A Study in Fragrance Pt. 10

She turned to face him, letting her feet down, her labia complaining rubbing against her thighs. She breathed through the feelings, feeling her heart settling, feeling the heat in her lips turn to tingling. "Cos," she whispered. "I need to get ready for my friends. I need to take a shower."

He nodded, kissing her cheeks, her eyes. "Okay. I'm going to grab a beer. I'll be up to watch you."

She looked at him wide-eyed. "No! You have to go! I...oh...fuckkkk...no..." She saw his eyes and knew he wasn't finished with her. The punishment wasn't over. If you don't take care of him, he'll just keep pushing. But she couldn't. There wasn't enough time. She wasn't sure he even wanted her to. So fucking confusing!!

He got up and she trailed behind until he peeled off downstairs and she turned to her bathroom. While he was away she peed, not wanting to embarrass herself that way in front of him. Oh god. He's going to make me. One day. He will. And then she thought that there weren't that many days left. She flushed and started the water, seeing his shadow on the wall as the stream got hot.

He leaned on the doorframe, drinking his beer, watching her under the water. "What do you think you're going to do with them tonight?" It was as if they were discussing what to watch on TV.

She hadn't thought about it, lathering under her arms and between her legs. She winced as the soap touched her lips. They were super sensitive. She set the bar down and spread her legs and lips to let the stream irrigate her, wincing at the heat, watching him watching her. "I dunno. Probably go through Abby's things."

"Abby. The one who put all that in there?" He gestured with the bottle behind him.

His eyes never left her body, drilling into her. She nodded, soaping up and rinsing off.

"And what are you going to talk about?"

She looked at him as she turned off the taps. "Fuck, Cos. I don't know. Stuff? I told you I think that smell is the cause of all this, right? Well, you remember they were both over here? They both spent a couple of hours in the place. And now they're telling me their sex lives changed. Overnight. I'm going to compare notes, if you want to know."

She toweled off, staring at how red and swollen her labia were, her butt cheeks pinkish, his hand prints almost visible.

He nodded. "Cool. Punishment."

She looked over at him, alarmed. What now! What was left to slap on her? "C'mon Cos. We've got to be done with this. I didn't do it on purpose. I couldn't control my dreams!"

"Tonight. With them. They expect you to be naked. They want to see proof. Tomorrow."

Her mouth dropped open, her insides lit up. It wasn't all that crazy an idea. The humidity was rising, a storm was brewing, but it wasn't close yet. She shook her head. Staring at his expression to see if he was for real. She licked her lips, imagining being naked in front of them. Trying to explain why. Maybe they'll join you! She smiled thinly. He hadn't said only her. She nodded, looking back at her image in the mirror, the tendril pumping up from her core into her brain. "Okay," she agreed quietly. "Will that be the end of it then? Will they be happy?"

He grunted and finished the beer. "You are fucking amazing." He turned down the hall.

"Hey," she called after him. "I've got real training in the morning. Won't be back til close to lunch." As soon as she said it she wondered why. What did he care?

He looked over his shoulder. "Real training?" He laughed and walked down the stairs.

She tossed the towel on her bed and looked through her drawers for something comfortable. The white tennis shorts; a simple t-shirt. She threw them on, glancing at her underwear drawer and didn't look back. She wouldn't be dressed soon anyway, no sense in adding layers.

It was almost 7:30 when she opened the fridge to see what she could scavenge. Pulling out this and that, she waved through the window at Steph walking up the drive.

"Hey!" She gave her a hug. "I'm just making a little tuna salad. You eat?"

"Yeah. But I could use something to drink."

Em nodded toward the living room. "You're welcome to raid the liquor cabinet." She smiled as Steph set down her purse and made a bee line to the other room. "There's mixer in there too. Plenty of ice in here," she shouted after her.

"Hey hey!" Caroline walked in, all smiles and hugs, looking around. "I saw Steph's car. She here somewhere?"

Em gestured. "Getting something from daddy's stash. You want anything?"

Caroline walked to the fridge and looked around. "What are these Sam Adams doing in here? I don't remember seeing commercial beer, like ever? Hey Steph!"

Em smiled. "Yeah, Cos. I told him I wasn't drinking while I was in training. Said if he needed beer to pick up whatever he wanted."

Caroline looked at Steph. "Cos...Yeah. The hunk I met the other day? The one I saw...with you...today?" Caroline popped the top and took a swig.

Em scrunched her lips, turning the corners of her mouth up and down, her eyes crinkling in a smile. "Yep. The very one."

Caroline looked at her and hesitated. "So, Steph. Em tell you about this guy?"

Steph looked between the two of them, knowing something was up. "Yeahhhh? The one she's been screwing?"

"Nope," Em stepped in. "Not screwing. Not yet. Saturday, probably. Based on how things are going."

Four eyebrows raised, drinks raised to mouths.

"So," Caroline started again, "I happened to stop by today, Steph, and I think I may have interrupted something." She turned to Emily. "If that wasn't that, what was it?"

"Wait. What?" Steph looked back at Emily. "What's she talking about?"

Em sat at the table and dug into her salad. "I think, ladies, that we're here to talk about Abby and her fragrance. Am I right?"

They each took a seat, smiling.

"I think," she continued, "that you have something to tell me about what you did with Bobby and Robert." She didn't look at them, but kept eating. "I think, maybe, you owe me a little apology, for not believing that maybe, I might have had an inkling of an idea about what the fuck is going on upstairs. Maybe?" She teased, poking her fork at the salad in rhythm with her words.

"Holy Shit fuck, Emily Em, you wouldn't" They both talked at once. "You first," Caroline invited.

"Shit, Emily you wouldn't believe what happened after I left." Steph rushed her words. "Did you feel like your insides were...ummm...you know...glowing or something?" She looked between them.

Caroline nodded. "Yeah. Like a lava lamp or no, well, yeah. Kinda like that."

Emily kept chewing, waiting for them to quiet down. "You do anything with your guys last night you never would have considered in a million years?" remembering Steph's own words.

Caroline blushed, hiding behind her beer.

Steph laughed. "Fuck yeah." She didn't elaborate.

"So, Caroline? You did the deed with Bobby last night? Rubbed your clean shaven parts together and made sweet love?" She was smiling, disarming them before admitting even a tiny amount of what she and Cos had been doing.

Caroline almost choked. "Fuckkk. Yeah. We did it."

"Wait. What? How...how does...you guys shaved your pubes?"

Em and Caroline cracked up, nodding. "Is that what you got out of that?" Em's laughter continuing.

"Does that feel good? Does it, I..." Steph shut up before she embarrassed herself more.

"What? You heard it makes your coochie more sensitive?"

They burst out laughing at the blush on Steph's face.

"So, if he wasn't banging you today, what was that all about?"

Em twitched her mouth, finishing her salad. "For me," she said, moving her dishes to the sink, "it's like a green plant, a tendil..."

"Tendril?" Caroline corrected her.

"Fuck. Yes. A tendril. It started out last week like a small shoot, a white bud at the top. But by the weekend it had moved all the way into my skull. It hasn't left since. It's just grown thicker. Feels like it's part of my spine." She reached her hands to press on her lower back, bending backwards, her breasts and triangle pushing against the fabric.

"Uhhh, Em?" Steph looked over at her. "You look a little underdressed." She nodded her head as Caroline looked up.

"Yeah," Emily continued, "it just pulses from my vagina up my spine into my brain. I started seeing things last Saturday." She looked at them, making sure they understood what they were in for. "I think Abby was...what's the word, Caroline? Conflicted? Yeah. She was conflicted. Her little fragrance was meant to help her girlfriends, but their problems may not be quite the same as ours. I've been trying to decipher her recipe book, and her advice pamphlets. I think, before y'all go get yourselves hot and bothered with her aphrodisiac, we maybe should figure out what the fuck she did?" She raised her eyebrows. "Oh. Yeah. About this?" She pointed to her clothes. "I can guarantee you, none of us will have a stitch on within an hour or two." She saw their reaction. "You'll see. I won't even have to say anything. Abby will be doing all the work.

"You want to check out what she was doing 100 years ago?" She nodded upstairs. "Unhh unnhh. Not that way. 3rd floor. My folks' room. We're not going into that room until you're really ready."

Upstairs, Emily carefully removed the pamphlets from their boxes, along with the reference books. "You can start with that. Just be careful, please. The pages are pretty fragile and I'd like to keep them together as long as possible. I'm going to run down and grab a couple of things. Make sure you look at that recipe book, that thing's crazy."

"Sheesh, Caroline. Listen to this." Steph had opened a pamphlet to a random page.

My Dearest Ladies,
Does the moss complain to the forest floor beneath its gentle roots? Does it complain to the towering oak about which it provides a silky green carpet? No! Of course not! The moss performs its lowly function, unaware of the soil, unaware of the birds, the tiny creatures it harbors within its microscopic boughs. Even the lowly moss, with seemingly so little to offer its sister the mighty oak, plays out its role, does its duty to carry the world on its miniscule and mighty shoulders.

"What the fuck is she going on about?" Steph carefully flipped the page, only to see more of Abby's dense writing. "Em thinks there's something in all of this to explain what's going on down there?" She shook her head, skeptical.

Caroline laughed. "Here's a good one:"

Goat bane. Highly Toxic!

While we know this beautiful flower to be dangerous to our livestock, there are more ancient applications which, when handled without proper knowledge and care, lead to death or terrible illness. The danger of this herb prohibits me from offering any medicinal uses. Please contact me if you believe you are in any way thinking of using it.

"What could she be talking about?" Caroline turned the page.

"Abortions," Steph said plainly.

"What? How'd you get that from that?"

Steph nodded. "Goat's bane, Wolf's bane, Women's bane...bunch o' banes. Used as a tea by indigenous people to induce miscarriages. You didn't read about that in biology last year? Fucking crazy."

"Jesus. Abby was an abortionist?"

Steph shrugged and picked up another one.

"Here's a recipe for a cake! Sheesh. From abortion teas to ladies' teas."

They had sampled several by the time Emily returned, none of which seemed to get them any closer to understanding what she may have put into the fragrance.

Emily set down the books she was carrying before she joined them on the floor.

"That tendril?" Emily glanced sideways at Caroline. "It's buzzing pretty good right now. Pretty thick." She got up on her knees. "See," she reached down and peeled her t-shirt off, letting her breast cool off, "there's something about my needing to have my clothes off." She stood up and slipped her shorts off.

Caroline looked at her cheeks and reached out to touch them. "He...you...," she brushed her finger lightly on the skin. "You...wanted him to?"

Emily nodded, smiling, closing her eyes. "Yep. He spanks me. I ask him to. He demands I talk dirty and call myself all sorts of unspeakable names." She paused and then took the next plunge. "That's what you walked in on earlier, Caroline."

Steph stared at her, putting down a pamphlet. "Em?" She pointed her finger slightly. "Your vag. It looks pretty inflamed. Something we should worry about?"

Em smiled and knelt back down, looking at the boxes, the pamphlets, the recipe book. She knew there was an answer in there. Maybe an antidote. She wasn't sure what she was looking for anymore. "Mmmmm. I started seeing things last Saturday, I was starting to say. I'm his virgin supplicant." She waited until they stopped gasping. "Yeah. That's the fantasy. I'm on my knees. I'm serving his cock." She looked at their faces. She needed them to know where this would go if they weren't careful. "I've sucked his cock so many times in the past week. So many times. And he's not allowing me to cum." More gasps. "Listen. Listen carefully. I'm agreeing to being edged." She looked at them. "You know what that means?"

Caroline no, Steph yes, turning to Caroline. "Em's not allowed to cum. Cos?" she turned to Em confirming his name, "Cos is bringing her to the edge and keeping her there." She looked back at Em, a mixture of confusion, worry and curiosity. "How long has he...have you...?"

"You see? You see how easy it is to talk about this? How normal it feels? Last week I would have thought we were all crazy swapping shit like this. But now. Now that you've got Abby's fragrance in your brain, shit, this is like, 'What beach should we go to this weekend?' or 'Hey did you see that episode of Stranger Things?' It's no. big. thing." She held their gaze and nodded back to the piles on the floor. "Here's the thing, dudes. You go downstairs? You inhale that fragrance? It's going to change you. I'm not saying it's bad. I'm so fucking keyed up by it right now I'm losing my mind. But the ecstasy? The sweet bright green explosion when he makes me cum? Fuckkkk. I'd never have known how incredible sex can be." She pointed to her inflamed lips. "That was from an hour ago. Punishment for having cum last night...in my fucking sleep." She couldn't believe how much she was revealing, the humiliation at exposing herself strengthening the tendril, the revelations deflating it.

"Jesus. Mary and Joseph."

"Yeah. I'm not going to stop you, but you have to know where this has taken me. Right?" She looked at them, confirming they understood. "We can drag this stuff down there and look in her 'Cabinet of Curiosities'," another sideways glance at Caroline, "I'm just sayin', be careful what you wish for." She could feel the sweat building up under her breasts, the moisture building between her legs. The figures in the shadows. The women. Caroline, and now Steph. The men. Bobby and Robert. She was kneeling on the inlay, the cloak, Cos peeling it from her, pushing her face down onto the floor, raising her cheeks, lining up his cock to penetrate her. They would bear witness. She knew it was going to happen if she let it. She wasn't sure she could stop it.

"Do you smell it now?"

Caroline sniffed the air towards the stair.

Steph inhaled, shaking her head.

"I smell it all the time. No matter where I am in the house. It's faint up here, but I smell it. You feeling a little frisky?"

Caroline looked at her, eyes wide. "Fuckkk. You can tell? You know. What I want to do?" She looked at Steph and back again. "You...would it be okay? You guys won't freak out?"

Em laughed. "Shit, Caroline, it depends on what it is! You want to strip off or do you want go down on me?"

Caroline laughed, looking between the two of them, her eyes glancing down between Em's legs.

"Hah! You were thinking it! I wasn't sure, but there's ol' Abby again. Girl on girl seems to be part of her deal. I won't stop you, if that's what you were thinking. But, I can't cum. So, maybe it wouldn't be so much fun." Her eyes were laughing, watching Caroline's confusion. "There's always Steph. You down for Caroline going down on you?"

"I...no...fuck Emily! I...okay...no. I was just thinking I might join you." She was laughing, trying to cover her embarrassment.

Steph looked between the two of them, eyes squinting, a blush growing from her neck. "Something you guys want to let me in on?"

The two locked eyes for a moment. Emily shrugged. "You want to tell her? It was nothing, Steph. It was last Saturday morning. I was hot and bothered coming off my Ironman training. I stopped by Caroline's for a soak and she gave me a massage."

Steph stared at them, waiting, her cheeks flushing a little. "And?" she pushed.

Caroline looked away, leaving the last button on her shirt untouched.

"And...it went a little farther than that. I had the most amazing orgasm." She leaned over and kissed Caroline on the cheek, whispering in her ear.

Caroline's eyes darted to Steph.

"It was...it was a moment. I...it wasn't anything."

Em smiled, sitting back. "Caroline!" She laughed, her eyes mischievous. "It meant a lot to me! It's one of the most intense orgasms I've had in my life. I keep remembering it. It was beautiful, Steph. Steph? You feeling it? Maybe your nipples are feeling a little tender? Maybe your panties are a little...moist?" Knowing her own feelings weren't just adolescent hormones, that her friends were afflicted, affected, whatever the same way she was, it felt like a huge weight had dropped. She raised her eyebrows and leaned back on her elbows to give Caroline a better view.

"Fuckkk, Em." Caroline reached for the hook on her bra, lacy and white, in strong contrast to her coffee-and-cream skin. "You...maybe...?" She looked over at Steph. "Maybe she's right. Maybe we're being totally stupid."

Em laughed again. "Oh...what? Please! Please no. I didn't mean to scare you! That's not it. I want you to experience this! I think it's only temporary. I think it fades away when you stay away. Maybe. I dunno. I can't tell. I'm breathing it all. the. time. But it feels so goddamn fucking fantastic, you definitely shouldn't be scared." Their faces, candlelit, staring at her spreading herself open, their hands wrapped around their guys' hardening cocks. She couldn't let them back out. She closed her eyes and laid back, the tendril pulsing bright white-green.

Caroline had freed her breasts, rolling onto her knees to unsnap her jeans, She looked at Steph, eyebrows raised. "You're cool, yeah?" She waited until Steph gave a little nod, staring at the two of them, squirming a little.

"So, you, Steph? We've shown you ours, what'd the aphrodisiac do to your love life?" Em stared as Caroline shimmied out of her jeans, her hips flaring in her high-cut briefs, stark white against that gorgeous skin.

"Fuckkk." Steph's face had gone deep pink. "I...it's...," she smiled weakly, looking at the pamphlet in front of her. "Robert's been begging to go down on me..." She exhaled as if she'd confessed to murder.

"And?" The two others asked at the same time.

She looked up, smiling broader now that she'd let go of her secret. "And it was totally amazing." She didn't stop talking, remembering every detail of his face, his tongue, how his hands held her apart. "Oh, fuck," she looked back at them, her face flushed, but now from arousal, reliving what she'd done. Her eyes traveled between them, Em's knees windshield wiping, flashing her lips, red and swollen, her breasts flattened from lying back on her elbows. Caroline peeling her briefs down, her mound clean shaven, her skin glowing. "Jesus, Mary and Joseph," she exhaled. "The glow." She rubbed her hands on her stomach, inching toward her breasts, inching toward her belt.