Kent -- Hours before the research study
"It won't feel like I'm cheating on you?" Kent stepped around the bed and helped smooth out the comforter as Maria piled the pillows onto their king-sized mattress. There wasn't a lot of room in the apartment around the bed, but real estate was expensive in their region.
"Am I cheating on you when I use a dildo, babe? Because I do that almost every morning after you head to work." Maria paused for a kiss as she returned to the pillow stack on the chair.
"No, not at all." Kent shook his head. "But this is supposed to seem much more life-like than a sex toy." Making the bed every morning was a small price to pay to be with a woman far out of his league. He felt like he had won the lottery every day.
"We've been over this, Kent. There is a huge difference between sex and intimacy. It doesn't matter if the synthetic skin looks and feels realistic. It's the emotional and spiritual connection that's important. Are you going to fall in love with it?" She stepped back from the bed and took in their work. Maria was meticulous about making the bed.
"Of course not. You're my everything, babe."
"There's your answer." Maria had a doctorate in psychology and, perhaps more importantly, was a licensed sex therapist. It was part of the reason that Kent had stood a chance with the stunning beauty. So many guys were scared when they learned about her career. The fools didn't want to be judged by the woman. Kent felt blessed for every day he got with his dream girl.
Although he would like to pretend that it hadn't intimidated him, Kent had no idea what her occupation was when he met his wife. They happened to be at the same bar trivia night when half of their team members didn't show up. They formed a new four-person alliance when given a choice to not participate or to merge groups.
A win was celebrated with high fives from the other team members and a kiss between them, which was it for Kent. Maria claimed his heart that night, and he never gave her a reason to relinquish it. He had pulled his weight with math and physics questions while Maria conquered almost everything else. She was effortlessly brilliant, teasingly flirtatious, and undeniably beautiful. The final question was a group effort. They were tied with another team, so they risked everything on it. Neither seemed confident with their answer, but when the dust cleared, they were winners.
That particular trivia effort had been the culmination of a larger tournament. The second-place team tried to protest the win as the victors were a combined team instead of the ones that had made it through the preliminary rounds. The bar staff decided it was a fair win because both teams had come from the winners' bracket.
The victory came with plane tickets and a hotel stay for a regional tournament. The team finished second in the next contest, but Kent and Maria weren't disappointed for long. They ended up in the same hotel room that night; the rest was history. They both fell hard for each other and were married within a year of that night.
Maria was a tall, whip-smart, and athletic woman. A volleyball scholarship had paid her way through her bachelor's degree and halfway through her master's degree. Her height and tenacity made her a four-year starter and a menace on the court. She had the grades and test scores to earn her a full ride at a state school, but her volleyball prowess got her into a far more prestigious private institution. His brilliant wife made the most of the opportunity and had an academic scholarship to finish her master's degree.
His wife's family was from Puerto Rico, and she was from the first generation born after they moved to the contiguous states. They were almost militantly catholic, and although they were proud of the first person in their family to get a doctorate, they didn't like her chosen career. They were very much of the opinion that all sex was a sin and saw what Maria did as facilitating vice. The fact that Maria had six younger brothers and sisters clearly meant they enjoyed their sex lives. They would blow a gasket if they ever discovered Maria's bisexual bent or that Kent encouraged her indulgences. He always got to watch, and the sex afterward was astounding.
"I guess I'm a little intimidated by this whole thing." Kent stepped over to embrace Maria. She was almost as tall as he was. "It's not exactly something I want to do in front of Rob or with an audience."
"Yeah, you should have gotten your research requirement done earlier," Maria said calmly, then smirked, her brown eyes dancing with mischief. "An audience can be fun, occasionally." There had been several decidedly less racy opportunities earlier.
"I don't understand why I need a research requirement for Mechanical Engineering or what this really has to do with research. I did plenty of labs when I got my BS, and they were far more scientifically rigorous. Maybe I would have it done if someone didn't need me to go with her to a conference when I had my other opportunity." Kent loved the trip and wouldn't have wanted to miss out on the experience for anything. An excuse to go somewhere warm and see his wife in a new bikini was worth it, especially the tiny one Maria had selected last time.
"What about the other two years you've been working on your master's degree?" Maria never liked to lose a disagreement or argument. Most of their spats remained playful, and this was no different.
"Someone had me distracted, as usual." Kent pulled her closer for another scintillating kiss. His phone chirped on its charger.
"You know you love me." Maria swatted his ass playfully before swishing out of their bedroom.
"Haven't I told you that at every opportunity?" He got a smile and emphatic nod out of her before she left the room. Kent should have been checking to see if the text message was about something for work, but he would never relinquish an opportunity to gawk at her fantastic ass. Even after five years of marriage, he couldn't stop staring. Maria looked over her shoulder with a smirk; she expected him to watch.
'I need a huge favor when you come for the study, Kent.' The text message was from Rob. The man was the reason he was in this mess in the first place.
'I'm not already helping?' Kent needed the research credit, but Rob needed more academic studying before they brought the product to market. Having an academic paper or two would help with the legitimacy of the robot. Kent didn't think that his part of the study would qualify for any of that.
'You know you need the credit.'
This box he needed to tick was one of the last things Kent required to finish grad school and get the big promotion at work. That advancement would finally let him and Maria purchase their dream house. It was their personal prerequisite before starting a family. Maria was quite successful in her career, but her office rental wasn't cheap, and she refused to price her services out of the range of her clients.
'What do you need, Rob?'
'Maria, can you bring her to the study with you? We need a direct comparison.'
