.

Though none of the rumors ever offered any degree of proof, Martin still couldn’t help but speculate what really happened. To that end, he even tried to respond to Keith’s text from the previous evening but the message bounced as soon as it was sent. Now even more curious, he stepped outside at lunch and tried to call Keith’s line but the number was now completely out of service.

Just what had happened to Keith? And why was Martin the only one that seemed concerned about it?

Throughout the day, Martin paid attention to the VPs as they made their rounds on the floor. It definitely seemed like he was being watched more than usual. Quite a few times, he would turn around to find Claire staring at him. She never said a word once caught but she would quickly turn on her heels and walk toward a different department. She wasn’t the only one to do it either. Martin caught Bryce, the other VP, doing it as well.

By midafternoon, Martin was still fearing for his job. The only reason he didn’t lose all hope was that he was still there. If he’d really been caught alongside Keith, wouldn’t they have fired him already?

Even still, Martin was on edge, and he remained that way for the rest of the week and well into the next. The tap on the shoulder that he was waiting for never came though. After a few days, it even seemed like Bryce and Claire stopped paying so much attention to him, and work gradually seemed to recover a degree of normality.

He never did find out what happened to Keith. The guy seemed to have vanished into thin air, and none of Martin’s attempts to communicate with him went through. It was troubling, no doubt, but it wasn’t a serious indication of something heinous.

Perhaps Keith was too embarrassed about getting fired to want to communicate with his old colleagues? It was shaky grounds for sure, but it wasn’t entirely unreasonable as an excuse.

One week after Keith’s dismissal, Martin figured he’d gotten through undetected. He still had a lot of questions that never received answers but he was at least still employed. Martin was just starting to relax about the whole affair, but that’s when the dreaded tap on the shoulder finally came.

He turned away from his computer to find himself looking into the harsh steel-gray gaze of Bryce Rookwood, VP of Production.

“You’re awfully jumpy today, Martin,” said Bryce as he eyed him suspiciously. “Is something wrong?”

Nearly a thousand answers to that question filled Martin’s brain at that moment. Thankfully, his nerves held and he managed to play it cool.

“Sorry, you just scared me for a moment,” he answered. “I didn’t hear you coming.”

Bryce took the answer at face value. “Are you sure that’s all that’s been bugging you? You haven’t seemed like yourself in the last couple weeks. Do you need to talk about it?”

A tingling feeling ran down the back of Martin’s spine. It was a feeling that told him not to trust Bryce's question, and despite not wanting to lie to his superior, he couldn’t exactly be honest either.

“I think I’ve just been a little more stressed than usual,” lied Martin. “The workload lately has been heavy, and I just want to make sure I’m doing a good job. It can be stressful when so much is on my plate.”

Again, Bryce gave no indication that the answer wasn’t acceptable. “Well, you should relax then, Martin. Your work has been top notch ever since you started here. You’re one of the leaders in your department, even if you don’t realize it yet.”

Martin’s jaw dropped. “Really?”

Bryce nodded. “It’s true. We even talk about you in leadership meetings. In fact, if you keep up the good work, I can very well see a promotion in your future. So don’t let the little things of the day stress you out too bad. You’re doing well in this position. You’re an asset to RI.”

Where did that come from? Such flattery was hardly expected of Bryce Rookwood, who had a reputation of being as much of a hard-ass as Claire. Still, it was something he thought he needed to hear. Living on the edge these last couple weeks had taken a lot out of him, and it put him at ease to know that he was still on the good side of the leadership at RI.

Bryce didn’t stay long but Martin found his mood elevated after he’d left. Now that he didn’t have to fear so much for his job as he did before, his thoughts started to drift back to his initial curiosity about the cloning process.

If RI was already cloning humans, what was the purpose? Why were they doing it and how were they preventing it from getting out? What had Keith’s role been, and how could Martin use what he knew to gain from this situation?

Part of him wanted to chastise himself for even considering that last question. It seemed reckless to put himself in a position where he could so easily lose his job, especially after worrying about it for the past two weeks.

But still, Martin was driven by that innate curiosity that got him in this position in the first place.

Martin looked at the picture of Kelsey on his phone. It was from shortly after they started dating, and they’d taken a buggy ride through the park. She’d looked so gorgeous that day, with her long, dark hair blowing and coupled with her light-blue sundress.

What he wouldn’t give to have her back.

It was that last thought that made him freeze. What if he really could have her back?

What if he could clone her? He already knew it was possible, but could he actually take such a drastic step?

An idea started to form, a bold one. But it scared the shit out of him. Was the reward worth the risk?

And what would RI do to him if they caught him in the act?

CHAPTER 4

MARTIN SPENT A LARGELY restless night tossing and turning in his bed. There was simply too much on his mind to be able to sleep. He kept coming back to the same question.

Could I really clone a new version of Kelsey? And would I be damned for all eternity for doing so?

Martin wasn’t a particularly religious man but he did try to live according to his own code of conduct. Part of that code stipulated an endearing respect for the dead but would cloning Kelsey be such a disrespectful act in itself? It was out of love and respect that he wanted to do it in the first place but would doing so cross a line that could never be uncrossed?

The other part of him questioned whether it would still be the real her that emerged on the other end of the replicator. Would it still be the Kelsey that he loved so dearly or would it be just another empty shell in a vessel that just looked like his ex-girlfriend?

Martin wasn’t sure which fate was worse. Not having Kelsey for the rest of his life or having to live with a clone that looked like her but acted differently. Was that the future he really wanted to risk?

The more he thought about it, the more he talked himself out of it. How was he just going to waltz into the testing area without any credentials, no way to hide himself from security, and make a clone of his dead girlfriend?

The idea was more than just asinine. It was more akin to suicide.

It was a brief flourish of brilliance that was crushed by the reality of the odds.

Besides, he didn’t even have the confidence to pull this off. This was the kind of stuff you saw in action movies, when the hero braved every danger just to get the girl in the end.

But this was real life, and things didn’t actually work that way.

So Martin managed to talk himself out of the idea. Another week passed without incident, where he went to work, came home and ate a silent dinner with the picture of Kelsey and then went to bed. And he resigned himself to the fact that he would never get a second chance with her.

Everything changed one Thursday afternoon on his way home from work. Martin had largely put aside thoughts of cloning as he walked the well-worn but quiet path back to his apartment. He was just passing a deserted alleyway when he felt someone reach out and yank his arm, pulling him into the alley.

Martin crashed into several metal garbage cans and struggled to stay on his feet. His wild eyes centered on the person who’d pulled him in, a man dressed in all black and sporting a nasty-looking knife.

“Cash and credit cards!” demanded the would-be mugger. “Now!”

“Be cool, man,” said Martin, putting his hands up.

“No, you be fuckin’ cool, man!” said the mugger, brandishing his knife. “Open that wallet now!”

Martin’s adrenaline was pumping now. The knife in front of him was wicked, about nine inches long and sharp as hell, and this guy didn’t seem to have any qualms about using it.

Could he defend himself? Sure, he’d taken some classes in karate when he was a teenager, but he’d mostly forgotten what he’d learned except for a few things. And that wasn’t mentioning the fact that most of it went out the window when someone was waving a knife in your face.

Determined not to let this mugger get his way, Martin decided to wing it.

“Let’s go!” yelled the mugger before glancing around. “I don’t have all day!”

Trying to buy time, Martin pulled his wallet out of his pocket. “Okay, just relax. Here, take it.”

He made sure to give the wallet to the mugger’s open hand, the one without the knife. For a brief moment, his hands were full, and he couldn’t see what was inside the wallet without flipping it open.

Once he did just that, the window of opportunity arrived. Remembering where the best places to strike would be, Martin launched into an attack by punching the mugger directly in the groin.

He caught the man unaware, and he staggered backward while groaning in pain, dropping the wallet in the process. Too consumed with pain to wield the knife, the mugger doubled over and clutched his stomach with his free hand.

It set up Martin’s next strike. He centered himself on the mugger and used his knee against the mugger’s face.

This time, the mugger actually shouted in pain and dropped the knife. He fell to the ground, clutching his bloody nose, which was almost certainly broken.

Martin had never felt more badass in his life, especially as he picked up his wallet and tucked it back in his pocket.

“Don’t come back here again,” warned Martin. “Unless you want more of the same.”

The mugger staggered to his feet, still clutching his nose. He fled down the alley, leaving his knife behind.

By the time Martin reached his apartment, his spirits were soaring. It was probably still the adrenaline racing through his body but he felt powerful.

He’d managed to stop his own mugging. He’d defended himself.

And now he couldn’t stop grinning. Not because he took down one measly mugger, but because he was reminded of what he could really do.

Confidence surged back into him. The feelings of melancholy from the past week faded away. Melancholy that was caused by . . . Kelsey.

Kelsey. Why couldn’t he clone her? It wasn’t because he didn’t have the will to see it done, or the confidence to execute the plan. Not after what he’d just done to that mugger.

The only thing he was lacking was a solid plan. He would need a good one, for sure, but it wasn’t impossible. And no one was positioned better to do the cloning than someone already on the inside.

At that moment, Martin took a hard look in the mirror. Could he actually go through with this?

A rakish grin appeared on his lips.

He was going to do it. He was going to make a plan to clone Kelsey.

But would she still be the woman he remembered? Or just a cheap knock-off?

That’s when an idea struck him. Martin had to wait until the next day to pull from his research files. He wanted to know one simple question—whether the cloned pets that RI had created over the years were perfect copies of the originals, down to their very behavior. He wanted to know whether cloning brought back the original soul and not just an imitation version of it.

To do this, Martin pulled the purchase survey results that were sent out after every cloning. It was a way for the family of the deceased pets to rate the clone, with the objective being as close to a one-to-one match with the original as possible. Martin pulled all the results from the last year and began to scour the data.

He was looking for a few certain questions on the survey, namely those that dealt with behavior.

On a scale from one to ten, how close is the cloned pet in behavior to the original animal?

Martin went down the survey results. In just about every survey that he looked at, the numbers were the same.

Nine.

Ten.

Nine.

Nine.

Nine.

Ten.

And so on. The follow-up questions were all remarkably similar but they scored just the same as the original.

It soon became clear to him that his biggest concern about cloning Kelsey was soon removed.

The replication process was so good that it could create a nearly identical copy of the original, right down to their behavior.

Why couldn’t it do so for humans?

With the last ethical barrier breached, it was time to make a plan.

Martin sat back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. His mind made up, a small smile grew on his lips.

I’m really going to do it. I’m going to clone Kelsey.

CHAPTER 5

THE DECISION to clone Kelsey was an easy one from an emotional standpoint. It was just the right thing to do for a woman taken so young and whom he loved so dearly. However, actually carrying out the cloning was another story as there were numerous factors Martin would have to account for to make sure he didn’t get caught.

That evening, Martin sat on his couch with a notepad as he wrote down all those different variables. The first and most important variable was getting the DNA specimen.

Thankfully, Martin still had a number of Kelsey’s old possessions, most of which had been boxed up and stored with her parents after her death. What he still had were small personal items—a few pieces of clothing, some pictures, her makeup bag, and a hairbrush.

Since hair was what was needed, he went to the hairbrush first. Of course, there were still several long brown hairs entwined in the brush, and Martin plucked a few out and stuck them in a bag.

The first variable was now complete.

The second item was going to be the hardest. He needed access to Kelsey’s brain, her original brain. The scanner could still work on deceased tissue up to three years after death before the body became too decomposed to scan.

That meant that to really do this, he had a very unsavory task ahead of him.

Stealing a brain scanner was the easy part. They were sensitive devices that needed to be frequently updated, and they could always be found in the repair shop near the testing area. Martin found one that was ready to return to operations and checked it out himself, without any notice.

The difficult part was the midnight visit to Kelsey’s grave. He knew exactly where she was buried, often taking the opportunity to visit every couple weeks to replace the flowers.

The shovel felt incredibly heavy as he started to dig near her headstone, using the light of the moon as his guide. Once he reached the coffin, it took every bit of courage he had to crack open the lid.

He tried not to focus on how she looked, not when he had a job to do. He performed the scan and said a silent prayer once the scanner indicated the process was complete. He reburied her the best he could but even he had to admit that sleep was hard to come by for the next couple days.

Now that he had the DNA and the brain scan, he just needed access to the testing area. To gain access, he would need two things—a key to get inside and an access code to work the machine. Right now, he had neither. Only the testers had actual codes.

Martin was sure he could most likely find the code buried in the RI database but doing so could be time intensive and it still might not yield a working code.

That was when he remembered something that Keith said several weeks ago.

“Okay, here’s how it works, Martin. We simply place the hair specimen into a petri dish and insert it into the replicator. It’ll ask for an access code written on the back of my badge and once entered, the machine will begin to analyze the DNA.”

Keith’s employee badge! He’d written his access code on the back!

The only question was what happened to the badge when he was fired? Did RI confiscate it or was it still out there somewhere just waiting to be discovered? Martin made a note to check Keith’s old office and hoped that he could find it without too much trouble.

The last variable that he would have to attend to was making sure he could enter the testing area without too much (or any) notice. If he was going to do this, he wanted to be in the testing area at a time when no one else was going to be there. With the testing area staffed during most of the daylight hours, that would mean he’d have to wait until the evening hours to get in.

There was also the issue of security. Cameras covered the main entrance and hallways of the testing area. While they wouldn’t be able to pick out who he was, they would still be able to pick up that someone was in the testing area when they shouldn’t be.

Martin couldn’t exactly turn the cameras off (as that would raise some serious alarms) but it was within his abilities to make sure the camera feeds could be compromised.

That was the first item he attended to at work the next week. Being part of the IT department had its benefits, which meant that Martin had full access to the RI database. The access allowed him to log into the platform that managed the cameras.

What he needed more than anything was the ability to have the cameras not pick up his entry into the facility, and that meant having them show that the hallways were empty of people. In doing so, Martin went back over the feed from the previous evening and found a fifteen minute chunk of time when the hallways were empty. He captured that block of video and set it aside in order to refeed it back to the cameras when he made his attempt.

That way, anyone who viewed the cameras would be watching a prerecorded feed instead of what was actually happening.

Martin also downloaded a blueprint of the testing area. Since he’d never been inside before, it was critical that he knew the layout for when he put the plan in motion.

Satisfied with the result, Martin left his cubicle and made his way to Keith’s old office in one of the outer wings of RI. Of course, he found a dark and empty room, almost entirely cleared out of personal effects.

Martin pursed his lips in disappointment. It looked like whoever cleaned this out after Keith was fired had been particularly thorough. The desk was empty, the file cabinets were bare, and nothing of value remained.

Martin sat down in Keith’s chair out of sheer frustration. He would have to get into the personnel files of one of the testers but that area was much more robust in terms of security (ironically, more robust than the actual security feeds). He was just about to go back to his desk when a small flash of yellow caught his eye.

Under Keith’s desk, in the corner where the cabinet met the back of the desk, there was something small and yellow that stuck out between the crack. Martin looked at it more closely before reaching behind and grabbing the yellow object, which was a small note that had been folded in half.

He nearly gasped when he brought it out from under the desk and saw Keith’s badge fall out of it. Martin grabbed the badge and turned it over, finding the access code written on the back alongside a small metal key. Thanking his luck, he grabbed the yellow note to look at the writing on it.

Use it wisely – E

The hair on the back of Martin’s neck stood up. Had Keith left it behind specifically for him? Did Keith know he was going to come looking for it? If not Martin, then who else?

And wasn’t this Keith’s blessing toward Martin having his own access to the testing area?

There were too many unanswered questions but Martin didn’t want to linger in the office any longer than he had to. He grabbed the badge and stuck it in his pocket before quickly retreating to his own cubicle. Martin didn’t dare pull it out until he was safely back at home, at which point he then traced his fingers over the access code and then the key.

Now that he had all the essential ingredients, he had everything he needed to carry out his plan. The last question was when to do it? When would be a good time to put the plan in motion?

CHAPTER 6

THAT QUESTION ENDED up being one of the more challenging parts, made all the worse by his nerves about actually going through with his plan. Martin waited two more weeks before he saw the right opportunity arise, which happened to be brought to him by Tim of all people.

It was a Thursday afternoon and Tim had stopped by with a request for help on a specific project he was working on.

“I can definitely help you but probably not tomorrow,” said Martin as he pointed to the small mountain of work on his desk. “It’ll probably have to be Monday by the time I’ve cleared through this pile of work.”

“Dude, we don’t work on Monday,” said Tim. “Did you forget we have the holiday off?”

Martin did forget. A quick glimpse at the calendar revealed that Monday was indeed a federal holiday.

“I guess I did forget,” said Martin. “Three-day weekend then?”

“Absolutely,” said an excited Tim. “I heard even the testers are getting out early tomorrow. RI is actually going to be quiet for three whole days. Can you believe it?”

When Tim mentioned the bit about the testers, Martin’s wheels started turning.

“So the testers are going to go home early then?” Martin repeated. “The testing area will be shut down tomorrow evening?”

Tim nodded. “That’s what I heard. Everyone is going home by four.”

That piece of news was very interesting and suddenly Martin found the window he was looking for. He confirmed the news with two other people and found out that Tim wasn’t exaggerating. The testing area really was being closed at four o’clock.

It was the perfect time to put his plan in motion. He would have the entire evening to himself.

With his decision made, Martin went back to work but quickly found the nerves taking over.

On Friday, he was a nervous wreck. He jumped every time someone stopped by his office, almost as if his plan was the biggest open secret at RI. At one point, he stepped outside during the lunch hour just to calm himself down.

You need to relax. No one knows what you’re up to. If you keep being so fidgety and jumpy, they are going to know something’s up!

The pep talk did a little to calm his nerves but he wasn’t truly happy until he went home for the day. Like the testers, the rest of the personnel were dismissed at four o’clock, and just about everyone at RI went home with dreams about their long three-day weekend.

Not Martin though. He went home and prepared to put the first step of his plan into fruition. He waited until it was close to dark and then grabbed a small bag of clothes to bring with him. Inside the bag were some street clothes that Kelsey could change into once the process was complete. He could guess that the clones would come out completely nude, and there was no way he’d be able to bring her home otherwise.

His footsteps were heavy as he walked the short distance to RI, careful to stay out of shot of the outer cameras. He entered through the backdoor and ducked into the changing room, finding the building eerily empty.

It was at this point that he pulled out his company phone and logged into RI’s database, switching the live camera feed for the prerecorded version. Satisfied with the result, he changed into a hazmat suit and decided to test his system.

He pulled up the main camera feed outside the testing area and walked down the hall. If his plan worked, the camera feed should show an empty hallway. Sure enough, Martin watched the replay that showed no sign of his arrival.

Success!

With security taken care of, he proceeded into the testing area using the key that Keith had left behind for him. The area was eerily quiet at this time of evening, with most of the lights turned down low. Several of the computers were just barely running, with many of them on standby.

Being all alone in the testing area felt unpleasant in most respects. He had the creeping feeling that he wasn’t supposed to be there, which in actuality was entirely correct. It did little for his nerves though, and Martin wanted to get moving right away to begin his task.

Martin didn’t linger in the main hallway. He turned left and found the door to Replicator 1, the first of many such units in the testing area.

He stopped outside the door, listening for sounds of activity on the other side of the door. When he heard none, he opened the door and stepped inside.

He was immediately struck by the noise. The replicator wasn’t in action but it was seriously loud for one on standby. It was almost loud enough to require earplugs, and Martin was amazed at how much the door had dampened the sound from the outside.

Martin couldn’t help but gawk at seeing one of the replicators in front of him for the first time. It was just so . . . big. Replicator 1 was the size of a supercomputer, being nearly thirty feet wide and about seven feet tall. There wasn’t much in the way of knobs or displays in front of him, but instead, he was greeted to the sight of rows and rows of servers and cooling equipment, which he supposed were creating most of the noise.

At the very end of the computer was a simple work terminal with a massive display screen.

Martin marveled at what he was seeing. The replicator had such a sleek data entry process, one that was self-intuitive even for a first-time user. He saw where the hair specimen was to be inserted, as well as the docking station for the brain scanner.

Setting the bag of clothing on the floor, Martin woke the computer to get started and within a matter of seconds, it was online and ready to work.

Martin could feel his heart pounding in his chest. With shaky fingers, he found a list of different species within the computer, and he picked the one listed for humans. Once he found the listing, a pop-up appeared on the screen asking for the DNA specimen.

With a quick look around, Martin found a petri dish that was sitting on the table next to the supercomputer. He withdrew the strand of Kelsey’s hair and placed it within the dish. With a heavy sigh, Martin inserted the dish into the computer.

“Here goes nothing,” he mumbled.

Instantly, the supercomputer went to work analyzing Kelsey’s DNA and creating a digital blueprint for her entire existence. Martin watched in awe as every facet of who she had been was replicated within the machine, building a perfect copy within the replicator.

Within about three minutes, the process was complete.

The next part asked for him to dock the brain scanner. Martin pulled it out of the bag and set it in the docking station, which the computer recognized without having to hit a single button. At this point, the computer became even louder as it struggled to download thousands of gigabytes worth of information—all the material that made up Kelsey’s life, loves, thoughts, and emotions.

After ten minutes of activity, phase two was complete. The option to replicate now flashed on the screen.

Martin hesitated before pushing the last button. He remembered the gene editing option that he saw before and clicked on that instead.

The DNA profile for Kelsey expanded. He saw options to edit her genome, her physical attributes, and even aspects of her personality. With the push of a button, he could make her happier than she was before or make her boobs two sizes larger or even make it so that she never suffered from a particular illness.

The sheer number of options were overwhelming, and Martin instantly backtracked to the main page. Despite the somewhat adolescent desire to increase the size of her chest, Kelsey was nearly perfect the way she was. He had no desire to change her. He just wanted the original Kelsey back.

The replicate button stared back at him again. With one last deep breath, Martin finally pushed it.

“No going back now,” he muttered.

CHAPTER 7

THE REPLICATOR FIRED to life at that moment. The supercomputer became incredibly noisy as the screen flashed that stage one had now begun. Not surprisingly, stage one was called Blueprint.

Martin moved past the workstation until he came to the growth chamber, where even at this stage, he could see the mold inside shaping into something that looked incredibly human. The heat inside was rising, and he could already feel the effects of it outside the chamber. The computer made a noise as it signaled the start of stage two—Genesis.

At that point, the life’s elixir started to fill the mold inside the growth chamber. Martin watched as a syrupy liquid soon filled out the outer extremities of the mold, the places that would make up Kelsey’s hands and feet. It was continuously injected into the mold until it was entirely full. By now, Martin could get a general idea of the size that the clone Kelsey would be, and it seemed like an exact match of how she used to be (which wasn’t too surprising).

Unfortunately for Martin, all the action of the last few minutes slowed down as the replicator moved into stage three—Growth.

There was very little for him to see. The lights in the growth chamber turned down low, and although he could vaguely see Kelsey’s body inside, he couldn’t determine what was happening.

Ten minutes of virtually no activity later, Martin grabbed the chair next to the workstation and plopped down in it. The growth stage lasted approximately thirty-five minutes before the replicator moved onto stage four—Refinement.

This stage was nearly as long as the previous one. Martin found himself tapping his foot on the floor as anxiety flooded his body. It was the longest ninety minutes of his life but finally the replicator moved to stage five—Awareness.

At this point, the noisy supercomputer finally died down. A quick glance at the workstation had flashing words popping up on the screen—Replication Complete.

A small door outside the growing chamber opened, letting out some of the heat that had built up inside. A new sign flashed on the workstation, this one calling for an inspection of the new clone.

Martin gulped heavily as he made his way inside the growth chamber. The air inside was incredibly humid—like a summer day in the tropics. Yet it was the sight inside the mold that caused his heart to seize in his chest.

There she was. It had been over two years since he’d last seen her, but she was there in front of him just the way he remembered. Kelsey’s brown hair shimmered in the soft light of the growth chamber, even if it was shorter than he remembered, being only six inches long at most. Her face was just the way it appeared in his dreams, with her feminine features and soft pouty lips.

Of course, he couldn’t help but spare a glance or two below the neck. Kelsey’s breasts were simple incredible—perky and soft. She had a narrow waist that soon tampered into wide hips, soon followed by long, slender legs. Like the hair on her head, her pubic hair was nothing but stubble and it provided no coverage at all for her nether region.

He couldn’t hold back his excitement. It was Kelsey! She was alive!

And she was now looking back at him and blinking in confusion.

“Where . . . who . . . are you?” she asked, her voice raspy.

Martin took off the headgear of the suit and looked upon her with his own eyes. He wondered if the clone would have any memory of who he was. Would she still remember him or would this be a blank slate?

To his sheer joy, she mouthed a single word when she met his eyes. “Martin.”

He reached over and grabbed her hand. “It’s me. And it’s really you!”

Kelsey smiled for a moment but the smile dropped when she looked around. “Where . . . are we? What’s going on, Martin?”

It was a very valid question. It was also one without an easy answer. For right now, Martin just wanted to get her to safe ground, and that involved getting her back to his apartment. He shook his head gently.

“There’s so much to tell you. So very much but now is not the right time,” he replied. “We need to go home.”

Kelsey’s brow furrowed into confusion. “Martin, this is scaring me. Where are we? Seriously, tell me?”

He shook his head again. “Kelsey, do you trust me? Can you trust me totally right now?”

Her eyes fixed on his. Several seconds passed before she nodded her head. “I trust you, Martin.”

“I can explain all of this, I promise,” he said before remembering the bag of clothing outside. “Just wait here for a moment.”

He dashed outside the growth chamber and grabbed the bag. Inside was the spare hazmat suit he grabbed as well as some street clothes for once they left the premises. By the time he’d returned, Kelsey was sitting up on the mold. She was cold by the looks of it, with all the heat having left the growth chamber. Her nipples were incredibly hard as a consequence, something he had to force himself to not stare at.

Martin pulled the hazmat suit out of the bag and placed it next to her. “Can you put this on please?”

She took one look at the suit and then looked back at him with an incredulous expression. Again, he had to remind her that she trusted him, and that seemed to get her to start getting dressed. He helped her as much as possible, truly regretting seeing her fantastic body covered up by the sterile suit. Right before he placed the headgear on, she looked at him with frightened eyes.

“Martin, what have you gotten us into?” she whispered.

The words just slipped out. “I don’t know,” he said before wishing he could reel it back in. He placed the headgear and grabbed her hand. Together, they made a beeline for the exit. Getting to the locker room and helping Kelsey put on normal clothes seemed to help her anxiety a little bit but it wasn’t until they were dashing out of the building that Kelsey said something else.

“Replica Imagination?” she questioned. “What in the world does that mean?”

Martin flinched and tugged on her hand harder. “Come on, let’s get back to my place first.”

As they arrived at Martin’s apartment, he finally allowed himself the chance to relax. He’d really done it—he’d cloned Kelsey! It was an incredible risk but seeing her here in front of him was the most amazing feeling.

At this very moment, she was looking around the apartment. She knew her way around already, seeing as it was the same apartment they shared when they were together. After she died, he couldn’t bear the thought of leaving and so he never moved out.

Finally, Kelsey sat down in a chair outside the kitchen as she clutched her head. Oddly enough, Martin could tell that her hair had grown longer since she emerged from the growth chamber. What had been only about six inches long only twenty minutes ago was now down to her neck. He wondered if it was a side effect of the cloning process.

Unfortunately, he didn’t get the chance to ask her. No sooner had she sat down in the chair did she go flying forward, falling to the ground.

“Kelsey!” he yelled, rushing to her body.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “I’m just so sleepy. Can I sleep? I just got so . . . tired all of a sudden.” She punctured the statement with a yawn.

She did look extremely tired. Martin suspected it was another side effect of the process. He helped her to her feet and took her to his bedroom (what used to be their bedroom).

Martin pulled down the blankets and helped her get inside. Her eyes were closed by the time she hit the pillow.

“Poor thing,” he muttered as he watched her nestle against her pillow.

Before he could leave her to rest, she called out for him.

“Martin, promise me you’ll tell me what’s going on when I wake up.”

He turned around to find her staring at him. She had a serious look on her face, one that he always enjoyed seeing. She always looked extra cute when she tried too hard to be serious.

“I promise,” said Martin as he turned off the light.

He swore she was asleep by the time he closed the door.

CHAPTER 8

KELSEY SLEPT for the entire night. It was close to nine-thirty when they got back from RI, and she was still sleeping soundly when he checked on her at seven the next morning. She looked so peaceful as she slept, like she didn’t have a care in the world.

On his side though, Martin was slightly troubled. Unlike Kelsey, he wasn’t able to sleep much. On one hand, he was anxious about being found out by RI. Not only had he trespassed on company property but what he’d done was completely illegal. Losing his job at RI could be the least of his troubles.

The other part of him worried about Kelsey. He promised her that he’d tell her everything when she woke up. How far did he want to go when it came to explaining the situation? From what he’d gathered in a limited amount of time, Kelsey seemed to not understand she was a clone. Her thoughts and memories seemed frozen in time, back to when they were together.

Ultimately, he decided that he couldn’t lie to her. Kelsey deserved the truth, and if that freaked her out, then he would deal with the consequences. All that Martin hoped was that she understood the reason why he did it.

It was entirely out of love—love for her. That couldn’t possibly be a dealbreaker, right?

Shortly after eight o’clock, he heard the first sounds of stirrings inside the bedroom. Martin entered the room quietly to find that Kelsey wasn’t quite awake yet but would be soon.

While he waited, his eyes caught sight of her hand which was outstretched from her body. There was something unusual about it, something that he couldn’t quite place right away. Martin studied it for a moment until he realized what was different.

There was a small mole between her last two knuckles that hadn’t been there before. He inspected her hand a little more closely and found that it only looked like a mole. Close up, it appeared to be more of a black smudge. He tried to rub it off but nothing he did could remove it. It was something else that he eventually filed away as another part of the cloning process.

By the time he’d released her hand, Martin realized that she was staring at him.

Much to his relief, her lips parted into a sleepy smile. “Good morning,” she said softly.

He couldn’t help but smile back at her. “It’s the best morning I’ve had in two years.”

Kelsey sat up in bed and stretched her arms above her head. While doing so, her tank top began to ride up, attracting his eyes. Once again, her nipples were fully hard.

“I think I just had the craziest dream last night,” said Kylie, letting out a yawn. “We were . . . well, you don’t even want to know. I felt like you had to rescue me from some weird factory or something. Once we were out, we had to run all the way back here.”

Martin flinched. It was now or never.

Kelsey deserved the truth.

He began to shake his head. “That wasn’t a dream, Kelsey.”

Confusion reigned on her face. Her mouth opened several times but no words came out. Finally, she spoke.

“Martin, what’s going on? Was that real? The place we were at? That wasn’t a dream?”

He shook his head. “It was very much real, and I owe you an explanation. It’s one that’s not going to be easy to explain, and it’s going to take me a while to tell you the whole thing.”

Kelsey fidgeted on the bed before running her fingers through her dark hair. Martin noticed that her hair seemed to have grown longer throughout the night. It was now the length that he always remembered it to be.

“Well,” she said finally. “Can you start from the beginning?”

Martin took a deep breath before he decided it was time for total honesty. “The truth of the matter is that I cloned you, Kelsey. You’re a clone.”

She blinked several times before replying. “I’m a what now?”

Martin launched into the entire story. He started from the beginning, telling her about her accidental death two years ago. This was the hardest portion for her to take, and at one point, she started crying as he told the story.

He then told her about his time at RI—about the company’s purpose, about meeting Keith, and about finding out about the replicators and human cloning. He spared little details, wanting her to fully understand the circumstances they were in.

By the time he was finished, Kelsey looked like someone who’d just been picked off the front lines.

“So if I’m to get the gist of all of this right,” said Kelsey finally as she held her head with her hand. “You cloned me because I died prematurely, and the only way you were able to do this was because you went to work for a cloning company this last year?”

“And because I found out how the company’s replicators work,” added Martin, almost as an afterthought.

Kelsey blinked. “Martin—you’re fucking with me.”

“I wish I was but it’s the truth.”

Kelsey shook her head. “You have to be, Martin! This isn’t right. I remember getting home from work yesterday. I remember what I had for dinner, which was pasta. And then I went to bed and had a crazy ass dream and now here we are.”

“No, that’s not right. You’ve been dead for two years, Kelsey. I can prove it to you.”

“Martin, I’m telling you, I remember everything that we did yesterday!”

“You’re remembering what happened from the time I pulled your brain scan,” said Martin as he rose from the bed. “Hold on.”

He dashed to the bathroom and grabbed the scanner. When he returned, he handed it to her. “This is a brain scanner. I’m not sure exactly how this works, but I was able to do a complete scan of your brain, memories and all, from the moment you died. Those memories are two years old, Kelsey. How else can I show you that all this time has passed?”

Martin thought for a moment before he grabbed his phone. He then looked at Kelsey. “What year is it?”

She answered instantly. “2029.”

Martin shook his head. “That’s the year you died. It’s actually 2031. Look here.”

Kelsey gaped as she looked at the date. She then began to scroll frantically through his phone. “This can’t be a prank. You wouldn’t prank me like this, would you, Martin? Everything is listed as 2031!”

“Go to every news site and you’ll see it’s 2031,” he replied softly. “Or wait a second, let me show you something else.”

He grabbed the phone from her and pulled up the site of the funeral home that did her burial. Kelsey started crying as he showed her the official obituary.

“It’s true then?” she asked as tears came rushing down her cheeks. “I really died?”

Martin couldn’t help but feel emotional too. He swallowed the lump in his throat as his eyes became watery. “It’s been the worst time of my life—these last two years without you. I’ve struggled every single day since you died. If I could have given one thing, one wish, it would have been to bring you back.”

Martin reached out to grab her hands. “I was given that wish. I believe that I was shown how to clone for a reason. It was to bring you back. I don’t know if it was the ethical thing to do but I feel in my heart it was the right decision. You deserve life, Kelsey. It was in my power to give it back to you so I did.”

He thought his words might help but if anything it made it worse. Kelsey started to hyperventilate.

“Breathe, Kelsey, breathe. I promise it’s going to be okay!”

She shook her head from side to side. “No, it’s not going to be okay! I’m a fucking clone, Martin! I died and now I’ve been brought back as a clone!”

CHAPTER 9

SHE DIDN’T GIVE him the chance to respond. She ran out of the room and made a beeline for the outdoor balcony. When she reached it, she threw open the door and then closed it with a loud bang behind her.

Martin sighed in disappointment. He felt a million different emotions—frustration and anger, mostly at himself for being so stupid. Should he have just let the issue go? Should he have learned to live with her death?

He could understand her fears. Kelsey was legally dead. How would she ever live a normal life again? She couldn’t work a job, at least a traditional job. She couldn’t get married to him officially. She couldn’t go to the hospital if she was ill. She couldn’t even go visit her parents.

Those were all things that legally dead people couldn’t do.

Needless to say, Martin gave her some space. And she took her time on the balcony, spending about three hours out there in total. At various points, he noticed that she was crying while at others, she seemed to be thinking. He wondered what she was thinking about. He questioned whether she would still love him after this or whether she would want nothing to do with him.

Had he crossed an unforgivable line? Had he truly made a mistake in cloning her?

Martin was so deep in thought about his potential wrongdoing that he didn’t hear the glass door to the balcony slide open again. He heard his name being called and finally looked up, seeing Kelsey looking back at him. She looked a little more calm than she had earlier but there was still some apprehension on her face.

He bolted to his feet and approached her cautiously. “Kelsey, I’m so sorry. I know I just sprung this on you and everything. If you never want to see me again, I understand but—”

She held up her hand, cutting him off. “Martin, wait. I just need to know one thing. One question, okay?”

Martin nodded, and then waited for her to continue.

Kelsey bit her lip and looked down at the floor. “If what you’re saying is true, and I’m a . . . I’m a clone now, then everything’s changed for me. Everything, Martin. Everyone I know thinks I’m dead. And they’re not wrong. I am dead. I can’t ever go back home. Everyone I know except you would never be able to accept it. That means that I need to rely on you more than ever.”

Kelsey took a deep breath. “I never asked for this, Martin. It’s going to be incredibly hard.”

“I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I shouldn’t have done it. I should’ve let it stay in the past.”

Kelsey shook her head quickly. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for. I understand why you did it, but I need to make sure that I can trust you fully, Martin. More so than I ever thought possible. Can I trust you one hundred percent?”

He nodded. “You can always trust me, Kelsey. I love you. I cloned you because I loved you and I needed to have you back. As selfish as it may sound, I did this for us.”

Kelsey managed a small smile. “I really believe that. And I do trust you. I’m going to need a lot of help adjusting to this world. I can’t believe it’s really 2031.”

“You haven’t missed much,” said Martin with a chuckle. “It’s been an incredibly dull two years.”

“Easy for you to say,” she shot back. “You actually witnessed it all. I went to sleep in 2029 and woke up in 2031. It’s still a bit off-putting no matter which way you cut it.”

“I’ll help you through this the best way I can,” Martin promised. “I’ll help you adjust. I know it won’t be easy but I didn’t make this decision lightly.”

Kelsey actually looked relieved. She slipped into his arms and hugged him tightly. “It’s really true. I’m a clone.” She pulled back to look at him. “Do you know what finally did it? What made me believe?”

When he shook his head, she held her hand up. “It’s this. I didn’t have this mole between my knuckles before. It’s a mark that’s completely foreign to me. I know that might sound silly especially when compared to the small mountain of evidence but this one tiny thing was what convinced me.”

“I noticed it too,” said Martin. “When you were sleeping this morning. I remember every inch of you and immediately knew it wasn’t there before.” Martin inspected it again closely like he did this morning. “It doesn’t even really appear to be a mole. It’s just a little black smudge.”

“Whatever it is, I know what it really means,” said Kelsey as she hugged him tighter. “It means my life will never be the same.”

Martin didn’t know how to respond to that. Part of him was inclined to feel guilty, as it was his actions that forced this decision on her. But Kelsey didn’t seem to want to blame him. The case seemed to be that she was more trying to accept how her life had changed more than she was looking for someone to blame.

“You’re not disappointed, are you?” he whispered softly. “About being back?”

Kelsey let out a small groan. “No, I guess not. Life is better than death, right? I think it’s just going to take some getting used to.”

Martin tried not to dwell on it. Instead, he simply held her close to him, delighting in the feel of her body pressed so tightly against his own. It was just like old times again. She felt absolutely wonderful in his arms. She even smelled incredible, and he couldn’t resist burying his nose in her dark locks.

Kelsey giggled when she heard him inhale. “You always did love my hair.”

“Can you blame me? I’ve gone two years without being able to do that,” he said with a laugh.

She shook her head. “My hair has been growing all day. It’s almost halfway down my back.”

“It was only six inches long at most when you awoke in the growth chamber last night,” said Martin. “I’m guessing it’s a side effect of the cloning process. Those quickly-replicating cells are probably in overdrive right now.”

“That explains my nails,” said Kelsey as she showed off her other hand. “With claws like these, I look like I’m ready to start stealing children.”

Martin laughed. “We can always clip them. There are worse problems to have.”

Kelsey raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah? Well what about this? Talk about a raging forest?”

With those words, Kelsey unbuttoned her shorts and pulled them down slightly, taking her panties with them. At that moment, Martin could see her whole pubic region, and she hadn’t been exaggerating. What had once been a thin spattering of pubic hair originally now was quite the bush.

Martin resisted the urge to stare but he thought he noticed that her lips were slick when he was checking her out. “It’s a good thing we have plenty of razors in the house then.”

Kelsey giggled. “Or else you better get used to me being an amazon woman.”

To his surprise, she didn’t let the subject die. She upped the ante by grabbing his hand and sliding it through her thick hair. “You always did like a little bit of hair down there.”

Martin gulped heavily as he touched her body. “A little bit though. Those are kind of the key words there.”

Kelsey shrugged and then grinned. “Well, nothing that can’t be fixed.”

To his relief, she pulled her shorts back up again but she didn’t fasten them. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to see her naked (quite the opposite) but he didn’t want to take advantage of her if she was in such a fragile state. He wanted Kelsey to want to be intimate with him, and right now she seemed to have too much on her plate.

Or so he thought.

The first warning sign that something was different was once again her nipples. They shot out from under her shirt like turkey timers. She also seemed to be incredibly fidgety once again, and much of that movement was concentrated around her hips.

Martin didn’t get a chance to observe any other changes because before he knew it, Kelsey came crashing into him, her lips pressing against his in a stunning display of passion. Just like that, every memory of being intimate with Kelsey came flooding back. The instant familiarity was an incredible blessing. This version of Kelsey kissed in the same exact way—her bottom lip nudged against his just like it always used to. Her tongue sought entry to his mouth after a few seconds of passionate lip-locking. Her head was even tilted at the same degree it usually did.

He savored that first kiss with her in two years, never wanting it to end. Even though his heart was incredibly happy at receiving the kiss (as well as other body parts), his brain was confused.

Where was this coming from?

When the kiss ended, he pulled back and looked at her with some confusion.

“Where did that come from?” he asked, still tasting her on his lips.

Kelsey grinned. “I had to stop resisting. I’m sorry, I wanted to do that since last night. Even this morning before you told me everything, I wanted to do it. Of course, listening to the truth dampened my mood quite a bit but hearing how much you love me and seeing what you did just so we could be together again has made me really, really horny, Martin.”

As if to emphasize the point, Kelsey brought her hands up to pinch her stiff nipples. “Can’t you see how much I’m poking out of my shirt?”

Martin let out a nervous laugh. “I did notice that a few times.”

She giggled. “I’m surprised you haven’t noticed it more. I’m positively drenched down here too.”

Without any further words, she shoved his hand into the loose space of her shorts and didn’t stop until his fingers found her slick entrance.

Kelsey wasn’t exaggerating. She was soaking wet.

“I want you,” she whispered softly. “I want you inside me, Martin.”

Before he could fully give into his lust, he had to know one thing.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” asked Martin. “After everything you’ve learned today? They said this was a side effect of the cloning process. Raging hormones increase horniness. Are you sure you want this?”

Kelsey gave him a shrewd look, almost as if she didn’t know how to answer the question. She shifted her weight on her back foot and then tilted her head.

“Answer one question for me,” she said softly. “Have you been with anyone else in the last two years? Have you been intimate with any other women?”

It was an easy question for him to answer.

“I’ve never gotten over you, Kelsey. How could anyone measure up to you? I haven’t been with anyone else.”

She rewarded him with a breathtaking smile. “Perfect answer,” she said as her hand wrapped around the back of his head.

She pressed her body and her lips to his with a tender display of passion. This time, Martin allowed himself to surrender to his feelings. He didn’t want to fight this. If Kelsey was of sound mind and still wanted to be intimate after today, then who was he to turn her down?

After all, he’d thoroughly enjoyed their lovemaking when they were together. He was already hard at the thought of resuming such activity.

Kelsey wasn’t one to waste any words. She grabbed him by the hand and tugged him until they were back in the bedroom. She kissed him tenderly until she shoved him on the bed, where he landed on his back. From there, she lost the playful look on her face as it morphed into something that was much more serious.

Serious and sexy.

She kept her eyes trained on him as she began to push down her shorts. They soon hit the floor, rendering her entirely bottomless in front of him. Kelsey turned around and pushed her ass out in front of his face. While doing so, she pivoted her upper body to look back at him, giving him a coy wink in the process.

It was astonishing if only for the fact that this certainly wasn’t the Kelsey he remembered. The original Kelsey enjoyed sex but she was always more reserved about it. She was the type that didn’t want a lot of light on in the bedroom because she was self-conscious about her body. She didn’t like to experiment with too many positions and she usually wasn’t the one to initiate sex.

So where was this behavior coming from?

He didn’t have long to dwell on that subject as he felt her bra smack against his face. Kelsey giggled as it was revealed that she slingshot it from her position at the foot of the bed. With her hands now firmly planted on her hips, she was now gloriously nude in front of him.

And what a sight it was to behold. One of his favorite things about Kelsey was the way her breasts were always perky and soft. Her body had a way of defying gravity and that was perfectly illustrated by the minimal sagging and her erect, upturned nipples.

She was so incredibly sexy that it looked like he had a nude model right in his bedroom. It was a far cry from her normal self-conscious self but he was too far gone to ask about the changes.

And right now, all the blood had seemingly left his brain and was now swelling into other parts.

Kelsey noticed the drastic tent in his shorts. She purred as she ran her hand over the bump.

“Oh, yes, Martin. You’re so hard for me. I need it right now!”

She didn’t wait for his response. Her hands made quick work of his shorts, pulling them down around his ankles and then letting them join the rest of her outfit on the floor.

He thought she might have a seizure when she finally saw his bare cock. Kelsey’s eyes closed and she bit down hard on her lip. Once she recovered, she crawled toward him from her position at the bottom of the bed, her eyes trained on his thick manhood.

“I have a couple of places where we can stick this,” whispered Kelsey as her hand wrapped around his shaft. She fixed her eyes on his. “The first place is my mouth.”

Martin sucked in air as her lips wrapped around the tip and started to suction it. It was a feeling of pure bliss to watch as she massaged the head with her tongue while she worked the shaft with her hand. All the while, Kelsey kept eye contact with him, moving her mouth to take more of him inside.

“Shit, that feels so good,” he groaned as her lips sank further down. It got to the point that she couldn’t use her hand anymore, as her mouth had most of his length inside. When Kelsey started to move her mouth up and down, his eyes rolled to the back of his head.

He finally fell out of her mouth and her lips upturned into a wicked smile. “Think I can take the entire thing down my throat?”

Martin wished his answer was smoother. “God I hope so.”

Kelsey grinned and then opened her mouth, sticking his cock back inside.

She then started to move lower.

And lower.

And lower.

And lower still, until soon her nose was pressed against his pubic bone. His entire length was buried inside her mouth, and she soon released him as beads of saliva escaped and landed on the tip.

“I knew I could do it,” she said triumphantly as she used her saliva as lubrication to stoke him. “And it’s all the more impressive because you have a nice thick cock.”

Martin was still speechless. He couldn’t remember a time when Kelsey had even thought to deepthroat him, let alone accomplish it. If this was how things were going to be moving forward, he would love every second of it.

She didn’t give him much of a chance to recover. Kelsey was moving forward once again, and this time she was licking her lips as she stared into his eyes.

“Time for the main course,” she purred as she rested her hips against his. She leaned forward, pressing her incredible tits against his face. Her nipples were so stiff that they must’ve hurt but that didn’t stop Martin from latching his lips around one and sucking.

“Oh, yes, Martin! Just like that!” Kelsey moaned, holding his head against her breast.

He started to tease her nipple, flicking it with his tongue and then sucking on it once more. Once he’d coated one nipple, he moved to the other, repeating the same process. By the time he was done, Kelsey was grinding hard against his shaft. It was positioned flat against his body, but she’d moved herself so that her pussy was directly against the outer shaft. As she moved, she coated his shaft with her juices.

It was the closest to dry fucking that Martin had been since middle school and it certainly wasn’t going to last much longer. With little fanfare, Kelsey raised up on her knees, grabbed his shaft and aimed it, and then sat down.

They both groaned in unison as the tip penetrated her soft folds. Kelsey brought her face to his and kissed him passionately as their bodies joined together for the first time in two years.

“Oh my god! You feel so good!” she moaned as she pushed down more.

“So do you,” he panted as his hands came to a rest on her ass. “I’ve waited so long for this.”

Kelsey smiled down at him. “No more waiting. You get this every day for the rest of our lives.”

As if to add meaning to the statement, she soon raised up and sank down hard, pushing more of his cock inside her body. She repeated the movement several times until she’d taken his entire shaft. Now that they were fully one once again, it was time to move.

Their rhythm at first was soft but deliberate. Every time Kelsey raised up, she bounced back down with a firmness that had him wanting more. He met every thrust of hers with a counterthrust of his own, and soon their bodies were working in unison.

“Suck my nipples again, please babe?” she pleaded as she offered her breast to his lips.

Martin did so willingly, loving the feel of the little nub in his mouth. He nursed on her nipple as she controlled the movements between them, rising up and down on his shaft.

He was in heaven. Not only was it amazing to have her soft nude body pressed against his, but he was inside of Kelsey once more. Her pussy was wet and tight, and he could feel her squeezing his shaft with every downward thrust. It was like she was trying to milk an orgasm out of him, and Martin couldn’t remember her ever being so dedicated to helping him achieve release before.

“Martin, keep fucking me baby! Just like that! Oh, fuck, I love your cock!”

With enough time, her movements soon quickened. Martin grabbed her ass and held on, helping her with the rhythm as the pace increased to frantic levels. Kelsey was soon pressing her lips against his in a deep display of passion while her tongue sought entry to his mouth, permission that he granted.

It was all feeling too good. The sounds of their hips meeting was echoing throughout the bedroom. Over two years of tension and buildup was threatening release from his body, and Martin wasn’t sure how much longer he was going to last.

Judging by the look on Kelsey’s face, she was in a similar position.

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god! I’m going to cum so hard on your perfect cock, babe!”

Martin could feel the tightening in his balls. He knew he was going to let loose at any minute. Kelsey’s movements were frantic and she was slamming down into his lap at a breakneck speed.

“I know that look,” she nearly yelled. “You’re going to cum soon, aren’t you?”

Martin nodded. “Any second now. I’m going to cum!”

Kelsey bounced down hard on him. “I want your cum, baby! I want it all inside me!”

She punctuated the statement by slamming down hard and grinding her hips against his. It was obvious where she wanted him to cum, and her movements seemed dedicated toward making that happen. Ordinarily, he might have thought about the implications of birth control but he was too far gone to care at this point. If Kelsey wanted him to knock her up right this moment, he would have done so gladly.

“Here it comes. I’m going to cum!” he groaned.

“Yes! Cum with me! Cum with me, Martin!”

Kelsey crushed her lips to his as their orgasms overtook them. She ground her hips against his lap as his cock began to explode, shooting off a heavy load of cum that landed deep inside her body. Kelsey soon collapsed against him—a spent and sweaty force that seemed entirely drained.

It took a minute before either of them were in a position to form any words. Kelsey was the first to break the silence.

“I love having sex with you,” she said with a small pant. “It’s always so damn good.”

Martin couldn’t resist chuckling. “Ditto, babe. I haven’t cum like that in . . . well, two years.”

Kelsey tilted her head to look at him. “I can tell. How much did you cum? I feel like I have a garden hose up my pussy.”

To emphasize her point, she pushed up on her knees, letting his cock fall from her body. In the next moment, two giant globs of cum fell out, splattering against the sheets.

Then she did something that was distinctly un-Kelsey like. She brought her lips to his shaft and cleaned his cock, sucking off the rest of his cum until there was nothing left.

“Mmm yummy,” she purred as she soon kissed her way back up his body. She rested her head against his chest and let out an adorable yawn. “That was entirely perfect.”

Martin couldn’t have agreed more. It was probably the best sex of his life if he was being honest. At that moment, he couldn’t have been happier about his decision to clone Kelsey. Everything had worked out just the way he’d hoped. Not only that, but Kelsey knew she was a clone and she still wanted this relationship to work.

There would still be major hurdles in the days and weeks to come, but the basic gamble had paid off.

Martin had his girlfriend back.

And as he held her tightly against his chest, he couldn’t help but smile. Everything was right in his world.

For now.

CHAPTER 10

TO SAY that life was good was a serious understatement.

Life was fucking grand.

Ever since Martin brought Kelsey home on Friday night, she’d been completely insatiable. It was now Monday afternoon on a three-day weekend, and he’d had sex with Kelsey no less than eight times.

Or was it nine? It was getting hard to keep track of their intimacy when it seemed to happen with such regular frequency. And it seemed like one series of orgasms only primed Kelsey to have another set an hour later.

Martin was drained in every sense of the word. Never before in his life had he been so sexually sated. Even when he and Kelsey started dating, the sex hadn’t been this frequent.

The thing was though that he wasn’t about to start complaining about it.

Who would complain? He had his gorgeous brunette girlfriend back, and she was an undeniable sex fiend. Most men would kill to be in his shoes, and deep down, he knew how lucky he was.

In every other respect, he found Kelsey to be remarkably the same as she was before. She was still loving and sweet. Her bubbly personality was on full display at just about every hour of the day. She still did the little things like she always did—like being in bed by ten. She still hated the same foods (especially peas). It was only sexually that she was any different, and Martin considered that to be a win-win type of deal.

He was brought back to reality as Kelsey snuggled up against his side, her arm draped possessively around his chest.

“You know, now I know why they made that song about having sex in the afternoon,” said Kelsey with a dreamlike expression on her face. “It really is a delight!”

Martin started to laugh. “I’m going to file that under things I never thought I’d hear you say.”

“What?” she said, laughing with him. “The original me still liked to have sex!”

“The clone you likes sex a whole lot more than the original you,” replied Martin. “Not that I’m complaining but there’s a very big difference in that regard.”

Kelsey simply shrugged, which had the effect of making her breasts bounce. For once, her nipples weren’t hard—a reflection of having just recently come. Martin noticed that they seemed to harden when she was horny, and it was always a good warning sign when she was about to jump him.

“So does that mean you don’t want to go again?” she asked with a suggestive eyebrow raise.

Martin grinned. “Maybe in a little bit. Let me recharge first! You’ve drained me of all my juices, woman.”

Kelsey giggled and then playfully pouted. The expression didn’t last long, and they began to get dressed shortly after. With it being summer, they didn’t put too many layers of clothes on. For one, it was too hot for anything more concealing but for two, clothes didn’t seem to last long in his apartment anymore. Kelsey put on a simple black tank top and a pair of pink panties while Martin put on his gym shorts and a white shirt.

He loved seeing her in such a revealing outfit. The tank top had a hard time concealing her large breasts but also her panties left all of her legs on display. And Kelsey had incredible legs.

It was the perfect way to spend an afternoon but something loomed in his thoughts that he couldn’t quite shake—the thought of what might happen when he walked into work tomorrow.

For most of the weekend, Martin had been content to put that thought in the back of his mind but he was getting to the point where he couldn’t dodge it anymore.

What would happen when he got to RI tomorrow?

Would there be police waiting for him as he arrived? What about Claire or Bryce? Would they greet him with a cardboard box so he could clear out his things?

Martin tried to relax. He reminded himself if something was truly wrong, someone would have shown up at his apartment by now. He cloned Kelsey on Friday evening and it was now Monday afternoon. The police wouldn’t wait until the start of the workweek just to arrest him.

If they had any evidence, they would have visited his apartment already.

In a way, he almost felt defiant about the entire thing. He might have broken the law but he did it for a truly great reason. How could anyone fault him for that?

Still, he dwelled on the subject for the rest of Monday, and he was nearly a nervous wreck when it came time to leave the following morning. Even being intimate with Kelsey didn’t stem his nerves (okay, it did a little. The woman was just incredible in the bedroom).

“Everything will be just fine today,” she said as she kissed him by the door. “Get your butt to work and then hurry up and come home. I’ll be waiting for you.”

She ended the statement with another smoldering kiss, leaving no doubt to just what would be waiting for him when he got home. That made the walk to RI a little less nerve-wracking but to his surprise, he entered the building with signs of nothing being amiss.

He was allowed to sit down at his desk and work for a full hour without any interruption. At one point, he even got up to refill his coffee, passing Claire in the process. She mumbled a morning greeting but otherwise paid no extra attention to him at all.

By the lunch hour, Martin started to fully relax. He’d really done it! He’d gotten away with cloning his girlfriend! And the only thing he wanted to do was get home to Kelsey and celebrate in the best way he knew how.

“Okay, something is clearly up with you today, man. Look at you! You haven’t stopped smiling this entire time!”

Martin was snapped out of his daydream and looked back at Tim and Shawn, both of whom were now wearing suspicious expressions.

“What? Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention,” said Martin as he looked back down at his food.

“Yeah, no shit,” retorted Tim with a laugh. “You’ve barely said two words this whole hour! Every time I look at you, you’re off somewhere in outer space. What’s up with you? Something good happen this weekend?”

If only Martin could tell him the truth, he would have. Why, yes, I’m in a great mood because I successfully cloned my dead girlfriend and the new clone is a perfect copy of the original. Oh, and she’s fucking amazing in the bedroom.

Even still, he couldn’t quite justify letting those words come out of his mouth. The risk was simply too great.

“I just really enjoyed my days off,” said Martin innocently, regretting his choice of words almost as soon as they were out.

Shawn snorted. “I bet you did. You sound like someone who got laid. Did you go out this weekend? Go partying or something and find a girl to warm your bed?”

Martin shook his head defiantly. “No, nothing like that. I’m serious.”

“Bullshit, I know that look on your face,” said Tim as he pointed right at Martin. “That’s a look that says someone just fucked your brains out. Who was she? She was good, eh? Does she have any friends that are single?”

Even Martin couldn’t help but laugh at that one. “I promise you guys that I didn’t go out and get some strange ass this weekend.”

It was technically the truth. He wouldn’t have classified Kelsey as “strange ass.”

Unfortunately, the guys still weren’t buying it.

“You know, you think you know a guy until he doesn’t even tell you when he gets laid,” said Tim, elbowing Shawn in the ribs at the same time.

“You would think, Tim, but it appears we don’t know our friend Martin that well at all,” replied Shawn, really laying the guilt on thick.

Martin put his hands up as he chuckled. “Listen, I just don’t want to talk about it right now, okay? It was a great weekend.”

“Oh okay, I know how this game works,” said Tim as he shifted his weight on his seat. “You don’t have to say you got laid. But blink twice right now if you actually did.”

Martin tried not to blink but even a conscious effort at it failed miserably.

“There’s two blinks! I knew it,” said a triumphant Tim.

“Are you going to see her again? Where’d you meet her?” pestered Shawn.

“And when do we get to meet her?” added Tim. “And I’m dead serious—does she have any single friends? It’s been a while for me.”

“More like a few years,” said Shawn, elbowing Tim in the ribs.

“Hey, screw you, pal,” retorted Tim before looking back at Martin. “So spill some details!”

“I will in time,” conceded Martin. “Just not right at this moment. I have enough on my plate without getting into all those details. And I really don’t want to jinx anything.”

“So she’s a good-looking girl then?” asked Shawn one more time.

Martin chuckled. “Yes, she’s gorgeous.”

“’Atta boy,” said Shawn proudly. “Can’t wait to hear all the details.”

CHAPTER 11

THE GUYS really didn’t have any patience. Later that afternoon, Martin had already been pestered by Shawn twice to give more details about his weekend. And when Tim showed up for the project that Martin promised to help him with last week, even he couldn’t help but ask for the whole story.

“Come on, man, just tell me. I’m just most excited that you got laid,” said Tim. “You needed it, trust me. You’ve been real mopey the last few weeks so this was the best thing that could happen for you.”

Martin fully agreed with that statement. Kelsey was the best thing to ever happen to him. And seeing how his friends were so interested in who this mystery girl was, he would have to find a way to introduce them soon enough.

It was one area where he had some latitude despite the original version of Kelsey being dead. Martin had started working at RI a year after her death. None of his colleagues even knew she existed so they wouldn’t be shocked when she showed up alive.

It would also finally get his friends off his back, which was an added bonus.

However, there was another reason why the employees of RI were humming that day. A special memo had come out just after lunch from their CEO, Vince Dulles, and it contained a long-awaited announcement.

“Organ cloning, can you believe it, Martin?” exclaimed Tim as he leaned back in his chair. “This is so flipping cool. I can’t believe they are going to start running clinical trials on it!”

It was quite the shock for most at RI to hear such news. For Martin, it wasn’t anywhere near as shocking. He already knew that RI was doing much bigger things than simple organ cloning but he also remembered the forewarning that Keith gave him about it right before he was fired.

“It’s really going to change things,” said Martin, while trying not to reveal what he knew. “But it’s still very illegal so I’m not sure how we’re going to be able to do that.”

Tim waved his hand dismissively. “These are just clinical trials from the sound of the memo. Even if successful, the organ isn’t actually going to be used in people and it will be disposed of afterward. It sounds like we’re just building a case to let the public know we can do it. And if we can show them that we’re successful at cloning organs, perhaps that will go a long way toward getting the whole thing legalized?”

“That’s still going to be a tough pill for most to swallow,” replied Martin. “Most of the country is still against human cloning, and this is going to be seen as one step closer to it.”

Tim shrugged. “Maybe you’re right. Or maybe they’ll be awed by the science of the whole thing and go along with it? Who’s to know what might happen but it’s huge news no matter which way you cut it. And this is going to put RI at the forefront of the entire industry!”

That last statement was definitely true and it contributed to much of the buzz that was going around the company at that moment. Unsurprisingly though, it also sparked the beginnings of an ethical debate even within RI between those that were fully for human cloning and those with some reservations about it still.

It was a debate that Martin was happy to stay out of. After all, he still had some reservations about human cloning despite having the best weekend of his life. The problem was that he already felt himself thawing at the issue just because of how great Kelsey was. If it meant a means to truly being able to conquer death, then surely cloning wasn’t all that bad, right?

There was still a lot to consider especially regarding the topic of ethics. Despite Kelsey not blaming him for what he did, he couldn’t help but feel somewhat guilty about his own selfishness. He’d cloned her because he couldn’t move on but Kelsey didn’t seem to mind that she had a second chance at life. Even still, a small voice in his head asked whether she would have gone along with it if she had the choice to make in the first place.

It also still meant that she was entirely dependent on him. There were no agencies or welfare for clones anywhere in the world. The government couldn’t just resurrect someone who’d been legally declared dead either, so that meant that Kelsey’s existence would have to be kept a secret from most people. While that seemed like a daunting prospect at first glance, Martin had no doubt that was going to be the most difficult thing to withstand in the future.

For now though, all those thoughts evaporated from his mind the minute he stepped into his apartment and closed the door.

At that moment, his stunning beautiful clone girlfriend was perched on his kitchen table wearing nothing but a set of white lace lingerie. Martin’s mouth gaped open as his eyes feasted on her body. The bra struggled to contain her incredible bust, and all that delectable flesh threatened to spill over the front.

She grinned wickedly once she saw that he couldn’t stop staring. “I missed you, baby. It felt like forever since you left for work this morning. I was hoping I’d get the chance to surprise you.”

Martin tried to put his tongue back in his mouth. “Where did you get the lingerie?”

It was vaguely familiar to him and so her answer wasn’t a surprise.

“It was with that box of old clothing of mine that you kept,” said Kelsey as she looked down at the lingerie. “It still fits perfectly I’d say.”

Martin tried not to groan out loud. “I’d have to agree. You only wore that for me once and you wouldn’t even let me turn the lights on so I could see it.”

Kelsey’s expression turned to disappointment. “Well, let me show you how much I like it. And show you how sexy that you make me feel.”

It was one of the hottest ways they’d ever had sex. Never before had they needed each other so badly that they did it on the kitchen table but that was what he could expect from Kelsey from now on. Once she pressed off the table, she carefully slipped her thong back on and kissed him passionately. After the kiss was over, she went back into the rest of the kitchen and prepared to make dinner.

There was no man that was more sated or in love in all of America than Martin Kennedy. As far as he was considered, he’d won the lottery with having Kelsey as his woman.

CHAPTER 12

AFTER DINNER WAS OVER, Martin and Kelsey made their way to the couch and laid down. Martin put his feet up on the coffee table while she snuggled against his side, which just so happened to place her lustrous brown locks directly under his nose. He couldn’t help but inhale her sweet scent, loving the pleasant aroma of his girlfriend.

“You didn’t tell me how your day was today,” said Kelsey after a few moments of silence. “I’m guessing everything went well at work?”

“You didn’t really give me a chance to when you jumped me by the door,” said Martin with a laugh.

Kelsey giggled. “Sorry about that. I’m ready to listen now though.”

“It went perfectly to be honest,” said Martin as his fingers gently massaged a spot on her back. “I was a little anxious this morning to go but it turned out I didn’t have to be.”

“A little anxious?” asked Kelsey with a soft laugh. “Martin, you were almost bouncing off the walls.”

He laughed with her. “Okay, maybe I was a little more caught up with it than that, but I think we’re in the clear. I went the whole day without drawing the attention of leadership or getting arrested so we’re good, I think.”

“It’s so bizarre to think that you could be in serious trouble for what you did,” said Kelsey. “Like I get the cloning can open up a big can of worms but you did it for a good reason. What’s so wrong with what you did?”

“I can think of several things off the top of my head,” he replied. “And not everyone would be so cautious like I was. People could clone themselves a small slave army or their own sex harem.”

Kelsey purred and rubbed his leg. “Oh, a sex harem? That actually sounds really interesting!”

Martin rolled his eyes and kept speaking. “It’s going to be really interesting at RI now especially with the announcement that came out today.”

“What announcement was that?”

“RI came out and said they were going to start testing on human organs. The purpose is to get the process down and show the public and the government how easy it is. The hope is that if we show them how effortlessly we can clone organs, it will grease the wheels toward getting favorable legislation from Congress.”

Kelsey raised her eyebrow. “Just organs? But how do you explain me then?”

“Well, obviously there are things going on at RI that aren’t public. But since they’ve clearly mastered full human cloning, my guess is this is RI’s gamble toward preparing the public for the next logical step.”

“It seems like they already know what the result of their testing will be,” she noted. “It almost sounds like they are just waiting for the right moment to tell the world they can do organs, and they’re hoping that scientific breakthrough will enchant the public enough to demand the law be changed.”

“Precisely,” said Martin. “Couldn’t have said it better myself.”

“It’s not a bad idea,” said Kelsey. “And I think it’s a good strategy. After all, why shouldn’t it be legalized?”

Martin gave her an incredulous look. It was a bold statement for someone who’d initially been so distraught at finding out she was a clone. Kelsey noticed his momentary confusion and started to explain.

“You look a little surprised,” she said with a giggle. “But I’ve really come around on it. And why shouldn’t I? It’s given me a second chance at life. You’ve given that to me but also so has science in general. It’s like we’ve corrected a wrong that didn’t have to happen. And I’m going to embrace this second chance with everything I have. Why shouldn’t others be afforded the same opportunity?”

“Right, and I see your point,” conceded Martin. “But for every person out there that wants to do it for the right reason, there’s probably two or three that would do it for the wrong reason. We’ve kind of touched on a couple of those already.”

“I remember you said something really interesting about a sex harem,” she teased.

Martin tickled her in response. “I’m being serious! There’s still some moral and ethical questions about it. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t regret cloning you but I don’t think just anyone should be able to clone anyone else.”

“No, I agree with that. There should be boundaries. Rules against doing things that are unethical.”

Martin shrugged. “But who would decide those rules? RI? Congress? The people? That’s a potential problem as far as I’m concerned. Unless the rules are thorough, you’re going to have people flout them. And if they get made into law, that doesn’t mean people will obey them.”

Kelsey gave him an ironic look. “Kind of like RI cloning humans?”

“Exactly like that,” replied Martin.

“I don’t know what to think about it then,” said Kelsey as she burrowed deeper into his side. “Maybe they should just let you decide who gets to clone and who doesn’t. You’re a moral person, Martin. I know you wouldn’t abuse your powers.”

He started to laugh. “That’s a lot more power and control than I’d ever want to have. And can you imagine the consequences of having to turn people down? That’s too much pressure, I wouldn’t want that job.”

“I guess nothing comes easy with cloning,” she replied.

“Maybe that’s why it’s been banned for so long despite us having the technology to make it happen,” suggested Martin.

“Maybe you’re right,” she conceded.

“There’s another thing to consider too,” he added. “Quality of life.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve touched on it already,” said Martin. “What are we to do about cloning someone who’s legally dead? How do you manage someone’s quality of life when they don’t legally exist anymore? Frankly, that bothers me quite a bit. I still have a hard time with it when I think about you.”

It didn’t seem to bother her as much as it did for him.

“We’ll figure that part out, Martin,” she said quietly.

“I hope so,” he added. “But the laws would have to be changed. And then could we just resurrect anyone that was dead? Surely it wouldn’t be a good thing to just resurrect anyone. Not only could you make the wrong decision, but then you’d have to get their lives put back together. Could you imagine if someone did that for someone terrible?”

“So what you’re saying is that there should be a law to prevent someone from resurrecting Hitler or something?” asked Kelsey with a laugh.

Martin laughed with her. “Basically!”

“I don’t think you’d have to worry about that anytime soon,” she replied. “But you bring up a good point. It’s just something else to consider.”

“I really meant what I said though,” said Martin quietly. “I am concerned about our future. Your future mainly. What’s going to happen when we get older? Or if you need urgent medical care?”

Kelsey shrugged. “I’m not thinking about that kind of stuff right now, Martin.”

“Why not?”

Kelsey took a deep breath. “I’m just not. You’re right—it’s probably not going to be easy and I’m sure it’s going to cause a lot of trouble for us, but I’m still coming to grips with it being 2031. I don’t want anything for granted right now. I don’t want to think about the bad things that could await us in the future. I just want to be happy that I have my life back. I want to celebrate the small things. I want to laugh and be grateful. We have all the time in the world to think about the bad things that could happen.”

“I don’t want to rain on your parade but we’ll have to confront them someday,” said Martin.

“Then we’ll deal with it then,” she said firmly, waving for emphasis. “Someday, we’ll plan out just what the future looks like for us. But I’m not going to let these small problems take over my life. I have the same plan that I’ve wanted to carry out all along, and that’s what I’m choosing to focus on.”

“Such as?”

Kelsey gripped him tighter. “Like being with you. Spending my life with you. Having some kids with you. And I’m not going to let some technicality prevent that from happening.”

Martin winced. All the things she was talking about now were a lot more than just a few technicalities. Judging by the look on her face though, he knew better than to argue.

When Kelsey had her mind set on something, it would take a small miracle to get her to change.

Instead, Martin just let it go. She was right about one thing—they didn’t need to decide any of these today. They would have time to figure out how to live in the future. And if that included children, then he was sure they would find a way.

Somehow.

Kelsey seemed to sense that something was wrong because of his silence though. Her big brown eyes locked on his as a vulnerable look appeared on her face.

“Would you still want those things with me?” she asked, her heart on her sleeve. “I know we talked about them at one time but this doesn’t change anything, does it? Me being a clone doesn’t change how you feel about the future, does it?”

Martin shook his head. “Not at all. It just makes it more . . . complicated, that’s all. I’m just thinking about how we can still do this but it doesn’t make me want to do it any less. I brought you back for this reason.”

The tension left her face. “I was beginning to think you had doubts.”

“No doubts, I promise you that.”

She let out a coy grin. “Even if I’m not exactly the way you remembered me?”

Martin snorted. That was quite the understatement especially with regards to their sex life.

“I have to admit,” said Martin. “We probably have too much sex so if you can tone it down a little, that would be great.”

Kelsey raised both eyebrows, her look of disbelief complete. “You’ve always been a terrible liar.”

“All right, all right, the sex is awesome,” said Martin with a chuckle. “And it’s a really great added benefit to all of this.”

Kelsey shrugged innocently. “Who knew that having sex above the covers could be so fun?”

“Maybe like half the Western world,” quipped Martin, earning a playful poke from her.

“You’re just saying that because you like my boobs.”

He nodded while giving her chest an eyeful. “Can you blame me? You have the best set of boobs I’ve ever seen.”

Kelsey grinned and lifted her shirt, letting them come into view. She hadn’t bothered to put the lingerie bra back on, and Martin’s eyes went wide. “You mean these? You really like them, huh?”

He could only nod, not trusting his voice to speak.

“You know, there’s been one place that we still haven’t christened yet,” she said right before letting out a tiny moan as she pinched her nipple.

Martin was entranced. “Where?”

Kelsey grinned evilly. “The shower.”

Needless to say, Martin was one very happy man.

CHAPTER 13

OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS, there was a media frenzy at RI the likes of which the company had never seen before. The announcement about organ testing seemed to galvanize every section of society, and everyone had an opinion on whether it should be allowed.

The first press that came out was entirely negative. Interview clips were shown on the evening news where the public was allowed to weigh in, with the vast majority preferring to keep things at the current status quo in terms of the law.

Even business leaders got involved, with many trying to envision what kind of negatives could come with a future filled with clones.

The worst of all of it was once the politicians got involved.

“Not under my watch,” said a hawkish senator as he stared back into the camera with his arms crossed in front of his chest. “I’ve been an ardent supporter of the ban against human cloning, and that includes organ cloning as well, which I regard as a slippery slope toward eventual human cloning. Our society is not ready for mass human cloning for multiple ethical reasons, and I will do everything in my power to ensure that Replica Imagination faces consequences for breaking the law!”

“Well, he really doesn’t like cloning,” noted Kelsey, who was currently perched against Martin’s side as they watched the television. “That or he really doesn’t like RI.”

“Most people don’t,” said Martin offhandedly. “And what’s worse is that the government has the power to shut down this program for good.”

Kelsey looked a little worried. “It doesn’t exactly bode well for RI with this much public opposition.”

Martin shrugged but internally he’d been thinking the same thing. The public uproar about the whole thing surprised him, and now he had a lot of doubt whether the pressure would force RI not to go through with its testing.

There was one more segment on the news about it that evening but like the others, it contained more people espousing their personal (and sometimes religious) beliefs on why it was wrong. Kelsey was about to flip to another channel, but when the next segment came on, Martin stopped her.

“Wait just a minute,” said Martin as he clicked it back.

The sight on the screen showed a very sick-looking man who wasn’t all that old. His face was instantly recognizable to millions of people, and that included Martin.

“In other news today, retired boxer Jack “Punching Bag” Baggen has once again been admitted to the hospital. This time, the former heavyweight champion complained about severe chest pain that has once more brought about his admission. This is the second time in two months that Baggen has been sent to the hospital, and his family requests that the boxer’s fans keep him in their prayers.”

“Poor guy just can’t get a break,” said Martin as he shook his head. It wasn’t that Baggen was necessarily that old either. He was only fifty but all that damage he’d taken over his boxing career had aged him considerably.

At the end of the day, Martin’s childhood hero was just worn out.

“I didn’t realize you still were such a big fan of his,” noted Kelsey softly. “Is that why you started doing karate again? You didn’t do it so much before I came back.”

“Well, karate and boxing are very different,” replied Martin. “You can say it all goes back to that day with the mugging. I think it was the kick in the ass I needed. You can never be too prepared.”

Kylie elbowed him gently. “You’ve been diving into it with a fury. Do you expect any more muggings?”

Martin chuckled. “Not if I can help it. Besides, I have to protect you now. It’s not just me out there anymore.”

“I like the sound of that,” said Kylie, melting against him. “You’re my hero and you always will be.”

That seemed to take some of the sting off the news about Jack Baggen, but the press frenzy around RI was immediately visible the next day, when Martin arrived at work.

It was like someone had died. The only thing missing was the crying widow and the oversized coffin.

“What’s eating everyone here?” asked Martin as he stopped at Tim’s desk.

Tim shook his head. “Didn’t you see the email this morning?”

“I haven’t stopped at my desk yet.”

“Hold on,” said Tim as he brought up the message.

It came directly from the CEO of RI and was addressed to the entire company.

Hello Team,

I know all of you will be as saddened to read this message as I am to write it. Due to the negative attention in the press and the intense political pressure, we will be foregoing any upcoming testing on human organs, effective immediately.

This is a challenging time for Replica Imagination, but I have no doubt that we will emerge from this a better and stronger company. Someday soon, we will resume our place at the cutting edge of science but for now, we will pull back.

Thank you all for everything you do.

Vince Dulles

CEO

“Yikes,” said Martin as he read it a second time. “Pulling the plug on the whole testing program.”

Tim snapped his fingers. “Just like that—gone. I guess the politicians got what they wanted. Can you believe that? It’s like these people are standing in the way of progress. Cloning might actually make people’s lives better, not to mention society in general.”

Martin couldn’t help but agree with that sentiment. Kelsey had certainly made his life better, and for the first time ever, he could actually see the upside to human cloning.

Knowing that the door was publicly shut for the time being wasn’t going to be good for RI. There was bound to be some layoffs as a result, and no doubt morale would suffer in the weeks and months ahead.

Privately, Martin wondered if anything would actually change at RI. If the company was already doing full human clones in secret, would this mean anything to leadership? If anything, this would have been the first step to the company going “legal” and getting full sanction toward their activities.

Did this mean RI would have to continue to work in the shadows?

What also did it mean for Kelsey? Would her recognition as a clone be delayed years or decades as a consequence? What would that do for their personal lives?

And if cloning was going to remain illegal, would it mean that Martin was always one step from trouble in harboring a clone of a dead woman in his apartment?

How did his life suddenly get so complicated?

CHAPTER 14

“MARTIN, what do you think of this top? Cute, right?”

Cute was a serious understatement. The top that Kelsey was holding was nothing even close to cute. Revealing, sexy, and showing entirely too much skin, Martin expected the top was something that strippers would buy to wear on stage.

“You’d really want to wear that one out in public?” he asked.

Kelsey gave him a mischievous grin. “Maybe not outside the house, but I’m thinking this is a wonderful bedroom top if you know what I mean.”

Did he ever. Martin allowed himself a moment to think of Kelsey prancing around in front of the bed while slowly stripping it off. She would pull it down slowly, letting her breasts come into focus before her nipples popped out of the constraining material. It would fall down the rest of her body until she tossed it at his face playfully before hitting him with a smoldering look.

“Okay, I’m in. Let’s try it on,” said Martin, feeling his pants tighten considerably.

Kelsey could only giggle in return as she hit another rack. It had been a couple weeks since the debacle with RI’s announcement regarding organ testing and so far, life for Martin had settled into a very comfortable arrangement.

Living with Kelsey was a blast. She was bubbly and fun, and he’d laughed more in the past month than he had in the prior two years. An added bonus was when Kelsey was done with talking, she wanted to have sex, which was the dream of just about every man.

It seriously rocked his world. She had a sex drive to match a classroom full of pubescent boys and so far, they were doing it twice a day at minimum. It would have been entirely exhausting for Martin had he not been so attracted to her. In every sense of the word, Kelsey was his dream girl.

There were also a lot of other perks about living with her. They would cook together, which was always entertaining as Kelsey usually managed to be fully undressed by the end of it. She loved to go outside and spend an afternoon in the park just watching the clouds, but she was also just as happy being a homebody and spending an evening on the couch watching a bad reality show.

To that end, Martin didn’t have any complaints. And right now, he was enjoying another perk of living with Kelsey—shopping.

Just like the original version, cloned Kelsey loved to shop and her cloning provided an excellent opportunity for her to indulge her favorite hobby. Martin only had a small pile of her former clothing from before her death and she needed to restock on her favorite items, which is how they found themselves in a trendy shop at the mall that afternoon.

Kelsey made an excited noise as she grabbed a black sequin top with spaghetti straps. She held it against her body and posed in front of Martin, only adding in a casual hair flip in true model fashion.

“Yes or no?” she asked.

It was definitely a sexy piece and once again, visions of a bedroom fashion show flashed in his head.

“With you, just about everything is a yes,” replied Martin in total honesty.

Kelsey grinned. “I think this is why we work so well together. You’re so easy to win over!”

After nearly fifteen minutes of shopping the racks at the small store (and going back to the same racks nearly three times), Kelsey had a small mountain of clothing she wanted to try on.

After checking in with the clerk, who was a cute blonde that appeared to be about twenty, both Kelsey and Martin crammed into a tiny changing room.

“The clerk was really cute, right?” said Kelsey as she hung up the clothes to try on.

Martin swallowed heavily, recognizing a trap if he ever saw one.

“Who? The girl at the counter? I don’t know, I didn’t really look at her,” said Martin, applying careful evasion.

Unfortunately, Kelsey didn’t buy it. She took off the shirt she was wearing and stood in her bra with her hands planted on her hips. It was a devastatingly sexy pose as well as one that said she knew he was full of shit.

“You’re a terrible liar, Martin,” she said as she then reached behind her back to unclasp her bra.

He caught his breath as her tits were freed. Kelsey had an incredible rack. Not only were they huge but they seemed to defy gravity at the same time.

“I know you’re lying because I saw her too,” said Kelsey as she tried on the black sequin top. “And even I wanted some fries with that shake!”

“What do you want me to say?” asked Martin. “Yes, she was attractive but I like you better.”

Kelsey shook her head playfully. “You’re so cute, do you know that? I know you’re mine and I’m yours, but that doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate beauty when we see it. And she’s hot!”

Kelsey stepped closer until his face was pressed against her chest. “And I’d bet you wouldn’t mind watching her eat your cum out of my pussy, would you?”

“Kelsey!”

She gave him another evil grin. “Oh, that’s a sexy thought, isn’t it? I can think of others. I bet she tastes amazing too!”

“Kelsey, what are you doing?” he hissed.

Her smile grew wider. “Just having fun, my love. Sometimes it doesn’t hurt to dream, right?”

Martin shook his head. “This is the part of you that I’m still getting used to. The old you would have never entertained another girl in our bed.”

Kelsey stuck out her tongue. “Maybe this me is just a little more worldly. I think it would be quite fun to have someone else in bed. A girl, mind you. No men. The only cock I want near me is yours.”

“Amen,” replied Martin quickly.

“But girls on the other hand,” said Kelsey quickly. “Girls can be a lot of fun!”

Martin couldn’t help but feel some activity below the waist. The thought of watching Kelsey with another woman was arousing but so too was just about any idea that focused on Kelsey being naked in some form or the other.

But was she all talk or did Kelsey really mean what she was saying?

“At least think about it a little, okay?” she asked after a moment of silence.

“Gee, think about letting my girlfriend invite another sexy girl into our bed for a threesome,” mocked Martin. “Sounds like a really hard decision there!”

Kelsey giggled. “I knew you’d see things my way. And it doesn’t have to be that girl out front either.”

“Did you have another girl in mind?”

Kelsey removed the sequin top, freeing her tits once more. “Not really. I just wanted to put the thought in your head.”

“Believe me, there are a few things running through my head right now,” replied Martin as he stared at her breasts.

All too soon, they were out of sight once more as Kelsey tried on another top. The next words that came out of her mouth surprised him.

“Maybe we could even clone a playmate. Wouldn’t that be fun, Martin?”

He nearly started choking. “Clone a playmate? Are you serious?”

Kelsey started to nod. “Why not? Sounds like a lot of fun to me.”

“Do you have any idea what risks I had to take just to clone you? Seriously, there’s more to it than just deciding to want another clone around.”

Kelsey managed to look temporarily hurt. “It was just a suggestion,” she said quietly as she removed another top.

Martin’s eyes flickered to her body and back to her face. “Don’t be upset. That came out more harsh than I intended it to. Maybe we should just stick with actual living girls for the time being. Otherwise, it’s just a needless risk that we don’t have to take. We have enough problems right now.”

Thankfully, Kelsey let it go. “It’s no big deal. Now check out these pants.”

She held up a pair of tight jeans in front of him with pre-torn holes in the knees. They screamed designer in every sense of the word but Martin couldn’t help but think she would look great in them.

“These are going to make my butt look amazing,” said Kelsey as she gave her luscious rear end a rub.

From there, she undid her shorts and let them carefully fall down her legs. She was wearing a red lace thong underneath, one that Martin distinctly remembered pulling off her legs this morning. Kelsey struggled to get the skinny jeans over her thighs and her butt but once they were in place, she couldn’t have been more right.

Her butt did look fucking incredible. For added emphasis, she smacked it hard, letting the sound echo throughout the changing area. She giggled right after.

“I should’ve asked if you wanted to do that first,” she said. “These jeans are perfect for smacking some ass.”

“Your words, not mine,” said Martin as he gave her rear end a healthy slap. Kelsey pushed her butt into his hands and let him fondle her cheeks for a moment before she tried on another top.

“You know, I just love spending time with you, Martin,” she said after a moment, the words seeming to come out of left field. “No matter what we do, we always manage to have fun. Even when things aren’t so fun, I’d rather have you by my side than anyone else.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Where did that come from? Don’t get me wrong, I feel the same way but I’m surprised you said that just now.”

She stopped what she was doing. “Why’s that?”

Martin shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just the old Kelsey wasn’t usually so . . . vocal about that kind of thing. You didn’t really say that kind of thing when we used to be together.”

She blinked at him. “I used to think those things all the time. You mean I really didn’t tell you that?”

Martin shook his head, remembering the old Kelsey as being a little more self-conscious about grand declarations about love. It wasn’t that she didn’t love him, it was just that she wasn’t so open about expressing it out loud.

A small pout formed on her face. “Martin, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize I wasn’t doing that. I would think those things all the time, and I can’t believe I wasn’t telling you that.”

He shook his head. “You have nothing to be sorry for. I know we work well together. I guess this is just one of those things that we chalk up to positive changes from the cloning process.”

Kelsey pursed her lips and pulled another top off her head. “Well, I’m going to do a better job telling you that from now on. I don’t want you to have any doubts about what I feel for you.”

She didn’t let him respond to that statement. Instead, she leaned in closer and pressed a deep, passionate kiss against his lips.

When she pulled back, Martin had a hard time even remembering what his name was let alone what they were talking about.

“Water under the bridge,” he murmured, faintly remembering an apology.

Kelsey smiled. “I love you. I’m so glad to see you’re happy.”

“I wasn’t happy for a very long time,” he replied. “For two years, I was miserable.”

“All because of me?”

Martin nodded. “I missed you terribly. I struggled a lot after you died. I’m not sure you realize how bad it got. I had to stop talking to your parents, not because I didn’t like them, but they just reminded me of you too much. I lost so many good friends because I was mopey and never wanted to go out. It was a tough time.”

Kelsey stopped what she was doing, only to leave herself wearing only the red thong. She put her arms against his shoulders and looked down into his eyes. “Are things better now? Truly?”

Martin nodded. “I honestly do feel life again. I haven’t smiled this much in years. You make me happy. I feel like I’ve gotten a chance to go back and fix a terrible mistake. And I’m never going to take that for granted.”

She smiled at him. “You don’t know how it feels to hear you say that. Especially knowing that I’m the clone and not the original.”

Martin shook his head. “You’re the original as far as I’m concerned. I don’t make a distinction anymore. You’re you. You’re my Kelsey.”

“And you’re my Martin,” she replied, kissing him soundly.

“I think others have begun to see that things have turned around for me,” said Martin after she pulled away. “My friends at RI for one. They practically sniffed out your return right from the start.”

For a brief moment, Kelsey looked worried. “Is that going to be a problem for us? Did they know about me from before?”

Martin shook his head. “No, I never told them about you when I started there. You’d already been dead a year, and despite the fact that Tim and Shawn are probably my best friends there, I never opened up that can of worms with them. It was just too painful.”

She let out a sigh of relief. “Well, that’s good to know. So they know nothing about me at all?”

“Nothing,” said Martin. “But they certainly knew something was up the week after the cloning. I guess I looked too happy!”

Martin told her the whole story about how they’d figured out she existed and about whether she had any sisters or friends they could date. Kelsey took the whole story humorously.

“That’s too funny! I’d like to meet them if I could,” she said. “If they are good friends of yours, then I want to know them.”

Martin sat back and thought about it for a moment. At first glance, it seemed awfully risky to bring Kelsey back to the scene of the crime but what harm could it be? No one else knew she existed (or at least knew she existed before).

“Okay, we can do that,” said Martin. “I can probably bring you in one day if you like. I can get you a visitor pass at RI and introduce you to the guys. I already know they’d just love you.”

Kelsey giggled. “As long as they know I don’t have any sisters or friends to hook them up with.”

“Trust me, I don’t think they’d care,” replied Martin with a chuckle. “We’ll do it this week, okay?”

“Perfect,” said Kelsey as she stepped out of the last skirt. Once again, she was left in just her red thong. Martin expected to see her get dressed but instead, she placed her arms around his neck once more and sat down in his lap.

“What are you doing?” he asked as his heart started to beat faster.

“If that wasn’t obvious by now, I must be doing something wrong,” said Kelsey as she leaned in to nibble his neck.

CHAPTER 15

“ARE YOU SERIOUS?” he whispered furiously. “Here? In the dressing room?”

She nodded with a bright, big smile on her lips. “It’s perfect! And I’m so horny, Martin. Look!”

Indeed, her nipples had become like little pencil erasers. Martin wasn’t sure how he missed the telltale sign but she was certainly ready for him.

Just the knowledge that she wanted sex combined with the subtle nibbling of his neck had him hard instantly. It didn’t matter that they had a marathon sex session already that morning. Something about being with her had him hard and ready to go at a moment’s notice.

Kelsey cooed as she felt the stiffness in his pants. “I need another load of cum in my pussy, Martin. And I’m not letting you leave this dressing room until I get it.”

That seemed to settle the matter. She helped him pull down his jeans, freeing his cock much to her delight. Kelsey wasted no time. She pulled the lower strap of her thong to the side and sunk completely down to his pubic bone.

“Yes!” she said far too loudly as he filled her. “Oh, fuck, I love your cock. I’m going to tell you that every day of your life. I love your . . . perfect . .. huge cock!”

She punctuated every word with a hard downward thrust. Martin’s hands settled against her hips, helping her to rise and fall in his lap.

She hardly needed it. Kelsey moved like she wanted nothing more than to drain him with her body. Her lips attached to his while she rode him quickly. The bench he was sitting on began to squeak with all the movement. More than once, Martin’s head smacked against the wall behind him because she was getting too into it.

Martin was sure the clerk out front had to hear the commotion. Or at least hear Kelsey.

“Oh, fuck! Your cock feels so fucking good, Martin!”

That was the last thing she got out before they heard a pounding at the door.

Martin and Kelsey both froze.

“Is everything all right in there?” came the sound of a woman’s voice on the other side. No doubt it was the blonde clerk that had inspired Kelsey’s fantasy.

“Yes, we’re fine!” she answered in a voice that was clear as day and showed no signs of orgasmic bliss. “I just love those clothes!”

She had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. Martin would have found it funnier if he wasn’t buried inside her and completely guilty.

Thankfully, the clerk didn’t decide to pry but they took the warning for what it was.

“We have to be quieter,” whispered Kelsey as she began to move her hips again. “I can’t be screaming all the time so that’s my fault.”

“Maybe we should just finish this back at home,” suggested Martin but she cut him off by kissing him.

“No way,” she hissed. “I need your cum and I need it right now!”

She began to move faster, causing the bench to start squeaking again. Every time that Kelsey felt like she was going to moan out loud again, she crushed her lips to his, muffling the sound.

Even her muffled moaning was hot though. Not to mention, her body just felt so damn good against his. Martin grabbed her ass with both hands and helped to slam her down hard on his cock.

That seemed to do the trick. Kelsey’s eyes rolled to the back of her head and she bit her lip.

“You’re going to make me cum like that!” she said with a playful accusation.

“That’s the idea,” he hissed back.

They kept moving together until Kelsey had the most silent orgasm of her life. The only reason it was silent was because she took his hand and clamped it over her mouth. Her body shuddered with pleasure, and it was enough of a sexy sight to trigger his own orgasm a moment later.

“I love going shopping with you,” said Kelsey with a wide grin as she pushed off his lap. A dollop of cum fell from her pussy and splattered on the ground. “Oops!”

She moved the strap of her thong back into place quickly. “There, now I can trap your cum inside me!” She looked so proud of herself for that statement that Martin couldn’t help but laugh.

“You’re something else, do you know that?”

Kelsey blew a strand of hair out of her face. “Yeah, but you love me anyway.”

“This is true.”

By the time they left the changing room, the clerk was staring daggers at them. It didn’t even help the situation that Kelsey purchased everything she brought into the changing room, and once they were handed their receipt, the clerk had some stern words for them.

“Please do us a favor and don’t come back to this store after your behavior today,” she informed them.

Martin couldn’t help but turn red but Kelsey certainly knew how to ham things up. She fluttered her eyelashes a couple times. “I’m positive that I’m not certain what you’re talking about, miss.”

The clerk’s mouth fell open in anger but Kelsey had already grabbed his hand, pulling him toward the exit.

“Well, she was just no fun whatsoever,” said Kelsey with a giggle once they were out of the store.

“Let’s hope they don’t have any cameras back there,” said Martin. “Or report us to mall security.”

Kelsey blew air through her lips. “Mall security? Yeah, that would be just awful.”

CHAPTER 16

MARTIN TOOK the first opportunity he had to bring Kelsey to RI. Her interest in meeting his friends and seeing where he worked (and where she was created) was enough to get her in the doors that same week. RI was usually pretty lax about giving out visitor passes, provided that they stayed in common areas and didn’t go near the more sensitive areas of the company, like the testing area.

Martin was also excited to finally introduce her to Tim and Shawn, mostly to get them to shut up about when they were going to meet his new mystery girlfriend. Neither of them knew a thing about Kelsey or her death since it was before he started working at RI, so Martin developed a careful backstory about how they started dating.

“I don’t get it,” said Kelsey that morning. “You expect them to believe that we were broken up for a time and then we just got back together? Seriously?”

Martin shrugged. “It’s easier to say we were broken up for a time since it explains the long gap that I was single. I’m also using it as the reason I was so depressed. When I tell them that we decided to get back together, obviously that made me a lot happier.”

Kelsey pursed her lips. “Why in the world would we break up though? We’re perfect together!”

Martin chuckled. “It’s just a little white lie, babe. They won’t know any better. Just go with it.”

She went with it all right.

“Dude, she’s fucking hot!”

Tim’s mouth had fallen permanently open, something that was only fixed when Martin pointed it out.

“Put your tongue back in your mouth and be normal, Tim,” he said with a laugh. “And you could at least introduce yourself to her instead of just saying how hot she is.”

“Oh, right,” said Tim as if the idea just occurred to him. He pivoted on his heel and grinned at Kelsey. “Hey, I’m Tim. By the way, you’re really fucking hot!”

Kelsey started to laugh. “I’ve heard a lot about you, Tim. Nice to meet you too.”

“So this might sound forward a little, but do you have any sisters? Maybe a cousin? I’d even take a stepsister if that’s easier,” he said.

Both Martin and Kelsey started to laugh.

“Sorry, Tim, but I’m an only child,” said Kelsey. “I’ll keep an eye out for single girls to send your way.”

“Will you really? Damn, Martin, she’s pretty awesome!”

“See?” said Martin with a grin. “Now you know why I’ve been so happy lately!”

“It’s a good thing too because you’ve been down in the dumps for as long as I’ve known you,” said Tim. “We almost didn’t let you into the group because you were so damn mopey all the time.”

“Well, I can assure you that he doesn’t have much to be mopey about anymore,” said Kelsey in a very matter-of-fact tone.

Unfortunately, the subtlety went over Tim’s head.

“That’s good to hear,” he replied before they were soon joined by Shawn, who had much the same reaction as Tim.

“Martin, I don’t know whether to smack you on the back or punch you,” said Shawn after one look at Kelsey. “How did you land someone as good-looking as her?”

“Maybe I was the one that landed him?” suggested Kelsey, causing both his friends to start shaking their heads.

“No, no, he definitely landed you,” said Shawn, making them all laugh.

“So this is where you all work,” said Kelsey as she looked around RI. “It must be pretty exciting to be in the cloning business!”

“Oh, it has its days,” said Tim. “Mostly it’s just like every other job for ninety-five percent of the time. The other five percent is when the company gets brought up on a national level when there’s big news going on.”

“Like a couple weeks ago when we got crushed for wanting to start testing organs,” added Shawn. “That was pretty high-profile.”

“Yeah, Martin was telling me about that,” said Kelsey. “Must be a bummer that you can’t move forward with something so groundbreaking.”

Kelsey shared a secret look with Martin, one that brought a faint grin to his lips. If only Shawn or Tim had the idea that Kelsey was a product of RI, a full-blown human clone, they would have shit themselves.

“We just live to fight another day,” said Tim with a shrug. “One day the public will not be so against us. Maybe then we’ll have a meaningful development.”

“Hopefully we’re not dead by then,” added Shawn, making Kelsey laugh.

“I don’t intend to be,” said Tim. “After all, I want to run my own branch someday.”

“Oh, here we go,” said Shawn, already rolling his eyes.

The statement caught Kelsey’s interest though. “What do you mean? Your own branch of RI?”

Tim nodded. “Absolutely! There’s two new branches that are slated to open soon, and I want to run one of them as the head replicator. I’d have to be trained though, but there’s a whole program for that. It would also get me out of headquarters and get me into my own location.”

“There’s always stiff competition going for those jobs though,” noted Martin. “I’m sure there’s a slew of applications for those two spots.”

Tim shrugged. “You’re probably right. And if I don’t get one of these two slots, I’ll just wait for the next time around. It all goes toward my goal of one day being able to actually clone a human myself. I know that’s still years away but that’s my plan.”

Martin shared a look at Kelsey. Perhaps Tim’s goal wasn’t that far off into the future, especially if RI was already cloning humans.

“You’ll get there someday,” said Martin, patting his friend on the back.

“With a little bit of luck,” said Tim. “At least I can put in my application and hope for the best.”

“Or hope that they are desperate enough to take just anyone,” chimed Shawn, earning a playful punch from Tim.

Tim didn’t get a chance to fully retort to that statement, as Claire the evil VP came around the corner and caused the little group to split up awkwardly to avoid getting in trouble.

“Who is that?” asked Kelsey as she and Martin walked back to his cube.

“The VP of Engineering here at RI. Her name is Claire,” replied Martin in a low whistle. “Just about everyone thinks she’s a royal bitch.”

Kelsey giggled. “Why is that?”

“Well, she just is. If we hadn’t broken up, she probably would have written all of us up for just standing around,” said Martin.

That seemed to be good enough for Kelsey and they made it back to his cube a moment later. Surprisingly though, Tim’s face popped in after a minute.

“Hey, Martin, by the way, don’t forget that today is Annabelle Henry’s last day,” said Tim in a low whisper.

The bottom almost fell out of Martin’s stomach. He’d almost forgotten that Annabelle had put in her two weeks’ notice. Unfortunately, she was losing her fight with cancer and could no longer work.

It was probably for the best. Annabelle wasn’t well enough to do the job anymore, and Martin doubted whether anyone would want to spend their last days working. If anything, she should be savoring what time she had left with her family.

“I’ll stop over to say goodbye,” promised Martin. “It’s not going to be the same without her.”

“No, it won’t,” said Tim as he shook his head. “It’s a shame we couldn’t get into organ testing. We could have made her a new pancreas.”

Tim’s statement left a lasting impact on Martin. It didn’t make sense that Annabelle had to die because they wouldn’t clone her a new pancreas, especially when Martin got away with cloning Kelsey entirely.

Sometimes fate really could be cruel.

Despite the ominous tone that Tim’s message left, Martin still promised Kelsey that he would show her around the building. Since he’d already covered most of the office area, he brought her around to where the main doors were for the testing area.

Kelsey became quiet as she stared at the entrance.

“So right back there is where all the magic happens,” said Martin. “The RI testing area.”

“It’s where I was made,” said Kelsey absentmindedly. “Hard to believe that you created me back there.”

“More like recreated you, but yeah, you’re right. It was quite the process too.”

Kelsey’s eyes locked on his. “You never did tell me the whole story of how you did it. Especially without getting caught. I just remember being smuggled out in a hazmat suit and that’s the end of it. You went through a lot of trouble just to make that work.”

“To say the least,” said Martin with a chuckle. “I had to wait until no one was around, which was no easy feat. I had to use an old friend’s key to get in, as well as his access code to move forward with the cloning. Then I had to reprogram the cameras so that they wouldn’t record me moving through the facility.”

“Sounds intense,” said Kelsey before she looked back at him with big, doe eyes. “Was it worth it though?”

“Everything about being with you is worth it,” said Martin as he kissed her. “Trust me about that.”

CHAPTER 17

THAT ANSWER SEEMED to satisfy her, and they continued on their tour through RI until they came to the offices of the researchers where there was a small commotion. Martin could immediately see that the commotion was due to Annabelle Henry, who was now in the midst of saying her goodbyes to her colleagues while packing her things.

There wasn’t a more pathetic sight than Annabelle. At one point, Annabelle had actually been a very attractive girl, but all the rounds of chemo had aged her considerably despite her relative youth. She always wore the same oversized brunette wig that was a bit too large for head as well as big glasses that hid the deep bags under her eyes.

The rest of her looked quite frail even though she was relatively tall for a woman. If there was one word to describe her, that word would be sickly. Annabelle had clearly seen better days.

“Are you close with her at all?” whispered Kelsey as they approached Annabelle.

“So-so,” replied Martin. “Enough to talk with her but we’re not as close as Tim or Shawn.”

Annabelle seemed to notice them at that point and put on a warm smile. “Martin, hey! Good to see you!”

He put on a sad smile. “Good to see you too, Annabelle. I heard today was your last day.”

She looked like she was struggling to hold it together. “Yeah, unfortunately, it is. It’s just getting a little too hard for me, no matter how much I try to deny it.”

At that point, Annabelle’s eyes swept past Martin and seemed to notice Kelsey for the first time.

“I’m sorry, let me introduce you to my girlfriend, Kelsey. I was just giving her the tour of RI for the first time,” said Martin.

“It’s really nice to meet you, Annabelle,” said a very somber Kelsey. “Martin has said some very nice things about you.”

Annabelle cracked a small smile. “He’s one of the good ones, I can tell you that.”

“I’m so sorry to hear about your story,” continued Kelsey. “It’s so devastating. Cancer runs in my family too, and I’ve lost two aunts to it already.”

Annabelle nodded as the smile disappeared. “Sometimes I wonder why me? Why do I have to go through this when I’m so young? I’m not even thirty yet, I shouldn’t have to be worrying about cancer. But here I am.”

Annabelle suddenly took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to put my problems on you. It just gets really hard sometimes.” She looked to be on the verge of tears.

That was enough to trigger Kelsey to embrace her. Martin wasn’t surprised at the sudden hug, always remembering Kelsey for her caring nature. If anything, Annabelle certainly seemed like she needed a hug right now.

“I think the thing that really gets me the most is that I’ll never be able to do so much of what I’ve always planned,” said Annabelle. “I wanted to move up in RI but I also wanted to get married someday. I wanted to travel the world. I wanted to go on my own adventures. And now I can’t even work because I just don’t have the energy for it. And I know I don’t have much time left. It just seems very unfair.”

“Maybe some time away from work will be for the best,” said Kelsey, still trying to see the positive. “Maybe it’ll recharge you and help you finally kick the cancer.”

Annabelle smiled. “You’re sweet but I know what’s really going to happen once I leave here. I’ve made my peace with it. Everyone dies at some point. Mine is just going to be a little sooner than most.”

Kelsey swiped a tissue off a nearby desk and handed it to Annabelle, who promptly thanked her. “I’m sorry, you didn’t come here to listen to my woes,” said Annabelle after blowing her nose.

“We don’t mind if you need to get it off your chest,” said Martin. “Even if it helps you process.”

She nodded. “I feel like I’ve had too much time to process lately. Too much time thinking about what the next couple weeks are going to look like. I have to wonder whether I need to say goodbye to everyone that’s close to me because I might never see them again.”

Annabelle had to sit down after saying that, obviously losing some of her strength. There wasn’t a more wretched sight anywhere in the world. If anyone deserved to live, it was this young woman with her entire life ahead of her.

Her story really seemed to resonate with Kelsey too. Kelsey asked a lot of questions about her treatment and her struggle, and Annabelle was all too willing to share. Martin knew exactly how that went. Kelsey was someone you felt you could talk to, even if the subject was sensitive. She was just a great listener.

Even though they’d only been chatting for a few minutes, Martin got the impression that Annabelle was someone who could be a good friend to Kelsey. They were soon talking about jobs, shopping, and of course fashion in short order.

“I love this sweater of yours,” said Kelsey as she pointed to one that was strewn across Annabelle’s chair. She picked it up and ran her fingers over the material. “You’ll have to tell me where you got it.”

Of course, that sparked about another ten minutes of talking, but it definitely seemed therapeutic for Annabelle. The tears still hadn’t stopped but she didn’t seem nearly as sad after time spent talking with Kelsey.

“Anyway, I should probably get back to packing,” said Annabelle after she worked her way through her third tissue. “I still have a lot to do.”

“That sounds like an excellent idea,” came another voice from behind Martin. “We don’t want to be causing distractions here at work.”

Martin turned around to find himself face-to-face with Claire Pulliam. She had a stern look on her face that was only muted by the faintest hint of a smug expression.

“Sorry, no distractions here,” said Martin as he tried to defuse the situation. “I was just showing my girlfriend around RI. I’ll get this wrapped up now.”

Claire pursed her lips, looking annoyed. “That’s all well and good but I was actually referring to Annabelle here.” She then focused her glare on Annabelle instead of Martin. “Can you please cut out all the commotion and stop interrupting my workers?”

Annabelle glared back at her, and for a brief moment in time, Martin temporarily forgot about the fragile, dying researcher. This version of Annabelle looked to have some serious steel in her spine. It was obvious that there was something between the two women, and they did not like each other at all.

“Fine, I’ll be leaving shortly anyway,” said Annabelle while crossing her arms.

“Fantastic,” quipped Claire. “I think we’ve had enough distractions today anyway.”

She left it at that, walking away immediately. Martin felt the awkward tension of the encounter and so too did Kelsey, but Annabelle planted her hands on her hips and glared at the back of the retreating VP.

“Fucking bitch,” swore Annabelle under her breath before looking back at Martin. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”

“Well, you’re not wrong,” said Martin as he started to smile.

“She’s the worst. She is such a bitch, you have no idea,” said Annabelle, feeling enabled enough to unleash her true thoughts. “Everyone at RI hates her, even the CEO. I don’t know why she stays here other than to just make others miserable.”

At that moment, Annabelle gestured to a brain scanner on her desk. “It even makes me regret that I’m taking one last scan for them, so they can see the effects of the cancer on my brain. I should’ve just told them no to spite her.”

“I got the impression that there’s a lot of history between you two,” said Kelsey.

Annabelle growled. “That’s putting it nicely. We’ve had our run-ins. But then she did something that was truly unforgivable. It’s the reason why I’m even in this situation.”

Annabelle stopped right there as an odd look took hold on her face. It was a look that suggested she’d said too much, and Martin wondered just where she was going with that statement.

“What do you mean by that?” he asked. “What did she do?”

A tear fell down Annabelle’s cheek but she started to shake her head. “It’s not that important. And I really can’t say.”

“Which one is it? It’s not important or you can’t say?” asked Martin.

“Both,” replied Annabelle. “Listen, forget I said anything. Just do me a favor and make her life hell while you can. At least for me, since I won’t be able to anymore?”

Martin started to laugh. “I’ll do what I can, I promise.”

Annabelle reached over and hugged him. “I’ll never forget you, Martin. You were a true friend and I’m really happy to have known you.”

Martin hugged her back tightly. Even though she felt so thin and frail, he couldn’t help but secretly admit that he liked the way she felt in his arms.

After hugging him, Annabelle turned to Kelsey and embraced her too. “It was wonderful to meet you too, Kelsey. You hang onto this one, okay? He’s one of the good guys.”

Kelsey patted her back affectionately. “I’ll definitely do that, I promise.”

CHAPTER 18

ANNABELLE GAVE them a sad wave as she walked back over to her office. Her desk was already full of boxes, and for the first time since Martin arrived at RI, her space looked nearly empty.

“What a terrible story,” said Kelsey as they walked back to Martin’s cube. “Just awful, I feel so bad for her.”

“It breaks your heart a little, doesn’t it?” he replied. “Poor Annabelle.”

“It’s so sad that there’s nothing that can be done,” she continued. “And there’s no one more deserving than she is!”

Martin wasn’t surprised how passionate Kelsey felt about Annabelle’s predicament. After all, that was just who Kelsey was. However, he had no idea that Kelsey would continue to digest Annabelle’s situation for the rest of the day, long after she went back to their apartment after her visit to RI.

In hindsight, Martin should have expected what awaited him the moment he got home.

Not only had Kelsey made his favorite meal—meatloaf and potatoes—but she also greeted him at the door wearing nothing but a smile. They fucked passionately on the kitchen table while the meatloaf grew cold, but Martin was one happy guy as they finally sat down to eat.

That was when Kelsey hit him with a bombshell.

“So I’ve been thinking,” she said while nonchalantly taking a bite of her meatloaf. “What if we cloned a new pancreas for Annabelle?”

Martin almost dropped his fork. The piece of meat in his mouth nearly choked him.

“What did you say?” he asked, staring his girlfriend directly in the eyes.

Kelsey smiled and then returned to her meatloaf like it was no big request. “Well, I’ve just been thinking an awful lot about Annabelle’s story. It’s just not fair. All she needs is a new pancreas and we know we can make that happen.”

“What do you mean ‘we’ can make that happen?” asked Martin.

“Well, you can make that happen,” she corrected. “But you know what I mean! If RI is cloning humans and I’m total proof of that, why can’t we clone a simple organ?”

“I can think of a million reasons why we shouldn’t!”

“Like what? Name one,” she challenged.

“For one, it’s illegal!”

She gave him a deadpan look. “That didn’t stop you from making me, did it?”

“It was still illegal, though! That’s the first one.”

Kelsey pursed her lips. “What else do you have?”

Martin began to tick off his fingers. “We didn’t ask Annabelle if she wanted us to clone her a new pancreas. For all we know, she might not want that. Secondly, revealing to her that we could do it would also put your status in jeopardy, something I’m not willing to do. Thirdly, what would we do with an actual pancreas? We’d still need to get it inside her, which would be something else entirely. Fourthly, breaking in again would be another risk. Do I need to keep going on?”

Kelsey seemed prepared for his objections because she then began to tick off her own fingers. “You saw the look on her face today. She wants to live, and I’m sure she would accept a new pancreas if that meant life. She also works as a top-level researcher at RI. I’m sure she already knows what they are doing behind closed doors, so that wouldn’t jeopardize anything she didn’t already know. You’ve also already done the process once successfully which tells me you could do it again with probably much less risk this time around. And that’s not to mention that organ donors are a thing and I’m sure any hospital would perform a needed surgery if they had a donor pancreas.”

Martin shook his head. “It’s not that simple. They would ask way too many questions. Where did the pancreas come from? Who is the donor? Most importantly, how did we get it? I mean, we can’t just waltz into a hospital with a human pancreas in a cooler of ice and hand it over. It doesn’t work that way!”

“However it works, we have a chance to save her life, Martin!” said Kelsey as she waved her hand. “We don’t need to figure out the logistics of getting the pancreas inside her just yet. But we can make a decision that will extend the life of someone who is truly deserving. Isn’t that worth the risk?”

Martin let out a long sigh. “I can see why you’re so passionate about this.”

“I really am,” she confirmed. “I got a second chance. Why shouldn’t she?”

“But this is something that is a needless risk. I’m going to miss Annabelle and it’s definitely terrible about her situation but we have to think about ourselves first. We have to protect you first.”

Kelsey’s eyebrows tightened. “That’s about the most selfish thing I’ve ever heard you say, Martin.

“What? It’s true! I’d be putting you at risk if we got caught, Kelsey.”

She used her napkin to wipe her mouth and put her fork down. “I’m suddenly not very hungry anymore.” With those words, she stormed away from the table and slammed the bedroom door.

Martin couldn’t help but think she was being ridiculous. In his mind, he pictured what it would look like just to hand over a cloned pancreas to a doctor. In every scenario, it ended up with him being arrested and the authorities finding out the truth about Kelsey.

As much as he wanted to save Annabelle, he didn’t want to risk Kelsey in the process. Hadn’t he sacrificed enough of his life just to have the chance to bring Kelsey back? Why would he ruin it now?

Unfortunately, as set as he was in opposing Kelsey’s idea, she seemed to be equally as set in making it happen. She stayed locked in their bedroom for the rest of the night, only coming out to go to the bathroom at one point. Martin attempted to talk to her but she cut it off before he really got started.

“Martin, I don’t want to talk about this until you see things from her perspective. Yes, it’s risky as hell, but it’s the right thing to do. When you start seeing that, then we’ll talk about it.”

That seemed to put the ball right back in his court, and it let him know just how serious she was about the whole thing. And after he truly began to think about it, suddenly it didn’t seem like such a terrible option as it was before.

Kelsey was right about one thing—he was confident he could get in and out of RI without getting caught. No one seemed to suspect what he’d done with Kelsey, and he was also fairly confident that Annabelle would choose life over death.

But even when he started to think about actually getting the pancreas to her, that was when his faith faltered. He supposed he could leave a note with it and sent it to the hospital with Annabelle, especially if she was really sick and in need of it. Then they hopefully wouldn’t be able to trace it back to him. It was the flimsiest idea but they just might get away with it, especially if they thought it was from some kind of anonymous donor.

Martin didn’t love the idea. He still thought it left the door open to too many risks but seeing how much Kelsey cared about it, he knocked on her door as the clock ticked closer to midnight.

A very sleepy and red-eyed Kelsey answered.

“Okay, so say I do this,” started Martin. “We have to be totally lock-step with the whole process. I mean we tell no one and we focus on total anonymity. I’m still not sure how we’d tell Annabelle either but I’m guessing we’d have to do it anonymously.”

Kelsey pointed over to Martin’s laptop, which was settled against his nightstand. “I’ve already looked her up online, and I know where she lives. We can leave the pancreas at her house to find it and explain in a note what we did. Of course, we don’t sign it or anything and we wear disguises in case we’re caught on any cameras.”

Even though that part seemed fairly plausible in a crazy sort of way, another roadblock soon occurred to Martin.

“What about the hair specimen?” he asked. “I doubt Annabelle has any hair of her own due to the chemo and now that she’s left RI, we’ll never get one.”

Kelsey beamed with a smile before she walked over to the nightstand and pulled out a small baggie. Inside was one strand of short, blonde hair.

“I plucked it from her sweater earlier today,” said Kelsey proudly.

Martin was flabbergasted. “You did what? You plucked it when you picked up her sweater? Just when did you start planning this?”

“I had the initial idea when I first saw her and knew she needed help,” said Kelsey defensively.

“How do you even know it’s her hair? Maybe it could be her cat’s hair or something. I’m sure she doesn’t have much hair because of the chemo,” said Martin.

Kelsey shrugged. “From what you told me, the replicator should be able to tell if it’s her hair or not. And if not, then no big deal. But if it is, then we’re in.”

Martin put his fingers in his eyes. “This is getting out of control.”

“This is the right thing to do, Martin. You know this. Am I wrong?”

Martin shook his head. “This idea is still too risky. Are you sure you want me to do this? We can’t go back after this is done. Are you really sure?”

Kelsey smiled and started to nod. “I’m definitely sure but I don’t want you to do this alone.”

He raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“If this is really going to happen, I’m going to do it with you.”

CHAPTER 19

MARTIN STILL WASN’T sure how he got roped into this whole thing. It was nearly a week after Annabelle had stopped working at RI and at this very moment, he and Kelsey were wearing hazmat suits and sneaking toward the testing area of the company.

Kelsey insisted upon coming with him despite his protesting. Her argument for joining him was simple yet final.

“I want to see the whole process that created me. I find it greatly fascinating, and I want to be able to come to terms with my clone creation,” she said, as if it were the most natural excuse in the world.

“It’s too risky, it’s unsafe, and an extra person is just another way we could get caught,” argued Martin but the matter was already settled.

When Kelsey set her mind to something, it was already as good as done.

Thankfully, getting back into the testing area had been just as easy as the first time. Martin used the prerecorded camera feeds like before, and he also waited until the dead of night to sneak into the facility, ensuring there were no other personnel around.

Just like last time, Martin picked an empty replicator and soon fired on the supercomputer. Kelsey was responsible for bringing the cooler but she also surprised him by bringing a small bag of clothing with her.

“What’s the clothing for?” asked Martin. “We don’t need clothing if we’re just cloning an organ.”

Kelsey played it off as a simple overlook. “My mistake. I guess I wasn’t thinking very clearly about it.”

“Well, try to stay with me. Any mistake could get us caught!”

Martin turned on the workstation and selected the correct genus before inserting the piece of hair that Kelsey had collected from Annabelle’s sweater. Sure enough, the hair belonged to Annabelle, and a full blueprint of her genome appeared on the screen.

“Let’s see here, we should probably edit out the cancer so that this new pancreas doesn’t end up an exact copy of the old one,” muttered Martin as he studied the options on the screen.

He pressed a few buttons, one of which removed any abnormalities from the genome imprint specifically relating to cancer.

“Bingo,” said Martin. “All set. This new one will be cancer-free.”

“Yay,” said Kelsey excitedly. “That’s great news.”

Martin went to hit the replicate button but found there was an error that popped up right away. It wasn’t hard to see the reason for the error—the doors to the growth chamber were still wide open, and they would need to be closed before the process could begin.

“Hold on one second,” said Martin as he trotted over to the chamber. “I’ll go ahead and close the doors. You hit the replicate button as soon as I’m done. Deal?”

Kelsey smiled and moved closer to the workstation. “Deal!”

Martin walked over to the chamber to close the door, and then he flashed the thumbs-up sign back to Kelsey.

“Here goes nothing,” she yelled, hitting the button.

The replicator roared to life. Inside, the first stages of the process began as the word “Blueprint” soon flashed on the screen.

“Now we just have to wait ninety minutes, right?” asked Kelsey as she sank against the wall on the opposite side of the growth chamber, which cut off her view of what was happening inside. She patted the ground next to her in a gesture to have Martin sit as well, which he took.

“Ninety minutes exactly,” said Martin. “Know what we can do to pass the time?”

Kelsey grinned wickedly. “I know one thing we can do to make it pass very quickly.”

“Kelsey!” he scolded. “Not in here. We have to keep the hazmat suits on to protect our identities.”

“Come on, Martin, live a little, okay?” she teased as she removed the headgear and made a move for him.

Before he knew it, they were frenching quite intensely while the replicator did its work. Martin had no doubt that if the hazmat suit wasn’t a single piece, Kelsey would have found a way to have sex right there on the floor.

They stayed like that for the first thirty minutes of what was going on until Martin felt like he wanted to see what was happening in the chamber. When he stood, most of the lights inside were down low but it seemed like the mold was larger than he expected for just an organ.

“I wonder how much of that space is actually used for the pancreas,” he asked as he saw the giant mold inside. “It almost looks like the size of a human body in there.”

“Hmm, I wonder,” replied Kelsey.

It wasn’t until the second to last stage, Refinement, that Martin realized something was terribly wrong. The lights turned back on in the growth chamber and Martin’s jaw dropped.

That wasn’t a mold for just a single pancreas.

There was a woman in the mold.

Not just any woman, it was a clone of Annabelle!

“What the hell did we do?” yelled Martin as he pounded on the glass. “We didn’t make a new pancreas! We made an entirely new Annabelle!”

He rushed toward the workstation to find an abort button but there was nothing to be found. Either there wasn’t an option for abort or they were too late in the stage to even have that be an option.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, we’re fucked!” yelled Martin as he pushed his forehead against the glass. He spun around and looked at Kelsey. “You hit the replicate organ button, didn’t you? How did this happen?”

Kelsey could only give him an embarrassed smile in return. “Actually, I backed out of the organ part and clicked to clone a new copy of her entirely.”

Martin couldn’t speak. He could barely breathe. All he could do was stare back at his girlfriend while remaining utterly flabbergasted.

“You did WHAT?” he yelled.

Before she could answer, the last stage, Awareness, flashed on the screen. The doors to the growth chamber opened.

“Hello? Where am I?” called out a newly-cloned Annabelle.

“We’re so fucked,” swore Martin.

CHAPTER 20

“HELLO? WHERE AM I?”

The voice of the cloned Annabelle echoed throughout the growth chamber. Martin and Kelsey were still standing next to the replicator while the newly-cloned Annabelle waved her hand from inside.

There was no time to decide what to do. Martin had to react.

“Quick, let’s get her dressed!” hissed Martin to Kelsey. “We need to get her out of here and back to the apartment!”

That was easier said than done, especially when Annabelle saw two figures in hazmat suits coming toward her without knowing a single thing about what it was all about.

It also didn’t help the fact that she was also completely naked. Martin tried not to stare but he couldn’t help but admit that Annabelle looked hot! He’d never really thought of her as a sexual being thanks to the cancer, but this cloned version looked positively gorgeous.

Annabelle’s hair was only a few inches long at the current moment but it was a rich and gorgeous blonde that most women could kill to have. It was a far cry from the oversized wig that the real Annabelle wore around RI, and the clone looked much more beautiful.

Gone too were the ravages and wrinkles caused by the various rounds of chemo. Annabelle’s skin was smooth and soft, and her blue-green eyes glistened with strength and sex appeal. She had a wonderful straight nose and high cheekbones, as well as sexy pink lips and a dazzling array of pearly teeth.

Then there was her body. Martin had to steady himself as he looked at Annabelle’s large breasts, which were easily as big as Kelsey’s. They were capped with perfect pink nipples that were a shade lighter than Kelsey’s but just as thick.

At the moment, Martin didn’t dare look below the waist. There was just too much to process.

Not to mention, Annabelle was looking at both of them like they were about to kill her.

“Who are you?” she challenged. “What do you want?”

Martin pulled the headgear off, which immediately caused Annabelle to be more confused than frightened.

“Martin?” she whispered, looking at him. “What are you doing here? Where are we? And what in the world are you wearing?”

She even recognized him! Which meant this clone had the benefit of a brain scan.

Too many questions swirled around Martin’s brain, but there was no time to get answers now.

“Listen, Annabelle, there’s a very good explanation for all of this,” started Martin. “But we need to get you out of here right now! There’s only one place you can be safe at this moment, and we need to get you back to my apartment immediately.”

The words sounded crazy coming out of his mouth, and he fully expected Annabelle to tell him to go pound sand. At the very least, he expected her to cover up her nudity.

She did neither.

“I’ll come with you if you’ll explain what’s going on,” said Annabelle, standing up and presenting more of her body to his view.

“Hand her the clothes,” whispered Martin to Kelsey. “We need to get her dressed.”

Kelsey also took off her headgear in the process and surprisingly enough, Annabelle seemed to recognize her like she did Martin.

“Kelsey? You’re here too?”

“Just helping out a friend,” said Kelsey with a smile, as she handed over the clothes. “We’ll explain more in a bit but we really need to be leaving.”

Once she was fully dressed, Martin, Kelsey, and the newly-cloned Annabelle made a beeline for the locker room, all the while praying that they’d encounter no other visitors at RI. With a little bit of luck, they were able to escape the building in their street clothes and make it back to Martin’s apartment, where he promptly latched the door and fell back against it.

No sooner had Annabelle stepped into the apartment had she found a chair and promptly collapsed in it.

“How did I get so tired all of a sudden?” she murmured as her head dipped against her chest.

Martin remembered this part well from Kelsey’s cloning, and he knew that Annabelle would need to sleep. He walked over to the chair and helped her to her feet.

“Come on, Annabelle, let’s get you to bed,” he said as he pivoted toward his spare bedroom.

“No sleep. Want answers,” said a clearly exhausted Annabelle, now losing her fight with consciousness.

“Answers will come, I promise you that,” replied Martin, having a moment of deja vu.

With a little help from Kelsey, Martin was able to get Annabelle situated in the spare bedroom. She was asleep from the moment her head touched the pillow, allowing Martin and Kelsey to escape back to the kitchen.

Seeing that he’d bought some time, Martin’s emotions came flaring back. The strongest emotion of the night was anger.

“What the hell did you do?” he exclaimed to Kelsey as his arms flapped out. “You cloned a new Annabelle, not her pancreas! I don’t even want to know how you did it but why? What on earth was going through your head?”

It was the first time he could remember being this angry with Kelsey. His poor girlfriend knew just how upset he was too. She lowered her head and was reluctant to meet his eyes, looking like an upset child.

“I’m sorry, Martin,” she said in a near whisper. “I just thought—”

“You didn’t think,” interrupted Martin. “If you thought our problem was bad before, it’s ten times worse now! We have a clone of a girl that’s still alive in our spare bedroom! What the hell are we going to do with her?”

“Can you let me explain?” she asked. “I was thinking about what you said, and I honestly don’t think this makes things any harder.”

Martin’s mouth dropped open. “You’re really going to need to explain that one.”

Kelsey chewed on her lip for a moment while he waited for her to start speaking. Eventually, she crossed her arms and looked at the floor. “I just thought that cloning an organ was going to be the harder route. For all the reasons that you explained earlier. We’d have to keep it in a cooler, get it inside of Annabelle, get a doctor to perform the surgery without asking too many questions, and all the while without getting caught. It just seemed like too much and I went searching for an easier route.”

“It didn’t seem so daunting to you when we decided to go through with the plan,” said Martin.

“Well, I had more time to think about it and having a realistic clone of Annabelle made things a little easier,” continued Kelsey. “We know the original Annabelle is dying, right? She’s not going to last much longer.”

“From what I heard this morning at work, she only has a week left tops,” added Martin.

“So, what I was thinking was that we go talk to her parents,” said Kelsey. “We show them the clone and they get their daughter back. Yes, the real one still has to die and that’s unavoidable but the clone will be an exact copy. No one has to know.”

“Except her parents,” said Martin. “And the people at RI when a fully healthy version of Annabelle shows back up to work one day.”

Kelsey shrugged. “She can take some time off to recover as part of her back story. Only her parents have to know. And us, of course.”

“What I really want to know is how you got the brain scan?” asked Martin, before it suddenly dawned on him. “Wait, she mentioned a scan to us when you visited the office. She said she had one more scheduled.”

Kelsey gave him an innocent look. “Annabelle told me the last thing she did was submit one last brain scan, so that RI could have a complete picture of her cancer’s progression. I simply pointed the scan to the last one she took, after she met me.”

Martin put his fingers in his eyes. “This is so wrong on so many levels.”

“Why, Martin?”

He snorted. “Why? Why isn’t it? We cloned Annabelle without her permission! We have no idea if she even wanted to be cloned! She probably would have gone along with the pancreas idea but in this case, the original has to die! We don’t know how her parents feel about cloning. They might reject us. Most importantly, you lied to me! You changed the plan without telling me, and I’m seriously pissed at you for that.”

Kelsey looked like a child that had just been scorned. “Martin, I’m so sorry. I just figured that with how hard it was to talk to you about just doing the pancreas, it would be downright impossible to suggest doing a full clone.”

“Because it is downright impossible! Now we have a full clone sleeping in the spare bedroom. And we have to figure out what to do about her. We need some kind of solution and if we can’t find one, then what? Then I have another clone in my apartment that I’m not sure what to do with!”

That was putting it a bit too harshly, and Kelsey recoiled from his words like she’d just been struck. “Is that what you really think of me? That I’m just useless because I’m supposed to be dead?”

Martin let out a deep sigh. “You know what I meant. Yes, I’m glad to have you back but we still haven’t figured out how I’m going to provide for you long-term. And if we have to do that with Annabelle too? That’s really going to make things tough.”

Kelsey stuck out her bottom lip. “We can think of something. We can get through this together, I know we can.”

Martin shrugged. “How?”

She took a step closer. “I’m not sure but you and I can get through anything. I believe in us, Martin.”

He couldn’t resist the barb that came out. “Not enough to tell me beforehand that you changed the plan.”

Kelsey stopped in her tracks. “I just wanted to do something that was good. I really felt for her when I heard her story. Yes, I’m sorry, I did something very stupid but my heart was in a good place, I promise! I’d never do anything to willingly and maliciously betray your trust, Martin.”

Kelsey didn’t let him respond. She came into his arms and crushed herself against him. Tears fell from her eyes and she kept muttering the same phrase over and over again.

“I’m so sorry, Martin. Don’t be upset with me.”

It was hard to be angry with her. Especially with her pouty lips and big, tear-filled eyes. As much as he wanted to continue to yell, Martin couldn’t.

She was right about one thing—her heart was in the right place.

“We just need to figure out what to do when she wakes up. We need to tell her everything and let her decide. Like it or not, she’s not just a clone, Kelsey. It’s the same with you. You’re a person now too. And we owe her the respect that comes with it.”

“I’ll follow whatever you decide,” whispered Kelsey before taking his head between her hands. “I’m so sorry, Martin. I love you more than anything in the world. I promise I won’t keep something like this from you again.”

She leaned up on her toes and kissed his lips gently.

“Just don’t do something like that again,” he muttered as soon as her lips pulled away.

Kelsey gave him a coy grin. “Can I make it up to you? I hear that make-up sex is the best kind of sex out there.”

Martin shook his head. “Maybe another time and not with Annabelle sleeping back there. That would make me feel weird, especially if she woke up to hear your screams of orgasmic bliss.”

Kelsey’s cheeks flushed. “You like when I get a little noisy.”

“This is true, but she might not,” said Martin, pointing to the spare bedroom.

Only with some reluctance did Kelsey agree. She didn’t love the idea, but she loved the next one even less.

“I think I’m going to sleep out here on the couch tonight,” said Martin, causing a look of total rejection to appear on Kelsey’s face.

“Let me explain,” he said, noticing her expression. “When Annabelle wakes up in a weird place, she might be a little panicked. She might do something crazy or try to leave the apartment. I want to be in a position where I can intercept her if she tries that, and I can’t do it from our bedroom. I’ll sleep on the couch and when she wakes up in the morning, I can try to calm her down if she’s upset.”

Kelsey started to pout again. “I don’t want to sleep in that big bed all alone though. You keep me warm.”

Martin handed her an extra blanket. “This will have to do for tonight then.”

She didn’t like it but she did it anyway. Martin grabbed a pillow and tried to make himself comfy on the couch but his mind continued to race. He had no idea what he was going to do tomorrow when Annabelle woke up.

Just how pissed was she going to be?

What if she went to RI and told them what he did? Or the police?

What if their grand idea was a total dud? What if it compromised his relationship with Kelsey?

There were just too many unanswered questions. Martin tossed and turned for a good two hours before he finally fell into an exhausted slumber.

CHAPTER 21

THE FIRST THING that Martin saw when he woke up the next morning were a pair of blue-green eyes looking back at him. It took him a moment to figure out who they belonged to, but he startled awake as soon as he did.

“Annabelle, holy shit!” yelled Martin as he scooted up on the couch. “You scared me.”

The reason he was so unsettled was because this new version of Annabelle looked nothing like the old version.

This version of Annabelle was gorgeous.

Gone was the frumpy wig that made her look mousy and ugly. Annabelle’s natural blonde hair was now long enough to touch the middle of her back. She had clear and unblemished skin without a trace of the ravages of cancer.

What was even more unsettling was the tiny tank top that she wore now, which clung to her body and really accentuated her breasts. Martin recognized the top as being one of Kelsey’s, and it seemed to fit just as well on Annabelle’s body as it did his girlfriend’s.

Despite Annabelle looking like a ravishing seductress, the expression on her face was anything but confident right now. In fact, she appeared completely confused.

“Martin, you need to tell me what’s going on please,” she said while folding her arms under her breasts. “Where am I? Your apartment? Why am I here and what’s going on?”

Martin sat upright on the couch and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. “That’s a really complicated answer, Annabelle. Perhaps we should wait until Kelsey gets up. Then we can all sit down together and talk.”

“Why is Kelsey so important that you can’t tell me without her?”

Martin winced. “Well, she was a big part of this decision too.”

Annabelle didn’t look convinced. “I still don’t know why we’d have to wait for her for you to tell me what’s going on.”

He attempted to argue while standing up from the couch but that was when something interesting happened. Over the course of the night, Martin got a little warm sleeping out on the couch. He’d pulled off his shirt so he could sleep with only his gym shorts. Now as he was standing, Annabelle had a completely candid view of him being entirely topless.

And boy did she notice.

For a split second, Annabelle’s eyes traveled all over his body, taking in the sight of his chest and arms. It wasn’t that Martin was particularly built or anything. He took decent care of himself and all those years of playing sports had left their mark on his physique. But to look at Annabelle’s face right now, it was like she was staring back at Adonis.

“Ah, sorry, Annabelle,” he said with some embarrassment as he grabbed his shirt and put it on.

Annabelle took a moment to come back to reality, and her cheeks tinged with red when she next met his eyes. “I couldn’t be any more confused right now.”

“Hold on, we’ll answer your questions,” he promised as he ran over to the main bedroom, leaving Annabelle alone temporarily. He found Kelsey still sleeping in their bed. The blankets had pulled down slightly over the course of the night and her tank top was riding up her delectable tummy. Martin resisted the urge to kiss it and instead shook her away gently.

“Annabelle’s up,” he said simply once her eyes focused on his. “And she’s wanting answers. I could use your help.”

Kelsey murmured something as she sat up in bed and Martin asked her to repeat it.

“I said I’ll be out in a minute,” she mumbled.

He nodded and soon returned to Annabelle, who had by now made her way to the kitchen. He could already tell that something was wrong by one look at the alarmed expression on her face as she turned on the television set to the morning news.

“Martin, why are they saying it’s the twenty-ninth of September?” she asked. “I know for a fact that it’s only the twenty-sixth.”

“I can explain all of that but you might want to sit down for this,” said Martin as he guided her to one of the kitchen stools. Annabelle went willingly but it was clear he’d need to spill everything soon.

She was getting impatient.

Thankfully, Kelsey soon joined him in the kitchen, and together, they looked upon Annabelle like two parents would look at an unruly child.

“Good morning, Annabelle,” said Kelsey brightly. “Did you sleep okay last night?”

“I slept just fine,” said Annabelle impatiently. “Now can you get on with what’s really going on here—”

“You’re a clone,” blurted out Kelsey suddenly. “That’s the whole deal here. You’re a clone. If everything just seems too weird and you’re wondering how you were living your life one minute and then waking up to see Martin and I the next, it’s because we cloned you.”

Annabelle looked like she didn’t know how to react. Her eyes flickered between Martin and Kelsey as she struggled to process. “Excuse me?”

Martin winced. He wished Kelsey would have been a bit more subtle in her approach but now that it was out there, it was time to go all in.

“She’s right, Annabelle. You’re a clone. You’re a clone that was made at RI,” said Martin before he took a long breath. “You were made by us.”

“Made by you,” sputtered Annabelle. “What in the world are you talking about? How can I be a clone? What is going on? Did you two drug me or something?” Her eyes locked on Martin. “What did you do to me!”

Martin put his hands up. “You’re dying, Annabelle. You’re dying right now. The original you doesn’t have much longer to live and we didn’t want you to die without getting a second chance—”

“Wait a second,” she interrupted. “What do you mean? I’m already dead?”

Martin shook his head. “It won’t be long now. We think it’s only a matter of days until you . .. until you pass. You see, our plan went a little off the rails. We were going to clone your pancreas first but we . . . ended up with another you.”

Annabelle reached across and smacked his shoulder hard. “You cloned me without my permission! My original body doesn’t even know?!”

“Not exactly,” whispered Martin.

She smacked him again on the shoulder. The next one landed right on his jaw. Martin took a step back and rubbed it while Kelsey jumped between them.

“Wait just a second now!” Kelsey shrieked. “We did this to help you! We didn’t want you to die!”

“I barely even know you!” yelled Annabelle in return. “Why should I care what you have to say?”

“I’m a clone too,” said Kelsey frantically. “I’m in the same position as you. I’m already dead!”

That seemed to get Annabelle’s attention. She lowered her voice and stopped trying to hit Martin.

“Prove it,” said Annabelle behind clenched teeth.

Martin was already diving for his laptop. “Hold on, I’ll show you everything. Kelsey is telling you the truth. You’re both clones and I can prove it.”

Martin repeated the same process as he did with Kelsey that first morning after her cloning. He pulled up Kelsey’s obituary and the news article of her death.

“She actually died two years ago,” said Martin quietly as Annabelle read the obituary. “She was my girlfriend at the time. I was devastated without her. If I could have done anything to bring her back, I would have. I started working at RI a year after her death and I realized they’re doing human cloning.”

Annabelle looked at him sharply. “How do you know that?”

“I just do,” replied Martin, not wanting to let her know about Keith. “And it weighed heavily on me until I couldn’t think about anything else. I cloned Kelsey to give her life back.”

“I know I’m a clone,” said Kelsey as she grabbed her hand and waved it in front of Annabelle’s face. “See this marking? This is new. We believe this is what marks us as clones. You have one too, see?”

Kelsey grabbed Annabelle’s hand, showing off the same marking between her knuckles.

For her part, Annabelle gawked at it. “So it is true,” she whispered.

“What’s true?” asked Martin.

“The cloning mark,” she whispered. “I’d heard that human clones were marked by something that looked like a small mole but it’s not. It’s actually real.”

It was Martin’s turn to gawk. “You know that RI was doing human clones?”

Annabelle nodded. “Of course I knew. I’m on the research team. I could get in a lot of trouble for telling you, but something tells me you’re going to be in trouble already.”

“We took every precaution to make sure no one knew we were there,” said Martin defensively. “As far as I know, we went into the testing area without notice.”

Annabelle threw her hands up. “So you’re regularly breaking into the testing area on your own and making clones? What are you doing—making your own harem?”

Kelsey shook her head. “This was my decision to clone you, not Martin’s. Martin only wanted to clone your pancreas.”

“And you still didn’t explain how you knew about human cloning,” added Martin.

Annabelle blew a strand of hair out of her face. “Do you think there’s anything that goes on at RI without my team’s knowledge? Of course not! I knew we’d performed testing on human cloning. Limited testing, I might add. No one is making clones just willy-nilly like you just did.”

“Not from what I saw in the testing area,” said Martin as he shook his head. “It looks like human cloning is a lot more frequent than anyone would want to admit. Especially since it’s illegal.”

Annabelle shook her head. “None of that matters right now. What matters is what you two did. I’m basically an illegal clone and you never asked my permission to do this. What the hell are you going to do with me now?”

Kelsey shared a guilty look with Martin before answering the question. “We were thinking about checking with your parents. Hopefully we’ll be able to replace your original version with the new you and then you can continue to live your life.”

Annabelle snorted. “What about my parents? I highly doubt they’ll go along with your scheme. Either way, their real daughter dies and that’s not going to make them happy. Plus, they don’t approve of cloning. They are very religious and see it as a sacrilege, so I know they wouldn’t be okay with this!”

Martin winced. “Well, that’s something we still have to figure out.”

“What about the cancer?” asked Annabelle. “It’ll come back eventually and then what?”

“We edited it out of your genome,” said Martin. “That was one of the conditions of doing this. We didn’t want you to have to deal with it again.”

For once, Annabelle managed to look happy. “You did that? I’m cancer-free?”

He nodded his head. “As free as can be. You might be upset with us and I can’t say I blame you for that, Annabelle. But I promise you, we did this with good intent. Yes, we could have gone about it in a much better way.” After that statement, Martin gave Kelsey a pointed look. “But I swear to you our hearts were in the right place.”

Annabelle really seemed to consider what he said for a long time before responding. She moved back into the kitchen and sat down in the chair, thinking to herself. The silence was deafening but at least she wasn’t shouting anymore.

“I never expected that I’d be a clone one day,” she said in a calm voice. “Especially with what I know about RI. And I’m really curious how you figured it out, Martin.”

“As far as I know, the secret is safe with me and no one else that’s not supposed to know,” he replied. “I was going to stop with Kelsey but well, she convinced me this would be a good idea.”

Annabelle’s gaze moved over to Kelsey. “Why is that? We only met for one afternoon. Why did you care so much?”

“Because I do,” replied Kelsey. “When I met you at RI, we had a really nice conversation. I really liked talking to you, Annabelle. You’re a good person and you don’t deserve what’s happening to you.”

Annabelle pursed her lips. “A life without cancer. I can’t say that it’s not appealing in its own way.”

“That’s what we’re hoping for,” said Kelsey. “We wanted you to live and be happy, not die far too early for someone as nice and intelligent as you. I understand if you’re angry with us though. What we did was reckless, absolutely. But I swear we only had your best interest in mind.”

Kelsey fell silent as her head drooped. Martin picked up where she left off.

“Plans changed a little,” he finished while putting a supporting hand on Kelsey’s back. “And here we are. With a whole new and cancer-free you.”

Annabelle started to nod. “Can I look in the mirror? I want to see myself.”

Kelsey left the kitchen and soon brought back a small mirror that she used to put on make-up. She handed it over to Annabelle.

Annabelle nearly dropped it as she let out a loud gasp.

“Oh my god, I’m me again!” she said, touching her face with one finger as if she couldn’t believe it. “I don’t look like I’m forty anymore! I’m me! And it’s the me that I forgot even existed.”

“It’s the you that I didn’t know existed either,” said Martin quietly. “My entire time at RI, I’ve just known you with the cancer and the wig. But look at you now, Annabelle. You’re beautiful.”

In retrospect, Martin wasn’t sure if he should have said that out loud. Kelsey didn’t seem to mind the words but it seemed to have an effect on Annabelle. She gave him a small smile of appreciation but that wasn’t the part that worried him.

What did worry him was seeing how Annabelle’s nipples were soon poking out of her tank top.

His face turned red with embarrassment and he turned around as Annabelle soon figured out the source of the problem. She made a move to cover herself but when their eyes met again, the smile hadn’t disappeared.

That in itself was all the more confusing. Wasn’t she still upset about the cloning? And if she was wired the same way Kelsey was, why the hell would she be horny right now?

CHAPTER 22

SURPRISINGLY, Annabelle was the first one to break the silence. “Well, we sure appear to be in a pickle right now.” She looked at both of them as the small smile never left her lips.

“To say the least,” said Martin quietly. “So your parents are very religious then?”

Annabelle nodded. “Extremely. It’s been a constant bone of contention between us. They don’t approve of my work because to them, it makes a mockery of God’s plans. I’m sorry if your plan was to get their approval to replace me. They will never go along with that.”

Kelsey gasped. “Even if it meant getting their daughter back and getting a chance to live out a full life?”

Annabelle nodded and the level of pain in her eyes was astounding. “That doesn’t mean anything to them. To them, it’s God’s plan for me to die and that’s all there is. Especially if the chemo didn’t work, then my plan wasn’t to stay in this world.”

A tear fell down Annabelle’s cheek and she quickly wiped it away. It wasn’t hard to see that it was a difficult subject for her, one with long-reaching consequences. Not only would it affect her professional life, but now her very existence was in jeopardy.

It also called into question just what Martin was going to do with her if her parents rejected his plan. They couldn’t just turn an illegal clone out on the street.

Wouldn’t Annabelle have to stay with them?

He never got a chance to continue with that line of thought. Surprisingly, Annabelle looked directly at Kelsey as she spoke again.

“Kelsey, would you mind if I spoke to Martin in private for a moment? I understand all that you’ve done but I’ve known him a lot longer than you. Can you give us a few minutes alone?”

Kelsey nodded quickly. “Of course. I need to take a shower anyway. Take all the time you need.”

While Kelsey soon made for the bathroom, Martin was left in the kitchen with Annabelle. Her expression was largely unreadable. It was absent from all the emotion of earlier but it wasn’t quite pensive either.

Annabelle was unsettled, and she truly seemed to be lost with what to do with her fate now.

At least she didn’t seem to be the only one.

Finally, her eyes settled on his. “So what exactly are you going to do now, Martin?”

He couldn’t help but shrug. “I guess that’s the million dollar question now.”

“I wasn’t exaggerating about my parents,” said Annabelle. “They won’t accept a clone as a replacement daughter.”

“But what else would we do then, Annabelle? If they don’t accept you and the original you actually dies, we’re kind of screwed when it comes to options.”

Annabelle pursed her lips and looked at him. “I really should be so much angrier with you than I actually am. Seriously, Martin.”

“Do I even want to know why you’re not screaming right now?”

Annabelle actually smiled. “I guess it’s just coming to terms with the fact that I’m actually a clone. The culmination of so many years of my research is embodied in me. I think there’s something really cool about that, even knowing what it means for my personal situation.”

Martin sat down next to her. “So you’re a true believer, huh? Fully invested in human cloning and wanting it to be legal?”

She looked at him. “Doesn’t everyone who works at RI?”

“Not everyone. I’d say it’s still pretty fifty-fifty.”

Annabelle shrugged. “Not in my department. It’s probably because we’ve seen firsthand how exciting cloning can be. I’ve actually seen real human clones, Martin. It’s the biggest open secret at RI, especially at the higher levels. When you grasp that we did that, that RI did it, you can’t help but be proud.”

“You can be proud but it’s a dangerous power,” said Martin. “Look at the situation we’re in right now. I’m sure we’re probably not the first ones to be put in this position, especially if they’re already making other human clones. It’s really put us in a bad spot.”

Annabelle actually grinned at him. “No, it puts you in a bad spot. Or rather, you put yourself there when you decided to clone me.”

“That’s why we have to figure out something with your parents,” said Martin. “Or else you’ll just have to live here with me for the rest of my life,” he joked.

He didn’t expect the look that Annabelle gave him next. It was a look that was full of everything and nothing at the same time. She didn’t exactly recoil at the thought of such a fate but neither did she endorse it either.

It was a look that made him profoundly uncomfortable, especially with Kelsey in the other room.

“I’ll help you,” offered Annabelle. “You’re right about one thing—your best chance is making my parents believe. It’ll be a long shot but I’ll help you. It seems to be the only option we have like you said. Although, it’s really going to be tough work making them agree to swapping out their daughter.”

Martin made a face. “Well, when you put it like that. It makes it sound like you’re just swapping out dead batteries.”

Annabelle started to nod. “Essentially, that’s what we’re doing here.”

“It makes it sound so inhumane though,” said Martin.

Annabelle started to laugh. “Does it make sense why I was so upset about it in the beginning? Imagine what would happen if the real me found out? Imagine how she would feel? I don’t even like it and I’m not even the one getting the raw bargain.”

Annabelle had a great point, and Martin hadn’t really considered that yet. How would the original Annabelle feel knowing she’d been replaced after her time was up? Did it rob her of the meaning of life? Did she feel like she couldn’t be able to die with dignity since a replacement was ready and willing to take her place?

All of it put a more sober view into Martin’s head, one that he couldn’t easily swallow.

“How are you really feeling about this whole thing now?” asked Martin, testing the waters. “Do you hate me forever?”

Annabelle laughed again and shook her head. “I don’t hate you, Martin. It’s impossible to hate you. I guess I can understand why you did it, and I really hope you figure out a solution to this because I don’t want to spend the rest of my life illegally.” Annabelle then took a deep breath. “But truthfully, I couldn’t really hate you. In fact, if we’re being honest, I had a little crush on you when you started at RI.”

Martin’s mouth fell open. “Seriously? On me?”

She nodded and moved her fingers together. “Just a little bit. You didn’t notice?”

He shook his head.

“Well, I guess that’s not terribly surprising considering I never really acted on it,” she admitted. “But I always thought you were cute.”

That was totally surprising. Martin hadn’t even noticed but then again, it sounded like Annabelle didn’t want him to notice.

“How come you never told me?” he asked.

Annabelle shrugged. “Why would I? You started after my cancer diagnosis. I lost my hair and had to put on that awful wig. I felt terrible and sick all the time. I didn’t feel confident in myself nor did I feel like I was pretty either. Who was going to want me?”

“Someone would have,” said Martin.

She locked eyes on him. “Someone? Not you?”

“Well, I wasn’t exactly emotionally available at the time,” said Martin, remembering how long he moped about Kelsey’s death.

Annabelle smiled. “Looks like I’m not the only one making excuses now.”

The way she kept looking at him made him think there was something else behind her words. Was it flirtation that he was detecting?

No, it couldn’t be.

Not Annabelle Henry.

Or could it?

Before he could finish that line of thought, Annabelle opened up her arms and took a deep breath, stretching her body in the process.

“I really could get used to this,” said Annabelle after letting her arms fall. “I feel . . . alive. I feel like I used to feel, before the cancer took away so much energy and so much of my drive. I look like I used to look. This is kind of intoxicating, Martin. I haven’t felt like this in a long time.”

Martin couldn’t help but smile. “So what you’re saying is that I’m not on your shit list for cloning you.”

“I mean, I’m still not very happy with you,” said Annabelle with a soft laugh. “But you did give this to me. A second chance. You went about it in a very weird and honestly kind of stupid way.”

“To say the least,” agreed Martin.

Annabelle held up her hand. “But still, this is a gift. The gift of life. I’m alive right now and I don’t have to die anytime soon. Do you have any idea how hard it is knowing that you might not be alive for much longer? Or that your time is limited? You can’t even sleep because you don’t want to miss a single moment of being alive because someday soon, you won’t be. But on the other hand, some days all you can do is sleep because you’re so weak from the chemo. You scratch and claw for the ability just to live your life all the while something fights back at you, wanting to take it in the same breath. It gets exhausting, Martin.”

“I can only imagine what you went through,” said Martin. “When I said goodbye to you at RI, I could tell how much it affected you. Even though you don’t have that memory, it broke the heart of everyone to see you suffering the way you were.”

“I wasn’t truly living anymore,” she muttered before fixing her eyes on his. “But I want to live again, Martin. I want to live and never question a single day or a single action. I want to enjoy all the time that I can—every second of this new life that has been gifted to me.”

“Well, with any luck, we can convince your parents and then you can really pick up where you left off,” said Martin.

“Or maybe there’s another way for me,” said Annabelle quietly. “Maybe there’s another way I can be happy.”

At that moment, two things happened that caused Martin to panic. One was that he felt a hand reach over and grab his thigh, lightly rubbing up and down against the skin. It wasn’t hard to tell it was Annabelle’s hand that was making the movement. He followed her hand all the way back to her face, where she was once again wearing the coy smile that he’d seen earlier.

The other thing that made him panic was the way she was once again poking out of her tank top. Annabelle’s nipples were stiff—like two little nubs that were begging to poke their way through the thin fabric.

He had no time to extricate himself. In fact, Martin hadn’t even noticed that the shower water was no longer running.

“Ahem,” came the sound of a soft cough from the other side of the room.

Martin gave a guilty look at Kelsey while Annabelle pulled her hand back slowly. Annabelle never did stop smiling though, almost in recognition of what she’d gotten away with.

Martin looked over at Kelsey, expecting to see emotions of anger play out on her face. Even though she seemed to question what was happening at that moment, she didn’t seem angry.

It was a chance he wasn’t going to take though.

“Annabelle, can you wait here for a moment?” he asked as he stood up from his chair. “Kelsey, can I talk to you in our bedroom?”

CHAPTER 23

THAT WAS PERFECTLY fine with Annabelle, and it wasn’t a moment later that Martin shut the door behind him as he and Kelsey entered their room.

Martin’s anxiety temporarily spiked when Kelsey crossed her arms and pursed her lips. “It seems like she’s getting a little fresh out there, right?”

It couldn’t have been a more loaded question and Martin initially stammered on his response.

“Maybe she’s just a bit confused,” said Martin. “After all, it’s got to be weird just being thrust into this position without any warning. She’s probably just acclimating to her surroundings.”

Kelsey seemed to consider that for a moment before ultimately accepting it. Her arms dropped and the weird look on her face disappeared. “I remember how crazy it was for me when I woke up the first time. Not to mention, how horny I was too,” she added with a giggle. “I’m sure Annabelle already knows all about that part though.”

“Probably so, and if I remember right, it didn’t take very long that day until you jumped my bones.”

“What can I say, just looking at you does something to me,” said Kelsey as she pushed her body against his. She was silent for a moment but what she said next shocked him.

“She is pretty gorgeous, isn’t she?”

What was with the loaded questions today? Was this some kind of test? Again, Martin found himself picking his words wisely.

“She’s a very pretty girl but she’s got nothing on you,” he replied, instantly proud of himself for dodging that minefield.

Unfortunately, Kelsey wasn’t going to let him off the hook that easily.

“No way, Martin, answer the question,” she said, craning her neck to look at him. “Do you think she’s gorgeous too?”

He gulped heavily. “Well, yeah, of course, but not compared—”

“Shh,” she interrupted, holding up her hand. “You don’t need to defend yourself constantly. You’re allowed to think other women are beautiful and sexy. I’m not going to be upset with you.”

It still felt like a test so Martin only reluctantly dipped his toe in the water.

“Okay, you’re right. She’s gorgeous. It’s incredible to see her like this and to realize what the cancer did to her,” he admitted.

Kelsey leaned up and kissed his nose. “See? Isn’t honesty much better overall?”

Martin gave her butt a firm smack. “You mean the same honesty about still wanting to clone just a pancreas and not a full human? That honesty?”

She managed to look embarrassed for a moment but it was completely adorable. “Okay, you got me there but still, Annabelle is pretty hot. It got me thinking about some things.”

Martin’s eyebrows furrowed. “What things exactly?”

She toyed with his sleeve. “Oh, just whether she might be interested in joining us a time or two. You remember what we talked about in the dressing room that one time when we were shopping? With the clerk?”

Martin swallowed heavily. Did he ever remember. It was the first time that Kelsey had mentioned the possibility of having a threesome with another girl. It was probably the culmination of all his sexual fantasies rolled into one.

Even still, he sensed he was still on shaky ground and didn’t give a full endorsement.

“I don’t think Annabelle would be interested in that,” he said dismissively. “I think we just need to get her to her family and see what happens then. We have a moral obligation to see this through and do right by her.”

Kelsey pouted playfully. “What a shame. I’ve always wanted to go down on a sexy blonde girl.”

“Kelsey!” hissed Martin. “Say that any louder, would you? She’s just in the other room!”

Kelsey giggled and reached down to rub the growing bulge outside his shorts. “Oh, come on, Martin! You can’t lie to me and tell me you haven’t thought about it. Seriously, two girls at once?”

Martin groaned out of reflex and not intent. Now his mind was awash with all the possibilities of what inviting Annabelle into the bedroom would look like. What was even more exciting was the fact that Annabelle seemed interested in him. If Kelsey was open to a little fun, could this really be a possibility?

Martin started to shake his head. “We shouldn’t go down that road. We just need to figure out what to do with her. Her life is in our hands right now, Kelsey.”

Kelsey’s face turned serious. “I know that, love. I’m just trying to fuel our sex for later. I thought thinking about a threeway would make you want me more.”

“I always want you. Seriously, there’s never a time when I don’t want you like crazy.”

Kelsey smiled and kissed him. “Maybe it’s better this way then. Annabelle is gorgeous—there’s no denying that. I don’t know if I would entirely like seeing her in bed with us. She might just steal you away from me.”

“I highly doubt that,” said Martin. “You’re the only woman for me, trust me.”

Kelsey beamed with a smile and started rubbing his crotch again. “Is that so, mister? It seems like you really mean those words, especially by feeling how hard my friend is down here.”

“Kelsey, we shouldn’t,” protested Martin as she lowered his shorts and took his bare cock in her hands. “She’s just out in the other room.”

“Well, it would be very rude of her to interrupt us then,” said Kelsey as their lips connected once again.

With a gentle shove, Kelsey pushed him back on the bed and dropped to her knees. She pressed her face closer to his cock, letting the shadow of it fall against her face. Her mouth opened as she studied it, giving tentative jerks and short licks.

“I’m so totally addicted to your cock, Martin,” she said as her tongue slid along the side of his shaft. “I can’t even put it into words. It’s like I was made to worship your cock and service you whenever you need me.”

Martin started to breathe heavier. “Fuck, it looks so sexy when you do that.”

Kelsey grinned wickedly. “You mean when I do this?” She then popped the head in her mouth and turned on the suction.

“Ah, fuck, yes,” groaned Martin as he watched her suck.

The tip fell out of her mouth but Kelsey wasn’t done yet. She took one long, lingering lick from the base of his balls all the way up his shaft, wiggling her tongue along the slit. “I bet you have a lot of cum in here for me. We haven’t had sex in almost twenty-four hours now. That’s way too long, Martin.”

She was right about that. Twenty-four hours for them was a long time without sex. In his mind, he pictured his eventual explosion of cum plastering her face and his cock lurched involuntarily.

Kelsey cooed with delight. “Oh, I think you like the idea of me making you cum! Can I make you cum with my pretty mouth, Martin? Do you want to shoot your huge load of cum all over my face?”

“Oh, fuck, yes,” groaned Martin. “I’d love that.”

“I’d love that too, baby. I’d love to see your cum dripping off my face. Maybe I’ll even leave it there so that Annabelle can see it too. Would that turn you on? To watch her acknowledge that I’m just a cumslut for you, Martin?”

Kelsey’s words were having the desired effect. She was barely even touching him but he still felt ready to burst. When combined with the suction treatment against the tip, his hips were surging forward, trying to bury himself in her mouth.

And Kelsey seemed to be loving it.

She smacked the tip against her tongue multiple times before going back to jerking him. “So hard, so strong, I love this cock! I love to feel you throbbing and shooting off when you cum. I love when you cum on me, but I especially love when you cum in me, Martin. Either my mouth or my pussy but especially my pussy. I like to picture all those potent spermies in me trying to knock me up. Fuck, you have no idea how wet I am.”

Then, as if to demonstrate, Kelsey stuck her hand in her shorts and pulled them out, her fingers glistening with evidence of her arousal. She smeared it against the tip and then tried to suction it again. “Mmm, we taste so good together.”

That about did it for Martin. Watching her perform such a gesture followed by Kelsey attempting to deepthroat him next set him off completely.

“Oh, fuck, I’m going to cum,” said Martin, feeling the pleasure begin to surge through his body.

Kelsey grinned wickedly and held his cock against her tongue. She stroked him rapidly as the first few spurts exited his body.

She was right about one thing—he did have a huge load for her that morning. Several jets hit her cheeks, her forehead, and several even made it inside her mouth. Kelsey didn’t stop stroking him until all the cum had left his body, leaving her face completely glazed in the process.

Not content with just receiving the facial, Kelsey began to use her fingers to scoop up whatever cum didn’t make it in her mouth. She sucked her fingers clean after every little bit she found, relishing in the taste of his body.

“So very good,” she cooed after the last bit made its way down her throat. “You could bottle that stuff and make a fortune!”

“I’ll take your word for that,” said Martin, feeling much more relaxed after getting such a nice orgasm. “You still need to clean your face though before you let Annabelle see you again.”

Kelsey shrugged and went to their bathroom, running some water to clean her face while Martin pulled his shorts back up. By the time they left their bedroom, Annabelle had moved to the living room and was now staring outside. She had a mischievous look on her face though, one that told Martin immediately that she’d heard much of what happened in the bedroom.

“Enjoy yourselves?” asked Annabelle with a coy grin.

CHAPTER 24

MARTIN MANAGED to turn red but surprisingly, so did Kelsey.

“Sorry, we were just talking a little,” said Kelsey in a quiet voice.

Annabelle snorted. “Well, I’d say that’s my favorite kind of talking but I know that’s BS because you missed a spot that’s still on your neck, Kelsey.”

Kelsey’s hand flew up to her neck where a small glob of cum escaped her notice. She looked mortified for a moment and she quickly made an excuse to run back to the bathroom.

Martin wasn’t sure if that was any better because now it left him alone to face Annabelle’s accusatory stare.

“You don’t need to be so embarrassed,” said Annabelle. “I really enjoy oral sex. Both giving and receiving.”

Again, visions drifted through Martin’s mind, and this time, it was harder to get them to go away.

“Sorry, Kelsey just gets in one of those moods sometimes,” he said, excusing her actions.

“Oh, I quite like those moods too,” quipped Annabelle. “Always enjoyable—for both parties.”

“Anyway, where were we?” said Martin, trying desperately to change the subject lest he get hard again. The last thing he needed was to give Annabelle any excuses to try to touch him again. While he sensed that Kelsey wasn’t upset about Annabelle’s move earlier, he did think she would be upset if it continued to happen.

That was why it was most confusing when Kelsey reemerged from the bedroom and put on her sneakers, wanting to go for a walk.

“I’m just going to step out for some fresh air,” said Kelsey, still looking embarrassed. “I’ll be back in a little bit.”

She was gone before either Martin or Annabelle could respond, but most worryingly, it left Martin totally alone with Annabelle once more.

Something that she seemed to notice as she pivoted her body to face him. “Just us again,” she said with a smile.

“Right, just us,” he confirmed. “So you didn’t answer my question. Where were we? How are you feeling now?”

Thankfully, she answered him without any sexual undercurrents or double entendres.

“Okay, I guess. I mean, what other choice do I have?” asked Annabelle. “We either make this work with my parents or else . . . well, I don’t want to think about what else. Things could be a lot worse though. I’m alive, right? Many people would say there’s always hope where there’s life. And let’s face it, it’s better off than being dead.”

“It seems like you’ve come a long way this morning,” noted Martin.

Annabelle smirked. “I’m keeping it together for now but no promises on what will happen if my parents turn us down. You might see angry Annabelle come out at that point again.”

“Well, no one wants to see angry Annabelle, especially if we can avoid it,” said Martin, jokingly. “But you know your parents the best out of anyone. Any ideas of how we can better our chances for success?”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to think about,” said Annabelle before giving him a coy look. “You know, while you and Kelsey were . . . occupied.”

Martin felt his ears burn. “Oh, right, that!”

“And I think the best chance for success might be if I talk to myself,” said Annabelle. “The original me.”

Martin’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Why is that?”

“Because I know me, Martin. I know how much I believe in RI’s purpose. I’m enthusiastic about cloning because I think there’s so many possibilities it gives our society. I think I can make my original self agree that this is for the best, and then maybe together, we can talk my parents into it.”

“Do you really think it will work?”

Annabelle shrugged. “It’s the best chance we have.”

“Then it’s what we’ll do,” said Martin. “You have my support in whatever way you need it. Just say the word.”

Something odd happened to Annabelle as he completed that sentence. A strange look took hold in her eyes, one that didn’t seem to be grateful at having his help but rather one that seemed to be tinged with signs of arousal.

It was a look that Martin was familiar with as he was used to seeing it on Kelsey’s face.

Now it was front and center on Annabelle’s.

Thankfully, nothing came from it, at least at first. Annabelle was content to talk about more lighthearted subjects for the next fifteen minutes, such as what their colleagues at RI would think if they knew she was cloned (shock and a little bit of awe seeing as how different she was from her original version) to some of the details that went on behind closed doors.

“She’s such a bitch!” said Annabelle while laughing, referencing the evil VP, Claire. “Do you want to know how much of a bitch she is?”

“Of course I do. Tell me,” replied Martin, chuckling with her.

“I really shouldn’t tell you this but the cat’s out of the bag now. You know all about cloning so no harm with this,” said Annabelle before taking a deep breath. “The CEO of RI offered to clone me a pancreas months ago. Can you believe that? He pulled me aside and made the offer to me flat-out. I never expected it but then again, I knew there were some discrepancies in what was happening there.”

Martin’s mouth fell open. “What did you say?”

“I was open to the idea,” said Annabelle with a shrug. “I even asked if I could think about it. I probably would have gone through with it had it not been for Claire.”

“What did she do?”

Annabelle started shaking her head. “She got in the CEO’s head that it wasn’t a good idea. That it was too risky, which is entirely laughable since they were already doing human cloning. She told him that it opened the company up to a needless liability and that I could be easily replaced.”

Martin looked shocked. “She really did all that? I mean, I don’t doubt that she would. We all call her evil for a reason but I’m just amazed that she’d rather let you die than save you.”

Annabelle bit her lip. “She is totally evil. She’s a complete bitch and she’s always disliked me. I have no idea why! I was so nice to her when I started. I don’t know if she felt threatened by me or what but it’s one thing to carry a work grudge and another to consign someone to death. She picked death, and for that reason, she’s a rotten bitch.”

“Well, at least you’re getting one over on her,” offered Martin. “You’re still going to live when you should have died. If anything, it’s a small form of revenge.”

Annabelle grinned at him. “You have a point about that. And I’ll take any one-up against Claire that I can get.”

Martin started to laugh, which in turn made Annabelle laugh. They stopped talking for a moment and seemed to enjoy the moment of jovial emotions between them but that was when Martin noticed something alarming.

One again, Annabelle’s nipples were hard. They were poking out of her tank top, the same way they were when she last made a move on him.

Looking at her eyes, he could see lust in them—a deep-suited lust that only seemed to be getting stronger.

And it had finally reached its boiling point.

Annabelle flipped her hair back and set her smoldering eyes on him. “Martin, can I tell you something honestly?”

“Uh, sure, Annabelle. What is it?”

She let out a devastatingly sexy smile. “Do you remember how I told you I had a crush on you when you first started at RI?”

Martin gulped. “Um, yes.”

Annabelle stood up and planted one foot after the other until she stood right next to him. She lifted her leg and settled herself right into his lap, putting both arms on his shoulders.

“That crush never left, Martin. I still have it right now,” she whispered as her face rested just inches from him.

Panic set in. Despite believing that Annabelle was devastatingly gorgeous, all Martin could think about in that moment was what would happen if Kelsey caught them. He tried to shift his body to escape but she locked her arms around his neck and held him in place.

Then she did the unthinkable.

Annabelle pressed her lips to his and kissed him soundly.

It was impossible to resist such a passionate kiss, no matter how badly Martin wanted to. He wanted to fling Annabelle off him and go find Kelsey, putting an end to any pretense that he was a willing participant.

But as Annabelle’s lips continued to mash against his, he found himself responding to them. He found his lips moving against hers, and he even found his mouth opening so Annabelle could stick her tongue in.

It was the only opening she needed. Annabelle moaned against his mouth and rolled her hips in his lap. Despite having an orgasm not long ago, Martin could feel the blood rising in his shaft. That this beautiful blonde in front of him was Annabelle Henry was unbelievable.

She just felt right in his arms. And her lips just felt too good.

“Kiss me again, Martin, please,” she whimpered against his mouth.

This time, he couldn’t help but respond. He pressed his lips to hers willingly as passion took hold. For a few glorious seconds, he was content to make out with Annabelle.

That is, until they were interrupted.

“What the hell is going on here?” demanded a female voice behind them.

Martin and Annabelle separated only to find Kelsey staring daggers at both of them. Her hands were firmly planted on her hips, and there was a look of intense fury on her face.

“Oh, fuck,” whispered Martin.

CHAPTER 25

“WHAT THE HELL are you doing with my boyfriend?”

Martin was frozen in terror. For one glorious moment, he’d been locked in a passionate embrace with Annabelle Henry, or rather the clone of Annabelle. After a tension-filled day where no one seemed to know what to make of their situation, Martin had let his guard down temporarily and soon found Annabelle in his lap, kissing him intensely.

The worst part about it was that he quite liked kissing Annabelle. Her lips were soft and her touch was incredible. It wasn’t better than kissing Kelsey but it was a pretty damn close second.

To make matters worse, Annabelle didn’t look all that embarrassed about being caught in the action. She put on a coy smile as she rose from Martin’s lap and reseated herself nearby.

“What the hell were you two doing?” asked Kelsey again as she looked back and forth at Annabelle and Martin.

It was the first time that Martin could remember ever seeing Kelsey angry. There had never been a question of fidelity in their original relationship and now he’d already been busted kissing another woman not long after he’d cloned Kelsey.

What the hell is wrong with me?

Unfortunately, Kelsey was done waiting for an explanation. She turned on her heels and stormed back to the bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

“Oops,” said Annabelle quietly before shooting him another coy grin. “I think we’re in trouble.”

For a very brief moment, Martin thought about inviting her back onto his lap to resume what they’d already started but he thought better of it. He pushed off his chair, making sure to tuck his erection under the waistband of his shorts. If Kelsey saw it again, she would be extremely pissed.

“Just wait here,” said Martin to Annabelle. “I need to try to fix this.”

Annabelle shrugged but nodded soon afterward. Martin moved through the apartment until he reached the bedroom door, finding it unlocked. He slipped inside gingerly, already on alert in case Kelsey was going to start throwing things.

Thankfully, she didn’t throw anything but she wasn’t exactly pleased to see him. She glared at him from her perch on the end of their bed.

“What the hell was that, Martin? Were you really that excited about the threeway deal that you couldn’t wait for me to get back?”

Martin winced. “It wasn’t what you think. She just jumped me, I swear! One minute we were talking about her plan to talk to her original self and the next, she was on my lap.”

Kelsey chewed on her lip. “Why didn’t you push her off then?”

“She just really surprised me. I didn’t have time to react,” said Martin. “Before I knew it, you were there and now I feel like the biggest asshole in the world.”

“That’s pretty fucked up, Martin,” said Kelsey before shaking her head. “I knew something was up with her. She seemed a little too fresh earlier.”

“How could you tell?” asked Martin.

Kelsey pointed to her chest. “Her turkey timers, obviously.”

Martin nodded and reached forward to take her hand. Kelsey didn’t seem nearly as angry at this particular moment but he knew he wasn’t safe just yet.

Kelsey pursed her lips. “You don’t think she’d try to steal you from me, do you?”

Martin stumbled before he could properly answer that question. In his eyes, Kelsey was the one that was the total package, not him. The fact that she admitted to being obsessed with him (and that he was good-looking enough to have another beautiful woman obsessed) seemed to defy all logic.

“No, I don’t,” replied Martin, taking her hands with his. “I think she’s a horny clone with surging hormones. It’s all the more reason to stick to our original plan. Annabelle wants to talk to her original self. She thinks that the two of them together can convince her parents to accept her as a clone. We have to keep to this plan and if we do, then we’ll have Annabelle off our hands.”

Kelsey started to nod. “I guess it’s better than nothing. Let’s just hope she does it quickly. Part of me thinks one day I’m going to come out of the shower to find that she’s riding you like a stallion.”

“I thought that’s what you wanted though?”

Kylie glanced at the ground. “I like the idea of fooling around but full-on penetration with her is something I’d have to get used to.”

Martin tried not to let his emotions show on his face. That thought wasn’t an unpleasant one—blonde, beautiful Annabelle rocking her hips in motion with his as they fucked on the bed.

Talk about being in a pickle.

“Martin?”

“Right, I’m here,” he said, trying to recover.

Kelsey tilted her head. “You were thinking about her fucking you, weren’t you?”

He had no suitable reply for that and his lack of response told Kelsey she was right on the money.

She swatted his arm. “No sex with Annabelle! I mean it, Martin! You’re my boyfriend, got it? Let’s just get her out of the house as quickly as we can and then we can go back to living our perfect little life, okay?”

She didn’t let him respond but Martin wasn’t sure if there was anything he could say that would make her less upset anyway. He left the bedroom to give her some privacy while he made his way out to the rest of the apartment.

At this point, nothing would have truly surprised him, and if Annabelle was waiting for him half-naked for his reappearance, he doubted he would have batted an eyelash.

Unfortunately for his fantasy, Annabelle was doing no such thing. In fact, she was just mindlessly watching the television. It became immediately apparent that the seductress that had just tried to jump his bones was now feeling a little embarrassed about her behavior though.

Annabelle gave him a sorrowful look. “I’m sorry, Martin. I hope I didn’t just put you in a bad spot.”

Her statement seemed genuine enough, and there didn’t appear to be anything further behind it than authentic honesty.

“It’s okay,” said Martin as he sat down a good distance away from her. “Things just happen sometimes, I guess. I can understand letting our emotions get the best of us. Kelsey’s going to be okay though.”

Annabelle arched an eyebrow. “It’s not that I let my emotions take over, Martin. I’ve wanted to do that for a long time. I’ve wanted to kiss you since I first met you.”

Martin gulped hard. “But you just said you were sorry for it?”

Annabelle shook her head, sending her blonde hair flying through the air. “I’m not sorry that we kissed. Yes, I know it’s due to my hormone level, and I’m sorry that it put you in a bad spot with Kelsey, especially because she seems really nice. But I can’t apologize for something that I didn’t think was wrong.”

Once again, Martin didn’t know how to respond. “Wow,” he said finally.

Annabelle smiled. “Did you like kissing me? I mean, it seems like you liked it. You were certainly poking me by the end of it.”

“Okay, we have to stop now,” he said, standing up as if to emphasize the point. “We can’t do this and we can’t go there. Not with Kelsey.”

He expected more of an argument but Annabelle simply shrugged. “Suit yourself. You don’t have to be in denial about it though.”

Was he in denial? No, Martin didn’t think so. He was all too willing to admit he enjoyed that brief moment of intimacy with Annabelle.

But it wasn’t enough to throw away his relationship with Kelsey, no matter how good of a kisser Annabelle was.

When he next glanced at Annabelle, it seemed he was the only one in that weird, awkward state. She looked back at him like she didn’t have a care in the world.

“Er, we should talk more about our plan,” said Martin finally, grabbing onto any topic of conversation that he could manage. “And about you talking with the original Annabelle.”

Annabelle nodded her head as if she was a young child being told to eat her vegetables from a watchful parent. “I know, and I told you I would do it. You just have to give me a day or two, okay? I’m not exactly sure how I’m going to go about this just yet but that’s my problem to figure out. All I need from you is time.”

Time was the hardest thing he had to give. Martin knew that as long as Annabelle was in the apartment, Kelsey wouldn’t be able to let her guard down. There was going to be tension between the three of them until Annabelle was gone.

How much time was he willing to devote to this?

“How much time do you think you need?” he asked hesitantly.

Annabelle shrugged. “I’ll let you know once I figure it out.”

Her answer hardly satisfied him, but then again, what else could he do?

Until she was out, they were stuck together.

CHAPTER 26

THE NEXT COUPLE days were just a little awkward.

It should have been incredible—Martin was now sharing an apartment with two of the sexiest women he’d ever laid eyes on. And both of them wanted to be intimate with him.

The problem was more between Kelsey and Annabelle than anything else. The two women had this tension between them now, one that hadn’t existed before. Kelsey now saw Annabelle as a potential competitor for Martin’s attention while Annabelle saw Kelsey as someone to eventually be pushed out of the way in order for her to be Martin’s girlfriend.

What made it even more confusing was the fact that Kelsey was the one that brought up a potential threesome with Annabelle. Why then had Annabelle’s kiss sparked so much jealousy?

For that reason, Kelsey was much more affectionate on the second day, and their sexual activity resumed a very normal yet frantic frequency.

Although, it was a little different than usual.

Kelsey seemed to get off on being as loud as possible during sex, especially when Annabelle was still in the apartment. It didn’t take Martin long to figure out what she was doing—marking her territory.

He figured that Annabelle would be pissed about their earsplitting coupling but the beautiful blonde showed no inclination that it bothered her. If anything, she seemed to enjoy listening to Kelsey’s thunderous moans.

It was a strange state of affairs and it couldn’t last for very long. They had to figure out a way to replace the original Annabelle with the clone and get her out of the apartment.

Thankfully, Annabelle took to the task with the same gumption that she took to her professional life. For those two days, she went out trying to make contact with herself, which became increasingly harder as the real Annabelle wasn’t getting any healthier. She was now at the hospital nearly full-time, which made visiting problematic because there was usually a family member in the room with her.

Annabelle seemed confident that she could make it work and while she was out of the apartment, it gave Martin and Kelsey some much needed personal time without constantly having to be on guard about any interlopers into their relationship.

Funny enough though, Kelsey’s attitude toward the whole thing began to change, and that occurred on the second day when their intimacy resumed to a normal level.

After a few minutes of intimacy, they collapsed together on the bed, and Kelsey soon wormed her way into his arms, resting her head against his chest.

“There’s nothing like good sex that can clear my mind and make everything seem so much better,” said Kelsey after a long sigh as she danced her fingers across his chest.

For once, Martin was inclined to agree. With all the tension around the apartment lately, it certainly felt good to let out some pressure here in the bedroom.

It also felt amazing to know that he and Kelsey were good once again, even if the Annabelle situation wasn’t quite figured out yet.

Kelsey turned her head so that her chin was planted into his chest. She reached her hand toward his face and gently caressed his cheek. “What are you thinking about?” she asked.

Martin shook his head. “Everything and nothing at the same time.”

“Sounds complicated.”

Martin chuckled. “You have no idea.”

“Well, I’m looking forward to the time when we have our apartment back to ourselves,” said Kelsey. “And we don’t have to hide in the bedroom every time we make love.

Martin gave her a funny look. “I don’t know about that. You seem to enjoy getting quite vocal and letting our guest know when we’re doing it.”

Kelsey managed to look temporarily embarrassed. “I didn’t realize I was being so loud.”

“Don’t think I haven’t noticed that you get louder when Annabelle is here.”

Kelsey fluttered her eyelashes. “I’m quite certain I don’t know what you mean.”

Martin snorted. “I bet you don’t.”

Kelsey didn’t respond immediately to that but she was content to rest her head against his chest once more. For a split second, Martin regretted bringing up Annabelle again in their bedroom, wondering if it was going to affect Kelsey. What he didn’t expect though was what she said next.

“Martin, would you ever seriously consider a threeway with Annabelle and me?”

Martin bolted upright. “Kelsey!”

She looked temporarily stunned. “What?”

“Are you serious? You’re asking about a threeway when you got pissed that she just kissed me?”

Kelsey shrugged. “It’s just a question and I really wanted to know your answer.”

Martin wasn’t sure if she really did. If he was being completely honest, a threeway with both Kelsey and Annabelle would be the highlight of many men’s lives. He could only imagine looking down at the both of them as they played with his cock. He would enjoy seeing the contrast between Kelsey’s dark brown hair and Annabelle’s blonde as they worked together to give him pleasure.

What man wouldn’t want that?

But could he admit such a fantasy to his girlfriend without hurting her feelings?

“Kelsey, nothing good comes from asking those kinds of questions,” said Martin finally. “Besides, I thought we covered this a few days ago.”

“So that means you’d want to have a threesome with her but you don’t want to hurt my feelings, right?”

Martin’s mouth dropped open. Was he that easy to read?

Kelsey smiled and kissed him again. “I suspected as much. I appreciate that you’re trying to protect me though. But you don’t need to worry. It’s just a question.”

“A question from where though? Why would you ask such a thing especially when the situation is this volatile?”

Kelsey shrugged. “I was just thinking about that time in the dressing room. Maybe Annabelle is the right person to make that happen? I think it would be a turn-on. Not only for you but maybe even for me.”

He gave her a funny look. “Are you saying you’re bisexual now?”

“I’m Martin-sexual,” said Kelsey with a giggle. “I’m down to do whatever would turn you on the most. And if that would be a threesome with Annabelle, then I would think about it.”

“Even with all the tension between you two?”

“Maybe,” said Kelsey coyly. “I don’t know. It’s just a thought. Like I said, I would think about it. It doesn’t mean I would ultimately say yes though.”

“It’s about to be a moot point anyway,” said Martin. “Especially when she convinces her parents to let her replace the original her.”

“You really think she’s going to get them to agree to it?” asked Kelsey.

“She seemed to be fully confident so we’ll see what happens. But usually, when Annabelle puts her mind to something, she makes it happen.”

“That brings up another good point though, Martin. What happens if she does succeed and her parents do accept her? Wouldn’t she eventually go back to RI? She’d still be in your life at that point, and you’d have to see her everyday. You can’t tell me that her attraction to you would just fade away.”

“There’s a lot of what-ifs in that scenario though,” said Martin. “And a lot of things that would be pretty far down the road. I’m not sure we would need to worry about that.”

Kelsey gave him a funny look. “It’s still a possibility though.”

Martin let out a long sigh. “There’s too many unknowns right now. And so much hinges on one little conversation. I just hope Annabelle can make it work for the sake of all of us.”

It was really wishful thinking because that evening, Annabelle came home from her second full day out. And she looked greatly disturbed.

“What’s wrong, Annabelle?” asked Martin once she walked through the door.

“So bad news time,” said Annabelle in a low tone of voice. “I just died this afternoon.”

CHAPTER 27

ANNABELLE’S NEWS turned the entire plan upside down. While all three of them knew what had to be done, it now became much harder to execute.

“So what do we do now?” asked Kelsey, her voice sounding defeated.

Annabelle shrugged. “The only thing we can do. I wanted so desperately to talk to me because I knew if we both confronted our parents together, we had the best chance of succeeding. It was always going to be a long shot but now I’m truly worried about pulling this one off.”

“So you didn’t get a chance to talk to you at all?” asked Martin. “Even after trying the last two days?”

“I tried but she was hospitalized and there was always someone in that room,” said Annabelle. “There was no point that I could just get in and be alone with her.”

“So now we have no choice,” muttered Martin. “We have to try directly with your parents.”

Annabelle winced. “This isn’t going to be good. And I’m afraid of what might happen now.”

“What do you mean?” asked Kelsey.

“I mean, they saw the original me as their daughter, right? The one dying of cancer,” said Annabelle. “As long as I could confront them together with her, they could see a piece of the original as well. I thought it would give more weight to the request. But now, they think their daughter is dead. And they’re grieving right now. If I just showed up now, I’m liable to give them a heart attack. I love my parents, you guys. I don’t want to hurt them any more than they’re struggling right now.”

“Then what are we supposed to do?” asked Kelsey. “If you can’t do it, then who will?”

“I will,” said Martin suddenly. He found both women staring at him as soon as the words left his mouth. “Somebody has to. Why not me?”

“You don’t have to do that, Martin,” said Annabelle quietly.

“Yeah, are you sure that would even help?” asked Kelsey.

Martin shrugged. “I have no idea and this just got a lot harder. But Annabelle has a point—she can hardly expect to talk to her parents now. Not when they think she’s dead. Maybe I could try then? I can come to them as not only a colleague of Annabelle’s but a friend.”

“A very good friend,” interrupted Annabelle, giving him a small smile.

Martin was inclined to smile back but Kelsey shot a glare at Annabelle, which caused him to resume speaking.

“But I can also come to them as a representative of RI. And I can make the offer since I knew Annabelle. It’s not the best solution but it might be the only one we have left.”

Both women didn’t respond to him right away. Martin could see that Kelsey was thinking about it as she chewed her lip. Annabelle was using her small finger to tap her chin, no doubt going over the same scenario.

Finally, Annabelle broke the silence. “Where would we do it then? If we’re to make this offer, where and when do we do it?”

“Well, I’m assuming there’s going to be a funeral,” said Martin. “It’ll be an excuse for me to see them that’s perfectly within the realm of normal. It might not be right to ask them there though because I’m assuming other RI people will be there. But perhaps I could get invited over afterward?”

Annabelle let out a small smile. “That should work well. They will know who you are once you introduce yourself, Martin. I’ve told them about you before.”

Martin raised an eyebrow. “You have?”

She nodded but managed to look embarrassed a moment later. It wasn’t hard to figure out why. It would seem that Annabelle’s crush on him went deeper than he ever expected. Predictably, Kelsey shot her another dirty look.

“All right then, it’s settled,” said Martin finally. “I’ll approach them at the funeral.”

The plan sounded good on paper but in practice, it quickly became a clusterfuck.

For one, Annabelle’s funeral was absolutely packed. Annabelle knew a lot of people, and even those that were merely acquaintances showed up to pay their respects. In some form or another, she touched the lives of a lot of people in her relatively short amount of time on the planet, and most of them wanted a chance to say goodbye. When you added in the fact that she died tragically young from cancer, there was practically a line out the door of the funeral home.

It also meant her parents were exceptionally busy thanking all the guests. It wasn’t hard to figure out who they were even though Martin had never met them. Annabelle’s father was just a hair taller than she was, and it wasn’t hard to tell that her mother was just a more aged version of Annabelle. Upon seeing them, Martin got the impression that they were no-nonsense type of people and that quickly became apparent once he started talking to them.

“So you’re Martin Kennedy,” said Annabelle’s mother as her eyes shimmered with tears. “Annabelle used to talk about you so much.”

Martin gave her a long hug. “I’m so sorry for your loss. Annabelle was a dear friend to me.”

“She had such a crush on you, I’m not sure if you knew,” said her mother. “The poor thing was always so worried about the cancer and what it did to her strength and beauty. But she talked about you frequently. She really liked you, Martin. At least I know she’s not suffering anymore. She’s in God’s kingdom now, thankfully. No more pain, no more cancer.”

Martin nodded, only understanding that now because of what the clone Annabelle had told him. “I just wish I would have known sooner, that’s all.”

He wasn’t exactly sure why he said that. Even if he had known about Annabelle’s feelings, would he even have done anything with them? He was held up on Kelsey for so long that he lost nearly two years of his life in the process.

But then again, the small voice in the back of his head asked the question—if he had known about Annabelle, would he have wasted so much time caught up on Kelsey?

It was a question without an easy answer but thankfully, he didn’t have long to get caught up internally because Annabelle’s father was soon shaking his hand.

“Martin, it’s good to meet you albeit not under these circumstances,” said her father, a stern-looking man that reinforced the no-nonsense impression. “Although I do feel like I know you already.”

“That’s what Annabelle’s mother said,” said Martin, shaking the man’s hand. “I’m terribly sorry for your loss. Annabelle was such a great person. She really had the whole world in front of her.”

Her father nodded his head solemnly. “She really did. Ever since she was a girl, she was the go-getter type. She was so intelligent too. She should have been a doctor with how smart she was. I’ll never understand why she wanted to work for that godless cloning company.”

Martin winced, soon understanding exactly what Annabelle had feared about having this conversation with her parents.

Annabelle’s father must have noticed the reaction because he quickly put his hand on Martin’s shoulder. “I don’t mean to insult you by the way. I just don’t think much of your industry. I’m sure you’re a fine young man after all. At least Annabelle seemed to believe so.”

“Annabelle spent most of her life believing in our mission,” said Martin. “Surely if it was that important to her, it must have been worth something, right?”

It was a question totally meant to feel out her father and do nothing else. If Martin had any shot at making this plan work, he had to find an opening in his armor.

Thankfully, he got one in the response.

“I suppose I just never understood her vision,” he admitted. “But working there made my Annabelle happy and that was good enough for me. Are you a father, Martin?”

“No, sir. Not yet anyway.”

“When you become a father, you start to care about your children’s happiness above all other things. Working at Replica Imagination made my daughter very happy, Martin. And I can’t quite knock it because of that, even if I don’t personally agree with it.”

It was about the biggest opening that Martin was going to get. Even though it was less than ideal, he plowed ahead with his plan.

“About that, sir, I was hoping that I might be able to talk more with you and your wife. A little more about Annabelle actually,” said Martin, trying his best not to stumble over his words.

Her father actually looked away for a moment. “Do you want me to grab my wife now?”

“No, not here,” said Martin quickly. “I meant maybe a little more privately. Possibly after the funeral?”

Her father started to tap his chin as he thought over the proposal. For a brief moment, Martin was able to see where Annabelle received her thinking tick from.

“I suppose we could have you over for dinner or something like that,” said her father finally. “Annabelle would have liked that. If only she could see it now—you actually coming over for a family dinner. She would’ve liked that.”

Even though Martin knew her father didn’t mean anything by it, he was still struck with instant guilt by his words. Had he been so hung up on Kelsey that he completely missed any signs from Annabelle?

“I’d like that, sir,” said Martin in response. “There’s something important that I’d like to talk to you about anyway.”

They made plans to get together after the funeral but Annabelle’s father was soon grabbed by another set of mourners, leaving Martin alone once more. The interaction had gone better than he’d planned and now he had a full invitation to Annabelle’s house.

Part one of his plan seemed to be complete but part two was where all the stakes were. Could he really convince them to accept the clone Annabelle?

The rest of the funeral went by slowly, as funerals often did. Martin saw several members of the RI team gathered to pay their respects, and at one point, they formed a small group off the main room that talked amongst themselves for the duration.

One thing that Martin made sure he did was to actually say goodbye to the original Annabelle. Shortly after talking with Annabelle’s parents, he made his way over to her casket.

It was distressing to see her laying there, especially when he remembered the last time he saw the original her at RI. Despite the excellent work that had been done on her body, it wasn’t hard to tell how the cancer had affected her over the years. It had certainly aged her. This version of Annabelle looked at least ten years older than the one back at his apartment.

In a way, Martin felt incredibly sorry for her. It wasn’t right that she was cut down in the prime of her life. What also wasn’t right was that he had no idea about her feelings for him. Part of him wondered if he hadn’t cloned Annabelle in the first place, would he have ever found out?

It was depressing to think about and it certainly didn’t put his head in a good space.

It was also weird to say goodbye because it wasn’t really goodbye. Even though he would never see this version of Annabelle again, he would go home shortly to find her clone. It really brought up an excellent question—was the clone version of Annabelle a true continuation of the original? Were they the same person or two?

And just what was he going to do with her if he couldn’t make her parents understand?

He was still asking himself those questions as he left the funeral.

CHAPTER 28

WHILE MARTIN WAS TRYING to find a way forward at the funeral, the girls were left to their own devices back at the apartment.

And for once in her life, Kelsey felt totally out of her element.

She just wasn’t sure what to make of the situation with Martin, especially now that Annabelle was involved. Not once in their entire relationship had she ever doubted Martin’s affections. From the moment they met, there seemed to be a definitive spark that ensured he never so much as looked at another woman.

But now that Annabelle had entered their lives, all of that had been turned upside down. For the first time, Kelsey felt serious doubt about their relationship. She feared that someone could potentially take Martin away from her.

It wouldn’t have been so bad if Annabelle wasn’t so damn beautiful. She was a far cry from the cancer-stricken girl they’d met back at RI. This version of Annabelle was healthy and stunningly gorgeous, a bombshell blonde with a nearly perfect figure. While Kelsey normally didn’t feel anxiety about her own body (after all, Martin nearly turned comatose every time she took her clothes off), she had to admit that she thought Annabelle was prettier than her.

What bothered her the most was that Annabelle was so tall. She was only two inches short of six feet, which meant she was nearly as tall as Martin. She also completely dwarfed Kelsey at her petite 5’4”. And while she didn’t have Kelsey’s hourglass figure, she did have bigger boobs as hard as that was to admit. Considering the fact that Kelsey wore a D cup, that was definitely saying something.

Kelsey had to face facts—Annabelle was a serious competitor for Martin’s affections. And even if Martin was successful tonight with talking to her parents, and Annabelle did go away, it didn’t mean she would be gone from Martin’s life forever.

No, a healthy Annabelle could still focus her affections on Martin while he was isolated from Kelsey.

For that reason alone, Kelsey wanted to try something different. There was still a tension between the two women—mostly an acknowledgment that they were competitors for the same man, and there wasn’t much in the way of conversation between them.

Tonight, that had to change. Kelsey figured that if she got to know Annabelle on a more personal level, perhaps there was a way they could put this silly competition behind them. Just maybe if a friendship could develop between them, Annabelle might just respect Kelsey enough to not encroach on the boundaries of her relationship with Martin.

It was a hope if nothing else. And all she could do was try.

For that reason, Kelsey soon joined Annabelle in the main living room of the apartment. The two women had previously tried to be in separate rooms at all times, and the sudden intrusion was noticed by the beautiful blonde almost right away.

Kelsey put on her friendliest smile. “Um, hi.”

It wasn’t much of a beginning, but it was certainly a start.

Annabelle gave her a wary look. “Oh, hello.”

Kelsey stretched as she tried to make herself comfortable on the couch. In the process, her already big boobs pressed up nearly against her chin, something that didn’t escape Annabelle’s notice.

“I wonder how things are going at the funeral,” said Kelsey in a nonchalant fashion. “I wonder if he’s making any progress.”

Annabelle let her guard down enough to join the conversation. “I’m on pins and needles wondering about that too. I wish I could be there. My parents can be very . . . intense. And with the whole setting and everything, I’m worried about it.”

“You really think they’re not going to want to go through with it?” asked Kelsey, hitting on her biggest fear.

Annabelle let out a deep breath. “My gut feeling says no but I’m not sure. Who knows what they would do? They just lost their only daughter. I’m sure their heads aren’t in a good place right now.”

“I guess it doesn’t make it easier that they are so religious,” said Kelsey. “So how did you turn out the way that you are? Working for RI and everything? Are you just not religious?”

Annabelle shook her head. “I mean, I believe in being a good person and everything like that but I don’t take it to the level they do. Sometimes I think they are really out of place in the world we live in.”

Kelsey nodded. “I just hope Martin can make progress with them. But if anyone can do it, he can. I just know it.”

Annabelle fixed her eyes on Kelsey. “You really love him, don’t you?”

Kelsey nodded without a moment’s hesitation. “I’m in love with him. I want to spend the rest of my life with him.”

For a brief moment, a look of immeasurable sadness appeared on Annabelle’s face. It disappeared quickly though, followed by a drawn out sigh.

“I do like you, Kelsey,” said Annabelle finally. “And I see the connection you have with him. It’s hard to miss it.”

Kelsey smiled. It was the first recognition of acceptance on Annabelle’s part. However, the smile soon disappeared with what came out of Annabelle’s mouth next.

“But I can’t help that I’m completely attracted to him physically and emotionally,” admitted Annabelle, causing her to look away from Kelsey. “And I’ve felt this way for a long time.”

Frustration appeared on Kelsey’s face. “But he’s mine, Annabelle. You just said so yourself. You can see our connection.”

“Yes, but I can see my connection with him too,” said Annabelle. “And when we kissed, I just felt sparks. Sparks like I’ve never felt before with anyone else.”

Kelsey found herself getting upset. “That’s nothing compared to what it feels like when I kiss him. Or when we make love. I’m sorry, Annabelle, but he’s my boyfriend. I’m not sure what I have to say or do to make you respect that.”

Annabelle focused her gaze on her. “So I’m just supposed to forget about my feelings? Throw them away like they never existed?”

“I didn’t say that—”

“You practically did,” said Annabelle, cutting her off. “I’m just supposed to accept that your connection is so much stronger than ours? Well, I’m sorry, Kelsey, but I’m not going to do that.”

“So what are you going to do then? Keep going after him until you’ve broken us up?”

Annabelle crossed her arms. “I don’t know yet.”

Kelsey chewed on her lip out of frustration. “This is getting ridiculous.”

“It’s already ridiculous,” challenged Annabelle. “We’re clones for god’s sake!”

Kelsey sighed. “I hope he gets your parents to take you back. No offense or anything but I can’t be on guard for the rest of my life with Martin.”

“Well, good luck with that,” said Annabelle. “Because you’re screwed if they don’t. I’m just going to have to stay here in this apartment with him. I have nowhere else to go.”

“And I have somewhere to go?” asked Kelsey. “I’m in the same boat as you. Everyone thinks I’m dead too so I can’t exactly leave either.”

“So then what?” asked Annabelle. “What do we do with each other? Because this competition thing isn’t going to end well, especially if this plan of ours doesn’t work out.”

Kelsey pouted. “I don’t know. I really don’t.”

And Kelsey truly didn’t. She had no idea what to do about Annabelle. The blonde was right about one thing though—neither of them could really be pushed out of the apartment if they had nowhere to go. Both were now legally dead. They were stuck with Martin as their protector the time being or until the laws on the books regarding cloning changed, something that was bound to be a long time in the making even if it gained mainstream acceptance.

The two women would have to figure out a way to live with each other even if they didn’t like it.

Kelsey wasn’t sure why but an idea popped into her head quite suddenly. It was one she didn’t entirely dislike even if it was quite radical in proposition. And it just might enable both women to get what they wanted.

“What if we came to some kind of agreement between us?” asked Kelsey timidly, testing the waters. “Something where if we were to be stuck here, we wouldn’t constantly be at each other’s throats?”

Annabelle narrowed her eyes. “What kind of agreement did you have in mind?”

CHAPTER 29

“MARTIN, my boy, welcome to our home.”

It was the day after the funeral, and Martin had just rung the bell on the Henry family home, finding Mr. Henry at the door. The patriarch of the family still looked like his normally intense self but he had a small smile on his face as he welcomed Martin inside. He didn’t appear to be as upset as he was the day before at the funeral but there was still an undertone of sadness inside the family home.

“Thank you for the invitation,” said Martin politely as he crossed the threshold. “You have a lovely home.”

That was completely true. The Henry house was located in one of the nicer parts of the town. The house itself was huge even just by looking from outside and inside, it was decorated with all the perks that came from modern living.

“I hope you’re hungry,” said Mr. Henry as he led Martin through the living room. “My wife has made quite the feast for us. Well, rather the servants have but my wife still likes to take credit for it!”

“I’m sure it will be delicious,” said Martin as they stopped in front of a wall of pictures in the room.

It was obvious to tell that Annabelle was their only daughter but the sheer amount of pictures there. While Martin could quickly figure out that Annabelle had two brothers, most of the pictures seemed to be about her. They were mostly all pre-cancer as well as they still showed her with the beautiful blonde hair that he’d come to associate with her clone. It was another stark reminder of how much the cancer had stolen from her.

“She was such a happy child,” noted her father after looking at several of the pictures. “Full of life and smarter than a whip. She was one of the best parts of my life.”

“She went too early,” replied Martin. “Way too early. If anyone deserved life, it was surely Annabelle.”

Her father didn’t directly comment on that but it was all part of Martin’s plan. If this was going to work, he had to insert references to how tragically young she was taken. As morose as it sounded, he had to remind them of their loss in the hopes that they would be so overcome with their grief that they would willingly take her back.

It wasn’t a strategy that he agreed with morally but it was the best way forward to find a place for the clone Annabelle.

They found Annabelle’s mother in the kitchen, supervising the small staff of servants preparing dinner. Martin was surprised by how many of them there were, but it made sense when he thought about how nice the house was.

“Martin, welcome to our home,” said Annabelle’s mother with another large embrace. She had tears in her eyes when she pulled away, and she quickly wiped them before she continued to speak.

“Thank you so much for coming to the funeral yesterday,” she said. “Annabelle would have been so happy to have you there.”

“It was the least I could do for someone as special as Annabelle,” replied Martin.

She patted his shoulder lovingly and they sat down for dinner soon afterward. Martin was centered in the middle of the table with each parent on either end. Most surprisingly, there was also a place at the table set for Annabelle, even though the seat remained empty. The servants continued to put the food on the table but Martin was soon surprised to feel Mrs. Henry reaching out to grab his hand.

“Will you say grace with us, Martin?”

Martin hadn’t said grace before a meal since he was a kid, but in light of the circumstances, he offered his hand to Mrs. Henry and she began shortly after.

“Lord, we want to thank you for this food in front of us here today. We also want to thank you for bringing Annabelle’s friend, Martin, to our table, which she would have loved. We also ask you to watch over our little angel and protect her now that she’s entered your heavenly kingdom. We’re thankful that she’s in a better place and not suffering anymore. In your name, we pray and give thanks.”

“Amen,” said Mr. Henry as he looked at his wife. “That was a lovely grace, dear.”

The whole thing made Martin profoundly uncomfortable, and it wasn’t just the religious stuff. It was the steady acknowledgment that Annabelle wasn’t coming back and, according to them, she was now in a better place than here in the living world—a recognition that they might not want her to come back.

Predictably, dinner started off as a very quiet affair. Martin could tell that Annabelle’s parents were usually not the type to talk during their meal, and he struggled to start the conversation with them knowing what he needed to say.

Finally, he could wait no longer. “I really do miss Annabelle already,” he said, setting the ground for the words to come. “It’s so hard to believe she’s gone.”

Mrs. Henry made a small noise and patted his hand. “It’s all right, Martin. She’s in heaven now. She’s in a place where there’s no more cancer and no more pain. Her ordeal is over.”

“No, I understand that,” said Martin, trying to rewind the subject. “I just miss actually talking to her. I wish she was back, that’s all.”

“So do we all,” said Mr. Henry between bites of food. “It just wasn’t God’s plan for her. None of us expected this but it’s all right. The heavenly father works in mysterious ways.”

The conversation wasn’t going the way Martin wanted it to go but he knew he still had to get there someway. He decided to plow ahead anyway.

“What if we have a chance to bring Annabelle back though?” suggested Martin with some trepidation. “What if her dying didn’t have to be God’s plan?”

The first thing he heard was the clang of silver. Mrs. Henry had dropped her fork and was now staring at him rather intensely.

“What are you suggesting, Martin?” she asked quietly.

He started to sweat. “I’m just saying that she was taken so young. Annabelle had her whole life ahead of her. She was going to do great things, you’ve said so yourself. It just seems profoundly wrong that she was taken so early.”

Mr. Henry raised his eyebrow. “We don’t disagree with that but I’m still confused on what you’re getting at, son.”

Martin gulped heavily. “What if we could bring her back? What if there was a way that Annabelle didn’t have to be dead?”

The next thing he heard was a surprised gasp from Mrs. Henry. She covered her mouth with her hands and was now looking at him like he was the devil incarnate.

“How could you suggest such a thing?” she squeaked. “You’re talking about . . .” She lowered her voice. “Cloning, aren’t you?”

“It’s a possibility, isn’t it?” said Martin, going for broke. “It’s a way that we could bring her back to life.”

“No, it’s most certainly not a way,” interrupted Mr. Henry. “What you’re suggesting is not only illegal but it’s entirely immoral. It goes against every principle I stand for.”

“But you would be getting your daughter back,” argued Martin. “We could make Annabelle come through that door today, right now. No questions asked.”

Mr. Henry fixed him with a studious glare. “And just who do you think you are that you can make this kind of offer to us? You’d break the law just to clone a copy of my daughter? You’d take over God’s role in deciding who lived and died? Who do you think you are, young man?”

“Listen, it doesn’t matter who I am,” said Martin, trying to avoid the topic. He didn’t want them to know that he had unlimited power with who to clone. “I have enough resources at my disposal that I can make the offer. I can bring Annabelle back. I can make her just the way she used to be. I can—”

Martin was interrupted when Mr. Henry slammed his fist down on the table. All was quiet for a moment as a look of rage appeared on Annabelle’s father’s face. He took a minute to grab his composure before pointing his finger at Martin.

“I’ve heard about enough of your blasphemy, young man,” said Mr. Henry in a calm and controlled voice. “You know my feelings about that RI funny factory. Yes, my daughter might have made it her life’s work but it wasn’t my cup of tea, I can promise you that. Cloning people goes against every belief that we have. It’s not God’s way! My daughter is dead and she’s now in heaven with her lord and savior, and that’s the way we want it!”

Martin found that hard to believe. “You’re never going to hug her again. You’re never going to see what happens to her life. You’re just going to let her be dead forever? A woman as bright and as promising as Annabelle?”

“It’s God’s will,” said her mother, earning an approving nod from her father. “If God meant for her to be alive, he wouldn’t have taken her to his kingdom. God meant for my daughter to die and that’s good enough for us.”

It was madness to Martin. That these two would let their religious beliefs prevent them from ever being with their daughter again was the cusp of insanity. Not to mention, what did it mean for the clone Annabelle? It consigned her to a life without much meaning, ensuring she would have to stay with Martin.

And suffer the consequences for doing so.

“Son, why do you seek to change our religious beliefs?” asked Mr. Henry a moment later, after Martin was out of words. “Why can’t you accept that our daughter is now in a better place?”

Martin answered that question quite honestly. “I can’t understand how someone can be better off dead instead of alive.”

“It’s because you don’t believe in God’s kingdom,” said Mr. Henry with a tone of superiority. “Perhaps you should look into it. I tried to get Annabelle to accept it but it didn’t take. Maybe you’ll have more wisdom to accept the nature of the divine and the miraculous.”

By this point, Martin had enough. There was no reason for this denial, apart from religious grandstanding that he couldn’t understand. All he wanted to do was to finish his meal and leave as soon as possible but Mr. Henry had one more point to bring up.

“You know, son, I don’t think you’ve thought through your offer at all,” said Annabelle’s father between bites of food.

Martin gave him an annoyed look at this point. “What part?”

Mr. Henry spread his hands apart. “Annabelle is already gone. We’ve had her funeral. Everyone she knows was there. They know she’s dead. Even if you had our permission to bring her back, which you certainly don’t, you would be bringing someone back from the dead. You’d never be able to keep it a secret. If she just showed up alive, it would raise too many questions.”

It was the first point of the night that Martin could actually understand. And he was upset with himself that he didn’t think of it first. Of course, it made total sense. Everyone she knew had already seen her dead.

“She doesn’t have to live here in this city,” said Martin, thinking of the first thing that came to mind. “She could move somewhere else. She could make a new life in a new place. At least she’d be alive.”

Mr. Henry shook his head while Mrs. Henry gasped once more. “You expect me to not only compromise my beliefs but make a false copy of my daughter and tell her she had to live away from all she knows and cares about? What kind of sick joke are you playing at, son?”

“I don’t know what Annabelle saw in you,” said Mrs. Henry, now that all her warmth had been replaced with venom. “You have some evil spirits inside you, I just know it!”

Now that Martin had worn out his welcome, the dinner was entirely over. He excused himself, knowing the plan was totally screwed.

Annabelle’s parents were all too happy to let him go but as he walked out the door, Mr. Henry called out to him before he was gone.

“I suggest you seek out the mercy of God’s grace, Martin,” said Mr. Henry as he clutched his wife protectively. “And don’t you dare do anything stupid now, do you hear me, son? I will not make a mockery of God’s will with my own bloodline. Don’t you dare blaspheme my house!”

Martin didn’t know quite what to say to that. He nodded without saying anything in response.

“And don’t you come back here,” said Mrs. Henry. “You’re not welcome in our house anymore!”

That seemed to be the end of it. Martin got in his car and left, not bothering to look back.

He’d never felt more screwed than he did right now. Not only had he failed Annabelle entirely, but now she was seriously stuck with him.

Annabelle was now in the same boat as Kelsey. She couldn’t be brought back without opening the door of danger for Martin. What was he going to do now?

CHAPTER 30

HE DIDN’T HAVE an answer to that question when he walked through the door to his apartment. Kelsey was the first person he saw, and she appeared to be alone, and he was thankful for that.

“Well?” she asked expectantly once he’d closed the door. “How’d it go?”

Martin couldn’t find the words to answer her. He just shook his head.

Kelsey’s hands went to her mouth. “Are you serious? They didn’t go for it?”

“Not a chance,” replied Martin. “And they think I’m the devil for even suggesting it. It’s never going to work.”

“How though?” asked Kelsey as she spread her hands. “Who wouldn’t want their own daughter back?”

“They are about as religious as it gets,” replied Martin. “And they won’t sacrifice their beliefs for anything. Not even for Annabelle.”

Kelsey nodded and pushed into his embrace. Martin held her tight, nuzzling his nose in her dark brown hair.

“What are you going to do now, Martin?” she whispered against him.

“The only thing I can do,” he replied. “I have to tell Annabelle. And I feel awful for failing her.”

Kelsey pulled back to look at him. “She’s going to be in a bad spot when you tell her. I’m just warning you.”

That hardly made him feel any better.

“Still, she deserves the truth. And she deserves to hear it from me,” said Martin.

It was at this point that Kelsey gave him an odd look. It was one that he didn’t easily recognize and so her words surprised him when they came out next.

“Go talk to her,” she said, urging him to the spare bedroom where Annabelle usually slept. “I’m sure you can make her feel better if you try. Tell her what’s going on and be the shoulder for her to cry on,” urged Kelsey. “I know you have what it takes to make her feel better.”

The words were innocent enough but it was the undertone beneath them that made Martin question them. It was almost . . . sexual in nature. It was like Kelsey was telling him to go to Annabelle and whatever happened, happened. But surely Kelsey wouldn’t suggest such a thing, right?

Did something change between the two of them?

Martin didn’t have to ponder it for very long as Kelsey was soon pulling him back to Annabelle’s bedroom. Annabelle was just inside, and she was taking a nap judging by her prone position on the bed. Martin took a moment to study her, wondering how he was going to break the news. In the process, he noticed that one strap of her tank top had fallen down her arm, revealing a more generous portion of cleavage than normal. For a girl as busty as Annabelle, that meant they were almost spilling out. Another inch or less and her nipple would be visible.

Martin tried to put aside the feelings of arousal by pulling up the blanket. He didn’t want to have those thoughts on his mind when he broke the news.

It was now time to be serious about her prospects.

Fortunately, Annabelle stirred as he sat down on the bed. Her blue-green eyes soon fixed on his and she smiled when she saw it was him.

“Now this is a pleasant way to wake up,” murmured Annabelle as she began to stretch. The stretch did nothing to fix the tank top situation. In fact, it made it worse and for a very brief moment, a small area of pink nipple came into Martin’s view.

It was gone in the next moment but Martin couldn’t help the stirring that occurred below the waist.

“Do you have a minute to talk?” he asked, putting the thought to the side.

Annabelle sat up in the bed and fixed her strap. Her face became serious as she soon figured out on her own why he was there.

“You’re back from meeting with my parents, aren’t you?” she asked, studying his face. “I’m almost afraid to ask how it went.”

“And I’m afraid to tell you,” said Martin.

Hope left Annabelle’s face. “They said no, didn’t they?”

“I’m so sorry, Annabelle,” said Martin, nodding. “I tried everything I could think of. They just wouldn’t budge. You weren’t kidding with how religious they are.”

Annabelle’s shoulders slumped forward. “I wish I was joking about that part. It’s always been an issue between us, especially in the last few years when I wouldn’t go to church with them.”

“They just wouldn’t hear of anything I had to say,” he said.

“Did you tell them I existed?” she asked.

Martin shook his head. “No, I didn’t think that would be very safe. I just told them I had the resources to make it happen but I kept it vague.”

“That was probably the best idea actually,” she replied. “If you told them you actually made me, they might have called the police.”

“Nobody needs that,” said Martin before centering his eyes on her. “I just don’t get why they feel that way.”

“They probably don’t want another version of their daughter,” said Annabelle simply. “I would be a poor replacement of the original, even if I don’t have the cancer inside me.”

“You are the original as far as I’m concerned,” said Martin. “I said the same thing to Kelsey not long ago. I don’t make a distinction between the original you and the clone. It’s all the same Annabelle to me.”

She actually smiled at that statement. “That’s because you’re an amazing person, Martin. There aren’t many like you out there.”

She reached out to touch his hand but Martin had sudden memories of the kiss between them. He let her touch him for a brief moment before he pulled away, not wanting to give her the wrong idea.

“What are we going to do now?” he asked. “We have no other plans for you now.”

Annabelle let out a deep sigh and nodded. “No, we really don’t. There are no other plans. And actually, Martin, I don’t want there to be another plan.”

He blinked at her, scarcely believing her words. “What now?”

Annabelle focused on his eyes. “I didn’t think they would accept me. I mean, how could they? It goes against their beliefs. It was also the best chance that we have, especially since my original is already dead. All my friends know I’m dead now too, so I can’t just be brought back because it would raise too many questions.”

“Your father brought up that very same point,” said Martin. “I have to be honest—I didn’t even consider that at first.”

“So it just means that option is closed to us now,” said Annabelle simply. “And I don’t want to try anymore with my parents. They’ve given us their answer. They don’t want me anymore.”

“It’s not that, Annabelle,” interjected Martin. “They just don’t think you exist anymore.”

“I know, Martin, I know,” she replied. “But like it or not, it’s done.”

“So then now what?” he asked. “What do we do now? It’s not like you can just go off and live your life on your own now. Especially not if you’re already dead.” Martin paused for a moment. “I mean, unless that’s what you want to do?”

Annabelle shook her head. “I don’t think that’s a good option. I’m legally dead now. What kind of life would that be? I’d be living on the margins of society. I’d be little more than a beggar. No, that wouldn’t be a good life for anyone.”

“So then you would have to stay here, right?” asked Martin. “I don’t mean to be presumptuous but what other option do you have? It’s the same situation with Kelsey. She has to stay here because she’s legally dead. And it’s the best way to protect her and me for cloning her. Aren’t you under the same set of circumstances now?”

Annabelle smiled at him again. “Would you want me to stay here?”

That was a loaded question. Even though Martin quite enjoyed having Annabelle around, it put so much tension on his relationship with Kelsey that he was afraid what might happen if the two women stayed under the same roof. He was afraid he might come home from work one day to find one had strangled the other.

Still, he felt the responsibility of his actions more than anything. It was under his watch that Annabelle had been cloned. He didn’t mean to clone her but it still happened. For that reason, he had to bear responsibility for what happened to her. And if that meant giving her a place to live, so be it.

He just hoped they would be able to find a living accommodation that didn’t end up with the two women hating each other.

“You can always stay here with me,” he offered, finding his voice shaky. “But I do worry about the future of such an arrangement.”

Annabelle made a face at him. “Why do you worry?”

“Let’s be honest—did you already forget the kiss?” said Martin with nervous laughter. “Because I know Kelsey hasn’t forgotten. And she’s not going to like this accommodation one bit.”

Annabelle looked at him coyly. “I could never forget that kiss.”

She wasn’t helping the situation and it was the very thing that Martin was most worried about. He thought about rescinding the offer for a brief moment but his integrity wouldn’t permit the words to leave his mouth.

But then Annabelle said something that changed everything.

“What if Kelsey and I were able to work something out? Something that would make all three of us very happy?”

With those words, Annabelle wrapped her arms around Martin’s neck and pulled him on top of her. Before he knew what was happening, her lips were glued to his and she was once again kissing him with every ounce of passion she could muster.

When the kiss broke, Martin was already protesting.

“Annabelle! What are you doing! We can’t do this!”

It was no use. Annabelle held on tightly and pressed her lips back to his. Finally, she gave up and looked at him with a big smile.

“You don’t have to fight so hard, Martin. Just give in.”

“But what about Kelsey?” asked Martin as Annabelle kissed him once more.

“I think Kelsey already knows,” came a voice from the door. Both Martin and Annabelle’s head swiveled to see Kelsey leaning against the doorframe. Martin thought she would look pissed but to his surprise, she was wearing much the same smile that was plastered on Annabelle’s face right now.

“Surprise!” said Kelsey.

Martin could once again only sputter. “What in the world is going on here?”

Kelsey looked directly at Annabelle. “I think it’s time you really show him.”

Annabelle licked her lips and stared back at Martin. “I think so too.”

“Show me what?” asked Martin. “What are you trying to show me?”

Her answer changed everything.

CHAPTER 31

MARTIN COULD SCARCELY BELIEVE the sight in front of his eyes.

Normally, he figured he’d be dreaming but he knew this was no dream. It was ten times better than a dream.

Not only was he sitting on Annabelle’s bed with her straddled on his lap but she was kissing him with every ounce of passion she could muster. In a normal circumstance, he would have loved to kiss her back with equal passion but there was always the Kelsey question—namely, there was no way he could cheat on her even with someone as gorgeous as Annabelle.

Today though, that question was taken completely off the table as Kelsey was not only aware of the situation, she was sitting on the edge of the bed watching it take place. And she was looking mighty pleased with herself.

“Isn’t he the best kisser?” asked Kelsey to Annabelle after a short break in their make out session.

Annabelle purred with happiness. “He totally is. I could kiss his lips all night if you’d let me.”

“I just love the feeling in my chest when his lips are pressed against mine,” added Kelsey with a dreamy expression on her face. “It makes me feel so warm inside and so wanted. If you really want to get him revved up, roll your tongue a little bit in his mouth around his tongue. He really likes that.”

“Oh, good to know!”

Annabelle promptly connected her lips with Martin’s once more, and this time her tongue sought entry into his mouth. Since he still felt like this was a trap, Martin only opened his mouth tentatively and allowed her to perform the tongue caress that Kelsey was just describing.

It felt just as heavenly to have Annabelle do it as it normally did for Kelsey. With all this kissing going on (especially forbidden kissing), Martin was now harder than a diamond.

Yet he still had no idea what was going on. And no one had bothered to explain it to him yet.

And so feeling like he was about to look a gift horse in the mouth, Martin broke his kiss with Annabelle and looked directly at Kelsey.

“Please tell me what’s going on,” pleaded Martin as Annabelle shifted subtly in his lap. The movement happened to catch his erection between her thighs, and even though they were still separated by several layers of clothes, he couldn’t help but entertain the idea of getting those clothes out of the way and completing the movement.

Kelsey beamed at him with a smile. “You’ll be happy to know that Annabelle and I have recently come to an agreement. Something that we can both live with.”

“It’s a really good one,” said Annabelle as she then smiled at Kelsey. “And I think it solves the central problem that the three of us face.”

Martin looked back and forth between the two of them. “What problem is that?”

“The problem is that you have two women who are both incredibly sexually attracted to you but you only have one girlfriend,” explained Kelsey. “Oh, and we all live in very close proximity because of the circumstances and now we have to make a long-term solution. Sound about right?”

“Oh, right. That,” said Martin, remembering their situation. He had only recently come back from eating dinner with Annabelle’s parents, where they explained in absolute certainty that they didn’t believe in human cloning because it went against their religious beliefs. That meant the clone Annabelle was now stuck with them since she was, like Kelsey, legally dead with no other options.

“So you probably noticed there was a little tension between Kelsey and I over the last few days,” said Annabelle, making the understatement of the year.

It was such an understatement that Martin couldn’t help but snort.

“You could say that, yes,” he replied with a small chuckle.

“Well, we talked about our issues earlier,” said Kelsey. “And we knew it was likely that her parents wouldn’t accept her so we needed to reach a certain accommodation between the two of us. And that was what to do about you.”

Martin felt Annabelle’s lips against his neck as she was once more kissing him again. He looked at Kelsey. “I’m guessing this is a really good accommodation then, no?”

Kelsey grinned. “I mean, you will probably think so. But I like it a lot too. It will keep Annabelle and I from killing each other.”

“And it’s going to open a lot of doors for me and you,” whispered Annabelle in his ear.

Martin was definitely ready to hear more.

“So what does this entail?” he asked. “Does . . . ah, Annabelle have permission to be intimate with me? Or what?”

Kelsey held up her hand. “Not so fast, buster. We came up with three hard and fast ground rules to make sure this works out without anyone getting upset or hurt. Let’s start with the first one, okay?”

“Okay, hit me,” said Martin.

Kelsey held up a finger. “The first rule is that no matter what happens in this apartment or outside of it, my relationship with Martin takes full precedence. Martin and I get the final say in what happens here, even when Annabelle is involved.”

It was a great rule actually, and Martin found himself nodding in agreement. “I like that one. It only makes sense too. Kelsey and I were together long before Annabelle came along.” He turned his head to look at the blonde in his lap. “No offense, of course, Annabelle. It just makes the most sense.”

Annabelle shook her head. “No offense taken and I have no objection to that. I can see the love you two have for each other and I can agree to preserve your relationship.”

“So what’s rule two then?” asked Martin. “Is this relationship kind of open now? Because I really don’t want to share Kelsey with anyone else.”

Kelsey made a disgusted face. “And no one is asking you to do that. I told you already that I’m Martin-sexual. I don’t want any other man touching me so no, this is not an open relationship.”

That came at a great relief to Martin and he continued to listen.

The look of disgust on Kelsey’s face melted away. “However, I’m willing to share you with Annabelle in order to keep the peace here in our apartment. Rule number two is that you both are allowed to experiment in just about any way possible. Make outs, petting, hands, and oral are all on the table.”

Annabelle started to giggle and buried her head into Martin’s neck. “Did you hear all of that? Oral is on the table, Martin.”

If he thought he was hard before, Martin was now about ready to poke a hole through his clothes. His mind flashed to seeing Annabelle on her knees before him, her sexy lips wrapped around the tip of his cock.

Kelsey had more to say. “That also means you two are allowed to be naked with each other and she’s allowed to touch you wherever. Same goes for her.”

Martin looked at Kelsey. “And you’re okay with that? You’re okay with me basically having unlimited access to Annabelle?”

Kelsey beamed with a smile and shook her head. “You’re forgetting something.”

For the first time, a pout formed on Annabelle’s face. “There’s still rule number three.”

By this point, Martin could well figure out what it was going to be. He braced himself for Kelsey to explain.

“Since these measures are meant to keep the peace, there needs to be a certain respect for our relationship,” explained Kelsey as she gestured back and forth between her and Martin. “And while it allows Annabelle the chance to explore you sexually, there’s going to be some things that are off limits because of the harm it could do to us.”

Now Martin understood. “So you mean . . . “ He made the universal hand symbol for sex.

Kelsey nodded. “Correct, rule three means no sex between you and Annabelle. Under no circumstances are you to put your cock inside her pussy. Or her ass for that matter.”

“Bummer,” whispered Annabelle against his ear.

Kelsey reached over and grabbed his hand. “You understand, right Martin? I’m willing to be very open-minded about this whole thing but I don’t think I could take seeing you inside her. That’s one line I’m not willing to cross. And Annabelle should be able to be satisfied enough with kissing, hands, and oral. Right, Annabelle?”

“Right,” said Annabelle, although to Martin’s ears, she sounded a lot less confident in her answer than he would have liked.

“But between the two of us, you’re basically getting almost full sexual access to two women,” said Kelsey. “And you can fuck my pussy and my ass anytime you want. But not Annabelle’s.”

With all three rules explained, both women looked at Martin with expectant eyes. “What do you think?” asked Annabelle finally. “Do you think you can live with this?”

Martin couldn’t help but chuckle. “You’re asking me if I’m okay with being intimate with two gorgeous women instead of just one. Yeah, I’m going to be able to handle this, no problem.”

Both women grinned and looked at each other. “He just called us gorgeous,” said Annabelle sweetly.

“He did,” confirmed Kelsey. “He’s a very smart man.”

“I see why you like him so much,” said Annabelle. “Maybe we should reward him for his smart answer.”

“Mmm,” purred Kelsey. “I like how you think.”

CHAPTER 32

JUST LIKE THAT, both women were now looking at him like he was some steak to be had. Truthfully, Martin was in heaven. Even though he enjoyed seeing Kelsey’s lush and perfect body, he had a sudden urge to take advantage of his new privileges with Annabelle. Immediately, he reached for her tank top to release her bountiful tits.

To this surprise, Annabelle smacked his hand away.

“What?” he asked, looking surprised. “I thought hands were on the table?”

Annabelle wagged her finger at him. “They are but you were just about to lift my tank top and pull my tits out, Martin.”

Now he was once again confused. “Right. Is that not okay?”

Annabelle tilted her head at him and smiled. “We just started making out and you’re already trying to get me undressed. What’s the rush for?”

“He does that a lot,” informed Kelsey with a grin. “When he wants something, he goes a million miles an hour to try to get it. And it looks like he really wants to take advantage of his new privileges.”

Annabelle leaned forward and kissed him passionately. “Patience, Martin. We’ll be able to have a lot of fun, I promise. But I want to move a little more slowly than that. Can you do that for me?”

It was hard not to agree with that request, especially as Annabelle stuck her tongue in his mouth and moaned against him. Truthfully, he couldn’t help but be a little disappointed but this was more than he could ask for. Even the promise of further intimacy with Annabelle was better than nothing.

And besides, from the way Kelsey was looking at him, she wasn’t about to let his erection go to waste.

She moved closer until she was able to rest her hand against the bulge on the outside of his shorts. With subtle movements, she began to rub it on the outside, building him up for what was to happen next.

It was quite the situation to be in. He was now making out with Annabelle while Kelsey played with his cock. Technically, this was now the first threesome he’d ever had in his life and the thought of what was to come was making his cock pulse.

Kelsey noticed it right away. “Someone is definitely ready for action,” she whispered against his cock. “I wonder if I should take care of my man right now?”

Martin was nodding his head. “Please? I really need it right now. I need it badly.”

Kelsey looked at Annabelle. “What do you think, Annabelle? Should I take his cock out?”

Annabelle stopped kissing Martin long enough to look at the bulge in his shorts. “I want to see it. I want to see this cock that has done nothing but poke me so much lately.”

That seemed to be the deciding vote. Kelsey wasted no time in reaching her hand under his shorts and pulling his cock out.

As her fingers wrapped around it and gave him a short stroke, Kelsey started to coo. “Fuck, I’ve never seen you this hard before, Martin.”

He let out a nervous laugh. “Can you blame me? Have you two looked in the mirror lately? You’re both so unbelievably gorgeous that it’s all I can do not to pop right now.”

Both women liked his response. Annabelle started to nibble his neck while her hand now stroked his bare thigh while Kelsey began to play with him more intensely than before.

It wasn’t until Annabelle finally pulled away from him that she looked at his manhood for the first time. And her eyes soon bulged.

“Holy shit, look at that cock,” she said as her mouth dropped open. She moved closer, putting her face next to Kelsey’s. “He’s so hard! So purple! Doesn’t that hurt, Martin?”

He shook his head. “Not really. I’m just going to need to cum really soon.”

Kelsey understood exactly what he needed. She soon pushed the tip into her mouth and started to suction it like she always did. He was instantly in heaven as her tongue worked in tandem with her hand.

But most noticeable was Annabelle’s reaction. She was still staring at his cock (at least the portion that wasn’t inside Kelsey’s mouth). Annabelle was biting her lip and looking at him like there was nothing she wanted more in life than to test out his manhood for herself.

Martin hoped she would get her chance soon. For now though, he felt himself bubbling closer to the edge as Kelsey kicked it up a notch. She was now sliding his cock deeper into her throat and she started to hum against it, adding a delightful vibration sensation that was just incredible.

It wouldn’t be long until he popped. It might have happened within a few more minutes at this pace but then something happened to ensure a damn near instant orgasm.

Annabelle did the very movement he was most longing for—she removed the straps from her tank top and then pulled it down, letting her breasts spill out into the open.

Martin’s eyes bulged. Annabelle’s DD tits were just as perfect as Kelsey’s—perhaps even more so. They were just slightly bigger and her areolas were just a shade lighter in color than Kelsey’s. They were capped with large, suckable nipples—the kind that turned him on to no end. More so, they just looked so damn soft and squeezable. Martin wanted nothing more than to wrap his hands around them and play with them all night.

What he got instead was so much better. Annabelle wasted no time in offering her nipple to his lips. Martin opened his mouth and latched on, sucking her large nipple like nothing else mattered.

That was all the stimulation that he needed. Having Kelsey suck his cock while feasting on Annabelle’s large breasts was damn near the highlight of his sexual life. It wasn’t long after he switched to Annabelle’s other nipple that he felt the familiar feeling of release.

Kelsey felt it too. She buried her face almost to his pubic bone as he began to cum, catching every drop of sperm into her throat and down into her stomach.

As he came, Annabelle just rubbed his thigh, another added sensation that helped to make his orgasm stronger. He couldn’t help but notice that for a brief moment, she reached over to cup his balls before moving her hand back to his thigh.

Kelsey finally released his cock and swallowed what remained of his cum. Then she smiled at Martin. “Did you like that, baby?”

He was entirely at a loss for words. Martin could only stare back at her and nod, a movement that made both girls giggle.

Life was way too good to him.

Martin wasn’t in any hurry to get dressed after that earth-shattering orgasm and he was content to catch his breath while laying in Annabelle’s bed with his cock still out. Being with both women did little to make it wilt back to normal size though, and that was even after Annabelle had pulled her tank top back into place, obscuring his vision of her amazing tits.

“What do you think, Martin?” asked Kelsey after a moment when she’d snuggled closer to his side. “Think you can live with this new arrangement?”

He could only laugh. “I can live with this arrangement just fine but are you totally certain that you’re okay with this?”

He felt Kelsey nodding against him. “I think with the ground rules we have in place, we can do this without anyone feeling threatened or getting hurt. And you definitely get the best of both worlds.”

“I’ll say he does,” added Annabelle as she now snuggled into his other side. Her hand never left his thigh, and it was its proximity next to his manhood that kept him from shrinking back to normal size.

That was something the girls noticed right away though. Especially Annabelle.

“Is he always like this?” asked Annabelle, noticing his cock still at mostly full hardness. “I watched his orgasm and it certainly seemed powerful but he looks ready to go once again. Is that normal?”

Kelsey let out a small smile. “Sometimes, when he’s really turned on. Most times though, one orgasm is enough but I’m guessing you being here has him all wound up.” She craned her head to look at Martin. “Isn’t that right, baby?”

“It’s the combination of having the both of you so close,” he replied. “And having Annabelle’s hand on my thigh means it’s so much closer to my cock.”

“You mean, like this?” asked Annabelle as she started to stroke his thigh with more firmness.

His cock soon pulsed, which made both women giggle. “Looks just like that!”

“Well, at least we know he’ll be well taken care of from now on,” added Annabelle a moment later. “I’m just amazed at how perfect that cock is. He looks so . . . solid.”

“Better than you pictured, right?” asked Kelsey.

“So much better,” replied Annabelle. “I always pictured that he had a nice thick one but this is better than I could have possibly guessed.”

Then Kelsey said something that was incredibly stupid in retrospect.

“Just imagine what it feels like stretching you open,” said Kelsey. “He feels heavenly when he’s inside my pussy.”

Kelsey seemed to realize what she said was against the new ground rules and she tried to change the subject a moment later. It was too late though—the idea was already out there. And even though he couldn’t help himself, Martin was now looking directly in Annabelle’s eyes.

And judging by the way she was looking back at him, they were now thinking the same thing.

What would it feel like to have his cock inside Annabelle’s pussy?

The only bad thing about this new arrangement was that he was never going to find out.

CHAPTER 33

THE NEXT FEW days were the closest that Martin had ever been to heavenly bliss. Now that most of the restrictions were off Annabelle and knowing that he had Kelsey’s approval to explore their sexual tension, Martin seemed bound to make up for lost time.

He lost count of how many times they made out in those few days since the start of their current arrangement. If Martin was unoccupied at the moment, it was all the excuse that Annabelle needed to perch herself in his lap and seal her lips against his.

They must have set records for the world’s longest make out session. What was even better was that when Annabelle was done, Kelsey wanted to get in on the action.

And she usually didn’t stop at just kissing.

What was almost as good as the constant sexual activity was the lifting of the tension that had shrouded Annabelle and Kelsey’s relationship together. No longer did the two women see themselves as rivals for Martin’s sole affection. In coming to this arrangement, they’d learned they could share him between them without anyone getting hurt.

At first, Martin doubted whether that would really be the case, especially once Kelsey saw how often that he and Annabelle were making out. He thought she was bound to get jealous eventually but surprisingly, she took it in stride and didn’t seem to care too much. If anything, she must have encouraged the activity because Annabelle usually got his engine revved and ready to go but Kelsey was the one that actually got to drive the car.

In the long run, it didn’t seem quite fair to Annabelle but it was the agreement that she’d accepted and so that was good enough for Martin for now.

If anything, there seemed to be a noticeable difference in opinion in just what Annabelle was in reference to Martin and Kelsey’s relationship. The arrangement that Kelsey set up treated Annabelle like she was nothing more than just a playmate.

However, Martin noticed that Annabelle seemed to view herself in a different lens. She was more affectionate than a playmate—often kissing him without the need for an extended make out session. She became much more handsy when they cuddled but it was the loving sort of touch that you gave to a partner instead of the more erotic touch given to a playmate.

Based on Martin’s perceptions, Annabelle seemed to view herself as a girlfriend-in-training, and it was that notion that was going to cause a bit of drama further down the line.

For now though, Martin was content to enjoy his new liberties while he could. That evening for example, he’d just gotten home with the girls after going out on a date night. The girls had wanted to play miniature golf and they had a blast at a local place not too far away from his apartment. When they came home, it seemed that everyone was in the mood for something to happen, and no one was surprised when Kelsey grabbed his hand and led him to their bedroom.

“I’m so turned on that I’ve practically drenched my panties,” said Kelsey as she stood near the bed and kicked off her shorts. Sure enough, her panties went with them, and even Martin could see the dark spot on the crotch that was evidence of her arousal.

Kelsey leaned back on the bed and spread her legs. Her pussy was already glistening and she soon beckoned him further.

“I could really use that tongue of yours, baby,” she said in a low, sexy voice. “Will you eat me please?”

“With pleasure,” growled Martin as he soon crawled between her legs.

While this was no different than any of the other thousand times they’d had sex, there was a difference tonight that was felt right away.

Namely, Annabelle had followed them to the bedroom. And right now, she was watching Kelsey’s wet gash with an arousal of her own. Martin knew she was aroused because her nipples were threatening to poke out of her blouse and she kept biting her lip as Martin moved between Kelsey’s legs.

Both women moaned when Martin’s tongue slipped between Kelsey’s wet folds. Kelsey moaned from feeling the pleasure and Annabelle moaned at the sheer sight of watching two lovers connect. Annabelle was soon using her hand to press against her mound, stealthily masturbating at the sight in front of her.

The movements of her hands didn’t escape Martin’s notice. He took a moment to smile at Annabelle as his eyes flickered to her hands in a silent acknowledgment that he was watching her too. In response, Annabelle’s mouth fell open slightly and her eyes closed, forcing her hand to rub harder.

That state of affairs continued for several minutes as Martin worked Kelsey up to having her first orgasm. After a moment though, he nearly forgot that Annabelle was there next to him, as he became so consumed with paying attention to Kelsey’s body to make sure she came.

In retrospect, he should have paid closer attention to Annabelle. Maybe what she did next wouldn’t have come at such a surprise.

He felt movement down below that made him aware that someone was directly behind him. When Martin looked down, he saw that Annabelle had reached her hands around his waist and was now pulling down his jeans, exposing his hard cock for her to see. His cock pulsed at the thought of what Annabelle might do. So far in his experience with Annabelle, she hadn’t done much more than casual touches against his manhood.

That changed that night. Martin was busy lapping his tongue against Kelsey’s inner walls when he felt Annabelle’s wet fingers slip around his cock and give him a short stroke.

He groaned into Kelsey’s pussy which caused her to shudder in response. Giving his tongue a rest, he started using his fingers while he made eye contact with Annabelle.

“Does that feel good, Martin?” whispered Annabelle as she stroked him more intensely.

“So fucking good,” he moaned in response. “I love how your hand feels wrapped around me.”

Annabelle grinned and increased her pace. Her little hand looked so small around his cock but she kept adding more saliva to keep it nice and slick. There was no better feeling than having her hand around him while he made Kelsey cum on his fingers.

Except he was wrong about that. Because what Annabelle did next would feel so much better.

It was shortly after Martin went back to work on Kelsey with his tongue that the gorgeous brunette in front of him hit her first orgasm. Kelsey moaned loudly as her hips buckled, cutting off their rhythm as she attempted to recover. Once again, he’d been so focused on Kelsey that he hadn’t noticed that Annabelle bent down lower to the ground, putting her face right against his cock.

The first thing that told him something was different was Annabelle’s hands leaving his cock. Her cold saliva without her warm hand was instantly noticeable but it didn’t last for very long.

No, the warmth came roaring back as something wet and enclosed slipped around his shaft. He just had to find out what it was.

Martin’s eyes bulged when he saw his cock between Annabelle’s lips. The beautiful blonde beneath him was now sinking lower on his shaft, using her tongue to coat the underside as she moved. It was a near beautiful sight, especially as Annabelle pulled him out for the first time and shot him a coy glance.

“I couldn’t wait any longer,” she whispered to him. “You just looked so . . . yummy.”

“Well, don’t stop on my accord,” said Martin, watching her.

Annabelle didn’t stop. In the next few moments, she started to work his cock like she’d been born to do it. It was an incredible sight to witness, as was the way she did it.

Annabelle was no expert at giving head. Her movements could be awkward and clunky at times but what made it a truly memorable experience was the care that she took for his pleasure. Annabelle seemed to sense when his body liked something that she did and she made sure to keep it up as the blow job went on.

At one point, Kelsey even sat up, noticing Martin’s distraction. She glanced down to find Annabelle’s mouth stuffed with cock and let out a small giggle.

“I had a feeling you were distracted,” said Kelsey as she watched Annabelle’s nose press to the tip of his pubic bone. “And now I see why!”

Martin groaned. “She feels so damn good. You have no idea.”

Kelsey started to rub her pussy. “Trust me, I have a very good idea of what it feels like. Are you going to cum, baby?”

Martin nodded, not trusting himself with words at that moment.

Kelsey leaned closer and started to kiss the upper parts of his chest. “Are you going to flood her mouth with your cum, Martin? Fuck, that would be so hot. I’d love to see our little play toy with a mouthful of spermies. Cum in her mouth, baby. It would be so fucking hot to watch you fill her.”

There was something about the way that Kelsey said to fill her that had Martin spasming out of control. He barely got the chance to warn Annabelle before he was soon blasting into her mouth.

Annabelle was soon out of her depth. She stopped moving entirely as she tried to swallow all his cum but she couldn’t help that several globs escaped from the sides of her lips and soon fell to the floor.

She was happy though—ecstatic that she’d made him cum so hard. She beamed with a smile long after she’d swallowed what remained.

“How did he taste?” asked Kelsey with a grin.

“Salty but sweet,” replied Annabelle as her eyes locked on Martin’s. “Much better than I ever thought it could be.”

“So that means you want to do it again?” asked Kelsey.

Annabelle nodded emphatically. “Oh, we’re going to do that many more times.”

With Martin and Kelsey achieving their orgasms, they quickly collapsed together on the bed. Martin was content to lay on his back while Kelsey laid a few inches away, still catching her breath from her last orgasm.

Annabelle wasn’t one to remain idle either. After swallowing his cum, she stood up from the floor and quickly made her way to the bed, where she soon sat in Martin’s lap and leaned forward to kiss his neck.

This quickly became problematic for two reasons—one, Martin still hadn’t put on any clothes so his bare cock was now between them. Two, Annabelle had kicked off her skirt at some point and was now just wearing a pair of slinky underwear.

That meant his cock was now trapped between Annabelle’s bare thighs and there was only a small strap of fabric that prevented any penetration between them.

That might have been fine if Annabelle was just content to be affectionate with him, but as they started to kiss around his neck, she started to move her hips with tiny movements. At first, it was just a subtle grinding that was barely noticeable but that didn’t last for very long. The next thing she started to do was bounce in his lap, which when combined with the sensation of her lips, was quickly making him hard once more.

Martin could even feel the heat from her pussy as she rocked against him since her panties did little to contain the boiling heat contained within.

All of it gave him thoughts of what fucking Annabelle would be like. He pictured pulling those panties to the side and burying himself fully inside the beautiful blonde until he came so deep in her body.

Judging by the way that Annabelle was rocking against him now, she was having similar thoughts. They were in an extremely dangerous position and it only took one person to lose their willpower before all hell would break loose.

There was someone else who noticed the dangerous position they were in. Kelsey’s eyes were now glued to Annabelle’s hips.

“What are you two doing?” she asked nervously, gesturing to Annabelle’s movements.

The mood shattered. All thoughts of fucking Annabelle left Martin’s mind instantly. Annabelle even stopped rocking as if the sudden attention was uncalled for.

“Just kissing him a little,” said Annabelle, playing it innocent. “Is that okay?”

Kelsey gestured between them. “It’s just you’re both wearing literally nothing. I just didn’t want there to be an accident, you know?”

Martin knew all right. Kelsey was reinforcing her territory. He could do all he wanted with Annabelle but actual vaginal penetration was off limits, and he wasn’t going to be the one to challenge her.

Neither would Annabelle by the way she scooted off of Martin and soon laid on his other bare side.

For a brief moment, Martin was upset at the way Kelsey intervened in the situation but he knew he had no reason to be mad.

After all, who wouldn’t kill to be in his situation?

Surely that was worth never actually having sex with Annabelle, right?

Right?

CHAPTER 34

THE NEXT DAY was a Saturday and that meant taking the girls out for a day of fun. And since nothing exemplified fun to Kelsey and Annabelle like shopping, that meant they spent several hours at the mall searching for all kinds of outfits.

It was a particularly soothing experience for Annabelle, who really enjoyed the chance to shop for new things. Not only did she have nothing when she arrived, but they couldn’t even recover any of her old clothes since they were still at her parents’ house. Martin got the impression there was more to it than just getting new digs too.

For too long, Annabelle hadn’t been able to show off or feel beautiful because of the cancer. Now that she was cancer-free, she got the chance to really enjoy her youth and beauty in a whole new light.

And despite footing the bill for two women going nuts at the mall, Martin was still one happy camper when he saw some of the outfits they came up with.

Especially in this particular store, which seemed to specialize in women’s underwear. And seeing as how Annabelle wanted to have a full drawer of bras and panties, Martin found himself roped into the changing room while she tried them on.

“What do you think about this one?” asked Annabelle, modeling the black lace bra in front of him. She bent down low and cupped her breasts while waiting for his opinion.

Martin had a hard time keeping his eyes from bulging. “I’d say you have a definite winner right there.”

Annabelle smiled and nodded her agreement. A moment later, she reached behind her to unclasp the bra, releasing her tits for his viewing pleasure.

Funny enough, Annabelle had no problem with being topless around him. Ever since that first day when their arrangement started, she’d gotten quite used to Martin playing or sucking with her tits. In fact, it was now one of his greatest pastimes. Annabelle just had an amazing pair of tits and any time he could get his hands or mouth on them, he took it.

That same freedom didn’t yet extend below the waist. Annabelle was still hesitant to let her panties come off, and even though she took the liberty to dry hump when she wanted, she’d never done it bottomless yet. Even now, she would still turn her back to him to change panties, although Martin never minded it because it gave him such a great view of her ass.

While it still seemed a silly line in the sand to keep between them, Martin wasn’t in any hurry to push the boundaries just yet. By this point, he’d figured out that his progression with Annabelle was on a slippery slope. As they kept getting more sexual, they would run into the full-on sex barrier sooner or later, and that was going to be a painful line not to cross.

As weird as it sounded, the more space he kept between her now, the better it was going to be in the short term for him.

“I really like how these make my ass look,” said Annabelle, standing on her toes and pushing out her butt for his viewing pleasure. “What do you think?”

“If you’re asking if those panties make your butt look fantastic, then the answer is definitely yes,” replied Martin.

“I don’t know though,” teased Kelsey, who was sitting not far from Martin. “I think my butt looks a bit better.”

Annabelle rolled her eyes. “Of course it does. I just didn’t inherit great butt genetics.”

“No, no you didn’t,” agreed Kelsey. “But you did inherit spectacular boob genetics and that’s probably more important than a butt.”

Annabelle started to grin as she cupped her boobs in her latest bra, which was so sheer it might as well have been see-through. “Mine are just huge though. Yours are more proportional to your body.”

Kelsey snorted and started to pull her shirt off. Martin leaned back against the wall of the dressing room, liking where this conversation was going.

With a snap of her wrist, Kelsey unhooked her bra, freeing her breasts. “Proportional? I look so top heavy with boobs like these! You’re more proportional than I am, mostly because you’re taller!”

Annabelle shook her head. “No, yours are just perfect. And you have the most amazing hourglass figure too. You’re the whole package, not me.”

It was almost predictable where this was going to go. Soon enough, both women were facing Martin, their eyes locking with his.

“So who’s right?” asked Kelsey a moment later.

“W-what do you mean?” he stuttered.

Annabelle smiled. “Who’s got the better body? Me or her?”

Talk about a trick question! There was no way anyone was getting out of that question alive but thankfully, Martin wasn’t born yesterday. And with Annabelle around, he’d learned a few ways about how to navigate that minefield.

“There’s no way I could possibly pick between two bouts of perfection,” said Martin. “I’m the luckiest guy anywhere because I have you both to myself and truthfully there’s no other way I’d want it.”

The line stuck. Actually, it almost stuck too well, or so he thought before they started to giggle together.

“You’re so full of shit,” said Annabelle while wearing a casual smirk.

“One of these days, you’re going to have to choose,” added Kelsey.

“Maybe. But not today,” said Martin.

Annabelle looked over at Kelsey. “He still gave a really good answer. Perhaps he deserves a reward for that?”

Kelsey arched her eyebrow. “What were you thinking?”

Annabelle winked. “I’ll show you when we get home.”

The girls were still giggling as they made their way to Martin’s car. It was still hot enough for the day that the decision was made to stop for frozen custard on the way back to his apartment.

Once everyone had ordered, Martin grabbed an outdoor table for themselves where they all stretched out to enjoy the treat as well as the sun.

“You know, I have to say that I’ve never had so much fun in a mall before,” said Annabelle in-between bites of chocolate custard. “Or any place for that matter!”

Kelsey nibbled on part of a brownie that came with her custard. “Welcome to the world of cloning,” she teased. “You’ll now be living life on the edge!”

“Life with both of you is certainly interesting,” noted Martin. “And this wasn’t exactly my plan when I first had the idea for cloning Kelsey.”

“No, but it’s turned out rather well, right?” said Kelsey. “I mean, we have this great arrangement between us now. And we’re all happy right?”

Annabelle nodded her head. “I’m happy. And I want to thank both of you for finding a place for me here. I know it wasn’t the easiest thing to do,” she said while looking at Kelsey.

Kelsey nodded silently. No further words needed to be said about that. Kelsey’s kindness was the reason they all were able to enjoy intimacy together.

“I’m just really glad when I think about the place we’re in right now,” continued Annabelle. “And I have you two to thank for that.”

Kelsey smiled. “Well, I’m just happy that this arrangement makes sense. And it’s a net positive for our lives. Martin gets someone new to play with, and so do I, but never does Annabelle feel left out of anything, right?”

Annabelle agreed with her but there was a split-second hesitation that Martin instantly picked up on. Kelsey didn’t seem to notice and resumed eating her custard but Annabelle’s eyes met Martin’s for a brief moment, and it didn’t take much to figure out why she hesitated.

“I will say this though—never in my life would I have pictured where we are now,” said Kelsey. “I mean, I never pictured that I’d ever see a clone let alone be one.”

Annabelle grinned. “That’s where you and I are different. Ever since I first learned about cloning, I was fascinated by it. I saw from a young age all the doors it could open. I thought maybe one day, I could clone loved ones that died or clone my own army of boyfriends. I just didn’t expect the shoe to be on the other foot though.”

“That’s not supposed to be regret, is it?” asked Martin. “You’re not upset that you’re in this with us, are you?”

Annabelle shook her head, making her blonde hair dance. “Not at all! What’s the alternative after all? Death. No, I’m quite happy where I am.”

Before anyone else could respond, Annabelle slipped her hand into Martin’s and squeezed. “And I get to share this man right here. And that makes me incredibly happy.”

Out of instinct, Martin squeezed her hand back. He was happy that Annabelle was happy but that didn’t mean he didn’t care about the wary look that Kelsey gave their connected hands.

A look that spelled fear more than anything else.

Like the other times, the look faded after a very brief moment but it was long enough for Martin to notice. And it put a little tension back into this threeway quasi-relationship that was now going on.

“You know, I just constantly compare my life to the life I had before becoming a clone,” continued Annabelle, oblivious to Kelsey’s fear. “When I had cancer, I was just so tired all the time. I felt horrid at all times of day, even after I just woke up from sleeping. I looked frightful every time I looked in the mirror. Now? I feel young again. I feel life. I have so much more energy, and I think it’s even more than I had before the cancer showed up.”

Kelsey nodded in agreement. “I know what you mean. I used to think that I was a pretty active person in my old life. I always tried to stay busy or keep active by going to the gym or whatever. Now? I just feel like I’m always supercharged and ready to go. That feeling that you referenced as being so energetic when you get out of bed each morning? That’s how I feel for the whole day!”

“If that’s the case, we might as well clone a copy of me,” mumbled Martin. “Maybe then I’d have a chance at keeping up with both of you.”

Annabelle’s eyes lit up. “Can I have the clone copy? I could put a clone Martin to some seriously good use!”

That was funny enough to even make Kelsey laugh, despite the implication.

After the laughter died down, Kelsey reached over and patted Martin’s hand consolingly. “I think the world can only handle one Martin. I know I can!”

Martin shrugged. “I think I would get jealous of all the action the clone me is getting too, so that’s out the window for me.”

Annabelle rolled her eyes. “Men! Even though it’s still technically you, you wouldn’t want it having sex with Kelsey?”

“Well, no,” admitted Martin, even though the thought sounded silly. “That’s only for me.”

“But it would be you,” argued Annabelle.

“Let’s not go down this road,” said Martin with a laugh. “This will only make things way too complicated.”

“Fine, you’re off the hook this time,” said Annabelle before throwing him a sly wink. “But only because you’re so cute.”

“Isn’t this so great?” asked Kelsey. “We’re all stronger together now than before. I think our collective anxiety has fallen quite dramatically and life is just good right now, right?”

“Right,” said Martin before looking over at Annabelle. “Right?”

“Right,” she confirmed.

Although there was still something left unsaid at the table, now wasn’t the time or place. And judging by Annabelle’s next move, she thought the same.

With most of her custard gone, she took what remained in her cup and used her spoon to smear it all over her lips.

“Oh, no, I seemed to have misplaced my napkin,” teased Annabelle as she reached over to rub Martin’s thigh. “Would you be able to help me clean up this mess that I made?”

This was a game he was very familiar with. Martin leaned forward as if to inspect her lips.

“I’d say you’ve really gotten messy, ma’am. I think that maybe one napkin won’t be enough!”

Annabelle gasped playfully. “Whatever should we do?”

“Not to worry, I have the best solution possible!”

Annabelle’s eyes fluttered. “I’ll do anything at this point. I can’t be such a dirty girl!”

He almost started to laugh at that statement but Martin kept it together long enough to press his lips to hers. Annabelle melted into his kiss, smearing both of their faces with custard in between one long, deep kiss.

Kelsey grinned once they’d separated. “That looked like a lot of fun. Although I’d hate to tell you both that you just made the problem worse.”

“Then I guess we need to bring in reinforcements,” growled Annabelle.

To Martin’s surprise, she scooted closer and planted a lingering kiss on a very surprised Kelsey. Before it was over, Martin had to reach between his legs to adjust himself.

“Wow, what was that for?” asked Kelsey once they separated. She didn’t look mad one bit but she was definitely shocked.

Annabelle shrugged and smiled shyly. “I’ve always wanted to try that.”

“And?” asked Kelsey. “What did you think?”

Annabelle grinned. “I know why Martin likes you so much. You have very kissable lips.”

Kelsey started laughing so hard she snorted. The snort made the other two start laughing, and then they all took turns smearing custard on their lips and kissing it away. Martin lost track of how many times he kissed both women, but he certainly kept track of how many times they kissed each other, which was four by the time they were out of custard.

If he didn’t know any better, the next time they were intimate together was going to be very interesting indeed!

CHAPTER 35

TWO DAYS after the trip to the mall, Martin was getting ready to go to work.

The first thing he wanted to do was to get a cup of coffee but no sooner had he stepped into the kitchen did he hear the sound of a psst!

Martin looked back to the hallway only to find Annabelle standing there. She had only just woken up judging by the bed hair, but she was waving at him to follow her.

Not one to reject a request from a beautiful woman, Martin put the coffee on the back burner and followed her to her room.

When he arrived, he saw that Annabelle had already laid back down in her bed. She was giving him the come-hither gesture and it wasn’t long before he was crawling into bed with her.

Annabelle moaned into his mouth as their lips connected.

“Best way to start a morning,” she said once their kiss broke.

Martin grinned. “What’s got you all turned on this morning?”

“I was having some very naughty dreams,” replied Annabelle in all seriousness. “Let’s just say that as soon as I heard you were awake, I had to come find you.”

Martin brought his hand forward to caress Annabelle’s breast on the outside of her tank top. Sure enough, her nipples were rock hard—a surefire way of telling her arousal.

“What were the dreams about?” he asked.

Annabelle started to giggle. “Well, I could tell you all about it. But I’d much rather show you.”

To emphasize the point, she reached between his legs and grabbed his already thickening cock. Not content to just play with him, she wet her fingers before sliding them down into his shorts, coating him with her saliva.

From there, Annabelle soon came crushing forward with more kisses. Martin was content to relieve her of the tank top when they came up for air, and the sight of beautifully blonde Annabelle wearing nothing but a small pair of panties was a nearly perfect way to start the morning.

It was about to get much better.

Annabelle rolled over on her back and brought Martin with her. In the process, she pushed him steadily lower.

“Kiss my body, Martin,” she urged. “Put your lips all over me.”

That was an easy request to fulfill. Martin kissed every inch of exposed skin he could reach. He kissed her neck and moved all the way down to her shoulder. He then worked his way across her upper chest before taking each nipple in his mouth and sucking them for several moments. Annabelle didn’t seem to want him to stop at her breasts though. Her subtle pressure on his shoulders told him to keep going further south.

Martin trailed a line of kisses from her nipples down to her belly button before running into her panties. He glided across her covered pound, pressing kisses against the panties before moving to her bare thighs and teasing them too.

But when Annabelle decided to lower her panties and kick them to the floor, everything changed.

It was the first time he’d seen her completely nude, and Annabelle was simply gorgeous. She had a very sexy looking slit that was only slightly parted by arousal. Martin could already see that she was glistening inside, no doubt in anticipation of what was to come next. However, it was the total lack of pubic hair that had him most surprised.

“I lost the hair with the chemo,” said Annabelle, reading his mind. “I liked the look so much that I kept it. I hope you don’t mind.”

“I love it,” whispered Martin in a husky tone. “You’re so sexy, Annabelle.”

She smiled at him and tilted her head. “Martin, I see how much Kelsey loves it when you eat her pussy. Will you eat mine now? Will you make me feel good?”

He didn’t need to be asked twice. Martin leaned in closer and extended his tongue to taste the beads of arousal that had already formed on her labia. Annabelle shuddered once his tongue made contact and she let out the most delightful moan.

“Lick me, Martin, please,” she moaned as she cupped her breasts and gently pinched her nipples.

For the next fifteen minutes, Martin used every trick he knew to bring Annabelle to orgasm not once, not twice, but three separate times. Every orgasm seemed to arrive just a little quicker than the one before it, and once Annabelle’s engine was sufficiently running, she came with an intensity that rivaled that of most women.

For Martin, it was easy to keep going. Like Kelsey, Annabelle had such an inviting pussy—one that tasted marvelous and was easy to manipulate. Once he found out what she liked, he made sure to repeat the same moves while amping up the pressure. Annabelle became putty in his hands.

“Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me!” moaned Annabelle loudly as the third orgasm wracked her body. She was already gasping for air and there was now a small puddle under her pussy on the bed. Judging by the look in her eyes, she couldn’t have been more satisfied.

“Where did you learn to do that?” she demanded once she caught her breath. “I’ve never had anything like that before!”

Martin smiled up at her. “You can thank Kelsey the next time you see her. I’ve spent so much time between her legs that she can take total credit for it.”

Annabelle leaned back into her pillow. “I’m going to have to get a year’s supply of custard or something to thank her for that gift!”

Martin started to laugh and worked his way back up Annabelle’s exhausted body. Once he reached her mouth, she kissed him with an intensity that surprised him.

“Mmm, I taste a little funny,” said Annabelle with a giggle once the kiss broke.

“You taste so fucking good,” growled Martin. “I can’t wait to do that again.”

Annabelle grinned and stroked his chest. “You won’t have to wait long. But for now, how about I do something for you?”

She didn’t wait for him to respond. Annabelle quickly shifted him so that he was on his back. She lifted her leg and tossed it over his body as she moved to straddle him. Once she was perched on his lap, she beamed down at him with a smile.

Warning bells were now going off in his mind. When they first started to mess around this morning, Annabelle had yanked his shorts down to play with his cock. She was also completely naked which meant that his very hard cock was now between her slick thighs.

This was a very dangerous moment and any sign of weakness on either of their part could lead them down a path they weren’t supposed to go.

What was even worse (or better?) was that Martin could feel Annabelle’s slick labia sliding along his bare cock. His cock was soon glistening with the signs of her arousal, and Annabelle’s subtle moaning to him that she was so close to just reaching between them to put him inside.

Martin’s willpower was crumbling. It would feel so good to finally slide inside Annabelle. Why shouldn’t he do it right here and right now?

Because it wouldn’t be fair to Kelsey, that’s why.

Even with another sexy woman on top of him and wanting action, he still couldn’t help but think of Kelsey. This part of the rules for their arrangement, and there was no way he could break them.

With a heavy bit of mental anguish, he lifted his hips, allowing Annabelle to slide further down. She pouted at the loss of contact between their genitals but it didn’t last long. When he finally gestured for her to swing her legs back around, she figured out what was going on.

Annabelle moved her hips so that she straddled his face and allowed him to eat her once more. And as he dove once more into her pussy that he’d almost just penetrated, she took care of him by sucking his cock into her mouth.

They were content to work in the sixty-nine position for the next ten minutes. Martin brought Annabelle to another orgasm before she was able to do the same for him. Like all the times before, she tried to capture every drop in her mouth, swallowing it down deep inside.

Once it was all over, they both laid back on the bed, completely exhausted but feeling incredible.

“I can now definitely say that’s the best way to prepare to go to work each morning,” teased Martin as they caught their breath.

Annabelle giggled and turned into his side. “I completely agree with that. I feel so relaxed and refreshed right now!”

“I’m going to need to hop in the shower,” said Martin. “I can hardly walk into RI with my face smelling like your pussy.”

Annabelle propped herself up on her elbow. “I don’t know, Martin. It’s a good look for you. I like seeing my juices glistening on your chin.”

They laughed at that one but Annabelle was quick to turn her expression serious a moment later.

“Listen, Martin, I really should say I’m sorry for what almost happened back there,” said Annabelle as she lowered her eyes. “I almost lost control for a minute. I’m just glad that you were there to bring me back.”

Martin nodded, remembering the moment they almost had sex. “We all have moments of weakness every now and then. I don’t blame you in the slightest.”

She gave him a coy look. “You can’t help but think about it, right? I think about it a lot.”

Martin hesitated in his response but found himself whispering in reply. “I think about it a lot too.”

Annabelle bit her lip. “It would feel so good, wouldn’t it? I often picture how good it would feel to have your big cock sliding into my pussy.”

“Annabelle,” he warned. “We shouldn’t.”

But his body definitely wanted to. His cock was already starting to get hard again at the thought of sex with Annabelle. The only thing that stopped him was his conscience.

Annabelle let out a playful sigh. “I know, I know. But a girl can dream, right?”

He didn’t know how to respond to that one without encouraging her. To his dismay, she leaned forward to whisper in his ear.

“That’s how my dream ended, remember? What I told you I was dreaming about,” she whispered, making the hair on his neck stand up. “I was dreaming that you were fucking me so good, Martin. And you were making me cum so hard on your perfect cock. I was so drenched for you and we were making such a mess. And then you came so hard inside me.”

“Annabelle,” he warned again. “Please.”

It was more a request than a demand, mostly because his willpower was breaking. If Annabelle mounted him right now, he didn’t know if he’d be able to stop her. The situation was once again spiraling out of control and they weren’t even being intimate.

Annabelle let out another sigh. “You’re right. I guess I need to respect the rules. Oh well.”

With those words, she leaned forward to kiss his cheek before rolling out of bed toward the shower, leaving Martin alone with his thoughts.

The truth was that he was entirely conflicted. He was conflicted on his loyalty to Kelsey but his insane sexual attraction to Annabelle. What was even worse was that Annabelle didn’t seem to take Kelsey’s ground rules for their relationship as being set in stone. If anything, Martin got the impression that she saw the no-sex rule as something of a challenge, meant to be broken.

If that was the case, this wasn’t going to turn out well, and Martin became seriously worried about their arrangement.

He was so worried that Kelsey instantly noticed his anxiety when she woke up a short while later.

When asked about it, Martin shook his head, not wanting to burden Kelsey with the worry of whether or not he could be faithful to her.

There was one thing he should have done before climbing back into bed with Kelsey—he should have taken a shower. She smelled Annabelle on him instantly.

“You were just fooling around with Annabelle,” she said with a nervous laugh. “What were you two doing?”

“Not much,” said Martin while trying to keep his cool. “I just ate her out and then we sixty-nined until we came.”

“Not much?” repeated Kelsey while laughing. “That sounds like a lot to me. Especially when she wouldn’t even take her panties off until now. How did it feel to see her pussy for the first time?”

That was one question he was totally honest about. “She’s sexier than hell. And her pussy tastes almost as good as yours.”

“Did she feel tight? And wet for you?”

“So very tight and wet,” confirmed Martin. “She needed it badly this morning.”

Kelsey didn’t respond to that statement. Martin felt her nuzzle closer to him but it soon became apparent that her wheels were turning.

After a minute of no response, Martin turned towards her. “You’ve gone quiet all of a sudden.”

Kelsey moaned softly instead of replying. Martin reached his hand under her neck and forced her eyes to look at him. “What’s wrong?”

She tried to avoid his eyes but when she finally looked at him, Martin could see anxiety all over her face. “Promise me, Martin.”

“Promise you what?”

Kelsey chewed on her lip. “That you won’t fuck her. That no matter how much she begs for it that you won’t put your dick inside her. Please?”

It was a request he wasn’t expecting.

“But that’s part of our arrangement,” he countered. “Rule three, remember?”

Kelsey nodded quickly. “I know that and you know that. But I’m not so sure that she knows that. If anything, I want you to be the strong one if it comes to that. Will you be strong for me, Martin? I’ll give you all the sex you need, I promise. Just promise me you won’t fuck her?”

At that moment, he felt like shit. Mostly because he’d entertained the idea so many times despite knowing that Kelsey didn’t want him to do it. He knew the rules and he still daydreamed about it nearly every day.

And if he really did it, it would just kill Kelsey.

But fuck, he really wanted to have sex with Annabelle.

But not at the expense of his relationship with Kelsey.

“I promise,” he said with a choked up voice.

The answer was less confident than he wanted it to be but it was good enough for Kelsey. She kissed him softly before putting her head back on his chest.

While Kelsey’s anxiety seemed to abate for the moment, his was just getting started.

How was he supposed to keep the peace when both women wanted different things? There wasn’t a way that both of them could get what they wanted either without destroying the balance of their arrangement.

Martin felt more conflicted than ever before. And he thought threeway relationships were supposed to be fun!

CHAPTER 36

THE SHAKY PEACE inside the apartment continued for another two days before all hell broke loose.

In retrospect, there was no warning sign that shit was about to go down, at least that evening. It should have been a quiet evening at home. Martin and the girls were relaxing on the couch watching some old movie together.

While they were on the couch, Martin was the only one that was sitting upright. He sat right in the middle of the L-shaped couch. On the shorter part to his right, Kelsey was curled against his side, her head on his shoulder as she watched the movie.

To his left, Annabelle was stretched out and laying with her feet up while his hand was resting on the upper part of her leg.

It wasn’t unusual for someone to feel horny at these times and now was no different. And with the girls, one of them was almost always horny.

It ended up being Kelsey that kicked off the action that night. Martin was paying attention to the movie when he felt a hand moving across his crotch to settle on the small bulge in his shorts. Kelsey was content to play with his manhood for several moments before she freed him from the confines of his shorts and started to give him a hand job.

At this point, Kelsey’s actions became much more interesting than watching an old movie that he’d seen a hundred times. She jerked him steadily at a quick pace for several minutes before she got the bright idea to pop him into her mouth.

Any kind of oral attention from Kelsey was a heavenly experience but it didn’t take long before the third person on the couch noticed the movements of the other two. And seeing as Martin’s hand was already on her thigh, it didn’t take much for her to drag his fingers between her legs and sink them into her already wet hole.

What had been a boring movie night suddenly got very interesting.

Kelsey took her time teasing his cock in just about every manner she knew how. She knew that he liked it when she smacked the tip against her outstretched tongue and did that several times before seeing how low she could go. On the other side of him, Annabelle kept his hand buried between her legs as he played with her opening and used his fingers to tease her clit.

The situation continued to escalate. Kelsey soon tired of pleasuring him orally and kicked off the little skirt she was wearing. She brushed her fingers through her small thatch of pubic hair before mounting him on the couch. Martin felt his cock brush against her wet lips, and Kelsey didn’t wait long before she reached between them and notched him inside.

“Yes, oh fuck, yes!” Kelsey moaned as she began to slide down his cock.

Martin’s hands went to her bare ass cheeks and pulled her down all the way. In doing so, he completely filled her tight pussy, something that made both of them groan in delight. To his left side, Annabelle noticed his missing hand and pivoted her body towards them. She started to work her pussy with her own fingers as she watched them fuck.

The sex with Kelsey was anything but slow and intimate that night. Kelsey didn’t want to make love—she wanted to fuck instead. Martin could barely hold onto her as she rode him quickly, even offering her nipple to his lips several times in the process.

It became all he could do not to cum too early. Kelsey was completely revved up and moving with the speed of a woman possessed. That truly showed when she came the first time, which was definitely an earth-shattering experience for her.

“I’m cumming on your perfect cock!” yelled Kelsey as she shoved herself down hard on his lap. She was semi-delirious for half a minute until she started moving again, quickly building her pace back to the crescendo it was at before.

All the while to their side, Annabelle continued to diddle herself while losing what remained of her clothes.

It was a race to see who would cum next and it was one that Martin thought he might win. Kelsey’s pussy was completely drenched at this point and he could hear the sound of wetness every time he thrust into her.

He wasn’t about to win that race though. Kelsey’s second orgasm completely blew away her first one. Several full-body shudders just wrecked her while she came, even to the point that she completely collapsed against Martin’s chest, a spent force.

Kelsey could only whimper as he tried to start thrusting again.

“No more, too sensitive,” she whispered.

He hadn’t realized just how powerful the orgasm was for her but there was no way Kelsey could continue in this state. Even still, he was no closer to cumming and after all that action, Martin needed release.

Thankfully, Annabelle locked her eyes on his glistening cock the moment that Kelsey moved out of the way.

Martin could tell that Kelsey felt sympathetic at not making him cum as she laid on the couch beside him to catch his breath. She reached over to grab his cock once more.

“Do you want me to use my hand or my mouth until you cum?” she asked weakly. “I’m sorry, I just can’t take much more right now.”

Martin didn’t get the chance to answer.

Annabelle was shaking her head emphatically. “No, no, I can take care of him. Just leave him to me.”

Kelsey managed to look worried. She looked over at his still glistening cock as well as Annabelle’s naked form. “Are you sure?” she asked.

Annabelle nodded. “I got this.”

What happened next shocked both Martin and Kelsey. Annabelle extended her long legs and quickly perched herself in Martin’s lap in the same position Kelsey had just been riding him in. Once again, there was no clothing to protect against any accidental penetration. Martin could feel Annabelle’s wetness sliding along his shaft and his eyes rolled to the back of his head at the wet sensation.

Unfortunately, Kelsey nearly had a fit. She sat up from the couch looking completely alarmed. “What are you doing?” she asked in a scared tone.

Annabelle waved her hand. “It’s all right. He’s so close, I’m just going to dry hump one out of him. It’s okay, I got this.”

Kelsey looked once more at Annabelle’s hips. She pushed away from the couch as if to verify with her own eyes that there was no actual penetration. “Just no sex, okay? Remember the ground rules.”

Annabelle nodded again. “Don’t worry about us.”

Kelsey wasn’t the only one worried though. Even Martin had anxiety when Annabelle started to move more quickly in his lap. She would shuffle forward and then slowly slide back in the process, which would drag her labia along his shaft. Each time she did it, it became more maddening to withstand the urge to slide inside her.

Judging by the look in her eyes, that seemed to be her intent. Annabelle was looking at him with passionate need in her eyes. She even leaned forward several times to kiss him, but those kisses showed none of the animal lust that had so marked his sex with Kelsey.

No, they were kisses that someone would give to their lover. They were sensual, slow, and deep and when their lips parted, it wasn’t hard to tell what Annabelle was thinking internally.

“Annabelle,” warned Martin after watching her eyes. “Don’t.”

Annabelle didn’t answer. She kept moving her hips back and forth.

At that moment, Martin felt isolated. He knew the danger they were in but Kelsey had seemed to relax when Annabelle told her not to worry. Even the warning he’d just given to Annabelle didn’t trigger any alarm bells, as Kelsey seemed to think it was intended to make Annabelle not move so quickly lest she trigger his orgasm.

“It’s okay, baby,” said Kelsey. “Go ahead and cum. Cum for me while she dry humps you.”

Annabelle took Kelsey’s encouragement as permission to keep going. She moved her hips more quickly and Martin couldn’t help but thrust against her due to instinct. There was nothing more that he wanted in that moment than to feel her pussy stretching around him.

But there was no way he could do that to Kelsey. He couldn’t break her rules.

Annabelle had no such qualms. And it was her next action that broke all the rules.

She was now breathing heavily as she humped against him, her mouth open and her eyes glazed over. Annabelle was whispering against his ear, in a tone that was even too low for Kelsey to hear.

“I need you, Martin,” she whispered. “I’m going to cum so hard for you. Fuck, I need you in me. I want you so deep in my pussy. Fuck, I’m going to cum so soon.”

It took every ounce of willpower he had not to succumb to her temptation. Martin could only mouth her name one more time in a warning but it was too late.

Annabelle bounced just a little too high in her next movement. In doing so, her hands became instantly busy as she used one to angle Martin’s shaft upward and the other to steady herself.

As she came back down, the angle and location were just too perfect.

Martin gasped as he felt his cock push into her pussy one inch at a time. Annabelle moaned the loudest he’d ever heard and crushed her lips against his as she began to cum.

“I’m cumming! I’m cumming! Fuck, you feel so good!” she moaned as her pussy began to spasm around his manhood.

And beside them, Kelsey shot up with a look of sheer panic. “Annabelle, no! How could you?”

CHAPTER 37

THEY COULDN’T HAVE BEEN MORE screwed.

And not in the good way.

At this very moment, Annabelle was still spasming in the throes of orgasm on top of him, his cock buried inside her still-pulsating pussy.

And despite Kelsey’s anger, the only thing he wanted to do was thrust upward into Annabelle. In a way, instinct will always triumph over convention but it was the continued shrieks of Kelsey that finally led Martin to push Annabelle off of him.

Kelsey’s eyes locked on Martin’s erect member as it glistened with Annabelle’s vaginal secretions. If anything, it only made the situation worse.

“What the fuck is wrong with you!” cried Kelsey as she pushed off the couch. “How could you! It was the only rule that could never be broken and you did it anyway!”

Martin was left to try to organize a defense. Annabelle was still in the midst of full-body shudders and wasn’t exactly coherent, but that didn’t mean the words that left his mouth a moment later were any better.

“I don’t know,” stammered Martin as he rushed to pull his boxers up, as if removing his cock from sight would make him less guilty. “It just happened!”

She glared at Annabelle. “You knowingly broke the rules! I can’t believe you, Annabelle!”

Kelsey never gave her the chance to explain any further. In a flash, Kelsey was dressed and putting on her shoes, but not before she grabbed her key to the apartment.

Confusion reigned on Martin’s face. “Where are you going?”

“Out,” snapped Kelsey as she turned toward the door. As if triggered by the memory, Kelsey suddenly snapped around and pointed her finger at both of them. “Don’t you dare fuck her! I mean it, Martin!”

She didn’t say anything further. The door slammed shut, leaving Martin alone with a still-naked Annabelle, who had by now figured out that what she did was very wrong.

Annabelle’s blue-green eyes focused on him. “What did I do, Martin?”

She shook her head as she attempted to cover her nakedness. Martin hated to see her do it. Annabelle had the kind of body that most women would kill for, especially given her enormous breasts and plump, juicy nipples.

“Should we go after her?” asked Annabelle. “Should we stop her? Where’s she going to go?”

“I’m not sure,” he replied in total honesty. “I don’t know where she could go. But I get the impression we should let her have some space right now. If there’s anything I know about Kelsey, it’s when she’s upset, she needs her space.”

Annabelle nodded as if that was a natural answer. “I guess.”

Things took a turn for the awkward right after that. Martin wasn’t sure how blind lust and passion could so quickly turn into a state lacking any semblance of comfort but it did. It was oddly reminiscent of the kind of clarity one gets after an orgasm—the state of questioning the object or person that had just managed to get you off.

And if anything, Annabelle’s clarity seemed to realize just the magnanimity of what she just did.

“I’ve fucked up so bad. Really bad,” said Annabelle after she was fully dressed and sitting at a comfortable distance away from Martin. “Wow, I really screwed up.”

“Yeah, well it takes two to tango,” replied Martin. “And nothing would’ve happened if I wasn’t hard enough to . . . you know, slide inside.”

“Yeah, but you were just fucking Kelsey so of course you were hard,” said Annabelle. “And I didn’t intend to put it in. I just wanted to hump against you and I’m not really sure what happened. My mind just went blank. One minute I was grinding against you and the next—I was in Powerful Orgasm Land.”

Martin couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “Happiest place on Earth? At least it was good for you. I didn’t even get to cum.”

Annabelle raised an eyebrow. “That’s like the first complaint for sex I’ve ever received. You’re saying you didn’t . . . like being in me?”

Martin shook his head. “No, no, no, not at all. Just the fact that I couldn’t finish. But honestly, that’s not something I’m worried about right now.”

How could he be worried? Martin was so soft at the thought of hurting Kelsey that his dick might as well have crawled back up into his body. Thinking about the consequences wasn’t helping his cause either.

Annabelle started to shake her head. “How could I have done this to her? Especially when she’s been so nice to me. And welcoming too. I can’t believe I just hurt someone so badly who only wanted to help me.”

Annabelle’s voice became progressively weaker as she spoke. By the time she reached the end of that sentence, her hands were against her face and she was sobbing.

Martin wanted to put his arm around her to comfort her but decided against it. He wanted to keep this physical distance between them, as if that would somehow make the situation better.

“It’s okay, we’ll figure something out,” he promised, unsure if that would actually happen. “It was just a mistake, right? We were all horny and no one was thinking. It just happened.”

Annabelle raised her head. “Yeah, it just happened but I should’ve known better! Now look at what I’ve done! You two have brought me into your home and gave me a second chance at life. How do I pay you back? Well, I go and fuck up your relationship!”

She put her head back into her hands and sobbed for several more moments. Despite wanting to maintain the separation between them, Martin couldn’t help but pat her back consolingly while she cried. He didn’t think Annabelle was a bad person—she’d just made a mistake. It was going to be a very costly mistake but with all that Annabelle had gone through recently, she deserved some pity.

Martin even noticed some personal growth, even if it was in a weird kind of way. Ever since the rules had been made, Annabelle seemed to show little regard for Martin’s relationship with Kelsey, giving it lip service until they could reach the eventual moment where Annabelle could go from girlfriend-in-training to the main event.

The fact that she was so hurt now and shedding genuine tears about upsetting Kelsey showed that perhaps there was more growth to the two women’s relationship than met the eye.

Martin listened to Annabelle sob for another ten minutes before she began to dry her eyes.

“I have to help fix this,” said Annabelle over and over again. “I have to do something. This is entirely my fault.”

“We’ll fix it, I know we will,” replied Martin. “We’ll just give Kelsey her space for now and we’ll talk to her when she gets back.”

“No, I’ll talk to her,” said Annabelle as she shook her head violently. “I need to make this right for both of you. I’m the third wheel here, not her. I need to fix it.”

Annabelle stood up as if she was going to immediately get to action but it was her next statement that made Martin believe a fix would be easier said than done.

She turned to face him, locking eyes. “You know what scares me the most, Martin?”

“No. What?”

Annabelle started to tap her chin, the most common sign of her anxiety. “It’s the fact that now that we’ve actually crossed that line, that I’m not going to be able to go back. I’m afraid that the genie is out of the bottle now and I won’t be able to put him back in.”

Martin’s eyes widened. “You mean . . .”

She nodded. “Having you inside me for that minute was simply unforgettable, Martin. How am I supposed to forget that feeling? How am I just supposed to put that into the past and play by the rules?”

Annabelle walked away without letting him have the chance to respond. Truthfully, Martin didn’t have a good response to that question. In the back of his mind, he worried a lot about her question because he’d now sampled Annabelle’s deliciously snug and wet pussy as well.

How was he supposed to just forget it ever happened either?

CHAPTER 38

KELSEY DIDN’T RETURN to the apartment in the next hour. Not only did she not return, but she didn’t make any attempt to communicate with him nor would she answer his calls or texts. By the time darkness descended, Martin was starting to worry.

“I have to go out and look for her,” he said, putting on his shoes and slipping his phone into his pocket. “It just makes me incredibly nervous that she’s still out right now. She’s so upset, and I don’t want anything to happen to her.”

Annabelle nodded and went to grab her own shoes. “I’m going to come with you. Two of us can cover twice as much ground.”

It was a good idea on paper but Martin was soon shaking his head and gesturing for Annabelle to stay. “Actually, why don’t you just stay here for now?”

Annabelle couldn’t have looked more disappointed. “Why, Martin?”

“Listen, I would love to have your company ordinarily, but I think if Kelsey sees us together, it just might make things worse,” he explained. “Plus I want you to stay here in case she comes back while I’m out. Can you let me know if she does?”

Annabelle nodded and picked up her burner cell phone that he purchased shortly after she was cloned. “Of course, I’ll text you.”

Martin thanked her and opened the door to leave.

“Martin? One more thing?”

He turned to face her.

Annabelle’s eyes filled with tears. “When you do find her, please just tell her I’m really sorry, okay? Make sure she knows how sorry I am?”

Martin nodded. “Of course, I’ll tell her.”

Touched by her genuine request, Martin soon hit the streets in an attempt to find Kelsey. It was dark enough now that all the streetlights were on, but there was only so far that Kelsey could get on foot. With that knowledge in mind, Martin hit all the usual spots that they’d walked to before. He walked the local streets that he knew she was familiar with. He visited the park and the nearby basketball courts. He even went to the large fountain that he knew Kelsey liked to visit.

He couldn’t find her anywhere. In fact, most places were deserted at this time of evening, and only a relatively few people were out. There wasn’t even the question of losing Kelsey in a crowd as there just weren’t enough bodies to lose her in.

Martin returned to his apartment nearly an hour later with nothing to show for it. He found Annabelle sitting on the couch in an otherwise empty apartment. Her face was filled with hope when the door opened but it quickly turned to despair when she realized that he was alone.

“Couldn’t find her?” she asked.

Martin could only shake his head. “I have no idea what to do. It’s late and I’ve checked the usual spots. I couldn’t be more worried but what else can we do right now?”

Annabelle gave him a disturbed look. “I really screwed this up. I’m never going to be able to live this down—”

Her words were cut short as they both heard the sound of a doorknob opening. In the next moment, Kelsey’s face appeared in the doorframe, causing both Martin and Annabelle to let out a sigh of relief.

“Kelsey,” said Martin, letting all the relief out through his exhale. “You’re here.”

He only wished she didn’t look so miserable. Her features were still deeply marred with anger.

“Can we talk?” asked Martin but he was quickly cut off when Kelsey put her hand up and continued walking toward their bedroom.

“I really don’t want to talk about it right now,” said Kelsey as her eyes soon darted over to Annabelle. “We’ll talk in the morning. Goodnight.”

The bedroom door slammed loudly enough to make Martin jump. Feeling helpless, he could only look over at Annabelle and wonder what to do now.

Yeah, Kelsey was at least back in the apartment where she was safe but the situation still looked as volatile as ever.

How the hell was he going to solve this?

Nothing more could have been settled that night. At least Annabelle was able to retire to her bedroom to go to sleep. Martin had to make do with the couch, figuring it was just safer that way.

Sleep was hard to come by but then again, it always was when he was sleeping on the couch. Right as he managed to fall into a deeper sleep, his alarm went off in the morning. Martin stood up from the couch feeling not the slightest bit rested and he only had an achy neck to show for it.

So much for being able to sleep on the issue.

Things didn’t seem to get any better with breakfast either. Martin took the initiative to make Kelsey’s favorite breakfast—bacon and eggs—hoping that it would help to break the ice.

Unfortunately, she took one look at the still crisp bacon and folded her arms at him.

“Making my favorite food?,” she asked as she took a bite of bacon. “Just a little transparent, don’t you think?”

“I know,” replied Martin. “But I was hoping it could at least open the door so we could talk about it.”

Kelsey shook her head. “I just don’t want to talk right now.”

That seemed to be the end of the discussion. Kelsey took her plate back to the bedroom and closed the door once more.

Martin let out a loud sigh as Annabelle came into the kitchen. As much as he wanted to take out his frustration on someone or something, he couldn’t possibly do it with Annabelle.

For one, she just looked too damn sexy. The black tank top she was wearing was straining to contain her massive breasts and those little shorts revealed way too much leg.

It was hard to be mad when all he wanted to do was to strip her down.

Stop it. Thinking with your dick is what got you into this mess in the first place.

“How’d it go?” asked Annabelle as she gestured to the bedroom. “I only heard a little bit but it wasn’t great.”

Martin shook his head. “She’s still pissed. It might be a while until she’s ready to talk.”

A sympathetic look appeared on Annabelle’s face. Much to his surprise, she embraced him a moment later.

Martin stiffened at feeling her body so close to him but he needn’t have worried.

“It’s okay,” she whispered in his ear. “I know things are tough right now but we’ll all get through this. Be strong, Martin.”

That was easier said than done but he found his arms wrapping around her as well. Even without any sexual tension (well, maybe a little bit of tension), it still felt damn good to have Annabelle in his arms.

He just wanted Kelsey back in her usual place in his arms too. Why couldn’t he have both?

Martin would give anything just to go back to the old rules of the apartment, even if that meant not having full sexual intimacy with Annabelle.

As great as Annabelle was, she wasn’t worth sacrificing his relationship with Kelsey.

And now he was about to go to work. And he was leaving Annabelle alone with Kelsey.

“Are you sure you’re going to be okay today?” asked Martin as he gestured toward the main bedroom. “I hate to leave you alone here today, especially if she goes on a warpath later.”

Annabelle actually smiled. “Don’t worry about me. Besides, what’s the worst that could happen? I’ve already died once so nothing else seems as bad by comparison.”

Martin thought she had a point there. “Even still, just be careful today. Don’t try to make her talk if she doesn’t want to.”

“I’ll let her come around when she wants to,” promised Annabelle. She then reached up on her toes and kissed him softly. “Have a good day at work, Martin.”

Despite wanting the kiss to go on, Martin only reluctantly grabbed his bag and left the apartment for RI.

CHAPTER 39

AS SOON AS Martin was gone, Annabelle let out a deep sigh and flattened her body against the door.

Great, now what do I do?

There were too many questions that needed answering but Annabelle thought they were unlikely to get answered any time soon. And now she was left alone in the apartment with another woman whose boyfriend she just tried to fuck last night.

If she found Kelsey standing over her with a knife, Annabelle would hardly be able to blame her.

Even still, it would be a long eight hours before Martin was home again, and Annabelle had to find something to pass the time. Getting out of the apartment seemed to be the best course, but while she was lacing up her shoes to go on a run, she noticed she wasn’t quite alone.

Kelsey was watching her from the kitchen. Annabelle hadn’t noticed when she came out of the bedroom but Kelsey was now leaning against the wall appraising Annabelle from a short distance.

It made Annabelle feel instantly uncomfortable. She wondered if Kelsey was trying to figure out the best way to kill her. She certainly still looked just as pissed as she was last night.

Surprisingly, Kelsey’s first statement wasn’t the least bit angry.

“We need to talk,” said Kelsey in a calm, measured tone of voice. “About last night.”

Annabelle continued to tie her shoes before standing up to face the other woman. She put her chin down like a child about to be chastised.

“Yeah, I guess we do,” replied Annabelle. “But you’re not planning to kill me, are you?”

Kelsey chewed on her lip. “I haven’t decided yet.”

Annabelle forced a smile to break the tension. “I guess that’s better than a yes, right?”

To her great relief, a small smile grew on Kelsey’s face. “We’ll see. Come on, let’s get some fresh air.”

Kelsey disappeared for a moment before returning with her workout leggings and a bright pink sports bra. She put on her shoes and the two of them left the apartment, making for the direction of a nearby park where they could run a full circuit in peace.

At first, no other conversation was offered from Kelsey, and since Annabelle thought she ought to be the one to kick this off, she kept quiet until Kelsey was ready to talk.

That didn’t come until about twenty minutes later after they’d nearly completed the first circuit.

“I’m really hurt by what you did,” said Kelsey in a low tone of voice. “I thought we were getting to be friends. What hurt me the most was seeing what you did after I thought we were getting somewhere. I guess I just didn’t expect it from you.”

Annabelle nodded. “That’s a fair point, and I can’t deny that you have every reason to be hurt. And I just want to say that I’m really sorry, Kelsey. So very sorry for what I did. I know I can’t make it up to you but I feel just awful about it.”

Kelsey looked over at her. “Why did you do it? I mean, we had our ground rules and you certainly knew it was off limits. So why do it?”

Annabelle shrugged. “I wish I knew. It seemed like a good idea at the time, in the heat of the moment. I guess I just wasn’t thinking.”

“No, you definitely weren’t,” said Kelsey. “And now a line has been crossed that shouldn’t have been crossed.”

“I’m so sorry, Kelsey, I never—”

Kelsey interrupted her. “But you liked it, didn’t you? I saw your face. I heard your moans. You came instantly as soon as it happened.”

Annabelle felt her face flushing a deep red. “I did. It felt . . . incredible.”

Kelsey turned to look at her again. “Do you love him?”

It was an honest question but it was one that Annabelle had never forced herself to face before. Did she love Martin? Was she in love with him?

She was certainly in lust with him but to call that love would be mistaken. Yet, she still felt something very powerful for him that went beyond just the sexual aspect.

“I don’t know,” answered Annabelle very honestly. “I feel something for him. Whether it’s love or not, I can’t tell yet. But it’s definitely strong. Stronger than I imagined.”

Kelsey didn’t reply right away to that and it wasn’t hard to see why. It was a lot to digest, especially when another woman just admitted how strongly she felt for the man she loved.

“It’s so weird,” said Kelsey finally. “Seeing you and him together, you know actual penetration, was a hard pill for me to swallow. But nothing else you two did before that was too bad. I accepted watching you two make out or do oral but actually seeing his cock in you was really hard.”

Annabelle found herself biting her lip at the memory of Martin’s pulsating cock inside her. There was nothing she wanted more than to just revisit that very pleasant memory.

“I don’t know what to do about this,” continued Kelsey. “Part of it is that I don’t know what your intentions are. I can’t tell if you just want to be his playmate or if you want to take my spot as his girlfriend. Truthfully, after what you just admitted, I think you want to take my spot.”

“The thought had occurred to me a few times,” admitted Annabelle. She stopped to look at Kelsey. “As long as we are being truthful, you ought to know. I can’t deny that I feel strongly about him. And yeah, if this were an ordinary situation, I might think pretty hard about pushing you out.”

Kelsey raised her eyebrow. “But we don’t live in an ordinary situation.”

“Right,” replied Annabelle. “And you don’t have any other place to go just like I don’t. So we’re stuck here together with each other.”

“You make it sound so terrible. Like you have a million other better places to be.”

“Well, two women fighting over the same man isn’t exactly a place that I want to be,” said Annabelle. “Is it for you?”

Kelsey shook her head. “No, it’s really not.”

“So how do we resolve this then? We both like him and we both want to be intimate with him,” said Annabelle. “How do we fix this without someone getting hurt?”

“Can we even do that?” asked Kelsey. “My point of view is that he was mine first and that you need to respect my relationship with him. You may like him like you said, but I love him, Annabelle. From that standpoint, it seems like you’re going to be the one getting hurt.”

“Well, we’re having this conversation because you’re the one that’s hurt right now,” said Annabelle. “Not that I’m justifying my actions but it is what it is. And yes, I like him a great deal. I’m not saying I love him but could it grow into love? Quite possibly.”

“Okay, serious question time,” said Kelsey. “Do you honestly think you could go without him again? I mean, could you cut off all intimacy with him if you had to?”

“If I had to or if you asked me to?” asked Annabelle.

Kelsey waved her hand. “Whichever. I’m just asking if it’s possible for you.”

Annabelle had to think about that question long and hard. Ultimately, her answer wasn’t a surprise to Kelsey.

“I don’t think I can,” said Annabelle. “Especially not living in close proximity like we do. He’s an amazing guy and I really don’t want to lose what we have. So no, I don’t think so.”

Kelsey let out a deep sigh. There was a moment of silence for several minutes until she finally found the words to speak again.

“Then we need another accommodation,” said Kelsey. “One that will keep all of us sane and preserve the status quo that we have. We need to come up with one more agreement.”

Annabelle cocked her head and looked at the other woman. “What did you have in mind?”

Kelsey’s answer shocked her.

CHAPTER 40

“HELLO? Earth to Martin, is anyone home?”

Martin snapped back to reality as his friend, Tim, started waving his hand in front of his face. It was at that moment that he realized he was once again thinking about the situation back at his apartment while completely ignoring whatever Tim was saying.

“I’m sorry, can you say that again?” asked Martin. “I must have dozed off or something.”

Tim rolled his eyes. “Dude, you really need to pay more attention to me. I don’t just tell you things for my health, you know?”

“Sorry,” said Martin. “Just a lot going on at home right now.”

Tim pursed his lips. “Problems with your lady friend? Kelsey, right?”

“Something like that,” answered Martin. There was no way he could tell Tim the real story, especially considering the other woman was someone that Tim knew. No, this one would have to be kept under wraps.

Unfortunately, it didn’t stop Tim from trying to guess.

He put a comforting hand on Martin’s shoulder. “Ah, I see. How late is her period exactly?”

Martin shook his head while chuckling. “Not the issue we’re facing but thanks.”

“Then what could be the problem?” asked Tim. “You have a smoking hot girlfriend that’s cool as hell. Whatever the issue at home, it can’t be that bad!”

“Oh, it might surprise you,” said Martin before he caught himself. He tried to dial it back in before he blabbed any further. “But it’s all good. Hopefully it will resolve itself.”

“Just don’t let a hottie like her out of your sight,” said Tim. “You could do a lot worse than her!”

Martin couldn’t help but smile. He had to wonder what Tim would say if he knew that not only did Martin have a sexual relationship with Kelsey, but one with Annabelle as well.

It would probably blow his friend’s mind.

“So anyway, what I was trying to tell you while you were off in la-la land is that my application into the trainee replicator program was accepted,” said Tim. “Can you believe it? They actually accepted me!”

“That’s big news,” said Martin. “You have to be pretty stoked about that.”

“Totally stoked, especially considering all the expansion plans that RI has for the tristate market,” said Tim. “With all the new branches we are looking to open up, each one of them is going to need an operator to man the replicator. Once I pass the training program, I can get directly into one of these jobs and be set for life.”

This was a really big deal for Tim, and it wasn’t hard to tell how much it meant to him. While many at RI thought of Tim as just a big goofball, he was really an intelligent guy that nursed a secret ambition to climb the corporate ladder. That meant he wouldn’t be just an analyst at the corporate location forever. He might go out and run his own branch and maybe come back at some time in the future to a leadership position at headquarters.

Despite not looking like leadership material, Tim was definitely on the right track.

“So when does this training program start?” asked Martin. “And how long is it?”

“It’ll get started within the next couple weeks,” answered Tim. “And it’s lengthy. There’s a lot of training modules and in-class instruction I’ll have to do. Plus I need to have field experience on the replicators, which is what I’m looking forward to the most. I think it’s going to be so cool to actually clone something with my own hands!”

Martin grinned but didn’t answer that directly. He knew firsthand just how cool it was to operate the replicators, but it was hardly something he could tell Tim.

“And who knows,” continued Tim as he leaned in closer to Martin. “Maybe I’ll even get some hands-on training provided courtesy of Claire.”

Martin couldn’t help but laugh at that. Claire was hardly the type to give anyone “hands-on” training, and she was more likely to kill Tim rather than let him invade her personal space.

“Yeah, somehow I doubt that will ever happen,” said Martin, still laughing. “But maybe you’ll get in closer with one of the other VPs. For some reason, Bryce doesn’t seem as evil as Claire.”

Tim shrugged. “Yeah, but he sure isn’t as nice to look at as Claire is. Claire is a total smokeshow.”

“Yeah, but all that beauty couldn’t make up for a terrible heart,” replied Martin. “Well, you’ll have to keep me up to date on the training program. And when you eventually get your own branch of RI to run, you can’t forget all the friends you left behind back at corporate!”

Tim grinned. “Yeah, yeah, I’ll ask them to let you all come work for me. That way, I could potentially be your boss someday. Wouldn’t that be awesome?”

Martin snorted. “Yeah, I can think of a million other people who’d be a better boss than you. Count me out of that one.”

Tim bruised Martin’s shoulder playfully.

“See?” said Martin with a chuckle. “If you want to be the boss, you can’t be hitting your employees!”

Tim growled. “I’ll do much worse if you don’t shut it!”

CHAPTER 41

THE TWO OF them continued to talk until it was time to get back to work. Despite Martin’s constant worrying about what was going on at home, the day actually went by quickly. There was just too much to do and not enough time to do it, so it was five o’clock before he knew it.

Even still, it was on the walk back that he was hit with the highest level of anxiety yet. About the only thing he could hope for was that Annabelle and Kelsey hadn’t killed each other while he was gone and it was only with some hesitation that he opened the door to the apartment a few minutes later.

“Hello?” he called out, surprised he didn’t see anyone sitting in the kitchen right away. That was unusual, since Kelsey almost always had dinner waiting by the time he got home from work. It put a bad feeling in Martin’s stomach right from the start, one that he knew wouldn’t go away until he found the girls.

Funny enough, he found them in the living room of all places, but it was their seating arrangements that caused him to stop in his tracks.

Both Kelsey and Annabelle were sitting on the couch facing him when he walked in the room, something he found really odd. It was like they were waiting for him, and the feeling in the pit of his stomach got worse at the notion of what they might say.

“Um, hi,” said Martin as his eyes darted back and forth between the two of them.

“Hey, Martin,” said Annabelle brightly, giving him a pleasant smile. It came as no surprise to see that, but when his eyes moved to Kelsey, he was temporarily relieved to see a small smile spreading onto her face.

“Hi, Martin,” she said before she gestured to the couch. “Will you sit down? We need to talk.”

Nothing good ever came out of those four words, and Martin started to sweat as he sat down on the adjacent couch and looked at the two women.

Part of him wondered if this was truly the end? Was Kelsey going to break up with him?

What would that mean for their living arrangements?

His head was still spinning with the possibilities when Kelsey began to speak again.

“Martin, we really need to talk about what’s going on in this apartment,” repeated Kelsey once he was seated. “And we need to talk about last night.”

Martin nodded. “Last night was a mistake. I couldn’t be more sorry about what happened. Really, I’m not sure how it happened—”

“I know that,” interrupted Kelsey as she looked over at Annabelle. “Believe me, Annabelle and I discussed it at length today. I know you both didn’t mean for it to happen, and it was more or less the heat of the moment than anything else. But let’s be honest—it did happen. Your cock was in her pussy, Martin, and there’s some things that can’t be taken back.”

Martin flinched at hearing the words. It sounded so much worse to hear her say the act out loud but perhaps that was Kelsey’s intent? In any event, he found it hard to meet Annabelle’s eyes, almost as if looking at her would make the situation worse.

“That really hurt me, Martin,” said Kelsey. “Truly, it hurt me deeper than I could’ve ever imagined. I always thought my heart would be safe in your hand and last night was the first time I ever had a doubt about that.”

That last statement just killed him. He was already feeling terrible about what happened but hearing how bad it hurt Kelsey just made him feel rotten to the core. Maybe she really was going to break up with him.

Kelsey took a deep breath. “I also know that it wasn’t entirely in your control,” she said before looking at Annabelle. “And I know that Annabelle took the initiative to actually get you inside her. So, I’m choosing not to be mad at you about this, Martin.”

Martin could only blink. He looked back and forth between Kelsey and Annabelle. “Wait, what? But you’re right, it did happen. How can you not be mad at me? You still seem a little mad.”

Kelsey chewed on her lower lip. “I am upset at the situation but not so much at you. Annabelle was the one that pointed out that you were in a pretty bad spot. Last night, we’d just had sex and you hadn’t even cum yet. You were rock hard and Annabelle was grinding on you. I can’t really blame you that it just ‘slipped’ in. Yes, it hurt me, but my anger toward you wasn’t right. I was more angry with Annabelle.”

Annabelle was the next to speak up. “And we’ve talked about this a lot today. And I’ve apologized to Kelsey for what I did. It wasn’t right and it went against the rules that we established for living in the apartment. I also want to apologize to you, Martin. I put you in a terrible spot just because I was too horny to think about the consequences. I’m really sorry for what I did.”

Martin felt flabbergasted. In what universe did Annabelle feel the need to apologize for having sex with him? It was only a weird slight of circumstances that led to this apology but in the back of his mind, he thought she should never have to apologize to him for that intimacy.

“So what does this mean then?” asked Martin. “You said you two talked a lot today. How does this change our situation here?”

“Well, the most important ground rule that we had was completely shattered yesterday,” said Kelsey. “Like it or not, you two have had sex, and I can’t turn the clock back to a time when you didn’t.”

“If you really call it sex,” muttered Martin. “I was barely in for a minute before Annabelle came.”

Annabelle’s cheeks flushed. “It was just too good, I couldn’t help myself.”

Kelsey raised her hand. “Regardless. What’s done is done. It happened and we can’t go back so we need to figure out a way to live with it, right?”

Martin nodded, but how they were going to do that was anyone’s guess. Kelsey was certainly not going to let it happen again, and Annabelle wasn’t going to be happy if they had to go back to everything but penetration.

Kelsey took a deep breath to center herself before she started to speak again. “The most important thing for all of us is that we learn to live together. We have to have some semblance of harmony in this apartment, for both mine and Annabelle’s sake. Realistically, there’s nowhere else we can go so that means we have to solve this situation here.”

“And we talked a lot today about what a compromise would look like,” added Annabelle. “And we both realized the exact same thing.”

“What’s that?” asked Martin.

Kelsey and Annabelle shared a look with each other before looking back at Martin. “That we both have feelings for you,” said Kelsey. “Now, I don’t think there’s any question that my feelings for you are much stronger than Annabelle’s presently. I love you, Martin. I’ve loved you for years and what we have together is beyond special to me. It’s simply incredible.”

If she was still going to break up with him, this was a terrible lead up to it. Martin started to relax that maybe this might not be so bad after all.

“And I have feelings for you too, Martin,” said Annabelle. “I wouldn’t say it’s love yet, but I do like you quite a bit. And I don’t think I would’ve had the urge to do what we did last night without having strong feelings in place to justify the risk.”

The only better thing than hearing Kelsey’s total love and devotion was hearing a similar feeling being espoused by Annabelle. The knowledge that both of these women had feelings for him left Martin speechless.

How’d he get so lucky?

“Annabelle has shared with me that her feelings could eventually turn into love,” said Kelsey. “They could resemble the feelings I already have for you, Martin. And that means something incredibly important for all of us.”

Martin blinked. “What’s that?”

Kelsey let out a deep breath. “As much as I hate to say it, it means that I can’t really deny what’s going on between you two. It means that Annabelle’s not wrong to indulge her desire for intimacy with you. She really shouldn’t be denied, and it was wrong of me to put limits on it, especially when the initial desire was already there.”

Martin wasn’t sure he was hearing her correctly. Did this mean what he thought it meant?

His eyes flickered between both women. “So what does this mean? Annabelle and I are allowed to be intimate again? Are we putting the ground rules back in place?”

“Not exactly,” replied Annabelle. “I’ve agreed that your relationship with Kelsey still takes precedence. She’s basically your main girlfriend. She was there first and she has the final say, and I promise both of you that I’ll always respect that.”

Kelsey let out a small smile. “Thank you, Annabelle. And that means too that I won’t interfere with your relationship with Annabelle. I’ve done some soul-searching in the past twenty-four hours. I think what bothered me the most was that Annabelle could potentially replace me in this relationship. I’ve realized that with our situation, that’s not really possible. It’s always going to be the three of us here. And if Annabelle promises that my relationship with you always comes first, then I can afford to relax the rules a little.”

Martin’s eyes widened. “So you mean . . .”

Annabelle couldn’t contain her grin. “Yes, exactly. We get to be intimate, Martin. No restrictions. We can have sex.”

CHAPTER 42

HEARING those last four words from Annabelle took his cock from completely soft to raging hard in a matter of seconds. At that moment, he remembered just how tight and wet Annabelle’s pussy was, and soon all the blood rushed out of his brain to go elsewhere.

That didn’t mean that Kelsey was finished talking though.

“Hold on a second,” she said, putting her hands up. “Yes, I agree to this but I still want to be involved in this. I don’t want this happening behind my back. If you’re going to have sex with Annabelle, it’s only going to be with me right beside you, got it?”

“So you’re saying that all the sex we have from now onward is going to be a threesome?” asked Martin as a smile grew on his face. “However will I survive?”

Annabelle actually snorted before she started to laugh. “He has a point about that. It seems like Martin is getting off lightly in the grand scheme of things. We just consigned him to unlimited threesomes forever.”

Kelsey smiled but rolled her eyes. “This is just a trial run. It’s not unlimited . . . yet. You never know, maybe you two won’t like having sex with each other.”

That comment earned a snort from both Martin and Annabelle at the same time, which caused Kelsey to playfully smack Martin on the wrist.

At that point though, he couldn’t help himself. He reached over and pulled Kelsey into his lap and placed a long, passionate kiss on her lips.

When the kiss broke, Kelsey was looking at him with some confusion. “What was that for?”

“For being so understanding about this whole thing,” replied Martin. “I could barely concentrate today because all I could think about was losing you. You are entirely correct about one thing—you are my first and most important. There’s nothing in the world that means more to me than my relationship with you and I promise you that I’ll never do anything to jeopardize that.”

It was just what she needed to hear. Kelsey practically melted into his lap and kissed him sweetly. Her eyes locked on his.

“I can’t lose you, Martin,” she whispered just loud enough for him to hear. “I love you too much.”

“And I’ll always love you, no matter what happens from here on out,” he replied.

Kelsey smiled and caressed his face with her hand. “Promise me I’ll always be your number one?”

“I promise,” he said, meaning every word. “No one could ever fill your place. Before I cloned you, I lived the worst two years of my life without you. I can’t even call it living because it wasn’t. No matter what, you come first.”

Martin wasn’t surprised when she kissed him again but what did surprise him was how much heat there was to her kiss. Kelsey moaned into his mouth as her tongue sought his, and Martin couldn’t help but wrap his arms around her and hold her close.

He was still harder than a diamond, and it seemed that fact didn’t escape Kelsey’s attention either when she reached between them to rub it on the outside of his slacks.

“I want you,” she whispered to him as she continued to rub. “I want you inside me, Martin.”

There was a flurry of activity to get Martin’s work clothes off in a hurry. The slacks went first and Kelsey practically ripped his button-up shirt in an effort to disrobe him. Her own efforts were much more muted—Kelsey took the pair of gym tights she was wearing and rolled them over her perfect butt until she was bottomless.

This time, she resumed her place in his lap without any clothing to separate them. And as Martin’s cock notched itself between her labia, he could already feel the heat and the hint of wetness contained within.

It was the second time in twenty-four hours that he’d been in a similar situation, but the circumstances this time were completely different. This time, Kelsey locked eyes with him as she raised her body, lined up his cock, and sat down fully with a satisfying moan as he penetrated her.

“Oh, yes,” she moaned as she took every inch inside her. “You have no idea how badly I needed that.”

Martin groaned with her and wrapped his arms around her body. “You feel incredible. It’s so good.”

She kissed him passionately before raising herself up and then slamming back down.

Martin had almost forgotten that Annabelle was still there with them but then he heard her voice out of the blue.

“Fuck, does that feel as good as it looks?”

Both Martin and Kelsey craned their heads to look over at Annabelle. Her eyes were glued to the spot where Martin’s cock was driving into Kelsey. She’d also removed her pants and was now rubbing her clit as she watched the other two fuck.

“Oh, it feels even better, trust me,” purred Kelsey. “And you’re going to find out for yourself very soon.”

Those words seemed to diffuse a lot of the tension in the room. A dreamy smile appeared on Annabelle’s lips as she continued to diddle her clit. Martin’s cock lurched at the thought of being inside Annabelle once more and their hips started to move with increased frequency.

“Fuck me hard, Martin,” whispered Kelsey. “Make me cum and then I’m going to let you make her cum, okay?”

Annabelle moaned at hearing Kelsey’s words. Martin couldn’t help but flicker his gaze over to the beautiful blonde fingering herself only feet away. If he was really going to fuck both of them tonight, it would be a night to remember for the rest of his life.

Meanwhile, Kelsey was really getting into it. She moved like she wanted nothing more than to drain him with her body. She rode him vigorously while keeping her lips glued to his, and in the process, she made even the couch start to squeak.

“Oh, fuck! Your cock feels so fucking good, Martin!” she moaned loudly.

She felt incredible as well. Martin was having a hard time holding back the thought of cumming, but he knew cumming now would stop him from having sex with Annabelle.

So he used every trick he could come up with to hold back. The problem was that Kelsey was having too good of a time. She was hotter than any time in recent memory, and the trickle of her juices was now dripping down his thighs.

It came as no surprise when she came a moment later. Kelsey started a full-body shudder that saw her head thrown back in passionate agony. Her hips stayed glued to his, keeping his cock fully locked inside her as her body rode the waves of pleasure.

“Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes,” she whispered against his ear as she came down from her high. “I needed that so bad. Oh, I needed your cock.”

She grabbed his face with both hands and kissed him hard. “I love you so much, Martin. So very much.”

He kissed her back with equal passion. “And I love you too.”

Kelsey let out a satisfied sigh before she wiggled her hips against him. In doing so, she started to rise, letting his cock go free. It was completely red from how close he was to coming but it was thoroughly coated in Kelsey’s juices.

As she rose from his lap, Martin couldn’t help but notice that Annabelle’s eyes were locked on his cock once again.

This time though, Kelsey extended her hand to Annabelle, an offer that the other woman took.

“Come on, it’s your turn,” urged Kelsey. “I want you to fuck him, Annabelle.”

The words sounded completely taboo but that only added to the eroticism of the moment. Annabelle pulled herself from the couch slowly, approaching him while her eyes remained glued on his cock.

This time, there was no panic from Kelsey when Annabelle sat down in Martin’s lap with no clothing to separate them. Annabelle put her arms around Martin’s neck to settle herself, and once more, his cock poked against yet another vagina.

Kelsey wasn’t finished though. She gestured over to Martin. “Why don’t you lay down. Make yourself more comfortable?”

Martin followed her suggestion and laid down fully on the couch, taking Annabelle with him. Now she was fully straddling his hips and facing him, a beautiful position for looking at the now naked blonde.

Annabelle noticed his attention on her breasts. “Do you like looking at me, Martin?” she whispered in a husky tone of voice.

He nodded as his hand went to her nipple. He rubbed it between his fingers before pinching it in the manner she liked. Annabelle gasped and wiggled her hips.

“You’re gorgeous, Annabelle,” he breathed before looking over at Kelsey. “You’re both gorgeous.”

Kelsey smiled and kissed him. “I want you to make her feel good, okay? Make her feel as gorgeous as you said she is.”

“Make me feel good, Martin,” urged Annabelle as she raised her hips. She grabbed his slick cock and soon notched it between her lips. With one final look, Annabelle started to lower her hips.

They both groaned as Martin penetrated Annabelle for the second time ever. This time, it was with Kelsey’s full approval, and if anything, that made it even better. Martin had the chance to savor the feeling of Annabelle’s body instead of panicking like he did the first time, and he couldn’t help but think about how snug and wet she was.

When Annabelle had finally settled into his lap, she leaned forward all the way and kissed him tenderly. “That’s so much better,” she purred. “I can’t believe you’re really inside me.”

“It’s so good,” whispered Martin. “Your body is just incredible, Annabelle. I can’t get over how tight you are.”

“I love having your big cock inside me,” replied Annabelle. “I feel like I’m going to cum already.”

Annabelle raised herself up and then lowered quickly, starting the first motions of rhythm. She moaned as they started to move together. Annabelle leaned back and cupped her tits as her body met his every thrust, creating an exquisite feeling that threatened to send them both over the edge.

Kelsey watched with fascination as well. Martin thought this might be the moment when her jealousy finally emerged but Kelsey seemed content to rub her clit while she watched them fuck. Not wanting to have her do it alone, Martin moved her hand out of the way and rubbed her clit in the manner he knew she preferred.

“Let me help you,” he said. “You’re just as much a part of this as we are.”

Kelsey smiled and closed her eyes, surrendering to his plundering fingers as Annabelle started to move with more force.

Then something happened that Martin didn’t expect. Annabelle wasn’t content to just take her pleasure from his body. No, she instead leaned forward and grabbed Kelsey, pulling the brunette in for a passionate lip lock. Kelsey’s eyes registered shock for a split second before she surrendered into the kiss. Soon, both women were making out like they were the ones fucking, and it was one of the hottest sights that Martin had ever witnessed.

In fact, it made him increase his pace. He used his free hand to grab Annabelle’s ass, using it for leverage to achieve faster and deeper strokes. In the process, Annabelle was now slamming down on his cock, driving him to the depths of her body.

The vigorous rate of thrusting couldn’t continue at this pace without someone cumming. Thankfully, it was Annabelle who went first. She didn’t go comatose like she did the day before, but it wasn’t hard to tell how powerful the orgasm was by the way her body shook in response.

“Fuck, that’s so good,” she mewled during the orgasm. Her hips stopped moving with such alarming frequency as she caught her breath. “I’m addicted to this cock, oh my god.”

Martin could only smile. “You looked so sexy when you came just now. You’re fucking incredible, Annabelle.”

To his surprise, Kelsey even chimed in. “I kind of like her too. Especially the way she kisses.”

A determined look came onto Annabelle’s face. “You haven’t seen anything yet,” she growled at Kelsey. “Get your shirt off now!”

Kelsey looked shocked by the sudden heat in Annabelle’s voice but she complied a moment later until she was completely nude like the rest of them. Kelsey’s tits weren’t quite as big as Annabelle’s but they were no less perfect. Her arousal was completely evident, and her nipples were as hard as they could be.

Surprisingly enough, Annabelle wasn’t content to resume her kissing with Kelsey. No, instead, she went straight for Kelsey’s tits, and she started to suck on the other woman’s nipples.

“Oh my, that’s . . . so nice,” moaned Kelsey as Annabelle nursed on her.

It was great to watch too. Martin kept his eyes glued on Annabelle’s mouth while he started to thrust again. They were now connected into one big chain with the three of them, everyone receiving pleasure from someone in a true expression of threeway sex.

In fact, Kelsey was getting twice the pleasure. She was getting constant stimulation from Martin’s finger on her clit and Annabelle’s mouth on her nipples. That constant attention was bound to have an effect sooner or later, and it wasn’t much more than a few minutes later that Kelsey had her second orgasm of the night.

“Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck,” she swore as she scooted away from them. “Too good, too sensitive,” she muttered as she cupped her nipples. “What did you two do to me?”

Both Martin and Annabelle grinned as Kelsey continued to recover.

“Just because Martin and I are intimate, it doesn’t mean that you have to be left out,” said Annabelle, earning a groan of approval from Martin. “We can share. All of us together. We can make this work.”

Kelsey nodded and kissed Annabelle and then Martin in that order. “We can make this work,” she repeated.

“We can make this work” became the mantra for the rest of the night. That one simple phrase fostered an environment without jealousy or fear, enabling all three of them to be intimate without cause for alarm.

It manifested itself first in the next movement. Annabelle climbed out of Martin’s lap and gestured for him to stand up. He did so with some confusion, but it quickly became apparent what Annabelle had in mind when she asked Kelsey to take his place.

“Lay down. Trust me,” said Annabelle.

Kelsey moved to the couch and laid down, but she was quickly surprised when Annabelle straddled her, pressing their bodies together. Annabelle placed a long kiss on Kelsey’s lips as she thrust her ass into the air.

Finally, she craned her head to look at Martin. “Please don’t tease me, Martin. I need you to keep fucking me.”

That was all the urging he needed. Martin moved to the side of the couch and took Annabelle’s perfect ass in both hands. Just beneath her, he could see Kelsey’s legs sticking out as the two women continued to make out, only making the moment hotter.

Annabelle moaned into Kelsey’s mouth when Martin slid back inside her. She pushed back hard against his cock, swallowing it whole.

Once again, the three of them were able to move together in a way that ensured everyone received pleasure. The girls were content to make out as their bodies rubbed together, and at one point, Martin even spied Kelsey’s hand on Annabelle’s clit. Meanwhile, he was more than happy to continue fucking Annabelle, plunging in and out of her sopping, wet pussy.

“Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me!” moaned Annabelle in the moments she was able to disengage herself from Kelsey’s lips.

Their passion continued for another twenty minutes and another round of orgasm for each woman. It was at that moment, after feeling Annabelle’s pussy spasm around his manhood, that Martin finally achieved the release he needed.

“Oh fuck, I’m going to cum,” he groaned as he felt that familiar sensation begin to traverse his body.

His words got the attention of the girls right away. Annabelle pulled herself away from his body while Kelsey climbed out from underneath her. Kelsey surprised him by taking his entire length in her mouth and waiting for his release.

She got it a moment later. Martin filled her mouth with all the cum had left to give. Kelsey swallowed down as much as he could give her, and she even milked his cock when it was over to ensure she got every single drop.

Martin could only collapse against the couch when it was all over. He looked over at the other two women, both of whom were wearing content smiles and nothing else.

“Well, that was certainly interesting,” said Annabelle, breaking the silence. “I can’t remember a time when I had that much fun!”

“You and me both,” said Kelsey as she gave Annabelle a coy smile. “And it was pretty nice to get some feminine attention too.”

“You can say that again,” said Annabelle as she bumped shoulders with Kelsey. The two women then turned to Martin.

“How was that, Martin? Think you can live with this arrangement?” asked Kelsey.

Martin couldn’t even respond. He was simply too happy to reply. Instead, he gestured for the two of them to join him on the couch. Kelsey took his right side and rested her head on his shoulder. Annabelle took the left and rested her hand on his thigh.

“This is the life,” said Martin finally. “That was fucking incredible.”

Annabelle started to giggle. “I take it that means we can keep doing this? Our trial run was successful, right?”

Both Martin and Annabelle looked over at Kelsey to see how she would respond. Kelsey made a show of thinking about her answer but she eventually started to nod.

“I think we can keep doing this,” said Kelsey, causing the other two to show visible relief. “We can make this work, right?”

“Yes, we can,” agreed Annabelle as she then nuzzled Martin. “I think this is the start of a beautiful arrangement.”

Annabelle’s hand then went to Martin’s cock as she tried to bring him back to life once more. At that moment, he could only agree with her sentiment.

This really was going to be a beautiful arrangement.

CHAPTER 43

“SO . . . SHOULD WE HAVE SEX NOW?” asked Annabelle as she brushed her hand along Martin’s exposed thigh. “Or should we wait until we get back from our run?”

Surprisingly enough, the question wasn’t directed at Martin.

Kelsey placed her finger against her chin. “I think we should do it now. After all, when we get back from the run, we’ll just be all smelly and needing a shower anyway.”

Annabelle shrugged nonchalantly, agreeing with the brunette. “We could always shower and then have sex after the run. Or we could have sex in the shower. It might be a little tight for three people though.”

“Maybe we can have sex now and then run, take a shower, and then have sex again?” suggested Kelsey brightly.

Martin had to stifle his chuckle as the girls dictated their sexual schedule for the rest of the day. That this was now his regular sex life was something that continually amazed Martin. He had not one but two beautiful women at his beck and call seemingly for the rest of his life. Not only was there the gorgeous Kelsey, the woman he’d long considered his soulmate but now he had the incredible Annabelle, a woman that he was quickly realizing that he was falling in love with as well.

Martin knew he already had Kelsey’s love, and Annabelle seemed to be moving in that direction too.

That also conveniently left out the elephant in the room, which was that both women’s sex drive matched and even exceeded his own.

Life was good. It was almost too good, and Martin half-expected that it could come crashing down at just about any moment. In the back of his mind, he still thought about the consequences of what might happen if RI found out that he cloned two women without permission, but at this rate, he wasn’t about to start dwelling on it.

After all, who was he hurting? He had two women hopelessly devoted to him, and all he wanted to do was ride off into the sunset with them. As far as Martin was concerned, he’d cloned all the women he needed.

Not to mention, Annabelle and Kelsey were getting along fabulously. The two women had put aside their sexual competitiveness and assumed joint ownership of Martin’s affections, which meant that the only source of distrust between them had already dissipated. With that gone, there was nothing stopping the two from becoming firm friends, and there wasn’t a day that had passed by yet where Martin had arrived home from work and not found the two chatting up a storm.

All the tension that had developed over the previous week was firmly in the past.

Before Martin could give his answer, Annabelle stood up and approached the window, making a face as soon as she looked outside.

“Yuck,” said Annabelle. “It’s starting to snow already!”

Martin and Kelsey joined her by the window, and sure enough, there were tiny specks of white flakes falling from the sky. It wasn’t heavy enough to build up on the ground, but it was a subtle reminder that their Indian summer was now firmly over.

“Guess we’re just going to have to dress warm for our run,” said Kelsey. “But the activity should keep us warm enough.”

Annabelle made a face. “Still, it feels too early for snow. It only just turned October a couple weeks ago. What gives?”

Martin started to chuckle. “That’s what we get for living in the Northeast, Annabelle.”

“We should move south to Florida,” she grumbled. “Sun and warmth all year long. Or we could set up shop in the Caribbean. That might be fun!”

“I’ve always wanted to go to St. Lucia,” suggested Kelsey. “Now that would be a fun trip.”

While the girls continued to get dressed for their run, Martin soon exited the spare bedroom and made his way out to the living room. The reason they were in the spare bedroom was because technically it was Annabelle’s room, even if she did little actual sleeping in there. Martin and Kelsey still shared the master but as of late, Annabelle had been sleeping in the same bed with them, something that greatly facilitated their pace of sex.

Still, it felt weird not using all the beds in the house, and on occasion, they found themselves using Annabelle’s room as a playroom for any activity that didn’t occur in the master bedroom.

All that activity made Martin thirsty. He walked into the kitchen to rummage around the refrigerator for something to drink, and that’s when he noticed just how bare it was.

It seemed he already found out what he was going to do while the girls were out running.

“I’m going to hit the grocery store,” said Martin as he grabbed his jacket and keys. “I’ll meet you back here when you get back from your run.”

Both women emerged from the bedroom fully dressed in their workout clothes. Although they showed much less skin now than in the warmth of the summer, Martin couldn’t help but stare at them as they pounced around in their skintight spandex.

And to think, I’m sleeping with both of them regularly.

He left for the store with a prominent grin displayed on his face.

CHAPTER 44

THE GIRLS WERE out the door not long after Martin was. The cool air of the morning breezed against their faces as they set a pace for their run, soon making their way to a nearby park to get some laps around the pond.

Kelsey was particularly fond of the change in weather. She was definitely the type that preferred the four seasons, and she enjoyed watching the snow flurries make their way to the ground.

“Snow in October, I can’t believe it,” scowled Annabelle as she shook her head, sending her blonde ponytail flying.

“How can you not be used to snow so early in the year?” asked Kelsey with a laugh. “You’ve lived in the Northeast your entire life, right?”

“It doesn’t make it any easier,” replied Annabelle. “I’ve thought about moving away a time or two. Plus I went to college in Virginia so it was definitely a change in pace from what we have here. I’ve just never gotten to the point where I enjoy seeing snow.”

The girls completed their lap and stopped for a breather next to the pond. Despite the snow, it wasn’t yet cold enough for the small pond to freeze over yet, and Kelsey could still see ripples in the water from the fish below.

“How come you didn’t stay down there then after graduation?” she asked Annabelle. “I mean Virginia? Why come back?”

Annabelle shrugged. “My parents, I guess. My whole family is up here as well as everyone I know besides a few college friends. I never wanted to move away and start over in a place where I had no one.”

Kelsey’s face turned serious. “You mean like what you’re doing now?”

Annabelle winced. “Yeah, kind of now that you mention it. But I do have you and Martin to help me.”

“Still, we’re only two people.”

“It’s better than nothing,” said Annabelle. “Especially given the situation with my parents.”

Kelsey didn’t reply to that directly. She knew the situation with Annabelle’s parents was tense. For one, her parents still believed that Annabelle was dead, which the real Annabelle was. Despite Martin offering to clone a replacement Annabelle, her parents had refused, citing their religious beliefs as the reason why.

That seemed to be where their relationship had ended. Kelsey knew just how it felt. She really couldn’t see any of her family either, since it would have quickly given away that Martin had done illegal cloning.

The three of them relied on each other to be the family they couldn’t have.

“I’d love to go back though,” added Annabelle after a minute of silence. She looked over at Kelsey. “Go back to Virginia. Or really, I’d go any place south right about now just to escape this cooler weather.”

Kelsey smiled. “Where would you like to go the most? Surely somewhere that’s further south than Virginia.”

Annabelle started to laugh. “I mean we could go to St. Lucia like you mentioned! So far south it’s not even in the same country!”

“That would be a lot of fun right now,” said Kelsey, picturing the idea. She hadn’t been to the Caribbean since about two years before her death. All she could remember about it was white sand beaches and crystal clear waters.

“Yeah,” said Annabelle after giving a long sigh. “It’s too bad we can’t really leave the country though. Two dead people can’t really get on airplanes right now.”

That certainly put a damper on the topic and both women fell silent. Kelsey had never pictured that she might not be able to leave the country again, especially without any form of actual ID. It was just another boundary area that marked the limits of what she could and couldn’t do.

Even still, it’s not like St. Lucia was the only place with nice weather right now. There were plenty of places that could boast of sunny, warm weather year round. And most of them could be reached by car.

“What if we did something like Florida?” asked Kelsey. “We’d be staying in the US, and you know the weather right now is beautiful. We could be swimming in the ocean in October and laying out catching a tan!”

Annabelle let out an agreeable sigh. “That sounds lovely right now. I’d love to feel the warm sun on my bare skin. I’d even like to see Martin’s eyes pop out of his head with some tiny little swimsuit too.”

Kelsey started to giggle. “You should see one of the ones I have. It’s so tiny that Martin nearly has a heart attack every time he sees it.”

“Now you’re talking my language,” said Annabelle, laughing along. “You know, you settled on Florida pretty quickly. Have you been there before?”

Kelsey nodded. “All the time when I was younger. My family and I used to go on summer vacations down there pretty regularly when I was still a teenager. I used to love the atmosphere and being in the water. I haven’t been down there in years though but it was the first thing that popped in my mind.”

“I’ve never been to Florida but if it’s as nice as you say it is, then I’m willing to give it a try,” said Annabelle. “But one question would be how do we get Martin aboard?”

“It shouldn’t be too hard. I’m guessing he still has plenty of time off right now.”

“Three weeks every year at RI,” confirmed Annabelle.

“So let’s get him to take a few days off,” said Kelsey. “He has the time and we have the perfect location. It sounds like a no-brainer to me.”

Annabelle put her hands together. “This is going to be a lot of fun then! I can’t wait! Going somewhere warm and tropical with you two will be amazing. And, well . . .” She left the statement open-ended and didn’t finish it.

“And what?” asked Kelsey. “What were you going to say?”

Annabelle’s fingers moved to her chin, a surefire sign that she was nervous about what was to come out next.

“It’s okay, you can trust me,” said Kelsey. “Seriously, tell me what’s on your mind.”

“It’s just that, well, this whole thing started off so rocky,” explained Annabelle. “I mean with the three of us. There were times when I honestly thought I was going to wake up and find you standing over me with a knife.”

Kelsey giggled. “The thought had passed my mind a time or two.”

“Well, not now though, right?”

“No, not not,” said Kelsey while shaking her head. ‘But in the beginning . . .”

“See, that’s exactly what I mean. We had a really hard start,” said Annabelle. “We’re essentially sharing the same man, Kelsey, and you had much more of a right to him than I did. Maybe a trip would be just what we needed. A chance to reset our relationship. Start off on a whole new foot. That’s the way I’m looking at this.”

“Now that you mention it, it could be like a fresh start for all of us,” said Kelsey. “Plus we can get away from the apartment for a little while. I don’t know about you, but sometimes it feels like a jail cell. Don’t get me wrong, I love both of you but I do miss having a bit of freedom.”

“Yes!” exclaimed Annabelle. “Freedom, yes. Well, this trip will give us some freedom. And let us experience a normal life where we don’t have to try so hard to protect the fact that we’re clones. At least no one knows us in Florida.”

Kelsey smiled. “This is going to be great then. I can’t wait to start planning our trip!”

Annabelle raised an eyebrow. “I guess one thing I forget to ask is does Martin like to travel? Would he be all in for a trip to Florida? I never really considered whether or not he might want to go or not.”

Kelsey put on a seductive grin. “Oh, just leave that part to me. There’s nothing we won’t be able to convince him to do.”

CHAPTER 45

“ARE you sure I can’t convince you to come out tonight? I’ll even buy the first round!”

Martin could only laugh in response. It was the following day and he’d only been at RI for about an hour when Tim came waltzing in trying to set up a happy hour that evening. That in itself wasn’t all that unusual. Tim certainly liked to go out drinking but he hadn’t figured out that Martin usually turned him down.

“I can’t tonight,” said Martin. “I have this thing.”

“Oh, right, right,” said Tim, exaggerating his expression. “The same thing you’ve had going on the last five times I asked, right?”

Martin started to turn red in the face. “It’s not like that, it’s just that . . .”

“Dude, you have to let loose some time,” interrupted Tim. “I’m worried about you. You can’t let the old lady dictate whether you go out and have fun or not. It’s your life, Martin! Go out and live it a little.”

Martin looked at him with a confused expression. “Wait a second, my old lady? You mean?”

“Yeah, Kelsey!” said Tim. “Listen, I know she’s the type that could have any man she wants but she has to loosen up on the reins here. You’re allowed to hang out with your friends, okay?”

Martin shook his head as he started to chuckle. “That’s not it at all, I promise. Kelsey doesn’t care whether I go out or not.”

Tim put his hand on Martin’s shoulder. “Sure, Martin, sure. Listen, I’ve seen this before and I know all the warning signs.”

Martin pulled out from under Tim’s heavy grasp. “You wouldn’t know a warning sign if it hit you upside the head. You’re the one that still has the hots for our VP.”

Tim let out a low whistle. “Speaking of, did you see Claire today? And that tight black skirt. Goddamn, Martin! I’d drag my balls through a mile of broken glass just to sniff a pair of underwear she wore a month before.”

The imagery wasn’t lost on Martin. “Dude, you’re the one that needs help.”

“Maybe, just maybe,” considered Tim. “So about tonight, let me tell you about this bar.”

That led to another five minutes of convincing as Tim tried as hardest to persuade Martin that any bar that installed a urinal game where you aimed your piss at a “target” and proceeded to race the guy in the stall next to you was the cat’s meow.

In the end, he got the same old response, but that was before Martin realized he had a fresh new email.He opened it absentmindedly while Tim continued to talk and started to read.

And he really didn’t like what he read.

“Hold up, be quiet for a second,” said Martin, interrupting his friend. “Check out this memo. It’s coming from Bryce and it’s talking about security around RI.”

“Let me see that,” said Tim.

RI Team,

Please note that due to a growing number of security incidents, we will be tightening up the security around the testing area. That means that all testers from now on will be required to wear their identification on the outside of their Hazmat suits. More surveillance in the form of cameras will be added as well.

There is nothing to be alarmed about and this is all towards making a better, safer RI.

Please direct any questions to your immediate supervisor.

Bryce Rookwood

Vice President of Production

“What is that all about?” asked Martin, his wheels already turning. “What does he mean by security incidents?”

Martin could already guess what Bryce was referring to. He could picture the leadership sitting around watching the camera feed of one of Martin’s attempts at cloning within the testing area. Perhaps he hadn’t gotten all the feeds reprogrammed and they had evidence? Perhaps there was some other way they caught him?

In all, the email set off his anxiety, and he started to wonder if this might eventually be tied back to him

“Pfff,” replied Tim, blowing air through his lips. “Why even read that email? Security incidents? So what? That’s the kind of stuff I delete without even reading.”

Martin smacked the back of his hand against Tim’s stomach. “If you want to lead your own branch someday, you’d better start reading all the emails. This could be serious. Security breaches? What if someone was moving around in the testing area when they shouldn’t have been?”

“Well then I hope whoever it was at least managed to clone themselves a hot little cheerleader or something,” replied Tim. “Or maybe even a surfer chick. Surfer chicks can be really hot.”

“Tim, be serious for once,” admonished Martin. “Not everything is a joke.”

Tim rolled his eyes and took a deep breath. “Fine. It’s probably nothing, dude. I’m betting some old tester probably just left his ID badge sitting around somewhere or maybe misplaced his code. Leadership got wind of it and they’re blowing it out of proportion. I can guarantee this is a big fat nothing burger with extra cheese.”

“What if you’re wrong though?” thought Martin as memories of sneaking through the testing area drifted through his mind. “Someone could get fired for this.”

“Dude, that’s enough emails for today,” said Tim while turning off Martin’s monitor. “Listen, if they had something serious about this, someone would have already been fired. And no one’s been fired lately so why worry about it? You have to relax, Martin. You’re too high-strung.”

Martin felt himself relaxing into his chair. “Maybe you’re right,” he said grudgingly.

“I’m always right,” corrected Tim. “Which is why you should really reconsider going out with me tonight! I’ll even buy the first two rounds!”

CHAPTER 46

MARTIN DIDN’T GET Tim to shut up about it until that afternoon, just before the end of the day. Tim only grudgingly accepted his answer, but at least it seemed to settle the question. Martin knew his heart was in the right place, and under normal circumstances, having a drink after work sounded like a great idea.

It’s just that an even better idea was that he had two sexy nymphos waiting for him at home that were liable to jump his bones the minute he walked through the door. Martin was especially looking forward to getting home today because the girls had made plans to go shopping and they wouldn’t tell him why.

“You’ll just see when you get home,” said Kelsey as she kissed his lips that morning.

“We want you thinking about it all day so that you hurry home to us,” added Annabelle, kissing him after Kelsey had let go.

That thought alone was enough of a reason why there was no chance of hanging out with Tim after work. It was also the reason why Martin went rushing home just after five, nearly sprinting down the hallway on the floor of his apartment and bursting through the door.

He knew he was right to hurry when he caught the first glimpse of what was waiting for him inside.

Martin’s eyes went wide and his jaw nearly hit the floor at the sight in his living room.

He didn’t know where to look first.

Both girls were reclining on the couch but it was what they were wearing (or rather what they weren’t wearing) that caught his attention.

“Surprise!” yelled Kelsey as she noticed his expression. “Don’t we look sexy?”

“My god,” whispered Martin, at a total loss for words.

At least he was somewhat familiar with Kelsey’s outfit. She was wearing an old two-piece bikini that she’d had for years. The fabric was completely black, and it was so skimpy that it was really just made up of three pieces of triangles that were linked together by a tiny piece of string. The thong was Brazilian style which meant that Kelsey’s ass was nearly all hanging out, something Martin had no qualms about at all. The old Kelsey had never had the courage to wear it in public so the bikini was usually reserved in the same category as lingerie, only wearing it on nights when they were intimate together in their own bedroom.

As sexy as Kelsey looked, Annabelle looked just as good. Her bikini was hot pink in color and while it didn’t show as much cleavage as Kelsey’s did, the thong bottoms were worn high on her hips giving her a very enticing look. What was more was Annabelle’s bountiful bosom was clearly stretching the limits of the fabric, and Martin almost felt bad for the tiny string that held the cups together.

Almost.

“Well?” asked Annabelle as she cupped her full breasts. “Do you like our swimsuits?”

“I . . . uh, I . . . like them too much,” said Martin in total honesty. “Where did the idea come from for the bikinis? Are you wishing it was still summer?”

Both girls looked at each other and then back at him. “Well, funny you should ask that. We actually had an idea we wanted to run by you,” said Kelsey in a soft voice.

And so, Martin spent the next fifteen minutes listening to their arguments about a trip to Florida. The girls could be awfully persuasive when they wanted to be, and they spared nothing in making the case for an immediate tropical vacation.

“So we just think it would be the perfect way for us to relax,” said Annabelle as they were wrapping up. “We get some time together away from the apartment, and we all truly get to have a fresh start. Kelsey and I think it’ll be the perfect way for all of us to work on our relationship together that’s on neutral territory while having fun in the process. What do you think?”

Truthfully, Martin’s mind had already been made up when he found them standing nearly naked in the living room. He would have gone to North Korea if they wanted to go, so going to Florida didn’t seem like a bad idea. Plus, he did have lots of time off to use.

“Fun in the sun with two gorgeous women,” said Martin with a wry smile. “Where do I sign up?”

Planning for the trip got underway almost immediately. If the girls could have left that next morning, they would have. It helped that they didn’t have a ton of possessions so the packing of the bags was a relatively quick process.

There was one little quibble though and that was that Martin had to make sure he could get the time off he needed.

“They’ve never denied a time of request for me,” argued Annabelle once Martin brought up his concerns. “They always get approved right when I make them.”

“They might for you,” corrected Martin. “Because you were the golden child at RI who could do no wrong. The rest of us have to make sure it gets approved before we start making plans.”

Annabelle crossed her arms under her incredible breasts. “I was hardly the golden child,” she mumbled.

“Oh, right, I forgot that the only person there that didn’t like you was Claire,” teased Martin.

That kicked off a round of verbal jousting, and Martin wasn’t surprised when he was the first to cry uncle a few minutes later.

“Okay, okay, I give up,” he said, throwing his hands up. “Geez, do you have to be so damn smart, Annabelle?”

She grinned triumphantly. “That’s why they liked me so much at RI. Back then, it wasn’t for my looks, I can assure you that.”

Martin said nothing, especially since she just practically proved his point for him.

The following day, he put in his time off request for the rest of the week. The plan was to drive down on Wednesday and return on Sunday while leaving Thursday through Saturday as free time to enjoy whatever they wanted.

Thankfully, the request was approved by Claire without a second thought. Martin had to wonder if the result would have been any different had Claire known that Annabelle was going with him. The thought made him chuckle, drawing Claire’s attention briefly.

“Something funny?” she snapped.

“Nothing at all, Claire,” he replied innocently.

He couldn’t wait to get out of her office and back to his. That way, she could finish eating somebody’s baby, or whatever it was that she did in her spare time.

With the time off approved and their bags packed, Martin and the girls hit the road early on Wednesday to get down to Florida. The day would be entirely spent behind the windshield but Martin didn’t mind doing all the driving, especially since they built the superhighway along the coast years ago with a top speed of one hundred and twenty miles per hour.

It still left him plenty of bonding time with the girls, since one was usually in the front seat with him while the other was sleeping in the back seat. For right now, that just so happened to be Annabelle in the front and Kelsey sleeping in the back.

Annabelle was in great spirits now. Martin noticed that her mood seemed to be going up with the temperature as they moved further south.

“Isn’t this just awesome?” she gushed as they crossed into Pennsylvania that morning. “I haven’t been on a road trip in so long. I can’t believe how much fun I’m having.”

Martin gave her a funny look. “Wait until we get further south and your butt falls asleep from sitting in the car too long. I’ll ask you if you’re still having fun then.”

Annabelle tilted her head when she looked at him. “If my butt falls asleep, then I know who I’m going to ask to wake it up.”

That statement was accompanied by a gentle thigh squeeze—the kind that seemed to come with a silent promise too.

“So why are you having so much fun?” asked Martin, returning to the topic. “We haven’t really done much besides drive through a couple states so far.”

Annabelle shrugged. “I haven’t really done too many trips in recent years. After I went to college, they became few and far between. I wasn’t the type that went on any spring break getaways. After I started working, I just never took time off, and by the time I came to RI, I was usually busy enough that I really couldn’t take a long trip away.”

“I thought you said you always got your time off approved when you put it in?”

Annabelle nodded. “I did but it was always setting up a long weekend or something like that. I never really took a full week off or something crazy like that. I always thought my work would suffer or that I’d never be able to fully unplug myself from the job when I was supposed to be relaxing. You could say it’s the reason why I didn’t take a big trip like this.”

“It’s hardly that big,” replied Martin. “We only really get three days when we aren’t traveling.”

“That doesn’t bother me,” said Annabelle. “In fact, I think three days in paradise sounds amazing. And this time, I really don’t have to be plugged into work. I can just lean back and relax and not think about all the things that might be going wrong at RI.”

Annabelle took a deep breath at the end of that statement, something that made Martin think there were things there that were left unsaid. He turned to look at her face and noticed that she seemed to have lost some of the excitement. It only took him a single guess to figure out why.

“You miss RI, don’t you?” he asked quietly. “You miss the job?”

A tear fell from Annabelle’s eye as she nodded her head quickly. “I do miss it. I miss the people there but most importantly, I miss my work. I felt like I was really doing good for the world. I miss that feeling of doing something truly groundbreaking. Don’t get me wrong, Martin. I love being with you and Kelsey, and we have so much fun. I just wish that I could go to work with you every morning and come back with you every night.”

“I’m sorry, Annabelle.”

She gave him a shocked look. “For what?”

“For this,” replied Martin. “For all of it. If not for Kelsey and I, you might not be in this position.”

“If not for you and Kelsey, I would be dead right now,” corrected Annabelle. “Don’t you even think about apologizing. You literally saved my life. I get a second chance at life now, Martin. So what if I can’t work at RI anymore. It sure is much better than the alternative.”

Annabelle squeezed his thigh again. “And besides, we have plenty of ways to pass the time. I sincerely hope that you’re rested up because you’re going to need all the energy you can muster on this trip.”

Annabelle ended that statement with a silvery giggle and went back to looking out the window. Martin was just happy that her brief moment of sorrow was over. He completely understood her predicament but it was hard to argue with the fact that it could always be worse.

Annabelle sat with him all the way until they reached the Virginia border. At that point, Martin stopped at a gas station to fill up and the girls switched positions, with Annabelle taking the backseat to get some sleep while Kelsey joined him in the front.

By the time they were back on the road, Kelsey had already turned up the music and was now dancing in her seat as the songs continued to play.

Martin thumbed his finger toward the back seat. “Shouldn’t we turn it down?” he said with a laugh. “Annabelle won’t be able to sleep with the music level this high.”

Kelsey grinned and shook her head. “Ear plugs, baby. I gave her a set when we switched spots. She can’t hear a peep right now which means we get to jam all the way down to Florida.”

Martin laughed at that and was soon entertained by listening to Kelsey belt out the latest hits as they played from the radio. Even though Kelsey’s voice wouldn’t be on the radio anytime soon, he still found her enthusiasm and happiness infectious.

“And I thought it would be hard to top Annabelle’s mood,” said Martin with a chuckle. “But you seem to be happier than she was to get on the road.”

Kelsey reached over and entwined her fingers with his. “Martin, we’re going to be on the beach in a few short hours. It’s only October, and the temperature where we’re going in Florida right now is 83 degrees. It’s hard not to get excited about that!”

“It reminds me of some of the trips we took together,” mused Martin. “We’ve been to some really cool places.”

Kelsey nodded her head emphatically. “Like the time we spent the weekend in New York City? Or the time we went to that little bed and breakfast on the Jersey coast? That was the best weekend ever.”

“And now we get to make another memory,” said Martin. “Hopefully we’re still talking about this Florida trip in a few years time.”

She squeezed his hand. “I know we will. Besides, I brought a few more swimsuits that you are bound to find unforgettable too!”

Martin grinned. “Annabelle already told me that I better be rested up for when we get down there.”

Kelsey giggled. “She speaks the truth! I hope you’re ready for us. It’s been way too long since we had sex.”

“Kelsey, that was just last night. We had sex around midnight after you woke me up because you were horny.”

Kelsey stuck out her bottom lip. “And your point is? That was over twelve hours ago, Martin. I’m practically dying here.”

“You know, I’m tempted to make a joke right now,” said Martin. “But then I remember there’s not a man in America that wouldn’t kill to be in my situation.”

“What situation? The fact that you have two women utterly devoted to you and hopelessly in love with you? Oh, and the fact that they’re sex fiends for your cum?”

Martin managed to cough. “Yeah, that exactly.”

Kelsey grinned. “What a life you have. What a life I have. What a life we have. I never would have suspected this would be the life we would live at this age.”

“Are you talking about just our relationship or the fact that Annabelle’s in it now too?” asked Martin.

Kelsey gave him a stupid look. “Which one do you think?” she asked dryly.

“I’m going to guess Annabelle.”

“You would guess correctly.”

“So do you really think Annabelle is in love with me?” asked Martin. “I know you are but you just said you both were.”

Kelsey looked back at Annabelle to make sure the ear plugs were still in. Indeed, Annabelle seemed to be sleeping soundly.

“I think she is, even if she doesn’t admit it to herself just yet,” answered Kelsey. “I catch her doing things that I don’t think she even realizes she’s doing.”

“Like what?”

“Like watching you when she thinks you’re not looking. Or the fact that when she wakes up in the middle of the night and she’s strayed too closely to the edge of the bed, the first thing she does is burrow closer to you and pull your arm around her belly. It’s the little things like that. She’s in love with you, Martin.”

“And here I never thought that I’d be hearing that about Annabelle Henry,” said Martin. “It just makes me feel a bit guilty at times.”

“Why guilty?”

“She carried these feelings for so long without telling me,” said Martin. “Sometimes I wonder if we lost all this time that we could have been spending together.”

Kelsey looked at him. “Yeah, but it was only because you were so caught up with me, remember? What would have happened if you moved on with Annabelle? You probably would have forgotten about me and we wouldn’t even be in this position right now.”

“You’re right,” said Martin. “And I don’t regret that fact. I’m the happiest right now because I’m with both of you. I never thought I’d be in a relationship with two different women but I have to admit, I really like the way it works out, and that’s taking out all the sex stuff.”

Kelsey gave him a knowing look. “Is it really taking out the sex stuff?”

“Okay, maybe not all the way.”

“I thought so.”

CHAPTER 47

AFTER AN ENTIRE DAY SPENT DRIVING, the trio finally managed to roll into their South Florida beach town by nightfall that evening. Martin emerged from the car as stiff as could be and he was very thankful that the bellhop of the hotel sprung forward to grab their bags. Martin suspected it wasn’t entirely altruistic as he couldn’t stop drooling while looking at Kelsey and Annabelle.

Still, Martin couldn’t blame him. He too still drooled sometimes when looking at them.

He tipped the bellhop well after they were brought up to their tenth floor suite and threw open the doors.

“Martin, holy crap! Look at this hotel suite!” gushed Kelsey as she entered the room.

It was one of the nicest rooms that Martin had ever stayed in. The suite was formally a two bedroom but the master bed was a California king that just seemed to dwarf anything else he’d ever slept on. The bed was close to a large window that took up one entire wall, with a stunning view over the ocean. A door opened up to a large balcony that had not only a dining set for four but also a large outdoor couch as well.

“Would you look at this view?” asked Martin. “I can see just about the entire Florida coast from up here!”

Kelsey wrapped her arms around him. “This is going to be perfect for watching the sunrise tomorrow. We could grab some coffee and relax on the couch and watch the sun as it starts to crest over the waves. Doesn’t that sound romantic?”

Martin kissed her forehead. He had to admit, it did sound pretty awesome.

“You guys, you have to see this!” yelled Annabelle with excitement.

Martin and Kelsey left the balcony and came back inside to find Annabelle, who was pointing at the en suite bathroom. It contained a shower stall that was big enough for a group of people with opposing shower heads and heated tiles.

That wasn’t what Annabelle was so excited about though.

Next to the shower stall was a whirlpool type bathtub with seating for four people. To show how big it was, Annabelle snuck into the tub and sat down, stretching out her limbs.

“Can you imagine how fun this is going to be!” she asked. “Think of how good this is going to feel after a long day on the beach!”

“Hold on, I want to check out the beach before we really settle in,” said Kelsey. “This hotel has a private beach just for guests. The view from up here is amazing but I want to see it from down there. And I really want to stick my toes in the water.”

Kelsey’s idea won out over getting in the tub (at least for now), and the three of them made their way down to the lobby and out to the main patio in the back. The patio had two separate bars where a variety of patrons were just starting to drink for the night. There was also a large moon-shaped pool in the back as well but so far, the only people in it were one young couple who were aggressively making out against the side of it.

Annabelle elbowed Martin in the ribs softly. “It looks like those two have the right idea.”

“Settle, will you?” replied Martin. “Let’s just go check out the water and then I promise I’ll fuck you.”

Both girls started to giggle as Martin said the words a little too loudly. They drew the attention of an older couple, and the woman gave Annabelle a shocked look.

“He does owe me,” said Annabelle to the woman, causing the old lady to lead her husband to the other side of the pool and the other bar.

Kelsey couldn’t stop laughing at that as they made their way to the sand and finally down to the beach. The girls took off their sandals and walked into the water, even taking some time to splash each other before they all returned to their suite. By this time, all the traveling of the day had caught up to them, and there wasn’t a desire to do much of anything besides rest.

Annabelle was actually the first to fall asleep, and she was joined by the other two not long after. It was only as Martin laid there thinking about tomorrow that he said a silent thank-you for the life that he lived.

Everyone forgot about the sunrise in the morning, and it was already halfway raised in the sky by the time the first person slumbered out of bed. All that traveling seemed to get to them and it wasn’t until three trips to the lobby for complimentary coffee that they felt ready to do something outside.

Since they were at the beach, the first thing the girls wanted to do was to lay out on the sand by the water. Even though Martin had already had a first glimpse of their bikinis back at the apartment, he was left a drooling mess when they put them on a second time.

“Martin, I think you like Kelsey’s bikini better than mine,” teased Annabelle after Martin couldn’t stop staring at her chest.

Martin gave her a startled look. “What makes you say that? I’m pretty sure I was just staring at you.”

Annabelle grinned. “I know but I just like teasing you.”

They made their way out of their hotel and soon found themselves setting up camp on the beach that morning around eleven. The weather was just perfect. There was a soft breeze coming off the ocean that helped to keep them cool despite the warmth of the sun.

“This is everything that I hoped it would be and more,” said Annabelle as she stretched out on the blanket. “Sunny and warm in October. What more could a girl ask for?”

“I know what I’m about to ask for,” said Kelsey as she tossed the sunscreen bottle into Martin’s lap. “Would you please make sure my delicate figure doesn’t burn, love?”

Kelsey used her arms to push her tits together which only seemed to make her request too good to ignore. Martin was moving quickly and he soon settled in behind her. He squirted a generous amount of sunscreen in his hands and then began to lather it against her bare shoulders.

“Oh, yes,” moaned Kelsey as his hands got to work. “That’s the spot right there.”

Annabelle started to laugh. “What is this? I thought he was putting on sunscreen, not setting up a massage.”

“I usually get both out of the deal,” said Kelsey as she let out another moan.

“I believe they call that a two-for-one special,” chirped Martin.

“Well, whatever it’s called, you’ll just have to do me next,” said Annabelle. “Because that looks freaking incredible.”

Sure enough, Martin spent the next ten minutes making sure there was no part of Kelsey that wasn’t completely covered. He even went above and beyond the call of duty, slipping his hands into the fabric that covered her naughty bits and ensuring they were protected as well. Kelsey nearly melted against him, and he knew she’d be up for some fun as soon as they got back to the hotel room.

As much as Kelsey enjoyed the massage/application, Annabelle seemed to enjoy it just a little more.

“Fuck me, your hands are magical,” cooed Annabelle as he rubbed along her sides. “Seriously, Martin, are you certified in massage therapy or something?”

“Nope, just a lifetime of experience in giving back rubs,” he replied.

“Well, you could make a killing being a massage therapist,” she said. “Or a masseur as they call them in Europe.”

“What’s a masseur?” asked Kelsey.

“Just a male massage therapist,” answered Annabelle. “Kind of like how a female is called masseuse.”

Kelsey started to chew on her lip. “I didn’t realize the professional was gendered in that way.”

Annabelle started to nod as she sat up a little straighter. “It’s a very interesting profession actually. Did you know that the word massage comes from the French? In French, it means the ‘friction of kneading.’ It goes further back than that though too. The French word is actually derived from an Arabic word—”

“Okay, genius, we get it,” interrupted Martin. “You’re smarter than us.” He emphasized the point by using his finger to tease Annabelle’s sensitive skin, which ended up tickling her.

“Ah, okay, okay!” said Annabelle as she wiggled. “I just thought you two would appreciate that little tidbit of information.”

“We sure do but you don’t have to impress us,” said Martin. “We already like you very much.”

Annabelle leaned her head over to him and kissed him. “Well, the feeling is very mutual, babe.”

Martin finished her massage five minutes later, and the girls were content to lay back and catch the rays for the next half hour. But as the sun continued to rise, the temperature started to get even higher. Soon, the breeze off the ocean wasn’t nearly strong enough to keep them cooled off, and the decision was made to get into the water.

“Wow, the water feels cold!” yelped Kelsey as she took a few steps back. “I don’t get it. The water felt perfect last night. Why does it feel so cold now?”

“Well, that’s actually a thing,” said Annabelle. “It has to do with the temperature of the sand around it and the air flow.”

She stopped when she realized that both Martin and Kelsey were giving her deadpan looks. “Okay, fine, I’ll just keep it to myself!”

Kelsey giggled and reached her hand into the water, sending a big splash toward Annabelle that caught her entirely by surprise.

“You little bitch!” yelled Annabelle as she repeated the same gesture. Her first splash missed Kelsey entirely but her second splash landed completely on target—hitting Martin.

“Damn, that is cold!” said Martin as he started rubbing his arms with his hands. “That’s going to be tough to get used to.”

Annabelle however was already moving deeper into the water. “You just have to keep moving forward. Come on, follow me!”

It took a little more coaxing than that but soon enough the three of them were standing waist deep in the water (or in Kelsey’s case, about chest deep).

“Okay, I’m starting to get used to it,” said Kelsey as she floated near Martin. “I guess it’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be.”

“No, and we’re out here far enough now that no one can really see us,” said Annabelle.

She made an excellent point. There weren’t too many swimmers in this section of the beach since it was owned by the hotel. There were only a pair of young preteen boys playing in the surf while another couple was swimming a short distance away.

“Why do we need total privacy?” asked Kelsey.

Annabelle grinned. “So we can do things like this!”

She grabbed the cups of her hot pink bikini top and pulled them to the side, flashing both Martin and Kelsey. Kelsey could only grin at the sudden flash but Martin was content to stare.

It was the start of some elaborate teasing on the part of the girls. Not only would they attempt to flash him, but they would stay just out of reach, often swimming away as soon as he got close while maintaining a chorus of laughter.

“You’re never going to catch us if you don’t swim faster,” taunted Annabelle as she kicked her long legs away from him.

“Oh, I’ll catch you soon enough,” growled Martin as he lunged in her direction. Annabelle happened to scream out in excitement as he closed the gap and it was only with a sliver of luck that he managed to grab her leg, preventing her from getting away.

“I’ve got you now,” said Martin as he held her body close to him. “What are you going to do about it?”

Annabelle’s eyes sparkled with mischief, and that was when he felt the hand around his cock. “I suppose I’ll have to show you then.”

That was how Martin ended up getting jacked off in the middle of the ocean. Kelsey kept watch to make sure that no one was paying too much attention to them while Annabelle used her hand to deftly bring him to orgasm not long after. While it wasn’t Annabelle’s mouth or Kelsey’s pussy that he was cumming into, it still felt just as good to achieve that sweet release.

“I promise to give you much more later,” said Annabelle as she put his cock back in his trunks.

She did that much and more. In fact, by the time they made their way back to the hotel suite, the girls spent the next hour draining him of all remaining bodily fluids. As they made their way to dinner that night, Martin could say that he was completely and totally satisfied.

“I never thought I’d be in a position where I can truly say that I’m sexed out,” said Martin as they walked to the restaurant. “Seriously, if you offered me sex right now, I’d say no. I’d definitely say no because I need to recharge.”

Kelsey seemed to take that statement as a personal affront. She planted her hands on her hips. “Martin Kennedy, you damn well know that if I bent over right now and hiked my skirt up, you would fuck the daylights out of me!”

That made Annabelle giggle so hard that she snorted. Martin couldn’t help but break out in a smile. “But I’m just a little tired. And we’ve had so much sex since we got to Florida.”

Kelsey arched her eyebrow while tapping her foot. Slowly, she grabbed the hem of her skirt and started to raise it higher. Miles of delectable flesh between her thighs was soon visible.

Try as he might, he still couldn’t help but respond to the sight.

Martin put his hands up. “All right, all right, you win!”

Kelsey put on her best smile. “I love winning!”

“He should have known better than to put himself up against you like that,” said Annabelle while shaking her head.

CHAPTER 48

THE RESTAURANT they ate at that evening turned out to be one of the best little Cuban places in South Florida. Martin knew it was going to be good when the menu was entirely in Spanish and he couldn’t even pronounce half the items on it.

“Just go with this one,” said Annabelle as she pointed out something midway down the menu. “Trust me, it’s best suited to your tastes.”

Before Martin could say anything, the waiter arrived and asked them what they wanted to order.

In Spanish.

Martin opened his mouth to ask about English but then Annabelle surprised them all by ordering for the table in perfect Spanish.

“I didn’t know you spoke Spanish,” said Martin with some amazement after the waiter walked away.

Annabelle gave him a sly smile. “There’s a lot of things you still don’t know about me, Martin.”

“Well, how long have you been speaking it for starters?”

“Just since high school,” she answered. “I started taking classes then and I continued to do so in college. I may not understand everything that’s being said from a native speaker’s mouth but I certainly know enough to get around.”

“That’s so cool,” said Martin. “You’re certainly cementing your status as the brain of the group.”

Annabelle started to laugh but that was when Martin noticed a growing frown on Kelsey’s face. “What’s wrong?” he asked her.

Kelsey chewed on her lip. “If Annabelle is the smart one of the group, then what does that make me?”

Martin didn’t have an immediate response for that but it turned out that he didn’t need one anyway.

“You’re the mother of the group,” said Annabelle instantly.

Kelsey’s brow furrowed. “The mother?”

“Oh yes,” said Annabelle with a nod. “You’re definitely the mothering type.”

“You make it sound so boring though,” said Kelsey.

“Not at all, every group needs the mother figure that keeps it together,” explained Annabelle. “You need the glue that binds everyone to one cohesive unit. You’re the glue. From the moment we met, you tried every way to make me feel comfortable with sharing the apartment with you both. And look what happened? We’ve even progressed to the point where you share your boyfriend with me.”

“Well, that kind of just happened though,” said Kelsey nervously.

Annabelle shook her head again. “But with any other woman? It wouldn’t have happened. Someone would have put their foot down and that would have been the end of it. You didn’t. Your need to nurture is built into your very genetic code. You can’t stand to have anyone feeling left out or to leave anyone with bad feelings. That’s a big part of the reason why we’re here.”

Annabelle definitely had a point. If it were anyone but Kelsey, they definitely wouldn’t have a threeway relationship.

“Annabelle isn’t wrong, Kelsey,” said Martin. “You really are the glue that holds us together. Even when you’re mad, you are quick to come around and find a solution that works for everyone. We really wouldn’t be sitting here together if it weren’t for you.”

It was no surprise that the high-level praise from both of them put a smile on Kelsey’s face. “Well, I guess it’s just who I am.”

“And we love you for it,” said Martin.

“We do,” confirmed Annabelle.

“So if I’m the mother of the group and Annabelle is the brain, what does that make Martin?” asked Kelsey.

“He’s the living dildo that we’re in love with,” said Annabelle nonchalantly.

That caused some serious laughter, with even Annabelle joining in.

“You know, I’m not just a . . . cock with legs,” said Martin while lowering his voice. “I have other good qualities too!”

Kelsey reached over and patted his hand. “Yes, but we do love the way you swing that weapon between your legs.”

“Oh, you swing it really, really good,” emphasized Annabelle.

It was hard not to feel slightly offended at that statement. On one hand, Martin felt himself swelling up with pride at the thought of sexually pleasing two gorgeous women but on the other, he found himself a little miffed that it was the first (and only) thing they’d mentioned.

“We’re just teasing you, babe,” said Kelsey a minute later. “You’re the big manly man that makes us feel safe, loved, and protected. Seriously, what would we do without you?”

“Probably buy a dual-head dildo and name it Martin,” added Annabelle. “But it still wouldn’t be enough!”

“Not anywhere close to enough,” chimed Kelsey.

“Thanks. I think,” said Martin dryly.

Seeing that he wasn’t entirely convinced, Kelsey leaned over and gave him a deep kiss. “I love you, Martin Kennedy. You’re the man for me, and you will be forever.”

Not to be outdone, Annabelle repeated the same gesture on his other side. “And I’m falling for you, Martin Kennedy. And even if we couldn’t have sex ever again, I’d still choose to be with you.”

That seemed to put everything in perspective, and Martin was a happy man once again.

The food came out a short while later and everything about the night was just going so well.

So it wasn’t a surprise when something started to go wrong.

For Martin, it came as a sudden surprise as he looked around the restaurant. His eyes kept drifting to the same table a short distance away, and the more that Martin looked at the table, the more he got a bad feeling about it. There was only one man at the table, which was unusual enough for a restaurant. Martin at first suspected that he might be dining alone but their eyes just kept meeting in a way that suggested that perhaps the man was there for a reason.

That reason possibly being to watch Martin.

It was hard not to feel that way. At first, Martin questioned whether he was just infatuated with Kelsey or Annabelle and that was the reason he kept looking over but Martin never caught him actually ogling the girls.

In fact, he seemed to be watching Martin directly.

The worst part about it was that he seemed somewhat familiar, like a face he used to know but couldn’t place anymore. The man didn’t have a particularly unique look either. His head was totally shaved clean and the only hair that Martin could see was the goatee that framed his mouth. Otherwise, there was nothing off-putting about him.

So why did he give Martin the creeps?

“Everything all right, Martin?” asked Kelsey with some concern, breaking him out of the trance state he’d been in ever since he felt watched.

“Yeah, sorry,” said Martin, taking another bite of his food. “Just thought . . . no, never mind. It’s not important.”

That was good enough for Kelsey and Martin ate silently while he listened to the girls talk about plans for tomorrow. Martin only started to relax after the man left the table, and it appeared he wasn’t coming back.

Chalking it up to anxiety, Martin finished his meal and quickly excused himself to go to the bathroom. He splashed some water on his face and then took a moment to relieve his bladder. He’d finally started to come back down to normal but that was when the door opened.

And the goatee man entered the bathroom.

Martin felt his adrenaline immediately spike. He kept washing his hands in an effort to play it cool, even though he’d already dried them moments earlier.

It only got worse as the guy stepped up to the sink next to Martin’s and began to do the same thing.

Martin couldn’t get out of the bathroom fast enough. He grabbed another paper towel and dried his now twice-cleaned hands but that was when the man started to speak.

“Hey man, are you seeing both those girls at your table? Total hotties!”

“Uh, um, yeah, I guess,” stumbled Martin, caught off guard. “I mean, no, it’s not like that.”

The guy let out a small smile. “Totally cool. I can’t imagine what it’s like to have two girlfriends. I bet it’s hotter than hell in your bedroom.”

“Er, right,” said Martin. “But we’re actually just friends.”

He wasn’t sure why he said that but sharing the details of his personal life with a complete stranger was completely unusual for Martin. Especially with someone who gave him the creeps like this.

Martin turned to leave but he couldn’t help one more look at the guy. When he turned to go toward the door, he ended up making direct eye contact with the man.

And that’s when he understood how the man looked so familiar in the first place. He would have recognized those gray eyes anywhere.

He looked like he could have been related to Bryce Rookwood, the VP of Production at RI. The very same one who put out the email about security leaks in the testing area.

This guy was a dead ringer for him. Of course, Bryce was neither bald nor sporting a goatee but the eyes were the same. This guy could have been Bryce's brother.

The lips parted into a thin smile. “Enjoy your evening with them tonight.”

Like that, the Bryce look-alike pushed past Martin and left the bathroom, leaving him confused on what had just happened. Was this guy a threat? Was he somehow related to Bryce and sent down to Florida to keep an eye on Martin? Why would they do that?

Unless they knew . . .

Martin really started to panic at this point. There was only one thing he could do, which was attempt to get back to the hotel and find some measure of safety, mostly for the girls. They could be in real danger if this guy was really from RI.

By the time he reached the table, Kelsey was already standing up.

“Don’t worry, I paid the bill already with your credit card,” she said. Her face quickly turned to confusion when she noticed the look on Martin’s face. “What’s wrong, Martin?”

“We have to go now. Back to the hotel. Trust me, I’ll explain later but we have to leave. NOW.”

That was enough for both Kelsey and Annabelle to grab their things and make for a hasty retreat. The restaurant they were at was only a short walking distance from the hotel but there were two paths to get back. One was more public since it was on the street in front of both buildings. The other was a less public walking path behind them.

“Take the street and stay near people,” he said to Kelsey and Annabelle. “I’m going to take the walking path. Get back to the suite as quickly as possible and don’t stop to talk to anyone.”

“Martin, what’s wrong?” asked an alarmed Annabelle. “Do we know someone here?”

“Just trust me on this,” said Martin. “Go now, quickly!”

The girls didn’t stop to ask any further questions. They bolted out the front door in a quick but steady pace so as not to draw any attention. Martin moved toward the back door but that was when he noticed a problem before he could leave.

Goatee man was back again. And he was blocking the way out the door.

“I need to talk to you,” said the man seriously as his eyes locked on Martin.

“Oh shit,” muttered Martin.

CHAPTER 49

MARTIN WONDERED if he should start swinging first and ask questions later.

The situation was rapidly deteriorating. The dinner he was enjoying with the girls was interrupted by the man now blocking his path. All of Martin’s internal senses were buzzing upon sight of this stranger, like he was somehow a threat that needed neutralized.

And now he was blocking the way out of the restaurant. Hostile intent blazed in the man’s eyes, and Martin wondered just how deeply he was connected back to RI. He thought about the situation with the mugger, and Martin was determined to act first.

Martin launched himself at the man, using his hands to push him against the wall while restraining him.

“What do you want from me?” demanded Martin.

The man’s face contorted from his smug expression to one that actually looked apologetic. He started to sputter.

“I d-didn’t mean any offense, man,” said the man as he tried to put his hands up. “I’ve just had a bit too much to drink and didn’t intend to be rude to you in the bathroom. That’s all. Don’t hit me!”

There it was. Martin’s sense of adrenaline deflated immediately. Goatee man was actually trembling at the thought that Martin might actually hit him.

Had Martin really gotten this whole interaction wrong? Was he even really a threat beyond his passing resemblance for Bryce Rookwood?

Martin didn’t say anything further. He let him go and took several steps back before pushing his way out the back door without so much as a look at the other man. His feet beat a hasty path back to the hotel suite, and at one point, he looked behind him just to be sure the other guy wasn’t following him.

Sure enough, there wasn’t a sign of anyone behind him.

I must be losing it. I was ready to slug some guy because I thought he was a spy from RI. He was just a drunk who liked the looks of Kelsey and Annabelle.

It was a simple enough explanation, and for Martin, that meant it must have been the correct one. All the tension left his body as he made his way inside the hotel and took the elevator up to the tenth floor to see the girls.

By the time the elevator dinged, he was actually laughing. “Poor drunk,” he said with a chuckle.

Although, it was a little odd that he couldn’t remember smelling any alcohol on the man, even when he was close to him in the bathroom and by the door. Martin almost considered giving that another thought, but when he opened the door, he was accosted by two very concerned women.

“Martin? Is everything okay?” asked Kelsey. “Seriously, what happened back there?”

“Are we in danger?” pressed Annabelle.

Martin shook his head. “No, no, sorry. That was my fault. I saw someone staring at us and thought he was a threat just because he looked familiar. It turned out, he was just a drunk that wanted to look at both of you. It’s nothing.”

As quickly as the tension melted off of him, it did the same for the girls.

“Thank goodness,” said Kelsey after a deep breath. “You had us seriously worried.”

“Really worried,” echoed Annabelle as she held up a steak knife she had hidden behind her. “I grabbed this just in case we needed a weapon!”

Martin could only laugh at that as he begged her to return it to the kitchen, where it belonged.

“It’s probably a good thing that it was me that showed up and not housekeeping,” said Martin as he laughed. “Or we might have had to bail Annabelle out of jail tonight!”

Kelsey laughed at first but she quickly sobered into a more serious expression. “Are you sure there’s nothing to worry about? You can tell us no matter how big or small.”

Martin almost told her about his concerns about RI. First the security email and then the guy being a look-alike for Bryce. He knew that this would only accomplish two things though.

For one, it would stress out the girls and potentially ruin their trip. Until he had more concrete evidence, he wasn’t about to cast a shadow on what had been a very fun trip so far.

The second option was that it just might make Annabelle start digging into her old life again, especially if there might be some link to Bryce. The success of the whole plan all hinged on keeping Annabelle away from RI, where everyone would recognize her and realize she wasn’t actually dead. He couldn’t let her open that can of worms.

For those reasons, Martin shook his head. “It’s nothing, I promise. Nothing to worry about.”

Kelsey took his words at face value and seemed to truly relax. Annabelle soon returned from the kitchen, this time not clutching a knife but holding a beer for Martin and two seltzers for her and Kelsey.

“Come on, let’s go watch the sunset,” she urged, yanking Martin’s hand to the balcony.

The sunset that night was breathtaking. Despite the fact that their balcony faced east, they were still close enough to the end of the building that they could watch the sun setting in the west, especially if they just craned their heads a little. It couldn’t have been a better end to a largely perfect day (save for the dinner incident).

After watching the sunset, Martin and the girls tested out the whirlpool tub, but their energy for the day was largely spent. Dragging themselves into bed, Martin was soon sleeping with all thoughts of danger largely forgotten.

CHAPTER 50

THE NEXT DAY was just perfect in terms of weather. It was hovering right around eighty degrees and there was a soft breeze coming off the water. The humidity wasn’t too bad (for Florida), and Martin and the girls decided it was the perfect weather for day drinking.

“I need a margarita in my hand, stat,” said Kelsey as they made their way to the tiny beach bar on the hotel property. “Better yet, make it two.”

“I want something light and fruity,” said Annabelle. “Something that barely makes me taste the alcohol. And then I want like ten of them!”

“So you’ll be fine until you aren’t?” teased Martin. “And Kelsey and I have to drag you home?”

Annabelle grinned. “I don’t drink that often but when I do, I’m a lightweight. Trust me, it won’t be long until I’m walking funny and talking crazy.”

“You’ve been walking funny since yesterday,” noted Kelsey. “But I thought that was just because of Martin.”

Annabelle turned red in the face. “Well, that’s not entirely off the mark.”

That earned a round of laughter as they made their way to the bar. The building was set up like a tiki hut with one bar island and seating all around it. A man and two women were the bartenders that day, but since everyone else decided that it was a great time to start drinking, they were busy just trying to keep up with demand.

“This place is practically swamped,” said Martin after getting their drinks. “It’s only 1:30pm on a Friday too. What gives?”

“I guess everyone decided to play hooky from work today and start the weekend early,” suggested Annabelle as she took a sip of her very fruity and very red drink. She smacked her lips after that first taste. “Delicious!”

“And those bartenders can barely keep up,” said Kelsey. “They’re still hustling around!”

That was definitely true. The bartenders would earn their tips today but Martin noticed that as hard as they were working, they still seemed to be happy. Not a single one of them seemed to be upset that it was this busy. In fact, they were mostly clowning around with each other—doing their job well but having fun while they did it.

And really, how could they not have fun? On a day like today, you couldn’t help but be happy.

“This would be the life, wouldn’t it?” asked Martin. “We could stay down here and open up our own little beachside bar. We’d get away from the stresses of our normal lives and leave RI in the past. Then we can spend every day just like this one, making money but having fun while we do it.”

Kelsey started to nod her head. “I’d be in for an idea like that. I think it would be a lot of fun.”

Annabelle was the serious one though and she quickly sobered up on that idea. “I don’t know, Martin. It would be just like starting a whole new business. We’d need money, a business plan, inventory, staffing, and more. It wouldn’t be that easy.”

“I know, I know,” said Martin. “But just trying to picture a different path than the one we’re on. We’ve had to go to great lengths to keep you girls secret at home. We have to shop on the other side of town. We also live so close to RI that I can only keep you sequestered in the park behind the apartment when you want to go out since there’s unlikely to be anyone from RI there. You know what I mean? Down here, it would be a fresh start.”

“Do you really need a fresh start?” asked Annabelle. “Or is this more about protection for Kelsey and I?”

Martin shrugged. “Maybe it’s a little bit of both. Listen, I can’t deny that working at RI still puts me a little at edge with what I did. There’s always the off chance that someone will find out about you two. I’ll never be able to relax because of that but putting about ten states between us and RI would definitely help.”

Kelsey started to look concerned. “Martin, I thought you were just talking about this idea. You almost sound like you’re serious.”

Both girls were starting to wonder if there was any bite to his bark. Martin had to wheel it back quickly.

“No, no, it’s an idea. I’m not saying that I want to move to Florida next month. It’s just that this life down here seems so carefree and safer. All I’m saying is that it might be a possibility for us. Would either of you not like it down here?”

Kelsey and Annabelle looked at each other without saying anything. Kelsey shrugged her shoulders. “I mean, it’s not like either of us can see our families at home. You and Annabelle are my family now, so wherever you go is home to me. I guess it wouldn’t make much of a difference.”

“And I would go with you both,” said Annabelle. “But with one request—that I get to make the business plan if we ever decide to pull the trigger on this. I’d want to make sure we do it the right way.”

Martin started to laugh. “Annabelle, you can run with the whole thing. I trust you to make the right decisions for our future beach bar.”

Annabelle held out her hand playfully. “Consider us business partners then!”

Martin shook it, at which case Annabelle did the same gesture to Kelsey.

Kelsey gave Annabelle a funny look. “Do you always make your bedroom partners your business partners?”

Annabelle managed to look hurt. “This would be a first!”

Kelsey grinned. “I’m just teasing you. I wouldn’t want to do this with anyone else.”

“So maybe we plan with this idea being our future? It’s not an idea we jump on right now,” explained Martin. “But a few years from now? Maybe?”

The girls started to nod. “Definitely.”

“Besides, if it means prancing around in this bikini year-round, how could I say no?” added Annabelle.

“I could hardly say no to watching you prance around in it all year,” said Martin, his eyes taking in the cleavage of her hot pink swimsuit.

“I kind of like it too,” said Kelsey as she rubbed her fingers over the fabric. “Not in the way that says I want that same bikini but more so because I think Annabelle looks freaking gorgeous in it.”

“Thanks, Kelsey!”

Annabelle shocked all of them by leaning forward and placing a peck on Kelsey’s lips. Kelsey’s expression went from shocked to demure in a matter of seconds.

“Where did that come from?” asked Kelsey.

Annabelle grinned. “What? We do that and more in the bedroom so why not here in public too?”

Kelsey shrugged. “I guess I don’t have a good reason for that. I just always thought . . . well, you know . . .”

“That to regularly kiss another woman means you’re gay?” finished Annabelle.

Kelsey turned red in the face and nodded.

“Are you bi, Kelsey?” asked Annabelle.

“Heavens no,” answered the tiny brunette. “I love Martin too much. And I love being with him. And I’m sorry but as much as I enjoy being intimate with you, Annabelle, I still like being in a man’s arms more.”

“That’s what I suspected,” said Annabelle as she started to tap her chin.

“Suspected?” asked Martin. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that I can safely say that I share the same feelings as Kelsey,” explained Annabelle. “I really enjoy kissing her. I also enjoy the chances when I get to explore her body and I really enjoy when she does it to mine too.”

Kelsey’s face stayed red as Annabelle explained, not once turning back to her normal color.

“But as much as I like intimacy with Kelsey, I just like Martin more. I’m not afraid of intimacy. I don’t think anything of kissing her or doing those things. If you asked me to make out with her right now, I would do so gladly.”

“That’s always an option,” chimed Martin, earning a get-real look from each woman.

“But I’m not a lesbian,” finished Annabelle. “No matter how much I find that I like Kelsey, I’ll always want Martin more.” She turned to look at Kelsey. “I hope that doesn't make you upset.”

Kelsey shook her head. “Not in the slightest. I feel the exact same way.”

Martin pursed his lips. “I have to wonder if this is because of the cloning process.”

Annabelle looked at him. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I knew that you would come out more sexually than you were before but think about it—you’re practically any man’s wet dream fantasy right now. Two women with bisexual tendencies that want to have sex multiple times a day. I couldn’t have created a better situation for myself.”

“Well, to be clear, it’s you that we love,” corrected Annabelle.

“I know, but you know what I mean?” asked Martin. “It’s like this situation is too good to be true. I wonder if it has anything to do with the cloning process?”

That sparked an interesting round of internal dialogue for Martin. If the management in RI was regularly cloning humans, wouldn’t it make sense to clone them to be more “sexual” than they were before. Martin kept thinking about Tim’s words before they left about cloning a hot little cheerleader.

What good could the cheerleader be unless she was a nympho to boot? Was there a certain amount of gene editing that was preset in every clone to make them more sexual?

It was a line of thinking he wanted to explore more but surprisingly enough, Annabelle posed a very startling question a moment later.

“While we’re on the subject of liking girls, why don’t we look into making a couple more for us?” asked Annabelle as she stirred her drink seductively. “If we open the beach bar like we say, we’re going to need some extra labor. And extra girls would be fun for everyone here, right?”

As enticing as the idea sounded, Martin had to pump the brakes on it right out of the gate.

“I like where your head is at but think about how much risk we’re in just with the two of you,” he explained. “I think I have anxiety now about someone discovering you but if we had another girl? Or two? I’d probably die of a heart attack by forty just from the stress alone!”

“True, but if we moved to Florida, we wouldn’t have to worry so much about discovery,” said Annabelle.

“Yeah, but there’s also getting in and out of RI that we have to consider. I’ve already done it twice and with the latest security changes, it’s going to be harder than ever to get into the testing area.”

Strangely enough, Annabelle didn’t want to take no for an answer.

“I’m sure we could figure out a way to make it happen like you did before,” she suggested. “And we could clone anyone. If you see some model or actress that you like, we could clone her and have some real fun! What better way to enjoy the little pleasures of life?”

Martin smirked at her. “I already enjoy you two. Seriously, there are times when I think that satisfying your sexual appetites alone will kill me. Adding in another woman might just do that. It’s too risky and adding in someone else is really unnecessary right now. I’m happy with the two of you.”

“Plus, it would throw another wrench in our relationship dynamic,” added Kelsey quietly. “We just got this figured out. I’d hate to have to go back to square one.”

Annabelle let out a simple shrug but maintained a curious smile. It was a look that told Martin that this argument wasn’t exactly over yet.

“Well, agree to disagree then,” she said. “I, for one, think it would be really hot to have another girl in bed with us.”

Kelsey poked Annabelle in the side. “What’s wrong? I’m not enough woman for you?”

Annabelle squealed and batted away the other woman’s hand. “You’re plenty for me. I’m just thinking about adding a little frosting to our cake.”

“This cake has plenty of frosting,” said Martin.

“And if you want glazed so badly, I’m sure Martin will be willing to lend you a hand,” added Kelsey, causing all of them to laugh.

A few moments later, Annabelle announced that she had to go to the bathroom. For several minutes, Martin was alone with Kelsey, allowing him the chance to talk to her privately.

“Hey,” said Martin softly. “How are you doing? Especially with all of this?”

Kelsey seemed to know exactly what he meant by this. And her response was more emotional than he would have expected.

“Honestly, ever since Annabelle came along, I’ve been afraid that the walls around our intimacy would just keep getting pulled down. I worried that I might lose you to her, and that thought nearly killed me.”

A tear fell down her cheek. Martin moved closer and embraced her tightly. “You know that having Annabelle with us changes nothing about the way I feel about you, right? I will always love you. You’re the main girl—my main girl. You always will be. If you told me Annabelle had to leave tomorrow, it would be done. I just never want to hurt you.”

Kelsey wiped the tear away from her cheek. “I know that, Martin, I really do. And I believe it. I know you would never hurt me. I’m sorry for getting emotional. And I really like Annabelle, I do. She’s been a great fit for us.”

“You’re a great fit for me,” said Martin. “And I love you, Kelsey. And I would never do anything to jeopardize what we have. Never ever.”

Kelsey hugged him tightly. “How did I get so lucky to be with you? You’re really my soulmate, Martin. I love everything about you. No one has ever cared so much about my feelings and my heart like you do.”

“That’s why I had to bring you back,” he whispered. “I couldn’t live without you. You’re the other half of me, and that’s why we fit so well together.”

She kissed him gently and stroked his cheek. “Thank you. Thank you for always thinking about me and putting me first. Even if you have to put Annabelle first now too, I still appreciate everything about you.”

They were still kissing when Annabelle returned. She approached the table cautiously.

“I feel like I missed something here,” said Annabelle as her eyes looked back and forth between them.

Kelsey wiped a tear from her cheek and smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ll explain it to you. Sometime.”

CHAPTER 51

THE NEXT MORNING, the trio was finally able to do one thing they’d wanted to do since arriving in Florida. Martin set an alarm, and all three of them were up promptly before the sunrise. By the time the sky was just starting to get lighter, they were perched on the balcony with coffee mugs in hand, waiting for that glorious moment to begin.

Martin was sitting with his feet up against the railing while Annabelle sat the closest to him. She was burrowed into his side with her head against his shoulder while Kelsey was playing with his hand on the other side.

“There it is, there it is!” gushed Kelsey as the first hint of orange streaked across the eastern sky. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

It certainly was breathtaking. Martin wasn’t sure which part of the morning he enjoyed more. The sunrise in itself was simply majestic, but sharing it with two women that he was in love with made it all the more special.

After a quick round of showers and a hearty breakfast, they were off to the local marina, where Martin had chartered a private boat for the day. The idea was Kelsey’s, and she explained why as they were walking toward the marina.

“I used to go fishing with my dad all the time when I was younger,” she said. “Half the time, I think it was because I was the firstborn and he always wanted a boy. My little brother didn’t come along until I was already eight so I think there were times when he almost gave up on passing on the family name. Because of that, he taught me how to do a lot of things that normally wouldn’t be taught to girls. Fishing was one of them.”

“Are you good at fishing?” asked Annabelle. “Are you going to make Martin and I look bad?”

Kelsey started to laugh. “Probably not. It’s been ages since I’ve last been fishing but that’s part of the reason why I wanted to go today. I wanted to see if I still have it.”

“What’s the other reason?” asked Annabelle.

Kelsey grinned. “Well, the boat is ours for most of the day. I figured having a private boat out at sea would be totally cool.”

It turned out that the boat wasn’t totally private. By that, Martin found out that a father/son team were the ones to operate the boat and get them out to deeper waters. The girls were a tiny bit disappointed at seeing the two other figures on the dock but they managed to hide their disappointment for the introductions at least.

“Hi, folks, Larry Wemple here and this is my son, Allen,” said the older man as gestured between himself and the younger man. “Just get yourselves situated on the boat and we’ll get out to sea here shortly!”

Larry was polite enough, and Martin found himself taking a liking to the kindly older man almost instantly. His son, Allen, was another story in itself. Allen couldn’t have been much older than twenty and when he saw Kelsey and Annabelle wearing nothing apart from their bikini tops and little cutoff jean shorts, he almost lost it.

“That poor kid is about to blow in his pants,” noted Martin after he dropped several fishing rods because he was staring at Kelsey’s ass.

Annabelle started to grin. “Just wait to see what happens when the shorts come off. These bottoms are so cheeky that he’s going to get an eyeful.”

Sure enough, poor Allen needed to excuse himself while the girls pranced around the deck half naked. Martin found the whole scene amusing and he had to remind the girls more than once to go easy on the young guy.

“You’re probably fueling his spank bank for the next month,” said Martin with a laugh. “Don’t tease him too badly now.”

“Only a little,” said Annabelle with a hint of mischief. “After all, it is kind of fun!”

The boat soon left the marina and took off toward the eastern horizon. The waves that morning weren’t too choppy and the fishing boat sailed through like a hot knife through butter. They didn’t stop until they were about five miles off the coast and that was when Larry announced it was time to start fishing.

Martin and Kelsey were the first to take the rods and promptly began fishing off the side while Annabelle made a big scene about tanning on the forward deck.

“Oh, Kelsey, do you think you could rub some sunscreen into my body before you start fishing?” asked Annabelle seductively while fluttering her eyelashes. For good measure, she squirted some of the cream between her breasts. Martin looked past Annabelle to notice that Allen’s jaw was almost on the deck.

“Sure, Annabelle,” said Kelsey, who spent the next ten minutes making sure that there wasn’t a single inch of Annabelle’s body not covered in sunscreen. Martin could only laugh as he cast out his first lines.

Fishing that day wasn’t the best. Nobody could really get any traction with the fish, and only a handful of small grouper and wazoo were caught. It was still enough for some photo opportunities (and Martin snapped a great one of Annabelle holding the largest grouper they had right under her breasts).

With the fishing not great, Kelsey didn’t last long before she joined Annabelle on the deck to tan. Martin was content to fish to himself but that was before Allen decided to approach him.

“I have to say that you are the man!” whispered Allen with some excitement as soon as he was sure the girls couldn’t hear him. “Those two are your chicks?”

“Yeah, something like that,” said Martin with a smile. Unlike the guy from the restaurant, Allen was completely harmless. Martin didn’t mind letting the kid indulge the fantasy a little.

“That’s so awesome! Two chicks at the same time. Is it as good as it sounds?”

Martin leaned in a little closer. “It’s better, trust me. Nothing in the world like it.”

Allen’s mouth dropped open. “That’s so cool. I have a girlfriend now but I’ve been trying to get her interested in a threesome for quite some time. Seeing your setup today has made me want to try even harder!”

Martin started to chuckle at hearing him refer to it as a “setup.” If only Allen knew the real backstory, he’d quickly figure out it was a lot more complicated.

For the rest of the afternoon, Allen continued his hero worship of Martin. It got to the point that as they left the fishing grounds and went back to shore, Allen even made a personal request.

“Martin, man, do you think we could all hang tonight? You and the girls?” asked Allen, gesturing to all four of them. “I’d totally want to take you guys out to the club and kick it a little!”

Martin didn’t want to burst the kid’s bubble, and thankfully, he didn’t have to. Annabelle was the one to gently nix the plan, but she did it in the best possible way.

“Sorry, Allen, but Martin is going to be a little busy tonight,” said Annabelle, throwing a casual wink at the kid. “If you know what I mean.”

Allen flashed a double thumbs-up. “Do I ever! Man, that’s so fucking cool, you have no idea!”

He even put his hand up to give Martin a high-five, something he returned with only a little chuckling. As they left the boat, Allen was the one waving at them enthusiastically as they walked away.

“I think he has a new personal hero now,” noted Kelsey as they walked back to the hotel. “Allen was about ready to worship the ground that you walk on, Martin.”

“I think he was wanting to do that to the ground you two are on,” Martin corrected. “I’m just the guy sleeping with both of you.”

“I don’t know,” replied Annabelle. “He seemed more interested in how cool you were than with ogling Kelsey and I, especially toward the end.”

Martin shrugged. “Well, just say the word and I can go back and set up a meeting place at a club tonight.”

The girls laughed. “No, that’s okay. We have plans for tonight.”

“Speaking of, what are these plans you have for me tonight?” pressed Martin. “Something you want to fill me in on?”

Kelsey gave him her best smile. “You’ll just have to wait and see, my love!”

CHAPTER 52

THE LAST NIGHT at the hotel ended up being very calm and quiet. As soon as they arrived, Martin and the girls got cleaned up from all the excess sunscreen and the muck of being out in the ocean. They ate dinner at a little restaurant that was attached to the hotel, and they were able to watch the final sunset of the trip.

“What a great trip this was,” said Kelsey after letting out a long sigh. Only a thin strip of the sun was still visible on the horizon and that would disappear rather quickly.

“It doesn’t have to be over yet,” said Annabelle, looking at the other two.

“What do you mean, Annabelle? We’re leaving tomorrow. There’s not much we can do now.”

Annabelle pointed down at the beach. “No, but we can go spend the last hours we have here frolicking on our own private beach after dark.”

That turned out to be an excellent idea. All three of them changed into their suits and made their way to the lobby to go out to the hotel’s private beach.

Except there was only one problem.

“Closed,” read Martin as he noticed the sign out to the beach area. “It’s closed after dark. They won’t let us on.”

Ever the rule-breaker, Annabelle started to grin. “I guess we’ll just have to use the other entrance to the beach then.”

Kelsey raised her eyebrow. “What other entrance?”

Annabelle gestured for them to follow her. She marched back across the quiet lobby and went out the side door. From there, she had to step into the rocks that made up the landscaping on this part of the building. From the rocks, she navigated down a narrow path that was full of ornamental plants before emerging outside the beach area.

The last thing they had to do was scale the small wooden fence that separated the beach area.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” asked Kelsey when she looked at the fence. “We don’t have to do this tonight. We could always spend another night in the whirlpool tub.”

Annabelle was already starting to climb. “Come on, Kelsey, be a risk taker for once!”

Martin gave a surprised look at Kelsey. “I’m seeing a whole new side to Annabelle that I didn’t even know existed.”

Kelsey pursed her lips. “That’s what worries me.”

It was remarkably easy to scale the fence and the three of them were in the back portion of the hotel minutes later. They could now hear the gentle pounding of the surf on the shore, and the prospect of having the entire beach to themselves quickened their pace as they moved closer to the water.

Except someone had beaten them to it.

“Oh my goodness, look over there!” said Annabelle as she covered her mouth to keep from laughing.

Sure enough, another couple had the same idea as them. They were cuddled up in the sand a mere ten feet from the waves. By the looks of them, the girl was sitting in the guys lap and they were making out aggressively.

“It’s just that kind of night, I guess,” said Martin with a chuckle.

“I hope they don’t mind that we intrude on their privacy,” said Kelsey.

It turned out they didn’t mind. The guy gave Martin a wave and then promptly went back to making out with his girl. That was good enough for the trio and they quickly dropped their things and made for the ocean.

“Ah, this water is perfect,” noted Annabelle as she stepped into the waves. “Come feel this, Martin.”

The water was just the right temperature. Martin moved closer to Annabelle until she snuck into his arms. She craned her neck up towards him and kissed him soundly.

“This has been the perfect trip, Martin. Thank you so much for bringing us down here.”

“This was your idea, right?” he asked. “After all, you’re the one that didn’t like seeing the snow back at home.”

Annabelle nodded. “But still, it’s one thing to talk about it and another to do something about it. I didn’t expect we’d get to take a trip so soon. This has been just wonderful.”

Martin fully agreed. He was happy just to hold Annabelle in his arms, and he became even happier when Kelsey joined them a moment later. The tiny brunette snuck into the other side of their hug, and all three of them stood together as the gentle waves lapped at their thighs.

“I think if anything, this trip is a good indicator that our idea has legs,” said Martin. “The one about the beach bar? Someday, we might get to live this every day.”

“Some day,” confirmed Kelsey. “That sounds like a great plan to me.”

“And me,” added Annabelle. “But for now, let’s just enjoy our last night in paradise.”

“And how would you like to do that?” asked Martin.

She answered him by kissing him fiercely. Annabelle melted against him during the kiss, making sure to push her big tits firmly against his chest. As if that wasn’t good enough, she pulled his hands down to her ass, clearly wanting him to squeeze.

And squeeze he did. Annabelle moaned into his mouth as he kneaded her cheeks just the way she liked.

When Annabelle pulled away she gestured to the beach. “I think that other couple had the right idea. What do you think about us doing the same thing?”

Martin’s eyes went wide. “Out here? In public?”

Annabelle was already walking back toward the beach. At that moment, she yanked off her bikini top, exposing her perfect tits. “We’re on vacation, remember?”

Martin looked at Kelsey, who was already doing the same thing with her top. She tossed it at Martin as she started to walk away. “Let’s live a little, Martin.”

By the time he caught up with them in the sand, Annabelle had pulled Kelsey down on top of her and they were making out with an intensity that put some serious steel between Martin’s legs. It was an enchanting sight to see their lips glued together in passion while their breasts rubbed together at the same time.

It also finally convinced Martin to remove his trunks. By that point, he didn’t care that the other couple was close enough to see them (although he was unaware that they were now doing the same thing he was about to do).

No, the only thing that Martin cared about was watching Annabelle’s hand as her two fingers slid into Kelsey’s pussy. Martin could hear the sounds of Kelsey’s wetness as Annabelle’s hand moved. That was when Annabelle made eye contact with him. She could see him standing there with his cock in hand, and that’s when she gestured for him to join them.

Annabelle held the strap on Kelsey’s bottoms to the side, which was just enough room for Martin to notch the tip and begin to push.

“Oh, fuck!” yelped Kelsey as he started to fill her. She twisted around and grabbed his thigh. “Put it in me, baby. Put it all in!”

Kelsey was wet enough that she took all of him on the first deep stroke. Their hips began to slap together while Annabelle continued her work from below Kelsey. Not only was she content to suck on Kelsey’s exposed nipples, but she kept her hand low enough to tease the brunette’s clit.

“Fuck me, fuck me!” squealed Kelsey as the intensity started to overpower her. “What are you two doing to me?”

There was nothing that Martin enjoyed more than seeing the signs of utmost pleasure on Kelsey’s face. It was the sight that spurred him to piston his hips harder, driving his cock as deep into her body as it could go.

Kelsey exploded in orgasm after a mere five minutes of this treatment. It just became too obvious that the dual pressure put on her body by both Annabelle and Martin was too much to withstand. Martin’s cock popped out of her hole with a wet popping sound and Kelsey fell to the side next to them.

“I’ve had my fill for now,” she said, gesturing toward Annabelle. “Martin, give Annabelle the same treatment. Trust me, she needs it.”

There was something about the way she said the words that made Martin think there was some deeper meaning behind them. He made eye contact with Annabelle, and it was clear that she was thinking much the same way by the expression on her face.

There was no time for analysis though. Both of them were turned on and ready to go.

Martin pulled the strap of Annabelle’s bikini bottom out of the way and sunk his cock into her body, causing her to sigh with pleasure.

“I want it as hard as you just gave it to Kelsey,” said Annabelle as she thrust her hips back at him. “Give it to me deep, Martin. Please?”

The position they were in was perfect for getting deep. Martin was now fucking Annabelle while hovering over her body. It put them face-to-face, and they were plenty close enough for kissing as their bodies melted together. It was only as Martin pulled away that Kelsey filled the gap, performing the same functions as Annabelle had done for her before.

Martin wasn’t sure what it was that sent him over the edge. Perhaps it was the way that Annabelle’s breasts rippled with every hard thrust. Perhaps it was the sight of Kelsey’s hand rubbing Annabelle’s clit while his cock moved in and out. Or perhaps it was being caught up in the thrill of having sex in a public location.

Whatever the reason, he was going to cum soon.

Annabelle exploded into orgasm and leaned her head back into the sand. Martin felt that familiar tightening in his balls and the unstoppable rush of power.

“Here it comes, I’m going to cum,” he warned.

“Cum in me, Martin,” begged Annabelle. “Please cum in me!”

Martin pushed in deep as he achieved orgasm. His hips crushed against Annabelle as heavy spurts of cum soon filled her body, seeping into her womb. She clung to him with an intensity he’d never seen before, all the while Kelsey was content to kiss all over Annabelle’s breasts.

It was a beautiful moment, one that had been a long time in the making. In a weird way, something finally felt complete now that he’d finally filled Annabelle. It was like the last barrier to total intimacy had been completely shattered.

Annabelle was his now. There would be no going back.

There was no sweeter sight than to see his silvery seed, glistening in the moonlight, spill out of Annabelle’s well-fucked hole.

“Oh my god, best sex ever,” said Annabelle a moment later, causing Kelsey to laugh. “I feel so . . . amazing.”

“I love when he cums inside me,” said Kelsey. “I hope you love it as much as I do.”

Annabelle leaned up and kissed Kelsey on the lips gently. “I certainly do. I love everything about being with him and you. I love our little relationship here and all the perks that go with it.”

Then, surprisingly, Annabelle locked eyes on Martin and caressed his cheek. “And I love you, Martin. I really do. I’m ready to admit that I really do love you.”

“I never thought I’d be admitting love for another woman besides Kelsey,” he replied as he brushed his lips against his stunning blonde girlfriend’s lips. “But I do. I’m so glad you’re with us now, Annabelle. It’s just the three of us. And I love you too.”

“I love you both too,” added Kelsey. “And I’m thankful to be here with you. I’m so glad we got to share this trip, and this night, together.”

Now that the emotions were flowing, both women were quick to tear up. Martin could only lay back in the sand and cradle each of them on either side of him. As he looked up at the stars, he found that he was just as thankful. Life could’ve been a lot worse. Having Kelsey and Annabelle with him made everything a million times better.

Without them, he’d still be in the depression that claimed two years of his life. It was a time that he never wanted to revisit, and as long as he had the two of them, he never would.

It couldn’t have been a more perfect way to end the trip. They stayed out under the stars for another hour until it was clear that everyone was ready for bed. They silently put their clothes back on, and Martin tipped his head toward the other couple who was also finished with their nocturnal activities.

The next morning started early as they got back on the road to home. It was an entirely boring drive, only spiced up in the moments when one of the girls was awake and in the front seat with him. Everyone felt a little melancholy at the thought of their trip ending so any conversational topics were kept light and breezy.

The only patch of adrenaline that Martin felt was as they crossed through South Carolina and approached the border with North Carolina. He could have sworn that one truck had been following him throughout the entire state, slowing down when he did and speeding up when he floored it. The truck didn’t follow him though when he made a quick detour to fill up some gas, and that was the last he saw of it before they arrived home.

“Home sweet home,” chirped Kelsey as they opened the door to the apartment late that evening. The feeling was echoed by the other two as they unpacked their bags and settled back in. Martin was most happy to sleep in his own bed again, having found the bed at the hotel suite to be too firm.

This one was just right, and he slept soundly that evening as he cradled the two women that he loved.

Of course, the next day had to be Monday, and Martin bid the girls goodbye as he made his way to work that morning. He expected to have a quiet day, or at least he hoped for one.

That all changed when he arrived at his cubicle to find he had two visitors already waiting for him.

They were the worst two visitors that he could have ever expected, and Martin’s adrenaline surged as he met their accusatory glares.

Bryce Rookwood and Claire Pulliam stood in front of his desk, their arms crossed. Claire met his eyes first while Bryce seemed to be rummaging through his desk. His eyes locked on him secondly.

“Martin Kennedy, I need you to come with us,” announced Bryce in a flat voice.

Busted, thought Martin. They’d finally connected the dots. He was going to prison . . . or perhaps even worse.

“What’s this all about?” he asked, trying to stall for time.

Claire shook her head. “Let’s go, Martin. We know everything.”

THE BIOPUNK REVELATION 2

A SCIENCE FICTION THRILLER

CHAPTER 1

“A PROMOTION? No way! Are you kidding me, Martin?”

Martin could barely contain a smile as he nodded. “I’m dead serious! They promoted me! You’re looking at the newest manager at Replica Imagination!”

Both Kelsey and Annabelle squealed with excitement upon learning the news. Kelsey stamped her feet on the ground as she made her way forward, enfolding him in a tight squeeze and resting her head against his chest. On the other hand, Annabelle gave him a demure smile and embraced his free side before placing a fiery kiss on his lips.

“I’m just so surprised you said it was a promotion!” gushed Kelsey. “You made it sound like something was very wrong when you walked into your office this morning!”

Martin puffed out his cheeks. “That’s what I thought too when I saw Bryce and Claire standing by my desk.” He looked over at Annabelle. “Bryce was all serious, and you know how Claire is. She never really looks happy.”

Annabelle scoffed. “Claire has mastered the resting bitch face. She’s so good at it that I’m pretty sure she was born with it.”

“And Bryce really did not look happy, so you can imagine my surprise and fear when I saw them waiting for me, armed crossed in front of their chests,” explained Martin. “I thought the jig was up. I thought they knew all about us.”

Truthfully, Martin almost shit himself when he saw the two of them waiting for him that morning. It was like he almost expected them to be there, since the whole Florida trip had been fraught with concerns and anxiety over being discovered. It was so bad that he even thought he was being tailed at one point, both on the drive home and one of the nights when they went out to dinner.

That’s why it wasn’t a total surprise to see them in his cubicle. He thought for sure they had him dead to rights.

“So what did they say about it?” asked Annabelle. “What details did they give you?”

“Shockingly enough, they were really pleasant about it,” replied Martin. “I even think I saw Claire smile at one point, even if the moment was fleeting. But Bryce did most of the talking.”

Martin flashed back to the memory of the conversation.

“You see, Martin, we need someone in charge of your department,” explained Bryce. “Ever since Dave left the company over the summer, we haven’t filled the manager role over the technology analysts.”

“It’s just as well,” interrupted Claire. “Most of you don’t need supervision and why hire someone when the job was doing itself?”

“But we always knew we would need someone there eventually and when your name came up, we looked into your record,” said Bryce, causing the tension to elevate once more.

Martin swallowed heavily, wondering just what kind of things were written in his permanent record at RI.

Bryce let out a small smile. “And we liked what we saw. So, the job is yours if you’ll have it. You’ll manage your department of eight and you’ll have a ten percent pay increase.”

“Management also has an array of perks if I might add,” said Claire, giving Martin a strange look. “Becoming part of the leadership at RI will only do wonderful things for your career.”

By her suggestion, Martin could only imagine what kind of “perks” could be offered at RI. He thought to ask but he was still trying to process the offer.

“I guess I’m just shocked,” replied Martin. “I didn’t expect this.”

“No, and we usually go through a full hiring process for open positions,” explained Bryce. “But we figured we’d offer it to you first and if you declined, then we would source it out to the recruiters to find someone appropriate.”

“You do want the job, don’t you?” asked Claire, her tone just as serious as the look in her eyes. “I don’t know anyone who would think about turning down such an incredible opportunity.”

Martin gulped. “It is a great opportunity. I’d just love to talk it over first. Mostly with my girlfriend. I’m almost certain that I’ll take it but I just want to cover all bases.”

Bryce actually sneered. He reached over and playfully punched Martin’s shoulder. “You have to clear it with the old lady first, right? No, I understand that. Can you have an answer for us first thing tomorrow morning?”

Martin nodded. “That I can do, of course.”

“Excellent,” said Bryce as he pushed off from Martin’s desk, where he’d been leaning. “I’m looking forward to you joining our ranks, Martin. You’ll find that leadership at RI is a lot better than being in the rank and file. Claire wasn’t kidding about the perks.”

Martin’s eyes naturally drifted to Claire at the mention of her name. She was looking at him again, appraising him silently. It made him feel uncomfortable, mostly because he couldn’t tell if she was judging him or if she knew more than he did. It also didn’t help that, in the words of Tim, that she was “one sexy bitch.”

Claire pushed off Martin’s desk as well and made to follow Bryce, but the two of them turned around before they made their exit.

“One more thing, Martin,” added Bryce. “If you know of anyone that might want to take the lead researching job, will you send their resume our way? We still need to fill the position left vacant by Annabelle Henry.”

The words caused Martin to temporarily forget that the real Annabelle had died. The cloned version was still safe at home but it was the original that worked at RI and died from cancer not longer before.

“I’ll keep my eyes out,” promised Martin. “Hopefully we can find someone just as good as Annabelle. It’s going to be a hard position to fill.”

Claire actually started to chuckle. “I don’t think it will be too hard to find someone better than her. Let’s just say if we can hire someone that would be the opposite of Annabelle, that would be a plus.”

“That bitch!” yelled Annabelle, interrupting Martin’s retelling of the morning. “I have no idea what her problem is with me. She can’t let anything go, not even when she thinks I’m dead!”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Martin, hugging Annabelle tighter. “As far as I’m concerned, you have the better life. Claire just seems miserable all the time, and there’s no one at RI who genuinely likes her. On the other hand, everyone loved you and they miss you terribly. It’s not hard to see who the better person is.”

That caused an embarrassed smile to fill Annabelle’s lips. She kissed him again and her hand drifted to his thigh. The meaning of her kiss was clear, and Martin knew that soon they would be naked and sweaty in the bedroom.

“So was that it then?” asked Kelsey. “They just left after that?”

“Pretty much,” confirmed Martin. “I didn’t hear anything else for the rest of the day. Of course, I told Tim and Shawn. Both of them think I should take it.”

Annabelle started to giggle. “Let me guess—Tim said something a little like this. ‘Martin, dude, you totally need to take this new gig! Think of how much ass you’re going to crush as a manager!’ Am I close?”

Martin started laughing almost a little too hard. “I think you might have to throw one more dude in there, but you’re pretty much spot on.”

Annabelle grinned proudly. “Do I know the people at RI or what?”

“So is there anything to really think about?” asked Kelsey. “I mean, a ten percent raise is pretty good. On your salary, that will be a significant jump. It sounds like you’ll get plenty of perks too.”

“Plus you get power!” said Annabelle, rubbing her hands together in a perfectly evil kind of way. “It’s just too bad you can’t start off by firing Claire.”

“I didn’t want to take the job without talking with you both first,” replied Martin soberly. “I think we’re all on the same page financially and in regards to RI, but are there any downsides to this?”

“One upside that may not be readily apparent is that they wouldn’t have promoted you if they had any suspicion about what you did,” said Kelsey. “This is a good thing mostly because it’ll allow you to relax. You don’t constantly have to be looking over your shoulder all the time.”

“Well, they could have promoted him just to keep an eye on him,” said Annabelle, playing devil’s advocate. “In a very weird sort of way, this could be their way of getting better visibility on you.”

Martin let out an anxious sigh. “Gee, just when I was starting to feel better about this whole thing too.”

Annabelle started to laugh as she rubbed his chest. “Sorry, babe, but someone has to look at this from all angles. I wouldn’t be the brain of the group if I didn’t do my job.”

“Annabelle, don’t be so pessimistic,” said Kelsey, pursing her lips in the process. “Do you really think they would do that if they had any inkling about our existence?”

Annabelle shrugged. “There’s some really strange people in the leadership roles at RI. I wouldn’t put it past any of them. Some of the stories I’ve heard about upper management are just downright Machiavellian.”

Kelsey crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Well, I don’t think that’s a possibility. Let’s just look at this for what it is—management recognizing Martin’s potential and putting him in a role with more responsibility. This is a good thing for everyone. We shouldn’t be looking at all the possible ways this could end up badly.”

Kelsey brought up a great point, and her words made Martin feel almost silly for spending so much time trying to find the ulterior motive for making the move. Perhaps it really was just a promotion because he had done good work? After all, he’d put in the time at RI. He had two nearly flawless years with excellent work to show for it.

Why didn’t he deserve this promotion?

“Okay, okay,” conceded Annabelle. “Maybe I don’t know when to turn it off sometimes.” She turned to face Martin. “Congratulations, Martin! I love you and I’m proud of you.”

Kelsey grinned. “She speaks for both of us, babe.”

Both women took turns kissing him before Kelsey put her finger in the air.

“Oh! We need to celebrate! We can’t just take the promotion without doing something fun in recognition of it, right?”

“I like that idea!” replied Annabelle. “What can we do? Maybe we should go somewhere?”

Kelsey turned to face him. “What do you want to do, Martin? Any place you want to go? Maybe a night out on the town? Something like that would seem fun.”

“Yes!” squealed Annabelle. “Let’s go to a fancy dinner and then go out for drinks afterward. We can even get bottle service or something fancy. Let’s celebrate like true VIPs!”

Martin started to chuckle. “Hey now, who got the promotion? You two or me?”

Kelsey immediately started to feel guilty. “You’re right, I’m sorry! It’s just I was trying to brainstorm ideas more than anything.”

Martin shook his head. “I’m just teasing you. A night out on the town sounds great. Dinner and drinks afterward? Are you both in?”

In that moment, Martin saw two heads bobbing up and down in confirmation. One was blonde and one was brunette but they both wore matching grins at the thought of having some fun.

“It’s settled then,” replied Martin. “Let’s go out on Friday night. We’ll have the rest of the week to look forward to it. It’ll also afford us time to figure out where we want to go. Sound good?”

Kelsey clapped her hands together excitedly. “Sounds perfect, I can’t wait! I’m going to see what I have to wear.”

Kelsey dashed away to the bedroom, leaving Martin and Annabelle chuckling to themselves.

“She knows that we have the whole week to decide, right?” asked Annabelle. “We don’t have to figure it all out tonight.”

“She’s just excited,” replied Martin, still chuckling. “She always gets like this when something good happens. You just have to learn to go with it and accept it.”

Annabelle shrugged and then turned her attention back to him. “I just want to say that I’m really happy for you, Martin. Seriously, I know how challenging it’s been to work at RI with what’s happened but you’ve still managed to pull something positive out of it. I’m so proud of you.”

There was something behind Annabelle’s words that went beyond simple pride. There was something that almost sounded like sorrow, like she was somehow upset. It didn’t take Martin long to put together what it was.

“You miss it, don’t you?” he asked. “Working at RI? Doing your research? We haven’t talked about it much but I have to suspect you miss it with how much of yourself you poured into your job.”

Annabelle closed her eyes briefly and started to nod. “It’s weird, isn’t it? Most people would be glad to never have to work another day in their lives again. I think we might take for granted the fact that you support us both. Now, I know that we don’t exactly have any other options here to maintain our secrecy but still, I feel a bit like I’ve lost that sense of purpose. I loved my work at RI, even if I don’t agree with the way RI flouts the law. I felt like I was a part of something bigger than me, and now that I’m sitting on the sidelines, it makes me feel . . . useless.”

Martin pulled her closer. “You are part of something bigger than you. You’re part of us. The three of us are one unit, one family. And you’re most certainly a vital member in this apartment.”

Annabelle smiled sadly. “I know and I appreciate that. You know what I meant though, right? This is the personal sphere and yes, I love what we have. I was talking more professionally. I just feel like I’m missing my calling.”

That last statement hit Martin hard. At that moment, he truly felt guilty for having cloned Annabelle. What sense was there in having a cloned Annabelle if she lost her sense of purpose? He began to fret that she wasn’t happy and that things could eventually turn south but Annabelle started to pat his back next.

“Don’t take that too literally, Martin,” she said with a reassuring smile. “I do love it here. I love you and I love Kelsey. We’ll figure something out. Maybe I’m just not done fully adjusting to this new life just yet? Maybe it’ll take a little more time?”

“I hope it doesn’t take too long,” said Martin, frowning at the thought. “I don’t want you to be unhappy, even for a moment. I want you to love your life no matter what.”

Annabelle kissed him gently. “I really love my life. And if you’re willing, I’d like to take you back to the bedroom and show you just how much I love what we have.”

Annabelle didn’t exactly let him respond to that question. She was tugging on his arm, pulling him to their bedroom without saying another word. Kelsey was still in the closet when they arrived, looking for the perfect outfit for going out on Friday. She smiled as she saw Annabelle push Martin back on the bed and soon after making quick work of his pants.

“I’m surprised you two waited this long,” said Kelsey as she went back to looking at her clothes.

“It’s been too long,” growled Annabelle. “I need to have my pussy full of Martin’s cum!”

It took all of twenty-five minutes before Annabelle got her wish. She started off riding him hard before he flipped her over and took her on her back. Annabelle had her legs pinned against his shoulders, letting him get as deep as he possibly could. It was that position that finally sent him over the edge, filling her pussy with every ounce of cum he could muster.

Annabelle sighed happily. “So much better,” she cooed as she kept her hips angled up afterward. “I just love knowing what’s inside me. I don’t want to let a single drop come out.”

Kelsey came over to investigate. “Let me see!”

The brunette placed her hands on either side of Annabelle’s pussy and gently pulled her labia apart. Inside, she could see a glimmer of silver that was Martin’s essence.

“Oh, he filled you up good, girl. You’re completely topped off and ready to cruise!”

“Perfect,” said Annabelle with another sigh. She rolled over onto her side and it wasn’t long before she was sleeping.

“Come on, I’m not ready for bed yet,” said Kelsey as she grabbed his hand. “Let’s relax a little in the other room.”

While Annabelle slept, they moved to the living room and curled up on the couch together. Kelsey draped his hand over her stomach while she gently caressed his bare thigh.

When a commercial finally started, she twisted her body so that her eyes were focused on his.

“I’m so happy for you, baby,” she said softly. “I’m so glad they made you a manager. You deserve this.”

“I don’t feel much like I deserve it though,” he replied. “Although, you were right when you said earlier that it makes me feel like I’ve avoided suspicion for what I’ve done. I don’t think they would have promoted me if they suspected something.”

Kelsey nodded. “No way, this is all due to merit. They are finally seeing what I see every day. That you’re amazing at everything you do.”

Martin started to chuckle. “I think you’re a little biased there.”

She shook her head. “Nope, not even a little bit. But that’s why I’m so glad to call you mine.”

They shared a kiss after that statement but when Kelsey pulled away, he realized something else.

“You know, maybe once I am manager there, I can keep an eye on some of the shady things that are happening at RI,” he explained. “We know there’s a lot going on there that is not only unethical but illegal as well.”

Kelsey raised an eyebrow. “Oh really?” she teased. “What gives you that idea?”

Martin laughed with her. “I’m serious. We don’t know how deep this goes. This could be a good thing. Maybe this might be an extra perk.”

As soon as he thought of that last statement, he was reminded of what Claire said about there being extra perks to the job. Part of him wondered just how much Bryce and Claire knew about cloning. Surely, they were in on it, but how deep?

What else could he learn if he started digging?

“Just don’t dig too deep,” warned Kelsey. “I don’t want you to get fired like the last guy you told me about. What was his name again? Keith?”

“Keith,” replied Martin, remembering his contact that first came to him about accessing the testing lab at RI. “His name was Keith. You might have a point though. It’s like Keith fell off the face of the earth after he was fired. I’ve tried to get in touch with him several times but he hasn’t responded. Not to my texts and nothing to my online messages either. It’s like he’s vanished.”

Kelsey sat upright and looked at him with an alarmed expression. “Martin, I hate to even suggest this but you don’t think that maybe . . . something bad happened to Keith, do you?”

Martin blinked. “Something bad like what?”

Kelsey flinched. “You know that maybe they did something to him? You said none of the leadership there liked him. What if they’re responsible for him disappearing like this?”

“I think you’re starting to sound like Annabelle now,” said Martin while chuckling. “Do I think RI is shady? Yes, but do I think they’re straight up killing people? No.”

Kelsey shrugged. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I have been spending too much time around Annabelle.”

She didn’t say anything else about it but Martin couldn’t help but dwell on it. He wasn’t so sure about what he told Kelsey, and he couldn’t help but ask the question internally.

Was there anything devious about Keith’s disappearance?

And if there was, what could Martin do about it?

Lastly, was he in trouble as well because he was somewhat linked to Keith through the key and the badge?

“I wonder if I should ditch Keith’s key and his badge,” said Martin out loud. “We’re not going to use it anymore, right? And it’s just a link back to him that could potentially put us in danger.”

Kelsey pursed her lips in thought. “What would you do with it though? Return it to his office? That could be a little dangerous if anyone caught you. You could throw it away I guess, but it still might end up in someone else’s hands. It’s probably best if you held onto it. It’s safer with you than it is with anyone else.”

Martin let out a deep sight. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I should hold onto Keith’s badge.”

“You have Keith Daughtry’s badge?”

Both Kelsey and Martin pivoted their heads to find Annabelle standing behind the couch. She was still in the nude and she was rubbing sleep out of her eyes but she seemed most curious about the badge of their former colleague.

Martin nodded. “Yeah, that’s how I have access to the testing area at RI. I have his badge which has his access code on it and I have the key to the testing area. It’s how I was able to clone both of you.”

Martin watched as the wheels inside Annabelle’s head began to turn. Instinctively, she brought her finger to her chin and started to tap it. “That’s interesting. Very interesting.”

“Why interesting?” he asked.

“No reason really,” replied Annabelle nonchalantly. “I’ve just never had access to the testing area and I’ve wondered how easy it would be to get it.”

“Well, it’s a little too easy,” said Martin. “And that’s part of the problem. Maybe if I didn’t have it anymore, it wouldn’t be here waiting for me as temptation.”

Despite being initially very interested, Annabelle changed subjects quickly. “Well, I just woke up and realized you two weren’t in bed yet. So will you hurry? I feel like cuddling.”

Both Martin and Kelsey laughed at that. Martin turned off the television as the three of them made their way back to the bedroom. As both Kelsey and Annabelle picked a side to cuddle against, Martin laid on his back and looked up at the darkened ceiling.

Something in his conscience made him vow to try again tomorrow to contact Keith.

At the very least, he wanted proof that he was still out there, not to prove Kelsey wrong but to assuage his conscience. If something bad had happened to Keith, and Martin spent all this time without offering any help, he would have felt very shitty about neglecting his one-time friend.

Surely, Keith had to be all right. He was just disgruntled about his firing.

Right?

CHAPTER 2

THE REST of the week passed by uneventfully. Martin gave his acceptance of the promotion to Bryce on Tuesday, one that seemed to be greeted with a thin smile and subtle approval from the VP.

“We’re glad to have you aboard,” replied Bryce before quickly turning his attention back to his computer screen. “I’ll send someone over to move your things into your new office. I’ll also send out a memo announcing the promotion too.”

Sure enough, that memo came out Tuesday afternoon, and all of Martin’s friends at RI stopped by to wish him luck in his new position. Tim was the first to show up, and since Martin was now technically his boss, he wasn’t shy about his ass-kissing.

“Knock it off,” said Martin with a grin. “You’re my friend first. Nothing changes just because I’m the manager now.”

“Yeah, but you have serious power now,” said Tim, echoing Annabelle’s words from the night before. “And I don’t need to give you any reasons to fire me.”

“You’re about to get your own branch,” replied Martin. “So you’ll be out of my hair soon anyway. I think I can put up with you for a little while longer.”

Tim grinned. “Even still, I’m happy for you, man. Will you look at the both of us now? Moving up in the company and making waves. Plus, think about how much ass you can crush on a manager’s salary! It’s just going to be smooth sailing from here!”

It certainly felt that way with how many people stopped by to congratulate him that afternoon. In fact, it seemed like everyone treated him differently for the rest of the week. Martin was sure it was because he had a little bit of power now but people went out of their way to appear friendly to the new boss.

By Friday evening, Martin was ready to celebrate. The girls were ready too judging by the outfits they put on just before they left. Martin’s eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets when he saw the tiny dresses they were wearing.

“What?” asked Kelsey with a coy smile when she noticed his staring. “We wanted to feel sexy for you tonight. Do you like how we look?”

“Like? Like doesn’t do anything justice,” replied Martin, already eyeing Kelsey’s cleavage. “I love those dresses nearly as much as I love the both of you.”

Annabelle grinned and elbowed Kelsey’s side. “Oh, he’s so getting laid tonight.”

Truthfully, one look at the dresses nearly made Martin not want to go out at all. He wanted to rip those tiny bits of fabric from their bodies and have his way with them now. What he liked most about them was the contrast. Annabelle and Kelsey were similar in personality but different in their physical attributes and their dresses reflected that.

Annabelle’s dress was sky blue and satiny. The straps were as thin as spaghetti and the neckline was V-shaped, plunging almost all the way down to her belly button. It showed off an extremely generous portion of cleavage, and Martin had to think that if she even sneezed, her nipples might pop out. The hem of the dress went to mid-thigh level and she capped off the entire ensemble with beige open-toed heels.

If Annabelle was dressed to attract attention, Kelsey was dressed to get laid. She wore the quintessential little black dress, one that had even thinner straps than Annabelle’s. While her neckline didn’t plunge as deeply as Annabelle’s, it still showed off enough cleavage to get Martin’s heart beating faster. The hem of her dress ended a couple inches higher than Annabelle’s, and Martin swore that if she sat down, he’d be afforded a view straight up to her pussy.

He decided to test that theory later on.

They left the apartment and Martin felt like a million bucks having those two gorgeous women on his arms. Since anonymity was priority, it was decided to hit the establishments of a midsized city about forty-five minutes away, and the ride over there felt like an eternity for Martin, especially since all he wanted to do was to stare at his two girlfriends.

It didn’t help that Annabelle kept massaging her tits right in front of him. She would wait until his eyes were on her, and she would casually pull out her nipple and give it a long pull. She would sigh in the process and then stick it back in her dress.

Of course, this made everything else drop out of focus, and the last thing Martin wanted was their driver getting an eyeful of Annabelle’s tits and then crashing the car.

“You’re driving me absolutely crazy,” said Martin quietly once they were about halfway there.

Annabelle burst out into a fit of giggles. “I thought you might be enjoying that!”

“Annabelle, don’t tease him too much,” warned Kelsey. “I’d very much like to arrive at dinner in one piece!”

Annabelle started to pout and put her tits away. The rest of the drive was uneventful but Annabelle did sneak her hand into his lap, mostly as her way to keep teasing him in a way that wasn’t as dangerous as before.

Dinner was a quiet affair. Kelsey was the one who selected the restaurant, a little steak and seafood place that she’d been to before. The girls were well-behaved at the restaurant, mostly because it was the kind of place where they couldn’t exactly fool around.

That changed when they arrived at the club.

“Seriously, here?” asked Martin as he looked at the sign out front. “You want us to go here?”

Annabelle grinned. “This is one of the hottest places in the whole city. I’ve heard great things about it here.”

“Plus we have a reservation,” added Kelsey. “We figured getting a table and bottle service would be appropriate for the night.”

Martin didn’t even want to think about what that might cost at this particular establishment. This one was well-known in this city as being more than just the average night club. It usually had a line out front for those that didn’t have a table, and it wasn’t uncommon for them not to let in anyone who wasn’t dressed to the nines. Martin was tempted to find another place but since it was a night for celebration, he overlooked it and entered the club with both women on his arms.

He might as well have been a rock star coming in with his two groupies. Several sets of eyes were on them instantly, including many of the women near the front. Several of the men looked at both Kelsey and Annabelle and then back at Martin, their envy already written into the contours of their faces.

They were set up at a small table near the back in a section that had been roped off from the rest of the club. They were put into a booth with Martin right in the middle and the girls on either side. The music in the place was great and the beat was already making him tap his foot while letting the girls begin to relax a little.

Kelsey nuzzled against his side. “Isn’t this fun? I hope you’re having a great time tonight.”

“I’m having the best time with you two,” said Martin, pulling them close. “This is awesome.”

“Did you see how many people noticed us when we walked in?” asked Annabelle. “I lost count of how many guys wanted to be Martin for the night.”

Martin chuckled. “Unfortunately for them, you two are all mine.”

“I wouldn’t want it any other way,” said Kelsey with a beaming smile.

Of course, the guys at the club weren’t the only ones who were intrigued by Martin and his two girlfriends. That also could be said for their server, who introduced herself a moment later.

“Hey guys, I’m Rylie and I’ll be your server tonight,” said a dark-haired woman as she put down drink napkins on the table. “What are you in the mood for tonight?”

After one glance at Rylie, sex was the only thing Martin was in the mood for. To put it quite simply, Rylie was the most gorgeous thing he’d ever seen. She could have graced the covers of just about any magazine out there and put run-of-the-mill models to absolute shame.

Rylie was a brunette with stunning, shiny long hair that nearly touched her ass. Her hair was entirely without any frizz or split-ends, seemingly perfect in every way. Her face was illuminated by a pair of lovely brown eyes that just seemed to see right through you, their richness seeming to be her defining characteristic.

She had the most adorable button nose and pearly whites that truly shined every time one of the spotlights landed on them. Her lips were full and pouty and there was a thin sheen of saliva on them that made them look perfect for kissing.

Rylie had a lovely golden tan, the kind that women spent all summer in the hopes of achieving. That tan seemed to be all over, and Martin couldn’t spot any tan lines as her red cocktail dress plunged south. She had a great pair of tits that Martin judged at being somewhere around a C cup in size. As his eyes traveled lower, he couldn’t help but be turned on at her flawless hourglass figure and sensual curves.

The only problem was that while he was busy staring, he wasn’t exactly in the mood to order anything. By the time Martin came back to earth, the girls had already ordered and Rylie had walked away.

“Talk about gorgeous,” said Annabelle after Rylie was gone. “Did you see her? I’ve never seen a more beautiful woman in my entire life!”

Kelsey nudged Martin in the ribs. “Martin certainly saw her. I think there’s still drool on the table from when his mouth fell open.”

Kelsey might have had a point. Despite being very sexually attracted to both Kelsey and Annabelle, Rylie was in a whole other league. She was in the top percent of sheer femininity, the kind of woman that men would go to war for in ages long since passed.

“Hello, earth to Martin!” said Annabelle, bringing him back to present again. She waved her hand in front of his face and started to giggle.

“Sorry, sorry,” he sputtered. “You’re right. She’s really hot.”

“You can say that again,” said Annabelle. “How about we take her home with us? I bet she’s a ton of fun!”

No one got to answer that question because Rylie turned up in the next moment carrying a couple bottles.

“Here’s the vodka martinis for the ladies,” announced Rylie as she set them down in front of Kelsey and Annabelle. Her dark eyes then fell on Martin and she gave him a wry smile. “And here’s the bourbon for their boyfriend.”

Martin couldn’t help but stare. “How’d you know we were all together?”

Rylie giggled. “You weren’t paying attention? She told me just a couple minutes ago when I introduced myself.”

Rylie was pointing at Annabelle, and now all three women were giggling to themselves. Martin hadn’t even heard that part. He must have still been focused on Rylie’s body.

“That first bourbon is on the house,” said Rylie, throwing a wink at Martin. “Any guy who can land two sexy girls like these two must be doing something right.”

With those words, Rylie gave a shy little wave and walked away.

“I think Martin’s in love,” teased Kelsey, rubbing his thigh in the process.

“Me and him both,” said Annabelle, watching Rylie walk away. “I’d love to see that girl without any clothes on. And even in our bed.”

Kelsey let out a small coughing noise. “I’m surprised you feel that strongly about it, Annabelle. I didn’t think you were bisexual.”

Annabelle looked over at Kelsey. “Let’s just say that all this time getting familiar with your body has made me appreciate the feminine form a whole lot more than I did before.”

Those words caused Kelsey to blush, and Martin was reminded of several pleasant memories of seeing both women on top of each other during their sexual escapades.

“We should try to bring her home with us tonight,” repeated Annabelle a moment later. “Think of how much fun we can have in the bedroom!”

“How exactly would that work?” asked Kelsey. “We already have limited space in our bed as it is. And how do you know that Rylie is bisexual?”

“I don’t but she seems into Martin,” replied Annabelle. “And who wouldn’t want me and you if they got a chance to sample Martin too? Seriously, that sounds like a really good time to me.”

“Annabelle, I appreciate your enthusiasm here but the two of you are enough for me,” said Martin while raising his hands in protest. “I can barely keep up with your sexual appetites. We don’t need to bring home another girl.”

“I’m not talking about adding her to our arrangement,” said Annabelle with a dismissive wave. “I’m just talking about tonight. Think about how great it would be? Martin, you could get to fuck her!”

Annabelle pointed to where Rylie was. She had her elbows leaning up on the bar as she waited for drinks to be made. Because of her stance, her backside was to them and her tight ass was sticking out. Even from this angle, her curves were positively mind-blowing. It was amazing that such a perfect package could be present in one woman.

“You could get to fuck that tonight,” said Annabelle, rubbing his thigh in the process. “Can you imagine fucking her while she eats me out? Or sliding your cock in deep as Kelsey and I suck on her tits? Think about how fun that would be.”

Martin had to admit it was an arousing thought. He wondered what kind of face Rylie made when she was in the throes of orgasm. He also wondered how it would feel to slide inside her.

“I bet she’s really tight,” whispered Annabelle in his ear. “So very tight for your big cock, baby.”

“Is there anything else I can get you guys? More drinks?”

Martin felt his cheeks turning red at the sudden reappearance of Rylie. He could see he wasn’t the only one shocked at her return. Kelsey also shifted in her seat uncomfortably, no doubt just thinking the same thing he was. It was only Annabelle who looked immensely pleased with herself.

“We were just trying to decide what we’re going to do later tonight,” answered Annabelle as she placed the straw to her drink between her lips. She sucked on it for a moment before she added, “much later.”

Rylie actually smiled and looked at Martin. “You’re living every guy’s best life, aren’t you?”

He wanted to choke. “It would appear that way.”

Rylie smiled and picked up an empty glass. “This is my favorite table all night. If you guys need anything else, you know where to find me.”

With that, she made her exit but as she walked away, Martin could have sworn there was a little extra wiggle in her hips.

“Tight, wet, and hot,” whispered Annabelle, driving the point home.

“Okay, okay, yes, she’s hot,” said Martin finally, taking another sip of his bourbon. “But that doesn’t change the fact that you two are plenty for me.”

Annabelle wouldn’t concede defeat. It just wasn’t who she was at her core. Instead of regrouping to think of another strategy, she grabbed Kelsey’s hand and scooted out from the booth. “Come on, Kelsey, I have an idea.”

Martin managed to look alarmed. “What idea?”

Annabelle pulled Kelsey’s hand toward the dance floor. “We feel like dancing a little. Sound good to you?”

“We?” asked Kelsey, echoing that this was purely Annabelle’s idea.

Martin gave Annabelle a weird look. “What’s gotten into you tonight, Annabelle?”

She shrugged. “I’m just trying to have a little fun, okay? Come on, Kelsey, let’s go.”

CHAPTER 3

MARTIN COULD ONLY WATCH as Annabelle yanked Kelsey toward the dance floor. Kelsey didn’t seem to mind, although she did raise an eyebrow as she glanced back at Martin one last time.

Once they were on the dance floor, both women started moving together in a way that was hard to ignore. They were easily some of the hottest girls in the entire club and when their bodies pressed together, it became quickly apparent that they were soon the center of attention.

“Those are some really cute girlfriends you have there.”

Martin looked up to see that Rylie had returned. She was looking out to the dance floor only to see that Annabelle was now grabbing Kelsey’s ass as they danced.

“Cute is one way of putting it,” said Martin. He would have called it the sexiest fucking thing he ever saw judging by how much pressure was in his pants.

Rylie grinned and actually sat in the booth with him. She scooted closer until she was right next to him. For a brief moment, Martin became uncomfortable at just how close this stunningly hot woman was but a quick glance to the dance floor saw Annabelle flashing him a thumbs-up.

“So do they always do this?” asked Rylie, gesturing to the girls.

“Do what exactly?”

“Try to seduce girls for you?” asked Rylie bluntly.

Martin nearly choked on his drink. “Oh, they’re not—”

Rylie let out a rich laugh. “Oh, this isn’t my first time.”

His eyes went wide. “It’s not your first time?”

Suddenly, all those images of Rylie and Annabelle and Kelsey together seemed like it wasn’t such a pipe dream after all. Was Rylie seriously into girls?

She shook her head. “No, of course not. I get propositioned all the time.”

“Oh, just propositioned,” replied Martin, feeling the pressure release. Now he realized she wasn’t actually talking about doing regular orgies.

Rylie grinned. “Yes, just propositioned. I’ve been working at this club long enough to know better. I get it a lot but I have to say the ones that use their girlfriends as the bait are usually the ones that make the best arguments. I mean, look at you after all. You actually have two girlfriends. How’d you do it?”

“That’s a really complicated answer right there,” he answered. “You probably wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Uh huh,” replied Rylie. “Spill it, I want to know.”

“Well, you see, they’re actually clones,” said Martin, giving her a small smile.

Rylie looked at him seriously for two seconds before she started to laugh. “No really, what’s the real story? Let me guess, one of them is actually bisexual and they used to fool around together in college? I’ve heard that one like two or three different times.”

Martin laughed with her. In retrospect, he thought it was a little reckless to tell her the truth like that but seeing as the idea of cloning humans was right up there with aliens building the pyramids, he guessed Rylie wouldn’t fall for it. Sure enough, she didn’t disappoint.

“So I’m going to guess that you’ve got some money?” asked Rylie. “Like serious money?”

“What makes you think that?” he asked.

Rylie started counting on her fingers. “Well for one, you have the best tables at the hottest club in this city on a Friday night. That’s not exactly cheap. Two, you and your ladies are well-dressed, so it’s obvious that you take care of yourselves. Three, those two girls are so sexy that there’s obviously something about you that’s attracting them.” Rylie squinted at him and looked out of the side of her face. “Or you have a ten-inch dick. That could be a possibility too.”

Martin turned red, mostly as his cock throbbed in his pants. “Well, it’s definitely not option two.”

Rylie started to giggle. “So money then?”

“Well, you’re partially right. I just got a promotion at work. They wanted to celebrate a little.”

Rylie made a knowing face. “That makes sense. Well, in any event, congratulations on your promotion.”

“Thank you,” said Martin. He reached across and poured a drink for Rylie from the bottle on their table. He passed it into her hands and they clinked glasses together.

Feeling emboldened (or perhaps it was just the alcohol), Martin turned the tables on Rylie. “So what’s your story? Because I would not expect to find you here working at the club tonight.”

Rylie shrugged. “Why? Where should I be working?”

“I’d more expect you to be in some photo shoot somewhere or maybe walking a catwalk, something like that,” he answered.

Rylie tapped her knuckle on the table. “You’re right on the money. By the way, what’s your name?”

“Martin, Martin Kennedy.”

“Well, Martin, you’re on point tonight. I do a little modeling on the side.”

Rylie made it sound so humble the way she said it. Like her modeling on the side was just supplementary income to what she made at the club. Compared to how gorgeous she was, Martin knew there was more to it.

“So why do you still have to work here?” he asked. “Because I’m going to be fully honest right now—you’re the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen. And if modeling isn’t paying your bills, then your agent must be terrible.”

Rylie gave him an intriguing look for a couple seconds before her lips split into a big smile. “That was brave of you, Martin.”

He swirled the bourbon around in his glass. “It’s the alcohol talking, I promise.”

“Either way, thank you. Maybe you’re onto something. I don’t get to book a lot of gigs these days. I think it’s mostly that I’m getting older.”

Martin gave her a deadpan look. “How old are you?”

“Twenty-six,” replied Rylie.

He couldn’t stop staring. “You can’t be serious?”

She gave him a toothy smile. “Twenty-six is a dinosaur in the modeling world. It’s probably the reason why I haven’t done much this year.”

“Have I seen anything you might have been in?” he asked.

Rylie looked upward for a moment. “That depends. Have you seen the March edition of Tennis World? Or were you at the Trenton Car Show this summer? I was one of the models there.”

“That’s it?” he asked. “I fully expected you to say you worked for Victoria’s Secret or something.”

Rylie let out a barking laugh. “Maybe as a cashier in one of their stores at the mall but they’re not interested in the likes of me.”

“Well, they are certainly blind then. Or gay. Or both,” said Martin.

Rylie gave him a coy smile. “I like you, Martin. I can see why they do now too.”

“Well, they don’t have much of an option. They’re kind of stuck with me.”

“Oh, right,” said Rylie with another knowing nod. “’Cause girls like that don’t have a ton of options.”

Martin could only smile, wishing he could say more. There was a moment of silence between them and one of the lights from the dance floor temporarily landed on Rylie’s chest, illuminating a small white necklace that hung around her neck and rested securely between her breasts.

“I like your necklace,” said Martin, noticing it for the first time. “What is it?”

Rylie smiled as her fingers wrapped around it. “Oh, this thing. I usually don’t tell this story but what the hell? You really don’t seem like the rest of the guys. This necklace is actually from my mother.”

“That’s really nice. Did she give it to you for your birthday or something like that?”

Rylie shook her head and the smile dropped from her face. “No, nothing like that. I don’t remember much of my mother. She died when I was only four. This used to belong to her.”

“Sorry to hear that,” said Martin.

Rylie shrugged. “It was so long ago that I barely remember her. I have lots of pictures of her but that’s about it. When I was younger, I found a box of her old possessions and this was right on top. You can see that it’s actually a seashell, right?”

Martin moved closer to inspect it. He could now see the ridges along the outside of the shell. “I see it now. It’s a beautiful piece.”

Rylie smiled. “My mother always loved the ocean. At least, that’s what my father told me but I do have lots of pictures of her near the water or surfing, stuff like that. She used to love it so much that she always wore this necklace. I guess it reminded her that her heart was always in the waves.”

“Are you the same way?” asked Martin. “Do you love the ocean too?”

Rylie let out a satisfied sigh. “Totally. I’m out in the water every day in the summer. I booked a couple of gigs this year out in California, and the best part about being out there was experiencing the surf. I’d go anywhere that was close to the ocean as long as I could regularly feel the waves crash against me.”

“You would have loved the trip we just took then,” said Martin. “We just got back from Florida this past week. We had a few days and even a night out by the ocean. It was incredible, and I know the girls had a blast too.”

“Doesn’t something about the water just make you feel alive?” she asked. “I live my life like everyone else just trying to get by but the second I step into the surf, I feel like my life has meaning. I love the water, I was born for it. There’s just about nothing else that makes me happier.”

“Just about?” asked Martin, raising an eyebrow. “What else makes you happy besides water?”

A coy look appeared on Rylie’s face. Her cheeks flushed and she was just about to answer when someone from behind the bar yelled her name.

“I really should get back,” she said. “I’ll come check on you in a little bit.”

Just like that, she was gone. Being suddenly alone, Martin noticed that his heart was racing. Being in such close proximity to such perfection just about put him in a blackout state. What was more, Rylie actually seemed pretty cool, not the least bit pretentious or vapid like he imagined most models to be.

“Well? How was she?”

CHAPTER 4

MARTIN PRACTICALLY JUMPED as he noticed Kelsey and Annabelle making their way back from the dance floor. There was a thin sheen of sweat across Annabelle’s forehead, more than enough evidence that she had a good time. Kelsey seemed to be wearing a satisfied smile as well as both women slipped into the booth and rested against either side.

“She was actually pretty cool,” said Martin as he took another sip of bourbon. “Not what I expected but in a good way. And I think she’s curious about our relationship and how this works.”

“Well, duh!” replied Annabelle while shaking her head. “That’s why she came over in the first place!”

“She came over in the first place because this is one of her tables,” corrected Martin.

Annabelle waved her hand. “You know what I mean! I can tell she’s interested and when she sat down to talk to you, that only confirmed it for me. We should invite her home!”

“Annabelle, don’t you think you’re going a little too far with this?” asked Kelsey. “It doesn’t seem like Martin is that interested in her.”

Annabelle turned so that she was completely focused on Martin. “Do you want to fuck Rylie? Yes or no?”

“Annabelle,” warned Martin. “It’s not that easy.”

“It could be that easy,” said Annabelle before her head pivoted around. “Shh, she’s coming. Let me handle this.”

Rylie appeared at their table to grab a few more empty drinks. She made eye contact with Martin first and then put on a shy smile before looking over at Annabelle.

“Rylie, I’ve been thinking,” said Annabelle, launching into her master plan. “About what we’re going to do later tonight.”

Rylie gave her a weird look and raised her eyebrow. “Oh? What does that mean?”

“I mean that we have some plans after we leave here tonight,” replied Annabelle. “And we’d like you to be part of them. Do you get off work soon?”

“Uh, well,” stammered Rylie, unsure what to say.

“Annabelle!” hissed Kelsey. “Do you have to be so blunt?”

“What? I just asked a simple question,” said Annabelle.

Martin had enough by this point. He gave the universal signal to stop to Annabelle while he focused on Rylie. “Sorry about her. I think she’s been drinking a little.”

That was a funny thing to say, especially considering that Martin had just as much, if not more, to drink than Annabelle did.

Thankfully, Rylie took it in stride. “It’s all right! Are you guys about done for the night then? Want me to close your tab?”

“Please,” answered Martin.

As Rylie walked away, both Kelsey and Martin gave a serious look to Annabelle.

“Could you be any less smooth?” asked Kelsey.

Annabelle shrugged. At this point, it was clear to see by the look in her eyes that the alcohol was getting to her. Martin suspected it was all the intake that was making her more aggressive than usual but then again, it wasn’t the first time he’d witnessed her risky behavior.

The funny thing was that he didn’t remember the old Annabelle to take as many risks. Martin wondered if it had anything to do with the cloning . . .

Annabelle let out a small grunt. “Okay, maybe I was a little over the top right now.”

The look that Martin and Kelsey gave her made her revise that statement quickly.

“Okay, I was definitely a little too much,” added Annabelle. “I shouldn’t have said that to her.”

“No, you really shouldn’t have,” agreed Kelsey.

Annabelle gave Martin a pouty look. “Are you saying you really don’t want her though? I mean, look at that body! I thought Kelsey had the most flawless body I’ve ever seen but Rylie is right up there too.”

The compliment that came out of the blue surprised Kelsey. “Oh! Thank you, Annabelle. And don’t kid yourself. Your body is freaking gorgeous, girl.”

“But are you sure you don’t want her in our bed?” whined Annabelle to Martin. “Seriously?”

Ordinarily, Martin would have said no. By all measures of restraint, his mind yelled at him to say that Kelsey and Annabelle were more than enough for him and to drop the issue.

However, a night of drinking and sexual tension was now starting to have an effect. Martin could feel the effects of the alcohol—his movements were slower and the edges of his vision were more blurry than they should have been. What he couldn’t tell was that his inhibitions had become loosened in the process, and now Annabelle’s idea was starting to catch a toehold.

That didn’t mean however that he was willing to throw caution to the wind.

“Listen, Rylie is gorgeous,” said Martin, causing a smile to creep onto Annabelle’s face. “She really is. And would I like to have her in bed? Who wouldn’t? The three of you together would probably just about kill me. That’s why I think it’s best left to fantasy at this point. Maybe we can roleplay about it later.”

As soon as his statement started to shift against her, the smile dropped from Annabelle’s face. She stuck out her lower lip and began to pout. “So that’s it then? Just a fantasy?”

Martin nodded. “But a really hot fantasy. I can only imagine what she looks like under all those clothes. She’s probably hot enough to trigger a nuclear meltdown with that body.”

Annabelle pursed her lips and looked from Martin over to where Rylie was behind the bar. For several brief moments, Annabelle looked back and forth until it became apparent that an idea was forming inside her mind.

In any other case, a fully functional Martin might have spotted the first sign of trouble but his intoxication made him miss the warning that something was brewing.

“I should apologize,” said Annabelle finally as she pushed up from the booth. “I was really rude and crass when I propositioned her earlier. I don’t want to leave it on that note with her thinking I’m a sloppy drunk or something. I’m going to apologize for my behavior.”

She was gone before either Martin or Kelsey could say anything. They both watched as she approached the bar and stopped Rylie to talk.

“Well, that’s quite the change of events,” noted Kelsey, causing Martin to start to laugh.

“I’ll say,” he replied. “I didn’t think Annabelle would go down that easily.”

Kelsey took a long sip of her drink and then shivered afterward. It was clear the alcohol was starting to get to her too.

“We do know that Annabelle likes to go down though,” joked Kelsey.

“That we do,” laughed Martin.

“And I can’t deny that it would be really, really sexy to watch you take Rylie from behind while she eats me,” said Kelsey, causing him to nearly choke on his drink.

“Kelsey! Where did that come from?”

She let out a mischievous smile. “This is what happens when you give me another woman as a playmate. I start to see all these other gorgeous women and I think about what they can do with their tongues.”

“That’s certainly quite the visual,” replied Martin, feeling his pants tighten again.

Kelsey shrugged. “Blame it on the clone in me. It’s turned me into a sexual deviant!”

They both laughed at that statement and they continued to make small talk until Annabelle arrived back at their table. As she did, it became obvious that she was trying to stick something into her purse but she was settled as soon as the tab was paid.

“We all set?” asked Martin. “Rylie accept your apology?”

Annabelle nodded. “She’s just a really nice person. She even hugged me at the end. She told me she gets propositioned all the time so it wasn’t exactly the most offensive thing she’d heard lately. But she did say that our offer was one she seriously considered so the offer is still on the table . . .”

The alcohol spoke for Martin. “Well, now that you mention it . . .”

Annabelle was almost out of the table before he reeled her back. “Come on, let’s just catch a ride home before something happens that we regret.”

Annabelle looked oddly calm as they made their way outside and waited for a driver to take them home. It only took about ten minutes for the ride app to get a driver sent their way and they all crammed in the back seat of a minivan to go home.

It was about ten minutes into the drive that Martin realized he was drunker than he thought he was. Perhaps it was just one too many shots of bourbon coupled with illicit thoughts of a dark-haired model in his bedroom. Whatever the reason, Martin was drunk as skunk as his body finally caught up with all the alcohol.

By the time they were home, he staggered out of the van and had to be helped to the front door. Kelsey wasn’t in the best shape either but at least she could walk without holding onto something. Surprisingly enough, Annabelle looked to have sobered up on the ride home and she assumed the role of mother as she opened the front door to the apartment and walked Martin back to his bed.

All he wanted to do at that point was to sleep off what was sure to be a massive hangover in the morning. His mind drifted from brief moments of consciousness to flirting with the blackness that was drunken sleep. He just couldn’t shake the feeling that he could hear Annabelle and Kelsey talking though.

This first voice he heard was Kelsey’s, and her tone sounded full of anxiety. “Are you sure this won’t piss him off? And that you know what you’re doing?”

Annabelle’s voice was confident and cheery. “Trust me! He’s going to love this surprise.”

Martin never got the chance to figure out what the surprise was. He was fast asleep in the next moment.

CHAPTER 5

THE NEXT MORNING did not start off well.

Martin was barely awake when he felt a throbbing pain in his head. There was an awful taste in his mouth too, no doubt the lingering traces of all that bourbon he consumed the night before.

Hangovers were a bitch, and this one was bound to be worse than usual.

At least there were two warm bodies on either side of him. Martin shifted to his left and instantly felt hair against his face. Opening one eye, he could see that it was several golden blonde hairs that was tickling his nose.

Annabelle. At least I have Annabelle, he thought.

Cracking open his eyes again, he found that Annabelle wasn’t even sleeping. In fact, she was looking back at him with a pleasant smile on her face.

“Good morning, sunshine,” she said cheerfully.

Martin grunted at her. He took offense to all three of those words right now, and he closed his eyes once more and shifted to the other side of the bed.

Annabelle didn’t take it personally. In fact, she giggled and started to rub her hands along his back. “I can see that someone had a bit too much to drink last night.”

Martin grunted again, never offering a rea response.

“That’s okay,” said Annabelle. “I’m going to make this morning so much better for you.”

At first, Martin thought she meant sex. With Annabelle, sex was a very reasonable kind of guess for that statement, and it appeared that she was already in the mood. The only problem was that Annabelle was fully clothed and made no efforts to ditch any of those pesky garments. In fact, her eyes seemed to now be glued on the third occupant of the bed, which Martin knew had to be Kelsey because of the dark hair.

He couldn’t see Kelsey’s face because she was positioned on her side away from him but he decided to snuggle against her back and drape his arm over her chest. In the process, his hand landed right on her boob.

As he cupped her breast, Martin realized that something was very wrong.

He’d felt Kelsey’s tits over a thousand times. He was very familiar with the size, shape, and feel of her breasts. He could pick her boobs out of a line up of a hundred other pairs just by feeling them. Needless to say, he knew Kelsey’s tits.

And these were definitely not Kelsey’s tits.

So just who the fuck was in his bed?

Feeling fully awake, Martin shifted out of his spot quickly and looked to see who the new occupant was. Her hair was partially covering her face, but as Martin reached over to brush some of it away, the woman was instantly recognizable.

How in the world did Rylie from last night end up in his bed?!

“Surprise!” said Annabelle with a coy grin. “I know it’s not your birthday yet but I figured I’d give you your present early.”

Alarm bells started going off in Martin’s head. “What the hell happened last night? I don’t remember Rylie coming home with us. I was drunk, yes, but I wasn’t that drunk! How did this happen?”

That’s when the morning went from bad to worse.

All of Martin’s freaking out had the bad side effect of waking Rylie. She shifted in bed and opened her eyes to see Martin right next to her and Annabelle on the other side. Her eyes went wide at the recognition of where she was but that wasn’t the worst thing.

As she moved, her hand slipped out from under her pillow, and that’s when Martin saw it.

The black smudge. The little indicator that occupied the space between her fingers.

The mark of the clone.

“No fucking way,” swore Martin. His head whipped around and focused on Annabelle. “She’s a clone?!”

Annabelle’s head bobbed up and down quickly. “You said you wanted her, remember? So I went out and got her for you. It may not be the original, but I think you’ll find that the cloned copy is much better than the original anyway!”

Up until this point in their relationship, Annabelle had never seen Martin truly upset. While he was quick to tell her what he liked (and what he didn’t like), she’d never given him a reason to be angry.

Until now.

Martin went from zero to a hundred in a matter of seconds. A look of pure fury took over his face, so much that he couldn’t even stop the venom that spewed forth.

“You better be fucking kidding me, Annabelle!” he yelled. “What could have possessed you to be this stupid? You’re supposed to be the smart one here! And you cloned Rylie? For what reason? How did you get access to RI?”

Martin’s stomach turned over at the thought of Annabelle inside RI and working one of the replicators. Had she been safe? Did she take any precautions to prevent discovery?

Would her presence there alert the leadership of RI of the leak they had in security?

For the first time that morning, the pleased expression on Annabelle’s face completely shattered. In its place, an apprehensive, stressful look took its place, and her self-confidence truly vanished.

“I thought you wanted her,” said Annabelle as she slipped out of bed. “You said you wanted her last night!”

“Wanted me?” asked Rylie, exercising her voice for the first time. “What’s going on here? Martin? Annabelle? How did I end up here?”

To make matters worse, Kelsey entered the bedroom at this point. She saw Martin’s fury, Annabelle’s apprehension, and Rylie’s confusion and instantly knew something was very wrong.

“Martin, is everything okay?” she asked in a small voice before looking at Annabelle. “Did he not like the surprise?”

“Surprise?” Martin whipped his head around to look at Kelsey. “You’re in on this too?”

Kelsey took a step back as she too assumed the look of an errant child. “W-well, yeah. This was Annabelle’s idea, but I went along with it. She told me you wanted Rylie and you’d like this surprise.”

Martin slapped his hand against his forehead.

This had to be a dream. A nightmare that he was bound to wake up from at any moment.

How did his world turn to shit so quickly?

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he groaned out loud as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. His head was still throbbing, and now he had three women looking at him like he was about to start yelling again.

Which, of course, he proceeded to do right after.

“How could you both have been so stupid?” yelled Martin. “Do you have any idea what you might have done? You could bring RI down on all of us right now! I took so many precautions to have you both cloned. Did you even think to hide your tracks?”

Annabelle nodded her head quickly. “Kelsey told me everything! She told me how you hacked into the system and reused the camera feeds. I set it up just like she told me you did before!”

Jesus, even that was bad enough. How could she have known which feeds to use? How could she be certain she got all of them? That could have been the least of their worries!

“What about everything else?” he asked. “What about being seen by people there? What about operating the replicator? What about getting out? What about the brain scan?”

Annabelle stuttered in her response. “K-kylie helped me with that too. We were careful, Martin. I promise that no one will know. Plus you know that I know my way around that place so well. The brain scan was the easy part. You never returned the one that was used for Kylie so I wiped it clear of the data and used it for Rylie. She had no idea what it was for. It was s-safe, Martin, seriously!”

Martin could only shake his head. He had no idea whether Annabelle’s version of safe matched up with his own. For all he knew, she could have put in the wrong feeds or missed a camera. He quickly approached the window that looked out on the street, almost expecting to see Bryce and Claire marching toward the apartment with several burly police officers behind them to take him into custody.

Instead, the street was quiet. One lady was walking her dog but that still wasn’t enough to lure him into a false sense of security.

“You need to tell me everything,” demanded Martin as he pointed his finger at Annabelle. “I need to know everything you’ve done. This is incredibly dangerous and so risky that it’s just plain stupid. You may have put all of us in jeopardy. You might have just sent me to jail for a very long time. I need to know everything right now!”

Annabelle wasted no time in pouring out every thought and action that had occurred since they left the club the night before. She told him all about how the idea struck her when she was certain the real Rylie wouldn’t come home with them. After hearing that Martin wouldn’t mind Rylie in their bed, she hatched the plan on her own, obtaining the hair specimen from Rylie during the apology hug at the bar.

“Wait a minute,” said Martin, interrupting the story. “You told me you were just going to apologize to Rylie for propositioning her. You intentionally lied to me just so you could secure hair from Rylie to do the cloning?”

Annabelle never looked more distraught. She nodded her head with the smallest possible movements. “I thought this would make you happy. I swear I just wanted to make you happy, Martin.”

He shook his head, reserving his full response after he heard the rest of it. “Go on.”

Annabelle wasted no time in getting Kelsey’s aid in her master plan. She went into great detail about how she got Kelsey to spill the details, no doubt plied on by the copious amounts of alcohol in her system.

When she was done with that particular detail, Martin wasn’t sure who he was more upset with.

Annabelle, for being devious and risky?

Or Kelsey, for not recognizing a terrible plan and giving her approval?

He could only shake his head at Kelsey. “I can’t believe you. I can’t believe that you would do this! You didn’t learn your lesson the first time when Annabelle was cloned?!”

Kelsey looked like she wanted to curl into a little ball and hide away for the next decade. “I’m sorry, Martin. I didn’t think you would mind. You said you wanted Rylie at the bar so I thought Annabelle made a really good point.”

Kelsey’s words had the effect of drawing Rylie’s eyes to Martin. In any other circumstance, he might have felt temporarily embarrassed at having such a beautiful woman know that he desired her but he was still running too hot at this moment to care.

“Please don’t be too upset with Kelsey,” urged Annabelle as she tugged on his wrist. “This was my idea, not hers. I just made sure she went along with it. With how much she had to drink last night, it wasn’t that hard.”

Martin put his head in his hands. “You two aren’t going to stop this shit until I get put away for a long time! Cloning is illegal, don’t you get that? My initial desire was just to correct a wrong, to bring Kelsey back, and now I have three clones in my bedroom! Don’t you understand how serious this is?”

No one wanted to answer that question. Kelsey still looked like a puppy who just shit on a brand new carpet and knew it. Annabelle looked ghostly pale, as if the full weight of the consequences had finally caught up to her.

What was even worse was that Rylie didn’t seem to know what to make of all this. So far, she’d been sitting quietly on the edge of the bed, and upon closer examination, she was wearing one of Annabelle’s sets of pajamas. Martin knew the clones came out of the replicator fully nude, but that was the last thought he needed right now.

His primal brain briefly wondered how Rylie’s nude body looked as she sat upright from the replicator but he pushed the thought away.

He pointed his finger at Rylie. “This is more serious than you could ever imagine. Rylie’s original copy isn’t dead like you two. She’s very much alive and what’s even worse, she has a recognizable face. How are we going to disguise that?”

Annabelle put her finger in the air. “Actually, I have a few ideas about that already!”

Martin gave her a deadpan look, more annoyed that she’d thought this part through when she hadn’t thought through the consequences of the cloning very well.

He could only shake his head at her. “This is the first clone for no reason, none whatsoever. You two are dead. You were brought back to life because it was the right thing to do. This action is the very reason why cloning is still banned!”

It appeared he’d finally made his point but now it was definitely too late to do anything about it.

“Can someone please tell me what’s going on?” interrupted Rylie, breaking the morbid silence that had developed in the room. “What is all this talk about clones and being dead and seriously, what am I doing here? Do you always get into this really involved foreplay?”

Martin let out a groan involuntarily. Now, Rylie would have to be told the whole thing. And he would have to hope that she wouldn’t freak out knowing she was a clone and that her original was still alive.

There was also the tiny little part that meant she couldn’t go back to her old life, especially not with the original still running around living it.

No, Rylie’s world was about to be turned upside down.

The worst part of all of it was knowing Martin would have to be the one to tell her. As upset as he was with Kelsey and Annabelle, he didn’t trust them to do the job right now.

That only left him.

Martin let out a deep breath. “Come on, Rylie, I’ll tell you everything. You deserve to know the truth.”

It was ten minutes later that Rylie, now clad in more of Annabelle’s warm weather clothes, left the apartment with him and headed in the direction of the park.

CHAPTER 6

THE SILENCE in the apartment after Martin left was deafening.

Kelsey knew the real reason why. The weight of her actions had now fully hit her, and the lump in her stomach wasn’t going away any time soon.

What had she done? Rather, what had she enabled Annabelle to do?

It all seemed like such a good idea at the time. Annabelle’s honeyed words about making Martin happy and getting an extra playmate seemed great after two large margaritas but in the harsh light of the morning, it couldn’t have seemed like a worse idea.

Why had she taken such a risk? This definitely wasn’t like her.

She felt Annabelle’s hand on her arm. “Are you okay?” asked the stunning blonde.

Kelsey shirked away from the touch. “Do I look okay?” she snapped.

Annabelle recoiled from her, temporarily lost for words.

“Look how pissed he is!” yelled Kelsey as tears streamed down her cheeks again. “This is my second time upsetting him like this! I should have figured it out the first time, and I have no idea why I let you do this!”

As Kelsey tried to examine her own behavior, she hit a mental wall. Something inside her mind, something big, was blocked from further self-examination. It was like there was a reason why she couldn’t comprehend her own risky behavior, as if her very genome wouldn’t permit it.

She might have had better luck wishing her hair to turn blonde instead of retaining her dark locks.

“He’s never going to forgive me,” said Kelsey, as she buried her face in her hands. “I’ve done this twice. He won’t be able to trust me again. Oh, god, I’ve ruined my relationship with him!”

Those thoughts finally broke the damn. Kelsey crashed onto the bed and wept like a newborn baby. Losing Martin was tantamount to another death—the death of love. What made it ten times worse was that she felt truly not in control of her own actions.

She felt the bed sag as a comforting hand patted her shoulder. At this moment, she was too inconsolable to even think about lashing out at Annabelle again.

She could only sob for what was lost.

“It’ll be okay,” said Annabelle, her voice now choked with tears as well. “We’ll fix this.”

“How?” wailed Kelsey. “How can we fix this? We can’t unclone Rylie. We can’t make her go away. Just like you and me, she’s Martin’s responsibility now.”

“There has to be a way,” said Annabelle, shaking her head. “We can help to relieve Martin of this burden.”

“And how are you going to do that?” snapped Kelsey. “There’s no easy way out of this. You made a huge mistake!”

The sorrow on Annabelle’s face quickly turned to anger. “I don’t remember you telling me to stop! You can point the finger at me all you want but you were there with me when Rylie was cloned. This isn’t just my fault!”

The words stung Kelsey, reminding her of her culpability. As much as she hated to admit it, Annabelle was right.

She might not have been the one with the plan, but she was still there orchestrating the event. To anyone else, she was equally as guilty.

As her anger melted away, she looked at Annabelle with hollow eyes. “What are we going to do, Annabelle? Our world is in jeopardy. Everything that we love about our life is in trouble. How can we fix this? How can we protect Martin?”

Annabelle embraced her and hugged her tight. “We’ll figure this out,” she repeated. “We have to. We can’t lose Martin.”

Losing Martin wasn’t an option for Kelsey.

There had to be a way to earn his forgiveness.

Just how?

CHAPTER 7

THE WALK outside the apartment never felt more depressing. Or awkward.

In fact, a tiny part of Martin wanted to go back inside and shut himself in the nearest room, away from all three women.

But he couldn’t do that to Rylie. She needed an explanation. She needed clarity.

He just wondered how she was going to take the whole story?

“I’m guessing not every morning in your apartment is like this one?” asked Rylie as they headed toward the park.

Martin gave her a glance out of the side of his eyes. Rylie was wearing a calm smirk, and her tone seemed to suggest she was being playful.

He had no idea how she could think about being playful in a time like this.

That is, unless she still didn’t know the truth after witnessing the verbal barrage back in the bedroom.

“Uh, not exactly,” replied Martin as they walked. “Things are very bad today, and a lot of it has to do with you.”

The smile left Rylie’s face temporarily. “Really? Was I that bad in bed last night?”

Martin turned red as he was once more reminded that Rylie had been nearly nude next to him for most of the night.

“Don’t take this the wrong way but I’m pretty sure nothing happened last night,” said Martin, not wanting to let on that he was too drunk for any sexual escapades anyway.

Rylie pursed her lips and nodded. “What’s weird is that I can’t remember anything. Not since seeing you all at the club after Annabelle apologized. It’s like there’s a black hole in my memory and the next thing I know, I’m in your bed. I don’t get it—I didn’t drink at all last night.”

Martin winced. “No, I know exactly why that happened.”

He felt Rylie’s eyes lock on him as they arrived at the park. He started them down one of the walking trails. It was still early enough in the morning that there was no one else out.

“What was it then, Martin?” she demanded. “Oh my god, did you three drug me?”

Martin waved his hands. “God no, never! I promise you we wouldn’t do that, Rylie.”

She planted her hands on her lovely, wide hips. “Then what is it? Something’s going on and you need to tell me. I think the reason I can’t remember is related to why I’m with you three.”

Martin could only nod. “No, you’re right. It is our fault. You deserve to know the truth, Rylie. I’m going to give it to you. The truth of the matter is . . .”

Martin took a deep breath while Rylie hung onto his every word.

“The truth is that you’re a clone, Rylie. You were cloned last night.”

Rylie just blinked at him. “What?”

Martin opened the floodgates. For the next half hour, he explained all about Replica Imagination, his friendship with Keith, the backstory of both Kelsey and Annabelle, as well as the turn of events that led to Rylie being cloned. He spared almost no details in his retelling, wanting her to know exactly what she’d gotten herself into. By the time he’d told her everything, Rylie seemed to be taking it rather well.

In fact, she was taking it almost too well.

“Okay, so just so I have this straight,” said Rylie, after their tenth lap around the pond (but who was counting?), “I’m a clone of my original self, who is still out there somewhere. This is a problem because cloning human beings is illegal. Kelsey and Annabelle are your girlfriends who you’ve also cloned but their original copies are dead, so that requires them to live with you. And what scares you the most is that RI is going to find out about what you’ve done and put you in prison for the rest of your life. Did I sum that up more or less?”

Martin gulped. “More or less, that’s the gist of it.”

Rylie nodded without saying a word.

Martin was ready for anything at that moment. He was ready for her to run, just in case she reacted that badly to the news. He was ready for her to start screaming or start hitting him. No doubt, she would be justified in such a response.

He was also ready for her to start crying. Her life as she’d lived it before was over. She couldn’t exactly go back to modeling, not unless the world wanted to really find out there were two Rylie’s out there.

Martin was still waiting for that reaction when the most surprising thing happened.

Rylie started to laugh.

“I don’t know what you’ve been smoking but you need to give me some,” said Rylie, her laughing intensifying. “Maybe that’s why I can’t remember our sex last night. Did you give me some really strong weed or something?”

Martin assumed a very sober look. “Rylie, I’m being dead serious. This is real. See here?”

He pointed to the black smudge between her fingers. “This is the sign. Kelsey and Rylie have the same mark too.”

Rylie started to rub at it. “That’s just black magic marker. I know from working at the club that it happens sometimes. I can get it off. See?”

As hard as she tried to rub, it just wasn’t coming off though. Rylie didn’t see this as a sign that Martin was right though. Instead, she just saw it as if she needed a shower to properly rinse herself of the mark.

“Screw it,” she said, after she was tired of scratching at it. “Listen, you’re one unusual guy, Martin. You intrigued me last night. Obviously, it was enough to go home with you but all this talk about clones and conspiracy theories has me ready to close this chapter with you. I’m pretty sure I’d like to go home now.”

Martin wasn’t sure what to make of this. It was unfathomable to him that his story couldn’t be true, but that was mostly because he’d lived it. Yet, Rylie’s world was different from his. She hadn’t even remotely considered cloning because it had nothing to do with her life.

And now that she was presented with some seemingly impossible alternative reality, she was trying to reject it and escape from the situation.

Martin couldn’t blame her. She still thought she had her ultimate freedom. She didn’t yet understand that it had been taken from her.

But how could he make her see?

“Rylie, I’m being fully honest with you,” he said finally. “This isn’t some story and this isn’t a game. You’re really a clone. If we go back to the apartment, you’ll see that both Kelsey and Annabelle have the same smudge on their hands as you do.”

Rylie waved her hand. “Listen, I’m not sure what kind of weird or freaky sex scenarios you three get into. It’s pretty obvious to me that at least Annabelle is some kind of pervert by how aggressive she is and it looks like you’re the same way with this clone fantasy. I’m not interested. I just need to get to work. I have one last car show scheduled for today, the last of the year, and I need to get there to work my gig. Now, the least you can do is drive me there for all the trouble you’ve caused me.”

A car show. Wait, this could be it!

“You want me to drive you to work?” he asked.

Rylie nodded her head impatiently. “I didn’t see my car in your driveway! Which is just as good seeing as I was too blackout last night to remember anything. So it’s either pay for a ride share or you take me. I think you owe me either way so you choose.”

An idea was starting to take hold in his head. Rylie wanted to go to work. She wanted to get to her gig at the car show today. But the real Rylie was no doubt preparing for it as well. Perhaps if he was able to show this clone that her original was alive and living her life, she might be able to accept what happened to her.

It was a risky path though. What would Rylie do when she saw her original version right in front of her? Would she have a meltdown? What it be public?

It might be, but at very least you can be there to intervene as opposed to letting her go off on her own and finding out without you there to help her.

“I’ll take you,” said Martin as his plan formed. “I’ll take you to your event.”

Rylie let out a sigh. “Fine. At least I can wear these clothes until I change at the event. I’ll mail them back to you or something. Let’s get moving though. We don’t have much time to spare.”

CHAPTER 8

THE RIDE to the car show was just as awkward as the initial talk. Martin wasn’t sure what was worse—the fact that Rylie now knew the whole story and dismissed it as some kind of bonehead fantasy, or the fact that he was eventually going to have to proverbially slap her in the face with reality.

If he could have sunk into the seat any further, he would have.

“I will say you have quite the imagination though,” said Rylie out of the blue.

Martin looked over to see her giving him a toothy grin, similar to the one he saw last night.

“I mean clones and evil companies and all that jazz,” she explained with a dismissive wave of the hand. “I can see why you make some serious money. You must be a creative director at whatever company you actually work for, right?”

“If only,” replied Martin laconically.

Rylie pursed her lips. “This has been one of the strangest one-night stands ever.”

In any other situation, Martin might have laughed. Rylie was almost too cool, and it was that quiet confidence that ensured she was nearly unflappable (even when things were definitely flapping).

He just hoped she would still be this way when they arrived at the car show.

Rylie kept trying to engage him in random conversation but he wasn’t much for responses at that point in his day. He was still trying to figure out what he was going to do when they arrived at the event, and how he was not only going to get Rylie to see her original while also preventing her from freaking out when she did.

Needless to say, Rylie’s attitude toward him had cooled somewhat by the time they arrived. She even raised an eyebrow when she saw him get out of the car with her.

“You don’t need to escort me to my changing room,” she said, crossing her arms. “Our involvement together is over. You can go back to your fantasy world now.”

He needed some excuse to stay there with her and keep her from calling the cops. The first thing that came to his mind was what he went with.

“I like cars and I wouldn’t mind seeing what’s here,” said Martin nonchalantly. “It couldn’t hurt to stay a while.”

Rylie gave him a knowing look that told him that she knew he was full of shit. Still, she didn’t raise any objections when they moved past the main parking lot onto the grounds of the show.

If it weren’t for everything going on with Rylie, Martin might have stayed for the car show anyway. This particular show seemed to be focused on antique cars and was it ever an incredible sight for just about any red-blooded man.

The first car that Martin saw was an old school ‘77 Pontiac Firebird. This one was cherry red, and it had been waxed enough to practically glow in the early morning light. She had curves and sex appeal that just wasn’t seen in cars of the 2030s, hearkening back to an era when the vehicle you drove had to be as cool as you.

That was just the first of many such cars. Martin spied an old 1970 Ford Mustang, a ‘74 AMC Hornet that was green with two white racing stripes that went over the hood, as well as a glistening black ‘70 Chevy Chevelle that would have been a verifiable panty-dropper back in the day.

“Hot damn, would you look at that,” muttered Martin under his breath. Each car featured a small crowd of people around the owner, as well as several pieces of eye candy that were nearby for photo opportunities.

Seeing the eye candy, it wasn’t hard to tell why Rylie was here.

“Shit, I’m going to be late,” she said, putting more hustle in her step. “If I don’t get paid for this gig, I’m going to lose my apartment!”

It soon became obvious that these good-looking cars were just what was on the outside of the venue. Inside the main showroom, there was bound to be even more vintage cars but that was when they ran into their first problem.

Admission.

It wasn’t an issue for Martin. All he had to do was pay his fifty dollar entry fee but since Rylie was supposed to be working the event, she had to get into a separate line. Thankfully, that line was right next to Martin’s but she started having a hard time immediately when she tried to check in.

“Rylie Wentworth, I’m working between ten and two today,” she said to a very sour and unpleasant looking older woman behind the counter.

The woman checked the list of those working and back at Rylie. “Says your name has already checked in.” Without letting Rylie even answer, the clerk woman gestured for the next in line.

Rylie wouldn’t move aside so easily. “That’s not right, I just got here,” she argued. “Can you check again?”

The older woman rolled her eyes. “I’ll check again but you’re already checked in.”

“How could that be?” asked Rylie, her confidence failing. “Your system must be wrong.”

“Yeah, that’s what they all say,” replied the clerk offhandedly.

Rylie wasn’t about to take that as a final answer. Her cheeks were soon puffing out and her face was turning red in anger. It wasn’t hard to see she was about to blow up on this clerk.

Martin had to intervene. He flagged the clerk in front of Rylie and pushed an extra fifty dollars in front of her. “She’s with me, this should get her in.”

Rylie looked at him confusingly but the clerk just took the money like it was the thirtieth time this scene had played out that morning. “Here’s your ticket.”

“Why’d you do that?” asked Rylie as they walked into the main showroom. “That was just a clerical mistake. We would have figured it out, and now you’re out fifty bucks.”

Martin shook his head. “You still don’t get it, do you? Why do you think you were already checked in?”

Rylie was soon shaking her hand. “Oh, no, no, no, no! Not this again, Martin.”

Martin puffed out his cheeks and stopped talking. He didn’t need to waste his breath. Soon enough, she was going to have all the evidence she needed.

“Come on, let’s go find the manager here,” said Rylie. “At least we can try to get you your fifty bucks back.”

Rylie moved through the main venue like a seasoned professional, knowing just which shortcuts to take to get her through all the foot traffic quickly and efficiently.

“You’ve worked in this showroom before, haven’t you?” he asked.

“Duh,” replied Rylie as they weaved through a family that had strung out a little long. “I’ve been here many times. The dressing rooms for all the models are back here but so is the office of the manager of the showroom. Let’s just get there and we can—”

Rylie never got a chance to complete her sentence, and it didn’t take Martin long to figure out why.

Right in front of them was an antique car of the highest quality. A silver Mercedes SL300 Gullwing had center stage of the showroom. The owner was talking to several people near the rear of the car while two models stood near the front hood, offering photo ops for anyone who was wanting to get their picture with a piece of priceless history.

And just who would happen to be one of the models?

That’s right—the original Rylie Wentworth. The original Rylie was posing for a picture with an older man with a pot belly and a walking cane with a grip shaped like a turtle. She was smiling broadly for the picture, and for a brief moment, Martin couldn’t help but remember Rylie’s flirty smiles from the night before.

Unfortunately, the clone next to him was feeling anything but happy.

Martin could hear the cloned Rylie’s breath catch in her throat. Her eyes were as wide as saucers as she appraised the situation. At that moment, Martin had to wonder what he would do in the same situation if he found out he was a clone. Would he freak out and cause a scene?

Unfortunately, Rylie did freak out. She freaked out hard.

“What the fuck?!” she shrieked, earning the attention of just about everyone in a thirty foot radius. “Who the fuck is that?!”

CHAPTER 9

THIS WAS the make-or-break moment that Martin had been waiting on. As several pairs of eyes focused on Rylie, their chances of discovery were the highest it had ever been. Martin didn’t wait for anyone to connect the dots on their own. He quickly grabbed the still shocked clone’s arm and started to pull her away from the scene of the crime.

“We have to go now!” he urged, pulling her back toward the entrance. Martin might have been pulling a little too hard, as they were now causing a scene. Several people stopped to watch them, and even a few had to dash out of his way lest they get run over in the process.

It also didn’t help that she was recognized on the way out.

“Oh my goodness, is that Rylie Wentworth?” asked a mid-thirties year old man as Martin yanked her through the crowd. “I didn’t realize she would be here!”

There would be no time for autographs or photo ops today. Martin had to get her out. They breezed past the entrance where their presence wasn’t even noticed by the surly clerk who wouldn’t let Rylie inside the building in the first place. Martin didn’t stop pulling until they were outside.

Looking behind him, Rylie appeared to be in a shocked state. Her pupils hadn’t yet returned to normal, and her lip was quivering, no doubt processing all the ways this would impact her life. At that moment, Martin truly felt sorry for her. She was an impostor without a future because her life was already claimed by someone else. It didn’t help the matter that it was claimed by the original Rylie.

Didn’t a cloned version deserve happiness too? Didn’t a clone deserve to live her life in the manner she pleased?

By the time they reached the car, Rylie was openly sobbing.

“It’s true. Holy shit-balls, it’s true, it’s true,” she babbled as she put her face in her hands. Martin helped her into the front seat while he moved behind the wheel. Rylie rested her head against the dashboard as great tears started to fall.

After a moment, she turned to look at him with tear-streaked eyes. “That was me in there. That was me! There’s two of me, Martin!”

Martin closed his eyes as he felt the agony of what she was going through. “I’m so sorry, Rylie. I can’t imagine what you’re going through right now.”

“I can’t believe this is happening to me,” she sobbed. “I can’t believe you were right. I’m a clone,” she said before looking at him again. “I’m really a clone? You told me the truth?”

“Every word was true,” he replied. “I wish it wasn’t true but it is. You’re a clone of the original.”

Suddenly, Rylie’s hand darted up to her neck. She felt around for a second and then started babbling again.

“Oh, no, no, no! My necklace!”

At that moment, Martin remembered everything. The necklace that she got from her mother. The seashell one. It was gone.

Or rather, it was being worn by the original Rylie. There would be no second copy for the clone.

Martin wasn’t sure which stung worse for Rylie—finding out she was a clone or losing the only physical memento she had left of her mother.

For the next half hour, Rylie just sobbed. She rested her head against the dash and let out every tear she could muster. At one point, Martin even reached over to put a consoling touch on her shoulder, one that she didn’t shirk away from. It seemed that there was now finally something that could flap the unflappable Rylie.

Since the parking lot for the car show was way too crowded, Martin started to drive back to the apartment in an effort to give Rylie a little privacy for the emotions she was feeling. Even still, he wasn’t quite ready yet to see Kelsey and Annabelle, and for that reason, he found a small park off the beaten path and parked there for the conversation that was sure to follow.

By the time that Rylie’s sobs were starting to slow down, it was nearly midday, and the coolness of the morning had long since evaporated under the rays of the sun. Martin had been absentmindedly staring off into the trees when Rylie finally spoke.

“W-what’s going to happen to me now?” she said, her voice still choked with tears. “What’s going to h-happen to my life? Everything is going to be different now, isn’t it?”

“A little different,” he replied, rubbing her shoulder. “But it’s not a death sentence, I promise you that.”

“It feels like one. My old life is gone. Everything that I have, everything that I own, and everybody I know. I can’t ever see them again, can I?”

Martin couldn’t let the words come out of his mouth. He shook his head gently as another tear trailed down her cheek.

“I wonder if I’m just not better off dead,” said Rylie finally.

“I can’t pretend to know what you’re going through, Rylie. I really can’t but I can promise you that it’s better to be alive than not. Yes, things are going to be different now but that doesn’t mean they have to be bad. I’m sure Kelsey and Annabelle can tell you what it’s like living as a clone, and I’m sure it’s not that different from living as you were previously. It’s just the circumstances of your life will have to change a little.”

Changing a little was putting it mildly. Everything had to change, but the problem that Martin faced now was that he didn’t know whether Rylie could accept that change at face value or decide it was better off not even trying. Since she’d already brought up the better off dead comment, he didn’t want to give her any more fuel to stoke that fire.

“It’s not like you’re suddenly alone,” he promised. “You can stay with us. We’re responsible for what happened to you and you’ll always have a place to stay and food to eat. We’ll take care of you, Rylie, at least until we figure out another compromise but until that time, you’ll be with us.”

Rylie shook her head. “I couldn’t do that to you. I just met you people. Twenty-four hours ago, we were actual strangers.” Rylie actually looked at him and a small smile appeared on her lips. “Don’t get me wrong, but we haven’t had the best first impressions either.”

Martin smiled with her. “No, we’ve had some bumps so far. But it doesn’t have to always be that way. We did the same thing with Annabelle—welcomed her into the group when it was just Kelsey and I. That doesn’t mean that you can’t do it too.”

“That’s asking a lot of you though,” she countered. “You’re basically assuming responsibility for my whole life. And who knows when we could find a compromise, like you said. Do you know of anything that could bring that about sooner?”

Martin was fully honest with her as he shook his head. “No, I really don’t. And there’s not exactly any such thing as human rights for illegal clones. Even if they found out you did exist, there’s no infrastructure to support getting you on your feet or making sure you have a home or security until that happens. That’s why I’m making sure we take you in. I don’t want you to feel like you don’t have anyone or anything.”

A pained look took hold on her face. “I can’t impose on you like that though, Martin. We just met each other. You’re taking me in like I’m some one-night stand who just had a positive pregnancy test. That’s not right.”

Rylie had a point but there was little that could be done otherwise.

“It’s the right thing to do,” said Martin with a promising smile. “It’s our fault that this happened so we’re going to take care of you as long as we need to.”

Rylie let out a deep sigh and started shaking her head. “You keep saying we but it wasn’t you, was it? You were asleep the entire time. It was Annabelle and Kelsey that did this, not you. You’re being forced to take me in when you had no role in my creation.”

Once again, Rylie was right on the money with her statement, and she reminded Martin just why he was so upset with his two girlfriends. However, if he went below the surface, it was hard not to think that he enabled their behavior.

After all, it was Martin that told them how to do it, and it was he that set the precedent for breaking the rules to make clones.

He couldn’t place all the blame on their actions, not when he shouldered a portion of it himself.

Martin took a deep breath. “I’m upset with both of them. You saw that this morning.”

“Which now makes a lot more sense than it did back then,” added Rylie quickly. “I thought you people were on drugs with how you were talking to each other.”

“Still, I have a role to play in all of this,” continued Martin. “Kelsey and Annabelle may have made a mistake but they’re good people. I wouldn’t have them in my life if they weren’t. They mean well even if their actions were a little . . .”

“Reckless?” suggested Rylie.

Martin nodded. “Reckless indeed.”

“Are they always so reckless? It seems that for someone who needs to keep clones secret, they take some pretty big risks.”

“No, they aren’t usually like this,” said Martin as his wheels began to turn.

The more he thought about it, their risky behavior seemed to come in waves. The original Kelsey and Annabelle weren’t anywhere close to what he would consider reckless but their clones seemed to emulate that behavior off and on. Martin had to wonder if this was another side effect of the cloning process, similar to how they were more sexual than their original versions.

He was still thinking about it when Rylie let out a long sigh. When he looked over at her, her tears had finally stopped and she was now wiping her face clear of the evidence.

“Everything in my life has to change,” she said finally as she met his gaze. “But I’m still here, right? I’m still me. I’m alive, and thankfully, I have a place to live, right?”

“That you do,” he confirmed.

Rylie shrugged and let out another small smile. “I guess things could always be worse then. I mean, I could have ended up with a bunch of sexual deviants. Oh wait . . .”

Rylie giggled to let him know she was joking but that didn’t stop Martin’s mouth from falling open.

Thirty minutes ago, Rylie was sobbing about her future and wondering what was going to happen to her.

Now, she seemed to have come around and was now joking about her future living conditions.

Martin was left wondering just what changed in such a short period of time. That’s why he couldn’t help what he blurted out next.

“You seem to be taking this well,” he said with his shocked expression. “Maybe well isn’t the best way to say it but I almost expected you might hate us for what happened to you.”

Rylie shrugged. “What’s done is done, right? We can’t exactly go back in time and undo this. So I guess we need to figure out a way to move forward. Maybe it’s best that we talk about it.”

Martin was still amazed. Even Annabelle, who seemed the most logical of the bunch (usually) had to take considerable time to come to terms with what being a clone meant for her life. Rylie seemed to come to grips with it in less than an hour.

“I have to say that I really admire your resilience,” said Martin. “You’ve bounced back rather quickly on this.”

Rylie shook her head. “I’m not back to one hundred if that’s what you think. This is going to take some time but I’m willing to give this a shot if you are. We can’t go back so we might as well find a way to move forward. Besides, modeling was starting to get old for me. Or maybe I was starting to get old for modeling.”

“You’d never be too old for modeling,” blurted Martin. “You could still grace the centerfolds even if you were sixty.”

Rylie blushed at the unexpected compliment. She lowered her eyes and raised them to meet his a moment later. “You’re going to be fun to live with, Martin. But it’s true. I’m too old to keep modeling, and I don’t relish the idea of being a waitress for the rest of my life. Maybe this is my time to start over? We can let the original Rylie continue on that path while I forge a new one of my own?”

“I wish I had half of your positive outlook on life,” said Martin. “To just so easily shift gears and look at something new. I think most people would kill to be able to have that kind of mindset.”

Truthfully, it left Martin more conflicted than he was before. It was strange but for some reason, seeing Rylie try to put a brave face on things only made him feel worse. Almost like she was doing it for his benefit, although from what he knew about Rylie, that didn’t seem to be the case.

“You can blame my dad for that,” she said with a knowing look. “After my mom died, it was only just the two of us. I don’t think he really knew what to do with raising a young daughter on his own. My dad is a man’s man kind of guy. Played football in high school and a little in college. Works construction now. When he’s around, there’s usually a beer in his hands, you know, that kind of guy. He’s rough around the edges but he’s really a great father, mostly because he wouldn’t let me or really anyone get too caught up in themselves. His favorite saying is ‘suck it up, buttercup,’ and he truly lives life that way, no matter what happens. Even after my mom passed, he didn’t let himself wallow in sadness for too long. I think I inherited a good portion of those genes.”

“So that’s what makes you so resilient?”

Rylie nodded. “I think so. Maybe genes and his influence, but who knows. He wouldn’t let me cry about boys because there were so many of them out there. One time when I was seventeen, I backed my car into a fire hydrant and jacked up the bumper. I was so upset that I couldn’t stop crying but he told me to knock it off and go get a summer job to pay for it. He didn’t know how to be empathetic but he really nailed how to give tough love. I could have hated him for it but I know his heart is always in the right place. So I chose to accept it and love him, and now I see it’s really blended into who I am as a person.”

“Your father sounds like a good man,” noted Martin. “I’m sure he would be proud of who you’ve become.”

Rylie let out a sad smile. “Yes, he is. He always taught me to look on the bright side, and that’s what I’m doing now. This could have been a lot worse. I mean, I’m here with you, right? If it gives you any indication of how I felt last night, my first thought this morning was that I slept with you.”

Rylie finished that statement by pivoting her body toward him, but it had the effect of giving him an excellent line of sight down her cleavage. While Rylie wasn’t as gifted as Annabelle or even Kelsey in that department, she still had a near perfect bust that was hard for any man to ignore.

And even though sex was the last thing on his mind, he thought he could see the faint outline of her nipples hiding just behind her blouse.

He couldn’t look away fast enough. Certainly not fast enough for Rylie not to notice but she didn’t exactly fix her jacket (or rather, Annabelle’s jacket) either to block his vision. Martin stammered for the lack of words but she surprised him by speaking next.

She started off by placing her hand on his wrist. “I guess now is a good time for saying sorry for the way I acted this morning.”

Martin gave her a weird look. “Sorry for what? I can’t blame you for freaking out at seeing your whole life turned upside down.”

“No, I meant before that,” said Rylie with an embarrassed smile. “When we were still at the park near your apartment. I was kind of rude and demanding, especially when I made you take me to the car show. Same for when we were on the way to the show. I shouldn’t have done that to you.”

“It’s understandable with the stress you were under though, Rylie.”

“No, that’s not an excuse for how short I was with you. I guess that’s another habit of mine. I don’t really have a shortage of guys that try to hit on me, believe it or not.”

That was an understatement. Martin was surprised she didn’t have an army of thirsty followers around her wherever she went. Rylie was just that gorgeous.

“Well, it’s easy for me to turn on ‘bitch mode’ pretty easily, especially when it comes to guys or not getting my way,” she continued. “And I definitely slipped into it this morning. I guess I was just weirded out by what you were saying but now in retrospect, I should’ve paid closer attention. So I’m sorry for that, Martin.”

“Water under the bridge,” he replied quickly. “I still don’t think you have anything to apologize for. If anything, I still need to be apologizing to you.”

Rylie shook her head. “It’s going to be all right. I’m just going to have to figure out my own path, you know? Life isn’t going to be exactly the way I pictured it. I’m probably not going to be able to get married or anything. Or live on my own. But I’m going to make the best of it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s going to be a hard adjustment at first, but I’ll get used to it. What other choice do I have after all?”

There was something about the way she phrased it that just made Martin feel lower than dog shit. It might have been the fact that she was already giving up on her dreams in order to make this new life work. It could also have been due to Martin’s lingering guilt about the whole thing and knowing that he was the reason behind such a drastic change. Lastly, it could have been just that Rylie’s brave face about the matter could really be masking an internal crisis that he couldn’t see.

Or it could have been a whopper combination of all three.

Martin felt sick to his stomach quite suddenly. He could have puked if there was anything left in his stomach. He felt terrible at how he had such a negative influence on such a good person’s life. If not for him, Rylie could be at her car show right now, with only memories of serving their table from the night before.

And all of it was ruined because of him.

Martin put his head in his hands. There was no way he could blame Annabelle or Kelsey for this mess, not when the tools to do the job were still at his apartment. Nor when his behavior had set the standard that made it possible. For a brief moment, tears erupted from his eyes, and he couldn’t help his response.

Rylie’s reaction was instantaneous. A look of worry appeared on her face and she became the one that started to console him. “Martin, what’s wrong?”

He looked over at her and tried not to look at her cleavage, which was now directly in his line of sight. “It’s all my fault. You’re being so awesome about this whole thing but you shouldn’t have to deal with this. I wish I had a tenth of your resilience but you wouldn’t be in this position if you never met me. It’s all my fault.”

He expected Rylie to agree with him. After all, she knew where the real blame lay for her creation. But like her resilient nature, she seemed quick to forgive and move on.

“Martin, what’s done is done,” she said with a tone of finality. “You don’t need to feel sorry for me. I’m a big girl, I can take care of myself. I’m sure there’s going to be a period of figuring everything out but I’m not that worried about the future.”

“I don’t see how you can’t be worried,” he said. “I’m worried about it. I have three girls in addition to myself to look out for now. That fact alone scares the shit out of me.”

True to form, Rylie didn’t miss the chance to put in a zinger. “You’re not exactly giving me the warm and fuzzies about you taking care of me now, Martin.”

That actually made him laugh, even if it was briefly.

She reached over and casually touched his thigh. “It’s going to be all right. We’ll figure it out. Or do I need to tell you to suck it up, buttercup? Because I will! This is my life too. You don’t need to be the one upset!”

Martin actually smiled. “Maybe I do need to hear that. I just feel so responsible for what happened.”

Rylie cupped her mouth with both hands. “In that case, SUCK IT UP, BUTTERCUP.”

That made both of them laugh, and just like that, some of the tension was defused between them. Martin found himself drawing parallels to Rylie as he already did with Kelsey and Annabelle. One thing that he liked about Rylie so far was the fact that she was just cool. Not only did she have a maturity that went beyond her age due to the loss of her mother and her father’s upbringing, she seemed to always have a quip or witticism ready to go for just about anything.

And then there was also that magnificent cleavage. Once more, Rylie’s body was pivoted toward him and he could get a generous view down the center. Lush, tanned skin met his gaze, and Martin licked his lips helplessly.

Then something happened that Martin never would have expected. At least, he never would have expected it to happen today. It might have come up because Rylie finally caught him staring at her cleavage. Or it could have happened organically, because Rylie’s nipples were now firmly poking out of her top.

Either way, he never would have guessed the next words to come out of her mouth.

CHAPTER 10

“MARTIN, you can’t be this tense the whole day,” said Rylie as her eyes flickered to his lap. “We need to help relieve some of this stress you have. I have an idea. Why don’t I give you a hand job?”

It took him nearly ten straight seconds before he could even think to formulate a response to that question. Martin shook his head twice as he stared back at Rylie.

“What did you say?”

Rylie grinned and rubbed his thigh. “A hand job? You know, where I would jerk your cock with my hand until you cum.”

“I know what a hand job is,” he interrupted, shaking his head again. “We can’t do that. Increased horniness is a side effect of the cloning process. I don’t want to take advantage of you.”

Rylie giggled and stuck her tongue out of the side of her mouth. “You wouldn’t be taking advantage of me if I made the offer in the first place. Why does this come as such a surprise? After all, we did sleep together last night.”

“Yeah, emphasis on the sleeping part,” corrected Martin. “We didn’t do anything intimate!”

“No, but we could have,” said Rylie, scooting closer to him. “And it was your hand that I felt on my boob this morning, wasn’t it?”

Martin’s face turned red as the memory of groping Rylie as he was waking up. “In my defense, I thought you were Kelsey!”

“But I wasn’t,” replied Rylie quickly. “I wasn’t one of your little girlfriends. I was the waitress that you brought home last night.”

“Well, not really—”

“Martin?”

“Yes?”

“Shut up,” said Rylie, giggling. “You know, most guys that I offer hand jobs to don’t usually say no.”

“Have most of those guys cloned you and ruined your life too?” he countered.

Rylie gave him an annoyed look. “Do I need to go back to bitch mode already?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Good,” she said, a smile spreading out on her face. “Then let me jerk you off so that you stop complaining.”

That rationale seemed good enough to hold up in court, or at least that was all Martin could think about as Rylie reached across to his fly and started to wrap her fingers around the cool piece of metal. She lowered it slowly, teasingly, until the two pieces of denim popped open like a hot bag of popcorn.

It was as Rylie was reaching inside that Martin grabbed her hand. “Wait! We’re in public! What if someone sees us?”

Rylie gave a quick look around the parking lot and then shrugged. “There’s no one here, Martin. That car over there is empty and so is that one. Don’t worry, no one is about to see little Martin besides me.”

Rylie giggled at her own joke as her fingers dipped into his own fly. She found his cock encased in a pair of boxers and used her thumb to gently massage the covered tip.

“There he is,” she purred as she gripped him in one hand. “Let’s see what he looks like in the light of day.”

“Rylie, wait a second. Maybe this isn’t a good idea.”

She shushed him as she continued to pull him through the opening. Martin gasped as her fingers made contact with his bare skin and his cock soon emerged out of the hole one inch at a time.

Rylie let out a soft moan as soon as she saw him. “Well, I’m sorry, Martin. I shouldn’t have called him little! I’m going to refer to him as Big Martin from now on. Look at how hard you’re getting!”

The fact of the matter was that anyone would have soon turned to granite at feeling Rylie’s soft hand on them while staring at the luscious valley of her cleavage. Martin was no exception. It only took less than thirty seconds before he was hard enough to let the helmet poke into the soft leather of the steering wheel.

Once he attained maximum thickness, Rylie wasted no time. She brought her hands to her lips carefully, taking a small glob of saliva and smushing it around her fingers with her big thumb. She reached over and let a small bead of saliva drip onto his tip before encircling it with her fingers.

The warmth of her saliva and the softness of her grip soon made Martin push his head back against the seat. His hips angled up, giving Rylie better access as she started to move.

“What a great cock you have,” she said, nearly mesmerized with the sight of him. “It’s so thick and hard and . . . yummy. I’m just going to keep jerking you until you explode for me. Do you think you can do that, Martin? Can you let out a big load of cum for me?”

Martin bit his lip out of sheer arousal. Rylie’s delicate hand wrapped around his shaft was now pumping with a slick rhythm. She was also alternating her grips, giving him tight grips around the head while loosening it the closer she got to his balls.

“Oh, those balls look full of cum for me,” continued Rylie, really getting into her dirty talk. “I bet you want to shoot all that cum out, don’t you? I bet you want to cover me? I saw you looking at my tits, Martin. Do you want to shoot all that hot sticky cum all over my perfect tanned tits?”

Martin let out a groan from deep within his body. That was exactly what he wanted to do. He pictured Rylie on her knees in front of him, aiming his cock as globs of semen splashed against her chest and streamed down her flawless body.

What was even better was her dirty talk. This was one area that both Kelsey and Annabelle explored on occasion but never did much more than dip their toe in the water.

Rylie, on the other hand, dived in from the deep in.

“Oh fuck, I can feel you pulsating in my hand, Martin!” she cooed, jerking him faster. “This is going to be so good. I can’t wait to see how hard you cum. Maybe if you’re good, I’ll have a taste of it. You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Maybe if you shoot a lot of cum for me, I swipe a few globs with my finger and see how good you taste.”

That visual seemed to do it. Martin started thrusting his hips in tandem to her stroking, and it was the picture of Rylie on her knees, licking her fingers clean of his cum that triggered his orgasm.

“I’m going to cum,” he whispered hoarsely. “I’m going to cum!”

Rylie’s movements were swift and decisive. She grabbed a hooded sweatshirt from the backseat that Martin instantly recognized as belonging to Annabelle and used it to catch most of his cum. Martin let out a loud groan as he shot a huge load right into the back of her emerald green hoodie.

“There it comes,” cooed Rylie as her strokes slowed down. She focused now on milking what was left as it spread out across the green fabric. “Let it all out.”

Martin exhaled as she deftly worked out the last remaining amounts of semen from his body. When it was nearly all the way done, Rylie gently squeezed the tip until one last glob exited the slit. She took her thumb and swiped it, and quickly brought it to her lips.

Rylie moaned as she sucked his cum from her finger. Her eyes closed and she made a dramatic show of ensuring that none of his essence was left behind.

When she opened her eyes again, she locked on his gaze. “I was right. It was definitely yummy.”

Martin probably could have cum again right there.

She grinned at him. “Feel better, buttercup?”

In a way, he did. There was nothing that quite took the edge off like a good orgasm, especially one that came by the hand of a beautiful woman. For a brief moment, Martin allowed himself to relax, not feeling nearly as guilty about Rylie’s turn of events.

It was a very brief moment though because in the next one, he started to think about what he just did.

I just got jerked off by someone who wasn’t Kelsey or Annabelle.

Of course, that thought made him think he was going straight to hell.

“Come on,” said Rylie as she carefully folded the green hoodie and put it in the back seat. “Let’s go back to your apartment.”

Martin gulped at the very thought of confronting Annabelle and Kelsey after what he did. What was going to happen when he got back home?

As Martin turned the ignition and backed out of the park, he couldn’t have been more apprehensive about getting home.

How do I keep finding myself in these messes?

The cell phone on the desk started to ring.

It only rang twice before a shadowed hand reached forward to grab it. The hand was only illuminated by the faint yellow light of a lamp perched on one corner of the executive desk.

The man at the desk preferred it that way. He enjoyed the lack of light and the fear that darkness evoked. He pressed the button on the screen.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Another security breach,” said the man on the other end of the line. The man at the desk recognized the voice instantly, knowing him to be one of his loyal deputies.

“Same as before?” he asked.

“It’s unclear still,” answered the man on the phone. “I’m still gathering details but someone was in the testing area last night when they shouldn’t have been.”

“I need to know who it was. You know that a good portion of our work hedges on our ability to offer access to the replicators,” said the man behind the desk. “I need you to figure this out.”

The man on the phone answered with a trembling voice. “I’ll find out. And I’ll make sure whoever it is that accessed the testing area is suitably punished.”

“See that you do,” said the man behind the desk. “Or I’ll be forced to intervene myself. And I know you would not prefer to see that.”

The man on the phone let out a loud gulp. “No, that won’t be necessary.”

“Good,” answered the man beyond the desk. “The security breaches end now. Do all that is necessary.”

“Yes, sir, I will.”

CHAPTER 11

MARTIN’S STOMACH was in knots as he drove back to the apartment with Rylie.

The worst part was that it was because of multiple reasons.

Where to even begin?

For one, the woman next to him had just been cloned less than twenty-four hours ago, and even though Rylie had put on a brave face about her future, Martin still had to figure out how to incorporate her into his living situation with the other women.

The other women were the second reason why he felt sick to his stomach. Martin was still upset with them for instigating Rylie’s cloning, and the thought of facing them again so soon was nauseating, to say the least.

The last reason he felt distinctly uncomfortable was due to the fact that Rylie had given him a hand job before they left for home. Her reasoning was that it was to help him unwind from the stress that had reached a boiling point; however, her actions had only added to his stress. How was he going to explain that to Kelsey and Annabelle?

He was more worried about Kelsey’s reaction than Annabelle’s. Annabelle would probably applaud it, seeing as the main reason for Rylie’s cloning was to give Martin another sexual playmate. It was Kelsey he was definitely worried about though. She was the closest measuring point he had to “normal” and he was afraid of her reaction when she learned what happened.

All of those factors combined into a single maelstrom of emotions as Martin parked his car in front of their apartment complex a short while later. He exhaled loudly as he turned off the ignition, and it was only a glance over at Rylie that revealed she was looking at him curiously.

“Are you all right?” she asked lightheartedly. “You look like someone with a lot on their mind.”

Martin had no idea how she could be so nonchalant about this. If anyone had a right to be thoroughly pissed off, it was Rylie.

“I don’t know how you can even ask that right now,” he said, feeling half-amused and half-crazy. The amusing part was just how crazy it all was. “There’s going to be such a shitstorm up there that I don’t know if I even want to face it.”

As was to be expected by now, Rylie simply smirked and elbowed him in the side. “Come on, it won’t be that bad. Best to get it over with now, right? Besides, from the way I see it, they’re the ones that owe us an apology. Not the other way around.”

Yeah, but that was before you yanked my crank and made me explode in your hands.

He was still trying not to dwell on the experience of Rylie’s soft but firm grip as she worked his cock. He was especially trying not to concentrate on the view of her cleavage while she did it.

You cupped that perfect tit this morning right before you got out of bed too.

Martin shook his head of such thoughts. It was time to get this over with.

“Come on,” he said, cracking his door. “Let’s get this over with.”

Rylie followed him as he trudged inside and made his way to the front door. He hesitated before opening it, pausing to listen for sounds inside. He could hear nothing that would indicate any occupants, and part of him silently wished the girls were out for a run or something else.

There was no way he was going to get that lucky though. As soon as the door was cracked, he could hear the sounds of talking back in the main bedroom.

“Looks like they’re here,” he said, stating the obvious.

Rylie giggled. “Well, this should be entertaining if nothing else.”

Martin gave her a you-can’t-be-serious kind of look, and Rylie quickly changed her expression to something more neutral.

“Oh, right, I forgot,” she said quickly. “I need to put on my angry face.”

“I don’t know how you’re not just naturally angry,” whispered Martin. “Especially with what this means for you.”

Rylie shrugged. “Oh, that’s not to say I’m going to let them off easy. They are still going to have to attempt to make this right but let’s just say I’m not panicking as much as I was earlier.”

Martin didn’t have the chance to ask her why because at that moment, he heard the sounds of two women walking down the hall.

Kelsey and Annabelle soon appeared in front of him in their small kitchen, and it wasn’t hard to tell their faces were full of a single emotion—remorse.

“Hey,” said Kelsey weakly, looking completely at a loss for words.

“Hey Martin, Hey Rylie,” said Annabelle, not looking much better.

It was clear from the first glance that they’d been through the emotional ringer during the time Martin was outside the apartment. He could see that Kelsey had been crying recently, and she was still suffering from the sniffles as the only remaining evidence. Annabelle had the look of someone who was about to be sentenced in court. She looked deeply regretful for her actions, and her usual quiet confidence had completely disappeared.

That’s why Martin was surprised that Annabelle was the first to start speaking.

“I really want to start off with an apology,” said Annabelle as her eyes drifted between Martin and Rylie. “To both of you. I realize that my actions since last night were totally out of line. I put Martin at risk and I’ve . . . ruined your life, Rylie.” Annabelle paused as several tears started down her cheeks. “I’m really sorry, Rylie. I don’t know what more to say, but I will do anything to make this right.” She turned to lock eyes with Martin. “Anything, Martin. I’m so sorry.”

To no one’s surprise, Kelsey moved closer to Annabelle and started rubbing the other girl’s back sympathetically. As the “mother” of the group, Kelsey always took it upon herself to lift others back up, even if that meant that it was now her turn to say something.

“I’m sorry too,” said Kelsey as her eyes mostly locked on Martin. “I don’t know what came over me. I think the option just sounded really good at the time, but it might have been the influence of the alcohol. I just want to make you happy, Martin. I thought this would do it in a very crazy and perverted kind of way. I recognize that this complicates our living situation very much, and like Annabelle said, I’m willing to do whatever is necessary to make this right.”

Martin wasn’t sure what to say. Both of their apologies sounded genuine, which he had no doubt that they were. He just didn’t know how to reply to their apologies, especially knowing that he had a confession he had to make as well.

Martin’s silence was interpreted by Rylie as her turn to talk.

As expected, she didn’t start by letting the other two women off the hook so easily.

Rylie crossed her arms. “What you two did was incredibly stupid and very serious. I can no longer go back to the life I was living. I can’t book any more modeling gigs, and I’m still wondering if I’ll ever get a chance to talk to my father again without him figuring out there are now two of me. I wouldn’t go as far to say you ‘ruined my life’ but my life will never be the same again. This isn’t a game. And while I can understand you did what you did because of love for him, that still doesn’t give you an excuse to meddle in other people’s lives, especially someone you don’t even know.”

Rylie’s words struck Kelsey and Annabelle like body blows. Both of them recoiled away and now were visibly sobbing. Martin wanted to comfort them but he hesitated in moving any closer. Part of him thought they needed to hear what Rylie had to say. She was certainly giving them the tough love to which she’d been accustomed, and if it had been anyone else that had been cloned, this could have gone much differently.

“Regardless,” said Rylie, softening her tone considerably. “I’m willing to give living here a shot. But that doesn’t mean that I’m willing to trust either of you right away, not after what you did. This is going to be a lengthy process for me, but it seems like we don’t have any other options. So, with that in mind, I’m going to let this play out.”

The change in Annabelle and Kelsey seemed to be instantaneous. The hopeless look in both their eyes was replaced with something that resembled just a hint of promise.

“We can make this work,” insisted Annabelle as she nodded her head rapidly, sending her blonde locks bouncing. “And Kelsey and I know exactly how we’re going to do that!”

“How do you mean?” asked Martin curiously. “What are you going to do to make this work?”

Annabelle smiled timidly. “Kelsey and I are getting jobs!”

That certainly was the unexpected answer, and Martin had a look of total shock consume his face.

“Jobs? You’re serious?” he asked.

Annabelle nodded her head. “I have an idea. An idea for both Kelsey and I to make some income so that we’re not such a burden on you. It only seems right considering that this was our mistake that we take on some kind of job to fix it.”

“But how?” asked Martin a moment later. “You can’t just go out and get jobs all of a sudden. They need proper identification for one, which neither of you have. You need to have a bank account to deposit your checks, which you don’t have, unless you get paid under the table. Not to mention, it puts you out in public, where the chance of discovery is a lot worse than in here. I’m not seeing how this would work out unless you’re doing black market type of work.” Martin paused for a moment. “Tell me this isn’t black market. It’s not, right?”

Annabelle shook her head. “Not even close. I have to admit, it’s a little unusual, but I think that we can make it work.”

“So what kind of jobs are we talking about here?” asked Martin.

“Well, I used to invest a small percentage of my income in the stock market when I still worked at RI,” said Annabelle. “I’d like to continue to do that. I usually did well, and I’m confident that I can make some money that way. The way I see it, we can put the account under your name, and then I can just run it for you. I’d just need a small investment to start it up but I can take it from there.”

Martin didn’t love the idea but it was something. Investing in the stock market was something that usually made his eyes glaze over, and he left those details to the people that ran his 401k. Yet, if Annabelle was confident in the matter, then why not?

“Are you sure you can do that?” asked Martin quietly. “Not to doubt you or anything, Annabelle, but we could lose a lot of money if you’re wrong.”

Annabelle actually managed to look offended. “When am I ever wrong?”

Kelsey elbowed her in the side. “Not the best answer considering our current circumstances,” she muttered.

“Right,” replied Annabelle more humbly. “I mean besides the last twenty-four hours, when am I ever wrong?”

It also would have been cute if not for the seriousness of the situation. Martin found his weight shifting to his other foot. “Annabelle, be serious. Can you do this or not?”

She raised her chin proudly. “I can do this. I know what to look for to find good investments. I can make us money that way.”

Martin nodded slowly. It was worth a shot at least. If Annabelle couldn’t make money, then they would find something else for her to do but her confidence seemed good enough to let her take a chance at it.

“Okay, let’s see how it goes,” said Martin as he turned to look at Kelsey. “And you?”

Kelsey smiled. “I’ve found some freelance work that I can do from behind a computer. It’s entirely online, and I can work at my own pace. It doesn’t pay that great but it’ll be something that we can use to support ourselves. I’ve already tailored up your resume, and we can just pitch it as something you do on the side for extra spending cash.”

Martin started to frown. “That makes it sound like I’m going to have to go through an interview process.”

“Maybe at first,” said Kelsey quickly. “But once you’re in, I can do it from home and just pretend to be you. This way, both Annabelle and I have income flowing in.”

“And the best part is that it won’t look unusual,” said Annabelle. “You’ll have your main job, your side gig, and your investing hobby. Anybody that snoops into it is just going to think you’re a very hard worker but not necessarily that there’s any fraud going on.”

Martin liked the sound of that even better. “We’ll give this a trial run to see how it goes. I do appreciate that you’ve both tried hard to find work to help make this better. It’s still going to be a tough transition but this will certainly help us.”

Much to Martin’s surprise, Kelsey didn’t respond with words. Instead, she simply flung herself across the room until she landed in his arms.

“I’m so sorry, Martin,” she whispered. “I just want to make this right for you. I love you so much.”

In any other circumstance, Martin would have been thrilled to put the matter to bed. Rylie wanted to give this a try, and both Kelsey and Annabelle had made their amends for what they did. All would be right in his world if not for one tiny thing.

You got jerked off by Rylie this morning, dumbass!

Martin cringed as the thought bounced around his brain before he was finally able to quiet it. In the process, he ended up pushing Kelsey away, simply because the guilt was too much for him to enjoy the feeling of her body pressed against his.

If he didn’t get it all out now, there was no way his conscience would let him live with it.

CHAPTER 12

KELSEY NOTICED his reserved body language and her face seemed to register it as him still being pissed at her.

“Martin?” she whispered. “Are we okay?”

“I don’t know,” said Martin finally, as his willpower to resist broke. “I have to tell you something. Something that happened today with Rylie.”

“What happened with her?”

What came out next could best be described as word vomit.

“We were sitting in the car talking about what happened,” explained Martin quickly. “And we talked about life and how well she was taking the news considering all that happened. And I just started to get really upset since this is our fault that her whole life has to change because of us. And the more upset I got, the more she wanted to comfort me. And then something happened.”

“Martin,” said Kelsey anxiously. “What happened?”

“I . . . uh, I uh . . .”

Try as he might, he couldn’t make the words come out.

That’s when Rylie decided to step in.

“I helped him release some pressure by giving him a handy,” she said, making the universal gesture for it with her fist. “He seemed a little better afterward but truthfully, I think he needs another one with how wound up he is now.”

Martin felt the breath catch in his throat because of Rylie’s nonchalance at describing the sexual act. He wanted to close his eyes but something made him keep them trained on Kelsey to see how she was going to react.

He wouldn’t have been surprised if she slapped him or called him a name. Maybe even yelled at him for the transgression.

Kelsey kept calm though and she didn’t appear to be upset at first glance.

Annabelle’s reaction, on the other hand, was much more predictable.

“Really, you gave him a hand job?” she asked with some excitement. She bit her lip in an obvious display of arousal. “How was it?”

Rylie couldn’t help the small smile that developed. “Let’s just say that I think living with you people is going to be very interesting.”

Annabelle started to laugh but when she saw that Kelsey was now staring at her, she quickly stopped.

“What, this is what we wanted, right?” asked Annabelle a moment later. “We wanted Martin to have an incredibly sexy new playmate. This is a good thing, right?”

Annabelle’s statement caused two different reactions. For one, Rylie seemed to take very kindly to her description as being incredibly sexy. The smile that had developed stayed firmly plastered to her face.

The second reaction was that Kelsey seemed to remember the initial reason why they cloned Rylie in the first place. And for that alone, her anger seemed to mollify.

Due to both reactions, Annabelle felt emboldened enough to ask Martin another question. “How did you like it? Did you like Rylie’s hands on your cock?”

He didn’t intend to answer that but then Kelsey shot him a look that told him she expected to hear his response.

“It was . . . really nice,” said Martin, choosing his words wisely. “I don’t think anyone’s ever gotten a bad hand job.”

Rylie snorted. “You’ve never lived with my college roommate then. She had the biggest man hands you’ve ever seen. I’m sure any handy from her would feel like jerking off with sandpaper.”

That seemed to lighten the tension in the room and both Kelsey and Annabelle started to giggle in response. Martin even found himself smiling briefly at the realization that no one seemed that pissed off about what happened.

“So now what?” asked Annabelle a moment later. “Rylie is going to live with us, right? Kelsey and I are getting jobs and that means Rylie can live here, right?”

Her question seemed to be just as much for her own benefit as it was for Rylie’s.

“It’s Rylie’s decision,” said Martin. “I’m happy to let her live here with us.”

“By the sounds of it, I bet you are,” quipped Annabelle, earning another poke in the ribs from Kelsey, which was enough to make her yelp.

“So what is your decision, Rylie?” asked Kelsey, speaking up for the first time since hearing about the hand job. “You’re for sure staying here with us?”

Rylie looked first to Martin and then back to Kelsey. “I’m definitely willing to give this a try like I said earlier. I thought you guys were intriguing last night, and now it seems like I’m along for the ride now.” Rylie smirked. “Not that I have much choice in the matter.”

“Don’t worry, we’re a lot of fun once you get used to us,” promised Annabelle. “A lot of fun.”

Rylie giggled. “I can certainly tell you will be.”

CHAPTER 13

THAT SEEMED to settle the matter for that moment. Rylie and Annabelle soon descended into conversation like they were old friends instead of recent strangers, and it was almost like the whole cloning issue had been put to bed.

That was, until Martin looked over at Kelsey to see that she still looked apprehensive about the whole thing. Martin grabbed her hand softly.

“Do you want to step out on the balcony?” he asked. “Talk a little just between the two of us?”

Kelsey nodded her head eagerly. “Yes, I’d like that. It seems we have a few things to discuss.”

Martin didn’t like the sound of that but he left Rylie and Annabelle in the living room as they made themselves comfortable on the couch. They were still chattering away when Martin closed the door to the balcony, giving Kelsey and him some privacy.

The air was cool as soon as the warmth of the apartment was shut away. Now that they were alone, Martin didn’t know what to say. They were in that awkward phase where both of them had something to be upset about, and no one felt their position strong enough to start the conversation. It came as no surprise that they both started to lean against the railing, looking out on the green area behind the complex.

“It’s definitely been a crazy day,” said Kelsey finally, turning her warm brown eyes toward him.

“Crazy day indeed,” he agreed. “How are you feeling about everything?”

Kelsey shrugged. “Confused, I guess. It seems our lives have become a lot more complicated lately.”

“That’s probably more my fault than anything else,” he admitted.

Kelsey smiled weakly. “I share a role in the blame too.”

“So what do we do?”

Again, she shrugged. “Move forward, I guess?”

“You guess?”

“I mean, of course we move forward. We don’t have any other option.”

“Are you saying that because there’s no other option?” asked Martin. “Do you feel forced into being here now?”

Kelsey gave him a knowing look. “Do you really think that?”

“No, but I—”

Kelsey took his hand. “Martin, I love you. I love you, you big oaf.”

He gulped heavily. “Even after what I did?”

Kelsey’s expression changed to something more neutral. “I’ll admit—that surprised me at first. And my first instinct was to be really pissed. And disappointed.”

“But now? You make it sound like you feel differently now.”

“Annabelle was right,” she admitted. “That was the whole point in cloning Rylie. To make another playmate for us. How could I get mad when that was the intention in the first place?”

Martin said nothing to this. He turned his attention back to the green area below them.

Kelsey moved closer to him. “So how was she? Was it a good hand job?”

Even he couldn’t resist the nervous chuckle that came out. “Yes, it was good.”

“Better than the times I’ve gotten you off?”

Martin chuckled harder. “Nothing’s better than being with you.”

Kelsey wrapped her arms around him. “Now that’s a great answer.”

“So you aren’t mad then?”

“No, I’m not mad. I knew this was going to happen. It’s still a little off-putting to have to share your boyfriend with two other women but I’m getting used to it. It’s just . . .”

Kelsey paused and didn’t finish the sentence.

“It’s just what?”

Kelsey bit her lip. “I just don’t want them to diminish what we have together,” she said finally. “Martin, I was so sure that we would be married one day. I was so sure that we would spend the rest of our lives together. I love the relationship I have with you. Don’t get me wrong, I really like Annabelle and what’s developed with her. I can imagine something similar will happen with Rylie, but I just don’t want our relationship together to be any less important. You’re still the most important person in my life. I guess I just want to know that you don’t love me any less with the other women around.”

It was one of the few times that Martin had seen Kelsey truly vulnerable. She had always been more self-conscious regarding their relationship (especially before the cloning), but this admission was about as raw as it got. Every new addition had the potential to undervalue the relationship with Kelsey, simply by the fact that she would get less time than before.

If it wasn’t managed well, Kelsey could lose the favored position as first girlfriend that she so prized. And that was something that Martin wasn’t willing to sacrifice.

In response to her question, Martin kissed her soundly. She registered her shock by first gasping against his lips but she quickly got with the program when her mouth stayed glued to his. Kelsey eventually moaned into his mouth as she pressed her body firmly against his own.

When Martin broke the kiss, he looked back into the face of a flushed and breathless Kelsey.

“You’re always going to be my Kelsey,” he said firmly. “My relationship with you is the one I treasure the most. Even with Annabelle and Rylie here, you’re still the first in my heart, and that’s something they could never take away from you. For as long as we’re together, I promise that our relationship will always come first.”

Kelsey beamed with a smile. “That’s the only thing I wanted to hear you say.”

She pressed up on her toes and kissed him again. “But we should definitely make a new rule—no more clones.”

Martin started to chuckle again. “I can agree with that. No more clones. We should even remove the temptation so that it’s truly not an option. By that I mean we should get rid of the key and the badge. Then it’ll be removed from us forever.”

Kelsey nodded her head in agreement. “I’m onboard with that, but you might want to have that same discussion with Annabelle. Don’t get me wrong—I think she’s learned her lesson but she’s the one most likely to force the discussion if this ever comes up again.”

“I couldn’t agree more. I’ll talk with her.”

“I love you, Martin.”

“I love you too, Kelsey.”

She let out a sigh of happiness. “Do you think we should see what those two are doing? I feel like we’ve probably left Rylie in there too long with Annabelle.”

Martin grinned. “Yeah, there’s no telling what they’re talking about now. They’re probably still talking about the hand job if Annabelle has anything to do with it.”

Kelsey giggled. “Come on, let’s check on them.”

It turned out that Martin couldn’t have been more far off about the hand job guess.

In fact, of all the possible scenarios out there, what was happening in his living room between the two women would have been the last one he’d ever pick.

Rylie and Annabelle weren’t just talking on the couch like old friends.

No, they were now making out like two teenagers that had just discovered sex. What was even more surprising was that Rylie seemed to be the aggressor, as she had Annabelle pushed back against the back of the couch while she wormed her way onto the other woman’s lap. Their bodies were pressed together firmly, reminiscent of the way Kelsey’s had just been pushed against Martin’s, but there was one noticeable difference.

Annabelle’s shirt had been pushed up all the way, and the bra covering her massive tits had already been removed.

“Holy shit,” said Kelsey with a giggle as they watched the two women go at it.

Those two words were enough to make both Rylie and Annabelle stop their movements and look at the other two. Annabelle was the only one that seemed to be embarrassed, judging by her flushed cheeks, but Martin also wondered if that was just a side effect of kissing Rylie.

Rylie was actually looking a little hungry, and a wolf-like smile appeared on her face as she settled against Annabelle’s side.

Notably, Annabelle’s shirt remained bunched just above her tits. It was easily apparent that her nipples were hard enough to cut diamonds.

“Well, that’s the last thing I expected,” said Martin as his eyes remained glued to Annabelle’s nipples. Reluctantly, he forced himself to look at Rylie’s wolf-like smile. “Are you always so forgiving?”

Rylie giggled. “Not exactly. I’m not saying I forgive them either. I’m just getting to know my new roommate.”

“If that’s what you call getting to know someone, I’d love to know what you call hooking up,” said a breathless Annabelle as she started to fan herself.

That made Kelsey giggle hard enough to snort, which caused the rest of them to start laughing.

“So this doesn’t look like a one-time kind of thing,” said Kelsey finally, looking at Rylie. “Do you like girls?”

Rylie started to nod. “I guess you could consider me bisexual. I went through a rebellious phase about five years ago. I was fed up with guys who thought they knew how to fuck but couldn’t. So I tried out girls. I had a girlfriend for about eight months and at one point started to think I was really a lesbian.”

“What changed?” asked Annabelle.

Rylie locked eyes with Martin. “I realized that I liked sausage way too much to ever go straight taco.” As she finished the statement, she used her fingers to gently pinch Annabelle’s exposed nipple.

Kelsey let out a low whistle. “Well, this just got a whole lot more interesting.”

“I’ll say,” muttered Martin. He couldn’t help but focus on the way that Rylie was pinching Annabelle’s nipple. Annabelle looked like there was nothing she wanted more than for Rylie’s physical attention to resume, and even the sight of the two of them together was starting to have an effect on him.

An effect that was quickly noticed by Annabelle.

“Look at what we’re doing to him,” she said, pointing at Martin’s tented crotch. “I think he likes it!”

Rylie gave him a coy look as her eyes flickered between his face and his lap. “Do you like watching me with Annabelle?”

The response came out more easily than he would have liked. “What red-blooded man wouldn’t enjoy watching two women as sexy as yourselves together?”

Annabelle beamed with a smile while Rylie actually fluttered her eyelashes. “He does have a way with words, doesn’t he?”

“Wait until you try his cock,” muttered Annabelle. “It’s simply heavenly.”

Rylie grinned. “I already sampled that particular treat earlier this morning, remember?”

“No, no, I mean wait until it’s splitting you open,” said Annabelle as she puffed out her cheeks. “Huge difference there.”

Rylie looked at his tented crotch again. “Emphasis on huge, I see. Maybe I should do something about it?”

The air in the room changed. Some of the tension had been let off by the earlier laughter but Rylie’s suggestion suddenly brought it roaring back.

Annabelle nodded her agreement. “I think we should. Maybe a tag-team effort?”

Rylie looked over at her. “What did you have in mind?”

Annabelle grinned. “Just wait and see.”

CHAPTER 14

BEFORE ANNABELLE COULD DO anything else, she looked at Kelsey. “Are you okay if we help Martin get off? I don’t have anything too crazy in mind but I want to make sure you’re good with it first.”

Martin looked over at Kelsey, who had been relatively quiet until now. He could see that she wasn’t sure what to make of the events unfolding in their living room but Annabelle’s request for permission seemed to put her at ease.

“Of course,” said Kelsey finally. “Just take it slow. No need to go off the deep end right from the start, okay?”

Annabelle nodded in agreement. “I know just what I want to do.”

With those words, she crooked her finger at Martin. “Why don’t you have a seat on the couch, babe? I want to show you how much you mean to me.”

Now Martin was moving as if on auto-pilot. His feet moved heavily toward the couch, wondering what Annabelle had in store for him. Before he had a chance to sit down, she stopped him by grabbing hold of his jeans.

“We need to do something first,” she whispered, her face mere inches from his. “And that’s to free our big friend down here.”

Annabelle’s fingers pulled the zipper down slowly, and each unclasping of the brass teeth echoed throughout the room. Once the zipper was down, Annabelle moved her fingers north, taking her time with undoing the button.

Martin felt his jeans noticeably sag once the button was undone. Keeping his eyes on Annabelle, he watched her smile as she clutched the sides of his jeans and lowered them.

Suddenly, he was quite naked from the waist down. He had the immediate urge to cover himself but then he remembered that everyone in the room had already seen him naked. His hands stayed glued to his sides, even when Annabelle pushed him to sit down.

His cock bobbed as he settled onto the couch, catching the attention of every woman in the room. As Annabelle moved to lower herself, he first thought she was going to start with stimulation to his manhood, but she surprised him.

Instead, Annabelle maneuvered herself so that her big, round tits were pressed directly against his face. She used her hands to cup them, offering the exposed nipple to his lips.

“Suck please,” she whispered as the nipple touched his lip.

Martin’s mouth latched onto Annabelle’s large nipple instantly. She made a cooing sound as soon as contact was made, and Martin soon felt Annabelle grip his shoulder with more force.

If this morning had started off like hell, then heaven was definitely having Annabelle’s perfect breasts in his face. Martin just couldn’t get over how pillowy soft they were. His hands soon replaced hers under her tits, and he started to alternate between nipples, leaving a trail of saliva in the process.

“I love how you do that,” whimpered Annabelle as he twirled his tongue around her exposed nub. “I think I could cum just from this alone.”

As Annabelle’s moans got progressively louder, Martin felt nowhere close to any kind of orgasm whatsoever. His cock was still bobbing in the air, and Annabelle had made no effort to touch or tease him.

He was just beginning to wonder what her plan was when he felt a tickling sensation against his exposed thigh. It was a sensation he was familiar with, knowing how the girls’ hair usually felt when it fell against his bare skin. Martin couldn’t see who the identity was of the girl now between his legs, but that didn’t stop him from moaning as he felt a hot, warm mouth engulf his cock.

“Mmm fuck,” he groaned as the newcomer got to work immediately. Even though he couldn’t see who it was, she had an incredible technique. First, she was content to swirl her tongue along the undersides of his helmet, teasing him with the promise of more to come. Next, she used the tip of her tongue to lap at the slit, taking her time. When she was done teasing the head, she slid her tongue completely down the shaft and then up again, repeating these same motions over and over.

It wasn’t until Martin finally got a chance to take a breath from Annabelle’s amazing boobs that he was able to see Kelsey sitting on the recliner opposite of them. Her jeans had been yanked down and she was now watching the action while rubbing her clit and biting her lip.

Which meant that the person sucking his cock could only be . . .

“Fuck, that feels so good, Rylie,” groaned Martin as he saw the dark-haired newcomer attempt to deepthroat his cock. Rylie was able to repeat the gesture several times before focusing exclusively on the tip again, suctioning his cock like she couldn’t wait for the gooey inside to emerge.

Annabelle turned her head to watch Rylie in action. A wicked smile appeared on her lips.

“She’s so good with her tongue, isn’t she?” whispered Annabelle in his ear. “I only got a chance to sample it earlier, but judging by the noises you’re making, she’s really fucking good, isn’t she?”

Martin could only groan in response, nodding his head while he attempted to stave off orgasm.

“I bet you’re going to pop in her mouth soon, aren’t you, baby?” continued Annabelle. “I hope you do. I hope you like our new playmate. You have three women here just for your exclusive use. To suck and fuck whenever you want, Martin. You can certainly do whatever you want to me, any time you please. Every hole I have belongs to you, even my ass.”

Martin’s hips involuntarily bucked at the mention of Annabelle’s ass. Until this point in time, Annabelle had never given any indication that she would consider anal.

She giggled evilly and suckled on his ear lobe. “That’s right, Martin. I know I’ve been a bad girlfriend today. I want to make it up to you any way I can. That includes letting you put your throbbing hard cock in my ass. Would you like that, baby? Would you like to watch your cock disappear into my ass? I know I would. I’d love to feel that exquisite pleasure of you splitting open my backdoor. Fuck, it makes me so wet, Martin. Maybe you can wet your cock with my pussy and then push it slowly into my ass?”

If there was any man that could have withstood the onslaught of Rylie’s amazing tongue and Annabelle’s pleading for anal sex, he would probably be gay. There was no hope for Martin as his hips started to buck a moment later. He only barely warned Rylie, but she tightened her lips against the tip of his cock and soon took the full measure of his orgasm.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, I’m cumming,” he groaned as his seed flooded into Rylie’s mouth. She kept a tight seal on his helmet, milking every drop from his manhood as Annabelle kissed the sensitive spot on the side of his neck.

It was almost too perfect. Even Kelsey looked satisfied on the other side of the room, her cheeks flushed with evidence of a recent orgasm.

How did he get this lucky?’

“Fuck me, that was perfect,” cursed Martin as soon as Rylie pushed away from his manhood. He watched as she sucked down the last dollop of cum that was still lingering on her lips.

“I only had a taste of you earlier,” teased Rylie as she gave him a smoldering look. “I decided I wanted the whole thing.”

Fuck! Was there anyone sexier or cooler than Rylie?

That was when he remembered that Annabelle’s tits were still in his face. She kissed him passionately as she lowered her shirt back down over them.

“I meant what I said,” she whispered to him. “Any time you want my backdoor, it’s yours. I love you, Martin.”

Needless to say, the day was certainly looking up.

CHAPTER 15

WHILE MARTIN WOULD HAVE LOVED to say that the rest of the day devolved into some kind of bacchanalian orgy, nothing of the sort happened. It was already late in the afternoon, and just about everyone was hungry and completely emotionally exhausted. After getting a bite to eat, Kelsey was the one to show Rylie around the apartment, making her comfortable with her surroundings and where she’d be staying. They made plans to get Rylie some clothes of her own the following day, and Rylie was given the spare bedroom that was usually occupied by Annabelle.

For that night at least, Rylie would sleep on her own while Annabelle joined Martin and Kelsey in the main bedroom. Despite the circumstances of the day, sleep came easily to Martin that night. He was just too exhausted to let his moral demons take hold and keep him awake. Instead, he became the big spoon to Kelsey’s little, while Annabelle pressed in on his other side. They slept like that for just about the entire night.

In the morning, Martin was the first one to wake up in the main bedroom. Kelsey was still spooning with him but Annabelle had moved to the edge of the bed, allowing him the chance to get up without waking either of them.

It was still very early, and Martin figured they’d sleep for another hour or so before stirring. Yet, as he made his way out to the living room, he saw he wasn’t the first one awake.

Rylie was sitting out on the balcony. She had a fleece blanket from the living room draped around her comfortably, and she seemed to be deep in thought.

Martin turned toward the kitchen and quickly brewed two cups of coffee before making his way to the balcony. She stirred a little when she heard the door open, but a warm smile filled her face as she saw the cup in his hands.

“Figured you might want some coffee,” said Martin as he handed the mug over. “Chilly mornings like this one are perfect for it.”

Rylie mouthed the words thank you. “I was just thinking I could use something to warm me up.”

“How did you sleep last night?”

“Surprisingly well,” said Rylie, looking over at him. “You?”

“Ditto. It would seem that the day was just too long for me to stay awake thinking about how much my life just changed in twenty-four hours.”

Rylie giggled. “That’s a good way of putting it. Either way, this is a much better morning today than it was yesterday.”

“To say the least,” added Martin with a chuckle. “Especially with no one freaking out or yelling to start off the day.”

“I don’t know though,” said Rylie as she shot him a flirty look. “I didn’t wake up today with anyone cupping my boobs. So that’s one thing going against it.”

Martin nearly sputtered on his coffee. For several moments, he didn’t know how to reply to that. Even though Rylie had given him head the night before, they hadn’t really said anything about a sexual relationship between them, other than Rylie’s not-so-subtle innuendo that she kept throwing out.

Perhaps it really was time to get it all out in the open?

“Yeah about that,” said Martin, testing the waters. “Maybe we can make that a regular arrangement moving forward?”

Rylie arched her eyebrows at him. “What did you have in mind?”

“All I’m saying is that if you stay here with us, you’ll have a lot more chances for good morning wake-up routines,” said Martin, instantly hating his choice of words.

Good morning wake-up routines? Are you serious?

Rylie let out a laugh and then gave him a weird look. “What other ‘wake-up routines’ did you have in mind?”

“Maybe that was the wrong choice of phrase.”

“No, no,” she interrupted. “I’m curious to hear where you’re going with this.”

She had him dead to rights and there was no option but to keep moving forward. Martin let out a long sigh.

“I’m just saying that you seem to like fooling around with me as much as I did,” he said honestly. “No reason that has to stop now that we’re living together.”

Rylie’s lips parted into a beaming grin. “See? That wasn’t so hard to get out, was it?”

She started to laugh when she saw the look on his face.

“Come on, Martin. Listen, I’m used to guys acting weird around me,” she explained. “I like you the best when you just act like I’m a regular person. Most guys see me and they look at my modeling career and they clam up and can’t get their words out right. Don’t be one of those guys, okay? Just say how you feel.”

“Easier said than done,” quipped Martin. “Have you looked in the mirror lately?”

Even wrapped in a fleece blanket and sporting some bedhead, Rylie still looked drop dead-gorgeous. And every time he looked at her, his brain couldn’t help but remind him that she’d given him head the day before.

“I look in the mirror every day,” she retorted. “I’m just a normal person. Or a normal clone, whatever. The point I’m trying to make is don’t treat me like I’m any different than anyone else. Say what you think and say what you feel. Like right now, what are you thinking?”

The words came tumbling out before he could reel them back in. “I’m thinking about how awesome it was watching you suck my cock yesterday.”

Martin turned red almost as soon as they were out but Rylie actually grinned. “See? Now that’s some real honesty. I like that, Martin. And for what it’s worth, I liked it too. I wouldn’t mind tasting you on a regular basis.”

“I’d like to do a lot more than just that,” he continued.

Rylie giggled and leaned forward, letting the fleece blanket fall away from her body. She was wearing one of Annabelle’s shirts, and judging by her nipples underneath, she wasn’t wearing a bra.

“Oh, yeah? Like maybe get me naked?” she asked as her fingers teased at the hem of her shirt. “What would you do if I flashed you right now?”

“Uh, die and go to heaven,” replied Martin.

Rylie continued to laugh. “Great answer!”

Then without any warning whatsoever, Rylie lifted the shirt quickly for the fastest flash ever. For a brief moment, Martin’s eyes feasted on her perfectly formed tits and her exposed nipple. He was struck by how incredibly perky they were, and now he saw why Rylie wasn’t wearing a bra.

She simply didn’t need one.

“Holy crap,” he said soon after the flash.

Rylie grinned at him. “Play your cards right and you’ll get to see more. And eventually do more.”

It was hard not to appreciate just how awesome Rylie really was. Her entire world had changed twenty-four hours ago, and she was acting like she’d been living in this arrangement for months if not years.

She just seemed utterly unflappable, and Martin couldn’t help but respect it.

She must have noticed him getting lost in his head because she poked him a moment later. “What are you thinking about now? Still trying to freeze the picture of my tits into your memory?”

Martin chuckled. “Yes and no. I was just thinking that I’m so glad it was you that we ran into Friday night. This could have been a catastrophe. If it was anyone else, it could not have turned out this well. But you’re just so fun and awesome. I’m just so grateful that it was you and not anyone else. I doubt whether anyone else would have been able to make this work like you could.”

Rylie seemed to genuinely appreciate the comment. She reached out and touched his arm. “Thank you, Martin. For what it’s worth, I’m not regretting this. I may not have been able to control the circumstances of my creation but all three of you have gone out of your way to make me feel welcomed. It’s going to be interesting and I’m sure we’ll have our share of growing pains, but I’m glad to be here too.”

“I guess Annabelle really did get her way,” muttered Martin a moment later. “She really got you into the sex harem.”

Rylie started to giggle. “She did, didn’t she? Although, we technically haven’t had sex yet.”

“Yet,” echoed Martin as he looked at her. “But I have to guess we’ll get there eventually?”

“It’s a definite possibility,” she teased in return. “As long as you don’t screw it up.”

“If there’s one thing you’ve learned in the last twenty-four hours, it’s that I’m the king of screw-ups,” said Martin.

Rylie shook her head as she reached over to touch his thigh. “Oh, you’re not doing so bad. A little rough around the edges, but then again, that’s kind of how I am too.”

“Well, I’m glad that you feel that way. And I hope it’s a good thing for you to stay here with us. I mean, I hope you don’t regret it.”

“I hope so too,” she agreed. “And who knows? Maybe I’ll like it so much that I won’t want to leave. Maybe I’ll be in your sex harem forever.”

Martin cracked a smile. “There are a lot of things that would be worse than that.”

She leaned in closer. “Does that mean I have to get an online job too?”

“For now, let’s just worry about quality of life,” he said with a chuckle. “Let’s make sure you’re happy first.”

“I like that,” she replied. Rylie then began to fiddle with the fleece blanket around her. “You know, it’s funny the way we’ve done things.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that I jerked you off yesterday, Martin,” she said bluntly. “And then I gave you head while your other girlfriend let you suck on her tits. We basically had a threesome and we haven’t even kissed yet.”

“Oh, that,” said Martin. “Well, who says the kiss has to come first? Maybe kisses are better off coming after the threesome?”

Rylie giggled. “Is that how the young kids are doing it these days?”

“From what I hear!”

Rylie turned to face him. “Well, seeing as we have the threeway out of the way, maybe we should have our first kiss then, hmm?”

Martin looked seriously into Rylie’s eyes before they flickered down to her lips. They were the same lips that had been wrapped around his cock yesterday, and now she wanted to do something that was seemingly innocent by comparison.

If that was the case, why was he so nervous about it?

“Just one kiss,” whispered Rylie as she leaned closer to him. “Just to see how it feels.”

That reasoning was good enough for him. Martin leaned forward until there was nowhere left to go.

Their lips collided together next. Rylie inhaled deeply as their lips mashed together, sending shockwaves of pleasure throughout his body. Her lips were just as soft as they looked, and they felt damn good against his own. He even loved the sweet scent of her body, that tiny whiff of Rylie that he got from being this close to her (and that wasn’t even including the smell of their coffee).

It was over quicker than he wanted it to be. When Martin finally opened his eyes, Rylie was giving him a demure look.

“Very nice,” she purred. “I can see why you’re the kind of guy who has three gorgeous women at your beck and call. You really know how to kiss.”

Martin gestured toward the bedroom where Annabelle and Kelsey still were. “I’ve had a lot of practice in the last couple months.”

Rylie gigged. “I bet you have. Well, I guess you’re just going to have to get used to getting even more practice now.”

She didn’t need to expand on that. The veiled promise made him hopeful for what a future with Rylie might look like. If the four of them could truly learn to live and share together, the future could be a very happy (and slightly exhausting) place.

The only thing he had to do first was make sure Kelsey and Annabelle were onboard with the addition of Rylie to the group as an official (and sexual) member, which was different from just allowing Rylie to live there. And while he knew that Annabelle would be easy to convince, he was still uncertain if Kelsey would approve, especially after the events of the last twenty-four hours.

Still, it had to be done. And Martin made sure it was a topic that would come up when the other two girls got out of bed.

CHAPTER 16

IT TURNED out that conversation would have to wait until later in the day. Annabelle emerged from the bedroom triumphantly a short while later, this time already dressed to kill with a pair of tight, dark-blue jeans and an emerald-colored blouse that really brought out the color of her eyes. Judging by the condition of her hair, she’d already been working on it for half an hour.

Simply put, Annabelle was dressed to kill.

“It’s time to go shopping!” she announced proudly as she took her seat at the kitchen table. “We need to get Rylie some clothing of her own as well as some basic necessities.”

It turned out that only Annabelle was in the mood for shopping at that particular moment. A still sleepy Kelsey emerged in the kitchen right after Annabelle finished speaking.

Kelsey let out a yawn before she started talking. “It’s only eight o’clock. Can’t this wait until the rest of us are fully awake?”

Annabelle grinned and shook her head. “You’re on your feet, which is all the evidence I need that you’re awake and ready to get this show on the road.”

Kelsey gave her a glare. “Ever heard of sleepwalking?”

Apparently, Annabelle had not, and she marched all of them to their closets to get ready for the day. Martin ended up spending the next five hours driving from mall to mall, finishing the day with a hefty credit card bill and more than ten bags worth of clothing and accessories.

Of course, the shopping had been the easy part. The harder part was keeping anyone from figuring out who Rylie was, which was a serious task in itself. Although Rylie was more famous in the southern states, they always ran the risk that someone would recognize her in their little city.

For that reason, disguising Rylie became the name of the game. The first thing that had to be done was to hide her face, especially given Rylie’s lustrous, dark hair, which was her most memorable feature. She was given a beige beanie hat that currently belonged to Kelsey (and was most appropriate for the weather) as well as a pair of thick sunglasses to hide most of her face.

That seemed to do the trick, and even traversing through the various malls, there wasn’t a single time when anyone recognized Rylie. However, Rylie wasn’t happy about the solution whatsoever.

“I can’t do this forever,” said Rylie as she took off her sunglasses in the car afterward. “I’m just supposed to cover my face everywhere I go? I might as well put on a burka this way!”

“She brings up a good point,” said Kelsey. “This might be easier now when it’s winter but this is going to get a lot harder when the weather gets warmer. We can’t expect her to wear sunglasses everywhere we go.”

Rylie huffed and grabbed some of her hair. “I should just chop off my hair. No one would recognize me if not for my dark hair.”

“Yeah, trust me, you don’t want to go for the chemo look,” advised Annabelle. “Been there, and it’s not fun.”

“What other solution do we have though?” asked Martin. “What about a different color for your hair? You can still keep the length but what if we changed it to something else?”

Rylie seemed to consider that for a moment. She looked around at each of them. “Do you think I would look good as a redhead?”

All three of them turned to look at Rylie as their imagination tried to picture her with lustrous red locks.

“I don’t know,” said Kelsey, still studying it from the front seat. “I think it could work. Maybe a darker color though like auburn. What do you think, Martin?”

“I think Rylie would be sexy with any kind of hair,” said Martin.

Rylie grinned. “But red though? I’m not fooling myself, am I?”

“Let’s give it a try,” said Annabelle. “We can always wash it out if we don’t like it.”

Rylie shrugged. “I’m willing to give it a try if you are.”

And so that settled the matter. Martin hoped that even just a small, superficial change like hair color would help to disguise Rylie from the majority of people. Of course, it didn’t solve the question entirely, and Rylie was still in the same boat as the other two with having to maintain secrecy about their very existence.

For now though, it was good enough. They arrived back at the apartment that afternoon, and after spending most of the day on their feet, everyone just kind of crashed on the couch. Thankfully, his L-shaped couch was still big enough for four, and that was even with Martin stretched out with his feet up (which caused Kelsey to put them in her lap and start to rub them). Rylie and Annabelle took the opposite side and really got comfortable, reclining into the soft material.

It seemed that now was the best time of any to bring up Rylie’s addition to the group, and once Martin cleared his throat, he found three sets of eyes on him.

“So there’s something we should all talk about,” said Martin as he took a turn looking at each woman. “Something that we’ve kind of danced around but never really came to a full consensus about. And that’s about Rylie’s inclusion in the group.”

“I thought we settled this,” said Annabelle quickly. “Rylie is going to live here, right?” She turned to look at Rylie directly. “You’re not going anywhere else, right?”

“Right,” confirmed Rylie before looking back at Martin. “But I think Martin is getting at something different than just my living conditions.”

“Yeah, I meant about our particular situation,” said Martin, feeling his cheeks go red. “You know about our . . . relationship.”

Annabelle started to nod her head. “Oh, so you mean . . . our carnal relationship?”

“Carnal?” asked Rylie with a giggle. “No need to be so scientific about it. We’re talking about sex after all.”

“That’s just how Annabelle is,” added Kelsey. “She’s all brain, and if you give her enough time, she’ll start sprouting off a bunch of words I’ve never even heard of.”

“Good to know,” said Rylie, continuing to laugh. “Anyway, not to steal Martin’s thunder, but he and I had a long chat about it this morning. Obviously, we fooled around a little yesterday. I liked it and I know that he did too, right, Martin?”

“Right,” he answered, and he found himself having a hard time looking Kelsey in the eyes. Despite the absurdity of their enlarged relationship, he still felt his first loyalty to Kelsey, and that meant her approval meant the most of anyone’s.

“So I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t keep fooling around,” said Rylie as she looked at the other two women. “And that goes beyond just living here. I want to make sure you both are okay with that.”

“It’s more than fine with me,” said Annabelle quickly, and to no one’s surprise. “I’m happy to share Martin with you as long as he shares you with me!”

That caused a few muted chuckles and even Rylie started to flush in her cheeks. “I’m definitely fine with that,” she added before she locked eyes with Kelsey. “But I get the impression that you’re the one that needs to be the most onboard with this for it to work.”

Kelsey crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Why do you say that?”

Rylie gave her a knowing look. “Come on, I wasn’t born yesterday. Well, I might have been cloned yesterday but I’ve been alive for a long time. It’s not hard to see that you’re the first girlfriend and that Martin walks eggshells around you. At one time, it was just you and him, wasn’t it?”

“A long time ago,” said Kelsey. “Or so it feels like now.” She turned to look at Annabelle. “That wasn’t a dig at you, but sometimes it feels like the time when it was just Martin and I was another lifetime ago.”

Annabelle reached over and touched Kelsey’s knee. “It’s okay, no offense taken. And you’re technically right about that. It was another lifetime ago.”

Kelsey started to nod but then Rylie continued talking. “So how does this make you feel then? Having another woman around? It seems like you’ve allowed Annabelle into your relationship with Martin but could you do it again? Would seeing intimacy between Martin and I disturb you?”

“I don’t think disturb would be the right word,” answered Kelsey. “It doesn’t bother me as much to see you give him head or to know that you gave him a hand job before that. That’s just sex, and he’s still a guy. He can still love me while having sex with both of you. I guess what worries me the most is having my relationship with Martin diluted, if that makes sense. I don’t want him to fall out of love with me because he has other women to take care of him.”

For the second time in as many days, Kelsey had shared a very personal and raw detail. One look at her face showed the anxiety that was there right below the surface—the fear of losing him to someone else. If anything, it made Martin scoot closer to her and take Kelsey in his arms.

“You would never lose me, I can promise you that,” he whispered to her. “Do you remember the rules we instituted when Annabelle came along?”

Kelsey nodded her head. “What about them?”

“What was the most important rule? The one where our relationship comes first before all else, remember?”

Kelsey smiled. “I liked that rule the most.”

“Well, that rule is never going out of effect,” said Martin firmly. He turned to look at the other women. “I loved Kelsey first. And even though I love Annabelle now and I might be able to love Rylie in the future, I loved Kelsey first. And her feelings come first. So if you’re asking me if I’m onboard with this new change, the answer is yes, as long as Kelsey is onboard with it too.”

With those words, all eyes centered on Kelsey. She had a hard time deciding where she wanted to look and mostly her gaze fell on Martin.

“You promise that you’ll always love me?” she whispered, mostly for his benefit.

Martin nodded. “Without question.”

Kelsey let out the smallest smile. “As long as I have your love, I’m not afraid of anything. Even if that means we let Rylie into the group officially.”

“Does that mean what I think it means?” asked Annabelle, looking like she was on the verge of celebration.

Kelsey nodded and looked at Rylie. “I’m accepting of your membership in this relationship. As long as you respect the rules, I’m good with it.”

“Speaking of rules, that brings up a good question,” said Annabelle a moment later. “When I first joined, we had a rule about no penetration but everything else was allowed. Are we still keeping that rule?”

Kelsey shook her head. “No, because that rule didn’t work out anyway. It was less than a week before it was broken and you had Martin buried inside you.”

Annabelle let out a brief smile as she remembered the moment but then she put on a more serious face as she remembered how painful it was to Kelsey.

“In any event, I’ve learned that I can’t make those kinds of rules and expect them to be followed,” continued Kelsey. “So there’s no rule on that. They can have sex if they want to.”

That was when Rylie intervened by putting her hands up. “I appreciate that, but Martin and I aren’t at that point yet. I know things probably seemed like they were happening quickly yesterday but we just had our first kiss this morning. Playing around is one thing but actual sex is another, at least to me. I’m in no hurry to get to that point just yet.”

Nothing else more could have been said to pacify Kelsey’s anxieties. She actually smiled. “I’m relieved to hear that in a way. That will give me more time to digest what that will look like, so thank you.”

Rylie started to giggle. “Besides, the way I see things, we’re missing out on a very important part?”

Martin looked confused. “What part is that?”

Rylie elbowed Annabelle in the ribs softly. “Just because I’m intimate with Martin doesn’t mean that I won’t be intimate with you two either. I like girls too, and I already know that Annabelle seems to be open to it.”

Annabelle started to laugh. “See? This is why I did what I did. I knew Rylie would be a fun addition to our group.”

Kelsey threw a pillow at her for even bringing up such a sensitive subject but all it did was cause all four of them to start laughing harder.

“Listen, I know what Annabelle’s tongue can do,” said Kelsey after the laughter started to die down. “But I primarily like boys first.”

“Don’t we all?” asked Rylie with a shrug. “But that doesn’t mean that you won’t get to appreciate my tongue either.”

“I think you should show her what your tongue can do,” said Annabelle.

Rylie gave Annabelle a coy look. “Why don’t we show her together?”

Annabelle clapped her hands together giddily. “I’d love to!”

CHAPTER 17

WITH THOSE WORDS, both women pushed off the couch and stalked around Kelsey like she was some kind of helpless prey. Kelsey threw her hands up to push them back playfully, but her little frame was no use, especially when compared to the other two, who were bigger than she was.

Kelsey still playfully pretended to complain as they yanked her jeans down, bringing her little blue thong with them. Martin might have stopped them but it became obvious by the way Kelsey wasn’t fighting them that she wanted it to continue.

“You can’t just manhandle me like this,” protested Kelsey playfully as Annabelle and Rylie dropped between her thighs. “And you really should ask me first if you can do this!”

Annabelle rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue, making contact with Kelsey’s clit. She wiggled it along Kelsey’s hot button before dipping it lower to slide along her wet slit.

In the process, all of Kelsey’s protests stopped. She bit her tongue soon after.

When Annabelle was done, she put on her best smile. “Pretty please, can we lick your pussy, Kelsey?”

Kelsey sighed and then blew a piece of hair away from her face. “I suppose,” she said grudgingly as she slid her hips closer to the other two.

What developed next was like a scene out of the hottest porno Martin had ever seen. Both Rylie and Annabelle took turns licking every square inch between Kelsey’s thighs. They even worked together well, as Rylie focused on Kelsey’s clit while Annabelle moved her head lower, lapping at her open slit.

In the process, Kelsey went from sensible and coherent to out of control in a matter of minutes.

“Please take your cock out,” she pleaded to Martin. “I need it in my hands. Now!”

Not to be denied, Martin fished his cock out of his jeans and laid back next to Kelsey on the couch. She continued to squirm and moan as the girls took their turns on her while she jerked his cock, occasionally using her own saliva to lubricate her motions.

Soon though, Kelsey’s body was on the verge of a massive orgasm. Martin could tell she was close by her sputtering breathing as well as the fact that there was nothing resembling coordination as she tried to stroke his cock.

Kelsey turned her face to look at him. Her eyes were half closed and her mouth was wide open. “Oh my god, it feels so good.”

Martin grinned. “You like what their tongues can do, don’t you?”

Kelsey nodded but then her trance-like state was interrupted when she gripped his arm suddenly. “I’m going to need your cock soon. Just as soon as . . . I cum.”

Those were the last words she was able to get out before her back arched dramatically and she let out a loud, mewling cry. Both Rylie and Annabelle eased up on their efforts as the smaller brunette’s body convulsed with every shimmer of pleasure.

When it was all over, Kelsey gulped heavily and opened her eyes, a lazy smile appearing on her lips.

“That was just . . . lovely.”

“I’ll say,” agreed Rylie as she rubbed Kelsey’s thighs. “You taste pretty good. Something I could get used to.”

“I told you that she was simply delectable,” said Annabelle to Rylie. “Everyone that lives in this apartment is just yummy.”

“I need something now though,” announced Kelsey as she pushed up on her elbows.

“What’s that?” asked Annabelle.

Kelsey’s fingers wrapped around Martin’s cock. “I really need to get fucked.”

That was how Martin found himself as the one between Kelsey’s thighs next, his cock sinking into her tight, wet hole at an increasingly faster pace. Kelsey couldn’t have been more primed and ready for action. There wasn’t the slightest bit of resistance as he slid his cock all the way inside on the first stroke. She’d been completely readied by the tongues of Rylie and Annabelle, and it didn’t take long for her and Martin to reach a steady cadence.

“Oh, god, oh fuck me!” cried Kelsey as she bucked her hips against Martin’s.

Rylie and Annabelle weren’t exactly idle during this time either. No, both women appeared on either side of Kelsey and helped to push her blouse up over her tits. Annabelle reached behind to unclasp her bra, letting Kelsey’s perfect, light brown nipples into view.

“Wow,” said Rylie as soon as Kelsey was exposed. “I thought you had some nice ones hiding under your clothes and I’m glad to see I was right. Your tits are simply incredible.”

Kelsey giggled awkwardly. “Thanks, I guess?”

“It’s a bad idea to talk to her when she’s getting fucked,” advised Annabelle as she lowered her head to Kelsey’s chest. “Just do what I’m doing.”

With those words, Annabelle captured Kelsey’s exposed nipple into her mouth and started sucking. Not one to miss anything, Rylie did the same to Kelsey’s other breast, and for the next several minutes, Kelsey had the full attention of all three people.

The thing about getting the undivided attention of three lovers was that most didn’t have the fortitude to withstand such pleasure for very long. The same was true of Kelsey. With stimulation on both nipples as well as Martin’s cock hitting just the right spot inside her with every thrust, she soon hit the waves of another powerful orgasm.

“I’m cumming! I’m cumming!” she announced a moment later. The change in her body was instantaneous. Martin felt an intense squeezing of her vaginal muscles around his cock. That was coupled with the excessive wetness caused by her orgasm and he soon found himself on the brink of losing control as well.

Martin unloaded completely inside her body. He grunted several times as thick spurts of cum left his body and splattered deeply into hers. While the two enjoyed their orgasms, they were watched silently by Rylie and Annabelle. Although Martin had no way of knowing it just yet, he was in store for one more treat today.

As soon as he pulled out of Kelsey, he could see a thick dollop of cum slide out of her well-fucked hole and start moving south. This was when Annabelle did something that surprised him.

“Come on, this is the best part,” she said, gesturing to Rylie. The two women soon moved between Kelsey’s thighs once more. Before Kelsey could even react, Annabelle stuck out her tongue and captured that heavy glob of cum.

“Mmm, you two taste delicious,” she said, swallowing it all. She then looked over at Rylie. “If you think they taste good separately, try them together.”

Sure enough, Rylie repeated the gesture. She had to use her tongue to really get inside Kelsey’s pussy but when it emerged, she had a silvery trail of semen on the tip that she quickly swallowed.

If that wasn’t hot enough, Annabelle dove in next to get another healthy dollop. Not content to swallow it on her own, she instead kissed Rylie passionately, snowballing Martin and Kelsey’s mixed juices into the other woman’s mouth.

“Holy shit,” muttered Martin as he watched the two of them. Had he not just came, he might have been ready to go again from just such a sight.

Once the two of them were finished, Annabelle let out a dazzling smile at both Martin and Kelsey. “See? Wasn’t I right about Rylie? She fits in perfectly!”

“If this is a normal day with Rylie, then I have to say I’m quite pleased,” said Kelsey, still trying to catch her breath.

“So I’m in the group?” asked Rylie. “No joke?”

Martin grinned. “Welcome to the group, Rylie.”

Annabelle started to clap her hands and then assumed the position on her hands and knees on the couch. She started to lower her jeans, revealing her exposed ass. “Now it’s my turn. Which one of you two is going to eat Martin’s cum from my pussy?”

The only thing Martin could do was laugh. How did his life end up this way?

CHAPTER 18

THE DAY after the inaugural welcome-to-the-group orgy with Rylie was a Monday, and that meant Martin had to go back to work. Like usual, he was the first to get out of bed, moving slowly so as not to wake Kelsey, who showed every sign of still being in a deep sleep.

Annabelle was another story though. Her eyes fluttered open several times, and at one point, she even seemed to notice him as he got out of bed. Martin thought she might join him at first, seeing as she was used to getting up early to go to work at RI, but she stayed comfortable under the blankets by the time he left the room.

Notably, Rylie’s door was still shut as well. It looked like there would be no repeat of the early morning balcony chat like they shared the day before.

Martin made his way to the kitchen and put on a pot of coffee before hopping in the shower to get cleaned up. It wasn’t surprising that his morning shower routine was his favorite time of day, allowing him the chance to think through his problems under the massaging warmth of the shower sprayer.

Mostly, he thought about just how much his life had changed. Six months ago, he was like a dead man walking. He was still hung up on a dead girlfriend and going into work each morning was the only thing he had to look forward to.

What a difference six months had made. Now he had three live-in girlfriends, who were all just as sexy as the next, and that wasn’t even mentioning the fact that they were all partly or fully bisexual. He was living every man’s fantasy life, and although there were still some major pitfalls about his choices in the past six months, he was generally a very happy man at life’s turn of events.

And today, he would officially take the new post as the latest manager at RI. While the news about Rylie’s cloning had largely overshadowed the changes in his professional life that weekend, Martin had to wonder what life at RI would look like moving forward. He would now be put in charge of his department of analysts, and the corresponding bump in pay would be very welcome indeed with his growing number of roommates.

One thing that Martin kept coming back to was the perks of management, at least the perks that had been vaguely described to him by Claire the week before. While he had prior knowledge that RI was doing some very illegal things behind closed doors, just how much did the rest of management know about what was occurring?

Part of him also wondered what he still didn’t know yet. How deep did this rabbit hole go?

Most importantly, how could he keep his nose clean so that management didn’t find out about his prior transgressions?

There were too many variables here, and none of them could be worked out relatively quickly. Martin just wanted to get into the job and see what happened. In fact, he was still thinking about that as he ate a modest breakfast when he noticed Annabelle shuffling into the kitchen, her eyes still partly closed from being half-asleep.

“There you are,” said Martin pleasantly as she sat down next to him. “I was wondering if you were going to get out of bed before I left.”

Annabelle leaned forward and kissed his cheek before letting herself fully relax in her chair. “It was tempting to stay asleep but I figured I ought to get out of bed now.”

“Why’s that?”

She shrugged. “If I didn’t get out now, I wouldn’t get out of bed until noon.”

Martin chuckled. “You’re really enjoying not having to get up on a schedule, aren’t you?”

Surprisingly, Annabelle shook her head. “Not really, but I’ve just let myself become too comfortable with sleeping in. It’s a habit that I want to break. In all honesty, I wanted to take the morning to set up the stock trading account that we talked about yesterday.”

Martin had almost forgotten about that little bit of information. Not that it wasn’t a good idea, but more because having the first foursome of his life tended to overshadow just about anything else.

“Getting a start on that today? That’s awesome,” he replied as he took a sip of coffee. “Do you need anything from me before you get set up?”

Annabelle scrunched her face together like a teenager about to ask for the keys to the family car. “Just your bank information and a small down payment for the account.”

Martin flinched. “Just how large of a deposit are we talking about here?”

Annabelle actually smiled. “Well, how much do you love me?”

Martin started to laugh. “Just answer the question.”

“Well, it looks like about ten should do the trick,” she said quickly. “I’ll be able to start making serious money if we start at ten.”

His eyes bulged. “Ten? As in ten thousand? You’re serious?”

Annabelle nodded. “Most places won’t let you get started without throwing in some serious cash in the beginning. And the more you put in, the more you have the chance to get back.”

Martin groaned. “Something tells me I’m going to regret this.”

“I promise that I’ll be responsible with the money,” she pledged, even raising her right hand like the best scout in the world. “You do have that money saved up, right?”

“I do, but it’s from a pot of money that’s rapidly dwindling with all these shopping trips,” said Martin. “You’re lucky I just got promoted.”

Annabelle shook her head. “No, what’s lucky is that you have someone as intelligent as me about to run your stock portfolio, baby. I know I can make us a lot of money.”

On that factor, Martin was onboard. If anything, it reminded him of a conversation he had with Annabelle before, the one about purpose.

“I hope that in a small way, it helps you get some of your purpose back,” he said quietly. “You remember how we talked about that before? How not working at RI had you feeling stuck in neutral?”

Annabelle nodded her head. “I was thinking the same thing too. I really like this idea, mostly because I think it will give me something to look forward to professionally. And maybe you’re right. This will give me my sense of purpose again.”

Martin smiled. “I certainly hope so. Especially with the price tag to get started.”

“Sure, but it’s just the first entry to start the account,” she countered before she reached over to entwine her fingers with his own. “I won’t let you down. I can promise you that!”

Martin gave her a knowing look. “Kind of like when you didn’t let me down by not cloning someone without my permission?”

Of all the subtle digs that morning, that one struck pay dirt. Annabelle’s positivity vanished, and Martin felt like he went too far just as soon as the words were out.

“I’m sorry, Annabelle. That came out a little more harsh than I intended,” said Martin, squeezing her hand. “I really wasn’t trying to be an asshole.”

Annabelle relaxed after a moment and thankfully, she didn’t pull her hand away. “You have a right to still be mad at me. I know that no matter what I do to make amends, Rylie is here for good. I can’t take it back.”

“No, but it could have turned out a lot worse than it actually is. I think Rylie is going to fit in well with us. If it was someone else, maybe someone a lot less easygoing, this could have been a problem.” Martin cracked a grin. “At least you picked someone like Rylie who is fun and breezy.”

Annabelle smiled back. “See? My picker works wonders. I picked you because I knew you would be a really good person. I picked Rylie into the group as well, and that same picker is going to find us some stocks that are going to make all of us filthy rich!”

Martin couldn’t help but chuckle. “If you make us rich, you’ll never hear another complaint about this again, I promise.”

“If I make us rich, maybe I can clone more girls then?” asked Annabelle hopefully. It was evident by her voice that she was half-teasing but the look in her eyes almost seemed a little too genuine.

“No,” said Martin firmly, shaking his head. “I think we should learn our lesson from this time. I get that cloning Rylie as a new playmate sounds like a lot of fun, and in a way, it has been a lot of fun so far, but we need to think about our collective safety first.”

“I know,” said Annabelle as her shoulders slumped. “I’m not going to clone anyone else, I promise.”

“Well, just in case, I’m going to get rid of the tools to do so,” said Martin. “That way, there will be no temptation of any kind. Even if all of us wanted to, we’d never be able to do it again.”

Annabelle let out a small, defeated sigh. “Probably the best course of action in the long run. I hate to admit it, but it almost scares me in a way.”

“Scares you? What scares you?”

“That I felt like I didn’t have control. That even though I could piece together that cloning Rylie was a bad idea, it was like my impulse control just went out the window. I’ve never felt that way before, Martin. I’ve always had a relatively quiet life, and I’ve never given into random impulses like bad influences or boys or drugs or things like that. I don’t know why I started to do it now. Why is the clone me different from the old me?”

That made a lot of sense and it made Martin reflect on the Annabelle he knew before the cloning. Quite and calm Annabelle was always an intelligent girl, but she showed none of the zest or passion that the clone Annabelle displayed. Martin always attributed this to the cancer, but part of him had to wonder if any of it could be tied back to the cloning process itself.

That was when everything just seemed to click into place.

Martin found his mouth hanging open as he put it all together, something that Annabelle seemed to notice as well.

“What is it?” she asked. “You look like you just discovered the next law of thermodynamics or something.”

“Not quite but I think I might be onto something,” said Martin. “There’s something that’s been bugging me for some time now and I think I’ve just put it together. You mentioned before about the old you not being so impulsive. What if you were cloned to be more impulsive?”

Annabelle’s eyes narrowed. “Like my genome was edited to make me more inclined to impulsive behavior?”

“Exactly,” said Martin, snapping his fingers. “What if all the clones are like that? Or what if it’s your default state? I’ve been wondering about this for some time now. I noticed it with Kelsey when she was first cloned. It used to be that Kelsey was a lot more self-conscious when she was still alive. I’m talking self-conscious as in could only make love with the lights turned off kind of girl.”

Annabelle made a face. “That sounds terribly dull.”

“But the clone Kelsey wanted to have sex in public dressing rooms and wanted to wear lingerie all over the house while we fucked in broad daylight,” continued Martin. “I didn’t think anything of it at the time but then you came along.”

“And you kept noticing things?”

Martin nodded. “Like you just said, you’re a lot different from your original clone in a select few ways. The original Annabelle was very quiet and kept to herself. She was the brains of RI but she had none of the personality that you have now.”

Annabelle felt the need to get a bit defensive. “Hey now, it’s not like I was a wallflower exactly. I just had a lot of things on my plate!”

Martin raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. “I’m not insulting you in any way, I promise. Just things I’ve noticed. You’ve been aggressive in terms of getting girls, and this latest episode with Rylie seems very out of character. What if that’s not by accident? What if it’s part of the cloning process?”

Annabelle thought about it for a moment and then started to nod. “I mean, it would make sense. I’ve done some things in the last few weeks that I never thought I would do before. Don’t get me wrong, I love being here with all of you, but if you would have told me before I died that I’d be snowballing my boyfriend’s cum out of one girl’s pussy to share with another girl, I’d assume you were crazy.”

“That’s exactly what I’m talking about,” said Martin. “And it brings up another point. I knew before the cloning that the clones come out more sexual than they were before. I never stopped to ask myself why though. Maybe this ties into that? Maybe whoever is in charge of this at RI is doing this on purpose?”

Annabelle seemed to really catch on at that point. “Because if you’re secretly cloning humans behind the back of the general public, you’d be doing it for only a handful of reasons. And if one of those reasons includes making your own sex slave, you’d want her to be very sexual and you’d want her to be a lot more impulsive so that she takes charge in the bedroom. That makes a lot of sense, Martin.”

“Yes, it does. But now, how do we prove it?” he said, leaning back in his chair.

Annabelle joined him in thought and only spoke up after a minute of silence. “Maybe it’s something that you’ll figure out now that you’re joining the ranks of management. This could open a lot of doors for you. Maybe this is one of them.”

“In all honesty, I don’t know that I want this door to open at all,” said Martin. “It’s one thing to be cloning humans for good reasons. It’s another if all the leadership has their own sex harems chained up at home.”

“Well, if what you’re saying is true then being chained up might not be so bad,” said Annabelle with a joking smile. “In fact, that might kind of get them off.”

Martin gave her a knowing look. “Don’t tell me you want to be tied up now?”

Annabelle started to giggle. “Maybe not at first, but all I’m saying is that I’m open to just about any sexual experimentation that you want to do, baby.”

That broke some of the tension, and Martin started to laugh with her. The idea about cloning for specific traits didn’t leave so quickly though, and Martin filed that one away for later exploration.

“So what’s on the agenda for you today besides getting your trading account started?” he asked a moment later.

“We’re going to help Rylie feel more at home,” said Annabelle with a beaming grin.

“Do I even want to know what you mean by that?”

Annabelle scoffed. “I meant that we’re going to help her color her hair. You know, you don’t have to put your mind in the gutter just because I leave a statement open-ended!”

Martin gave her a knowing look. “I just know you too well.”

A shy smile appeared on her lips. “I hope that’s not the only ‘ended’ that happens around here. I’d surely like to get rear-ended soon.”

“You had to work really hard to make that one work, didn’t you?”

“Depends. Is it working?”

Martin cracked a smile. “Maybe.”

“Then that’s all I needed to know.”

Martin turned more serious for a moment. “I’m glad that you’re both doing what you can to make Rylie feel welcome. Seriously, you have no idea how grateful I am for that.”

The smile disappeared from Annabelle’s face. “It wasn’t that long ago that I was the strange newcomer that had to figure everything out too. I know what Rylie’s going through right now better than anyone, which partly makes my previous behavior so hard to stomach.”

“In what way?”

Annabelle let out a deep breath. “I did it without her permission. If it were up to Rylie, she just would have forgotten about us after Friday night. Instead, she can never forget about us now. And she might not have been that upset about her cloning, but do you remember someone else who was pretty upset in the beginning?”

Martin didn’t say anything as Annabelle started to point to herself.

“That’s right—me,” she continued. “I feel like the world’s biggest hypocrite for my behavior. And you might be onto something about the impulse control but at the end of the day, I still did it. I put us at risk and I changed Rylie’s life forever. And I’m going to have to live with that for a long time.”

Martin found himself reaching over to pull Annabelle close. “You don’t need to beat yourself up about it. Everyone makes mistakes, and we can only learn from them. I know you’ve learned from this one, right?”

Annabelle nodded against his chest but said nothing.

“See? It’ll be okay,” said Martin as he caressed her back. “Like I said earlier, things could always be worse. I love that you’re going out of your way to make Rylie feel at home. If you feel the driving need to be make amends, then this is the best way you can do it.”

Annabelle craned her head to look him in the eyes. “I just don’t want to see you give me that look again.”

“What look?”

“That look where you were so pissed at me,” said Annabelle with a small shudder. “It nearly broke my heart, Martin. I thought I screwed up big time, that what I had done would cause you not to love me anymore. I panicked so much because I didn’t understand how I could have let it happen even though I knew it was wrong. I thought there was a chance I could lose you.”

Martin lightly kissed her cheek. “You’re starting to sound like Kelsey now.”

Annabelle looked deeply into his eyes. “You say that like it’s a bad thing. I personally think it’s a good thing.”

“You do? So are you trying to say something?”

Annabelle nodded. “She’s not the only one that loves you, Martin. I love you too, and it would devastate me not to be with you. I already feel like I had to practically die just to be with you. I don’t want to see what a life looks like without you.”

“And as long as I have a say, you won’t ever have to see what that looks like.”

Annabelle let out a small smile. “You promise?”

“I promise.”

She arched up to kiss him, putting some serious heat into the action. Annabelle’s tongue crept into his mouth only to meet his, and they dueled for several moments until Annabelle finally moaned as she pulled away.

“I love everything about the way you kiss,” she whispered. “I really enjoy the way your tongue moves with mine.”

Martin couldn’t help the words that came out next. “I really enjoyed seeing all the things your tongue could do yesterday too. Especially that little show with Rylie.”

She grinned evilly. “You like when I mess around with other girls, don’t you baby?”

“Let’s just say that sometimes I get the impression that you like to fool around with other girls more than you like to fool with me.”

The smile left her face. “Do you really feel that way?”

“No, I’m just teasing you,” said Martin quickly.

Annabelle didn’t buy it right away. “I guess I did throw myself into Rylie a little quickly. Is that what you’re referring to?”

“Well, a little, but I was mostly just messing with you. I am a little surprised at how much you seem to enjoy fooling around with Rylie and Kelsey though, but I just accept that it’s part of the new you.”

Annabelle started to tap her chin, her usual tick for when she was feeling nervous. “Do you want me to dial it down a notch?”

Martin shook his head. “I want you to do what makes you happy. If that involves eating my cum out of Kelsey or scissoring with Rylie, so be it.”

She still didn’t look convinced. “I do love you though, Martin. If you asked me to only fool around with you, I’d do it. I like playing with the girls, but when it all comes down to it, I need you more than anyone else.”

Before he could even get a response in, Annabelle pushed out of her chair and straddled him, sitting in his lap. She rested her arms against his shoulders and leaned her forehead against his.

“I couldn’t continue to live life if I didn’t have your perfect, throbbing cock filling me on a regular basis,” she whispered as her eyes locked on his. “There’s nothing in this world like feeling you pulsate inside me just before you cum. I love feeling your body shudder as that first jet of cum pumps into me. I just hold on tight and enjoy every minute of being owned by you.”

Like usual, Annabelle’s words were right on target. Martin had already put on his work slacks, and now they were being tented by his awakening member, putting pressure against Annabelle’s bottom side.

“Mmm, that’s what I like,” said Annabelle as she reached behind her to grab his erection through his slacks. “You’re so thick already, Martin. And I know the perfect place you can go.”

Martin looked at the clock. “Annabelle, we can’t right now,” he said with some weakness in his voice. “I have to go to work in half an hour.”

Annabelle shook her head, making her blonde locks dance. “Half an hour is plenty of time for us to work with. And besides, I know exactly what I want to do with you.”

She leaned forward until her lips brushed against his ear. “Remember that promise I made you yesterday?”

Martin shivered as he remembered what Annabelle said.

“That’s right,” she said, lightly giggling against his ear. “You can have my ass right now, Martin. You can put your big, thick cock in my tight, little ass.”

CHAPTER 19

IF MARTIN THOUGHT he was hard before, it was nothing compared to now. Martin could have cut diamonds with his cock in its current state, and judging by the way Annabelle was now stroking it through his slacks, there was nothing she wanted more than to put it inside her.

Annabelle threw her head back and bit her lip. “Fuck me, you’re so hard right now. Mmm, Martin you’re going to split my little ass wide open. I don’t know how you’re possibly going to fit all of it inside me but I’m willing to try, baby. I want to be a good girlfriend for you. I want you to feel you filling my ass.”

Timing be damned, RI was going to have to wait. With a heavy growl, Martin wrapped his arms around Annabelle’s body and stood up, taking his giggling blonde girlfriend with him as he moved into the living room. As they reached the couch, Annabelle did the honors of pulling down his slacks, and she even neatly folded them on the coffee table to prevent any wrinkles.

“What?” said Annabelle as soon as Martin chuckled at her. “I can’t have you going into RI with wrinkly pants!”

“You’re really starting to sound like Kelsey now,” he teased.

Annabelle shrugged and pushed her little boy shorts down her long legs, leaving her bottomless. “When you spend enough time with someone, they start to rub off on you. Now will you quit talking and rub off on me already?”

That was all the encouragement he needed to fall back on the couch and bring Annabelle with him. She landed with a soft thud against his chest, but she wasted no time in pulling his lips back to hers as his newly-freed cock began to stab between her thighs. This was when Annabelle showed off her talents by never removing her lips from him while deftly maneuvering his cock so that it was aimed between her slick folds.

“Mmm fuck, there it is,” she moaned as her body welcomed his fleshy intruder. A satisfied smile appeared on her lips. “That’s what I needed.”

Martin put his hands on her hips and gently pulled her down until she took his entire length. Like usual, Annabelle’s pussy was snug, wet, and ever so welcoming to his manhood. In the next moment, she raised up almost completely freeing him, with only the tip staying nudged inside her body. The escape never happened though. Annabelle moved too quickly, forcing herself all the way down until his balls pressed against her ass.

“So fucking good,” she moaned as she grinded her hips against his. “I could do this every day of my life if you let me.”

“You feel so incredible,” he muttered, giving her another upward stroke. “Fuck, you’re so gorgeous, Annabelle.”

She beamed down at him with a smile. “This is part of the reason why I love you. You always know the best things to say.”

With those words, Annabelle brought her fingers to her mouth and placed a small dollop of saliva onto them. She reached behind her, using two fingers to lather it against her rear passage. Once that was finished, Annabelle moved his hand closer to her butt.

“Try it out,” she breathed. “Stick your finger in my ass.”

Martin felt his cock pulsate at the simple request. Not one to leave anyone hanging, he moved his finger until it rested just over the puckered rosebud, now thoroughly drenched with saliva. Annabelle let out a coo of approval as he began to put pressure on it.

“Just like that,” she whimpered. “Push it in, Martin. Push harder, baby.”

They both gasped as her greedy asshole finally accepted a push from his finger. Just slightly more than half an inch of his digit slipped inside, but it was enough for Annabelle to squeeze on instinct at the feeling of the invader.

“Oh, yes!” she mewled, pushing her ass back against his finger. “Finger my ass, Martin. Please?”

Once he broke the surface, it became much easier for his finger to slide deeper into her hungry asshole. The first knuckle came and went as Annabelle continued to buck her hips against him, and it wasn’t until his entire finger was buried that she kissed him passionately, taking his lip between her teeth and gently biting it.

They continued to fuck vigorously in that position for several minutes. Annabelle never let her lips detach from his while his cock slipped in and out of her sopping pussy, all the while he continued to plunder her backdoor with his digit.

It was a tenuous state of affairs that couldn’t last for very long. And sure enough, it didn’t.

A moment later, Annabelle raised her hips completely, letting his cream-covered cock escape from her body. Annabelle spit more saliva into her hands and used it to join their mixed juices before coating her asshole once more. She then scooted further to make sure he was in the right spot. When she settled down once more, the tip of his cock was now pressed firmly against her asshole, causing her to whimper.

“It already feels so much bigger than your finger,” she said with a giggle between kisses. “But I want it in me. Put your cock in my ass, Martin.”

Martin pulled apart her ass cheeks, squeezing each of them until he was sure her skin was red. “It might hurt,” he warned.

Annabelle nodded. “But it’ll feel so good once you’re in. Just go slowly.”

With those words, Annabelle started to push back, applying pressure against her asshole as his thick helmet struggled to get inside. Despite being loosened up by his finger, the sheer size alone meant they needed several tries before any penetration could occur. At one point, Annabelle even spit some more saliva into her hands, using it to lube her passage even more.

Finally, with just the right amount of pushing from both of them, Martin’s meaty intruder broke past all resistance and slid inside her asshole.

“Oh, fuck!” yelped Annabelle once he was in. She bit her lip and closed her eyes, adjusting to the feeling. “God, you’re so fucking big.”

“I’m not hurting you, am I?”

Annabelle shook her head but then she leaned forward and bit his shoulder. “Just let me get used to it. It’s so huge!”

Although he was concerned for her well-being, that last comment certainly made him smile. And seeing Annabelle trying to come to terms with his cock in her ass was an entirely primal (and pleasurable) feeling.

After what felt like a small eternity of having Annabelle’s liquid hot asshole wrapped around the tip of his cock, she finally started to push against him gently.

“It’s okay,” she said, kissing his lips. “Push slowly. Fill me, baby.”

With her permission secured, Martin lifted his hips, letting more of his cock slip deeper into her bowels. Annabelle moaned as another inch slipped inside, at which point she stopped pushing and let herself accommodate the feeling. They kept moving like that—putting in another inch and then pausing until she was ready to keep going. After several long minutes, she’d finally taken most of him inside her ass.

It was only as Annabelle reached around to feel the small part of his shaft that wasn’t buried in her butt that she let out a devastatingly sexy smile.

“Mmm, Martin, you’re in my ass. Your entire fucking cock is buried so deep in my butt.”

“Oh, fuck yes,” he replied. “And you feeling absolutely fucking amazing.”

That was the understatement of the year. If he thought Annabelle’s pussy was a snug fit, it was nothing compared to her bowels. There was an intense, tight pressure around every part of his cock, made all the more intense every time Annabelle would squeeze. Even with the copious amounts of saliva and pussy cream, her ass was still somewhat dryer than her pussy, and there was more friction every time he thrust.

Even still, it was simply heavenly. There was something primitive and satisfying about being in the ass of your woman. For Martin, it was about complete ownership. He’d now fucked every hole that Annabelle had, and as far as his primal mind was concerned, Annabelle belonged to him totally.

She seemed to get that instinctively too. Before today, it was hard to classify intimacy with Annabelle as simply making love. Martin and Annabelle usually fucked, and although there was always a closeness to it that went deeper than just pure fucking for the sake of fucking, their movements were almost always frenzied and forceful, and usually not on the same passionate level that he enjoyed with Kelsey.

That was completely different this time though. With Martin buried deeply in her ass, he saw a new side to Annabelle that he hadn’t seen before.

One that seemed totally submissive and completely in love.

“I love you, Martin. Oh, fuck, I love you,” she whimpered between kisses as he filled her asshole. “I belong to you. All of me belongs to you. Please keep fucking my ass all fucking day.”

They weren’t just words said in the heat of the moment. Annabelle never took her eyes off of his, and that prolonged eye contact only confirmed the words that were coming out of her mouth. This was intimacy at its simplest and most expressive form, and he couldn’t help but notice that something had truly changed in their relationship.

“I love you too, Annabelle,” he whispered against her lips. “I love being inside you.”

“Everything you do to me is better than the last,” she whispered. “And I really want you to cum in my ass. I want you to mark me as yours for the rest of our lives.”

She punctuated that statement by lowering her hips hard, pushing his cock all the way inside her bowels. The pressure on the tip was excruciatingly good, and Martin wasn’t sure how much more of this he could handle.

The thought of filling Annabelle’s ass was threatening to boil his cum inside his body. He had to fill her. He had to mark her just like she wanted to be marked.

It was the smallest thing that pushed him over. It was the sight of Annabelle’s lovely blue-green eyes and the vulnerability contained within as she sat down fully on his cock. That complete openness and sign of surrender triggered his body’s most primitive reaction. Martin’s knuckles went white as he gripped her ass, feeling his orgasm boil over.

“Cum for me,” she whispered against his ear. “Fill me, Martin. Fill my ass.”

He groaned as the first jets of cum shot out of his cock and emptied into her asshole. Annabelle’s eyes rolled to the back of her head and a satisfied smile took hold on her lips as she pushed all the way down, ensuring her greedy butt took every ounce he had to give. For several moments, she just kissed him lightly as his body emptied itself into hers until finally, he had nothing left to give.

At that moment, her eyes popped open. “I love you,” she said sweetly.

“I love you too,” he replied.

“I’ve wanted that for so long,” she admitted.

“What? Anal?”

Annabelle shook her head. “No, I wanted that intense lovemaking feeling just now. I wanted to feel like we were on another level, and that was better than I could have ever imagined. I feel like I totally belong to you now.”

Martin cupped her face and nodded. He felt the same way, much closer to Annabelle now than ever before.

The moment was almost perfect, or it would have been if not for a small snicker from the side of the room that revealed they weren’t totally alone.

Both Martin and Annabelle craned their heads to see Rylie and Kelsey watching from the doorframe into the living room.

And from their vantage point, they could clearly see Martin’s cock buried deeply into Annabelle’s ass.

“How long have you two been there?” asked Annabelle, her eyes going wide.

“Long enough,” said Rylie with an ear-splitting grin. “That was so sexy to watch!”

“Very hot,” confirmed Kelsey as she moved closer. She sat next to Martin and then moved her hand to rest on top of Annabelle’s ass. “How did it feel to have him in your ass?”

“Kind of like forcing a golf ball into a keyhole,” replied Annabelle. “But it was worth it.”

A sympathetic smile appeared on Kelsey’s face. “I still remember the first time I gave him my ass.” She looked at Martin. “Do you remember that trip we took to New York?”

“How could I ever forget that?” asked Martin. And truly, there was no forgetting it. They met Kelsey’s parents in the Big Apple for a weekend, and it was the first time Martin was introduced to them. He made such a good impression on her parents that the next evening, she gave him the last virginity she had—her perfect and curvy ass.

Rylie took a seat on the other side of them, where she couldn’t help but marvel at Martin’s cock still inside Annabelle’s butt. “And I thought you were big when you were in my mouth. I can’t imagine what you would feel like in my little ass!”

“You’ll get there one day,” promised Annabelle who then looked down at Martin. “Ready to get up?”

“I guess so, if you’re making me,” teased Martin.

Annabelle kissed his nose and then shifted forward, letting his cock finally slip out of her rear passage. In the process, a small dollop of cum slipped out and trailed down her cheek. Annabelle stood up and quickly put her shorts back on.

“There,” she said proudly once she was dressed. “Now I can carry your cum in my ass for the rest of the day.”

Kelsey giggled and then looked at the clock. “Looks like the perfect send-off for a day at work. Not every guy gets to sodomize one of his girlfriends before clocking in for the day.”

That made all three women laugh, but Martin had little time to join them. He quickly got dressed before kissing each of them as he slipped on his shoes. He was almost out the door when Kelsey stopped him and wet her fingers.

“Hold on, you have sex hair,” said Kelsey as she patted down some errant hairs. Once it was good enough, she smiled. “Good to go.”

“Good thing we have Mom here to help us,” said Annabelle sarcastically, earning a dangerous, yet playful, glare back from Kelsey.

“Try not to kill each other before I get home,” joked Martin to Kelsey.

Kelsey could only smile. “Hurry home soon!”

CHAPTER 20

EVEN WITH THE NEW PROMOTION, the workday wasn’t nearly as interesting as Martin’s morning with Annabelle. That didn’t mean that it didn’t have its perks, such as getting a new private office as well as going over his official duties with his new team.

It’s just that as cool as it was to be promoted, nothing compared to being buried in Annabelle’s ass.

For that reason, Martin was looking forward to getting home, and upon walking into his apartment, he was delighted to see the backs of three heads in the living room.

But something made him do a double-take almost immediately, and that was the coloring of the hair of the three heads.

In normal circumstances, there should be two brunettes (Kelsey and Rylie) and one blonde (Annabelle).

However, this afternoon there was a visible rainbow of blonde, brunette, and red.

Something wasn’t quite right, and Martin took slow, deliberate steps around the couch until he stopped right in front of them.

“Surprise,” said a grinning Rylie as his eyes feasted on her new hair.

Martin gulped hard. “Wow, Rylie, you look great!”

She truly looked incredible. Gone were her long, dark locks that were the key to her identity. They’d been replaced by a sexy auburn red color that practically turned Rylie into a whole new person.

What was most amazing about it was that Martin’s fear about Rylie going red turned out to be entirely unwarranted.

Rylie used two hands to grab at her hair, softly petting it. “You really like it? It’s not too much? I was afraid it was too much when I first looked in the mirror.”

Martin shook his head rapidly. “Not at all. In fact, I think . . . I like it better than before. You’re stunning, Rylie. You’re like a masterpiece.”

The words were unintended but they came barreling out anyway. The sudden barrage of compliments actually made Rylie do something she usually never did—blush. She turned red momentarily, and it didn’t take long before she bounded off the couch and kissed him briefly.

“I’m glad you like it,” she said quietly to him. “I was half-afraid you’d want me to go back.”

“I just want you, period,” growled Martin with more heat than he’d intended.

Rylie gave him a coy look. “Maybe you’ll get what you’re looking for soon then.”

She ended the statement by throwing a wink his way and returning to the couch. That was whenever Kelsey stood up next, pushing her way into his arms and kissing him lovingly.

“I missed you today,” she said for his ears only. “How was the first day as RI’s latest manager?”

“Boring,” said Martin. “Just another day at RI.”

Kelsey made a sympathetic face. She kissed him one more time and returned to the couch.

That was when Annabelle made an effort to push off the couch to greet him too. However, her movements were much slower and they came with a heavy degree of exaggeration until she reached him.

“Are you okay?” he asked, concern written onto his face.

Annabelle gave him an uncertain smile. “Sorry. I’m a little sore right now.”

“A little?” snorted Rylie. “You’ve been complaining about your butt hole all day long.” She then turned to look at Martin. “By the way she tells it, you have a three foot club swinging between your legs and she’ll never be able to walk normally again!”

Martin started to chuckle before looking back at Annabelle. “I’m sorry. Is it that bad?”

Annabelle winced. “Let’s just hope that it goes away by tomorrow. It makes sitting down a little hard.”

“Are you regretting that we did it?”

Annabelle shook her head. “Not in the slightest. I loved every minute of it, and I knew it would hurt a little afterward. This is a price I’m glad to pay.”

“Yeah, but if only she’d stop complaining about it,” quipped Rylie, which caused Annabelle to grab a pillow and launch it in her direction. Rylie dodged it easily and stuck out her tongue in the process.

Kelsey giggled and put her hand to her mouth. “Needless to say, we’re glad you’re home. I could use another chaperone with these two!”

“You’re going to need more than just the two of you if we don’t eat soon,” said Annabelle, rubbing her stomach. “I’m absolutely starving. What are we doing for dinner?”

The answer turned out to be not much, at least after a glance in the refrigerator revealed that they needed to take a trip to the grocery store.

That was how Martin ended up with a car full of sexy clones as they drove thirty minutes outside the city to a small-town grocer where no one was likely to recognize them.

“Seriously, Annabelle, you need to try to walk normally,” said Kelsey with a giggle as they made their way inside. “You’re waddling like a duck right now!”

Annabelle scowled at her. “You try getting fucked up your ass with massive cock and see how you’re walking a few hours later! My poor sphincter is bruised and battered.”

Annabelle’s outburst caused two things to happen—one, it made both Kelsey and Rylie explode into giggles almost immediately, but it also caused a much older couple (who had definitely heard what Annabelle said) to shoot her the dirtiest look.

“Sorry,” said Annabelle meekly, which only caused the older woman to shake her head.

Martin quickly ushered her inside. “Maybe let’s not be so vocal about our sex lives in public next time, eh?”

“Like I’m sure that old lady never got fucked in the butt a time or two,” said a still salty Annabelle as they arrived in the produce section.

“Probably not in forty or fifty years I’m guessing,” quipped Rylie.

Martin could only stand back and enjoy the playful back-and-forth that was now occurring with the addition of Rylie. It seemed like all three of them were on the path to becoming fast friends, despite the tumultuous nature of their circumstances. The friendship that had developed so far even included teasing jabs at each other, which was enough evidence to Martin that it was genuine indeed.

However, Annabelle wasn’t always the butt of all the jokes (pun intended). In fact, Rylie seemed to delight in finding ways to tease him as they made their way throughout the store.

“Here we are—nice, hard cucumbers,” said Rylie in an exaggerated fashion as she grabbed the biggest one she could find and sauntered closer to Martin. “Looks pretty . . . thick to me.” She leaned in closer to his ear. “I wonder how it . . . tastes.”

Martin felt his cock lurch inside his pants involuntarily. “Rylie, what are you doing?” he hissed.

She could only smile back at him devilishly. “Teasing you. Is it working?”

“Only if you want me to take you back to the car and put down the backseats in the next five minutes!”

Rylie let out a throaty moan. “You promise? That actually sounds a little kinky. I wonder how many old people we would upset if we actually did that?”

“Can you keep it together long enough for us to get groceries?” said Annabelle with a dirty look to Rylie. “You have no idea how starved I am right now. Let’s just get in and get out!”

Of course, that got them moving quickly in order to avoid making Annabelle any hangrier than she already was. There were only a few items on the list, and mostly they split up in order to cover ground in the fastest way. That meant that Kelsey and Annabelle usually went off in one direction while Martin and Rylie followed along with their cart getting everything along the outer edges of the store.

“It really seems like you’re fitting in well with the other two,” he noted as he put a frozen pizza in the cart. “I thought it was going to take a while until you were able to trust them?”

Rylie shrugged. “Don’t get me wrong—we’re not exactly on the level where we’re sharing our deepest secrets while also telling stories about our first crush. But, we’re getting there. It helps that they are so easygoing and fun. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I got here but I can honestly say they’ve made the last two days fun. Did you know that it was Kelsey that did my hair?”

“Really? I’m surprised by that. I mean, it just looks really good, like a professional did it.”

Rylie smiled. “She does really good work. We figured doing it in the apartment would be less risky, and it seems to have totally worked. No one has so much as batted an eyelash at me since we got here.”

That wasn’t entirely true. Rylie was just as hot as a redhead as she was as a brunette. Martin had caught several guys eyeing her up, and even a couple that were clearly married. One upset wife purposefully ran the cart over the foot of her husband after he stared too long at Rylie.

“I wouldn’t say that,” joked Martin. “You’re too gorgeous to be wallpaper.”

Rylie mostly nodded her head. “That’s true, I guess.”

“And modest too. Don’t forget about modesty.”

Rylie gave him an evil grin. “I never was much for modesty. I’ve always believed that when you’ve got it, you’ve got to flaunt it a little.”

She punctuated that statement by sashaying her hips a little more than usual. Their aisle soon became a makeshift catwalk as Rylie sauntered away, ending the demonstration with a power hip thrust. She turned back to Martin, who was still watching her ass.

“I see I’ve still got the moves,” she said, looking at his open mouth.

Martin was still nearly speechless. “You think?”

“Oh, stop right here. We need some whipped cream!”

Rylie opened the refrigerated door and bent at the waist, thrusting her perfect ass out in the process. She grabbed a can of whipped cream and, upon closing the door, rested it between her breasts as she made her way back to the cart.

It was at that moment that Martin had a brief, sexual daydream. That can of whipped cream was momentarily replaced by his cock as it slid between Rylie’s perfectly tanned rack. He could only bite his lip in frustration as she reached the cart and put it inside.

“Something wrong?” she asked, seeing his sudden haze.

Martin shook his head. “Nothing at all.”

Rylie smiled and they kept moving. As they moved, Martin couldn’t help but replay the scene in his head over and over again. It was only helped by the fact that he had the brief memory of Rylie flashing him the day before. For one glorious second, he’d seen her topless body in full display, and he’d tried to commit as much of it to memory as possible.

However, the situation with Rylie was still a bit uneasy. Despite her now being an actual sexual participant in the happenings at the apartment, nothing else had developed between them since the kiss the day before. Sure, Rylie had now swallowed his cum on three separate occasions, but that was still the highlight of their carnal relationship (as Annabelle would call it).

There was still much they hadn’t done yet, and the subtle teasing in the store that evening reminded him that they were a long way from actual sex.

In a way though, he was almost intimidated by the thought of moving further along with Rylie, and part of that might have been by the haphazard way they’d started their sexual relationship. It seemed that spending more time with Rylie was only adding to her coolness factor, to the point that he actually had the jitters about moving to the next step with her.

“Are you picturing me naked?”

Martin snapped out of his brain fog to find Rylie looking back at him with a curious smile. Her arms were folded under her breasts and her new red, wavy locks elegantly framed her face.

“Huh? No, no, I wasn’t, I was just—”

“Chill, I’m messing with you,” said Rylie as she grabbed his arm. She then leaned in closer. “Truthfully, I was kind of hoping you were picturing me naked.”

She squeezed his arm and then kept moving, sashaying her hips mostly for his benefit.

One thing was certain—the next move with Rylie was bound to be interesting.

CHAPTER 21

AFTER GETTING ALL the groceries they needed, Martin and the girls headed back to his apartment to cook something up. That something ended up being pizza, and it was ready in just enough time to prevent Annabelle from getting any hangrier than she already was.

“You ever notice that pizza is a lot like intercourse?” asked Annabelle as she finished her second piece.

Kelsey gave her a weird look. “In what way? And do I even really want to know?”

Annabelle giggled. “I meant that even bad pizza is still good pizza. Take this pizza for example. It’s just the frozen pizza from our local grocery story. While it’s not even comparable to getting a New York slice, it’s still good enough to make me want a third piece. It’s kind of like intercourse.”

“I think you mean sex, Annabelle,” teased Rylie. “Calling it intercourse is weirdly clinical.”

Kelsey gave Rylie a knowing look. “Wait until you live with her for a while. It gets worse.”

Annabelle elbowed Kelsey in the ribs and then continued. “It’s the same thing with orgasms. Even a bad orgasm that takes way too long to arrive isn’t any less intense than a good one.”

“And when was the last time you had a bad orgasm?” asked Kelsey. “Especially with Martin?”

Annabelle turned red. “Well, I wasn’t talking about Martin specifically but it’s not like I was a virgin before I arrived here, you know.”

“No, you definitely have a point,” conceded Rylie. “Any orgasm is a good one, even if it has to be triggered by my fingers and not a nice, juicy piece of meat.”

With those words, Rylie reached over and gripped Martin’s thigh. She squeezed it for a moment and then went back to her pizza. When Martin looked at her, she just gave him a quick wink.

“You can’t discount the fingers though,” said Kelsey. “Sometimes my fingers can bring out very good orgasms, especially when paired with someone’s tongue.”

The identity of that someone didn’t stay a secret for long. Kelsey turned red as she looked over at Annabelle, and it was instantly clear when the blonde stuck her tongue out to tease the outside crust of her pizza.

“I’m just loving this situation more and more by the day,” said Rylie as she watched the interaction between them. She then elbowed Martin. “Seriously, how did you end up with this?”

Martin could only chuckle. “I ask myself that every single day of my life.”

“I’m thinking it’s just an early birthday present for him,” said Kelsey with a giggle. “His birthday is coming up soon.”

“Either that, or Martin managed a spot on both the naughty and the nice list this year,” joked Annabelle.

“Well, I’m definitely the nice gift,” said Kelsey. “But who would be the naughty gift for him?”

Annabelle grinned and pointed at Martin’s lap. “Looks like Rylie takes the cake for that one.”

Annabelle drew attention to the fact that Rylie’s hand was currently in Martin’s lap, where she was subtly stroking his cock between his jeans. Once attention was brought to it though, Rylie retracted her hand coyly.

“What?” she said innocently. “I was just making sure my juicy piece of meat was still waiting for me.”

That earned a round of snickers, and the conversation largely turned from there to something that was much less carnal (as Annabelle would call it). After everyone was done eating, the girls went about getting ready for bed. Usually this involved showers for Kelsey and Annabelle, but Martin had already picked up on the fact that Rylie seemed to prefer a bath in the evening, which normally caused some traffic in their singular bathroom since she was usually in there for an hour.

For the first two nights, Rylie’s bath had proceeded uneventfully, and Martin had no way of knowing that this was about to change.

It started off innocently enough when Rylie called dibs on the bathroom after Annabelle emerged from her shower. Martin had been sitting on the couch with Kelsey pressed into his side when he heard the sound of running water, and knew the bathtub was filling up for Rylie’s nightly ritual.

That was when the fun began.

“Can someone get me a towel?” yelled Rylie from the crack in the bathroom door. “I think Annabelle took my towel from yesterday.”

Seeing as Martin was now the closest to the bathroom, he thought nothing of helping her out, making a brief stop at the hallway closest to get her a fresh towel.

Apparently though, Rylie wanted him to be the one to answer the call. That became apparent when he held the towel through the crack without looking in directly in order to give her a modicum of privacy.

“Here you are, Rach,” said Martin as he reached his hand through.

“Can you put it on the sink?” she called. “I’m just adjusting the water temperature now.”

Still not thinking anything was out of the ordinary, Martin opened the door further and stepped inside to deposit the towel.

The sight that greeted him made him stop in his tracks.

Rylie was indeed checking the temperature of the water in the tub opposite the sink. However, what stopped Martin was the fact that she was wearing next to nothing while doing it. The only stitch of clothing that Rylie had on was a slinky, royal-blue thong that fell perfectly between her golden, tanned ass.

To make matters worse (or better?), Rylie was positioned in such a way that she was leaning over the tub to fiddle with the knobs. In the process, her ass was thrust up into the air while her back was arched down towards her shoulders.

Martin couldn’t help but stare at her lovely heart-shaped ass, wanting desperately to trail his fingers along the crease where the blue fabric disappeared. In that moment, he was reminded of the way she bent down to grab the whipped cream at the store, also thrusting her ass out for his benefit.

His gaze lingered just a little too long. Satisfied with the knob, Rylie pivoted around to look at him as her arm draped across her breasts. Even with her tits covered, Martin was still afforded a near perfect view of the rest of her.

Rylie’s body was just flawless, even more so than the other two women’s. He couldn’t see anything that resembled a tan line, as her honey coloring extended across her entire body. Rylie’s body was the kind that you would see in lingerie magazines—perfect curves that gave her the kind of hourglass figure most women would kill for, while still retaining a level of slenderness that ensured not an ounce of fat was visible on her tiny tummy. Even the small triangle of royal blue was perfect, the fabric only barely giving Martin a hint of the lovely lips waiting underneath.

If he thought he was hard during dinner, it was nothing compared to seeing a nearly naked Rylie in the flesh.

And she knew exactly what she was doing to him by the smile on her face—the one that mixed equal parts of plotting and innocence.

Rylie fluttered her eyelashes at him shamelessly. “Thank you so much, Martin.”

“Y-you’re welcome,” he stammered.

There was something about the stammer that made him feel awkward, and for some reason, he beat a hasty retreat from the bathroom. He closed the door firmly and fell back against it, letting out several puffs of air.

Who knew that one woman could be so impossibly sexy?

Apparently Rylie did because he had barely entered the living room again when he heard her calling for him once more.

Martin stopped in his tracks and half-turned. “What’s wrong?”

Rylie gave him an inviting smile from the crack in the door. “I can’t get the water to the right temperature. Can you help me?”

Once more, his cock lurched at the thought of a half-naked Rylie just behind the door.

“Sure thing,” he called out, thankful that he didn’t stammer this time. His hand gripped the door and turned the knob as he eagerly anticipated another view of the goddess inside.

The view definitely didn’t disappoint. Rylie was now sitting on the edge of the tub. She had one hand under the stream of water as she felt for the temperature while the other hand still covered her breasts, protecting what was left of her modesty.

“The water is just still a tad too cold for a bath,” said Rylie with an innocent smile.

It took several heavy footsteps for him to reach the tub, and he deftly sat down on the rim next to her. Martin’s skin buzzed at being so close to her nude flesh, and the only thing he wanted to do was strip off his clothes and join her in the bath.

He reached a tentative hand forward and put it under the spray of water.

That was when he registered some confusion.

“It feels pretty warm to me. It doesn’t get much hotter than that.”

Rylie grinned and then playfully shrugged her shoulders. She leaned forward. “But I want it hotter. Much hotter.”

Martin gulped heavily as his cock threatened to burst out of his jeans. Without any words, he reached over to the hot knob and gave it a small turn.

Suddenly, hotter water started to erupt out of the spout. Martin checked it with his hand and then invited Rylie to do the same.

“Oh, I just had to keep turning,” said Rylie in her best ditzy impression, making it fully obvious that she knew what she was doing all along. “I’m so glad you’re here to help me, Martin.”

He couldn’t help the smile that planted on his face. “You know, you usually keep turning the knob if you want it hotter.”

Realizing that he was onto her game, Rylie dropped all pretenses by reaching forward to grab his cock under his pants. She started to rub it like she did earlier at dinner. “And what do I have to do if I want this thing harder? Maybe show more of me?”

Martin’s eyes flickered down to her body and then back to her face. She was now wearing a determined look as she waited breathlessly for his answer.

Martin nodded. “I’d love that.”

She lowered her head as she kept her eyes trained on him. “Perhaps my boobs this time? Maybe a longer look than last time?”

He could only utter one word in reply. “Please.”

She smiled lasciviously. “Just because you asked so nicely.”

Her arm didn’t fall away at first. In fact, Rylie brought her free hand to her chest, cupping her breasts with both hands as she massaged them for several moments while keeping her gaze locked on him. At one point, Rylie even bit her lip and closed her eyes as her breathing became heavy, and in the process, more of her tits became exposed.

Finally, she allowed her hands to fall just enough to free her nipples, and Martin feasted upon his second look of her topless body.

This one was totally better than the brief glance he had the day before. Rylie let him study every square inch of her chest, from the way her mounds began right under her collarbone to how they grew in size until they reached her nipple. Rylie had tiny areolas, smaller in size than what Kelsey or Annabelle had. Martin estimated they were probably only the size of a dime in diameter but most of that territory was dominated by Rylie’s thick nipples, which were already stiff by this time.

Rylie reached a hand toward her left breast and gently pinched the nipple. She let out a sigh of content as she did and then leaned closer to him.

“Pinch it,” she said in a husky tone. “Pinch my nipple, Martin.”

He couldn’t help but stare at the erect nub as his fingers moved closer. Rylie’s body was hot to the touch as his fingers enclosed around her nipple, and he gave it a soft pinch that made her shudder.

“You’re not the only one that gets erect when horny,” whispered Rylie. “Do you like my tits?”

“I fucking love them,” growled Martin as he pinched the other nipple this time. “You’re so perfect that I don’t even have words for it.”

Her response surprised him. Rylie launched forward and crushed her lips against his. Martin enfolded his arms around her bare skin and kept her tight against him as their lips moved together. This kiss was much less innocent than the first one they shared. Rylie ran her tongue over his lips until she invited him into her mouth, at which point she was content to caress him with her own tongue. Their mouths moved together as he held her close to him, never wanting the moment to end. Martin could almost feel her hard nipples pressing into his chest, and he wondered if tonight was the night that they would cross that final barrier.

Alas, it wasn’t to be so. Rylie pulled back a moment later and his grip on her body slackened. She kissed him sweetly a few more times until she used her hands to cover her breasts once more.

“Naughty boy, trying to seduce me while I take my evening bath,” she chastised playfully. “You’re trying to corrupt me like you have the other two, aren’t you?”

If anyone was doing the corrupting, it was most definitely her, and Martin couldn’t help but chuckle in response.

Rylie kissed him as her eyes went to the door. “That’s enough for tonight. Thank you for starting my bath off on the right foot.”

“You sure you don’t need any help getting the water temperature just right?” he joked. “I can strip off and get in if you need me to test it further?”

Rylie bit her lip but she eventually shook her head. “As tempting as that sounds, I think we’ve gone far enough tonight, lover boy. I can’t give you all my goods at once. What fun would that be?”

That was when Martin finally understood something about Rylie. Their descent into further intimacy wasn’t something that was just happening without any thought beforehand.

It was like a game to Rylie. She was teasing him with every forward progression they took. It was two steps forward, one step back, and Rylie was completely in control of the speed of which they went.

While it was mildly frustrating that their milestones seemed to be out of whack, it was also thrilling in a way because Martin knew they’d eventually end up in bed together. The only question was how long it would take?

How long would Rylie drag this out for? And what other scenarios did she have in mind before they reached that point?

His head in a daze as he left the bathroom, Martin sat down on the couch as he contemplated further intimacy with Rylie. In the process, he noticed that Kelsey was giggling to herself as she resumed her previous spot.

“She’s toying with you now,” said Kelsey quietly. “She really enjoys teasing you.”

“I hope that it doesn’t stay just teasing for very long,” growled Martin. “Look what she did to me.” He pointed to his cock under his jeans, which was still very much hard.

Kelsey assumed an evil look as she started to remove her shorts. “Well, if she’s not going to take advantage of this, then I’m going to! Come here, baby.”

Needless to say, he wasn’t feeling frustrated at all after Kelsey straddled his hips and sank down on his erection.

CHAPTER 22

RYLIE’S not-so-subtle teasing continued for the rest of the week.

On Tuesday morning, she entered the kitchen fully nude while Martin was still sipping on his coffee. He nearly burned himself as she moved past him nonchalantly, grabbing a cup of water and washing it down before leaving the kitchen without any words being said. Of course, it was hard to miss the coy smile on her face as she left, but in no scenario was she going to make it easy for him.

On Wednesday evening, Rylie positioned herself as the little spoon in front of him on the couch. She draped his arm around her belly possessively, and when he started to poke at her terrycloth shorts, she reached behind to free his erection and trapped it between her legs, allowing him to fuck her thighs. The fun ended after he came, as she decided to go to bed, but it was yet another progression that put them one step closer to the end goal.

Thursday was the best day yet. Martin was taking a shower by himself that morning when Rylie entered the bathroom, disrobed completely, and joined him without saying a word. His cock went from zero to hero in a matter of seconds upon seeing her perfectly-tanned body but Rylie wasn’t in the mood to play. Instead, she simply washed herself (and gave his cock a couple quick tugs) before exiting the shower and drying off.

In any event, Martin was still waiting to see what might happen on Friday when the girls dragged him out to dinner that evening. Dragged was perhaps the wrong choice of word. Martin was happy to go as it had been a long week in his new position, one full of Martin trying to navigate the awkward position of being boss to his former colleagues.

Many of them, like Tim, seemed to take it on the chin, but some of the others had shown Martin sides of them that he’d never expected. Now that Martin was in charge, those that had been standoffish before were suddenly friendly, even too friendly. Martin knew the reason why but it still didn’t make it any easier trying to establish some form of leadership, and for that reason alone, he was exhausted by the time Friday evening arrived.

Thankfully, the girls took full control over plans to go out. They selected a quiet, dark restaurant away from the city so that no one had to worry about being discovered. The mood lighting was perfect too, and the candles on display at the center of the table had him looking forward to the night to come.

Martin only had to wonder whether he would be inside Kelsey or Annabelle that evening like usual, or whether Rylie had some more plans in store for him. By the look on her face, it seemed that option two was the most likely.

Unfortunately, that was before the situation quickly spiraled out of control.

It all started off with Annabelle, who was the first one to put her menu down.

“That’s the one I want,” she said proudly. “I’m getting the chicken breast and mashed potatoes.”

“How do you always pick your food so quickly?” asked Kelsey as she flipped to a new page. “I swear it takes you like three seconds flat to pick something while it always takes me like five minutes.”

Annabelle giggled and looked at Martin. “Let’s just say that when I see something I want, I don’t waste any time.”

Martin laughed with her as Kelsey rolled her eyes. “Believe me, I know.”

“Am I feeling steak tonight?” asked Rylie out loud. “Or should I just get a juicy burger instead?”

“You might want to go with the steak,” quipped Annabelle. “You’ve been trying to go after Martin’s tube steak all week.”

“What do you mean trying?” countered Rylie smoothly. “I’ll have my tube steak when I’m good and ready.”

Annabelle reached over and stole the roll off of Rylie’s side plate. “You better move fast. You don’t know who might steal him if you wait too long.”

“You bitch!” said Rylie with laughter as she moved to steal back her roll.

“Ladies, please,” said Kelsey as she motioned her arms. “This is a relatively nice restaurant, and I’d like to not get kicked out until after we’ve eaten.”

Annabelle tossed the roll back to Rylie. “Yes, Mom.”

Rylie continued to laugh. “This table has such an interesting dynamic. It’s so entertaining.”

Martin meant to say something to that statement but before he could do so, he saw Annabelle looking at another table. A flash of recognition hit her face and suddenly she was waving at the new table.

Understandably, it made Kelsey a bit nervous at first. “Annabelle, who are you waving at?” she asked cautiously.

“I can’t believe it,” said Annabelle as she put her hand down. “It’s my old college roommate over there. I haven’t seen her since graduation! What’s she doing here of all places?”

“It’s almost like you can’t come here to get any food,” quipped Rylie, earning a slap on the arm from Annabelle.

“Isn’t it dangerous for us to be seen?” said Martin quickly. “Especially by people who knew the original Annabelle?”

“Yeah, but she doesn’t live here,” said Annabelle. “We went to school in Virginia, so I’m really surprised to see her here of all places. She’s not a local but I’m sure that’s her.” Annabelle turned her attention to a newcomer that was now approaching the table. “Yup, that’s Nataliya.”

There was something about the name that made the hairs on the back of Martin’s neck stand up. It was due to the fact that he had an Nataliya in his past, and seeing that it wasn’t the most popular name, his mind instantly panicked at the thought of this Nataliya from his past being the one to approach the table.

It was a silly idea though. There was no reason that his Nataliya could be the same as Annabelle’s Nataliya, right?

Oh, how very wrong he was about to be.

“Annabelle? Annabelle Henry?” asked the newcomer to the table as she looked directly at Annabelle.

“Nataliya, oh my god, it’s so good to see you!”

Annabelle pushed out of her chair and embraced the woman at the table, blocking off Martin’s view of who she was. All he could see was that she was smaller than Annabelle in stature (which wasn’t saying much as Annabelle was quite tall to begin with) and that she had long, dark hair.

“I haven’t seen you since college! How have you been?” asked Nataliya.

“I’ve been really good,” answered Annabelle warmly. “How have you been? I never would have expected to see you here of all places!”

“Yeah, that’s an interesting story that I’ll have to tell you,” said Nataliya as her eyes settled on the table. “Are these your friends?”

Annabelle hesitated for a moment by clearing her throat. Martin hoped that she wouldn’t introduce them all as being in the same relationship, and thankfully, Annabelle was smarter than that.

“Just really good friends,” said Annabelle as she pointed to each of them in turn. “That’s Kelsey, this is Rylie, and that is my good friend, Martin Kennedy.”

Martin wasn’t sure what happened at that moment to make him pivot his head toward Annabelle’s old friend. Perhaps it was the social expectation of giving a greeting to a newcomer after being introduced. Perhaps it was a sixth sense that told him that something was dreadfully wrong, and that he needed to get involved in the situation right away to do damage control.

Whatever it was, Martin found himself locking eyes with Nataliya as soon as his name was blurted out.

And that’s when the recognition hit.

“Martin? Martin, is that really you?” asked Nataliya as she covered her mouth.

Martin suppressed the urge to groan as her identity was confirmed. “Nataliya, it’s been a really long time.”

Annabelle did a double-take. “Wait, you two know each other?”

Nataliya started to nod her head as a smile grew on her face. “You can say that. Martin is my ex-boyfriend from a long time ago.”

“Ex-boyfriend?” questioned Kelsey as she looked over at Martin. “That Nataliya?”

Martin nodded, remembering the times he’d told Kelsey about his ex’s. “One and the same.” He turned to look back at Nataliya. “I didn’t think you were coming back to the area. When we broke up, you moved to Virginia and you didn’t mention ever coming back.”

“Why are you back?” added Annabelle curiously.

Nataliya smiled. “I’m back for a job interview. I’m interviewing to be the lead researcher at a company called Replica Imagination. Ever heard of it?”

You could have heard a pin drop at the table. Neither Martin nor Kelsey nor Annabelle seemed to know what to say. A look of pure panic appeared on their collective faces.

Rylie was the only one that could get any words out. “Well, that fucking sucks.”

CHAPTER 23

THE ENCOUNTER with Nataliya left the entire group feeling a little shaken and anxious about their future together.

It was a long car ride back to the apartment, one that was initially very quiet as everyone tried to come to grips with their changed circumstances. Most notably, everyone but Rylie (who didn’t yet understand the magnitude of the situation) wanted to rewind the clock to a few hours earlier.

“I should’ve picked another restaurant,” groaned Kelsey as she rubbed her eyes with her fingers. “There’s a thousand places to eat out here, and we had to pick the one place that we knew somebody.”

“Maybe it won’t be that bad?” suggested Rylie, earning shocked looks from all the others. “I mean, what harm could it be? It’s not like she’s definitely going to get the job, right?”

“Nataliya is a very smart girl,” replied Annabelle as she shook her head. “A bit fiery, but very intelligent.”

“Emphasis on the fiery part,” grumbled Martin. “That girl would lose her shit over the littlest thing.”

“Is that why you two didn’t work out?” asked Annabelle. “I’ve seen the guys that Nataliya dated in college and most of them seemed to be the jock-type persona. This was never surprising because they seemed like the only ones who wouldn’t take her shit and keep her in line.”

Martin nodded. “She needs a really firm hand on the reins. If she detects any weakness in you, she’ll eat you alive.”

“Is it really that bad?” asked Kelsey. “She seemed nice enough in the restaurant.”

“Let’s just say that fiery Nataliya doesn’t come out until you’ve known her a bit,” replied Martin. “I was fooled in the beginning too.”

“So how did it end then?” asked Rylie. “From what you’re telling me, she sounds like the type that would fuck your brother and then blame you for making it happen. Is she a cheater?”

Martin shook his head. “No, nothing like that. I’d like to say it was mutual, but she may have gotten an edge on me with breaking up. Just one day, she had enough and said it wasn’t working for her. I wasn’t that upset to be honest. In fact, I was kind of relieved. Although, there was one thing I did miss.”

“What’s that?” asked Annabelle.

Martin smirked. “Her fiery attitude extends into the bedroom.”

Annabelle made a knowing face. “Ah, yes, that doesn’t surprise me. I’ve heard some very interesting noises from her room back in college. I even found a few toys back in the day, including a leather whip that she got very embarrassed about.”

Martin chuckled. “She still has the whip? Interesting. That never excited me but she was into it. It was always intense being with her but I can’t say I was too hurt when we broke up. Especially because it was only a few months later that I met Kelsey.”

Kelsey looked over and smiled. She reached her hand into Martin’s lap, taking his spare hand and squeezing it. “And you never looked back since.”

“Well, until today,” added Annabelle. “But what are we going to do about Nataliya? This could be serious trouble for us.”

“Let’s say that Rylie is right hypothetically and Nataliya doesn’t get the job,” said Kelsey. “Would that really mean anything with us has to change?”

“Like I said, Nataliya is very intelligent, and she would be a great fit for that job,” said Annabelle. “I have no doubt that she would rock the interview. I mean, think about it. You have a gorgeous, young, intelligent woman that’s also very passionate about her work. She’s a shoe-in and what makes me the most worried is what happens when she gets there for day one and tries to log into my workstation?”

Martin’s stomach dropped as he realized exactly what Annabelle was talking about. To log into the systems at RI, you had to enter in your name and password, just like anywhere else, but all of the work that passed between departments was also coded with the worker who did it. In this case, all of Annabelle’s research from before she died was coded with her name.

“The very first thing she’s going to see is all those documents that are signed Annabelle Henry,” groaned Martin out loud. “She’s going to know it’s you.”

Annabelle nodded. “I mean, I know my name isn’t exactly the most unique name out there, but it will at least make her curious enough to ask the question. And as soon as she links it back to me, our cover is blown. She’ll know that I’m alive and that something is going on, and that Martin is linked to it. This is some serious danger to all of us.”

“So what do we do then?” asked Kelsey. “I hate to even suggest this but is there any way that we can prevent this? Stop her from getting the job at RI?”

“From the sounds of it, she’s already going through the process,” said Annabelle. “She had her first interview with Bryce Rookwood already.”

“Martin, don’t you get a say in who’s hired at RI now?” asked Rylie. “With you being a manager now, I would think you could give your two cents and say that she’s not a good fit?”

“I don’t know to be honest,” said Martin. “But I’m leaning towards the fact that it’s probably over my head. Lower management might be involved in the initial interviews but it’s the VPs that get the final say.”

“But you could still try, right?” she pressed. “It’s not like it’s not doable?”

“There might be a better route,” suggested Annabelle as she tapped her chin in thought. “I’m thinking of something that might just work.”

“Spill it, I’m all ears,” said Martin.

“What about this—what if I meet up again with Nataliya?” asked Annabelle. “Before she left, she gave me her number so that we could catch up. Obviously until now, I wasn’t going to do anything with it but maybe this is an opportunity for us. What if I set up a lunch meeting or something with her under the guise of catching up further? And then maybe I can dissuade her from working at RI?”

“How would you do that though without her catching on that you used to work there?” asked Kelsey. “And even if you did, wouldn’t it be weird for Nataliya that you’re trying to persuade her not to work there? That might come out of left field for her and raise a few questions.”

“Not if I do it under the radar,” said Annabelle confidently. “It’s going to have to be subtle enough to not get her wheels turning but I know I can throw some doubt on the whole thing. Make it seem like it’s below her talents. She’ll listen to me. At least, she used to listen to me back in college.”

“It’s a little risky though still,” said Martin. “We’d be getting further exposure to Nataliya. And what happens if she wants to keep meeting up with you, rekindling your friendship? All she’s got to do is take one look at social media and see that your page is inactive because you died.”

Annabelle shook her head. “My page has been completely removed. I guess my parents deactivated it after the funeral. Although, you bring up a good point. If she googles me, she’ll find a link to my obituary.”

“Seems a little risky for the reward,” remarked Kelsey quietly.

Annabelle shrugged. “Unfortunately, every option we have right now is risky. I don’t think that we can truly do nothing though. If we do nothing, Nataliya is going to get that job, and then we have no options.”

No one wanted to give the first reply back to that. Martin drove in silence as they neared the apartment until finally, Kelsey made the first response.

“I guess I can get behind that plan,” she conceded. “You’re right. It’s the least worst option but what other choice do we have?”

“Are we positive that we don’t have any way to sabotage it at RI though?” asked Rylie. “I’d like it more if we have another option there too. Like can’t Martin just go in and delete her application?”

Martin mulled the idea over for a minute. “I do have access to the shared drive just for management, which contains a folder for hiring processes. I’m sure her resume is in there somewhere, but I’d have to look.”

“See? Now we’re getting somewhere,” said Rylie with some excitement. “Can’t you just go in and delete her resume? It’ll put all of this to bed.”

Annabelle shook her head. “She’s already had her first interview, remember? They know who she is. It’s not like there’s not a face attached to her resume now. Even if we managed to delete it, it would probably just be a speed bump, not the roadblock we need.”

“But it’s still something though, right?” asked Rylie. “I mean, as long as we’re out here throwing up Hail Marys, we might as well try every option?”

Rylie seemed to have a point, and it was something else they could try. Martin agreed with only the slightest hint of reluctance.

“I can log in and delete her application,” he promised. “Like Annabelle said, it might just be a speed bump but when combined with a lunch with Annabelle, it might be enough. It’s still better than doing nothing.”

That seemed to be good enough for the girls, and they arrived at home a short while later. Everyone gathered on the couch to relax, with Kelsey pressing into Martin’s left side while Annabelle took the right. Despite the closeness of all of them, no one felt like fooling around.

“I just wanted all of us to have a nice dinner together,” said Annabelle quietly. “And now I feel like I just put all of us at risk.”

“Tell me about it,” grumbled Kelsey. “I wanted to get a nice meal and then get all of us liquored up so we could have a big celebratory orgy for Martin’s first week as manager.”

Annabelle pursed her lips. “That would have been so nice, wouldn’t it?”

Even with everything that was going on, Martin’s body couldn’t help but respond as soon as Kelsey mentioned the orgy.

“We could still probably make that happen if you wanted?” he offered.

Rylie giggled. “Such a guy. Always ready for sex, even if we’re all in danger.”

“It’s not really as bad as we’re making it, right?” asked Kelsey with some hesitation in her voice. “Are we overreacting to all of this?”

While Kelsey’s question was legitimate, it still made both Martin and Annabelle shake their heads.

“We’ve never been in more danger than we are right now.”

Unfortunately, that answer did little to raise anyone’s mood that evening.

CHAPTER 24

THE WEEKEND PASSED by without much happening in the way of events. Although some semblance of normality returned to the group, there was still a somber undertone like things could go terribly wrong at any given second. Needless to say, that didn’t make for a fun weekend, and Martin wasn’t terribly upset about going to work on Monday.

After all, he had a task to perform now, and it was as he was logging into his computer that he first clicked on the shared drive for RI management as he carried out the first step in their plan. The second step, which was Annabelle going out to lunch with Nataliya, was already in motion, and that was set to take place later that day. Nataliya had been most enthusiastic about catching up with Annabelle, and they made plans to eat lunch at another trendy place not far from the city (where Annabelle didn’t have to worry about anyone else discovering her).

And now, Martin had to figure out how to find her job application and delete it. This shared drive was one that he didn’t have much experience with, seeing as he only got access to it with his recent promotion. Much of the files on here had an additional password that was needed to access it, no doubt being only for the upper management of RI.

Thankfully, the file for job applicants didn’t have a password for it. It didn’t take Martin very long to find Nataliya’s resume and application, and he couldn’t resist the urge to give it a peak.

Indeed, Nataliya’s resume was impressive for her age. Even from when they were dating, Martin knew she had a bright future in front of her, and this resume surely indicated that. It gave him a tinge of fear as he remembered what Annabelle said on the drive home. Nataliya was definitely a shoe-in for the job. If they didn’t take steps now, they would all be in danger.

“I’m so sorry, Nataliya,” mumbled Martin as he hit delete on her application. “I promise I’m doing it for the right reasons.”

Just like that, her application was gone, disappearing into cyberspace.

The feeling of guilt was instantaneous. Just because Nataliya was an ex didn’t mean that he didn’t want the best for her, and it kind of felt like he was robbing her of an opportunity to join an influential company. In the end, Martin had to cast those thoughts aside. This was about the protection for the girls first and foremost. If they were discovered to be clones, all hell would break loose.

Martin had to protect his new family at all costs.

Even if it meant turning rebel to make it happen.

He already had enough trouble with his clones wanting to keep making more clones. The last thing he needed was to be discovered doing it.

That particular thought triggered a light bulb in his head, and Martin was reminded of the conversation he had with Annabelle about the impulsive nature of the clones. The conversation centered around the fact that each of them had displayed behavior that was considerably more risky than what the original version would have done, and it led Martin to believe that this wasn’t by accident.

He was now thinking that it was the default setting of the replicators, providing a clone that was more sexually aggressive than the original.

Of course, for what use would that be to the person doing the cloning? It would only be useful if the person doing the cloning was looking to build a harem of clones for sexual purposes.

Since this was the kind of groundbreaking claim that could bust the doors wide open at RI, Martin had to be careful. As far as he knew, only a select few at RI knew that human cloning was going on at all, let alone a purposeful program of sexual clones like he suspected. Even talking with some of Martin’s other colleagues—managers of other departments—he got the impression that none of them knew what was truly happening behind the doors of the testing lab.

Could the shared drive hold any additional secrets?

Martin backed out of the main drive and scanned all the other folders listed inside. There must have been close to two hundred different folders, covering the whole range of operations for a large company like RI. A good portion of them though covered the cloning research that was the scientific backbone behind all the work done at RI.

Unfortunately, Martin couldn’t get access to them. Despite being on the shared drive, they still required a separate password just to get into the folder. The folder he was trying to get into now, titled Gene Modification Research, wouldn’t give him entry until he put in the right password.

“What the hell is the password?” muttered Martin as he tried the most usual combinations, all resulting in no access.

Surely, the answers he was looking for were inside that folder, right?

So how could he get into it?

“Looking for something, Martin?”

Martin nearly jumped out of his chair as he spun around, finding Claire Pulliam behind him, leaning against the doorframe. His hands couldn’t move fast enough, and he stammered as he tried to think of a response for her, largely butchering it.

“Sorry, just looking for something and I can’t find it!”

“You’re trying to get into folders on the shared drive,” said Claire, posing neither a question nor a statement. “Most of those folders are password protected.”

“I saw that,” said Martin quickly. “I think I clicked on this one by accident.”

With those words, he tried to click back out of the Gene Modification Research folder, but not before Claire saw where he was.

“Oh, that one is a very top secret folder,” said Claire as she moved closer. She kept moving until she was right next to his side, and then she bent down at the waist until her face was close to his.

“You really don’t want access to that folder,” she whispered. “There are a lot of things you’re better off not knowing.”

Martin gulped hard. “Like what?”

Claire smirked. “Can’t tell you. VP-level only. Let’s just say if I did, well, I’d have to kill you.”

What should have been a simple joke was anything but humorous. Judging by the look in Claire’s eyes, she wasn’t kidding about the killing part.

“Best to leave it alone,” she whispered. “And stay in areas where you’re actually allowed. Do you get what I’m telling you, Martin?”

Shit, does she know?

Martin swallowed heavily as he couldn’t help but wonder whether she was telling him she secretly knew about his wanderings within the testing area. Was this her way of telling him? Was she trying to help him or just give him a warning before they took decisive action?

His mind full of fog, Martin couldn’t help but nod silently.

Claire purred. “Good boy.”

With those words, she straightened her back and walked across his office with a steady pace. As she reached the door, she turned to look at him. “By the way, there will be a manager-only conference call at ten o’clock this morning. I can count on you to be there, right?”

At this point, he would have done whatever she’d asked. How one woman could combine equal parts sexy and dangerous into one unbelievable package was beyond him but it left him with one thought that was absolutely certain.

There was no way he was ever going to cross Claire Pulliam.

“I’ll be on it,” promised Martin.

Claire winked at him before she left. “I knew this would be a great fit for you, Martin. It’s why I lobbied so hard for your promotion.”

With those words, she was gone, leaving him more confused than ever before.

The rabbit hole was getting deeper. And just how far down could he safely go?

CHAPTER 25

“THIS WAS SUCH A GREAT IDEA! I was hoping you’d call so that we could get a chance to catch up like old times!”

Annabelle grinned as she embraced her old college roommate, Nataliya, right before they sat down to eat at the trendy restaurant that Annabelle suggested. It was part of the second phase of their plan, and while Martin was at work trying to delete Nataliya’s application, Annabelle was going to try to dissuade Nataliya from working at RI.

Of course, that didn’t mean she couldn’t take some time to catch up to her old friend though.

“It feels like it’s been literally forever since we last saw each other,” said Annabelle as they sat down. “How many years has it been now?”

“Can you believe it’s been seven years since we graduated?” asked Nataliya. “Where has the time gone?”

“Well, that time has been great to you,” gushed Annabelle. “You look even more gorgeous than you did in college.”

Annabelle wasn’t exaggerating. Nataliya had that Eastern European sexiness to her that just drove men crazy. She was always slender without a hint of fat on her body but with the kind of chest that seemed to defy gravity. Even though Annabelle’s bust was bigger, she was never as slim and taut as Nataliya was, and that always used to drive her nuts in college, especially considering the fact that Nataliya never watched what she ate.

Nataliya’s hair was a lustrous dark brown that always seemed to shimmer any time the light hit it. Her green eyes were almost always mischievous, and they contained equal parts of mystery and intelligence that was always a hit with the opposite sex.

Nataliya was just the type of the girl that drove other girls crazy with envy. Not only was she intelligent, but her intelligence came effortlessly. While Annabelle spent most of her college nights locked in the library studying, Nataliya would be out at the bars scoring free drinks off the guys. Annabelle recalled only seeing her study less than a handful of times, and that was usually during finals week.

If anything, Nataliya was the entire package when it came to womanhood.

Nataliya blew air through her lips. “Look at you, girl! You look even more scrumptious than you did in college. I love what you’re doing with your hair these days. It looks so thick and healthy, and you’re dressing sexier too. Too often in those days you had a tendency to blend into the wallpaper. It’s nice to see you owning your looks for once!”

Annabelle turned red with embarrassment, mostly because she knew Nataliya to be accurate. In truth, Annabelle had been somewhat of an ugly duckling growing up, never really growing into her body until the later years of college. For a period of about three-four years, she enjoyed her best looks until the cancer robbed it from her, but it was still nice to show off to someone who knew her back then.

“Let’s just say the years have been kind to us both,” said Annabelle finally, offering a shy grin.

“I can’t believe I ran into you of all people,” said Nataliya while laughing. “I’ve only been back for three weeks and one of the first people I run into is my old roommate and my ex-boyfriend. Isn’t that crazy?”

“It was really crazy,” replied Annabelle. “Especially in the same restaurant.”

Nataliya grinned wickedly. “You can say that again. So how long have you been seeing Martin?”

“Seeing him?”

Annabelle tried hard not to stutter. Did she really want Nataliya to know the relationship she had with Martin, especially since it was far from conventional? Was it any more dangerous than Nataliya knowing that Annabelle was alive?

“Don’t be coy with me,” said Nataliya as she put both hands on the sides of her face. “Dish it. How long have you been seeing each other?”

For some reason, Annabelle tried to downplay it.

“Oh, we’re just really good friends,” she said, waving her hand. “There’s no feelings there.”

Once again, Nataliya blew a raspberry.

“Annabelle, I wasn’t born yesterday. I can see the way you were looking at him at dinner. Especially as soon as it was mentioned that he was my ex. You looked like you wanted to wrap your arms around his neck and claim him out of instinct. So how long have you had feelings for him?”

Annabelle couldn’t help but turn red. “Am I that easy to read?”

“Maybe not to anyone else, but you forget that I lived with you for nearly four years. I know you too well.”

Annabelle let out a sigh. Since there was no use in denying it, she decided to stop playing dumb.

“A while now,” she answered finally. “A couple months more or less.”

“And how did you meet him? Your friends?”

“Something like that,” said Annabelle, smiling at the hidden reason being buried within the real answer.

“Have you two done it yet?”

“Nataliya!” whispered Annabelle furiously. “What’s with all the questions?”

Nataliya giggled helplessly. “I just want to know! Especially since I’ve been on that particular ride before and I never had any objections.”

Annabelle frowned. “If that’s the case, then why did you break up? Martin said you were the one that broke up with him.”

Nataliya nodded. “That’s right. Listen, I had no issues with Martin as a boyfriend. Or even Martin as a lover but we were really young. We were both only eighteen and it was the summer before we left for college. I already knew I was going to Virginia, and I really didn’t want to be straddled with a long-distance relationship. That’s not to mention that Martin and I weren’t totally on the same page in the bedroom. Yes, the sex was good, but it wasn’t great. Do you know what I mean?”

Annabelle shook her head. “No, but keep going anyway.”

Nataliya took a deep breath. “I don’t think Martin could keep up with all of my kinks. I like a little adventure in the bedroom. I like my toys and I like having multiple partners. He’s really not like that. He was a one-woman type of guy, and he just wasn’t adventurous like that.”

Annabelle had to hold in a snicker. Describing Martin as a one-woman type of guy now was the height of irony.

“So what you’re saying is that you were too kinky for him,” said Annabelle finally.

A devilish smile appeared on Nataliya’s face. “Something like that. It’s probably why I stayed with some of those guys in college for longer than I should have. You know which ones I’m talking about? Remember Davis?”

Annabelle groaned out loud. “God, I hated Davis!”

Nataliya giggled. “I hated Davis too, but he was the only guy who would fuck my ass raw while spanking me with a leather whip.”

“Nataliya!” yelled Annabelle again before joining her friend in a fit of laughter. “You’re so bad!”

Nataliya shrugged. “What can I say? I like my men a little degrading and kinky. Martin just wasn’t like that, but I can see why you’re into him. He’s entirely your speed, and you two would get along well together.”

Annabelle pursed her lips. “Are you trying to say that I’m not kinky? That I’m vanilla in the bedroom?”

Nataliya gave her a knowing look. “In the four years we lived together, I can’t remember a single time I heard you get off behind your bedroom door because of a guy. I know you too well, Annabelle. Have you ever even had anal?”

“I’ll have you know that I had my ass fucked this past week!”

“Uh, do you two know what you want to order?”

Annabelle’s horrified eyes fell on the waiter, who had just heard her very vocal proclamation. Her cheeks turned bright red as Nataliya struggled to keep a straight face.

“We just need another minute,” said Nataliya, allowing the waiter to awkwardly walk away.

Annabelle put her hands over her eyes. “Oh my god, I can’t believe he heard me say that!”

“I want you to dish though girl!” said Nataliya proudly. “So Martin took your ass last week? How was it? Was it really good?”

“So good,” said Annabelle more quietly this time. “So good that I had trouble walking for a few days afterward.”

Nataliya purred happily. “Maybe Martin has grown up a little since we dated. In any event, I’m really happy for you, Annabelle. You sound like you’re happy!”

“You know what? I am happy,” said Annabelle as her smile grew larger. “I’m happier than I’ve been in a long time, which is saying something. I’m happy with him. He makes me happy.”

Nataliya’s face assumed a fond look. “He always did know how to treat a woman. Even back then. Just because we weren’t a match in the bedroom doesn’t mean that I didn’t like most aspects of our relationship. He was always attentive and sweet. I have no regrets about my time with him.”

“Do you ever wish you could go back? Rekindle the fire?”

Nataliya started to shake her head. “Maybe sometimes, but mostly I think what’s done is done. It wasn’t meant to be. Martin and I were just too different. We weren’t compatible in the long run, even if we could make the short-term memorable. In the end, everything happened for a reason. What I’m saying is that you don’t have to worry about any competition from me!”

Annabelle snorted. “Well, that’s good to know.”

From that moment on, Nataliya caught Annabelle up on all that had happened in her life since graduating college. Annabelle heard all about the places she’d worked, and even the paper she managed to have published with her research. The waiter reappeared to grab their order, and it was at that point that Annabelle remembered this lunch wasn’t all about catching up. She still had a job to do.

“So you mentioned something about going for an interview?” asked Annabelle as nonchalantly as she could manage. “At this place . . . what was it called again? Replica what?”

“Replica Imagination,” corrected Nataliya. “Isn’t it exciting though? It’s the place that does cloning, animal cloning to be exact. And this position for their lead researcher looks incredible. I’ve only heard good things about this company, and I’m excited to see what happens.”

Annabelle made a calculated face of doubt. “Cloning though? Doesn’t that bother you a little? Seems kind of unethical.”

Annabelle never thought those words would leave her mouth. At that moment, she became her own mother, as those same words had no doubt been uttered to her already by her parents. Even though Annabelle didn’t really believe what she just said, she still had to convince Nataliya that she had a point.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t looking good from the start.

Nataliya waved her hand. “Oh, come on, Annabelle. There’s nothing unethical about cloning a new pet for the family. You’re beginning to sound like your parents now. How are they, by the way? Still raging Bible-thumpers?”

Annabelle ignored the question and continued anyway. “Yeah, but think about it Nataliya. Today it might be pets. What if tomorrow, it’s humans? Do you really agree with that kind of thing? Sure, there’s not much of an ethical argument now but there will be when that happens.”

Nataliya shrugged. “The idea has always fascinated me so I don’t see what’s so bad about it. And listen, I’m less interested in the ethics of all of it as much as the science. Can you imagine what it would say about us as a society that we’ve truly managed to cheat death?”

Annabelle tried to channel her mother. “Are you really cheating death? Because is the clone a viable copy of the original? Does it have the same soul? Is it still the same person?”

Nataliya could only blink in response. “Annabelle, I had no idea you felt so strongly about this whole thing. You’re really against cloning, aren’t you?”

Annabelle laughed nervously as she rubbed the black smudge on her finger, the only giveaway for what she really was. “Didn’t you know it?”

Nataliya patted the back of Annabelle’s hand. “Don’t worry. Human cloning is still very much illegal so it’s a moot point anyway. I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about.”

“That’s what you think,” muttered Annabelle.

“I’m sorry? What did you say?”

“Nothing,” said Annabelle, clearing her throat. “Just something went down the wrong pipe. So you’re dead set on accepting a job at Replica Imagination? I mean, if they offered it to you?”

Nataliya shrugged. “It’s not my only prospect right now but it’s the best one from what I can tell. I need a job anyway. We just moved back here from Virginia and took the first apartment we could find, but I still need to bring in an income.”

Annabelle gave her a curious look. “What do you mean ‘we?’”

For the first time, she looked down at Nataliya’s hand. That was when Annabelle noticed the ring.

“My husband,” said Nataliya as she waved her hand around, the big rock sparkling as it danced through the air. “I didn’t tell you I was married?”

“No, you missed that part entirely! When did this happen?”

“Two years ago. We’ll have to do this again so you can meet Brian. He’s a really great guy. He’s started his own business in the technology field and it’s doing really well. Not well enough that I don’t have to work but maybe someday we can get there. That’s also not mentioning his best trait.”

“What’s that?” asked Annabelle.

Nataliya grinned and leaned forward. “He’s as kinky as I am in the bedroom. It’s a match made in heaven!”

“Or hell,” suggested Annabelle, making Nataliya giggle.

“Well, that’s great, I’m very happy for you,” said Annabelle.

“Seriously, you’ll need to meet Brian the next time we get together,” said Nataliya before diving into the food that had just arrived. “And hopefully, I’ll have a new job to tell you about.”

“How soon will you know about it?” asked Annabelle. “You said you had the first interview already?”

Nataliya nodded and then rolled her eyes. “Yes, and I hope the next one is with someone a little more professional. The guy that interviewed me was a VP with the company, and get this, he couldn’t stop looking at my chest for the entire interview.”

Annabelle knew exactly who she was talking about. The VP of Production, Bryce Rookwood, had quite the reputation with the other women at RI for having wandering eyes.

“And that didn’t turn you off from the company?” asked Annabelle. “I don’t know if I would work for someone who couldn’t treat me like a person and look in my eyes. It sounds like this company is beneath you, Nataliya”

Nataliya shrugged. “I’m used to it. I mean, you know how it is. When you have big tits, everyone just wants to look at them. Anyway, they said my next interview is with a woman. Let’s hope she’s a little more levelheaded.”

Annabelle couldn’t help but snort. She knew the woman would be Claire Pulliam and to call her levelheaded was the height of irony.

After finishing their meals, Nataliya was quick to embrace Annabelle before they could part ways.

“It was so great to see you again,” said Nataliya as she squeezed Annabelle tightly. “We have to do this again soon. Maybe we can invite you and Martin over to have dinner with Brian and I? That sounds like a wonderful idea!”

“As long as Brian isn’t the jealous type,” quipped Annabelle.

Nataliya grinned wickedly. “Are you kidding? Get him drunk enough, and he’ll probably be the first one to suggest we have an orgy.”

“Nataliya! You’re never going to change, are you?”

“God, I hope not. Anything other than this would be too boring.”

Annabelle smiled. “Well, it was great to see you again.” Even if it feels like I couldn’t change your mind.

“Great to see you too. Bye, Annabelle!”

By the time Annabelle was on the way home, she felt more defeated than ever. There had been no chance of dissuading Nataliya from continuing her journey with RI, and all she could hope for was that Martin was able to delete her application.

I hope he was more successful than I was.

CHAPTER 26

“HAH! GO FISH! EAT IT, BITCH!”

Kelsey threw her cards down on the table. “Seriously? How do you always win at this game? Are you cheating?”

Rylie shook her head before she started to visibly celebrate, holding her hands together and shaking her arms back and forth. “I’m just too good, that’s why! You don’t stand a chance against me.”

Kelsey grumbled and kicked the leg of the chair next to them. “I still think you’re cheating somehow. Maybe we should go back to Old Maid?”

“Why? You’re not tired of losing yet?” teased Rylie.

It had been a rather quiet afternoon. With Martin at work and with Annabelle having lunch with her old roommate, Nataliya, Kelsey and Rylie had been left alone in the apartment to entertain themselves for most of the day.

Truthfully, Kelsey was happy to spend time with Rylie one-on-one. With Rylie being the newest addition to the group, her bond with the lovely redhead model wasn’t as strong as it could have been, if only because they knew each other the least. Rylie had demonstrated that she was a very fun person to be around, and Kelsey wanted to take this time to make sure their new friendship continued to develop.

And so far, it was off to a great start (except for the fact that Rylie almost always won every card game they played).

“Okay, we’re switching to Uno now,” said Kelsey as she broke out another pack of cards. “My losing streak has to end sometime.”

“That’s what you think,” said Rylie in a sing-song tone. “But you don’t know that I’m better at Uno than I am at Go Fish!”

Kelsey couldn’t help groan as she dished the cards out. Just based on her first hand, things weren’t off to a great start.

“So do you think they’re having any luck out there?” asked Rylie as the game started. “Martin and Annabelle?”

Kelsey shrugged. “I hope so. There’s a lot riding on it. From what Annabelle was saying, Nataliya is smart enough to get the job if we don’t intervene. It makes me feel pretty shitty though that we have to deprive her of that.”

“No, I agree with that. I just have to keep telling myself it’s for our safety but even then, it’s still not very palatable.” Rylie chewed on her bottom lip for a second before broaching a deeper subject.

“Has it all been worth it to you?” she asked finally. “Being a clone? I know that’s a weird thing to ask but you’ve been doing this longer than the rest of us. The whole living in secret and not having much of an identity outside of here has to be jarring sometimes. Do you ever wish it had just been left alone?”

Kelsey stopped for a moment to look at Rylie, who clearly seemed a bit unsure of herself even after asking the question.

“Before I answer your question, let me ask you this,” said Kelsey. “Are you having doubts about living here? Did something prompt that question in particular?”

Rylie started to shake her head. “Actually, I’m kind of still waiting to find out the bad side of living here. I’m afraid that I like it here a little too much. Hanging out with you and Annabelle is really fun, and if I’m being totally honest, it’s really refreshing. I’m an only child and I always wondered what it would be like to have sisters. I don’t have to wonder what that looks like anymore. You two have sort of filled that void for me.”

Kelsey was touched by the statement, not expecting Rylie to be that forthcoming. “I don’t know what to say to that. I’m relieved to hear that and of course, we’re happy to have you here too. I think we’re all still a little amazed by how easily you fit into the group.”

“All of you have been so welcoming that it’s hard not to,” said Rylie before breaking out into a grin. “Plus it doesn’t hurt that we can all fool around too.”

“Definitely doesn’t hurt,” said Kelsey, laughing with her. “So to go back to your original question, you’re not feeling any doubts then?”

Rylie shook her head. “Nothing yet. Even with this threat in front of us, I’m still happy about the way things turned out but I have to wonder if things will always be this way. Is this the honeymoon period? Does reality catch up to you eventually? You’d be the best person to ask.”

Kelsey really thought over the question before she answered. “Reality is always going to catch up to you sometime. Do I hate that I can’t do some things that I used to be able to do in my old life? Yes, of course. I hate that I can’t drive because I can’t get a driver’s license. I hate that I have to be constantly on guard about who sees me in public. I really dislike the fact that it seems that Martin and I will never be able to have kids. How do you get medical care for someone who’s actually dead?”

It was at this point that a wave of unexpected emotion hit Kelsey and she started to break down into sobs. Rylie quickly pivoted to the other side of the table and embraced her while the tiny brunette cried.

“You really wanted that, didn’t you?” asked Rylie.

Kelsey nodded against her chest. “I’m getting used to it, day by day. But it still really hurts me. I always envisioned Martin and I having children and what that might look like. In a way, it’s hard for me to process sometimes. On one hand, I’m glad that I got a second chance at life, even if there are more restrictions now than before. On the other hand, I just get terribly sad that this future most likely won’t include any babies.”

“That’s not to say it will always be that way,” said Rylie. “There are other options.”

“None that interest me,” said Kelsey as she wiped her eyes and sat up straighter. “But it’s okay. I’ve accepted it. This is the price that we pay for getting a second chance.”

“Does Martin know how you feel?”

“I haven’t told him about it yet,” admitted Kelsey.

“Shouldn’t you tell him eventually?”

“I don’t know that I want to worry him with it. You see how he is. He’s a fixer. When something’s wrong, he tries to fix it. I’m afraid I’d be giving him a project that isn’t fixable.”

“It’s not like you can never get pregnant though, Kelsey. It’s just that you’d need to find another way to have a baby safely. You’re not the only person who’s ever wanted a baby and wondered how they would pay for it or take care of it. There are ways out there.”

Kelsey wiped the last tear from her cheek. “I just don’t want to put us further at risk when we don’t need to be. I don’t want anyone to be asking questions that might compromise us.”

Rylie put her hands against Kelsey’s cheeks. “Someday, you need to talk about this with Martin. He needs to know how you really feel. Even if you feel there’s no fixing it, he should still know.”

Kelsey nodded. “Someday, but not today. I don’t want him to worry. He’s just going to try to find a way to get me what I want.”

Rylie smiled fondly. “He’s a good man like that, isn’t he? I haven’t spent as much time with him as you, but it’s not hard to see that he’s one of the good ones.”

“There’s not a lot of men out there like Martin,” said Kelsey. “You know, I was worried a lot when Annabelle joined us and we became a throuple instead of a couple. I thought it might mean he had less time for me, or that he might eventually love Annabelle more than he loves me. I still secretly worry about this from time to time but he’s shown me that he can still be as attentive and loving as he was when it was just the two of us. If anyone can handle this, it’s him.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” said Rylie. “Part of me has been wondering what to do about him. I keep going back and forth in my head, not knowing how deep I should let him in. We keep getting more physical but he’s not like some of the men I’ve dated in the past.”

“In what way?”

“I mean, he’s a listener for one,” said Rylie. “Do you remember last week when I asked him to bring me a towel when I was in the bathroom?”

Kelsey smiled. “I remember how hard he was when he came out. Hard enough that I got to sample it a moment later.”

Rylie giggled. “Well, he was like that because I let him feel me up. It was the first time he saw me fully naked too. And when I told him to stop, he actually did it. I’m not used to that, Kelsey. Some of the other guys I’ve been with in the past, they would have kept pushing until we had sex. Martin’s not like that. He respects my boundaries.”

“That’s one of the best things about him if you ask me,” said Kelsey. “But is that a problem for you? Is that what you’re saying?”

Rylie shook her head. “No, it’s not but it’s something I’m still getting used to. I’m used to guys getting their way with me by being aggressive. It’s just something I respond to and when he’s not like that, I have to wonder how we continue to move forward?”

“This might be a weird thing to ask but are you submissive?” asked Kelsey. “Are you wanting him to take charge in the bedroom? Is that what you’re waiting for?”

Rylie looked like she didn’t know how to answer the question. “Maybe a little bit? I don’t know how to explain it. Yes, there’s a part of me that would be very happy if he took charge and just threw me on the bed and had his way with me. But there’s another part of me that likes when I feel in control. I always seem to get one extreme or another. Guys who can’t give up any control or guys that let me wrap them around my finger. I feel like Martin is somewhere in the middle, and that’s why I don’t know how to handle it.”

“I think if you talk to him about it, you might find what you’re looking for,” said Kelsey. “He can be that aggressive guy in the bedroom, trust me on that. But if I had to guess, he’s still trying to figure out your likes and needs.”

Rylie smiled. “I guess we both have things we need to talk to him about, don’t we?”

“I suppose you’re right,” admitted Kelsey. “But seriously, talk to him about it. If I know anything about Martin, he’ll try his hardest to give you what you want.”

“And the same goes for you,” said Rylie. “You might be surprised what happens in the long run. And hey, guess what?”

Kelsey looked confused for a moment. “What?”

Rylie put her second-to-last card on the table. “Uno, bitch!”

CHAPTER 27

A FEW HOURS LATER, Martin arrived back at his apartment to find all three women waiting for him. Kelsey was in the kitchen making dinner while Rylie and Annabelle sat at the table, in the middle of their own card game.

The game was quickly forgotten as all attention landed on him before he could even close the door.

“Well? How did it go?” asked Annabelle as she sprung out of her chair. “Did you delete her application?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” said Martin with a small laugh. “But yes, I did. I don’t think it will help much but it’s gone. What about you? How was lunch?”

“Very interesting,” said Annabelle as a worried look took over her face. “But I don’t know how persuasive I was in convincing her not to accept a job at RI. She seems quite determined. She’s fascinated by the science behind it, which isn’t surprising at all.”

“She only sees the up side and not the down side,” said Kelsey. “At least we’ve slowed the process down a bit at the very least.”

“But I still don’t feel like we’re out of the woods yet,” said Martin. “You’re right—we’ve slowed it down but we haven’t stopped it. What are we going to do now?”

It was a question that no one had an answer for. As Martin looked around the room, looks of confusion and helplessness reigned.

“So we truly don’t have any other options,” admitted Martin finally.

“I mean, we could always kill her,” suggested Rylie, more as a joke than anything else.

The looks the rest of them gave her had her quickly retreating. “Tough crowd, forget I said anything.”

Martin turned to Annabelle. “Did you learn anything useful at all at lunch today? Anything that we could use?”

Annabelle thought about it and then shrugged. “Most of it was just us catching up on the past. I know she’s married now, so Rylie’s idea is firmly out the window.”

“It was a joke,” interrupted Rylie. “I wasn’t being serious!”

Annabelle laughed at her before turning back to Martin. “But not much. I do know that she still thinks about you though.”

“What?” asked Martin with noticeable confusion. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, she still thinks about her relationship with you. She told me that you weren’t that compatible but she still looks back on her time with you fondly.”

“Well, that’s hardly a surprise for the man that has three girlfriends,” quipped Rylie. “Does Nataliya want to make it number four?”

“She’s married, remember?” shot Annabelle.

Rylie shrugged. “Well, cloning is a thing, remember? We all exist, right? Besides, it might be fun to have another woman around here!”

It was at that moment that Martin realized exactly what Rylie was getting at. The impulsive nature of the clones was shining through in Rylie, and Martin knew that if left unchecked, there was a real possibility that a clone of Nataliya might just show up.

“See, that’s what I’m talking about,” said Martin as he pointed to Rylie but looked at Annabelle. “Did you recognize what Rylie just said?”

“What I just said?” repeated Rylie. “That I’d like to go leg-diving between another pair of thighs? I don’t get it.”

Annabelle snapped her fingers and got very excited. “The impulsive nature! Rylie’s showing signs of it right now! Martin, you’re right about this!”

Kelsey caught on quickly too. “This is what happens with all of us! We’re bred to be impulsive by nature!”

“And it’s my theory that it’s why it was put into us in the first place,” continued Annabelle. “To make us more wild in the bedroom for the one doing the cloning.”

“I’m sorry, you’re all losing me right now,” said Rylie with a frown. “Why do I feel like I’m the only one that doesn’t know what’s happening?”

“Let me explain it to you,” said Annabelle. “All of us clones did the same thing you just did by expressing an interest in cloning more girls. And we all eventually got what we wanted. Kelsey cloned me, and I cloned you. If we let this go, you’ll eventually find a way to clone someone else. You might convince me that it’s a good idea like I did to Kelsey. In any event, why do we all display this trait? My theory is that our genes were modified on two accounts. One, to make us more sexual than we were before and two, to make us more impulsive. These are two traits anyone would want if they wanted the perfect clone sexual playmate.”

To her credit, Rylie caught on very quickly. “So you’re thinking that whoever is cloning the rest of the humans back at RI is doing it for this one purpose—to clone a giant harem of sex-crazy and wild girls?”

“It’s such a guy thing to do,” said Kelsey as she rolled her eyes. “But yes, that’s the main premise.”

“That sounds deliciously evil,” said Rylie as she clapped her hands together. “And a little kinky. But mostly evil. So what does this mean? Do I need to be locked up for my own good? Because the idea of putting me in handcuffs is kind of making me wet right now.”

Martin started to chuckle. “No, we’re not going to lock you up. At least, not in that way. But I do think we need to get rid of our ability to keep making clones. We need to get rid of the key and the badge that contains the code. Only then will we have no access to the testing area, and we’ll be able to block any impulsive behavior from adding to our group.”

“How are you going to do that, Martin?” asked Annabelle. “Are you going to just throw them away?”

“No, I’m going to use the incinerator at RI,” he replied. “For two reasons, mostly. Number one, I know all evidence will completely disappear but the second reason is that I need to get in front of a replicator again.”

All three women looked at him like he was crazy.

“What? Why?” asked Kelsey as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Don’t you think that’s a little risky?”

“Of course, it’s risky but there’s something I need to see for myself. I need to see what evidence is left of our actions. I need to know whether the replicators stored logs of our actions, whether anyone can see that you three were cloned. I’m also wanting to know if I can look at the gene modification settings on the replicators to confirm what we suspect about the behavior triggers.”

“Do we need hard confirmation about that though, Martin?” asked Annabelle. “I mean, we have most of the proof we need right here. We’ve identified it already. Do we really need that kind of confirmation for the risk you’re about to take?”

“It’s not so much about what we know now,” he explained. “It’s about what we don’t know. What other changes have they made? Is there anything else that’s dangerous? Something that we need to watch out for? The replicator is the only key toward finding that information. If I can find out anything else that’s more useful, as well as deleting any evidence of us being there, it will go a long way toward our safety. Plus we get rid of the key and the badge. Yes, it’s risky, but we get a lot of things out of it in the long run.”

The girls all looked at each other before finally setting back on Martin.

“So when do you want to do this?” asked Kelsey. “When are you going back in?”

“Tomorrow evening,” he answered. “It will be quiet again. It’ll be the best chance to go unnoticed.”

“I don’t like the idea of this, Martin,” said Annabelle.

He shrugged. “I know but we need to do it anyway. There are just too many questions that we don’t have answers for.”

CHAPTER 28

THERE WAS a little more tension in the apartment that evening than usual. No one loved the idea of Martin going back into the testing area, even if there was begrudging acceptance that it needed to be done.

Even still, the girls were mostly quiet that evening, which meant that Martin felt he might go to bed without any sexual activity for the first time in months.

Alas, there was still one girl in the house that had different plans, and that came to fruition late at night while Martin was in the kitchen grabbing a beer. He’d been sitting on the couch with Annabelle watching a TV show while Kelsey was in their bedroom painting her nails. Rylie was running water for her usual nightly bath, and Martin had a profound sense of deja vu when he heard his name being called from a crack in the bathroom door.

Putting his beer down, Martin walked toward the bathroom with a curious smile planted on his lips. The last time that this had happened, Rylie was in the mood to tease him with her body, and he secretly hoped that this time would be the same too.

Yet when he opened the door, he found Rylie already in the tub, with the water coming all the way up to her neck. Her lovely auburn hair was tied up in a messy bun on the top of her head, and she’d used enough bubbles to prevent him from seeing exactly what was underneath the water.

For a brief moment, Martin thought she just misplaced her towel again, but Rylie was wearing a coy grin as she watched him enter.

“Did you need something?” he asked, focusing his eyes on her.

Rylie nodded her head without saying a word.

Martin let out a small chuckle. “Well? What is it?”

“I just felt like talking to you,” she said with a simple shrug. “Stay here and talk to me?”

Martin continued to laugh. “In here? That’s a little weird, don’t you think?”

Rylie raised her eyebrows. “Martin, when a naked woman wants you to stay and talk to her, you don’t question it. You just do it.”

“I’m never going to understand you,” he said while sitting down on the toilet opposite of the tub. “What did you want to talk about?”

Rylie let out a deep sigh and looked at him with a crook in her neck. “Really? You sit down on the toilet of all places?”

“Well, where else am I going to sit down?”

Rylie looked like she wanted to hit him. She waved her hands, causing the waters to ripple within the tub.

At that moment, Martin finally understood. She didn’t want to talk to him while he was sitting in there fully dressed.

She wanted him to join her in the tub!

“Oh, I get it now,” he said as he moved to stand up. His hands went to the hem of his shirt and pulled it up over his head, revealing his chest.

“That’s much better,” purred Rylie as her eyes raked over his bare chest. “Don’t forget the pants too.”

Martin hooked his thumbs in his gym pants and pushed them to the floor, along with his boxers. Though he wasn’t particularly excited when he entered the bathroom, that was quickly changing by the way Rylie was looking at his cock.

She scooted toward the rim of the tub, allowing him room to enter. The water was blistering hot as soon as his feet were inside, but it was the kind of hot that felt incredibly relaxing.

As he positioned his body to sit next to her, Rylie moved closer, resting her arm against his chest. Her auburn locks fell against his chest and he was now very aware of the way her boobs were pressing into his side.

“Much better,” whispered Rylie as she closed her eyes.

Martin grinned at her. “You’re used to getting your way, aren’t you?”

“Naturally, Martin. Models always get their way.”

“I thought you weren’t going to be a model anymore. You said you wanted to put that life behind you?”

“Well, yes,” said Rylie as her hand dipped further down his stomach. “But some habits are hard to break,” she whispered.

Rylie let out a loud coo of approval as her hand wrapped around his cock. “Speaking of hard, what do we have here?”

“I am taking a bath with the sexiest model I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Martin. “So it’s not like this is exactly a surprise.”

Rylie started to giggle. “Kelsey was so right about you. You really are just a good man. Maybe a little slow at times, but very sweet.”

“Slow?” asked Martin incredulously.

She continued to giggle before pressing her lips to his, making him forget the temporary insult. Rylie’s tongue entered his mouth and sought his own.

When she pulled away, she looked at him with seductive eyes. “I really like teasing you like this.”

With those words, Rylie shifted her weight in the tub, causing the water to rock back and forth. In the next moment, she pushed herself between his legs, laying her body on top of his and kissing him as her weight settled on him.

Out of instinct, Martin’s hands went to her ass, gripping it tightly as he became keenly aware of the fact that his cock was now directly between her thighs.

“Oh, yes,” said Rylie as her body shuddered. She raised her hips and then lowered him, grinding herself against his shaft. “That’s the spot right there.”

It wasn’t the first time they’d dry humped but it was the first time that there had been no clothing between them to prevent any penetrations. So far, Rylie had drawn the line at actual sex but Martin got the impression it was just her trying to control the speed at which they moved.

He didn’t actually think they’d never get there, just that they would do so at Rylie’s pace.

“Oh, fuck, you don’t know how good this feels,” said Rylie as she opened her eyes. “My clit is so tingly right now. I can feel you throbbing underneath me. You’re so hard for me, baby.”

“You turn me on so much,” whispered Martin. “You’re so fucking gorgeous.”

Rylie smiled and kissed him passionately. “It wouldn’t take anything for you to just force me down on your big cock right now. To take what you want. Even though we haven’t done it yet, you could take control so easily right now. Just spread me open one inch at a time as you fill me with your thick meat.”

It was definitely tempting. Martin had to find some serious self-control not to do as Rylie was talking. The only thing that stopped him was that he wanted her to tell him when she was ready. He didn’t want to breach the trust they’d established by just taking her.

But yet, why did he get the impression that was exactly what she wanted him to do?

Rylie’s movement became more exaggerated as she continued to grind herself against him. For several very dangerous moments, he felt the tip of his cock notch against her entrance, but her body shifted in such a way to prevent any penetration. It was driving him crazy, and judging by the way Rylie was moaning now, he wasn’t the only one with the need for release.

“Oh, Martin,” she whimpered as her breathing became more erratic. “Fuck, I’m so close.”

“Do you want me?” he asked quickly. “Do you want it inside?”

Rylie didn’t have time to answer. Her orgasm arrived with full fury a moment later and she completely collapsed against him as her body shuddered several times in quick succession. Her hips kept thrusting against his but as she closed the distance between them, his cock was pushed further from her wetness, sliding down her thigh.

The moment seemed to have passed, and while she seemed to have enjoyed her orgasm, he was still very much wanting release.

That came in the form of a vigorous and well-practiced hand job as soon as she recovered. Rylie wrapped her hand around his cock as she had many times before and soon worked him to an energetic pace. Martin was so wound up from how close they’d been to actual sex that he came in no time at all, spewing his seed all over her fingers.

“Messy, messy, messy,” said Rylie with a lighthearted giggle as she milked him fully. “Did that feel good?”

“So fucking good,” said Martin, still catching his breath. “Every time with you feels like that.”

Rylie smiled and leaned her head against his chest. “You make it so hard to resist you, do you know that? You’re just so good to me.”

“Why would you resist me in the first place?”

“Maybe resist is the wrong word. It’s hard to hold myself back when I just want you so badly.”

Martin chuckled. “Well, don’t hold back on me. I want you just as much as you want me.”

“Mmm,” moaned Rylie. “Very soon, okay? I’m almost there. And when the time comes, I just want you to take me. No questions beforehand, just take what you want so desperately. What we both want so desperately. Are you getting what I mean by that?”

“It’s not hard to figure out,” joked Martin as he cupped her perfect tits. “I can do that.”

“Perfect,” whimpered Rylie. “Just perfect.”

CHAPTER 29

THE NEXT NIGHT, it was time to go back into the testing area.

Martin had been on edge for most of the day. He was sure most of it was to blame on this upcoming infiltration of RI, but it also didn’t help that Rylie had teased him again for most of the day leading up to it. That teasing had been in the form of sexts from her as he worked, where she took the opportunity to take pictures of herself in every piece of lingerie in the entire apartment.

At several points, Martin almost excused himself to go whack one off in the company bathroom but there was something about living with three gorgeous nymphos that made jacking off distinctively unpalatable.

Still, Rylie’s body made self-control a very difficult matter, and watching short video clips of her pulling the straps down on her lace lingerie and then pinching her nipples had him harder than a diamond for just about the entire day.

By the time night fell, he was back to all business though. He had a job to do.

Well, he had several jobs he wanted to do. As he made his way to RI that evening, he kept a mental checklist of everything he wanted to accomplish.

First, he wanted to make sure there were no logs inside the replicator of the making of Kelsey, Annabelle, and Rylie. If there was a paper trail, he wanted to delete it, especially when it came to Rylie, since he wasn’t physically present when she was cloned to ensure that the proper security measures had been taken.

Secondly, he wanted to poke around the replicator files, seeing what data he could gleam from the behavior modification section of the data input. While he would feel vindicated about finding out that the clones were bred with a more impulsive nature than normal, part of him was more curious about what he didn’t know just yet. What else had been changed and how could it affect him in the long run?

Lastly, this was going to be his final visit to the testing lab. He was going to use their incinerator to get rid of Keith’s badge as well as the key, preventing any further cloning accidents.

Thankfully, the halls of RI were quiet that night. Martin was glad that he’d inserted the fake feed into security cameras, for it seemed like he was the only one walking around the company that evening. As usual, he was fully clad in his hazmat suit with the protective head covering, hiding his identity, however there was a new change that night that he hadn’t dealt with on the previous nights.

He had to wear Keith’s badge on the outside of his hazmat suit according to the new protocol. While this wasn’t a big deal because it didn’t have Keith’s picture on it, it could still trigger an alarm in case anyone stopped him and did some inspecting.

However, Martin’s luck held, and he infiltrated the testing area without any notice.

The main area was quiet, however, when Martin came to the two wings of replicators, he could hear the sounds of several machines in use to his right side. Knowing that someone was using them, Martin moved to the left, picking the replicator that was used to make Kelsey and Annabelle and thankfully finding it unused.

Locking the door behind him, Martin turned on the machine and started digging.

The first priority was accessing the logs of DNA that had recently passed through their systems. Thankfully, this was a barely protected file, and by using Keith’s code once again, Martin had access to the entire data file.

Once inside, he had to filter the data by species, taking out all the canine and feline entries before he was finally able to access human data.

And that was when his mouth dropped open.

It wasn’t just because of the size of the file although at first glance, that was a significant mind-fuck as well seeing as there was thousands of entries inside.

There were more than just a handful of human clones out there. If this file was accurate, the replicators at RI had just under nine thousand clones of human beings running around out there.

So much for the illegality of the whole thing.

What was even more mind-blowing was the individual logs within the data file. Of course, each individual DNA file was given a unique number as well as a date that it was performed, but the files had also been named with the person who’d been cloned.

And it was like a who’s who list of the most powerful people in the United States.

Martin openly gawked as he sorted past listings of influential senators, businessmen, and even sports figures.

Several names shocked him in particular.

Raymond Caldwell was the CEO of the top technology company in the country, the one that made the best-selling smartphones and tablets. According to this log, he’d been cloned three times.

Senator Wayne Little was a powerful senator who ran for president eight years ago and lost. Yet, his name was in the file as a clone.

The next name almost dropped Martin to his knees.

“Jack Baggen,” he read, seeing the name of his beloved boxer idol. “Jack Baggen is a clone too?”

The lists continued seemingly without end. Martin had the idea to continue to explore more but then just above him, one of the overhead alarms started to go off. It wasn’t an ear-piercing sound, but more or less an alert to signify that something was going wrong somewhere in the testing area.

Feeling vulnerable, Martin quickly got back to task and searched for the names of his three women. Finding them, Martin was able delete their files without too much trouble, removing them completely from the log.

With the evidence gone, he thought to go back to the main screen of the replicator and start investigating behavior modification but that was before he heard the screaming.

The loud, blood-curdling screaming was coming from the main hall. It was a woman’s scream by the sounds of it, and the very noise caused a deep chill to go down Martin’s spine.

Something was incredibly wrong.

His flight sense triggered, Martin exited the data file on the replicator and decided to beat a hasty retreat. Whatever was going on at RI tonight, he didn’t want to be here any longer. He threw open the door to his replicator, where the sounds of screaming amplified.

And they were coming from the right hallway off the entrance, where the other replicators were being used.

At this moment, Martin broke off in a run toward the entrance, hoping to make a quick retreat and get out of there but that was before fate or irony decided to intervene.

Because before he could turn down the hallway to leave, he ran into the last person he would have ever expected to see.

Suddenly, Martin knew who the screaming belonged to. The woman in front of him had a recognizable face and she was clutching a blanket around her body as she screamed at the top of her lungs. On her hand, Martin could already see the black smudge, the mark of the clone.

“Martin!” screamed the newly-cloned Nataliya. “You have to help me!”

When did everything go so terribly wrong?

CHAPTER 30

“MARTIN! You have to help me! Where the fuck are we?”

Nataliya’s screaming wasn’t getting any less intense. If anything, her voice was getting louder and carrying further than before, but Martin seemed rooted to the spot. How did he find himself in this situation?

All he wanted to do was get some vital information from the replicators while covering up his tracks.

And now, everything had gone to shit.

He was still processing his options when he felt the smack across the face. His cheek burned as his eyes refocused on Nataliya, who had followed up the smack by grabbing his arms and shaking him.

“Get me out of here!” she screamed at the top of her lungs.

Martin’s brain refused to function. At that moment, he couldn’t comprehend the consequences of getting Nataliya out of RI. All he knew was that his primitive brain stem was telling the rest of his body that he needed to get the hell out of there.

That meant that Martin grabbed Nataliya’s hand and made a bolt for the exit.

There was one thing that he managed to do before leaving though and that was ditching the key and the badge. Since the incinerator was close to the entrance, Martin was able to chuck open the door and pitch them like a ninety-mile fastball into the flames.

“What did you do that for?” shrieked Nataliya as the fire gobbled up his only access to the testing area.

“Don’t worry about it,” said Martin as he yanked her toward the locker room. He could still hear the alarm going off in the testing area but this portion of RI was still quiet. As Martin quickly dressed, he realized another problem.

There was no expectation of cloning anyone tonight so he had no spare clothes to give to Nataliya. She was currently wrapped up in nothing more than a blanket but the flashes of skin that happened every time she moved left little doubt that she was nude underneath.

Martin had to think of something. It was cold outside but at least he didn’t live that far away. Something light and temporary would work until they could reach his apartment.

He went rummaging in several lockers until he found what he was looking for. Someone had left a pair of gym pants and running sneakers inside, and they would have to do for now.

“Here, put these on,” he said, tossing them to Nataliya.

She looked at the sneakers like he’d just thrown dirt at her. “What the fuck do you expect me to do with these?”

“Just put them on!” he ordered, finding more steel in his voice than he’d expected. “We have to get you out of here! We’re in incredible danger!”

Thankfully, Nataliya didn’t fight him any further, although she looked like she still had several choice words on the tip of her tongue. She put on the pants and shoes and used the blanket around her torso. By the time they stepped out of the locker room, a new alarm was going off at RI.

The general alarm. The one that meant serious trouble was afoot. Martin last heard it that time when the office did a fire drill over a year ago.

This could only be something serious. Whoever had just cloned Nataliya realized she was gone and now needed to find her.

And she was with the one person who shouldn’t have even been there that night.

Martin didn’t want to think about how utterly and totally fucked he was. He just wanted to get Nataliya (and himself) out of there. They ran all the way back to his apartment, arriving not much past ten o’clock.

As Martin’s hand crept around the door handle, he wondered just how the hell he was going to explain this to the other three. There was going to be hell to pay as soon as he opened the door but there was truly no other option.

He couldn’t just abandon Nataliya. Not when she knew who he was.

So why did doing the right thing feel so terribly wrong?

Of course, Martin had three pairs of eyes on him as soon as he opened the door. During a night like this, it was no surprise that they’d stayed up until he arrived home. Whatever pleasure they had at seeing him in one piece was swiftly negated as soon as they saw Nataliya trudging in behind him.

“Nataliya!” said Annabelle with some excitement as her eyes drifted between her and Martin. “What in the world? What is she doing here?”

Kelsey’s hands went to her mouth instantly. Her eyes went wide with fear. “Oh, no! No, no, no, no, no! Martin, tell me you didn’t do that.”

Annabelle gasped as she realized what happened. Her eyes went to the black smudge on Nataliya’s hand. “Oh my fucking god! She’s a clone!”

“I’m a what?” shrieked Nataliya as she jammed her finger in Martin’s chest. “What the fuck did you do to me?”

“I didn’t do anything to you,” said Martin as he pulled away from her. “I found her in the testing area! Someone else cloned her!”

One would think that someone would have something, anything, to say to that. No one did. The girls couldn’t help but flicker their attention back and forth from Martin to Nataliya. Martin was at a loss for words on where to start.

The only person having a reaction was Nataliya, and that reaction was nothing short of pure insanity.

“Someone needs to tell me what the fuck is going on right now!” she yelled as she slammed her hands down on the kitchen table. Her wild eyes locked on Annabelle. “Annabelle, are you part of this? What is going on here? I didn’t think I’d see you until our lunch on Monday!”

Annabelle gave her a weird look. “We already had our lunch. Monday was yesterday, Nataliya.”

She never got a response from Nataliya. All the wildness and erratic behavior melted away completely as the power went out of Nataliya’s arms. Her body hit the floor with a solid thud, causing all of them to rush to her.

One listen to her breathing revealed the truth.

“She’s sleeping,” said Martin.

“She went from a million miles an hour of crazy to sleeping in a matter of two seconds?” asked Rylie incredulously.

Kelsey nodded. “It happens with all of us. Our bodies need rest after the generation process. She’ll be out for the next ten hours at least.”

Rylie looked back at Nataliya. “Still. That seems really unusual. She just crashed out of nowhere.”

“Trust me, that’s normal. Besides, ten hours should be enough time for us to figure out exactly how we have a cloned version of Nataliya in our apartment,” said Annabelle as she gave a serious look to Martin. “Seriously, what happened in there? You’re the last person I’d have expected to clone a new girl.”

Martin put his hands in the air. “I did no such thing. I didn’t clone her. Someone else did.”

“Then who?” asked Kelsey.

“I have no idea,” replied Martin, shaking his head. “One minute, I was deleting the records of your cloning and then I heard this awful shrieking. I had to get out of there and on the way out, who do I run into but Nataliya. Someone had just cloned her.”

Kelsey’s eyes went wide with fear. “You walked out of RI with someone else’s clone? Please tell me you’re joking right now.”

“I wish I was,” muttered Martin. “But it all happened so fast! Seriously, the alarms went off and the next thing I know, I had a screaming Nataliya in my face. What was I supposed to do?”

“Uh, clobber her and get the hell out of there?” suggested Rylie. “Do anything except bring her back here!”

“Be serious,” said Kelsey to Rylie before she turned her attention back to Martin. “Did anyone see you?”

“As far as I know, no. I did my usual safety protocols. The weird thing is that I didn’t see anyone else in the testing area besides Nataliya. I heard the other replicators running so I knew something was happening but I couldn’t see anyone else. It was really weird down there.”

“We need to know exactly what happened here,” said Annabelle. “We need a complete rundown to figure out what kind of danger we’re in.”

“Let’s get her into a bed first,” said Kelsey, looking down at Nataliya. “We have plenty of time to talk, but I don’t want to leave her here on the floor.”

“Plenty of time?” said Annabelle nervously. “We could have RI people swarming at this apartment any second! Them or the police! We might have no time!”

“Don’t get your panties in a twist,” said Rylie as she walked over to the window and looked out. “There’s no one out there.”

“Maybe not now,” grumbled Annabelle. “But there might be soon.”

“Come on, let’s get Nataliya into a bed first,” said Martin. “Rylie, keep an eye on that window for us.”

Nataliya’s body was about a hundred pounds of dead weight. Once Martin had her in his arms, he took her to the spare bedroom that had been mostly claimed by Rylie, depositing her under the covers. At least this sleeping version of Nataliya looked more peaceful than the screaming one from just a short while ago.

For a brief moment, Martin was taken back to his relationship with the fiery woman, remembering her hot temper and acerbic tongue.

Just what had he gotten himself into? Or in this case, back into?

CHAPTER 31

“OKAY, I need you to start from the beginning,” said Annabelle once he was back in the kitchen. “What happened? Tell us everything. Every little detail, no matter how consequential.”

And that was how Martin launched into the whole story, starting from the moment he walked into RI. He covered everything from entering the building until he was actually in front of the replicator, and that was when he had his first interruption.

“So our records are permanently deleted then?” asked Annabelle. “No record of Kelsey, Rylie or myself being cloned?”

“Not unless it’s stored in another database,” answered Martin. “But this is where it gets really messed up. Anyone want to take a guess how many human clones are out there?”

Annabelle shook her head while Kelsey just shrugged. “How many?”

Martin gave them a hollow look. “Nearly nine thousand.”

Annabelle nearly fell out of her chair. “What!”

“How can that be so, Martin?” asked Kelsey. “Nine thousand clones?”

“And get this, it’s not like we’re talking about a bunch of nobodies like us either. I saw famous names in there. People anyone would recognize. Powerful people.”

Annabelle crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Like who?”

It only took about five names from Martin to make her look like she was about to faint. Meanwhile, Kelsey was looking like she was about to jump up and down.

“You’re telling me that half the most powerful people in the entire country have been cloned?” she asked. “For what reason?”

“What other reason do you think?” shot Rylie from across the room. She turned away from the window briefly to look at them. “Why else would the rich and powerful want clones? You can probably get a lot more work done if there’s two of you.”

“Or three or four,” said Martin, remembering the one CEO that had been cloned three times. “Or what if they’ve been cloned because the original died prematurely, like Kelsey? What if some of the most famous people we know have actually died and what we see now are the clones?”

Kelsey and Annabelle looked at each other.

“Then we might just become the most interesting people in the world,” said Kelsey. “Because we now know all of this information.”

“I’d say we’ve become the most dangerous people in the world,” said Annabelle fearfully. “Because if someone figures out that we know, we could all be killed for this.”

That was a heavy thought, and no one was in a rush to say anything after that. It was several moments before someone had any words to say.

“So how do we avoid any fallout from this?” whispered Kelsey. “You’re sure that no one noticed you leaving after you found Nataliya?”

“Not from what I can tell, but the alarms were going off at RI as we left. I have to imagine that someone is in the testing lab right now and they know exactly what happened,” said Martin. “Save for who took Nataliya.”

“What I don’t get is why Nataliya though?” asked Rylie from the window. “Why was she cloned? Why didn’t you run into a cloned version of Elon Musk or something?”

“Maybe he’s already been cloned,” suggested Kelsey.

“Or maybe it’s because there’s another reason to have a pretty girl cloned,” said Annabelle as she looked directly at Martin. “Maybe someone wanted Nataliya for their own personal harem?”

“Like who? And how?” asked Martin. “Who would want to clone her and have the power to do it too?”

Kelsey and Annabelle looked at each other before Annabelle was the one to respond. “Maybe it’s the higher ranks of RI doing this. Vince and the VPs. What if they’re the ones doing this for their own personal gain?”

“Personal gain as in creating their own willing sexual companions,” said Martin. “In addition to cloning powerful people for whatever reason they might have.”

“Or even cloning willing sexual companions for those powerful people,” suggested Annabelle. “It could go any way here. But someone at RI wanted to clone Nataliya. Do you remember one of the first things she said when she got here?”

“No, what?”

“Nataliya didn’t realize that we already had our lunch together,” said Annabelle. “Her last memories occurred sometime between meeting us at the restaurant on Friday but before our lunch on Monday. Which means that whomever cloned her grabbed her brain scan from before our lunch meeting. Which makes me believe that I know who did it.”

Martin’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Who?”

“Bryce Rookwood,” said Annabelle simply. “Nataliya mentioned she had her first meeting with Bryce. If he’s truly in on the cloning, it wouldn’t be much for him to get a hair specimen from her. Or even a drug test if RI is still running those for new applicants. The brain scan is another story but depending on how they sold it to her, I can see Nataliya being willing to try it.”

“They’re definitely still running drug tests,” confirmed Martin. “Or at least they did when I was hired.”

“So he has a number of ways to do it and he has a really pretty girl in front of him,” said Annabelle. “We both know Bryce. He’s definitely the type to do something like this. He’s always been a bit . . . slimy.”

Slimy was an accurate description for Bryce Rookwood. Truthfully, Martin wasn’t comfortable with any of the upper leadership of RI, mostly because they all seemed to be a bit different in their own ways. The CEO was unapproachable and didn’t socialize with anyone below the upper levels. Bryce was the type who would sell his grandmother to make a quick ten bucks. Even Claire with all her beauty still made most people distinctly uncomfortable.

Frankly, Martin could see Bryce having an interview with the gorgeous Nataliya and wanting to clone her for a romp later on.

“I guess the only question is how deep does this go?” asked Martin. “This isn’t the first time Bryce has done this, surely? How many clones does he have? What about the others? Does Claire have a bunch of clones of guys locked in her basement?”

Annabelle snorted. “That bitch? I wouldn’t doubt it. She probably whips them before she rides them too.”

“Sounds like someone I need to befriend,” quipped Rylie with a steady grin.

“I hate to sound like a broken record but seriously, what do we do now?” asked Kelsey. “The last I checked, we can’t exactly go to the police about this. We know RI has broken the law thousands of times but telling anyone else about it would implicate all of us. So what do we do? How do we prevent ourselves from being the targets of a silencing campaign?”

No one answered that question for at least a minute.

“If I knew the answer to that question, we’d be a lot better off,” said Martin finally.

“So what about Nataliya then? Just watch over her until she wakes up?” asked Annabelle.

Martin shrugged. “It’s really the only thing we can do right now.”

CHAPTER 32

“THERE WAS ANOTHER BREACH TONIGHT. A clone has escaped.”

On the other side of the table, the man in the shadows let out a heavy sigh. “Again? How have you still not managed to contain the breaches? Have I been ignorant to trust you two to get your shit together?”

Across the table, the two other figures in the room sat in near darkness as well.

The first to speak, a man, started speaking again. “The circumstances around this one were different from the prior one.”

The woman next to him actually snorted. “I fail to see how it was different. You were cloning yet another woman for your collection.”

“Silence,” snapped the man next to her before he turned his attention back to the man in front of them. “In any event, the clone is gone. The tracks are cold already.”

“What does our surveillance of the property reveal?” asked the man behind the desk. “What direction did she go?”

“This is where the story gets interesting,” said the woman, earning a disdainful glare from the man beside her.

“It appears there’s something wrong with the camera feeds,” he answered. “It didn’t catch any of the movements inside the testing area or on the property.”

The man behind the desk didn’t say a single word. Instead, he openly glared at his subordinate for his lack of intelligence.

“It sounds to me like we have a bigger problem here than a simple breach,” said the man behind the desk finally. “And I’m willing to bet this issue is linked to your security issue from a couple weeks back. You have a mole in the testing area. Someone who shouldn’t be there.”

“How do we trap a mole?” asked the woman. “With so many people having access, how do we narrow it down to the one that’s not supposed to be there?”

“You’re a smart woman, why don’t you figure it out?” quipped the man behind the desk. “You two both need to do a better job reminding me why I let you work for me. Your incompetence as of late has been noticed, and it won’t soon be forgotten. Find out who’s responsible for the breaches and put a stop to it. Or do I need to discipline you both again?”

Tension filled the room. For a brief moment, the woman’s confident demeanor actually turned fearful. “No discipline is necessary.”

“Excellent. Now get out.”

Without any further words, both the man and the woman pushed out of their chairs and left the room. They moved along a hallway that was lined with glass, showing off the incredible height of their offices.

“You’ve really pissed him off this time,” muttered the woman as they walked. “I’m surprised he didn’t discipline you just out of habit.”

“Spurred on by your words, no doubt,” growled the man. “Next time, keep your mouth shut and we won’t risk such a reaction from the prick.”

“How about next time, you stop trying to clone every pretty little thing that walks in front of you?” retorted the woman. “That’s how you got into this mess.”

“Don’t lecture me on habits when you share the same vices as me,” he replied. “Now you need to help me figure out what the hell is wrong with that camera feed.”

“To hell with the feed,” she said. “If the video file isn’t working, why don’t you check the audio?”

“The audio?” he considered.

The woman nodded. “The audio file that runs in the testing area captures the most minute details of what’s going on. If you want a clue what happened to her, the audio file would be your best chance. You said she was shrieking like crazy, enough to raise the alarm. I bet you somewhere in that shrieking is a clue on where she went.”

“Not a bad idea,” he replied, thinking it over. Then he started to shake his head. “Stupid bitch. She was supposed to stay in the replicator. She damaged the unit as she tried to escape prematurely.”

“You should have anticipated that was going to happen. At least ten percent of the clones act that way. Where were you by the way?”

The man hesitated. “I was . . . occupied.”

She snorted again. “You were fucking one already, weren’t you? You couldn’t wait for them to wake up, could you? Already had to fuck one right out of the replicator?”

“At least that one didn’t run off,” he growled. “And now she’s safely locked in my house with the others. She knows her place at least.”

“You’ll have to start breeding them to be less wild again. You’ve gone too far in this direction and that’s why your clones are escaping before you have the chance to fuck them.”

“When I want your advice, I’ll ask for it,” he said, arriving at his own office.

“You have quite the mouth on you,” she said, tsk-tsking in the process. “Do you know what I do to my clones that mouth off?”

The man never found out. He slammed his door in her beautiful face, and then he turned to face his quiet office. As he sat down at his desk, he clicked the mouse over the top secret files and went searching for the audio file. Finding what he wanted, he turned the volume up and started to listen, waiting for the sounds of a fiery but gorgeous Slavic woman.

“Okay, you crazy bitch. Where did you run off to?”

CHAPTER 33

SINCE NO ONE seemed to have any better ideas, Martin and the girls kept watch over Nataliya for most of the night. In a normal situation, he would have considered the idea overkill, but seeing as Nataliya still appeared to be in a volatile state (and combined with the fact that someone from RI could be searching for them), Martin had a chair set up outside her room, and they all took turns as they waited for her to wake up.

Martin had already gotten one chance to sleep, and he was sitting in the chair outside the room drinking a cup of coffee that next morning when he heard the sounds of rustling inside the room.

However, nothing could have really prepared him for what happened next.

With a loud bang, the door came crashing open only to reveal Nataliya in her full frenzied glory. She’d managed to put on one of Rylie’s shirts but her hair was a complete mess from sleeping and her eyes were wide with crazy.

Before Martin had a moment to react, Nataliya grabbed his arms and started screaming at him.

“What the fuck am I doing at your house, Martin Kennedy?” she roared.

She bent her hand back and once again slapped him across the face. “What did you do to me?”

Martin only managed to put his coffee down before it spilled. “Nothing! There’s an explanation for all of this!”

“There better be a great one for the fact that I woke up half-naked in your apartment!” shrieked Nataliya. “Did you drug me? Did you have sex with me? I’m married, you asshole!”

Nataliya slapped him again. By this point in time, the door to the main bedroom had opened, the other girls having been alerted by Nataliya’s screams. In the next instant, both Kelsey and Annabelle moved to either side of Nataliya and pulled her off of Martin, preventing her from striking him again.

“Nataliya, calm down! Calm down,” yelled Annabelle as they tried to get her to relax.

“How can I calm down? I cheated on my husband with my ex-boyfriend!” shrieked Nataliya, leveling a finger of accusation at Martin.

“That’s not what happened at all,” said Kelsey. “Let us explain. We can tell you exactly what happened!”

“Screw you!” retorted Nataliya.

The situation was rapidly spiraling out of control. Annabelle and Kelsey could barely contain Nataliya on their own, and that was even with Rylie lending a hand as well. It was interesting as to why Nataliya was so upset at the current moment. Her first thought waking up in her ex-boyfriend’s apartment was that she’d cheated on her husband.

When you added that with an already fiery temper, it was easy to see why she was so worked up.

“We have to get her to relax,” said Martin as he pointed over to the spare bedroom. “Let’s get her over there and back on the bed!”

“No, I won’t let you touch me!” shrieked Nataliya.

Rylie grunted. “You should be so lucky. Jesus, she’s got a mouth on her.”

With the combined effort of four people, they were able to move a wiggling Nataliya into the spare bedroom and place her back onto the bed. Martin grabbed her legs and held them together while both Rylie and Kelsey took a side, grabbing one of Nataliya’s arms.

Annabelle was the only one that didn’t have a hold on Nataliya after she was on the bed, which was probably a good thing as she was the one that Nataliya seemingly trusted the most.

“Help me, Annabelle, help me!” said Nataliya, openly crying now. “Did they get to you too? Have you been raped as well?”

“No one raped anyone, Nataliya,” said Annabelle firmly. “Especially not you. Something terrible has happened to you but it wasn’t rape. Martin saved you last night. You shouldn’t be yelling at him and you owe him an apology.”

Nataliya’s wild eyes centered on Martin for a brief moment and softened. “Him? Seriously?”

“Yes, him,” confirmed Annabelle. “Nataliya, do you even know where Martin found you last night?”

The brunette’s wild green eyes searched around for the memory. “I was . . . I don’t know where I was.”

“You were at Replica Imagination,” said Annabelle. “You were in the testing area where they make the clones.”

“Clones? You mean like cats and dogs?” asked Nataliya.

Annabelle shared a worried look with Martin before turning her attention back to Nataliya. “And humans too. The reason you were there was because you were just made, Nataliya. You were cloned by someone at RI.”

Nataliya’s eyes went wild once more. She looked at Martin with a stare full of daggers. “It was YOU! You cloned me! You fucking bastard!”

“No, no, no, no,” said Annabelle while shaking her head. “Martin most certainly didn’t clone you. Martin was the one that found you. Someone else tried to clone you and they succeeded.”

Any progress they’d been making seemed to have come to a screeching halt. Nataliya’s head shook from side to side violently. “How can I believe this? How do I know you’re telling me the truth?”

Kelsey, who was on Nataliya’s right side, pivoted Nataliya’s hand in front of her face. “See that black mark there? That’s the mark of the clone. We all have them. Every woman here. That didn’t exist before today, did it, Nataliya?”

Nataliya’s eyes looked at the mark and then she looked at all the other women to verify Kelsey’s statement. Once she saw all the marks, her eyes softened and centered on Annabelle.

“You too, Annabelle? You’re a clone too?”

Annabelle closed her eyes and nodded her head. “We all are. Except for Martin.”

“Why not him?” asked Nataliya. “Why isn’t he a clone?”

“It’s a very long story,” said Kelsey as she struggled to keep Nataliya pinned down. “One that we’re willing to tell if you just stop wiggling.”

Unfortunately, calling attention to Nataliya’s struggle only made it worse. She ratcheted it up another level, and both Kelsey and Rylie had to work harder to keep her pinned.

“Why was I cloned? Why are we all clones?” demanded Nataliya. “What’s happening to me? What happened to us?”

She started to babble at this point, losing most of her coherency. Steadily, her struggling became weaker until the fight went out of her altogether.

At that moment, Nataliya fainted.

The four of them all shared the same look of helplessness.

“Someone needs to give this girl a Xanax, holy shit,” said Rylie finally as she let go of Nataliya’s arm. “Was she always this crazy?”

Annabelle shook her head. “She’s worse than usual. Don’t get me wrong, Nataliya can be a very spirited kind of girl, but this is really exaggerated.”

“Definitely worse than I remember,” added Martin. “But I have to wonder if that’s because of the cloning process. What if we’re right about the impulsive behavior? What if them taking Nataliya, who was already a bit nutty beforehand, and making her even more impulsive leads to this? What if this is the final result?”

Rylie let out a low whistle. “If that’s the case, we can send her right back to RI. She doesn’t have to live here with us, right?”

“Unfortunately, we’re kind of low on options right now,” said Kelsey. “It’s not like we can just wrap Nataliya up in a bow and deposit her on the front step of RI. Not without putting us in danger. She’d be screaming the entire time anyway.”

“Not if we knocked her out first,” muttered Rylie.

“We can’t do that,” said Martin firmly. “She’s still very fragile. Maybe she’ll calm down with more time. All of you were still very impulsive right out of the replicator. Now look at Kelsey. She’s been out the longest and that behavior has cooled down considerably. Maybe Nataliya will mellow out with time?”

“Just how much time can we devote to that though, Martin?” asked Annabelle. “We still have to consider our safety too, and we can’t really do that if Nataliya is foaming at the mouth anytime we go out in public.”

It was the million dollar question. How could they keep their anonymity with a new and very vocal member of the group? What was the best way to control Nataliya without getting caught?

And was Martin’s theory correct? Would she eventually mellow out with time?

Martin let out a deep sigh. “Maybe we should go get some Xanax.”

CHAPTER 34

NATALIYA WAS out for another hour before she came back to consciousness. This time, the girls at least had the foresight to have her restrained so she couldn’t go on a warpath. It didn’t stop her from screaming at the top of her lungs though as soon as she was awake.

“Nataliya, shut up for fuck’s sake!” yelled Annabelle as she sat on the side of the bed next to Nataliya.

“Annabelle, you have to get me out of here,” said a still wild Nataliya. “I don’t want to be a clone!”

“Well, that decision isn’t in your hands,” replied Annabelle. “What’s done is done. You’re a clone. Now, you can either let Martin and I explain what happened calmly, or we can keep you tied up like this for however long we need to. The choice is yours but if you keep screaming, we’re going to duct tape your mouth shut.”

Nataliya looked horrified. “Can you promise that no one is going to hurt me?”

“As long as you promise to sit still and especially not to slap Martin again,” said Annabelle.

Nataliya’s eyes flickered to Martin. Already, there was a red mark on his cheek from the numerous times she’d smacked him. Without so much as a word, she nodded her head silently in acknowledgment.

“Good,” said Annabelle as she loosened the impromptu restraints made up of the girls’ belts. Nataliya pulled her hands through and then finally her feet, sitting upright afterwards.

“Nataliya, do you believe that I will always tell you the truth?” started Annabelle as she grabbed the other woman’s hands. “Do you trust me that much after knowing me for so many years?”

It wasn’t much of a starting place but at least they had Annabelle to break the ice in that manner.

Nataliya nodded her head. “I do trust you, Annabelle. Even if you’re here, which makes me very wary of you.” She then looked over at Martin. “And oddly enough, I trust him a little too.”

“You trust me and still felt the need to hit me?” asked Martin as he rubbed his cheek. “And call me a rapist?”

Nataliya nodded. “Sometimes you have to hit a man to get anywhere with him.”

Annabelle used her hands to cup Nataliya’s cheeks. “Nataliya, I need you to focus. We are all in a lot of danger because of you, and I need you to understand what we’re dealing with. I also need you not to freak out in the process. Can you do that for me?”

Nataliya offered a tired smile. “I’ll do my best.”

Annabelle took a deep breath. “Nataliya, you are a clone. You’re a clone copy of your original self. Somewhere out there, the original Nataliya still exists. It’s that original version that I had lunch with on Monday.”

“If you had lunch with me, what did we talk about?” asked Nataliya, not grasping why she couldn’t remember it. “How do you explain that I can’t remember it?”

“Because your memories are tied to the point when whoever cloned you obtained your brain scan. That happened somewhere in the time between when we met at the restaurant but before we had lunch the following week.”

“How would they get my brain scan?” asked Nataliya before her body stiffened as she realized the answer. “Wait, I submitted it willingly.”

“You did?” asked Martin.

Nataliya nodded. “I took it during my interview. The guy that interviewed me showed me how it works. He said the brain is a vital area of interest in any clone and having live samples to compare against the clones would be great for their research. I remember taking the scan and then the next thing I know, I’m naked in a place that I don’t even know in some kind of cooking chamber.”

“That’s called a replicator,” explained Martin. “It’s how RI makes clones. It’s a process that takes only ninety minutes but we get a full clone from just a single sample of DNA.”

Nataliya’s hands went to her mouth. “Oh my god. Who would do such a thing? And why? Why would they need to clone me?”

Annabelle looked at Martin before she turned to answer Nataliya’s question. “There’s a lot of reasons why. I’m sure you can probably figure out most of them. There are over nine thousand clones out there alone—regular people but powerful and famous ones too. Unfortunately, we think you were being cloned for another reason.”

Nataliya’s eyes went wide. “Why?”

Annabelle let out a deep breath. “Look at you, Nataliya. You’re gorgeous. We think that someone wanted to clone you because . . . because well . . .”

“That’s so fucking sick!” yelled Nataliya, her face contorting into one of pure disgust. “Someone wanted to fuck me so badly that they cloned me?”

Annabelle winced. “We think that’s the likely case here.”

“You two better get me something quick,” said Nataliya as her hand went to her stomach and she closed her eyes. “I’m going to puke!”

After a brief scramble, Nataliya was soon hurling into an empty wastebasket while Annabelle rubbed her back. Once Nataliya was done, her tear-streaked face looked at Annabelle. “What I still don’t get is what’s going on here? If I’m a clone because of some nefarious reason, then how did I end up with you people?”

“That’s going to be the hardest part to tell you,” said Martin, answering for Annabelle. “Because it’s going to be hard to believe.”

“Don’t tell me,” said Nataliya. “You cloned all of them to fuck them, didn’t you?”

“No, he didn’t,” said Annabelle. “Well, maybe Kelsey, but that was only natural.”

“Only natural???”

“She was his girlfriend,” explained Annabelle. “Kelsey and Martin dated for years before she died prematurely. He cloned her to bring her back to life.”

“So then how were you cloned?” asked Nataliya. “And the other girl? The really pretty one?”

“That’s the thing about clones,” said Annabelle. “We are bred to want to keep cloning others. I was dying of cancer at the time, and Kelsey tried to clone me to give me a second chance at life.”

Nataliya’s expression softened. “Cancer? You had cancer?”

Annabelle nodded. “My original self did. The original me died from it already. I was made without the cancer in my body. Martin and Kelsey saved me. Rylie was made because I wanted to make a new clone for Martin. Unfortunately, that impulsive nature is in all of us. We recognize it now but back then we didn’t. In any event, that’s how we all came to live together.”

“You all live in this apartment?” asked Nataliya. “Why? There’s no other place you can go?”

“Cloning is illegal,” replied Martin. “There’s nowhere else they could go. So they live here with me. And we have an . . . interesting living situation.”

Before Nataliya could ask, Annabelle grabbed her hand. “I love him. I told you this at lunch, but since you can’t remember that, I love Martin. He’s my person and I’m one of his. Kelsey as well and even Rylie. We are all together.”

Of all the things that Nataliya could have said, the next words that came out surprised both of them.

“I never would have pegged you for a rug muncher, Annabelle.”

Annabelle started to giggle. “I’ve learned a few things since college.”

“I’d say. If you did that in college, I’d have you doing it to me!”

“Nataliya!”

Nataliya actually smiled. “You were so timid in college. I wondered if you would ever come around to the dark side.”

“Maybe not the dark side that you like,” quipped Annabelle. “But I like to experiment more these days than before.”

“That’s good to know at least,” said Nataliya before she let out a deep sigh. “This is totally insane. If what you’re telling me is the truth, then I’ve been cloned against my will and my original self is still out there somewhere. God, what is my husband going to think?”

Annabelle winced. “Your husband isn’t really going to know. Your original self is just going to keep living your life. He won’t find out unless you intervene.”

Nataliya’s mouth fell open. “So I’m stuck here is what you’re saying? I can’t ever leave?”

“Within reason,” said Martin. “No one is stuck here and everyone lives here on their own accord, but it’s not like you have many options. I’m sorry, Nataliya. I know the last thing you probably wanted was to end up living at your ex’s apartment but we have to take precautions to prevent any further discovery. If the wrong people find out about you, we could be risking everything.”

“Wrong people like me, right?” asked Nataliya. “I’m guessing running into me that night at dinner didn’t exactly filter into your plans?”

Annabelle smiled. “We had a collective freak-out session on the ride home, trust me.”

“But what about RI?” asked Nataliya. “What if we led them here? What if they know that I’m with you, Martin?”

“As long as I did my job right, they won’t have a video file to go off of,” he answered. “Yes, someone there knows you escaped, but they won’t be able to see where you went or with whom.” Martin took a deep breath. “Hopefully.”

“No one has knocked on our door yet,” said Annabelle. “If they knew it was us, they would be here already.”

“We can only hope but who knows with RI? This is now deeper than I ever could have imagined.”

“It’s so hard to believe,” said Annabelle. “There’s thousands of clones out there. Powerful people too. How is this kept a secret? How do more people not know about this?”

“There’s some powerful forces at work here,” replied Martin. “In any event, I don’t really want to piss these people off. Or give them a reason to come hunting for us. At least the badge and the key are gone. We don’t have to worry about any additional clones.”

“That’s good because this apartment is getting too small,” replied Annabelle with a grin. “We only have two bedrooms!”

“Well, we could always put an additional bed in the spare bedroom if we needed to,” said Martin.

“I want to see my original self,” said Nataliya, yanking the other two back to reality. “I need to see it with my own eyes. I can accept what you’re telling me but I need to see the real me. I need to know the truth.”

Martin and Annabelle shared a heavy look with each other. “Are you sure you want to do that?” asked Martin. “We had to do the same thing with Rylie and she was so upset that we were nearly discovered. Do you really want to take that risk?”

Nataliya crossed her arms under her breasts. “Yes, I do. I really do.”

Martin let out a long sigh. “Okay. Let’s go. Tell us how to get there.”

CHAPTER 35

IT WAS LITTLE MORE than forty minutes later that Martin, Annabelle, and Nataliya pulled into a quiet apartment building and killed the power to the engine. Martin was the only one sitting in the front, while the two ladies sat in the rear. During most of the trip, they’d caught up with each other, going over details of their lives since they’d last met. It was kind of like therapy for Nataliya, who found comfort in catching up with Annabelle, but funnily enough, it was just like deja vu for Annabelle.

“It’s so weird,” said Annabelle for what felt like the fifth time. “We had this exact conversation over lunch, almost verbatim. It’s so funny how closely it matches what we already talked about.”

Of course, Martin knew that part of their conversation at lunch revolved around him, however, he was secretly happy that this topic didn’t come up during their time in the car.

It was all just too surreal. Up until a few months ago, Martin led a quiet existence without much in the way of friends or support. And now, he shared an apartment with three women (and potentially a fourth, his ex-girlfriend) with all the baggage that went with it. He went from having no women in his life to drowning in a sea of sexually-charged estrogen.

It was a change he was still getting used to but what a change in circumstances!

At least Nataliya had called down greatly. She was no longer screaming or striking anyone, which was a big improvement over the morning.

“That’s the complex right there,” said Nataliya, pointing to a four-story L-shaped building with a parking lot in the middle. “That’s my door. That’s where I live with Brian.”

It was a quaint, little apartment with a balcony and several large windows that opened up to the parking lot. Since it was midday, it was hard to tell if anyone was home, and Martin had to wonder just how they were going to have Nataliya see her original self.

“How long do we need to wait?” asked Annabelle, echoing Martin’s thoughts. “Or should someone ring the doorbell or something?”

Nataliya shook her head. “I would recognize you or Martin so that’s out. But look, do you see that right there?” She gestured to an empty parking space. “That’s where I usually park. I’ve been going to the store every week at this time, so that’s where my original version probably is. I’ll be coming home soon, and then we’ll know the truth.”

Martin and Annabelle shared a wary look. For them, they already knew the truth of what was going on. They didn’t need to see a second version of Nataliya to confirm the awful truth.

Unfortunately, Nataliya didn’t see it that way yet. She needed to see with her eyes that there were now two of her. It was the only way she could truly accept what happened.

So that meant they waited.

And waited.

And waited.

The girls entertained themselves with more small talk but it was nearly an hour later by the time the car that they’d been looking for pulled into the lot. Martin heard Nataliya’s breath catch in her throat as they all waited silently for the car to park and the driver to exit.

Seconds ticked by. Martin could feel the perspiration under his hands as he gripped the wheel. Despite knowing who was going to get out of that car, his biggest question was what was going to be Nataliya’s reaction upon seeing the truth?

It turned out the reaction was as bad as he feared.

Nataliya screamed the moment her original self came into view. She not only screamed but she started to violently shake as well as she reached over to grab the door handle.

Martin and Annabelle moved instantly. Martin’s hand went to the door locks to stop her from getting out while Annabelle reached across and wrapped her hand over Nataliya’s mouth.

“It’s real, holy fucking shit, it’s real! I’m a clone!” screamed Nataliya at the top of her lungs.

The somewhat calm version of Nataliya was shattered by the reappearance of full-on crazy Nataliya. At that moment, Martin had to get them away from there.

Martin turned the car on and hit the gas, pressing them all back into their seats. His car raced out of the parking lot before turning onto the closest road, where he made a beeline for home.

By this point, Nataliya was in the backseat sobbing uncontrollably while Annabelle did what she could to calm her. A quick glance at Annabelle through the mirror told Martin all he needed to know.

Nataliya wasn’t going to be as easy to deal with as the other girls.

CHAPTER 36

BY THE TIME they’d arrived home, Nataliya was sleeping once again. Deciding to put her back in the spare bedroom, Martin carried her inside and made her comfortable before he and Annabelle could get a chance to catch up with Kelsey and Rylie.

“Anyone show up at the apartment?” he asked once all four of them were back in the kitchen. “Or did you see anyone snooping outside?”

Rylie shook her head. “Nothing. Not a trace of anything.”

“It looks like you managed to get away without leaving any evidence,” said Kelsey.

Martin grunted. “We’ll see about that. It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours yet.”

Rylie gestured toward the spare bedroom. “How did the crazy take it?”

“As to be expected,” replied Annabelle. “She screamed her head off before passing out again.”

Kelsey winced. “This isn’t going to be easy, is it?”

“Not unless we get that girl sedated as fuck,” retorted Rylie. “Because I’m not going to restrain her every time she loses her shit.”

“We’ll think of something to get her sedated,” said Annabelle. “I know of a few over the counter drugs we can use. Maybe at that point, we can at least make her act like the original Nataliya.”

Martin flinched. “The original Nataliya is still very emotional when she wants to be.”

Annabelle gave him a helpless look. “It’s probably the best we can do.”

“So what do we do in the meantime?” asked Kelsey. “Watch over her until she wakes up?”

“Not much else we can do,” said Martin. “I can take the first watch.”

“No, it’s okay,” said Kelsey as she touched Martin’s arm. “I’ll take the first watch. You get something to eat and relax for a little bit. You haven’t stopped moving since this morning.”

That sounded like a great idea. Despite having the day off, it had been no less busier than a typical day at RI. Although, he was grateful he didn’t have to be at work right now.

He knew he’d be likely sweating bullets that Claire or Martin was going to show up at his desk with a pair of cops.

While Martin was busy preparing a quick sandwich, the girls came up with a basic rotation to watch over Nataliya’s room. Kelsey took the first shift, which allowed Martin the chance to eat and then take a nap on the couch.

By the time he woke up, it was almost nighttime, and Kelsey was still sitting patiently outside the door.

“Anything happen while I was sleeping?” he asked.

Kelsey shook her head. “I heard some movement in there. I think she woke up but she must have gone back to sleep. I poked my head in a couple minutes later and she was back out again. Poor thing is still recovering from the cloning.”

“Keep me posted if anything changes, okay?” said Martin.

“No problem. I’m about to turn over my shift to Annabelle though,” said Kelsey, punctuating the statement with a yawn. “I’m about ready for a nap and my butt is asleep after sitting in this chair the whole time.”

Sure enough, Annabelle took the next shift which lasted until nine o’clock that evening. At that point, Martin made her get some sleep while he took a turn, making himself comfortable outside the room while the rest of the girls slept.

For some reason, he just had a feeling that something was going to happen while he waited outside her door. Lucky guess or not, he heard movement inside the bedroom shortly after eleven, and soon enough, Nataliya’s face poked out of the door.

“Martin?” she asked, looking at him with some curiosity. “What are you doing?”

The real answer might have started a fight so Martin went with a more tactful one.

“We’re worried about you,” he answered. “It’s been an extremely hard day and we just wanted to make sure someone was close to you in case you needed it.”

True to form, Nataliya saw through his bullshit right away.

She snorted. “You want to make sure I don’t go psycho on you, don’t you? You think I need babysitting?”

“Nataliya, it’s not like that—”

“It is like that, Martin. Don’t lie to me. I know when you’re lying. I dated you long enough.”

Martin smirked. “That was when we were teenagers, Nataliya. I’ve changed a little bit since then.”

Nataliya planted her hands on her hips. “You haven’t changed that much, Martin. You’re still that guy that I left behind to go to college.”

That one stung a little. Nataliya must have noticed the changed expression because she changed her tune quickly.

“I’m sorry, Martin. I didn’t mean it like that,” she said quickly. “It’s just that in many ways, you don’t seem to have changed a bit. You’re still the same Martin that I always remember.”

“Same with you,” said Martin. “You still seem like the passionate Nataliya that I remember. Like that time you found me hanging out with a girl in the basement of my parents’ house. You ripped her a new one before I could explain to you that she was my cousin. Remember that?”

Nataliya cracked a smile. “She could have told me sooner.”

“She was petrified of you. I didn’t see her again for another four years after that incident!”

“You knew I was hot-tempered back then. I’ve always been a little on the wild side.”

Martin nodded. “Like I said, passionate is a good word to describe it.”

“Passionately crazy, maybe,” she grumbled. “Was it like this with all the others? I just feel like I’m not in control sometimes. I feel fine right now, but other times, it’s almost like I have no memory of what happened.”

“This would be the first that I’ve heard of that symptom of the cloning process. Help me understand. Are you blacking out and losing the memories?”

“Kind of,” replied Nataliya. “Like this afternoon. I remember sitting in the car with you and Annabelle. I remember seeing my car pull into the parking lot. And then the next thing I know, I’m screaming in the backseat while Annabelle tries to restrain me. I don’t get it, Martin. My brain doesn’t work like that. Why is it doing it now?”

It was a very good question. At first, Martin thought that the behavioral changes to her impulsivity had just created a copy of Nataliya that was very unstable, but then he was reminded that this wasn’t the first time something like that had happened.

“When Rylie was cloned, something similar happened when she saw her original copy,” said Martin. “She had a meltdown almost right away. I remember having to drag her out of there before she drew any further attention to us. Your reaction to seeing your original self might be linked to that.”

“How though? Do you think it’s a protection measure?”

Martin considered that question for a moment before answering. “It could be. Especially if they are cloning people without permission. Maybe that’s how they keep the clone from alerting the original? The clone goes through an extremely emotional, blackout period that prevents them from acting rationally. I could see something like that being a safety measure to ensure a reasonable distance between the clones and the originals, can’t you?”

Nataliya gave him a worried look. “What the fuck kind of people are these, Martin? I thought I was interviewing at a reputable company. RI sounds completely deranged. I feel like a science experiment that’s gone terribly wrong.”

“I don’t know, Nataliya. I wish I did know. The deeper I get into RI, the more I want to pull away from them. I used to be the same way but now I’m finding that I don’t know what to think about them anymore. Or how to escape this.”

Nataliya let out a long sigh. “I’m still trying to figure out what this means for my life. My old life is over, isn’t it?”

Martin nodded. “You can’t go back to it. Not when there’s someone else already living as you. In that regard, Kelsey and Annabelle have it slightly easier than you do. They’re already dead but you and Rylie, you’ll always have it a little harder because you truly can’t start over.”

Nataliya put her head in her hands. “I wish this never happened to me. I don’t want to be a clone. All I want to do is go home and hug my husband. Oh god, he’s never going to know, is he? He’s never going to know that someone tried to clone me for sex.”

Martin gulped. “Let’s hope he never finds out. Ignorance might be bliss in that regard. But in a way, nothing changes for him. He still gets to live with your original self. He won’t even know anything is wrong. Neither will she.”

“Just me, right? I’m the only one that has to fucking suffer,” said Nataliya, now openly crying.

“I’m so sorry, Nataliya,” said Martin as he tried to put a comforting hand on her back.

Nataliya openly wept for the next ten minutes without saying a word. It was incredibly hard for Martin to watch, feeling as helpless to fix her situation as he did. Nataliya had the most challenging situation of anyone in the apartment. She didn’t want to start over. She was quite happy in her old life, and now she was thrust into a situation where she didn’t belong at no fault of her own.

When you added that to the fact that she was already slightly unstable, it wasn’t hard to see that this could be a very volatile situation moving forward.

But what other choice did they have? It’s not like Nataliya could go back to RI. Nor could she go out on her own.

“So I guess I’m living here now,” said Nataliya finally, touching the door to the spare bedroom. “In here?”

“You can stay here as long as you wish,” replied Martin. “I’ll get us an extra mattress for you and we’ll make this work. I know it’s not like you have many other options but I still want this to be comfortable for you.”

Nataliya gave him a shrewd look. “Do I have to fuck you too like the others?”

His mouth fell open. “What now?”

“Don’t play dumb, Martin. I see how the other girls look at you. You’re fucking all of them, aren’t you? Not just Annabelle, but all three.”

Martin swallowed heavily. There was no sense in lying so he didn’t.

“We have a certain agreement here,” said Martin, starting off neutrally. “Yes, Kelsey, Annabelle, and I are in a relationship. We’re together romantically and sexually. Rylie has been invited into that but she’s just not as far along as they are. But that’s not a prerequisite to living here though, Nataliya. We’d still accept you as long as you got along with the others and agreed to help keep our anonymity.”

Then Nataliya said something that he didn’t expect.

“So I can’t fuck you then? Even if I wanted to?”

He almost fell out of his chair. “You’re asking if we can . . . if we can fuck?”

Nataliya started to giggle. “Put your tongue back in your mouth, Martin. We’ve fucked before, haven’t we? I know it’s been more than a decade but I still remember what you look like naked, and I’m sure you haven’t forgotten what I look like without all these clothes.”

She wasn’t wrong. Even now, Martin could still picture Nataliya in his bed during the summer between high school and college, not a stitch of clothing on her lithe, gorgeous body.

It wasn’t that he wasn’t attracted to Nataliya. It’s just that considering the circumstances, it was the last thing he expected her to say.

“You’re just feeling the side effects of the cloning process,” said Martin. “Surging hormones make for horny clones. And what about your husband? You said you’re married?”

Nataliya let out an annoyed sigh. “Brian and I are very open-minded people, Martin. I let him fool around with other women and he lets me fuck whomever I want. We usually get together with other couples and swap partners. Just because I’m married doesn’t mean that I don’t get to sample new men. Or sometimes old flames.”

With those words, Nataliya reached out and squeezed his thigh. It was like deja vu for Martin, remembering how she used to do that when they were dating. All of a sudden, it was like he was eighteen again and thinking his relationship with Nataliya would never end.

“Sorry, I just didn’t realize,” said Martin, stammering on his words. “I thought that once you got married, you might not sleep with others.”

Nataliya snorted. “Maybe for most of the population but not for Brian and I. Variety is the spice of life, Martin. You remember how it was when we were together, don’t you? I always wanted to try new things.”

“Oh, that you did all right,” replied Martin, remembering all the “new” things she wanted to try. Nataliya had always been wild, and it seemed that time had done nothing to temper that thirst for sexual escalation.

“Ah, those were the days,” said Nataliya fondly. “Young and carefree without a worry in the world.” Her tone changed noticeably. “How did it all go so wrong?”

“I know it seems like so much has changed, but it doesn’t have to all be bad,” said Martin. “Seriously, I think Kelsey, Annabelle, and Rylie are all pretty happy with the situation here. This isn’t a prison sentence by any stretch of the imagination.”

“Yeah, but they love you, Martin,” said Nataliya simply. “Their hearts belong to you. Maybe not Rylie’s yet, but in time it will. My heart belongs to someone else. Now I’m finding out that I’ll never get a chance to be with him again as long as I live. That’s a little distressing.”

Nataliya had a point. Despite the wildness of her sexual appetite, it did sound like there was a genuine connection between her and her husband. To that end, what would life look like for her in the apartment? Could she ever truly melt into the group like the others? Or was she bound to be the exception to the rule?

Nataliya let out a noisy sigh. “I guess I just have to make the best of it. It’s not like I have a choice in the matter, do I?”

“Believe me, Nataliya, I wish I could give you that choice.”

“I really want to believe that,” said Nataliya. “I mean, I know you didn’t have any fault in all of this. I just wish I knew what my future looks like. I want to know that I can be happy even if I didn’t choose this life.”

“You should really spend some time with the others then. Not just Annabelle because you know her, but Kelsey and Rylie too. They’ve been living this life longer than you have and if anyone knows the struggle, they do.”

Nataliya smirked at him. “Just the girls? Are you sure you’re not a clone too?”

“As far as I know,” said Martin with a chuckle. “Although you raised a good question after last night.”

Nataliya nodded her head. “Well, I guess I don’t have to prepare for that next interview anymore. Not like I would have wanted to go through with it anyway. Now I’m kind of wondering what I’m going to do to fill my days. What do the other girls do?”

“Shopping is big with them,” said Martin while trying to control his laughter. “But Kelsey and Annabelle also work online jobs on the side to keep busy. They still go out and do things. You saw us at dinner the other night. We still try to get out there and live life. In that regard, I promise you that this won’t feel like prison.”

“No, I know that already, Martin. I remember how it used to be when we were dating. You were a really good boyfriend. You listened to me when I needed you to listen and you were attentive. I know you’ll do your best to make me feel welcome.”

“We always had fun together, didn’t we?” said Martin, trying to give the peace offering. “I mean, forgetting how it ended. We always had a good time.”

“Always,” confirmed Nataliya as she gave him a serious look. “And breaking up didn’t mean that anything was wrong with you. We were just different people and we were off to different places. It was best to end it when we did before it ended some time during the first semester and feelings were truly hurt. I didn’t want to do that to you, Martin.”

“I still remember being pretty crushed at the time,” said Martin, meaning it in a more joking manner. “It still wasn’t easy.”

To his surprise, Nataliya didn’t pick up on the joke. She reached her hand over and caressed his cheek. “Well, maybe this will give us a chance to pick up on some lost time? There are some things about our relationship that I wouldn’t mind revisiting.”

With those words, Nataliya leaned forward and didn’t stop until her lips connected with his. She wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed as the kiss turned deeply passionate. Nataliya’s tongue forced her way into his mouth and found his, dueling for dominance as their lips remained glued together.

The shock of the kiss was only exceeded by the shock of it ending, not to mention the look on Nataliya’s face as she pulled away and licked her lips.

“Just like I remembered,” she whispered. “Maybe this won’t be so bad after all.”

She said nothing further before turning around and going back inside the bedroom. Martin heard the lock of the door slide into place, and as suddenly as the moment started, it was now definitively over.

Just what was he getting himself into with Nataliya? Why did it seem like she was happy one moment but crazy in the next? What repercussions would it have on all of them living together?

There were just too many questions for one person to answer. Martin fell asleep a short while later, none of his questions being answered.

CHAPTER 37

“PSST, MARTIN. ARE YOU AWAKE?”

A short while later, Martin’s eyes slowly blinked open. It was still dark, and at most it had only been about an hour since his discussion with Nataliya. The voice didn’t belong to her though, but he was acutely aware that someone was now sitting on his lap.

Martin tried to squint his eyes to see who it was. In the darkness, he couldn’t see anything so he had to rely on voice alone.

“Rylie? Is that you?”

Her identity was confirmed by the sound of her laugh.

“Who else would it be, silly?”

“After the night I’ve had, it could be just about anyone.”

“You were sleeping out here. I’ve come out to relieve you so you can get some rest,” she said. “I’m sure it’s not that comfortable sitting here in the chair.”

“You’re right, my bed will feel much better. Although I do have one problem?”

“What’s that?” she asked.

“You’re sitting on me,” said Martin with a chuckle. “Can’t get up.”

“Sounds like your problem not mine,” said Rylie as she rested her arms on his shoulders. Being in such close proximity to her was intoxicating. Even Rylie’s scent was lovely, some kind of berry that was incredibly pleasing.

Rylie leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on his lips.

“What was that for?” he asked.

“Can’t I kiss you for no reason?”

“You usually only kiss me when you’re toying with me.”

Rylie took a moment to respond to that, and Martin instantly regretted phrasing it like that.

“I probably tease you too much,” she said quietly. “Either way, you’ve been a good sport about it. And I’m almost ready for you.”

Those were the magic words he’d been waiting for. “Almost? As in . . .”

Rylie nodded. “Oh, yeah. As in I’m going to put that cock of yours some place it’s never been before.”

Her words alone took him from softness to granite in a matter of seconds. Rylie seemed to notice and shifted her hips, grinding herself against him.

“Soon, baby,” she promised. “After all this craziness dies down. I feel like all we’ve done in the past twenty-four hours is babysit Nataliya and keep a watch out the window.”

“Funny, because that’s all we have done,” retorted Martin dryly. “At least I feel like I made some progress earlier.”

“Oh? You talked with her?”

“Somewhat. Just enough that I felt like we got somewhere. She’s easier to work with when she’s being levelheaded.”

Rylie giggled. “It doesn’t feel like she ever gets to a point where she’s levelheaded.”

“She has her moments. The cloning process seems to have exacerbated her fiery personality a little but I’m hoping it dies down with time.”

“For the sake of all of us,” said Rylie. “Because I thought I was a handful before I met Nataliya. Now I realize just how easygoing I really am.”

“All three of you are very easygoing. Perhaps that’s why I like you all so much.”

Rylie gently tapped his cheek. “You more than just like me, Martin.”

“You think so, huh?”

“Oh, you love me,” she said, putting most of her emphasis on that four letter word. “You just don’t know it yet.”

“When will I figure it out?”

Rylie kissed him softly again. “The moment you actually get inside me.”

There didn’t seem to be any doubt about that. Being with Rylie actually made him feel partially on edge. It was partly to blame on the fact they hadn’t been fully intimate yet but there was also Rylie’s breathtaking beauty to consider as well.

Needless to say, Martin knew he wasn’t going to last very long the moment they really did cross that final barrier.

“Why don’t you go get some sleep now, okay? I’m taking over and then Kelsey will go after me. We’ll talk in the morning as long as nothing comes up.”

Martin nodded. “All right, I suppose. But I would stay here longer if you just promise to stay in my lap.”

Rylie laughed. “Don’t worry. I’ll be in your lap plenty of times in the days ahead.”

He took that as a promise and kissed Rylie goodnight as she took his spot. Martin moved into the bedroom in order to get some sleep. He’d just laid down in the bed when he remembered that he wanted to tell Rylie to wake him in case Nataliya came out. Letting out a small groan, he went out to the hallway again and turned on one of the smaller lights.

The sight in front of him almost broke his heart.

Rylie was sitting in his chair, but now that he could see her fully, it wasn’t hard to tell that she’d started to cry. Her eyes were red and her cheeks damp, but the most telling movement was how her hand kept trying to grab something at her neck.

Martin knew instantly what she was trying to grab—the necklace that used to belong to her mother. The necklace was still with the original Rylie, meaning that the clone Rylie had to live without it. She was most distraught about facing a life without the necklace, and it was evident now that even with the passage of a couple weeks, she was still just as upset.

“Rylie? Are you going to be all right?”

She nodded quickly and tried to wipe her eyes, disguising her crying. “I’m fine, Martin. I promise. Just being a little emotional, that’s all.”

Martin hesitated to bring up the necklace lest she break down totally. “I promise everything will be all right. If you ever need to talk, I’m always here for you.”

She smiled bravely and nodded. “I know that. I appreciate you so much. You’ve done everything you can.”

Martin’s lips turned to a frown. By her own words, he couldn’t fix this. Even he couldn’t get the necklace from the original.

“Do you want me to stay?” he asked.

Rylie shook her head. “No, go to sleep, Martin. I’ll be fine, seriously. Just a moment of weakness. Please go back to sleep?”

He nodded. “Let me know if she comes out, okay?” he said, gesturing to Nataliya’s door.

“I will. Goodnight, Martin.”

“Goodnight, Rylie.”

As he entered the bedroom and laid down in bed, Martin’s mind was spinning. He knew there was nothing that could be done about her necklace but part of him wondered if there was a way he could get her a replacement? Even though it wouldn’t be the original, surely having something around her neck to fill the void would be better than nothing, right?

Before he could fall asleep, he grabbed his phone and browsed for just the right necklace, buying it online. Satisfied with his purchase, he was at least hopeful that was one problem that he could partially resolve.

The video feeds of the testing area revealed no clues.

The man behind the desk was tired of watching them. Even during the period when he knew that his new clone was screaming her head off during her escape, the feeds still showed nothing.

It was like they were stuck on the same loop, showing him the same fifteen minutes of footage over and over again.

Even though he knew it was futile, he couldn’t help but examine all the footage just to be sure.

And sure enough, there was nothing to go on.

He grumbled to himself as he exited out of the media player and went back to the shared drive of the company. Following up on the bitch’s tip from earlier, he clicked on the audio files, not really expecting to hear much.

The audio files were nearly useless unless paired with the video. For one, it was nearly impossible to identify speakers with so many people in and out of the testing area. For two, there was usually never much speech of consequence anyway, with most of it being drowned out by the sound of the replicators in operation.

Most people didn’t talk while they went about their business in the testing area for that reason alone.

Feeling that this would be just as futile as the video footage, the man loaded up the audio file from the time that his clone escaped and pressed play.

Sure enough, he heard that damned shrieking right from the start.

“Noisy cunt,” he muttered as he lowered the volume on his computer. “Might be a good thing that she escaped. I can’t stand mouthy bitches like that.”

He was just about to exit out of the file when he heard something unmistakable.

“Art-tin! You have to help me!”

In the next moment, the man rewound the file, wanting to listen to that portion again.

Sure enough, the sound came through only slightly muffled, allowing him to make out all but the first word of what was being said.

“Art-tin! You have to help me!”

“Hmm,” said the man as he started to rub his chin. “What are you trying to say?”

The missing word almost sounded like it could be someone’s name. But what? Or who? What was the starting letter?

And secondly, how did his clone know someone within the testing area?

One thing was for certain. This “Art-tin” was the key behind the whereabouts of his missing clone. And perhaps the mole that had access to the testing lab.

“Now I just need to figure out what your name actually is,” he muttered.

And once he did, the repercussions would be swift.

CHAPTER 38

“SERIOUSLY, how the fuck are we out of shampoo???”

Four different faces winced as they heard Nataliya’s screeching coming from the bathroom in Martin’s apartment. From the living room, Martin could hear the water running for the shower but Nataliya’s voice was clear and loud enough to mean that she’d stepped out of the shower and cracked the door before she yelled her question.

To say that living with Nataliya was pleasant would be to tell a lie. An aggressive and incredibly loud lie.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t that bad.

But it certainly wasn’t a seamless integration like the other girls. Nataliya’s abrasive personality was draining on all of them. There were very few things in the world that could get Nataliya to calm down, though a process of trial and error had begun to identify those things so the rest of the group could maintain their sanity.

That process was mostly led by Annabelle, since she had the most recent experience with Nataliya. That culminated the day after Martin’s heart-to-heart conversation with Nataliya when Annabelle and Rylie went to the store to grab a few items (Kelsey and Martin stayed home to watch Nataliya).

As Annabelle emptied the bags on the counter, Martin couldn’t help but appraise the items she purchased.

“Candles?” he asked as he held up one particular scent that was marketed as “Oak Barrel Vanilla.”

“Nataliya loves candles,” said Annabelle proudly. “We used to have a ton of them in our dorm room in college.”

“Chocolate too?” asked Kelsey as she held up an expensive bar of Swiss chocolate.

Annabelle nodded. “What girl doesn’t like chocolate and candles?”

Rylie looked around the rest of the table. “So now where’s the rest of it? Tell me you didn’t just buy one chocolate bar and two candles just for the crazy?”

Annabelle winced. “Sorry, I figured it’s best we get Nataliya calmed down first before we test them for ourselves. Besides, look at this bubble bath! She’s just going to love this.”

It turned out that Nataliya didn’t love the bubble bath nearly as much as expected. In fact, she rolled her eyes at it while eating the chocolate like it was a rotten carrot.

“Next time, get me some vodka or something,” said Nataliya as she tossed the wrapper in the trash and headed for the shower.

Martin shook his head. “I think hard alcohol is the last thing that Nataliya needs, so I’m going to go with a firm veto on that idea.”

Annabelle was the one that looked the most defeated, mostly because she’d spent so much time coming up with the items to purchase. “I just don’t know what else to do with her. She just seems so . . . wild. Feral, even. She was not like this when we went to lunch. Whatever they did to her in the replicator, it’s made her exceptionally volatile.”

Volatile was a great way to put it as they all heard Nataliya screeching from the bathroom minutes later.

“I’m just going to kill her,” said Rylie finally. “Everyone cool with that? She’s just a clone, and her original is still alive. Let’s just kill her so we can go back to our old life.”

The other three were quick to give her looks of disapproval.

“Fine, I won’t kill her,” grumbled Rylie. “But we need to do something about this.”

“I just wish I knew what could make her happy,” said Annabelle. “I don’t know how we’re going to live here long-term with all of us having to walk on eggshells around Nataliya. It’s going to make us all miserable.”

“More miserable,” corrected Rylie before she softened her tone and looked at Martin. “I mean, not that I’m miserable with all of you. You guys are great, it’s just crazy back there that’s driving me nuts.”

“Maybe we should try to get her on some medication,” suggested Martin. “I think that girl needs to be medicated with how she acts.”

“But it’s not all the time, which bugs me the most,” said Annabelle. “Sometimes, we see shades of the old Nataliya and it’s really nice.”

Martin had to agree with that. His heart-to-heart conversation with her the day before was like taking a walk down memory lane. It was like when they were dating. Nataliya was unusually calm and rational, and they could have a real conversation without her going off the rails. Even with the topics being rather heavy (involving her continued stay at Martin’s apartment and what her life would look like in the process), Nataliya stayed oddly tranquil.

The other thing that Martin hadn’t processed yet was the kiss. Nataliya’s surprise movements at the end of the conversation caught him completely off guard. What was even more confusing about it was that Nataliya was upset about never seeing her husband again.

So why did that make her want to kiss him?

Martin could only shake his head as he remembered the feeling of her lips against his. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling by any stretch, but it was just so unexpected.

But that’s what Nataliya does anyway. She always does the unexpected.

That thought in particular made him nervous about her future within the apartment.

Of course, there was another unexpected habit that Nataliya displayed that seemed to trigger all of them, and that was put on full display as soon as Nataliya exited from the shower. She walked around in Rylie’s robe (which irritated Rylie to no end) while using a towel to keep her hair from dripping. In the process, she grabbed the laptop that Annabelle used for her trading and settled down on the couch with the others.

Martin and Kelsey shared a silent look together. In a way, they could almost communicate telepathically.

Is she going to do it?

I don’t know. I sure hope not.

Me too.

Sure enough, Nataliya started to do exactly what they didn’t want her to do. In just a few moments, there were audible moans coming from the laptop’s speakers.

“Oh, yeah, smack my ass like that, you dirty boy!”

“You sexy bitch, take my fat cock.”

“Nataliya!” screeched Kelsey from the other side of Martin. “Do you have to do that out here with all of us?”

Nataliya pivoted to look at Kelsey as her expression turned indignant. As she did, her screen turned toward the rest of them, showing a sexy blonde with big, fake tits getting plowed by a muscled guy in some kind of pornographic clip.

“What?” said Nataliya as she looked around at all of them. “Why do you guys care? You all fuck each other, so why can’t I watch a little bit of porn?”

“It wouldn’t be a problem if it was just a little bit of porn,” snapped Rylie. “You watch it all day, every day.” She turned to look at Annabelle. “Seriously, did she do this in college too?”

Annabelle shook her head. “I don’t remember Nataliya watching copious amounts of internet porn, no.”

“I happen to like it!” said Nataliya. “And I still don’t get why it’s a problem. You’ve all seen each other naked and you’ve fucked and sucked to your heart’s content. Why is it a problem that I get to do the same?”

“Nataliya, our situation isn’t like that here,” said Kelsey but it was too late for that.

Nataliya was already grabbing the laptop and retreating back to the spare bedroom.

“Bunch of hypocrites,” muttered Nataliya. “I’ll go watch porn in the comfort of my own room!”

No one said a word until she slammed the door, causing all of them to jump.

“That girl has fucking problems,” said Rylie finally, causing most of them to nod their heads in agreement.

Annabelle’s response was the most muted. “I just don’t get why she’s acting like this unless it’s the cloning process that did it. It has to be to blame for all of this. In any event, there has to be a way for us to counteract it.”

“There better be because I’m not living with that bitch forever,” replied Rylie. “I’m going to lose my sanity if I hear her screech one more time.”

“I agree with Annabelle,” said Kelsey in a more diplomatic tone. “We just have to give this a little more time. We know that clones fresh out of the replicator are a little more wild than they are after a few months out. Nataliya just needs time to get into her cooling period.”

“I just don’t know if I can do months of this until we get there,” said Rylie. “Besides, look at me. I’ve been out for nearly a month and I’m fine. I’m not watching all-day gangbangs in front of people I just moved in with.”

That actually made Annabelle snort with laughter. “I’m sorry, it’s just something about the phrase ‘all-day gangbang’ that did it for me.”

Kelsey laughed with her. “Maybe if it was the four of us involved in one. But the only question is what do we do with Nataliya while we do it?”

“We’ll figure something out,” said Martin. “I mean, we have to figure something out. We can’t just kick Nataliya out, and she does have some redeeming qualities. There are moments of lucidity where she’s not as much of a handful. We just have to hope that her behavior trends in that direction.”

“I hate to play devil’s advocate but what if it doesn’t, Martin?” asked Rylie. “What do we do then?”

Martin let out a deep sigh. “I’m still trying to figure out the answer to that.”

Rylie pursed her lips. “Great. Just great.”

CHAPTER 39

THE REST of the day wasn’t that eventful. The sounds of low-budget, fake moaning continued from the spare bedroom while the rest of the girls plus Martin hung out in the living room. Around four o’clock in the afternoon, Kelsey disappeared into the kitchen to start cooking dinner, and she was soon joined by Annabelle, who’d taken a recent interest in culinary matters.

That would normally mean that Martin was left with Rylie but to his surprise, Rylie put on her coat and stepped out onto the balcony, no doubt wanting a bit of privacy. Martin would have been content to leave her alone except for the fact that from where he was sitting, he had a certain vantage point of her position on the balcony.

And what he saw nearly broke his heart.

Rylie was resting her elbows on the railing except one hand was absentmindedly searching for something just below her neck.

Martin knew immediately what she was searching for—her necklace.

The same one that was with the original Rylie, and the same one her clone would have to make do without.

It was that sight alone that caused him to put on his jacket and join her outside.

“Mind a little company?”

Rylie turned to face him and smiled while she shook her head. “As long as it’s you, then no, I don’t mind.”

Martin stepped closer to her, and she willingly enfolded her arms around his body, resting her head against his chest. His hand went to her hair, idly stroking her long, auburn locks.

There was a lot that was left unsaid between them. Martin hadn’t brought up the fact that he found her crying the night before, and he knew that Rylie was most likely hoping he would have forgotten it.

Still, it was the second time in twenty-four hours that he’d intruded on her privacy, seeing that despite her brave face around the group, she was still very much troubled by the uprooting of her life.

“How are you feeling?” he asked finally, out of a lack of anything else to say.

He could feel Rylie sigh gently against his chest.

“Just . . . conflicted.”

“About?”

“I don’t know.”

Martin pulled away to look at her. “About the situation here? Or about me?”

She shook her head. “Not about you. You’ve been wonderful. And the situation here can be a little crazy, I guess, but nothing that I can’t handle. I’m just thinking about . . .”

She never finished the sentence before it trailed off into silence. Rylie turned her head to look out at the scenery behind their apartment, leaving many things unsaid.

“Is there anything I can do to fix it?”

Rylie smirked and looked at him. “Kelsey was right about you.”

“In what regard?”

“That you’re a fixer,” she said. “That you don’t like to see trouble without trying to find a way out of it. She was completely right.”

“Well, is there anything I can do to help? I don’t think it’s a coincidence that you’ve had two moments like this in the past twenty-four hours.”

Rylie stiffened and her smile disappeared. “I’m fine, Martin, I swear. I’m a big girl, I can take care of myself.”

“I know, buttercup,” he joked, referencing a joke from the day they met. “But it also doesn’t mean that you can’t rely on others when you need a pick-me-up.”

Rylie planted one hand firmly on her hip. “What makes you think I need a pick-me-up?”

He gave her a knowing look. “Rylie, seriously?”

She was content to stare him down without answering. It was only a moment later that he followed up the statement.

“I know when someone needs a friendly ear,” he relied. “Or a hug. Or just someone who’ll listen. And from what I’ve seen lately, I think that’s where you’re at.”

Rylie opened her mouth to say something but closed it just as quickly. Her demeanor changed completely at that moment, as if she’d decided she didn’t want to dispute the topic anymore.

“I’m just having trouble truly adjusting to everything,” she admitted finally. “To this change in my life. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not unhappy. It’s just that every once in a while, I think about what might have been or what my original self might be doing and I have a moment of sadness.”

“Do you want to go back? Is it something that you won’t be able to get over?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think so. It’s like . . . it’s like when you lose someone you love. I remember when I lost my grandma when I was seventeen. I spent so much time with her over the years, and we were very close. The first few days were terrible. I didn’t get through a single day without bawling my eyes out. The weeks after were bad but not unbearable. Every day got a little easier than the day before but there were always those days when you remembered something about her and it made you extremely sad. This is kind of like that.”

“So was the last day kind of like that then?” asked Martin. “Where you just had memories of the way your life used to be?”

She nodded. “Yeah, exactly. That’s why I can say that I’m not unhappy, really. I like living here with you and the rest of the girls, and to be honest, I really like where our relationship is going but that’s not to say I don’t have my moments.”

As if on cue, Rylie reached up to touch her neck. She caught herself before her hand could settle, and she lowered it without another thought.

Without any further words, Martin pulled her in for a long embrace. “I’m always here for you. No matter when these moments arrive, I’m always here if you need to talk.”

“I know,” she said, smiling up at him. “That’s one of the things I appreciate about you.”

She leaned up to kiss him, not letting it linger for very long. “And I very much appreciate that you take the time to find out what’s wrong. Even when I don’t want to talk.”

“I just want you to be happy,” he replied.

Rylie grinned at him. “Well, you’re succeeding, but don’t worry. This will pass. It always has before.”

Martin’s eyes flickered to her neck and back to her face. He wasn’t entirely convinced it would pass, and that Rylie would need something to help see her through these moments.

If only he could get her necklace, he was sure that would help the situation.

Despite not being able to get the original, he had faith that his purchase from the day before just might be able to help.

Before he could say another word, the door to inside opened slightly and Annabelle poked her head out. “Dinner’s ready.”

The kitchen table was feeling more cramped than usual. Martin had never intended for it to seat more than two people and at most, four. Now that Nataliya was part of the group, it meant that someone had to make do with the corner of the table to eat. Kelsey had been taking it since Nataliya joined them, mostly because they all feared setting off Nataliya if they relegated her to the smaller space.

Dinner was mostly quiet until the end. Annabelle and Rylie were talking about some show they had watched earlier while Nataliya mostly stared off into space (which was a welcome change from all the complaining). Kelsey kept trying to make eye contact with Martin, offering encouraging smiles between bites of food. Martin found himself smiling back at her until hell erupted again.

Nataliya was the first to finish her plate, as evidenced by the small belch she let out after she swallowed the last morsel. She had the good sense to be embarrassed by it but it was what she said next that truly ruffled some feathers.

“Well, I think I’m going to go back to my room now,” she said, rising from her seat.

There was something about the way she emphasized the word “my” that caused the tension.

“Uh, I think you mean my room,” corrected Rylie. “It was my room before you got here. You’re just squatting there until we figure out long-term arrangements.”

Nataliya put her plate back on the table and glared at the redhead across from her. “This is the long-term arrangement, is it not? And now it’s my room.”

“Then where am I supposed to sleep?” countered Rylie.

Nataliya shrugged and pointed at Martin. “You’re all sleeping with him, right? Go sleep in the same bed.”

Rylie became indignant, rising from her chair. “What we do together isn’t your business. And you can’t just steal my room because of what you think is happening here.”

Nataliya snorted. “Whatever, bitch.”

It would have been almost comical what one little word could trigger in someone else’s behavior. Within an instant, Rylie went from just merely upset to nearly wanting to fight.

“Who do you think you’re calling a bitch!” she yelled back.

“Ladies, can we settle please? We’re having a nice dinner together,” tried Kelsey but her soft voice was quickly drowned out.

“I believe I called you a bitch,” retorted Nataliya to Rylie as Annabelle got out of her chair and tried to restrain her.

“Come on, Nataliya, stop it!” said Annabelle firmly. “This is so ridiculous.”

“Well, this bitch started it!” said Nataliya, pointing to Rylie.

“That’s it, I’m going to strangle her,” said Rylie, trying to close the distance between them but finding Kelsey in her way.

“I’d like to see you try!” replied Nataliya as she grabbed a small amount of food on her plate and launched it right at Rylie’s face.

Martin watched the food sail through the air seemingly in slow motion. It was almost slow enough that he could have reached out to stop it, but by the time his arm moved, it was already landing against Rylie’s cheek.

Rylie became enraged. She started to charge at Nataliya, and soon Annabelle was between them trying to protect the newcomer from Rylie’s anger.

At this point, Martin felt he needed to put in some semblance of control to the conversation.

“Enough!” he yelled, causing all four girls to stop in their tracks.

“You and you,” said Martin, pointing to Nataliya and Annabelle. “Go back to the spare bedroom now. Calm her down,” he added more for Annabelle’s benefit than anything else.

At least Nataliya had enough sense not to continue to stir the pot. She left without a word, while Annabelle tried to stay between her and an enraged Rylie.

By the time they were gone, Rylie left the table without another word. She went to the main bedroom, slamming the door in the process.

Martin couldn’t say he blamed her. He’d be pissed too if he was on the receiving end of that confrontation.

Kelsey summed up the events nicely. “Well, that sucked.”

“You’re telling me,” he muttered in response.

“Do you want me to go talk to Rylie?”

Martin let out an angered sigh. “If you want, I guess. She has a point. Nataliya is . . . she needs . . . fuck, she gets on my nerves.”

Kelsey moved around the table and draped her arms around his neck from behind. “I know. She still needs time to fit in.”

“I have doubts if she’s ever going to fit in with the way things currently are.”

“We’ll keep trying,” she promised. “We’ll figure something out. We always do.”

“I’m not sure it’s going to be that easy, Kelsey. Annabelle and Rylie were easy to integrate because they are sweet, fun and caring, and they seemed to understand what it meant to be in the group. Nataliya has proven to be nearly the opposite. What are we going to do with her long term if we don’t figure something out?”

Kelsey smiled and kissed him gently. “One day at a time. We need to give her a chance.”

Martin fought the urge to groan. “What happened to our good life here? Things used to be so good.”

“They’re not good anymore?” she asked as her smile evaporated.

“You know what I mean,” replied Martin as he cocked his head in the direction of the spare bedroom.

Kelsey crossed her arms in front of her breasts. “You still have the best life that I know. We still have a great life. You can’t let the little things make you lose sight of it.”

Kelsey had a point. Ultimately, Nataliya was going to be a speed bump in all of this. They just had to get through these first few weeks, and hopefully, her temperament would simmer down like it did with the other clones.

At least he had Kelsey to help talk him off the ledge.

“I’m glad I have you,” he muttered a moment later.

Kelsey beamed with a magnificent smile. She started to tug his hand. “Come on, let’s get comfortable on the couch. I’ll give you a back rub.”

Suddenly, things didn’t seem so bad anymore.

CHAPTER 40

AT LEAST THE next day gave Martin the opportunity to get back to work and get out of the house. Ever since he’d been promoted to manager, he was allowed to spend more of his time working from home, a trend most of the upper management took full advantage of. In his case, he enjoyed the extra time at home to spend with the girls while avoiding the stress of being onsite at RI.

Today however, he wasn’t thrilled about leaving the girls home alone with Nataliya but Kelsey said she would keep him posted in case anything developed, and Annabelle promised to keep Nataliya company since she was the most familiar face.

To her credit, Rylie even promised not to strangle Nataliya either.

“I mean, I’m still going to think about it,” said Rylie right before he left that morning. “But I promise I won’t actually do it.”

Martin started to laugh. “It’s a start, I guess. See you all tonight.”

All three of them lined up to kiss him and soon he was off to RI.

That morning was an uneventful one at work. Two people in Martin’s department had called off, leading to the rest of them having to scramble to find coverage for their projects but it was a nice change of pace that allowed him to temporarily forget the chaos at home.

It was only during lunch that Martin found out about a big change.

He’d been sitting with Shawn in the RI cafeteria when Tim came over wearing a beaming grin.

“Guess who has two thumbs and is heading to Scranton at the end of the month?” said Tim before using those thumbs to point back at himself. “This guy!”

Martin gave him a funny look. “Scranton? What the hell is in Scranton?”

And then it hit him. One of RI’s newest branches was opening up in Scranton.

“You got the job?” asked Martin a moment later.

Tim nodded happily. “I just got the word. You’re looking at the newest branch manager for the Replica Imagination Scranton location. I’ll have the master code to their replicator, and I’ll oversee a staff of ten people overall. Isn’t that fucking cool?”

Shawn started to laugh. “It might be a bad idea putting you in charge of people after all. My prediction is that they all quit after the first week.”

Tim blew air out of his cheeks. “Yeah, right! They are going to see how cool I am and want to work there forever. I’m going to be the best boss these people ever had.”

“Wait until they ask you for your opinion on some report or something and you tell them the item in question is ‘bitchin’ and see what happens,” said Martin with a chuckle.

“Hey, I can be a manager,” said Tim defensively.

“Maybe if you shadow Martin for like a year to figure out how to do it,” said Shawn while chuckling.

“Just make sure you don’t hire any attractive girls,” advised Martin. “I can see you losing focus if you get a cute one in front of you.”

Tim grinned. “You better believe it’s only going to be me in that branch with my army of hotties.”

Both Martin and Shawn rolled their eyes.

“So when do you head out? Going there by the end of the month sounds like it’s cutting it pretty close. That’s only two weeks out,” said Shawn.

“Yeah, I have to get a move on. I have to put my notice in for my apartment and get my stuff moved over but I don’t have much to move so it shouldn’t be too bad. Finding a place to live will be top priority until then.”

Tim seemed to consider his moves seriously for a moment before a grin returned to his face. “But I want to have a party before I go. Some kind of sendoff party with most of the company there. If I’m going to be two plus hours away, I want to get in a proper goodbye before I go!”

Martin looked at Shawn. “I think we can arrange something like that. Maybe like a long happy hour or something? Have everyone come out after the day is over.”

“We haven’t done anything like that in a while,” added Shawn. “I’m sure most people here will be up for a night out. I sure could use some time away.”

Tim leaned forward. “Just make sure you invite Claire,” he whispered. “I want to see if we can get her drunk enough to lower her inhibitions!”

Martin laughed. “Have you ever had a woman that was sober?”

Tim considered the question for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, I dated this Christian chick for like two weeks back in college. She never drank an ounce. It was terrible.”

“It only took her two weeks to figure out that she needed to run away from you,” jibbed Shawn.

“It was for the best, I’m not exactly cut out for Bible study either.”

Martin found himself laughing hard enough for his cheeks to turn red. For the next ten minutes, Tim caught them up on the details of his new position and all the things he’d have to do before he moved. By the time they got back to their desks, they had a tentative date for an extended happy hour for everyone to say goodbye, and while Tim was one of the dopiest guys at RI, Martin would still miss not having his friendly presence around.

That evening, Martin arrived home to find a house that wasn’t in chaos thankfully. Kelsey was cooking in the kitchen while Rylie was taking a nap on the couch. Annabelle wasn’t far from her, reading some kind of article on her laptop with words big enough that Martin didn’t even know how to begin to pronounce them.

The door to Nataliya’s room was closed but that wasn’t exactly a surprise.

Before dinner was ready, Kelsey ushered Martin into the kitchen quietly. She put her finger to her nose as she pulled out a small package from one of the drawers.

“This was just dropped off by our delivery guy a half hour ago,” said Kelsey as she handed it over. “I know you mentioned expecting a package that you didn’t want Rylie to see so I hid it. Is this it?”

“I think so,” said Martin as he tore off one of the sides. He looked inside and smiled when he saw the contents. “Yep, this is it. Let me go put this in the room before she wakes up.”

Kelsey gave him a conspiratorial smile and made sure Rylie was still sleeping before he snuck over and hid the present.

When he returned, she gave him a loving grin. “She’s going to love that.”

“We can hope so. It’s just a little something to make her feel at home here. Hopefully, she feels wanted.”

Kelsey kissed his cheek. “You’re a good man, do you know that?”

Martin enfolded her in his arms. “Since I’m a good man, do I get a reward for it?”

Kelsey giggled and kissed him even longer. “Tonight you will, for sure.”

Finding his spirits soaring, Martin returned the kiss while looking forward to the evening. After they all ate dinner together (which didn’t involve another food fight thankfully), all the girls except for Rylie disappeared into the bedroom and emerged a short while later wearing workout clothing.

“Where are you off to?” asked Martin as he eyed the way Annabelle’s ass filled out her black spandex.

Annabelle beamed with pride. “Off to do some yoga. Nataliya and I used to do some in college and I figured it might be a great way to bring all of us back to center.”

Martin gave her a knowing nod. He knew that “bringing all of us back to center” was code for “helping Nataliya calm the fuck down.”

Kelsey chimed in next. “I haven’t done yoga in years so I told them I would join them.”

That only left Rylie as the only one excluded. Martin turned to look at her.

“You didn’t want to do any yoga?”

Rylie grimaced and waved her hand. “No, I’m passing on that. My personal trainer from back when I was still modeling regularly used to make me do yoga nearly every day. I absolutely hated yoga, and I’d really like to leave that in the past. Sorry.”

Kelsey gave a toothy smile to both Martin and Rylie. “It’s just going to be you two for the next couple hours then. Hope you get up to something fun.”

Thankfully, Rylie didn’t see the wink that Kelsey threw at Martin. With those final words, the three girls left the apartment moments later, making the walk to a nearby studio.

CHAPTER 41

AS SOON AS they were gone, Rylie took the opportunity to stretch out on the couch. The tiny, maroon top she wore soon revealed nearly her entire tanned midriff.

“At least I know it’ll be quiet for the next couple hours,” said Rylie with a smirk as she gestured to the door. “No screeching!”

Martin chuckled with her. “It’ll be nice to have some time to ourselves for once. Without all the commotion.”

Rylie fully agreed, and in the next moment, she scooted over to his side of the couch and rested her head in his lap.

“Much better,” she agreed. “You make a really comfortable neck rest.”

“Glad I can be of service.”

Rylie giggled and pivoted her body toward him. “I’m sorry about yesterday by the way.”

“Oh?”

Martin wondered what she could possibly be sorry about. She didn’t need to apologize for the vulnerability she exhibited about the change in her life.

“About dinner,” continued Rylie. “And losing my cool with Nataliya. I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did.”

“Oh, about dinner,” he replied. “Sorry, I thought you meant . . . actually, never mind. You don’t need to apologize about dinner.”

Rylie let out a deep sigh. “Something about her just makes me so angry sometimes. I almost feel like she’s ungrateful, which I know is kind of terrible to suggest. I mean, she didn’t choose this life which I understand but why not make the best of it? She just complains about everything, and yeah, I get it, but get over it. Things are not even remotely bad here.”

“Everyone processes things in their own way though,” said Martin. “She may even get over it on her own terms. It just might take longer than we think.”

Rylie smirked. “You really think that, huh?”

“No, but Kelsey seems to.”

She started to laugh. “This is one of the reasons why I like you. You always know how to make me laugh.” Her tone turned more serious. “I like you a great deal, Martin.”

She used her hand to wrap around his shoulder, gently massaging the muscle. There was a tender look of sincerity in her eyes, one that spoke of a deeper affection.

As the sexual tension between them elevated, Martin was reminded of the package he received earlier that day.

Now would be the perfect time to show her.

“Can you wait here a minute?” he asked, breaking some of that tension. “I need to show you something.”

Confusion reigned in her eyes. “You do?”

“Yeah, I’ll just be a moment.”

“Okay, I guess.”

Martin slithered out from under her as gracefully as he could manage. As he pushed up, he watched as Rylie sat upright, hugging her knees against her chest and watching him with a degree of trepidation.

He hoped that his gift would help to fix some of that.

He retrieved what he was looking for from the kitchen, and put the gift in the palm of his hand. He clenched his fist around it and came back into the living room, sitting down as he had before, directly opposite Rylie.

Her eyes went to his fist, no doubt wondering what was inside.

“You told me yesterday that you have these brief moments where you’re sad about your old life,” he began. “Where you feel uprooted and kind of lost. I know that I can never give you back your old life. I’m always going to fall short of doing that.”

Rylie shook her head. “That’s not what I’m asking for, Martin. I’m happy here, remember?”

“I know, I know, but I still want to do everything I can to make you feel like you haven’t left anything behind. And that’s kind of where my gift comes from tonight.”

Rylie’s eyes flickered back to his hand. “What is it?”

“Something to replace what was lost.”

Martin opened his hand. Inside was just a simple necklace. The band was made of simple gold links bound together in a chain. At the end of the chain was a seashell, very similar to the one that Rylie used to wear.

Her breath caught in her throat. Rylie’s eyes focused on the necklace and she remained quiet for what felt like several minutes.

“I know I could never get you the original,” he whispered. “But I’m hoping this will help. It’s pretty close to the original, right?”

Rylie nodded her head while saying nothing. When his eyes met hers, he could see that they were watery and full of tears.

Without so much as another warning, Rylie started to bawl. Great, big tears cascaded down her face as she then covered it with her hands.

Instantly, he felt terrible. Martin tried to yank the necklace away, hoping he didn’t offend her but for some reason, Rylie latched onto his hand and wouldn’t let go.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered finally, thinking of nothing better to say. “I didn’t realize it would hurt you. I just wanted to—”

“Shh,” she interrupted as the tears continued to fall. “Stop talking for a moment.”

Utterly confused, he shut his mouth and waited for her to be ready to talk. It took another minute or two of crying before Rylie looked up at the ceiling and wiped away the tears.

Finally, she settled her gaze on him and smiled.

“You’re the best person I’ve ever met,” she whispered quietly.

Martin was suddenly extremely confused.

“Huh?”

Rylie actually smiled through the tears. Her hand forced his to open, showcasing the necklace in all its glory as she gazed at it.

“You actually tried to get me my necklace back. You really went to all this trouble, Martin?”

“It wasn’t that much trouble,” he admitted. “Just found something online that I thought you would like.” He paused for a moment. “Do you like it?”

Rylie giggled. “I love it! Here, put it on me!”

She turned around and held her hair to one side, exposing her neck. Still confused, Martin tossed the necklace around her neck and clasped it in the back.

When she turned back around, her fingers went to the seashell. “That’s just perfect,” she whispered.

“Rylie, I have to admit that you have me all kinds of confused right now. I can’t tell if you’re happy or sad.”

Still giggling to herself, Rylie shook her head. “You’re such a guy, Martin. Of course, I’m happy. I’m ecstatic.”

“You are?” he asked. “Then why are you crying?”

“These?” she asked while wiping away her tears. “These are tears of happiness.”

“Happiness?”

“Mm-hmm. You’ve made me so happy that I just couldn’t hold it in anymore. Martin, this is perfect. This is just like the original! I’ve been missing this necklace ever since I was cloned, and now I have it back. And I have you to thank!”

Without a further word, Rylie launched herself at him and held him tight. Martin found his arms slowly moving around her back but what he didn’t expect was the deeply passionate kiss that followed it.

Her eyes centered on his after she pulled away. “You did something so incredibly thoughtful that I can’t get over how amazing you are,” she gushed. “Martin, you mean the world to me.”

Finally understanding, Martin smiled back at her. “I just wanted you to feel like you belonged here. I wanted you to feel like this could truly be your home.”

“You’re my home,” she whispered. “This is our home. I love my new life, Martin, and . . . I love you too.”

His eyes flickered to her lips. “You do?”

She nodded. “I love you, Martin. Honestly . . . truly . . . deeply. I needed to see something from you, something that showed me that you cared, and this was it. This was truly it.”

She pressed her body back into his and kissed him with every ounce of passion she could muster. In the process, Rylie moaned into his mouth while her hand snuck between them, rubbing the outside of his jeans to find his cock underneath.

At that moment, he knew what she truly wanted. She wanted passion. She wanted tenderness.

But Martin also remembered that she wanted him to take the lead. She wanted him to seduce her instead of the other way around.

Perhaps tonight was the night when Rylie could have her cake and eat it too?

Feeling confident, Martin used his hand to caress her cheek. His eyes focused on hers, seeing the depth of the emotion she had for him.

“Let’s go back to my bedroom,” he said in a quiet but firm tone. “I want you. I want you to be mine tonight.”

Rylie’s expression softened. A small smile appeared on her lips as she assumed a vulnerable expression. “You want me? You want all of me?”

He nodded gently. “I need to be inside you, Rylie. I’ve waited long enough.”

Much to his relief, she started to grin. “Well? What are we waiting for then?”

Taking the lead, Martin was the first to push off the couch. He extended his hand down to her, helping Rylie to her feet. At that moment, he used both hands to pull her body to his, kissing her with deep sincerity as his hands roamed her body.

It was just the kind of initiative that she wanted him to take. Rylie moaned against his mouth before pushing him closer to the bedroom.

The journey to the bedroom was like a scene out of the movies. Discarded clothing marked the trail of their feet as the two sought to remove the other of every stitch along the way. Rylie’s passion for him was only equaled by his hunger for her, and by the time they reached the doorframe, the only piece of clothing left was a royal blue thong that looked magnificent against her tanned and toned flesh.

“Take it off of me,” she whispered huskily as she hooked her thumb against the thin band.

Martin’s hand moved to her stomach, causing her to shudder in anticipation as it traveled south below the border. He cupped her mound with one hand, feeling the smooth strip of pubic hair just under his fingers. Rylie was different in that regard from the other women. Kelsey preferred keeping hers fairly natural but trimmed. Annabelle usually preferred the fully shaved look. Rylie, by comparison, kept a thin strip of hair extending just north of her clit.

It was a sexy look, one that beckoned his hand for further inspection. Rylie gasped as his fingers slipped under the thin fabric and touched her labia.

She bit her lip as her smoky gaze focused on his. “I’m ready for you.”

With those words, she pulled him into the bedroom and fell back on the bed, all the while her little thong went flying through the air.

Martin fell on top of her and kissed her passionately as their hips aligned with each other. Being this close to Rylie, the same woman who’d teased him with her body over the previous few weeks, was intoxicating. Everything about her—from her scent to the way her breasts crushed against his chest—aroused him to no end.

What was most pleasing was the way his cock was now trapped between her thighs. It was so close that he could feel the heat erupting from her body. As Rylie pulled her legs apart, the tip slid along the grove of her slit, causing both of them to catch their breath as they looked down.

It was the most erotic sight to watch his cock as it prepared to slip inside. Rylie held her breath while he notched the tip in her slick folds. It was now or never.

With a firm but smooth thrust, Martin finally entered the sexy woman beneath him.

Rylie moaned with approval as she felt the first intrusion of his manhood. Her arms gripped his shoulders tighter, pulling him into her body.

For Martin, the sensation was nothing short of exquisite. For one, she was absolutely drenched. There was no pressure or resistance with getting his cock inside her. Rylie was so wet that he just kept sliding deeper inside until he was completely buried. As he withdrew his hips for the first time and pushed forward, he could hear the sounds of her wetness.

“Oh, yes, just like that,” she whispered as she wrapped her legs around him. “Harder.”

Without much time to build up, Martin ramped up the pace, slamming his hips into hers more forcefully.

“Oh, fuck, that’s what I needed,” she moaned. “Keep doing that.”

On and on he continued maintaining the same hard pace. For her part, Rylie was an enthusiastic participant. Apart from the subtle sounds of her body welcoming his meaty intruder, she would push her hips back after every thrust. There weren’t many moments when she wasn’t kissing him either, keeping their openings fully occupied.

Rylie’s first orgasm came with a bit of a surprise. Her body reacted quite visibly as her upper chest reddened and she let out a loud moan but the most noticeable reaction was the extreme wetness that erupted from her pussy. Martin suddenly felt like he’d just been splashed as her orgasm erupted from her body, finding the sensation quite different from the other women.

He was too far gone to find out the real reason for it. His full attention was in making sure that his hips kept up their vigorous pace all the while keeping Rylie in her state of blissful agony.

“Keep fucking me,” she moaned. “Please don’t ever stop fucking me, Martin!”

He took her words like they were a personal challenge, never wanting to cum lest he miss out on this beautiful display of femininity beneath him. Sure enough, two more orgasms wracked her body in short order before Martin felt a familiar feeling deep in his core. With the last bit of his energy, he increased the pace as he sought to get as deep inside her as physically possible.

When he came, his entire length was buried inside Rylie.

“Oh my god, I can feel it,” she said while on the brink of consciousness. “You’re cumming in me, Martin. Oh, fuck, it’s so much cum.”

That it certainly was. Martin felt like he was squirting pump after pump inside her, filling her completely. Perhaps it was the ultimate culmination of finally crossing the final barrier between them that made it so.

After all this time, Rylie was finally his.

They both struggled to regain their breath for several minutes after their coupling. Martin supported himself just over her until falling to the side, and that was when he noticed that his hip landed in something that was extremely wet.

The bed under him was completely soaking wet.

As he pulled himself away, it wasn’t hard to tell just what had caused it, and the memories of several splashes during her orgasms was the dead giveaway.

When his eyes met hers, Rylie looked almost embarrassed.

“So I guess now is a good time to tell you that I squirt,” said Rylie, hiding most of her face behind her hands.

Martin couldn’t help but smile. “I can see that. You soaked through a good portion of the bed.”

Her face only turned redder. “Are you mad?”

“Why would I be mad?”

She shrugged. “Some guys don’t like it. They think it’s weird or that I’m peeing on them or something like that.”

“Does it always happen for you? I mean during sex?”

“Not all the time,” she replied. “Just when it feels really good. And when I’m really turned on like just now.”

Martin put the dots together. “So what you’re saying is that our sex was so good that you couldn’t even control it? That you had to squirt because you liked it so much?”

She let out a shy smile. “Something like that, yeah.”

Martin grinned. “Then how could I be mad? I think it’s pretty hot actually.”

“You do?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I mean I’ve always wondered about it and now I get to see it in person.”

“So you’ve never been with a squirter before?”

“No,” he said, chuckling. “This is a first. But I like it.”

“Well, as long as you like it,” she said. “Because it’s not like I can stop it.”

“I wouldn’t want you to. I like that you enjoyed it as much as I did.”

Rylie smiled before leaning up to kiss him. “Do you know what I really enjoyed about that?”

“Hmm?”

“Feeling you cum,” she answered. “Inside me. I felt your cock pulsating and I loved every minute of it.”

“I think it was just the perfect end to the perfect night, right? Tonight was just great.”

Rylie sighed happily as her hand wrapped around her new necklace. “You’re right. I love it here, Martin. And I love that you care enough about me to do something like this. I know it’s just a necklace and everything but you alone know what the necklace means to me. You care about my happiness that much.”

“I just want you to be content here. I want you to feel like this is home, and that I’m your home. I know we have a strange living situation . . .”

Rylie snorted. “Very strange. I share the man that I love with two other beautiful women and one crazy ex who can’t stop watching porn.”

Martin laughed with her. “That’s a very accurate way of describing things. You sure you wouldn’t have it any other way?”

Rylie shook her head. “No, I wouldn’t. I like what we have here. I like our lives. And I wouldn’t change a thing.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Rylie put her finger in the air. “Actually, I’d change one thing.”

“Oh? What’s that?”

She pursed her lips. “I’d get Nataliya on medication right away.”

Martin smirked. “That might be our next step. I wonder how yoga is going.”

“If I know Nataliya, she’s probably screeching at the instructor because she can’t do a proper downward dog.”

They shared a laugh at that. “Or complaining that the session is too long.”

“Or that she wants to put on porn in the background.”

Martin started to shake his head. “What are we going to do about that girl?”

“Let’s not worry about her right now,” said Rylie as she reached her hand around the back of his head and pulled him closer. “Let’s just worry about us.”

“Sounds really good to me.”

Martin lost track of how long they were in bed. It could have been several hours that they laid there, kissing each other repeatedly and talking about things of no consequence. There was no desire to get dressed, and despite the sheet being wrapped around Rylie’s legs, they were still both entirely nude.

He took every opportunity to let his eyes roam the length of her body. He loved following the lines of her curves from her neck all the way down past her hips and back up again. He especially loved the way that her curves flared out for her hips before coming in tight around her stomach and then back out again around her breasts.

If anyone wanted to chisel the perfect woman out of stone, Rylie would be the result.

And she’s mine now. My cum is inside her and she loves me.

He couldn’t help but be a little smug about that.

CHAPTER 42

UNFORTUNATELY, their privacy together wouldn’t last forever. Neither of them heard the front door open but it was the sounds of talking that alerted them that the other girls were now home.

Sure enough, the other girls found the trail of clothing left out in the hallway and followed it all the way to the back, practically giggling with excitement.

Annabelle was the first to burst open the door, finding them still in the nude. Her eyes wandered between Rylie’s body and Martin’s cock before she met their gaze.

“Oh my god, did it happen?” she asked with some excitement. “Did you two finally have sexual relations?”

Rylie rolled her eyes. “Sexual relations? You mean did we have sex?”

Annabelle waved her hand impatiently. “Yes, that’s what I meant! Did you do it?”

Rylie grinned coyly. “Maybe.”

Right behind Annabelle came Kelsey. She entered the room more slowly and her hand went to her mouth when she saw the scene.

“Oh my, what do we have here?”

“They clearly had sex,” said Annabelle with a tone of confidence. “Look at Rylie. She’s practically glowing.”

Rylie turned red. “I am not!”

“You are too!” Annabelle then sniffed the air. “And it smells like sexual secretions in here. Very pungent.”

Kelsey’s eyes centered on Martin. “Did you two have a nice time while we were gone?”

He nodded. “A very nice time. It was really great.”

“It really was,” added Rylie. “So good. So . . . sweaty.”

“Ha! I knew it, you did fuck!” said Annabelle.

“What’s all this commotion in here?”

They all turned to watch Nataliya come into the room. She looked sporty with her dark hair tied behind her in a ponytail and her tight spandex pants. She took two steps in the room and paused as her eyes locked on the bed instantly.

It wasn’t hard to tell what she was staring at.

Martin hadn’t made any effort to cover up his nudity. All the other girls had seen him naked plenty of times that he hadn’t bothered.

It wasn’t even a thought until Nataliya came into the room and saw him.

And now she wouldn’t take her eyes off his cock.

“Sweet Jesus,” she muttered under her breath as she stared at him.

Feeling a little embarrassed, Martin grabbed the sheet and covered himself promptly.

“Sorry, Nataliya,” he said with some embarrassment. “I didn’t realize you were this close to the bedroom.”

Nataliya snapped out of her trance as her eyes moved up to meet his. “Sorry, uh, sorry, Martin. It’s been a while and I didn’t realize what was behind this dick, I mean door!”

Clearly flustered, Nataliya put her hands to her mouth quickly.

The situation was just a little amusing. Martin looked over at Annabelle who was now struggling to contain a smile. Kelsey was clearly having the same problem.

“It’s quite all right,” said Martin, changing the topic. “Maybe you can wait outside while I get dressed?”

“Outside, great idea!” said Nataliya as she quickly turned to exit the room.

Her exit allowed the other girls their chance to laugh.

“I think someone just saw something they liked,” whispered Annabelle.

“Did you see how her eyes were glued to it?” asked Kelsey. “You’d think she’d never see a man before!”

“Oh, trust me, she’s seen plenty,” said Annabelle. “I’ve heard most of them through the thin walls of our college dorm. I haven’t seen a look like that in Nataliya’s eyes since she fell head over heels with one of the guys on our football team. It’s the only time I’ve seen her speechless.”

“Just what we need,” replied Rylie sourly. “Yet another one of us after Martin.”

“I doubt that will happen,” replied Annabelle while shaking her head. “She’s got a husband, remember?”

“Still, I don’t trust her that much,” said Rylie.

Annabelle looked back in the direction of the living room. “Speaking of which, I should probably see what she’s up to.”

With those words, Annabelle left the room, leaving Kelsey alone with Martin and Rylie.

Immediately, Martin noticed a change in Rylie’s demeanor. Her eyes seemed to focus on Kelsey, and she pulled the sheet over her body as if she was suddenly embarrassed by her nudity.

To his surprise, he found that Rylie soon turned to address him.

“Martin, would it be okay if I had a word with Kelsey? Just a few minutes to ourselves?”

He looked back and forth between them, confused at the sudden request. “Just a few minutes? Sure, I guess.”

Kelsey smiled at him. “We’ll be quick, I promise.”

Still partially confused, Martin left the bed and dressed quickly before making his way from the bedroom.

At least he hoped the situation in the bedroom wouldn’t be any more volatile than what was in the living room with Nataliya.

With Martin gone, Rylie felt a degree of tension as she was left alone with Kelsey. Part of that was because of her lack of clothing, but the other half was the knowledge of what she’d done.

She’d had sex with Martin. Martin, the same man who was Kelsey’s man before anyone else’s.

And despite the fact that Kelsey had ultimately given her blessing to their union weeks before, she still felt a degree of guilt about what had just transpired.

Rylie’s first instinct was to make sure that she hadn’t destroyed her relationship with Kelsey.

“Well, it looks like you two had a good time,” said an amused Kelsey.

Rylie’s eyes soon noticed that Kelsey was gesturing to the wet spot on the bed. It had been revealed as she shifted against the headboard. Feeling embarrassed, Rylie tried to cover it out of habit.

“Yeah, it was really . . . nice,” said Rylie finally.

“I know,” replied Kelsey as she sat down on the end of the bed. “Believe me, I know. It’s always been that great. There are times when I think that life can’t possibly get any better than when he’s inside me.”

“About that, that’s why I wanted to talk to you,” said Rylie as she cleared her voice. “I mean, I know that this was okay, that you gave us permission to . . . permission to . . .”

“To have sex?”

Rylie nodded. “Yes, that. It’s just that, now that we’re on the other side of it, I feel kind of strange. Honestly, I’m feeling a little guilty.”

Kelsey gave her a knowing look. “Because you feel like you stole my boyfriend, right?”

“Kind of. I know that’s not the case but I can’t help but feel that way.”

To her relief, Kelsey smiled. “You don’t have to feel like that. I clearly remember giving you permission to have sex with him. It’s okay, Rylie.”

“Is it really? You’re not messing with me, right? You’re not going to start flinging food at me or treating me like crap?”

Kelsey giggled. “No, I’m not. Listen, there’s something special going on in this apartment with all of us. I’m coming to accept the fact that we have this special arrangement with Martin that makes all of us happy and safe. Are we conventional? Not at all but nothing about this situation is conventional. The funny thing about all of this is that it’s working. We’re all happy, right?”

Rylie felt a great deal of relief. “I’m incredibly happy. After tonight, I couldn’t be happier. It just felt . . . right. Martin took charge when I needed him to and this is the result.”

“See? I told you he’d get there.”

“You were right,” replied Rylie with a soft laugh. “About many things.”

“So you’ll believe me when I say there are no hard feelings. That I welcome your addition to the group now that your relationship with Martin is consummated. Even if . . .”

Kelsey didn’t finish the sentence. She looked to the other side of the room as her words caught on the tip of her tongue.

“Even if what?” asked Rylie.

Kelsey shook her head as her smile returned. “Nothing. Don’t worry. You’re part of the group now, and we all want you to be happy. As long as everyone here is satisfied and no one gets their feelings hurt, there’s no reason why our special arrangement can’t continue to thrive.”

Rylie smiled. “I’d really like that.”

“Me too. Now come here and give me a hug.”

Rylie laughed as she embraced Kelsey.

“Thank you,” said Rylie quietly. “You don’t know what this means for me.”

Kelsey pulled back to look at her. “In a way, I do. We’re all in the same boat. And a sexually-satisfied boat is a happy boat.”

Before Rylie could respond, they heard screeching coming from the living room.

“Where the fuck is the remote control?” yelled Nataliya.

Rylie winced. “Well, at least most of us are happy.”

“Yes, I guess there’s that.”

CHAPTER 43

“WHAT IS YOUR FUCKING NAME?”

The man behind the desk growled as he kicked the wooden frame, making everything on top of the surface rattle. On his monitor was the same audio file that he’d listened to nearly fifty times by now. Despite most of the file having relatively clear audio, the beginning was cut off to the point that he couldn’t make out what name was being said by the escaped clone.

“Art-tin! You have to help me!”

The biggest question was just who was this Art-tin? Was that a title or a full name? The man leaned toward the idea that it might have been a title, as why else would the clone know someone in the testing area?

Even still, he couldn’t discount the fact that she wasn’t supposed to know anyone either.

If only that portion of the file wasn’t corrupted, perhaps he could figure out what she was saying and that would lead him to who the intruder really was.

Yet, as much as he tinkered with the file, he wasn’t getting anywhere. He tried to slow it down and speed it up, but neither produced any results worth listening to.

The man strummed his fingers against his desk.

“What to do, what to do?” he muttered to himself.

He thought about seeing if Claire would lend him a hand, but he quickly scoffed at such an idea.

“That bitch would never let me forget about it,” he mumbled. “She’d hold it over my head for the next month that she had to help me.”

He couldn’t have that, not when he thought that her influence was already strong enough with the big guy. No, he would need to figure this one out on his own, but first, he needed someone with a stronger tech background than himself.

But who to go to?

The idea came to him quickly, and the man smirked as he left his desk and moved down the hall to the office of the CTO.

The CTO was a weasel of a man without any kind of spine or backbone. Frankly, the man wasn’t sure why he was even tolerated at the company, let alone allowed to occupy a position of such precedence. However, he knew the CTO technically owed him one, and he also knew that he would keep quiet about the contents of the audio file, preventing any further security leaks.

The CTO looked nervous as the man approached his desk. Almost at once, sweat began to form on his brow.

“I just sent you an audio file that I need cleared up,” said the man, barking orders like he would to a green intern. “Get back to me as soon as possible with the name being said at the beginning of the file.”

As a symbol of the man’s power, the CTO didn’t even bother to resist. He didn’t ask any questions either. All he did was nod his head meekly, the only sort of acknowledgment the man needed to see.

“What are you waiting for?” barked the man. “Get to it! Now!”

“His name is Martin.”

The man behind the desk looked up to find the CTO standing at his doorframe. The CTO looked all too nervous to be there, and he’d barely managed to get the words out without stuttering.

“Say again?” asked the man.

The CTO took a nervous step forward. “Martin. In the audio file, the clone is yelling for the name Martin. That’s the person you’re looking for.”

Suddenly, it all made sense. Art-tin. Of course, it was Martin she was saying.

Which meant that she knew whoever it was that was in the testing area. And his name was Martin.

“Good find,” said the man. “If you have nothing else to tell me then get the hell out of my office.”

The CTO made a small noise that sounded like a yelp before making a hasty exit. The man behind the desk was already pounding away at his keyboard, bringing up the employee directory to find any listings for the name Martin.

Something like this could only be an inside job. Who else would have access into the facility? Only someone with a key and an employee code written on the back of their badge.

As soon as the man pulled up the M section, he could see that he had two Martins employed at Replica Imagination.

One of these two men was the intruder. As well as the likely one behind the other security breaches.

And it wasn’t hard to figure out which one it was.

The man grabbed his desk phone and quickly dialed an extension.

Claire picked up one the second ring. “What do you want, Bryce?”

“Our intruder is Martin Kennedy. He’s the secret cloner.”

THE BIOPUNK REVELATION 3

A SCIENCE FICTION THRILLER

CHAPTER 1

MARTIN KENNEDY WAS LIVING the good life. No other evidence of this was needed than one look around his bedroom.

His main girlfriend Kelsey was wrapped in her blanket, and she’d been the one sleeping the closest to Martin. At this very moment, she was almost entirely covered by it, with only the toes on one foot sticking out of the end, no doubt to keep her cool.

On the other side of the bed was Martin’s newest lover, Rylie. It was just yesterday that they finally crossed the last barrier between them, having sex for the first time. Martin couldn’t help but grin as he remembered the feeling of Rylie’s lips as well as the feeling of her incredible body pressed against him.

Annabelle was sleeping peacefully on a blow-up mattress not far from the main bed, her lovely blonde hair sprayed out on her pillow. The blow-up mattress had been a recent change as the spare bedroom was occupied by Nataliya right now. For one, Nataliya was too volatile to share, and none of the other women were particularly fond of her right now.

For everyone’s sake, it was thought best to put Rylie in the main bedroom for now, and she had no complaints about switching off the blow-up mattress with Annabelle every other night.

At least they were making it work. Martin viewed his extremely cramped quarters as becoming increasingly less ideal by the day. This apartment was great for two people, max three, but with five of them sharing it now, they had quickly run out of room. Sooner or later, he’d have to find a new place for all of them to stay.

Annabelle was the first to get up that day, exiting the room about a half hour before Martin rose from bed. He kissed both Kelsey and Rylie before leaving the room to find Annabelle.

Martin found her in the living room, already working on the laptop that he’d purchased for her stock trading venture. At the moment, Annabelle was cradling a cup of coffee in one hand while working a mouse with the other. She had half of a blanket covering her legs, and she wore a simple, white tank top without a bra underneath, exposing generous portions of her cleavage. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and she was intensely studying whatever was on the screen in front of her.

She saw Martin approach and a warm smile filled her face. “Good morning, sleepyhead.”

“Good morning to you,” said Martin as he gestured to her laptop. “I know the markets aren’t open yet so what are you doing? It’s early.”

“Just some research,” she replied. “I like it at this time of day because the apartment is quiet and I have time to really think. I can’t really do that too much when the other girls are awake.”

Martin moved to sit beside her. “What kind of research are you doing?”

“Just some company research. Trying to figure out what I want to buy.”

“And how exactly do you do that? What goes into it?”

“Well, for example, do you see this stock?” Annabelle pointed at her screen for a blinking stock ticker. “I’ve been watching it for a number of days. The financials seem pretty strong, and the P/E ratio is where I’d expect it to be. There’s a couple of other factors involved here but the short of it is that they’re making a big announcement on Friday, and my guess is that it has to do with another acquisition. I’m going to go all in on their stock, and we should make a nice return on it.”

Martin looked more closely at her research, seeing she had about thirty tabs open at the current time. She was looking at several financial journals, reports, and even news articles containing this said company.

“You really seem to be digging deep into them.”

Annabelle smiled at him. “That’s what I need to do. I could still get it wrong too with all this research but I have a good feeling about this one. Besides, I want to show that I can contribute around here too. I don’t want you to feel like you have the burden of the whole apartment on you.”

“No, it’s not like that.”

Annabelle gave him a knowing look. “Martin, I know you.”

He let out a small smile. “Okay, well, maybe a little.”

“And with Nataliya being here, it’s only made it worse in that regard,” said Annabelle, lowering her voice. “I know she’s not the easiest person to be around but I’m really trying to help her get acclimated. She’s just . . . difficult.”

“Difficult is a good way of putting it,” said Martin. “I’m sure Rylie would probably use several more colorful words before landing on difficult.”

Annabelle giggled. “Yes, she probably would, wouldn’t she?”

“I really appreciate all that you’ve done to try to work her into our group,” said Martin more seriously. “I know it hasn’t been easy but the yoga, the candles, and even inviting her to participate in a karate lesson—I’m grateful for what you’re trying to do.”

Annabelle rested her head against his shoulder. “We’ll find a way, I’m sure of it. Really, it’s not this Nataliya that I’m worried about.”

Martin winced, knowing instantly what she meant. “It’s the real Nataliya that could be the bigger problem. Especially if she gets the job.”

“Right. And we’re still no closer to stopping that.”

Annabelle was entirely right. Their attempts to stop the process were entirely futile, and they only ended up slowing it down slightly. Martin knew that Nataliya already had a second interview with both Bryce and Claire, and today she would be meeting with the CEO for the last one. If she nailed that interview, an offer would soon follow.

And then what would happen? They’d be sitting on a ticking time bomb.

“Do you think that maybe we should approach the real Nataliya and just come clean?” asked Annabelle. “Nothing else has worked and she’s going to find out eventually. I wonder if we should just get it out of the way.”

There was definitely merit to Annabelle’s suggestion, even if Martin hated the idea of another person finding out about the clones. The real Nataliya wasn’t as volatile as her clone, and she might be expected to hold the secret if she knew what the cost of discovery might be. That would still be taking an incredible risk though, and up until this point, it might be an unnecessary risk.

“We should hold off until we’re sure she has the job,” said Martin finally. “I’m not saying no to your idea, I just want to be sure it’s actually come to that before we move on it. There’s still a small chance that she could not get the job.”

Annabelle let out a small sigh and nodded. No doubt she was thinking the same thing as Martin.

They both knew that it was only a matter of time. Nataliya was sure to get the job.

It was like knowing a train wreck was coming but being able to do nothing to stop it.

Annabelle nuzzled in closer. “I’m sorry for all of this, Martin.”

He gave her a confused look. “Why are you sorry?”

She lowered her eyes. “It’s my fault. It’s all my fault really. I’m the one that cloned Rylie and added another person to this. As great as she is, it’s still a burden we have to face. And I’m the one that got Nataliya’s attention at the restaurant. If that hadn’t happened, she wouldn’t know that I’m still alive and she could still work at RI in peace. This is all my fault.”

Martin shook his head. “That’s not your fault. I don’t blame you for those things, Annabelle. Seriously, look how nicely Rylie has fit in with the rest of us. It wasn’t an ideal beginning with how she was cloned but still, the four of us were really in a good spot until Nataliya came along.”

“Until Nataliya came along,” repeated Annabelle with a sense of dread. “Which is my fault.”

“Nataliya very well could have seen me instead of you. She knew both of us, and that could be just as much my fault as yours. I’m not blaming you for that. If anything, I think it speaks to the fact that we might need to get away from all of it. We might need to leave this area so that we stop running into people we know. Maybe into a bigger place too, with room for all of us.”

Annabelle let out a long sigh. “A bigger place would be good but that’s more of a burden on you again.”

Martin kissed her forehead. “Don’t worry about that. You just worry about picking out the best investments for us and win us a crapload of money.”

That made her smile. “I can do that. I think.”

“In the meantime, we’ll figure something else out with Nataliya,” he promised. “I just need time to think.”

“You should start getting up early in the mornings to sit out here with me then,” said Annabelle brightly. “It’s very quiet, with lots of time to think.”

“You say that now, but you don’t know just how distracting you are,” said Martin. “I’d be trying to work but I’d keep stealing glances at you.”

Annabelle looked down at herself, obviously confused. “What are you talking about? I don’t even look cute right now. My top is wrinkled and my hair is a mess.”

Martin shook his head. “I love this look on you. Your everyday look that shows off your natural beauty. You’ve never been more gorgeous to me.”

Annabelle proceeded to melt against the couch. Her face turned red and before he knew it, she was kissing him with passion. “This is one of the reasons why I love you.”

“I certainly hope so,” said Martin, chuckling. He gave her one more kiss before pushing up from the couch. “I should probably start getting ready for work.”

Annabelle nodded but then called out to him before he could leave the living room. “Hey, Martin?”

“Yes?”

She gave him a coy look. “Since Nataliya wasn’t really a fan of that bubble bath, I thought maybe you and I could use it tonight. I know how fond Rylie is of her baths with you. Maybe you and I can do the same?”

The prospect of having Annabelle’s wet, naked body pressed against his in the tub was one he couldn’t turn down.

“I’d love that, Annabelle.”

She beamed with a smile. “Me too. Tonight, when you get home from work, okay?”

“Sounds perfect.”

CHAPTER 2

THE WORK DAY couldn’t have gone fast enough. Minutes ticked by like hours as Martin thought about getting home and finding Annabelle entirely nude and covered in tiny bubbles.

It was one thing about his relationship with Annabelle that he really enjoyed. Their intimacy as of late had grown by leaps and bounds. Not that there wasn’t always a subtle attraction there, but even when they first started having sex, it was governed more by animalistic lust. In recent weeks, that had morphed into something that was more loving than it was lustful, and for Martin, it felt like it took their sex to a new level than it was on before.

If only he could make this day end, he could be one step closer to getting home.

He couldn’t even wait for the clock to strike five before he’d grabbed his things and dashed for the door. Like usual, the women were waiting for him when he got home. Rylie was taking a turn making dinner tonight while Kelsey was reading a book on the couch. The doors to both bedrooms were closed, and Martin found out that Annabelle was still doing her trades while Nataliya had simply wanted to be alone (like usual).

When Annabelle finally emerged for dinner, it became obvious that she wasn’t just sitting at her laptop all day. At some point, she’d fixed her hair, using an iron to put some curls into her locks that made her look absolutely ravishing. She’d put on some light makeup as well and changed clothes into something that was sexy yet seductive, a deep red blouse that cut low on her cleavage.

Rylie let out a whisper as soon as she saw Annabelle. “I feel super underdressed right now. Where are you going?”

Annabelle gave Martin a coy look. “Martin and I have a little bathtub appointment tonight. I wanted to look nice for my date.”

“A bathtub appointment?” asked Rylie, snorting a little. “You two are going to fuck in the tub right before I get to use it tonight?”

“Yeah, does that bother you?”

Rylie’s eyes twinkled. “Only if I can’t watch it.”

Martin started to laugh. “Maybe another time. I get the impression that Annabelle just wanted it to be the two of us.”

“What he said,” Annabelle added. “Rain check, Rylie?”

Rylie feigned disappointment. “I never get to have any fun these days,” she said after a playful sigh.

Dinner was a relatively calm affair that evening. Nataliya was actually behaving herself, and she was having a great conversation with Annabelle, which kept her from getting on anyone else’s nerves. By the time that dinner was finished and put away, it was time for Martin and Annabelle’s mini-date.

“Come on, handsome,” said Annabelle as she grabbed his hand and led him to the bathroom. “I can’t wait to soak with you.”

Martin couldn’t help but notice the attention of all the girls on them as they walked down the hall. Even Nataliya, strangely enough, was watching them with some curiosity.

“I think they’re jealous,” whispered Annabelle as a grin spread out over her face. “I bet they wish we had a tub big enough for all of us.”

“Now there’s a thought,” said Martin. “Maybe someday when we get out of this cramped apartment.”

As soon as they were in the bathroom, Annabelle started to run the water. It was the way that she did it that caused Martin to take notice and be unable to look away. She was wearing this tiny, black skirt that wasn’t much more than a six or so inches long from the waist. It was something that couldn’t be worn in public, but Annabelle was enjoying sticking her butt in the air while she fumbled with the knobs.

Driven by the sight of her black thong splitting her two perfect cheeks, Martin found himself standing right behind her as he grabbed onto her waist. His cock was still hidden in his pants but now the bulge was rubbing right against her crotch.

“Oh my,” said Annabelle with an excited giggle as she felt his hands on her. “Now this is what I’ve been waiting for.”

“I can honestly say I’ve been thinking about this all day,” whispered Martin as he pulled her hips back against him.

Annabelle turned around and wrapped her wet hands around his neck. “You don’t have to wait any longer, baby. You can have me right now if you want.”

She followed those words with a long, deep kiss, the kind that made him groan against her mouth. His cock was seriously denting his slacks now and aching for release.

Annabelle could certainly feel him pressing against her and she dipped her hand, rubbing his manhood on the outside of his pants.

Her eyes locked on his. “I can’t wait to feel this perfect cock sliding into my pussy, inch by inch. Fuck, I’m getting so wet just thinking about it, Martin. I need you to fill me, fill me completely. I need it so fucking bad.”

As she spoke, she made quick work of his zipper. Before he knew it, he was standing bottomless, his proud cock sticking up like a flagpole.

Annabelle moaned as her hand wrapped around it. “There he is. Fuck, you got bigger, didn’t you? I have no idea how you’re going to fit this whole thing in my tight pussy.”

Martin was quickly losing all coherency. The only thing he knew that he wanted to do, no, needed to do, was to bury himself totally inside his gorgeous blonde girlfriend.

There was just one little problem. Annabelle was now no longer looking in his eyes.

Her attention was focused on the door.

When Martin turned to see why, he completely understood the drop in attention.

The door was wide open.

Nataliya’s hand was on the handle. Her eyes were once again glued to his cock. Her mouth was agape, like she’d never seen one before in her life. She was frozen in place, and Martin had to wonder just how long she was there.

“Nataliya!” hissed Annabelle. “What are you doing?”

Nataliya blinked as she left the trance-like state she was in. Her mouth closed as a look of embarrassment filled her face.

“I’m sorry! I was just looking for . . . my towel,” said Nataliya, grabbing the fabric like it was the most important thing she owed.

Martin wasn’t buying the excuse. Neither was Annabelle.

“Your towel?” she asked, planting her hands on her hips. “Really, Nataliya? Your towel?”

Nataliya grabbed it and nodded meekly. “Yes, I’m sorry! Carry on with . . . whatever you were doing.”

Before Nataliya could close the door, she gave one last glance at Martin’s cock. Before they knew it, the door was closed and they were once again alone.

“What the fuck was that all about?” whispered Annabelle.

“That’s the second time she’s done that,” said Martin. “She did it last night too, after Rylie and I had sex.”

“I noticed that as well. I wonder what’s going through her mind right now. I wonder if she’s missing her husband.”

“She’s probably missing a good fucking,” said Martin while chuckling. “With how much porn she watches, she’s probably horny as hell.”

“Not like she’s not in there jilling herself every day anyway,” said Annabelle. “That’s the real reason why she closes the door. She doesn’t want anyone to see her masturbating.”

“I kind of feel bad for her. She has a spouse that she can’t even see, mostly because he doesn’t even know that a clone of his wife exists.”

Annabelle pursed her lips. “A very interesting turn of events though. Oh well, at least she’s gone now. Can you lock the door this time?”

Martin chuckled and reached over, turning the lock.

While he did so, Annabelle pulled off her blouse as well as her matching bra. Her gorgeous, large tits were one of her best assets, and they were soon pressing against his chest.

“Better,” she cooed. “I don’t want to be interrupted again.”

Nor were they, as they slipped into the bubbles a moment later, soon to be followed by a very hard cock slipping into a wet pussy directly after. With how turned on they both were, it didn’t take very long for either of them to cum. It happened as Annabelle rode him hard, using her arms against the side of the tub to hold herself steady while he kept a tight grip on her hips, moderating her pace.

Once the deed was done, Annabelle fell against him, resting her head against his shoulder as his spent member slipped out of her body.

It was five minutes before anyone said a word.

“Now this is relaxing,” said Annabelle with a content sight. “I can see why Rylie likes to take her baths at night.”

“You’ll hear no complaints from me,” said Martin as he brushed some of the bubbles away from Annabelle’s nipple. “Even if the bubble bath smells a little girly.”

Annabelle giggled. “Is lavender really that girly of a smell?”

The look he gave her was enough of an answer.

“Oh well,” she sighed again. “At least you’ll do it for me, right?”

“I suppose. I’d do a lot of things for you.”

She kissed him tenderly. “That’s a good answer.”

It only took a moment before Annabelle changed the subject back to an old topic.

“Do you think that . . . oh, never mind.”

“You’re not getting out of this that easy,” said Martin with a laugh. “What are you trying to say?”

Annabelle shook her head. “I don’t even want to suggest it honestly.”

“Why not? Tell me.”

Annabelle pursed her lips. “Do you think that Nataliya might want to . . . rekindle the old flame with you?”

“You think she wants to be intimate with me again?”

Annabelle shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m asking you. Does it feel that way? I mean, she looked like she was ready to jump on your cock right then and there. She looked like that yesterday too.”

“She didn’t have much of an excuse for barging in here,” added Martin. “What would she need her towel for?”

Annabelle slapped his chest. “Exactly! I don’t know, Martin. I think she wants to be the next one to take a ride on the Martin express.”

“Let’s not even go there for now,” he said, shaking his head.

“Why not?”

“Things are volatile enough with Nataliya just living here,” said Martin. “Let alone if she fully joins the group. Rylie doesn’t like her and I don’t think Kelsey is that fond of her either.”

“Kelsey is nice to her because she’s the mother of the group,” agreed Annabelle. “But if she didn’t live here, I don’t see Kelsey having much to do with her.”

“Exactly my point. I think that would make some serious waves, and we really don’t need that right now. That’s not even broaching the other two major issues with it. For one, she’s married, and for two, we had our chance years ago and broke up because we weren’t compatible.”

“I know that it doesn’t make much sense logically,” said Annabelle after a moment of silence. “I just know the look that she gave you.”

“What look?”

Annabelle met his eyes. “The look that said she wanted you pretty badly. She was acting on instinct at that moment and instinct doesn’t lie.”

Martin took a moment to consider what Annabelle had to say. It was hard to deny that Nataliya had been acting a little weird around him since the first time she saw him naked. It was equally hard to deny that he and Nataliya weren’t a great fit in terms of a relationship. Why would she want to go down that road again?

Unless she was so horny that it didn’t matter? In which case, would just about any cock do? Was her attention only on Martin because he was the closest available penis to her? What if he got her a vibrator? Would that help?

That line of thinking didn’t do anyone any good. Martin could tell that even Annabelle was running through some different scenarios, none of which were positive by the look on her face.

“I guess we’ll just have to keep taking this one day at a time,” she said finally, defeat written into her face.

“Yeah, I guess so, Annabelle.”

CHAPTER 3

AS IT TURNED OUT, Annabelle wasn’t the only one waiting for something to happen on Friday. Friday also happened to be the day of Tim’s going away party/happy hour with a good portion of the employees at RI planning to attend. While Annabelle was busy making her trades, Martin was spending his last full day with Tim as a local colleague.

Tim was in rare form today. Normally, he was a walking HR nightmare, and while he usually managed to mute himself at work, today he had no such filter.

“I’m going to miss sitting next to your sexy legs all day,” said Tim to Brittany, another girl that worked under Martin.

If something like that was said to just about anyone else, Martin might have to sit down to listen to a complaint. Thankfully, Bethany had worked alongside Tim for so long that she didn’t take it personally.

“And I’m certainly not going to miss sitting next to your sexist ass all day long,” she teased, ribbing him in return.

The whole day was just like that. Tim was truly in his glory and that didn’t stop when they left for the local bar to start the happy hour that evening.

“Seriously, Martin, you need to come out to Scranton to see my branch,” said Tim as he put his arm around Martin’s shoulders. “Or maybe you can transfer out there? Wouldn’t that be cool?”

Martin laughed at him. “Sorry, I don’t have much of a desire to go to Scranton, or to work for you.”

“Come one, I’m not that bad. I’ll be the coolest boss you’ve ever had!”

“I like it better when I’m your boss,” said Martin, chuckling.

Tim waved his hand. “Well, you still need to come out and visit. I’ll be leaving tomorrow, and on Sunday, my own replicator will get turned on. Apparently, there’s already a wait list of pets in that area that need to be cloned. We’re going to be busy right from the start, which is going to be really cool.”

“I’ll make it out there sometime,” promised Martin. “At least for a change in pace from headquarters.”

“That’s the spirit,” said Tim before he started looking around. “Wait a minute, where’s your girlfriend? Why didn’t you bring her here? Kelsey, right?”

“Oh, she had to work late tonight,” said Martin, making up a quick story. “Sorry, just out of my hands.”

“Bummer, dude, that’s a fine woman,” replied Tim, shaking his head. “You think you two are going to tie the knot anytime soon?”

The question put an anxious feeling in Martin’s stomach. Not that he wouldn’t marry Kelsey, it was just how would that be possible in their current situation? He was now sleeping with three women, and all three had confessed their love for him.

He also loved them in return. On one hand, it made him feel crummy about his relationship with Kelsey, seeing as it had been seemingly diluted by the addition of Annabelle and Rylie but then again, Kelsey hadn’t shown any objections to bringing them into the fold.

Still, there was an undercurrent of guilt that was triggered every time he thought about it.

“We’ll see about that,” lied Martin. “It’s not really in the cards for us right now.”

Thankfully, Tim didn’t press the subject.

“That’s what I need,” he said with total sincerity. “I need a good woman, one that’s sexy as hell but one that I can hang out with too. It’s so hard to find one that checks all my boxes.”

Martin couldn’t resist a smile. He knew that it wasn’t the fact that Tim couldn’t find a woman that was worthy but rather that he was too picky when it came to what he wanted. At one point in time, Tim had ironed it out for him. She had to have model-like looks, be able to cook like a four-star chef, be as funny as a comedian, and never nag him whatsoever or turn down sex. Oh, and she had to be like a pornstar in the bedroom.

Simply put, his expectations were too high and when combined with his rather unique personality, it wasn’t hard to tell why he was still single.

“You know, I’ve been thinking,” said Tim as he leaned in and lowered his voice. “I hope we can get back to human organ trials soon enough. You ever wonder what it would be like to be able to clone humans? Maybe like clone one of the hot chicks you remember from college or something like that? I think about that all the time. Maybe even do some DNA editing to make them hot and not bitchy at all. Wouldn’t that be cool?”

Little did Tim know, that was already a reality. Even if not for Martin, it appeared that the higher-ups at RI were doing that very thing already. He wondered just how long it would take before Tim would find out what was going on. Were branch managers considered part of the inner circle?

“Sounds pretty cool,” said Martin nonchalantly before trying to change the subject. “Want to get another beer?”

“I’m serious though,” said Tim. “I’d clone my own harem if I could. Maybe like three chicks in total, or four possibly. Enough so that my balls would always be drained and I’d never get worn out.”

“Three will wear you out, trust me,” said Martin almost too quickly, before realizing what he’d said.

Tim raised an eyebrow. “Personal experience, huh?”

He tried to reel it back in. “I mean, just from what I’ve heard,” said Martin awkwardly.

Tim wasn’t buying it. “You dog you! Have some stories to tell me? You were getting with multiple chicks at once?”

Martin was saved by the timely arrival of two women from customer service.

“Multiple chicks, Tim? Really?” said one, a girl named Shannon who gave Tim the cringe face as soon as she finished talking.

The other girl, Victoria, just shook her head. “He’s never going to change, is he? He’s always going to be that same thirteen-year-old boy underneath.”

Thankfully, Tim didn’t press the subject any more and decided to flirt with Stephanie and Veronica, allowing Martin to escape that line of questioning.

He would have to be more careful about what he said concerning his three girlfriends.

The night was a blast though, and their happy hour stretched all the way until nine o’clock before most people left. By that time, Tim was thoroughly wasted and would have to be driven home, a task taken up by their other friend, Shawn.

“I mean it, man,” said Tim, slurring his words as he hugged Martin. “You need to come shee me in Slanton! I’m going to miss you, brother!”

Martin chuckled and patted his back. “I’ll miss you too, Tim. Keep in touch and good luck out there. Don’t be doing any personal experimentation with your replicator, okay?”

Tim winked obnoxiously. “No promises, my dude! The future is only looking up from here!”

“Yeah, you’re going to be looking down into a toilet soon enough,” added Shawn. “Come on, let’s get you home.”

CHAPTER 4

MARTIN SAID goodbye to the rest of his colleagues and made the short journey back to the apartment. It was nearly nine-thirty by the time he arrived, and he didn’t expect so much darkness when he opened the door. He could hear the sounds of the television going but he only saw one pair of eyes when he walked in the room.

“Oh, Martin, you’re home,” said a surprised Nataliya as she pivoted toward him. “I didn’t hear the door open.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he replied before pointing to the other couch. “Has Rylie been sleeping long?”

Sure enough, the former model looked quite comfortable bundled up on the couch under a heavy blanket.

Nataliya shook her head. “Maybe like twenty minutes? I tried to get her to go to bed earlier but she just fell asleep right there.”

“Well, this is no place to sleep for the night,” said Martin. “Let me get her to bed.”

With those words, he moved beside the couch and placed one arm under Rylie’s legs and another arm under her back. He was able to pull her tiny frame from the couch quite easily. Rylie stirred slightly at the movement but didn’t wake, allowing herself to be carried to the main bedroom, where Annabelle and Kelsey were already sleeping.

It was as he was laying Rylie down that she muttered his name sleepily.

“Shh, it’s okay,” said Martin. “Just wanted to get you into bed.”

A sleepy smile appeared on her face. “Love you,” she mumbled.

Martin kissed her gently and covered her before leaving the room, moving out to the living room. He really had no intention of staying with Nataliya. Martin was planning on going to bed and he only wanted to say goodnight to her but his ex-girlfriend made room for him on the couch as soon as he reappeared.

“Come sit down with me,” said Nataliya as she patted the cushion.

“I guess I can sit for a minute,” said Martin as he noticed the television. Whatever program was playing wasn’t being broadcast in English. With Nataliya being bilingual in another language, it wasn’t hard to guess which language it was.

“Is this in Ukrainian?” asked Martin as he gestured to the show.

Nataliya grinned. “It sure is. Here, I’ll turn on the subtitles.”

That seemed to help somewhat, but it was still hard to focus on what she was watching when he couldn’t understand the language. Thankfully, Nataliya happened to be in a talkative mood.

“So, how was the party?”

Martin sat down beside her and put his legs up. “Not bad at all. My friend, Tim, was in rare form tonight, but I think he’s just genuinely happy to be starting a new chapter of his life.”

A sad look appeared on Nataliya’s face and Martin instantly regretted his choice of words. She was also starting a new chapter of her life and so far, she didn’t like where hers was going.

“Sorry, Nataliya, I didn’t mean that,” started Martin before she cut him off.

“No, it’s okay. I know you didn’t, it just got me thinking,” she said before letting out a dramatic sigh. “I wish I had a chance to do-over my life. I mean my regular life, not living as a clone.”

Martin didn’t answer that directly so she grabbed his arm. “I don’t mean that I hate it here or anything. I certainly don’t hate you. It’s just not my ideal circumstances if I’m being honest.”

“I know, Nataliya. I don’t think anyone wants to wake up one day having to spend the rest of their lives with their ex-boyfriend and his clone girlfriends.”

Nataliya actually laughed. “That’s a great way to put it. Even if I’m a clone too?”

“Especially if you’re a clone,” he said, laughing with her. “How was your day anyway? No fights with the girls?”

Nataliya rolled her eyes. “Rylie doesn’t like me but there’s nothing new there. I feel like Kelsey treats me like a puppy, one that she’s trying to get to not shit on the carpet. Annabelle is great and all, but I can’t help but feel like the science experiment gone bad.”

Martin had to agree with that one. Science experiment gone bad was almost a little too accurate in Nataliya’s case. He knew he couldn’t say that aloud but he couldn’t help that it hit so close.

“Does it feel like you’re adjusting at all?” he asked. “I know the first week was tough but do you feel any better now? Has there been any more acceptance?”

“Acceptance?” she asked. “I don’t know about acceptance. I get the impression that no one is enthused that I’m here though, and I can’t say I blame them for that.”

“That’s not true, Nataliya,” said Martin. “I like that you’re here. You’re forgetting that I liked you enough that you were my girlfriend at one time.”

She grinned and leaned against him. “I haven’t forgotten anything about that. Besides, you only like me when I’m not yelling at the other girls.”

“Well, that is certainly a plus.”

Nataliya put her head in her hands. “I just wish I felt some degree of control over it. I just get these . . . weird impulses that I can’t hold back. Half the time I feel lucid and then I realize that an hour has passed and I was just acting crazy. It’s hard for me to figure out what happened.”

“Do you feel like you’re blacking out then? You lose all memory of what happened during that time?”

“Something like that. It scares me, Martin. Like I don’t know what I’m capable of. I don’t want the other girls to hate me but I’m afraid about what happens in those moments that I can’t control. I fear that I might damage those relationships irreparably in the process.”

It was a very candid admission on Nataliya’s part, one of the deepest that he’d gotten from her. It was also an admission that Nataliya knew something was wrong, that something was different about her cloned version than the original her.

But if Annabelle’s theory was correct about Nataliya being cloned to be a sex slave, why make her so impulsive and wild if that meant she would be hard to control otherwise? Surely a wild clone would get tiresome after a while, right?

So what if there was another reason why she was cloned?

“You’re doing it again, Martin.”

Martin snapped back to reality. Nataliya was giving him a knowing look while she crossed her arms under her breasts.

“Doing what? Sorry?”

She snapped her fingers in front of his face. “Just try to stay here with me without getting lost in your head.”

“Sorry, I was just thinking—”

“You were thinking about how to fix the situation like you always do,” she interrupted. “It’s okay. I’m working through this and no one has strangled me yet.” Nataliya let out a small smile. “Not that they probably don’t think about it.”

“Not touching that one whatsoever,” he muttered, earning a swat from her.

To his surprise, Nataliya leaned against him, resting her body against his. It was unfamiliar ground for him, a territory that he hadn’t been in for more than a decade. In that time, Nataliya’s body had matured and definitely not in a bad way. The thin and bony girl that had once been his girlfriend had turned into a sensual and full-figured woman.

“Sometimes, I just wonder to myself,” said Nataliya quietly. “I wonder about what Brian is doing right now. I know that he has no idea what’s really going on. He has the real me at home and he has no clue that I’m sitting here right now. They’re probably doing something wild. Friday nights were usually date nights, and we would try to find a couple that was open to swapping for the night. We had so much fun doing that.”

Martin didn’t know how to respond to that. Especially with Nataliya so close to him.

Nataliya nuzzled closer to him. “Do you think their sex life is still the same?”

“Your husband’s? Why wouldn’t it be? He has the original you,” said Martin quietly.

Nataliya sighed. “I know. My sex life certainly isn’t where I want it to be. I’ve watched so much porn since I’ve been here that I’m practically desensitized to it. It doesn’t change the fact that I’m just terribly horny all the time.”

This was touchy ground now. Martin didn’t like the turn this conversation had taken. He also didn’t like that Nataliya’s nipples were now significant nubs under her shirt. He tried to shift away from her, but Nataliya just followed him, pressing closer.

“You know, I really have to thank you though,” she continued. “If not for you, I’d be someone’s unwilling sex slave. That’s no way to live life. I’d be on the complete opposite end of the spectrum from where I am now, and there’s no saying whether any of it would be pleasant. Probably not, so I can’t be more grateful that you found me.”

Nataliya trailed her fingers against his chest. “But there’s just a tiny part of me that has to wonder something, Martin.”

He gulped heavily. “Wonder what?”

She turned her head to lock eyes with him. “Whether I would have really enjoyed being someone’s sex slave. Whether I would have enjoyed them fucking my brains out all day, every day.”

Talk about tension. Martin was hesitant to even let a breath out. Nataliya’s eyes were laser-locked on his and the way she phrased the sentence almost seemed like a proposition.

He had to defuse this right now before anything else happened.

“Nataliya, maybe I should go to bed.”

CHAPTER 5

NATALIYA’S EYES flashed with annoyance. “Why?”

“Come on. You know why.”

She shook her head. “Am I making you uncomfortable?”

“A little. We really shouldn’t be talking about your sex life.”

At that moment, several emotions played out on her face. The first to appear was anger. Her eyebrows drew in tight and her lips pursed together like she was about to rip him a new one. For some reason, Nataliya stopped herself and a much more shrewd look replaced the anger a moment later.

“Perhaps you’re right,” she said, letting out a sigh. “After all, there’s no reason for us to reopen ancient history, right? Our story was finished a long time ago.”

“I’m not trying to make you feel bad,” he whispered. “I just don’t think it’s a great idea for us to be talking about sex like this.”

“You mean with all the tension between us?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Martin winced. That was exactly the reason why, but it wasn’t the good kind of tension between two new, expectant lovers.

It was the kind of tension when someone was pushing too hard and the other person was trying to resist without hurting them. Needless to say, that kind of tension wasn’t that enjoyable.

He started looking for another escape, but thankfully, Nataliya didn’t say anything else further. She leaned back against him and resumed watching the show, not saying another word for nearly thirty minutes.

By that time, the tension had started to thaw and Martin was reminded just how tired he actually was. It was now pushing ten-thirty and his yawns were starting to become uncontrollable.

Just before he was about to push up from the couch, he noticed that Nataliya had started to wiggle against him in a more noticeable fashion.

“Something wrong?” he asked her quietly.

Nataliya nodded, causing her dark locks to bounce lightly with her head. “I have this awful knot in my back right now. I’d kill to have a masseuse rub this knot out right now. It’s driving me crazy.”

Before he could respond, Nataliya turned to face him. “Do you think you could do me a favor and rub it for me? You’d be helping me a lot.”

Martin had mixed feelings about the question. On one hand, he didn’t think he should be touching her in that kind of way, even if it was just on her back. On the other, Nataliya’s request sounded genuine enough, and perhaps a five-minute rub would be enough for him to get to bed.

“Okay, I guess,” he answered a moment later. “How do you want to do this?”

Her response shocked him. Nataliya gave him a coy smile as she leaned forward on the couch until her butt was right on the edge. She grabbed the hem of her shirt and yanked it above her head, revealing nothing but a silvery bra underneath.

“It’s much better when it’s skin to skin,” said Nataliya, no doubt noticing his gawking expression now.

She scooted back against him so that her butt leaned against his crotch. Martin found himself instantly regretting his decision. The tension was back, and even though he harbored no sexual or romantic feelings toward Nataliya, he now suspected that she had something up her sleeve (if only she’d been wearing any!).

At that moment, he could only stare at her bare back, where only one dainty strap of a bra prevented her from being totally topless with him. It was a reminder of where their relationship had once been, of how many times he’d been in bed with her without a stitch of clothing between them. And since that time, Nataliya had only grown more beautiful.

“I’m waiting,” said Nataliya playfully as she leaned back against him. Before he knew it, she locked her green eyes on his face. “Come on, Martin, I need you. Please? I remember your famous back rubs from back when we used to date.”

“Okay,” he whispered hoarsely. “Here we go.”

Martin moved his hands so that they slowly came to a rest on Nataliya’s shoulders, right over the bra strap. He heard her exhale at the sudden touch, and her body tensed up slightly with the move. Applying more pressure, he grabbed a small handful of skin, kneading it together.

“Mmm, that’s nice,” said Nataliya softly. “Just like I remembered.”

With a heavy gulp, Martin allowed his hands to move lower still. He paused over her shoulder blades, following the line of her strap as it fell down her back. Once more, he kneaded the skin several times while listening to Nataliya’s husky breathing.

For the next five minutes, he continued to work at her back. Nataliya eventually indicated where the knot was, and even though he couldn’t feel much tension in the spot, Nataliya seemed to be pushing back against his hands. The only problem was that her bra strap was in the way, making him have to work around it and under it to get to the knot.

“Here, let me help you with that,” said Nataliya as she casually reached behind her and unsnapped the bra. The silvery garment fell away, and Martin’s breath caught in his chest upon seeing the topless backside of his ex-girlfriend.

Nataliya turned her head to look at him. “Go on. Nothing you haven’t seen before, right?”

“I haven’t seen you like this in a long time,” said Martin.

Nataliya smiled. “Those are always pleasant memories though, aren’t they?”

She wasn’t wrong about that. Martin had always enjoyed sleeping with her back when they were dating. It was just that Nataliya wanted much more than he could ever deliver which formed part of the reason behind their breakup.

Even now, the touch of her skin against his was reminding him of how wild she could be.

Apparently, Nataliya was thinking of the same thing. He watched as goosebumps appeared along the curves of her back, and soon enough, she was letting out small moans as his hands continued to work on her.

The moaning would have been one thing, but it was also the fact that Nataliya was now rocking back and forth ever so slightly, putting pressure on his crotch and causing him to stop his movements.

Nataliya started to pout right away. “Why did you stop?”

“I think we might be going too far,” said Martin.

She whipped her head around and glared at him. “What do you mean too far?”

“I mean like this,” he said, gesturing to her discarded bra. “Nataliya, you’re moaning as I rubbed you.”

She started to smile. “Only because it felt so good.”

“Maybe that’s part of the problem.”

“I don’t get what you mean, Martin. You’re just doing me a favor.”

Martin sighed. “Yeah, but it’s not appropriate. You’re topless, Nataliya. And you’re moaning like . . . like . . .”

“Like what?” she asked impatiently.

“Like you’re being fucked!”

She snorted. “If only. What I wouldn’t give for a hard cock to ride right now.”

She sighed after she said it and then turned around to face the television. Though she made no effort to redress, Martin didn’t risk touching her. He barely had a hold on this situation as it was, and there was no reason to let it spiral out of control again.

The best solution was to remove himself and go to bed. He shifted his weight, pulling out from behind her.

“No, Martin, wait!” said a panicked Nataliya. “Don’t go.”

“Nataliya, I’m tired. I’m going to go to bed.”

“Don’t do it on my accord, okay?” Her expression softened. “Listen, I’m sorry. Maybe you’re right. Maybe I am being a little inappropriate. Will you just stay here with me if I put my shirt back on?”

It wasn’t an ideal request but it was miles ahead of where they were.

“I guess,” said Martin. “For a little while. But I’m serious about going to sleep. I’m exhausted.”

Nataliya gave him a wide grin, like she was secretly ecstatic about getting her way. “Sit down against me like you were before while I put my shirt back on.”

Martin did so reluctantly, although he couldn’t help but catch a glimpse of her exposed tits while she was pulling her shirt down over her head. It only lasted for less than a second, but Martin thought he saw a hard nipple before it was hidden behind her shirt.

Nataliya settled against him and pulled a blank around them. “Much better,” she said with a comforting sigh.

Nataliya had a point. This was much better.

It was a lot less riskier than the topless back rub, and Martin had to admit, it was oddly comfortable to have her next to him.

For the next twenty minutes, Nataliya didn’t say a word. One show ended as another began (still in Ukrainian with English subtitles), and slowly but surely, Martin began to fall asleep.

Before he knew it, he was out like a light.

CHAPTER 6

HIS DREAM that night was exceptionally vivid. And exceptionally erotic.

In the dream, Martin had pictured himself on his bed with all three of his girlfriends. Kelsey was in the middle and she was also the one straddling his lower body. His cock was in her hand, and her lips were wrapped tightly around the tip, giving him an exquisite amount of pleasure. She didn’t have a stitch of clothing on, and even now, Martin could see the way her perfect ass was thrust into the air.

As Martin looked to his left, he saw Rylie, who was totally nude like Kelsey. Rylie sat with her legs sprayed out in one direction, with only the hint of her tiny landing strip visible. She was softly caressing his thigh as she watched Kelsey suck him, throwing a wink in his direction once they made eye contact.

As Martin looked to his right, he saw Annabelle, her golden blonde hair framing her beautiful face. She was nude as well, and her tits were capped with extremely stiff nipples, so hard that Martin wanted nothing more than to suckle on them. Annabelle was giving him bedroom eyes as she caressed his other thigh, all the while giving Kelsey quiet encouragement.

“That’s it. What a nice cock,” whispered Annabelle as her hand snuck between her thighs. “Get it all nice and wet for me.”

Kelsey continued to slurp at his manhood, moaning along the way. At one point, she demonstrated her ability to deepthroat him, not stopping until the entire length was buried in her throat.

It was one of the best dreams he ever had, and it only continued to get better from there. Kelsey wasn’t content to just suck his cock the entire time. At one point, Kelsey even inched forward, kissing her way up his chest until his cock became trapped between her thighs. Kelsey smirked at him as her hand reached back, grabbing his cock and lining it up with her hole.

Her eyes rolled to the back of her head as she sank down, taking his entire length in one go.

“That’s it, ride it hard,” said Annabelle, giving off an expression of sincere envy at watching her friend take their boyfriend’s cock.

“I love this cock,” purred Rylie, seemingly out of the blue.

“It feels so good in me,” added Annabelle.

It was at this point in the dream that Martin figured out something was wrong. The dream just felt too real. It was almost like he was actually having sex right now. He could feel the wetness wrapped around his cock, and even the movements of someone above him.

To make matters worse, the statements coming from both Annabelle and Rylie didn’t make any sense. It was almost like they were moaning like they were the ones riding.

Something was dreadfully wrong with this dream, and Martin realized it with what happened next.

In the course of her riding, Kelsey grabbed her tits and threw her head back. In the process, she uttered the first phrase of the night, something that sounded like gibberish to him.

It definitely wasn’t English, but then again, Kelsey didn’t know any other languages. Annabelle was fluent in Spanish, but it wasn’t any Spanish that just came out of Kelsey’s mouth.

In fact, it kind of sounded a lot like . . .

Ukrainian.

It was at that point that Martin realized the truth. The weird dreamworld that he was in quickly evaporated. All three of his dream girlfriends melted away until he was once again back in his living room, laying on the couch.

At that moment, he understood why his dream seemed so vivid and so real.

He was actually being ridden hard, his cock filling a pussy that he hadn’t been in for nearly a decade.

On top of him was Nataliya, naked as the day she was born, grabbing her tits and bouncing up and down on his cock.

Nataliya moaned something in Ukrainian before she came down hard on his manhood, grinding her hips from side to side in the process.

How did this happen? And what exactly was he going to do about it?

“Nataliya!” hissed Martin, getting her attention.

Her eyes popped open briefly as a satisfied grin appeared on her face. She shushed him while putting her finger to his lips.

“I’m so close,” she whispered. “Just a little longer.”

Panic set in. Martin tried to grab her hips to push her off but she doubled down, pushing his hands away and working her hips into a frenzy. In the next moment, Nataliya pressed down against his chest and then kissed him passionately.

If not for the sudden shock of being fucked, the kiss might have been pleasant. In the current circumstances, it was just . . . foreign.

“I’m going to cum,” she whispered against his lips. “Just let me . . . get there.”

At that moment, Martin was truly conflicted. He couldn’t deny that it was pleasurable to be inside Nataliya again, feeling her wet walls squeeze his shaft with every deep thrust. Yet, something about this felt entirely wrong, mostly because he didn’t want this to happen in the first place.

Still, he allowed Nataliya to reach her orgasm. Her body stiffened moments later, her mouth falling open as she started to visibly shudder.

“So fucking good!” yelled Nataliya before falling off his cock, making a popping sound in the process as it left her body.

Nataliya fell backwards, hitting the couch while she continued to mewl like a happy kitten. Meanwhile, Martin grabbed his glistening cock, still wet from her juices.

He still had the need to cum, to relieve the pressure that she had built but there was also the desire to cover himself, as if that would make their illicit act go away completely.

To make matters worse, the main light in the living room flickered on in the next moment.

“Well, that was certainly interesting.”

Martin looked over to see a wide-eyed Annabelle looking back at both of them. Her arms were crossed under her breasts, and she looked nothing like the vixen that had just been in his dream.

In fact, she looked a little disappointed.

And it seemed entirely directed at Nataliya.

“How long have you been standing there?” asked Martin, sitting up on the couch.

Annabelle pursed her lips. “Long enough to know that you just woke up not long ago.” She turned her glare toward Nataliya, who was still coming to from her orgasm. “Seriously, Nataliya, did we have to do this again? You had to fuck another one of my boyfriends?”

Martin looked from Annabelle to Nataliya, who was now looking quite embarrassed.

“Is that true?” asked Martin. “You’ve done this before?”

Nataliya nodded meekly as she covered herself. “Yes,” she squeaked.

Annabelle didn’t stay for the story. She shook her head and quickly turned heel, making for the bedroom.

At that moment, Martin had to wonder two things.

One, what was this going to do with his relationship with Annabelle and the others?

And two, just how had Nataliya betrayed Annabelle in the past?

The second answer didn’t seem to be forthcoming from Nataliya, especially as she tried to get dressed quickly.

“Annabelle is going to be so pissed at me,” she said quietly. “What have I done?”

Nataliya had a point.

What exactly had they done? And how were they going to pay the consequences?

CHAPTER 7

TO SAY that the already sky-high tension in the apartment had escalated even further might have been an understatement.

In fact, Martin knew it was the case.

It wasn’t hard to figure out why.

Not only had he been woken up from a nearly dead sleep to find that his ex-girlfriend, Nataliya, was riding his cock like a triple-crown jockey, but her illicit act had been witnessed by Annabelle, who’d been Nataliya’s sole champion up until that point.

Annabelle was the one that pressed the hardest to get Nataliya acclimated to the apartment, especially when the newcomer was grating on the nerves of Rylie and Kelsey.

Martin suspected that any progress was going to come to a screeching halt now.

The morning after the “event” quickly determined where he stood with each woman in the apartment.

Annabelle was clearly upset. So much so that she wasn’t speaking to anyone. She would raise her chin in the air and dramatically toss her hair while going in the other direction the moment Martin tried to broach any subject, let alone the elephant in the room.

Well, two elephants in the room. Last night, it had been revealed that Nataliya had slept with another previous boyfriend of Annabelle’s, and this new transgression had rubbed salt in a very old wound. Martin knew that he wasn’t going to get that story easily, but then again, nothing seemed like it was going to come easy with the beautiful blonde at that moment.

And Annabelle had most certainly told the other girls what she saw.

Funnily enough, the only person that didn’t seem to care too much about Martin and Nataliya having sex was Rylie, who was admittedly the person who disliked Nataliya the most.

“So honestly, what’s the big deal?” asked Rylie, as she was the only one left alone to eat breakfast with Martin. “So you had sex with Nataliya. Are we that surprised that it happened? I’m not.”

Martin closed his eyes and looked up at the ceiling. “It’s a big deal because we didn’t decide to have sex. I passed out on the couch, and the next thing I know, she’s on top of me.”

Rylie smirked. “Some guys would say that’s a great way to wake up.”

“Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like it was unpleasant. It was just . . . really unexpected.”

Although Martin wasn’t ready to admit it out loud, he kind of enjoyed the experience of being intimate with Nataliya once more. He couldn’t help but contrast the experience of last night to how their sex used to be when they were teenagers. Nataliya was definitely better in bed, and Martin found that he wouldn’t mind doing it again (and perhaps this time, she’d even let him cum).

Rylie snorted. “Unexpected, come on. I saw the way she was looking at you the other night after we had sex. If she could have mounted you right there without any of us protesting it, she would have. I knew this was coming, Martin. It was only a matter of time.”

Rylie had a point. Nataliya had been acting incredibly weird in the last few days, starting with the first time she’d seen him in the buff after a decade. She’d even gone so far as to walk in on him and Annabelle in the bath, hoping to catch another glimpse while giving the flimsiest of excuses.

Perhaps Rylie was right? Maybe this was inevitable?

“Listen, I’m not saying that I didn’t like having sex with her,” said Martin. “But what really puts me in a bad spot was that she just took the initiative to do it on her own. Both you and Annabelle went to great lengths to make sure the everyone in the group was on the same page in regards to sex. And now I’m worried that Nataliya’s rash actions might have raised the tension within our little family. What if someone decides to leave over it?”

“You don’t really think it would come to that?” asked Rylie, arching her eyebrow. “I can understand if they’re pissed, but they’ll get over it.”

Martin groaned and looked toward the bedroom. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen that look in Annabelle’s eyes before. Like she didn’t even want to see me let alone hear my voice. And Kelsey doesn’t look too pleased either.”

“I’ve noticed that as well,” replied Rylie. “Something’s been going on with her, but she won’t tell us what. She almost slipped up and said something the other night, but she chose not to. Maybe this has something to do with it?”

“I’m guessing it does,” said Martin quietly before resting his forehead against the table’s edge. “I feel like the worst piece of shit in the world.”

Rylie used her hand to pull his head up. “Martin, don’t beat yourself up over this. What could you have done? Nataliya practically rapes you and you’re blaming yourself. Seriously, the other girls will get over it. I’ll do my part to make it so but the biggest question that I have is what are you going to do about Nataliya?”

“That’s a very good question,” said Martin. “Because I’m not sure what to do. She just went back to her room last night without saying much of anything. There wasn’t much in the way of remorse, and we most certainly didn’t talk about how things had changed between us. Nataliya and I need to have a talk before we can do anything else.”

Rylie took a bite of food. “I hate to suggest this but I can’t help but think about it. Do you think that Nataliya was thinking about you while having sex? Or do you think that maybe she was envisioning her husband? We all know how much she misses him. Maybe that was her way of doing so in a really fucked up kind of way. You were just a hard cock that she could enjoy while fantasizing about someone else.”

For some reason, that hardly made Martin feel any better. In fact, he felt worse.

“Great, so not only do I get to fuck up my relationships with Kelsey and Annabelle, but Nataliya wasn’t even picturing having sex with me,” Martin groaned. “Yeah, that’s so much better.”

Rylie started to giggle. “I’m sorry, I was just thinking about it. Either way, you really should talk to her before anything else happens. Maybe before you leave today?”

“Talk to who? Talk to me?”

CHAPTER 8

BOTH MARTIN and Rylie turned to look at the entrance to the kitchen where Nataliya was now standing. Her dark hair was pushed all to one side and she was wearing a light gray tank top as well as little pink panties. Ordinarily, Martin might have considered her underdressed but considering what happened last night, he was just glad she didn’t show up in the kitchen naked.

“I think I should give you both some space,” said Rylie, taking one last bite from her plate and leaving the room. She kissed Martin’s cheek before she left, leaving him alone with Nataliya.

The tension between the two of them was incredibly high at the moment. To make matters worse, Martin didn’t even know how to broach the subject.

Hey, so next time you want to fuck me while I’m sleeping, wake me up and ask me first, okay?

He shook his head slightly, trying to come up with another way of tackling the issue.

Fortunately for him, Nataliya sat down next to him and focused her big, green eyes on him. Her expression turned from neutral to remorseful in the space of a second.

“I really owe you an apology,” said Nataliya, looking down at her hands. “About last night.”

Martin ran his fingers through his hair. “Nataliya, how did that even happen last night? I mean, I remember watching some shows with you and then passing out and then the next thing I know . . . well, you know. How did we get to that point?”

Nataliya managed to look completely embarrassed.

“I’m still not sure exactly how it happened. It just did. One minute, I remember you slumping down because you’d fallen asleep and the next thing I know, I was just . . . riding, you know. How I got there, I’m not exactly sure.”

Martin raised an eyebrow. “You really have no memory of anything in between?”

Nataliya shook her head.

Martin put his fingers in his eyes. “Okay, this is . . . well, this has created quite a problem for all of us. Because now we have two girls really pissed off, and you weren’t exactly on everyone’s good side to begin with.”

Nataliya shifted in her spot. “I know, and I’m truly sorry for what I did. I just don’t know if it was the fact that I was really horny or what, but I’m guessing that was it. I hadn’t even gotten off that whole day so maybe that was the cause? Like my body just went on auto-pilot trying to cum.”

“That certainly seems the case because as soon as you came, you slipped off of me,” replied Martin quietly. “You kind of left me hanging.”

Nataliya’s eyes flickered to his crotch. “I can fix that for you now if you like? If you still need to cum?”

Her hands reached out to grab at his belt but Martin pushed them away.

“I don’t think more sex is going to solve this,” he explained. “Our situation is bad enough already, especially the one with Annabelle. Which reminds me, why did Annabelle say this happened before?”

Now Nataliya managed to look truly uncomfortable. She had trouble meeting Martin’s eyes and she started to play with her fingers.

“Because it did. I’m not happy to say that this situation has played out almost exactly in the past,” she admitted. “With one of Annabelle’s boyfriends.”

“Okay, I need to hear the whole story here,” said Martin. “I need to know how deep this goes to see if this relationship is fixable.”

“It’s not that it’s not fixable,” said Nataliya quickly. “She forgave me once. I think she’ll do it again.”

Martin frowned. “That’s not the best way to look at this.”

That comment didn’t seem to register with Nataliya because she quickly launched into the story next.

“It all started back in junior year of college,” began Nataliya. “Annabelle and I had been living together for some time at that point. We had our own separate rooms but that didn’t stop me from noticing that she never had guys over. I mean, at all. Annabelle was a late bloomer, I guess. It’s not that she wasn’t attractive, it’s just that she didn’t really stick out to guys back then.”

That wasn’t a surprise to Martin. He knew that Annabelle had mentioned being an ugly duckling when she was younger. She really blossomed near the end of college and had a few great years before the cancer struck. Martin knew that the Annabelle he had today was the blossomed one, but then again, she could be a little on the nerdy side, not exactly one to stand out to the great majority of guys.

“Well, I’d just gotten used to Annabelle not having boyfriends,” continued Nataliya. “It made living with her really easy because I never had to deal with listening to her have sex or having boys over late at night. In retrospect, that was me that did that, and I knew she didn’t really care for it but anyway, Annabelle was mostly a loner until junior year.”

“What happened junior year?”

Nataliya let out a guilty smile. “That was when she started talking with Greg Howard.”

Martin blinked. “And should I know that name or something? What was this guy?”

“Oh, he was just the star of the college baseball team,” explained Nataliya like it was nothing at all. “Not to mention, he had the dreamiest eyes I’ve ever seen in my life. The only problem with Greg is that brains often don’t go with beauty. He was one of the dumbest guys I’ve ever met in my life but he was completely gorgeous.”

“And he started dating Annabelle?” asked Martin. “That doesn’t seem to be a great pair. She has all the brains and he has none.”

Nataliya gave him a knowing look. “I said the same thing but I think Annabelle was just kind of caught up with him. I think she was enjoying being in the limelight for once. She had one of the most popular guys in college and I think it started to go to her head. You have to remember, we were both still very young at the time.”

Martin didn’t reply to that last comment. College wasn’t all that long ago for both Nataliya and Annabelle, and he wondered just how much of the issue could be chalked up to a simple immaturity.

“Anyway, Greg started to hang out around our apartment more often,” continued Nataliya. “And I noticed two things right away. The first was that Greg had wandering eyes. I still remember one time when I was getting changed after class and he saw me in just my bra. He could not take his eyes off of me. It was at that moment that I knew he had a little thing for me.”

“So what was the second?”

Nataliya managed to look even more guilty. “Like I said, it became very apparent that he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, especially when he started hitting on me in front of Annabelle.”

Martin cringed. “I imagine she didn’t take that very well.”

“I don’t know if Annabelle realized what was going on,” she explained. “I think Annabelle was still kind of starstruck and thinking that nothing could go wrong. I’m not sure if she recognized the warning signs but I could see them. I had enough experience with boys by that point in my life.”

“So how did it all go wrong? When did you and Greg fall into bed together?”

Nataliya winced. “Like a day or two later. He came to the apartment under the pretense of looking for Annabelle but I think that was a ruse. He knew she would have just left for morning classes and I had my mornings free during that semester. In any case, we ended up in bed about twenty minutes later.” Nataliya let out a disappointed sigh. “I only wish his skills in bed matched his eyes.”

“A dud then?” asked Martin.

Nataliya nodded. “Didn’t even get me started on orgasm road before he popped a little too early. But that wasn’t the worst part.”

“Let me guess—Annabelle came back early from her classes.”

“Yeah, she decided to skip her second class to work on a paper for another. She found Greg’s clothes on the floor outside my room. It didn’t take her long to put two and two together. She was crushed.”

And no wonder she was crushed. Martin found himself thinking less of Nataliya the more she spoke. What kind of friend would knowingly sleep with her friend’s boyfriend like that? He found himself scooting away from Nataliya on a subconscious level, even if the memory of their coupling last night still kept popping in.

Nataliya must have noticed because she put her hand on his arm right away. “Listen, I felt terrible for what happened and I really had to pay a penance for what I did. Our friendship really struggled for a month or two after that but there wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t apologize for what I did. Eventually, Annabelle and I realized that it was stupid to let some airheaded boy get between us and we squashed it, but I’m sure that the feelings that she felt last night reminded her of that time junior year.”

“Well, this just got a lot messier,” said Martin after she was done. “No wonder Annabelle is acting the way she is.”

Truthfully, it frightened him a bit. The last time it happened, Annabelle dropped the guy like he was a hot potato. Would she do the same to Martin this time around? Wouldn’t he deserve it?

The thought of losing Annabelle was one he didn’t ever want to confront.

The ironic thing about it was that it seemed like having sex with Nataliya brought her closer to him. That was on full display when Nataliya put her hand on his thigh a moment later.

“I will make it up to both Annabelle and you, I promise,” she said, gently squeezing his leg. “I don’t know why I did what I did. Maybe some weird part of me just wanted to be with you again. Like we used to be.”

“Yeah, but we broke up a long time ago, Nataliya. We weren’t right for each other, you know that.”

Nataliya scooted closer. “We weren’t right for each other but that doesn’t mean we didn’t care about each other. And last time, it was just like old times again. Having you inside me was a wonderful trip down memory lane.”

Martin pushed away. “It might have been for you but in the process, we hurt Kelsey and Annabelle. It was good for you but not at the cost of their happiness.”

The smile left her face. “What are you saying, Martin? That you don’t want to do it again?”

“Do it again? Are you serious?”

Martin stood up from the table and put his hands against the flat surface. “Nataliya, you’re married. And it’s not to me. I know that you’re here because you have to be, not because you want to be, but we never agreed to this. I never agreed to have sex with you and you just did it anyway.”

Martin watched as her nostrils started to flare. Her eyes narrowed.

“So is that what this is about? It was so bad for you that you don’t want to do it again?”

He threw his hands up in the air. “It’s not about us right now. It’s not about the sex that we had. We hurt two other people by doing so! The first thing we need to do is mend those relationships.”

Nataliya softened somewhat. “And if they’re okay, does that mean we can still keep having sex?”

She just wasn’t getting it. It was like Nataliya had sex on the mind constantly, too much to think about anyone else.

“We’re not having sex any time soon,” said Martin firmly. “Making things right with the other girls takes precedence above anything else.”

It was Nataliya’s turn to stand up and plant her hands against the table. Her face turned sour, like a kid who’d just been denied their favorite candy.

“So what you’re saying is that you really don’t give a fuck about me and that all these other bitches come first,” said Nataliya, her voice getting loud. “I see how it is. Well, let me tell you something, Martin Kennedy. Fuck you too!”

She didn’t wait for him to respond. Nataliya quickly turned heel and marched back to her room, slamming the door in the process. As Martin looked down the hallway, it was completely void of light. Both doors to either bedroom were firmly closed, a terrifying symbol of where his relationship stood with three of the four women.

Martin could only shake his head. There was nothing left to do. He returned to the kitchen, grabbed his keys, wallet, and phone and made for the door.

At least at work he could be distracted from his chaotic living situation.

Hopefully.

CHAPTER 9

“WE BELIEVE the intruder was Martin Kennedy.”

The words just had a certain satisfying feeling coming off of Bryce’s tongue. Especially this morning, as once again he and Claire were in front of the boss, who demanded to find out what happened on the night that the clone escaped.

The boss leaned back in his chair and regarded Bryce with a cruel, ravenous stare.

“Martin Kennedy? The one that was just promoted?” asked the boss.

Claire started to nod. “The very same. It would appear that Kennedy didn’t wait to be properly initiated into the perks of leadership at Replica Imagination.”

Bryce turned his head to glare at her. How dare she speak up like she had an equal part in finding out who the intruder was? She was only in the room because the boss demanded she be here. It was Bryce who did all the legwork.

That’s why he was secretly satisfied with the boss’ next comment.

“Don’t get cute with me, Claire. You don’t need a reminder of what happened the last time you ran your mouth, do you?”

The smirk promptly dropped from her face. Her red locks bobbed as she nodded quickly.

“No reminder is necessary.”

The boss turned his glare back to Bryce. “How are you so sure that it’s Martin Kennedy?”

“All we had at first was the audio file but it was corrupted in such a way that we couldn’t make out the name being used by the clone,” explained Bryce. “It could have been a title or a first name. I had it unscrambled so that we could figure out who it was. The name clearly came out to Martin at that point, and we only have two Martins at the company. One of them, Martin Adams, is a low-level employee working out of the Buffalo branch. The other is Martin Kennedy, a manager here at headquarters who would have a better chance at having access to the testing area, not to mention being here at the facility the night that it happened.”

“A better chance?” replied the boss, wearing his trademark scowl. “A better chance as opposed to what? Since when do we give newly-promoted managers full access to the testing area?”

“I haven’t yet figured out how he had access to the lab,” admitted Bryce, knowing the boss was going to dig into him for it. “But he makes the most sense. He’s the only one at headquarters that could fit the bill.”

The boss could only shake his head. He put his head in his hands only briefly before standing up from his desk and walking around to Bryce. He raised his hand and slapped Bryce on the front of the head hard enough to knock him to the ground.

“You haven’t yet figured it out?” bellowed the boss. “That’s not what I’m paying you for! You see, if you want to be a VP at my company, you better learn how to get results!”

Bryce’s head stung with pain. He pushed up to his feet, fearing another blow from the boss. Thankfully it didn’t come, and now the boss was glaring at Claire. Her eyes were focused straight ahead of her, her back entirely straight. She, at least, wasn’t going to be hit.

Well, not today anyway.

“Sometimes I wonder why the fuck I hired both of you,” growled the boss. “I’ve never met two individuals so consumed with themselves that their failures play out like a poor comedy of errors. I see now that I will be forced to intervene and figure out whether or not this Martin Kennedy is the one behind these intrusions, as it’s beyond obvious that I cannot count on you.”

“Sir, we can figure out—” interrupted Claire before she was promptly silenced.

“Oh, no, you really can’t figure anything out on your own, can you?” yelled the boss. “That’s why anything that boils down to something important always falls on my plate. Who made the decision to go ahead with the Janus Program? I did. Who had to make sure it was executed flawlessly? I did. Who tried to fuck up the project by almost letting the cat out of the bag to the very first prototype? You two, you stupid, intrepid fucks!”

You could almost see the saliva eject from his mouth as he cursed them. Claire even took a step back, knowing better than anyone the type of rage the boss was capable of.

As quickly as the boss’ rage boiled it, he reined it back just as fast. He moved to the other side of his desk, sitting down gracefully before crooking his finger at both of them, beckoning them to move closer.

Both Bryce and Claire did as they were told, inching forward.

“I don’t care what you two have to do to get our testing facilities secure,” said the boss in a quiet, measured tone. “Make it happen. I’ll clean up this little mess that you’ve caused but no more transgressions. Are we clear?”

“Crystal clear,” replied Bryce.

The CEO scoffed at his answer. “I ought to kill you both for this. Get out of my office.”

Bryce didn’t wait to be told twice. He crossed the threshold of the office with Claire hot on his heels. She followed him all the way back to his office, closing the door behind her while he nearly fell into his chair.

“Jesus Christ, that was close,” he swore, loosening his tie.

“This is getting fucking ridiculous,” snapped Claire.

“You can say that again,” said Bryce. “How are we going to prevent all leaks with so many people having access to the—?

“I’m not talking about that,” she interrupted, waving her hand. She then cocked her head in the direction of the boss’ office. “I’m talking about Vince. He’s becoming unbearable to work for.”

Bryce’s eyes went wide and he waved his hand across his neck. “Will you shut up? He could have this entire place bugged. You really want to get killed again?”

Claire crossed her arms. “I don’t, but I have an idea. Something that I call leverage. Are you interested?”

Bryce looked at her for several seconds as if to determine whether she was being serious or not. When Claire’s disposition didn’t change, he grabbed a pen and a notepad. Still cautious about bugs, he scribbled one word on the pad and handed it over to Claire.

“Very.”

Claire smirked. “Good. Let’s talk again very soon.”

CHAPTER 10

WHILE ALL OF that was happening on the upper floors of RI, Martin’s office on the second floor was much more calm and quiet. It was a pretty normal workday, and Martin relished the chance to bury himself in monotonous and boring work that was enough to make him forget about all his troubles at home.

There was always the threat that someone would find out about his unrestricted access to the testing area but all-in-all, being at RI right now was better off than being in the apartment.

Especially now that Tim was gone.

Martin hated to have that thought about his friend but things were a lot less chaotic with the guy off in Scranton now. Tim was always the wild one on the team, and his absence meant that most work items took a little less longer to get through than before. Martin missed having him around to talk to but he didn’t mind having less work overall.

In fact, the day had shaped out to be a good one until the late afternoon when it took a decided turn for the worse.

It turned out that Martin’s other friend, Shawn, was the one to bring the bad news.

“Did you hear we finally hired a replacement for Annabelle Henry?”

Martin almost froze at hearing Annabelle’s name. It took him a split second to process what had been said, and once he’d realized there was no danger, he turned to face Shawn.

“A replacement? For Annabelle?” he asked as his stomach started to sink. “When did this happen?”

“Literally this afternoon,” replied Shawn, taking a seat. “I guess this woman they offered it to just accepted. I’m really close to Lydia in HR so she gave me all the details. Apparently, she’s foreign.”

Martin’s stomach continued to sink further. “Foreign like how?” he asked, hoping that he wouldn’t describe Nataliya. “Foreign like she’s from Japan or Colombia or something like that?”

Shawn shook his head. “Ukrainian apparently. Well, Ukrainian-American. Her name is Nataliya Kovalchik.”

Try as he might, Martin just couldn’t help but wear the disappointment on his face. Even Shawn noticed right away.

“Why do you look so pissed?” he asked. “Did you have a friend going for the job that didn’t get it?”

Realizing that he could blow his cover, Martin assumed a much more neutral look. “No, nothing of the sort. Sorry, I was just thinking about something else.”

“Something terrible by the looks of it.”

Martin shook his head. “It’s nothing. So when does this Nataliya person start?”

Shawn shrugged. “No idea. Maybe a week or two? I’m sure Lydia would tell me if I asked.”

“Would you ask her?”

“Of course.”

It turned out that the real Nataliya was scheduled to have her first day at RI in exactly one week. Shawn had asked Lydia in HR and relayed the message to Martin at the end of the day as he was preparing to go home. The news made him start to panic internally.

Basically, he had a full week to figure out what he was going to do when the real Nataliya saw that she’d replaced Annabelle and that the version that she met was actually a clone. And once that can of worms was open, what else would she find out?

Would Nataliya even find out that she’d been cloned? What would be her reaction to all of this? Could she be trusted with a secret of this magnitude?

Those very thoughts kept working their way through Martin’s brain as he walked back to the apartment.

Silence greeted him when he arrived, which was a little surprising. Usually one of the girls was in the kitchen while another was watching the TV, showing signs of life inside.

Today though? Nothing.

Martin saw that both doors were closed to the bedrooms, which made him sigh reluctantly. It looked like no one was quite ready to talk yet so he put his things down in the living room.

That’s when he saw that someone was standing on the balcony. He’d recognize those long, dark locks anywhere and Martin found himself moving out there to join her.

Kelsey’s head turned when she heard the door slide open. She registered Martin’s presence for only a moment before looking back toward the horizon.

The lack of a greeting or any excitement to see him filled Martin with tension right from the start.

“Can I join you?” he asked, walking slowly just to stop by her side.

Kelsey shrugged. “I guess. It’s your apartment after all.”

“It’s our apartment,” he replied. “You have just as much of a claim to this space as I do.”

Kelsey snorted and shook her head. Her mouth moved slightly as if she was still trying to pick her words. It was at that moment that Martin thought the situation might be worse than he thought.

The floodgates finally fell open. Kelsey started to sob as great big tears cascaded down her cheeks.

“I feel like I d-don’t even know what’s g-going on anymore,” she cried as Martin quickly pulled her into his arms. “Every new girl that comes here just pushes us further apart!”

Martin grabbed her face with both hands. “There’s no way that Nataliya can come between me and you. You know that. What happened last night wasn’t planned by me.”

“I know that but it happened anyway,” she replied. “And I’m so angry with her that I could choke her but it just makes me realize that things are never going to be the same.”

Martin felt his heart drop. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that you’ve been intimate with every girl in this house, Martin. And you’re in relationships with Annabelle and Rylie now, and who the hell knows what’s going to happen with Nataliya. Maybe her too.”

“I really don’t think that’s the case.”

Kelsey shook her head. “I don’t know anymore. All I know is that I feel like our relationship together just keeps getting pushed down the list. It’s almost like it’s less important than it was before, mostly because you have all these other women.”

The words hurt to hear but Martin had suspected she was beginning to feel this way.

“You’ve been thinking about this for a while now, haven’t you?”

Kelsey nodded. “Ever since Annabelle but a lot more now that Rylie’s in the picture. I guess I just wasn’t expecting anything with Nataliya. I thought you would turn her down if it came to that.”

“I did turn her down several times last night,” he protested. “She had to wait until I was asleep and having a sex dream about you to make her move.”

Surprisingly, that placated Kelsey a tiny bit. Her eyes met his. “You were having a sex dream about me?”

“You and Annabelle and Rylie,” he clarified. “But you were the star. In no terms do I think that our relationship is lessened now because of what happened with Nataliya. Or Rylie or Annabelle for that matter.”

Kelsey bit her lip. “I just feel like this is so far away from what I signed up for, Martin. I don’t even know what’s going on anymore. What if we have another clone show up next week? Eventually, she’ll fall in bed with you too. Then our relationship becomes even less important.”

It wasn’t hard to tell that Kelsey was suffering from a real crisis of confidence. It was a conversation that was long overdue, and Martin could see that she’d tried to put on a brave face for so long about this and it was finally crumbling.

“Are you saying that this is all too much?” he whispered quietly. “That we need to start over? Just you and I? Because if you say the word, I will do it, Kelsey. I’ll give up the life that we live and start over where the only thing that matters is our relationship. It will be painful as hell but I would do that for you.”

Kelsey sniffled and wiped a tear from her eye. “I don’t want you to do that. As crazy as it sounds, I’ve actually grown accustomed to Annabelle and even Rylie. I like them. I like them being here, and there’s another thing to it as well, Martin. I know that you love them. What kind of person would I be to ask you to give them up?”

Martin felt a lump in his throat start to form. Everything that Kelsey said was definitely true. He did love Annabelle and Rylie, and they were as integral to the relationship as Kelsey was. For that reason, he was silently thankful that she didn’t want to exclude them any further.

“Sometimes, I wish it could just be the four of us again,” continued Kelsey, her voice slightly muffled by his sleeve. “With Nataliya crossing that boundary, I know that we can’t turn back the clock, but I can’t help but wish for simpler times.”

“Are you upset that I brought Nataliya home in the first place?” he asked. “I know there’s the danger element but also because of what it led to?”

Kelsey really thought about her answer before she spoke again. “I don’t know. Yes and no. Yes for obvious reasons but no because it was the right thing to do. It’s not like you could have just left her at RI, knowing what she was likely meant for. You did the right thing, Martin. It’s just that . . .”

She left her words hanging. Kelsey grabbed a bit of bare thread that stuck out from his shirt and started to twirl it around her finger.

“It’s just what?” he asked. “Tell me.”

Kelsey let out a deep breath. “This is going to sound really bad but I just really want some time to ourselves. I really want us to feel like a couple again. Not that we aren’t a couple, but I want to do couple things with you. I want us to go out on a date again. I know that the other women are here to stay, but I want some time for us just to focus on our relationship without anyone else around. Does that make me selfish?”

Martin started to chuckle. “That’s not a selfish thing at all. I get what you’re trying to say. It’s like we’ve been neglecting our relationship as it keeps getting expanded with more people. You want to take a step back and just focus on the two of us.”

Kelsey met his eyes and nodded quickly. “Exactly, that. That’s what I want. Not that I don’t love Annabelle and Rylie in their own way, but I want to have a night that’s just for us. That just gives us a chance to remember how good our relationship can be.”

“Well, I think that can definitely be arranged,” said Martin, pressing a chaste kiss against her lips. “Like how about tonight?”

Kelsey blinked in surprise. “Tonight?”

“Of course, why not? I don’t have any plans, do you?”

“Well, no.”

“That’s perfect. Let’s have a date tonight, just me and you. We can do something like we used to do, something fun. Relive a date that we used to do all the time or something like that.”

Kelsey hopped up and down as an idea hit her. “I know! Our first major date we went mini-golfing. Why don’t we do that? It would be like a fun trip down memory lane!”

Martin couldn’t help but laugh as he remembered their first date. The place wasn’t that far away, and he distinctly remembered when Kelsey sunk a hole-in-one on the seventh hole (mostly because she never let him forget about it).

“That sounds incredible,” replied Martin. “Let’s do it tonight!”

Kelsey couldn’t help but let out a beaming grin. A weight lifted off his shoulders, almost as if she was saying that it was all going to be okay again.

Maybe there was still hope for their relationship yet.

There was one more request that she had to put in before Kelsey left the balcony. For this request, she took his hands in hers.

“Can you promise me one thing, Martin? Something has been on my mind a lot today, and I want to make sure we’re on the same page.”

“Of course,” he answered. “What is it?”

Kelsey took a deep breath. “Can you promise me no more girls? I don’t think I could handle one more clone coming into this arrangement. I’m barely hanging on by a thread with four girls, and I know I can’t handle five. Can you promise me that this is it? Just the five of us moving forward forever?”

It was an easy request to agree to, mostly because Martin didn’t want any more women at this point. Even a regular sex life with Kelsey, Annabelle, and Rylie had him completely and utterly satisfied, and that wasn’t even mentioning sex-obsessed Nataliya.

“I can promise you that,” he answered in a clear, firm tone. “No more women. Just us. Just everyone in the apartment right now. Can we live with that?”

Kelsey smiled and nodded. “I think I can. It’s not going to be easy but I’m going to give it all that I have. It’s also going to be very hard for me to forgive Nataliya for what she did. That’s going to take a lot of time.”

“I haven’t completely forgiven her either so I understand. We’re just going to take this one day at time, okay? That’s really all we can do.”

That answer was good enough for Kelsey as she stretched up to kiss him right after it. When the kiss broke, a devilish look appeared in her eyes.

“Good enough for me. Now if you excuse me, I have a hot date to get ready for.”

She blew him a kiss before leaving the balcony, heading for their bedroom to get changed. Martin chuckled at her sudden coquettish behavior and decided to get changed as well.

It was remarkable how the air in the apartment seemed to change with Kelsey’s mood. No longer did he feel a foreboding tension just by walking around his living space. Even though Annabelle and Nataliya were still upset, it helped that now he had one more person to balance out the scales.

He felt even better once he saw Kelsey emerge from their room ready to go.

And damn did she look immaculate.

Kelsey was wearing a beige long-sleeved blouse with a bluish scarf around her neck that only happened to cover part of her cleavage. The blouse plunged down fairly low, affording Martin an excellent view of Kelsey’s chest. She was wearing skin-tight jeans as well, the kind that would have to be peeled off of her later tonight.

In all, Kelsey looked every bit the bombshell that she really was.

Even Rylie had something to say about it, emerging from her room right before they left.

“Damn girl, you look like someone who’s trying to get laid tonight,” said Rylie after checking out Kelsey.

Kelsey managed to blush. “Maybe I am?”

Rylie grinned and looked at Martin. “Maybe you two should go before I decide to undress her myself!”

Martin grabbed his keys and moved closer to the door, but he stopped before putting his shoes on.

His only problem was that he felt a little guilty leaving the rest of the girls at home when some of them were still upset.

“What’s wrong, Martin?” asked Kelsey.

Martin winced. “I just feel a little funny about leaving Nataliya and Annabelle behind when we haven’t really squashed things yet. I don’t want either of them to get even more pissed.”

“Well, if it helps things, I can hear the soft sounds of porn coming from Nataliya’s room,” said Rylie with a careless shrug. “So I’m guessing she’ll be just fine.”

“What about Annabelle?”

Rylie let out the most innocent smile he’d ever seen.

“Don’t worry about Annabelle. I’ll take care of her tonight,” she promised.

Kelsey raised an eyebrow. “Do I ever want to know? Or should we just leave?”

Rylie grinned. “I’ll fill you in on the details when you get back.”

“Fair enough,” replied Kelsey as she grabbed Martin’s hand. “Shall we?”

“Let’s go!”

CHAPTER 11

THERE WAS something oddly comforting about driving with just Kelsey in the seat next to him.

Perhaps it was the sense of deja vu, the feeling that reminded him that this was how life used to be when it was just the two of them so long ago. There weren’t many times now that they were able to be alone together, and Kelsey at least seemed to take full advantage of the opportunity it gave them.

Her fingers were entwined with his, and she was singing along to every half-decent song that played on the radio as they drove.

One thing was for certain—Kelsey was happy.

“If I would have realized how happy this would have made you, I would have done this much sooner,” he joked as they neared the mini-golf place.

Kelsey shot him a grin. “Maybe this is your hint for the future then. Taking me on regular dates keeps me from going insane. You’d do well to remember that!”

Martin tapped his forehead. “Don’t worry, that information is safely stored upstairs now.”

A short while later, he pulled into the mini-golf place. This one was unique in that it was entirely indoors, allowing them to play in the colder weather. It was a pirate-themed course, although Martin reckoned that most mini-golf places were usually pirate-themed.

As Kelsey picked out her putter, she gave him a sly look. “I can’t wait to beat your ass on this course.”

“Beat my ass?” he mocked. “No way. You’re forgetting who won the first and last time we went mini-golfing.”

Kelsey snorted and shook her head. “And you’re forgetting who got the only hole-in-one the last time we went mini-golfing. I’ve only gotten better with time!”

“So does that mean I can’t help you with your stance as an excuse to put my body against yours?” he teased.

Kelsey gave him a smoldering look. “Trust me, you’ll have plenty of chances for that tonight.”

That seemed to end all debate for the moment, allowing them to start the game. True to her boasts, Kelsey shot out to an early lead, which caused her to start gloating right away.

“Oh, there’s no way you’re going to make this shot,” she teased, watching him wind up.

Sure enough, he overshot it, bouncing halfway down the course before taking a bad jump over the stone outlining the course and ending up in a small pirate treasure chest.

“So bad,” she joked. “Maybe we shouldn’t have gone mini-golfing. There’s no way you’re going to live this one down.”

“You talk so much smack in competition,” said Martin while fetching his ball. “But it’s a side of you I secretly like.”

“Secretly, why secretly?”

Martin shrugged. “I just think it’s adorable. And I’m going to think it’s more adorable when I beat you on this course.”

Kelsey turned to face him, closing the distance between them as if she was about to kiss him. Right before their lips connected, she halted.

“I don’t think so,” she whispered before pulling away, falling into a fit of giggles in the process.

“I forgot how much fun this can be,” said Martin by the time they got to the next hole.

“You can say that again. It’s so . . . refreshing to have fun with you again. Like taking all the drama with the other girls off the table as well as RI. It’s fun just to be us again.”

Martin took his swing, which sent his ball all the way down the narrow course and through a tunnel, landing about a foot from the hole on the other side.

“There’s a lot about us that hasn’t changed either,” he said. “This is still just as fun as I remember it being on the first date.”

“And you know the best thing about this?” asked Kelsey, giving him a coy look in the process.

“What’s that?”

“On the first date, you were probably wondering just how far you were going to get with me.”

Martin chuckled. “I didn’t have to wonder for very long. I remember making out in the car with you that night.”

“You know, that gives me an idea. Care to make things interesting?”

“What’s your idea of interesting?”

Kelsey started to giggle. “Well, if you win tonight, then we’re going to go a lot further than just making out in a car. Basically, we’re going all the way.”

“I like it. And what happens if you win?”

Kelsey shrugged coyly. “Oh, I don’t know but maybe, just maybe we might only get to do a make-out session. But nothing else.”

“That’s not that bad really.”

Kelsey slapped his stomach playfully. “I’m telling you that you need to win, Martin. Sheesh.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

From that point on, Martin was consumed with the desire to win. It wasn’t even so much about the sex as it was about the closeness with Kelsey. She wanted him to win because she wanted that intimacy as much as he did.

If anything, it was a sign that things could go back to normal, despite what happened the day before.

“Moment of truth right now,” teased Kelsey as she stepped up to the seventh hole. “Think history will repeat itself?”

“For my sake tonight, I really hope not,” joked Martin.

Kelsey pulled back her putter and let the ball loose. It sailed down a wooden channel until it hit the end, bouncing back on another lower channel until spitting out on the other side. The ball missed the hole only slightly, coming to a rest mere inches from it.

Kelsey started to pout right away. “I guess I’ve lost my touch.”

“Maybe this is my time to finally take the lead!”

“You better hope so!”

They continued playing until a few holes ahead, when Martin caught Kelsey giving him a shrewd look.

“What? Why are you looking at me like this?”

She smiled and shrugged. “I just like seeing you like this. You’re concentrating so hard on making sure you win this, and I know exactly why you’re doing that. It’s so cute, I can’t help it. It just reminds me of another reason why I love being with you, that’s all.”

Martin started to laugh. “I am trying really hard to sink these damn holes.”

“I can tell! I love seeing it, Martin. I really do.”

Martin swung, sending his ball down a zigzag course where he landed fairly close to the hole. “Want to know what I love about you?”

Kelsey raised her eyebrow. “I have all the time in the world to listen to all the things you love about me.”

“I really love just how easygoing you are,” said Martin honestly. “I have to admit—when I got home today, I thought for a moment that I might have lost you.”

The smile fell from Kelsey’s face. “You really thought that?”

He nodded. “I could understand why if that’s the case but one thing that I really love about you is your ability to roll with the punches. You don’t let anything defeat you for any longer than necessary before you’re back on your feet again. You’re resilient, Kelsey, and you even take it a step further. You make things fun again. You really bring the fun into my life.”

Slowly, her smile reappeared. “I never knew that you felt that way. About me, that is.”

“Well, it’s about time I told you then, right?”

Kelsey leaned in to kiss him. “Right you are.”

From there, the game devolved into each person naming one thing they loved about the other for every hole that was left in the game. By the time of the last hole, Martin had heard how much Kelsey loved his sense of humor, his ability to always make her feel safe, and even the way he folded his pizza before he ate it (which she found utterly adorable for some odd reason).

On his side, he told her about how he loved the way she could roll out of bed each morning and still be the most gorgeous woman he’d ever seen as well as the fact that she was such a giver, never taking when she had so much more to offer.

As he swung on the eighteenth course and dropped it in the last hole, Kelsey wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Want to know one last thing that I love?” she whispered against his lips.

Martin nodded.

She kissed him sweetly. “I love that when you want something bad enough, you’re determined to get it. You won that round like I knew you would. You crushed me actually.” Kelsey held up the scorecard to prove it.

Martin took one look at the scorecard and then back to her eyes. “I guess that means we get to go a little further than just making out tonight.”

She beamed with a devilish grin. “I guess so!”

CHAPTER 12

BACK AT THE APARTMENT, Rylie was enjoying the silence that came with two members being gone. Both Annabelle and Nataliya were still locked in their rooms, but that didn’t matter so much to Rylie at that moment. She had a tall glass of very good wine and she was sitting comfortably on the couch, reading a book.

She should have guessed that her peaceful surroundings wouldn’t last very long.

From the hallway, Rylie heard the master bedroom door open and out came a cautious Annabelle.

“Are they gone?” asked Annabelle, leaving no doubt as to who the “they” were that she was referring to.

“They left about twenty minutes ago,” replied Rylie, looking up from her book.

She was glad she did look because Annabelle looked very cute at that moment. Her blonde hair was tied up in a messy ponytail. She was wearing a white tank top that was nearly see-through and did nothing to hide the outlines of Annabelle’s nipples. Below the waist, she wore a tiny pair of lime green boy shorts that were just a little too tight (and left very little to the imagination).

Perhaps it was the wine doing the thinking for her but Rylie felt a tiny amount of wetness between her legs from just the sight of Annabelle.

Seeing that the coast was clear, Annabelle quickened her walk and practically fell hard into the seat next to Rylie. She sighed dramatically but didn’t say anything further.

Rylie knew exactly what was on her mind. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Annabelle shrugged. “No? And yes? I don’t know. My head is all over the place today.”

“Is it mostly Nataliya? Or Martin?”

Annabelle pursed her lips. “I guess both but mostly Nataliya. I can’t be too mad at Martin because I know he wasn’t exactly conscious when it happened but still. I know how Kelsey felt whenever I came to live here.”

“I can’t say that I didn’t see the warning signs,” replied Rylie. “Remember the night that Martin and I finally had sex? You could almost see the lust in her eyes then.”

“Plus she knew what she was getting into. Or getting back into,” said Annabelle. “I think she knew that Martin wouldn’t do it consciously, and that’s why she waited until that moment to strike. Either way, it just makes me feel like history has repeated itself once again, and I’m more upset with her than ever before. She was supposed to be my friend first.”

Rylie put her book down and focused on Annabelle. “Are you going to be able to get over this? Or is there always going to be something between you now? Is this friendship repairable?”

Annabelle let out a loud sigh. “I keep asking myself that. I have no idea. Part of me wants to forget that Nataliya even exists right now. Is that terrible of me? That I could just wish her to go away?”

Rylie started to giggle. “I’ve thought the same thing many times. Sometimes it involves throwing her off that balcony.”

To her relief, Annabelle started to laugh too. “Now that’s an interesting visual.”

“Don’t let it get too far into your head though,” said Rylie. “Look at you. You’re absolutely beautiful, and Martin is enamored with you. He didn’t choose to do this on his own, and I know he’d choose you over Nataliya every single time. You have nothing to worry about.”

Annabelle didn’t reply to that statement right away, taking a moment to think it over. When that moment was over, a small smile spread out on her face.

“That’s a good way of putting it,” said Annabelle. “Thank you for giving me another perspective.”

Rylie tapped Annabelle’s leg. “Anytime! Besides, I’ve been wondering something. Do you ever think that maybe you might be a tiny bit upset because you weren’t offered the chance to get involved when you discovered them?”

Annabelle actually managed to look shocked, but it was a playful kind of shocked. “Just what are you suggesting, huh? That I’d double-team Martin with Nataliya?”

“I mean, it wouldn’t be the first time,” shot Rylie, earning the pillow that came flying at her head. “I have some distinct memories of playtime with you, Kelsey, and Martin all at the same time.”

Annabelle couldn’t help but grin. “That was nice, wasn’t it? Just the four of us?”

“Mm-hmm, so why wouldn’t it be nice if it was Nataliya too?”

Annabelle pursed her lips. “I just don’t think of Nataliya in that way I guess. I never really have.”

Rylie saw her opportunity. “Have you thought about any woman like that? You know, sexually?”

Annabelle started to turn red. She turned away from Rylie, and it became increasingly apparent that she was struggling to meet her eyes.

It was all the opening that Rylie needed.

At that moment, she scooted closer to Annabelle and put her hand behind the other woman’s neck. Rylie pressed her lips against Annabelle’s in a sudden move, catching Annabelle by surprise.

Her surprise didn’t last long, and Annabelle’s lips soon moved in tandem with Rylie’s.

When the kiss broke, a surprised Annabelle squinted her eyes.

“What was that for?” asked Annabelle. “What exactly are you up to?”

“Just testing a theory,” replied Rylie innocently.

“What theory is that?”

“That you like girls just as much as you like boys.”

Annabelle scooted away briefly. “I don’t know if that’s true. I like Martin more than anything. I love him.”

“I know that, and I love him too,” replied Rylie. “But that doesn’t mean that we can’t have fun too, right? Maybe I could help you take your mind off of Nataliya for a night?”

Annabelle’s eyes rolled up as she considered the offer. Rylie didn’t try to scoot closer or kiss her again, not wanting to appear like she was trying to influence the decision.

Finally, she seemed to relent. “What exactly did you have in mind?”

Rylie grinned like the apex predator she was. “Why don’t you just lay on your back and let me take care of you? Does that sound like a plan?”

She didn’t give Annabelle the chance to respond. In an instant, she pushed Annabelle’s shoulders back against the couch and pulled her legs out so that Rylie was trapped between them. Rylie deftly hooked her fingers under the strap of Annabelle’s boy shorts and yanked them down her legs, exposing just about everything.

A look of apprehension appeared on Annabelle’s face. “What are you trying to do?”

Rylie teased her fingers against Annabelle’s bare thighs. “Just let me make things better. There’s nothing wrong with a little feminine touch, is there?”

Rylie brushed her finger against Annabelle’s clit lightly, forcing the blonde to gasp in surprise.

“I suppose not,” said Annabelle as she pushed her lower half against Rylie.

It was all the signal that Rylie needed. She lowered her head and extended her tongue, making contact with Annabelle’s slit.

“Oh, that’s the spot,” moaned Annabelle, spreading her legs wider. “That does kind of make me feel better.”

Rylie responded by spreading open Annabelle’s labia and taking a lick between her tantalizing folds. The lick started extremely close to her ass and made it all the way up to her clit, causing Annabelle to shudder uncontrollably.

Rylie repeated the movement until her tongue stopped taking such wide swathes and started to bury within Annabelle’s juicy hole. The tight blonde’s hips continued to wiggle as Rylie maintained her oral assault, using every move in her arsenal to bring forth Annabelle’s pleasure.

It was all working almost too well. The first orgasm spilled out of Annabelle’s body only a few minutes into the barrage, causing Annabelle’s body to lock up entirely.

“Too much, too sensitive,” squeaked Annabelle, pushing Rylie’s head back for a moment. “God almighty, that felt great!”

Rylie wiped the juices from her face and grinned at Annabelle like she was prey that still hadn’t been eaten yet. “I’m only just getting started, you know?”

Annabelle’s eyes went wide. “You are?”

“Oh yes, let’s see how many more orgasms we can make you have tonight.”

For a brief moment, Annabelle looked intimidated but slowly but surely, a shrewd look started to appear on her face.

“I have an idea,” said Annabelle as she tugged at Rylie’s jeans. “Take these off.”

Annabelle had the most wonderful ideas. Her genius moment involved Rylie also getting bottomless and laying on top of Annabelle but opposite in orientation. In the process, it allowed both of them access to each other’s pussy, and Annabelle got a chance to return the favor.

Rylie had to admit that there was just something so very magical about eating pussy while another woman ate hers. In this case, Annabelle’s talented tongue and fingers provided an incredible contrast to the act of just giving pleasure. Rylie felt herself begin to squirm as Annabelle’s mouth hit the most satisfying spots, and she was soon panting against Annabelle’s sex.

It turned out that Rylie was just as wound up as Annabelle. Perhaps it was living with Nataliya that did it but the orgasm that Annabelle was able to elicit from Rylie’s body made her body spasm for nearly a minute.

“Fuck, you do that so good!” murmured Rylie as her eyes rolled to the back of her head.

Annabelle forced a pout. “Please don’t stop. I’m getting so close to another one!”

That brought renewed focus on Rylie’s part and she used her tongue as a battering ram against Annabelle’s hot wetness. She could tell when Annabelle was getting close because her squeals grew progressively louder and closer together.

“Oh, right there. Yes, uh huh. Right there. Oh fuck, uh huh. Yes, yes, yes, YES!”

Annabelle exploded in orgasm as her body completely stiffened, all the while Rylie kept up the pressure against her clit to help her ride the wave toward completion.

By the time she was back down, she had a very satisfied look on her face.

“That was exactly what I needed,” said Annabelle as she blew a strand of hair out of her face. “Good lord, that was just . . . lovely.”

Rylie grinned and positioned her body so that she sat upright next to the other woman. Both of them were still bottomless but at this point, neither cared.

“Lovely indeed,” agreed Rylie. “Although there is one way that it could have been better.”

Annabelle squinted her eyes as she looked back. “How?”

“I was thinking about doing the same thing but maybe with Martin’s cock filling you at exactly the same time,” replied Rylie. “Wouldn’t that just be amazing?”

A dreamy look appeared on Annabelle’s face. “You know, that almost makes me feel like going another round.”

Rylie giggled. “What are we waiting for then?”

CHAPTER 13

“OH, MARTIN, THIS IS JUST PERFECT!”

Martin couldn’t have agreed more. At this very moment, Kelsey was sheltered against his side as they looked out on the city from a breathtaking vantage point. The car was parked and still running and the only sight they could see was that of endless lights framing the beacon of civilization before them.

It was also another holdover from their first date. After mini-golfing for the first time, Martin brought Kelsey up to this park that overlooked the city from its highest hill. It was here that they parked late at night, and where they shared their first kiss in the romantic air that surrounded them.

Many years later, that romance was still in the air.

“I’ll never get tired of this view,” continued Kelsey as she sighed happily. “What an amazing evening. This was just what I needed.”

Martin turned to look at her. “And I’ll never get tired of this view. This view of you, looking the way you do tonight.”

Her cheeks filled with red but the kiss that she gave him afterward was anything but anxious. “Thank you for making tonight happen, Martin. I know I’ve been a bit of a wreck lately but this makes up for it entirely.”

“Well, I’m sorry about what happened with Nataliya.”

Kelsey waved her hand. “I know it wasn’t your fault. I just needed . . . a reminder that our relationship was still as important as it was the first time we were up here.”

He locked eyes with her. “I can promise you that it always will be. No matter what happens, our relationship will always come first.”

Kelsey could not have looked more pleased, or more in love. She rested her head against his shoulder and entwined his fingers with her own. They sat there in silence for what felt like hours, just enjoying the presence of each other until Kelsey kissed him with a surprising amount of heat.

When she pulled away, her hand went to his jeans.

“What are you doing?” asked Martin.

Kelsey bit her lip and unzipped him, pulling his cock out of his jeans. “If you can’t figure that out by now, you’re not paying attention.”

“Here though?” asked Martin, looking around. “There’s other people up here!”

That was partially true. While this lookout point was rather infamous for young lovers, it wasn’t like it was hopping on a weeknight like tonight. There were three other cars, but the closest one was a good distance away. At this time of night, no one would be able to see what was going on.

“I don’t care,” said Kelsey, shaking her head. “You won tonight, remember? Time for your reward. Push your seat back. I need to feel you in me.”

Any further protests died on his lips. Martin moved the seat all the way back, creating just enough space for Kelsey to slide between. The hardest part of the whole setup was getting her skintight jeans off but she helped him with that part before she moved into his lap.

The spacing was definitely tight, and it restricted most of the movement that could be made, but both of them let out a satisfying groan as soon as his cock slid deep inside her.

Kelsey pressed her lips against his once he was sufficiently buried.

“That’s what I needed,” she said, her eyes twinkling with mischief. “Grab my ass.”

His palms grabbed each of her meaty globes and gripped them tight. Kelsey attempted to move her hips, but the range of movement was incredibly limited.

“I guess we can’t move too much,” she said with a giggle. “So I’m just going to have to do this another way.”

Martin gave her a confused look. “What other way?”

“This way,” she said.

At that moment, he felt her pussy squeeze around his shaft and then release. It was a wonderful feeling, a reminder of just how well their bodies fit together in the throes of passion. Kelsey repeated the same gesture several times in a row, all the while kissing him with every drop of enthusiasm she could muster.

It was an extremely exciting combination. Martin wasn’t sure if it was the thrill of being caught having sex in public or perhaps the illicit way their bodies were joined, but something about the desperation in Kelsey’s behavior as they fucked was causing quite the effect.

His body was responding to hers, trying to get deeper every time she squeezed. He could feel his pulse quickening and his passion intensifying to match hers.

Her plan just might work. She was going to excite an orgasm out of him, even if it was just with these small movements.

That was when the dirty talk started.

“Please, Martin, please cum in me,” she whispered against his lips. “I need you, baby. I need all that cum so deep in my body. I want everyone to know who I belong to. I belong to you and you only. Fuck, your cock feels so good in me. Stretching open my tight, wet pussy. Can you fill me, baby? Can you plant that seed deep in me?”

Martin groaned at the sounds of her sweet yet very dirty voice. Combined with the intense milking of his cock, he had no chance.

The feeling was there and soon it was spreading throughout his entire body. His fingers were leaving marks on Kelsey’s ass, as tight as he was holding, but she didn’t seem to mind. Her lips were soon glued to his and she sensed the change in his body.

He clenched as tightly as he could manage as the moment arrived and then released, feeling the first voluminous jet explode so deep into Kelsey. She moaned at the feeling as several more healthy spurts shot into her, thrusting her hips down all the way to capture every drop of his essence.

It was an incredibly intense moment. All the confusion and anxiety that had surrounded them with Nataliya’s joining and the fear of their relationship taking a backseat was released in the front seat of his car. As his orgasm died down, Kelsey’s kisses turned from desperate to tender while their bodies subtly grinded against each other.

Finally, Kelsey let out a long satisfied sigh.

“Everything is going to be just fine, won’t it, baby?”

He couldn’t have put it better himself. All of a sudden, all that fear and anxiety melted away.

“It sure will. Everything is going to be just fine.”

Kelsey laid her head against his chest and purred happily. There was no hurry to separate or clean up.

The world was as it should be.

CHAPTER 14

BOTH MARTIN and Kelsey were on cloud nine as they arrived back at the apartment after their date. For Martin, he was most grateful that his relationship with Kelsey had survived the stress of the other girls, as well as Nataliya’s recent aftershocks. In a way, he sensed that Kelsey was also grateful they were able to rekindle the feelings that reminded them of why they were such a good fit, and they arrived at the door with their relationship in a much better place than it was that morning.

Martin wasn’t quite sure what he would find inside. Part of him wondered how Nataliya and Annabelle were doing and whether anything had changed with their respective situations.

It became quickly apparent as he stepped in the door that something had changed. For one, the master bedroom door wasn’t closed anymore, which meant that Annabelle had emerged from her seclusion.

True to form, he found both Annabelle and Rylie sitting on the couch watching television. They had a strange look about them though, like two children that were struggling to hold in a perilous secret.

Something was up from the start—he just didn’t know what.

“We were wondering if you two were going to come home tonight,” said Rylie, wearing her trademark grin. She, at least, was acting the most normal. “How was your date?”

Kelsey couldn’t contain her smile. She sat down on the couch next to Rylie and brought her hands together. “It was absolutely wonderful! The best I could ask for. We had such a great time, didn’t we, Martin?”

Martin nodded but remained standing. “A really great time. We relived our first date essentially.”

Both Rylie and Annabelle cooed at that statement.

“That sounds so romantic!” said Rylie, turning to Kelsey. “You’ll have to give me all the details!”

“That does sound really nice,” added Annabelle.

Martin didn’t fail to notice that Rylie’s response was much more animated than Annabelle, who still seemed reluctant to meet Martin’s eyes. When she did, it became apparent that there was a lot that needed to be discussed.

Seeing his chance, Martin extended his hand to Annabelle. “Do you want to grab a moment for us? In the bedroom to talk?”

To his relief, Annabelle nodded. She took his hand and he helped to pull her off the couch. They left Rylie and Kelsey chattering away and didn’t stop until they were in the master bedroom, seated on the bed half-facing each other.

Without Rylie or Kelsey, the tension was thick between them. Annabelle still didn’t seem to want to meet his eyes but at least she didn’t feel angry. Quite the opposite, she almost looked guilty to some degree.

Martin figured he might as well start off the talk.

“Annabelle, I’m so sorry for what I’ve done,” he began, at which point Annabelle cut him off by shushing him. He looked confused for a moment before Annabelle finally swallowed the lump in her throat.

“I want to tell you something but I don’t want you to be upset with me,” said Annabelle, meeting his eyes briefly.

“What’s wrong?”

She struggled with her words for a moment. “While you were out with Kelsey, Rylie and I . . . did stuff.”

Martin blinked. “When you say ‘did stuff’ do you mean you played cards together? Or do you mean like did stuff?” he asked, adding the extra emphasis.

Annabelle avoided his eyes. “We did stuff.”

His curiosity intrigued, he asked the next obvious question. “What did you do?”

Annabelle struggled to control her nerves. She was breathing heavily and taking deep breaths by this point.

“We might have gone down on each other,” she said, her voice rising to a squeak by the time she was finishing talking.

Martin struggled to contain a smile. “So you two had oral sex? Between the two of you? Like a sixty-nine?”

Annabelle turned red. She nodded without saying anything else.

At this point, Martin was actually amused. “Is that all you needed to tell me? That’s it?”

“I didn’t want you to be mad,” she confessed. “I didn’t want you to think we did it behind your back even if it kind of was. I didn’t intend for it to happen but it just did.”

“I kind of expected it would,” said Martin, chuckling now.

Annabelle gave him a confused look. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that when we left, Rylie seemed like she was going to do everything in her power to make you feel better again. She moves pretty quickly.”

Annabelle’s eyes widened. “She moves pretty well all right.”

“How was it? Did you like it?”

“I liked it a little too much, but I would have liked it a lot more if you were there.”

It was a small opening and Martin took it. He put his arm around her shoulder.

“I would have loved to be there too. I think even the very idea of it is hot as hell. Both of you together, your bodies pressed tightly, tongues moving and all. That sounds so fucking sexy, you have no idea.”

Annabelle smiled at him. “Are you sure? I half-expected that you might think I was a hypocrite after what happened with Nataliya.”

“No, because it’s not like it’s the first time something happened between you and Rylie. I expected it to be honest. If you two can enjoy that special bond between you, I welcome that. It just makes us closer as a group.”

All the stress came out of Annabelle’s face, and her breathing went back to normal. “I didn’t know how I was going to tell you, especially once you got home and the guilt truly hit me. It’s why I couldn’t let you say anything until I got it off my chest.”

“I just want things to be right between us, Annabelle. I want things to go back to the way they were, when they were perfect. I didn’t know about Nataliya, didn’t know the story from back in college. If I had known, then I would’ve been even more on my guard with her. I never want to hurt you.”

Annabelle brushed her lips against his lightly. “I know that. I know you would never hurt me intentionally. I think I just was upset and didn’t know what to think, or who to blame. I know Nataliya is at fault. She’s done this before, I should’ve known she might do it again.”

“I don’t think Nataliya is a bad person though,” said Martin. “Is her decision-making ability questionable? Definitely, but she has to be lonely. I don’t approve of what she did but I can’t say that I hate her because of it. It can’t be easy.”

Annabelle let out a deep sigh. “You’re right, I suppose. That’s going to be the hardest part for me moving forward. How am I going to learn how to forgive her again?”

“Do you think you can?”

Annabelle shrugged. “I don’t know. She comes back into my life again like the hurricane that she is and now I don’t know where I stand. Hurricane Nataliya. That’s a good nickname for her.”

Martin cracked a smile. “Hurricane Nataliya is rather fitting.”

The smile on Annabelle’s face dropped and her expression turned much more serious. “Do you love me, Martin?”

“Totally,” he replied instantly. “Not one doubt about it. I love you, Annabelle.”

The smile returned triumphantly. “I love you too. I just want to make sure we never get into this kind of situation again. I know that it wasn’t expected but you have to realize that you have my heart in your hands. Kelsey and Rylie have a piece of it too but you have the majority of it. I trust that you’re not ever going to do anything to hurt me.”

“I promise you that I won’t,” he vowed.

Annabelle leaned in to kiss him. She purred once she pulled away. “You taste just like Kelsey.”

“And you taste like Rylie,” he quipped.

Annabelle giggled. “This is such a fun arrangement, isn’t it?”

“When it works out like we want it to, yes. Although we’re still not out of the clear yet,” said Martin as he then told her about the real Nataliya’s start date a week from now.

“Shit,” she swore. “What are we going to do about her? This could expose everything, Martin. Everything.”

“I don’t know. I really don’t,” he confessed. “Part of me wonders if it might not be better off to clue her in on it from the start but the part I fear the most is having to worry about two Nataliyas instead of just one.”

Annabelle shuddered. “Two Nataliyas sound incredibly daunting. And tiring. And frustrating.”

“We’ll have to think of something,” said Martin. “But perhaps tomorrow. I’m exhausted and I really want to get some sleep.”

Annabelle smiled. “It would be nice to have you in bed again. I missed your body against mine.”

Martin quite missed her as well. Annabelle’s tight, white tank top and lime-green boy shorts hardly did anything to conceal her nudity beneath. Despite having cum with Kelsey about an hour ago, he felt the desire to take her in celebration of patching things up.

“I should probably have a talk with Nataliya in the morning too,” added Annabelle after pursing her lips. “I can’t put it off forever, and we’re going to need to figure out how to move forward. Somehow, although I still don’t know what that looks like.”

“I know you’ll figure it out,” said Martin. “We always figure something out, right?”

“That’s what worries me, Martin. What if I can’t forgive her? What if this is one step too far?”

If that was the case, things would take a definite turn for the worse in the apartment.

How could they ever come back from it?’

CHAPTER 15

IT WAS WELL after the time that Martin went to work that following morning that Annabelle summoned up the courage to talk to Nataliya. It wasn’t that she was afraid to talk to her one-time best friend but more the case that she didn’t want to confront the fact that her relationship with Nataliya might be damaged forever.

For that reason, her arm was stiff as she reached up to knock on Nataliya’s door.

She heard sounds of shuffling inside until the door opened two inches in order for two green eyes to peer back at her.

“Can we talk?” asked Annabelle, spitting the words out like they were more foul-tasting than they actually were.

Nataliya nodded and opened the door wider. In the process, Annabelle entered the room, which at one time was hers back when it was just her, Martin, and Kelsey. She picked a comfortable light-brown chair in the corner to sit in while Nataliya sat on the edge of the bed.

Nataliya still hadn’t said a word yet but she was watching Annabelle like a hawk, no doubt wondering where the conversation would go.

As upset as Annabelle was with her, she decided to start off softly.

“Thank you for talking with me,” said Annabelle with all the poise of a diplomat. “I know we have a lot to discuss but I didn’t want this to wait any longer. I wanted to get everything out in the open right now.”

Nataliya saw an opening and took it.

“Are you going to be able to forgive me?” she blurted out. “Or is our friendship over?”

Annabelle blew air into cheeks, not expecting Nataliya to be so blunt from the beginning. She should have figured that was just how Nataliya was though.

“I don’t know, Nataliya,” said Annabelle after a moment’s pause. “I’ve forgiven Martin already.”

“As you should,” interrupted Nataliya. “He didn’t do anything wrong here.”

“But what I’m struggling with is why, Nataliya. Why did you do it? You know our history together. Why did you have to sleep with another boyfriend of mine?”

“I didn’t mean to,” protested Nataliya in a whiny tone. “It just happened. I don’t know. I was just lonely, Annabelle.”

“But you’ve been taking care of yourself just about every day since you’ve been here,” argued Annabelle. “We’ve all heard the porn. If you needed another vibrator, we could have got you one. What I want to know more than anything is why Martin? Did you need a real dick that badly?”

Nataliya shook her head. “Martin took the time to sit and talk with me that night. Martin actually cares about me. Well, cared about me. I have no idea if he still does now. But I didn’t want just an emotionless fuck from someone I didn’t know or from a fake cock. I wanted that closeness. I missed it, Annabelle. It really was the loneliness that did it.”

“I can understand the loneliness but it doesn’t make what you did right, Nataliya. Did you even think about what would happen after it was over? You knew that I would find out, right? That Martin would be upset? Or about what it would do with your relationships with the other women here, which were already less than stellar.”

“I wasn’t thinking about that in the moment,” admitted Nataliya quietly. “I was just thinking about my need to cum. You know how it is, Annabelle. Sometimes, you just need to get one out before you can think clearly again. That’s what happened here. I just needed to have an orgasm.”

Annabelle let out a frustrated sigh and shook her head. “You haven’t changed a bit since college. You did the same thing with Greg Howard and now you’ve done it again.”

Nataliya glared back at her. “I said I’m sorry all right! What more do you want me to do? I can’t unfuck Martin. What do you want from me?”

“A little bit of remorse would be nice!”

Nataliya cupped her mouth with her hands. “I said I’m sorry! I’m sorry, Annabelle! Do you get that?”

Annabelle stood up. “If this is the way you’re going to act, then we don’t have anything more to say to each other.”

“I just don’t get why you’re acting this way. I know I messed up, Annabelle. Believe me, I know it. It’s why I can’t leave this damn room because all of you look at me like I’m some kind of freak that just walked out of the sewers. But I can’t change the past, Annabelle. I can’t go back and turn down Greg Howard as much as I can’t not jump Martin when he’s sleeping. It happened, and you need to get over it.”

Annabelle had about enough at that point. Nataliya’s point that just because she couldn’t change it seemed to be being used as a clutch to prevent any true remorse. Annabelle got the impression that Nataliya wasn’t really that sorry about it, and even then, she might try to have sex with Martin again.

It was one bridge too far, and as far as she was concerned, her relationship with Nataliya was irreparably damaged.

“I have nothing more to say to you,” said Annabelle, crossing her arms. “Some friend you turned out to be. Friends don’t sleep with other friends’ boyfriends, especially twice. It was a mistake to even come in here and talk to you.”

That was when angry Nataliya really came out. She started to yell at this point. “If you’re going to be that way then get the fuck out of my room! You always thought you were better than me, Annabelle! That’s what this is really about! Saintly Annabelle never does anything wrong. Well, fuck that and fuck you. Get out of my room and out of my life!”

The door slammed in Annabelle’s face. In a way, it was also the closing of their friendship. Annabelle had no idea how or if they could ever come back from this now.

Frankly, she had no desire to. If this was how things were going to be, then she didn’t need to be friends with Nataliya anymore.

Why be friends with someone who would treat her like that?

CHAPTER 16

A SHORT DISTANCE away at RI, Martin was in a good mood despite the circumstances. It was true that he had no idea how he was going to stop the real Nataliya from working at RI. It was also true that he didn’t know whether it might not just be a good idea to tell her about their situation rather than let her find out on her own.

He was short on answers but heavy on problems. Even now, he wondered if Annabelle and Nataliya had managed to talk and squash the beef between them. That would surely help to get the apartment back in good standing if all the girls were talking to each other again.

In all, things weren’t great but it could always be worse.

It was of little wonder that the next email he received reminded him that things could always get much, much worse.

It wasn’t unusual to see an email arrive in his inbox from the CEO. In fact, Martin could say that he saw emails from Vince Dulles just about every day but they were usually addressed to the whole company or to specific departments.

Almost never had the CEO addressed an email directly to Martin.

That is, until today.

Hello Martin,

Please come see me in my office when you have a moment.

Best,

Vince Dulles

CEO

Martin had to read it three times just to confirm it said what he thought it said. Until the promotion, he wasn’t sure that Vince even remembered his name let alone the fact that he existed. And now he wanted to see him?

For what?

The bottom dropped out of Martin’s stomach as he thought about Nataliya. Could Vince know? Could he know that he was the one that took Nataliya out of the testing area?

Was he about to be fired? Or worse, arrested?

Martin’s footsteps were heavy as he made his way to the elevator. His palms were slick with his own sweat and he wondered if this might be the last time he stepped foot in RI. What if he was fired immediately and told to leave?

That still wouldn’t help his predicament with the real Nataliya, especially once she noticed Annabelle’s name on most of her work.

The elevator took forever to get to the upper floors. Every time he heard a ding when they passed another floor made him more anxious. A lump formed in his throat, which was the result of too much thinking.

Was it better to be honest with what really happened, starting with Keith’s badge and code?

Or should he lie if questioned? Would it buy him more time?

The elevator finally dinged on the executive floor, the doors yanking open quickly. This was part of RI that few people saw. Everyone that had an office on this floor was powerful in their own way, and most of them had little interaction with the worker bees below. The obvious exception was Bryce and Claire, who probably rode this elevator more times a day than everyone else combined.

Both of their doors were shut as Martin walked by. In fact, just about everyone’s door was shut. It was almost like it was planned that way, with the only path leading directly to Vince’s imposing door.

Martin raised his fist to knock on the door, saying a silent prayer for strength. He heard a muffled voice inside, all the signal that he needed. Grabbing the handle, Martin opened the door.

The office of the CEO of Replica Imagination was massive. It was more like its own suite, with a giant L-shaped desk on the far end and a lounge area closer to the door, where Martin was. On either side of the office, large floor-to-ceiling windows showcased an incredible view of the surrounding area, reminding Martin just how high up they really were.

Behind the desk sat the man himself. Vince Dulles cut an imposing figure as he worked in his big, leather chair. He was a large man, but not large in the way of excess fat. He was broad-shouldered with a barrel chest and powerful arms. His neck was thick in the way you would expect to see on a professional wrestler. His hair was salt-and-pepper with only touches of pepper still coming through. His face had a weathered quality to it, but the most defining feature was his emotionless gray eyes.

They were the kind of eyes that could kill you with one malevolent look if Vince so chose. He had the appearance of the kind of man that shouldn’t be crossed, and Martin’s nerves only got worse as he stepped closer to his desk.

For the most part though, Vince’s greeting was welcoming and seemingly without suspicion.

“Martin, there you are,” he said, gesturing to the chair in front of his desk. “Have a seat. Can I get you a water?”

Even though his throat was all kinds of dry, Martin found himself shaking his head no.

Vince smiled. “I insist. Have a water.”

With those words, he reached under his desk where there was a small refrigerator. He pulled out a clear bottle and pushed it across the table.

“Thank you, sir,” said Martin, taking a drink. He found that he was glad he accepted it anyway. The coolness of the water helped his dry throat.

Once he lowered the bottle, he saw Vince starting back at him. His eyes were narrowed as if he was too busy appraising his target for any weaknesses. It was an uncomfortable feeling to be so silently judged, and Martin didn’t know if he was just waiting for the right moment to strike.

“I thought it was time that you and I had a meeting together,” said Vince suddenly, twirling his pen in his hand. “I understand you were recently promoted, and I always like to get to know those that are working under me. Especially those that are future leaders of this company.”

That was innocuous enough and Martin found himself nodding.

Vince let out a thin smile. “I always like to get to know those in management. I only want a certain kind of individual managing my company, Martin. Do you know which quality that I value the most? What character trait is the one that’s most important to me?”

That was a tricky question. Martin thought about the question for a moment before answering. Could it be intelligence? That was definitely an important trait. Or maybe initiative? This could go a lot of ways but Martin decided to stick with the easiest option.

“I would say intelligence, sir. We only want the best and brightest working here at RI, right? To make our company the best one it could be?”

Vince’s smile didn’t waver but he shook his head. “What I’m speaking about is much more important than intelligence. Yes, intelligent people are a necessity but what I’m referring to is the difference between having a company that burns out in flames or truly lasts forever. Do you want to know what it is?”

Martin nodded.

“I’m talking about loyalty, Martin,” said Vince, lowering his head to pierce Martin with his cruel, gray stare. “I value loyalty more than anything else. More than any other trait. Loyal people are what make our company great. Those that think about Replica Imagination above all other things. Do you understand what I’m telling you, Martin?”

Martin nodded, finding it hard to speak with the lump in his throat. The only thing he could think of was that Vince somehow knew.

Before he could speak any further, Vince emerged from his chair and began to walk around his desk. “My first loyalty is to the company that I built, a love that I continue to build upon to this day. I love this company like she were a child that I’d created, that had sprung from my own loins. I will protect it with my last, dying breath from anyone who would seek to put her security in jeopardy.”

With those words, Vince moved directly behind Martin, resting his massive hand on Martin’s shoulder. Martin didn’t dare turn around, feeling the immense pressure of the imposing presence behind him.

“What I want to know more than ever is will you be loyal to my great company, Martin? Will you be loyal to me to help make my offspring even greater?”

Vince applied light pressure against Martin’s shoulder, sending a clear message.

“Of course, sir,” replied Martin, even without turning around. “I like being part of the RI family.”

“And to continue to be in that family, will you work directly with me, Martin?” asked Vince, putting even more pressure against his shoulder. “If there was something out there that could threaten your family here at Replica Imagination, would you be honest with me? Would you tell me about any threats before they metastasize into something that’s capable of taking down our beloved company?”

At this point, Martin felt an extraordinary amount of pressure on his shoulder. The implied meaning seemed incredibly clear. Vince suspected Martin and wanted him to be honest. But what could Martin say that was both realistic and truthful?

Why could he not get the words out? They stopped in his throat as true paralyzation took hold. Martin found himself wanting to grab the water to parch his throat but he felt like Vince wouldn’t release the pressure.

What could he possibly say to that?

Thankfully, Vince let go of his shoulder and walked away from behind Martin. His entire tone changed suddenly. “You don’t have to answer today, Martin. I understand it’s a big ask of anyone for complete loyalty, something that you probably can’t answer right away. I want you to take the night to think about it. Come see me in the morning and let me know your answer. Do you have any qualms about that?”

The answer was still caught in Martin’s throat. He shook his head as his answer.

Vince smirked at him. “Wonderful. You can go now, Martin. I expect you back here first thing in the morning.”

Vince’s hand flickered and his attention resumed on to his computer screen. The meaning wasn’t lost on Martin. The meeting was definitely over and there was nothing else left to be said.

The walk back to his office was just as harrowing as the walk up except now he felt well and truly caught. What else could he do besides fess up? Could he hope for leniency if he was honest with Vince?

Vince hasn’t demonstrated that he knows anything yet, his subconscious reminded him.

There was a chance that he might not know. For all Martin knew, this could be a common tactic that Vince did with new managers to make sure the right people were promoted. He’d heard before that Vince was intimidating one-on-one, and this seemed a perfectly logical result to just such an encounter.

Unless that theory was bullshit and Vince really did know.

That evening, Martin struggled about what to tell the girls, or whether he even should broach the subject. He didn’t want to worry them with something else, especially if he still wasn’t sure if this was just a routine talk or the beginning of the end.

His anxiety fueled his desire to practice his karate, and he spent nearly an hour going through the motions, which now only served to release some pressure but also to remind him that he had a means to defend himself if this turned ugly.

By the end of the night, Kelsey had realized something was wrong though.

“Why are you so tense?” she whispered as they got into bed. “You seem so jumpy. Is something wrong?”

Martin felt like he was staring into those soft, brown eyes forever. The last thing he wanted to see was a drop of worry in them, especially if it turned out to be nothing.

“Just the Nataliya situation,” lied Martin. “It’s been on my mind a lot lately.”

Kelsey relaxed and snuggled closer to him. “We’ll figure that out, I know it. But you won’t be able to think of anything if you’re so tense. Let some of it go, baby. We can talk more about it tomorrow if you like.”

Martin nodded and turned off the light. Sleep was a foreign proposition, not one that would come easy with such a troubled mind.

The next morning, Martin said nothing as he prepared to go into the office. While part of him thought about being honest, another part wanted to keep playing dumb just in case this was a fire drill.

As he arrived at RI early that morning, he found himself just as nervous as the day before. It was early enough that most of the other employees weren’t in yet but that was exactly what Martin wanted. Vince had told him to stop by first thing, and if he was about to be arrested, at least he could spare what was left of his dignity by avoiding half the company seeing him walked out in handcuffs.

As Martin arrived on the top floor of RI, something seemed decidedly off. It was a weird feeling, the kind that one would get right before something bad was about to happen. Everything seemed so still, like all his surroundings had frozen entirely.

But why? What was going on to make him feel that way?

That was when Martin heard the scream.

Instantly, he darted out of the elevator and looked around, trying to place it. It was a man’s scream, that was for certain. One that was deep in quality and not as high-pitched but also one that told Martin whoever let it out was in an intense amount of pain.

The worst part yet was that the screaming was coming from Vince’s office.

Like yesterday, all the rest of the doors were closed, leading Martin on a straight shot to the CEO’s office but there was one noticeable exception today.

Bryce was standing outside Vince’s door, looking like a cruel sentry that was trying to prevent anyone else from going inside or asking too many questions.

He saw Martin right away. His eyes narrowed, appraising him silently as Martin tried to figure out whether to move forward or flee. He wondered who else was in that office with Vince and just what they were doing with him.

Killing him was the only conclusion, based on the scream he’d heard.

“Martin, come here.”

Bryce’s words were hollow and shaky, almost like he didn’t fully believe the orders would be followed. It occurred to Martin that Bryce was unsure of the course that lay in front of him, like he could still suffer the consequences of a bungled operation.

“What are you doing up here?” asked Bryce, finding more confidence as Martin took several more tentative steps closer.

“I was supposed to meet with Vince,” stuttered Martin. “He wanted to talk to me today.”

Bryce’s lip curved upward in a cruel smirk. The look lasted for all of a second before returning back to his normal disdainful look.

“Vince is occupied. You can go back to your office now,” replied Bryce.

“But what about—”

Bryce held up a hand. “Do I need to repeat myself? Go back to your office, Martin.”

The words couldn’t have been more clearer, and Martin found himself backing up. The last thing he wanted to do was cross Bryce, especially if something was happening behind that door. He did the only logical thing he could think of.

He fled downstairs.

CHAPTER 17

THE REST of the day was incredibly tense to say the least. Martin kept his eyes trained on the entrance to his office, and every time someone walked by, he became distracted further.

What exactly had happened upstairs? Did Bryce do something to Vince? Who else was in the room with him that caused the scream?

The last question seemed the easiest to answer later on that morning when Martin witnessed both Bryce and Claire walking through the hallway looking incredibly happy with themselves, more so than usual.

What if Claire was the one that was in there torturing Vince? Could that be why he screamed like he did?

And if that was the case, why would they do it? What could they have to gain by acting against the CEO in that fashion?

Especially one that may or may not have been on Martin’s tail.

Something wasn’t adding up, and the more that he thought about it, the less he liked the chain of events.

What if they’d seriously hurt Vince in the process, or they killed him? What if that meant a criminal investigation was coming to RI? Something like that could unravel his involvement in cloning the girls and make him feel like more of a rebel than he already was.

More importantly, what if whoever killed Vince came after Martin? What if they came after the girls? Martin couldn’t let anything happen to his family, not after they’d come this far.

His anxiety hit a new level, and this time a little karate clearly wouldn’t fix it. If his life, or the lives of his girls were in jeopardy, he would have to take more drastic action to ensure their protection.

That was why Martin headed to the gun range after work for the first time in over a year. Originally more of a hobby than the need to defend himself, Martin was more than an adequate shot with a handgun. The problem was that he was a little rusty, and if the situation called for it, he wanted to be able to defend himself.

“You all right there, son?” asked the proprietor of the range, a husky older man with a beard that was just a little too long. “You look like you’ve got a lot on your mind.”

“Just need a little time to practice,” said Martin, tapping his handgun case.

The proprietor pursed his lips and nodded. “Go over to stall ten. It’s the one all the way on the end. Check in with Leo to set the targets.”

Martin thanked him and made his way to ten. Leo set up the targets for him, and Martin wasted no time in getting reacquainted with his weapon. Shaking off the rust proved difficult, but it wasn’t that hard when he tried to picture the target belonging to someone trying to hurt any of the girls.

At that point, his shooting became a lot more precise.

“Damn, you were a little wild at first,” said Leo at the end as he studied the targets. “But you clustered nicely once you got the hang of it. Do you want to keep the target?”

Martin shook his head. “Nope, I got what I needed today. Thank you.”

His head felt a little more clear as he went home, but once he arrived, he noticed that all three women had questions about his whereabouts. Martin shrugged off the questions, not wanting to worry them.

It wasn’t like he had any answers for them anyway.

Like the night before, Martin barely slept. Time was running out and it felt like the noose was pulling ever tighter against his neck.

The next morning was again incredibly intense. The day before, there had been no daily messages from Vince, something that didn’t exactly surprise him considering the scream. In fact, Martin half-wondered if he’d ever hear from Vince again.

That was why he did a triple-take later that morning when he saw Vince walk past his office. The unmistakable form of the CEO of RI glided past as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Martin bolted to the doorframe just in time to watch him get into the elevator, flanked by both Bryce and Claire (who still looked extremely smug at the change in circumstances).

Vince registered Martin’s appearance by the door. His eyes narrowed slightly but he made no gesture or other acknowledgment. Certainly no recognition was given of their conversation from the other day.

What exactly had they done with him then? He was still alive but was he under their control?

As Martin sat back down, his phone started to ring. He gripped it sweaty palms and answered.

It was Kelsey.

“Martin, you have to get home right now!”

“Is it just me or do you think Martin is acting funny lately?”

The question surprised no one, least of all Kelsey, who’d been wondering the same thing. The fact that it was Annabelle that asked it showed that someone else had noticed that something was off. The two of them plus Rylie were sitting in the living room of the apartment that morning. The radio was on in the background and the window was open, letting in some fresh air on this unseasonably warm day.

“Funny in the way that he seems incredibly stressed out?” asked Rylie, sitting just to Kelsey’s right. “Because if that’s what you’re getting at then yes, he seems very funny lately.”

Annabelle nodded. “I noticed the same thing last night. It was like he was there but he wasn’t at the same time. When I tried to talk to him about it, he was dismissive of the whole subject but I could still tell something was bothering him.”

“He told me that it was the Nataliya situation,” added Kelsey, joining the conversation. “And the fact that she starts Annabelle’s former job next week.”

“It could even be the other Nataliya situation,” said Annabelle, jerking her head toward the direction of the spare bedroom. “She hasn’t come out in two days now. Not since her and I had the talk.”

Kelsey winced. She knew that the “talk” was more of an argument, one that left both women feeling upset. Nataliya seemed to be the one that took it the worst, and there’s been no interaction since it occurred. Her door remained locked, and though they could hear the sounds of the television inside the room, no one had seen her.

“I wonder if we should intervene,” said Rylie, looking at Kelsey. “As much as I dislike her, I don’t want this to keep festering. We have bigger problems at hand than having to worry about Nataliya being pissed with us forever.”

“She doesn't have much of a right to be pissed,” grumbled Annabelle. “Not after what she did.”

“No, and I’m not arguing that,” said Rylie. “But we do have to find a way to move forward. This can’t last like this forever, especially if it’s adding to Martin’s stress levels.”

“Any suggestions about what to do with her then?” asked Kelsey. “Because it seems like every time we try to reach out to her, we don’t get anywhere.”

Rylie didn’t try to answer. She just looked directly at Annabelle. “You know her the best. Otherwise, I’d just say get her a giant vibrator and tell her it’s a peace offering.”

Annabelle’s eyes widened. “That might not be such a bad idea.”

Rylie started to snicker. “Maybe we can even get it molded to look like Martin’s since that seems to be what she really wants.”

Both Kelsey and Annabelle gave her a disappointed look.

“Too soon,” said Kelsey.

Rylie managed to look apologetic. “Sorry!”

“What if we just go to her honestly and let her know that we’re worried?” asked Annabelle. “At the end of the day, we all still live here and we need to get along. I know that my friendship with her might be damaged for a long time but we can still be civil, right? We can all manage to live here together without it being an issue.”

Crickets met her suggestion. Kelsey pursed her lips while Rylie seemed content to look at the ground. When no one said anything, Annabelle spoke up again.

“Well?”

Rylie was the first to break the silence. “I still think the vibrator is the better option.”

Annabelle threw a pillow right at her face, causing Rylie to laugh. “Fine! We’ll do it your way!”

Annabelle looked at Kelsey. “Any objections?”

Kelsey thought about it for a moment before she ultimately shrugged. “I guess not. It’s better than doing nothing, right?”

“And it might help Martin,” said Annabelle, nodding.

“Okay, let’s get this over with.”

The three women stood up and made their way down the hallway to Nataliya’s door. They could hear the sounds of television inside but no movement whatsoever. Kelsey was the one that knocked on the door, giving it three raps.

Nataliya didn’t answer.

Kelsey turned to look at Annabelle, who simply shrugged.

“You think she’s sleeping?” asked the tall blonde.

“With the television on? And this late in the morning?” asked Kelsey. “That’s not like her.”

“Should we knock harder?” suggested Rylie.

Kelsey delivered three much firmer knocks. Again, Nataliya failed to answer the door.

Just before they were about to give up, Annabelle gasped.

“What? What’s wrong?” asked Kelsey.

“I just realized that Nataliya hasn’t come out at all in two days,” said Annabelle. “Like even to go to the bathroom or shower. Nothing. We haven’t even seen her.”

Rylie looked back and forth between the two of them. “You don’t think that . . . you know, she’s not in there, do you?”

Annabelle banged her fists on Nataliya’s door. “Nataliya, it’s us! Open up now! We need to talk to you!”

There was nothing on the other side. Not even the sounds of movement. It was like the room was completely empty.

“We have to get in here,” said Annabelle, rattling the handle. The door was locked so she looked back at Rylie. “Will you get me the paper clip?”

The door handles all had a tiny hole on the knob that allowed someone to use a small object, like a paper clip, to pop the lock. Once the paper clip had been secured, opening the door was relatively effortless.

Inside the room, everyone’s worst fear had been realized.

Nataliya was nowhere to be found. Her television was still running, mostly as a distraction, but her window was partially open.

Annabelle rushed to the window. “Oh my god! We’re three stories up! How the hell did she manage to get down?”

It soon became obvious what she did. Each floor had a separate ledge that was just wide enough for someone to stand on. If someone had the skill, they could scale the side of the building without too much effort. In Nataliya’s case, it wasn’t that hard for her to get down as long as she could hold on long enough to reach the ground.

Nataliya was nowhere in sight, and no one had any idea of where she could have gone.

Kelsey didn’t wait any longer than she needed to. She grabbed the phone and dialed Martin.

“Martin, you have to get home right now! Nataliya has escaped!”

CHAPTER 18

MARTIN ARRIVED BACK at the apartment to find three women in a state of crisis. Adding onto all the other stuff that was going on, this was one problem that could have devastating consequences for all of them.

To make matters even worse, no one could pinpoint the approximate time that Nataliya had left.

“Does anyone know how long the television has been on?” he asked, looking at the three other women.

Rylie shrugged. “I just know that it was on this morning when I woke up.”

“And for most of yesterday,” added Annabelle. “I can’t say whether it was on all night but it was definitely still on when I went to bed.”

Martin tried to remember back to this morning. He was so consumed with what had happened to Vince that he hadn’t noticed the smaller details like whether he could hear it when he woke up. As he tried to remember, he was positive that her room had been quiet this morning.

“I can’t remember hearing any noise this morning when I got ready for work,” said Martin. “So maybe she couldn’t have gotten far, especially if she left at some point within the last . . . six hours, since it’s only noon.”

“Six hours is a long time for her to get in trouble though,” said Kelsey. “We all know how volatile Nataliya is. For all we know, she could already be sitting in a jail cell.”

“Or sitting on some guy’s you-know-what,” added Annabelle sourly before giving Martin a sympathetic look. “No offense, Martin.”

“None taken. So we need to figure out a game plan here. We need to find her.” Martin grabbed a pen and some paper and sat down at the kitchen table. “Where could Nataliya likely have gone?”

Rylie was the first to speak up. “I hate to say it but I could very much see Nataliya sitting at some crappy dive bar right now, even one that just opened up for the day. We know she likes to drink, and she could also satisfy an itch for sex with the first guy that sat next to her.”

Kelsey quickly agreed. “Rylie has a point. I could see Nataliya already drinking at this time of day.”

“I don’t know if she would go to a bar though,” said Annabelle. “How would she get served without ID?”

Rylie gave her an incredulous look. “She’s hot, Annabelle! That’s how she’d get served. All she has to do is show some cleavage and no bartender in his right mind is going to turn her down.”

Annabelle started to tap her chin. “I just don’t see it. Don’t get me wrong, Nataliya would be the most likely to do that of all of us but if I know her, she’s probably just lonely. We know she’s missing her husband, right? What if she tried to go back to him?”

“Because she knows that she can’t do that,” said Martin. “She knows she’s a clone and that could only lead to trouble. She could run into the original Nataliya. She could risk her husband knowing the secret. And then it’s just a call to the police and we’re all in hot water.”

Kelsey looked directly at Annabelle. “Do you really think she would be that reckless? We know that Nataliya is an intelligent woman. She wouldn’t be that stupid though, right?”

Annabelle shrugged. “Nataliya has always been guided by her passion more than anything. If she feels that she’s making the right decision, then who knows what she could rationalize?”

“I think we’re forgetting one thing here too,” added Martin quietly, as all three women looked at him. “We know that Nataliya has periods where she blacks out and she’s not really in control. We don’t know why that is, but it’s something that has made her behavior unpredictable. What if she’s in one of those blackout modes right now? What if she’s not thinking of the consequences? That would take out any rational path pretty quickly.”

“So what do we do?” asked Rylie. “There’s only so many bars in the city and there’s only four of us. If these are our logical starting points, how do we cover the ground?”

“We need to split up,” said Annabelle. “We can cover more ground that way. We can have one pair checking every watering hole within walking distance while the other goes to the apartment she shared with her husband.”

“Is that apartment within walking distance of here?” asked Rylie.

Annabelle’s eyes rolled up in thought. “More or less. I wouldn’t want to walk it but it’s doable. More so if she found someone to give her a ride.”

“Oh, I bet she’s done that at least,” mumbled Rylie, quickly earning a glare from Kelsey.

“Sorry,” said Rylie quietly. “I couldn’t resist.”

“Okay, let’s split up,” said Martin. “Annabelle and I will go to her apartment. Kelsey and Rylie will search the local bars. Let’s keep in contact and make sure to report in once we know more. One way or another, we’ll get to the bottom of this.

Kelsey didn’t look as confident. “I sure hope so.”

CHAPTER 19

AFTER SPLITTING UP, it was Martin and Annabelle that made the ride over to the real Nataliya’s apartment. Annabelle was in the front seat with him, and she was already fretting about locating her one-time best friend.

“This is all my fault,” said Annabelle, putting her hand to her forehead. “I never should have been so hard on her. After we had our talk a couple days ago, I could just tell that something wasn’t right with her, but I was so angry that I didn’t care. If I had just stopped yelling at her, none of this would have happened.”

Martin reached over and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “It’s not your fault. You had a right to be angry, Annabelle.”

“I know, but I didn’t have to treat her like I did! I basically implied that there was no way our relationship would ever get back to what it was. I was so hard on her.”

“I know it sucks right now, but we can’t change the past. What’s done is done. I know that it’s easy to blame yourself but you can’t take responsibility for Nataliya’s actions too. The long and short of it is that Nataliya’s just not a good fit with us. A lot of that stems back to our relationship from years ago. We even knew back then that we weren’t meant to be together, and this is just a volatile situation for anyone to be in, let alone Nataliya.”

A tear came down Annabelle’s cheek. “You don’t really think she’s done anything rash, do you? The Nataliya that I knew in college would have crazy thoughts but she was usually restrained when push came to shove. What worries me the most is that her clone might not have such restraint.”

Martin looked over to Annabelle. “That’s my fear too. I’m just hoping that Nataliya remembers what’s at stake. It’s not just her life she could ruin but ours too.”

Annabelle crossed her arms in front of her chest. “I really hope we find her. We have to find her.”

Martin shared her sentiment. He rubbed her thigh for a second before returning his hand to the wheel, and the rest of the drive to her apartment occurred in silence.

Internally, his stomach was in knots. The pressure on his shoulders was getting unbearable, not only from Nataliya but from RI as well. He felt jumpy and tense at all times of day, and even now a small voice inside his brain was asking if this was all worth it?

Was it worth cloning the girls if this was the cost?

He quickly squashed that thought. Apart from Nataliya, he loved what Kelsey, Annabelle, and Rylie brought to his life. It wasn’t just about the sex, though that was completely incredible as well.

It was about the companionship. It was about the group itself, where the girls got along as well with each other as they did with him. He loved the dynamic that they had together, and it was the sole source of light in the darkness that was threatening to consume all of them.

Why couldn’t they get Nataliya to be part of that?

Inside, he knew the real answer. He just didn’t want to admit it out loud.

The car pulled into the apartment complex that the real Nataliya shared with her husband. Martin whipped around the mostly empty parking lot, finding a spot close to her building. He was lucky in that it was still during working hours and most of the tenants weren’t home.

He could only hope that Nataliya’s husband wasn’t home either, as his involvement would greatly complicate matters.

“Please be here, please be here,” chanted Annabelle as they exited the car. “Please for the love of god be here.”

“I’d rather she be at a bar right now,” said Martin as they walked across the parking lot. “At least then she’s not risking being discovered by someone who really mattered.”

“I don’t care where she is as long as we find her,” said Annabelle.

The pair continued to walk through the parking lot until they reached a path that led to the individual apartments. The one that Nataliya lived in was on the second floor, but to get to the stairs, they had to walk all the way toward the end of the hall.

They were nearly there when Martin heard Annabelle scream.

His blood turned to ash in his veins when he saw the reason for her troubled shriek.

Nataliya was sitting on the stairs that led up to the second floor but that wasn’t the disturbing part.

No, the most disturbing part was the lifeless body that was by her feet, a woman’s body by the looks of her long hair and lithe frame.

“Nataliya, what have you done?” yelled Annabelle as they both started running toward the other woman.

Nataliya barely registered their appearance. Her eyes looked hazy and hollow, like she wasn’t all the way there. She looked down at the woman at her feet and shrugged.

“There couldn’t be two of us,” muttered Nataliya. “I couldn’t let her steal my life anymore.”

Annabelle shook her head. “What are you talking about?”

A terrifying thought occurred to Martin as he stared at the lifeless body at Nataliya’s feet.

A body that looked eerily familiar. He reached down to uncover her face, brushing her long, dark locks away from it.

Martin nearly jumped away in shock when he saw who it was.

It was the real Nataliya.

“I killed her,” admitted the clone Nataliya. “There couldn’t be two of us, not anymore.”

At that moment, Martin’s world completely shattered.

Hurricane Nataliya was now a category five storm, and now all of them would bear the consequences.

CHAPTER 20

THERE WAS no possible way that the situation could get any worse.

Not as both Martin and Annabelle stared at the strangely-calm Nataliya clone as she sat a short distance away from the original Nataliya, who was now completely lifeless.

It wasn’t hard for Martin to tell what had happened, especially by the gash in the real Nataliya’s forehead. No doubt there had been a confrontation followed by a short scuffle as the clone Nataliya became enraged and incoherent at the sight of her original (as the clones were wont to do).

The result was that their situation was now completely fucked.

“Nataliya, what have you done?” asked a panicked Annabelle, putting her hands on Nataliya’s shoulders and shaking her. “Look at what you did to her!”

“There couldn’t be two of us anymore,” muttered Nataliya, her eyelids low like she was in some kind of drunken stupor. “I needed to regain control of my life.”

Annabelle’s frenzied eyes turned to Martin. “What do we do? Call 911? I’ve never . . . I mean I don’t know how to . . .”

Annabelle couldn’t get the rest of the words out without hyperventilating, but Martin already knew what she was saying. Neither of them had ever had to deal with such a situation before and they didn’t know where to start.

The biggest problem was that anyone who came to this scene would see that there were two Nataliya’s, one alive and one dead. The issue of murder would then be complicated by the larger issue of illegal cloning, and their whole situation would unravel as quickly as a ball of yarn with a kitten.

Flight became the only primal instinct that made sense to Martin at that moment.

“We need to get out of here,” said Martin, grabbing Nataliya’s arm and pulling her up. “We need to leave right now! Did anyone see your original on the ground? Did anyone hear what happened?”

The oddly lucid Nataliya shook her head. “Quiet. Completely quiet. She didn’t even scream when she hit the concrete.”

Martin turned to Annabelle. “We have to get her to my car. Come on, grab her arms and get her up. We need time to think.”

Annabelle sputtered with words as she shook her head. “Martin! We can’t just walk away from this!”

“We need to protect us right now,” replied Martin quickly. “This is bigger than just the original Nataliya. If anyone else finds out about this, we’re all screwed.”

Annabelle was still trying to find the right words to say when the sound of voices came from behind them, on the other side of the hallway.

“Quickly, let’s go!” said Martin.

Without words, Annabelle sprung into action and helped Martin pull up the original Nataliya and carry her like she was a sorority girl that had a bit too much to drink. Behind them trailed the other Nataliya, following like a scolded puppy.

Martin still wasn’t sure how they managed to get the original Nataliya to the car without being seen. It was a small stroke of fortune that they were able to speed away from the apartment complex with the dead Nataliya in his trunk and Annabelle openly weeping in the passenger seat.

When they arrived back at the apartment, Kelsey and Rylie were already there waiting for them. Both of them knew what happened thanks to a frantic text from Annabelle, and they embraced the crying blonde as they tried to figure out what to do.

None of them made eye contact with Nataliya. To her credit, Nataliya seemed to figure out the magnitude of her crime, and she separated herself into the main bedroom where she couldn’t easily escape again.

“What the hell do we do now?” asked Rylie finally once the four of them gathered around the kitchen table. “We have a murderer in our bedroom and a dead girl in our trunk. I’d say things could not be any more fucked up than they already are.”

At least Kelsey and Rylie didn’t question the decision to abscond with the real Nataliya’s body. Martin wondered whether he might have escalated the situation with them because of that fact alone, but thankfully they seemed to agree that it was the only option at the time.

“Well, I say we kick her out,” said Kelsey, taking a surprisingly hard stance. “This is too far. She not only escaped by climbing down the wall outside her room but now she’s done this, putting us all in jeopardy. I don’t see any future where she can be allowed to stay here.”

Rylie raised her hand. “I’m in full agreement with Kelsey. I say we kick the crazy bitch out and tell her good luck in life.”

Annabelle shook her head. “We can’t just do that. She’s clearly not right in the head. Something is off, and it could have been from the cloning, but that’s not the Nataliya that I remember. There’s a big gap between her clone and her original.”

“I’m surprised you of all people are defending her,” replied Rylie. “Especially with what she did with Martin.”

Annabelle took a deep breath. “Am I still hurt about that? Yes, but this kind of trumps everything else, don’t you think?”

Rylie agreed only grudgingly and finally all eyes settled on Martin.

“What do you want to do, Martin?” asked Annabelle. “You know we can’t just kick her out. Sooner or later, someone is going to notice that Nataliya is missing and then what? What’s to stop the clone Nataliya from stepping into her old life? And what the hell are we to do about the body?”

At that moment, Martin wasn’t sure what to do with Nataliya. His mind was clouded based on his memories of the real Nataliya, the one that he knew was still inside the clone. Even if her personality had been tampered with in the course of the cloning, there was still enough of her there that she could pass as the original.

But then it still left them with the question—what to do about her body?

“The body only implicates us with her murder,” said Martin finally, looking around at all three of them. “As distasteful as this sounds, we need to get rid of it. We can’t punish Nataliya in the traditional sense because it all leads back to here, and you know what would happen if the authorities showed up on our doorstep.”

Kelsey’s mouth dropped open. “You’re suggesting we let her get away with murder? Martin, that’s so fucked up that I can’t even believe you just said that.”

He put his hands up. “I know, I know, but think of the outcome. We turn in the clone Nataliya and what’s the first thing they do? They realize she’s a clone and it all comes back to us, wanting to know how we cloned her. My link to RI gets brought up and all of a sudden, this is an illegal cloning ring. I’ll go to prison for the rest of my life, and god knows what happens to the three of you. Is that really worth turning Nataliya in?”

“Martin, where do I even begin?” asked Kelsey, sputtering with her words. “I don’t . . . You can’t . . .”

Kelsey closed her mouth and didn’t finish her sentence. She knew that what he said made sense, even if it was morally wrong.

Martin took a deep breath. “But on the other hand, what if we encouraged Nataliya to go back to her husband and her old life? Nobody would be any wiser apart from us and it keeps our protection. Plus, look at this way—we know Nataliya was not meant to live here with us. She’s deeply unhappy, so much so that she ran away. What’s to prevent her from doing it again?”

“We could always lock the bitch up,” suggested Rylie. “We can get our own handcuffs and keep her chained down.”

Annabelle gave her a look that quickly made Rylie retreat.

“Sorry, it was just a suggestion,” said Rylie meekly.

Annabelle then looked back at Martin. “Martin, while I agree that it’s the most practical answer we have, it’s also the one that’s most fucked up morally, ethically, and every other kind of way. How would we live with ourselves knowing that we allowed a murderer to go free and basically steal the life of the person she murdered?”

That was the pivotal question that everything hinged on. How would they be able to live this decision down? What would it say about them as people? Martin had always thought of himself as a law-abiding citizen, someone who had his heart in the right place.

And yet, in the last six months, he’d broken countless laws against illegal cloning and was now proposing to let someone off the hook for murder.

When did he lose his way? When did this change to his moral compass occur?

Finally, he realized that the rest of the girls were still waiting for him to speak.

“I know it’s not right, believe me,” said Martin. “But what’s our alternative? Our way of life would be destroyed right now if we go the other way. Are we bad people for letting this happen? Maybe, but it would kill me to see anything happen to the three of you. And I know something would if we turned Nataliya in. It would only be a matter of time.”

Silence reigned after he spoke the words, and Martin watched as each woman processed the option internally. Kelsey seemed to be the one that was most disturbed by it judging by her facial expressions. Annabelle, as the brain of the group, seemed to rationalize the decision with her logical brain, knowing they had no other option. Rylie, as the one who disliked Nataliya the most, also seemed to come to the same conclusion, mostly because she saw it as the only way out.

Finally, Annabelle spoke up. “It’s the only option we have. As much as I hate to say it, we need to go through with it. We can force Nataliya to go back to her old life and then sever ties with us. If she needs us for any reason, she has Martin to communicate with via RI.”

“I doubt it will be that hard to convince her,” said Rylie. “The way she pines for her husband, I think she would jump at the chance to go back. It would be like rewarding her for what she did, as fucked up as that sounds.”

All three of them turned to look at Kelsey, who still hadn’t spoken. It wasn’t hard to tell that she was distressed by the range of emotions on her face, and when the dam finally broke, she started to cry. Without any words, Kelsey pushed up from her chair and went to the balcony, shutting the door behind her.

Rylie was the first to speak after she was gone. “I guess we could’ve seen that coming. Of all of us, I think Kelsey was the one most pushing for Nataliya to be integrated into our life. Now we see that it was all for nothing.”

“Kelsey is the most emotional of all of us,” added Annabelle. “This is going to weigh on her conscience the heaviest. I think the three of us see what we need to do but she’s going to be the toughest one to convince.”

Martin agreed with Annabelle. “Let’s give her a moment to process everything. I don’t want to crowd her right now, and I want to give her time to think. I will talk with her in a little bit though. See if she has any other reservations or objections.”

Both Rylie and Annabelle nodded, agreeing to the plan.

“For now though, can I get a moment to myself?” asked Martin. “I think I need to do the same thing. I need time to process this and think through my actions. Frankly, I just want to make sure I can look at this from every angle and not miss anything.”

“We’ll give you all the time you need,” promised Annabelle as she pushed up from the table. She gently kissed his cheek before moving to the kitchen. “Let us know if you want to talk about anything.”

Rylie did the same thing, kissing his other cheek. She left without any words, following Annabelle into the other room.

CHAPTER 21

MARTIN TOOK a deep breath once he was finally alone. He lowered his head, putting his hands on either side while he stared at the table.

What in the world had he gotten himself into? How had one act of what he thought was selfless love morph into the situation that he found himself in? He never would have anticipated this chain of events when he first cloned Kelsey, and he doubted whether he would do it again if he knew it would turn out this way.

Okay, so that was a lie. Despite the situation with Nataliya, he was more than thrilled to be with Kelsey, Annabelle, and Rylie. If it was only the four of them, he doubted he would have a care in the world.

But what was he to do now? Could he really sanction Nataliya stepping back into her old life?

For a brief moment, he wondered about whether or not he should just confess his role in this. Sure, the clone Nataliya would be punished and he’d probably go to prison. He’d have to come clean to Nataliya’s parents and husband as well, as he was the reason why their daughter/wife was no longer there.

Except that he wasn’t. After all, Martin didn’t make the decision to clone Nataliya. Someone at RI did. The fallout of it all just landed in his lap. He wondered who actually did it, and whether it was Vince the CEO or Bryce the VP. Or potentially someone else. Surely Claire wasn’t blameless either?

In the end, he just couldn’t stomach the thought of something happening to the other three women. He loved all three of them, and if he was put away, who knew what might happen to them? No one would be around to protect them, and they might be treated as less than human for being clones.

The best decision was to put Nataliya back with her husband. It was a conversation he’d have to have with her at some point, but for right now, there weren’t any better options.

Martin took another half hour to think through his decision before he was satisfied with the result. With his mind set, he decided to tend to the one other person who needed a little help.

Kelsey was still out on the balcony, her arms resting on the railing. Martin shut the door behind him as he went outside, feeling the chilly air.

Kelsey registered his appearance right away. For a moment, he had a sense of deja vu, remembering confronting her the last time she was this upset about him sleeping with Nataliya.

Somehow, this situation was even worse than that.

Kelsey’s first question was blunt and to the point. “Are we terrible people, Martin?”

He came to a rest right beside her, leaning on the balcony. “I really don’t think we are. I don’t think that terrible people would be so upset about the options in front of us.”

Kelsey chewed on her bottom lip like she usually did when she was upset. “I feel like I could throw up about this. It just doesn’t seem right to me. I’m half-afraid of being out here and leaving Annabelle and Rylie in there with the psycho murderer. What if she comes for them next?”

“I don’t think it would happen that way,” replied Martin. “The first time Nataliya saw the real Nataliya, she freaked out. I’m guessing that’s by design, to prevent their discovery from the original. It’s something we haven’t had to worry about with you or Annabelle, but other than that, she hasn’t been threatening at all to us. I think she just pushed on for too long to confront the original Nataliya and this is the result. She went against her genome, and it had lethal consequences.”

“I still don’t like it very much,” said Kelsey. “I don’t like that I have to worry about this now. That if Nataliya does go back, our existence depends on her keeping her mouth shut. Why wouldn’t she tell her husband eventually? What’s to stop her from letting the entire story out?”

Martin thought about that question for a moment before he replied. “I guess because her fate will be linked to ours. It’s not like she can just spill the beans on us without it coming back to bite her. If she doesn’t hold up her end of the bargain, we know enough now to bring her down with us. I don’t think it would come to that, and I honestly think she would jump at the chance to get back to her old life.”

Kelsey let out a deep sigh. “Part of me just wants to tell her to go right now. Put an end to all of this and just get her out of our lives. I feel like I’ve really tried to help her adjust to living here but this just failed so hard. Maybe that’s part of the reason why I’m so upset by all of it.”

At that moment, Martin truly understood what Kelsey was going through. She was joked about as being the mother of the group for so long that he just took it for granted but Kelsey really was the glue that held them all together. She had a vested interest in making sure everyone in the apartment got along, and Nataliya was a big monkey wrench that screwed everything up.

In a way, it was a taste of failure for Kelsey and she had a profound dislike of the feeling entirely.

Finally, Kelsey seemed to accept that there was really only one option forward.

“I guess we do what we have to do,” she said, rubbing her arms. “I don’t like it, and I don’t want to be a part of it but it is what it is. At the end of the day, there’s still a body in the trunk of your car, and we have to get rid of it.” Kelsey put her hand to her head. “Jesus, I never thought those words would ever come out of my mouth.”

Martin pulled her close to him. “We’ll get this figured out. I promise.”

She nodded her head and that seemed to be enough for Kelsey at that moment. Both of them exited the balcony only to reemerge in the living room, where Rylie and Annabelle were now glued to the television.

“We were just about to get you,” said Annabelle as she pointed to the screen. “Look at this!”

Martin’s eyes followed her fingers and saw a very familiar sight. A news reporter was now standing outside of Nataliya’s apartment complex on the television. Right below her, a banner flashed “Missing Person” as she continued to speak.

In the corner of the screen was a picture of Nataliya.

“The search continues for a missing woman from the Lakewood neighborhood,” said the reporter, talking into the microphone. “Twenty-nine-year-old Nataliya Kovalchik was supposed to be out getting groceries but hasn’t come home today. Her husband, Brian, contacted the local authorities when she failed to come home and her cell phone was found very close to her apartment door.”

“Thank god she doesn’t have the cell phone still on her,” said Annabelle with a deep sigh. “Or else we’d really be in trouble. We’d lead them right here.”

“Shh,” said Rylie. “She’s still talking.”

“Authorities have filed a missing person’s report and we’re looking for everyone’s help in finding the missing woman. If you see anyone matching the description of the picture in the corner of the screen, please reach out to the local police.”

From there, the shot on the television shifted to what could only be her husband, Brian. He had several microphones in his face, and he looked extremely worried as he spoke into them.

“I just need help finding my wife. Please, if anyone sees her or knows where she is, please get in contact with me. I have to find her.”

As soon as the bit was over, Rylie summed up the situation quite well.

“We have to get rid of her as soon as possible. Or else we’re all fucked.”

CHAPTER 22

MARTIN SAW the same missing person bit for Nataliya three times that evening. It ran at five o’clock, six o’clock, and the ten o’clock news cycles. Every time it ran, his anxiety worsened.

He knew what had to be done, and that required him to talk to Nataliya. At this very moment, she was still in the master bedroom by herself, as none of the other girls wanted to be anywhere near her. Despite that fact, someone went to check on her every so often just to make sure she had no plans to escape again, but so far, she was staying put.

Finally, Martin couldn’t put off the conversation any longer. He left the other girls in the living room and approached the master bedroom, finding Nataliya sitting on the edge of the bed and looking out the window toward the park outside.

“Nataliya?”

She finally registered his appearance by snapping back to reality and adjusting her clothes.

“Hey, Martin,” she said softly before turning her attention back to the window. Her eyes remained fixed in place and she showed no signs of distress at what had transpired today.

Martin was amazed by how calm she seemed. This was a person who just murdered someone else not much more than a few hours ago, and here she was without a care in the world.

All of it seemed to reinforce the fact that Nataliya wasn’t meant to stay with them long-term.

Martin sat on the side of the bed next to her. For a long time, he didn’t say a word. It was incredibly hard to ask her to leave, even after what had happened today. Despite Nataliya’s flaws, he knew there was still a reasonable person underneath, even if finding that person was getting increasingly difficult.

“I heard what the other girls had to say today,” began Nataliya, breaking the silence. She turned to face him. “About me leaving.”

In true Nataliya fashion, she opened the conversation with the elephant in the room.

“How do you feel about that?” asked Martin, testing the waters. “We don’t have a ton of options here. And if you go back, it would be a way for all of us to get what we want.”

Nataliya snorted. “Most of all them though? The other girls? They don’t want to live with me anymore, and I can’t blame them. They get their way and I’m out of the apartment. I’m out of your hair too, which you’re probably thrilled about.”

Nataliya looked down at the floor. Even though her statement started off with vinegar, Martin was able to see that the real thing that was hurting her was the rejection. It was the fact that she’d pissed off everyone in the apartment and now she’d finally used up all her available strikes.

“Nataliya, I don’t blame them either,” said Martin finally. “Not after what happened. Why’d you even leave in the first place? Was it really that bad here?”

“Yes . . . and no,” said Nataliya. “Yes because I was never going to fall in line and just be another girlfriend to you, not like the rest of them. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciated what he had at one time but that was a long time ago, Martin. We’ve both moved on since we were teenagers, and while it was nice to have sex with you again, it was just that—sex.”

Martin chose not to dispute whether or not it was “nice” to have sex with Nataliya when she’d essentially forced herself on him but that wasn’t a good road to go down right now. Not when she was still this volatile.

“I know that you aren’t happy here,” said Martin, changing the subject. “And maybe it’s for the best. We have a strange arrangement here, I know that. I mean, I have three girlfriends. How weird is that?”

At least Nataliya cracked a smile. “Four technically, if you count me.”

“Even four, for the short period that it lasted,” said Martin, choosing his words wisely. He wanted to reinforce the fact that whatever had happened between them before was now definitively over. “But I know asking someone else to accept this life is a tall order. And you have another option here. You can go back to Brian. You can get what you’ve been asking for ever since you got here.”

Nataliya stiffened at the mention of her husband. A tear started to descend down her face. “How can I even look him in the eye knowing what I did? I killed his wife. I killed me. You know what I’ve been questioning this entire afternoon since we got back? What did I actually do today? Did I commit murder or did I commit suicide? How do you think someone would look at that?”

“Those are dark thoughts that you don’t need to be having right now,” said Martin, reeling her back in. The last thing he wanted was Nataliya getting too in her head about what she did. She needed to help them figure out the solution, not dwell on the past at this critical juncture.

Nataliya sighed. “Maybe you’re right. You’re always right, do you know that? It used to bother me when we were in high school. You always had worse grades than I did but you were just so damn rational. Maybe that’s one of the reasons we don’t belong together.”

Nataliya’s voice trailed off as she threatened to go off on another tangent. For now though, Martin had to make sure she stayed engaged.

“Nataliya, I need you to help us fix this,” said Martin firmly. “I need you to be onboard with the plan, not just for my sake or for the other girls. For your sake too. This will affect you too if we don’t move quickly.”

Nataliya’s eyes locked on his. “I’ve been thinking about this too. In a way, I think that’s why I did it. I think that’s why I killed her, although I can’t say for certain what was going through my head at that time. It was just so . . . fuzzy. My brain felt like mush, like I couldn’t get a good grasp of reality. One second, I’m sitting on the curb wondering what to say to Brian. In the next, I just saw her. And I blacked out at that point. When I came to, she was on the ground. There was just so much blood. I didn’t realize I had it in me.”

Nataliya looked back down at the floor. “I think the choice is pretty simple. I could either go to jail and risk implicating all of us with me or just go back to my old life. Go back to my husband. Go back to the lifestyle that I enjoyed. I might feel like an impostor at first but is it really that wrong? I’m still me, right? I’m still Nataliya and this is my life.”

Martin nodded his head, choosing not to open that ethical can of worms. The truth was a lot harder than that. Since clones had no legal standing in the country, Nataliya was an impostor essentially. She would be taking over her real life, and the real Nataliya would never get the chance to see out the rest of hers.

It was just another ethical dilemma that perhaps proved why cloning was still illegal after all.

“You do realize that if you do this, there’s no going back,” warned Martin. “If you make this decision, you have to stick by it, and you can never tell another soul what you’ve done. Not even Brian. It’s that serious, Nataliya. All of our lives hang in the balance, even yours.”

Nataliya shrugged. “What other option do I have? Like I told you already, I’m not going to jail for this. It gives me the perfect opportunity to get back to where I belong. I’d be foolish not to take that.”

Once more, Martin bit his tongue. He couldn’t help but question whether Nataliya was truly coherent when she acted out against her original. Knowing that she wanted back to her old life all along, was it entirely unreasonable to suggest that she went out looking to harm the real Nataliya if it meant putting this option in front of her?

Just how calculating was Nataliya really?

Martin got his answer with what she said next, something so shocking that it came out of left field.

“I’m going to get my second chance, Martin,” she said firmly, locking eyes with him. “I’m glad that you’re on my side on this willingly, because if not, then I’d be forced to do something that I wouldn’t like to do.”

He gave her a confused look. “What on earth are you talking about?”

Nataliya jerked her head back. “I know there’s a body in your trunk. That’s a powerful amount of leverage, don’t you think?”

His mouth fell open, stunned that she would even suggest such a thing. To hold that as leverage over him to ensure that she got her new beginning was something he never thought she’d resort to.

Nataliya noticed his reaction and patted his thigh. “Don’t worry. I don’t think it would come to that, not as long as we stay on the same page. I just want you to know that I realize how high the stakes are. This is the best option for everyone. I’m more than willing to help you dispose of her body and put this behind us, but know that this is the only thing I’m willing to do. There’s no other option.”

Martin couldn’t even bring himself to reply to that. He did the only thing he could do in that situation.

He nodded his head in agreement.

CHAPTER 23

IT WAS late in the evening when Bryce received the text from Claire to come into her office. The VP of Production at Replica Imagination downed what was left of his scotch whiskey and wiped his mouth before making the slow walk over to her office.

At this point in the evening, Bryce had little patience for anything Claire had to say. The stupid bitch had gotten her way much too often of late, and her gloating about it was getting hard to stand.

He almost expected to find her leaning back in her chair being serviced by one of her clones when instead, he found her eyes glued to her computer monitor on her desk.

“What do you want?” asked Bryce before he was abruptly hushed by Claire. She gestured for him rapidly.

“Come over here and take a look at this,” she snapped, pointing to her screen.

Bryce closed the distance and stepped around her desk. On her screen was a newscast detailing a missing woman.

“And what use could this possibly be to me?” asked Bryce, rolling his eyes.

Claire used the back of her hand against his crotch. Bryce grunted as his balls began to sting.

“You dolt, that’s the missing clone, isn’t it?” asked Claire. “This missing woman, this Nataliya Kovalchik. She’s the one that’s due to start the job next week!”

Upon hearing Claire’s words, Bryce took a closer look. Sure enough, Claire was completely right the moment that they flashed Nataliya’s picture on the screen.

“No shit,” muttered Bryce before shaking his head. “So which one is actually missing? The clone or the original?”

Claire scowled at him. “Isn’t that obvious with what we know? More than likely the original is dead!”

“It’s not going to look good for anyone when the clone shows up, especially if they find a body,” said Bryce. “Fuck, I was hoping she wouldn’t turn up after all this time.”

“They always turn up,” snapped Claire. “That’s why you’re an idiot for not killing her the night she escaped.”

Bryce glowered back at him. “Careful, bitch. I can still visit upon you the same treatment we gave to Vince.”

Claire paled visibly and didn’t have a witty retort for once.

As if on cue, the CEO of Replica Imagination stopped at the door a moment later. Vince had been awfully docile as of the last few days, no doubt because of the special “treatment” that he’d received at the hands of Claire and Bryce. It removed a good portion of his arrogance and made him a much more pliable partner than he was before.

And judging by his expression, Vince had already seen the same newscast.

“Both of you have a missing clone problem,” said Vince, cutting right to the heart of the matter.

“Something I was just bringing to Bryce’s attention,” replied Claire.

“You need to do something about it,” said Vince. “By all accounts, the original is probably the one missing, and I’m guessing that she is dead. Find the body. This woman was due to start working here this week. Her death could lead any investigators straight to RI, especially if her clone turns up out of the blue. We can’t have any more security leaks.”

“I’ll get a team on it right away,” said Bryce, turning his attention back to the screen. He couldn’t help but focus on the picture of Nataliya in the corner. It was just too bad that she escaped before he had a chance to fuck her.

Vince didn’t linger after giving his statement, making his way back to the office and leaving them alone. After he left, Claire pulled out a file from her desk. “By the way, here’s something you ought to see. I’ve been doing your job for you yet again.”

She opened the file to reveal a small stack of printed records. Bryce recognized it immediately as the master log from the replicators, detailing by genome who’d been cloned within a certain time range. Claire had several names separated and highlighted and then pushed them over to Bryce, which he started to peruse at once.

“What is this for, I just see a list of names,” said Bryce before he caught onto something. “Wait a second. Annabelle Henry. I remember that name. What’s with all the rest of these?”

“Names of those that were cloned recently who were not authorized to do so,” replied Claire. “I had the database scrubbed and matched back against payments and those were the names that stuck out. The very interesting part was that these names were all deleted from the user memory on the replicators, as if someone was trying to hide it. Thankfully, I was able to still pull them from the admin file that only we have access to. From there, I’ve been looking for links back to our primary suspect, Martin Kennedy, and look what I found.”

She tapped on one particular name, a woman named Kelsey Jennings, and then she opened up a new browser on her computer and typed in both Martin and Kelsey’s full names.

An old article came up—a slow day news piece that detailed the opening of a new park not far away. The reporter had interviewed some people who came out for the park’s grand opening and had caught a small piece from one couple about their thoughts on it.

“Martin Kennedy and his girlfriend, Kelsey Jennings, love the new park and all the amenities,” read Bryce before looking at the date. “When was this piece from? What year?”

“2027,” replied Claire. “Wait, it gets better.”

She then navigated to a new page and pulled up an obituary for Kelsey Jennings.

“And there’s the motive right there,” said Claire, clearly pleased with herself. “Martin Kennedy snuck into the testing area and cloned his dead girlfriend to bring her back to life. We don’t yet know how he had access but this proves he was in the testing area the night that the Nataliya clone escaped. That was why she was calling out to him.”

Bryce was still putting it all together. “But how would Nataliya know Martin?”

Claire smacked his stomach. “Does it matter? I don’t care how she knows him. She knew him enough to recognize him and now we have a direct link that puts him at the scene of the crime.”

“What about the other names on the list?” asked Bryce, still browsing it. “What does Annabelle have to do with this?”

“I guess we’ll find out when we take care of Martin,” said Claire as a cruel smile grew on her face. “Maybe he’s one of the smart ones that realized the potential of the clones. We might find a few girls where he lives, taking advantage of all the perks cloning has to offer.”

Bryce grunted and put the file back down on his desk. “Imagine that—he tried to clone his dead girlfriend, and maybe many others, and erase the records. I’m thinking we need to pay Kennedy a visit.”

“Oh, yes,” agreed Claire. “And this time, he won’t be permitted to get away so easily.”

CHAPTER 24

THE NEXT MORNING, Martin didn’t go to work.

With all that was going on with Nataliya, there was no way he was going to be able to focus. In fact, being at RI now was seen as more of a liability than anything else, so he did the only thing that made sense in the moment.

He let his director know that he was going to be taking a leave of absence effective immediately. That would buy him at least three weeks that he could concentrate on putting his life back together before even thinking about going back to work.

Truthfully, Martin had to think long and hard about even going back. By this point in his life, RI was just a stressor more than anything else, and his life had more than enough of that to go around. Might it not be easier to just escape from RI and this city and start over far, far away?

The girls always talked about getting to some remote beach and starting the bar, even if it was only a half-serious discussion. Truth be told, that option was looking very attractive to him right now as a way to escape all this RI madness.

For now though, he had to figure out what to do about getting Nataliya back into her old life, something that Annabelle and Nataliya had joined him in order to plan it out.

There was an interesting dynamic between the two women this morning. They weren’t friends anymore but they weren’t enemies either. There was a noticeable lack of warmth in the interactions between them but their conversation was guided by sheer pragmatism more than anything else.

Both of them knew their futures rested on them doing the right thing at this moment, and that made them willing to work together to achieve their goal.

“So we’re all agreed that Nataliya can’t speak a word of this to anyone once she goes back, right?” started Annabelle, looking back and forth between Martin and Nataliya. “This only works if we have complete silence that a cloned Nataliya never existed.”

“Agreed, obviously,” replied Nataliya. “I won’t say a word.”

“There is still a log of Nataliya’s cloning in the replicator at RI though,” said Martin. “For our long-term safety, we need to make sure we remove her name just like we did the other girls. Once we remove her name, we don’t ever have to worry about that evidence coming to light.”

“What about the job?” asked Annabelle. “Nataliya is supposed to start on Monday. Does she feel confident enough to start the job with all that happened?”

Nataliya scowled. “I’m right here, you know. You don’t have to talk about me like I’m not here.”

Annabelle met Nataliya’s eyes and held the look for several seconds before replying. “Do you think you can handle the job?”

“Yes, obviously!” said Nataliya. “Just because I’m a clone, it doesn’t mean that I’ve suddenly gone stupid.”

Annabelle looked back at Martin. “I guess that just leaves one thing then.”

“The body,” replied Martin. “We need to get rid of Nataliya’s body. Somewhere that no one will ever find it and connect it back to us.”

“I saw a show one time about using some kind of acid to dissolve fingerprints and make body recognition nearly impossible,” said Nataliya brightly. “We could do something like that.”

Martin gave her a weird look, especially since this was her own body she was talking about. “And that wouldn’t look weird with us buying enough acid to make that happen. We can’t leave a paper trail. That’s how people get caught.”

The familiar scowl returned to Nataliya’s face. “Then what kind of bright ideas do you have?”

Martin took a deep breath. “Listen, I know this topic is very distasteful but we still need to do it. So let’s just be blunt about it. I’m thinking of a heavily wooded area. Somewhere that there aren’t any people. We move under the cover of darkness and use a bag to dump it in the woods. It’s got to be somewhere relatively far away and a place that no one has connections to. Also a place that we won’t be noticed on the way in or out. The key to this is blending in.”

“We also need to move quickly before she stinks up the car,” said Annabelle, her nose wrinkling. “We’ll never get that smell out.”

“I know of a place we can go,” said Nataliya. “It’s a small farming community about an hour away. Lot’s of big acreage out there and a very tiny amount of people. Plenty of forests.”

“How do you know of it?” asked Martin.

“I went there a couple times in the past,” said Nataliya. “They run a farmer’s market a couple times a year, and they have cheap produce. Brian and I would go shortly after we got married but we haven’t been back in a year. It’s perfect for seclusion. In fact, I know a spot where we could have nearly total privacy.”

Martin wondered whether it would be right to trust Nataliya with this. She seemed confident in the spot and they were running out of time.

“You said it’s an hour away?” he asked before looking at his watch. “Fine, we’ll go once the sun starts to set.”

CHAPTER 25

THE RIDE OUT to this small farming town was an incredibly quiet one. Despite having three people in the car, the only one talking was Nataliya, and that was to occasionally give directions on where to go.

For most of the ride, Martin suspected everyone was trying to pretend there wasn’t a dead body in the trunk.

For the most part, Nataliya’s intuition was spot on. They found a secluded area off of a dirt road that led back into a heavy wooded thicket. From there, Martin was able to park the car, and the three of them scampered around to the trunk.

When he opened the trunk, there was nothing but Nataliya’s body, several trash bags, and two shovels.

“Let’s find a good spot,” said Martin, not believing that he was about to involved in another illicit burial.

They found one about a hundred yards back from the road, a spot where no one would have any reason to look. The hardest part was getting her body back there but once it was there, Martin and the girls switched off doing the digging. Finally, the hole was deep enough to hide a body, and that was when the original Nataliya was placed inside.

Light was only provided by one flashlight, and then the work resumed to fill in the hole. By the time it was ten o’clock, Martin put on the last bit of topsoil and put pressure on it with the blade of his shovel.

“Okay, it’s done,” he said, taking a moment to rest on the shovel. “Let’s get back to the car and start driving back to the apartment. We have a long ride in front of us.”

The car ride back to the city was a little more animated than the drive out. For one, Martin suspected that getting the body out of the back lifted a proverbial weight off of everyone’s shoulders, lowering the tension overall. Even Annabelle and Nataliya were inclined to talk to each other, almost like they were the same old friends they used to be.

Finally, the car pulled up a short distance from Nataliya’s real apartment. For obvious reasons, Martin decided to drop her off here instead of risking any unnecessary exposure.

Once the car was turned off, Martin pivoted around in his seat to look at Nataliya. “Have you given any thought to an alibi?”

Nataliya gave him a funny look. “What do you mean an alibi?”

“I mean that your husband is probably going to want to know where you’ve been for the last day and a half,” explained Martin. “What are you going to tell him?”

Nataliya shrugged off the answer. “Oh, that’s easy. I’m just going to tell him I went to a drug-fueled orgy for the last night and I passed out and didn’t wake up until now.”

Both Martin and Annabelle stared at her in shocked disbelief.

“What?” asked Nataliya, looking back and forth at time. “I told you, we are very open-minded and kinky people. Besides, he’ll just be happy I’m safe.”

“Yeah, but what are you going to tell the police though?” asked Annabelle. “I’m assuming you’re not going to tell them . . . all of that.”

“Already got that portion covered,” replied Nataliya. “Trust me on this. My outcome in all of this is just as serious as it is for you both. I’m not going to screw this up.”

Martin and Annabelle shared an apprehensive look. There wasn’t much else they could do besides deciding to trust Nataliya.

“All right then,” said Martin finally. “I guess it’s time to get this show on the road. If you need to talk to me, you can get me at work once I get back to the office in a few weeks.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be just fine,” promised Nataliya before she turned to look at Annabelle. At that moment, she struggled to meet Annabelle’s eyes.

“Annabelle, I just want to say before I go that I’m sorry. For everything. I haven’t been a very good friend to you, something that I’m reminded of every time that you look at me. I know I’ve screwed up a lot but I’m hoping this is the best way that I can make things right between us.”

“I know it hasn’t been easy,” said Annabelle. “You know, having you drop right in on all of us, and not by your choice. I know this was tough on you, and maybe you’re right. Maybe this is what’s best for all of us.”

Nataliya nodded. “I just want to say that I do cherish your friendship and I’m sorry for hurting you.” She then gestured to Martin. “I hope you and Martin have a very good time together. You two are perfect together, and I’m glad that you found someone that can make you feel so happy.”

Annabelle smiled as her hand crept into Martin’s. “I’m happy too. Thank you, Nataliya. That means a lot.”

Finally, Nataliya turned to look at Martin only. “And I’m sorry for the situation I put you in too. Although, I can’t help but think that you’re one of the only people I would have wished to run into right after being cloned. Despite our history, I know you went out of your way to make me feel welcomed. You were always one of the good ones, and I will always appreciate you.”

“I wish things could have turned out differently, Nataliya. I really do,” said Martin. “In any event, I hope you make the most of this second chance. And I hope it brings you the happiness that we couldn’t give you.”

Nataliya smiled sadly. “Not that you both didn’t try, which I’m grateful for. The other two . . . well, Kelsey tried but Rylie was just a little too different from me. Either way, this is for the best.”

“Definitely for the best,” confirmed Martin.

“At least I’ll have some good memories of our second chance together,” said Nataliya to Martin. “Even if I was only your fourth girlfriend.”

“Trust me, Nataliya, you’ll be a hard act to follow,” said Martin, meaning every word. Though that could be taken in a good way or a bad way, he meant what he said in the most genuine way possible.

Nataliya giggled. “Well, if you ever want to take me for a ride again, Brian and I really enjoy swapping. And I’m sure he’d really dig Annabelle.”

Annabelle shook her head. “Thanks but no thanks to that, Nataliya. I’m a one-man kind of girl.”

Nataliya smiled. “I know you are. I was only half-serious about that.”

With those words, Nataliya took a deep breath and opened the car door. “Well, it’s now or never. See you soon, Martin.”

The door to the car shut gently as Nataliya began to walk toward her apartment. She never did look back or offer any kind of acknowledgment that she knew they were still sitting there.

In a strange way, it was like she’d already shut the book on the story of her stay with them.

“Can you believe she’s really gone?” asked Annabelle once she crossed the street and entered her apartment complex.

“It’s hard to believe she was even here to begin with,” replied Martin. “Sometimes I wished that her stay with us was just a bad dream.”

Annabelle snickered. “I know what you mean. Especially toward the end. I love the girl, but she has some problems. I’m just hoping getting her back to her husband and her routine will be good for her. Staying with us was like putting her in a pressure cooker. No wonder she exploded in the end.”

“True but we certainly tried to get her adjusted, right? It’s not like we just threw her to wolves.”

“No, I agree with you,” said Annabelle. “But in the end, this is for the best. We weren’t all meant to live together with her. She’ll be happier this way.”

Martin turned to look at her. “Hopefully we’ll be too.”

Annabelle smiled and squeezed his hand. “I know we’ll be.”

“I’m just so glad to be home and so embarrassed that it all came down to this. I’m glad to know that I have people in my life that love me, and I’m just really happy to be here with my husband.”

Martin and the girls watched the news report the next morning as the headline “Missing Woman Found” ran across the bottom. The reporter was now interviewing Nataliya, who was being hugged by her husband, Brian. Nataliya was really playing up the role, looking very embarrassed at the ordeal that had been created by her disappearance.

Of course, she put the official alibi on missing some critical medication, which had two side effects. One, it sounded legitimate enough that everyone would accept it at face value, and two, no one would question her on what the medication was out of privacy.

In all, it seemed that the entire ordeal was over, and Rylie was the first to let out a big sigh of relief after the news segment ended.

“Thank god it’s all over,” she said. “I’ll be happy if I don’t see her again.”

Annabelle elbowed her in the side. “Are you most happy about getting your room back again?”

Rylie made a face. “Not really. I mean, I kind of like all of us sleeping together in one room. Plus that spare bedroom kind of has bad memories in it now of Nataliya being in there. Not sure if I really want to be there.”

“Even with Nataliya gone, we are still pretty cramped in here,” said Kelsey before turning to look at Martin. “We might want to decide to find a new place soon. Something bigger.”

“And with a humongous king bed,” added Rylie before looking around to all of them. “That is, as long as you’re okay with me joining your bed permanently?”

Kelsey giggled. “I’m fine with it. And I’m sure that Martin won’t have any objections.”

Martin hammed up his response. “Let’s see, three women in my bed instead of two. Yeah, that’s a real struggle of an answer.”

Rylie beamed with a smile. “It’s so great to be back to normal. Just all of us again.”

Martin fully agreed. He could be very happy living out the rest of his days with just Kelsey, Annabelle, and Rylie, and it seemed like they were finally in a place where they could move forward. He soon pushed off the couch in order to refill his cup of coffee, pausing briefly at the window to look outside.

It was a cloudy day for the season but it wasn’t the overcast skies that caught his initial attention.

It was the fact that a very familiar face was now standing outside his apartment. Martin did a triple-take as he looked at the face, trying to place it in the right context.

Suddenly, he remembered just where he’d seen that face before.

It was on the Florida trip a full month ago. The man that confronted him in the restaurant that looked like he might be related to Bryce Rookwood.

But what the hell was he doing outside his apartment?

That was when he heard the pounding on the door.

“Martin Kennedy, open this door right now!”

CHAPTER 26

MARTIN’S BLOOD had gone completely cold.

Outside his front door, someone was pounding on it like they were trying to bring it down. Just below the window to the outside parking lot, someone who looked an awful lot like Bryce Rookwood was standing there, with several cars behind him.

It was at that moment that Martin realized that there was nothing coincidental about the look-alike. He was the same man they ran into down in Florida, and the fact that he was here meant he was all connected to this.

And there was no time to figure out how or why.

“Open up this door right now!”

The pounding continued, and the noise of all of it forced the girls into the kitchen, all of them looking scared at the sudden ruckus.

“What’s going on?” asked Kelsey, her voice soft and apprehensive. “Who’s at the door?”

“No one good,” said Martin, quickly crossing over and looking out the peephole. Sure enough, the first thing he saw were bodies. Lots of men, all dressed in black, and all of them armed. They weren’t the police though, as they were lacking any kind of identifiers that might associate them with law enforcement.

It could only be one thing—a silencing party from RI that had somehow connected him to all the cloning. And now they were here to snuff out the lead.

“We need to get out of here fast,” said Martin, moving away from the door. “We’re in great danger, and those men out there have guns.”

Rylie’s eyes went wide as she started to panic. “What do we do? Where do we go? That’s the only way out of this apartment?”

BOOM BOOM BOOM. “Open up, we’re not going to ask again!”

Martin racked his brain, thinking of a solution. That’s when he remembered there was still one other way out, a way that had been found by Nataliya a couple days ago. Before they could do that though, he needed one thing.

Martin sprinted to the bedroom, taking out his gun case from its hidden location. He then dashed into the hallway, where the rest of the girls stared at the case like it might bite them.

“We can still get out,” said Martin, gesturing for all three women to follow him to the back bedroom. He looked at the window and sprung the latch, casting it open.

“Oh, no, no, no,” said Rylie, shaking her hands. “You don’t really expect us to go out the window like the nutcase did, do you?”

“What other option do we have?” asked Annabelle, looking back at Martin. “If those men have guns, who knows what their intentions are.”

“But we have one too,” said Kelsey, pointing at Martin’s case. “This is all happening so quickly!”

BOOM BOOM BOOM. “That’s it, we’re going to break the door down!”

“You just heard them,” said Martin, pointing back to the door. “Annabelle is right. If those men are from RI, this isn’t going to end well. I’m not going to stay and find out what they want if they’re willing to show up with guns while breaking our door down.”

Rylie looked out the window, where it was three stories down to the back parking lot. At least no one from RI appeared to be back there, but that still wasn’t taking into account the fact that they would all have to climb down.

“I don’t want to go first,” she said, taking a step back. “Can someone else go first?”

“I’ll go,” offered Annabelle. She looked around the bedroom. “Can you give me a bed sheet or something to hold onto in case I fall?”

Martin shook his head. “There’s no time,” he said, hearing a loud blast against the front door. “We need to move now!”

Annabelle didn’t fight him on it and she moved quickly to the window. Her long legs slipped over the sill while Martin and Kelsey steadied her. Her feet planted on the protruding stonework below, Annabelle gave them a look of confidence.

“I see how Nataliya did this so easily,” she said. “The brickwork goes all the way down in small increments. Just hold on tight and keep going down.”

“Heh, that’s what she said,” said Rylie, earning a look from the other three. “What? Not the right moment for that?”

“Not even close,” said Kelsey, gesturing for Rylie to go next. “Go on, you’re next!”

Rylie groaned and repeated the same movements as Annabelle. It was as her body was out next that Martin heard another slam against his door, this time hard enough to splinter it.

The sounds of yelling became even more clear—evidence that they were breaking through.

“Stop resisting and let us in!”

Martin fought the urge to tell them all to fuck off. Instead, he helped Kelsey to the sill next. She gave him a neutral look as she climbed down, no doubt putting on a brave face despite the circumstances.

By that point in time, Annabelle had reached the ground, and she was now helping Rylie to climb down.

Finally, it was Martin’s turn. He gestured for Annabelle to get to their car and tossed his keys down to her. She caught them and ran to get it started while he put his feet on the stone ledges.

From this vantage point, the ground looked a lot further away than just being two stories below. One wrong step could see him break a few bones on the fall, something Martin tried to push out of his mind as he climbed.

Though he didn’t want to go too fast, the sound of his front door slamming off the hinges made him panic. He was nearly seven or eight feet from the bottom when he leapt off, rolling as he fell.

Kelsey rushed to him after he was already down. “Martin! Did you hurt yourself?”

“Not even close,” he replied, pushing to his feet. “Come on, let’s go!”

“You down there! Stop!”

Martin and Kelsey ran as someone appeared at the window they’d just climbed out of. Martin only hazarded a split-second look before he saw the flash of a gun and the sounds of bullets hitting the concrete just behind them.

They dashed around the corner of the building, finding the spot where his car was parked. Both doors on the passenger side were still open and Annabelle was at the wheel.

“Go, go, go!” yelled Martin as soon as he and Kelsey flew into the car nearly headfirst.

Annabelle wasted no time in stepping on the gas. The car flew forward, almost sending Martin toward the windshield if not for a last-second grasp on the door handle. The car banked across a tight turn and went barreling through the parking lot, speeding away from the apartment building as fast as they could go.

Martin hesitated upon looking out the back window, not wanting to see if anyone watched them go. In fact, he regretted doing so, as he could clearly see the figure of the Bryce Rookwood look-alike watching them from the side of the building.

CHAPTER 27

“SO DOES anyone have any ideas on what the fuck we do now? Or are we just going to keep driving forever?”

Rylie’s words came after nearly thirty minutes of straight highway time, almost all of it spent in near total silence. Martin likening it to the entire group being in shock, as not only was their home raided and taken from them, but they’d also been shot at in the process.

Whatever trivial bullshit that had occupied them up until a few days ago now seemed completely distant. The stakes were real and someone could die.

And that meant that no one wanted to confront the question head-on, especially if it meant the chance of making a mistake and having someone they loved die.

Annabelle, being the driver, looked over at Martin in the front seat. “We can’t just keep driving forever. Rylie is right. We have to figure something out.”

Martin sighed and looked back over at Annabelle. “I don’t even know what to say. Everything I thought I knew about the world, and RI in general, has just been blown to bits a half hour ago. I don’t know what to do.”

Kelsey leaned forward from the backseat, putting her hand against the headrest. “So it all makes sense now, doesn’t it? There is definitive proof that RI knows what we’ve done, and now they’re going to try to kill us to get rid of the evidence. But is it just us though? Or is it Martin since he’s the one who did it?”

Annabelle shook her head. “I think we can all consider ourselves to be in the same boat. Besides, even if they only wanted Martin, we wouldn’t let that happen. We all go together or none of us go together.”

Rylie grunted in acknowledgment. “Well said, Annabelle.”

“So we need to keep ourselves as far away from RI as possible then,” said Kelsey. “And we need to make sure they can’t find us. If they’re willing to attack us in our own apartment, they’ll go to just about any lengths to catch us.”

“But what I still don’t understand is why do they need to do this?” asked Rylie, causing both Martin and Kelsey to look over at her. “Okay, so Martin cloned people. Big deal. We already know there are thousands of clones out there. What’s the big deal with Martin doing it and why the response to him?”

Annabelle shrugged. “Maybe because he had access to something he shouldn’t have. The others could have been cloned at the direction of leadership.”

“And leadership at RI is anything but stable lately,” said Martin. “Especially with what happened to Vince Dulles.”

Annabelle shot him a weird look. “What happened to Vince?”

Martin took a deep breath. He still hadn’t told the girls about what happened with the meeting with Vince, as well as what happened the next day, when he was fairly certain that Bryce and Claire either threatened him or likely killed him judging on what he knew now. At the time, he hadn’t wanted to upset them, but it seemed like they had every right to know now, so he told them everything.

“Oh my god, Martin,” said Kelsey, putting her face in her hands. “This has gone from bad to worse.”

“I think it was already pretty bad,” grumbled Rylie.

“I know, I know,” replied Martin. “But if there’s some kind of power move at RI right now, we don’t want to be caught in the middle of it. For now, it looks like Bryce and Claire are on top, and that look-alike of Bryce we saw earlier is his clone. I’d bet money on it. They know what we’ve done and perhaps they’re deciding it’s time to stop any further leaks.”

“Bryce and Claire have a lot of resources at their disposal, Martin,” said a worried Annabelle. “There are very few places we would be totally safe.”

“That probably rules out relatives and friends then,” said Kelsey. “Not that it was an option for half of us but for Martin and Rylie, it’s probably a bad idea to try to stay with any of them. It would be the first place that anyone from RI checked.”

Rylie went pale. “You don’t think they would harm our families, do you?”

Surprisingly, Annabelle actually shook her head. “I don’t see that being a very smart move. One person can disappear, and no one will think anything of it. An entire family goes missing or hurt? That makes the national news. The goal for RI is to prevent any further leaks, not to create a breadcrumb trail that leads the media back to them. I don’t think they will take that step.”

“But they shot at us today!” said Rylie. “In public! If they didn’t care to see what happened, why would they do that?”

Martin turned back to look at her. “They used a silencer to muffle the sound. I didn’t see anyone outside either. Not to say that we’re safe in public surrounded by people, but we have to assume they are going to shoot first and ask questions later. We can’t take any risks which is why we have to stay armed too.”

“Whoever is doing this, they’re desperate,” said Annabelle after a moment of silence. “Think about it—they go to a crowded apartment on a weekend morning and burst the door down and fire shots. How do you explain that to any onlookers? They must have thought the result would justify the method, which is the worst thing that can happen.” Annabelle gulped and looked at Martin. “In other words, they really want us dead.”

That last admission caused the car to go silent. The only thing that could be heard for a stretch of several miles was the soft sound of the radio playing at a low volume as well as the light thumping that occurred when the car passed over separate patches of concrete.

“So where do we go?” asked Martin once the enormity of the situation set in. “Because we can’t keep driving forever.”

“What about a hotel?” asked Kelsey. “No one would know us at a hotel.”

Annabelle shook her head. “Most hotels would ask for a credit card on file. If they have a way to search by cards, it would lead them right to us.”

“Annabelle’s right about that,” said Martin. “But if we find a lower-end motel, they might accept cash. There’s only one problem with that.”

“What’s that?” asked Rylie.

Martin pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and opened it. “I only have thirty bucks cash on me right now.”

“We need an ATM then,” said Annabelle. “But wherever we stop, we have to assume they can track us by the use of your card. We stop at an ATM, withdraw the funds that we need, and then get going in the opposite direction. It’ll be the best way to throw them off.”

Martin looked over to the backseat. “Any objections?”

Rylie could only shake her head. Kelsey nibbled on her lower lip for a moment but ultimately shook her head as well.

“Okay, let’s make it happen.”

The group stopped at the first ATM they found, which was for a local bank that they hoped would take longer to track than one of the bigger name banks. Martin withdrew as much as he could, hitting the daily limit for the machine. While that was less than ideal, it would still afford them a week or so at a cheap motel.

“Okay, let’s get moving in the opposite direction,” said Martin once he was back in the car.

And so they drove. They drove for another hour to get back to where they started, driving a wide loop around their city and then joining the highway again on the other side. They kept going for most of the afternoon, not stopping until early evening, when they were about two hours in the opposite direction.

The town they picked was right on the Atlantic coast. It wasn’t the nicest area but then again that was the idea. It only took them two tries to find a motel that would accept cash, this one being a little rundown and having the “E” light broken in the sign that said motel. He drove around from the front office to one of the five smaller buildings on the lot, this one not facing the road and having a back door (which they all accepted as absolutely necessary should the shit hit the fan again).

“This will have to do,” said Martin as he opened the door to their small second-floor room. There were two queen beds and one very old television set that Martin was surprised still worked. The bathroom looked relatively clean, and in all, Martin was happy the inside didn’t appear to match the outside.

At least the girls didn’t seem too disappointed either.

“We can make this work,” said Kelsey while looking around. She swiped her finger across the table, looking for dust like an inspecting mother. When she found none, she turned around and shrugged her shoulders. “At least in the short term.”

“Hopefully the very short term,” muttered Rylie. “Because we don’t have much in clothes or really anything. Everything we left at the apartment.”

“Everything except this,” said Annabelle, holding up a backpack that Martin just realized she’d brought with her from the apartment.

“Anything useful in there?” he asked.

Annabelle nodded and emptied the contents on one of the beds. “I stuck my laptop in here as well as a few clothes that I could easily grab. I also grabbed some toiletries.”

“Well, that helps you but the rest of us are out of luck,” said Kelsey. “We might need to grab some clothes. Nothing too major but it’ll beat wearing the same thing over again.”

“I saw a store on the way over here,” said Martin. “Let’s go do some quick shopping so we have something to change into.”

That trip over to the store was productive. It was one of the bigger box stores that had a section for clothing, allowing them to buy some cheap things to wear for not that much cash. They were also able to grab a few toiletries that Annabelle missed, and the best thing about it all was that they were able to keep it off the credit card, staying anonymous. Before they went back to the motel, they grabbed something to eat from a local fast food chain and then got to the room by dark.

“I really should check my stock profile,” said Annabelle, firing up her computer once they were inside. “As long as I can keep making good trades, we can potentially live off our savings for as long as we need to.”

Checking her computer gave Martin an idea. He requested the laptop for a moment and went to check his email. Not surprisingly, he had two emails waiting for him and both of them were from RI.

The first was the most chilling. It was from Bryce Rookwood.

Martin Kennedy,

You are hereby terminated from Replica Imagination, effective immediately. Please return to collect your belongings no later than tomorrow afternoon.

Bryce Rookwood

Martin felt a shiver go up his spine as he read that one. So it had finally happened. His termination from RI was supposed to coincide with the termination of his life earlier today. Martin had to wonder which one was supposed to happen first, or whether that even mattered.

Even despite the magnanimity of the situation, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of loss.

“I’ve been fired,” he said, causing the girls to huddle around him to read the email.

“I guess we have our proof now,” said Annabelle. “I wonder how they were going to frame this.”

“Frame this? How do you mean?” asked Kelsey.

“I mean they were obviously out to kill us today,” explained Annabelle. “Martin is the only one that technically exists so his body would be the only one anyone would be looking for. I wonder if they were going to frame it that he was terminated and that he was so distraught from his firing that he killed himself. It would be the easiest argument to claim.”

“Annabelle could be right,” said Martin. “But if that’s the case, they should have fired me yesterday. Otherwise, the timing isn’t right.”

Rylie gave him an apprehensive look. “I don’t think they’re going to stop hunting us. So now at least it doesn’t matter.”

That was definitely a chilling statement and Martin clicked away from the email. To his surprise, he had one from his friend, Shawn, from RI and this one was just as disturbing.

Martin, are you okay? They said you quit today because you got caught trying to hack into our systems. They said you exploded on them about the ethicality of what RI does and you wanted to expose them. Any truth to that? We’ve been told not to contact you or we’ll be fired. I’m taking a risk even sending this, but what really happened?

The email had been sent from Shawn’s personal email, which was done no doubt so that RI wouldn’t find out.

“Well, there’s our motive,” mumbled Kelsey as she read the message. “Disgruntled and wanted to expose the company. That’s why they fired you and being so distraught that’s why you . . . well, you know.”

“It makes this even more complicated,” said Martin, hitting the reply button. He typed up a quick message to Shawn, mostly refuting the charge about wanting to expose RI and hit send.

The only problem was that the email bounced a moment after sending.

“What the hell?” swore Martin. “Why did my email bounce?”

“Is it the right address?” asked Rylie.

“It should be. I hit reply to the original. I didn’t change anything either.”

Just tried to send another reply and then another. They kept bouncing back every time. There appeared to be nothing that could be done to get word back to Shawn.

“You don’t think that RI had something to do with that, do you?” asked Kelsey. “What if they have prevented you from sending him emails?”

“That would be some heavy-handed overreach,” said Annabelle. “Not to mention, they’d have to have access to Shawn’s personal account to even make that happen?”

“Does RI have that kind of reach?” asked Rylie.

No one seemed to want to answer that question head on as the thought alone was terrifying enough.

“If they can find us by credit card, we have to assume that emails are compromised as well,” said Martin. “We can’t take any risks. The stakes are too high.”

“So we have nobody that can help us,” said Kelsey finally, nibbling on her bottom lip again. “We’re in some seedy motel far from home with barely any clothes, money, and we obviously can’t go to the police. Just what exactly are we supposed to do here?”

“We survive,” said Martin quietly. “As best we can. We are low on options and we can’t count on family or friends, but we have enough cash to get by for now. We also have the means to protect ourselves so we can just sit tight until something changes in our favor.”

“Like what?” asked Rylie. “What could possibly change?”

Martin shrugged. “We think of something new. At least we’ll have plenty of time to do that here.”

“There’s something else I just thought about,” said Annabelle, looking over at Martin. “What about Nataliya? Do you think she’s part of this? Do you think they know what we did?”

Martin thought about it for a moment before he shook his head. “Things were heating up even before this last situation with Nataliya. I don’t think what happened to her has anything to do with this. If anything, it might be better off that she’s not with us. We all know how much trouble she had blending in.”

“But do you think she’s in danger though?” pressed Annabelle. “What if something happened to her?”

“I really don’t think it would because let’s look at the facts. The original Nataliya going missing would have been bad for RI. It would have brought attention on them, and even possibly alerted the world to the fact that there were two of them—the original and the clone. When we . . . hid Nataliya’s original body, we covered up the situation. That actually made things better for RI as there’s only one Nataliya out there again.”

“Thank god for that,” muttered Rylie, only to receive a glare from Annabelle. “Sorry.”

Martin continued. “I think this is more about me because I’m the one that started all of this. I hate to even say it but I think you three are just collateral damage.”

The words were sour coming out of his mouth and it was a hard thing to admit. Just by having them linked to him put them all in danger, and that was what caused Martin to offer the next suggestion.

“I have to wonder if it’s not better that we split up,” he said, which forced each woman to lock their eyes on him. “Hear me out. They want me for this. I’m the one in trouble with RI, not any of you.”

“Martin, we’re clones,” said Annabelle. “I don’t think that RI is going to take the chance of any clones just wandering around out there. Nataliya’s clone may have been an outlier but I don’t think there’s any benefits to us separating. I only see downsides.”

Martin swallowed heavily. “Nothing looks ideal right now, but if it means they take me and have the chance of leaving you three alone, I’ll take it. Honestly, I can’t bear the thought of anything happening to any of you. Maybe if I go, they’ll just let you off.”

The response that he got was not entirely unexpected.

Rylie crossed her arms in front of her chest and shook her head. “There is no way in hell I’m leaving you, Martin. We’re in this together.”

Annabelle reached over and touched his thigh. “Martin, we love you. We’re better off together than we are separated, and I have to agree with Rylie.”

Kelsey’s reaction was most telling. She flung herself into Martin’s arms and held onto him like her life depended on it.

“I’m not letting you go,” she whispered against him before looking into his eyes. “I love you, and there’s nothing you can say to make me agree to a separation.”

Martin wrapped his arms around Kelsey and hugged her close. As tempting as it was to feel apprehension at knowing the girls were tied to him for better or for worse, part of him couldn’t help but feel grateful that he had them at all.

There were some guys out there that struggled to find the love of just one woman.

He had the devotion of three beautiful ones, and it was something he would be forever grateful for.

“I guess I’ve been outvoted,” he joked while still hanging onto Kelsey. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. All I know is that we have to use our brains and we’ll hopefully figure a way out of this. We have no other options.”

“We’ll figure something out,” said Annabelle a moment later. “We just have to.”

Martin wasn’t so sure.

CHAPTER 28

THAT EVENING, the motel room was pretty quiet despite the cramped circumstances. Everyone took turns using the shower to freshen up before settling into bed to watch mindless television. For that first night, it was determined that Martin and Kelsey would share one bed while Annabelle and Rylie got the other, which was about as fair as they could make it.

At one point in the evening, while Kelsey was getting her shower and Annabelle was busy checking her stocks, Martin sat down next to Rylie and felt her scoot closer to be against him. For a moment, he thought that she was going to be anxious about what might happen to them but to his surprise, she looked almost like she was proud of herself.

Rylie didn’t make him ask before she started explaining.

“I scaled down a three-story building today,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “I’m deathly afraid of heights and I scaled down the side of a building today without any harnesses or safety precautions.”

“We did what we had to do,” replied Martin. “It was either that or . . . something not so good.”

Rylie actually smiled. “I never thought I’d be able to do that. Even when Nataliya did it, I thought it was just another sign that she was a nutcase but now I’ve done it. We’ve been shot at today and now here we are, but is it weird for me to say that I’m kind of proud of myself for how I reacted to the day? If you’d have told me what would’ve happened, I would probably still be a ball on the floor in the bathroom back at our apartment.”

Martin found himself chuckling to that. “You were incredibly brave today. We all were. We did what we needed to do to survive and it led us to climb down the outside of a building.”

“The old Rylie would never have done that,” she explained. “I mean, the original me. But you know what I’ve realized since that happened? I was asking myself the entire ride out here how I was able to do it and I finally settled on the reason.”

“What is it?”

Rylie smiled at him. “It’s our changed circumstances. It’s knowing how precious life actually is and how I’ve been given a second shot at it. No, I didn’t ask for it but I’ve embraced it. If that means that I have to scale a wall just to stay alive and keep enjoying this life, I’m going to do it.” Rylie let out a deep breath and held up her arm. “I swear I just got chills saying that aloud.”

Martin chuckled and kissed her gently. “I’m proud of you. Not just the person you are but the person you’ve become. I love you.”

She kissed him back. “I love you too. Tomorrow is another day, and we’ll outsmart RI again.”

Martin appreciated her vote of confidence, even if he didn’t exactly share it. At that point in time, Annabelle put her laptop away and claimed her spot on the bed. Rylie turned the light off, leaving the room to be illuminated by the flashing of the television.

Martin crept over to his bed and awaited Kelsey to get out of the shower, which she did in the next few minutes. He expected they would all fall asleep quickly after the exhaustion of the day, but Kelsey got into bed and wrapped her entire body around him, clinging desperately to him.

He could feel her damp air against his shoulders as well as her soft breasts pressing into his side.

“Are you okay?” he whispered to her.

“I just want you to hold me,” she whispered in return. Even the low tone of her voice seemed to indicate that Kelsey was on the brink of tears.

Suddenly, Martin found the roles reversed and he needed to be the confident one.

“It’s going to be okay,” he said, hugging her close to him. “We got through today and we’re going to get through tomorrow too.”

“I’m just really scared,” she admitted. “I don’t want to be separated from you. I don’t want this to keep happening and I don’t know how to fix it.”

“We fix it by staying alive,” he replied. “As long as we’re alive, we have hope. We deny them what they are seeking to rob from us.”

Kelsey craned her face to look at him. “Do you ever wish that you’d not done it? That you didn’t clone me? That you just left me dead?”

Martin’s eyes widened. “Why on earth would I wish that?”

Kelsey’s eyes circled around the room. “Because we wouldn’t be in this dreadful position then.”

Martin shook his head firmly. “I know this looks bad but there isn’t any reason that would ever make me regret what I did. I’d still do it a thousand times over to just get another moment with you.”

Kelsey smiled sadly. “Even if it leads to this outcome?”

Martin nodded. “Even so. I needed to bring you back. Without you, I might as well let them kill me. I had nothing to live for.”

Kelsey gripped him tighter. “I just don’t want to be the reason that this happens to us.”

“We’ll find a way out of this. I promise you that.”

Kelsey nodded and said nothing more. Truthfully, Martin was grateful she didn’t protest any further. He was running out of reassurance and he thought it likely she would see through that soon if she kept asking questions.

Ultimately, there was very little in their control and since that was unlikely to change any time soon, they did the only thing they could think of.

They slept and hoped for a better tomorrow.

“Any luck on that cell phone tracking yet?”

Bryce looked down at his computer, bringing up the app that was looking for the presence of a cell phone of a certain former employee of RI. So far, there was no hint of any signal.

“Not yet,” he confirmed to Claire. “Our systems aren’t as reliable or as fast as the government’s. It could take some more time to get an exact location.”

Claire scowled at him. “We need to find him quickly. Who knows what further damage he could do out there. He could be talking to the press right now and spilling everything about what we do as well as our dirty laundry.”

“Come now, Claire, do you really think he would do that?”

Both Bryce and Claire looked across the room at the figure of Vince Dulles. The CEO of RI was now watching them both calmly, which was a marked change from his usual disposition during this kind of situation.

“Why wouldn’t he?” asked Claire.

“Because he’s probably scared out of his mind,” said Vince with a sneering laugh. “Sometimes I think you’ve been in this business for too long. Not everyone is like us, used to the sights and sounds of death. I bet all it took was being shot at, and they’ve probably found some hole in the ground to hide in like the rats that they are. He’ll be too frightened to go to the press.”

Bryce had to admit that Vince was probably right. He found that he liked Vince a lot more now that the three of them were more or less equal partners. Ever since his “attitude adjustment,” Vince had been much easier to work with.

“He’s got a point,” added Bryce. “This isn’t some business magnate or that senator that gave us a hard time last year. This is just one ordinary man who is likely afraid of his own shadow.”

Claire grunted. “I’d still be happier if I knew where he was. That way, we could send Seven there to end him for good and then get this wrapped up.”

Bryce chuckled and shook his head. “Don’t worry, we’ll have your precious Seven back to you soon enough.”

Claire snarled at him. “Fuck you.”

“Don’t worry, you will be soon,” quipped Bryce. “Just as soon as Seven gets back.”

The man that they referred to as Seven was actually the seventh clone that had been made of Bryce. This particular clone was made with several modifications, most of which came at the direction of Bryce and Claire. Bryce modified the appearance of the clone, giving him a naturally bald head and fast-growing facial hair to hide the fact that he was a clone of Bryce (at least hide it to non-discerning eyes). Claire, seeing as she’d struck up a sexual relationship with Six, instituted a few changes to the lower end of Seven, making him a more aggressive bedroom partner to suit her needs as well as a few other personality changes that benefited a coldhearted killer.

In all, he was quite the machine and his group was colloquially referred to as the “Cleanup Team” around RI, simply because they made issues disappear.

“I got something,” said Vince from across the room. “Credit card transaction this afternoon. Cash withdrawal. He hit the limit of $1,000. The details and location are coming to your computers right now.”

Bryce opened up the message once it appeared, finding the location in some small town about an hour away.

“Do you think he’s stupid enough to not realize that we can track him via his credit card?” asked Claire. “What are our chances of finding him nearby?”

“Slim to none,” replied Bryce. “He was smart enough to figure out access to the replicators so he won’t be stupid when it comes to his hideout. The only question is how long it will take him to figure out his phone is being tracked.”

“We should assume that he’s already figured it out,” said Vince. “Or else we’re liable to always be a step behind.”

“I’m going to get Seven to that ATM right now,” said Claire, using her phone to rapidly dial a number.

Bryce snapped his fingers. “Hang on just a second.”

“What now goddamnit?” she swore. “Are we going to do this or not?”

Bryce rolled his eyes. “Learn some patience, you twat. I’m getting a cell phone position right now.”

Claire quickly rushed over to his side of the desk and bent over to look. If not for the enormity of the situation, Bryce might have stopped to check out her ass. It had been too long since he had a clone of Claire for his personal enjoyment. Perhaps that would have to change?

“What the fuck is he doing there?” screeched Claire a moment later. “He’s in the middle of nowhere, two hours away!”

“He’s being smart about it,” replied Vince. “Or trying to at least. Let’s get Seven out there right away. I see there are three motels within range of that signal. We can have him search all of them.”

Bryce started to chuckle. “And he thought he could get away from us too. What a pity.”

CHAPTER 29

VERY EARLY THE NEXT MORNING, Martin was awakened by the feeling of his bed shifting.

Immediately on alert, he shot up and reached for his gun, but he was surprised (and relieved) to see that it was just Rylie worming into bed.

“Wait! It’s just me,” she whispered, rubbing his chest. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Are you okay?” he asked, laying the gun back down and causing Kelsey to shift her body against his other side.

Rylie nodded. “Wanted to be with you and Annabelle was hogging the blankets.”

Martin held out his arm and Rylie snuggled against his side, going back to sleep as quickly as she’d arrived. A glance at the clock told him it was only four o’clock in the morning but he had a hard time going back to sleep. Despite there being no current threat, he couldn’t help but keep his ear trained for sounds outside their door.

For the most part, the motel was quiet at this hour. At one point, Martin could hear the sounds of a man coughing as he walked past their door but it stayed eerily silent as he listened.

Martin didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Too much silence could be a harbinger of bad news but then again, hearing commotion out in the lot could be the sign that RI had finally caught up with them.

Since he wasn’t able to put those thoughts out of his mind, he mostly stayed awake until the sun started to come up, slipping away from both women to release the pressure on his bladder.

On his way back, he saw that someone else had finally awakened. Annabelle was sitting upright in her bed, no doubt wondering why she was sitting in an empty bed.

“Rylie came over to my bed,” whispered Martin once he saw the confusion on her face.

Annabelle made a knowing look and stretched out, causing her tank top to ride high and expose most of her tummy.

Feeling like no one should be left alone, Martin slipped into Rylie’s former spot and moved closer to her. Annabelle laid her head against his stomach and rested her hand against his thigh. At that point in time, the only thing that could be heard was the shallow breathing coming from the two other girls as they slept.

On the other hand, Annabelle seemed far from relaxed.

“What’s today going to bring, Martin?” she whispered.

“I wish I knew,” he replied, keeping his voice low so as not to wake the others. “But I hope it’s a lot less chaotic than yesterday.”

“I half expected to wake up this morning only to realize that everything that happened yesterday was a dream,” said Annabelle, smiling up at him. “That we’d all still be in bed together with only the Nataliya resolution on our minds. I was hoping you’d roll on top of me and slide inside me to give me the best wake-up call ever.”

Martin couldn’t help but chuckle. “That does sound like a great wake-up call. There hasn’t been a lot of time for that kind of activity lately.”

Annabelle pursed her lips. “Don’t remind me. First Nataliya and now this. Don’t get me wrong, I can put my needs on the back burner for a little while, but that just means I’m going to attack you when the dust settles.”

“I’d rather it was you that attacked me than anyone else,” said Martin. “Well, not including the other two. Let’s just say I only want attacked sexually and no other way. From one of you three, that would be quite the gift.”

Martin wasn’t sure why but Annabelle shot up at that moment as her mouth opened.

“Your gift,” she said in an excited tone. “Martin, your birthday is this week.”

“Don’t remind me,” he grunted. “I was hoping we’d be able to have a good time. And that’s looking increasingly less likely now that we’re here.”

“I was hoping for the same thing,” she added, a pouty look appearing on her face. “Bummer. This really sucks.”

“It’s quite all right,” said Martin, biting his tongue before anything else came out. He almost told her it would be a gift to just still be alive by the time his birthday came around but he didn’t want the conversation to become too depressing.

“We still have to do something,” she insisted a moment later. “Despite the circumstances, I’ve always treated birthdays seriously. It’s kind of ironic in a way. My parents didn’t do much for birthdays and I always felt like the day should have been more than it was, especially when I was younger. Once I moved out on my own, birthdays became more important to me once I saw how valued they were outside my family. I can’t let yours go by without doing something special for you.”

“Trust me, just being here with the three of you is special enough,” said Martin. “I could do with a lot less stress overall but this is just fine for me.”

A range of emotions filled Annabelle’s face for the next several moments. Martin watched as she showed confusion and inflection before finally having an “a-ha” moment.

“I got it,” said Annabelle brightly, shifting closer to his lap. “I know a small way we can celebrate your birthday.”

“How’s that?” asked Martin.

Annabelle shook her head coyly. “I can’t tell you just yet! It’s not your birthday yet.”

“Well, that’s no fun.”

Annabelle grinned and moved her face closer. She kissed him with a surprising amount of heat. “That’s not to say that I can’t give you a preview of what I’m thinking about,” she whispered against his lips.

Even with everything that was going on, Martin’s body responded to that kiss. It didn’t even matter that their lives were literally on the line. At that moment, Annabelle’s exquisite form was pressed against his and he could still feel the wetness of her lips against his.

It was made even better when her hand slipped into his shorts and grabbed his cock, giving a few short jerks.

“I bet you I can make you hard in thirty seconds,” she said with a grin, stroking him with more speed.

“I don’t know anyone who would take that bet,” joked Martin, feeling his cock lengthen at her expert touch. “Not when you touch me like that.”

“I really should give you a good view too, shouldn’t I?” she asked, looking down at the cleavage of her v-neck shirt. Just underneath, Martin had a minimal view of the top of her breasts.

“I mean, it’s the least you can do if you’re not going to tell me what you have planned,” he teased.

Annabelle agreed with him. She yanked her shirt over her head, revealing a light-blue bra that was struggling to contain her chest.

“Is that better?” she asked, gesturing to her chest.

“It’s wonderful but I think I’d like it better without the bra.”

Annabelle puffed out her cheeks in mock annoyance. She reached behind her and unsnapped the bra, sending it tumbling down between them. In doing so, she exposed the magnificent sight of her completely visible tits. In terms of size and sensitivity, they didn’t get much better than Annabelle’s. They were the biggest of the three girls and she had the most perfect eraser-sized nipples.

“Satisfied?” she asked finally once she started to pump his cock again.

“Always with you,” he replied, causing her to finally grin.

“That’s better.”

With those words, Annabelle shimmied out of her sleeping shorts, taking her thong with them. Now that she was gloriously nude, she called into his lap and rested her knees on the outside of his hips. Annabelle put her arms against his shoulders and gazed at him lovingly while rubbing her pussy against his shaft.

“We could have a lot of fun with this,” said Annabelle sliding forward and backward, coating the underside of Martin’s cock with her juices. “It ups the ante when you’re so close to being in me but not quite in me yet.”

Martin bit his lip and nodded. It was agony on one hand to be this close and yet so far away, but it was a really good kind of agony. He could feel Annabelle’s slickness coating his member and he knew it would only take her sliding just an additional hair forward before his cock would pop up and seek her entrance.

“Should I stop teasing you?” she asked, pushing her tits in his face and rocking her hips against him. “Because I’m having too much fun to stop.”

Martin growled at her. “If you don’t put me in you, I’m going to just roll you on your back and take you.”

Annabelle actually purred at that statement. “I like it when you get aggressive like that. I think I just came already.”

“Well, you’re going to love this.”

Martin grabbed her hips, pulling her forward just enough for his cock to pop up. Annabelle gasped when he pushed her back down, finding just the right angle for his manhood to slip into her tight, wet passage.

Annabelle’s eyes rolled to the back of her head and she bit her lip once she felt him inside her.

“You’re right, I really did enjoy that,” she said.

It was exactly what he needed too. After all the stress of the last few days, having a chance for mutual pleasure was very welcome indeed. Soon enough, they had a very good rhythm going. Annabelle elevated her hips so that she was bouncing down on his cock, which helped to meet him halfway with his upward thrusts. All the while, she kept the rest of him close enough to her body, with her arms wrapped around his neck and his lips at the perfect level to latch onto her exquisite nipples.

“Oh, yes,” moaned Annabelle after several minutes of thrusting. “Oh, fuck yes. Why does your cock have to feel so fucking good?”

Martin kept up the momentum. “Because it was made to fill your pussy, that’s why.”

She moaned in approval and kissed him. “You’re stretching me open in places I never knew existed. Oh my god, yes! Right there! More!”

Annabelle rocked harder against him, achieving her first orgasm a moment later. With her body shuddering and not able to maintain the rhythm, Martin grabbed her ass and took complete charge. He pounded her body with steady timing and pace, bringing himself so close to the edge before barreling off of it in a hurry.

They both panted when he filled her body, and Martin could feel her muscles milking his cock as he spewed inside her.

“Mmm, now that’s how you start a morning,” said Annabelle, smiling brightly once her orgasm faded.

“I have to hand it to you—you never fail to disappoint,” joked Martin.

Annabelle lifted her ass, which made his cock fall out of her body. At that moment, a large glob of cum fell out of her and splashed against his thigh.

“Sorry,” she giggled, reaching over to grab a tissue.

“Trust me, you two have nothing to be sorry about.”

Both Annabelle and Martin turned their attention to the other side of the room, where both Kelsey and Rylie were watching them with rapt fascination. The two women wore matching grins once they were discovered.

“Please don’t stop on our account,” said Rylie, holding up her hand.

“Bunch of voyeurs around here,” said Annabelle, shaking her head.

“You wouldn’t change a thing about us and you know it,” quipped Kelsey.

Annabelle thought about that for a moment before nodding her head. “I guess you’re right.”

After getting cleaned up and dressed, the group left the motel that morning to find something to eat. There was a small, family-run diner not far from the motel and it was there that they went for generous helpings of pancakes and coffee.

“You know, this place is pretty good despite the exterior,” said Rylie after taking down her second pancake. “It’s not the kind of place I would have come willingly.”

“And you can tell that’s the case because you’re probably the hottest girl to ever walk through those doors,” joked Martin. “Especially with all the attention that you’re getting.”

That was definitely true. Most of the tables were full of single men, mostly truckers that had stopped off for something to eat. And they were certainly enjoying the sight of all three beauties at Martin’s table.

Rylie shrugged. “I’m not even looking particularly hot today.”

Annabelle shushed her. “You’re hot every day. What are you smoking?”

Both Rylie and Kelsey giggled. As they did so, they attracted the attention of yet another table, this one occupied by two young businessmen. One of them intentionally caught Martin’s eye, tipping his head in admired appreciation.

“I think Martin likes being the center of attention,” said Kelsey, catching the sight as well.

“From two guys?” asked Rylie. “Pretty sure that Martin doesn’t swing that way.”

“You know what I mean,” said Kelsey, swatting her arm.

“I did but it’s fun to tease Martin sometimes,” replied Rylie with a grin.

Martin had to admit the teasing was fun. It was a small thing really but it was just one way that they could get away from the massive amount of trouble they were in. Even by having fun in the diner, it took their minds off the fact that they were being hunted, even if it was only for a couple hours.

It was sorely needed, especially because things changed once they got back to the motel.

As it turned out, it was Kelsey who was the one to spot the danger. Thankfully, she had a good eye for trouble and she identified it as soon as they pulled into the lot and drove past the front office.

“Wait, wait, wait!” screeched Kelsey, drawing everyone’s attention to her. “Stop right here!”

“What’s wrong?” asked Martin from behind the wheel, feeling his adrenaline start to spike in anticipation. “What did you see?”

“The front office. The guy from yesterday!” she babbled as she tapped the door. “Hold on, let me check it out!”

She didn’t offer any further explanation than that. She bounded out of the car as soon as it came to a stop, crouching low in a way that would have looked completely ridiculous if not for the potential consequences of discovery. A quick glance at Rylie and Annabelle showed that they were just as confused by Kelsey’s behavior but the look of fear on her face when she came back to the car seemed to confirm their worst nightmare.

“The Bryce Rookwood look-alike is here. He’s at the front office!” said Kelsey. “They’ve found us!”

“How could they have found us so quickly?” asked a panicked Rylie. “We paid cash here and we didn’t do anything stupid.”

“We’re being tracked,” said Annabelle, suddenly looking around at the car. “Either this vehicle or a cell phone. It’s the only way they could have found us that quickly.”

“So what the hell do we do now?” asked Rylie.

Martin glanced at Kelsey before grabbing the handgun. “You said they’re at the front office? Why else would they be at the front office right now? They know we’re in the vicinity but they haven’t located us, right? No doubt they are hoping that the front office will tell them what room we’re in.”

Kelsey’s head bobbed back and forth for a minute before she ultimately nodded. “Okay, makes sense. Otherwise, they would probably have been at our door.”

“And that means we only have a limited amount of time to grab our stuff from the room before they get there,” said Martin as he pulled up near the backdoor. “Quick, let’s get our things and bail!”

All at once, all four of them were moving. Martin, Annabelle, and Kelsey were the ones to go inside to grab their belongings. Rylie took the driver’s seat, ready to step on the gas should trouble find them.

Inside their hotel room, they rushed to grab everything that had been brought with them or purchased in the previous day. However, it was as Annabelle was stuffing clothes in her backpack that they heard pounding on the front door.

“Shit, let’s go!” said Martin, grabbing the last of the stuff.

They got out of the room just at the right time. No sooner had they closed the backdoor than the Bryce clone came bursting through the front with his people.

“Go, go, go, go!” yelled Martin to Rylie once they were inside the vehicle.

Rylie stepped on the gas but not before the Bryce clone burst out the backdoor, making eye contact with Martin in the backseat as he did. It only lasted a split second but it was enough to chill Martin to the bone.

What was even worse was seeing the gun pointed in their direction.

Two shots peppered the back of the car as it spun around the corner, taking out the taillight and making Kelsey scream.

This time, Martin turned out the rear window and got out a shot of his own, which made the men around the Bryce clone duck for cover. It gave them the window they needed to get out of the lot and back on the road.

“Everyone okay?” asked Martin, pulling Kelsey closer to him. “No one got hit, did they?”

“Martin, they fucking shot at us again!” said Kelsey, now on the verge of a meltdown. Tears streamed down her cheeks. “They’re trying to kill us!”

“And they would have succeeded if not for some quick thinking on your part,” said Martin. “But we need to get the hell out of here and fast.”

“Where should we go?” asked Rylie, looking at him from the rearview mirror. “If they found us as quickly as that, where would we even be safe?”

“The first thing we need to do is get rid of anything tracking us,” said Annabelle as she rummaged in her backpack. She pulled out her cellphone, rolled the window down, and chucked it into the woods. Then she turned back to look at Martin. “Yours too. Yours is probably the one that led them to us.”

As much as he hated to do it, Martin did the same thing. He saw his phone smash against the pavement as they sped along, completely destroyed.

“What about the car?” asked Annabelle, tapping her chin. “Even if they aren’t tracking the car, they probably know the license plate.”

Martin felt his stomach churn. He knew what needed to be done but he still had trouble saying the words aloud.

“We need to get rid of the car,” he muttered a moment later. “But first, we need to figure out where we’re going. We can hire a car to take us wherever we need to go but we need a place where we can be safe. Somewhere remote. Somewhere quiet, where no one would recognize us.”

Martin didn’t expect the girls to know of anywhere to go. In fact, he was mostly thinking aloud, trying to figure out where they could be safe. The last thing he expected was for Kelsey to grab his arm a moment later.

“I know where we can go,” she said, tears still on her cheeks. “It’s somewhere no one will ever find us now.”

That was good enough for him. “Take us there,” he said.

CHAPTER 30

MARTIN WAS STILL TRYING to figure out just when his life changed from being relatively normal to becoming some kind of dystopian nightmare straight out of bad science fiction.

It became all the more evident as the cheap ride-share van turned down a gravel road somewhere in the middle of nowhere in upstate New York.

“You sure this is the right address?” asked the driver, a balding man whose eyes were spaced too close together.

“This is the right place,” confirmed Kelsey, nodding her head.

The driver just shrugged and kept his foot on the gas. The van rocked from side to side as it went over the rocks that made up the road, all the while throwing around Martin and the rest of his clone girlfriends as they cradled what little possessions they had left.

Those possessions were mostly made up of one backpack per person, full of clothing. Everything else had been left by the wayside, including their cell phones and their car, which had been abandoned as soon as they crossed the border. Martin just couldn’t take the chance that one or more of those pieces of technology had been bugged, and he was determined not to leave a bread crumb trail right to this . . . place, wherever it was.

After the driver spent nearly fifteen minutes moving down the gravel road, he finally came to a stop in front of a small cabin that overlooked a tiny lake. This was Catskill country, with low-rising mountains, deep forests, and utterly untouched nature almost as far as the eye could see.

The cabin was nearly the only thing that had been touched by man. Not just any man, of course.

“It belongs to my uncle,” said Kelsey once the driver had dropped them off and made his way back to the main road. “Although I’m guessing he hasn’t been here in some time.”

“What gave it away?” muttered Rylie, looking at the small building.

Martin had to admit that she had a point. The cabin had clearly seen better days. Weeds and thick undergrowth had overtaken the small yard on the front side facing the road, and a passing storm had caused one of the nearby trees to fall perilously close to the cabin.

The cabin itself was old, as evidenced by the sagging roof on the south corner and the way most of the wood on the front deck had rotted away.

“The inside should still be fine,” said Kelsey apprehensively as she approached the cabin. She stopped just outside the main deck and checked several rocks to find a spare key that had been hidden long ago. Finding it quickly, she unlocked the door and stepped inside, with the rest of them following behind cautiously.

“Holy shit,” swore Rylie once they were inside. “Look at this place!”

Thankfully, the inside was in much better shape than the outside. Only a light layer of dust was the reminder that no one had been here in some time but the cabin was stocked with an excellent kitchen, a living room that overlooked the lake behind the cabin, as well as a large king-sized bed in the corner.

“Is your uncle a large man?” asked Annabelle, noting the bed that seemed out of place.

Kelsey nodded. “He is. Or he used to be. He wasn’t in good shape when I was alive because he liked to eat so much. He had numerous heart issues. It wouldn’t surprise me if he died, and I’d say judging by the dust, he hasn’t been up here in years.”

“We might still be pretty cramped in that bed though,” noted Martin. “A king is not that much better than a queen.”

“I’d rather be cramped together with all of you than sleeping separately right now,” said Rylie. “So I’ll take my chances.”

“What she said,” echoed Annabelle as she began to walk toward the kitchen. She opened up several of the cabinets and was amazed by what she saw. “Canned foods! Lots of stuff in jars too! We won’t need to shop as much.”

“We should give it a good smell before we eat anything though,” warned Kelsey. “Some of those cans have probably been in there for a while. Who knows if they’re still good.”

“Only three years old,” said Annabelle, reading the label. “Most of this stuff seems to have been bought around the same time too.”

“Might be the last time he was here,” replied Kelsey. “In any event, we shouldn’t be disturbed. It’s probably the safest place for us anywhere.”

“We should probably get a few more mainstays at the local grocery store though,” said Martin. “Just to be safe. The weather up here can turn quickly, and we don’t want to be caught unprepared in a blizzard.”

“Good thinking,” replied Annabelle. “Although our ride just left and without phones, it’s going to be nearly impossible to get another car out here.”

Kelsey grinned. “Got you covered on that too.”

She had them follow her outside the cabin and walked around the back, where Martin noticed for the first time that part of the driveway continued toward the rear. There was a small garage there as well, although perhaps it was closer to a lean-to than anything else. Underneath was an old truck that looked to be doing nothing other than collecting rust.

“Hopefully it still runs,” muttered Martin, looking at it.

Kelsey patted his chest as she unlocked the door with one of the keys from the ring she found outside. She slipped into the driver’s seat and tried to fire up the engine.

It started on the second attempt.

“My uncle swore by this truck,” said Kelsey, grinning while she rolled the window down manually. “He used to say they just don’t make them like this anymore.”

“I’d say that he’s completely right, seeing as it probably hasn’t been started in nearly three years,” replied Annabelle.

“This really isn’t looking that bad right now then,” said Rylie, her spirits raising. “We have a cozy cabin and a truck that runs. We’re in the middle of nowhere where nobody could possibly find us with a good food supply. We might just be able to live here for some time!”

Rylie’s optimism seemed to catch on with the other girls. Kelsey seemed pleased that it was her idea that brought them there, and even Annabelle seemed to be warming up to the idea of being here.

Maybe they just might get out of this ordeal alive after all?

“It might be a little boring though,” said Kelsey, bringing everyone back to reality. “No television up here. No internet either. There was a cafe in town where you could get free wifi years ago but I have no idea if it still exists. We might get bored pretty quickly.”

Annabelle turned away from them and gestured toward the lake just behind the cabin. “How could we ever get bored with this scenery right here? Who needs internet when we have this?”

Rylie giggled. “It’s a good thing that the only member who really needed the internet is now back with her husband. I can hear Nataliya moaning about it already in my head.”

Martin chuckled but then turned to look at Annabelle as an idea struck him. “If you need to check your stocks, we can go into town. Or maybe even better, go a long distance away, just in case there’s a way to be tracked. We can still monitor our money supply and make withdrawals as necessary and be long gone before anyone finds us.”

Annabelle grinned. “This could really work. This could be really great!”

Martin didn’t want to rain on her parade. As much as the girls seemed to be happy with the cabin, there was still the very real chance that reality could catch up to them. Somewhere out there, the leadership of RI still wanted them dead, and Martin knew they weren’t going to give up just because the trail had gone cold.

Sooner or later, there would have to be a reckoning. At least this cabin would give them time to prepare for it.

That gave Martin an idea. He turned to face Kelsey a moment later.

“Seeing as your uncle believed in being prepared, I have to wonder whether or not he had any weapons here at the cabin? It could never hurt to have a few extra guns.”

Kelsey’s grin never went away. “I thought you’d never ask!”

CHAPTER 31

“JESUS,” whispered Martin as the safe was opened. “He really wasn’t messing around, was he?”

“Not my uncle,” replied Kelsey. “Like I said, he believed in being prepared.”

That was certainly an understatement. Her uncle’s gun safe was parked inside the closet that was just around the corner from the main bathroom. Inside was more than enough weaponry to defend themselves. Martin counted two shotguns, three rifles, and five handguns, as well as enough ammunition to go around.

“Well, I guess that answers that question,” said Annabelle, looking over Kelsey’s shoulder. “Now the second question is who has actually fired one before? Besides Martin, of course.”

That was when Kelsey’s confidence evaporated. She gave the rest of the group a cheeky look. “Okay, so I’ve never even held a firearm. So this is about the extent of my usefulness.”

Annabelle winced. “I’ve never touched one either.”

“I’ve shot a few times,” said Rylie, surprising the rest of them. She gave them a small smile. “What? When you’re the only daughter of a single father, is it really that surprising? He made sure that I knew how to shoot a gun before I left for college just in case any boys wanted to get too fresh with me.”

Martin chuckled. “I guess that’s not really that surprising, but judging by the threat that’s against us right now, I’d say it’s important that everyone becomes proficient at shooting. We don’t want to be caught going against these guys without knowing how to protect ourselves. Even a little preparation will go a long way.”

Annabelle looked at Kelsey. “I take it the closest neighbor is pretty far away?”

Kelsey nodded. “Like six miles in the direction of town. We can shoot toward the lake. I doubt anyone will even hear us.”

“Perfect,” replied Martin. “Let’s get some practice in.”

As it turned out, having the handguns was just about perfect for the girls, who didn’t want to touch the heavier weaponry. Martin grabbed the shotgun, only because he felt like he should have something with serious stopping power, and he also pulled out one of the rifles just so he could get some long-range practice in too.

Fully armed, the four of them made their way outside to the lake in a silent procession.

Besides Martin and Rylie, the other girls were holding their handguns like it could reach back and bite them at any moment. Rylie held hers confidently while keeping it pointed at the ground, being very evident that someone had taught her what to do at an early age. She also held the highest caliber pistol, claiming she could handle the recoil.

Once they reached the backyard, all three girls looked at Martin expectantly.

“First we need something to shoot at,” said Martin, who was already prepared with a few empty cans of soda. He selected a spot that was about ten yards out, where he set up a 2×4 across the top of an old tree stump.

“Okay, nothing too hard to start with,” said Martin before pulling out his old handgun. “You might want to cover your ears.”

All three girls did as he requested while he took aim. Three loud shots later and there was nothing left of the three cans he’d set up.

“Damn,” said Kelsey, smirking at Martin. “That was kind of sexy.”

Martin chuckled. “I’m glad you think so because it’s your turn now.”

The smile evaporated from her face. “How do I operate this thing again?”

Martin spent the better part of ten minutes showing Kelsey and Annabelle the finer points of handgun operation. They were a little less anxious after they found out how it worked, but Kelsey’s hands were still trembling as she looked down the barrel.

“Steady,” whispered Martin. “You can do this. Pull the trigger when you’re ready.”

Kelsey didn’t reply but the gun barked moments later. It went over three more times before she finally nailed the can.

“Not bad at all,” said Martin.

“I missed three times,” replied Kelsey glumly.

“It’s your first time. That was to be expected. You didn’t give up and you made it happen. I’m extremely proud of you.”

Kelsey beamed after receiving the compliment, and Martin ran out to put a few more cans up. He then switched to his shotgun.

“How do you even aim that thing?” asked Annabelle.

Martin shrugged. “That’s the beauty of having a shotgun. You just point it in the general direction of the bad guy and pull the trigger. There’s not much aiming that’s involved in it.”

Martin moved a short distance away and put a round in the chamber. He aimed the shotgun and held it tight, pulling the trigger after a moment. The gun roared as the round was shot out, the cartridge opening to pepper several cans at once.

His shot complete, he gave the girls a cheeky smile. “Super easy.”

“I’d say those cans learned their lesson,” said Rylie, wearing a matching grin.

“Who’s next?” he asked, looking at all three of them. “Rylie, want to give it a go?”

“Sure.”

The redhead marched up next, holding the pistol confidently. As Rylie took aim at the cans, she fired off three shots in quick succession, all of them striking a different can.

Annabelle’s mouth fell open once Rylie lowered her weapon. “Remind me never to piss off Rylie.”

Rylie gave her a funny look. “My dad always said I was a badass in training.”

Annabelle had her chance next and it didn’t go nearly as smoothly. For one, she nearly dropped her pistol after firing the first shot, giving both Martin and Rylie a heart attack in the process.

“Sorry!” yelled Annabelle as she got a grip on the pistol again. “It just slipped.”

Rylie growled at her. “Hold it tight then like I told you. Don’t release your grip!”

Annabelle got off two more shots but even being a short distance from the target, she still only hit it one can with the last shot. Martin knew she would need some more practice, and he hoped that even seeing her hold the gun might be enough for anyone to think twice should they think to attack her.

“Feet apart,” replied Rylie, sticking her foot between Annabelle’s stance. “And hold the gun up. You’re not a gangster.”

“Sorry,” muttered Annabelle, who got off two more shots that were much better aimed.

Once Annabelle could hit the targets, Martin moved them farther away to get in some more practice. As suspected, Rylie didn’t have any trouble, but the other girls all struggled to hit their targets. It was just something they were going to have to keep practicing but it still did wonders for their confidence.

He even got the chance to do some long-range practice with the rifle, thinking that at the very least they could always hunt for food if they needed to. The idea wasn’t as reassuring as he thought it might be.

By the time they were done, Martin was at least confident that they could scare away trouble should it arrive, potentially buying them time to make a getaway. He was certain that they wouldn’t be able to stand on their own for very long, especially not against the savage-looking teams that had shown up at the apartment and the motel, but at least there was hope they could get away if trouble found them.

At least Annabelle seemed to be a little more confident after shooting their weapons, but Kelsey was rather quiet once they got back to the cabin.

“You okay?” asked Martin once they had a moment of privacy. “You got really quiet all of a sudden?”

Kelsey gave him a helpless look and just shrugged. “I don’t know. I think I’m just feeling a little overwhelmed right now.”

“After shooting?” asked Martin. “I thought that might help everyone feel better. You did a good job too. You hit the targets well.”

“Still,” she replied quickly. “That was a low-pressure situation. What happens in the moment when we have people shooting at us? I’d have better luck if I just chucked the gun at them, I think. I’m not made to be a smooth operator, gun-toting badass. I think that if RI catches up to us, I’m just better off running.”

“Listen, I know today probably wasn’t the biggest confidence builder but you did good for your first time. And just by firing a shot, even if it doesn’t hit anything, it buys us time. Time we didn’t have before. I’m not saying it would come down to that but you being able to shoot is a big plus for us. It levels the playing field.”

Kelsey sighed and collapsed into his arms. “I’ll do what I can. I’m not promising any miracles, and I certainly won’t be the next Rambo but at least I know how to fire it now.”

Martin chuckled and stroked her long, dark hair. “If you did manage to fire off a shot, we’re going to start calling you Kambo. Kelsey plus Rambo, get it?”

Kelsey groaned and rolled her eyes. “Never call me that ever again please.”

It didn’t take long for Kambo to stick as a nickname, and soon everyone in the cabin was using it, Kelsey included. Though she initially hated it, even Kelsey admitted that it was a fun way to break away from the seriousness of weapons training in order to have a little fun.

That evening, the group went out to a local store in order to buy some staples for food, using cash to pay for their purchases. They returned back to the cabin as night was falling, eating a light meal and preparing to settle in for the night. With the danger they faced at the motel, it was determined that one member of the group should always be near the door to stand watch just in case, and Martin drew the first watch that evening as the girls slipped into bed.

Despite the day starting off terribly, Martin felt a degree of confidence as he watched the long driveway outside, his gun nearby. At this point in the juncture, he could at least defend himself if threatened, and while he was still a long way off from striking back against RI, he could finally begin to think about not being on the defense for once.

There had to be a way out of this mess. Just how was he going to find it?

CHAPTER 32

“SEVEN, tell me you’ve found something. What’s going on out there?”

Bryce Rookwood was hoping for good news. He’d been sitting on the edge of his chair ever since the cell phone tracker went dead shortly after their quarry stopped about two hours away from headquarters. His clone, Seven, had been sent out to liquidate Martin Kennedy but it had been over a half hour since Seven first reported finding the motel.

“They got away,” said Seven grudgingly. “I’m not too thrilled about it.”

“What do you mean they got away? Where are they?”

“Don’t know,” replied Seven. “They sped out too quickly for us. They must have seen us coming. In any event, I took out their taillight so at least we know the car has been marked. You might want to pay attention to police chatter for citations for busted lights.”

Bryce grunted. “I want a lot more to go on then a busted taillight, Seven. You were sent to do a job and you’ve come up empty . . . again.”

Seven grunted as well, a sound that was remarkably similar to the original’s noise. “We’ll find them. They can’t run far. It’s going to be a little harder without the cell phone tracker but they’ll make a mistake. I have no doubt about that.”

“You better fucking hope they do,” growled Bryce, ending the call. He sat back in his chair and looked over at Claire. “Your boy toy missed them again.”

Claire rolled her eyes. “His deficiencies are the same as his original,” she replied curtly.

Bryce didn’t even dignify that statement with a response. He went back to what he was working on before the call, giving frequent glances at the time. Usually, their best chance at picking up their prey again came quickly after the last encounter but as the day wore into night, nothing new was reported from Seven.

By midnight, Bryce was fuming. Where the fuck did Kennedy go? And how the hell was he going to catch up to him?

Bryce thought about calling it a night at that point when his phone went off with the call he was expecting.

“Tell me you’re standing over his dead body,” said Bryce as he answered the phone. Most notably, Claire stopped what she was doing to pay attention.

“Not quite but I have the vehicle here,” replied Seven. “And it’s empty. They must have ditched it. I found it off the side of the road near a small town in western Massachusetts. Wherever they went, they got a new set of wheels.”

Bryce made a fist and brought it down on his desk. “Fuck. No cell phones and now no car. And if they’ve made it to Massachusetts, they’re heading in the opposite direction, bound for New York.”

“Most likely upstate if I had to guess,” replied Seven. “They could hide right under our noses up there and we’d never find them for years. It’s too rural and remote, with many holes they can hide in. We’re going to need some backup on this.”

“Fuck backup,” growled Claire, listening along to the call after Bryce put it on speaker. “I’m tired of playing this fucking game. Why don’t we start targeting family? Kennedy still has parents, doesn’t he? Grandparents? Siblings? Let’s start putting bullets in them and see how fast he worms his way out of his hole.”

“Vince already said no to that,” said Bryce. “Don’t you remember what he said earlier?”

“Fuck Vince,” snarled Claire. “He’s not the sole shot caller anymore. We get a say in this too, and I say we start taking out his family one by one.”

“No,” said Bryce firmly, shaking his head. “Too messy. It will inevitably lead back here to RI. We will need to pursue another course.”

Claire rolled her eyes at him. “Another course? Unless you’re planning on pulling something out of your ass, we’ve lost the trail. He’s gone, and he could hide for years if he has half a brain.”

“We’ll just have to count on the fact that even smart people make mistakes,” said Bryce. “He’ll do something stupid eventually. They always do, remember? There’s not a single person we haven’t caught over the years. All those leaks who’ve done unauthorized cloning? All those government officials and industry titans who thought they could blackmail us? What has always happened?”

Claire grunted under her breath. “I get it. We always come out on top. It doesn’t mean we should start being lax about it though.”

“Not lax,” said Bryce, shaking his head. “Observant. Like I said, he’ll trip up sooner or later. And then we’ll be ready to pounce.”

CHAPTER 33

“I’M BORED.”

Annabelle had to stifle a laugh once Rylie uttered the words. Ironically enough, Kelsey noticed it as well and she had much less control over her response.

“You’re bored already?” asked Kelsey, covering her mouth as she giggled. “You’re the one that was so gung ho about being with nature and having a chance to start over. We’ve only been here two days!”

“Yeah, but what haven’t we done in the last two days?” asked Rylie, gesturing to their surroundings. “We’ve played every deck of cards in this house. We went fishing this morning and we’ve been taking frequent walks around the grounds. Face it, I’m just a little bored. It doesn’t help the fact that at least one of us is always sleeping at any given time.”

She said that while pointing to Martin, who was snoozing in the bed at the current moment. Martin had the early morning watch the previous night, and generally the person who had that needed to take a nap in the middle of the day to make it through.

“What else is there to do?” asked Kelsey. “A lot of people just like looking at nature without being occupied. That’s what this cabin is for.”

“I know that but it turns out I’m just not one of those people,” muttered Rylie.

“Is there anything you’d want to do to help make this less boring?” asked Kelsey.

Rylie brightened. “We could always do more target practice.”

Annabelle started to shake her head. She jerked her finger at Martin. “Not while he’s sleeping. You’ll give him a heart attack.”

Rylie grinned. “No more of a heart attack that I give him whenever I bend over without any underwear on.”

Annabelle started to laugh. “True but that’s generally a good heart attack to have. You don’t want to scare the man out of his wits.”

Rylie puffed her cheeks and blew air out from her lips. “I’m open to any suggestions then.”

Kelsey turned away from the window to look at them since she was the one that was technically on watch. “We could always go into the town. Find a farmer’s market. Get some fresh produce and do some shopping. We have enough cash, and it would be a change of scenery.”

Rylie gave her a face that said she’d rather play another round of cards. “Pass on that.”

“Maybe a walk then?” suggested Annabelle. “A walk around the grounds? Seriously, we just have to make the best of what’s available to us. I know it’s not ideal but we could be here for a while.”

Rylie sighed and looked back at the bed. She thought to herself for a moment or two before looking back at the other girls, an evil smile spreading on her lips.

“Why don’t we just wake Martin up and we can take turns blowing him?” she suggested. “We can slip under the covers and make him guess which one of us it actually is.”

Annabelle started to laugh. “That doesn’t sound like a bad idea. Although, we might want to save that one for his birthday. I promised him something big for it.”

“Do you know what you’re going to do yet?” asked Kelsey.

Annabelle shrugged. “I figured we’d just band together and come up with something like what Rylie just said. I think he’d be more than satisfied with that.”

“Knowing Martin, he’d freak,” said Kelsey, giggling. “And you know, we still haven’t done something like that with all of us.”

“What? You mean like having an orgy?” asked Rylie.

Kelsey nodded. “I think the most we’ve ever done is two girls on one, but never the three of us.”

“Or four of us,” added Rylie. “Thank god. I don’t think I’d want to fuck him with Nataliya.”

“Yeah, I can actually agree to that,” replied Annabelle before her expression brightened. “But this could be fun. And I think he’s expecting something sexual anyway since the day we had sex in the motel. He should know what’s coming I’m guessing.”

“He’s going to be the one coming,” said Rylie with a laugh. “Right down my throat once I make him pop.”

Annabelle laughed pretty hard at that statement. “That’s what you think.”

The three girls were content to joke about it until Martin woke up a short while later. Of course, all laughter promptly stopped in order to keep their plan secret, but luckily for them, he was still a little too groggy to pick up on their knowing expressions

Martin stretched once he was out of bed and looked outside with a sense of longing.

“We’re trying to figure out what to do,” said Annabelle, bringing him up to speed. “I think we’re all tired of playing card games.”

Martin pursed his lips and looked back outside. “I was thinking of taking a couple laps around the lake. The weather is decent today and it’s better than being stuck inside. Anyone else game?”

Annabelle made a face and then shook her head. “Pass, only because we really just did that.”

“Yeah, I have to pass too,” said Kelsey.

Martin almost didn’t look at Rylie, expecting her to echo the other girls but to his surprise, she stood up and grabbed her shoes.

“It’s better than just about anything else,” said Rylie. “Want some company?”

“Always!” he replied. “Come on, let’s get moving.”

Five minutes later, they were walking outside to start the first lap around the lake. Even though Rylie loved having the other girls around, she most enjoyed getting a chance to have this private time with Martin. In recent weeks, she really felt the weight of having to share him, not so much with the other girls but mostly with Nataliya. Now that she was out of the picture, she looked forward to having the extra time with him.

“You look happy,” said Martin after her hand crept inside his. “Have you been waiting to do this?”

Rylie shrugged, the smile never leaving her face. “Not really. I was just thinking how, with everything going on lately, it’s just really nice to spend one-on-one time with you. You know, just like couples do.”

Martin pulled her closer, putting an arm around her shoulder. “We are a couple. Plus a few more,” he added at the end, jokingly.

“I know, but sometimes it’s just nice for it to be two of us sometimes,” said Rylie. “And with everything going on lately, that time has been in short supply.”

Martin nodded as his expression turned serious. “Are you holding up okay? I know we haven’t talked about the situation much but more than anything, I just want to make sure you’re not hating your life too much right now.”

Rylie shook her head. “I don’t think it’s possible for me to hate my life with all of you. Seriously, I love my life. This is just . . . a roadblock. It’s temporary before we can go back to how we were living before.”

“I love your optimism,” replied Martin, chuckling to himself. “It’s been hard for me lately to share the same feeling. Sometimes, I just feel . . .”

He never finished the sentence, prompting Rylie to do it for him.

“Helpless?” she suggested.

Martin nodded his head quickly. “Helpless is a good way to describe it. Hopeless would have also worked though.”

Rylie bumped against him playfully. “Our situation is never hopeless. It’s bad, I’ll give you that, but not hopeless.”

“You should write self-help books,” joked Martin. “Especially if you’re doling out that kind of wisdom. I think the teenage version of me could have really used your advice way back when.”

“Couldn’t we all use it a little back then?” added Rylie, chuckling. “In any event, we’re still alive and we still have hope. And now we’re trained to handle weapons. Things are looking up.”

“I’d feel better about the whole thing if those weapons never had to be used at all,” said Martin as they came to the edge of the lake and pivoted, moving to the north. “The thought of us getting into a firefight with those people makes me incredibly nervous. I can’t lose any of you.”

Rylie swallowed hard as she began to think about what that scenario would look like. In her head, she pictured bullets flying in the air, glass shattering around them, and the other girls screaming for dear life.

Needless to say, it wasn’t the picture of confidence that would have satisfied anyone.

“We stand a better chance now than we ever did before,” she replied finally. “And maybe that’s what really needs to happen? Maybe we need to start striking back at them before they can strike at us?”

Martin gave her a puzzled look. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean there’s a reason why we’re training with guns, Martin. It’s the same reason why my dad saw it fit to teach me how to shoot a handgun. Sometimes, you have to use deadly force to save your life. And if it ever came down to that, I’d rather my fate be in my hands than anyone else’s but it’s time for us to face facts. These people are trying to kill us. And I think we’re going to have to kill them before they can kill us.”

“Do you mean in defense?” asked Martin. “Or in offense?”

Rylie shrugged. “Maybe a little bit of both? I’m tired of feeling like a victim. Maybe it’s time we went on offense for a change?”

Martin didn’t reply to that immediately. They walked for another ten minutes as he continued to digest that thought. Eventually, Rylie thought that maybe she shouldn’t have put it out there so bluntly, but when his response did come, it showed that he was actually thinking through the possibilities.

“If we go down that road, we’ll be declaring war against RI essentially,” said Martin. “And it would be us versus an entire company with national reach. We know they have friends in high places and we know this cloning program has put very powerful people in their back pockets. There wouldn’t be any place for us to run.”

“Maybe striking back would stop us from having to run constantly,” said Rylie. “What if we just need one good hit? Strike hard at the top and take down Vince or Bryce or Claire? We show the rest of RI that we aren’t to be trifled with and they let us go our own way. Something like that could work.”

“I’d just as soon go public with the whole thing,” said Martin. “Blow the lid right off of RI and all they’ve done. I wish I would have saved that list of all the people they’d cloned over the years. Can you imagine what would happen if we got that to the media? They’d have a field day with it! Everyone, including Vince, Bryce, Claire, the entire board, the investors, all of them would go down. We’d totally destroy everything that was RI.”

Rylie turned to look at him with a confident gaze. “That could work too. Martin, I’m game for whatever you want to do as long as it’s a chance for us to strike back. I don’t want to sit here at this cabin waiting to die. I don’t want to feel like I’m a victim who just hasn’t gotten hit yet. You mentioned feeling helpless so let’s turn that around. Let’s show them that they should fear us as much as we’ve feared them.”

Martin actually looked at her and smiled. “I never knew you had such ferocity in you. And I thought you girls might just leave me when I suggested testing out our weapons.”

Rylie grinned at him. “We’ve made a lot of strides in the past week, but all of them have been for the better. If you ask me, these people thrive on the fact that they have all the power while we have none. That makes them nothing more than a bully, and I’m more than willing to be the one nerd that punches back.”

Martin chuckled. “With any luck, we can be that nerd. We can show them we don’t intend to go quietly.”

Rylie squeezed his hand. “That’s exactly what I want to do.”

CHAPTER 34

SEVEN WAS NOT in a pleasant mood.

Quite frankly, he wanted to kill the next man that so much as looked at him sideways, but he knew that was going to bring him no closer to his quarry.

“Patience is the name of the game,” he muttered under his breath.

After all, this wasn’t his first rodeo. Both he and his predecessors had extensive experience with dealing with problems—usually people who threatened the status quo. And in every scenario, he’d managed to find his target and neutralize them. Over the last few years, he’d become quite good at it.

Then again, so would anyone who was practically immortal. Every time someone managed to strike him first, he found himself sitting upright in the replicator, ready for action once more.

And now in his seventh iteration, he’d become the most deadly striking force anywhere.

He had no doubt that he would find these people. Now that the trail had gone cold, he would have to return to basics. Seven would need to find a link, some clue to where they would have gone. And in times like these, most people would go to something that was familiar to them.

Somewhere they felt safe.

And that was always their downfall.

By finding some link to their past, he would discover the rat hole they’d crawled into.

Seven grabbed his laptop and started a search for the name of his prey—Martin Kennedy. In separate tabs, he opened up the same search for each of the known girls that were with him. He was going to delve so deeply into their lives that something was bound to show up eventually.

Something, or some place.

They might be able to run for now but they would never hide from him.

Seven always caught his prey.

Always.

The day after Martin and Rylie’s walk around the lake was the day before his birthday. That evening, Annabelle was the one on watch, taking the usual perch by the front window that afforded a decent view of the driveway and the surroundings. Rylie had discovered a half-empty bottle of whiskey earlier in the week, and seeing how there was nothing better to do, they were all enjoying some shots.

Not that it was doing much for anyone. There was scarcely enough whiskey for more than three shots apiece but it was a nice way to break some of the tension that had been present since coming to the cabin.

“When this is all over, the first thing I want to do is grab a big bottle of good whiskey,” said Rylie, looking at the empty bottle on the table. “Not this crap that we’re having to drink tonight. I want the good stuff and I want to get loaded.”

Kelsey started to giggle. As the smallest member of the group, she was always the first to get drunk and tonight she was probably already nursing a good buzz.

“I’ll join you,” said Kelsey quickly. “Because this stuff tastes like it’s been sitting here for years. My uncle wasn’t much of a drinker so that’s probably pretty accurate.”

“Yeah I can tell you this is the cheap stuff that we used to serve to college kids back when I was still a waitress,” said Rylie. “We kept the good stuff for those that could pay for it.”

“Doesn’t matter if it’s the good stuff or not,” quipped Annabelle from the other side of the room. “Just a little bit of alcohol is enough to get Kambo in a good mood.”

The other girls laughed, even Kelsey who was now not hating her new nickname as much as she had originally. Even Martin got into it at one point, finding an old bandanna in the closet and tying it around her forehead to symbolize her new badass persona.

Suddenly though, Kelsey stopped laughing as her mouth fell open. She slapped her hand against her mouth like a student would who left their homework assignment on the kitchen table.

“What’s wrong?” asked Rylie.

“We shouldn’t have drank this today,” said Kelsey, pushing the empty bottle away from her. “We should have saved it for Martin’s birthday tomorrow! Now we have nothing to drink on the special day.”

Rylie shrugged. “We can always go into town and get another bottle. It’s no big deal.”

For Kelsey, it was a much bigger deal than that. It was probably the alcohol talking but she became very upset about it.

“But what are we going to do to make it special?” she asked, still looking distraught. “We won’t even have a cake or anything!”

“We can get that at the same time as the alcohol,” countered Rylie. “I’m pretty sure I saw a Walmart in town.”

“Did you both forget what we talked about already for his birthday tomorrow?” asked Annabelle from the other side of the room. She arched her eyebrow to make a knowing expression. “Remember?”

Rylie remembered at least. She nodded her head quickly. “I think Kelsey was talking in addition to . . . you know, that.”

At this point, Martin felt the need to finally intervene. “What do you mean that? What do you three have planned?”

Annabelle grinned and shook her head. “That’s for us to know and for you to find out tomorrow.”

Martin gave her a disapproving look. “Seriously? You’re not going to tell me?”

Kelsey answered for her. She grinned so hard that her eyes closed in the process. “Nope! We’re not going to tell you about the massive orgy we have planned.”

It took her a moment to realize what she did but she clapped her hand to her mouth for the second time that evening as Rylie smacked her arm.

“You weren’t supposed to tell him!” Rylie yelled. She started to laugh after rolling her eyes.

“Wait a second? A massive orgy?” asked Martin, chuckling. “Now that’s interesting. Whose idea was that?”

“Annabelle’s naturally,” said Kelsey. “Who else?”

Annabelle gave her a playful glare. “Why naturally? You make me sound like a slut!”

“Well, you kind of are,” argued Rylie. “Martin’s slut.”

Kelsey started to giggle at that. “We all are. Martin’s sluts at that. Not necessarily a bad thing.”

“No, not a bad thing,” agreed Rylie.

“So when did I get this big orgy?” pressed Martin. “Tomorrow?”

Annabelle started to nod. “Sometime tomorrow? I don’t have a specific time or anything. We just discussed doing it the day of.”

“We could always do it tonight,” said Martin hopefully. “The night before a birthday still counts as close enough, right?”

Martin was hoping they would say yes. He hadn’t had sex since the morning they woke up in the motel days ago. Even though that was fairly normal in any regular relationship, he’d become quite accustomed to the girls’ higher sex drives. That is to say that if he didn’t have sex twice a day, he felt like he was going through a drought.

And the past few days had been rough all around. He understood why they hadn’t been doing it. After all, having your life threatened wasn’t exactly an aphrodisiac but the relative lull of the last few days made him hopeful they’d be resuming their usual “schedule.”

“I don’t know,” said Rylie, rubbing her arms. “It might ruin the actual day if we give him the big surprise tonight.”

Annabelle was tapping her chin deeply in thought. “I’m going to have to agree with Rylie on that one. I think we have to hold off on the big surprise until tomorrow. It’s only fair after all. It should be saved for the actual birthday.”

Martin pursed his lips in disappointment. So much for having sex tonight.

“I guess if you want to be stickler for the rules,” he said grudgingly.

He barely had the words out before Kelsey leapt up from the table. “We can give him a tiny surprise tonight, right? Like a pre-birthday screw? A little early preview?”

Annabelle started tapping her chin again. “I don’t really want to diminish the impact of tomorrow though. I’m not opposed to tonight but it can’t be as good as tomorrow.”

“What about just two girls tonight instead of one?” suggested Rylie. “Then tomorrow he still gets the grand finale?”

Martin watched the girls discuss it with bated breath. Suddenly, the evening was starting to turn around, and he didn’t want to say anything right now that might jinx his chances.

Annabelle was the one that seemed to relent the most. “I think we can accommodate that. But it might have to be you two since I’m on guard.”

Kelsey was moving before she even finished the sentence, causing everyone else to laugh when she grabbed Martin’s hand and yanked him to the bed. He fell down with a laugh and she hurriedly climbed on top of him, kissing him for dear life.

“Well, I guess that answers that question,” said Rylie as she soon joined them on the bed.

“Make it a good one,” called out Annabelle as she kept an eye trained on the window.

Kelsey certainly seemed to take that statement to heart. She continued to make out with Martin as aggressively as possible, grinding her body against him while her tongue sought his. She moaned into his mouth as she found his hardening cock, positioning her lower half so that her clit could rub against it.

“Save some for me,” protested Rylie from beside them once Kelsey finally came up for her.

“Oh, sorry,” said Kelsey as she yanked her yellow V-neck shirt over her head, showing off the light-pink bra she was wearing. “Your turn!”

Rylie mouthed a thank you before kissing Martin much more sweetly than Kelsey’s aggressive tonguing. While Rylie was content to kiss him lovingly, Kelsey took on the role of undressing him. She pulled down his shorts, taking his boxers with them while releasing his stiffness to his girlfriends. Kelsey wrapped her hand around it and started to stroke, using her own saliva to make it slick.

“I’m just now realizing how horny I am,” said Kelsey as she pulled down her own tight jeans and deposited them on the floor. “It’s been too long since we last had sex.”

“It’s been too long since we did anything,” replied Martin. “I feel like I haven’t been inside you or tasted you in ages.”

“Taste me, mmm,” replied Kelsey, wiggling her hips. “Now that sounds like something I could go for right now.”

“That gives me an idea,” said Rylie, as she finished undressing, leaving her soft cotton shorts on the floor and exposing her smooth mound. “Kelsey, why don’t you sit on his face?”

“With pleasure!” replied the brunette as she began to crawl up his body. She stopped for a moment to press her tits against Martin’s face, where he captured one errant nipple into his mouth but she was gone too soon, turning around and straddling his head with her hips. In this position, she could face Rylie, who was now climbing up from the bottom and sitting against his lap.

“Oh my, this is getting kinky,” said Annabelle, now watching with more interest.

“We’re saving kinky for tomorrow,” added Rylie with a wink as she sank down on his cock. “I love how he stretches me open like that.”

Kelsey purred in agreement. “Isn’t it the best feeling in the world?”

“You’ve got that right,” said Rylie as she raised herself up and sank down again.

Though Martin was temporarily distracted by the feeling of Rylie’s tight pussy against his shaft, he knew he still had a job to do. Just above him, Kelsey’s waiting labia beckoned him forward and he couldn’t stand the thought of not tasting her any longer.

She yelped the first time his tongue swiped across her lips, finishing at her clit.

“Oh my god,” she whispered. “That’s it, baby. Lick my pussy.”

“Yeah, Martin, eat her pussy,” encouraged Rylie as she began to pick up the pace, fucking herself against his turgid rod.

Soon, all three of them were moving in unison. Kelsey’s moans were easily the loudest once Martin had his tongue buried between her slick folds but Rylie was starting to get louder as well, riding him with all abandon. Even Annabelle was watching the action from afar, her hand buried in her pants, rubbing herself furiously as she watched them couple.

The highlight of the action was watching Rylie lean forward and kiss Kelsey with an intensity that shocked the tiny brunette. Of all the girls, Kelsey was the one least inclined to bisexual behavior. Though she was definitely curious about it, she left no doubt that she preferred Martin above anything else. That’s why listening to the two women make out made Martin stiffer than any time in recent memory.

And Rylie was just riding him so good. She had this move where she would bounce up and down three times before stopping to grind him, moving her body forward and then back before resuming the bouncing. It was doing wonders for the both of them and Martin had to fight the urge to pop too early.

Thankfully, Kelsey gave him the reprieve he was looking for. She enjoyed making out with Rylie so much that she wanted to try a new position, bounding off Martin’s face and pulling Rylie with her. They moved to the side of the bed where both women embraced each other like lovers and were soon making out furiously again.

For Martin, it was the ultimate sight to see the two gorgeous women glued at the mouth. What was even more gorgeous was how it exposed their lower halves to his attention. Martin wasted no time in crawling between their legs and once more inserting himself back into Rylie.

She moaned with approval as soon as she felt him slide back home. “That’s it, baby. Pound me! Pound me hard!” she said before kissing Kelsey once more.

Martin gave her everything that he could. He didn’t even bother starting off slow, wanting nothing more than to take his lovely girlfriend to the heights of pleasure. Judging by the intensity of her moans, she reached the height and never came down in the course of ten minutes before they tried something new.

Rylie groaned when he withdrew from her body but her disappointment was soon Kelsey’s pleasure as Martin stuck his slick cock inside her waiting quim.

“Mmmph!” moaned Kelsey once his cock was buried inside her. She looked back at him and gave him a coy expression. “I’ve been waiting for that!”

Martin responded by quickly upping the tempo. His hands gripped her waist, pulling her back against him as he thrust into her body as Kelsey continued to make out with Rylie. Near the window, Annabelle had her pants fully off at this point, and she was nearing an orgasm of her own judging by how fast her hand was moving.

All of them were in various states of pleasure but it was as Kelsey started to squeeze his cock that Martin suddenly hit the point of no return.

“Going to cum,” he grunted as he hammered at her body.

“Not in me,” said Kelsey as she pulled away and flopped against the bed, laying next to Rylie. Martin was temporarily confused until both women cupped their tits, presenting a new target. Martin could only grin as he scooted closer, feeling his orgasm boil over.

Great ropes of cum shot out from his cock and coated their tits. Rylie got the brunt of it because she was the closest, fully coating one breast while one dollop slid into the valley between them. Kelsey got a few ropes herself, only because it had been so long since he’d last cum. She wasted no time in bringing her head to Rylie’s chest, licking up every drop of spent cum until the other woman was completely clean.

“Now that’s how you celebrate a pre-birthday,” said Kelsey, giggling to herself as she fell back against the bed.

Martin couldn’t agree more and soon joined her on the other side of Rylie. The three of them were still panting heavily, but the smiles on their faces were enough evidence of the good time. Even Annabelle seemed satisfied, reclined in her position with her eyes nearly completely glazed over.

“If this is just a preview of tomorrow, you’re going to wind up killing me,” whispered Martin as he struggled to catch his breath.

Rylie reached down and squeezed his thigh. “You better get plenty of rest tonight. You’re going to need it!”

Martin thought to respond when suddenly there was a loud noise outside, something that they all heard. It wasn’t something they could identify easily by the sound but Martin’s blood ran cold at the thought of someone having caught up to them.

Annabelle moved quickly to grab her handgun, looking out the window from every angle. In the interim, they heard the noise again.

“Martin!” whispered Annabelle from across the room. “Someone’s out there! Someone’s here!”

CHAPTER 35

THE MOOD in the cabin turned quickly.

Moments ago, everyone had been happy and sexually satisfied, especially Martin, Rylie, and Kelsey who were still nude on the bed, attempting to catch their breath from their vigorous movements. Even Annabelle had gotten in on the action, rubbing out an orgasm by the window while watching the others.

Yet it was the disturbance outside that caused all of them to go deadly quiet as they tried to identify just who or what was outside the cabin.

“Someone is outside,” said Annabelle in a panicked whisper. “I hear something!”

Martin grabbed his pair of shorts and put them on quickly. He grabbed his shotgun and rushed toward the window, looking outside from the corner to maintain some semblance of protection. From his vantage point, there was nothing he could see but that wasn’t exactly surprising to him.

If someone was trying to sneak up on them, they would not announce themselves. Martin guessed they might have parked halfway down the driveway and walked the rest of the distance.

“Okay, we need to put into action the plan we talked about,” said Martin, gesturing to the other girls who were in the process of getting dressed. “Rylie, you cover the front window. Shoot through the damn thing if you see any threats. Kelsey, I want you to cover the other side of it, supporting Rylie. Annabelle, you’re with me. Let’s move closer to the door.”

Martin expected more panic on their behalf but it was a pleasant shock to find that the girls followed his orders without showing any outer signs of stress. Kelsey took his spot near the window and Rylie set up like she was ready to start firing at any second. Annabelle fell in behind him as he moved toward the door, and Martin readied to start blasting.

“On my count,” whispered Martin to the girls. “Three. Two. One. Now!”

He flung open the door as his finger rested on the trigger, moving outside and pivoting directly to the left. Annabelle followed just behind him, moving to the right to make sure that there were no threats waiting around the corner. Martin was grateful that he’d remembered to grab the flashlight, finding much of their surroundings in total darkness as he scanned the entire property for signs of any threats.

And he found none.

Moving around the corner of the building, he kept a close watch around him, and Martin was careful not to cross directly in front of the bay window should the girls mistake him for an enemy. It was as he showered the driveway with the light that he found the true culprit all along.

Two white eyes stared back at him as Martin lowered his shotgun to the ground.

It was a raccoon.

The raccoon made a high-pitched sound and then scampered in the opposite direction, which caused Annabelle to put her gun down and approach his side.

“That’s definitely the sound I heard,” she said, embarrassment showing on her face.

“You’re sure?” asked Martin. “It was a complete match?”

Annabelle nodded as her cheeks flushed red. “I’m so sorry.”

At that moment, Martin wasn’t ready to completely call it quits. He flashed the light at the bay window twice—the signal for all clear—and had Annabelle go back inside. Meanwhile, he did a quick check of the perimeter just to make sure there were no other threats out there.

He found nothing. It really had been the raccoon that had scared them all.

Relief was prevalent on everyone’s face as Martin returned inside and the guns were all put down. Not surprisingly, Kelsey was the first to rush into his arms, hugging him for dear life.

“Thank god that was nothing worse,” she said, her voice muffled by his chest. “I was practically crapping my pants about what was out there.”

Rylie actually smiled. “But Kelsey, you’re not even wearing pants.”

That was accurate. Both Kelsey and Rylie were half dressed from their earlier encounter. Kelsey had just managed to throw on her panties and her top while Rylie was the opposite. She’d put her jeans and her bra on but nothing else.

“That would have made it even more embarrassing,” moaned Kelsey, causing the other girls to laugh.

“The only person who has a right to be embarrassed right now is Annabelle,” said Rylie, looking over at the still blushing blonde. “Don’t you know what raccoons sound like?”

“I grew up in the city, what do you want from me?” asked Annabelle, earning another round of laughter.

“Let’s just be thankful it was just a raccoon,” said Martin. “It could have been a lot worse, but I really have to say that I’m impressed with all of you. Your response to that situation, even though it wasn’t real, was awesome. Seriously, you girls rocked it.”

Annabelle pressed against his other side. “We did well, didn’t we? I mean, I was shitting bricks too when you threw open the door but we actually looked like we somewhat knew what we were doing.”

“I’ll definitely say,” said Martin. “I’m proud of all of you.”

Rylie grinned at him. “You’re just saying that because we drained your balls so well like ten minutes ago. Speaking of which, I now have your cum soaping into my bra.”

Rylie gestured to the stain marks on it, which caused Kelsey to laugh.

“Seems like a good problem to have all things considered!” said the brunette.

Rylie sighed dramatically. “I suppose you’re right. It’s better off than having some RI fool’s brains all over me. Pow pow!”

“I’m hereby requesting that every time you pick up that gun, you add the pow pow sound effects,” said Annabelle to Rylie.

The redhead could only grin in return. “Consider it done!”

“Vince here.”

“Vince Dulles, we have an issue.”

Vince froze for a moment as he recognized the voice on the other end of the line. It wasn’t often that his line rang with this extension, and when it did, it usually meant trouble.

“What can I do for you, Senator?” asked Vince, finding his courage once more.

“You know exactly what you can do for me,” replied the man on the other end of the phone. “You can tell me this little matter with your disgruntled ex-employee has been settled. Has he been . . . taken care of yet?”

Vince knew exactly what the senator was asking. He wanted to know if Kennedy had been killed. Unfortunately, communication over the phone could be difficult because the senator always went to great lengths to maintain plausible deniability in case anyone else was listening.

“Not yet,” replied Vince. “So far, the situation is still developing. We’ve run into an unexpected hurdle.”

There was silence on the other end of the line for several seconds, which Vince knew wasn’t a good sign.

“What kind of hurdle?” asked the senator. “Unexpected problems do not bode well for your finances, Vince.”

“Our trail has gone cold,” explained Vince. “We’re working without the benefit of cell phone signals or our vehicular trackers. I have my best men on it but so far they are not having any luck.”

“Then put better men on it,” snapped the senator. “The longer this leak goes on, the greater the risk of the entire program. You’re paid to do a service for all of us and you’re allowing this wound to fester. Why wasn’t the issue dealt with before he became a former employee?”

Vince hesitated, knowing the real answer to that question. The truth was a complicated answer, one the senator wasn’t ready for just yet.

“We had a complication in the plan.”

“You seem to be having a lot of complications lately, Vince. Perhaps your company would be better off with a change in leadership? Someone who can keep to the plan without so many disruptions.”

The statement hardly bothered Vince at this point. He’d been threatened with the loss of RI for so long now that it didn’t mean anything to him anymore.

He knew that the senator and his friends needed RI much more than Vince needed them. That helped to keep the leverage in his court.

“As I said, we’ll make sure the situation is adequately dealt with quickly,” replied Vince. “It’s just going to take some new resources.”

“And I highly doubt the resources at your disposal are going to get the job done,” said the senator. “I’m sending one of my men out to you today. He’ll be there by three o’clock. He’s going to help you locate the ex-employee.”

Vince raised an eyebrow. “What resources could he put at my disposal that I don’t already have?”

The senator started to laugh. “You have no idea what kind of power I have at my fingertips. You think you can track people well? The US government does it better than anyone else. We have the most sophisticated tools available to find anyone anywhere in the world. We’ll find him before the day is up.”

Vince found himself rubbing his chin as he thought about it. It would be nice to see what kind of tools they could use to track him, if only for making future hunts less time consuming.

“In that case, I’ll welcome your man when he shows up at three o’clock.”

“Be careful what you wish for,” said the senator with a deep tone. “You may not like seeing the inside of Pandora’s box once it’s opened.”

CHAPTER 36

THE DAY of Martin’s birthday dawned with an early surprise for all of them. It was always a bit chillier in the mountains, and no one really noticed too much when the temperature dropped that evening. By the morning, snow had begun to fall and there were already a few inches on the ground by the time they woke up, with no end in sight.

Kelsey was the one that had the morning watch and she alerted everyone else once they finally stirred by dragging them to the window.

“Look outside and see all the snow!” she exclaimed, pointing to their freshly-covered driveway.

Indeed, it was a beautiful sight. There was something calming about the snow, something that made their anxieties lessen to a certain degree. Martin didn’t feel like they were in such a dangerous position, as the world usually ground to a halt with this kind of snow.

The girls seemed to be thinking the same thing. Excited smiles were prevalent on their lips, and just like that, they were schoolgirls again on the cusp of a newly-declared snow day.

“This is just what we needed to relieve some of our boredom!” said Annabelle as she stared out the window.

“And what good timing that it comes today of all days,” added Kelsey as she pressed against Martin. “Happy birthday, babe. I hope you like the snowy wonderland that we’ve been given.”

The one with the most curious reaction was Rylie. She stared out at the snow like she didn’t know what to make of it.

“I’ve never seen this much snow in my life,” she whispered.

“Really?” asked Kelsey. “Surely you’ve seen a snowstorm a time or two living up here?”

“Not like this,” said Rylie, shaking her head. “I’ve seen much lighter snows before but I spent so much time in more tropical locations for my modeling work that I don’t get to be in snowy locations that often in the year. There’s so much of it out there!”

“And it might not stop any time soon,” said Kelsey, looking at the sky. “We might be looking at a foot of snow by the time this is all done.”

“Good thing we didn’t have to go anywhere,” muttered Annabelle. “We’d never get down the driveway.”

“At least that means that no one is likely to get up the driveway to us either,” added Martin.

Annabelle nodded her head. “True. So what should we do with all this freshly-fallen snow? How should we celebrate it?”

Kelsey grinned. “The last person outside is a rotten egg!”

Once the words were said, there was a mad dash to put clothes on. While they didn’t have much in warm winter clothing because of their hasty departure from the apartment, they were still able to get the necessities from their shopping along the way. For his own part, Martin put on his thick jacket to keep him warm while the girls bundled up with layers of sweaters or winter jackets (sometimes both).

By the time they were outside, everyone was in a good mood, Rylie included. While Martin kept a watchful eye on the driveway, Rylie formed what she said was her very first snowball and promptly hurled it at Annabelle, hitting her right in the chest.

“You bitch!” howled Annabelle in mock indignity. “You hit me right in my tits!”

Rylie could only cackle with laughter as she grabbed another snowball. From there it was on, the three girls going at it with an intensity that rivaled the battlefield. Rylie soon took the brunt of the receiving end as Kelsey and Annabelle put their snow experience against her. She was soon hiding behind Martin as she took one too many hits.

That could only mean that Martin had to get into the fray. He and Rylie teamed up against Kelsey and Annabelle, and at that point, Kelsey took a blast directly to the face, having to spit out the small crystallized remains that had gotten in her mouth.

That put an end to the snowball fight but didn’t stop their fun whatsoever. The girls moved next to making a snowman, even going so far as to make him anatomically correct with a small, thick piece of wood that was broken off a nearby tree.

“That piece is never going to work,” claimed Rylie as they stuck it in the lowest ball. “He’s a snowman, not a tripod. A dick that size would make him topple over!”

Kelsey just laughed. “We’re just going to call this snowman Martin because of his assets.”

Martin raised an eyebrow. “That snowman is packing way more than I’ve ever packed.”

Rylie grinned and reached over to squeeze his cock through his jeans. “I don’t know. Seems about right to me, especially when he gets big.”

Rylie gave him an extra long rub just for emphasis, something that was quickly repeated by all the girls. Soon it became a game for each of them to do a thorough comparison of their own, which was only stopped short by the reminder of what was coming tonight.

“We should stop teasing him so much,” said Annabelle after his cock started to tent his jeans. “We don’t want him all riled up all day before we give him his big surprise.”

Kelsey let out a disappointed sigh. “If you insist. It seems a shame to let it go to waste though.”

“I know how we can get it to go down,” said Rylie.

Before Martin knew it, she launched a snowball directly at his face. He ended up spitting out the powdery snow, giving his former teammate a sharp glare.

“We were on the same team!” he yelled, throwing his arms in the air.

Rylie only shrugged. “Oh yeah, you’re right. I guess I forgot.”

The other girls giggled but it was Annabelle that pointed to the rapidly deflating tent in his jeans.

“Looks like it worked,” she said.

Rylie beamed with a smile. “Did you ever have any doubt?”

CHAPTER 37

AFTER THE MORNING of fun in the snow, the rest of the day was much more low key by comparison. Kelsey ended up taking a nap not long after they came back inside, seeing as she was still tired from having the early morning watch. The other three had some hot chocolate by the bay window as they watched the falling snow, talking about everything and nothing for hours until she awoke.

When she finally did, it was time to start thinking about dinner. Their earlier trip to the grocery store landed them with a pack of sausages that Kelsey started to cook, assisted by the other two girls. Of course, it didn’t take long for the innuendo to begin.

“I really hope this isn’t the only sausage I’m getting tonight,” said Kelsey, loud enough for Martin to hear across the room. She grinned and then blew him a kiss once she was sure he was listening.

“Duh, you know it won’t be,” said Rylie as she prepared a jar of sauerkraut to go along with the sausages. “By the way, what’s with this dinner? Are we Germans now?”

Kelsey managed to look offended. “This recipe came from my grandma! And Martin loves it so yes, you better pretend to be Deutsch tonight.”

“Deutsch what?” asked Rylie, confused.

Kelsey rolled her eyes. “It’s what the Germans call themselves. Deutsch, as in Deutschland!”

“Ah, I get it,” said Rylie. “Sprechen Sie Deutsch, right?”

Kelsey grinned. “That’s exactly right!”

“More like Sprechen Sie Dick after tonight, right girls?” asked Annabelle, causing the other two to stare at her. When they didn’t respond, she shrugged. “What? I thought we were still making dick jokes?”

Rylie laughed at her. “You’re hopeless sometimes, do you know that?”

After dinner was ready, all four of them settled down to eat. True to form, Kelsey’s German dinner was fantastic and Martin found himself going up for not only seconds but thirds.

“And here I thought people tended to lose their appetites in old age,” teased Rylie. “It still seems Martin can put them away like a much younger man.”

“Hey, I’m not that old today,” he argued. “I’m only thirty-one.”

“Thirty-one,” mouthed Rylie. “So old! When did I start dating guys in their thirties?”

“Not soon enough, judging by your maturity,” ribbed Annabelle. “Besides, don’t rub it in too hard. I’m going to be thirty in a few months anyway and I’m a little sensitive about it.”

Martin gave her an odd look. “How are you only twenty-nine? You were the same year as Nataliya, and she’s the same age as me.”

“I skipped a grade and graduated early from high school at only sixteen,” said Annabelle, looking a little sheepish as she said it. Martin wondered why she’d be embarrassed by that but quickly found out why.

“Nerd alert!” called out Rylie, elbowing Annabelle in the side.

“Annabelle can still be a nerd,” said Martin, coming to her defense. “Besides, she’s the sexiest nerd I’ve ever laid eyes on.”

That seemed to do the trick, as Annabelle was soon reaching over to squeeze his thigh. “I knew there was a really good reason why I love you,” she whispered to him.

“Let me guess?” asked Kelsey. “His bratwurst?”

“More than just his bratwurst,” replied Annabelle. “I’m into the whole package!”

“Speaking of packages, it’s about time we gave him the grand finale, isn’t it?” asked Rylie. “I mean we’ve teased him about this for days now. He’s got to be ready to burst due to anticipation alone.”

Kelsey looked over at Martin. “I don’t know, he doesn’t seem too bad. Any chance you’d be willing to forgo your birthday orgy tonight?”

The look that he gave her in return left no doubt as to his answer. All the girls laughed when they saw it.

“I take it that’s a no,” said Annabelle. “And all the better. I’m ready to get this show going too.”

“Well?” asked Rylie. “What are we waiting for?”

Nothing was the answer to that question and the group decided to leave the mess in the kitchen and retire to the other side of the cabin, closer to the bed. The girls turned off most of the lights in order to set the mood but before anything else could start, Annabelle brought over one of the kitchen chairs and placed it close to the bed.

“What’s that for?” asked Martin, eyeing the chair with some confusion.

Annabelle smiled at him. “Just have a seat in the chair. The show is about to begin. Oh, and please take all your clothing off. Every single stitch, okay?”

She kissed him quickly before disappearing to the closet with the other girls. It was the only part of the cabin that he didn’t have a direct line of sight to, and their sudden disappearance only served to turn him on more.

Martin wasn’t about to question her request. He quickly got undressed, finding that his cock was already semi-hard in anticipation.

Suddenly, Kelsey’s head popped out from behind the closet. She gestured for him to sit down. “And you’re not allowed to move until we say so,” she said sweetly. “You just have to sit back and enjoy.”

Martin did as she said, wondering what they were trying to do. It was only as Kelsey stepped out from the closet and started to saunter toward him that he figured out what it was all about.

This was going to be a good old-fashioned striptease.

Someone turned on a small radio that had been left at the cabin, filling the area with the sounds of ‘80s power ballads. It couldn’t have been the more perfect setting, and Martin’s eyes were quickly glued to Kelsey’s body.

Of course, she came out looking sexy as hell. She was wearing a black V-neck shirt and ripped jeans, which she just made look really fucking good. It wasn’t until she got closer that she started to dance in front of him, putting her ass directly against his face and giving it a good shake.

“I think I’m too overdressed, don’t you, baby?” she asked as her hands went to the button on her jeans.

Martin could only nod, temporarily at a loss for words at the sight of her. She slipped those jeans off in a hurry, revealing a sexy white thong underneath. It was joined by a matching white bra the moment she yanked that shirt off, and right after, Kelsey slipped into his lap. She kissed him with desire as she grinded her hips against his, which caused his cock to rub directly against her clit.

“I can’t wait to give you the best birthday ever,” she whispered against his lips.

“You’re already doing a bang-up job,” he said, managing a smile.

She kissed him again before getting off his lap and moving closer to the bed. It was the signal for the next girl to come out, which happened to be Rylie.

Rylie took a different approach than Kelsey in that she started mostly undressed. She was wearing a purple tank top that cut really low on her cleavage, affording him an excellent view as her breasts jiggled when she walked. She had the same color purple for her pair of boy shorts, and they were so tight that Martin could see an outline of everything underneath.

Rylie wasted no time with dancing either. She peeled off her tank top and sat in his lap, and she soon offered her nipple to his mouth directly.

“Suck please,” she whispered, giving him a sultry look.

Martin opened his mouth and latched onto her nipple, sucking until she started to squirm against him. He promptly switched to the other nipple, leaving them both coated in his saliva.

Rylie grinned at him devilishly and soon spun around, resting her back against his chest. She grabbed his hands and pulled them against her, placing them against her tits.

“You turn me on so much,” she whispered back to him. “I’m so horny for you. You’re going to make me squirt tonight, I just know it.”

If he wasn’t hard before, he was definitely hard now. Martin’s cock was trying to burst a hole through her boy shorts, something that Rylie didn’t fail to notice.

“So soon, I promise,” she said with a grin. “But until then, here’s something to remember me by.”

She leaned down closer and took nearly his entire shaft in her mouth at once. She went all the way to the bottom several times before stopping at the head and flicking her tongue against it.

It was over too soon as Rylie winked at him as she joined Kelsey on the bed, where they shed what remained of their clothing.

Lastly, it was Annabelle’s turn. She chose to come out as Kelsey did, still fully dressed but she certainly made a show of her strut around the bed. Annabelle’s attire was quintessentially her. She chose a tight fitting pink t-shirt with a row of buttons along the cleavage, most of which she unbuttoned one at a time as she danced in front of him. Of course, the bra underneath was also pink, and it peaked out just enough to showcase her incredible cleavage.

Annabelle was also wearing a pair of skin-tight jeans (which didn’t last long) as well as a pink thong underneath. Pink was also Annabelle’s favorite color and for good reason—she looked breathtaking in it.

Soon enough though, all her clothes had been discarded and she climbed into Martin’s lap, grinding her hips back and forth right against his cock. Martin didn’t need to touch her to know how wet she was.

He could feel the raw heat and wetness against his shaft.

She grinned at him as she rested her arms against his shoulders. “I’m really going to enjoy rocking your world tonight.”

“Tonight?” he asked. “You rock my world every day. All three of you do.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere, my love,” she replied, kissing him before bounding off his lap. She soon turned around, keeping her contact with his lap and started to bounce up and down, giving him an excellent view of her ass.

The angle just wasn’t right yet though. Martin’s cock was still pointed down, and there was no way he could slip inside in this position.

Thankfully, Annabelle was there to help. She craned her head back at him and gave him a little smile as she reached back and notched the tip inside her slick folds.

They both groaned as she slid down, penetrating her body. Martin’s hands went to her hips to moderate the pace, while Annabelle focused on rising up again and sliding down in a smooth manner.

“Yes, that feels so fucking good,” she moaned once they had a steady rhythm going.

Annabelle wasn’t the only one moaning. Martin looked toward the bed only to find that Kelsey and Rylie were now making out. Rylie’s hands were between Kelsey’s legs and the way that Kelsey was moaning seemed to indicate that Rylie was holding nothing back.

It was a phenomenal start to the evening. At one point, Martin pulled Annabelle back against him, using his hands to palm her big tits. That slowed down their rhythm but Annabelle did the next best thing. She used her feet to step on the edge of the chair, moving into a squatting position just above him while continuing to fuck.

It was a very interesting position and it required a heavy amount of balance to keep the chair steady but it felt just incredible for both of them. Annabelle managed to have two orgasms in this position and Martin felt like he wouldn’t have been far behind if not for a sudden interruption by Kelsey.

The brunette gave him a coy smile from the bed as she spread her legs open invitingly. She crooked her finger. “My turn please? I need you so bad, Martin.”

Annabelle nodded while slipping off his cock. “I need a moment to rest after that,” she said, falling against the bed. She was nearly dead to the world but Rylie took that opportunity to slip between her legs, tasting her pussy while Annabelle relaxed.

It was an erotic sight to behold, but Martin had to turn his focus back on Kelsey. Her pussy was wet and ready for him and he slipped inside with the first thrust, his cock still covered in Annabelle’s juices.

“Mmm, better,” moaned Kelsey once he was in. “No feeling in the world just like that one.”

Martin couldn’t agree more. Sliding into Kelsey always felt like coming home. He’d been with her longer than the other girls combined, and their sex always had a passionate feel of two long-term partners who knew exactly what the other liked.

Kelsey’s arms soon wrapped around his neck while she pulled his lips to hers. She kissed him with equal amounts of intensity and raw passion as their hips thundered in unison. The entire time, Martin could feel her nipples poking against his chest, loving the sensation that it provided. Kelsey was so caught up in their lovemaking that she didn’t even notice that Annabelle and Rylie and moved themselves into a sixty-nine position and were happily lapping away at each other.

The evening couldn’t get any better than this. Kelsey’s orgasm arrived after a few more minutes of fucking after he’d put her legs against his shoulders to achieve really deep penetration. Watching the tiny brunette cum was akin to a religious experience. There was no more perfect sight anywhere in the world.

“Oh, Martin, would you do me a favor?”

Martin craned his neck to the right only to find that Rylie had slipped out from under Annabelle. She was now bent over on the bed, her ass held high in the air and wiggling at him.

“Do you think you can find something to put in my tight pussy please?” she begged, shaking her ass for emphasis.

Kelsey only giggled once she heard it. She smacked Martin’s butt. “Go on, take care of her too!”

Martin crawled away from Kelsey’s thighs like a man possessed. The only thing in his vision was Rylie’s incredible ass and it beckoned him forward like a siren. She shivered once his hands grabbed onto her hips and the tip of his cock pushed against her slippery folds.

Rylie looked back at him and gave him the grin she was famous for. “Don’t make me wait any longer? I’m ready to explode for you.”

Martin felt his body tense up at the implication of her words. Remembering her promise to squirt for him, he wasted little time in easing his cock into her wet depths, aided by Kelsey’s juices and Annabelle’s saliva.

It was a damn near perfect fit. Rylie’s pussy squeezed him from tip to base once he was in, massaging his cock with her vaginal muscles. Martin felt his eyes rolling to the back of his head upon entrance while the need to start thrusting became too great to ignore.

Rylie wasn’t content to let him do all the work. She moved her ass back with equal intensity once a rhythm had been created, and he delighted in watching her flesh ripple with every powerful thrust. Just beside them was another sight that was hard to ignore. Kelsey was actually lapping away at Annabelle’s pussy which was a novel change in pace. Usually it was the other way around, as Kelsey didn’t have a love for vagina as strong as the other girls.

And yet, watching all four of them come together on his birthday of all days was incredibly intoxicating. It was a moment he knew he’d never forget, as evidenced by Rylie’s warning that she was about to cum.

He scarcely needed it. Martin felt it before he heard it, his entire lower half being sprayed by her squirting orgasm. The sounds of wet fucking filled the small cabin as their hips slammed together, and Rylie’s moans never slackened as she went from one orgasm straight into another.

“Mmmph! You’re making me squirt, baby!” she cried as another round drenched him.

Seeing Rylie orgasm like that was the hottest thing he’d seen thus far, and his own orgasm threatened to boil over. Rylie seemed to sense that he was getting close as she fell forward soon after, breaking the contact with his body.

“We have . . . one more thing . . . we want to do,” she said breathlessly as she struggled to compose her words. She looked at the other two. “Girls? Shall we?”

“Yes,” replied Annabelle, helping a weary Rylie from the bed. Martin looked on in confusion as all three girls moved closer to the living room.

“What are you doing?” he asked, waiting for their answer.

Kelsey smiled at him. “Something we thought you’d really enjoy. Watch this.”

Just like that, all three women lined up on the couch, putting their knees on the cushion. In that position, they were able to rest their forearms against the back of the couch while sticking their asses in the air, mirroring the position Rylie was just in.

Annabelle was the one to catch his eye next. “Come take your turn with us. You can have anything or anyone you like.”

What an offer that was! Martin got off the bed and approached them with his cock in hand, seeing the feast that was spread out before him. Each of their delectable bottoms were available for him to sample, their bodies so close together that their asses were touching on the sides. It was every man’s dream to have such a presentation in front of him like this, and he wasted no time in sidling up behind the first girl, Annabelle, who occupied the left end of the couch.

Annabelle moaned when she felt him slide inside. She grinned back at him before taking a moment to kiss the girl next to her, which happened to be Rylie.

Martin slid all the way back inside her, thrusting hard right from the start. This was nearly the perfect position for strength and speed, as the couch was just high enough that he didn’t have to stoop down to fuck them. With that in mind, Martin grabbed her hips and hammered her hard, sending Annabelle nearly flying off the edge of the couch.

“Oh my fucking god, what are you doing to me?” she moaned as her head swayed from side to side. “You’re going to make me cum again!”

Sure enough, Annabelle’s body shuddered as her orgasm overtook her and several full-body palpitations soon put her out of action temporarily. Martin took that moment to pull out of her incredibly tight pussy and stepped to the side, putting himself back in Rylie.

“Oh!” she shrieked as she felt him enter her. “That’s it, baby. Fucking fuck me!”

It didn’t take her long to start pounding back against him like they were doing on the bed, and seeing as she was still worked up from earlier, Rylie managed to squirt again, her pussy leaking like a faucet all over the couch.

“Best day ever,” she moaned deliriously as her head drooped against the couch, her body nearly exhausted from the constant cumming. “Fuck, he broke me. He fucking broke me.”

Martin took that as a signal that she was all done and he moved onto the last girl on the couch. Kelsey smiled sweetly at him as he grabbed her hips and reinserted himself back in her body. She was content to keep her head craned back, watching him with her sexy brown eyes as he plundered her body.

“I love you so much,” she cooed once they had a good rhythm going. “I hope you’re having the best birthday ever.”

“Without question,” he panted. “Best day of my life.”

Kelsey’s hand slipped over his and her eyes took on a fierce look. “Keep fucking me, okay? I want your cum so bad. Give us your cum, baby?”

If that wasn’t sexy enough, the other girls were soon begging for it as well.

“I want you to cum all over our asses,” said Rylie, licking her lips as she watched him fuck Kelsey. “Give us the biggest load you’ve ever had.”

“I can’t wait to be covered in your cum,” moaned Annabelle. She reached back and slapped her ass hard. “Shoot it right here. Cover me completely!”

Their words coupled with Kelsey’s tight pussy sent him over the cliff. He pulled out of her body once the moment of no return occurred, aiming his cock at her ass first. Kelsey took the first two shots, hitting a good portion of her ass cheek. Rylie was next, taking two shots right down the center of her ass where it coated her asshole. Annabelle got the reminder, taking three weaker shots over her right cheek.

True to their words, the girls wasted no time. They used their hands to rub his cum into their skin, spreading the slick seed against the perfect globes of their asses. Rylie even took it one step further, using her tiny finger to press into her asshole, using his cum as lube. If Martin hadn’t been completely spent, it might have given him another idea, but he collapsed against the chair next to the couch, completely tired.

“All three of you. Incredible. Fucking amazing,” he said, barely able to get out his words.

The girls giggled. They hopped off the couch and helped him out of the chair, moving closer to the bed. It was here that Martin laid down gingerly before being surrounded by all three of them, resting their bodies against him.

“Why haven’t we done that before?” asked Rylie, a content smile spreading out on her face. “I think that was the most fun I’ve ever had.”

“Because this is the first time we’ve all been together for Martin’s birthday,” said Kelsey, laughing to herself.

“Well, we don’t need to wait until his next birthday to do this again,” added Annabelle. “That was too fun to only do once a year.”

“You’re telling me. My vagina feels like it’s been pounded by a sledgehammer,” said Rylie. “And look at that over there!”

She pointed to the edge of the bed, where a small puddle had formed—the result of her earlier squirting.

“That was fucking hot as hell,” said Martin. “It’s seriously worth having to sleep in a wet spot for the night.”

Rylie smiled. “If you keep playing your cards right, we’ll do this much more often. And I’ll show you how much I can really squirt for you.”

“We better go back to the store and get some sex towels then,” said Annabelle. “I have a feeling we’re going to need them!”

Martin chuckled. “That’s a good problem to have, trust me.”

CHAPTER 38

THE EXTRA RESOURCES from his friend in the senate finally paid off. It was late in the evening and Vince Dulles was currently at his villa off the coast when he received the call.

“It appears that we’ve found your ex-employee,” said the senator, not bothering with a better greeting.

Vince took a long sip of his coffee. “Where is he? How did you find him?”

“Oh, it wasn’t that hard when you know the right people,” replied the senator with a chuckle. “In any event, he’s holed up in the Catskills. I’m having the GPS coordinates sent to you now. I have to give it to this guy. He tried to play this one smart. I’m guessing he never realized just how far up this went.”

“Probably not but do they ever? If anyone ever found out about what we do—”

“I’m going to stop you right there,” interrupted the senator firmly. “Because no one will ever find out about the Janus Program. The second RI’s work becomes public knowledge is the second there is no more RI. Do you understand me?”

Vince gulped. “In that case, I better get my men to that address and make sure all of our leaks are sufficiently dealt with.”

“That sounds like an excellent idea,” replied the senator. “Before you go, I have a request to make of you. Do you know that girl that you set me up with last month?”

Vince didn’t have to think very hard to remember which one. The senator had a certain range of tastes and they were usually whatever big name model/actress was the flavor of the month.

“Of course. That actress that just starred in that superhero flick. I remember. What about her?”

The senator grunted. “The version I have doesn’t like anal whatsoever. It’s killing my sex drive. Not to mention, the original wasn’t a drinker so I can’t even use alcohol to relax her. You gave me a new liver last year and I intend to use it to the fullest. Can you clone a new one? Someone who enjoys drinking and has a penchant for anal sex?”

Vince fought the urge to laugh. “I can do that. How soon do you want her?”

“As soon as you can make her. Let me know when she’s ready, and I’ll send my jet out to pick her up. You might also increase her cup size. They just seem a little flat when she’s laying on her back.”

“I’ll take care of it right away, especially because of your help with this little matter.”

The senator chuckled. “You would help me if I just slapped your mother and demanded money from you. That’s the beauty of this partnership, Vince. As long as you believe that it’s a two-way street, you’re happy. The reality is quite a bit more complicated.”

Vince started to grind his teeth. He was tempted to say something in return but the words caught in his throat.

He fully recognized that the senator and his ilk were the ones in the driver’s seat, not him.

“As you say,” he replied finally. “I’ll call you when she’s ready.”

“Oh, and Vince? Make this one with dark red hair. Dark, red hair looks amazing against my cherry, satin sheets.”

It was two days after Martin’s birthday that everyone finally admitted they were going stir-crazy. Rylie was the first one to suffer from the effects but even Martin was wanting a change in scenery, especially since the heaviest snow had already melted, making travel possible again. The biggest question was what to do that would still keep them relatively safe.

“We could always go catch a movie or something,” suggested Kelsey. “No harm in that, right? We pay cash and it’s not like people are going to be looking at us with the lights turned off.”

Annabelle shook her head. “I really want to go to a place with an internet connection so we can check my stock profile. Until this is over, that’s our only source of money.”

“That cafe in town has an internet connection, remember?” said Kelsey. “We could go there and check your profile and then go to a movie afterward?”

“I’m game for anything as long as it gets me outside these four walls,” groaned Rylie.

It seemed that Annabelle liked the plan until she suddenly stopped as they were walking toward the truck. “Wait, we shouldn’t go to the local cafe. We should go further out.”

“Further out? Why?” asked Rylie.

“We don’t know how they were tracking us but just in case there’s any online activity trackers, they could possibly find the IP address of the computer we use,” explained Annabelle.

“And they could start searching here in town, knowing almost exactly where we are,” finished Martin. “Annabelle is right. We should go out a good distance to make sure we’re staying safe.”

“How far out?” asked Rylie. “What would be safe for us?”

“Maybe like an hour out,” suggested Annabelle. “That way even if they do get the coordinates, they still wouldn’t easily get back to us. And I suggest we go to a movie place in a different town than the one we check the account in. You can never be too cautious.”

“Believe me, we know,” said Rylie sourly. “Let’s get moving.”

As it turned out, they found another decently-sized town about an hour southeast of their current location. It was large enough where they wouldn’t stand out but definitely far enough away to throw off suspicion. It was also just across the state line in Vermont, so it was hoped that any trackers might throw off RI and keep them out of New York.

They found a decent coffee place and Annabelle fired up her laptop, using it for the first time since they left the motel. She connected to the internet and immediately went to her stock page.

“Holy motherfucking shit,” swore Annabelle as she looked at the page.

“What?” asked Martin. “What happened? They didn’t shut down your account, did they?”

Annabelle shook her head. “No, no, it’s not that. It’s just that. Holy shit. My stocks are taking off. Look at this!”

Annabelle pointed to a figure on the screen that was definitely a pretty high number, almost matching Martin’s yearly salary at RI.

“That number was half of that three weeks ago,” said Annabelle. “It looks like my intuition was right. It doesn’t look like it’s coming down any time soon either.”

“So what does that mean?” asked Rylie. “Are we rich?”

“Not exactly,” replied Annabelle. “But it just means that if we needed to, we could hide for a very long time and still have enough funds to see us through. We won’t have to worry about money for the foreseeable future.”

“Let’s hope we don’t have to hide for too much longer,” said Martin, earning an approving nod from Rylie. “I want to find a way to end this ordeal sooner rather than later.”

“But how though?” asked Kelsey. “No offense, but what can we do? No one knows of our plight but us. We might have some money, yes, but we have no family or friends and there are some really powerful people dedicated to hunting us. How do we get out of that?”

“I’m still working on that,” said Martin, as he opened his email account after Annabelle had slid the laptop over. “I know we don’t have a ton of options but even having just one would seem better than nothing. I’m still not sure what we’re going to . . . do . . .”

Martin’s voice trailed off as he saw an email with the subject “Confidential: Please Read!”

He opened the email and read it quickly, his eyes going wide as soon as he did.

“What is it, Martin?” asked Rylie. “Is something wrong?”

“No,” he mumbled a moment later. “But someone is trying to help us. Someone knows what we’re up against and they’re offering help!”

Sure enough, the expressions on the girl’s faces soon matched his own.

Maybe they weren’t down and out just yet?

It was fortunate that Martin and the girls had chosen that time to leave the cabin. As Martin was reading the email that had just come in, a strange car had pulled up to the driveway that led to the cabin and parked itself on the side of the road.

The driver of the car was Seven.

“I found it,” said Seven into his phone, which was currently connected with Claire back at RI headquarters. “Your government friends are sure this is the right place?”

“They claim it’s the location with absolute certainty,” replied Claire. “Don’t ask me how they did it though. I can’t explain it.”

Seven grunted and looked in the mirror to the backseat where he could see his bag containing all his weaponry. He had two other guys with him—all he needed to put an end to Kennedy once and for all.

“We’ll take care of business and let you know once he’s dead.”

Claire practically purred into the phone. She was the only woman that Seven knew that enjoyed the thought of violence, taking her to the height of sexual pleasure.

“Do the job to my satisfaction and I can promise you quite the reward when you get back,” said Claire into the phone, her voice already low and husky. “A dirty reward. Do you understand?”

Seven found himself leering into the phone. “I understand. By nightfall, he’ll be dead. I promise you that.”

CHAPTER 39

MARTIN MUST HAVE REREAD the email at least a half dozen times before he finally read it aloud to the girls.

“Come on, Martin,” protested Annabelle. “What does it say?”

Martin started from the very top.

“Whoever wrote this says that he knows what RI is trying to do to us and they want to help,” explained Martin. “It also says that this isn’t a game or a trick. He wants us to meet with him, and that he fully expects us to come to the meeting armed. If we don’t like what we see, we can leave. A public place is a must for everyone’s safety but he ends the email with two suggested dates and times, as well as a meeting place at a public park outside of Albany. He ends with one last question. How far down the rabbit hole do we want to go?”

“That doesn’t sound slightly ominous or anything. What are the dates and times?” asked Rylie.

“One of them was . . . two days ago,” said Martin, looking at the date of the email. “This was sent four days ago. The next one is tonight. Three hours from now. It doesn’t leave us a lot of time to decide, does it?”

A range of emotions played out on the girls’ faces as they considered the email. Almost all of them felt fear to some degree but Annabelle looked to be intrigued by the nature of the offer.

On the other hand, Rylie seemed to be angered by it.

“Fuck that,” she said, leaning back in her chair. “It’s a trick. They’re just going to try to kill us again. They can’t get us outright so they’re going to try to do something shady like this.”

“I don’t know,” considered Annabelle as she started to think through the offer. “No games and no tricks. They want us to come armed and meet in public. RI wouldn’t do that. Publicity is the one thing they fear the most. Whoever is making this offer seems to understand that we have a lot to lose, but so do they. Otherwise, why the insistence on a public place?”

“Because they think we’re a bunch of suckers,” countered Rylie. “They think that if we can agree to meet with our guard down, they can put us six feet under without having to search the entire state for us. It doesn’t matter if it’s a public park. They’d just as likely kill any bystanders that saw us get whacked. To me, this seems like a bullshit offer.”

Both of the girls had merits to their arguments but funnily enough, Kelsey hadn’t said a word yet. Martin found himself looking at her to get her input.

“What do we have to lose?” she asked finally. “One way or another, RI is going to find us, right? They have all the resources that we don’t, and if this is connected to some very powerful people, who’s to say they won’t eventually find us? I hate the idea of having to run my entire life, and it sounds like this person is offering us an alternative.”

“But at what cost though?” asked Rylie. “Why would they want to help us? Who are we to them? What’s in it for them?”

“Maybe it’s someone who’s already gotten burned by RI,” replied Martin. “We can’t be the first ones, especially if there’s thousands of clones out there coupled with some pretty lax security. The way they came after us is another clue—they moved like they’ve done it before. Like we’re not the first to run afoul of RI. My guess is that we won’t be the last either, not unless someone stands up to them. Not unless someone breaks the cycle.”

Rylie leaned forward and put her head in her hands. “Ugh. It sounds like all three of you already have your minds made up, don’t you? We’re going to walk straight into this trap.”

Annabelle started to pat her back. “We should vote on it, right? Everyone gets a chance to say their piece.”

“But it’s not binding for anyone who doesn’t want to go,” added Martin as he looked at Rylie. “If you feel strongly about this, we’ll drop you off at the cabin and we’ll go to the meeting place. I think you have a lot of merit in what you’re saying but we’ve already been pushed up against the wall. Sooner or later, there’s going to come a time when we can’t retreat any longer. What do we do then? We need answers and a way to fight back. I don’t love the idea of going head-to-head with RI, but Kelsey has a point. I’m tired of running away from the life we’ve built.”

Rylie sighed and nodded. There was a moment of silence as they all looked around, no one wanting to be the first to say it.

At least Kelsey was the one to break the silence.

“I say we do it,” she said, her voice no more than a whisper. “We need answers if we’re going to stay alive. I don’t like it anymore than Rylie does but it beats waiting out in that cabin for our money to run out or for RI to find us.”

“I’m for it as well,” said Annabelle. “Mostly because I want to know who’s offering to help us. If they’ve been caught up in this before, maybe they know just how we can get out of it. I’m in.”

“Rylie, are you out?” asked Martin. “It’s okay if you are.”

She started to nod. “I don’t like this. And I think this opens us up to being too vulnerable. I’d vote nay.”

Just like that, all the girls looked at Martin. Taking a deep breath, he started to nod his head.

“I hate to put you all in any more danger than we’re already in,” he started, looking in all of their eyes. “But I also think about what kind of life we’re living right now. Today. And it’s one that I can’t say that I’m proud of. Living in a cabin that we don’t own and learning to shoot weapons just for our protection is not the way I wanted to live my life. It’s certainly not what I had in mind either when I made the decision to start cloning. Our protection comes first, but I want our lives to be one that’s worth living. And waiting for RI to catch up to us is not something I want to do anymore. If this person can help us, then let’s take him up on his offer. I’m in.”

Rylie took a deep breath. “Fine. It’s a good thing we brought our guns with us though. I’d doubt we’d have enough time to make it back to the cabin and get to Albany to make the meeting.”

“No one is forcing you to come, Rach,” said Annabelle. “If you don’t want to, we’ll understand.”

Rylie shook her head vehemently. “Not a chance. I don’t like it, but I’m not letting you go to this meeting without me. I’m the only person in the group besides Martin who can shoot worth a damn. And you just might need me before the day is up.”

That caused a small round of laughter, breaking some of the tension within the group. Kelsey actually hugged Rylie at that point.

“Oh, Rylie, I love you,” she said, still laughing.

“You’d better,” grumbled Rylie.

CHAPTER 40

A FEW HOURS after his arrival at the GPS coordinates, Seven was getting more than impatient. There was nothing to indicate that anyone was at the cabin, nor were there any cars that attempted to come home.

If this was where Kennedy was calling home these days, then where the fuck was he?

He was just about to call off the lookout in order to get something to eat when his phone rang.

“What?” he answered, seeing Claire’s number on the screen.

She didn’t like his greeting one bit.

“Is that how you answer the phone to me?” she demanded. “I let you fuck my throat on demand and that’s how you answer my calls?”

Seven grunted. “I’m just tired of waiting. He’s not here. And judging by the looks of things, he’s not coming back anytime soon. This is getting old.”

“How about a side quest then?” she offered. “Something that might be potentially more . . . lucrative?”

“I’m all ears.”

Claire took a moment to explain what she had in mind, going over the details carefully. By the time she was done, Seven only had one objection.

“Judging by the time, I’m never going to make it to Albany on such short notice.”

Claire let out a rich laugh. “You better start driving then. If you go quickly enough, you can still catch both of them. And my offer from earlier is still in place. I hope you’ve had time to think about a just reward for killing him.”

The tantalizing offer was still on the forefront of his mind. Resigned to his fate, Seven let out a heavy sigh. “Fine, but I hope you can handle what I have in mind.”

She purred. “The dirtier, the better.”

Seven turned the ignition and felt the car fire to life. He quickly turned around and got back on the main road with intentions to head south.

He was going to Albany.

The trip to Albany for Martin and the girls was a quiet one. There was a thick tension that hung in the air, as everyone knew that trouble could potentially find them at any moment. The closer they got to the city, it was almost like the group seemed to backpedal, suggesting that maybe the meeting wasn’t that important after all.

That only got worse once they entered the city and turned on the last stretch where the park was located.

“Are we really sure about this?” asked Kelsey, putting into words what they were all feeling. “We don’t have to do this, right? If something is off or something doesn’t seem right? We can still back out?”

“We can definitely back out,” replied Martin. “The second something doesn’t smell right, we hightail it out of there. But we are nearly there. It wouldn’t be right to come all this way and then turn around.”

“The least we can do is keep our guns ready, just in case,” said Rylie. “I don’t intend to be caught unaware like the last two times. If this is a trap, we’re going to start blasting.”

The truck pulled into the little park that had been mentioned in the email. Martin looked out on the park, getting his bearings of the place. The parking lot had maybe ten different cars in it, and the park was near the outskirts of the city, near a suburban neighborhood. It was well-maintained with a fountain near the center of the park, as well as various walking trails that crisscrossed the length of it.

“So now what?” asked Kelsey once the truck was idling. “Do we just wait in the truck? Or do we go out somewhere?”

“The email just said for us to come to the park but not where to meet in the park,” said Martin, taking off his seat belt. “We don’t know much about who’s meeting us, but we know the email was addressed to me. I’m thinking about taking a lap around the fountain, just as a way to show whoever it is that I’m here. That will put the ball in their court.”

Annabelle pursed her lips. “I don’t like the idea of us being separated from each other. Or for you to be out of our sight in case something happens.”

“I’m just going to go for a lap right there,” said Martin, pointing out how the small trail lapped around the fountain. “Give me one of the pistols too. I won’t be unarmed. That should be enough of a signal to our friend that we’re here.”

Rylie handed over one of the guns. “Be careful out there, okay? And if you get into any distress, give a yank on your right ear. We’ll take that as a signal that they are trying to coerce you against your will.”

“Right ear, got it,” said Martin, getting out and shutting the door.

He took a deep breath as he walked slowly to the start of the trail, taking a moment to look around the park. It was a normal afternoon by all accounts. He could see two ornery children playing on a jungle gym just off to his right. Neither were being watched by their parents, who had their noses buried in their phones. Just ahead of him, a man and a woman were jogging the trail, and they breezed past him quickly without barely a look in his direction.

Things looked almost too calm and too normal. Martin started walking, looking over his shoulders for any visitors that might appear but so far, there was nothing to see.

He wondered if whoever sent the email perhaps took his nonappearance during the first date as total disinterest. Would he have the patience to try again?

Or what if RI got to him in that time?

Or what if this was a trap?

Martin was still thinking through the odds when he heard the sounds of footsteps right next to him, quite out of the blue.

“Martin Kennedy, right?”

Martin nearly jumped. He looked over to find a familiar pair of eyes behind dark-rimmed glasses. The man wasn’t very tall and he didn’t look like a threat. Although, Martin would have no way of knowing if he was carrying a weapon with the baggy clothes he was wearing.

“Thank you for showing up,” said the man, not acknowledging that Martin hadn’t answered him. “I was afraid you might not after the first no-show.”

“I didn’t get your email until today,” said Martin. “And I’m still not sure what this is all about or who you are. But you do look familiar. Something about your face.”

The man nodded as a smile appeared on his face. “You knew my brother quite well. He always spoke highly of you, said that you were one of the most talented people that RI had.”

It was that statement that jogged Martin’s memory. Suddenly, he knew exactly who this man was.

“Keith Daughtry,” whispered Martin. “You’re talking about Keith, aren’t you?”

The man nodded. “Keith is my brother. Was my brother. My name is Kevin. And I know what kind of trouble that you’re in. The same trouble that my brother was in but this is not the place for us to meet. Neither one of us is still alive today by doing stupid things, and there’s always the chance that our emails were monitored. With how much I’ve been poking around RI, I know they’d love the chance to kill me as well. If you’re good with it, I’d like to take you somewhere we can meet in private. You can decide, as a show of good faith. I’m not armed, and I carry no tracking devices with me. Here’s a little something to prove that I am who I say I am.”

With that last statement, he handed over two driver’s licenses to Martin. The one on top was Kevin’s and the one below was Keith’s. Martin looked at the face of his old scientist friend from RI for several seconds before handing it back.

“No games and no tricks, right?” he asked. “You’re offering to help me, right?”

“To the best of my ability,” confirmed Kevin. “Those bastards at RI took down my brother. And I’d love the chance to get some revenge. Do you want my help?”

Martin thought it over for a moment before he started to nod. “You’re good to ride with us?”

CHAPTER 41

IT TOOK a couple minutes for Martin to explain to the girls why Kevin was getting in the truck but no one protested when Rylie made the offer to keep her gun trained on him just as a safety precaution. Even Kevin didn’t seem that bothered by the offer.

“I know the threat against you, and you have every right to be cautious,” he explained, putting on his seat belt. “Your conditions are acceptable for me. Let’s go to someplace more remote.”

The place they ended up going was beyond an abandoned strip mall in a rough portion of town. There were virtually no people around, and it afforded them the chance for real privacy. Both Rylie and Kelsey stood watch at each entrance to the rear of the mall while Martin, Annabelle, and Kevin sat on the curb and got the whole story.

“I guess the first question I have for you is that you said Keith was your brother,” started Martin. “He’s dead, isn’t he?”

Kevin nodded. “I’m afraid so. And I know it wasn’t a natural death. He was killed because he knew too much. He knew all about what RI was doing and he tried to stop it, and they killed him for it.”

“We might need to start from the beginning,” said Martin. “I think I know a good portion of the story but from the sounds of things, Keith knew a lot more than I do. How much of the story do you know?”

Kevin took a deep breath and then felt around in his pocket. He pulled out a box of cigarettes alongside a lighter. Lighting one, he took a deep puff before he started speaking.

“Too much,” replied Kevin. “I know why RI is going to great lengths to silence you. I also know why they silenced Keith as well. It’s because we know that they aren’t just cloning dead pets for people. They’ve graduated up to full human cloning.”

Kevin took another drag of his cigarette. “It all started too simply. My brother had a brilliant mind and he thought that by joining a new and ambitious company like RI would keep him on the forefront of the scientific community. Cloning pets was a novel idea in the beginning but it quickly grew stale to the powerful minds at RI who just wanted more. They started experimenting with organ cloning for humans as a way to broach the still-taboo subject of full human cloning.”

“Something came out about that months ago,” said Martin, remembering the memo from RI’s leadership. “About wanting to do trials with organ cloning but it was canceled after outrage from the public.”

Kevin scoffed. “They didn’t need trials. They had the ability to do it several years earlier. Almost as soon as they did it for pets, they could do it for humans. Their public face has always been years behind what they were doing privately. And of course, they didn’t stay with organs for very long. They soon graduated to full human cloning.”

“Initially, it was all done in the name of scientific progress, or at least that’s what Keith thought. But then he started to notice that some of the clones that were being made weren’t strictly for testing purposes. Some of them were clones of famous people—actresses and models, beautiful faces all of them. They were cloned not to study the body’s reaction to being cloned or the long-term consequences but rather to be nothing more than playthings for the leadership at RI. Sexual toys if you will.”

“I’m afraid I’ve stumbled on that part quite by accident,” said Martin. “One of the girls that we had in our group, Nataliya, was cloned as a sexual slave too. She was the clone of a woman that interviewed to work at RI.”

Kevin nodded. “It continued and continued with more clones being made. My brother even suspected that the offer of cloning was being made to powerful people as a way to curry favor with them. He couldn’t prove it though—his continued questions to the leadership had a way of shutting doors for him. He became . . . unwanted by the leadership at RI, especially as his brilliant mind became more inquisitive and critical in regards to the program.”

“So that’s why they soured on him,” muttered Martin. “I always knew they viewed him differently but I hadn’t worked at RI long enough to know why. He was onto them. He knew what they were doing.”

“My brother kept extensive notes about what happened at RI. At first, he kept them on his work computer but as things became a bit more serious, he transferred them to his computer at home. His notes around this time detail increased pressure from the CEO and the VPs about keeping quiet about the program. That the world wasn’t ready for human cloning to become public yet.”

“It wasn’t just that the public wasn’t ready for it,” said Martin. “It’s still illegal. If anyone found out what they were doing, they could go to prison.”

Kevin nodded. “My brother kept trying to get them to go public with the news that they could do it but then the argument changed whenever he found out how they were abusing it. He threatened to release the information to the general public and to the government, letting the world know just what they were doing, how they were abusing their own work. In Keith’s eyes, cloning was something to be done for the greater good, to save people who might have gotten a bad run of luck in life. The way that leadership was abusing the program was something that he couldn’t tolerate. It made him sick to see it, and he’d rather have RI punished for what they were doing even if it meant the end of the cloning program.”

“Why didn’t he just quit then?” asked Martin. “He knew he was one man going up against the entire company. Why didn’t he just leave RI if he didn’t agree with it?”

Kevin actually let out a small smile. “My brother was always a rebel. He didn’t like to live in what you or I would call reality. When we were kids, he always ended up getting in fights because of that. He would stand up to bullies that were picking on other kids, just because it was the right thing to do. It didn’t matter if he was just walking by the scene and it had nothing to do with him. It was wrong, and because it was wrong, Keith was going to stand in front of it. He was brave like that, even if he came home with more than his fair share of black eyes.”

“He was a good friend,” replied Martin. “And what you’re saying doesn’t surprise me. That was the Keith that I knew.”

“When things started to go south at RI, leadership gave him one final warning. Either he stop threatening to go public about them or they would retaliate against him. Keith thought that meant they would fire him but they did so much worse.”

Kevin swallowed heavily. “My brother went missing. There was an investigation by the police into his whereabouts but no one could find the body. It wasn’t until an envelope showed up on my doorstep a couple weeks later that I found out what happened to him. In the envelope was a single picture of my brother’s body. They shot him in the back of the head. Judging by his facial expression, he never knew it was coming. I guess that’s the silver lining in all of this—he didn’t have to beg for his life. In any event, they also included a note in the envelope. It was a list of names of those close to Keith, as well as their home address. Mostly family but mine was the first on the list. The message was quite clear—keep quiet or the same will happen to you. At that point, I knew what finally happened to my brother.”

“I’m guessing you didn’t update the police on the contents of the envelope?” asked Martin.

Kevin shook his head. “I was paralyzed with fear. I couldn’t fathom going up against RI so I ran. I found the deepest hole in the ground to hide in for weeks, barely leaving the apartment because I didn’t want to end up like him. And while I was there, I mourned him. I was scared, and I didn’t want to end up like him. It’s only now that I realize what a coward I was.”

Kevin took a deep breath before he continued. “You see, Keith and I don’t have much family. Not many people would have noticed he was gone. Our parents are long gone, and we don’t have any other siblings. I knew that if I started digging, the target might eventually move to me. And that’s exactly what happened when I opened his files.”

“His work files?” asked Martin. “Detailing all that was going on within RI?”

Kevin nodded. “All of it. And that’s when I started poking around. Keith kept exceptional notes, and that’s how I was able to follow everything that was going on with RI. Which, in a roundabout kind of way, brings me to you. You’re probably wondering how I know about you. How I thought to contact you?”

“It’s one of the biggest questions I have,” said Martin. “I didn’t even know that Keith had a brother let alone that all of this was going on behind the scenes.”

“Keith didn’t just always write about the situation with RI,” admitted Kevin. “He wrote about his friends and his interests as well. He wrote about you, saying that you were one of his good work friends and that you’d undergone tragedy lately. He told me that your original girlfriend died. He wrote that if anyone deserved to have human cloning work out for them, it would be you. Namely, how could your future change if you brought back someone from your past?”

At that moment, Kevin’s eyes finally settled on Annabelle, who’d been silent up until this point in the conversation. “I take it you’re the ex-girlfriend, aren’t you? The one that died?”

Annabelle shook her head. “No, that’s Kelsey,” she said, pointing across the way where Kelsey was standing. “But that was the original intention, right, Martin? To just clone Kelsey and give her another shot at life?”

Kevin actually smiled. “So you did take the bait after all. My brother would be happy to know that, I think. He left things for you in the hopes that you might put things together. He even admitted in his journal that there was too much heat on him, and that only an outsider could potentially see what RI was up to. And maybe even stop them. Although, it looks like you took the cloning more to heart than he might have intended.”

Martin started to turn red. “Well, it started off with just Kelsey. Believe it or not, I didn’t clone Annabelle or Rylie. Well, I sort of didn’t clone Annabelle. It’s complicated.”

Kevin’s eyebrows narrowed. “How is it complicated?”

“Because they only meant to clone me a new pancreas since I was dying from cancer,” answered Annabelle. “But Kelsey put in to clone all of me and here I am. Rylie was kind of an accident. A drunken accident.”

Kevin made a knowing expression. “And now you’ll see just exactly what Keith was worried about.”

“But we’re not sex slaves if that’s what you’re thinking,” added Annabelle quickly. “We love each other. All of us. We have a relationship that works well for us. It’s not like Martin is taking advantage of us.”

“I can see that,” said an amused Kevin. “But for every grouping like you four, there’s probably fifty others where the clones are treated as less than human. And that was what my brother was trying to stop. He wanted it done for good reasons, not for people to be able to clone playthings whenever they chose to. And ultimately, it’s why they killed him.” Kevin turned to look at Martin directly. “And it’s why they’re coming for you as well.”

“Who is coming for us exactly?” asked Martin. “Do we know who it is? We’ve been on the run from RI, and they’ve been using a man that looks just like one of the VPs. He looks like a clone to me.”

“A clone of Bryce Rookwood,” replied Kevin. “Yes, that’s their enforcer. He was once a plaything for Claire Pulliam, but they made him into a tool for them. A tool to silence any opposition. I can’t prove it but I’m certain he’s the one that killed Keith. And I think he’s been after me as well.”

“How would he have found out about you?” asked Annabelle. “I thought you said you were laying low after your brother died.”

“You can only lay low for so long until you get tired of hiding,” replied Kevin. “In my case, I’d read all the files my brother saved for me. And I knew the truth, whereas I didn’t whenever he first died. Keith detailed many such people who tried to expose RI and were either killed or paid off in the attempt. His list of names was my starting point. I started to make visits to those that were still alive, seeing what they could tell me about RI. I had hopes of putting together a file that I could turn over to the media and the police, exposing them for the world to see. But I didn’t realize how hard RI works to silence leaks. Most people wouldn’t give me the time of day. They would tell me almost nothing, so scared were they of consequences. And these were just the ones that lived. In most cases, the only common link between any of them was RI but their intimidation was strong. And I found out just how strong it could be whenever I visited too many people.”

With those words, Kevin reached into his pocket, pulling out a small prayer card for a woman who looked to be around mid-fifties in age. He handed it over to Martin.

“That was my Aunt Shelly. She died about three weeks ago. Someone broke into her house and smothered her in the middle of the night.”

“Oh my god,” said Annabelle, putting her hand over her mouth. “Why? How?’

Kevin shook his head. “Aunt Shelly was my only living relative after Keith was killed. She was also on the list of names that was within the envelope left at my place. I know exactly what happened. I was getting too deep and they needed to scare me off. So they killed her.”

“Have you taken this to the police?” asked Martin. “What have they said?”

Kevin scoffed. “Nothing at all. They still claim it could have been a natural death, no matter how much I argue with them. They give me roadblocks at every turn. I even tried to hire a lawyer, one of those tough-as-nails types that would be able to go around them. My lawyer dumped my case after three days. Someone got to him too.”

“Do you finally understand, Martin? This isn’t a matter that can just go away by going to the police or the authorities. RI already has them in their back pockets. Most of them either have a clone waiting for them at home, or they know the consequences of speaking out. The only way to make this go away is to strike back at RI. To show them what it feels like to be hunted. It’s the only way you’re going to be able to live a life in peace where you’re not constantly looking over your shoulder.”

“What are you suggesting though?” asked Martin. “It sounds like you want me to start my own private war with them.”

“That’s exactly what I’m suggesting,” said Kevin. “They need to figure out that they can bleed too. That you’re not just going to give in willingly. Otherwise they’ll never stop.”

“But how? How though, Kevin? I’m an analyst, not a killer. I can defend myself but this is so much more than just that. Where would I even begin?”

“You might not have that much time,” warned Kevin. “But one thing is for certain. You can’t keep running from them. Sooner or later, they’ll get to you, just like they got to Keith. And when that happens, they’re going to kill you unless you kill them first.”

Hearing those words was a sobering moment for Martin. Deep down, he knew that he couldn’t run forever, that he would eventually get tripped up and leave a trail for them to follow. But being able to defend himself and starting a personal war with a company were two very different things.

How on earth was he going to accomplish that?’

And was it something he was even able to do?

Martin never got a chance to ask another question. As the three of them sat there contemplating what needed to be done, a sharp crack filled the air—the kind of sound that was unmistakable.

It was a gunshot.

It was accompanied by the sounds of squealing tires. Martin looked up to see Rylie crouched to the ground, her gun pointed at a car that was coming to a rapid halt nearby.

In the passenger seat was none other than the clone of Bryce Rookwood.

Operating purely on instinct, Martin grabbed his pistol and stood up, moving quickly to Rylie’s side where she was pinned down closest to the car. Just behind him, Annabelle was now doing the same as was Kevin, who was also armed.

In a matter of moments, all hell broke loose.

There appeared to be only two killers there, and they were both taking refuge behind the car. The clone of Bryce Rookwood was behind the passenger side door, while the man in the backseat had moved behind the car, shooting over the top of the hood.

Rylie’s first shot had taken out the driver—a miracle when all things were considered. It was testament to her skill with the weapon, and Martin was thankful that she was the one nearest to the threat.

As Martin, Annabelle, and Kevin moved steadily closer to the car, Rylie managed to take out the second man, the one hiding behind the back of the car. She no sooner shot him than she started taking aim at the last clone—a skillful maneuver that was the hallmark of previous weapons training.

Martin got off a few shots of his own but it was a shot from Kevin that managed to take down the Bryce Rookwood look-alike, hitting him in the upper chest just below the collarbone.

The clone managed to get off one last shot before he dropped his pistol, a threat to no one.

As soon as it started, it was all over. Silence descended on the abandoned strip mall once more but it was the kind of quiet that unnerved all of them.

“Rylie,” called out Martin. “Rylie, are you okay?”

He finally made it to her, his hands touching her chest and her back at the same time while looking for some kind of imaginary wound.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

Rylie nodded solemnly. “I’m fine. I guess. I mean, I don’t know.” She turned to look at him. “I killed those men, Martin. I killed both of them.”

She said the words so calmly but there was a strange look in her eye. One that told him that there were many emotions under the otherwise tranquil surface.

There wasn’t any time to digest her words. At that moment, Martin became aware that Kelsey was screaming his name.

He quickly saw why. It appeared that the clone’s last shot had managed to strike pay dirt.

Kevin never had a chance. No one had heard him fall to the ground, the victim of a single shot to the chest. His face managed the look in Kelsey’s eyes—utterly calm and seemingly at peace.

It was a strange way to go, and Martin felt crestfallen as he looked at the dead man.

Kevin had so many answers. There were so many questions that hadn’t been discussed yet.

And now he was dead just like his brother.

At that moment, Annabelle’s words seemed to encapsulate the emotions of the moment.

“Oh, no,” she whispered, looking at Kevin. “What the hell are we going to do now?”

Martin could only shake his head. “I haven’t the slightest idea.”

A profound sense of hopelessness flooded all of them. It was the realization that the only person that was able to help them was now truly gone.

Even though Kevin was no soldier, his knowledge could have contained the key to escaping from this nightmare.

It was as Martin was still wondering what to do that he heard a sound. At first, the noise was like a rattle but extremely faint, and it wasn’t until he found his footing again that he realized where it was coming from.

The clone of Bryce Rookwood was still alive, if only barely. And his chest was convulsing, almost as if he was laughing.

It took on new meaning once he looked at Martin.

“It doesn’t change anything,” he growled, his fingers stained with blood. “They’ll just clone me again. You haven’t won today.”

Martin found himself taking a few steps back. The back of his feet hit the curb as he stared down at the clone.

“You better start running now,” growled the clone. “We’re going to find you eventually. And next time, you won’t get away.”

He said nothing further after issuing the threat. The clone simply grabbed his chest, exhaled one more time, and died in the next moment.

With him went any chance Martin had at getting through this in one piece.

“We have to get out of here,” he said to the girls, gesturing to the truck at once. “We have to go now!”

“But where are we going to go?” asked Annabelle, still a little shaken up by the ambush. “Martin! We need to talk about this. Where can we go?”

He was already grabbing her hand and pulling her toward the truck. It wasn’t until all four of them were loaded up that he hightailed it out of there, wanting to leave the scene of the crime as soon as possible.

Martin drove without a destination. The only thing he knew was that he needed to get away before it was too late.

CHAPTER 42

MARTIN DIDN’T STOP DRIVING until the tank was about out of gas. About two hours west of Albany, in the middle of nowhere, he finally pulled over to fill up. The truck ride out there was one that was spent in eerie silence.

No one had a thing to say. Martin suspected that the girls all felt the same feeling of hopelessness that he did. It was now well after dark but the last thing he wanted to do was find a motel for the night, knowing that any place they tried was likely to get ambushed by RI. Even with the death of the Bryce Rookwood clone, Martin had no faith that they didn’t have others like him, who could probably reach them if allowed to catch up.

Try as he might, he just couldn’t escape the memory of the clone’s taunting, knowing that RI could throw unlimited clone assassins at him.

If that was the case, they’d never be able to stop running.

Martin let out a loud sigh as he sat on the curb, drinking a bottle of soda procured from inside the gas station. The sigh was loud enough to attract Kelsey’s attention, and she sat down next to him.

“I’m not going to ask if you’re okay,” she started, turning her head to look at him. “Because I already know the answer to that.”

“What are we going to do, babe?” he asked, his voice low and sullen. “Where did everything go so wrong?”

She rested her head on his shoulder. “I wish I knew.”

“I have no idea how we can stop them,” he admitted. “I wish I felt comfortable enough to go back to your uncle’s cabin but I don’t. They’ve probably found out about that too. It’s like the only option we have is to keep running forever.”

A sad look appeared on her face. “Do you . . . do you ever wish that you hadn’t done it?” she whispered.

He turned to look at her. “What do you mean?”

“I mean do you ever wish you would have just left me dead? It’s okay, Martin. You can be honest. Maybe I was just supposed to die and that was supposed to be the end of it. I can’t help but think this all started because of me. And I hate to think that we’re put in this predicament just because I should have stayed dead.”

Martin started shaking his head. “Bringing you back was the best thing I ever did. I really mean that, Kelsey. I just had no idea it came with so much . . .”

“Baggage?” she finished.

He nodded.

There was silence between them for several minutes before Martin started speaking again.

“I almost wonder if we shouldn’t just fake our deaths somehow,” he said. “Leave our things in the truck and send it off a cliff or something. Let RI think we’re dead and we’ll escape the country, starting our lives over.”

Kelsey smiled at him. “That wouldn’t be so bad, right? It would be a chance to start over without having to look over our shoulders all the time.”

“The only thing I’m wondering is if it would even work. With their resources, who’s to say they wouldn’t come find us? That’s what I’m struggling with, Kelsey. How can I keep all of us alive?”

She had no answer for that one. The only thing she did was pat his leg.

“We’ll figure something out. We just have to.”

Martin wasn’t so sure.

The next twenty-four hours were spent with the group literally on the edge of their seats. They spent the entire night cramped in the truck, making for a very stiff and not-so-restful night. It was still better than the alternative, and no one wanted to take a chance at staying at a hotel as long as RI might show up.

With no place to go and their options limited, Martin wasn’t quite sure what to do.

There was one thing he thought about doing though, more out of curiosity than anything. He had a nagging feeling about checking his email, although he couldn’t quite decide why. Knowing that Kevin chose the medium as a way to contact him was a surface-level explanation, but it wasn’t helped by the fact that Kevin was dead.

So why was Martin feeling the urge to check it so badly? What was the compulsion?

He finally talked the girls into stopping at a little coffee shop just so he could take care of it. Surprisingly, they were all too happy to do so as it finally got them out of that cramped truck.

It was as Martin was opening up his emails that he saw that his suspicion was correct.

He had a new message from Vince Dulles. Martin held his breath as he scanned the body of the message.

It’s time we put an end to this little game, Martin. Now, I’m willing to let you go free, but the three experiments can’t be allowed to exist. If you bring me proof of their liquidation (I’ll be looking for a certain smudge on the exterior), I’ll call off my people. You have one shot and one shot only. Do the right thing, Martin.

Vince

Martin could scarcely believe what he just read. His hand was almost shaking it as it hovered over the mouse, digesting the message.

“Martin?” asked Annabelle. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“It’s a message from Vince,” said Martin, filling them in on the details. “He’s trying to end this.”

“What does he mean by experiments?” asked a fearful Rylie. “He doesn’t mean . . . ?”

Martin nodded. “That’s the way I’m reading this. He’s telling me that this can all be over if I just . . . dispose of you three. If I take things back to the status quo.”

“That’s so vile!” hissed Kelsey. “I can’t believe that son of a bitch would put that in the message to you!”

“And he wants identification of it too,” added Annabelle, pointing to the small black mark on her finger—the mark of the clone. “He’ll be looking for the fingers as proof that it was us. This just went to a whole new level.”

“What the hell are we going to do?” asked Rylie. “This is so sick!”

“What else can we do?” countered Martin. “We’re up against the wall and this is the only thing he’s willing to offer to stop it all.”

All three women gave him a shocked look. “Martin, he wants us all dead! The deal that he’s offering isn’t really a deal after all. And you’re not a cold-blooded murderer either, not like they are!”

Martin’s head was still spinning. He tried to think of every angle—any possible way out of the current situation but he found none that fit the parameters of what Vince was offering him.

And yet, was Vince really asking for that much? All he wanted was a return to the status quo, where none of the girls were clones of the originals. Why was that so shocking?

Well, because it would mean killing the three women that were most important to him.

“I need some air,” said Martin, pushing up from the computer and moving outside the coffee shop to sit on the curb. He must have sat there for nearly forty-five minutes going through every option, finding most of them unsatisfactory.

There had to be a way out of this.

And that was when it hit him. An idea that just might work. He had to borrow someone’s cell phone in order to make a call, and he had to pray that the intended recipient picked up the phone.

Luckily for him, the recipient did pick up.

About ten minutes later, Martin walked back into the coffee shop, a somber look on his face. He stopped moving when he came to the computer, finding all three women looking back at him with various levels of apprehension on their faces.

“Martin?” asked Kelsey tenuously. “Are you okay? Did you think of something?”

Martin closed his eyes tightly. “I’m so sorry, Kelsey.”

There could only be one way.

CHAPTER 43

IT WAS NEARLY forty-eight hours later when Martin showed up outside the headquarters or Replica Imagination alone. It was already dark that evening, and a soft rain was falling from the sky. The setting only amplified his nerves and the heavy lump in his throat as he walked toward the front door, carrying a small box at his side.

Thinking about the contents of the box nearly made him hurl. In fact, he was quite positive it was the most disturbing thing that he’d ever had to do in his life, and Martin was certain the hole that it left in his soul was one that would haunt him forever.

Still, it needed to be done. This was the only way he could have peace.

This was the only way he could stay alive.

As he entered the darkened vestibule of the company, he found that he wasn’t alone. He had a gun trained on him immediately by another Bryce Rookwood look-alike, eerily similar to the one that was killed three days ago.

“I have eyes on the target,” said the clone into a comm line that was attached to his waist. “He’s alone and carrying a small box.”

The orders that came back were crystal clear in response.

“Search him and then send him up unarmed.”

The clone moved closer to Martin, patting him down and making sure that he wasn’t armed. He wouldn’t find the pistol that Martin used this entire last week. If he had any hopes of surviving this encounter, he had to come to them unarmed and ready to follow their deal to the letter.

“He’s clean,” said the clone after a thorough search. “Sending him up now.”

Once he received the acknowledgment, the clone just smirked at Martin. “You’ve come to surrender, haven’t you? Very noble of you. And very smart.”

Martin didn’t bother to respond to that. As far as he was concerned, any interaction with the clone was over. He moved closer to the elevator, the clone trailing just behind him. Once inside, they took it all the way to the top floor.

As soon as the doors opened, Martin found himself face-to-face with the real Bryce as well as Claire Pulliam. Bryce looked menacing in his own way, and even Claire found it hard to contain the smile of triumph that now appeared on her face.

It really was a tragedy about Claire. If she wasn’t so evil, she would be incredibly attractive. For a brief moment, Martin allowed himself to think about what it would be like to undress Claire, throw her on the desk, and fuck her until the sun came up. He could already see Claire breathing heavily, her upper chest flushed with heat as her large tits bounced with every powerful thrust.

Martin found himself responding to those thoughts, but the first words out of Claire’s mouth quickly shattered the daydream.

“Let’s get him to Vince,” she said, wearing her trademark sneer. “And put an end to this for good.”

All four of them walked along the narrow hallway to the office of the CEO, entering after a brief knock.

They found Vince sitting behind his desk, watching their every move as they entered and closed the door behind him. Most notably, Vince’s eyes were trained on Martin and the box he carried by his side. As Martin moved closer, Vince’s smirk grew.

“Very intelligent of you to honor my request, Martin,” said Vince once the distance was closed. “I’d wondered whether or not you’d even see my email.”

“I saw it all right,” said Martin, scoffing at the end of it. “And I thought it was as despicable as you.”

Vince’s eyes flickered to the small box again. “And yet, here you are. And it looks like you brought me a present. Why don’t you show me what’s in that box?”

Martin didn’t have the heart to open it. He threw it on Vince’s desk, where it landed with a loud crash. The clone of Bryce put his gun to the back of Martin’s head—a warning about the manners he’d displayed so far.

But at this point, Martin was almost past caring.

Vince didn’t seem nearly as offended by the box smashing against his desk. He grabbed it with both hands, undoing the clasp that kept the two sides together. Martin realized he was holding his breath as he moved to open it.

Inside the box were contents straight out of a low-budget horror film. Three fingers, all slightly bloody at one end, were arranged inside. They were marked with the same telltale mark on the side of the finger—the mark of the clone.

Vince couldn’t resist a grin as he looked at the box. “And I trust the owners are dead as well? That was part of the deal.”

Martin nodded reluctantly. “If you look at the news, you’ll see there was a car crash just outside of Albany last night. Three women lost control of a vehicle and it went over a cliff. There were no survivors.”

“Just perfect,” whispered Vince, closing the box in front of him. He even started to chuckle as he reclined in his chair, his eyes focusing on Martin.

“You know, it’s too bad that this went down the way it did,” said Vince finally. “I might have room in the upper echelons of RI for a man that can get things done like you did tonight, Martin. I mean, what kind of cold-blooded monster would kill three innocent women just to save his own skin? You’d be an incredible enforcer with that kind of mentality.”

Martin found tears were already running down his cheeks. “Fuck you,” he snarled at Vince.

“And to think, I really had my doubts about you,” continued Vince. “I thought you’d stay with those women until we killed all of you. But this, I didn’t expect this. It makes it all easier. And we’re not used to dealing with easy.”

“Then let me go,” replied Martin. “You got what you wanted. They’re gone. I’ve honored the terms of your message from two days ago. Let me go free and stop hunting me.”

Vince started to laugh, and he was joined quickly by Bryce, Claire, and the clone. All the reserves of Martin’s inner strength vanished at that point, faced by the despotic and cruel laughter.

“Oh, Martin, it just doesn’t work that way,” said Vince, gesturing to the clone behind Martin that still had his gun trained on him. “It was an admirable thing that you did today. It took balls, and I can see that you had that. But I will let nothing come in the way of interfering with the Janus Program. Not even the small threat that you are will be allowed to go free. As long as you know what’s going on, you’re a loose end. And I haven’t stayed in this business this long by letting loose ends go free.”

A multitude of emotions assaulted Martin’s mind at that particular moment. Confusion, anger, remorse, and helplessness all reigned supreme. One emotion stood out just a little more than the others.

Curiosity.

“What the fuck is the Janus Program?”

Vince grinned. “Ordinarily, I wouldn’t even waste my breath with the name of a project so secretive, but seeing as you don’t have long for the world, I’ll indulge you just this once. I suspect you already know most of the details of the Janus Program, mostly because of what you’ve been able to do. The women that you cloned are a direct result of the goals of the project—a verifiable working, and intelligent human clone, the real deal. That’s the entire reason for the name. Janus was the ancient Roman god with two faces. On one hand, he dealt with beginnings and transitions but he also represented the dual nature of the soul. For us, the Janus Program represented a whole new beginning in the way we look at the scientific community. A way to transition to a new world with the help of human clones, which was exactly what we sought to do. RI has a public face and a private face which helped to hide our breakthroughs until the public was ready to see them.”

Vince continued. “After mastering cat and dog cloning, we moved quickly onto the next big question—that of human clones. But we knew we had to keep it secret or else we might never get the chance to attain the breakthrough we all desired. We knew that any leak in the program could derail it, and if it was found out by the public, it could spell the end of RI despite the incredible science. The first human clones were made here in the testing area, and we celebrated once we had a process that was repeatable and produced high quality results.”

“The problem was that we now had human clones in a world where they were entirely illegal. How best could we capitalize on such a banned commodity? Like whores and drugs before us, we quickly turned to the only avenue where we monetize the new goods that were being made—by appealing to people’s baser instincts.”

“You made them sex slaves,” said Martin.

“Exactly, Martin. Although, we prefer to call them sexual companions, the idea is the same. Clones were bred for myself and all the members of my inner circle, clones that were bred for their easygoing nature and their openness to sexual depravity. I myself have a clone of every single race in the world, and I enjoy watching them gather around to pleasure my manhood. Claire, for example, likes men of size. She especially enjoys being made airtight by her clones in a series of increasing deprave sexual acts.”

Martin spared a glance at Claire, who only purred in response to Vince’s statement. At that moment, Martin briefly wondered what it would be like to be the one making her airtight. He pictured feeding his cock into her ass at the same time one was already pushing into her pussy.

“But we ran into a small hiccup,” continued Vince, oblivious to Martin’s thoughts. “We were only making clones for those here at RI and no one else. And that’s when I had my big idea. I pitched the idea to my investors, a small group of powerful industrialists who agreed to finance RI in the early days to get us off the ground. They were most thrilled with our new product, and they were thankful to reap the benefits of their initial investment. From those industrialists, we moved into the government arena next. Several senators, congressmen, as well as treasury contacts are now proud owners of their own harem of clones. And they all agree that it’s vital that RI is allowed to continue our work. It’s almost ironic, isn’t it? We’re able to overcome their natural revulsion to cloning by appealing to their basic instincts. At their core, just about everyone in the world is a pervert, Martin. And my company proves it.”

“It comes with a trade-off though,” he continued. “With so many more people having access to the clones at RI, security was found to be rather lax. It was this lax security that enabled you to do what you did, and that can never be allowed to stand. All those security protocols have been changed to be much stricter, and we tightly regulate those that had access to the testing area, even cutting off a number of repeat customers. In that way, our secrecy in this process is ensured, and we keep the favor that we have with this country’s most powerful patrons.”

“If you’re worried about secrecy, you don’t need to say another word,” offered Martin, now in dire fear of his life. “I will never say another word about RI. As far as this goes, I never had to work here. I won’t tell a soul that I’ve even heard about this company. I’ll disappear and never utter the name of RI ever again.”

Vince could only click his tongue against his teeth. “You don’t understand, Martin. I don’t take risks of that nature. Three of my potential leaks are dead, and soon the fourth will be too. You just made my job much easier by coming here on your own accord. Like I said earlier, it was admirable what you did but ultimately fatal.”

“I’m not trying to bring you down though,” he countered. “I don’t care what you do. The only reason I did this was to bring back my dead ex-girlfriend. I’ve learned my lesson. Nobody will know of anything that you do here if you just let me go.”

“Oh, I know that quite well,” said Vince. “In fact, our first thought was to keep you strung along, just in case we needed a fall guy. Once we identified it was you that was doing the cloning, I thought it could be beneficial to know that I had someone to blame in case this ever went public.” Vince soon turned his attention to Bryce and Claire. “However, other influences caused me to see otherwise.”

Martin noticed the movement and looked at the two VPs. “It was your influence then. And it happened the day after I came to meet Vince.”

Claire shrugged. “We helped Vince see that even having you as a fall guy would invalidate our primary goal, which was to keep the public from finding out about RI. We don’t need a fall guy. If we get to the point that we do need one, we’ve already failed. It’s just easier to liquidate you then to let you survive and potentially put the program at risk by your repeated transgressions here.”

“So we had a little change of plans,” added Bryce. “Unfortunately, we had to kill the original Vince when he wouldn’t see it our way.”

Martin’s eyes bulged as he looked back over at the CEO. Vince then held up his finger, clearly showing the black mark on it.

“Ever since then, this isn’t a dictatorship led by Vince anymore,” continued Claire. “It’s now a troika, and we all have a say over the direction of RI.”

“It’s the day we became fully vested in RI,” added Bryce with a sneer. “After all, it’s a dangerous line of work. And sometimes, people need to be killed to maintain control.”

“And we all agree that you have to be killed,” said Vince finally, looking at Martin. “Especially once you directly intervened with the clone of Nataliya Kovalchik.”

“What would you have me do?” demanded Martin. “Nataliya found me in the testing area and begged me to get her out of there. I already knew her from my past, and someone had cloned her just to use as a sex toy.”

“And a damn good sex toy she would have been,” growled Bryce. “I made her to be more aggressive than usual. I was hoping it would make her a hellcat in the bedroom, not that I ever got a chance to find out.”

“What you did was make her a threat to everyone,” countered Martin. “She killed her original version.”

“Oh, we know all about that,” said Vince. “We also know you replaced her with the clone Nataliya. Like I said, you’re a very capable and intelligent young man but you almost exposed RI in the process. That media coverage could have unraveled the thread that might have brought them straight to our doors. I’ve already had the original clone liquidated and replaced with an exact copy without the aggression, in the hopes that she didn’t murder her husband and draw more questions back to us.”

“You killed Nataliya too?” whispered Martin.

“Just her clone,” replied Vince. “We fixed the situation that she originally created by killing her original. Balance has now been restored in the process. And now that you’ve done the dirty work on the other three girls, who we only know about because you weren’t able to erase the admin files in the replicators, we’re now left with only one loose end. You.”

“What if I offered to help you?” pleaded Martin. “I’ve been here and I know a lot about not only how RI works but the cloning process with my experience. I can help you with the Janus Program just as long as you let me live. You’ve taken everything from me already, and now you’ve taken my dignity. Can’t you leave this one shred which is my life still intact?”

Vince didn’t respond immediately as he considered the offer.

“It’s a tempting offer,” replied Vince. “Especially in the light of this Nataliya mess. We are only on the cusp of what we know about gene modification, and our efforts in this area remain rather crude. Ultimately, we’d like to be able to create the best sex clones we can offer—docile or adventurous, loving or fierce. We want to remove their individuality so that they can be complete sexual servants. The cloning of Nataliya Kovalchik backfired completely. She wasn’t meant to be that volatile, and the experience with her was a learning one, especially as we consider how their hormones and gene levels affect their personality.”

“As you’ve probably noticed, clones fresh out of the replicator experience a surge in interest in sexual activity. I liken it to a teenager on the cusp of puberty—their hormones are raging from the cloning process, and they can’t help themselves, needing sex quickly. As they age, their hormones start to settle, and they gradually lose that edge that made them adventurous sexual creatures. Several of my investors will replace their clones once they get to this level, finding that they take on qualities that too closely resemble their own wives. We’ve yet to figure out the right formula for making clones sexually adventurous for the entire length of their lives, at least without devastating consequences like with Nataliya.”

Vince seemed to weigh the suggestion a little more before ultimately shaking his head.

“I’m going to decline your offer, Martin. I have the utmost confidence in my team that they can figure it out without your help. After all, they’ve gotten us this far. It will just take a little more tweaking to get the model just perfect. At the end of the day, you’re just a leak. And to that end, I’m going to show you how we deal with leaks here at RI.”

With those words, Vince gestured to the clone behind Martin. “You may proceed,” said Vince.

They were the last three words that Martin ever heard. Before he could lodge another protest, the gun behind his head fired once, sending a 9mm caliber bullet into the back of his head.

Martin’s body crumpled to the floor, and his blood started to seep into the tiles beneath his head.

That was it. It was all over at that point.

“And now the leak has been stopped,” said Claire with a tone of finality.

“I want you to test the DNA in those fingers,” said Vince. “Just to make sure it belonged to the three women.”

“Who else would it belong to?” asked Bryce.

“I don’t care. Just test it anyway,” replied Vince. “I want to be sure it’s them before we put this to bed forever. And check his finger too. I want to make sure he’s not a clone.”

Bryce crouched down, taking the finger on Martin’s body. “No mark here. He’s the original all right.”

“Good,” replied Vince, pushing back in his chair. “Then this should be about over. My contacts in the senate will be happy to hear that. The biggest threat in the history of RI has now been eliminated and we can go back to our plan. Now I just need you all to do one more thing for me.”

Claire raised an eyebrow. “What’s that?”

“Get his corpse out of my office.”

CHAPTER 44

THAT VERY WELL COULD HAVE BEEN THE end of all of it.

And it nearly was.

In fact, it was about six months later that Martin finally felt comfortable enough not looking over his shoulder every few minutes.

Even the girls were starting to come around.

Kelsey, bless her heart, looked simply ravishing in her bright blue bikini as the soft breeze blew her hair behind her.

“Something’s different about you today,” she said, putting her hands against his cheeks. “What is it? Are you thinking about anything in particular?”

He answered her as honestly as he could. “I’m thinking about absolutely nothing. Nothing at all, and it feels just great.”

Kelsey gave him a small smile, knowing exactly what he meant.

“It’s been a full six months, hasn’t it? And we’re still alive. And by all accounts, RI is still none the wiser.”

Martin chuckled. “It helps being in Panama. Life is just a little slower down here than it was back in the States. And of course, we’re about as far from RI as we can get.”

“I’ll drink to that,” added Annabelle, marching back up from the sand as her white bikini glistened in the afternoon sun. “Look out there at Rylie. She’s about to crush this incoming wave.”

Sure enough, Annabelle wasn’t joking. They all turned their attention to Rylie, who was now riding a small swell back into shore, making it look effortless and sexy at the same time.

“Who would have thought we’d make it to this moment all those months ago?” asked Kelsey. “And that we could pull one over on RI?”

“I guess my own clone didn’t,” said Martin sullenly. “It still makes me upset to think about what happened to him.”

Kelsey put her hand on his arm. “It had to happen. It was the best way forward.”

Martin nodded his head, even though he still disliked the clone’s fate. Everything had changed for them once they received the email from Vince about turning in the girls in exchange for Martin going free. Martin realized that they would never have allowed him to go totally free, and there was no universe where he would have lifted a finger against the girls in exchange for his own life.

He would gladly give his own many times over before risking them just to save his own hide.

But then an interesting solution presented itself, one that caused a current employee of RI to stick his neck out for Martin all because of one single phone call.

“Dude, you know I’m not supposed to be talking to you,” said Tim into the phone, his voice already wary.

“Hear me out,” pleaded Martin. “You’re the only person in the world that can help me right now, and I’m in serious trouble. I need you, man. Please don’t hang up.”

He listened to Tim sigh on the other end of the line. “How can I help?”

Those four words opened the floodgates. Martin put it all out there on the line, and he soon found himself driving the girls to Scranton to link up with Tim, where they put a plan in place to fool RI into thinking they were going along with Vince’s email.

The first thing that was done was to clone the fingers. Using the replicators at Tim’s branch, they managed to clone perfect specimens of the girls’ digits, and Martin even took a knife to them to make them look like they’d been haphazardly cut off. With a small added touch of real blood (secured by pricking each girl’s finger), they made the fake fingers look like the real deal.

Then came the most important part.

“You’re going to need to clone me,” said Martin to Tim. “RI is never going to let me walk out of there alive. We’re going to have to make a fake copy.”

Tim came up with several reasons why this wasn’t the best choice but one objection carried more weight than others.

“Dude, even if I can erase the records of your cloning from my own replicator, which I can because I have admin access, you’re forgetting the black mark on the finger that gives it away. If you show up at headquarters with the mark, they’ll know the real you is still out there.”

“I understand that but what if we remove the mark before we make the clone?” asked Martin. “We can modify genes on the clones. Let’s make a modified version of me without the mark.”

Tim thought about it for a moment and ultimately nodded his head. “That just might work after all.”

As such, a clone of Martin was made in Tim’s replicator after hours, maintaining the secrecy that was so vital. Martin insisted on a few more changes to the clone before he was ready. For one, Martin asked that the clone be given modifications to the endocrine system—the part of the body that controlled pain.

“Why do you want to do that?” asked Tim.

“Because we’re sending this clone to his death, that’s why,” replied Martin sourly. “If he’s going to die, at least it should be painless. I don’t want to live with his blood on my hands if that’s not the case.”

With a few other changes, the clone of Martin was completed. They avoided having the clone Martin around the real one, just to prevent any leaks from the clone should he accidentally spill the plan to RI. The clone itself was nearly a perfect replication of Martin, although he did have the telltale flaw of all newly-cloned models.

“Can we have sex before I go?” asked the clone Martin to Rylie, showing off his elevated libido. “Seriously, you look so fucking hot right now that I can’t stand it.”

It took a while to refocus the clone before they were able to get on his mission but the need for sex was still very obvious.

Once everything was in place, they staged the accident with the truck with the help of some dead pig carcasses thanks to one of Tim’s friends in Scranton.

Martin knew it wouldn’t hold up to an investigation but the hope was that the proof he was able to give to RI would be enough to believe he’d followed their instructions to the letter.

After that, the tricky part was getting out of the country. They had to use some unscrupulous methods to get all of them to Panama but nearly a month after the email from Vince, they were all secure in the Central American country.

With the soft landing in Panama came a few additional changes. Knowing they would be easy to identify for anyone at RI who might come looking, they made a few physical changes as well. For one, Martin was now sporting a beard for the first time in his life. Ordinarily, he didn’t care for the way it looked on his face but the girls seemed to like it enough so he kept it.

It was small changes like that, not enough to fool an experienced eye but enough to get everyone else. And for nearly six months, it had worked just like they’d intended.

Their lives in Panama were completely different now. Money was pretty tight these days, even after withdrawing all of Annabelle’s money from her stock account. Even so, Martin and the girls all managed to pick up small jobs that put spending money in their pockets.

There was never very much of it but they never wanted for the essentials.

That particular afternoon they were all posted up outside a popular beach bar in a seaside town that was off the beaten track. The bar had been recently sold to four new American owners, selling for a steal of a price that wasn’t too far out of the budget.

In doing so, it made one more dream a reality for the group.

“You know, I have a lot of ideas for this place once we’re up and running,” said Kelsey, looking back at the tiny bar. “Some ideas on how to get patrons in.”

“As long as it’s just about getting patrons in, I’m all ears,” replied Martin with a chuckle. “That seems like a relatively small problem compared to running for your life.”

“I have an idea on how to bring in patrons,” said Annabelle, giving a teasing grin to Kelsey. “Put Kelsey in a bandanna and some camouflage and give her a gun. We’ll advertise her as Kambo, and I just know she’ll draw in the local male clientele once they see how hot she is.”

Martin started to laugh harder. Even after all this time, the Kambo joke still hadn’t died.

Kelsey pursed her lips. “My ideas were serious at least.”

Annabelle grinned. “I know they were. I just couldn’t resist the urge to tease.”

“You’ve been hanging out with Rylie too long,” shot Kelsey.

Annabelle shrugged. “Maybe you’re right. But what else is there to do here? I’m always hanging out with the three people that I love most in the world.”

Martin nodded his head. “And we wouldn’t have it any other way. Even if we are rebels for life now.”

“Amen to that.”

They continued to make small talk while Martin mostly listened to the radio that was on the table next to him. It was only once he heard a familiar name that he stopped to turn the volume up.

“And in other news today, Jack “Punching Bag” Baggen is certainly the picture of health once more. The legendary boxer who was at one time deathly sick and looking like he might be fighting his last fight was seen this past weekend training at the gym. Baggen credits his recovery to a new trainer as well as a rigorous exercise regimen and he looks forward to many long years in good health.”

Martin couldn’t help but chuckle at that statement, knowing exactly why his idol had made a full recovery.

“You think anyone will ever know the difference?” asked Annabelle, figuring out why Martin was laughing.

“Who knows?” replied Martin. “Maybe if they check the mark on his finger.”

Annabelle grinned and only shook her head.

Not long after the news about Jack Baggen, Rylie marched back up the beach, using a towel to cover her lean and attractive body. She plopped down right next to the other three and was soon caught staring back at the water.

“What are you looking at?” asked Kelsey.

“Honestly?” replied Rylie. “That sexy girl that’s just coming out of the water right now. She’s got some serious moves on her surfboard and she’s freaking gorgeous.”

All of them turned to look at the girl in question. Martin had to admit that Rylie wasn’t exaggerating. She was nearly flawless, with sun-kissed skin and glossy black hair. She’d be a perfect fit with the rest of the group just by sheer attractiveness alone.

“Too bad we can’t clone her,” said Rylie out of the blue. “We might just have to talk her into our arrangement the old fashioned way.”

“Clone her?” said a startled Martin. “Where did that idea come from? We haven’t talked about that in quite a long time.”

Rylie shrugged. “Just a thought. You can say I’m just remembering our old life.”

Martin chuckled. “Remember what happened when we invited a fourth girl into our group the last time? It didn’t turn out so well for us.”

“I suppose you’re right,” said Rylie after a moment. “Still, it’s fun to think about it, isn’t it?”

“Well, maybe it doesn’t have to be a permanent arrangement,” offered Annabelle as a lecherous grin grew on her face. “Maybe we can just steal her for the night? That is, as long as we’re all in agreement?”

The other two girls quickly added their confirmations before their eyes turned to Martin. At that point, he could only smile.

“I love the life we have,” he said simply. “And I’m game for whatever you want to do.”

Kelsey started to giggle. “Thanks for indulging us,” she said sarcastically. “I know that’s a hard decision for you to make.”

“Oh, something’s going to be hard all right,” added Rylie, causing all of them to laugh.

“You girls will be the death of me, I swear.”

“Maybe,” said Annabelle. “But it will be a good time on the way out.”

Martin grinned. “Of that, I have no doubt!”

AFTERWORD

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Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Contents

The Biopunk Revelation

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

The Biopunk Revelation 2

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

The Biopunk Revelation 3

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Afterword