Chapter 4: Not the Only One

Surprisingly, Marisa's back felt relatively normal the next morning. There were a few bumps that felt remarkably similar to ingrown hairs, but she quickly forgot about the annoying barbs from the night before. However, the pendant was a whole different story. No matter what she did, it always seemed to bump or get caught on something. She had considered going naked, but her roommate Claire had the annoying habit of coming home early from vacations. In most cases the added stimulation really wasn't painful, but it was distracting and kept her in a near constant state of arousal. Plus it meant that simple tasks, like toasting a bagel and getting a glass of OJ, were literally shocking or took twice as long as they should have.

Their apartment was set up so that you entered through the kitchen into a shared living/dining room. Each room had its own private bath and the apartment was located on a hill overlooking one of the school's soccer fields. Claire was allergic to dust mites and dander so they had wood floors, a couple of leather couches, and didn't have any pets to worry about. There'd been a time when she'd wanted a boyfriend or a cat, but fortunately Claire had talked her out of both.

With a lonely sigh Marisa gathered up her breakfast and brought it back to her room so she could browse the web as she ate. At least it started off that way until she noticed that every time she reached for her food the necklace would swing forward and rub against the neckband of her t-shirt. Gritting her teeth in frustration, she set her bagel down and reaching for her neck, carefully pulled up her necklace until it was hanging outside of her shirt. 'You know, ' she thought while examining it, 'This chain seems a bit short.' Almost instantly the chain began lengthening. With a startled gasp she dropped it only to yelp in surprise as the pendant bounced against her chest sending a mild shock coursing through her nipples.

Leaving the pendant outside of her shirt she tested the now longer chain and was able to easily reach forward to retrieve her bagel only to yelp as she sat back up and the pendant once again bounced against her chest. 'Grr ... Why does this have to be so difficult!' she silently seethed. She could change into a tank top, but that would be the same as leaving it uncovered. 'Let's see, so it's either leave it out and get shocked or keep it covered and have my nipples vibrate as the pendant brushes against my shirt?' While both were distracting, she grudgingly admitted that one was significantly more pleasurable and so she gently picked up the necklace and, keeping the new length, tucked it into her shirt.

A couple of hours latter she'd managed to catch up on all of her e-mails and current events when she looked over to check the clock and realized she had yet to unpack. 'That is just completely unacceptable, ' she thought to herself as she got up and moved over to her suitcase. She managed to move it over to her bed without incident, but when she picked it up to set it on top somehow bumped the pendant with her hand on the way up and then had it bump against her chest as she heaved it onto the bed. After cursing quite colorfully for several minutes she took several deep breaths and then vowed to be much more cautious and aware of her movements in the future. Luckily most of her clothes were dirty so she just threw them in the hamper, but there were a few knick-knacks that she needed to stow on various shelves around her room. Normally unpacking would only take a few minutes, but with the pendant it ended up taking close to an hour. However, her patience paid off as aside from some pleasurable vibrations every now and then she hadn't received any additional shocks.

Unfortunately, she got just a little too relaxed in the shower afterwards. She'd managed to wash her hair and lather up when she got distracted by the way her soapy fingers slid along and through her new nipple rings. Without thinking she'd turned to rinse and managed to directly spray the pendant. With a startled gasp she wordlessly she cried out and collapsed to her knees completely overwhelmed by the sensation flowing through her nipples. It was several moments before she could get up and at that point all she wanted was to finish rinsing off as quickly and painlessly as possible. Still dazed, it was several seconds before she realize that even though the pendant had bounced against her chest like usual when she stood up, she hadn't felt any additional stimulation. Cautiously she tried rubbing the pendant without any effect. 'Guess I've had enough for one session, ' she sighed as she once again stepped full into the spray, not caring if the water hit the pendant, and luxuriated in the sensation of the water dripping off her new nipple rings.

It was weird, even though with all the extra stimulation her nipples should be tender, they felt surprisingly good. It almost seemed like her nipples were incomplete before and the rings were just filling holes she never knew were there. In any case she couldn't help playing with them until she noticed a gentle vibration from the rings as a drop of water flowed across the pendant and assumed a new session was starting. 'Oh, well. It was fun while it lasted, ' she thought to herself before remembering the first half of her shower and silently adding, 'But I think I'll take baths from now on.'

After carefully drying herself and only causing what she now almost considered a "normal" amount of vibration through her nipples, she walked naked into her adjoining room. 'There are advantages to having your own private bathroom, ' she thought with a smile as she put on clean clothes for the day. True it had been a very frustrating morning, but she'd also been rather productive and she hadn't felt this good, or horny, in months.

Once she was fully dressed she looked around the room and realized that with midterms before she left for Spring break, she really didn't have anything pressing to work on. 'And to think, I don't have to go to class and my roommate shouldn't be back for another few... ' Just then she heard the front door open and all thoughts of some quality alone time disappeared. She hadn't seen her roommate in over a week and there would be plenty of time for a little fun time later that night.

"Good morning Claire!" she called out while opening the door to their shared living room.

A young woman of 22 was slowly rolling her luggage through the living room. She was a bit shorted than Marisa, thin but very well toned, with a smaller chest, and shoulder length dirty blonde hair. To most she seemed to be a conservative or even prudish bookworm, but for some reason her mellower yet driven personality seemed to complement Marisa's fierily impulsive one perfectly and they had been roommates since sophomore year.

"Good morning," Claire replied with a wave.

Still a little miffed about missing out on her quality time, Marisa carefully made her way across the room and grabbed a spot on one of the comfy couches.

"I thought you wouldn't be here until later tonight?"

"I caught an earlier flight," Claire replied as she deposited her bags on top of her bed. "You wouldn't believe how annoying my parents were!"

Just walking to the couch had sent some rather pleasurable vibrations through her nipples and they were significantly harder and more noticeable than usual. 'In for a penny, in for a pound' Marisa thought as she decided to not even try to hide them and threw her shoulders back instead.

"Well I had a fantastic vacation!" Marisa gloated cheerfully. "I'll tell you about it as you unpack."

"My aren't we perky," Claire noted as she looked over her shoulder. A puzzled look briefly flashed across her face.

Perhaps Claire noticed the second bump caused by the ring's ball just below her nipple, but with a small shake of her head she let it go and began unzipping her suitcase. Surprisingly, Marisa's still perky nipples never game up again. Perhaps Claire was just waiting for Marisa to tell the story when she was ready as it was generally known that she wasn't very good at keeping secrets for long. Instead they spent the next several hours catching up on the latest gossip and complaining about the upcoming classes.

As the days went by, Marisa subconsciously began to adjust her movements to reduce the frequency of unintentional caresses of and bumps to the pendant. Most of these changes were not noticeable to others, like taking baths or shortening the chain and sleeping in tank tops so that the pendant rested in the hollow at the base of her neck at night. However, Claire noticed at least one of these changes.

"I don't know what you did over spring break, but you don't walk the same." Claire stated on their walk to campus one day.

"How so?"

"I'm not really sure, but it used to be that when you were tired, like early in the morning on our way to class, you seemed to more likely to trudge than walk to campus."

"Yeah?" Marisa asked, still not quite seeing her point.

"Well, now you don't. If anything it seems like you glide."

"Oh, does it look weird?"

"Hardly, I mean you still sway your hips but your upper body doesn't move so it looks good. It's like you went to Mexico and suddenly developed perfect posture."

"Hmm, maybe I did," Marisa replied with a smile. She was dying to tell someone about her testing, but it had only been a few days and the memories were still a little too fresh. 'Maybe I'll bring it up over the weekend, ' she counseled herself.

'Over the weekend' actually ended up being Saturday night. There was a senior party a few blocks from campus, but Marisa wasn't nearly comfortable enough with the pendant to risk dancing, let alone alcohol, and Claire claimed to have too much work to get done Sunday and didn't want to be hung over.

Instead, they ended up cooking dinner and watching Forrest Gump on TV. It's weird, while they would never rent Forrest Gump, they couldn't keep from watching it, commercials and all, when it was on TV. It was during one of those frequent commercial breaks that Claire asked Marisa about her nipple rings.

"So, did they hurt?" Claire asked.

"Did what hurt?" Marisa asked, confused by the sudden change in conversation topics.

"Getting your nipples pierced."

"Uh," Marisa stammered unsure how to proceed. Claire always seemed so conservative that even though Marisa had planned on talking about her nipple piercings at some point, she didn't think Claire would actually bring it up first.

"Well of course it hurt," Marisa replied rather sarcastically. Smiling to try and lighten the mood she asked, "Want to see them?"

"Sure," Claire timidly replied, apparently more curious than conservative.

Since it was just the two of them and Marisa was proud of her new rings, she quickly reached down and exposed her perky breasts. It had taken a bit of work but Marisa had gradually learned how to change the color the rings and balls so the rings were now a radiant gold and the balls a deep blue, both of which contrasted and yet complemented the creamy color of the surrounding flesh.

"Those are beautiful!" Claire exclaimed as she openly stared.

Knowing there was no way Claire wanted to do anything other than look, Marisa just let her stare for a few seconds before once again lowering her shirt. While a small enough cup size that she didn't need to wear a bra all of the time, Marisa generally liked wearing tank tops with built in support while lounging around. Now that she had gotten more used to the pendant it wasn't that big of a deal to leave it exposed, she just had to be more cautious when she moved.

"Wow, so was it worth it?" Claire asked rather timidly as she attempted to sound less interested than she really was.

"Definitely," Marisa replied with a wink still not sure how far to take this or how much of the story she was ready to share.

"So I take it they are more sensitive?" Claire prompted.

"You have no idea," she replied with a cryptic smile.

Just then the movie came back on and the mood was broken. Claire, sensing that now was not the time to force the issue, looked at Marisa rather strangely for a moment before letting the subject drop and once again returning her attention to the screen.

Marisa meanwhile was as horny as ever and her nipples remained rock hard for the rest of the movie. 'I can't believe that I flashed Claire, ' she silently mused. 'Although it was interesting how Claire seemed more curious than freaked out.' After a moment's reflection she continued, 'Hmm, maybe she's not as conservative as I thought.'

Later that night Marisa couldn't help replaying the events since she got back from Mexico; especially her discussions with Claire. It's weird; she would walk around campus and guys would stare, but she really didn't want to discuss it with them and girls would notice briefly then give her a look of sympathy as if they were say, 'Hmm, I didn't realize it was so cold today. Maybe you should go home and put on a sweater?' 'Please!' she sighed in exasperation.

It was not so much that she craved attention, but that after going through so much to have only one person ask about her newest additions was rather depressing. Interesting, though that the one person was Claire. True, Claire's prudeness had always rung false to her for some reason, but it still was unexpected. However, it was nice that Claire initiated the conversation and hadn't been negative about her new rings. Instead, she actually seemed curious.

'Maybe Claire would be a good person to share her story with, ' she thought and, with that settled, she let her mind wonder back to her time with Sebastian. Subconsciously she brought a hand came up and began to gently caress her pendant. It wasn't until several moments later when her other hand furtively slid into position and was firmly cupping her sex that she realized with a start what she'd started. 'Grr! Why can't I stop replaying that night!' she ranted silently while making no effort to stop her hands.

Sebastian had warned her that the only way she could cum was if she were thinking about that night or him, but so far that hadn't been a problem. Or more specifically that was the problem: she couldn't stop thinking about it or him. Not only did all of her fantasies now have BDSM themes, but even the most mundane tasks, like walking, could trigger them. This was especially true the more her nipples healed as she couldn't help looking forward to the constant stimulation each day would bring.

Even in her sleep she dreamed about the time they had spent together. It's possible that she'd roll over and the pendant would accidentally rub the sheets at just the wrong time and wake her up. However, Marisa suspected she was actually caressing the pendant in her sleep and frequently she'd wake up so horny that there was no way she could go back to sleep without a some relief. And of course in order to cum she had to think of him.

It wasn't until she was cleaning the kitchen floor the next day and realized she'd begun fantasizing about alternatively uses for the mop that she knew it was time to go visit Sebastian. After all, he had said that she could return to his study any time right? With a 'Humph' of agreement she decided that later that night she would try to visit.

I knew she was coming before Marisa's head even touched her pillow. It's not so much that I'd been eagerly anticipating her visit, just that my gift knew I wanted to be kept well informed. 'Yeah, right' I silently berated myself. If I really wanted her to visit often then I needed to sweeten the deal a bit and make sure she was comfortable here.

The first priority was how to make her comfortable in the room. 'Well obviously overstuffed leather couches would help, ' I thought to myself as two instantly appeared in front of a fireplace along one wall. 'But something tells me Marisa is not the type of girl that wants to rush into things. I mean she's waited over a week just to check in. Maybe I should let her get used to the room before she tries to get used to being around me?' Plus that way I wouldn't have to worry about us judging each other ruining her ability to enjoy the study for all it has to offer. And with that I made up my mind to be elsewhere when she arrived.

But first, to write a note, 'The shorter the better right?' I thought with a smile.

Dear Marisa,

There will be plenty of time for us to sit and talk, but first I wanted you to get comfortable using the study for its intended purpose: Studying. Like the pendant, feel free to ask the study for anything that would make you more comfortable. Also, the study should be able to provide just about any book you desire, even 'lost texts, ' and if you ask nicely enough understanding the language it was originally written in shouldn't be a problem.

Enjoy
-S

Over the weeks Marisa's friendship with Sebastian grew. True, he hadn't even been there on her first visit, but in many ways that was even better. 'I mean really: over stuffed couches in front of a fire? What, did he expect a date?' she'd wanted to ask. 'At least give me a reclining char and a laptop.' And while obviously a bribe, the 'lost texts' had turned out to be quite amazing. After several visits with pleasant, if rather sparse conversation, she finally began to appreciate why he spent so much time there.