Chapter 22: Ral Finds Sally

The store looked fantastic. All sorts of costumes, toys, aids and paraphernalia were there for customers to peruse and buy. Much like Victoria's Secret, the store catered to intimacies but with leather, rubber and other exotic materials to enjoy.

I had entered by the employee entrance and stood next to the office door, ready to speak with the new manager Renée and Erin had hired. Watching as some of the store's clerks walk by I thought about the store policy which required very open minded employees because they would have to not only dress up in the wide variety of attire offered, but in the discretion of our private booths, demonstrate the use of some of the toys and other implements customers may want to purchase.

Just as it always was for me, it was distracting to see the two brunettes walk by softly giggling about something while one wore a latex cat suit and the other wore a leather bodice, a thong and stockings. Both walked tall in their spiked high heel pumps.

I had to get a grip. As one of the owners, it would be considered sexual harassment to get too friendly with the clerks.

Again the doorknob; again distracted. Another brunette, but this one seemed vaguely familiar. How could that be? I had met many new people since I had arrived but she didn't make me think of Mind Magi. The only person I knew who had anything to do with the Big Apple and not that secret society was my ex-girlfriend, Sally, and she wouldn't work at a store like this. Would she?

I watched, mesmerized. She stopped and adjusted the cups of the latex bra she wore. I didn't remember Sally have breasts that size. Then again, I had never seen them revealed so dramatically. The brunette in question also wore a leather skirt that looked like nothing more than a belt with lots of straps hanging from it. An addition to the line that my Paramour, Chloe, had worn the first time I collared her. Different situation, different time. It seemed like ages ago, but it hadn't even been a year. However, this brunette, with her just-past-shoulder length locks and soft face looked so much like her. Not like Chloe, but like Sally. I looked at her hands as she adjusted the bra's only strap, around her torso, putting it in its proper place just under her breasts. Her hands were so delicate. Sally's were like that. She had seemed so slight back when we dated in high school. With my six foot one frame, I felt like I would break her if I did anything wrong.

I started to call out to the brunette, to simply find out, but I stopped myself. My lifestyle was so different from what we had shared. It was just the two of us, as a couple, in high school. Now I had many women bound to me, and it wasn't just ongoing friendships. Each of them was special in their own ways and none of them held back in the passion play we all enjoyed. I stopped myself because Sally wouldn't approve of what I'd become. She had broken up with me just for suggesting the possibility of us having sex. Not just to have sex, but to express how we both felt, in a physical way, for each other. I had been certain she had felt the same as I had, that we would share a tender evening and raise our relationship to the next level. But she left me that night. Left me to go off to college alone. Left to return to New York with her family.

I couldn't approach her now, not with the grand opening of the store ready. It was just bad timing. But was it Sally I watched or someone who just looked like her? I could ask Erin. She wasn't there but that didn't matter. We had established a semi-permanent connection of thought when an ex-boyfriend of hers whisked her away and I ran to the rescue. It took no effort on our parts to use it, just like talking. However, with the way my bond to her adjusted her way of thinking, she'd be all for it, whether the girl was Sally or not.

I shook my head. All my women had a habit of egging me into situations I normally would have backed away from, but this wasn't just any playfulness in the bedroom or even in a park. Sally was my first love, my first girlfriend, my first friend. She and I had gotten along when so many others would turn away. I wasn't repulsive to see, or a bad mouthed lout. It was just the typical cliques of high school, and I didn't fit in any of them. Sally had been new to the school. Her parents had moved to the small town in West Virginia for a year. She and I had initially just talked about school, homework, the usual stuff. But eventually, when those topics ran dry and we both seemed to look forward to the next conversation, we found other things to talk about, books, movies, games. It was our budding relationship that gave me something to look forward to in a life that didn't see much hope.

Hope. The one thing I still used more than my genetic gifts or Master PC. Hope. The power that helped me save my women from certain slavery at the hands of a woman bent on changing the world, literally. Hope. The striving force that helped me save my adopted family from themselves. Hope would help me now, not only in the crisis regarding the House Leaders and the Mind Magi but with the brunette too. Even if she wasn't Sally, maybe it was a sign that I should find her, to tell her how I still felt. I felt light on my feet and glided forward.

The young woman looked up as I stepped forward. She had the same soft brown eyes, the same slight curl in her hair. If she wasn't Sally, she could pass for her twin.

"Sally?" I plunged forward.

She looked back at me. I had changed when Renée had activated my dormant code the summer prior. If Sally and I had gone through with what I had suggested, then the transformation would have occurred sooner and she would still be with me. If I wasn't careful, it could still happen. The woman looked me over, her eyes going down, taking in my highly polished boots, the designer suit, my slimmed and toned stance, and my slightly altered face. I could see the recognition in her eyes. Anyone who knew me even before my changes would still recognize me. It was part of my power. "Ral?"

I smiled as did she and nodded, "Yeah ... um, it's been a while."

She nodded, the smile open and sharing space on her face with astonishment, "What are you doing here? We're not even open yet." She looked around like she expected someone to spot me and escort me out.

"I know. I'm the keynote speaker for the grand opening. I partially own Mr. Naughty's."

Sally's face went from surprised to outright astonished, "I didn't think you're parents would help you with anything, especially something so ... extravagant." She blushed, and the red spread down her neck and across the tops of her pale globes. Did I mention that large breasts were my greatest weakness? Especially when so wonderfully displayed.