Control, Enkindle

Why did I hold back? Well because I still very much wanted to find out what she tasted like, and I didn't exactly fancy getting a mouthful of my own cream in the process.

After waiting enough that I wasn't right on the edge I took a step backwards, slipping out of her with a quiet wet pop. As soon as I let go she collapsed on top of Melinda, panting and trying to recover her breath. It was quite a sight, seeing her nether region all red and puffy, on display for the world to see.

"Come here, ma chérie," I spoke in French, crawling up and lying down next to the two of them, turning on my back.

Her movements was a bit sluggish but she did as I said, lifting herself off Melinda, giving the girl a deep kiss in the process. She really was a tiny woman. So light that I could move her around without much effort at all. She made no resistance when I turned her around and placed her on top of me, only reversed. My nostrils was immediately filled by her scent.

Like Melinda she tasted very sweet, young, innocent almost. There was also a curious hint of something... citrusy? Tangerines? How odd, but absolutely delicious.

Although I hadn't told her anything I expected to feel the warm slickness of a mouth on my erection. Surprising then, when I indeed felt warmth envelop it, but definitely not that of a mouth. There was weight accompanying the feeling and yep, disengaging only for a second I spotted the pale red material of Melinda's skirt down at my waist.

Well, I wasn't about to complain about that. The make out session had resumed, I could hear, above me.

Thankfully Melinda decided to take it slow. I was still close enough that had she gone only a fraction faster I would have popped right then and there. Not that I would have minded but it was a lot more fun this way. When she did finally have her second climax I was so used to the pace that I managed to hold back without much issue. Gabrielle, too, was about to have her second roller coaster. I could tell by both her sounds and her hips bucking back and forth.

Melinda fell to the side once she had come down from her high, seemingly too exhausted to stay upright. That suited me just fine, giving me the option of flipping Gabrielle around once more and lay her down on the bed, climbing on top of her. The motion took maybe a full five seconds and then I was back to pushing into her, now in a more traditional missionary position.

Neither of us would last more than a few minutes and this time I wasn't about to hold anything back. Neither was she, it seemed, as she wrapped her legs around my waist and clung to me with her arms around my neck.

"Oh god, yes... fuck me... deeper... ugh, harder," she moaned out between thrusts.

Of course I obliged and upped my intensity a notch. The familiar tingle in my balls informed me that I was beyond the point of no return. With just a few more strokes...

I buried myself as deep as I could, finally letting my excitement explode within her. It was intense, acute and even a little... profound. It felt like the flow would never stop, pumping out of me in waves, filling her up to the brim.

It eventually abated. In my haze of passion I had failed to notice her slipping into her second orgasm. It became evident though as soon as my brain registered her death grip on my neck, her climax lasting a good bit longer than mine. We rode it out together, pulling slow, almost sensual, strokes, holding onto each other as she came down.

Eventually, I didn't know how many minutes passed, I rolled off her, slumping down on the bed. My eyes felt heavy and I wanted nothing more than to close them and fall asleep. Rationality told me that it wouldn't be a good idea though. Yeah, we still had time to get to the airport, but how much of that would disappear if I allowed myself to rest? My head still felt fatigued from the earlier memory transfer.

After a moment I felt her move next to me. It was only to turn around though and rest her head on my chest.

Oh right. Boyfriends cuddle.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Chapter Ten

Maybe, just maybe...

Nope. Not gonna do it.

Here's a funny word for ya, 'lagom'. That's Swedish and means not too little and not too much, but just enough. There's no equivalent word for it in English though there is one close enough in French.

Cassandra told me that little tidbit before she, well... that would be spoiling.

Reason for sharing? Who knows... boredom? Seems to be a lot of that going around lately.

-o-o-o-o-o-

The goodbye between the girls at the airport was heartfelt and full of emotion. I had a hard time getting over it, how weird it was to see two people who knew next to nothing about one another be so sad to be parting. For my own part I acted suitably sad to see her go before letting the girls have a quiet moment to themselves.

In reality I was actually excited. Finding Gabrielle had been a stroke of luck I had not anticipated. It changed my plans slightly but helped immensely. Making her mine did not only secure a link to political France but also gave me a pretty clear path for the future. Most of all though, it was yet another option. Another backup, so to speak.

Before we parted ways I slipped a package into her carry on bag, telling her to keep it safe and not open it. She didn't question it. Of course she didn't.

Once back in the car and on our way I glanced at Melinda in the passenger seat. She had her face turned away, staring blankly out the window.

"You alright?"

I wasn't really concerned but it might be useful to gauge her state of mind after such a traumatic change to her brain.

She just nodded without looking at me.

"How do you feel? Still hate me?" I tried again.

A moment of silence passed, the only sound that of the passing traffic.

"I don't know," she said, speaking low. "It's... confusing."

"What is?"

"You, her, me. I don't know what's real anymore," she continued, still staring out the window. "I miss her but I know that's wrong. That it's false. That it's just my brain. One part of me is grateful for what you did but another part knows it's perverse. I just... can't trust myself."

Interesting. "Do you want me to remove your confusion?"

"No!" she exclaimed, turning to glare at me. A second later her expression softened. "I mean, no, please don't mess with my head anymore."

"Mm'alright," I said. "If you're sure. I'll need you to be a hundred percent later though."

"Fine, yeah, whatever. Just don't zap my brain again. I'll do whatever you want," she said, shaking her head.

The edge of my mouth twitched in a smile. It seemed she was finally starting to realize her situation. It sure took her a while.

"We've got a few hours to kill," I said after a moment. "Anything you want to do before we head back? Last chance and all that."

She bit her lower lip, seemingly in thought. Then she turned to look at me, a spark of something in her eye.

"You got any cash on you?" she asked.

One of my eyebrows rose as I stared at her. "A bit."

"How much?"

With slow and deliberate moves, I reached into my back pocket, pulling out one of the ten thousand stacks of cash.

"Excellent," she said and snatched it right out of my hand, my eyebrow twitching at the sudden action.

-o-o-o-o-o-

"A casino? Really?" I said, looking around the busy place, taking a sip from the scotch I had ordered.

"What?" she asked, taking a sip from the straw of the Gin Tonic in her hands. "You asked what I wanted to do and this is it."

"But you have no money," I said. Tapping my waist where the stack of cash was securely back in place I added, "This here is mine."

She shrugged, taking yet another sip. "Gimme half of it."

"And why would I do that?" I asked, peering at her across the table.

"Because I'm asking nicely?" she said. When I just raised an eyebrow at her she rolled her eyes and huffed. "Okay fine. Loan me half, then. You can have ten percent of whatever I win."

"And if you lose?"

She just shrugged again. "I'll sleep with you?"

Again my eyebrow rose. "I'm pretty sure that's called prostitution. Besides, you forgot I can have you under the table and choking on my dick whenever I want?"

She huffed again, giving me a one second scowl. "But that's true with everything I could offer you. Come on, just gimme at least 3k."

I slowly took a sip, keeping her locked under my gaze. She was right. There was nothing she could offer me that I couldn't make her give me. Still, much more interesting if she had a vested interest, something to lose.

"Lets at least make it interesting," I said and pulled the wad of money from my pocket, throwing it to her across the table. She caught it with barely concealed excitement. "For every one thousand you lose I'll take away some of your senses."

Her expression turned wary. "What do you mean?"

I gave her a smirk. "Lose a thousand and I'll take away feeling in one of your fingers. Lose another and maybe you go blind on one eye. A third and you're deaf on one ear," I said, enjoying the look of horror that appeared on her face. "Maybe I'll take away your ability to speak. Maybe a leg. Maybe I'll take your ability to perceive color, make everything black and white. You get the picture."

The money itself meant absolutely nothing to me but the situation I put her in was soooo delicious. If she wanted to play then she would have to bring something worth losing to the table.

Slowly she placed the money down on the table. Her expression turned sober and really, I wouldn't have blamed her if she had decided to withdraw. She surprised me though.

"Anything but my eyesight," she said, meeting my gaze head on. "Deal?"

The corners of my mouth quirked. She had balls, I had to give her that. And I couldn't very well withdraw the offer after making it.

"And for every one thousand I win you have to do something for me," she quickly added before I had a chance to respond.

I broke out into a grin. "Within reason. Deal."

She nodded, keeping her eyes fixed on me as she emptied the remaining half of her glass in one long pull. Picking up the cash she headed straight for the blackjack tables.

I almost decided to remind her that in the end, the house always wins, but figured she already knew that and either didn't care or felt confident that Lady Luck was on her side. To her credit, blackjack did have the lowest house edge of the usual casino games. Well, that is if you knew basic strategy and or count cards, the latter of which would most certainly earn her a swift backoff. If she was counting on pure luck then I would have recommended either roulette or craps, both of which had bet options that was near fifty percent probability of winning.

I let her play mostly undisturbed, deciding to check in only once in a while. Buying the drinks had given me half a hand of change so I amused myself with the slot machines, not really expecting to win very much and indeed, I was out after only thirty minutes of play. That's when I decided to check in on her for the first time.

"Ouch," I said when I saw that she was down two and a half grand on a one-fifty limit table.

"Go away," she said, making a shooing motion at me.

I just chuckled and went to get some more change. It was looking like I was going to have to get creative. Not that I particularly enjoyed the prospect of taking away parts of her senses. It was more the risk factor I enjoyed, seeing her nervous and invested.

An hour later I was out of change again. I figured she'd had enough time to either win back her losses or managed to burn the rest of it. Checking in on her it turned out she had managed to stay roughly even from the last time, still down almost three thousand.

She looked nervous and I didn't blame her.

"We got to go soon honey," I said, playing it up for the dealer and the other players. "You about done here?"

She swallowed and nodded. "Just about."

She had just lost her current bet and was sitting at an even three thousand deficit. Her expression looked defeated as we waited for the dealer to color her up. She didn't so much as look at me as we began making our way towards the cage to exchange the chips.

I did actually feel a little bit bad for her. She had taken a chance and lost, but at least she had taken it, which was the important part. Spotting one of the high limit roulette tables I made a snap decision.

"Hey," I said and nudged her, nodding towards the table. "All in?"

She blinked and hesitated. I was giving her a chance to win the money back and then some, but there was also the risk of loosing it all and add seven more things for me to take away.

I was absolutely loving the dilemma she was in.

Credit where credit is due. She did not shy away from risk, I thought, as I watched her head for the table.

I was nearly sure that she was going to bet it all on black but she proved me wrong and instead pushed it to red. The dealer, a young man, gave her a look as if making sure she was really sure about the bet. She nodded, to her credit, without hesitation.

She didn't look so sure once the ball had been dropped though, bouncing back and forth, its random path about to determine her fate.

-o-o-o-o-o-

"This really was fun," I said, pulling out of the parking area.

Melinda was in the back seat, lying down, an arm draped over her face.

"I'm never gambling again," she said, sounding completely exhausted.

"Come now," I said, grinning. "You did pretty good."

"I lost so many times," she said.

"And then you won," I said, holding up exactly forty, one hundred dollar bills. The other hundred was safely back in my back pocket.

"On a coin toss..." she groaned.

"48.6 percent probability to be exact," I said. A good thing we were in Europe, too, as the American roulette table only had a 46.37 percent probability on colors.

She just let out a groan.

"So, four things you can ask me to do," I said, amused. "Anything you want to take care of right now?"

There was no response and I couldn't see her in the mirror as she was lying down. After a moment I saw her sit up though, a thoughtful expression on her face.

"I..." she began but paused. "I'll think about it."

Shrugging I just held out the money to her, minus the ten percent, four hundred. "Arright. Just remember, within reason."

She took the bills and idly began counting them. I just shook my head in amusement. There was many reasons to lie, money not being one of them.

"Tell ya what," I said and held up the remaining four hundred. "I'll buy one of those 'wishes' right now if you want."

I couldn't help it. I laughed, loud. She was sooo predictable. There was no pause or even slight hesitation before she snatched the bills, blurting a quick, "Deal."

-o-o-o-o-o-

The sun was just about to start getting low once we got back to the villa. It was getting late, which meant that there was very little time left before I would be on my way back to the states. I was giddy at the prospect, excited by the thought of taking the next step. It always felt good when there was a clear path in front of me.

In fact, I was so excited that I couldn't resist humming on a tune that I had no idea where I had picked up as I made my way up to the room. Melinda moved to follow but I shooed her away, telling her to go pack her stuff.

I found Allie already in the room out on the balcony, our bags packed and ready on the bed.

"Everything good, sweetie?" I asked, surprising her by not announcing myself.

"Mr Jason!" she exclaimed and almost jumped out of the chair she was sitting in. She had her computer in her lap and I had just enough time to see a bunch of code before she slammed it shut. So she was beyond just researching, then.

"Watcha doin'?" I asked, a little playful, as i moved up behind her, placing my hands on her shoulders.

"You promised," she whined, pulling her laptop to her chest.

"Oh I know," I said and started to give her a shoulder rub. "I'm just teasing."

I felt the tension in her shoulders fade as she relaxed. "Bad Mr Jason," she said even as she leaned into my touch.

"Everything set?" I asked and let one of my hands slip down her front. The thin fabric of her red dress, the one and the same she had worn when we arrived, offered little resistance as I slipped my hand under it.

"I did as you told me," she said, nuzzling my arm.

"Good girl," I said and gave her bare breast a squeeze. She purred. "You did very good."

She just rubbed the side of her face against my arm, much like a cat might do.

"Welp, I suppose it's time to get this show on the road," I said, giving her one more squeeze before pulling my arm back. She caught it though, pulling my hand to her mouth and placing a quick kiss on it.

"I'll be here," she said and gave me a smile.

Nodding I gave her a pat on the head.

"It won't take long," I said.

There was just one more thing to take care of before leaving. I'd told Marcus I would help him with his family problem and as much as I hated doing it, it just had to be done, sooner or later, and I'd rather it be sooner.

It was regrettable, after everything that had transpired. But as the saying goes, c'est la vie.

-o-o-o-o-o-

"There you are, old chap," I said, upbeat and excited, finding Marcus in his office.

He appeared tense and not at all in a very good mood.

"Are we doing this?" he asked, getting right down to business.

"That depends on two things," I said, giving him a big grin. "You got the money, and is the plane ready?"

"Yes," he said, sitting up straighter in his chair. "To both. The money is in the car and the jet is ready to go as soon as you get to the airport."

"Excellent," I said and for effect I slapped my hands together. Gesturing to the door I added, "Well lets go then. The sooner we can get going the sooner we can get back and finish all this."

A look of confusion appeared on his face. "Going? Going where? Cassie is upstairs and Ana is out back."

"Yes yes," I said, waving dismissively. "That's all good and well. Unfortunately it just so happens I'm out of saline solution, so before we can get down to the dirty we need to go get more. I've got a few things I wanted to talk about, y'know, house cleaning, instruction manual for your new toys and so on. Figured we could do it in the car."

Of course, my acting was spot on, and he only hesitated for a second before nodding.

"Alright. Saline, you can get that pretty much anywhere, right?" It was obvious that he wanted to finish this as soon as possible. That made two of us.

"Normal saline, yes," I said as we walked. "The stuff I need has to be point nine sodium chloride though. Don't worry though, I looked up a place that has it. It's not too far away."

He ate it up like the dog he was. Normal saline was point nine NaCl and pretty much every pharmacy or drug store carried it. Hell, give me a distillation unit and I could whip up a batch in no time at all. The ingredients numbered a staggering two, water and regular table salt.