Conditioned Response

The Usual Disclaimer: This is a work of fantasy. All characters featured in sexual situations are over 18. The characters in these stories are fictional. Any resemblance to actual persons living, dead or undead is purely coincidental. Do not try this at home.

*****

"Strict but fair" was the way she had always thought of her parents. Over the past two years, though, Maddie had come to question that assessment along with almost everything else she had taken as gospel her entire life. It was not any single event that had caused her to reassess her life. Instead, it was a hundred little things that began to add up in her razor-sharp mind. Her entire self-image was eroding away.

She had come to accept that she was a "geek." For years she had dismissed the idea out of hand. She had a towering intellect, and believed her mother when she said that other people were merely jealous or intimidated when they called her mean things like that. Obviously, those feebleminded individuals didn't even know what they were talking about. The term referred to carnival and sideshow performers; it was a variant of "freak."

Maddie had felt a little sick when she realized that it was she who was mistaken. The term had evolved into something else entirely, and she fit the criteria of the modern definition perfectly. She wore thick glasses, and had her entire life. She was a voracious reader, and consumed fat textbooks and technical manuals simply because she wanted to learn. In addition, she loved science fiction. Not only did she eagerly watch every Star Wars, Star Trek, Hitchhiker, and Dr. Who movie and television series, but she also read all of the books and graphic novels that delved deeper into those rich, fictional universes.

And...she was still a virgin. Even though she was closing in on her twentieth birthday, she had never so much as masturbated. To most people, the idea would have seemed ludicrous. In an age when most kids were exploring their sexuality in their early teens, Maddie was truly an outlier. She was busy teaching herself vector calculus and learning the rudimentary rules of quantum mechanics when other girls were excited to get their first bra. Maddie only wore a bra because her parents insisted that it was necessary.

Usually when her parents would tell her that she needed to do something, they would also patiently explain why it was necessary. "It is considered crude for a woman to display her nipples in public," her father had sighed. "I understand that a brassiere is not a comfortable garment, but it is the accepted societal norm."

He had been right about that. Her brassieres were not comfortable at all. Only very recently had she gone to a shopping mall without her parents for the first time. She was stunned to see the section of women's underwear in the department store. Those brassieres were completely unlike anything she had ever worn. They actually looked pretty and comfortable, although they seemed awfully risqué at the same time. That store did not even carry the rigid white style of bra that she had worn since age fourteen—and was wearing at that moment.

At the time, she figured that the store was appealing to the prurient, shameful elements of their customer base. She had seen it elsewhere, certainly. One of her favorite television shows, The Big Bang Theory, often devolved into low-brow sexual humor. However, after taking note in several other shopping outlets that all of those stores seemed to have a similar selection of bras and panties, it was just one more niggling point that she could not fully explain.

Her parents had sat her down once and explained about the "birds and bees" but she had already read enough anatomy texts that she understood how all of that worked. They asked that she not date until she was older, and she readily agreed. That one they did not have to explain. She did not want to do anything as foolish as getting pregnant before she had graduated.

Many things that were rites of passage for most young women, Maddie had dismissed as foolish and wasteful. She had no interest in going to dances or even prom when she was in high school. Her parents were relieved that she was so sensible. After high school, she again did the sensible thing, remaining at home with her family while attending the local State University. It was not far from where they lived, after all, and it had as rigorous an academic program as more expensive schools further away.

A year ago, her parents had bought her younger brother a car. He had asked for one, and they had set conditions for him to get it. It jarred Maddie when they bought the car before Todd had met the conditions of their agreement. Her mother had explained, "We had earned points on our credit card that could be used on the down payment. Those points were going to expire, so we went ahead and got him the car early. It actually saved us a lot of money."

It made sense, but it was a departure from what Maddie expected from her parents. One of the conditions was that Todd was supposed to bring up his grades. After he had the car, his grades did not improve. Maddie expected her parents to take the car away until his grades improved, but they never did.

When her brother turned eighteen, there were more little incidents that bothered Maddie. He was allowed to have girls over when their parents weren't home. Their parents gave him money and encouraged him to shop for his own clothes. They had never allowed her to go shopping without them. In fact, they had never given her allowance money to her directly; they would pay for things that they approved of after she had earned them.

Recently, her mother had gone into her brother's room while he had a girl in there. She heard Todd cry out, "Mom!" Their mother had beaten a hasty retreat from his room, apologizing as she closed the door. She was blushing furiously, making Maddie wonder what she had seen.

After that incident, Todd was careful to lock his door whenever he took a girl in there. Maddie could hear curious noises coming from her brother's room, and it was starting to bother her. So many things were not adding up. It wasn't that she wanted a car, or wanted to date boys, but her parents had never really given her the option. It struck her, intellectually speaking, as inherently unfair.

One evening, after her brother and his girlfriend emerged from his bedroom, the girl had turned to Todd and murmured, "That was incredible." She had then stood on tiptoe and kissed Todd on his cheek. That piqued Maddie's curiosity. What were they doing in there that was so incredible?

Two days after that, it was Friday. Maddie had no Friday classes that semester. One of her parents always dropped her off at the University on class days, but on Fridays she stayed home alone. She took a break from studying in her room, and wandered out to the kitchen to grab something to eat. She sat at the dining room table and munched on her sandwich and chips, and her eyes came to rest on the closed door of Todd's bedroom.

What had they been doing in there?

She washed down the mouthful of sandwich with a sip of milk, and then wiped her hands as she rose to her feet. Maddie pushed the door to her brother's room open and flipped on the light switch. His room was certainly messier than hers. She pursed her lips and shook her head.

Mom would never accept my room looking like this.

There were some dirty clothes on the floor, and the bed was not made. An open bag of chips sat on his desk between the keyboard and monitor of his computer. Maybe that was it, she thought. Maybe they were watching a movie on his computer. She wiggled the mouse to get the screen saver to turn off. There wasn't a DVD in the drive. She looked around and did not see any movies nearby. There was a stack on his bookshelf, but those were older movies and did not look like they had been moved in some time. There was dust on the top DVD case of that stack.

Were they watching a movie online? She checked the browser history. Like her computer, her brother's had rigid parental controls installed. It was impossible for him to clear his browser history. However, it was clear that her brother spent very little time online outside of the occasional online video game or YouTube clip. None of that was recent activity.

She stopped leaning over the desk and stood, looking around the room again. Nothing obvious sprang to mind, and that just piqued her curiosity. Todd's girlfriend was named Jasmine. Maddie had not talked with the girl often, but from what she could recall Jasmine was not given to hyperbole. If she said that something was "incredible" she probably believed that to be the case.

Maddie wrinkled her nose. Todd's laundry basket was overfull with dirty laundry, and the musty smell of his dirty clothes was bothersome. Maddie turned off the light, closed the door, and went back to finish her lunch. She was thinking while she ate, and stopped abruptly with her hand halfway to her mouth. Maddie dropped the sandwich onto her plate and hurried back into her brother's bedroom.

Her brother's computer was identical to hers, but he had never taken that much interest in it the way she had. There was a camera mounted atop the monitor of both of their computers. It appeared that Todd had never even bothered to set up his camera for use. It was child's play for Maddie to give her computer remote access, and then she set up Todd's camera so that she could activate it and control it from her computer.

She had a satisfied smile on her face when she finished her lunch. She was finally going to find out what her brother had been up to.

* * *

Maddie had a pantheon of personal heroes that included many of the great scientists in human history. Einstein, Hawking, and Newton (obviously!) stood prominently among those. Notably absent from that list were any of the prominent psychologists. To Maddie, there was a definite hierarchy among the sciences, and she would rank psychology close to the bottom.

She had been puzzled upon hearing some of Freud's theories being discussed. She read some of his work and was flabbergasted at what she deemed very weak speculation. It would be several years before she realized that psychoanalysts like Freud were not considered "true" psychologists by modern practitioners.

Even then, though, she was dismissive of the work of behavioral psychologists like Pavlov and Skinner. The work seemed obvious, and she did not see the parallel between conditioning animals to do tricks and training the human brain to have similar responses. Her beautiful brain was far more evolved than some stupid dog or pigeon.

She really did not know anything about "conditioned response." It was a glaring hole in her scientific knowledge, one that she was blissfully unaware even existed.

* * *

Todd and Jasmine came into the house and wasted little time before they headed into his bedroom. Maddie watched as Jasmine kissed her brother repeatedly, and shook her head. She had kissed some boys years ago. It had not seemed at all special to her. Maddie was sitting on the couch, and returned her attention to the graphic novel she was reading. It was a collection of fairly recent Marvel comic books. Even though she knew this was fantasy, it was still fun for her to read.

Jasmine made some peculiar noises that carried through to the living room. After the third such outburst, Maddie realized that this was her chance. She got up quietly from the couch and retreated to her room, locking her door behind her. It took a few minutes to get the camera turned on, and then she had to rotate it and lower it before she found Jasmine and her brother on his bed.

She cocked her head, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. Jasmine was kneeling on the bed. Her brother was lying on his back. It looked like Jasmine was taking Todd's penis into her mouth and she was moaning as she did so.

Because of the parental controls on their computers, Maddie had never seen pornography. Most people would have recognized a blowjob when they saw it, but she spent several minutes trying to work out what was going on. Jasmine was wearing a t-shirt, but her bare bottom stuck out toward the camera. It looked like her vagina was very wet. Upon closer inspection, Maddie could see that juices were running down the insides of her thighs. It took her a while, but she was able to conclude that it wasn't urine.

Her attention was drawn back to Jasmine's mouth as it worked up and down on Todd's penis. Both of them were moaning, and Todd occasionally bucked his hips upward in response. Maddie was leaning forward intently as she watched what was happening on her screen. Her eyes shot open in shock when Todd groaned and she watched his thick semen pouring out of Jasmine's mouth and drooling down his shaft.

Maddie sat back in her chair, and then she had another shock. There was a very warm sensation coming from her crotch. She pulled her panties and sweat pants away from her body with her left hand while her right hand carefully slid inside to touch her pussy. It was soaked! She got up quickly and went to the bathroom, but she had not wet herself. She felt no need to urinate, and was very surprised at the wetness seeping from her. She held up her fingers and looked at the creamy fluid, and realized that it was the same as she had seen oozing from Jasmine.

After washing her hands, she hurried back to her room and turned off the computer. She returned to the living room mere minutes before Jasmine and Todd emerged from his bedroom. Maddie carefully watched them over the top of her graphic novel. Jasmine was gently touching and stroking Todd's back and shoulder as they talked. Twice more, she kissed Todd sensuously before she left.

* * *

Because of the parental controls, it was difficult for Maddie to research what she had seen. Finally she did manage to find a trio of scientific papers that explained the vaginal discharge that she had experienced. Cross-referencing the terms from those papers, she found an explanation. That fluid was considered "natural lubrication" that was secreted to protect the vagina during sex.

That made sense, as a design element. On the other hand, Maddie had to wonder why she had been secreting that fluid. After all, she wasn't having sex. There were additional links to articles on arousal, but those were psychological journal articles. She snorted derisively and turned off her computer.

Maddie managed to get her mind off of what she had seen. There was a Dr. Who marathon on BBC America that weekend, and she was engrossed in the shows for endless hours. Sunday evening, she made sure that all of her homework was completed for her Monday classes before she went to bed.

Her father dropped her at the University that Monday morning. The traffic was brutal, and she was glad that she didn't have to find a parking spot. She thanked her father and gave him a peck on the cheek before getting out of the car. He looked surprised. She had never been physically affectionate toward him. Maddie did not look back, and he drove away without dwelling on it.

She had been curious if she had missed something, but after kissing her father on the cheek she put that thought aside. Nothing special there, and certainly nothing "incredible," she thought. She went about her normal Monday routine of classes and labs, and her mother picked her up late that evening.

Tuesday afternoon, she was home earlier. On those days she caught a bus from the campus. She came in and heard Jasmine's voice coming from her brother's room once again. Maddie went into her bedroom and started her computer before setting her backpack on the floor next to her bed. She stretched a bit before reaching up to unfasten the clasps of her uncomfortable bra.

The screen came to life, and she sat down to take control of Todd's camera once again. While her right hand maneuvered the mouse, her left gently massaged the tender skin of her breast beneath her sweat shirt. As soon as the camera came online, it showed her a scene very similar to the last one she had witnessed. Maddie leaned forward and stared. Her mouth watered a bit as she looked at the shaft of Todd's erect penis.

As the word reverberated through her mind, it sounded inappropriate. The term "penis" felt like a medical term, and this was no medical procedure. She had heard some of the other terms for the male sex organ. "Dick", "prick", "pecker"...the list went on and on, but then she realized that she was staring at her brother's wet, throbbing cock when Jasmine pulled her mouth off of him for a moment. Prior to that moment, she had always pictured a rooster when she had heard the term. From that moment on, though, the word "cock" would conjure up the image of her brother's glistening boner.

Jasmine was moaning much more than Todd was, clearly aroused. Unaware she was even doing so, Maddie found her nipple and explored it as it swelled between her fingers.

Maddie's breathing quickened as she watched her brother's cock going in and out of Jasmine's mouth. This time, she saw the entire pulsing length of it several times when it slipped out from between Jasmine's lips. Maddie's attention was drawn from her brother's dick over to Jasmine's bottom, which was again protruding from her t-shirt. Maddie realized that Jasmine had one of her hands between her thighs, and that she was touching herself. Wet sounds emanated from the headset, and Maddie's hand slid down from her breast to find its way into her panties.

She gasped when her exploring fingers touched her wet and sensitive lips and clitoris. She looked down, unable to believe the pleasure that her own fingertips were giving her. Her eyes went back to the screen, and once again locked onto her brother's thick shaft. When she watched him erupt into Jasmine's mouth, Maddie shook with the force of her first orgasm. Her mouth watered as pleasure shot through her body. At the same time, she was focused on her brother's cum drooling out of Jasmine's mouth and down his shaft.

Her hand was shaky as she cut off the camera feed and leaned back. Her fingers still teased her sensitive folds as aftershocks made her tremble in her office chair. Finally, she got up and shakily made her way into her bathroom to wash her hands and face. She took off her thick glasses and set them on the counter. When she was done drying her face, she put the glasses back on and looked at her reflection.

Maddie shook her head sadly. She knew that she was not nearly as pretty as Jasmine. Those thick glasses, coupled with the way her hair was pulled back tightly into that severe bun she always wore...it just made her look like the nerdy alter-ego to one of the female superheroes in those comics she loved.

Why couldn't I be pretty? she wondered

* * *

Maddie was unaware that her illicit peeks into her brother's room skewed her assessment of what was happening. Both times, she had missed the twenty-to-thirty minutes that her brother had spent with his face between Jasmine's thighs. His tongue and fingers had teased and pleased her until she writhed in orgasm again and again. Those were the sounds that Maddie was hearing when Jasmine tried to control her cries of ecstasy.

After Todd had pleasured her so thoroughly, Jasmine was happy to return the favor. It did turn her on to feel his cock in her mouth, and to know that she was giving him so much pleasure. Still, she did not relish the taste of his semen. After they had finished she would usually clean him off with a tissue and dispose of it in his trash basket.

Jasmine just could not bring herself to face her parents and ask to get on birth control. Todd understood, and the two of them were content to please each other orally. Twice they had intercourse with a condom, but that had seemed less romantic and fulfilling than what they enjoyed when they licked and sucked each other.