Chapter 7

I pounded around the corner of the park on my third lap and pushed myself into the fourth.

I was sweating. My heart pounded against my ribs and my shirt stuck to my back, but that was what I wanted. I was feeling stronger every day, faster, more energized. My head throbbed as my pulse roared in my ears, but I kept going. There was a lot on my mind, and I’d found that my morning run was the perfect time to stop thinking about it and just go.

It was Monday morning, and this evening Barbara would be returning home from her conference. I wasn’t looking forward to the conversation we’d have to have — where she admitted that she’d been sleeping with her boss and I would tell her that I knew all about it. I still didn’t know where that conversation would go. I just knew that my plans for transforming her from the dismissive, cheating woman she used to be into my devoted, loving wife would either fail spectacularly or succeed in an equally thrilling fashion.

I wobbled back down the street on weak legs and stumbled up onto the porch. Collapsing into the rocking chair, I groaned. Damn... I surprised myself. Already, I was stronger than I’d been just two weeks ago. Sweat poured down my face and I wiped it away with the hem of my tank top, considering the darkened fabric pensively.

It was an experiment. One that I was running to see if I could discover the extent of the changes that Brain Development Enterprises was having on my body, as well as my mind.

And speaking of changes...

“Good morning, Daddy.”

I turned my head. McKenzie was standing in the open front door. Her dark hair was still mussed from sleep, and all she wore was an oversized tee shirt — one of mine — and a red pair of boy shorts. She looked sexy as hell.

“Morning, Kenz,” I said, smiling.

She jerked her head, gesturing deeper into the house. “Join me inside?”

I blew out a sigh. “Must I move, right now?” I groaned.

She just grinned and rolled her eyes. “There’s coffee waiting for you, if you do.” She turned, tossing her hair over her shoulder, and sashayed back inside on her long, slim legs.

With a grunt, I pushed myself out of the rocking chair and followed her.

As I walked through the living room and into the kitchen doorway, she emerged with a steaming mug held carefully in her hands. She offered it to me.

“You didn’t have to make this for me,” I told her, raising my eyebrows but accepting the proffered cup. I took an appreciative sip. Ahhh... My morning cup of coffee was the reward I gave myself for completing my daily jog.

The teenager just grinned. “You’re right,” she said, leaning up to give me a swift peck on the cheek. “But I wanted my Daddy to know that his little angel noticed how hard he’s been working...” Her fingers trailed down my chest. “And that she thinks he deserves a reward for being so good.”

Oh... Between my legs, I felt a pulse of lustful anticipation as her slim hands slid under my shorts and gently stroked my cock awake.

“And since Mom is coming home tonight,” McKenzie murmured. “We won’t be able to do this anymore...”

She gently slid to her knees, hazel eyes gazing innocently up into mine. Her lips were parted in a soft gasp as she leaned forward and planted a gentle kiss on my rapidly-swelling length through the fabric. “You don’t mind, do you, Daddy?” she asked softly.

I groaned. “Not at all, angel...”

“Good.” My stepdaughter tugged, yanking my shorts and boxer briefs down to my knees and leaning in. I could feel her breath, hot on my sensitive skin. “Because I’m going to make you cum as many times as I can before Mom gets home.”

“Fuck...” I moaned as McKenzie wrapped her lips around the throbbing, mushroom head of my cock and gently swirled her tongue. I was beginning to think she was an expert, the best, hottest cocksucker I’d ever been lucky enough to meet.

“Hey, Kenz?” I grunted as she moaned softly and slid her lips up my shaft, swallowing me deeper and deeper with each bob of her head.

“Mmm?” she murmured back, her tongue lavishing my rod with attention.

“When we’re... ahhh... done here, can I ask you a quick favor?” My eyelids fluttered down and my hands clenched into fists at my sides. “Just trying to figure something out about what I was able to do with Adrianna.”

“Mhmm...” she agreed, eyes rolling back with pleasure as she enjoyed the feeling of my thick, throbbing meat sliding into her throat.

I grunted as she started to deepthroat me, but as hot as it was my mind started to drift. Even as turned on as I was, I’d gotten enough blowjobs in the past two weeks to where I could multitask. My thoughts wandered back to the Adrianna problem. In the past two days, the gorgeous, curvy Latina had spent the bulk of her time with me and McKenzie. And in that time, I had learned that for some reason I had the power to turn her into a completely thoughtless, obedient toy anytime I wanted.

I hadn’t tried it out on McKenzie yet, I wasn’t sure I even wanted to, but I wondered if it was just another side effect of the BDE recordings and the cologne I’d been using liberally almost daily.

Yeah, I thought. I can add “pseudo-hypnotic mind control powers” to my “overwhelming masculine aura”, and “scent that turns women into horny, bubbly nymphomaniacs.” Which brought me back to today’s experiment.

“Oh god...” I moved my hips fractionally, thrusting gently between my stepdaughter’s pillowy lips. My balls were heavy with this morning’s unspent load, and I could feel them roiling and tightening.

McKenzie’s eyes were closed, a look of bliss on her rapturous features as she took me deep with each plunging movement.

“Sweetheart,” I murmured, “I’m gonna cum...”

The 18-year-old’s eyes flashed open and she grinned. “Mhmmm...” she moaned, and sped up, her tongue flickering and tasting the beading precum on the tip of my length.

My toes curled and I could feel the tight confines of her throat with every bob of her head, her cheeks hollowing as she sucked me deep and begged me to explode. “Fuuuuuck...” I groaned, and my hands clenched and my head fell back as I came.

McKenzie slurped happily, her lips sliding all the way down my shaft and back up as she milked me for every drop of my seed. She swallowed as my load filled her mouth, and then again, slowly draining my balls and then letting the very tip of my length remain between those pouty, perfect lips.

I stared down into her hazel eyes, which were shining with devotion and pleasure. “That was so fucking good, angel...” I told her. “Wow...”

She grinned at the praise and leaned back, my slowly wilting cock hanging between my thighs. She swallowed greedily, a final time, and then shivered with bliss. “Mmm...” she murmured. “Wow, Daddy. You taste really good today...” Her eyes were a little bit glazed as she said it, and as I reached out a hand to help her to her feet she actually stumbled against me, her hands clenching in my tee shirt as she swayed drunkenly. “Woah, Daddy... I feel... good... “

A furrow appeared between my brows. “Are you okay, Kenz?”

She looked dazedly up at me. Then, she shook her head slightly and focused on my face. “I’m very good, Daddy. Very happy to pleasure you with my slutty little mouth...” She kissed my chin. “And...” she took one of my hands and pulled it around until it was resting on her firm, bubble butt. “To turn you on with the rest of me...”

I groaned softly, my fingers sinking into her ass and pulling her up against me. “I’m about to go shower,” I murmured, leaning down and kissing her temple. “Join me?”

The teenager bit her lip and smiled up at me. “I’d love to...”

I scrubbed at my hair with the towel as I stepped from the shower, moving in front of the mirror and wiping droplets of water from my face. Steam was working its way across the mirror from the outside inward, but I took a second to admire myself.

Not bad, John... I thought, turning my body left and right. My daily running routine, combined with McKenzie’s workouts and her attention to my diet, was showing results. My arms were looking bigger, my chest muscles were tighter and no longer sagging, and even though I still had a bit of a belly I could already tell that my waistline was shrinking.

My stepdaughter appeared behind me in the glass, pressing her lithe figure up against my back. Her hands slid up under my arms and her fingers pressed into my skin, sliding across my chest. “Looking good,” she grinned.

The glazed, drugged expression had disappeared a few minutes after we’d come upstairs, and she looked as chipper and cheerful as ever.

I still wasn’t sure what had caused it, but I was beginning to have a sneaking suspicion. “Hey, how about helping me out with that favor I mentioned?” I asked.

“Sure thing,” she said, kissing my shoulder and spinning lightly around to snatch up a towel.

We dried off and went back into the master bedroom. McKenzie had been sleeping here with me every night Barbara had been gone, and I suddenly realized how strange it would be to have her move back to the room at the end of the hall.

As I thought about it, a twinge of discomfort in my stomach reminded me of the conversation Barbara and I would be having tonight. Not now, I told myself sternly. You’re figuring some other things out right now.

“Alright, sweetheart,” I ordered as my stepdaughter plopped down on the end of the bed. “I want you to close your eyes for me.”

McKenzie obeyed, her lips turning up at the corners. “Do you have a surprise for me?” she asked teasingly.

I huffed out a soft laugh. “Not really, Kenz. I just want you to do a smell test for me.” Crumpled atop the sheets on my side of the bed was the sweat-drenched workout tee from my run. As my stepdaughter waited, I went to my dresser, took out the bottle of BDE cologne, and sprayed a generous amount onto a small hand towel.

“Alright,” I ordered, picking up the shirt and holding one piece of cloth in each fist. “I want you to smell both of these and tell me ... tell me if there’s a difference.”

McKenzie’s brow furrowed in confusion, but she held out her hands. This was the experiment. And, strange as it seemed, I thought I already knew her answer. I placed the shirt and the towel in her hands.

The teenager lifted the towel first to her nose, and as she breathed in I could see her shoulders relax. “Mmm...” she murmured softly, lashes fluttering. “You know how much your cologne turns me on, Daddy...” Her thighs were rubbing together subtly, her body reacting to whatever chemical cocktail the BDE company had blended into their formula.

“And the other... ?” I asked hesitantly.

McKenzie bit her lip thoughtfully and raised the shirt to her nose. Her perky tits rose as she took a long whiff. I saw her nipples start to harden, and the smile widened. “Yesss...” she said softly. “It smells even better ... Like you, Daddy. Like a real Man, the man of the house...”

She opened her eyes, and I could see that they were a little clouded. Then she shook her head and her hazel gaze cleared. She looked down into her hands, and raised her eyebrows. “What was that about?” she asked, glancing up at me.

“Huh...” I said in answer. I pursed my lips. Apparently, my sweat smelled just as good as the BDE cologne. If not better ... Weird... “I’m not sure, angel,” I told her honestly. “But apparently there isn’t any real difference in the smell between my cologne and...” I gestured at the balled up tee shirt in her small hand. “My sweat.”

McKenzie looked confused. “What ... that doesn’t make any sense...”

I nodded. “Yeah. I know...” I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to go into details about BDE with my stepdaughter, especially considering the BDE purchases were how she’d ended up with me in the first place, but it was an odd conundrum and I’d needed her help for the experiment.

I glanced at the clock. It was just past 8, so I had around an hour to get to work, and I had one more test to try before then. “There’s just one other thing I wanted your help with.”

McKenzie leaned back on the mattress, arching her back and stretching. It was a casual movement, but it made my brain spin with all the things I wanted to do to her fit young body. “Of course,” she smiled. “What is it?”

I gently settled on the mattress next to her, one knee tucked beneath me. I stared into her hazel eyes, my own dark gaze thoughtful. I took a slow, deep breath, searching for the sensation of power and command deep in my chest.

“Daddy?” she asked.

“Obey...” The single word was resonant and low, my voice rumbling up from a primal part of me.

McKenzie blinked, her pupils dilating. “What... ?” she said softly.

“Obey.” I repeated, my voice thrumming with power.

My stepdaughter swayed, like my voice was a strong wind blowing through grass.

“Obey.”

I was staring into her eyes, and as I commanded her for the third time I saw the light go out behind them. Her lips parted in a soft sigh and her face went smooth and relaxed. The furrows of confusion in her forehead smoothed.

“Yes...” she murmured softly. She sat up slowly, like she was moving through water, her eyes never leaving mine. “Yes, Master...”

The power that resonated through my tone was surging through my own body, as well, my inner Alpha Male pressing against the back of my mind like a dull headache. I could feel him urging me to use my inner strength, the dominance that I now controlled, to take the young woman before me. To use her however I wished. To pin her to the bed, to make her mine.

I blew out a soft breath between my lips, struggling for control. I guess that answers that question, I thought. I had been wondering whether the BDE recordings had changed something in me. Apparently, they had.

“McKenzie...” I said gently.

The teenager blinked several times, her glazed eyes refocusing. “Woah...” she murmured.

“You good?” I asked, stroking her shoulder.

“Wow...” she simply said again. “Adrianna was right...”

“What do you mean?” I frowned, but she smiled in return.

“One of the times we were hanging out this weekend and you were off doing something, I asked her about when you do... that... to her.”

I nodded. “What is it like?” I asked, curious in spite of myself.

My stepdaughter bit her lip. “It’s like ... I’m floating. Everything is warm and relaxed and comfortable, and I don’t have to worry about anything ... I don’t have to worry about being in control, being wound up so tight and nervous about anything. And it’s just easy to relax ... To relax and do whatever you tell me to do.”

I nodded again, slowly. So... I thought. I wasn’t quite sure what it meant, but something in those recordings had unlocked an inner ability to... Hypnotize people? I wondered. It seemed that way. I’m really going to need to talk to those BDE people, I thought. I’d sent them an email a couple days ago, but I didn’t really expect a response on the weekend. I hoped they would get back to me today, and I could set up a call to get some real information about what their products were doing to me.

Another idea struck me. I wonder who else my ... power ... might work on... But I pushed the thought aside for a moment, standing. I held out my hands and pulled McKenzie to her feet. Bending down, I kissed her softly on the lips. “Thank you, sweetheart,” I told her. “I’m grateful I can trust you to help me. There are a lot of changes happening right now, and it means a lot that I can rely on you to go through them with me.”

McKenzie nodded, her expression thoughtful. It was a pensive look I’d seen before, and it reminded me that my stepdaughter wasn’t just a pretty face. She’d demonstrated more than once that she was a smart, insightful woman. “I’ve got your back,” she said. Then she grinned and threw her arms around me impulsively.

I kissed her hair, breathing in the scent of her coconut shampoo. It was a smell I’d never really noticed before she and I had grown closer, but now it sent desire shivering up my spine like a tiny, electric shock. I could feel her body against me, her soft breasts against my chest, her thumping heart against my ribs.

“I know Mom is coming home today,” she said softly, pulling back and looking up at me. “Are you going to be okay? You said she wanted to talk.”

I nodded, slowly. “I’ll be good,” I said. The nervousness I’d felt about the conversation had melted away. All I felt now was confidence. Thank god for BDE... I mused.

“Good,” McKenzie nodded. She glanced at the clock then back up into my face. She bit her lip and her eyes shone. “I know you’ve got to go to work, but... ?” Her hands pressed against my chest, fingers making small circles in my skin.

“I think I have a bit of time...” I said, feeling a wave of arousal roll through my body. Between my legs, my length began to harden against her thigh.

“Mmm...” she murmured, her hands slowly reaching down and beginning to stroke.

“I definitely have time,” I corrected, sighing with pleasure as she wrapped her fingers around my shaft.

McKenzie laughed softly as I guided her down onto the bed. Whatever happened when Barbara came home, I went to work satisfied.

“John!” Allison’s sharp, strident voice grated against my eardrums, piercing through the soothing classical music that I listen to when I code.

I shook my head slightly and tugged one earbud free. I blinked, unfocusing from the lines of script in front of me, and then glanced up past the monitor to the door of my office. “What?” I asked.

Allison was standing there, leaning against the doorway, a frustrated look on her lovely face. In spite of myself, I had to control the urge glance down her body, taking in whatever form-fitting, barely-in-dress code outfit she’d chosen for work today.

The woman crossed her arms under her hefty tits, frowning. “How’s your team doing on the Morrison project?”

I glanced back at the code. “Well,” I said. “We hit a few roadblocks, but—”

She interrupted me, shaking her head dismissively. Shoulder-length blonde hair tumbled in waves around her face. “I didn’t come here for excuses,” she told me. “I’m here because the client asked us to move up the deadline and I said we would.”

I frowned. “What? Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

Allison shrugged. “I’m telling you now.” She clicked further into the room on her high heels, obviously enjoying the uncertainty written across my face. “So, you have until the end of the week to wrap up the project.”

What? I shook my head, the suddenness of her intrusion still had me on the back foot. “But—”

“No buts.” Allison smirked, her ruby red lips curling unpleasantly. “This is why I’m now in charge of you. Because when I say things will get done, they get done. And if you can’t handle that then we’ll put someone in charge of your team who can actually accomplish the projects we give them.”

I sighed, my hands falling into my lap. My fingers clenched and released. Then, not quite sure why I was doing it, I asked something that had been on my mind for a long time. “Why don’t you like me, Allison?”

My recently-promoted colleague pulled up short, her carefully-sculpted eyebrows coming together in a frown of uncertainty. “What?”

I shrugged. “I mean, if I were anyone else, I doubt you’d be coming in so fast with a threat. You’d probably try encouragement first, and then seduction if that wasn’t good enough.”

There was a sharp intake of breath as I steamrolled on.

“And then, as a last resort, you’d used a veiled threat as motivation. But instead, you come into my office and decide to use negative reinforcement right out of the gate.” I stared into her bright blue eyes. “So I’m asking: what did I do to piss you off?”

Allison stood there stunned for a moment, the curvaceous blonde obviously not expecting my outburst.

I shook my head. “I can do what you’re asking me... probably. But if I can’t, then you’re not going to demote me for it. Because I’m working from a reasonable deadline and the fact that you pushed it up doesn’t just mean that me and my team can do an unreasonable amount of work to make up for it.”

I had never been this assertive in the office before, and now I had Allison on the back foot. It felt good.

The woman stood there for another moment, halfway between my desk and the door. Then, with a snort of disbelief, she turned and strutted from the room.

As she left, I let my eyes slide down her back and rest on the gray pencil skirt she wore. It molded itself to her ass, giving me a fantastic view before she turned the corner and strode away down the hall.

I took a deep breath and blew it out. What was that for? I asked myself. You didn’t need to antagonize her like that... Then, I frowned.

“No,” I muttered to myself. “But she’s been an uppity bitch ever since she got promoted, and you don’t have to stand for it anymore.” I was good at my job, one of the best in the company, and even if I didn’t have the social graces to win a promotion, I still deserved respect. Making Allison an even worse enemy than she already was could come back to haunt me, but there was too much on my mind today for me to care.

Shaking my head, I went back to work.

Barbara had texted me when she’d landed, so I was waiting in the living room when she arrived. I had a cold bottle of beer in my hand and was sipping it pensively, waiting.

The front door opened and closed with a gentle thud, and then I heard the sound of her rolling luggage in the front hallway.

“Hey, honey!” I said, standing and smiling as she walked into the front room.

My wife looked as stunning as ever, even after a day of travel, her long blonde hair back in a golden braid and her lush curves calling to me under a light blue blouse and navy skirt.

“Hey,” she said, not meeting my eyes as she came to a halt. “Do you mind if I put my stuff upstairs? I know I said I wanted to talk, but it’s been a long day...”

“Sure,” I said. I had been about to walk across the room to give her a welcome-home kiss, but I hesitated. “Is everything okay?”

Barbara sighed. “It’s been a long weekend. I just...” She shook her head. “I don’t want to start anything right now.”

I nodded understandingly and continued across the carpet.

She looked up at me as I approached, but I didn’t go for a kiss, just pulled the bag from her hand gently and started toward the stairs. “Let’s put your stuff away and let you unwind a bit. Then we can talk.”

Barbara looked uncertain, but she followed as I led the way up to the bedroom and slid the luggage to a halt by her side of the bed.

McKenzie had done the laundry while I was at work, so the sheets were crisp and clean. No evidence remained of the wild weekend I’d had in here with two barely-legal coeds.

“Home sweet home,” I said, smiling easily at my wife. I wondered why my heart wasn’t racing, why I hadn’t broken out in a sweat. In the past, relationship drama with my wife had terrified me. Now, the most I could muster was a hint of concern.

“Thanks, honey,” Barbara said, then sank down on the bed with a sigh. She fell back onto the pillows with a groan of relief. “Nice to lay down in my own bed.”

I nodded and sat at the end of the mattress. Gently, I reached out and stroked her calf. “Sounds like you had a full plate.”

My wife had stopped moving when I touched her, then pushed herself back into a sitting position, moving up the bed and out of reach.

“I’m...” she hesitated, glancing again at my hand. She took a deep breath. “I know I said we needed to talk. And I want to. And I was ready to. But now that I’m here...” She shook her head. “It seems so much harder.”

I nodded sympathetically, wondering what was going through her mind. She’s probably worried as hell, I thought. That’s how I’d feel if I were about to tell my spouse I cheated on them with my boss. A slight correction drifted across my brain. Well, how I’d have felt in the past... “Is there anything I can do to make it easier?” My voice was low and soothing, my face set in what I hoped was a reassuring expression.

Barbara shook her head again, her blue eyes drifting away from mine. She took a deep breath and I tried not to stare at the way her full, round tits filled out the tight blouse. Then, she took another deep breath and I knew she was ready to speak. Her jaw tightened, and when she looked up at me I was surprised at the steel in her bright blue gaze.

It’s okay, I told myself. You know what she’s going to say. You know what you’re going to say...

Then, my wife asked me a short, simple question.

I froze. This wasn’t what I had expected.

“How long have you been sleeping with my daughter?”

I was stunned. My face twisted into a frown of confusion, and I shook my head. “What?”

Barbara looked at me, and her face was a mask of frustration and pain. “How long,” she repeated. “Have you been sleeping with my daughter?”

I raised my hands defensively. “That’s what you wanted to talk to me about?” I was off-kilter, and now my heart did start to race. I didn’t have anything planned for this. I hadn’t even seen this coming.

Barbara’s fingers gripped tight in the sheets and her breath was fast between her lips. “I knew it...” she gasped. “You aren’t even trying to deny it...”

I tried to speak, but she cut me off with an angry gesture and her voice rolled over mine. Now that she’d started, it seemed, she wouldn’t be stopped.

“I didn’t suspect anything until this weekend,” she started. “When you asked if I was okay with you guys hosting a party while I was gone. And even then it just seemed like you were doing it to be nice, to grow closer to your stepdaughter. But then I started thinking. It was so out of character ... Hosting a party for McKenzie? That’s not you. You’re antisocial. You don’t know how to interact with people your own age, much less teenagers... “

What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck? My brain couldn’t seem to wrap around what I was hearing, couldn’t seem to comprehend the situation. What could I do? For the first time in days, I didn’t have my cocky, confident self to fall back on. My Inner Alpha Male was as stunned as I was.

“Still, I didn’t have any idea what was actually going on.” The words were spilling from Barbara’s lips in a rushing torrent, like a waterfall of condemnation. “And then I got your texts. You weren’t just chaperoning, you were hanging out with the kids. But that was fine ... You were just breaking out of your shell. You were trying to be the ‘cool stepdad,’ and I could believe that. Sort of. Only then I got a text from someone else. Lucas, McKenzie’s boyfriend. He said that she was having a party and that he hadn’t been invited, because she hadn’t been speaking to him for more than a week. She’d been ignoring his texts, ducking his calls, and when he asked her friends they said she’d told them she’d moved on to someone else ... someone more mature. He asked me what was going on...”

Wait ... What? That stopped my brain in its tracks, short circuited the entire system. McKenzie has a boyfriend?! I’d never met the guy, and my stepdaughter had never even mentioned him to me.

But Barbara wasn’t slowing down. “And I was wondering what that could mean. Why would my little girl break a guy’s heart like that? What had changed? And then I remembered ... That was around that time that you started telling me about those bullshit self-hypnosis recordings. You started running, started working out, started spending more and more time with McKenzie, with your stepdaughter... I had thought that it was a good sign. I thought you were finally starting to grow out of your shell, becoming a real man who wanted to connect with his family. But really you were just trying to impress my innocent, 18-year-old daughter who is still too young to realize that you were manipulating her, trying to use her in some perverted, controlling, fucked-up...”

My wife was gasping, shaking her head, trembling with emotion.

But that was when I stopped her. As she’d described my relationship with McKenzie, something else had risen up in my chest. It wasn’t anxiety, it wasn’t concern, and it certainly wasn’t fear. It was anger. For the second time in only a few days, someone had called our relationship fucked up and had called me perverted, and I wasn’t going to stand for it.

I am the Man of the House. The Man of the House provides, and he takes what he wants. I deserve everything I want. I deserve to be in control. I deserve it all.

“Stop.” My voice was a low growl, sharper than I intended.