Signed First Edition Ch. 05

She smiled sweetly. "If I win, you have to let me suck you," she said.

I barked a laugh. "And if you lose?"

"If I lose," she said, her smile spreading across her face, "I'll suck you."

They danced for three more numbers. When they finally came back to the table, Tod announced that he was driving her home tonight. I stammered a few incredulous interrogatives, but Tod just shrugged and told us that he carries a spare helmet. Sandy stood there and blushed rather cutely ... then gave us a little wave as she followed him out.

And as soon as I opened the door to our house that night, Elaine attacked me voraciously. It was the best blow job I've ever had.

......................

DECEMBER 22nd, 2011

Elaine had lunch with Sandy. It was a full workweek for most people ... Christmas was on a Sunday that year. Later that evening, over dinner, she confided to me that Tod had taken Sandy out the preceding evening, as well.

"And they did it," she said, solemnly.

"Hmmm. And on the second date. That is NOT proper protocol. You and I had the decency to wait until our third."

But that didn't earn the smile I had hoped for. "Just like me," she muttered. "She gave him her virginity."

I cleared my throat. "Okay, THAT's a little more information than I needed." She didn't respond to that, either. I couldn't figure it out. "What's eating you, Pet?"

She sighed. "Two dates," she told me. "I knew they'd be attracted to each other, but after just two dates, she's head-over-heels in love. She would do ANYTHING for him." She was silent for a long minute. "Rod, I'm worried. She's such a ... delicate girl. Do you think Tod's intentions are ... honorable?"

That was just too much, sorry, and I threw back my head and roared with laughter. Unfortunately, mine is obviously not as contagious as my brother's, and my pretty wife grew a tad impatient with that response. "Pet, I am NOT going to ask my brother what his 'intentions' are with your new friend. I realize that you feel responsible for their relationship, but it is THEIR relationship, after all."

She sighed and refused to address the topic further.

..........................

DECEMBER 23rd, 2011

Evidently, according to Elaine ... who seemingly was getting daily phone calls from her new friend ... the two lovebirds spent the night together again. Then, she had called in sick and they spent the next day in each other's company, as well. That evening, she had set out for her parents' house in Palm Springs for the holidays. I called Tod that evening and causally asked how he was doing.

Just fine, he had replied.

............................

DECEMBER 25th, 2011

It was a really nice holiday. Elaine and I spent the morning together, opening presents and just enjoying a special day. And that evening, as was our custom, we went to Pop's house for dinner. Tod was there, and as a special "gift," we announced the pregnancy. Everyone was happy, though Tod didn't ask me the question that I'm sure was uppermost on his mind ... then or any time since.

Just after the meal, he excused himself and went into what was once his old bedroom to make a phone call. More than an hour later, he emerged to tell us that he intended to drive to Palm Springs that evening. This was the first time Pop had heard that there WAS a current girlfriend in his life. Tod explained that he wanted to "meet her people," and that this was a great time to do it. But he astounded us all when he asked Pop if he could use the cabin in Big Bear to "do a little skiing" on the way back. Pop's response was that sure he could, as long as he left the "damned motorcycle" in the garage ... and he flipped Tod the keys to his SUV.

I heard later that Tod and Sandy actually DID do some skiing while they were there. Of course, as it turned out, they stayed in that cabin for almost two weeks.

......................

JANUARY 20th, 2012

They'd only known each other for a month at this point, but I don't think I've ever witnessed a relationship that was more "full speed ahead." This assessment, however, is not completely accurate, since their association was certainly unique. (Then again, I guess each relationship is unique, to some degree or another.) Elaine was right; Sandy really WAS just like her ... emotionally, anyway. She seemed to go along with just about everything Tod wanted, and never made any demands on him at all. He was in a pretty tough spot at the time, having just been laid off from the position of assistant coach and PE instructor at a high school in the valley due to a seemingly never-ending series of state budget cuts.

Since they'd returned from their little extended jaunt to the mountains, they were spending many of their days together, and most of their nights. Tod didn't like the commute between their places and had started hinting at moving in together; and Sandy seemed to support him in that decision, just as she apparently supported him in all of them.

Elaine had somehow found the opportunity to get together with Sandy four or five times in the intervening weeks for lunches or a girls' night out. Tod and I had gotten together for drinks once; and we'd all gone out together for dinner once, as well. From what I could gather, Tod couldn't be happier about the situation, and Sandy seemed content to be floating along on Cloud Nine, just so long as that cloud was somewhere in his general vicinity.

And so, it was with mild surprise that I returned home late one afternoon to find Sandy in our living room, sitting with Elaine in a rather stiff posture and with an air of impending confrontation. I got the feeling that I was a referee who had just shown up late in the ring for a major title fight. They didn't seem actually angry, but the atmosphere was electric with tension and perceived friction. I cleared my throat, insisted on kissing my wife hello, and engaging in a little hug-and-peck-on-the-cheek with Sandy, who was stiffer than usual, but shy and pliant enough to acknowledge the greeting as friendly. Finally, unable to stall any longer, I asked what the matter was.

"Rod," Elaine began hesitantly. "Sandy has become my best friend, and I can't keep secrets from her."

"Ah," I said. Well, this was bound to come out sooner or later, I thought. "And just how much did you ...."

"She needs to know, Rod. There's really no reason that ...."

"Of course," I interrupted. I was sitting in the easy chair, facing the two of them on the couch. Sandy was leaning forward expectantly. I sighed and put my forearms on my knees, gesturing with my hands toward her. "Alright, Sandy, it's true. Elaine and Tod have been together, but it was all my ...."

Elaine gave a little gasp, and Sandy rocked back away from me in shock. She turned toward my wife and exclaimed: "You've SLEPT with Tod?"

Elaine looked at me frantically before turning back to her friend. "No! I mean, yes we ... uh ..... That is, we ... weren't sleeping."

Sandy's jaw dropped open. "Weren't sleeping ...?"

I studied Elaine curiously, and found that she was looking rather ill at the moment. "Well, what in the world ...?" I decided I could try to figure out the topic of this odd situation later. Right now, I had to do some fast damage control. I turned back toward Sandy. "Look, you don't have to feel ... um ... jealous or anything. They did it because she wanted to get pregnant and ...."

Sandy's eyes got a big as saucers, and she again turned accusingly to Elaine. "You mean ... your baby is HIS?!?"

"NO!" Elaine exclaimed, at the precise instant I said "Yes." Sandy glanced from her to me, and back again, and again. She'd turned more than a little pale, and her mouth was opening and closing to form questions, but she didn't seem capable of producing words. She rose from the couch and Elaine rose with her, her hand outstretched as if she was trying to recapture a friendship that had just flown away.

"ENOUGH!" I barked at the top of my lungs. They had both turned, one to flee, the other to pursue, but now they froze and glanced at me questioningly. "SIT!" I screamed. And as if it was choreographed, they sat back down, each with their knees together and their hands in their laps. The movement was so funny that I had to put my hand over my mouth to keep from laughing, which, at this juncture, would have just about been the last nail in my coffin. Trying to solve emotional problems at the spur of the moment is definitely not my strong suite, and I tried desperately to come up with some way to put a positive spin on things. I took a deep breath and plunged in.

"Sandy, whatever happened between Tod and Elaine was entirely my doing, and I take full responsibility. You see, a little less than a year ago, I was involved in a nuclear accident. I was exposed to an awful lot of radiation, and it damn near killed me."

She blinked up at me. I could almost see the analytical wheels spinning in that pretty head, but the change in subject matter had confused her. "Yes," she said, choosing her words carefully, "Elaine told me about it. You were at Fukushima." I should have known. She was involved with those areas of the science herself.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to oversimplify. Well, there were the problems you might expect from that level of absorption: immune system breakdown, internal burns, destruction of some soft tissues. It really did a number on my reproductive system."

"Sperm mutation," she muttered.

She really DID know about it. Such mutations are a common side effect of radiation poisoning ... though it is usually connected to long-term exposure ... and can lead to birth defects in offspring. "No," I answered. "Fortunately, there's been no sign of that at all. But sperm production is extremely low. I've also been worrying about some bad tumor marker tests, and that's why I asked Tod to do this for me. It was only once, and only at my insistence. Obviously, it was before he met you. He didn't want to do it."

Finally, she smiled, though it was a sad sort of smile. "Don't lie, Rod. Of course he wanted to do it. He's in love with her." My wife made a small noise, as if she wished to refute this, but she remained silent.

"I give you my word," I told Sandy solemnly. "He told me beforehand that he didn't want to do this ... in fact, he tried to talk me out of the plan. But he went ahead and did it, anyway, because ... well, because we're very close, and he knew how important it was to me. I was being too ... well ... analytical about the whole thing, while he was worried about the emotional repercussions. Afterwards, he refused to speak to me for weeks, he was so pissed off." She looked confused for a moment, and perhaps a little hopeful, and I pressed on. "So, the bottom line here is that both parties that evening were only doing it for ME. Elaine refuses to believe that it did any good ... that the baby is ours and not Tod's. Quite frankly, it simply doesn't matter to me. I chose a course of action ... and whether that action was the CAUSE of our success or not is superfluous. Anyway, blame me all you want ... but you shouldn't blame either Tod or Elaine."

She actually managed a genuine smile at my sincerity and nodded up at me. I sighed deeply. "And now," I said, turning almost accusingly toward my sweet wife, "if you want me to be so open and honest with Sandy about everything, but 'everything' didn't include that evening with Tod or the pregnancy, just what the hell ARE you talking about?"

Elaine blushed and fidgeted even more, hesitating, and at last, it was Sandy who supplied the answer. "You hypnotize her," she said, almost in awe. "You've enslaved her. She's given herself to you completely, and now, she's your hypnotic sex slave."

This caught me a little off guard. I just couldn't understand why she would consider my relationship with Elaine particularly important, especially compared to the significance of a supposed love child with her boyfriend. "Um ... yes ... she and I have a rather ... odd relationship. It's what she wants, and I love her ... so I found a way to give her the feelings she ... uh ... desires. Why are you so concerned about that?"

"Does Tod know?" she asked bluntly.

Again I was surprised into a fit of stuttering inarticulation. "Um ... well, it was sort of hard to manipulate ... uh ... I mean ... yes, of course, he'd have to ...."

"He KNOWS?" Elaine exclaimed.

"See? I told you," Sandy told her. "They're twins. They tell each other everyth ...."

"NO!" I interrupted so loudly that they both again resumed their identical silent poses. "I mean ... we do NOT tell each other everything. And Pet, if you think back on that evening, you'd understand that I couldn't have gotten you to do it without having you ...." I suddenly stopped and thought about this entire conversation. Why was I suddenly trying to defend myself? And what was it that I was suddenly defending myself from? I looked curiously at both of them. "What in the WORLD is this all about?" I asked bluntly.

Elaine turned pleading eyes toward her friend. Sandy, in turn, fidgeted and blushed, looked as if she was trying to get her courage up, and finally said: "Rod, you MUST know that Tod is in love with Elaine. I mean, it's just in his posture, his manner, the way he looks at her."

"Alright, now see here!" I barked. "You two are either imagining this, or putting much more emphasis on something that simply isn't significant. Men can be attracted to other women without falling in love! Hell, I don't mind telling you that I find YOU extremely attractive. But that doesn't mean I LOVE you the way I love Elaine ... or that I love Elaine any less. Tod is madly, insanely in love with you. And if you feel threatened by his ...."

I fell silent at the expression on her face. She was looking down, unable to meet my eyes, blushing deeply and shaking her head. "You don't understand," she told me softly.

I sighed. Women! Why did they have to be so infuriatingly secretive? "MAKE me understand!" I ordered.

"He didn't date anyone else after you married her," she explained almost patiently. This physically shocked me. I quickly scoured my memory to figure out if it was true, and I was stunned to realize it was entirely possible. Oh, on occasion, I knew that he'd gone out... but possibly nothing more than one-night-stands. "I know I'm just catching him on the rebound," Sandy continued "... and I'm content with that. I'll take him anyway I can get him. But I want to be like her. I NEED to be like her." She paused to let that sink in, and I guess my confused countenance convinced her to press on with her argument. "I want you to hypnotize me, Rod. I want you to make me a slave, as well. HIS slave. I NEED to be his slave!"

I suddenly found it necessary to sit back in the chair. Next, I consciously closed my mouth, which had somehow fallen open. I blinked. "You want me to turn you into a sex slave?" I said dully.

"HIS sex slave," she emphasized, then blushed again and dropped her gaze. "I trust you, of course. I will put myself entirely in your hands. I know you would never hurt him." She breathed a sigh. "You can do whatever you want to me. I'll just give in and allow you to take charge ... I'll surrender to you, and you can do whatever it is you need to do to make me the way Elaine is."

I was quiet for several minutes, thinking this thing through. Each of them started to speak ... to say something to further accentuate their cause, but I held up a hand to silence them each time, and the minutes crept on while I contemplated courses of action. Now, some of you more devious-minded souls in the reading audience might suggest that the idea of enslaving them BOTH and keeping them for my own amusement probably crossed my mind during this period. I can say with a clear conscience that it did not. However, the concept of presenting my brother with a newly-minted sex slave of his own DID have a definite appeal.

Finally, I nodded to them. "Alright, let me talk to Tod about it and ...."

"No ... please!" Sandy begged. "Please, Rod, do it tonight! Do it now! I promise that I'll explain to him that you didn't WANT to do it ... that it was me who begged you to do it. And if he's really upset, you can ... undo it or turn it off or something. But when he sees how important it is to ME, I'm sure he'll ... he'll let me be the way I want to be ... to give myself to him ... utterly, completely. Please?"

Again I fell into silent thought for a long two minutes, contemplating not only "if," but "how." At long last, I rose. "Okay, let me make a phone call. I'll be back in a few minutes."

"But, who are you going to ...?" Sandy began, but I was already out of the room, heading toward the study.

I keep my signed first edition in the side drawer of my desk, and before I could lose my nerve, I dialed the phone number inscribed on the last page of the introduction. I had done a quick rehearsal of what I wanted to say, realizing, of course, that quick rehearsals rarely result in a proper rendition of the script. Oddly enough, this one went pretty much according to plan.

"Hello?"

"Reggie? This is Rod Haversham, the guy you drank under the table in your local pub a couple months back."

"Rod! Of course! How are you doing? How's ... um ...."

"Elaine. We're doing fine. Great, in fact. We're expecting a baby in August."

"That's tremendous! I think about that evening often. You made quite an impression on me. I really learned a lot."

"Me too. Say listen, Reggie ... I was wondering if you'd do me a big favor ... a personal favor."

"Sure, Rod, anything. Just name it."

"My brother's girlfriend ... she and Elaine got to talking, and this girl ... Sandy ... has suddenly gotten it into her head that she wants to be for him ... for my brother, that is ... what Elaine is for me. She wants to be his slave ... to surrender herself to him ... to the same extent that Elaine has to me. I was wondering if you could do me that favor."

There was pause. "Uh ... sure, Rod. Absolutely. Just have her drop by the apartment for a quick interview ...."

"Interview?"

"Well, like I explained to you before, we don't do this for just anybody. In fact, Cathy researches and recruits ...."

"Ah," I interrupted. "Reggie, I can absolutely guarantee you that if Elaine was a good subject for your work, then Sandy will be, too. Perhaps even more so. Emotionally, they are practically identical. They're both trying to talk me into this ... the pair of them ... and Sandy is actually begging me to allow her to become his slave."

"Both of them are there now, huh?" Reggie paused again, considering. I heard him give a small sigh. "Alright, have them come over right now. I'll use Elaine as a preliminary trance inducer. Her friend Sandy will see how quickly and easily it's done, and she'll be more at ease when it's her turn. Do you think Elaine remembers the way here?"

"Yes. I'll give her the address and apartment number again, to make sure. And Reggie, thanks a lot for this. I really mean it."

"No problem, Rod. Don't be a stranger." And he hung up.

It had gone so much according to my plan that I was stunned. I opened the word processing program on my computer and started typing; but then I thought better of it, closed it, and instead took a sheet of blank paper and hand-wrote a brief letter:

Dear Reggie,

Thanks again for the great recommendations you gave me regarding my marital relationship with Elaine. And now, if you don't mind, allow me to give you a brief suggestion regarding your marital relationship with Cathy. Please show her the enclosed check for fifty thousand dollars and remind her that you told me that you'd "charge me double for the second one." Explain to her that you know a great investment opportunity when you see one. If that doesn't earn you the best blow job of your life, I'll eat my hat. Then take the aforementioned check and make a down payment on that cabin up at Arrowhead you said you always wanted. Explain to her that, in this market, it's purely for capital speculation purposes ... and then hang onto it forever.