Interlocking Hearts (7 page)

“Ready.” Robohippie used some of the oil he’d gotten on his hands to slick his hair back. He ran his fingers through his beard, and gestured with an arm that he would follow the group out.

Mr. Hottie led the way, and Paisley got the distinct impression they were forming rank around her.

“You know, you don’t have to walk me down to the desk.”

“I’d really rather we did, Miss…” Mr. Hottie was actually asking her name.

She should probably return the courtesy, especially since she climbed naked over one.

“Compton. Paisley Compton. And what are your names?”

“I’m Ben Renolds.”

Robohippie wasn’t as forthcoming.

“Why are you so suddenly interested in my name?” he asked.

“Your dick got hard under my naked oiled body. I figured we’re on a level where knowing your name wasn’t too personal.”

Of course, that was the moment the elevator doors opened. Her snarky comeback and admission to climbing naked all over someone whose name she didn’t know was overheard by a very official-looking person with a blazer and a hotel nametag touting the title of
General Manager
.

Paisley could count this place off her employment opportunities.

The GM looked between the three of them. “Um…we had an alarm go off that there was someone trying to get into a locked balcony.”

Paisley raised her hand. “That would be me. I got locked out.”

Robohippie leaned around her. “We helped her climb over to our balcony to come get a replacement key.”

“Okay.” The manager didn’t seem like she wanted any more details to the story, so Paisley didn’t offer any.

She wondered what the craziest thing the manager had ever dealt with in the hotel was. She really hoped there were far more interesting things than this.

The manager walked a few feet down the hall and unlocked a wall panel with a key she pulled from a zip line at her hip. A few clacks on the kiosk in the wall and a picture of Paisley pulled up. It wasn’t a bad pic, but she wasn’t sure how much she looked like it at the moment.

When the manager turned around to compare the two, Paisley tried to imitate the close-mouthed grin on her ID.

The lady typed a few more things and then a key card zipped from the printer.

She handed it over to Paisley.

“If you want to disable the locks, just select the occupied setting on the alarm. It will disable all locks in the room until you reset it on your way out.”

This hotel was really high end.

“Yes, ma’am. Thank you.”

The woman didn’t look like she was used to being thanked. “You’re welcome. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

Paisley grabbed for the card, but her fingers slipped right off of it. She grimaced, and held out the pocket of her robe. “Could you put it in my pocket for me?”

The manager dropped it in her pocket and turned back toward the elevator. No doubt Paisley would be a breakroom conversation topic.

At least she managed to hang on to the lapels of the robe and keep it together.

“I’m all good now, Ben. Thanks.” She turned to Robohippie. “And since you won’t tell me your name, I’m not saying thanks.”

“I’m the one you climbed on naked. That was thanks enough for me.”

Paisley decided that was enough socializing and stayed silent as they all walked back.

She was doing well at her stoic exit until she had to use the card to open the door. She couldn’t get a grasp on the darn thing. Oiled up plastic was not an easy grab, and the robe was so big, the pockets were halfway down her legs.

She finally got the slippery little bugger out of her pocket and immediately dropped it.

“Fucking seriously.” She cursed a few more times as she repeated the juggling routine.

Robohippie and Ben had waited and watched her struggle for a full minute before the man in the rainbow suspenders pressed his index and pinky fingers on either side of the lock.

The light immediately turned green and Paisley heard the telltale click that it was opened.

Before she could think about it, Paisley kicked the keycard across the threshold and said a quick, “Thanks.”

When the door closed behind her, the reality of what just happened made it to her brain. Using her hand tucked in her robe, she swung the door back open. Luckily her two “rescuers” were still in the hallway.

“Hold on. You can open hotel locks.”

Robohippie shrugged. “Only the keycard kind.”

“So you could have come around and opened my door when you realized I was locked out. Why didn’t you just do that instead of making me climb over to your balcony? Why wasn’t that one of your suggested options?”

“You said you didn’t want to hear all of the infinite possibilities. So I suggested the two that sounded best to me. My way was so much more enjoyable.”

Ben slapped himself in the head. “If I’d had any blood in my brain I would have realized that.”

Then Ben smacked his roommate.

Paisley turned to make her offended exit to her room. The door had shut behind her, and her oily keycard was on the floor where she had kicked it inside.

“Want to use my magic fingers? Or do you want to climb on top of me again?” Robohippie’s smile was more manufactured than his skeleton. “I want to give you all your options this time.”

Paisley hated a smartass. She hated it even more when she needed one’s help.

“Fingers please.”

He did his magic and Paisley was finally able to get on the inside of her room. That whole thing wasted an hour. She looked at the bottle of oil she had swiped from under the sink. She’d give it back to Coral, and stick to lotion from now on.

Before she could go and wash her hands to be able to pick up the remote and turn on the TV, the men’s voices caught her attention. They were still in the hallway.

“Ben, it’s not a big deal. She liked it, trust me. If anyone knows how to tell when a woman is enjoying things, it’s me.”

“That’s not the point. We are supposed to be making a good impression, and you are either accusing Coral’s best friend of espionage, or making her climb naked over you.”

More shuffling.

“Can we go get something to eat? I’m hungry.”

“Yeah. Me too, but she went in her room and shut the door.”

Paisley heard a slap. She was glad someone hit the guy. Damn, he deserved it.

“Can you think about anything but sex?”

“It was part of my initial programming. What do you want from me? It doesn’t mean I can’t focus my attention on other matters too, but if I could get laid, it would be a lot less prevalent topic of conversation.”

“If you could have sex that didn’t take half the day, I would say go for it.”

“If it doesn’t take a few hours it’s not really worth having, minuteman.”

“Don’t call me that,” Ben said.

Paisley was going to have to rethink her nicknames for these two. If Mr. Hottie really was a minuteman, he lost a lot of hot points.

They went back into their room after that, and Paisley looked at the ear print she left on the door with a frown. Robohipster wasn’t the only one who needed to get laid.

Paisley’s vagina reminded her that there had just been talk about Robohippie’s Robocock being able to last for hours, but her brain reminded her that this guy also thought she was involved in Anti-Mech rallies.

At least she’d learned that he needed to get on Coral’s good side. She wasn’t so sure she was interested in Ben as a conquest anymore, but finding out more about both of these guys would be something to keep her mind busy while she waited for Coral to get off work.

First things first. Time for a shower and a lot of oil-reducing face wash. She needed use of her hands back again.

Chapter Six

Coral knocked on the hotel door promptly at five thirty, just like she’d said she would. Having a bestie who could calculate traffic levels and stoplight patterns really did make her punctual.

Paisley was never late when she was with Coral.

“Did you finish your résumé?” Coral asked as she entered the room.

You would never know she was a robot unless she told you now. The wide-eyed innocent data-craving android had been replaced with a driven woman on a mission to make life better for all those who had been labeled as unimportant by society.

Paisley worried that Coral was working too much on labels and not enough on the equal rights portion, but that was politics for you. Get a computer brain into the mix and the specifics were really nailed down. The rights bills she was helping compose also didn’t have hundreds of pages of garbage tacked on to them.

Every time someone tried to add an addendum to the laws, Coral would ask them what it had to do with her original goal for the bill. If they couldn’t reply with a good enough answer—which they never could—it didn’t make it in.

Try and argue with a computer. It never went well.

Paisley handed over the résumé she’d printed in the lobby.

Coral scanned it in a second and then pulled a pen from her purse and started to mark it up. Some people would be offended, but Paisley knew her friend had her best interests at heart. Coral downloaded the most recent sorting software the DMA used to discard problematic applications and the women set to work knocking out all the trigger words.

“You’ve got a couple of adjectives that would pull you from the interview calls. Negative terminology isn’t well received, even when used in a positive way. Change those few things around and you’ll at least get through the door.” Coral pulled a highlighter out of her purse and colored a few spaces. “Those might not be relevant to a higher-end position. No one cares that you worked as a singing telegram.”

“I thought it would show people skills.” Paisley shrugged but decided she’d pull it anyway. She could just expand on her explanation of duties at the palace.

“You can add programming consultant to your duties at the palace as well.”

That stopped Paisley’s notes. “How do you figure that?”

“Many androids and AI systems are voice responsive now. The programming is all done through voice commands and you are adept at explaining things to me before I have to ask the question. That familiarity with the programming modules is a marketable skill.” Coral smiled. “Especially if you are going to work in the magistrate’s office with me.”

“Huh?”

“We need someone to take applications, sort out appointments and be polite to everyone while still asking some personal questions. I need someone who is blunt, forward, and has no qualms about being nosy. I thought you’d be perfect.”

The majority of that sounded like it was an insult, but Paisley had to admit that working in the non-stabby part of downtown and earning a paycheck without changing the toilet paper rolls would be nice.

“I’ll take it.”

“I’m not offering you the job. I’m offering you the opportunity to interview.”

Paisley frowned. “You don’t get to choose your own secretary?”

“My position is officially a consultant, which makes me a third party vendor and not an employee. I can’t hire a government official. I can’t do any hiring, technically, with my humanoid status.”

More rules preventing her friend from being able to live her own life. This world had to come to grips with the fact that not all people were human.

And not all people knew what boundaries were.

“Have you made your yearly appointment for your sexy shot?”

Coral called the yearly STI preventative a sexy shot. When Paisley had explained the concept of sexually transmitted diseases and how humans had to worry about that sort of thing, she’d used the slang term. Once you gave a robot a definition, that was that.

Coral kept track of Paisley’s personal calendar. It could be super handy, but at other times it was like having a mother ask if you’d done your homework. “I got my STI preventative last week. I went ahead and paid the extra to get the pregnancy blocker as well.” Paisley raised her hand to her chest in mock horror. Her bestie was always upset when
she
didn’t remember something. And Paisley bet she knew why. “You didn’t know? Have you not updated your application software?”

Coral frowned and rolled her eyes back up into her head. Paisley waited for the pupils to return and focus on her. She knew her friend needed a minute to run the necessary software and check for updates.

“I missed my update notification again.”

“You mean, you and Quinn were having incredibly hot sex and he refused to stop for your updates, and you didn’t put in another reminder for yourself.”

“Precisely. I need to run a system’s check when I get home.”

Paisley waved her hand around the room. “You could always do it here.”

Instead of politely declining, Coral moved on and deemed the conversation closed. She bunched her brows like she did when she was evaluating something. “Why does it smell like lubricant in here? Did you already have sex in this room?” She sniffed again. “And was it that bad, that you needed
that
much lubricant? Or was it anal?”

Paisley lowered her résumé. The work on her job application process had obviously ended. There wasn’t any lube, but… “It must be the coconut oil you left in our room. I thought I’d try and do the skin routine you did. It didn’t work out too well.”

“That’s not the smell of coconut oil. And I took mine with me when I moved in with Quinn.”

Paisley went into the bathroom and grabbed the giant bottle with the pump on top. “See? It was under our sink.”

Coral looked at the bottle, unscrewed the lid and sniffed. “This is silicone-based. Definitely not coconut oil, like the bottle says.”

It was no wonder it was such a pain to remove. Paisley had scrubbed herself for the better part of an hour.

“You found this in our room?” Coral shrugged. “Silicone-based lubricant is excellent for anal sex. Just don’t use it with silicone sex toys.”

“I’m the one who taught you that.” Paisley grabbed the bottle back from her friend. She was going to toss it out, but lube was pricey. “Are you sure there wasn’t anything wrong with this?”

“Smells like that Platinum brand I use with Quinn.” Coral pumped a tiny amount onto her finger and tasted it.

Paisley made a face. Only her friend would taste something to learn chemical composition.

“Yes. It’s the same brand. If you don’t want it, I’ll take it.”

Paisley might as well hand it over. She wasn’t going to have much use for it working day shift at a government building.
If
she got the job. She handed Coral the bottle and her friend smiled so big, Paisley had to laugh.

“Okay. Now that you have enough lube to have a month-straight session of anal, can you help me prep for this interview?”

Coral’s eyes made a loud sound as she blinked. “Let me send a picture of this to Quinn first. He is going to be very excited.”