Chapter 18

I stared at Melisa, waiting for her to spill it.

Rachel had finally calmed down. Our first class inspired another panic attack. Melisa calmed her down as quickly as she could. Rachel had run into her room a few minutes before to start reading the first assigned book. Melisa and I read it for a previous class so we only needed to skim it.

Melisa tried very hard not to make eye contact. I wanted to know why Rachel was involved but it seemed a question I was not allowed to ask. I could get some answers about Dr. Lawren though.

I continued staring at Melisa.

"Why are the etchings on Dr. Lawren's ring different?" I asked.

"Susan is different from Doris Alex and me," she replied without looking.

"Continue."

"She likes to be dominated," she said somewhat unsure of her words.

I guess like Brothers, Siblings do not understand some Siblings either.

"Don't you?" I asked.

"I want to be with you," she said staring into my eyes. "Susan wants you to make her want you."

"A hunt through the woods with the hounds of desire calling their master to his prey."

She smiled widely and shrugged her shoulders as if I already understood Dr. Lawren better than she did. She stood up and walked over to kiss my forehead.

"Have fun!"

I sat in my room thinking about Melisa.

She planned every one of my movements in the preceding weeks: my introduction to the Brotherhood, her and I becoming lovers, Doris Alex and I coming together, Janet's temporary rejection, the threesomes, and now Dr. Lawren.

Even Gerald.

The Brothers thought that was Doris Alex's planning, but I recognized it as Melisa at her most subtle. She knew what Doris Alex would do and followed the redhead where she wanted to go anyway.

Someone who knew me better than anyone since Jason had handled me exquisitely.

The scope of her manipulations would have been amusing if not for the danger inherent in giving someone like her that much control.

Melisa needed to learn limits.

I stood up and walked into the living room. Melisa, Doris Alex, Michael, and Rachel were socializing around a pizza and the television set.

"Melisa," I said dangerously.

Everyone turned to look at me.

"I'd like to talk to you in my room."

Doris Alex smiled an 'I told you so' at Melisa's back as my First walked into my room.

Rachel was pissed at me.

Melisa sat lightly in her chair when our second day of class began.

Professor Ryan could barely contain his laughter at the nervous glances that Melisa gave me. Dr. Lawren looked between Melisa and me with more than a touch of interest in her eyes. The class could sense there was something going on underneath the surface but no one could figure out how to get deeper.

I ignored all of them.

Professor Ryan announced initial appointment dates with our lead professor. We were working closer with them than in any class before. I was not surprised I was scheduled to meet Dr. Lawren later that day. Melisa confessed that a few things could not be changed so I accepted them; Dr. Lawren was the biggest of those. I looked at Melisa; she turned quickly towards Rachel to talk about their appointment times.

Rachel shot me an evil glare that I let slide through me.

I walked into the office after the voice invited me in. Dr. Lawren had a small office, maybe as payback for her popularity with students and certain members of the University administration. She reclined back and gestured at a chair to the right of her desk. I sat down and continued studying the room. It was exactly like her; organized, the stack of books showed a variety of intellectual interests, and with a backbone of femininity.

We entered a staring match, but it was not a contest. We studied each other at the same time. She was my height, short black hair, and brown eyes. She favored Melisa's build; compact, and slim with feminine curves. She was good-looking but my attraction lay in the wealth of confidence she projected.

"As unfortunate as I might think it, you and I will not be, Mr. Feather," she challenged.

The fox saying 'no' to the hound?

I thought foxes did not have a choices.

"Why not, Dr. Lawren?"

"I have a lot to lose should I be caught in, or should there even be a rumor that I am having an affair with a student," she explained with a smile.

Her words said no but the bead of sweat that moved slowly from her neck to the barely hinted at cleavage spoke differently. I closed my eyes and breathed her in.

Her excitement would be an easy scent to follow.

I nodded.

The rest of the appointment was spent discussing what was expected of me in the class.

Dr. Lawren was an experience in frustration.

My teenage years had not lacked in sexual relief so the mental frustration of wanting and not having was new to me. Dr. Lawren was a crystal globe that shone in the middle with gold coins, but I could not keep the coins if I shattered the globe.

Thinking I had to somehow prove myself, I tried everything.

I mean everything: flowers, good work, bad work, great work, an apple, making unnecessary appointments, etc. She let me do it all and made things worse by making sure my appointments were the last in her day.

She changed before I arrived. Sometimes subtle; two buttons loose on her shirt, her shirt pulled out from her skirt, or maybe her hair a little mussed. Sometimes, she trumpeted the change: a mini-skirt, perfume, or no bra where there had been one in class.

It was fairly embarrassing for me.

Our appointments went long and sometimes the summer darkness had begun when I accompanied her to her car. Those were the moments I thought I was close. As I stood holding her car door open, standing closer to her than I could get in her office, it felt like we were inches from a kiss.

We were not but it felt like it.

The Siblings were put through their sexual paces as the frustration built but their pleasure did nothing to relieve me. I focused on Melisa since she was the one who found a reason to put me in that situation. I wanted Melisa sexually but a majority of the time I was trying to scratch a sexual itch I could not get to. Melisa spent most of her time trying to hold in smug laughter so I doubted my lack of focus offended her.

I wanted Dr. Lawren.

She told me to call her Susan in private. I continued with her title and last name. She whispered the request with her lips an inch from mine but the closeness was a tease.

Rachel knew something was going on but like the rest of the class could not get beneath the surface. I spent the most time of any student with Dr. Lawren but because of my late appointments no one knew it. I gave not a second's thought in the five weeks that I chased the fox down every hole and up every tree in our sexual landscape to what Melisa was telling Rachel. Those two got closer as I concentrated on the hunt. Dr. Lawren started to ride our work in class and nothing we turned in was good enough. We were not doing badly enough to fail but being in the class and not getting good grades stressed Rachel. Melisa took my place as the person Rachel talked to when life seemed to be beating her.

I did not notice the transition.

Rachel's fear triggered the change in tide though.

I came home after another frustrating conversation with Dr. Lawren to find Rachel reading in the living room from the next book we were covering in class.

"Is anyone else home?" I asked.