CHAPTER 6
Alone in the room, I have to brace myself when it starts to turn again. I don’t know exactly why they don’t keep it facing out the whole time, but it’s not really my business.
I drop the towel on the bed over the remaining cum that has probably permanently embedded itself in the fabric. I don’t know how they’ll clean that, but again: not my business.
Once I slip my booth uniform back on, I start for the door, but the bot chimes a notification.
“Please report to the scanner before attempting to leave Phantom’s.”
I nod, knowing the bot will pick up the gesture and get in the elevator.
The sex club that most people see is exactly what you’d expect. The various moving parts behind the scenes are not.
The walk to the medical facilities isn’t a long one, and when I arrive, the doctor on staff is waiting for me.
Phantom is very particular about having human doctors for his human employees. Feather once told me it’s because we’re more comfortable around them at the start.
“How do you feel,” she asks.
“Fine.” Better than fine… but that’s not what she’s asking.
“Good, but let’s make sure, just in case.” Her name tag read’s “Dr. Love.”
“Is that your real name?”
She laughs as she holds open the scanner door for me. “It is, actually. It’s just kismet that it fits so well here.”
The door closes me in and I stand still, waiting for the tingling feeling.
I’ve been in here a few times. Those were routine physicals, or, in one case, when I managed to run into someone else around a corner and broke my nose.
The scanner can diagnose almost anything. Or so I’ve been told.
The tingling that washed across my skin focuses in my abdomen and then it’s gone.
When the door opens, I step out and Dr. Love points to the screen in front of her. “Looks like there’s a little of him left inside you, but it’s attached to your vaginal wall not your cervix. The adhesion should dissolve in a couple days and pass like a period clot.
“Good to know.”
Dr. Love closes the diagnostic window. “If it doesn’t or you start to experience symptoms, please let us know. We can go in and take it out if we need to.”
“I will, thank you.”
She swipes through some information on the computer and then turns back to me. “You’re cleared to go off and do whatever is next on your schedule for the day.”
“I’m headed home.”
“Oh! Well, safe travels, and I’ll see you for your next physical, whenever that might be.”
“Thanks.”
After I change and collect my things from my locker room, I go to the small waiting room for the ship that takes us straight back to Earth. And even though I pull out my ereader… I can’t focus long enough to get through more than a few pages before other women start to filter in.
A woman who goes by the name of Flora comes to sit next to me with an enormous smile. It’s the kind of look that worries me.
“I haven’t seen you in a while.” She flops into the chair to my right. “We must have wound up on different schedules.”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“What was the haul today?”
Flora is another one of the women who is here for the money more than anything else, like me…
“I completely forgot to look at the total.”
She snickers and looks up as Coral comes in. “He must have been fantastic if you forgot to check your balance.”
I pull up the information and Flora doesn’t bother to hide that she’s looking.
When the accounting pulls up, it’s just for today and Flora whistles. “Jesus, girl. You have to tell me who he is. I could use that pay day.”
I know why she said it. I also know why it sends a spike of possessive jealousy through me. A feeling I definitely should not have.
I pick my words very carefully.
“I’ll ask Phantom if I can tell you who he is.” I shrug. “Privacy clauses work both ways.”
Sighing, Flora sinks into her chair and says, “I know. I just want to get some more big tippers. There’s a boat I need to buy.”
“You need to buy it?” I ask, hoping my laugh doesn’t sound as uneasy as it feels.
“My brother wants it and I absolutely can not let him have it. It’s only two million, but that’s before taxes and fees and licensing, and I have not been choosing the best tippers lately.” She snorts and looks up at Coral. “How close are you to your goal?”
“I would be closer if I could get a loan, but there’s no trail for this money the underwriters can trace, so…” She shrugs. “Buying a horse ranch is a pain in the ass.”
I smile tightly and let them keep talking about their million dollar purchases.
Mooralan just paid off my last knee surgery.
Maybe someday I’ll be able to join them in their frivolity. For now…
“Now boarding,” the bot says overhead and the door to the ship opens.
… For now, I’ll go home and keep trying to dig my family out of the mess of my childhood dreams.