Conditioning Pt. 03

It took Holly about thirty minutes to install the update to the headset and prepare them for the update that was meant to correct whatever Drontech had done to her.

Determined to stay awake this time, she sat on a kitchen stool so that if she drifted off, she'd fall off the chair. A little excessive, but it should do the job of keeping her awake. Perched atop her stool, she donned the headset and pressed the buttons on either side to trigger the program cycle.

Just like previous times, the headset beeped once to signal it had started the cycle, then silence. If it weren't for the pods on each side of her head getting warm, she would have thought it wasn't working. The first fifteen minutes passed uneventfully with Holly marking off the time on her wall clock. The second fifteen was starting to prove more difficult for Holly to stay awake. It was like the headset was totally relaxing her. She could feel her head beginning to droop and she kept jerking awake. Half an hour had passed she thought to herself and only fifteen minutes left.

Holly jerked awake realising she must have dozed again, but it was such a sudden movement that the headset was thrown from her head and slid underneath the sideboard. She scrambled down to grab the headset. Somehow it had slid around one of the rear legs and it took her what felt like at least a minute but was likely only five to ten seconds to retrieve it. She yanked it over her head pulling the ear pods into place.

A wave of doubt passed through her. What if the headset could detect that it had been removed? Would it continue the cycle to completion.

Just before the forty-five minute mark, the headset played three beep sounds signifying the cycle was complete. A sigh of relief escaped her lips.

It was early afternoon by this stage and Holly wouldn't know if the headset had worked until that night. Filled with an abundance of nervous energy, Holly decided to do some yoga, it had always helped centre her in the past. Changing into her yoga gear and placing her mat in the living room, she found a narrated class podcast and set it running.

An hour later, covered in a light sheen of sweat, but overall in a better frame of mind, Holly headed for the shower.

The rest of her day included some menial housework, watching tv, cooking dinner and watching more tv.

It felt like Holly had checked the clock every minute between nine pm and ten pm, but finally the time was almost there. The second hand swept round and it was ten pm at last. And nothing. No need to touch herself, no increased sensitivity on her body, nothing out of the ordinary. Holly released a breath she hadn't realised she was holding and felt the wave of relief flood through her body. Was that it, had they finally sorted whatever the problem was, she thought to herself.

A wave of tiredness swept over her as she sat on the sofa. Maybe the stress of it all was tiring her out and now that it was fixed, her body was able to relax and she could catch up on sleep.

Despite being a Saturday and not long after ten, she decided to head to bed and recover.

Once in bed, she had a fleeting thought, since she was in bed and wasn't late, did she want to play with herself. It almost made her laugh out loud that she'd even considered it before pushing those thoughts aside and closing her eyes to try and drift off to sleep.

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Waking the next morning, Holly felt refreshed and optimistic and lay in bed contemplating what to do for the day. Her pondering was interrupted by a text message from a friend asking if she wanted to join them window shopping in the city. With no better offers, she accepted. Window shopping meant wandering round the shops, trying on clothes they had no intention of buying, chatting with her friend and at most buying a coffee and a snack.

Once up and dressed and ready, she made a coffee in her travel mug and grabbed a couple pineapple sticks from the fridge before heading towards the tube station.

Her friend was waiting near the exit barrier at Camden Tube Station. The shops in the area were all independents and market stalls rather than large chain stores. You could spend hours wandering around the various stalls, even on a Sunday.

Holly had known Lisa since they met at university and both had stayed in the city when they graduated rather than returning to their hometowns. Lisa had moved in with her boyfriend otherwise Holly and she would likely have ended up sharing a house or something.

Lisa was the same age as Holly, twenty-six. But physically she was very different. Lisa was a tad under six feet tall, stick thin and very petite in all areas. She had joked that all her growth had gone into her height rather than her 'boobs and bum' as she would phrase it.

Holly easily spotted the lanky Lisa as she left the station and headed over.

The initial small talk was very predictable but eventually they realised they were kind of in the way with the constant passage of people coming from the station.

"Do you have any shops you want to visit in particular or shall we just go wandering?" Lisa asked.

"Let's just wander around and see if anything takes our fancy." Holly replied and the girls headed off down Camden High Street.

They headed into the newly developed Camden Market area now full of small stalls that sold an assortment of clothes, housewares and tourist junk. The high street itself had shops with giant sculptures over the doors. One of her favourites was a shoe shop that sold boots for goths and rock music fans. The boots they sold looked almost unwearable, either huge platforms, high heels made from metal. They were covered in decorations like spikes, chains, metal plates, flames and the like. They looked amazing but were really expensive.

They carried on down the canal shopping area and finally ending up in the main hub, Camden Stables. The shops here were quite narrow, some only three metres wide and packed in together but went back ten to fifteen metres.

Lisa knew a shop she wanted to visit that had a skirt she liked so she dragged them both straight past several stalls to get there. Finally arriving, Lisa dug through a rack of sale items till she found the skirt she was looking for. It was pale blue, would have ended a few inches above her knees and had oval cut outs up both sides, meaning anything worn under them would be visible, including underwear unless it had a very narrow waistband.

Lisa held the skirt over her jeans and asked Holly, "What do you think?"

Holly turned round to check out the skirt. The skirt was a really similar colour to the scrub style tops she wore for work. Out of nowhere, she suddenly felt a wave of disgust at the skirt. It didn't make sense, just something wasn't right about it.

"I'm not sure, it looks like it would be cold and you'd have to be really careful what you wore underneath it. I know it's on sale but I'd pass on it," Holly replied, doing her best to politely turn her friend away from getting the skirt.

Lisa looked disappointed, like she had hoped Holly would like it and that would help convince her to buy it. "Oh, okay. I thought it might be cute."

"Plus, your handbag would rub against your leg when you walk. I don't think it's a great design." Holly added, trying to justify her opinion.

Lisa put the skirt back on the rack and they left the store.

"Come on Lisa, let's grab a slice of pizza and a drink. Then we can get back to finding you a killer skirt to show off those super long legs."

The compliment helped motivate Lisa and they headed towards the food court area. One of the stands there made twenty-four inch pizzas and sold them by the huge slice. They both bought a slice and a drink then found a nearby table.

Lisa asked between bites, "How have you been since I saw you last?"

"It's been a bit of a struggle lately, with money at first then weird stuff after I signed up for a clinical study into behavioural conditioning." Holly replied.

Holly then went on to explain the study, her initial visit and some of her actions since then. Although she did tone down the details and instead just described her issues as having a strong urge to touch herself.

Lisa sat there listening but clearly shocked by what she was hearing.

"So they've fixed it now then?" she asked.

"Seems to. I've not had an 'incident' in over twenty-four hours and before they were happening at least twice per day," Holly replied.

"You should think about suing them for mental distress and medical negligence." Lisa advised.

"I think possible side effects were covered in the waivers I signed, plus the doctor at Dron-tech was adamant that the issue wasn't with their equipment or software, that it was either user error or not related to them." Holly explained. "I was meant to sit wearing the headset for about forty-five minutes till it beeped, but I fell asleep once for hours and another time I knocked it off my head, so I'm not a hundred percent sure that it's not my own fault. Plus it seems like it's sorted now." Holly explained.

"Hmmmmm." Lisa sounded, clearly not entirely satisfied but aware that she was unlikely to change Holly's mind.

Once they had both finished Lisa explained she only had about thirty minutes before she had to head off as she and her boyfriend were meeting his parents for dinner, but that was enough time for a quick look round some more shops.

They walked down two more alleys full of shops before something caught Holly's eye. The shop seemed to stock clothes that would be mostly suited to older teens, with clothes that were tight or displayed the wearer, but what had caught her eye was the shop worker. She had on boots, a short black denim skirt and a gauze-like see through long sleeved top over a hot pink basque that would have been better suited to the bedroom.

Whatever it was that caught her eye, made her stop moving, letting Lisa keep walking on without her. Holly was staring at the outfit, trying to work out which part she liked or had caught her attention as she already had a dark denim skirt and the top was not her kind of item.

"Did you see something you liked, I wouldn't have thought this shop sold our kind of stuff?" Lisa asked as she had realised she was on her own and had walked back.

"Um, no, I don't think so. Just saw something out of the corner of my eye." Lisa replied.

As they walked off, Lisa gradually realised that her nipples weren't just erect but they were aching in time with her pulse, like they got when she was aroused, but she couldn't work out why. Maybe they were cold from a draft she thought.

They carried on walking round the shops and Holly's nipples relaxed, although something in her mind couldn't forget the shop and the lady in the pink shop.

Soon after, Lisa checked the time and explained again that she had to leave to meet up with her boyfriend, but that she had really enjoyed their shopping trip. Together the girls walked back to the tube station. As they approached Holly explained that she was going to call into a shop to grab a drink and some bits for dinner that evening so she would part ways with Lisa rather than holding her up.

The two women hugged and agreed to meet up soon. At which Lisa headed into the station and Holly went into the food shop. She loitered for a few minutes to make sure Lisa had gone then left without buying anything, heading back towards the stables and the shop with the pink topped lady.

She couldn't get the lady out of her mind. The lady was young and attractive, but Holly wouldn't have been interested in her intimately, so the puzzle of what was on her mind intrigued her.

She found the stall, which was empty of people apart from the shop worker. Almost as soon as Holly saw her, she was drawn to the top again, how it was bright pink, how it tightly hugged the girls breasts. How the lacy panels showed hints of the skin beneath.

The girl saw Holly staring and headed over towards her.

"Hi Miss, do you see anything you're interested in?" The double entendre obvious in her question.

"Ummm, I kinda like your top, do you sell them here?" Holly stuttered out, starting to blush at the girl's question and sexual undertones. At the same time, Holly realised her nipples were again standing to attention and likely pushing out against her top.

"We do, it's from our rack over here," she said pointing, "let me see if we've got one that should fit you."

The girl came back a minute later with five hangers.

"I've got it in red, white, silver, baby blue and hot pink," she said, holding the items up for Holly to see. Holly ran her eyes over them, red was nice and sexy, white was far too innocent, silver looked like it would have belonged in a nightclub, the blue..., as her eyes came to rest on the blue Holly started to get oddly uncomfortable. She couldn't put her finger on it, but there was something really wrong about it. She rapidly moved on to the next one, the hot pink one. Something about this one really appealed to her. Again like the blue one, she couldn't put her finger on it, on what exactly it was that appealed to her, but her nipples seemed to like it.

Seeing her potential customer linger on the last one, the shop worker asked, "Would you like to try this one on, lifting the pink one towards Holly.

Holly wasn't sure what she responded but the shop girl was leading her towards a curtained off area at the back of the shop. She leant in and put the hanger on a hook and stood aside letting Holly in the change room.

"You should try this on after removing your clothes, but keep your own knickers on. The fastening on the front can be a little stiff at first so give me a shout if you need a hand," she said with a devious smile on her lips towards the end.

Still mildly confused at why this item appealed to her, Holly stepped out of her shoes, leggings, tops and bra. Taking the basque off the hanger, she opened the front and looked at how to try it on. Realising that it was crotchless in nature so she had to step into it, pull it up her back over her shoulders, then fasten the front. It seemed simple enough so she started putting it on. The legs and shoulder sections were straight forwards, but just like the girl had indicated the front was tricky. Despite fiddling with it, Holly realised she was going to have to ask for help.

Peeping round the curtain as she was mostly naked, she called out to the shop girl, "Miss, when you have a moment, could you help me?"

The shop girl was putting some clothes out on a rack when Holly called her so she looked round at Holly with a flirtatious grin on her face and started piling the clothes on top of the rack. Holly let the curtain fall back in place as she waited for the shop girl.

She was only waiting for a few moments, but it was in those moments that it suddenly dawned on Holly that the outfit she was trying on over her own knickers was crotchless, but that meant the shop girl was also wearing a crotchless outfit, that Holly had practically been flirting with her and now she'd asked her to help her in a private dressing room.

"Hi there," the shop worker said as she poked her head around the curtain. "Can I come in to help?"

"Yes, please do." Holly replied.

"Like I mentioned, the front can be a little stiff the first few times you try this top on, but once you've got the knack and the material has softened a little, it is straightforward to do it yourself. But for now, let me help you fasten it and make sure it fits right."

The girl, who Holly realised had a name tag that read 'Gracie', asked Holly to turn around. When Holly did, Gracie stepped up right behind Holly, so much that she could feel Gracie's breasts pushed into her back. Holly could feel the nipples pressed into her, moving left and right as Gracie reached around, the feeling of which made Holly's breath catch in her throat and her pulse started racing. Looking into the full length mirror on the wall she could see Gracies' eyes looking straight into her own with a sparkle that this was maybe more than just helping a customer with their outfit.

Gracies' hands felt around and looked for the two edges of the basque to try and fasten them together. If she'd been looking at her hands in the reflection, it would have been simple, but she was still staring at Holly's eyes and instead her hands slid over Holly's breasts, the nipples there now obviously erect and pushing against the material, desperate to get more contact.

Holly could feel her pulse racing and Gracie's hands felt like they held a static charge as every touch felt electric. She knew that if she looked, she would find a growing damp patch on her knickers as she could feel the heat and wetness between her lips. The desire for more made her start to slowly move her add back and forth, almost subtly against Gracie, both hoping that Gracie would and wouldn't notice the grinding.

Suddenly Gracie had managed to twist the front clasp together on the basque and she took a step backwards. The absence behind Holly made her want it back. In just those few moments the touch of one body to another had generated some shared body heat and suddenly it was gone.

"Let's see how it looks on you," Gracie said.

Holly turned around, torn between wanting more contact with this hot stranger she'd only met less than twenty minutes earlier and the shame at realising that her face was flush, her breathing was faster than normal and her nipples were like small erasers trying to push their way through the basque fabric.

Holly took a step back to appraise the outfit. "You've got it a little twisted, would you mind if I corrected you?" she asked.

The double message again wasn't lost on Holy. "Sure," she replied.

Gracie started at the top and untwisted the shoulder straps by putting her fingers under the straps and sliding them along the skin from the back to the front. She pulled the front cups up to allow Hollys' breasts to lift and sit properly. Then she ran her hands down her sides as she lowered herself into a squatting position.

In this position, Holly knew she would be able to see the wet spot on her knickers and at that distance, likely smell her arousal too. The shame of being seen like this was turning her on even more.

Gracie reached forward again, this time to move the crotchless straps so they went around Holly's labia.

"This outfit isn't really designed for you to wear knickers under it," Gracie said seductively, "You would look even hotter without them, don't you think?" she said whilst looking up straight into Holly's eyes.

"Uh huh," was the best Holly could manage.

Holly moved back slightly so she could lean back against the wall. Gracie twisted something near the bottom of the basque and suddenly she was able to remove Holly's knickers, down her legs and over her feet. A strange twist of the basque later and it was secure again. The move threw off Gracie's balance and she had to grip Holly's thighs to keep her balance. Holly mistook the motion for Gracie wanting to pull her back closer and she reached down to touch Gracie's slick parted hair.

A sound outside the curtain, a beep like a till button being pressed caught Gracie's attention and she shot up, the moment between the two women broken. As she pulled aside the curtain there was movement outside.

"Hey, stop that," Gracie shouted as she bolted out of the changing room.

"Shit, run, quick," Came an unknown mysterious voice followed by a crash as some display stand was pulled over.

All the sounds ran towards the front of the store.

Holly could hear some quiet words but they were too far away to hear clearly apart from the odd words like "little shits, security, on camera."

A few minutes later Gracie approached the changing room where Holly was still trying to calm down after what had been the start of an intense erotic with what would have been her first with a woman, which now she thought about it would have been strange, but in the moment it felt so right.