The Girl at Table Eleven
Copyright© 2026 by blacknight99
Chapter 5: Innocence Perseveres
Mind Control Sex Story: Chapter 5: Innocence Perseveres - An innocent young wife suddenly finds that she can’t help being seduced by all the men around her. Oddly, her husband doesn’t really seem to mind.
Caution: This Mind Control Sex Story contains strong sexual content, including Ma/Fa Fa/Fa Consensual Drunk/Drugged Hypnosis Mind Control Reluctant Romantic Fiction Humiliation Light Bond Big Breasts
Beth was knocked back a full step when her visitor slammed into her, Dinah crushing her with her arms, sobbing into her chest; while their legs became all tangled, which threatened to topple them like an uprooted tree. And Dinah’s breasts! Those huge, spongy breasts, smashing into her own like massive loaves of warm, underdone, doughy bread! And what the hell was she wearing? She was practically naked, outdoors in the warm, dry night, with houses all around them! Just another average evening in Los Angeles, she thought.
“Dinah ... what’s the matter, honey? Hush, now. Tell me how you got here. Where did you come from?”
“He brought me.”
“Who?”
“HIM!” and she turned and pointed toward the empty street. “Oh! He’s gone!”
“Your husband? I’m sorry, I can’t remember his name. Is he the one who brought you?”
“Ivan? No, no. Ivan’s back in that house. I think I heard him scream, but it might have been someone else. And they gave me a shot. And that man climbed through the window. But I was handcuffed to the bed. And I was naked; because I wouldn’t escape if I was naked. And some kid kept coughing. And all I could hear was music.” And she started singing:
“Are you going to Scarborough Faire? Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.”
Halfway through this, Beth started trying to interrupt. “What? Hold on! Hang on a minute! Honey, stop! Listen! STOP!” And finally, the singing halted, though Beth had to admit, the girl could certainly carry a tune. She looked around, but fortunately didn’t see any neighbors. “Come inside. And not another word until we’re sitting down together!” She pulled Dinah through the entranceway and shut the door; then she clutched her visitor’s left hand and led her through the foyer, into the living room, and down onto the couch; pausing only long enough to snatch up the remote control, aim it at the TV and press “Off.”
Dinah was crying again. “Why do I always sound so stupid? I HATE it when I sound stupid! And that’s been, like, all the time, lately!”
“Stop that!” Beth admonished. “You are not stupid. You are intelligent and pretty and ... No! I’m not going to get off-track again! Now, just answer my questions! What did you mean ‘they gave you a shot?’” She studied Dinah’s face. “Oh! Your pupils are like little tiny dots! What did they give you?”
“I told you! They gave me a shot!” she held out her right arm, palm up, and pointed to a small mark on her inner arm. “Right here. And there was a drop of blood. And I thought it was going to get bigger, but it didn’t. And it hurt, but then it stopped. And Lada said she was going to send me to Thailand. But they couldn’t let me escape, so they took off all my clothes, because you can’t escape if you don’t have any clothes on. Everybody knows that!”
“Holy shit! You’re high as kite!”
“Holy shit! I’m high as a kite!” And she giggled.
Beth leaned forward and put her face in her hands. “What am I going to do?” she asked the room.
But, sensing her friend’s distress, Dinah leaned into her and tried unsuccessfully to wrap her arms around her slumped figure. “Don’t be sad, Beth! I’m okay! Do you want to play with my breasts?”
She sat abruptly and faced her. “What?!”
“For the last few weeks, every guy I meet has stared at my breasts ... just the way you’ve been doing. And then, they play with them. And I let them. All of them. Every single one of them. And then they do it to me. Have sex with me, I mean.” She lowered her voice confidentially. “To tell you the truth, it feels pretty good.” She giggled again, then sobered. “Well ... most of the time. Anyway, I know you’re a lesbian; and since you’re looking at them the way all the guys do, I figured maybe you want to play with them, too.” She had a sudden thought. “Hey, what happened to Tina? I forgot to ask. You two were...” And she stopped, looking questioningly at Beth, who had moved away a few inches, and was regarding her companion with a combination of surprise, guilt, shock and horror. “Oh, nuts! I’ve done it again, haven’t I? I’ve said something stupid!”
Beth turned once again, facing the room, and she sat back hard on the couch. “How ... How many times have you let men have sex with you in the past three weeks? Other than your husband, I mean?”
“Oh, Ivan and I don’t ... uh ... do it. But as for all the other guys ... um...” She started using her fingers to tick off the sexual encounters one-at-a-time. But when she started in on the fingers of the other hand, Beth hastily interrupted her math.
“But never with your husband?”
“Oh, don’t worry about Ivan! He’s doing okay! He has a lover. Lada.”
“The woman who injected you with heroin, stripped you naked and told you she was sending you to Thailand!?”
“Um ... You make it sound sort of sinister. Do you really think it was heroin? Wow! She said it was only half a dose. I’m really drunk, though!” She tried to open her eyes wider. “And sleepy!”
“Holy fuckin’ shit! What am I going to do?” Thankfully, Dinah didn’t interrupt. “First things first. Do I take you to a hospital?” She paused again. “Maybe I should text Jimmy.”
“Jimmy!” Dinah squealed. “Ooo! Can you call him? Could I talk to him?”
Beth checked her watch. “He’s probably doing his show. This is the last one, too. He’s coming home tomorrow!”
“Oh, I’d love to see him again! He emails me almost every day!”
Beth regarded her. “What?”
“Well, not me. He emails Ivan. There are attachments, and I get to listen to them.”
“Uh ... Jimmy emails your husband, Ivan? Every day?”
“Yes. At least, I think so. I’ve been watching the video attachments every day.”
Fearing the worst, Beth tried to pick her words carefully. “And ... what’s in those attachments? Is Jimmy just standing there talking, or what?”
“No ... the video shows ... um ... drops of water ... falling ... onto a ... still ... pond.”
She paused. Too long. Beth realized that she had her eyes closed. She reached out and touched Dinah on the arm. “Hey, kid! Stick with me!”
Dinah jerked a little and opened her eyes. “Sorry! What was the question?”
“What does Jimmy tell you in those video attachments he sends you? Or rather, sends to your husband for you to watch?”
“Oh. Um ... I don’t know. I ... uh...”
“Fall asleep. You go to sleep, don’t you?” Beth tried hard not to make it an accusation.
“Uh ... yes?” She studied her friend. “Beth, did I do something wrong? You look angry! Please don’t be angry with me! Whatever I did, I didn’t mean to...”
Beth quickly gathered the girl into her arms. “No, of course you didn’t make me angry. It’s just that ... uh ... I’ve decided not to contact Jimmy right now. He’ll be back tomorrow, anyway. And I’ll have LOTS to talk about with him then!” The girl in her arms began crying quietly, so she gently increased the pressure of the hug. “I’ve got you, Dinah! You’re safe now!”
“I’m being a horrible burden on you. I don’t know where to go or what to do. I don’t even have my purse. Should I try to call home? Do you think Ivan would even go back there? Oh, of course he would ... he’d never leave his computer.”
“You aren’t going anywhere tonight!” Beth declared. “You’re staying right her with me. Jimmy’s ship docks tomorrow morning, and we’ll let him have his say first. Then, we’ll decide whether to go to the cops or the FBI or the DEA or whatever other letters of the alphabet might apply.”
“And what about Paper Man?”
“Paper Man?”
“The man that made me walk out of that house blindfolded. He was dressed in a gray paper suit.”
“Blindfolded?”
“And handcuffed, too! He told me that he didn’t want me to see whatever had happened outside that room I was in, and he wanted to make sure I wouldn’t take the blindfold off accidently. I was completely helpless, but he didn’t try to play with my breasts at all, the way all the other men do. And in the car, he showed me the bulletproof vest he wears under the paper suit.”
“What in the world!?” She thought about it a moment. “From the way he acted, maybe he’s one of the good guys. But how on earth did he know to bring you here?” Again, she was silent for a full minute. “Do you think you could find the house where they gave you that injection?”
“No way. I was asleep, both in our car on the way there, and Paper Man’s car coming here. It’s a house in the hills somewhere.”
“Yeah. That narrows it down to about a gazillion square miles.” She heaved a big sigh. “Come on, let’s find you something to wear to bed.”
“Can you sleep with me? Please, Beth! Don’t make me be alone tonight!”
“Of course I’ll stay with you. Come on.”
For seemingly the hundredth time, Beth glanced at the clock, idly wondering if it had changed since the last glimpse. Three-fourteen. She had propped two spare pillows behind her head because the view of the dark ceiling had become uninspiring. Beside her, Dinah made a funny little sound and snuggled harder into her body, this time throwing her right leg over Beth’s and grinding herself (including her crotch) into Beth’s right side.
The girl was nude. As Beth was rummaging through a dresser, trying to find a nightshirt she thought would go over those monstrous breasts and still be comfortable enough to sleep in, Dinah had stripped off the short robe and crawled in under the covers. Almost immediately, she was out like a light; and when Beth had tried to rouse her enough to put something on her, she had protested almost pathetically, and even started crying. Beth relented. It had only been nine-o’clock, but she thought her unexpected guest needed her presence; so, she had gone around the house, turning off lights and locking the doors, especially considering the fact that there were seemingly malevolent presences afoot in the strange night.
She had returned from the chores to find the girl crying because she thought she was alone; but she quieted quickly, and started a series of sleepy nocturnal cuddling exercises that bordered on both the infantile and the obscene. Beth often slept nude, but she sure didn’t that night! She’d been wearing an old sweatshirt and pants set that should have been discarded long ago, but was kept because it was the most comfortable thing she owned; and she’d thrown it on as she was drying herself from the shower when she heard the knock on the door. She was wearing it still because she didn’t think she could disentangle herself from her friend’s embrace without dealing with more tears.
Her mind was pirouetting like a dervish. What in the names of all the saints had happened to this waif of a girl? She snickered at that. The waif with the giant gazoombas. But that was the problem, wasn’t it? The poor girl had needed help; and instead, men had used her, changed her, drugged her, enslaved her. Beth cried when she thought about it too hard. She kept coming back to the same word. Evil. Something evil was at play here. Could Jimmy really be involved? Was it even possible? Had she misread the man to such an enormous degree? He was the one who was there when she needed him ... who listened when she wanted someone to hear her ... who held her when she cried ... who helped and cared and always lent a hand. Of all the men she had known in her entire life, even her father (especially her father), Jimmy was the best.
This poor girl! This poor, sexy, flirtatious, desirable, erotic, sensuous, stimulating...
A soft, warm hand had just worked its way under the bottom of the sweatshirt, and was now sliding up one side of her belly toward her left breast.
“Dinah?” she asked the dark, still night. “What the hell are you doing, Dinah?”
“It isn’t fair,” her companion pouted.
“What isn’t fair? How long have you been awake?”
“I just woke up. I want to be close to you.” Dinah still sounded like she was pouting.
“We couldn’t possibly be any closer than this.”
“Oh, yes we could!”
“Dinah. You don’t know what you’re doing to me!”
“Oh, but I do! Men look at me, and they need me! I see it in their eyes! They want me and have to have me! And I give myself to them because I need to ... I don’t know ... satisfy that need. I’m using the same word in a sentence too many times, huh? But it’s true! I need to satisfy their need! I HAVE to! But Beth, it isn’t fair! Because I don’t love them! None of them! Not Ivan ... not anybody! Don’t you understand now? I don’t love them, but I have this need to satisfy them. But I see the same look in your eyes. And I DO love YOU! For the first time ... for the very first time ... someone I love needs me that way! And you won’t let me!”
Beth scooted a little to her left, then rolled to her right, bringing them together face-to-face. Dinah, startled, tried to slide her right hand to Beth’s breast, but found their two chests mashed into each other; so, she skimmed the soft, smooth flesh of her side, and eventually her back, and she hugged greedily; her leg still over her hostess, her pussy rubbing directly into a lissome hip. Their noses were touching.
“Now, listen to me!” Beth said seriously, their lips almost making contact. “The reason I’m not mmff!”
Dinah was kissing her. Surprised, Beth couldn’t react for five glorious seconds. Finally, she pulled back enough to break the contact. “Stop that! Listen to me! We can’t mmff!” Beth brought her left hand to her companion’s right shoulder and shoved. “Dinah!”
“Beth! Your lips are so soft! Your hands! Your body! Everything is so soft!”
“Dinah, we need to tal ... mmff!”
Rats! She had let her guard down for a second. She would have to push on the shoulder again. Right now. Well, maybe just a second more. No, now! She shoved again, and the kiss broke. They were both panting. At least one of them was shivering in her need, but Beth couldn’t, for the moment, figure out who.
“Dinah, stop! You’re being manipulated! You’re being controlled!”
“That doesn’t make any sense. Controlled by who?” Dinah paused. “Whom?” She shrugged and started kissing the inside of Beth’s wrist and hand, which were the only parts of her body that could be reached. When Beth reacted by snatching back her hand, Dinah seized the opportunity by swiveling her head back and capturing Beth’s lips again.
Beth could only give in for the second and laugh. She started to say: “You little...” But when she formed her mouth into an “o” to say “You,” Dinah filled it with her tongue. That was sneaky, infuriating, and absolutely hilarious; and Beth laughed all the harder. Eventually, Dinah joined in; and, needing breath, they broke apart, gasping, giggling and chortling.
Beth found her voice first. “Dinah, please, please, please listen to me! I want you! I ache for you! But I won’t let this happen until you listen!”
Dinah kissed her gently. “You...” kiss “ ... are being...” kiss “ ... silly.” kiss “I...” kiss “ ... love...” kiss “ ... you.” kiss
Beth allowed it. “I’ve wanted you since the moment I first saw you! And I think I love you, too! But there’s every reason to believe that you’re being brainwashed or something!”
Dinah seemed slightly shocked. “Brainwashed? Who do you think is doing that?”
“Jimmy, of course.”
“Jimmy?” She shook her head slightly. “But why? For what possible purpose?”
Beth heaved a sigh. “Dinah, you let your husband turn you into some kind of wet dream! Then, you allowed yourself to be seduced by every man around you! And finally, you let yourself be taken to a strange house, doped to the gills; and you were obviously about to be sold into sexual servitude in another country!”
Dinah frowned, her brow furrowed in thought. “Wow.” She let another five seconds go by. “That’s certainly dramatic.” She shrugged, kissed Beth briefly again, and said: “I still really love you. Can I give myself to you now?”
“Can’t you see? I’m taking advantage of you!”
Dinah was in the process of kissing her again, but started laughing instead.
Beth was really starting to get pissed off! Yes, she could see the humor about which was the kissor and which was the kissee, but that wasn’t the point! “You little minx! If you would just mmff!”
Alright, Beth thought. If the hussy wants to be kissed, I’ll damn well kiss her! How do you like THAT, you little ... oooo, that’s nice! No! I’ll show you! You want your breasts petted? How about this!? Oh, Christ, they’re soft! Your body is so supple! So smooth! No! I won’t give in! You want to please me so fucking much? I’ll just grab your wrist and put your hand down hereooohshit! That feels so good! Oh, God! Yes! Like that! Holy crap, I’m about to cum already!
She rolled away from the girl who was actively attacking her with acquiescence and compliance, and she stripped out of her trusty sweatsuit before reentering the fray. From that point on, Dinah simply did as she was directed: touching, petting, stroking, sucking, licking, squeezing. Beth decided to be the best teacher she could be. Oh, what an exemplary student! What an outstanding, wonderful, extraordinary sexually submissive plaything Dinah was going to make! Every solitary characteristic that a dominant lesbian could ever dream of, rolled into a single, beautiful package! She could simply move her student’s face between her legs ... um ... like so, and her lapping tongue, which never seemed to tire or lose its enthusiasm, would ... uh ... just a little to the left ... yes ... right there ... yes ... just like that ... Oh, God, don’t stop ... don’t stop ... don’t...
She had never cum so hard in her life! Never! It had never, ever been like this! Oh! Too much! She had reached that point in her orgasm where the pleasure was beginning to overwhelm, to feel almost like shock. “Stop!” she ordered, and Dinah immediately did so. “Crawl up here like you were before we started. Do it now!”
“Yes, Mistress,” her companion said distinctly, and she scooted up the bed to lie face to face again.
Beth waited until her breathing had settled a little. “Why did you call me that?”
“That’s what Tina called you when you were up on the stage in Jimmy’s performance. You were whipping some man with a piece of satin ribbon. When she said that to you, I thought it was the sexiest thing I’d ever heard!”
“I need to clean you up,” Beth said, smiling. “Your face is covered in my juices.”
“Can we leave it that way for a while? Please? The way it smells ... the way it tastes ... reminds me that I can please you.”
Beth smiled. “In the past three weeks, tell me about a time when you wished that a man had kept going when he stopped doing something to you.”
Dinah thought only for a moment. “Yesterday morning, a man came to our door when Ivan wasn’t home. I’d met him the previous evening, but I never learned his name. He put handcuffs on me, and then he took me. He was forceful, but gentle. I wished he had used me longer.”
Beth got up, despite the disappointed groan from her companion. “Stay!” she ordered, pointing a warning finger, as if she was talking to a well-trained dog. She turned on a bedside lamp, then busied herself setting a couple small folding tables near the foot of the bed. She found two candles in holders, placed one on each, and lit them with a match. Finally, she left the room and came back with a piece of green satin ribbon that was about three feet long. She turned off the lamp and leaned against the foot of the bed. “Come here to me,” she commanded firmly; and Dinah sprang from the bed and did so.
“I was wrapping a birthday present to my niece yesterday,” Beth explained, evidently clarifying where the ribbon had come from. As she said this, she positioned Dinah’s wrists, crossed behind her back, and she tied them with the ribbon. Then, she turned her companion’s bound form so that she was facing away from the bed. Beth’s legs were spread, and Dinah was pulled back into her, so that she felt breasts smashing softly into her back, her Mistress’ arms wrapped around her from behind. Dinah found that her bound hands were perfectly lined up with Beth’s pussy; and when she began idly playing with it, using her fingertips, she was overjoyed to find that Beth permitted it.
“Spread your legs,” Beth said gently. After the bright lamp was extinguished, it took Dinah’s eyes a long time to adjust; but as they slowly did so, she found that Beth had opened a closet door on the far side of the room, and that there was a full-length mirror now facing them. Slowly, slowly, it came into focus. The candles’ glow lit Dinah from either side, and Beth was hidden in shadows behind her. The only thing visible was Dinah; just Dinah, with lewdly spread legs and a pair of arms coming from around her, so that a pair of hands (that was not her own) had free reign to do anything anything anything to her. And they proceeded to do exactly that.
Beth was an expert, and in no time at all, she had her bedmate on the bitter edge of ecstasy; and she kept her at that precipice for a full thirty minutes, whispering harsh warnings and loving encouragement, until finally, finally she allowed Dinah’s body to be eclipsed, overwhelmed and drowned in orgasm, all while her senses were filled with Beth’s taste and smell and voice and touch.
Much later, Beth snipped the ribbon with a small pair of scissors, and they sat in a steaming bath together, talking. Then, they went back to bed and talked some more. They found that they had dozed for two hours, because it was light outside; and they kissed and touched even more, though they didn’t let themselves progress to climax; they simply wanted to be held by the other and feel her caresses.
Dinah told the story of her breast surgery and the search for clothing that fit. Would she have to go through that shopping trip all over again? And what would she use for money? Beth told the tale of Tina (whose fiancé was now recovering at home while she cared for him). And she spoke of “Beth’s curse.” Had she just jinxed it? Now that she was in love again, was it all destined to end in tragedy?
It was after nine o’clock, and they rose and started breakfast. One of Beth’s nightshirts actually fit Dinah ... sort of. There was a can of eight biscuits in the refrigerator, which they baked in the air fryer; and they took out butter and rummaged in the fridge for an assortment of jams and jellies. Beth made coffee, and there was a fresh half gallon of two-percent milk for Dinah. They talked and held hands and wondered if they had time to go back to bed before Jimmy got home.
The doorbell rang. Oh, crap! Beth suddenly realized that she had no plan ... and more to the immediate point, no weapon. She had thought no further ahead than talking to Jimmy! She looked beseechingly at her lover, but there was really nothing to say. How could any of Dinah’s adversaries have known to come here? But then, of course, how had the guy that brought her last night known? She opened a kitchen drawer and took out a meat tenderizer mallet.
“Stay here. If you hear me scream, run out the back door and don’t stop running. Ever. Understand?”
Dinah returned her stern look patiently. “No. I love you, and I’m not going to leave you.”
“Aw, shit!” Beth went to the front door and looked through the peephole. There was a short, dark-haired man in a tan uniform that declared “Hobart Electric Service” above the shirt pocket. A van bearing the same name was parked in front of their house.
She opened the door. “Can I help you?”
There was a round glass device in his hand and a tall toolbox at his feet. “Gotta change the meter. Where’s your circuit breaker box?”
“It’s Sunday,” Beth observed.
He smiled broadly and gave a fist-pump. “Double-time-and-a-half, baby!”
“Uh ... alright. It’s in the garage. Come through here.”
He carried his meter and tool chest inside, then set the kit down as she turned to relock the door. But as she turned again to face him, he was holding a massive handgun pointing at her chest.
“If you scream, I will shoot you. That would be a bummer. But then, even worse, I’d have to shoot your girlfriend; and that would really, really upset me. Of course, you won’t care about that, because you’ll be dead. But please, have a little consideration for my feelings.”
Holy cow, that gun was big! “Please. Take me. Leave her alone. Please.”
“Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.” He reached out and took the mallet. “Come on. Let’s go. And raise your hands, please.” He motioned with the barrel of the pistol.
She put her hands at shoulder-height and walked back into the kitchen, hoping that Dinah had heard them and taken her advice to run out the back door. But, of course, she had not; and she was standing beside her chair as they came in.
“Oh! It’s Paper Man! Hi!”
“Hi yourself. Good to see you again, Dinah. Wow, you sort of look freshly-fucked. Have you two been having fun?”
Dinah looked down at the floor and blushed a deep pink. But she was smiling shyly.
“Come here, honey,” he ordered. He kept the gun leveled at Beth. As Dinah got to him, he reached into his back pocket and extracted a pair of handcuffs, which he handed to her. “Remember these? I want you to put one side of these on your lover’s left wrist. Do that now, please.”
“Can’t you let her go and just take me?”
“Sorry, we’ve already played that game. Come on, baby! We don’t have much time before Sir Galahad gets here!”
Dinah took the cuffs and began puzzling through the process with Beth’s wrist. “Oh! I see how they work!” she declared excitedly. Beth gave her a slightly exasperated look, but stood still while the cuff was being applied.
“And now, into the living room!” the man announced triumphantly. Leaving the electric meter on the kitchen table and carrying the tool kit in his spare hand, he followed them into the next room and pointed. “Do you see that water pipe leading to the radiator? The other end of the cuffs goes there. The beautiful Miss Beth will have to sit on the floor. You can get her a pillow or something to make her more comfortable; but do that later. Hook her up, please.”
Beth’s mind was going a mile a minute trying to figure out something, anything that might shift the situation to her advantage, but the way Paper Man’s sharp, confident eyes kept going to her face, it was obvious that he was anticipating her every action. She sat heavily on the floor next to the hot water pipe he had indicated and she allowed Dinah to attach the other end of the handcuffs. The pipe itself, of course, was cold, since they weren’t using the heat that time of the year.
“Make sure the cuff around your wrist is tight, please,” the man told her. “If you ... uh ... accidently get loose, people are going to die needlessly.”
Beth tried to muster up a look of hate in her eyes and clicked the cuff a little tighter; then, she gave it a couple quick jerks, making the pipe clang loudly, to show that she was, indeed, firmly attached. The man nodded and smiled. “Did I see biscuits in there? I’m starving! Can I get you a cup of coffee, Beth?” When he received only icy silence in response, he turned. “How about you, Dinah?”
“I didn’t get to finish my milk.”
“I’ll get it for you. Oh ... and if you give your pretty paramour anything she can use against me while I’m out of the room, I’ll kill her. You love her too much to do something like that, don’t you, doll?” And he turned and walked into the kitchen. He was gone a full five minutes, and when he came back in the room, he found that Dinah had pulled two throw pillows from the couch and put them together on the floor next to the radiator. They were seated together now, side by side, with Dinah leaning heavily into Beth, her arms around her. He walked over to them. “Here’s you milk.”
Dinah sat up. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He moved an easy chair several feet, and sat. “This jelly is delicious. I see it’s homemade. Who made it?”
“Beth’s Aunt Elsie in Montana. She has a plum tree in her back yard,” Dinah answered. She set the empty glass down next to the wall. Beth gave her a frustrated look that made him laugh.
“Do either of you like puzzles?” he asked. He got no response. “I do. Gotta tell you though, this was a tough one. Just to wrap things up, I’d like you to tell me one thing, Dinah. Are you in love with Jimmy Rankstrom?”
“Yes.” There had been no hesitation. Beth regarded her with startled astonishment.
He nodded. “And ... are you in love with her?” He waved a messy butterknife at her companion.
“Yes.” Again, no hesitancy.
“How about your husband?”
Immediately: “No.” But then, she hesitated, thinking. “A few weeks ago, I WANTED to be in love with him; but I didn’t know, you see. I’d never been in love before. I didn’t realize what love was. Now, I do.”
He sat back and contemplated this. “I’ve never been in love, either. Always seemed to make a huge mess of things. Still ... if love ever happened to me, I’d like to think it would be someone like you.”
“Thank you,” Dinah said softly. That made him chuckle.
They heard a sound at the front door; obviously a key unlocking it. “Wow! That was quick! No traffic on a Sunday morning, of course.” He held a finger to his lips. “Keep quiet, ladies! We’re almost done; and maybe no one has to die.”