the pain before, but now I do.”
He paused in applying the stuff.
She lifted her head, staring at him. “What’s going on in the real world? Do you know? I’m still dreaming but I can feel the burns. Does that mean the doctors are trying to wake me up by easing me off the pain meds?”
“You need to stop.”
“Stop what?”
Emotion twisted his features. “Your skin was too soft for the carpet, and that’s why you are experiencing a slight burning sensation. My fucking you on the floor caused small abrasions along your ass and lower back. That ‘real world’ you refer to no longer exists. That’s in the past.”
She dropped her head as he spread more of the creamy stuff over her skin. “Maybe I’m in a coma and my boys refuse to shut off life support. That would account for how long this dream has lasted.”
Big’s tensed under her, and he paused rubbing in the cream once more. “Forgive me for this, sweetheart.”
“For what?”
Gemma jolted when he sharply slapped her ass with one of his big hands. The sting burned and tears filled her eyes. She tried to twist off his lap onto the floor, but he locked her in place by pressing his forearm against her lower back. She looked back at him, pissed that he’d hit her.
“That hurt!”
“I know.” He nodded. “This is real life, Gemma.”
She frantically wiggled, clawing at the bed. “Let me go, you sadistic bastard!”
He refused. “I took no pleasure in that. But do I need to do it again?”
“Don’t you dare!” She tried to roll again, but he pinned her more firmly with his hands now, keeping her trapped on his lap.
“You need to face reality.” He’d softened his tone, and a look of almost regret flashed in his eyes. “You’re not the Gemma Grady from 2020. She died. You were created in a clone manufacturing plant. I’m real. This is reality. It’s the year 2141. I’m not a figment of your imagination or some dream. I’m a clone, as well. We’re alive, Gemma.” He tenderly caressed the spot on her ass that he’d smacked. “That pain you just felt was from my very genuine hand on your very real, very luscious ass.”
She stopped trying to get away. “That’s impossible.”
“Why? Because the technology didn’t exist in your time? You seem like a smart woman. I want you to think back to when you were a little girl. Can you do that?”
“Of course. I’m not senile.”
“Do you remember the technology inside your home when you were about five years old?”
“Sure.”
“How old were you in 2020?”
“Fifty-six.”
“Imagine your childhood, and then fast forward to your age at the time of your death. How much had technology changed in fifty-one years?”
She debated that a moment. “A lot. Computers where these huge beasts of machinery that only high-tech companies owned. They filled rooms yet barely did anything.” She hesitated before going on, not liking where his logic was headed. “They advanced so much that computers became handheld devices that could do almost everything. Phones used to be chunky devices plugged into walls with cords. Now they make pocket-size cell phones that you can take anywhere. They’re so complicated that my boys are forever having to show me how to use the features with every upgrade.”
“It’s been one hundred and twenty-one years since then, Gemma.” He caressed her skin, no longer holding her down. “Think about that, and all the possible things that could have advanced in that amount of time. Be rational, instead of focusing on what you want to believe.” He finally let her go.
Gemma crawled off his lap and sat on the bed. The wheels of her brain churned. Televisions flashed through her mind. They’d been bulky boxes when was a kid, with grainy reception and rabbit ears. The television in her living room the day she’d been in the explosion was a seventy-inch wide-screen with amazing clarity, surround sound, and a sixth of the weight of the one from her childhood. It even hooked to the internet. Movie rental places were a thing of the past, since she could just order them directly from home through her TV.
“What would the child in you have thought of the things you had in 2020? Imagine five-year-old you stepping into your life all those years later, seeing the things that had changed.” Big turned on the bed and leaned in closer. “That child would have believed it was a dream, that it was all untrue, correct?”
Tears filled her eyes