THE EXPERIMENT RELATIONSHIP

:THE EXPERIMENT RELATIONSHIP !

White. Everything was white.

She blinked. The ceiling was white.

Vanessa got up, rubbing her eyes, and realized she was lying on a plush green couch. Without even meaning to, she cross-referenced the fabric and design with the rolodex she'd built up inside her mind. $23,000, probably. They didn't have anything like this at home. A slow glance around. Living room, modern. Between the decor and the space, $85,000, easily. And so clean .

She blinked, and looked down the length of her body. She remembered putting on these jeans, this strappy coral top. They were going somewhere. Here.

Where?

Getting to her feet wasn't difficult. She didn't remember falling asleep, but she didn't feel like she usually did after fainting – and she had a lot of experience doing that. The place was eerily quiet, though she could faintly hear the sound of cars speeding down the road. A well-stocked bookshelf, a flat-screen TV hanging from the wall–

The dark surface flickered to life. Shades of calming blue, with 3D style embossed details, exactly the kind of in-house PowerPoint background produced for a pharmaceutical company, or a hospital. Corporate. Text crept up from the bottom of the screen in dark blue sans serif font:

Welcome

LIAM ANDERSON

VANESSA ANDERSON

to Shibboleth Labs experiment 634

Vanessa felt a shiver creep up her spine. Shibboleth Labs. She remembered her dad saying that name. Easy money. The real deal, this time. And she'd just shrugged, because it probably wasn't anything "real," but she didn't want another fight with him. He needed the hope.

He…

He was here too.

Vanessa peered through one open doorway, noting a well-equipped kitchen ($35,000), then another doorway, leading to a bare hallway with a front door, a dumbwaiter, a simple table adorned with colorful flowers, and a security camera in one corner. A glance back at where she'd woken up revealed more cameras… and she realized she'd yet to see a functioning door. No privacy. Nowhere to hide.

There was a further doorway at the end of the entrance, and when she breached it, she saw her father on the double bed, and any reticence she had about his presence was instantly replaced with a guttural fear for his well being. Her bare feet squeaked on the polished floorboards as she darted to him and shook his shoulder hard, shouting 'Dad!'

The tension didn't leave her body until she saw his eyelids scrunch up and flutter. She'd seen a parent lay motionless in a strange bed before. The outcome hadn't been pretty. Now, though, Liam groggily came to, and one of his big strong hands covered Vanessa's own as he sat up.

He cleared his throat, and seemed about to speak when he stopped himself and looked around the room. He was probably as confused as she was. She squeezed his shoulder and said, 'There's a TV in the living room with our names on the screen, and Shibboleth Labs.'

That seemed to make things click in his head, and he quickly let go of his daughter's hand, shrugging off her grip as he got up and headed out. Vanessa held back a sigh and followed, frowning. Her father never liked to admit weakness of ignorance, even though he showcased plenty of both, all the time – but she couldn't point that out. Not after everything.

'You okay?' he asked, casting a quick glance back.

'I'm fine.'

Liam nodded, and seconds later, they stood in front of the monitor, which changed to display a different message after they'd both had time to read the first:

As stated in your contracts, your short-term memories have been wiped to guarantee optimal conditions. Your consent has been recorded in writing and on video for you to consult at any time after the experiment has ended.

You will remain here a maximum of seven days, cut off from the outside world. In the event of an emergency, the doors and windows will be unlocked, and aid will arrive immediately.

Vanessa saw her dad tense at those words, and his discomfort put her on edge. She walked closer, so Liam could catch her in the corner of his eye, and smiled in a way she hoped was reassuring.

Your agreed-upon compensation will now be displayed.

$250,000

Neither of them reacted for a moment, perhaps unable to register the full amount. Then, slowly, Vanessa's hands went to her mouth, steepling in front of it. Liam's lips were slightly parted, which was his version of demonstrative shock. That'd be enough to wipe away all the medical debt, the gambling debt, the house payments. If she got the scholarships she wanted, it'd even put a sizable dent in her college expenses. The screen switched to different text:

The full amount will be transferred to your accounts as soon as the necessary conditions are met, or time runs out.

Each morning, you will position yourselves in front of this screen, across from each other, no less than five feet apart. Six questions will appear, sequentially, and you must answer them truthfully while making eye contact. Occasionally, a question might be accompanied by a prompt. Fulfilling it is not optional.

If you ever find yourselves questioning the goal of this experiment, please bear in mind the topic of the study:

B U I L D I N G R A P P O R T

The pair were still reeling from the astronomical reward, but they were taking in the information, awaiting further instruction. A thought niggled at the back of Vanessa's mind – she was sure she'd read about something similar. Not the isolation aspect, or the freaky memory tampering, but the concept of answering a set of questions while gazing into someone's eyes. She didn't remember the details, only that the idea went viral… and that the point was to get two strangers to fall in love.

With a quick glance at her father's profile, she shook her head. That couldn't be right. She was probably getting two different stories mixed up, or this was going to be a riff on the romantic idea to strengthen family bonds. As the justifications raced through her mind, the screen changed again.

If you understand and agree with what you have read so far, assume the position and get ready for today's questions.

They breathed out in one simultaneous exhale. Liam looked back at his daughter, who bit her lip. 'What do you think?' she said, and her voice was startling in the silent apartment.

Liam strode off to the dining portion of the room, hooked his arms under the backs of two solid wooden chairs, and carried them back to the space in front of the screen, placing them roughly five feet from each other. He took a seat and gestured to the other. 'Let's get started.'

Vanessa sat down, automatically placing her hands between her knees to keep from fiddling with her nails. She wished they could talk about how weird this set-up was, maybe bring the tension down with a couple of jokes, but that wasn't what their relationship was like, and that had been particularly true since her mother's passing. Her grass-green eyes met her dad's, and both sets swiveled to the television as new text appeared with a loud beep.

1. Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest?

They both stared for a moment, then a quiet snort escaped Liam's nose. Vanessa recognised it as " that's it? ", and while she was hesitant to completely let her guard down, there was some relief at the nature of the question. Maybe they'd all be along the same vein. Innocuous. Fun, even.

'Tom Brady,' said Liam, crossing his arms. Vanessa blinked.

'Tom Brady? You can meet anyone on Earth, from any time, and you pick Tom Brady?'

He shrugged. 'I like his game.'

Okay. She needed another tactic. 'You know he doesn't drink beer or eat meat, right?'

'How'd you know that?'

Vanessa shrugged. Liam sighed.

'You know everything, huh. Alright. Babe Ruth. No, wait. Tonya Harding. Might as well make it a date.'

If she were a little more extroverted, Vanessa might have teased her father about liking tough, no-nonsense women, but she wasn't. She nodded, thought it over, and gave her own reply:

'Maybe Noam Chomsky?'

'Who?' Liam interjected.

'He's a philosopher, and a linguist, and… well, he talks about a lot of stuff. And he's almost a hundred years old. I think he'd have a lot of interesting stories to tell, I guess.'

Liam took a moment to digest this, and smiled. That was a rare sight, nowadays, but the apartment felt out of time, and the end of their stay came with the certainty of financial freedom. In this bizarre space, he was able to relax for the first time in years.

'You only need to hear our answers to that question to figure out why you're college material and I'm not,' he said.

'That's not true. We just have different interests.'

Thanks to their sustained gazes, Vanessa saw the way his smile crinkled the corners of his eyes, bringing some levity to their darkness, to the way the dark bags beneath weighed them down. 'Yeah, yeah. You're…'

Liam didn't continue, but Vanessa knew what he was thinking. She was just like her mother. She'd heard it plenty of times from her grandmother, and she was old enough to look back at her childhood and see that it was true. The fact her dad thought it made her feel fuzzy on the inside, even if he still couldn't really speak about his late wife, regardless of how obliquely.

The next question appeared on the screen with a quiet beep, prompting father and daughter to look over.

2. Would you like to be famous? In what way?

Another softball. Since Liam went first last time, it seemed to make sense for his kid to answer now, and Vanessa mulled it over for a short moment before shrugging.

'No. I want to do what makes me happy, and I don't think I'd need to be famous to do that. It sounds stressful. I already don't like having strangers follow me on social media, so I can't imagine real paparazzi…'

'What about the money?'

'What about it?'

'Good consolation prize for dealing with fans and the paps. Means you never have to worry again.'

Like her mother's name, the central cause of financial concern in their lives was left unspoken. He had a point, but it wasn't convincing enough to sway Vanessa, who just shrugged again. 'Money doesn't solve every issue, and being famous doesn't mean you're rich. You can be infamous. And anyway, all that stress might just make my health worse. And it's not like celebrities have the best lifestyles, right? All the partying, the weird ways to stay thin…'

'You've got it all figured out, huh.' Liam sighed. 'Alright. You're the only kid out there who doesn't want her name in lights. I guess I'll shoulder that burden for you.'

From softball to curveball. 'You wanna be famous, dad?'

'I want to not have to worry about us. You. And if it means being the talk of the town and getting sponsorships and invites to exclusive dinners, I'll fall on that sword. And I can take my girlfriend Tonya Harding with me.'

Vanessa chuckled. They hadn't spoken like this in a long time. She didn't think she could remember the last time they had, actually. This was nice.

It was…

Beep.

They looked to the screen, casual, and performed a double double-take at the new question.

3. Do you sleep naked? Why or why not?

'What the hell?' Liam grunted. The question was a little inappropriate, but it was the complete shift in tone that surprised him, and Ness agreed. Still, she figured the Labs had carried out studies to determine what to ask, so she just met her father's eyes again and indicated the TV with her head.

'Guess they wanna figure stuff out about our relationship to our bodies.'

'My relationship with my body's just fine. I don't think I need to talk about it with my daughter.'

'The reward money's a pretty good incentive.'

Liam paused. It wasn't that Vanessa wanted to discuss the ins and outs of her sleeping habits with him, but delving into topics they weren't comfortable broaching could only be good, right? Plus, he'd taken care of her in intimate ways throughout her childhood illness, cleaning her and helping her change clothes well past the age most kids could do so themselves. Just because she was grown now didn't make her body suddenly taboo.

With a sigh, Liam awkwardly looked her in the eyes and said, 'no, I don't. It feels uncomfortable. If anything happens in the middle of the night, I don't wanna have to stumble around looking for my clothes, even if it means driving in just a t-shirt, boxers, and flip flops. Don't wanna risk wasting time.'

This wasn't unfounded. Throughout Vanessa's childhood, and towards the end of her mother's life, impromptu trips to the ER were as common as regular families' movie nights. Ness knew how much these woes had impacted Liam's life, but hearing it laid out so plainly – even with something as seemingly disconnected as what he wore to bed – made her heart hurt. She felt guilty. And that wasn't unfounded, either.

She'd been silent long enough, so before he could ask her what was up, she spoke: 'Yeah, um. I – I don't like sleeping without clothes on, either. I think it might be for the same reason. Like, what if something happens. Yeah.'

That wasn't the whole truth, but it wasn't a lie, either. A pathologised childhood had taken its toll on her self-image, and made it so she wasn't particularly fond of looking at herself in the mirror, or the bath, or – anywhere, really. She enjoyed her current health as much as she could, keenly aware of the privilege of temporary able-bodiedness, and she found genuine joy in exercising and eating robust, varied meals. Unlike 95% of those who worked out alongside her, however, she really did care about being fit without worrying about looking hot.

Not that Liam had to know any of that.

They smiled at each other, unsure whether they'd adequately fulfilled the conditions, when the screen changed again, and this time, their renewed double-take came with a gasp.

Prompt 1: Strip.

Thoughts ran through Vanessa's head at light speed. Had their answers cued this prompt? Was it just a scheduled part of the study? Her father had taken intimate care of her, yes, but when she was a child – he hadn't seen her naked since then, and she couldn't remember seeing him in the nude at all. Between his long shifts and her own studies, they didn't see much of each other, full stop. And she'd wanted to remedy that, yes, but she hadn't wanted to see all of him!

Worried, she looked to him for guidance, maybe indignation. He didn't seem angry, but there was visible tension in his demeanor. 'What should we do?'

Liam thought. 'I think they're listening to what we're saying, live, and they're gonna spring stuff on us to throw us off.'

'That's what I think, too,' Vanessa nodded.

A pause. Liam mumbled, '250,000 dollars.'

That seemed to tip the scale, because without another word, he stood up and pulled his t-shirt up over his head, perfunctorily folding it and tossing it onto the couch. With some surprise, Vanessa noticed how strong he was beneath a small layer of fat – he had the build of a protector, chest and torso coated in dark hair, and instantly, she felt the urge to be cradled in his muscular arms and held tightly to that big, masculine body.

The thought startled her, and before she could spend too much time wondering whether this was some impulse she'd buried from childhood, her father unzipped and unbuttoned his pants and shoved them down along with his briefs, exposing a dark bush and a long, thick cock.

Using the word cock in relation to her father instantly mortified her, but it was the only term that applied. Liam's tool was too weighty and primal to be called a penis , too meaty and erotic to be called a dick . Even limp, Vanessa could tell she wouldn't be able to fully close her slim hand around it – though why would she, since it was her dad's member . Imperiously, it rested on a pair of full, heavy nuts, dusted with the same kind of hair that coated the rest of his mature body. The balls and shaft were a shade darker than Liam's skin tone, as if signaling a special purpose, the tawny color making the deep rose of his uncovered glans pop out even more. A squiggly vein wormed its way from the forest of his prick hair down to the jutting edge of his cockhead, a powerline ready to pump it full of blood so he could breed.

Oh my God.

It was the first dick she'd seen in real life, after years of fairly regular porn use where she'd fantasized about just this kind of thick fucktool stuffing her holes, but the way all of that had spilled into her mind at the sight of her own father's – penis made her stomach turn.

Thankfully, Liam interpreted his daughter's silent stare as simple embarrassment instead of intense virginal curiosity, and he didn't pick up on the vibe shift. Un fortunately, it seemed he shared her embarrassment, and after hastily folding his pants and throwing them aside, he gruffly extended a hand towards her.

'You too. Cash on the line, like you said. Reward money's a good incentive.'

Vanessa's arms crossed over her chest, unconsciously, and her knees clamped together. Liam waited a beat, then took a couple of steps towards her, and – was she a pervert for noticing the way his cock bounced as he walked? She couldn't help it. There was just something so – fascinating about the rod that gave her life, and it wasn't even hard.

As if physically fleeing the very idea of her dad's erection, Vanessa abruptly stood up from her seat and backed away – which Liam interpreted as his daughter being scared of his approach. He paused, seeming wounded, and sighed.

'I'm not gonna hurt you. I was just… I don't know. It's a lot of money. We need –'

'I know,' Vanessa cut in, moving her hands to her sides. Her father had seen her nude plenty of times growing up, but never like this, and as far as she knew, never while he was undressed, too. Her heart beat uncomfortably hard in her chest as she eyed the emotionless lens of the camera hanging from the corner of the ceiling. Who was watching them? What was this experiment about? 'Do… do you remember how we actually got here?'

That threw him for a loop. 'What do you mean?'

'I mean… I remember getting up to visit the institute for the study. Shibboleth Labs. I remember you driving us there, and pulling up to the parking lot, and how shiny and new the building looked, and then… waking up here. What happened in the meantime? What… what did they do?'

Liam paused. Vanessa could see him thinking, and drawing as much of a blank as she had. His eyes met hers right away when he looked up, and there was something dark in them. 'Are you backing out, Vanessa?'

'I – I just want to know –'

She gasped when Liam surged forward and grabbed her shoulders – not hard enough to hurt, but firm nonetheless. His features were still intense, but there was an obvious lining of panic there, too. He spoke urgently, in a low voice, 'We need that money. Shibboleth Labs work with the government, Ness, they're legitimate . If something seems weird, well – it's probably classified, or we'll find out later. But we can't just throw our lifeline away because you're… what, a little shy? You're gorgeous.'

The verbal onslaught had Vanessa stunned, unsure how to react. She looked to the side, and felt a tug at the straps of her tank top. If she didn't move, she knew what would happen, and if she did move, she'd be responsible for the loss of a life-changing amount of cash. So she just did her best to steady her breathing, and let her father slide the top off her shoulders, exposing her full, round tits.

Vanessa's young breasts bounced when they were freed, perfect orange-sized pillows capped with pink areolas and nipples that looked made to be sucked. Having her teenage tits nursed on was one of her favorite fantasies, and though she wasn't dwelling on her masturbation material at that moment, watching her first real-life cock bounce and twitch had her nipples invitingly stiff.

Thankfully, Liam didn't notice, averting his eyes from his newly topless daughter. He waited for a few seconds to see if she'd spare him the rest, but she didn't move, and with a grunt, he hooked his thumbs into the top of Vanessa's jeans, sliding past the waistband of her panties, too. Before she could register the feeling of another person's skin against the sensitive flesh of her hips, he was already pushing the clothes down. The pants sank a little with his first tug, but caught on the generous curve of her plump ass, forcing her dad to pull on the back of her jeans to expose her cute, pale cheeks, which jiggled just as much as her tits did every time Liam's rough handling of her clothes and body shifted her stance.

In the blink of an eye, and at his hand, Vanessa had gone from being clothed in front of her father to completely naked. The tension in the room had tightened like the string of a violin, but rather than snapping, it had gone slack again, somehow defused by the lack of climax to their bizarre situation. While Liam kept his gaze politely away from his little girl's nude body as he collected the clothes and placed them in the dumbwaiter in the hallway, as the TV screen now instructed, Vanessa found it harder than ever not to stare at the way her dad's prick and balls moved when he walked. Their bare state made her more aware of her curiosity, of how the sight of a grown man's body made a funny fizz spread through the bottom of her stomach.

Even though the grown man in question was her own father.

She was just thinking how lucky she was not to have a visible indicator of arousal between her legs when Liam made his way back into the room. Gruffly, he returned to his chair, and glanced at Vanessa just long enough to indicate that she should take her seat, too, and awkwardly, she did, very self-consciously sitting with her knees pressed tightly together to conceal her sex. Her posture was not unlike her father's, who had his legs much closer together than his usual relaxed, spread stance, and if their relationship were more casual, more playful, Vanenssa might have broken the newly reformed ice by cracking a joke about this. But she didn't.

Oblivious to their stilted circumstances, the television moved on to the next question with a quiet beep:

4. What would constitute a "perfect" day for you?

After the high drama of the last ten minutes, this sudden return to mundanity made Vanessa laugh, and when she looked at her dad, she was relieved to see he was smiling, if only a little.

'Well, my perfect day definitely wouldn't be like,' she gestured to indicate herself and Liam, and then the room, ' this !'

'I hear that.'

With a last chuckle, Vanessa took a moment to think over the question, then shrugged. 'It's pretty boring, but I guess I'd just like to have a day of peace . Like, wake up early but well-rested, take a nice bubble bath while I drink a smoothie, go to the park to read and enjoy a picnic. And all that without worrying about debt for even a second.'

She didn't mention that she'd get her letter of acceptance to college on this perfect day, unsure whether it'd be too sore a subject. Liam listened and nodded. 'That's not boring. When your whole life's been a medical drama, dull's exciting. I wish… I wish you didn't have to be eighteen and worrying about money. Not like this. You're supposed to be, I dunno, saving up for a car, or a vacation, or something . I want your perfect day to be more along the lines of partying with Taylor Swift or getting an all-expenses paid shopping spree to… Macy's?'

'Macy's?!'

'I don't know, alright?' he said, embarrassed. 'I'm not a teenage girl!'

'Are you sure?'

She said it lightly, teasing him just a little, and her dad reacted with a perfect eye roll, opening his mouth to reply… but clamming up when his gaze briefly darted downward to the soft tool between his legs. If Vanessa were a male friend of his, or even his son, he'd be able to give voice to the obvious response that flashed through his mind: indicating his bare cock and balls and going, 'I dunno, you tell me .'

However, although they were sitting down and talking for the first time in a while , and opening up to each other, Liam would never say something like that to his little girl. So, instead, he just cleared his throat, considered the question on the screen, and spoke:

'So, uh, my perfect day. I was gonna go with something pretty out of the ordinary, I guess. Like, getting to hang out with Led Zeppelin after attending their concert. But maybe I'd be pretty happy getting a letter saying I'm debt free, then heading out to drink a pack of expensive craft beers on a floatie in a pool under the sun.' He paused, unsure whether he should continue. 'With you. And your mother.'

'Oh, dad,' Vanessa murmured, eyes crinkling with tenderness. Even more than what he said, she thought of how telling their rather pathetic responses were: a perfect day meant peace. That's all they wanted. Not even overwhelming happiness. Liam shrugged, uncomfortable at this display of weakness, and seemed relieved when the screen changed again:

5. When did you last sing to yourself? To someone else?

Father and daughter looked at each other simultaneously, and while Vanessa could tell from his eyes that Liam didn't remember the latter, she did. The last time he'd sung to someone else was two months after her mother's funeral, when she'd crept into bed with him on a night she'd woken herself up crying, only managing to slumber when he wrapped his arms around her and sleepily half-sang, half-mumbled I Can Sing a Rainbow , like both her parents used to do when she was a toddler. The memory was a shock, a stab to the guts – because she knew that was the last time he'd truly embraced her, too.

Don't let it show.

'Don't remember when I last sang to someone else,' Liam said, as predicted. 'To myself, hm… I hum in the shower. Does that count as singing? Before we left for the Labs, this morning…'

'Probably.' When Liam raised an eyebrow, Vanessa expanded: 'This morning, probably . We don't actually… know how long we were knocked out for.'

'Vanessa.'

His tone was serious. He really was scared they'd be out of the running for the astronomical prize money if they made too many waves. That should suit Vanessa fine, really – she was meek at the best of times, particularly around her dad, to whom she owed so much, but something about this strange situation lit a real fire inside her. It was probably because of how surreal it seemed, how removed from their usual, dreary lives, how unlikely. If it was just a dream, why not act totally unlike herself?

But she didn't want to upset him. So she just took a deep breath and quietly started to sing.

Red and yellow and pink and green

Purple and orange and blue,

I can sing a rainbow,

Sing a rainbow,

Sing a rainbow too.

Listen with your ears,

Listen with your eyes,

And sing everything you see!

She paused, seeing her dad's expression soften, and said, 'That's when I last sang to myself and somebody else.'

'That'll do it,' Liam replied with a smile.

The television beeped.

6. How do you feel when the person in front of you hugs you?

Vanessa didn't have to think about that one. 'I don't know. It's been too long.'

'No it hasn't. You're my daughter. I hugged you just…'

He went quiet, and Vanessa could see the gears turning in his head as he came up empty. After a couple of seconds, he coughed and sat back, feigning casualness.

'Well, you know I love you. I don't have to hug you all the time to prove it. I'd do anything for you.'

She knew this was true, because he had, but it still didn't feel great to be deprived of the most basic forms of physical affection. How could they answer the question, then? Neither had to worry about this too long, because new text appeared beneath the question:

Prompt 2: Hug, then answer again.

It was uncanny just how the order and phrasing of these innocuous queries could drastically change the vibe. What could be easier than getting a parent to embrace their child? And yet, as Liam rose, the reason why it couldn't be that simple dangled about two feet from Vanessa's face.

The flow of conversation had made both of them practically forget about their nudity, but there was no denying it when they were standing stark naked in front of each other like this. Vanessa's smooth, young body felt totally exposed, and she figured that trying to cover up would only make the situation more awkward. Better get it over with. With a couple of quick steps, she pressed her front to her father's and threw her arms around his broad back.

Immediately, Vanessa was struck by the sheer comfort that filled her body when her skin touched her dad's. It made her think of that last cuddle they shared, then further back, to his gentle touch as he helped her bathe long after she should have been able to clean herself, weakened by her illness; she knew it was impossible, but somehow, she thought she could feel right back to the boundless love of when he'd first held her as a newborn. She was unused to physical affection, and she wanted to absorb it all like a particularly thirsty sponge. Her hold tightened, and she sighed happily.

Her father's arms settled on her shoulders, and he pulled her close, further wrapping her in a cocoon of warmth and affection. And that's when she became aware of other sensations.

Now her dad was hugging back, Vanessa realized the brand-new, confusing feeling of her sensitive bare breasts being squished against a man's chest, the soft hair coating Liam's torso ticklish and surprisingly noticeable whenever her flattened nipples moved over her father's skin. Strong hands gripping her slim shoulder and carding through her hair were unfamiliar, and the full-body front-to-front contact between them made her oddly aware of the lack of attention being paid to her back, to the plump roundness of her peachy ass, and even though this was her dad, she wanted his fingers to go lower and explore all of her. His reassuringly familiar scent had the added depth of fresh, light sweat, making him more – human , for the lack of a better word, more real, more approachable. More masculine.

And, of course, there was her dad's cock.

She didn't even realize what it was, at first, but shifting in Liam's arms made her notice the different, soft appendage pressing against the top of her shaved pubic mound, and even with her virginity, she quickly knew she was feeling her father's flaccid dick rubbing against her inches above her clit. This made her recognize the prickly feeling of his bush on her belly, and without any reasonable explanation, this fact sent a hot wave from the pit of her stomach down to her inexperienced pussy, feeding horny hormone-addled blood into her fuck button and cunt lips.

Vanessa was glad her face was hidden against her dad's chest, because she just knew her teenage pussy would be blushing crimson now. She'd touched herself while looking in the mirror a couple of times, at the advice of a magazine sex column on how to remove self-consciousness, and though she'd felt kind of ridiculous doing it, there was something sort of hot about lying with her legs spread, peeling her lips apart, and gently prodding and massaging the sensitive pink inside of her virgin slit until it was shiny wet with girl drool, the mouth of her cunt nice and relaxed in the expectation of being bred, the whole vulva a deeper shade as every nook and cranny asked for attention.

She could imagine her pussy becoming flushed, and tried to focus on the familial love she felt for her father, on how unerotic this should feel, on how this prick squashed against her body was the reason she existed –

And, to her shame, that only seemed to make her arousal sharper. It made her want to feel her father's meat thicken, stiffen against her, and hey, he was holding a shapely young woman against his naked body, so a physical reaction like that would be totally normal, and she'd get to see her first real-life hard-on –

With a final squeeze, Liam gently backed out of the hug and settled back down on his chair, very clearly completely limp. Of course he was. It'd be freaky if he wasn't , and Vanessa's subconscious was being bizarrely perverted by wanting to see her father's erection. It was just curiosity, that was all, mixed with long-time touch-starvation.

'Okay, um,' Vanessa started, settling back down, knowing she had to start talking. 'That was really nice. I don't know what else to say. It makes me feel safe when you hug me, dad, even if this whole… situation is pretty awkward.'

Liam nodded, obviously struggling to look his daughter in the eye. Vanessa waited a beat, then spoke again, softly:

'It's your turn.'

'I know. It's just.' He groaned. 'It makes me sad to hear you say that, because I know I haven't…'

… hugged you as much as I should have , Vanessa completed in her head. She guessed that was why his body was affecting her so much: she didn't really know him the way most kids knew their dads, didn't know his warmth . That was it. That was why the insistent throb between her thighs had barely died down.

'I've always been sort of… scared to hurt you. There were times with your mother –'

He abruptly cut himself off, gaze sinking to the ground. Normally, Vanessa would've let it go, knowing how keenly her dad still felt her mother's absence, likely more than she herself did… but these circumstances weren't normal. They were here to talk. To be vulnerable. Quietly, she murmured, 'When mom?...'

Liam didn't answer right away, and Vanessa thought she might have prodded unwisely, but at length, her father replied, 'When she started having those spasms – you remember those, right? They were so scary. Just terrible. Sometimes, I'd be holding her and she'd jerk really hard, and injure her back or her legs trying not to hit me, and – and the first handful of times, I thought she was falling, and I held on tighter, so her arm would bend weird or something like that and her scream –'

He clicked his tongue, upset, and shook his head. This time, Vanessa didn't want to try and push him further, because she did remember her mother's increasing involuntary movements, the way the typewriter of her mind seemed to run out of paper faster than she could refresh it. She just nodded, meekly, and was relieved when the screen flashed a non-intrusive " Questions complete for today," followed by a separate point:

Say you love each other.

Liam sighed, but the tension visibly left his body, and he'd regained some of his usual casual sarcasm. 'Don't think it needs to be said, but whatever HAL9000 over there wants. I love you, Nessie.'

Vanessa could count the times he'd told her that over the past couple of years on one hand, and couldn't help grinning widely when she answered, 'Love you, dad.'

They had the rest of the day to themselves, and found that the apartment was surprisingly well-outfitted with stuff to pass the time. The flat-screen TV used to conduct the experiment reverted to a regular television, which only had a handful of channels, mostly cooking and sports. Liam sat down in front of a football game – the date of which confirmed it was either the day after they'd driven to Shibboleth Labs –

Or they recorded it and they're showing it now to keep us subdued , thought Vanessa. Just as quickly as the thought popped up, however, she shrugged it off. This was a place away from all their regular concerns. The Labs had cut them off from the internet and news channels, so the isolation went beyond simply locking them up together. She'd never really had a vacation , always either sick herself, trying to help with her mother, or working part-time jobs to help cover the family's monster debts. This was a chance for both of them to kick back, and she was going to take it.

Vanessa picked up a book (fiction, no less), and settled in the armchair in the corner of the room. The fabric of the upholstery was pleasant on her naked skin, but after about half an hour of reading, the hyper awareness of her nudity died down, and father and daughter became engrossed in their chosen activities without their state of undress being an issue.

Until it was time to go to bed, anyway.

Liam was first to flag, turning off the TV after the end of the game with a long yawn. Vanessa almost flinched when he stood up to stretch, so comfortable was she that she'd forgotten he had his dick out until it was swinging in the air before him. She realized she'd slowly drifted into a loose cross legged position, where her pretty teen cunt was freely exposed and her lips slightly parted. All her dad would have had to do to get an eyeful of her rosy pussy skin was glance over at her. She adjusted herself to primly tuck her legs to the side, feet under her buttocks, like a tasteful classical nude portrait. If Liam had seen his daughter's relaxed slit, however, he didn't show a hint of being perturbed.

'Guess my old age is catching up to me,' he said with a deadpan expression. 'I'm beat. You tired too, or should I hit the hay solo?'

'Go ahead. I'd like to finish a couple more chapters.'

'Alright. Don't stay up too late.'

He ambled away until she couldn't hear his steps on the floorboards anymore, but before she'd finished her current chapter, he stuck his head around the corner with a frown.

'Everything okay?'

'Yeah, uh, it's nothing terrible, but… after I brushed my teeth – there's brushes and toothpaste and stuff in the bathroom, by the way – I went to pull the spare bed out from under the double, and… there isn't one. And no other bedrooms either, obviously.'

'Oh.'

The information sat with them for a moment. It wasn't like they'd never shared a bed. For a while after they lost the house, in Vanessa's mid teens, they'd slept in a motel bed much smaller than the King size in this apartment. The difference was, of course, that they'd worn pajamas.

'I'll sleep on the couch,' Liam announced, wandering closer to test the springiness of the cushions. 'I'll just grab a pillow and a spare sheet from the closet –'

'I… mean, it's a big bed, dad. I don't think it'd be weird if we shared. We'll have so much space to toss and turn that we won't even brush against each other.'

That seemed to placate her father somewhat, though he remained guarded. 'Are you sure it won't bother you?'

'It'll be like old times. You can tell me about your biker days.'

That made Liam smile, and scratch the back of his head. 'I think you've heard all my stories already. I was still pretty green when your mom got me domesticated. But I can dig a little further and find something new, I'm sure.'

'Okay,' Vanessa grinned, closing the book on the page she'd bookmarked and standing up, her bare skin surprisingly cool in the warm room after touching the material of the armchair for such a long time. 'Let's go now. If I stay up much longer, we'll be out of sync in the morning.'

Once the lights were off, it really wasn't too different from their motel days, Ness wriggled under the covers to get comfortable, and turned to face Liam, ready to listen to him. The first words out of his mouth weren't what she'd expected, however:

'Sorry,' he murmured, 'I felt like a real jerk taking your clothes off. It must've been scary. I was just… so frightened we'd lose out on that prize money, just after I'd seen it as the light at the end of this tunnel we've been in for years, so I moved without thinking. But it was still a gross thing to do.'

'It's okay.' Vanessa guessed that he was being so candid thanks to the darkness enveloping them, which disguised his vulnerability. 'I just think too much, I guess, and the thought of there being footage out there of me naked makes me feel weird, but… I must've signed the contract to come here, same as you. There has to be some sort of clause saying the videos are for research only, and well protected.'

She heard her dad's pillow rustle as he nodded. 'I wouldn't've signed if it said otherwise. Nobody's seeing my baby girl in her birthday suit unless she wants them to.'

Vanessa smiled, and soon, she was listening to Liam reminisce. True to his word, he unearthed a few tall tales that were too brazen to seem real, yet too detailed in all the right ways to seem fake. Soothed by his voice and the cozy, freeing feeling of her nudity under the sheets, Vanessa was the first to fall asleep. It wasn't surprising, then, that she woke up in the middle of the night, for no particular reason other than the vagaries of her circadian rhythm.

She quietly slipped out of bed, tiptoed to the living room, and spent about an hour making progress on the novel, reading by the light of the table lamp beside the couch to avoid waking her father up – there were no doors in this house, after all, and turning on the main lights would be enough to rouse Liam. He slept light, usually, always ready in case an angry landlord called the cops – or worse – in the middle of the night to evict them. It was surprising he hadn't woken up when she'd left, actually. Maybe the ''out of time'' effect of the experiment was changing his behavior too. Hopefully helping him relax.

When her eyelids started to feel heavy, Vanessa set the book aside and turned off the light, sitting in the dark for a few moments to let her eyes adjust. It was a pretty straight shot to the bedroom, and she preferred not to risk waking Liam up with the overhead lights. She found that, despite the milky tinted windows that blocked any view of the outside while letting some sun in, she could actually see pretty well in the dusky rooms, and quietly headed back to bed. She was petite, growth stunted by her sickly childhood, and didn't make a single sound as she neared the open doorway, which allowed her to hear an odd, rhythmic slapping noise as she got closer, before the whole bedroom came into view.

To say she was shocked to see her father beating off would be an understatement.

It took her a second to process what she was seeing, still half behind the doorway, shrouded in darkness. Liam had kicked the covers off his muscular, hairy body and had his legs slightly parted, in a frog-like position, right hand wrapped tight around the base of his throbbing daddy cock and left hand rapidly stroking the shaft just under his thick prickhead, stimulating the underside and playing with the ridge of his dark glans. Each time he flicked over the edge produced a little wet slap as he coated his dick in his flowing precum, accompanied by quiet guttural groans and hard, shallow breaths. His eyes were tightly shut, which was good, because his daughter was completely spellbound by the horny spectacle before her.

The trance was broken when he grunted, arched his hips up from the mattress, and sprayed ropes of baby batter over his own stomach and chest.

Although she was fascinated by the way her dad's exposed body shuddered with the aftershocks of the orgasm, the way he milked some more squirts of jizz from his prick, the mixed sigh and groan he let out – Vanessa knew he'd open his eyes soon and possibly spot her, so she retreated to the living room area as quickly as possible while remaining silent.

Curled up on the couch in the gloom, she hugged her knees to her chest, squeezing her breasts against her body, her heart beating in her head. What had caused him to do this, all of a sudden? Was it her? Did he control his arousal when he held her naked body against his, bank the feeling, and rub one out when he thought she wouldn't know?

She shook her head. That couldn't be right. He was her dad . They'd connected surprisingly deeply today, discovering things about each other and their familial bond, and it was just getting muddled in her head. Clearly, he woke up with a random boner, saw he was by himself, and figured he could take care of things. That was normal. What wasn't normal was playing those few seconds over and over in her mind, the sight and sound of her climaxing father, imagining the hot cum drying on his thick chest hair. She was extremely aware of the heavy throb in her pussy, which felt more like her entire lower body was alight, begging for attention.

After she'd waited her arousal out, she shuffled back to the bedroom and found Liam the way she'd left him when she rolled out of bed. It was dark, but she couldn't detect a hint of sperm when she slipped beneath the sheets. There were no suspicious wet spots, and though she'd never smelled semen, there was no discernible scent when she edged a little closer to him. He'd probably cleaned off in the adjoining bathroom. If her body hadn't reacted so powerfully, she might wonder if she'd invented the whole situation.

But she hadn't.

All she could hope for is that come morning, she'd be able to disguise her awkwardness.