After the Second Fall Pt. 03.3

Tilly blushed and looked away. "You're right that there isn't much else to do. I guess it wouldn't hurt to let her finish her story."

Dr. Karoya nodded sagely. "Would you like one of us to stay?"

Tilly wasn't certain, but it looked like the doctor might be holding her breath. "Yeah, okay," Tilly answered, blushing more deeply.

"Yeah?" asked Esther, seeing Tilly nod. "Excellent. Should I just keep going or start over?"

"Uh, maybe start over," Tilly replied. "I wasn't actually listening very hard." Esther put her hands on her hips. "I was sure you were making it up," she pleaded. "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

Esther rushed over to her friend, taking her hand. "Don't cry, Tilly. Everything's fine. You didn't hurt my feelings."

"Liar," Tilly said without any venom, still obviously feeling guilty.

"Fine, a little, but not much. I promise. So start over?" Tilly nodded. "And is the doctor staying?"

Tilly shrugged, then nodded.

"I should stay, too, just in case," the nurse added.

"Me, too," the man added. "What?" he asked defensively when the women all looked at him skeptically. "I talked with the Mayor while he was recovering." He looked to Esther. "You're even prettier than he said."

Esther smiled. "Okay, he can stay."

The doctor rolled her eyes, the nurse laughed, and suddenly there wasn't so much tension in the room. "I'm Alice Karoya. I was the lead surgeon that worked on Mathilda's arm," the middle-aged brunette said, finally relaxing. "Marie Mullens is one of our floor nurses, and Joseph over there is on the maintenance staff."

Marie had unremarkable brown hair pulled behind an unremarkable face, with an unremarkable figure hidden inside an unremarkable gray uniform. Conversely, Joseph was handsome in an unconventional way, being lean to the point of gangliness, with a mop of sandy hair, a sharp nose, and a wide smile flanked by deep dimples. He flashed a smile at Marie, who returned it shyly, then he stepped quickly into the hallway; in only a short while he dragged two extra chairs into the room, closing the door behind him.

Once her audience settled, Esther's coy grin returned as she sat back down next to Tilly and started her story anew. Having already told it once, the details came more fluidly the second time through, and Esther found herself enjoying the experience.

"One of the best things about being so much bigger than a guy is that I can take him all the way in my mouth when he's hard -- I mean all the way in -- and still breathe. I can do it for a long time, and use my tongue to tease him and still have my hands free to do whatever else I want." Esther closed her eyes, reliving a moment. "That first evening, I learned that Carlos likes it when I pull on his balls or twist his nipples. Just a little bit of pain to go with whatever else I'm doing -- not so much to actually hurt, but enough that it gives a good contrast.

"It was so much fun to get him right up to the edge and then make him wait. Over and over again. The first time he only lasted a bell, or maybe less, but the second day he lasted for three or four bells. By the end, he was absolutely begging, his whole body shaking. His penis was twitching -- up and down, up and down -- and every so often a little bit of pre-cum would spurt out the tip." Esther shivered and opened her eyes, a wicked grin in place.

The grin widened when she saw that Tilly was flushed a deep red and breathing heavily. On the other side of the bed, the two women were in similar states, while Joseph's erection was obvious through his pants.

"Esther," Tilly whispered, "please let go of my hand." Surprised but curious, Esther did as asked and her friend immediately slipped it under the covers, then let out a low moan, indifferent to the world around her. Shocked out of her trance, Dr. Karoya blushed every bit as brightly as Tilly had and fled the room, slamming the door behind in her haste to get away.

Nurse Marie laughed nervously and looked to Joseph, whose eyes were still on the room's door; summoning her courage, she reached for him. He jumped as her hand touched his thigh and his eyes snapped to hers. Marie's shy smile transformed her entire appearance and Joseph realized she wasn't nearly so plain as he had thought.

Esther watched the exchange, then looked back to Tilly. "Please keep going," her friend said in a small, hoarse voice. Nodding, Esther leaned down, her lips next to Tilly's face.

"I figured him out," Esther whispered directly into her friend's ear, "and played him like an instrument. I know how to make him groan, whine, plead... He tried to be a big, tough man, but I broke him down until he couldn't hide anything from me. He cried, Tilly -- really cried -- with these these big salty tears.

"You'd think I pushed him too far, but every time I squeezed out another orgasm, he pleaded for another. Every time, Tilly, like an addict. When I told him to put it in my rear... I don't think I've ever seen anyone so happy."

Tilly started shaking, her stomach clenching. "In your rear...?" she moaned out.

Closing her eyes, Esther again went back in time. "I was curious, and his cock isn't too big, so I thought I'd give it a try. I cleaned myself up and then handed him some oil; he just about came when I bent over and spread myself. And you know what, Tilly?" she asked, looking intensely from a hand's breadth away.

Whimpering, the smaller woman shook her head.

"I liked it.

"It popped right in and I clamped down. He tried to move, but I held him tight while he rocked back and forth. And do you know what that bastard did? He smacked my ass. Hard. It surprised me so much I lost my concentration and he started slamming in and out, going absolutely as hard as he could, his hips smacking off my ass. I might have liked it , but I was so mad I squeezed again and he stopped. That's why his sock was so red when they brought him here, Tilly: I made him work for every little bit, in and out, over and over again, for I don't know how long. And just when he was ready to give up, I'd let him slam into me a time or two."

Finally reaching her limit, Tilly seized up and cried out like a feral animal, head thrown back. Across the bed, Joseph's penis, held tightly in Marie's petite hand, released its load onto the bed and floor while he strained to keep quiet.

Esther stood quickly and moved somewhat unsteadily to the door, reaching it just as a concerned staff member tried to enter. Instead, the rather large man found himself barred from entry. "Everything is fine," Esther said calmly. "My friend moved wrong and it hurt her arm."

Confused for a moment, the man recovered and stepped forward to assert whatever authority he had; Esther didn't move. "I told you, Mathilda is fine. Nurse Mullens is here checking on her."

A scowl formed on the man's face and he put his shoulder into Esther, who resisted for a long moment, then stepped back, nearly spilling the intruder onto the floor. Turning back to her, he shouted, "Who do you --"

"That's enough, Mr. Wastron," came a sharp voice by the bed. Brought up short, he turned to see that one of his colleagues, Marie Mullens, was in fact bent over the bed; she hadn't even turned around, but was instead ministering to the feverish woman.

"Is something wrong, Luis?" In the corner of the room, Joseph closed a panel in the wall and walked toward where the man was standing.

Unable to justify his sudden entrance, he spun on his heel and went back through the door, exuding as much dignity as he could conjure. As he walked past the (admittedly beautiful) blonde, her look informed him that it might be time to continue his work on the other side of the ward, far away from this particular patient.

As the door shut, Marie at sat and slouched back into a chair, letting out a heavy breath; Joseph self-consciously began tucking in his shirt. Tilly really didn't look very good, so Esther moved to her side once again. "Are you okay?"

"Overdid it a little, I think," she managed with a pained smile. "I jostled myself a little too much."

"I'll be back shortly with some pain medication," Nurse Mullens said helpfully with an embarrassed smile before leaving the room; Joseph gave a shy wave and followed her out.

"I'm sorry, Tilly. I shouldn't have gotten you so worked up."

The smaller woman waved off the apology. "Is what you said really true?" Esther nodded and Tilly leaned back, closing her eyes. "You know what this means?"

Esther thought about the question for a moment, then shivered. "Yeah, I think I do."

Chapter 22

"Don't look at me like that, Esther. You don't know what I've been through the last ten days."

Esther's eyes narrowed and her nostrils flared. "Are you fucking kidding me? I've been stuck in this apartment the entire time, only going out to visit Tilly in the hospital, and you didn't have the decency to come see me once. You didn't even send me a message. And now you show up whining about how hard it's been on you? Un-fucking-believable."

Carlos looked away for a moment, then his head snapped back and his face reddened, not in shame but in irritation, or perhaps even anger. "Wait a damn beat. You had to stay inside and watch the river go by -- so what?

"I've been trying to save my career, dammit, all because you couldn't control yourself."

Esther took a step toward the smaller man menacingly and Carlos backpedaled rapidly, both physically and verbally, holding up his hands. "Wait, wait -- I didn't mean that. Wait, Esther, let me try again." She bent down so that her face was in front of his.

"Think about your next words before you say them, Mr. Mayor," she said acidly.

Struggling to gain some control on a conversation that was not going at all as planned, Carlos Harryx closed his eyes and took a deep breath; opening them, he saw Esther had stood back up and crossed her arms. "I apologize for what I just said: I was deflecting blame when it's clear we share responsibility."

Esther's eyes narrowed again.

"No," he said, cutting off a comment as he looked up at her steadily. "You don't get to throw it all on me any more than I do on you. Don't pretend you weren't enjoying yourself."

'You can't be serious,' Esther's look said.

"I damn well am serious. I might be a shitty lover compared to some Mod and his giant dick, but I know you got off on the power trip at least. 'Oh, look at what I can make the little old fat man do.'"

Seeing the hurt and self-loathing in such a proud man's eyes took the fight right out of Esther and she walked to the bed, sitting down heavily. "Fine, it's both our fault. What now?"

"I don't know," he said, lowering himself onto a nearby chair.

"It's really that bad for you?"

"Really, really."

"Why?"

Carlos sighed. "Being Mayor in Marbelo is like walking on a knife's edge. Yes, I set the agenda for our deliberations, and yes, I speak first, but I don't have a vote in anything we do -- that's all the Judges. In order to actually get anything done I have to line up the votes beforehand in a coalition, but it's never easy, because allegiances and alliances are always shifting. Sometimes the only way I can get things done is to use my personal capital to bully things through."

"And that's the way it's supposed to work?"

"Who the hell knows..." he responded. "Twelve years I've been Mayor, and the man before me was more or less the same, which makes more than twenty years of momentum for the system as we have it today."

"So if the Judges aren't afraid of you, nothing works?"

"I don't want them to be afraid of me, but they do need to respect me, and it's hard to keep that respect when they all think of me as some sort of sexual deviant."

"Because I'm part Adam -- I mean part Mod?"

Carlos looked away. "Well, that's part of it, unfortunately, but my stay in the hospital was... worse."

Seeing Esther's confused look, he paused for another long breath considering words. "It was pretty obvious that you... used me. Dominated me." His cheeks colored and he rose, walking to stare out at the river. "They're vicious, Esther. Now that they've seen I can be beaten -- I mean that figuratively, by the way -- they'll know they can do the same."

Esther chuckled. "You've never lost on an issue in twelve years?" she asked skeptically.

The Mayor emerged for a moment as Carlos managed a grin. "There have been many times where I did not win; however, I think it would be fair to say that your statement is essentially correct. Politics is about representing the facts in a way that the truth people believe is whatever you need it to be."

"So now you're worried there is a precedent for how to beat Marbelo's infamous Mayor: fuck him within an inch of death and you're guaranteed a victory -- did I get that right?"

Turning away from the window, Carlos' serious expression returned. "You are right, even though you're mocking me. The last seven or eight days have been a constant stream of attacks from one Judge or another, undercutting me with the others, with donors -- even with the magistrates, who aren't supposed to be political in the first place."

Thinking about the situation, Esther flopped back on the bed with her hands behind her head. "Did you mean what you told me when we first met: that I'm the most beautiful woman you've ever seen?"

"Unquestionably."

"Do you think the other Judges would feel the same way?"

"Maybe not all, but at least some of them. If I had to guess, most of the men and a few of the women would find you irresistible. Esther, I can't even describe what it's like to try to think while we're in the same room. If I --"

"Hold on, Carlos, I wasn't fishing for compliments. I was trying to come up with an idea. If you think some of the others would feel the same way you do, is it possible that part of this is jealousy?"

Carlos' mouth opened to make a reply, then closed. One of his eyebrows raised, then changed places with the other. "Well, I would say that there's merit to the thought, but how does that help me?"

"Well, if I fucked a few of them, then--"

"No!" shouted the Mayor.

Esther and Carlos looked at each other, both surprised at his vehemence. "Well, it seems I'm a little... possessive," he offered apologetically.

"Maybe a little," she replied with a smile. "Carlos, you know we don't have a future together."

"Of course," he said dismissively. "It's just that the idea of you sucking off some of those repulsive old assholes -- it makes my stomach turn, like you'd be debasing yourself." He paused and his face fell; he turned back to the window.

When he didn't turn back around, Esther eased back onto her feet and joined him by the window. "I don't think you're repulsive, Carlos, and I think you definitely have stretches where you don't act like an asshole."

After a hundred beats, Carlos looked up at her. "Just stretches?"

"Yeah, but there's more of them now than when I first me you."

He nodded. "Fair."

Side by side, they watched the water pass. Carlos was lost among the swiftly flowing ccurrent when Esther's voice cut through his reverie. "What if I fucked a couple of the women?"

In an instant Carlos was fully conscious, eyes wide. "I..."

Esther gave him half a hundred beats, then reached down to his groin. "It doesn't seem like you're completely opposed to the idea."

Groaning, Carlos kept himself from falling by leaning against the windowsill. "I can think of... a couple that... might be interested."

"Okay, good," Esther said cheerily as she continued rubbing him. "I have the beginning of a plan."

Upon hearing Esther's idea for the second time -- Carlos' attention had been focused entirely on what her hands were doing to his penis during the first explanation -- he was able to offer input and an actual outline took shape. The following day, he left Esther's assigned apartment excitedly (Esther had been gentle with him the previous night and that morning) to set activities in motion.

It was later in the evening that he returned with Paula Fonseca, a long-time ally and occasional bedmate. The woman was widely known as one of the harshest Judges when topics around Mod benefits were discussed, but Mayor Harryx knew her views had softened somewhat since meeting Piper in the Arena some months before. Upon entering the apartment, Fonseca was entirely unprepared to be confronted with and by Esther. Fortunately, her surprise rapidly morphed to interest as Esther turned on her charm.

The initial tryst went so well that the three repeated it a night later, and then again; Judge Fonseca's views on Mods shifted rapidly.

In his day job, Carlos disengaged from the rhetoric and speculation about his personal affairs, acting coolly toward those who refused to let the issue drop; calls for his resignation started to be spoken more boldly.

Mariel Roccoca, long known as a Mod sympathizer, was the next to visit the apartment. As she stepped inside, she had been expecting an evening where Carlos would turn on the charm and attempt to influence Paula Fonseca and herself to back his position -- she definitely did not expect to find Esther nude, nor was she prepared when her sometimes rival Judge dropped to her knees and aggressively fished Carlos' cock from his pants.

When her brain rebooted -- much like the ancient computers locked away in Prince Volk, it took several hundred beats -- Mariel smiled broadly. She pulled her blonde-ish hair back and tied it with a leather thong, then stepped around the Mayor to the big, beautiful woman spread wantonly on the bed where she introduced herself warmly.

The following night, it was Mariel who led off the activities, sucking vigorously on Carlos' hardening cock within a few beats of the door being closed.

With the core group in place -- representing both the progressive and hard-line positions within Marbelan Mod politics -- Carlos moved the plan to its next phase.

Judges, due to the tenuous nature of their political positions, tended to be both untrusting and untrustworthy. Consequently, a clandestine rendezvous between four judges was a rare event in the city, yet when presented with an enigmatic proposition by Paula Fonseca and Mariel Roccoca, both of the men agreed with only minor concessions granted.

Neither were expecting to meet with the Mayor, who smiled confidently as Paula closed and locked the door behind them, pocketing the key. "Judges, welcome," he said warmly, using his best political smile.

"What the fuck are you doing here, Harryx?" asked the older of the two newcomers venomously.

"Waiting for you, Judge Ronlo. Paula, Mariela, and I have been making tremendous progress these last several days, working through previously unresolved issues." Renlo turned his hateful gaze on Judge Fonseca, who had the audacity to smirk back.

"Give me the key," he demanded, but she shook her head and folded her arms, daring the man -- half a head shorter and ten years older -- to try to take it from her.

Next to him, the younger Judge, barely into his thirties, looked to Mariela. "This isn't what we discussed. We were going to..." he looked at the Mayor and trailed off.

In contrast to Paula, Mariela walked over to her questioner. "You're right, Jarvis, I did mislead you, but you won't be disappointed if you go along." Reaching up, she stroked a finger tip down his cheek and across his lips. "I promise," she whispered in his ear, then cozied up to his side.

"You slut," said the first Judge, astonished at a long-time colleague's behavior.

"No name calling, Bertrand," admonished the Mayor lightly. "At least not yet."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Instead of answering, the Mayor snapped his fingers and Esther emerged nude from the bathroom, walking gracefully on her toes, elongating the already ridiculous proportions of her thighs and calves, and tightening her ass, which she proudly displayed with a slow turn.