watched her as she undressed and stood near the edge of the pool, draping her clothes neatly and methodically over a white lounge chair. She seemed totally unaware of him, unconcerned with whether or not he, or anyone, watched. She was confident, an island unto herself, neither needing nor wanting the approval of any. He liked that.
She didn’t look over her shoulder to make sure he was seeing what she was showing or grin shyly as she posed in just the right way, priming her body so that her figure looked most desirable.
No, she didn’t undress for him, she undressed because that was what she wanted to do and if he enjoyed the view, then that was neither here nor there to her.
And he did enjoy the view. He might be genetically enhanced but he was, after all, still a man.
She walked around the pool, her tall olive skin spread over muscle in a way that spoke of discipline and strict regimen. Nobody ever asked her if she worked out, they saw her and they knew. He felt his own body responding as she stood on the diving board and stretched. Arms going above her head, pulling the already taunt skin until ribs and muscles were clearly defined across her middle, breasts standing at attention, leg muscles working as she moved.
He wasn’t used to feeling overcome with desire, he prided himself on keeping his emotions in check, but he wasn’t sure if he’d ever seen a woman he wanted more.
And part of the reason he was able to keep himself in check was that he always made sure he had an outlet for any physical needs that might arise. It was, after all, just one of those things that the body needed, like water, food, and sleep.
The best, and most reliable way he’d found to meet that need was to keep a female companion whose only purpose was to be there when he needed to satiate the demands his body made on him. The only problem was the female companions he chose always felt the need to make it more, no matter how well he treated them or how well he tried to train them.
They always started demanding more and more of his time and attention, or like his last one, Veronica, they started asking too many questions. And that was just not something that he was willing to deal with.
The thought of Veronica almost made him feel a tinge of regret. Not so much for killing her, which he wouldn’t have done if she’d just let her questions go and allowed herself to be put aside, no she had moved from questions and demands to threats. And Frederick treated all threats, whether spoken in jest or in anger, at face value. That approach had kept him alive and thriving thus far so he didn’t plan on changing it for anyone, including Veronica.
No he didn’t regret killing Veronica, women like her were a dime a dozen, but he did regret the difficulty it had caused him with the council, being that Veronica’s father had been a council member. It had caused him a significant amount of thought, time, and legwork to get the man removed from his position and out of the way before he found out that she was dead.
His position with the council was rock solid, there weren’t many who could do the job he did, if any. But he still was accountable to them, which he tried not to let bother him. It was just a matter of time before he could make it clear that he was the leader the new era needed. But until that time he still had to pay lip service to a bunch of old unmodified men in suits. Sure they were billionaires and politicians and powerful men, but they were just as frail as any other regular man, if not more so. They wouldn’t be part of the ruling class in the new world that was about to be discovered.
He probably should have just killed Veronica’s father, it would have been less work, but he had actually grown to like him, as much as he liked anyone, so instead he’d just embroiled him in a scandal big enough to force him to resign his office. Thus also ending his position on the council. Without power or money, he wasn’t needed.
The Senator might disagree, but Frederick thought it showed what a truly generous soul he actually had, that he would take that much time out of his busy schedule just to avoid killing someone.
But that had left him little time to find himself another companion to take care of his needs. And obviously, by the state of his raging arousal, it was well past time to remedy the situation.
The woman finished her stretches and dove into the pool. He enjoyed the neat precision in the way she dove and how efficiently her body cut through the water.
She swam laps for the better part of an hour and he watched with interest from his shaded bungalow.
“Is there anything else I can get for you Mr. Hawthorne?” He sensed an edge of irritation in the attendant’s voice. He had been there a while, and was likely taking up time the young man felt could be better used elsewhere, like chatting up the blonde life guard who stood watching the pool from a discretely placed kiosk.
“I’ll have another one of these,” he motioned to his drink, “And the name of the woman in the pool.”
The attendant glanced at the pool to see who he was referring to, even though he and the woman were the only two at the pool area, and had been alone the entire time he’d been there. The snap in the autumn air chasing away all but the bravest souls.
“Sir,” the attendants eyes came back to him and then glanced away nervously, he wasn’t sure why no one like to look him in the eyes but it annoyed him, “We are not allowed to give out guest information, even to another guest.”
He knew that, its discretion was one of the reasons, one of the biggest reasons, that he was a member, but he wasn’t just any guest. However, this boy probably didn’t know that.
“What’s your name?”
“Matt, sir.”
“I understand Matt, and I’m glad you take doing your job seriously, I admire that in a person. So how about instead of telling me her name, you go over there and tell her mine and tell her that I’ve requested that she join me for dinner tonight, here. And when she says yes, I’d like for you to add my name to the reservation list for tonight and let the chef know that I’ll be requiring at least one dish be served that fits the requirements I’ve left on file with him.”
Matt the attendant nodded his head, and walked from under the little rounded cabana to go do as he was bid. Frederick liked to give exact instructions so that there no ambiguity as to what he meant, he’d found that with most service people if you gave them an opening to screw up, they took it.
He watched as Matt went and stood by the edge of the pool, waiting for the woman to stop long enough to notice him.
Frederick was lucky that he’d decided to take his relaxation day at the club. He had needed some grooming anyway and if he had to take a break from work it might as well be at a place where he was already spending a ridiculous amount of money for the privilege of membership, a privilege he rarely took advantage of.
But the truth be told, he would have rather been at work, which is why he rarely found himself at the club. He had such an interesting and gratifying line of work, that it was hard to force himself to do anything else. But as with having a female companion, needs must.
He knew what would happen if he allowed himself to become obsessive over his work, or anything else for that matter. So, he forced himself to have at least eight hours per day for sleep, four hours a day for meals and other interests, and least one full day away from anything work related. So the rest of the time he could concentrate on what he really wanted to do. Work.
And, for what it was, today had gone well. He’d gotten his hair cut, most of his body hair removed, a massage, a steam bath, and exfoliated. Then he’d planned to take a few laps, just for the fun of it since his body didn’t really need the exercise, and enjoy some alone time by the pool.
He hadn’t counted on a tow headed Viking of a woman coming and taking all of his concentration away from doing nothing.
The attendant had finally gotten her attention and she swam over to the side of the pool as he leaned down to talk to her.
Frederick watched her eyes shift to where he was sitting and back to Matt. She shook her head and then obviously ended the conversation because she swam away.
Her strong strokes took her to the edge of the pool closest to Frederick and she hefted her weight, which he guessed to be substantial being such a tall and muscled woman, out of the pool.
Goose flesh immediately formed across her body and the light rosey brown of her nipples puckered as a breeze blew across her skin.
She watched him watching her, and she twisted her hair, wringing out the excess water.
She finished and began walking towards him not even pausing to grab a towel as she approached.
Something trickled through his heart, and down further. Admiration? Lust? Both. It would seem he found her unabashed nudity appealing. Very appealing. He felt himself starting to harden again but forced himself to abandon the desire. Talking to her in such a state would do nothing but give her the upper hand. Especially since his erection would be on full display instead of delicately hidden in a pair of trousers.
“Hello,” he said as she entered his cabana, “Is the name Frederick Hawthorne supposed to mean something to me,” she asked, a half smile quirked on the angular planes of her face.
Right to the point, he liked that too. “No, but as the waiter wouldn’t give me your name, I thought I’d ask him to give you mine, just in case you wanted to know it.”
“Hmmm, you must have noticed me admiring you as I swam. I appreciate that you improved the view for me during my workout, but it wasn’t an invitation.”
He smiled, “I appreciate your candor. You also improved the view for me while I rested and now I’m hoping you’ll improve the view while I dine as well, so you can consider my appreciative gaze very much an invitation.”
She smiled back at him, “And if I say no? Will you become a petulant child and keep asking, bartering, begging?”
Frederick wasn’t sure when a woman had so intrigued him.
He laughed, “No, I’m afraid that I will just live with the regret like an adult and go on with my day.”
She smiled at him and stood up. “Good, because I’m busy tonight.”
The disappointment was sharp and swift at her words, he hadn’t realized he’d been so invested in her acceptance. He immediately wanted to cajole her into changing her mind, but he was going to be true to his word.
“That’s unfortunate – “
“But,” she interrupted, “I will be free tomorrow night, if you’d allow me to take a rain check.”
“Of course,” he said, his smile returning. They exchanged information and said a brief, but warm goodbye. He watched her go, large and tall and tanned, buttocks slightly jiggling as she walked, and thought to himself, a woman with a body like that could give birth to a race of demi-gods.
And for the first time in a long time, he felt anticipation for something other than work.
edge of the canyon and flexed his sore wings, tucking them behind him to rest. He didn’t get the chance to use them as much as he’d like and the 12 hour flight to get there had taken him to the edge of his endurance. Even broken up in 4 and 5 hour stretches, with meal breaks and short stretches of sleep, he still felt like his muscles were on the verge of collapse.
But he’d made it. Another place that he should be able to call home, another place that wasn’t.
The late autumn breeze ruffled his feathers as he scanned the wall of the cliffs across from him, anywhere else this late in the season and it would have sent a shiver down his spine, but not here. Here it was a welcome relief from the overbearing sun.
The place looked isolated, like you could fly for miles and miles without seeing another soul. But he knew looks were deceiving. What looked like a dry barren landscape, beautiful in its starkness and emptiness, was actually anything but.
He concentrated on seeing, telling the world to show him everything, even the things that didn’t want to be seen, and soon touches of color came into view. Things that had gone unnoticed before seemed to fade into existence. Across from him a waterfall materialized gradually, seeming to pour itself slowly from a cliff wall and gather in a frothy pool below. The color was amazing, a shade of turquoise that was a little this side of blue; it played just right off the red of the canyon, creating a scene any artist would love to try and recreate.
Then signs of life began to show themselves. A yellow door here, some potted plants along a ledge there, someone had put up a garden flag with a folksy looking angel wearing overalls and holding a pitchfork. His lips quirked up at the corners. Funny.
And last of all the shapes of people began to reveal themselves to his eyes. Some friends or lovers played on the edge of the blue green lake, someone holding a cat sat on a cliff side watching the people below, and tucked high between two rock faces an older man napped in a hammock that swayed in the breeze. Others seemed to walk or fly with purpose, a tiny village going about its business.
On a ledge closer to the top of the canyon, a church façade appeared, white wood siding bright in the sun, cross riding high on a skinny steeple. He wondered what that was about. Either it was a joke or the good people here had actually all finally lost their minds.
Regardless, he’d come to see one of them. He scanned the rest of the people below looking for a particular face.
Then he saw her, and something lurched inside him. Her eyes were filled with laughter as she poked her head out of a doorway and called up to someone above.
He couldn’t quite catch what she had said but her laugh carried to him and warmed his heart. He’d missed her so much, and he hadn’t even realized it until he’d seen her.
He watched her walk out, loose green dress whipping around her legs, and with a fast snap her gorgeous snowy white wings flared out behind her.
A look of pure joy lit her face as she jumped off the cliff and into the air. Demon, watched her fly for a moment, struck by how young and beautiful she still looked. Living around so many humans had given him a warped since of aging. When he thought of his mother in his minds’ eye he thought of her as a middle aged woman, his brain automatically adding their years of separation onto her age. But there she was in front of him not looking much older than he was himself.
She rode the wind up until she met the man she’d been speaking to and their bodies clasped midair, white wings twirling together as they embraced and began to plummet.
He watched them as they got closer to the ground, less concerned about their descent, and more curious about his mother’s new lover.
He took down the barriers he’d been holding around himself, knowing that uncloaking himself would announce his presence.
Immediately all activity came to a halt and shocking white wings unfurled all along the cliff walls, ready to fly or fight at a moments noticed.
He could feel the intense gaze of eyes all around the little grotto boring into him and his own wings snapped out in response, huge and pitch black in contrast to those below. The feathers twinkled with inky darkness in the sun. He could almost feel the confusion coming off of those below, but he ignored everyone except one person and he waited for her eyes to find his.
He hoped he’d see recognition and love and maybe a little bit of motherly longing. They hadn’t seen each other in a lot of years. But when her eyes finally did meet his all he saw there was confusion and regret, and maybe a tinge of something else…. Panic?
He took off from the cliff and let the wind carry him, gliding down to where his mother stood, clasping her lover’s hand.
Welcome or not, he’d made it to Angel Falls.