Going Cougar

It was clear that Amanda had been a dominant, and I wondered if she had taught my mom to be a dominant, or my dad, or if they had a different dominant now. One thing I agreed with about what Amanda said, love was not a democracy I saw that at home from time to time although who called the shots was unclear to me if I thought about the arguments I had seen. I knew one of my parents took charge and that they tended to go away for a weekend when they got to arguing too much.

I went to bed that night wondering what it would feel like to have Amanda tying me up, punishing me when I screwed up, rewarding me if I did well. I also thought about Amanda at my command, and had to admit that I had no idea what I would do with her.

The owner listened as I spoke about heating cables used on hydroponics farms to keep the growth medium at the right temperature for the plants and how they might stop the concrete apron from getting iced over in winter saving him money in the long term as trucks moved more easily through the docks and he didn't need to pay someone to de-ice all the time. He didn't answer but when I arrived with breakers to get the old concrete out the cables were waiting.

I spent the time between laying out blocks to break up and cast reading up about what Amanda had told me. Most of it was stories with fantasies so wild they were probably lethal to carry out. At the very least they were paralyzingly viscous and at least one of the partners would spend a long time recovering if ever carried out. I did find a few helpful resources too and they seemed to come down to a few simple principals.

I got my mom alone at home on Friday afternoon and asked her about Amanda. She was furious at me for still even thinking of having anything to do with Amanda. She refused to talk about it and sent me packing.

I got a surprise the next afternoon when I came in from practice. My mom was sitting in the lounge, dressed in a leather skirt, very high heels, white silk blouse. She looked fantastic, the whip beside her knees was somewhat disturbing, my father naked except for a leather speedo type of briefs, was very disturbing. I took note of the leg restraints and that he was wearing what looked like a leather dog collar. He was sitting on the floor his head on my mother's knee, looking very happy despite the red stripes across his back. That answered several questions!

"Look carefully Ferdi, at some point Amanda will whip you too if you get involved with her. She will order you around and she will make you help her business, your business will come second. Amanda does not play a game in the bedroom only." My mother said.

"Okay, fair warning. But don't you think it would be better to be more open about you and dad? At least Amanda does not hide and try to look as if she is a nice lady teaching third graders to read. She has a business and she does not let anyone imagine that she is terminally nice." I replied.

"Are you saying I lied to you?"

"Not at all. I'm saying that maybe you don't know everything about Amanda. I'll find out, don't worry." I said and left.

Amanda accepted an invitation to go stargazing with me at short notice when I was in my room. Unfortunately Sheryl came along and took her turns looking through my telescope and tried getting me to feel her ass but clearly missed her phone more than she wanted to have a chat or learn about Antares and Betelgeuse.

"My parents are renting the house. Your house?" I asked as I set up to show them Betelgeuse and explain why it was an interesting star.

"No, not my house, why do you ask?"

"They came here, they moved in right next door you of all the places in the USA, why?"

"Your mom and I stayed in touch. When they told me they were getting out of South Africa I completely agreed. I sponsored them and your father got his business going here because he had a market. Easily available."

My father had been traveling between the USA and South Africa for three years before my parents announced that the family was emigrating. I was curious about what my father had done now, especially if Amanda had been involved.

"Your dad has always been faithful to your mom Ferdi. I respect that of him."

I had to be satisfied with that. I decided to see how well Sheryl paid attention before I asked more intimate questions. I swept Amanda into my arms and kissed her hard. I broke off just as she was getting over her surprise.

"So, Sheryl is not my sister then; can I get her pregnant immediately or after you and I are married?"

Amanda burst out laughing. Sheryl was paying attention and not keen on the part about Amanda and I getting married.

The owner was all for me doing other jobs in other cities with other places he ran at what he was seeing and nodded in satisfaction when I asked to see if the heating cables worked first. I explained that I did not want to waste money if this idea did not work. The retired rugby player just smiled and walked away nodding.

That afternoon the team was in the locker room and the coach posted the team. The club owner walked in, as Dave asked why he was not on the team sheet.

"Rugby at any level is about discipline guys.the discipline to develop talent. Its about giving good service to your team despite difficulties, keeping commitments. After that comes skills, and speed and strength. Dave, screw you mate. You have the talent but you're fucking me around and you're fucking this team around. Ferdi there, I heard from his school coaches, has been in the gym at five thirty every morning since he turned fourteen, he mostly did fitness only really started weights six months ago. He fucking works at it. No matter what, he works at what he does. Find yourself another team, go ahead and try if you don't like it. You're out of tomorrow's squad, go home mate. Watch the game tomorrow and prove you should be on the sheet, then prove you should be captain." The owner said.

There was a shocked silence. Dave looked at the owner in surprise but didn't move.

"You got damn good coaching leading up to this game. Better than your position last year justified. Ferdi has shown you the discipline winning takes. Learn guys. Get out Dave, I can easily fire you and then you're screwed for life." The owner said mildly to Dave but there was real menace in the threat.

An assistant coach came running in with a page. It was the team we were facing, UT Fort Worth, The Apaches. They had effectively fielded the entire Dallas major league team as a season warm up for the majors to start in two weeks. Dave smiled a nasty smile at me and said I was going to learn how tough Rugby in the States could be. He walked out slamming the door behind him; it was a wasted effort because the door had soft closing hinges.

"I know how to beat these guys... We can do it." I said.

Everybody looked at me as if I was insane except the club owner who showed me to talk. I addressed major facets of the game and how we could compete, in some cases even dominate while staying in our defense first focus. I spoke about our tactical kicking and rather than who, where to target and when, how we would chase the kicks.

The club owner smiled at what I said, whether he believed me was another matter. I was letting the team know I had a plan and letting them believe we could win against a team that had finished second in the majors.

"You realize that if you win the entire major league is going to come here for lessons right?" The club owner said.

"Then we're going to need classrooms." I said.

The team responded to my tone, confident and without hesitation. They laughed and hit the showers. The coach looked at some plays I had drawn out on the board with raised eyebrows and looked at the manager and club owner. He was ready for a fight.

We went upstairs as the players went home. I was surprised at the size of the game coming up, television cameras were setting up, the media center was testing feeds, a Television Match Official box was being set up and the college film, journalism, and television faculties were coming together.

I knew this league was looked at, very seriously, by selectors for the US Eagles team to play internationals. I had not realized it was such big business to justify all the preparation being made.

Part of why I had been happy to play for the Cougars was that six Eagles players had been selected from this team before making it to the Majors. The trouble the Cougars had and why they ended seasons badly was that star players got poached quickly by better funded teams, even within this league and then Cougars were in the position of building a squad from almost scratch every year.

Of the forty players in the squad fifteen had only played American Football before. Ten had played rugby before but not at this level, six, me in that group had played rugby in other countries. That left nine players from the previous season, now minus one with the captain being fired. It meant we were basically a new team, that was my worry as we went to the offices past the boxes and suites being set up for game game day.

I thought it likely that the club owner was going to offer me a place in his major league squad and that was not on. I had made a commitment to this team and I had commitments to workers on site. There was no way I was going to move to Denver now. This could cause issues and I was working out how to say no without pissing my biggest customer off.

He turned into the boxes where my father was setting up and nodded to see what was happening. Amanda's box next door had him smiling as he saw GMC banners going up. GMC was well represented on the field side boards and he thought it damn good that a dealership was in the stadium.

"Damn good thinking Ferdi, the Cougars are sponsored by GMC, we should have a dealership for people to know where to get one." The owner said approvingly.

"I think rugby could be a very good thing to sponsor. A lot of GM brand names have connotations in rugby."

"I could pitch that." He said laughing.

Amanda had found material of other teams GMC sponsored and she was putting pictures and a few jerseys up. There were pictures of cars and trucks nicely framed against the walls where they were supposed to go up when her fleet sales representative doing badly with a drill finished. Office staff were setting brochures out, cleaning the carpet and windows.

Sheryl was there, on a chair in the middle of the activity playing on her phone. I completely lost it when she stood up and tried to rub her tit against my arm. I turned her across my knee and spanked her three as hard as I could with my flat hand. She was too surprised to shout or scream and sat on the carpet, flat on her ass with her mouth open.

"Don't try getting laid with me! I like a woman who can look away from her phone long enough to actually pay attention! I like people who Work! Your mother Works Sheryl! She's Working fucking hard right now! For what? For you to post about how sexy you are? Oh Bullshit! Don't flash a cleavage you little tit! You don't have one because you don't move enough to develop one! Now get off your ass and help to clean the carpet or the windows! Get some paint and paint the damn handrail there!" I shouted at her.

Sheryl started crying.

"Stop the water works; you had it coming and I'll do it again if you give me any shit." I said and turned to the guy struggling to drill a hole.

"Put a shopping bag against the wall just under the hole to catch the dust, use insulation tape to stick it to the wall...Masking tape is better and it will help your bit catch on the mark. What drill bits do you have? You're using the wrong one." I said.

"Way to go Ferdi!" Amanda said with admiration.

"Good on ya! Amanda I think Ferdi has this in hand, would you like to discuss getting your dealership on the scoreboard and I think some supporters jerseys?"

I got a new drill bit into the machine and got it turning in the right direction while the salesman got a bag under the hole he had been trying to drill. In five minutes that picture was hanging and we got onto the other holes. Amanda did amazingly start doing something, she cleaned windows when she heard me explaining to the office lady how to prepare the handrail before painting.

Ten minutes later everyone was working and we were joking as we went. Twenty minutes after spanking Sheryl Amanda returned with a satisfied expression. She was going to get huge exposure for her business at little cost. She told us that she had been on the line to GMC and they would be carrying the box for the season if her company justified it on Saturday. That meant someone from her business would be here for every match whether soccer or rugby. Unsaid was a clear instruction to make sure to have clients to bring, there was also a small hint of career advice, learn about rugby and soccer.

I took over the painting as the rest of the work got finished. It ended up with Amanda and I with Sheryl remembering that she was supposed to be angry. She didn't get on her phone though, instead she stared out over the stadium which wasn't very big in terms of seating but had everything a Twickenham, or Ellis Park, or Loftus Versfeld standard stadium had. Workers were making sure the seats were properly bolted down, despite it being late on a Thursday night.

"Jeez it's a lot of work for a few hours of entertainment." Sheryl said.

"Somebody always works." Amanda said nodding.

"Sorry mom."

Sheryl did not look at her mother as she said it. If she had she would have seen her mother nearly cry. She stroked my chest as I hugged her and held her face to my chest so that nobody saw her nearly fall apart. I sent them home to finish alone saying that Sheryl had school the next day. I suddenly felt a kiss on the cheek and Amanda smiled at me before collecting her handbag and taking Sheryl home. I was busy for another hour, at a loss if the kiss had been an invitation or thanks or an invitation to be thanked.

Lights were off at Amanda's house when I got home so I went to bed remembering her kiss and imagining more. There was a note on my pillow in an envelope, I opened it and it was a list of questions about BDSM the answers were multiple choice, ranging from completely no to completely yes, a typed cover note said this might help. It didn't take long and I mostly answered don't know, open to try. I left it on my desk and went to bed. Looking out of my window to where I knew Amanda's bedroom was I hoped for a light to come on, and went to sleep disappointed.

I specifically had my team come in early for the game. I knew the value of an entrance and that the whole Apache team arriving in a pack, with the biggest in front would intimidate my team. I refused to play that game now.

I had quiet chats with everybody and got them through a light warm up on the pitch while the stadium filled up. I wasn't very interested in my team as the coach had them running a few sprints and took them through some passing exercises. I was watching the Apaches in their warm up. The coach left me to do my thing and laughed when he saw my look when we went back into the locker room to get our game kit on.

"We're going to win by twenty." I said to him on the way down the tunnel.

"How do you know?"

"They're taking us lightly."

We heard the noise build in the locker room while we changed and went through last minute plans. I gave my guys a little speech and I went to the coin toss. The referee was delighted as I asked him to be a little patient with me when speaking to my team, most were new to rugby. He completely agreed that I should and he would stop the clock if I asked him for me to speak to the team. I had scored a major victory and the Texas captain did not get it and how I could use that, he just heard that my team was a novice team and smirked.

I lost and the other captain chose to kick off. I would have chosen to receive first anyway but direction was crucial. It was an afternoon game and the sun position in the second half was going to be important. I chose to play westward in the first half. That would put the sun on my right in the second half and shadows across the pitch which made taking a high ball coming from the right of the field difficult.

I broke the news to the team and then got them lined up in the tunnel. That was when reality hit my team. The Apache players were big, the noise from the stands was incredible. None of the guys in the squad had ever played to a full stadium of thousands, not even the ex football players. The oversees players had played schools and maybe club rugby where a large crowd numbered a couple of hundred. That day the stadium was near capacity as the club had dropped ticket prices and marketed aggressively. The Apaches, or at least Texas had come with a fan club too. And running onto the pitch I saw as many Texas colors as Colorado.

I watched my team stare around them in disbelief, rattled at the size of the crowd. It was one thing to practice in a stadium that was empty where screwing up only meant that the coach got upset. It was another to play in front of twelve thousand people who would want blood or laugh very loudly if you screwed up.

I huddled the team after the anthem and spoke to them. I don't really remember what I said but it worked. I glanced up at the boxes before the kickoff and saw the club owner with other bigwigs, he was intensely interested, this game was make or break for my career, I knew it. My father was in his box oiling several wheels with alcohol. Amanda was standing at the handrail, her Cougars jersey clearly visible, I realized that it was not important to win, it mattered that she should see me win well. The emotion of joy that she was watching and not doing business was indescribable, it was the first time in my life that who was watching mattered. I took a deep breath, put everything out of my mind and got ready for a harder game than I had ever played before.

We took the kickoff and worked our opening play. It was entirely to unsettle Texas, we took the ball in our twenty two, on the right side of the field and moved it to midfield fast, forcing a phase on our twenty two meter line the swung it back to the right. Texas forwards had moved from right field to center field for the phase and when our tight head prop got the ball it was a wing and a center in front of him, neither liked tackling low, and now that was an even scarier idea because the entire forward pack was behind the prop.

The wing tried to rip the ball and as soon as he made contact with the two props bound together while the tight head pushed the ball backwards into the pack. As soon as the center joined it was a maul with offside and entry rules. The Texas forwards started joining the maul as the wing collapsed against the five tight forwards, all of whom outweighed him by twenty kilograms. It became a march of penalty advantages as the wing was deemed to be dragging the movement to ground, then forwards seeing that they were losing ground fast joined from the side, because they were joining in ones and twos they had little effect. Texas conceded another penalty for being offside as soon as the scrumhalf ripped the ball from the maul and passed to the fly half. Under some pressure, but illegally so he kicked down field toward the far goal line corner. Stupidly a Texas player tripped our chaser as he crossed the defense line conceding a fourth penalty at the spot where the ball landed ten meters inside their twenty two meter line.

We never got the chance to play the advantage though because the referee had had enough. He blew the whistle and had the TMO check to see if the trip warranted a yellow card. He decided against the yellow but had a talk with the Texas captain about conceding penalties.

I chose to take the points on offer as a confidence booster rather than kick to touch. My forwards were absolutely stoked to have won that exchange so well and I did not want to risk undoing that with a bad mauling movement there yet.. I watched the Texas team under their goal post waiting for the kick, they were rattled. They had expected to be camped on our goal line, not on their own. The captain who had done been an asshole to me at the coin toss was urgently speaking to his team and looked to the bench for advice.