Chapter 4

“This is it.” Jane says as they pull into the driveway. “Always glad to be home.”

Robert pulls the car into the garage as Jane unbuckles and turns around to look at the cousins. “Let’s get inside and have lunch, Robert can help you unload your things after that.”

“Our food?” Lucia asks hesitantly.

“Sorry, I forgot about that. Bring the refrigerated stuff in, just put it wherever it fits inside the fridge for now, we may have to re-organize this evening.” Jane replies.

The group exits the car, Lucia and Alexia looking eagerly around the house. It’s nothing special, but definitely an upgrade from their apartment. The group sits down to lunch, and Robert and Jane talk about work a bit. Alexia and Lucia are still a bit unsettled, and seem to be trying to avoid drawing attention as they eat.

“I need to get back to work now. Robert, can you show Lucia and Alexia around the house?” Jane asks him. Looking at the cousins, she says “We only have one room with a spare bed, I hope you don’t mind sharing for now.”

“We’ll make do, Mistress.” Alexia says

“Excellent.” Jane kisses Robert on the cheek “Have a good rest of the day honey.”

“I will. I’ll probably just take the rest of the day off to help them get settled in.” Robert replies.

“Sounds good. Feel free to come in and talk if you don’t hear me on the phone.” Jane says to Robert. “I’m going to be working on some house rules in between calls, send me any you think of, and then we can all go over them this evening.”

Jane walks off to her home office, and Robert looks at Alexia and Lucia and says “I promise she is a sweet woman once she gets to know you.”

“She does seem a bit intimidating, but I think I can see it.” Alexia says quietly.

“I think the easiest way to explain Jane, is to imagine that she’s a guard dog. She’s wary of new people at the start, but once she decides you are one of her people, she will do anything for you.” Robert says, sounding like he’s said this before.

“Even for us? We are barely people anymore, just possessions like your car.” Lucia says, clearly upset.

“Lucia!” Alexia hisses. “We talked about this, these people didn’t have to claim us, I ASKED them to. They didn’t have to let us get our things from the apartment, to ask us what we wanted for lunch, or let us sit at the table with them. We need to make the best of this, and that starts with not taking out our anger on them.”

“It’s ok Alexia.” Robert says “I doubt Jane or I would react well if we were in your shoes.” Looking at Lucia, he continues “Please never say you are just a possession. Inside of this house, you are a human being, and I don’t ever plan to treat either of you as anything less than that.”

Lucia has been staring at her hands since Alexia began talking, but looks up at this, and then looks at Alexia. She looks like she has more to say, but just quietly utters. “Yes, Master.”

“Are you both done eating?” Robert asks gently

“Yes, Master” Alexia answers for both of them.

“Great, let’s get your stuff out of the car, I’ll show you around the house, and then we can get you settled in.” Robert says, standing up from the table.

As Robert leads the way to the garage, Alexia hangs back a moment and hugs Lucia “I promise it’s going to be ok, these are good people.” she whispers.

She turns and follows Robert before Lucia can reply.

A few minutes later, the last of their things are inside, and Robert tells them to follow him up the stairs. “This is the master bedroom. If the door is closed, please knock and wait for us to reply before coming in.” Walking a bit further, he continues “This is kind of a hangout room, feel free to hang out on the couch or use the treadmill, just keep the door shut if you are going to be making much noise at night or while Jane or I are working.”

“Thank you, Master” Alexia says, nudging Lucia when Robert turns to go further down the hall.

“This is just a spare room, we don’t really have anything in it right now. I suppose we probably should get bedroom furniture, especially if we get any more people in the house.” Robert says, clearly just realizing this. “If it’s just the four of us, I suppose we could make this one of your rooms.”

“95% is a fairly high threshold. I think more people are going to be detained than anyone realizes.” Alexia says. “You may want to wait to do anything until numbers come out at the end of the testing period, but bunk beds might be a good idea, in case you end up with 4 or more concubines”

“We definitely don’t need 5 women.” Robert says. “I know I can handle two, but I never even thought about 3, much less 5.”

“Master, you mentioned that before, would you mind telling us what you mean by that?” Alexia prods gently.

“Let’s finish the tour first.” Robert says.

“This next room is the guest room where you will be staying, as you can see it’s fairly bare. If you need something, let us know, and we will work on it.” Robert opens the door to show them. The room contains a queen bed, an empty desk with an office chair, and nothing else. “The mattress is a bit old, I’ll talk to Jane about getting something better.”

“I’m sure we will be fine, thank you, Master. I’m sure more than a few concubines will be sleeping on the floor, especially those who don’t have kind masters and mistresses.” Alexia says. Lucia is still staying quiet, just taking it all in.

“No one is sleeping on the floor here.” Robert says. “Worst case, we have some air mattresses I can pull out, would you like me to do that instead of you two sharing?”

“No, we can share for now” Alexia says, and Lucia nods at this.

“I’ll go get some hangers for your clothes, there may be some boxes in the closet, if you could just put them in the closet in the spare room.” Robert says as he walks through the door.

Robert comes back a few minutes later with hangers, as well as a small box. “I found this, it’s one of those wire cube organizers, I don’t think we have any of the boxes to go in the sections, but you can at least unpack your clothes into them. Jane may have a few of the boxes, I’ll check with her in a bit.”

“Thank you, Master” Lucia answers this time, much to Robert’s surprise. “Alexia, will you help me get it put together?”

“One moment, Master, you said you would answer my question when the tour was done, would you mind telling us while we unpack?” Alexia says.

“Sure.” Robert says, sitting at the desk in the corner of the room, to get out of the cousins’ way. “So Jane and I have been married for a twelve years now. Jane has had a few health struggles, I’ll let her tell you about those if she chooses to, but about 4 years ago she decided that I deserved more than she could provide in the bedroom. I told her I didn’t, but she is quite determined when she puts her mind to something. I had some experience in BDSM before we got together, and we dabbled in it early in our marriage, before her health issues. She initially had planned to just find me a casual hookup occasionally, or at best a friend with benefits. After talking about it with me though, we both realized that wouldn’t work. I get attached too easily, and it would end up causing a mess if I fell for someone who wanted something casual.”

Robert pauses for a moment, as if he’s getting his thoughts straight. “She decided we would get a girlfriend. We dated a few women, and finally met someone Jane thought would work. Her name was Dee. Things went well at first, but something bad was constantly happening to her, finally she ended up in a scary car wreck driving to our house. We got there before the police, helped her get to the hospital, stayed with her, took her back to our place to take care of her, and she basically didn’t go back home. We helped her with a rental car, and then once hers was officially totaled, we helped her buy a new car. I built her a computer for her birthday, and we really spoiled her. But it was constantly one step forward, two steps back. She started staying out all night, not letting us know when or if she would be home.”

“That’s awful. You and Jane must have been scared, since she had just had the car wreck.” Alexia said, looking genuinely horrified.

“The first time, Jane woke me up at 2, to tell me Dee wasn’t home. We both tried to call her, and we ended up in the car driving the route to her work, and then back again when we didn’t see signs of an accident or a broken down car. It was awful, Jane was freaking out, and I think we both thought something bad had happened. An hour later we ended up back home, and I texted Dee again, telling her that Jane was panicking, to please let us know if she was ok. 15 minutes later she texted saying she would be home soon.”

“What did she say when she got here?” Alexia asks, clearly interested. Lucia is listening as well, but seems more focused on putting together the organizer.

“Absolutely nothing” Robert said, getting a bit angry. “She acted like it was any other night, that we had overreacted completely, and her coming in at 4 am, which is 6 hours after her work ended, was totally normal.”

“Jesus, what a lunatic.” Alexia says “What did you do?”

“We tried to calmly talk to her about it, I explained that Jane was worried sick, and she grudgingly said she wouldn’t do that again. It happened a few more times, but not to that extent, usually more like 2 am, and we kind of got used to it. Then she went out one day on her day off, and said she would be back at midnight. Jane woke me up at 5 this time, and told me she still wasn’t home, and wasn’t answering the phone. I told her we weren’t going looking this time, and we decided to go about our day. We went out for a walk, and to get breakfast, and when we got home she was asleep in our bed.” Robert continued telling the story.

“We waited until she woke up, and sat her down to tell her things had to change. We barely got a sentence out before she said she was going to find somewhere else to live, and she didn’t need to be parented.” Robert exhaled slowly, clearly a little upset. “She packed her things into the car we bought her, and left. She accidentally sent us a text meant for what I’m assuming was her new boyfriend the next day, it sounded like she had been with him for a while.”

“What a bitch!” Alexia says, clearly offended on Robert and Jane’s behalf. “Jane’s defensiveness makes a bit more sense now though. I promise you, we aren’t like that bitch though.”

“We wouldn’t have claimed you if we thought you were.” Robert said. “You didn’t ask for this situation though, even if you did technically ask to be here. I’m going to talk to Jane to make sure she understands, but neither of you HAS to do anything sexually with us. We claimed you to help you, not to victimize you.”

“In the car earlier Jane said I would be.” Alexia started to say.

“Like I said, I’ll talk to her about that. I’m not comfortable forcing anyone to do anything. Consent is important to me, even if the rest of the world has lost it’s mind.” Robert says a bit agitated, getting up as if he is going to leave the room.

“What if we do consent?” Alexia asks.

“If you are certain that is what you want, then tell us. Please be sure that’s what you want before you do it though.” Robert says. “I’ll confess, I find you both attractive, but I don’t want either of you in my bed unless it’s your choice.”

“Thank you, Master.” Alexia says. Lucia hasn’t unpacked anything for the past several minutes, she’s been too focused on the conversation between Alexia and Robert. “Which bathroom can we use?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I got sidetracked when we got to this room, and forgot to finish the tour. Follow me.” Robert says.

Leaving the cousins’ new room, he takes a right, leading to the final two rooms of the floor. “The room to the left is my office. If my door is closed, I’m probably in a meeting or a call, so please don’t interrupt unless it’s an emergency. If it’s open, feel free to come in any time though. Once you get your phones back you can always text me if the door is closed and you need something.”

“Understood, Master.” Alexia says, Lucia just behind her. Robert made eye contact with her, and she nods.

“And this is your bathroom.” Robert says. “We will need to get a shower curtain for it, so for tonight you will have to use the master or downstairs bathroom if you want to shower. There should be soap and shampoo in the linen closet, along with towels and washcloths. If you want something specific from the store, write it on the list on the fridge, and Jane will get it. I suppose she may take you to the store with her as well at some point.”

“I’m sure what is here will be fine.” Alexia says. “Lucia, do you want to take a bath and take some time to breathe?”

“I should probably be useful around the house.” Lucia responds tentatively. “Do you have anything you would like me to do, Master? I could do laundry, dishes, clean?”

“Let’s wait on all of that. Jane is particular about laundry, there aren’t many dishes to be done, and we probably shouldn’t make noise while Jane works anyhow, with her office being downstairs.” Robert responds. “I think Alexia is right, take a bath, feel free to have a nap, just try to take some time for yourself. We have plenty to talk about tonight, it couldn’t hurt to relax before that.”

“Thank you, sir.” Lucia says. “I’ll go get some clothes.”

“What are you going to do Master?” Alexia asks.

“I’m not really sure. I already took the rest of the day off, but you two are fairly well settled in. I probably should go check on Jane first.” Robert replies.

“May I speak to you for a moment first? Once Lucia is in the bath.” Alexia asks, and Robert thinks he spots a blush.

“Of course. I’ll go wait in the hangout room.” Robert says, turning down the hall.

A few minutes later, Alexia walks in and sits down next to Robert on the couch. “Master, first I’d like to thank you again for claiming us both. I know I made the right choice with the two of you, and I hope we both prove to you both that you made the right choice as well.

“You are very welcome. I’m just glad you two didn’t have to deal with the auction, and whatever would have come from that.” Robert says.

“Secondly, I’d like to tell you that I consent. Not just to you, but to the Mistress as well. I’ve always thought women were pretty, and I find Jane to be ... intimidating ... in a way that I never thought I’d describe as good before.” Alexia says, definitely blushing this time.

“Are you sure about this? Normally I’d say you can withdraw consent at any time, and I suppose you can, but that would certainly make our living situation awkward. Things aren’t like they were before, you can’t just go back to your apartment like nothing ever happened.” Robert says, a bit surprised and cautious. “The last thing I want is for us to be living in a tense situation, or to feel like I have to choose between your and Lucia’s safety, and the happiness of the household as a whole.”

“As you said, things aren’t the way they were before. We aren’t going to wake up tomorrow and the card system have gone away. I’m never going to find a husband and get married. That was the past. When I got taken for testing, I realized I needed to make the best of the present, starting with asking you and Jane to claim me.” Alexia explains. “I want a family. That isn’t going to happen if Lucia and I are your house staff, and nothing more. And I want to be one of Jane’s people.”