Brain Development Enterprises Ch. 07

There was a sharp intake of breath as I steamrolled on.

"And then, as a last resort, you'd used a veiled threat as motivation. But instead, you come into my office and decide to use negative reinforcement right out of the gate." I stared into her bright blue eyes. "So I'm asking: what did I do to piss you off?"

Allison stood there stunned for a moment, the curvaceous blonde obviously not expecting my outburst.

I shook my head. "I can do what you're asking me... probably. But if I can't, then you're not going to demote me for it. Because I'm working from a reasonable deadline and the fact that you pushed it up doesn't just mean that me and my team can do an unreasonable amount of work to make up for it."

I had never been this assertive in the office before, and now I had Allison on the back foot. It felt good.

The woman stood there for another moment, halfway between my desk and the door. Then, with a snort of disbelief, she turned and strutted from the room.

As she left, I let my eyes slide down her back and rest on the gray pencil skirt she wore. It molded itself to her ass, giving me a fantastic view before she turned the corner and strode away down the hall.

I took a deep breath and blew it out. What was that for? I asked myself. You didn't need to antagonize her like that... Then, I frowned.

"No," I muttered to myself. "But she's been an uppity bitch ever since she got promoted, and you don't have to stand for it anymore." I was good at my job, one of the best in the company, and even if I didn't have the social graces to win a promotion, I still deserved respect. Making Allison an even worse enemy than she already was could come back to haunt me, but there was too much on my mind today for me to care.

Shaking my head, I went back to work.

* * *

Barbara had texted me when she'd landed, so I was waiting in the living room when she arrived. I had a cold bottle of beer in my hand and was sipping it pensively, waiting.

The front door opened and closed with a gentle thud, and then I heard the sound of her rolling luggage in the front hallway.

"Hey, honey!" I said, standing and smiling as she walked into the front room.

My wife looked as stunning as ever, even after a day of travel, her long blonde hair back in a golden braid and her lush curves calling to me under a light blue blouse and navy skirt.

"Hey," she said, not meeting my eyes as she came to a halt. "Do you mind if I put my stuff upstairs? I know I said I wanted to talk, but it's been a long day..."

"Sure," I said. I had been about to walk across the room to give her a welcome-home kiss, but I hesitated. "Is everything okay?"

Barbara sighed. "It's been a long weekend. I just..." She shook her head. "I don't want to start anything right now."

I nodded understandingly and continued across the carpet.

She looked up at me as I approached, but I didn't go for a kiss, just pulled the bag from her hand gently and started toward the stairs. "Let's put your stuff away and let you unwind a bit. Then we can talk."

Barbara looked uncertain, but she followed as I led the way up to the bedroom and slid the luggage to a halt by her side of the bed.

McKenzie had done the laundry while I was at work, so the sheets were crisp and clean. No evidence remained of the wild weekend I'd had in here with two barely-legal coeds.

"Home sweet home," I said, smiling easily at my wife. I wondered why my heart wasn't racing, why I hadn't broken out in a sweat. In the past, relationship drama with my wife had terrified me. Now, the most I could muster was a hint of concern.

"Thanks, honey," Barbara said, then sank down on the bed with a sigh. She fell back onto the pillows with a groan of relief. "Nice to lay down in my own bed."

I nodded and sat at the end of the mattress. Gently, I reached out and stroked her calf. "Sounds like you had a full plate."

My wife had stopped moving when I touched her, then pushed herself back into a sitting position, moving up the bed and out of reach.

"I'm..." she hesitated, glancing again at my hand. She took a deep breath. "I know I said we needed to talk. And I want to. And I was ready to. But now that I'm here..." She shook her head. "It seems so much harder."

I nodded sympathetically, wondering what was going through her mind. She's probably worried as hell, I thought. That's how I'd feel if I were about to tell my spouse I cheated on them with my boss. A slight correction drifted across my brain. Well, how I'd have felt in the past... "Is there anything I can do to make it easier?" My voice was low and soothing, my face set in what I hoped was a reassuring expression.

Barbara shook her head again, her blue eyes drifting away from mine. She took a deep breath and I tried not to stare at the way her full, round tits filled out the tight blouse. Then, she took another deep breath and I knew she was ready to speak. Her jaw tightened, and when she looked up at me I was surprised at the steel in her bright blue gaze.

It's okay, I told myself. You know what she's going to say. You know what you're going to say...

Then, my wife asked me a short, simple question.

I froze. This wasn't what I had expected.

"How long have you been sleeping with my daughter?"

* * *

I was stunned. My face twisted into a frown of confusion, and I shook my head. "What?"

Barbara looked at me, and her face was a mask of frustration and pain. "How long," she repeated. "Have you been sleeping with my daughter?"

I raised my hands defensively. "That's what you wanted to talk to me about?" I was off-kilter, and now my heart did start to race. I didn't have anything planned for this. I hadn't even seen this coming.

Barbara's fingers gripped tight in the sheets and her breath was fast between her lips. "I knew it..." she gasped. "You aren't even trying to deny it..."

I tried to speak, but she cut me off with an angry gesture and her voice rolled over mine. Now that she'd started, it seemed, she wouldn't be stopped.

"I didn't suspect anything until this weekend," she started. "When you asked if I was okay with you guys hosting a party while I was gone. And even then it just seemed like you were doing it to be nice, to grow closer to your stepdaughter. But then I started thinking. It was so out of character... Hosting a party for McKenzie? That's not you. You're antisocial. You don't know how to interact with people your own age, much less teenagers..."

What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck? My brain couldn't seem to wrap around what I was hearing, couldn't seem to comprehend the situation. What could I do? For the first time in days, I didn't have my cocky, confident self to fall back on. My Inner Alpha Male was as stunned as I was.

"Still, I didn't have any idea what was actually going on." The words were spilling from Barbara's lips in a rushing torrent, like a waterfall of condemnation. "And then I got your texts. You weren't just chaperoning, you were hanging out with the kids. But that was fine... You were just breaking out of your shell. You were trying to be the 'cool stepdad,' and I could believe that. Sort of. Only then I got a text from someone else. Lucas, McKenzie's boyfriend. He said that she was having a party and that he hadn't been invited, because she hadn't been speaking to him for more than a week. She'd been ignoring his texts, ducking his calls, and when he asked her friends they said she'd told them she'd moved on to someone else... someone more mature. He asked me what was going on..."

Wait... What? That stopped my brain in its tracks, short circuited the entire system. McKenzie has a boyfriend?! I'd never met the guy, and my stepdaughter had never even mentioned him to me.

But Barbara wasn't slowing down. "And I was wondering what that could mean. Why would my little girl break a guy's heart like that? What had changed? And then I remembered... That was around that time that you started telling me about those bullshit self-hypnosis recordings. You started running, started working out, started spending more and more time with McKenzie, with your stepdaughter... I had thought that it was a good sign. I thought you were finally starting to grow out of your shell, becoming a real man who wanted to connect with his family. But really you were just trying to impress my innocent, 18-year-old daughter who is still too young to realize that you were manipulating her, trying to use her in some perverted, controlling, fucked-up..."

My wife was gasping, shaking her head, trembling with emotion.

But that was when I stopped her. As she'd described my relationship with McKenzie, something else had risen up in my chest. It wasn't anxiety, it wasn't concern, and it certainly wasn't fear. It was anger. For the second time in only a few days, someone had called our relationship fucked up and had called me perverted, and I wasn't going to stand for it.

I am the Man of the House. The Man of the House provides, and he takes what he wants. I deserve everything I want. I deserve to be in control. I deserve it all.

"Stop." My voice was a low growl, sharper than I intended.

Barbara froze and met my eyes, saw something there that surprised her. But she was still angry, still upset. "Don't think that you can—"

"Stop." I felt the word reverberate in the air between us. It was a primal sensation, the kind of feeling you get when someone powerful enters the room. You don't know how you know, and you don't know why, but you know that they are someone to be followed. Someone to be obeyed.

My wife froze, the words dying on her lips.

"I know about Aaron Burns," I said.

I hadn't meant to tell her. I hadn't even been thinking about it. But as her eyes widened and she sucked in a gasp of breath I knew that McKenzie had been telling the truth. I hadn't doubted my stepdaughter. But there was something different about knowing, without a doubt, that my wife had been cheating on me.

I guess that makes two of us, I thought ironically.

"But..." Barbara was trying to resist my command, her voice weak. "But how...? McKenzie promised..."

"Quiet." I stared into her blue eyes with my dark ones. In that moment, I wasn't angry anymore. The flash of anger had been what I needed to kickstart my brain, but now I was calm, controlled.

There was a moment of silence in the bedroom. Then, I leaned forward. "Whatever my faults," I said. "I always loved you. I loved you and I married you, but over time you drifted away. You drifted away until it seemed like I was just a second paycheck coming in every month and it was only you and McKenzie living in this house. You were dismissive, you were rude and, eventually, you decided that you would sleep with your boss."

Barbara shook her head, but she couldn't deny it. I wasn't lying, now. I was cold, certainly, but I wasn't lying.

"I didn't know," I continued. "I thought that if I became a better man, a more confident man, a man who took charge of his life, then maybe I could win you back. That's why I started listening to those self-hypnosis recordings in the first place." I sighed. "And then... well, once I started listening I realized that I didn't need to win you back. I didn't need anyone's approval anymore. I just needed to live my life. To be my own man. To take control of what I wanted and," I chuckled softly, and it was a surprisingly lighthearted sound in the heavy air of the room. "Who I wanted."

I smiled at Barbara. "Yes, I'm sleeping with your daughter."

Her blue eyes flared and she started to force herself to speak but I held up a gentle hand and she stopped, waiting.

"But what really matters," I continued. "Is that she wants it just as much as I do."

Barbara shook her head, confusion in her face. But she still couldn't speak, the most primal part of her mind still obeying the commands of the Alpha.

"You can speak," I said.

My wife didn't believe what she was hearing. "No..." she muttered. "She can't want it. She's just... confused."

It was my turn to shake my head. "You're wrong, Barb," I said. "And I don't have to try very hard to prove it."

"What do you mean...?" Barbara's voice was soft.

I paused for a moment, considering. "I may have been a weak man," I said. "But I'm not anymore. And I don't need you to want me. You can leave if you so choose. And I don't need you to approve of whatever relationship I have with your daughter. But before you go, if you want to go, I want you to know what I've become. And what you'll be missing if you leave."

"John..." My wife's blue eyes were uncertain. "What are you going to do?"

I shrugged and then I smiled. It wasn't a harsh, vindictive, or even a gloating expression. I just knew, for certain, that in that moment I didn't need to worry about anything anymore.

I was in control of my life.

Then, I looked my wife in the face and uttered a short, sweet word.

"Obey..."

Barbara shook her head slightly, blinking. "What...?" she muttered, looking at me like I was crazy.

"Obey..." I sat calmly on the edge of the bed, not moving.

My wife swayed back, her eyes widened and I could see her pupils dilating. "What are you—?"

"Obey." I repeated.

She relaxed, her fingers uncurling in the sheets. "Why do I feel... so strange?"

I spread my hands. "This is the new me, Barb," I said. My voice was low and smooth. "The Man of the House. And it's time for you to relax and obey..."

Her lips parted in a soft sigh. "The Man of the... what...?"

"Let it all go... Just relax..."

Her expression smoothed. "Relax...?" she whispered.

I nodded. "Relax and obey..."

"Relax..." the buxom blonde muttered. "Obey..."

"Just relaxing more and more," I murmured. "No worries, no thoughts, no mind..." I could see her eyes beginning to glaze over and I moved closer, my gaze piercing into hers. "Very good, honey," I told her.

She licked her lips nervously. "No worries..." Her breath was slowing to an even, relaxed pace.

"No thoughts."

"No thoughts..."

"No mind..."

"No... No mind..."

"Very good."

A slight smile as her eyes went vacant under my commanding stare. "Good..."

"Now..." I murmured. "I want you to relax and listen, because this is what's going to happen..."

* * *

I stuck my head out into the hall and called softly down towards the door at the far end. "Sweetheart! Your Mom and I are done talking. Come join us?"

I heard some movement, and then McKenzie was in the doorway to her bedroom. She wore a pair of red yoga pants and a tank top, with an earbud in one ear. The cord wound down to the phone in her hand. "Everything all good, John?" she asked, not certain if her mother could hear her.

I nodded and smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry about anything, Kenz. Your Mom and I are going to be fine."

"Okay." She unhooked the earbud and set her phone on her desk by the door before padding quietly down the hall.

I stood back and let her walk into the bedroom, closing the door behind her as she stopped stock still and stared at the scene before her.

"John...?" McKenzie's voice was uncertain. "What did you do?"

Barbara was sitting on the edge of the bed, back straight and her blue eyes wide and blank. Her hands were folded in her lap and she was staring straight ahead.

"John...?" My stepdaughter turned to me, her expression confused and worried.

I raised my hands calmingly. "I didn't do anything. Just listen, and then you can make up your mind, okay?"

McKenzie took a deep breath, eyes darting between her mother and me. For a moment, I wondered about that Lucas guy Barbara had mentioned, but then I focused on the task at hand. One issue at a time.

Then, the teenager took a deep breath and nodded. "Did you talk to her about... you know... her boss?"

I shook my head. "Not really. I told her I knew, but... She knew about us."

McKenzie's expression furrowed with surprise. "What? How?"

"Not important right now... What's important is that I told her I wasn't going to let her decide whether or not you and I had any sort of relationship. And I told her that I was going to bring you in, and you were going to tell her what you wanted."

My stepdaughter shook her head. "I don't understand."

I took a step away. I'd made up my mind. I might have the power to do whatever I wanted with these women. But I wasn't going to be that man. The BDE recordings had tried to convince me that I could do whatever I want, with whoever I wanted, and maybe I could. But... I was a better man than that. I might be the Man of the House. But I wanted to be something more. I wanted to be a good man, too. And to me, that meant I would give them the power to choose.

"McKenzie," I said. "You have a choice now. It's a rough one, I get it. But I want you to tell your mother what you want. If you want me, tell her. If you don't, tell her. She just needs to know that whatever you and I do going forward, it wasn't just my decision alone."

My stepdaughter's lips were pressed together tight and her hazel eyes were uncertain. "But..." she shook her head. "I don't want to choose between the two of you. It's not fair..."

I nodded. "You're right," I said simply. "It's not fair. And I hope that your mother, with some encouragement, will be willing to accept things as they are. But the first step is explaining to her that you and I aren't in some messed-up relationship where I'm taking advantage of you." I spread my hands. "I don't care what other people think. But she's your mother, and she wants to protect you."

The dark-haired teen took a deep breath. She glanced once again between me and her mother, the blonde beauty on the bed staring straight ahead at nothing.

"Can you wake her up, please?" McKenzie asked, licking her lips. "I feel weird talking to a statue."

"Yeah," I nodded. Turning to my wife, I said softly, "Barbara..."

Barbara's golden braid swayed as she shook her head and blinked, her eyes coming back into focus. The blue orbs darted around the room, from McKenzie to me and then back again. Her expression hardened. "Young lady!" she started, but I interrupted.

"Quiet," I ordered.

She shut her mouth quickly, and then looked confused as her eyes flicked to me.

"You're going to listen to what your daughter has to say, Barb," I told her. "Do you understand?"

My wife nodded, slowly, and I gestured for McKenzie to begin.

The 18-year-old took a deep breath, glancing back at me a final time before saying. "Hey, Mom." She smiled uncomfortably. "I hope you had a good trip, and stuff. Um... Well, here's the thing. I used to hate John. Or, I guess that's not right, I used to think he was boring and rude and he acted like he deserved me to treat him with all this respect even though he wouldn't respect me back.

"But something changed when he started listening to his self-hypnosis recordings."

Barbara didn't speak, couldn't speak, but she rolled her eyes at the mention of the recordings.

McKenzie plowed on, regardless. "He started paying attention to me, started asking for my help on things that mattered to him. Like working out and eating better and problems he was thinking about.

"And..." A blush crept up my stepdaughter's cheeks. "We started sleeping together."

Barbara frowned fiercely.