Carnal Machines Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Introduction

  HUMAN POWERED

  THE SERVANT QUESTION

  SLEIGHT OF HAND

  MUTINY ON THE DANIKA BLUE

  DEVIANT DEVICES

  THE PERFECT GIRL

  DR. MULLALEY’S CURE

  HER OWN DEVICES

  LAIR OF THE RED COUNTESS

  INFERNAL MACHINE

  DOCTOR WATSON MAKES A HOUSE CALL

  THE TREATMENT

  LUCIFER EINSTEIN AND THE CURIOUS CASE OF THE CARNAL CONTRAPTION

  THE SUCCUBUS

  ABOUT THE AUTHORS

  ABOUT THE EDITOR

  Copyright Page

  INTRODUCTION

  The Victorians wrote some of the best and most enduring erotica. For such a tightly laced age, people spent a lot of time thinking about things carnal. And, speaking of tightly laced, I love the feeling of being laced into a tight corset; the constriction; the way the fabric encases my body and hugs my curves. It makes me feel powerful. But that’s a tale best left for another time.

  Writers such as Jules Verne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and H.G. Wells enthralled us with their visions of new possibilities during the steam age. They, of course, didn’t use the term steampunk. That was our generation’s answer to the pressures of the technological age (that’s the age after the space age—there are lots of ages). We find it somehow comforting to go back to a simpler time but, because we can’t do without our technological marvels, we recreate them as they might have been made in the steam age: steampunk.

  But what was that about corsets? Oh, yes, corsets, tightly laced carnality. Steampunk, even without sex, is erotic; with sex, it’s over-the-top hot. Just think of all the deliciously erotic machines that could be run on steam power or a rudimentary form of electricity. The authors of this anthology thought of little else, or so it would seem.

  A widowed lady engineer invents a small device that can store the energy from sexual frustration and convert it to electricity to help power a home. Teresa Noelle Roberts shows us what it can do, confronted with sexual fulfillment.

  What volume of steampunk would be complete without a tale of sailing ships and the men who sail them? Poe Von Page introduces us to the mutinous crew of the Danika Blue and its new captain. Of course this ship sails the solar winds of space rather than the sea, and the captain has quite the interesting relationship with the ship’s redheaded cartographer, with her delicate features, ecru eyes, black lace dress and charcoal-smudged fingers.

  Then there’s the very special room on the top floor in the House of the Sable Locks, a brothel where sexually discriminating men go to have their fantasies fulfilled. Even if a man daren’t put those fantasies into words, Elizabeth Schechter’s “Succubus” will give the madam all the information she needs to make her clients happy.

  Within these tales are brothels, flying machines, steam-powered conveyances, manor houses and spiritualist societies. The following erotic adventures afford intelligently written, beautifully crafted glimpses into other worlds, where the Carnal Machines won’t fail to seduce you, get you wet or make you hard—so lie back and relax; a happy ending is guaranteed.

  D. L. King

  New York City

  HUMAN POWERED

  Teresa Noelle Roberts

  Doctor Benedict Lowell ran his hands through his overly long black hair and adjusted his small, wire-rimmed glasses. “I’m impressed. Poor Percy always said you were a fine engineer, and I knew you were clever, but I underestimated how gifted you truly are. Your schematic is beautiful. Your theory is novel, yet sound. Capturing the electrical energy of the human body is a brilliant idea and I doubt a man would have come up with such a perfect instrument to do the job. We tend to think large and flashy, but a generator as small as a clock, so each family might power their own home, is more workable.” He picked up her clumsy prototype and tapped the energy-storage indicator, which currently read EMPTY. “I know you said your model didn’t work consistently, but all your formulae seem correct. I suspect the problem lies in construction, not design.”

  Claire laughed. “I’m far better at designing devices than I am at building them. I came to arcane engineering as an adult. I wasn’t encouraged to tinker in the basement as boys are. And the laboratories at Wellesley are unsophisticated compared to this.” She gestured around her old friend’s lab in the arcane engineering department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a veritable paradise of devices both mechanical and magical to aid engineers in their work.

  Doctor Lowell opened the back of the device and peered at her handiwork. “Perhaps using silk instead of horsehair with the human hair…and certainly some of the gears need to be rendered smaller. A homunculus is invaluable in such delicate work, with its tiny hands that can fit where ours cannot. I fear the women’s colleges are not well equipped with automatons as we are at MIT.” His eyes gleamed with a pleasure Claire recognized, the pleasure of a scientist confronted with an intriguing problem. “I can help turn your mock-up into a working device, Mrs. Fitzwilliams.”

  “Professor Fitzwilliams,” Claire corrected automatically and without rancor. As one of the first women in America to become a professor of arcane engineering she was used to the error. Even her students at Wellesley, young ladies who themselves aspired to become arcane engineers, sometimes forgot. She could hardly be angry with Doctor Lowell for slipping up, not when he had known her while her husband was still alive and she had been conducting her researches privately with Percy, not teaching.

  And not when he had lovely blue eyes and a full, sensual mouth, currently smiling at her. As a widowed professor at a ladies’ college, Claire had to appear a model of propriety lest her students’ parents question her influence on their daughters, but that lab explosion had taken poor Percy from her more than five years ago and she was lonely. It was only natural to enjoy a handsome man’s smile. “Excellent. My undergraduates are helpful for simpler projects, but this is too advanced for them.” Not to mention it was the sort of project that would get her fired if word got back to the administration.

  “Your letter asking for my help said only that the device uses the energy of the human body to power itself. You said you would be more specific when we met. I verified that it should work as you theorized; not only will it, but if it proves suitable for mass production, it could bring electricity to the most isolated homestead. But does it gather all the energy we generate in a day, or something more specific? Do you envision it sitting in a workshop, or in the kitchen as a housewife does her chores? Maybe a schoolyard? Children at play are certainly energetic.”

  Now came the part she’d most dreaded when envisioning this meeting. On one hand, her plan would use a form of energy that was wasted otherwise—and one in unlimited supply. On the other hand, the particulars were delicate, especially to discuss with such an attractive man.

  Claire schooled herself not to blush. “It gathers the yearnings of the unmarried and the unhappily married and converts all that heat into useful form while—in theory, once I get it working properly—easing a lonely person’s restlessness.”

  If only she could get it to work for her. Her empty widow’s bed was driving her mad with loneliness, but most men didn’t wish to have a tinkering, teaching wife, and she lacked both time and patience for the niceties of courtship. “To sell it, we’d have to refer to something vague like ‘electrical impulses inherent to the adult human body,’ so as not to cause scandal.”

  Doctor Lowell stood and leaned across his great oak desk, an aggressive move that brought him closer than propriety allowed.

  It was closer than Claire’s own sense of propriety could combat. He loomed close enough that his aftershave filled her nostrils, lay
ered over a scent that could only be the muskiness of an aroused man—not the same as her late husband’s, but close enough to make her heart pound against her corset boning and awaken neglected, intimate parts of her body. She ached, yearning for touch, for kisses, for caresses; for, to be frank, a man in her arms, a man’s prick inside her.

  She forced the thoughts away. It was impossible for her, as for so many in this world of rigid rules, to enjoy such pleasures anymore. But that was the value of her invention. If Doctor Lowell would help her construct it, there would be no shortage of fuel for it, and people’s longings could light their lamps instead of giving them the vapors or prompting them to do things they’d regret later.

  Things such as kissing Doctor Lowell, which seemed like a far better idea than Claire knew it was.

  “No, Professor Fitzwilliams,” Lowell said, his voice pitched to a low, intimate whisper. “I cannot assist you with making a device designed to harness the energy of sexual frustration. It wouldn’t be right.”

  Claire had anticipated this argument. The fact that it could be distressing to be single or widowed, that one might long for pleasures not readily or safely available, wasn’t discussed in polite society. But her invention had so much potential—could do so much real good—that breaking that silence was necessary. “I realize it’s a taboo area, but you, as a man of science, must know that right and wrong transcend convention. Is it right that the air in our cities is black from coal smoke? My brother is a physician and he fears that as we find more uses for electrical and steam power and burn more coal to generate it, lung complaints will increase. Is it right that miners risk their lives to acquire that coal?” She reached into her automated reticule, grabbed a newspaper and snapped it down in front of Lowell. “Only this week a dozen miners were killed in Kentucky. Four of them were mere boys. Is it right that such tragedies must continue when arcane engineering has the potential to harness the energy inherent in the human body?” She rose to her feet, unwilling to stay seated and appear cowed.

  “So passionate…” he murmured, “but confound it, Mrs. Fitzwilliams... Professor…Claire. Can’t you see that your passion is why working on this device with you wouldn’t be right? Your husband was like my little brother. And I am without a wife, a fiancée, or even, since we are speaking frankly, a mistress. You are the sort of woman I find intriguing, with your combination of beauty and intellect. Even when Percy was alive I found it hard to be near you without thinking things one shouldn’t think about the wife of a close friend. Or anyone else’s wife, for that matter. And now you come to me with this erotic device and ask for my aid. Do you mean to torture me?” He pounded his fist on the desk.

  A hot flush started somewhere around Claire’s suddenly slick privates and no doubt mottled her bosom before reaching her cheeks. “Doctor Lowell…” Surely it was all right to call an old acquaintance by his first name when he had just declared love, or at least enduring desire and infatuation? “Ben, I’m sorry. I had no wish to distress you. I knew you were fond of me and I knew I could trust you. That was my only thought, I swear.” At least it was my only thought before I actually saw you again. I adored Percy, but if I had met you first, I’m not sure he would have stood a chance. You and Percy were equals in intellect, but he was a charming boy to the end, where you are a handsome, well-built man.

  “I know you meant no harm,” Doctor Lowell said. “And I agree with what you say. As we develop more uses for electricity and steam, we’ll need cleaner ways to generate power or progress will cause more problems than it solves. Your notion of capturing and magnifying our own energy has great potential. Unfortunately, I can’t do this work with you. Not if I want to keep my sanity and you your virtue. If you give me the plans, I’ll build the device for you.” He sighed. “Certainly I shall be frustrated enough to test it just thinking that you are behind the blueprint.”

  No! She wanted to be involved in this great work, not hand it off. Ben was too honorable to take credit, but if she wasn’t there in the lab by his side, those skeptical of women scientists would assume he was the inventor, she a mere assistant who drew up the plans from his notes. “Perhaps I can modify the plans with your help. Even the energy of a person moving about, walking from place to place, could be captured. The power source does not need to be something so risqué. It would certainly be more acceptable to the public were it not.”

  “More acceptable, but less powerful. Sexual desire is one of humanity’s strongest impulses, and all the stronger for being repressed. You hit on a potential solution to energy generation, one far cleaner and safer than coal. But not safer for me, Claire…not as long as you’re behind it.”

  Ben stepped out from behind his worktable.

  Even through the concealment of his lab coat, Claire could see his erection straining at the buttons of his wool trousers. (Trousers with burn holes in them, she noted, just like Percy’s always had.) He moved like some great, wild-maned predator, all power and grace, his eyes intent on her.

  She backed away.

  But not to escape.

  She should leave, give them both a chance to clear their heads. Ben was a gentleman and a friend, but desire could incinerate such niceties as common sense and proper behavior toward a lady, let alone a lady who was also a colleague.

  She knew this because desire was making her forget good sense, good manners and the prudish behavior expected of female arcane engineers working in a man’s world. She and Percy had enjoyed excellent marital relations, but she couldn’t remember ever reaching this wet, trembling, fevered state from just a look and some suggestive words.

  Then again, perhaps that was what happened when several years of excellent marital relations came to an abrupt, tragic end. The human body ran on electrical impulses, and if some of those impulses were repeatedly sparking without an outlet, one was bound to become a bit combustible.

  Natural science could explain why the look in Ben’s eyes was enough to set Claire’s embroidered silk drawers on fire.

  It also explained that female and male beasts were naturally drawn together to mate. Mr. Darwin had proved to Claire’s scholarly satisfaction that humans, at least physically, were merely beasts with big brains.

  Just because she and Ben Lowell had particularly large brains didn’t make them above the physical. This was just natural science in action, and she might be an arcane engineer, but she had to respect the laws of natural science.

  Instead of bolting toward the door like a decent woman should, Claire backed up so she was leaning against a sturdy table, empty except for a few spare gears and a small orrery.

  Ben caught her there and wrapped his arms around her. She didn’t pretend to resist, just turned up her face to meet the kiss she knew was coming.

  Ben didn’t bother with a delicate, romantic start like Percy always had. There was something of the Lothario in the way he cupped her face firmly in his hand and opened her lips, and something of the ravening beast in the way he fell on her mouth and devoured it.

  It awakened a ravening beast Claire hadn’t known was within her. Heat surged from her lips throughout her body, zinging to her nipples and her sex.

  The heat surged into her brain as well, reminding her how much she’d always admired Ben, how he would be able, like Percy and unlike most of the men she’d met since Percy’s death, to stimulate her mind as well as her body.

  She pressed her hips forward, thrilling to feel his hardness pressing against the juncture of her legs. There was too much fabric in the way, but the shock of contact still weakened her knees and made her moan out loud.

  Ben pulled away abruptly. “Claire, leave before we do something foolish.”

  “What if I want to do something foolish? What if I told you I want to be bare as the day I was born in your arms?”

  “I’d get hard—which I already was, but I swear your words just made me harder. My brain would seize up, too busy thinking of the things I want to enjoy with you to remember propriety and convention and al
l the reasons we shouldn’t.” Ben put his arms around her again, but seemed uncertain whether he should pull her closer or push her away. “But I’d have to try. Not because I want to resist, but because I’m too fond of you to risk your good name and your place in society.”

  “I’m sick of frustration, sick of propriety, sick of worrying about my good name!” She hadn’t known how vehemently she felt about it until she began to speak, but five years of silence, shattered, let loose a torrent of words that surprised her as she spoke them. “Society other than that of other engineers means little to me, and I suspect it means even less to you. We’ve defied convention simply to become arcane engineers. A man faces challenges when his work’s so little understood, and I don’t need to tell you it’s harder for a woman. So why should we stand on convention now? I like you and I want you, and you feel the same, so why shouldn’t we be naked right now?”

  A broad, sexy grin spread across Ben’s face. “Some of my graduate students have keys to the laboratory. It would be better if we kept most of our clothes on in case of interruption, so we could at least pretend we hadn’t been fucking against the worktable. Because I intend to fuck you against the worktable, Claire. Then I intend to take you home and do it again in a proper bed where we can be naked.” He pulled her close again, and the ravening beast was back in his eyes. “You’re right, of course. We don’t need to stand on convention. I will help you with your device—and with your frustration and loneliness, if you’ll help me with mine.”

  He drew her into another intense kiss, his hands running over her breasts. The sensible blue serge of her walking suit felt like the thinnest silk, she was so sensitized.

  He was hard, so hard and so sexy in his lab coat, his hair mussed, his goggles still hanging around his neck where he’d put them when she arrived for her appointment. His hands were hot and strong, and even through all the confounded clothes she was obliged to wear to go about in society, he seemed to reach all the places she needed him to reach.