It was impossible to keep my double in permanent hibernation after that; he became much more lucid after his second orgasm. I lent him my clothes and he joined us for meals. We discussed the science of his situation, a topic he found fascinating. He had a good head for numbers, so we often talked about my day job with finances and the economy. Other times we just talked about TV shows or the news. I actually enjoyed hanging out with him. We played video games and basketball in the driveway. And, of course, he shared my infatuation for Clara.
Watching a movie one Sunday afternoon, she came and sat between us on the couch wearing a tank top and short shorts. We sat quietly for a few moments, but soon my double began pawing at Clara. She swatted his hand away, staying focused on the movie. After a few moments more he started to run his fingertip over her breast. She smiled and slapped him away again. Moments more and he slid his hand between her back and the couch, reaching into her shorts.
“No!” she laughed. She hit his chest, but also leaned against him so that it was easier for him to squeeze her bottom. “Not without Harry,” she said.
I tried to focus on the film, but every few minutes I’d hear them squirm. Then Clara would giggle and repeat “not without Harry.” I eventually glanced over and found them both staring at me hopefully, one strap already hanging from Clara’s shoulder. Who was I to say no? I shrugged, nodded, and my double pulled down Clara’s shorts and underwear in one go. We fucked right there on the couch and missed the whole second half of the movie.
It was a good rule: no sex with the double unless it was the three of us. But the limits of “sex” seemed to stretch on a daily basis. I came home one day to find Clara pressed back against the refrigerator in a sports bra and yoga pants. My double, on his knees, kissed hungrily across her stomach.
“He wants it really bad,” Clara said. And, of course, she did, too. When I began to unbutton my shirt they both let out a cheer. My double wrapped his arms around her legs, lifted her onto his shoulder, and ferried her toward the bedroom as she laughed and swatted his back.
The next day I walked in and Clara was lying back on the dining room table with her panties around her knees and my double’s head bobbing beneath her dress.
“Oh thank God,” she said, arching her neck to smile at me. “We were just warming up for when you got home.”
She extended an arm to pull me closer. She let her head hang back over the edge of the table, her hair reaching down to my shoes, and unzipped my pants.
The day after that they were in the shower. Clara’s breasts were pressed against the fogged glass as my double thrusted back and forth from behind. She waved me over frantically, too breathless to speak, and came the instant her hand touched my cock.
Another rule, longstanding: As Clara rode me in bed one evening, my double began to ease the tip of his cock between her ass cheeks. She gasped and stopped him. “Not there,” she said. She smiled apologetically and took turns riding each of us.
That night, the very early morning, I saw Clara turn to my double in bed and rub her hand across his chest. “Harry,” she whispered.
“I’m over here,” I said.
She turned to look at me, then back at my double, then shifted to rub her hand across my chest, instead.
“Harry, do you remember why you took on this project?”
My darling wife. “Because you asked me to,” I said.
“No, but I mean do you remember why I asked you?”
“Oh.” I thought for a moment. “Well, you said you wanted more of me.”
She sighed and rolled her eyes.
“I said that when you, you know, took me to bed…”
“Very regal,” I interrupted.
“Took me to bed! That you always felt so good. Made me feel so good. So good that it just wanted possible for me to express—to sexually express—how good it felt. It just wasn’t physically possible.”
“You were unfulfilled,” I said.
“No, no, the opposite. You know this! I was overflowing.” She kissed my cheek. “And now you’ve given me this wonderful gift.”
Clara hugged me tightly and rested her head against my arm.
“I wonder,” she began after a moment. “For all these same reasons, how you’d feel about adding one more?”
“Another double?”
“Aren’t you curious to see if you can duplicate the process?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I”m not sure it’s smart to add another unit until I get the neural interface worked out.”
“Well you’ll fix that soon, right?”
“I haven’t had much time to tinker with it, honestly.”
“Well maybe some time in the lab is just what you need.”
“That’s possible.”
“And maybe starting from scratch will help you approach the problem in a new light.”
“That’s true, too,” I conceded.
Clara smiled up at me.
“Yeah? What do you think? You’ll fix your interface and then you’ll have two bodies ready to go.”
“You’re insatiable,” I said.
“I’m in love,” she said. “Maybe this one could be, I don’t know, younger? Slightly younger?”
“Absolutely not!”
“Okay, okay.”
Clara kissed me gently then glanced over her shoulder at my sleeping double.
“Still,” she said. “Sometimes I think it’s nice if it’s just the two of us.”
She grinned, held a finger to her lips, then slipped beneath the covers to quietly slide her tongue across my cock.