Several good things

"Do you ever think about having kids?" he asked his wife by the pool. Alex and Eve were in the studio — a room stuffed with every kind of obscenity imaginable — probably filming, with the new outfits and toys they'd just bought.

Sitting on the edge of the pool, she laughed — not the reaction he'd expected at all.

"Our little vixen's gotten into your head, huh."

He looked at her, startled. "That just happened, how did you—"

She put on a serious face. "You're not the only one with powers now. I can read minds."

He froze, staring at her for a second... until she burst out laughing.

"You're evil. For a second I actually believed something rubbed off on you."

"I don't think angelic powers are an STD, and as far as I know, you can't read minds."

"Good thing too, because if I could actually look in there, my head would explode from information overload." Nick caught the word "angelic" and found it a little strange.

She just smiled at him — she denied it because she was humble, but she loved being showered in compliments, and this one, she'd earned. He didn't know anyone smarter or more well-read than her.

"I can see everything the girls do on their phones — I put an app on them, on their laptops too."

"That's kind of an invasion of privacy, don't you think?"

"They gave me permission. I explained I trust them, but they could accidentally record a face, or a photo of the outside, or have one drink too many some afternoon and tell someone something they shouldn't. So I see basically everything they do."

"Me too?"

"No, that'd be a waste of time. Your phone's just full of photos of our asses and not much else."

"And what asses." He grabbed hers as he pulled her in for a kiss.

"You don't talk to anyone besides us when we're out."

"Everything I need is right here. It's a little isolationist, I know, but I'm happy this way."

"You don't miss your family?"

That stopped the conversation cold. He didn't want to go there, but he had to — he wasn't going to close off any part of himself to her.

"Just the one person I can't talk to anymore."

A wave of sadness hit him he hadn't felt in a long time — he missed his mother more than anything in the world. His wife noticed, took his hand. She knew his mother had passed away and not much else; she never pushed the topic, because it was obviously like driving stakes into his chest.

"She would have liked you. She had that same gift with people — everyone loved her wherever she went."

"I would have loved to meet her."

"I'd kill to know what she'd think of all this — of our life."

He dove into the pool, the pressure in his chest suffocating; he was about to cry and didn't want her to see, though of course she already knew. Then he pulled her in too — she landed with a shriek — and she wrapped her arms and legs around him and kissed him, knowing that was what he needed, her mind already running through a thousand ways to pull him out of that grief. She considered calling the other girls, throwing an epic orgy, anything to save him — it hurt seeing him like this.

"You didn't answer my question, by the way — don't think I didn't notice, smartass."

"It's... complicated."

"Like everything in our life."

A long pause.

"It's fine, I don't need anything more than what I already have..."

"That's not it — I've been fantasizing about it since that day at the hotel..."

"But this isn't exactly a place to raise a kid."

"You're smarter than you give yourself credit for."

"So this is what it feels like at the top."

That made her smile — he would kill and die for that smile every single time; it made all his sadness evaporate instantly.

"I know you'd want it, I'd want it too, someday..." She paused. "I think I'm going to look into setting something up — a pension plan, or whatever — so that when we get tired of all this, we can retire and start a real family. Well — this one's real too, you know what I mean."

"And they lived happily ever after? Sounds nice," he said.

"But we've still got a lot to explore first."

"You say that like it's a checklist. We're just having fun, we're not discovering the Americas here."

"I've been writing."

"I've seen you with the laptop."

"But you haven't asked me about it."

"'Let people open up at their own pace, you just have to be there' — someone much wiser than me told me that once."

"I love you."

"Because I listen? Not that I'm complaining."

"Because I figured you weren't interested in what I was doing, and it turns out you were following my own advice to the letter. Makes me feel stupid."

"God, it's nice up here at the top, I might need to take an IQ test or something."

She gave him a light knuckle-tap on the forehead. "Don't get ahead of yourself. 138's solid, but it's not that impressive."

"I'm not even going to ask how you know that."

"I have your school records. I was curious. You were a terrible student."

"I would've told you if you'd asked."

"That was a while back, early on — I posed as your secretary. I wanted to know everything about you. I know, it's a problem."

"You're a little scary sometimes, but most of the time you amaze me, so, potatoes, potahtoes."

"Want to know what I'm writing?"

"If you want to share it with me, of course."

"I love you."

"Because I'm super smart, I know."

Another knuckle-tap to the forehead.

"Can I ask you something? It's dumb, but you know how I am — not knowing things bugs the hell out of me."

"Ask away."

"You barely have any cash, and I don't see anything on the card statements — I don't know how you paid for the ring." She looked down at it on her finger; she loved it, thought it was the most beautiful ring in the history of jewelry — not that she was biased, or anything.

"Hm. And it bugs you not knowing how I did it, or knowing that I can do it if I want to?"

"How you did it — well, and also — shit, you're actually learning, I'm not ready for this."

"I told you, you make me a better person. You think I say that stuff just to get you into bed? I mean every single word."

"Thank you."

"Right back at you."

A silence, which she broke.

"Please, I need to know..."

"I bought it a while ago. That day in the kitchen, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. I bought it the next day, while you were still at work. I used what I had in an account — from when my mom... the life insurance. I never wanted to touch it, because... well, it's the only thing I had left of her — had — and it felt like something she'd approve of."

She wrapped her arms around him, and he cried — he hated doing that in front of anyone, but she wasn't letting go, and he couldn't hold it back anymore, so he let it out, holding his wife tightly.

"I know it hurts, but I want you to tell me about her sometime, whenever you're ready. People only really leave when they're forgotten."

"God, I can't watch that damn movie without crying like a baby."

"Neither can I... come on, I want to show you what I've been writing."

"So it's like a journal, then."

"Not exactly. More like... an essay."

They were still damp, sitting at the desk — him in a towel around his waist, her in a robe, hanging open, and Nick kept losing focus on the perfect shape underneath, fighting to keep his attention on the conversation.

He kept reading, mostly to avoid getting too distracted — this clearly mattered to her.

"I think I've got something good." She stood up and started pacing.

"Several good things." He watched her hips sway as she moved, restless.

"Focus," she said, pointing a finger at him — she looked so commanding like this, so serious, giving orders, he could've taken her right there on the floor.

"Don't you see it? It's... we're all happy. We're doing something."

"I could give you a demonstration right now, if you want."

"Besides that. Everyone has sex, there's something else going on."

"Sex god?" he said, pointing at his own face.

"Yes, but — you take our inhibitions away, you... isolate us from what worries us, from preconceptions, from social baggage. But also from whatever's stopping us from being happy, or being clear about what we actually want in order to be happy."

"That easy, huh? You think I fuck you and turn you into Buddha?"

"I don't even think it takes that. We lose our minds over you because the moment we see you, everything that doesn't make us happy just... falls away, including our inhibitions and whatever's standing in front of us — I mean, you're also just an incredibly handsome, strong, attractive man, so the first instinct is to jump you. That's my theory anyway."

"Want to test what happens if I show off in front of a woman who, say, has a boyfriend or girlfriend and genuinely, monogamously loves them?"

She threw herself into his arms and kissed him. "You have no idea how much I love that you can keep up with me."

"I won't lie, it's not easy."

"I don't know anyone in a relationship the way it's supposed to work."

"Neither do I — feels like there's no real love left in the world these days."

"What a disappointment."

"Well, there is one option, but you're not going to like it."

"I'd walk through the fires of hell for you, you know that."

"We could go have lunch... with my parents."

"Is the hellfire offer still on the table?"

"Don't be a baby about it. I'm not thrilled either, but I can't think of anyone else — I know they love each other."

"There are so many ways this could go wrong, I don't even want to think about it."

"Yeah."

"Your dad's going to kill me. He's going to pull out a revolver and empty it into my chest the moment he finds out I turned your friends into a pornstar and a sex maid, and married his daughter somewhere between one orgy and the next, all under the same roof."

"He doesn't have a revolver. He's got two hunting shotguns."

"That's reassuring, thanks."

He thought about it a while — terrible idea, genuinely terrible idea. But honor demanded it; their engagement meant something. Everything for her, until the day he died, no exceptions.

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yeah."

"Just like that?"

"Pretty much, yeah. You want it, and there's never going to be a day I don't give you what you want. That's it."

"The things you say... god, I don't think I could live without hearing you say things like that ever again, it gives me life."

She sat down in his lap.

"I endorse every word."

"I know, that's exactly why it means so much."

"I like that you like it. When you smile... okay, enough sap." He changed gears, and she laughed in his lap.

"So picture it — we go, and—"

"Mm-hm."

"And your mom reaches spiritual enlightenment they start going at it like teenagers, and they both start doing whatever actually makes them happy."

"That's the idea."

"And then what, I just wander the country for years until this turns into some giant hippie commune?"

"That'd be cool, but logistically it'd be insane."

"Not to mention I don't want to be a traveling circus monkey."

"No, no... you'd be a baboon. They're way more sexually active."

She laughed again — god, what a sound, what a delight of a woman, what a delight of a life.

"You're not going to like the next part."

"...Clinical trials?"

"You drive me crazy."

They kissed passionately; he was about to carry her to bed when she stopped him dead.

"Wait."

"What?"

"I need to write this down, I don't want to forget it."

She sat at the desk and started scribbling in a frenzy of ideas. Nick waited a few minutes, but she showed no sign of stopping, and he didn't want to bother her, so he slipped quietly out of the room and closed the door gently behind him. He was dying to sleep with his wife, but he knew this was important to her — luckily, there were other options in the house to burn off the energy.

The viewers watched happily as the stars of the show worked a double-ended dildo between them, pussy to pussy A door opened somewhere off-screen; a man stepped into frame — face never visible, just a towel around his waist. He turned the camera so it faced the wall, to everyone's disappointment, though the mics stayed on, and the audience kept listening. The screaming started soon after.

Nick didn't speak — didn't want his voice recorded. He got Alex up on all fours, Eve on top of her, ass offered up too, so much beauty and all of it his. He started with Alex's pussy first, to warm up, licking Eve's ass while she shivered with pleasure. Before long he switched to Alex's ass instead — he wanted to see her squirt her brains out, and knew that was the fastest way there — and since they'd been talking so much about asses today anyway, he decided he wanted them all, so he worked a few fingers into Eve's ass too, testing how tight she was. Plenty tight enough.

"So good, please, give it to me, give it hard," Alex moaned — professional habit kicking in, groaning like a pornstar even off camera; Nick loved it. Eve just screamed loudly, same as always.

He spanked Alex, and the overload of sensation sent her into a squirting frenzy, collapsing onto the bed, still shaking.

He switched to Eve immediately, her soaked pussy offering zero resistance. A few more thrusts, then he changed targets again, paused for a second, and started working into the tiny girl's ass, slow.

It took a bit of effort to get in, but he managed. Eve didn't complain — just went still, and once he was fully seated, the moans of pleasure picked right back up, and from the sound of it, she was loving it. A lot. "Oh yes, oh, yes, yes, yes, god, fuck it, harder, harder, please."

Rose materialized beside them on her knees, as if by magic — drawn in by the screaming — patiently waiting to be of service. She scooped Eve up under the legs and by the throat in a full nelson, sitting down on the edge of the bed with her, keeping the rhythm going the entire time without missing a beat. Rose, positioned right in front of them, caught the assignment immediately and started alternating between licking his balls and Eve's pussy. Eve's finish was catastrophic — the spray drenched Rose completely; hard to believe that much liquid could fit inside such a tiny body, but it happened. He left her on the bed in a trance and briefly considered putting his servant's enormous chest to use, but today was ass day, and asses he'd have. Right there on the floor, he flipped Rose over, face pressed into the carpet, and without mercy — exactly the way she liked it — fucked her ass like an animal until he came inside.

Satisfied, he grabbed his towel and headed back to the pool without a word. He wondered if he'd ever get tired of all this, if someday he and his wife would leave and go live a normal life.

Not going to happen anytime soon... or would it?