Chapter 27

Compared to the day before, Jason was in a much better state of mind when he entered the Inn. The pall of despair he had felt the day before had faded to healthy trepidation as the unknown factor had been removed. Moreover, he had not fallen on the first attempt.

He hoped to draw on what he had learned from Elizabeth's journal and ignore the fact that it had not helped her without magical assistance. With a distinct lack of other options, he had to work with what he had.

Cindy spotted him as he crossed the lobby and gave him a sheepish smile. Rather than quell his erotic thoughts, Jason instead chose to accept them and let them play in his mind.

Accept and move on, Jason thought. Just because I desire it does not mean I have to act on it. I have to be at peace with my own failings and temptations.

"Um, hi," Cindy said as Jason drew close.

"Hi, Cindy," Jason said in a voice he hoped sounded casual. "Um, I assume I can just go straight on back?"

"Well, yes, but ... Ms. Missen is running an errand right now."

"Oh. I guess I'll just wait here."

"She said to wait in her office." Cindy hesitated before adding with a forced smile, "I'm supposed to keep you company until she returns."

At once he recalled his dream of a naked Cindy, wet and panting, devouring his cock. Her skills were exquisite, working him like no other girl ever had. She was helpless to resist adoring his delicious cock, believing it far more tasty than that of her current boyfriend.

Yes, I desire that, Jason thought. That is my failing. I accept it.

"Okay, that's fine," Jason said.

Cindy stepped out from behind the counter and followed Jason into the office. He resisted the urge to dismiss the imagery from his mind. To do so would be to deny its existence. Let it play out while he watched as a disinterested bystander. He would detach himself emotionally from it.

He sat down at one end of the sofa. Cindy trailed behind him, pausing at the door before closing it and stepping forward. She hesitated again before sitting down near the other end. "Um ... Jason, about yesterday--"

"It's not a big deal," Jason said. "Just one of those things. I wasn't going to mention it. Or expect more."

Cindy let out a sigh of relief. "I mean, not that I wouldn't like ... I-I mean, I did enjoy it, but I really shouldn't have done it. I'm still not sure what came over me."

She has to talk out her feelings about it.

Having analyzed his own mind on the way to the Inn, he was cognizant enough to realize the thought likely did not come from him. He could disregard it, even though it made sense. He could use that talk to dissuade her from thinking further about him in a sexual manner.

I would love to have her think about sex when she thinks about me. And I accept that, Jason added, less sure of the origin of the initial thought. I accept I would desire her like that. I do not deny it.

Jason saw Cindy's anxious look and realized he had to say something in response. "I enjoyed it, too. You're very good at it."

Cindy gave him a nervous smile, her cheeks pink. "Um, thanks."

Jason wanted to leave it at that, until he wondered if she were better at any particular aspect of sex, even though he knew it should not matter to him. But if I accept my desires, it should be okay to ask.

Something in that conclusion did not make sense. Wouldn't that be the same as acting on his desire? He would not deny the want was there, but he could not see himself acting upon it if...

"So what part of it are you best at?" Jason asked.

The words had already sprung into his head at the moment of his initial thought, and now something had loosed them to his mouth. He was not sure what had happened, only that now it seemed right.

Cindy's eyes widened, and she placed her hands on her thighs. "That's ... kind of a personal question, Jason," she said in a sightly quaking voice.

I really want to know, now that it's okay to ask. But was it? Had he not thought that he did not have to act upon his impulses? Yes, he could see himself pressing Cindy on the matter, and he had an idea what her response would be. Perhaps I should just tell her what she's best at, then. But that was silly, and he could not see himself...

"I'll bet it's sucking cock," Jason said.

"How did--?!" Cindy blurted before she caught her tongue and ran her hands down her thighs. "I-I don't ... we really shouldn't be talking about this, not after what happened yesterday. We shouldn't talk about it period."

I should throw that right back at her. "Why not?"

Cindy stared at him, her mouth opening but closing again without uttering a sound. She shifted position and drew her legs together. "Because ... I ... I-I can't think of a good answer right now."

Jason felt he had missed something. His mind had leapt from thought to thought without respite. Now I can exploit her confusion and get her thinking about sucking my cock, came the next free-flowing idea, yet he manged to pause the internal dialog by wedging into its midst: I will not act on that as I do not have to.

He did not understand what had gone wrong. He had accepted his failing and made peace with it. It would not affect him if he did not allow it, yet his cock began to swell. He could not be reacting this way if he...

"Maybe you're too distracted thinking about sucking cock right now," said Jason.

"That's not ... how would you know what I was thinking?" Cindy demanded, though her conviction was weak.

"Because you're getting horny."

"Wh-what if I am?"

"So are you thinking about sucking a nice, hard cock right now?"

Jason felt both like a passenger and a person standing on the platform while a train roared past. His thoughts were racing down a track which he could not tell if he had laid or not.

I would just love her sucking my cock.

Jason could add nothing. The statement lay bare in his head, exposing his desire to his own personal universe. His cock was hard and cramped in his briefs and needed to be released.

Cindy licked her lips, her breath a soft pant. She spread her legs apart, her hand fluttering near her crotch. Her nipples poked the fabric of her blouse. "Yes," she said in a small voice. "I-I'll do my boyfriend when I get off work. He loves that."

Jason felt a sense of detachment, as if he had stepped outside his body. I should exploit her need and turn it towards me. One part of his divided psyche refused to see himself give into the desire, and it turned its back on the part which undid his belt and pulled down his jeans and briefs, cradling the base of his erect and pulsing cock.

"I've got one you can suck right here," Jason said.

Cindy licked her lips again but managed to give one shake of her head. In this brief moment of resistance, Jason reintegrated his psyche, and he tried to analyze what had gone wrong.

I accepted it, dammit, Jason thought. I know I can do something like this to her, but I don't have to! I want to but I don't have to! I don't deny I want to BUT I DON'T HAVE TO!

Cindy's resistance wavered, and she slid off the sofa, her eyes glazed and dark with mounting need. Jason repeated his last thoughts, and his hands quivered to obey the desperate command to pull his briefs and jeans back up his legs. Cindy again paused, one hand still gripping the edge of the sofa cushion as if it were her last remaining anchor.

Perspiration broke out on Jason's forehead at the sheer effort of his mental battle with himself. Cindy's hand loosened and fell away from the sofa, and she dropped to her knees.

Something flickered by in Jason's head before he could perceive it. With it went what little insight he had gleaned to the inner workings of his mind, and again the dichotomy manifested between what he believed he could do and what he would do.

She wants my cock.

"You want my cock, don't you?" Jason said in a husky voice.

Cindy crawled to him and pulled his jeans and briefs from his legs. "Yes, please, let me suck it, Jason. I have to suck it."

Jason's thoughts were swallowed up in a pall of lust as Cindy grasped the base of his cock with her fingers. She panted as she slid her tongue in slow and measured strokes along the underside of his cock, her breath hot against his hardness. She flicked her tongue at the sensitive spot until Jason squirmed at the teasing pleasure.

"Oh God, you taste so good," Cindy moaned before she closed her mouth around his cock and swallowed it whole, tilting her head to take all of him. He felt her jaw tense as she clamped down on her gag reflex with the exquisite skill he knew she had, and Jason enjoyed the feel of his cock enveloped by lips, tongue, and cheeks.

I want her naked.

She drew back with a grunt, his cock popping from his mouth with a smacking sound, glistening and pulsing from a heart pounding in excitement. She yanked off her top and tossed it aside before licking his shaft again, pressing her tongue as if milking him. She lashed at the drop of pre-climax moisture which had beaded on the head.

"Mmm, that's good," Cindy breathed before taking him inside. Her head bobbed on his cock in slow but deep strokes, until Jason was panting hard in both pleasure and anticipation. At the same time she struggled to remove her jeans, pushing them down alternating hips and legs, all the while never letting him leave her mouth.

She grasped his cock by the base as she drew it from her mouth, teasing him behind its head as she kicked her jeans from her feet. She devoured him again, her strokes bolder, her lips clamped hard around his shaft as she undid her bra. Her breasts spilled from the cups, the nipples hard and erect.

I had envisioned it and made it so. I wanted her sucking me off and she did it. I wanted her naked and she's doing that too.

Jason wanted to point out the obvious fallacies and omissions in those thoughts. He had done nothing, as he had no such power. It had happened at the Inn's direction and not his.

Yet the words felt close enough to reality that they settled into his subconscious and were absorbed into the depths of his psyche. He felt the icy press of the Darkness around the periphery of his mind as a tendril of Dark power attempted to penetrate his weakened will.

The sensation managed to reawaken his resistance, but it was little more than brute force will applied against power. The strategy Elizabeth had conceived and he had tried to apply had fallen apart, and he had no energy to spare to both determine why and maintain his free will.

Heather sat on the front steps of Debby's house, her arms wrapped around her knees. She gazed up at the ice blue sky, squinting at the amber rays of late afternoon sunlight and contemplating the unthinkable.

Heather felt a sense of betrayal, even as it distressed her to think any disparaging thoughts towards her Mistress. Her original compliance had been extorted by threats against her little sister, but now she had been made the one who would destroy that implied protection.

She let out a ragged sigh. Little wonder she could not conjure the same hatred for her mother which seemed to come so easily to Melinda. She shuddered as she anticipated what her Mistress would say to that, the words forming with such clarity they may well have been spoken directly into her ear: "Then perhaps Melinda deserves no such protection, and would be better off as my slave."

Heather lowered her eyes and shivered, trying to ignore the flash of warmth in her pussy. She gave her head a few violent shakes until her dark thoughts eased, only to again contemplate the unthinkable: that she could no longer protect her little sister.

It remained unthinkable because to entertain the possibility would make it easier to obey her Mistress. Each time the compulsion rose in her mind, she thought of yet another likely means by which she could either coax or trick Melinda into wearing the panties. Having Aunt Jo around made the situation worse; how it would serve that infernal woman right to have Melinda's pussy sealed away from her perversions.

Heather would trade one evil for another, the same thing her mother supposedly had done.

Mercifully, the front door opened, and anticipation of something far more pleasant helped keep her demons at bay a little longer. "I'm sorry if you've been waiting here for very long, Heather," said Debby. She clutched her robe and shivered. "Oh, it's quite chilly! Please, come in and get warmed up before you go see Diane."

Heather ducked inside halfway through Debby's invitation. She pulled off her gloves and cupped her hands around her mouth to puff warm air upon them. She had hardly noticed the cold in the midst of all her worries.

"I would hide a key for you somewhere, but Bill is awfully paranoid about such things," Debby said.

"It's okay, Mrs. Radson, really," Heather said. "It's not usually this cold out. Did it go okay with Diane today?"

Debby gave Heather a soft smile. "I am helping her exercise her ability to channel energy through the link before we see to her problem of storing energy. She had a bit of a slow start at first, but--"

"Slow start?"

Debby paused. "She had something on her mind when she first arrived, but I think I helped her through it." She gave Heather a satisfied smile. "After that, her channeling ability proved even better than yesterday."

Heather recognized the orgasmic afterglow in Debby's eyes and grinned. "I really hope you didn't wear her out."

Debby's cheeks grew faintly pink. "I am more concerned with her wearing me out, to be honest. Whatever her problem is, I doubt it's from lack of channeling ability."

"Is she still upstairs?"

"Yes, she thought she would wait for you there." Debby paused before she said in a somber voice, "You cannot imagine how glad I am that your relationship with Diane has survived everything that's happened to you both."

Heather had not been so sure herself when Diane had confronted her on Halloween night. Diane had been so upset over being used like a sex toy by the others that Heather had had her doubts they would ever have anything more than their brief time together.

"I just appreciate you allowing us to ... well, you know," Heather said. With the other Harbingers she felt few qualms over speaking in explicit terms about sex, but with Debby it still felt inappropriate.

"No different than allowing the others their intimacy," Debby said in a soft voice. "I'm just glad to entertain another couple motivated more by love than need."

Heather smiled for the first time since her Mistress had "released" her that past Sunday night. "Thank you, Mrs. Radson. I'm warmed up enough, so I'll head upstairs now."

She had jogged the distance to the foot of the stairs when Debby suddenly called out, "Oh, Heather, wait one moment, please."

Heather turned around with one hand on the banister. "Something wrong, Mrs. Radson?"

"Just ... be mindful of Diane's wishes," Debby said in a troubled voice.

"But I always am. I don't try to influence her anymore. I don't think I can, not with..." She trailed off and waved her hand, not wanting to dwell on it for too long.

"I don't mean that." Debby's face took on a pained look. "I'm not sure how to word this. Maybe the best I can tell you is: don't make any assumptions."

Heather still did not understand, but she nodded just the same, anxious to see Diane. She raced up the stairs, and only upon reaching the landing did she realize she still wore her coat. She shrugged it from her shoulders as she approached to the bedroom door, her breasts swelling against her tight sweater as she took a deep breath and let it go. She opened the door and stepped inside.

Diane turned her head at her lover's entry, her arm sweeping aside one of the curtains, her lips curling into a small smile. She paused and let one of her lanky legs unfold and stretch down the length of the bed. "Um, hi."

Heather paused a moment, staring at her lover's nude form. One corner of her mouth rose, and she said in a sultry voice, "I love what you're not wearing today, Diane."

Diane's smile broadened slightly even as her cheeks colored. "I didn't think it made sense to get dressed again." She drew in a deep breath and let it go with the words, "I've really missed being alone with you."

Heather draped her coat over one of the bedposts. She wrapped her hand around the post and leaned into it, catching Diane's gaze lingering on her breasts as they briefly jiggled. Even as she gave her lover a sly smile, her eyes shimmered in somber contemplation. Her mind flickered with memories of the slave games they had done together, right before one nearly blew up in their face after Melissa almost made her enslave Diane permanently.

She had resisted thinking of such things for fear of where they would lead. She could easily see Diane submitting to her again, and some part of her still wanted to impose her will upon the willing girl.

Diane drew herself to her knees on the bed. "Heather, please, come closer," she said in a husky voice.

Heather let out a ragged sigh as warmth radiated from her pussy, her nipples tingling under the tight confines of sweater, blouse, and bra. The tone of Diane's voice could have either been a submissive plea or a command. Or she could be reading too much into it, judging everything by a black and white separation which did not exist.

Heather stepped forward, her hand lingering on the post as if using it as an anchor. As she neared the edge of the bed, she let herself be drawn into a slow, lingering kiss. Heather slid her hands around Diane's sides, feeling her tremble in anticipation. Diane uttered a breathy moan into Heather's mouth when hands gripped and squeezed her ass.

Heather broke off the kiss with a breathy sigh. "So she didn't wear you out after all."

Diane closed her eyes and shivered as Heather's fingers kneaded the tight flesh of her rear. "H-Heather, please..."

Heather eased up and slid her hands up Diane's back. "Too much too soon?" she asked in a concerned voice.

Diane gave her a tiny smile. "I just don't want you to get me too excited before I do something for you."

Heather stared into Diane's eyes, her own glistening. "Diane, you don't have to, let me just--"

"Heather," Diane said, impatience edging her otherwise lusty tone. "Don't analyze it. Please. I've been doing that enough to myself."

Heather's eyes widened, and she drew back slightly, feeling a strange sense of role-reversal. Diane had always been the timid one. Heather saw it every time the other Harbingers gathered, even before Victor had arrived and exploited Diane's weakness to his own aims.

During that confrontation Halloween night, Heather had semi-facetiously suggested that Diane take on the role of the Mistress and Heather the slave in their relationship. Her first exposure to life as a slave under Laura had dashed that idea. She wondered if Diane were playing to that now.

Or, again, Haven had so screwed up her thinking that she could not help but see every relationship in the harsh light of dominator and dominated.

Diane suddenly grasped the bottom edge of Heather's sweater and yanked it up. Heather uttered a small, surprised gasp, but raised her arms and let it be pulled from her body.

Diane began unbuttoning her lover's blouse, starting at the top and working her way down with slow, methodical movements. Heather's breath became a soft pant as the anticipation mounted, each intake of air swelling her breasts against the already tight blouse, sometimes popping a button just as Diane's fingers worked it.

"I love it when you wear all these layers," Diane whispered. "It's like unwrapping a present."

Heather closed her eyes, her thighs trembling as her pussy ran hot and liquid. Her nipples tingled and ached, and she almost begged Diane to touch them, like a wet and needy slave pining for her Mistress' attention.

No, stop it, stop thinking of everything in those terms, Heather chided herself. Just stop ... oh God...

Heather shuddered and let out her next breath as a ragged moan. Her blouse lay open, Diane's fingertips swirling against the hard bumps which lay tight against the cups of the lacy black bra.

"I missed doing this for you," Diane said in a lusty voice. "Sometimes I miss when you made me do this for you."

"H-how can you miss when I ... uhng ... oh God, Diane..."

Diane tugged one of the cups until its prize spilled free. She teased the nipple with little flicks of her tongue until Heather whimpered and trembled. "I don't miss the part about you making me do it, Heather," Diane said as she cupped the soft flesh in her fingers, the bounty bulging between them. She yanked the other cup and let the remaining breast fall free. "But I missed how much I enjoy doing this for you."

"I don't understand, I ... oh God, Diane!"

Diane squeezed both breasts such that the nipples stood out as thick points. She closed her mouth over one and sucked hard, her cheeks dimpling. Heather sank to the edge of the bed as Diane's tongue lashed and her teeth nibbled, until the nipple throbbed with her pounding heart and pleasure rose in her pussy as if it had been softly stroked.

Diane drew her mouth back, the nipple popping out with a loud smack which made Heather gasp. "You avoided letting me do this for you since the first week you were Ms. Bendon's slave," Diane said in a sad voice. "Maybe you thought it would be imposing your will on me or something."

Heather had no idea how to respond, and Diane took the opportunity to suck Heather's other nipple until moisture trickled down the inside of Heather's thigh.

Diane drew back and gazed into Heather's eyes, her own shimmering with barely suppressed tears. "Please, Heather, let me love you the way I want."

(Don't make any assumptions)

Heather finally understood and shed the tears Diane had managed to avoid, drawing her lover into a tight embrace. Despite her sobs against her lover's shoulder and neck, both shivered in rising need as Heather's bountiful plumpness pressed against Diane's petite firmness.

Heather felt like an enchantment had been broken. No more confusion reigned when their lips met and Diane guided her onto her back. No question or doubt arose when her lover slowly stripped the remaining clothes from her body, her lover's teasing touches leaving her squirming, wet, and helpless.

Cindy let Jason's cock fall from her mouth as she kicked her panties from her feet. She drew herself up and rolled his cock in the warm, plump flesh of her breasts. Jason's thoughts drowned in the rising tide of lust, his mind swamped with dark thoughts of greater pleasure which could be his. "God, you taste so good, Jason," Cindy panted. "Better than my boyfriend. Better than any boyfriend."