Chapter 19

Cameron had never felt nervous at visiting Sam's house before. Sam was his best friend; they'd been friends since kindergarten. Cameron knew him better than anyone else on the face of the earth. Or he had thought he did, anyway. Recently, he wasn't so sure.

At first, he'd attributed everything to Sam's shock at his sudden illness. Cameron still remembered vividly seeing Sam touch the little statue, recoil as if he'd been shocked; and then, only seconds later, collapse. At the time, his first thought had been that the totem spirit had somehow really attacked Sam. He realized now how ridiculous that was. Sam did seem different, though. He'd just seemed distracted, at first. But now... he seemed bolder, somehow, more self-confident. As if he didn't really need his friends anymore. And other people were treating him differently -- Katarina Miller, and some of the other girls. And now Sam and Gina were dating openly, and neither of them had told Cameron about it first.

Cameron hesitated a bit at Sam's front door before knocking. If Sam didn't need him as a best friend anymore, that was too bad, but Cameron wasn't going to go crawling to get him back. He was curious, though. What was happening? What had gone on with Gina? From the way Cameron had seen the two of them kissing, he thought their relationship was anything but platonic. And Gina had let drop that she was inviting Sam over for dinner the night before, to talk with her parents, which sounded pretty serious.

Firming his resolve, Cameron knocked briskly. There was a brief pause, the sound of a light footstep, then Sam's sister Joan opened the door.

"Hey, Cameron!" she greeted him. "Good to see you. How's it going?"

"Uhhhh... " Cameron felt his jaw dropping, and his cheeks heated. Joan was wearing nothing but a lacy black bra and panties that left little to the imagination. Cameron had always known Sam's big sister was a looker, but he'd never realized how gorgeous she really was. He tried not to stare, and to think of something intelligent to say, but the sight of her barely-contained breasts seemed to have obliterated any reasonable thoughts. Somehow, 'nice bra' didn't seem adequate.

Joan realized the source of his confusion and laughed. "Oh, sorry, I forgot I was dressed like this." Undressed like this would have been more accurate, Cameron thought. "I was trying on different outfits when you knocked," Joan went on, stepping aside and gesturing him in. "Come on in. Sam and Gina are in the living room. See you!"

Joan closed the door and trotted back up the stairs, a motion which made her flesh sway in a highly distracting manner. Cameron felt confused. If she'd been upstairs, trying on outfits, while Sam was in the living room, why had she answered the door instead of Sam? Unless she was just randomly wandering around the house in her underwear, something he was sure he'd have noticed in the past, if she made a habit of it. Shaking off this puzzle, Cameron pulled himself together and walked into the living room.

Sam and Gina were sitting together on the couch, reading. That wasn't unusual -- the three of them had often hung out together, each reading a book and pausing from time to time to talk. At the moment, though, Sam was sitting at one end of the couch, and Gina was lying with her head in his lap, one of his hands gently stroking her hair. That was definitely unusual. In fact, Cameron had never seen either of them acting like that.

The two on the couch looked up as he entered. "Hi, Cameron!" Gina said brightly. She put her book down, but didn't rise. "How're you doing?"

"Fine," Cameron said. "How are you?"

"Pretty good," Gina answered. Without looking, she raised one hand to brush Sam's cheek. Cameron felt the instant conviction that the two of them had been lovers only a short time before. The way they touched each other...

"Thanks for coming over," Sam said. "I've been wanting to talk to you."

At this, Gina did sit up. Picking up her book, she rose and kissed Sam on the lips before heading for the door. "I'll leave you to it, then," she said. "See you in a little while, Cameron. I'll be in your room, Sam."

"Have a seat," Sam invited Cameron, his eyes following Gina affectionately as she left the room. Cameron sank into a chair, once again feeling the confusion of his closest friends acting so differently.

"What was all that about?" he asked, gesturing after Gina.

"Gina thought this would go better if I talked to you on my own," Sam explained. "More sort of man-to-man. I need to explain some stuff."

"Well, I could use some explanation," Cameron complained. "I mean, OK, it's sort of obvious at this point what's going on with you and Gina, though you could have told me. But what's going on with you? You've been acting -- I don't know -- funny, recently. You haven't been to the gym since you came back to school... all right, maybe you need to be sure you're fully recovered, first... "

"I'm fine," Sam said. "I've just been kind of distracted."

"Yeah, well, you've been acting distracted," Cameron said. "But distracted by what?"

Sam hesitated before speaking. "Look, Cameron, you're my best friend. I want to tell you everything. But you've got to promise me that you'll hear me out. OK?"

Cameron was a bit surprised, but said, "OK, sure, I promise."

"I'm serious," Sam persisted. "You really do need to hear me out."

"I said I promised, didn't I?" Cameron said, a bit nettled.

"All right." Sam frowned, seeming to gather his thoughts. "It all started after I touched that statue in the museum. Do you remember?"

"I'm not too likely to forget that," Cameron said. "You collapsed right after."

"Yeah. Gina said that you thought at the time that the totem spirit had attacked me."

Cameron flushed. "Look, I admitted that was stupid... "

Sam raised a hand. "I asked you to hear me out. The fact is, it wasn't stupid. I think that's exactly what happened... except, I don't think the spirit attacked me. Remember what the tour guide said? Shamans would summon these spirits to possess them, and lend them their power. I think that's what happened to me."

Sam paused, looking at Cameron expectantly. Cameron didn't know what to think. Was Sam crazy? He didn't act like it. But he had been acting strangely recently -- not crazy, but different.

"All right," Cameron said eventually. "Go on."

"You don't believe me, do you?" Sam said.

"You asked me to hear you out. I'm listening."

"Fair enough," Sam agreed. "All right. At first, I didn't know what had happened. I could vaguely sense this other presence, but I didn't know what it was. It seems just like a faint roaring sound, but in my head. But I soon realized that there was a lot more to it than that. It's inside me, but it affects other people. Everyone I come into contact with."

"Well, I don't feel any different," Cameron said.

"I'm not sure that you would," Sam said, "or that you'd notice it."

"How does it 'affect' people?" Cameron asked.

"Sexually," Sam said. "Especially women." Sam shrugged. "It seems to have made me irresistible."

Cameron laughed. He didn't mean to, but the idea of his best friend as some kind of supernatural Don Juan struck him as hysterically funny.

"You're kidding, right?" he asked, when Sam didn't join in, but just watched him patiently.

"Nope," Sam said. "But I don't blame you for thinking that it's funny. I probably would, too."

Cameron shook his head. "Look... you're talking about you and Gina, right?"

"Not *just* Gina," Sam said.

"Whatever... I mean, the two of you have been friends for a long time, and I know you've both kind of had the hots for each other, even though neither of you ever admitted it to me. Sure, you got together really quickly, but that doesn't mean some Indian spirit did it. I mean, right?"

"That by itself might be true," Sam agreed, "but other girls... "

"I know they've been paying you a lot of attention, recently. But you've been sick. Girls like that -- it makes you interesting. It doesn't mean they want you to screw them." Cameron felt that he had to keep some tinge of reason in this conversation. It was clear that Sam believed what he was saying. Probably this was some side-effect of his collapse which the doctors hadn't noticed. Cameron only hoped that it was temporary, and that his friend would come around soon. Delusions like this could get him in a lot of trouble, if he tried to act on them. He wondered if Sam had told Gina what he thought. It would probably freak her out.

In the meanwhile, Sam was looking at Cameron quizzically. "I thought of a lot of ways this conversation might go," Sam said, "but I must admit, this wasn't one of them. I should have, though. If I tell you that other girls do want to sleep with me -- in fact, they have -- you won't believe me, will you? You'll think I'm making it up, or fooling myself?"

Cameron shrugged uncomfortably. "I don't think you're deliberately trying to lie to me. It's just... things like this don't happen. It's impossible."

"Huh," Sam said, thoughtfully. He frowned at Cameron for a minute, then rose to his feet. "Wait here," he said, waving Cameron back to his seat as he automatically started to rise. "I think I'll have to find something a bit more convincing. Just wait."

Cameron sank back into his seat as his friend left the room and went running up the stairs. He thought about sneaking out of the house before Sam came back. It was tempting. If his best friend had gone crazy, there was no telling what he might do. And he had to be crazy. What he was saying *couldn't* be true. Could it?

He was still trying to decide what to do when footsteps came on the stairs again, descending more slowly than Sam's ascent. Cameron looked at the door, expecting Sam to reappear, and was startled when Sam's mother entered the room instead. Her red hair fell loosely about her face, and she wore a simple white blouse and green skirt. She wore no shoes on her stockinged feet.

"Hello, Cameron," she said quietly.

"Um, hi, Mrs. Raven," Cameron said uncomfortably.

"Please, call me Caroline," she said. She crossed to the couch and sat where Sam had been, facing Cameron. Cameron didn't feel very ready for this conversation. He had had a crush on Sam's mother for years -- she was the first woman he had lusted after, when he first began noticing girls -- and it tended to make him nervous and tongue-tied in her presence. He felt nervous enough as it was. No doubt she'd want to talk to him about Sam, and he didn't know what to say.

"So, Cameron," Caroline said, tossing her red hair back and smiling at him. "Sam's been telling you what happened to him, is that right?"

"Uh, yes, Mrs. -- Caroline," Cameron said.

"But you found it hard to believe, didn't you?" she went on.

"Well... yeah, I did," Cameron admitted.

"I don't blame you," Caroline said sympathetically. "It's a pretty incredible story, isn't it? Almost unbelievable."

"Yeah," Cameron agreed again.

Caroline leaned forward, almost conspiratorily, and stretched out a hand to touch Cameron's knee. Her breasts swayed beneath her blouse, and Cameron found it nearly impossible not to stare at them. Caroline was obviously not wearing a bra, and her blouse was semi-translucent, making the darkness of her nipples distinctly visible.

"So, what if I told you," she said confidingly, "that Sam's story is completely true?"

Cameron was so distracted by trying not to look at Mrs. Raven's tits that it took him a moment to absorb what she'd said.

"What?!" he said.

"Completely true, in every respect," Caroline affirmed.

"But... but... that's... "

"Impossible?" Caroline said. "I would have thought so, too. But it's true, so obviously it is possible."

"You mean... Sam is sexually irresistible," Cameron said, still incredulous.

"Absolutely," Caroline said.

Cameron stared at her a moment longer. "How do you know?" he asked finally.

Caroline laughed, as if this were a silly question. "How *would* I know?" she challenged him. "Because I'm one of his women, of course."

Cameron was stunned. Sam's own mother! How could that be? But at the same time, his cock was so hard that it was trying to rip its way out of his trousers on its own. The idea of Sam's mother, naked, moaning in sex, burned into his mind.

"Do you believe me?" Caroline asked him.

"I don't know what to think," Cameron said.

"Then let me help you," she said, and rose to her feet. Her hands went to her blouse and started to undo the buttons. "I know you used to have a crush on me. Starting when you were about twelve. You started noticing me, as a woman. It was kind of cute, the way you tried to look at my breasts without my seeing you. Didn't you?"

Cameron sat, paralyzed. One part of him couldn't believe what was happening, but he didn't want it to stop.

"You probably don't appreciate it," Caroline went on, "but for a woman with two teenage children to know that she's still attractive is very pleasant." The blouse was undone nearly all the way now, exposing a strip of creamy flesh down her front. He could see the the swelling cleft between her breasts. Her nipples made little tents in the thin fabric on either side. Cameron stared at them openly.

"I really didn't mind your peeking at me," Caroline said. "In fact, I think I unconsciously teased you, a little." The blouse was completely undone, now, her hands holding it in place, teasing him quite consciously. "Of course, maybe you were looking at every woman then... "

"No!" Cameron denied thickly. "You were... you were special... "

"You're sweet," Caroline said throatily. "Well, here's what you were trying to see." With one quick motion she pulled open her blouse and let it drop to the floor.

She was beautiful. As he had thought, she wore no bra; her breasts rose firmly from her chest, large, round, perfect, tipped with dark nipples standing out tautly from tight aureoles. Caroline delicately stroked her nipples with her fingertips, shivering slightly, and they tightened even further, standing out half an inch from her tits. Cameron was mesmerized. He couldn't have looked away if he'd wanted to, and he didn't want to.

"So," Caroline said. "Do you like them?"

"They... they're beautiful," Cameron said. "You're beautiful... "

"Would you like to touch them?" she suggested.

Cameron had thought he was as aroused as he could be. He discovered that was untrue. "Yes, please," he croaked, his throat dry.

Caroline stepped gracefully around the coffee table and sat on the edge of it, only a foot or so away from Cameron's fascinated gaze. Slowly, almost fearfully, he raised a hand, hesitated, then set it on her tit.

"That's good," Caroline said encouragingly. "Be gentle, but you don't have to be afraid to touch me. I won't break."

Cameron began to slowly knead the tit in his hand. Caroline seemed to like this; she sighed, and leaned forward a little. He put his other hand on her second breast, and sat for a long while fondling her. Tentatively, he touched her nipple, then at her encouraging murmur began to tug and stroke them. They felt... he couldn't say how they felt, but they felt good, and it seemed that it made Caroline feel even better.

"Why don't you try sucking me, now?" she suggested after several minutes of this.

This time Cameron barely hesitated before complying. Leaning forward, he licked a nipple, sending a ripple of pleasure through Caroline's body, before opening his mouth and sucking her in. She moaned in response. For a long time he suckled her, her arms around him, cradling him to her chest. He lifted his hand to her other breast and began gently squeezing the nipple, while moving his tongue on the other. After a bit, he switched breasts, sucking the second as hungrily as he had the first.

"You're making me so hot," Caroline sighed. "Do you know what that means?"

With his mouth full of her breast, Cameron could only grunt his assent.

"Good. But we need to get you ready." Gently she pushed him back. "Just sit back, now."

Cameron complied, his heart pounding against his ribs. Caroline dropped to her knees in front of him and began unbuckling his belt. She quickly got it off, then unfastened his fly and pulled down his jeans and underwear. His cock sprang out, bigger and harder than it had ever been. Cameron held his breath. What if it was too small, or something? But Caroline just smiled, then stroked her fingers along it, making Cameron moan involuntarily.

"That's nice," Caroline said approvingly. "But I think you won't last long in your current state."

He would have liked to deny it, but she was almost certainly right. It felt as if he was about to come spontaneously just from the arousal of seeing her.