Chapter 8

Monday was sort of a screwed up day for Ken. He rose late, since they hadn't gotten to bed until dawn. Then, he was halfway to class when he realized that he was going to the wrong class at the dojo. Since he was attending the advanced class now, it was at a different time. Grumbling, he decided to stop in and see how Joan was. He hadn't seen her since she'd been over last week and they hadn't heard from her. With everything going on with Tina, he hadn't thought to try and contact Joan and wondered if Eric had. If so, he hadn't told Ken.

He was quickly shown into her office. As soon as he entered it, he knew something was wrong.

She didn't look good. Despite the cleverly applied makeup, he could tell that she was pale and her eyes were darkened by lack of sleep. Joan was very upset.

He started to move towards her for a hug, but a slight movement on her part, a barely perceptible stiffening, told him that she didn't want one. He thought about reading her, but decided against it. He didn't want to start relying on something that had already proven unreliable. After all, he couldn't read Sensei and could barely read Chad most of the time.

He stopped a step from her and said, "Joan. I... are you okay? You look like you haven't been sleeping."

Joan looked at Ken. She was still so attracted to him, that it almost made her nuts. Her body remembered his and began to ache in places it shouldn't. But now she knew. And, knowing, she could ignore it... mostly. It didn't make her body ache less, though.

"I'm... fine. Mostly," she lied.

She had had about six hours of sleep since she'd left the mansion, and her day with Sally, Eric and Christine. At her age, that was a bad thing. She was no longer twenty-something and able to go for days without any sleep.

Ken looked at her and said, "You're not. That's easy to see. What's wrong?"

Tears filled Joan's eyes. What was wrong? How about being shown that everything she ever thought she wanted was only a small part of the picture of her life? How about the fact that what she wanted was right there, right in front of her, but that it was someone else's life and something that she could never have? What was wrong? Nothing. Everything.

"I... I don't think it would be a good idea to see... you again," she replied, letting out a shuddering breath.

Now Ken decided that it was time to take a look at what was going on. When he did, he mentally shook his head in wonder. It was amazing how deeply ingrained social conditioning went and just how unaware of it people were. Himself included, if these last weeks were any indication. He wondered what other pitfalls awaited him.

"I see," he said in a neutral voice.

Since he knew what was going on, he had some idea of how to handle it. Experience was rapidly teaching him that he still had a lot to learn about how to deal with difficult situations, but he hoped that this would work.

"I'm sorry if we did something to offend or hurt you Joan. I hope you know that was never our intention."

"Yeah," she said, sniffing a bit. "Sometimes things just don't work out they way you thought they would."

"I'll be leaving now," Ken said gently.

She sniffed again, and looked at her desk, so upset that it never occurred to her that his reaction was completely abnormal. Surely, he'd want to know what was going on with her.

"Yes, I think that's best."

Ken walked to the door and opened it.

"I don't want to pry, but if you decide you want to talk, you know how to get hold of us."

"Yes. But... I'd... I'd appreciate it if you'd tell Eric and Sally that I won't be around anymore," she said.

"That," he said as he walked out, "is one thing I won't do. If you want to hurt the rest of us, then fine. But if you want to hurt Eric and Sally, two people who have fallen quite in love with you, I'm afraid you'll have to do that yourself."

He closed the door and walked out.

Ken managed to lose himself in the movements of his art during class. Chad was there, and Ken managed to discretely find out that he worked classes four days a week to pay for his training. Ken wasn't sure why Sensei was wasting his time with Chad. It was clear that he was unable -- or at least unwilling -- to learn the deeper lessons of the art that Ken had once had a good start on and hoped to learn again.

Sensei did a lot more one-on-one work in this class, and spent a fair amount of time with Ken. Ken never realized until after the class that Sensei had run him through a smattering of techniques in several belt levels, including those that were at second-degree black-belt level. There had been updates to many of them, but it didn't take Ken long to incorporate the changes and adjust his old patterns. Once he learned the new way, it stayed with him.

It was a most satisfactory lesson.

"Why aren't you wearing a black belt?" asked Nikki, the blonde that Ken had seen arrive at Sensei's apartment last Friday.

"Because I don't feel comfortable wearing one," he replied with a smile.

"Hmm," she said with a bright smile. "Why do I think that's not the whole answer?"

"I can tell you my answer is 100 percent truthful," Ken smiled.

"A lie is a great way to tell the truth," she said.

"You've been spending too much time with Sensei," grinned Ken.

The woman looked at him for a second, glanced around, then grinned and moved a bit closer to him. Then, since her gi top was already open, she pulled her tank-top down to expose just the top of one breast, and not very much at that. Even though she was short -- about 5'1" -- she had full, C-cup breasts. The small portion of the one that he saw had a bruise that could only have been caused by a tightly tied rope.

"Too much?" she said softly. "I only wish it could be more."

Between how she had greeted Sensei on Friday and now this little display, Ken was sure of two things: One, she was Sensei's slave. Two, she was baiting him.

"Hmm," he smiled. "That's very nice. I certainly hope there are others to match it."

Her large, gray eyes widened slightly, then she smiled a devastatingly sexy smile.

"Oh, yes. Quite a few," she replied.

"I'm glad to see he uses his... time... well."

"Sensei uses everything well," she said, waggling her eyebrows.

Ken burst out laughing, and Nikki quickly joined him.

"Oh, I see that beautiful, tiny redhead is here to pick you up," remarked Nikki in an innocent voice. "She looks so very... fragile."

"Careful, Nikki," replied Ken with a big grin. "Not only is she not fragile, but she can be very... predatory."

"Sensei is very forward-thinking about these sorts of things. Do you think she'd like him?" asked Nikki with a smirk.

In point of fact, Arianwen thought Sensei Turcotte was very handsome, and she had been quite intrigued when Ken mentioned his suspicions that Sensei had a slave. While Ken and Nikki had spoken a number of times in the past weeks, her opening up to him today was somewhat of a surprise. While things like that happened between people, Ken sensed there was more going on.

"She has remarked that he's very attractive," said Ken. "I should probably get ready to head out."

"Okay," said Nikki brightly. "See ya soon."

"Yup." he smiled, then paused. "Oh, and by the way, when I said she had a bit of a predatory streak? I meant that Sensei might not be her only prey."

Nikki got a very surprised look on her face, then burst out laughing again.

Ken went over to Ari when he got out of the locker room. She was smiling and talking to Sensei. He caught a bit of the conversation as he walked up.

"... always thought it was beautiful to watch. Someday, I'd really like to learn it. Formally, I mean," she said.

"And are you learning it informally now?" asked Sensei.

At that point, Ken's stomach clenched. If Sensei found out he was teaching Arianwen, the man would be within his rights to throw Ken out of the dojo. Ken was a white belt. They don't teach students. Ari picked up on his alarm.

"Uh, no... that's not exactly what I meant..." she said, completely unable to smoothly lie her way out of the conversation.

"Well," smiled Sensei. "I'm sure that when whomever's teaching you decides it's time, he'll send you to me for more formal training."

The man had glanced at Ken when he said that, surprising Ken a great deal. It was now obvious that Sensei knew that Ken was training Arianwen -- and possibly others -- and apparently had no objection to it.

"Ken," he said, turning to face his student. "If this lovely lady ever decides to train formally, I'm sure we can find a place here for her, and perhaps others that you think would benefit from my instruction. How did the class work out for you today?"

"Great, actually," replied Ken.

Damn, he wished he could read the man. But it was almost like there was no one standing there. Totally weird, to say the least.

"Excellent. Then I'll see you tomorrow. Good day to you both," he said as he walked off.

"Why," asked Arianwen, "do I think I missed half that conversation?"

"I'll explain later," replied her husband.

Ari shrugged, then glanced over at a woman who appeared to be watching them intently.

"Who's that?" she asked.

Ken didn't even have to look to know who Ari was talking about.

"That," he said leaning close to Ari, "is Nikki. She is Sensei's slave."

"Cool," she said with a lazy smile that indicated that if he didn't get her out of here, Nikki might find herself confronted by the Minx. While she might be able to resist Arianwen, Ken didn't want to bet on it. And until he got a better idea of where Sensei stood on various subjects, he wasn't about to let anything untoward happen.

"Slave," he said in a voice that immediately got Ari's attention. "This would be a bad time."

He noticed that his tone of voice didn't help matters. He could feel his wife react to him and could see her ringed nipples poking though her thin shirt.

"Yes, Master," she said, her face a bit flushed.

"Let's go."

Once back at the mansion, Ken puttered around, trying to think of a way to tell Eric and Sally about the conversation he'd had with Joan. Then it occurred to him that he'd asked Eric and Sally to tell Joan how things were around here. He wondered what they'd told her.

As it turned out, nothing. Eric looked somewhat abashed when he said that they'd gotten too distracted when the woman was with them to spend time talking about things like that.

"I don't know," said Eric, "it's just weird. Sally and I talked later, and being with Joan is just not like being with anyone else here. I mean, you know that we love you guys, but Joan is just... different. Special, somehow."

"Well, special or not, she's one really freaked-out woman at the moment. I saw her today, and she's not looking good," replied Ken.

He went on to tell them about the conversation he'd had with Joan. Sally got upset, and Eric looked like he didn't know what to do.

"I should call her," he said. "Talk to her. I'm sure that we can find some way to work things out."

"I think you can, too," said Ken carefully, "but I don't think you should call her. I think you need to wait until she calls you."

"What if she doesn't call?" asked Sally with tears in her eyes.

"I think she will," replied Ken. "Wait until Saturday and then call her, if she doesn't contact you. Most likely, time is one of the things she needs to work this out."

He saw the idea didn't make either one of them particularly happy. But they were willing to go along with it. Ken hoped he was right, but knew that when people were concerned, nothing was a certainty.

It was Wednesday when Tina wandered onto the patio by the pool, and Ken just knew she was looking to play. She'd spent the last two days wandering around giving off the sort of glow that comes from having the best sex of your life. She'd slept with him, Jane and Ari each night, joyously making love with the three of them. Ken would have thought that she'd use her new-found status to at least sleep with Eric and Sally, but she'd shown no inclination to do so. Today, it was obvious, to him at least, that she had a very specific purpose in mind as she walked onto the patio.

Bill was sitting on one of the chairs, under an umbrella of course, and typing furiously on a laptop that was sitting on the table. It was connected to the housenet, and he was completely lost in what he was doing. Genie, who'd decided to take a vacation day, was lying next to him, but she was in the sun. Ken looked at her and wondered why she'd been chosen as a Priestess. Annette he could understand: she was an amazing artist, and Lea had told him to gather the best artists he could find. She had also told him to find people who excelled in other areas as well; technology, for instance. Genie, he knew, worked with data at work. He wasn't sure exactly what she did, but aside from the fact that she was a very sexual person and fit in very well here, he had no idea if she had talents that went beyond that. Of course, that might not matter. Her talent might very well be that she loved sex, was good at it, and that was that.

Tina sat down in the lounge right next to Genie. She had a can of whipped cream in her hand, which she shook up. She tilted her head back and sprayed a healthy jet of it into her open mouth. The noise made Genie open her eyes and look over at her. Tina grinned and offered the can.

Genie smiled and reached for it, but Tina shook her head and leaned over to position the can over Genie's mouth. She triggered the nozzle and filled up Genie's mouth, then shook up the can and sprayed more into her own. When Genie indicated she wanted more, Tina obliged with a smile. Then, as Genie was swallowing, Tina sprayed a large glob of it right on Genie's right breast. The cold of the whipped cream caused Genie to give a muffled yell.