Chapter 1

With every passing minute, Linda's annoyance grew, and with it her indecision. She didn't want to be that kind of Aunt, she really didn't. She wanted to be the cool Aunt, the Aunt her niece could come to about boys, and clothes and anything else she didn't want to go to her parents about. In other words, she wanted to be the exact opposite of her sister, the mother of the niece in question.

Linda knew her niece was a good kid. But even good kids sometimes made bad decision. And Linda's sister was the mother, after all; even if she sometimes acted like she had a Louisville Slugger up her ass. She had a right to expect her child would be supervised. And if she called right now, and Linda was forced to admit she had no idea where Heidi was, well, how would that look? Linda knew how it would look, and she knew how it would sound. It would sound like never hearing the end of it.

And then was the real problem. Linda truly had no idea where Heidi was, and very little to go on if she tried to figure out where the girl was. Linda's annoyance flared anew... all of this could have been avoided with a simple phone call that began with the words, "Aunt Linda, I just wanted you to know..."

Linda walked into the kitchen, reviewed the voluminous instruction Heidi's Mom had stuck to the fridge, and revised her options. She's just been reflecting that she had few options for figuring out where Heidi was. In fact, she had precisely one, and it was located across the street and 2 houses down, that being the residence of Kelly O'Malley, Heidi's best friend. All Linda really knew was Heidi and Kelly were together, so if anyone would know where the two girls were, it would be Kelly's mom. She hoped.

Linda made her decision, then she made the walk. 3 minutes later, she was knocking at the door. When it opened, Linda said, "Mrs. O'Malley?"

"Yes?"

Something about Mrs. O'Malley struck Linda as odd. Here a perfect stranger had just knocked on her door, and already knew her name, but Mrs. O'Malley was as placid as a lake at dawn, "My name is Linda Beris, I'm Heidi's aunt and I'm watching her for the weekend while my sister's out of town."

"Ohhhhh! Heidi's so great. She's just..." Mrs. O'Malley paused to find just the right word, "... great!"

Mrs. O'Malley had a low, breathy quality to her voice that Linda was sure was affected. She hoped her disapproval didn't show, "To tell you the truth, I'm not thinking so right now. I hate to ask you this, but do you know where she and Kelly are? Heidi was supposed to call me 4 hours ago."

Mrs. O'Malley looked at Linda as if the answer were self-evident, "She's... she's at the party."

Linda's annoyance transmuted into anger, "A party?"

"That's right."

"And you know about this party?"

"Of course. In fact, I was just about to head over," Mrs. O'Malley looked Linda over carefully. "Would you like to come along?"

"Yes, I think I would, though I don't think Heidi or I will be staying very long."

Mrs. O'Malley shrugged as if to say 'suit yourself', "Let's go. By the way, my name is Emma."

The two piled into Emma's SUV and buckled themselves in. Linda expected a short drive to another girl's house, or maybe a rec center of some sort. She was surprised when Emma pulled onto the freeway.

"Where is this party?"

"Oh, downtown," Emma said absentmindedly.

Linda realized absentminded was probably the perfect word to describe Emma; that, or maybe distracted. Everything about the woman gave the impression she had something else on her mind. Whatever elation Linda had felt in discovering Heidi's whereabouts was washed out by the sense that she was in the hands of a complete space cadet.

Emma's distraction extended to her driving. Emma didn't seem too worried about staying in her lane. Mercifully, the traffic was light this time of the evening, and 25 minutes later, they pulled up to a 5 star hotel. Emma dropped her key off with the valet, and Linda scrambled to follow, wondering what sort of party was being held at a place like this.

Emma strode quickly to the front desk. That was another thing Linda had noticed. The longer they'd driven, the more agitated Emma seemed to become. Maybe agitated was too strong a word, antsy was more like it. Now that they were in the hotel, Emma seemed to be in quite a hurry.

"Hello Mrs. O'Malley," a perky blond greeted Emma. The blond also managed a respectful nod to Linda.

"Hello Cindy," Emma replied, and held out her hand.

Cindy handed over a white card, the size of a credit card, with a black magnetic strip, "They're waiting for you up in the Penthouse."

"Thank you," Emma started for the elevator.

Linda still stood by the front desk. This was all starting to get a little too weird.

"Well," Emma snapped. The breathiness had been replaced with impatience. "Come on."

Despite her better judgment, Linda followed.

The hotel was over 30 stories tall, and the Penthouse was at the top. During the entire ride, Emma bounced up and down on the balls of her feet and made quiet mewling sounds, as if the elevator could not move fast enough. It opened onto a small foyer with a double door on the other side. Emma strode across the room and slipped the card into the lock. The doors clicked, then opened. Emma burst through,. The first thing Linda noticed about the Penthouse was the taste of the air, a strange, alkali sensation that made her mouth tingle. It reminded her of when she was a little kid and she'd put a 9-volt battery on her tongue on a dare.

"You taste that?" she asked Emma, then she looked over.

Emma's eyes were clenched shut. She stood ram rod straight, taking long, deep, slow breaths, her tongue hanging out of her mouth.

"Yeeeesssss!" Emma hissed, sounding like a person from whom a great burden had been lifted. After a moment, Emma seemed to regain her composure, "Why don't you have a seat here and wait? I'll see if I can find Heidi?"

Without waiting for an answer, Emma took off at a brisk walk for a hallway on the other side of the room. Linda was looking out the window, so she couldn't be sure, but when Emma reached the hall, she seemed to break into a sprint.

Not knowing what else to do, Linda dropped onto a couch and helped herself to a glass of water from the carafe on the coffee table. However quickly Emma had left, she didn't hurry back. And whatever impatience Emma had been feeling was now rubbing off on Linda; she noticed she was tapping her foot frantically. A tightness had developed in her gut. Unconsciously she squeezed her legs together as the feeling asserted itself. Soon, a warm, flushed sensation spread across her chest and into her cheeks. The oddest thing was the whole thing felt familiar somehow, but she couldn't figure out where she'd felt like this before. It was as if all the clues were being given totally out of context.

It was only after 15 minutes, and with no sign of Emma, that Linda decided to take matters into her own hands. She started down the hallway Emma had left through. It was long and Linda deduced it must run the entire length of the floor. They obviously had the top of the building all to themselves. Doors were infrequently spaced along the length of the hall, on both sides. They all seemed to be closed tight, but a third of the way down Linda found one open a crack. She could hear faint voices inside.

She entered a suite that was far bigger than her own apartment. It was definitely better furnished... it always amazed her to see how the other half lived. The voices she'd heard were a little louder now, though she still couldn't tell who they were or what they were saying. It sounded like they were coming from behind a door to her left.

"Hello?" she called quietly. No answer, so she said a little louder, "Hello?"

Still no answer. She felt weird about barging in on what would turn out to be, no doubt, complete strangers. But she needed to find Heidi and get the hell out of there. The whole scene was giving Linda a bizarre vibe. She crossed to the door and pushed it open.

Two women, a redhead and a busty black woman, totally naked, were locked in a 69 on an enormous bed, their moans muffled by the other's pussy. As the door swung open, the two rolled into a different position, with the redhead on the bottom. The black girl reared up, her head thrown back.

"Oh God yes!" she groaned. "Like that, just like that! I'm gonna' cum... you're gonna' make me cum... right on your face!"

The redhead's hips twitched spastically, so the black girl dipped her head back down and slid her tongue into wet, swollen twat. Linda backed away slowly, appalled by what she saw and unable to pull her eyes away; appalled that she was an uninvited witness to something so personal and private, appalled by the sight of two women fucking like animals and appalled by a sudden, insane impulse to tear her clothes off and join them.

She'd backed halfway into the suite's common area before she found the strength to turn and run. She was only a step into the hallway when she found herself flat on the floor. It took a moment to get her bearings, stand up, then realize she'd run full steam into another woman, who was also only just picking herself up.

"Are you okay?" the other woman asked kindly. She wore black pants, a crisp white shirt and was built exactly like Linda, petite with the kind of tight body that comes from hours in the gym. Her skin was smooth and tanned, unlike Linda's which was dotted with freckles. Where this other woman's hair was long and straight and black, Linda's was short, stylishly messy and dirty blond. Then Linda realized what she was doing. The thought she'd been checking this stranger out unnerved her even more.