Boulder
“Just so we’re clear, if I win, you don’t get to give me shitty assignments to punish me,” I pointed out before I moved into the arena to spar with Khan.
Christina and I were still living at the Gray Mansion, and sparring with Khan was something I did often. I sparred with Magni too, but ever since he called Christina a bitch, our friendship hadn’t been the same; the last time I sparred with him, he had been downright brutal and mean-spirited.
Khan gave me a wicked smile. “Protecting the archeologist didn’t turn out to be such a bad assignment, did it?”
“No,” I admitted.
“You’re screwing a real woman and experiencing something that is very rare.”
“True,” I admitted.
“So why are you scowling?”
“Why?” I picked up the thin training gloves that would protect my hands and put them on. “The excavation is coming along fast. And it worries me.”
“Because you don’t want Christina to leave you?”
I gave a sharp nod.
“So what are you gonna do?” he asked.
“I have several plans, but you wouldn’t like any of them,” I told Khan, who was moving around me with the grace of a boxer.
“So come up with a better one.”
“What if she’s pregnant and leaves me? I’ll always wonder if I have a kid out there.”
Khan’s face fell into deep frown lines and he stopped to look at me with a solemn expression.
“If she leaves, I’ll go crazy from wondering, you know?” I said through gritted teeth.
“You think she’s pregnant?” he asked
“I don’t know. But it’s been two weeks since I first made love to her and we’ve done it daily ever since.”
“And she lets you come inside her?”
“Yes. At first it was a mystery to me why she would risk it, but now I think I know why.”
“Why?”
I lowered my voice and leaned closer to him. “The other day, Christina was talking about the clinics women go to when they want to become a mother. Did you know that they have parenting units where adults who want to raise children live together?”
Khan didn’t confirm it, but I knew he had more insights into the culture in the Motherlands than any of us; after all, he and his father had gone there for peace meetings on occasion.
“According to Christina, a child always has a primary mother, but beside that there’s a number of people that love them.”
“So?”
“So, apparently, men no longer have sperm strong enough to impregnate women. That’s why they go to clinics.”
“Ahh,” Khan nodded. “And she thinks you can’t impregnate her either.”
“I assume that’s what she thinks, and I’m sure as hell not going to tell her that women here are impregnated the old-fashioned way.”
“Good.”
“Anyway, she was commenting that it was lucky for Laura that she hadn’t been to a clinic yet because pregnant women aren’t allowed to train in martial arts.”
“Christina thinks Magni can’t get Laura pregnant,” Khan mused.
“Yes. And maybe she’s right. I mean, they’ve been living together for almost a year.”
“My brother can impregnate his wife just fine.” Khan defended Magni. “These things can take time.”
“Right.” I backed down. “But Christina thinks he can’t and that I can’t either.”
“Interesting!”
“Why do you think their men have such low sperm counts?”
Khan shook his head. “I can’t be sure, but I’ll bet that being oppressed by women and downplaying your masculinity isn’t healthy. Men in the Motherlands look and behave so feminine it makes you wonder how much testosterone they even have left.”
I shuttered. “Thank fuck that I was born a free man.”
Khan looked thoughtful. “Yeah… now all we have to do is liberate all the other men.”
“You think we can make them real men again?” I asked.
“Maybe not, but hopefully we can work on raising the next generation to be more masculine.”
“I like the sound of that,” I said and raised my arms. “And talking about less feminine, how about I kick your ass a little to get you into shape? I think you’re starting to get man boobs.”
Khan resumed circling me. “Say that again and I’ll knock your teeth out, pretty boy,” he retorted and winked. “Have I told you that you look like a girl without your beard?”
“Fuck you!”
He grinned. “Let me give you a piece of advice. Next week when you go to visit your mine, don’t bend over. It’s dark there and the engineers might confuse you with a woman.”
Smack! I landed my first clean hit and he stumbled back.
“Shaving is a small price to pay if it makes Christina stay. You have no idea how addictive sex with a real woman is.”
Khan rolled his jaw and raised his arms again. “No, I don’t,” he said grumpily. “But I’m considering it.”
“What? With Pearl?”
He didn’t comment but made a swing that I avoided.
“I didn’t think she liked you.”
“Who says she needs to like me to have sex with me?”
I laughed. “You really have no clue.”
He took advantage of my lowered guard and hammered into my ribs five times.
“You bastard,” I moaned.
He grinned. “What? You look like a girl and you fight like a girl. Maybe you are a girl.”
My right hook came resolutely and had him sinking to his knees. I bent forward speaking low and sardonic. “In that case, a girl just knocked you down.”
I took off my gloves while he scrambled to his feet again.
“Where are you going?”
I gave him a smug grin. “I just knocked you down and I think I’m going to go and knock my wife up.”
“Very funny,” he panted.
“See you later, my friend,” I said and left him.