Thistledown Chapter 10

Thistledown

Nella’s Story

River Sphere: Piper

I leaned over the rail of the upper deck and watched the dark haired man as he helped to unload the cargo. Tall and thin, he moved with a fluid grace while toting bales and boxes down the gangplank and onto the dock. Fitting him like a second skin, his black pants showed me the attractive flexing of the muscles in his legs and butt as he walked down the plank with yet another box on his shoulder. He knew that I watched him, for each time he walked up the plank, he stopped halfway up and looked up at me. Each time, a series of smaller electric shocks passed through me as he adjusted his linking rod and balls within the confines of the tight black material. Once he did something that caused the whole front of his pants to fall away, and he calmly urinated over the side of the dock. I quivered with excitement when he turned my way and showed his large erection.

One of the men with him, a large, red haired bear of a man, spoke words I could not hear; and the dark haired man went limp and adjusted his clothing so that he was once again covered. Was he aware of how much I wanted him?

“I see you are making the acquaintance of our ladies’ man,” said the captain from behind me. “Quite blatant in his display, isn’t he? I’m sure he’ll have given a few of the town’s lovelies a tumble before we leave. Look! One is sidling up to him as I speak.”

Nonchalantly, a tiny, brown haired woman made her way up the dock, and came to a halt beside the dark haired man. He spoke too softly for me to hear. She tittered loudly and pushed up her bosom. He moved closer to her and lightly touched her arm. She patted stray tendrils of hair into place. He spoke again. She replied with another loud titter and touched his arm. He spoke and made a gesture toward his crotch. She nervously adjusted her hair, and pulled at her skirts. He bent over and kissed her, very briefly, on the lips. That was too much for me. In a flash, I was down on the lower deck, down the gangplank and onto the dock. How dare that little twit steal him from me! I picked her up and threw her into the river. He looked at me with shock, surprise, and delight in his dark eyes.

“There’s more than enough of me to go around,” he said, grinning at me. “There was no need to throw that little lovely in the water. I almost had her interested in having a quick go at the old in and out, and then you come along… You wouldn’t be interested…? Great Mother Goddess of the River, you are! I would oblige you, but…” He looked beyond me. “A wise man knows when to make himself scarce and to wait for another time. So for now I bid you farewell, most lovely lady.”

As he went past me, a pair of arms encircled my waist. Jay: I knew it was him without having to look. The large red haired man handed the wet and bedraggled tiny woman up to one of the young men standing at the edge of the dock. He put her down. She glared at me and stalked off with her nose high in the air. Water dripped from her hair and clothing, and she left a trail of wet footprints behind as she made her way from the dock.

“Come, we had better get back on board,” said Jay. “The boat will be leaving soon from the looks of things.”

Jay led me back on board and up to our cabin. He pushed me down onto the double bunk, and sat down beside me. One of his hands rested lightly on my thigh. I put an arm around his waist and squeezed hard. He gave my thigh a squeeze in return.

“Whatever possessed you to go down there and throw that poor female into the river like that?”

“I couldn’t stand the thought of him on top of her with his linking rod in her. I had to get rid of her and throwing her into the river seemed the best way.” I tugged at his braid. “It was very unfair of you to come and scare him away. If not for you, I would be enjoying his attentions this very moment. I’m getting all tingly and achy just thinking of it. That lovely big, thick rod of his would rub my pleasure nodes just right.”

“And I cannot stand the thought of you with him,” Jay said. “I do not want him to rub your nodes. I do not want him to touch you, or to be near you in any way. You are mine. I will not share you with a bio.”

“You may have no choice,” I said. “I’m getting one of those zingers of shocks every time I see him, and I’m not going to stop wanting him any time soon.” I patted his side where my hand touched his waist. “And do you feel the shocks every time you look at me?”

“What do you think?” He stretched out on the bunk behind me and traced my spine with his fingers. A pleasant shiver ran through me at his touch. At the same time, I wished it were the dark haired man touching me, caressing me. “Do I feel the shocks? Yes. One of those little shocks goes right through me each time I look at you.”

I turned to face him. A profound, indescribable feeling came over me as I looked at him. At that moment, I could not imagine life without him. I leaned over to touch his face, and he pulled me down against him. I snuggled in close and buried my face against his neck. He parted my lower lips with his fingers, and I made small sounds of pleasure, as he entered me, so very slowly. When he was fully inside, the connecting pins locked into place and we were linked.

He showed me how to pass data from me to him, and how to move things from one part of memory into another. He also taught me the way in which I could dampen down any sensory input, or turn it up. He gave me back the story of my life that I had told to him during the first dark, in the time when I was still human. I felt the vibrations of the engines starting up and heard the swish of the paddlewheel turning in the water, and we were underway. Moments later, a knock sounded on the door and a man’s voice said:

“If you would like to join us, we’ll be in the common room. All of us, except my brother Kenron, who’s at the wheel.”

Jay pleasured me. Ah, how he pleasured me! I marked his back with my nails and shredded the quilt beneath us as the waves of pleasure going through me peaked again and again. He gave on last slow and deep thrust, and I screamed in ecstasy. He looked deeply into my eyes and a little smile played over his lips. I felt his pleasure nodes link with mine and bursts of pleasure began shooting back and forth between us. I stroked his back and felt the sensations on my own. I felt the tingle where my nails had left long, deep grooves in his skin. He played with my nipples and groaned. He kissed my eyes, my nose, my chin, and both of us murmured pleasure noises. I reached down between us and gently took his balls in hand. I caressed them and quivered at the feel of my touch. My finger found the root of his linking rod, and his finger found my special pleasure nub. I rubbed and he rubbed, and we became one large, powerful blast of pleasure. We vibrated without a sound, and the whole bunk shook.

“Too much, too much,” I said. “No more, please! No more!”

He unlinked his pleasure nodes, but began moving again, rubbing hard against mine. I pounded at his back. He thrust faster and harder. I tried pushing him off. I couldn’t do it. I shuddered with the pleasure he gave me.

“No more. No more. No more,” I said with each thrust.

At last with a shuddering groan he spewed into me and pulled out. “I do not think that you need this bio male to pleasure you,” he said. “I think that maybe I am more than enough for you.”

“You are more than enough for me,” I said, tapping a finger on his chest. “You are almost too much for me.” I sat up. “We should go to the common room and meet the boat’s crew. Who knows how long we will be with them? Saying hello will be a polite thing to do.”

Arm in arm, Jay and I walked to the bow end of the upper deck and knocked on the faded red door of the common room. The captain, Gina, opened the door and stood aside to let us in. We stepped into a fairly large room: straight ahead an open doorway led into what looked to be a kitchen, from which came the delicious aroma of something cooking. On our left, I saw bookcases filled with a large collection of books; and the main part of the room lay on our right. At the far right, a bow of windows looked out over the river. Underneath the windows, a padded bench provided seating. The dark haired man was seated at one end of the bench, his head turned away from us. He played a mournful tune on a long, carved wooden flute. Against the wall nearest to us stood a green painted table surrounded by three chairs. The large red haired man and a young blond haired man played some kind of a card game with hexagonal cards. Two chairs and a low table stood near the far wall. In one of the chairs sat a very large woman with a little, thin man on one of her massive knees.

“Welcome, if I haven’t told you before, I am Gina, the captain of this boat,” said the tall dark haired woman. “And this is Karlon, twin of Kenron. They are the youngest members of the crew and the sons of my eldest brother.”

Karlon had a square face topped by a spiky haystack of dark blond hair. He stood a head shorter than Jay and I. His grip, as he shook our hands, was strong and confident. He wore loose, calf-length, blue pants; a white shirt, and a sleeveless jacket in the same color as the pants.

“Happy to meet you,” he said. “May I ask where you are from? I haven’t seen your kind of people before.”

“We can talk about that later, I’m sure,” said Gina. “And this is Gabriel.”

Gabriel was dressed in a similar fashion to Karlon. His face blushed a deep pink as he looked at us and mumbled an almost inaudible “hello”. He had a round face framed by curly red hair and a neatly trimmed fiery red beard and mustache.

“Gabriel is rather shy as you can see,” said Gina, smiling. She led the way over to the couple sitting in the chair. “This is Amska, our cook and her husband Jimbo.”

Jimbo jumped from his perch on Amska’s ample knee, and I found myself looking down at the top of his head, which was sparsely covered with light brown hair. Jay and I squatted down so that we could look him in the face. He had fine, regular features set in an oval face, and his brown eyes twinkled as he shook our hands.

“Welcome to the Raven,” he said. Then in a whisper: “I found the view when you two were standing up most interesting.”

“Be careful, my husband is a bit of a lecher,” said Amska with a throaty laugh. “If it weren’t so much trouble, I’d get to my feet. But I think I will welcome you from right here. I don’t move more than I need to, as you can see. I love my own cooking, mind you, and I hope you will eat like gluttons when suppertime roles around.”

“We don’t eat,” Jay and I said together.

“Well now, it seems to me you are missing out at a good part of life,” said Amska. “Food and sex: those are the best two things in life. If I had to choose between one or the other, food would win by a long ways. I guess the other thing wins with you two?”

We nodded. “Aye, I heard you two. We all heard you two going at it,” she said. “Almost made me want to get up and… but I didn’t. I put a stew on the stove for the second day. Stews are always best when they’ve sat around some so all the bits of flavor mingle nicely with each other.” She shooed us away with a flapping hand. “Captain Gina is getting impatient, she wants to introduce you to our flute player. Go along, we can jaw more later.”

Another of the zingers went through me as Gina led us over to where the dark haired man played the flute. “This is Piper,” she said. He put his flute down beside him on the bench, and looked at us. Zing. He was not a handsome man: he had a narrow face; a straight, slightly large nose; weak chin; small mouth with thin lips that he licked constantly. His eyes, though, were beautiful. They were large and framed by thick, long, dark lashes; and of a blue color so dark that they seemed almost black. His hair hung in dark waves down to his shoulders.

Zing. His dark eyes scanned my body, stopping first at my breasts –his tongue circled his lips –and next at that place between my legs, which burned for his touch. Zing. He flicked his tongue in and out, and ran it very slowly over his lips. Zing. Zing. I swayed towards him. Jay took hold of my right hand and held it in a tight grip. Zing. Piper reached over and took my left hand in his. He barely touched my fingers with his; fire ignited in each of my fingertips, and burned through my body into my linking organ. Zing. He touched his lips to each of my fingers. The fire burned higher. He thrust the tip of his tongue between my fingers, and my pleasure nodes fired. Zing. Zing. Zing. He placed his lips on the top of my hand, and looked at me through lowered lashes. He turned my hand over and kissed my palm. Zing. Again, he kissed each fingertip. Pleasure exploded between my legs. I groaned softly. He winked at me, and let go of my hand. Zing.

“It is a great pleasure to meet you, Nella,” he said. “Perhaps later we can become more closely acquainted? I would like to get to know you much better.”

“Perhaps,” I said. The front of his tight, black pants was wet, and he showed still partly erect. “I would like to know you better too.” Jay put his arm around my waist and pulled me tight against him.

“I think maybe your husband is not going to approve of us making a closer acquaintance,” said Piper.

I removed Jay’s arm from around my waist and stepped away from him. “He is not my husband. I’m a free woman, and I can spend time with whomever I wish; and in whatever way I wish.”

“Piper,” broke in Gina’s voice. “Have you forgotten the boat’s business that we are supposed to go over in my cabin this dark period?”

“Captain, I had forgotten all about that. I thank you for reminding me. It will be my pleasure to be there.” He winked at me, and ran his tongue very slowly over his lips. Zing.

Gina then turned to Jay. “May I borrow your beautiful lady for a little while? I would like to have some private woman talk with her. It’s not often that there is a woman on board I can talk to.”

“I’m a woman,” called out Amska. “Least ways, my Jimbo here thinks that I am. You can always come and do a bit of jawing with me, if you like.”

“Amska, you always do all the jawing when someone talks with you,” said Jimbo, and everyone laughed.

Gina took my arm and led me outside.

“Let’s go down to the lower deck,” she said. “We can talk more privately there.”

She led the way down and seated herself on one of the wooden boxes that stood near the stern, where the paddlewheel noisily splashed water as it revolved. I sat down on a bale of goods opposite her.

“I’ve never seen any woman want Piper as much as you do, in all the time I have known him,” she said, “and we go back a long ways. What is it about him that attracts women so? He’s not a handsome man, and much too thin. And he’s got that frightfully big cock, which you think would scare women off. But it doesn’t.” She leaned forward. “Why do you want him?”

“The shock,” I said. “When I first saw Piper, a hard electric shock went through me, and I suddenly wanted him so badly, I would have let him take me right there and then, if Jay hadn’t been there.”

“Jay. He’s not going to let you go off and do anything with Piper, is he? In spite of your brave words about being a free woman, who does as she wills, you are not free at all. Are you?”

I did not know how to answer that. I wanted to assert that I was a free woman, that I could do exactly as I wished. I knew that was far from true. Gina was correct in her perceptions: Jay called the shots where our relationship was concerned. I wanted things to be different. I desired the same relationship for Jay and me, as the one that had existed between my father and me: a relationship based on equality.

“I have my answer, I think,” said Gina. She came over to sit beside me and gave me a hug. “Do you fear him? Jay, I mean.”

“Not for myself,” I said. “I do fear what he might do to Piper, if I were to…”

“You want Piper, and I think he wants you as much in return. So we females must plot and plan together to get what we want. For I want your Jay. I’ve never seen any man as beautiful as him, and I want to know what he is like in bed. Would it bother you if he and I had sex together?”

“The thought of it doesn’t bother me,” I said. “If I saw you and Jay having intercourse, I don’t know how I might react.”

“Do you love him?”

“Do I love Jay? All I can say is that I can’t imagine life without him. Maybe that is love or maybe it isn’t.”

“Love Jay or not, you still want Piper,” she said, “and I’m going to help you get him, for one night at least. Here’s what we’ll do…” She laid out her plan for me, and I had to agree it was a good one. “You go back to the common room and take Jay back to your cabin. My crew and I will soon be setting the anchors and preparing the Raven for the dark. You can join us for supper, or not, as you wish. Or you can go for a walk on the deck. We keep the Raven well lit with lanterns all over. You’ll see the lights of the towns on either side of the River. It’s all rather pretty.”

The paddlewheel slowed and stopped, and the Raven drifted backward in the current. Gabriel, Karlon, Piper, and Jimbo clattered down from the upper deck, and quickly lowered anchors at the bow and stern. The Raven stopped moving. I ran up the stairs to the upper deck and into the common room, where I found Jay seated on Amska’s lap.

“This pretty lad of yours has been telling us all about a lady of large size, like me, who he once knew,” she said. “A lusty tale it was.” She laughed. “I’ll be wearing my Jimbo out tonight, I’m that hot.”

I tried to picture her and Jimbo linking. How did he ever reach the right place? Amska must have read my thoughts, for she said: “Where there is a will, there’s a way. Jimbo and I know of many ways to get his cock inside my hen.” She winked at me. “How did I know what you were thinking? Everyone who first sees me and Jimbo together wonders how we has sex with each other; and you’re no different. Maybe we’ll make us another baby this dark. Be ‘bout time too, our youngest has seen his third year since his birth already, and we usually don’t wait that long to have another.”

She shoved Jay off her lap. “You’re wondering how many children and where they are? We have eleven –four sons and seven daughters –our parents take care of them while Jimbo and I are out on the River. Not all of them live at home anymore, mind. Our eldest boy went to seek his fortune upriver a couple of years back, and we have heard nought of him since. We keep going upriver with the Raven, hoping to see some sign of him. So far we’ve had no luck.” She wiped away a tear. “He were such a handsome young man.”

“Our three oldest girls are all married to good men,” she continued after a while. “They’ve given us five grandchildren between them. Now you’re probably wondering why I would want another baby at all? I love the feel of a baby suckling at my breast, and I love the way a baby smells. I think that is the most lovely smell in the whole world.” She rose to her feet. “Now I must see to supper. The rest of the crew will soon be here wanting to eat.”

Amska made her way through the door into the kitchen. Jay and I left the common room and returned to our cabin.

“What did this Gina bio want to talk about?” said Jay, the moment the door was closed.

“She wants you,” I said. “She wanted to know if I would mind when she and you had sex.”

“Would you mind?” He stroked my back, and I pressed myself against him.

“I don’t know, I don’t know,” I said. “I will confess to feeling a certain uneasiness when I think of her standing here like I am now. And I can’t even picture you on top of her and inside her. Do you want to have sex with her?”

“I love linking with you,” he said, brushing my nose with a forefinger. “But I have always loved linking with bio women, and I would like to try out this Gina. Only once, naturally. You can watch if you wish.”

“I’d better not,” I said, cupping his buttocks in my hands and pulling him snugger against me. “I’m liable to throw her overboard. Better that I don’t see you have your fun with her. Maybe we can…”

A knock sounded on the door. I opened it and Gina stood there as bare as the day she was born. “May I come in?” she said. “It’s rather cool out here.”

“Yes, do come in,” I said. She stepped inside. I looked her over: of a height with me and Jay, she had a stocky build with barely a waist, and her breasts were small with very large, dark tinged nipples. Between her legs lay a mat of luxurious, curly hair, as black as that which covered her head.

“This is awkward,” she said, looking at me. “I didn’t think that you would be here.” She turned toward the door. “I could come some other time.”

“Stay,” I said. “I could go wait out on the deck, or in the common room.”

“My cabin is free,” she said. “You could go there. The bunk is very comfortable. You can spend the dark period there. I’m not a woman who likes to rush love making.”

“I’m sure that Nella will not mind spending the night in your cabin,” said Jay, his eyes on that luxurious mat of hair between her legs. “You can go over those memories of yours that I gave back to you.”

“Are you pushing me out the door?” I said.

“I am,” he said, and did just that. I heard Gina laugh as he shut the door behind me. For a second I wanted to go back in and throw her out of the room. I felt peeved and not a little hurt that Jay pushed me out the door so eagerly. He professed to love me, and yet he seemed more than eager to link with Gina and to pleasure her. From the sounds coming from behind the closed door, he was making a good start on the pleasuring bit.

I couldn’t stand to hear more of the noises both Gina and Jay were making. I moved away from the door and walked to the cabin at the stern end. I opened the door, and, zing, saw Piper lounging on a double bunk covered in honey toned furs and a quilt of deep red velvet. His immense cock pointed in my direction, and the heavy, pendulous balls rested on a thin, muscular thigh. I stepped into the cabin. Piper sat up and swung his long legs over the side of the bunk. His cock bounced gently with his movement, and curved toward his belly. Zing. I took another step toward him. My pleasure nodes tingled.

“Stop,” he said. “Stay there, just as you are. Don’t move until I tell you to”

I was puzzled by what he asked of me, but I remained where I stood and waited. He jumped up and made some marks with a black burned stick on a large piece of paper lying on a nearby table. He came over to me and traced my face with the lightest of touches, and my face took fire at every soft stroke. He kissed me, a feather touch on my lips, before going back to his paper to make yet more of the curving marks on it. He returned to my side, and ran his fingers through my hair and over my head. My head and every hair on it tingled at his touch. He made more lines on the paper. He traced my ears, first with his fingers and then with his tongue. Zing. I moaned softly in pleasure. He kissed me again, another feathery touch of his lips on mine, and made more marks on his paper.

He traced my neck and shoulders with his hands. I burned under his touch. He held my head as he kissed me once more: a harder and more insistent kiss. I could feel his tongue against my lips. I did not open my lips for him. He swiftly drew more black lines on the paper. He outlined my arms with his hands and fingers. He kissed each hand, and took each of my fingers gently in his mouth, running his tongue around them. I shivered with the pleasure he gave me. More lines flew on to the paper. He kissed me again, and this time I opened my lips to his tongue, which left wet trails as it limned the inside of my mouth. The kiss gave me no pleasure.

Piper made up for the unpleasant kiss when his tactile journey over my body reached my breasts. First he traced the shape of each with a single finger, flame following behind, and he made more lines on a new piece of paper. He cupped my breasts in his hands –he had large, long fingered hands, which fit just right around my breasts –and he rubbed my nipples with his palms. A tingling wave pulsed through me, centered on each nipple. I groaned. He concentrated all his attention on my nipples: he rolled them between his fingers, pinched and pulled at them. The tingling sensation increased in intensity and my whole body trembled at every touch. He held one breast in his hands and bending down, put his mouth around the nipple. He tugged at it with his lips and caressed it with his tongue. He took his mouth away and moaned.

“Forgive me,” he said. “I must have you right now. I can’t wait any longer.”

He picked me up and carried me over to the bunk. The furs were soft beneath me as he put me down on my back. I looked him over. Zing. Zing. His cock –what an odd term for a linking rod –jutted out like some immense club of purple, pink flesh, and moved with the beat of his heart. I opened my legs as wide as they could possibly go, and quivered in anticipation of the great pleasure to come. He got on top of me and thrust his great cock between my legs. I could feel the tip of it ram against my entry ring. A few of my pleasure nodes fired, and I groaned. Again the tip of his cock rammed against me, but nothing else happened: it did not slip inside and rub against my pleasure nodes. He thrust at me again and groaned loudly.

“By the slippery cunt of the Great Mother of the River,” he growled. “Doesn’t your slit stretch to allow a man to get his cock into it? What have you got down there anyway? I feel like I’m banging against a rock.”

He moved down so that he could look between my legs. A very long silence followed as first he looked and then pushed hard with his fingers. I screamed as all the pleasure nodes in the ring fired repeatedly at his touch.

“By the Great Mother’s slippery wet cunt,” he said. “You don’t stretch one bit do you? Now what do we do? Obviously, my cock is too large for that weird cunt of yours. Not by much, mind, but enough that it is not going to go in…”

Before Piper could say anything more, the cabin door slammed open, and Jay charged in. He picked up Piper and threw him out the door and over the railing beyond. After a moment, I heard the splash of water and knew that Piper had hit the river. Without a word, jay thrust into me and locked the connector pins in place. He took the memories of what had just happened from me, unlocked and pulled out. He ran a finger over my pleasure nodes, and I groaned.

It was a good thing he couldn’t laugh, because I would have punched him much harder than I did when that inane grin came over his face. Didn’t he know how frustrated I was? I wanted Piper. I wanted Piper deep inside me, and that was the one thing I was never going to get. It was all Jay’s fault. He made me too small. Filled with anger, I grabbed his balls and squeezed hard. He cried out, and broke two of my fingers getting my hand off of him. I got my teeth around part of his upper arm, bit down, and took a good bit of skin off him. He pushed me down and tried to enter me. I bucked him off. He pushed me down again and lay on top of me. This time he succeeded in getting his linking rod into me. He linked his pleasure nodes with mine, and he gave me pain. He gave me the pain that I had given him; I could feel the agony of it between my legs and on my arm. I screamed as the pain went on and on.

An odd look came over his face, and he abruptly unlinked and pulled out of me. He touched my face for a moment. He sat up on the edge of the bunk, holding his head in his hands. I waited for him to say something. After a long while, he went out the door. I remained on my back with my legs spread open, not having the will to move.

Jay surprised me with his cruelty. I surprised myself with the vehemence of my attack on him. I sat up. I had to find him and apologize to him. I went to the common room. He was not there. I went down to the lower deck. No one had seen him. Only one place remained to be searched: our cabin. I ran back to the upper deck, to our cabin door and opened it.

I saw. Him. I saw. Gina. Him thrusting and thrusting into her. Gina with her legs wrapped around him, pushing him deeper into her. Him making those familiar noises. Gina moaning softly. Faster and faster they rocked together. Him. Gina. He cried out. Gina screamed.

I closed the door.

I went down to the lower deck and paced around and around. I wanted to destroy something, anything. I wanted to rip things apart. My hands clenched and unclenched. I kicked at a pile of boxes, sending it crashing down. I lifted up a foot to stomp on a box. Someone grabbed me from behind and pulled me back. I twisted around to get a look at who had hold of me: Gabriel scowled at me. He pushed me toward the ladder to the upper deck, and sent me upwards, following close behind. He took me to the common room and pushed me down on the bench under the windows. Piper sat by the table, wrapped in a blanket. He looked at me with equal measures of pain, fear, and longing in his dark eyes.

I turned my head aside. I couldn’t stand to see the longing in his eyes. I didn’t want him to see the longing in mine. The shocks still went through me at the sight of him. I wanted him so much that I burned from top to toe with the desire.

After a while, I went back outside. I made my way to the lower deck and lowered myself to the deck. I sat with my back against one of the large wooden crates with my legs stretched out in front of me.

I let myself flow into a state in which I was neither truly awake nor truly asleep. It was as close to sleeping as I could get as a synth. For a long while I forgot about Jay and about Piper.

The sudden light lit everything around me, and rising to my feet, I made my way back to the common room.

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