Chapter 53A: Ted and Claudette Begin Defining their Relationship

Claudette sat primly in Ted's front seat, second-guessing her plan to replace Rob with Ted. Certainly, Ted had mellowed as the evening went on, going from sardonic at his arrival at her table to genial by stages -- but Claudette was uneasy. Things had gone well until closing time, and allowing Ted to take her home was the proper thing to do to set him up as heir to Rob's position, but...

Claudette glanced over at Ted -- a fearful flick. Nothing obvious had occurred, and Ted was still genial, but there was a darkness to him...

Claudette's radar was a little late picking up anything, but she was right on target. Ted WAS still genial, but the reason for it was anticipation -- anticipation of putting HIS spin on their budding relationship...

"It's just up here on the right," Claudette offered hopefully.

"Right there?" Ted pointed.

"Yes."

"Good." Ted kept right on going.

"Ted! Why didn't you stop?" Claudette demanded.

Ted smiled at the windshield. "Because I think we need to talk some more about our 'partnership' before we get too involved in it. I have a number of concerns that we should address before we really hit the street. Besides, you're not expected right away at home, are you?" He eyed her for that final query.

"Well, no..." What was there about his eyes that dragged the truth out of her? If she'd been able to lie...

Actually, it probably wouldn't have helped -- but Claudette lost a battle of wills, right there.

Ted didn't go much farther; Claudette lived in an affluent area on the edge of town, and just a bit beyond was an access to a dirt road leading to the local quarry. Ted didn't stay on that road, however; he opted for an even less well-defined path that wound through some old-growth forest to a small clearing. Stopping there, he shut off the engine.

Claudette knew fear from the moment he entered the quarry road. She had only a vague idea where they were, and really couldn't come up with any GOOD reason for them to require so much privacy... "Why are we here?"

"Peace and quiet," Ted replied genially. "Nice, don't you think?"

"I guess." Claudette cautiously glanced around. "Why so remote? We could have talked at my house..."

"Too public," Ted grunted, shaking his head. "Parents, servants -- I'm not like you; I don't have people waiting on me hand and foot all of the time. While you might be able to ignore them, they would keep me from being able to hold up my end of the conversation. This is better."

"I see." Claudette entertained Ted's line of reasoning, which appeared on the face of it to be fairly reasonable. Relaxing a bit, she murmured, "This is better, then?"

"Much," Ted agreed. "It will allow me to assert myself properly." Ted was grinning inside; he seldom got such an opportunity to play tricks with his vocabulary. Moving on, he started circling for the kill, "All right, I guess I might as well get started. You confused me earlier when you said that your private relationship with Rob was supposed to be genuine; one of Rob's big complaints was that you were, uh, unapproachable in private. How do YOU see this?"

Claudette frowned. "What do you mean by 'unapproachable'?"

Ted shrugged. "Rob insisted that he got less -- affection, let's call it -- from you in private than he did in public. I really can't operate like that -- it's a sham..." Ted added loftily.

"Well, he was busy chasing those loose girls..." Claudette temporized.

"The way I hear it, he started chasing them because you weren't offering enough..." Ted chided.

"It's not true!" Claudette asserted, flustered. "I... He... I TOLD you, I'm saving myself for marriage!"

"Were you planning on marrying Rob?" Ted pressed.

"Well, yes. Eventually..."

"... And when was that?"

Claudette shrugged. "After college, sometime..."

"So, Rob was supposed to do without for four or five more years?" Ted glared at Claudette. "Do you have similar plans for me?"

"Well, no..." Claudette turned away. Ted was a short-term solution; he just wasn't suitable, in the long run. Claudette only REALLY needed Ted until the fall -- but of course, admitting THAT would cause things to crash and burn...

Claudette fooled Ted not at all, so his disgruntled, "I should hope not!" was a prime piece of acting. But again, he'd won the point. After a moment's counterfeit petulance, he pursued things, "So, how often did you two kiss in private? Did you do any French kissing? In public, you guys seemed to be limited to close-mouthed pecks..."

Under pressure, Claudette began to see that she hadn't managed Rob well. "Well, no..."

"No, you didn't kiss, or no, you didn't French?"

"Um, we kissed, occasionally -- you know, at the end of an evening. No, we didn't French."

Ted shook his head, "I really fail to see what you're offering me, here."

"Well, there will be a certain enhancement of your reputation from the two of us being together..." Claudette replied carefully.

Ted grunted. "Anyone who knows you and knows how it was with you and Rob will merely assume I'm having my balls cut off..."

"Ted!"

"Well?"

Claudette was becoming vexed. Certainly, Ted had a point; it was becoming clear that she had bungled things with Rob badly -- but then Rob was such a charmer; if she had given an inch, he'd have taken her virginity and made her into one of his sluts, for sure! Meanwhile, what was she to do in the present situation? Well, at least Ted wasn't as overtly charming... "What do you want?"

Ted shrugged. "If you're going to inject anything resembling realism into our relationship, you're going to have to be a bit more cuddly in public. And in order to properly project the idea that we're being restrained in public, we need to be going a bit further in private..."

Claudette shook her head, perplexed. 'Cuddly', 'restrained' -- The terms seemed innocuous enough -- why did they bring on such foreboding? "We don't have to rush right out, do we?"

Ted shrugged, feigning indifference. "It's your rep you're trying to rescue..."

Damn! She was over a barrel again! Either she put up with some kind of intimacy, or she was a cheat and a liar -- and everyone would know it! "All right. I suppose we could -- I don't know -- kiss, or something..."

"Good." Ted popped open the car door; time to take things a bit further...

"Where are you going?" Claudette asked, puzzled.

"It's a nice night. I'm sure you'd like to avoid any clichés. I have some stuff in the back..." Ted circled around and opened the trunk, collecting a tarp, a heavy blanket, a folding chair, and a short hunk of rope. Claudette watched, puzzled, as he spread the tarp, spread the blanket above, and sat up the chair. The rope he tossed negligently under the chair. Then he came around and opened the passenger door. "Come on out -- get some air..." he said, taking her hand and pulling her from the car.

Claudette didn't resist; curiosity had a grip on her. "What's up with the chair?"

"Well, you COULD sit on my lap," Ted replied, seating himself and pulling her there.

"I don't think so," Claudette jumped up and backed away; the position was just a little too intimate, and access under the skirt she was wearing a little too easy...

"I didn't think so, either," Ted chuckled, "but it was worth a try. There's always later..." He waved at the blanket. "In the meantime, let's sit out here, then." He lifted himself from the chair far enough to drop onto the blanket. "Come on; you need to show me that you're serious about all this." He patted the blanket beside him.

Claudette settled in gingerly, and Ted wrapped an arm around her -- something which generated an instant flinch when his hand touched her torso. Ted moved his hand to her arm, but manufactured an aggrieved tone, "This is nuts! How are you going to carry off the idea that you've found something better if you're going to act like a block of ice when I wrap an arm around you? Are you that hung up?"

"N-no..." Actually, she was; her mother, Charlotte, had been vicious about instilling rules of behavior from a bygone age since her early childhood. At about age twelve, her independence brought them into conflict, and open war ensued between mother and daughter until one memorable confrontation when Charlotte announced, "One day, a man is going to worm his way into your knickers -- and he'll discover just what a total SLUT you are! When that happens, you'll not be rid of him until he's taken everything you have to offer! If you follow the rules I've tried to instill in you, you'll be able to PICK the man who does it, and you can live like this..." She waved her arms at the Pinkersley's palatial living room. "Or, you can let HIM find YOU -- and you'll end up barefoot and pregnant in a trailer park with three other snot-nosed brats and no husband, looking the prospect of spreading your legs for a living in the face!"

"Mother!" Claudette had screeched, "How would YOU know whether I'm a slut or not? I certainly don't! And you won't even let me touch myself!"

"That's right!" her mother had sneered. "And you'd better not, either, because I'll know when you do -- and so will every bad boy in town! You'll give off slut in heat vibes, and the first boy with the balls to do it will make you his bitch -- and you can kiss your future goodbye, because he'll be a bastard -- it goes with the territory!"

The pair had railed at each other for another hour, but her mother's words had had their effect -- because no matter how vehement her denials, a little voice in Claudette had agreed with her mother's assessment, one hundred percent. That little piece of her nodded its head wisely and licked its chops. That little piece of her pointed out temptation by attempting to embrace it, licking its chops at every attempt to penetrate her defenses. The conflict with her mother died away; Claudette was too busy protecting herself, sharpening her tools and stiffening her defenses.

But Claudette had an Achilles heel -- the very tools she used to protect herself could be used to cut her! Claudette was a master manipulator, capable of shaping her audience's perception of reality to meet her needs -- but she had BEEN manipulated from an early age, and anyone capable of pushing her buttons would have control over her in short order.

Ted had been discovering buttons since her first overture that evening; by now, he had mastered several, and had his sights set on controlling several more. It was all a matter of technique...

Now, for instance -- he had her dropping her defenses, not because she wanted to, but because he'd convinced her that she MUST to succeed in her plan to recover from Rob's loss. The truth had been an effective tool in Ted's hands; pointing out her failures, the errors that had lost her her partner in popularity and threatened to make her a laughingstock were forcing her to re-evaluate her tactics -- which was a good idea, on the face of it. Unfortunately for Claudette, the test case for her new behaviors was Ted -- and Ted had a totally different agenda...

Ted kept up the pressure. "Is it me, then? Why did you offer to be with me if you can't stand me?"

Now, as far as Claudette was concerned, the jury was still out on Ted -- but she couldn't admit it. She decided that it was best to fall back on the truth, to a point, "Okay, maybe I AM a little hung up. I'll try to do better."

"Okay," Ted replied, still somewhat petulant. "You really need to be able to let me inside your space." That said, he again shifted his hand to her ribs.

The proximity alarm for her breasts went off again, but Claudette silenced it. Her little beast was watching and gibbering, though, throwing up outrageous fantasies, distracting her.

"That's better." Ted deliberately moved his hand all over her side, drifting from her stomach to her back and back again, conquering territory, but staying carefully away from areas that would be contested, like her ass or her breasts -- that could wait. "That's not so bad, is it?"

"No." It felt good, actually, once her defenses were overridden -- and Little Beast was doing handstands. Slowly, she relaxed; Ted was keeping his hand in the proper areas, and he hadn't stepped outside the line or become too aggressive. Confidence returned.

Ted lulled her for fifteen minutes or so, then decided to move on. "Okay, on to intramural kissing," he announced.

"What?" Claudette was taken by surprise.

Ted rolled his eyes. "Come on! You've been trading little sanitary pecks with Rob for months! We HAVE to improve on THAT!" He waited a moment while her features again reflected her internal struggle -- but he was right, of course, even from her perspective -- then he took her chin in his hand. Claudette made to duck away, and it took willpower not to clamp down on her, but he didn't -- and she came around. He pressed his lips to hers.

It seemed to Claudette that maybe they were moving pretty quickly, but Ted was right, damn him! They needed to be convincing -- and she was going to have to give him something she hadn't given Rob, or he was gone, and her chances at recovery with him. She quelled her flight impulses and accepted his lips.

... Only they didn't go away. What should have been a peck went on for about five seconds, then Ted started massaging her lips with his. This generated a full-fledged case of angst in Claudette; on the one hand, he was pushing things pretty hard -- and on the other, it, well, felt nice... The Little Beast was quiet, waiting -- but it did that all the time, so Claudette didn't worry. But her frontal lobe was missing a bet -- the silence was gloating, anticipation; Little Beast was waiting for the Big One, and was pretty sure it was coming...

Claudette misinterpreted the source of her excitement and, deciding that the exercise was pleasant and non-threatening after all, loosened up, responding to Ted's actions. The kiss was still close-mouthed, but it was at least a 'real' kiss...

Pleased with progress, Ted let things ride for a few minutes and several kisses -- until Claudette appeared to be used to the level of contact. Then he began intermittent lightning penetrations of her lips with his tongue -- not yet open-mouthed French-kissing, but merely slipping through her lips. In the original mode of tight-lipped pecks, this would have been impossible, but now that their lips were moving, Claudette couldn't seal hers against him. Claudette's first reaction was to flinch backward, putting a hand to her lips, "Ted!"

"What?" Ted feigned innocence, then smiled. Claudette thought about it for a moment, then smiled back -- the contact had tickled, and as long as her mouth was closed, it didn't really change anything... She leaned back in and Ted resumed the kisses, thinking, 'Blondes... '

Kissing went on for a bit longer, but Claudette started getting restless, so Ted figured it was time to shift tactics, "So, how are things thus far?"