Chapter 9

Tim went and got the lamb early the next week, and everyone was so excited. They were all on the roster to look after it, even Jim and Edna. Kat and I weren’t – I knew our time would come, after lockdown ended. Tim said that we had to handle the lamb as much as possible in the early days, and that was certainly not a problem. Of course, Toni and Jael, in particular, were all over it. They named the lamb “Honeykins”.

On Saturday night, by the way, the girls discovered that you can find space for a lamb to sleep in a two man tent with three very close teenagers in it. When they woke up in the morning, they also discovered just why what hadn’t been a very good idea. Sal wanted to help them clean up, but Kat and I said no. The best way to get them to think ahead is to let them deal with the consequences of not doing so.

Early that week, though, I had a couple of early morning phone calls with companies from the US. They were pretty confrontational, and I need to chill afterwards, so I cancelled my next call and went for a swim. The pool was starting to empty out for breakfast, there was just Zara and Jael in there. By the time I’d done enough, it was empty.

I was in the shower with my eyes closed, enjoying the water and thinking about my coming day when a hand brushed against my butt, and snaked around the front to cup my balls. I turned to kiss Kat, and discovered that instead, the hand holding my balls belonged to a grinning Zara, who smiled and winked at me.

Oh crap. Kat and I had agreed that Zara would eventually be a problem, and that it was most likely to become evident in the three-to-five week time frame. Which we were right in the middle of. I grimaced. I wasn’t sure how I should handle this. I mean, it was totally not appropriate, and I had no interest in Zara, other than watching her partner with Zach. But this could likely be the end. I could simply march her out the front door right now. But I decided I should talk to Kat about how to handle it, and what we would want to achieve.

I looked conspicuously around, frowned, and said, “This is not the time or place, Zara. Go back to your schoolwork.”

Zara pouted, disappointed, and ran her hands up my dick as she let go. “Okay,” she said, and walked out.

When I told Kat what happened, she was steaming, “That bitch! So ungrateful. She has to go right now!”

“Hang on,” I said, “Is that really what you want, her on the street? You’ve been talking to her, this didn’t come from nowhere, right?”

Kat paused. “Umm, no. She...” she paused and thought.

“You go and think about it, and what you want here, and we’ll talk about at lunch.”

Later, Kat and I talked, and agreed how we were going to handle it.

At the end of dinner that night, I turned to Zara, and said “Hey, Zara, let’s go and use the sauna. You coming?”

She grinned and said “Sure,” and jumped up from the table. She was right behind me when I got to the wet area door.

Kat told me later how it went at the dinner table after we left.

There was a shocked silence after you walked out with Zara. I was disappointed she followed, but not surprised. After you were gone, I said to Sal and the kids, ‘So, was it appropriate for Zara to follow under those circumstances?’

There was a cautious chorus of ‘no’, except for Zach, who didn’t know what to say. Poor guy.

So then I said, ‘Was it appropriate for Dad to ask her to do that?’

There was a very uncertain answer to that. I mean, it certainly was, but they love you so much that they couldn’t bring themselves to say so. So I made it clear.

‘That was completely inappropriate. Probably unforgiveable, from my perspective. Except that there’s a reason.’

They were all staring at me.

‘This morning, Zara made a pass at Dad. She put her hands on him and offered to have sex with him.’

There was a barrage of anger, and poor Zach, he was so upset.

‘Zach, I’m so sorry to tell you this, but that’s what happened. So right now, Dad is going to let her do it again, to find out whether she really means it. I’m going in there in a few minutes, and we’ll confront her together and talk about it. If – and I think it’s not that likely – if she can convince us that we should let her stay, then she has to let Zach decide whether he wants her to stay. If she can pass both those tests, then she’ll still be here.’

Then Toni said, ‘Bitch, get rid of her, it’s because she’s got those great big tits’. Toni’s a very loving person, but she’s also good at anger, she really knows how to do it well.

I held my hand up. ‘Come on Toni, you know what Zara’s background is, what her family was like. Now she’s here, and really struggling to adapt to our freedoms. You know that needs self-discipline, and Zara is still learning that. So I think you should be a little more gracious, and not so quick to judge. Zach, you saw her family, you’re the one she closest to, who she sleeps with. You know her heart in ways we don’t. Don’t react too quickly here. I’ve given you time to think it through, so make use of it, and think about what you really want.’

Michelle, who has more years of experience, and more context around Zara than Toni ... she was just crying. ‘Michelle, I have to go talk to Zara now. Can you and Toni love Zach, and let him talk about his feelings and figure out what they are before Zara comes to talk to him?’

By the time I was walking away from the table, Michelle and Toni had him wrapped up in a deep hug.

Zara followed me into the wet area. I turned to her and said “OK, let’s have a shower first.”

I turned one of the end showers on, and then turned around. Zara was planning to share the shower with me. I couldn’t say I was surprised. She stepped into me, ready to feel me up again. “Hang on,” I said, and lifted her hands over her head. “Keep them up there”.

Then I ran my hands from Zara’s waist, up her side, and then up her arms. Kat had said I should do this, and what followed, for my own enjoyment. I moved back down and then up and around her breasts towards her nipples. Zara closed her eyes, and drew her breath, the tip of her tongue out of her mouth. I held her breasts for a few seconds, feeling their weight. Then I moved to her hair, and quickly massaged her scalp, getting her hair completely wet, with water running down her face. She was enjoying that just as much.

Honestly, this was a little bit tempting – a beautiful, busty, sweet sixteen-year-old, here in the shower with me, hot, and up for anything. But nowhere tempting enough. I could have Kat like this anytime I wanted, up for absolutely anything, and regularly did. Zara was not anywhere close to that.

I turned the shower off, and went and grabbed her a towel from the shelf. “OK, wrap that around you, and we’ll use the sauna.”

She pouted, but did as she was told.

Once we were settled in the sauna, with her sitting next to me, towel round her hips, I said to her, “So what is that you want?”

“You, I want you to make love to me.”

“Does Zach know that you’re doing this?”

She smirked. “Why would he know? It’s just us that matter. I’ll make it worth your while...”

At that moment, Kat stepped into the wet area. As she entered, she locked it. I didn’t think the kids even know that it can be locked, since we never have before. She walked straight into the sauna, grabbing a towel as she came, and sat on the other side of Zara. I nodded to her as she came in.

“How’s seducing my husband going for you, Zara?”

Zara looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Both of us turned around so we were facing her, and I said, “When we talked to you about coming to live with us, we gave you some rules. Do you remember what they were?”

After a few seconds of silence, I prompted her again, “Well?”

“You said that I had to control myself, and be honest. And that I could have sex with Zach, but no one else.”

She was crying now, her voice shaky.

Kat continued for me. “We even put it in writing, and you signed it. And when Michelle, you and I planned that night in the spa a couple of weeks ago, what did we talk about?”

“I know, I know,” she cried.

“And what did we say would happen if you couldn’t follow the rules?”

Zara sobbed. “You said you’d throw me out onto the street.” Then she burst into tears, wailing her heart out. After a few minutes, she calmed a little.

I said, “Do you think that we meant it, or that somehow it would all be OK?”

Zara looked at me. “But you won’t really. I mean, what would happen to me? I’d have to live on the streets, and it’d be your fault. You can’t do that to me.”

Kat and I had agreed what I’d say to this gambit. “We talked about that, and it seems likely to us that if we march you out the gate, you’ll end up as coke whore living on the street, with a life expectancy of a few years, fucking fat old men for $20. But we won’t be guilty because you did it to yourself, so don’t bother with the guilt trip thing.”

Zara looked truly horrified now. As well she might. Time for a little hope.

“You’re dealing with adult consequences now. What you’ve done isn’t going to just disappear in a cloud of smoke. Look, we know that everyone makes mistakes, and we figured you’d make one. But it’s a really, really big one. If you can explain to us how it happened, and what you’re going to do make sure it never happens again, and how you might make things right with Zach, then you might be able to stay here.”

“Zach knows?”, she gasped.

Kat said, “Yes, I told him. He’s thinking about it now.”

Zara jumped up and walked straight out of the sauna and then to the door to the wet area. When it didn’t open, she collapsed by the door, bereft. Now her moans were really from the heart.

Kat bent down beside her, “Where did you want to go?”

“I have to leave. I can’t face it. I’ve smashed everything and there’s nothing left for me. I might as well die now.”

“We aren’t going to let you leave until you’ve finished talking to us.” I picked Zara up – she’s not that heavy – and carried her to the lounge near the spa. I sat with Zara on my lap, her head against my chest, and Kat next to me.

We both held her while she cried. It took maybe ten minutes but eventually she stopped.

“What happens now?”

Kat spoke to her. “Now, you tell us what you were thinking. What did you think would happen? Did you think no one would notice?”

Zara groaned. “I don’t know what I was thinking. Of course, nothing would have happened between us. He’s married to you. It could only be a disaster, and look, it is. It’s all my fault.”

“We’ve talked about this a lot. You do things like this, and you don’t know why. But they just happen. As if by random. But you do things for a reason that’s in your heart somewhere. Tell me, do you love Zach?”

“Oh, yes,” she said, “I love him with my heart and soul.”

“Then why is he not enough? Why try to sleep with his dad?”

“I love Zach, he’s my man, but don’t you see?” She turned to me. “You’re so strong, you make all the big decisions, you’re the one. You have this awesome sex machine who’s also the best mother I ever saw, and she’s totally captive to you. You’re just so ... ngngngngng. I don’t know how Michelle can resist you, because I just can’t. I knew it would burn me, but I couldn’t help myself.”

With that, she slipped off my legs and sat on the ground, burying her head in Kat’s lap, and sobbed.

I looked at Kat. “That’s her heart’s truth there.”

She nodded, and gently ran her hands through Zara’s hair. “She’s her mother’s daughter, that’s for sure. Well, now we know where the problem is.”

After a minute for Zara to settle, Kat gently lifted Zara’s face with her finger. “We’ve talked about your mother a lot. You know that your mother is not safe, that she’s very submissive to your father, in a very toxic, dangerous relationship. Her own daughter was getting kicked out of the house, and she could do nothing! But here’s something we haven’t talked about: when you moved in here, I spoke to Zach about you. I – we – told him that he was to be extra gentle with you, and to bend over backwards to not tell you what to do, because we didn’t want you to get on the road to being like her. And I’ve watched Zach, and he’s been really good about it, because he wants the best for you. But that’s not working for you, is it. You need more, right?”

Zara slowly nodded, thinking about that.

“I think you need an Alpha Male. But that’s super dangerous for girls like you. The wrong male turns into a monster like your dad. You love Zach, and he’s a really nice guy, so I think that we need to teach him how to be your man. Does that make sense to you?”

Zara nodded, her eyes shining. “Oh, yes, please!”

“OK, I have some ideas how to do that. But that’s not all sweetie. If you feel like that, why didn’t you say something to us? Which is better, to come tell us, or to have it blow up on you like this? We’re not going to make fun of you, or take advantage of you. You were afraid to think about it, right?”

“How could I tell either of you? You’re just so big, and strong, both of you, and I’m so weak.”

“You know,” Kat said, “I wasn’t always strong and confident. Dave made me like that. That’s what you need, a man who does that for you. Have you noticed how Tim does that for Michelle? I see you hadn’t. Watch. He never limits her, but he does ... help her. You can have that. But you also have to care for yourself. Because you were afraid to do that, you nearly destroyed the most precious thing you can ever have in your life. As it is, you have to go and talk to Zach yet.”

Zara’s face fell. “He won’t want me now.”

I answered that one. “Zara, we can’t tell Zach what to do on this, but if you are honest to Zach, and tell him the truth from your heart, we think he’ll listen and he’ll love you. Remember that – the scariest thing for you right now is to tell Zach something other than truth. And make sure you tell the whole truth.”

Kat took up the subject. “But first, you have to understand, and promise, to yourself first, and then to us: if you want to have any stable relationships at all, you need to know your heart, and think about it. And talk to your man rather than let it blow you up. Do you understand?”

“I do understand. I see what you mean about what I did. Now I wonder, how I could be so stupid.”

“And what do you promise?”

Zara thought about that for a few seconds. Then she took both our hands, and pulled them to her chest, on her heart, and held them close. “I promise that I treasure both of you as the most precious thing in my world other than Zach, and I never want to upset you again. I promise to watch my heart, and tell Zach nothing but the truth, the whole truth, and to talk to him and you if I’m not sure what the truth even is. Neither pain nor hurt will keep me from being honest with the three of you. This is my unbreakable vow.”

We smiled at her, and Kat leaned forward and kissed her on the lips. “We accept your promise, and promise to hold you as a treasure, and to hold you too your promise, and to care for you and keep you safe.”

They hugged for a minute, both of them crying. Then Kat said, “I’m going to go out and make sure Zach’s in his room, alone, so you can go and talk to him without anyone else getting in the way. Then after that, both you and Zach come to our room together. Give me a minute.”

Kat went out. I indicated to Zara to sit on my lap. I reached up and held her face close to mine. “You know, in the shower, you were pretty tempting. It’s not just that you’re sixteen, pretty, and available; that’s not close to enough. What mattered was that you’re sweet, caring and passionate, and smart. You’ve got a lot going for you.”

I leaned forward and kissed her gently on the lips. “But I don’t want you as a lover. I want much more than that.”

Zara looked at me quizzically. “What could that be?”

“How about daughter-in-law?”

Zara looked at me, surprised.

“Yes, that’s a long way away. But you can do it. You can go and fix things with Zach. Seduce him with your heart, not your body. And then make him your man. Off you go.”

She smiled, and gave me a quick tight hug, and then walked out.

Phew.