Chapter 47

The next day Nicole was the honored guest at the table. Bluntly put, I was dreading this day. I had wracked my brain for a way to deal with her and her seeming inability to tap into our link. I had seen a few encouraging signs in the last few days, but it was nowhere strong enough for me to link up with her. I knew it just wasn't there. I had tried many times to connect with her. Even attempting to hook up to her with my prick buried deep within her while she climaxed had only managed an imperceptible — to her, at least — blip on the radar. Sally had just about jumped out of the bed at the pulse she felt when I tried that. Apparently Nicole's system, screwed up as it was, acted as a kind of amplifier or something. Sally was wobbly for a couple of days trying to shake off the intensity of that aborted attempt.

I discovered I was not the only one worried that morning. All of the women were tense. Even though they all knew nothing bad would happen to Nicole, the other three of them were aware that she could not 'talk' to me as they did. Nicole was not stupid, either. She knew there was something special going on among the rest of us and that she was the odd man out.

I had no idea how devastating that was to her until that morning. All her life she had fought against being left out, excluded. We all do, to some extent, I suppose, but Nicole had never had the luxury of assuming the acceptance of her classmates or of her own age group. She had always been advanced in school, challenging and eclipsing those students who were older than she. Inevitably, some of them had closed ranks against her socially so that she was isolated, both from those in her class and, because of her advanced placement in the schools, those of her own age group.

When I reached out to her with my link and probed her mind as she knelt beside my chair, I literally jumped back as if I had been shocked by a bare electrical wire. My reaction was visible to the others, I was so stunned by what I had sensed in Nicole's mind. She was a boiling cauldron of terror, panic, intelligence, determination and a force of Will I had never before encountered in anyone I had ever met. All of this was stirred and twisted around her compelling and conflicting need to be submissive. I was amazed that her mind had not snapped with all the tumult she was feeling.

I knew I was going to have to do something to calm her. I briefly consider a Spock "mind-meld" but that was hokey even on Star Trek. Besides, I had left my pointy ears in my other pants. The silence at the table told me the others were watching and the increasing panic I sensed in Nicole told me my time was quickly running out. I heard and then focused on the soothing rhythmic 'tick-tock tick-tock' of the wall clock and it was suddenly clear.

I reached out with my hand and touched her silky hair. I focused on the softness and beauty of each strand as I felt it. I then touched her ear, focusing on its delicate features and beauty, the smoothness of the skin and the tiny cilia that covered it. My fingers traced lightly over her temples, then down her cheeks to her jaw.

By the time I reached her parted lips, reveling in their full softness, her trembling had lessened considerably. I helped her to focus on my touch as best I could, trying to relay to her in a very basic tactile way what I felt about each particular feature as I touched her. I don't know if she understood but after a while, she had settled down enough so that I could proceed to the next phase.

Taking my cue from the rhythm of the clock, I began a hypnotic pulsing of energy across the link. I was focused on Nicole but as I glanced up around the table, I noticed by the glassy-eyed stares that there were at least two eavesdroppers. Sally's blush of embarrassment told me she wanted to know what was going on, too, but hadn't gotten caught by the hypnotic trance I had put Nicole into. The two youngsters were not so lucky and I was definitely not pleased.

I sent a quick message to Sally over the link, a picture of what I wanted, and ended with an emphatic 'NOW!' She grinned maliciously across the table at me and set to her task. I quickly re-focused my total attentions on Nicole.

Now that Nicole was 'at rest, ' it was easier for me to link up to her, even in an anemic manner. I resisted any urge to dig into her past or to leave post-hypnotic suggestions. It wouldn't have been right. I did initiate a conversation with her, kind of. It was basic and elemental, mostly images and ideas. The blackness of her terrors was constantly roiling beneath the calm surface and I could sense the delicate and intricate balance she maintained. Again, I marveled at the raw strength in this woman.

I must have let a bit more of that wonder slip through to her than I intended, as suddenly I felt a light begin to shine in her. It was as if she was responding to that pure adoration. I focused on that, sending reassuring messages to her, elemental, basic, even sexual at times. Her light grew stronger and stronger, as if it was craving, starving for emotional energy.

I didn't realize how long we had been sitting there, just the two of us. When I came to my senses, it was close to lunchtime. Nicole's and my breakfasts were still siting in front of us untouched. Nicole was noticeably calmer now. We still could not link up, but I felt that tremendous strides had been made that morning. I slowly brought her out of her trance, coaxing and encouraging her to join me.

We sat together quietly, peacefully as I fed her from her plate of morsels and ate my own cold breakfast. Then I went to attend to our two nosey daughters.

Sally was standing watch outside the dungeon with an amused smile on her face. The two girls had been led, still in a hypnotic trance, down to the dungeon, stripped naked and bound. I never left anyone bound unwatched. Too many bad things could happen and, deserving as they were of punishment for snooping, they did not deserve to have anything disastrous happen.

My two young charges were bent over two of the padded trestles, their feet spread wide and bound fast, their hands tied outstretched horizontally in front of them, over their bowed heads. Four luscious, not quiet ripe tits hung deliciously below them, swaying slightly with each fearful breath they took. Their asses, breathtakingly taut, pointed up at a slight angle as if begging to be attended to.