The Empath Cycle: 2010 Carpe Diem - Book 1

She stood there until the taillights disappeared around the curve of the street, then went to sit silently by her wife's side, holding her hand.

"Do you think we will see them again, sweetie?"

"I don't know, love. What happened here was enough to traumatize anyone for sure, but I don't think that's the worst of it. There is more to Annabelle Taylor than meets the eye. Much more, I think. I suspect, and hope, that she will be at her desk, probably, at six sharp and that she will be caught up by the end of the day."

"If she needs help, we will be there, won't we?"

"If she will let us. That's one independent woman. I hope her relationship with Anne-Marie will be salutary. Now, can you still carry me or should we just cuddle on the couch?"

"Ungh! Me show you strong."

They giggled softly all the way to their bed.

"Good morning, Jack. How are the kids? Did they burn the house down yet?"

"Hi, Sylvie. How are you feeling this morning?"

"Weak, but a little better. We're following her regimen and we can see improvement already... which is what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Let me guess. You want to keep her involvement on the down low. I gathered as much from what the family told us all yesterday evening."

"Exactly, Ryanna is going through her research on my computer to try and figure out what she did."

"I saw her working when I went to get some news and spoke to Anne-Marie. I was impressed even though I have no idea what she was doing."

"From what Ryanna says, she took my research and went one step further... or more. She says that she could take Ann's work, present it as is and she would earn another doctorate on the spot. Yesterday's Event and my successful rescue are all the empirical data needed. Earlier this morning, I had Lucia pull all the readings up to the moment where the instruments failed."

"That's going to be something else for the Black Files?"

"Until we know more at least. Don't be surprized if Ryanna presents a project at a coming Board meeting. She was drooling when she told me about setting up a laboratory independent of the Research Center."

"We've been talking about it for years. Since you had your breakthrough, in fact. Now would be a good time to go forward with it."

"I agree. About the office, I want you to give Ann the authority to go ahead with whatever she's planning for Purchasing. When she is done, we may have to hire a drone to take over."

"That's if she hasn't streamlined it to the point where it works by itself." He laughed.

"We'll see. Also, tell her you authorize her side projects. Tell her the budget is the money she will have saved us. I heard some things last week and I approve completely."

"I'll take care of it. Now you concentrate on getting better. Say hello to Patricia for me. I suppose she's standing beside you, glaring."

"Of course she is." They both laughed.

"Take all the time you need. Yan has taken over your current project and I won't accept any more for your team until I'm satisfied you've fully recovered."

"You'll have to get behind my wives for that."

At 5:00pm, Anne-Marie ran into Ann's office.

"You've got to shut down right now!" She gasped.

"In a moment. Why are you so out of breath?"

"Monique called to tell me that there was a man at the reception asking for us, so I went to see who it was and I ran to get you."

"Relax, love. Take a deep breath and tell me who it is."

"He said his name is Stéphane. He's in full chauffeur uniform. He said there is a limousine waiting for us in the underground garage."

"All right then. Give me a minute and we'll go see what this is all about."

"He said you'd probably say that. He will be waiting for us at our convenience." Anne-Marie giggled. "The last man who said that to me was my family's chauffeur when he dropped me off at a club downtown where I celebrated my eighteen birthday."

"I'm serious. It won't take more than five minutes. I have to finish this report to be ready for tomorrow morning's meeting."

Anne-Marie was grinning when she kissed her.

"Take your time and do it right, my love. He can wait until you're ready."

Forty five minutes later, they walked, hand in hand, to find a middle age man in chauffeur uniform leaning against the reception desk, being very friendly with Monique, the receptionist.

He stood up when he saw them approaching. Ann saw a lean man with weather tanned classical features. 'Yummy!' She thought. 'It's no wonder Monique is still at her desk so late.'

"Ladies" He said, in a clear tenor. "I you would follow me, please. Your chariot awaits."

He was very friendly and kept a professional patter going all the way to the garage, but he wouldn't tell them what this was all about. His answer to their questions was a knowing grin.

There was indeed a black Lincoln six-passenger limousine parked near the elevator doors. When he opened the door and bowed them in, they saw Ryanna and Julia waiting for them.

Despite her reservations, Ann was genuinely glad to see the women again. They hugged and kissed. When Ann felt Ryanna's tongue seek permission to deepen the kiss, she pulled back. Ann saw that Anne-Marie had done the same.

"I know we shared something special last week-end, but we're still new at our relationship and I, for one, won't jeopardize, however I liked kissing you and... all the rest."

"Me neither." Anne-Marie agreed. "We didn't have time to talk about all that happened yet."

"That's quite all right." Julia told them. "We understand. We feel like you're part of the family."

"That's nice." Ann said. "But that's what got us in trouble in the first place, isn't it?"

"It's our fault. Please accept our deepest apologies. We hadn't seen Sylvie and Jade in weeks and we got carried away." Ryanna said.

"We haven't forgotten ourselves like that in ages. We were just so happy to be home and when we saw them playing on the lawn..." Julia added.

"We understand." Anne-Marie assured them. "If I hadn't seen Ann in a long time and saw her near naked I would possibly do the same."

"Possibly?" Ann guffawed. "Come on, Randy. You'd rip your clothes off to jump my bones, just like they did."

Anne-Marie crawled on Ann's lap. "Speaking of which, I can't wait to lose a thickness of clothes. After spending three days naked, I've been feeling itchy all day."

"Don't suffer on our account." Julia laughed. "We're going to be in traffic for a while and nobody will see you through these tinted windows. Cousin Stéphane has seen us naked many times, but we were going to ask him to raise the partition anyway since we have to talk."

"In that case..."

In seconds, all four had shed their clothes. Ryanna gave Ann a can of Coke and Anne-Marie a bottle of water from the mini-fridge.

"First of all, let us assure you that the last thing in our mind is to put pressure on you in any way. Sylvie told us you wanted your involvement to be kept private and it will stay in the family. Lucia swore she won't even give any details to Claude unless you approve. You may not know it, but they are a very close couple so that should tell you how seriously we take your wishes in this matter." Ryanna said.

"That's right." Julia added. "We're here to tell you the story of our family which began sixty years ago and that of our immediate family which began ten years ago. We all felt a historical background would help you make sense of last week-end's events. We volunteered."

"We're glad you did, girls." Anne-Marie said enthusiastically.

Ann laughed at the look of entreaty she gave her. "Oh, all right. Go ahead." She told her.

With a giddy giggle, Anne-Marie transferred to Julia's lap. Wrapping her arms around the woman's neck, she proceeded to kiss her passionately.

When Ryanna looked at her with a raised eyebrow, Ann opened her arms and grinned. Ann had probably expected her to imitate Anne-Marie and sit on her lap, not kneel in front of her and silently ask her to spread her legs with a tender smile and hands on her inner thighs questioningly. She laughed when Ann pulled her in her arms and wrapped her legs around her hips.

As she was kissing Ryanna, Ann looked behind her to see Anne-Marie looking over her shoulder at her as she held Julia's mouth to her breast. They reached to each other and, even if they were too far to touch, the gaze they exchanged conveyed their love clearly. Anne-Marie mouthed 'I love you' to her mate and she saw a similar message in her eyes.

Ann turned her attention to the woman who was grinding their mounds together.

Her disastrous relationship had been the last straw that broke Anne-Marie's cycle of dependency. With the help of friends and a great therapist, she had picked up the pieces of her emotional life. The first step had been to throw out the conniving slut who had kept her under her thumb for three long years.

She found the strength necessary in a support group for abused women.

Her most difficult step had been to recognize that she was effectively abused and that all the signs were there for the next stage: battery.

It took her years to regain enough confidence so she wouldn't cringe inwardly every time a woman encroached on her personal space, let alone made a move of a sexual nature. She was at the point where masturbation had actually begun to feel good, instead of a reminder of her submission to another woman's pleasure. She had yet to experience an actual orgasm when she overheard Sylvie ask Nadine to observe the young woman they were vetting for a position in the division. Before her brain could catch up with her mouth, she volunteered for the task.

Later on, she rationalized that it had been an opportunity to observe how a normal woman interacted socially.

What Anne-Marie never expected was that she would get her final lesson in how a self-assured, independent woman should act on social occasions, real human reactions, not the contrived dance of high society. At first, she had judged the woman according to her ingrained training. Soon, though, she found excuses to have lunch with the employees of the floor where Annabelle worked. Once, she even followed a group to a bar. To her dismay, it was a lesbian bar. She never went in for fear that someone from work would recognize her and out her at the office. She knew there were some gays and lesbians on her floor, but she was deep in the closet and wanted to keep it that way. Or so she thought. At the Christmas party, when it was obvious Annabelle had sex with a woman and didn't care who knew. Anne-Marie was floored when she realized she was angry.

Later, thinking back on the incident and her reaction, she had to admit to herself that she was jealous. Not of the other woman, but that she wasn't the one Annabelle had chosen. She went home and masturbated to her very first orgasm in ages. When she regained her senses, she cried long and hard. Try as she might, she couldn't get to sleep that night. Annabelle's dishevelled grinning face, sharp in her mind's eye, kept her awake. She had to masturbate herself senseless.

Over the next months, Anne-Marie continued to observe Annabelle until it became too frustrating because she had been asked not to talk to her.

The woman intruded in her dreams regularly. She was a major part of her masturbatory fantasies. She was off limits.

Then, one day, Anne-Marie was sitting in a chair, looking out at the urban scenery when members of her own team deposited her in the chair beside hers.

Surely the restriction was lifted. Surely. No matter what, she looked so cute with her deer-caught-in-headlight face. She didn't know what to make of her co-workers as they had fun hazing the newbie. Anne-Marie gathered her courage. She touched her. She actually touched her. She thought she would faint from the shock. Anne-Marie knew she was rambling, but couldn't help herself. She got up and ran away as soon as she could.

Anne-Marie was shaking when she locked herself in a stall of the women's bathroom. This was bad. A time or two, she had caught herself watching the woman's lips, fantasizing on how they would taste, how they would feel pressed against her own or... She moaned loudly. That's when she realized her hand was in her pants and she was masturbating furiously. She was glad to be alone as she was much too far gone to care if anyone heard her.

During the afternoon, she took every opportunity to walk by Annabelle's office just so she could catch a glimpse of the woman.

She spent the evening masturbating as she looked at pictures of Annabelle she had surreptitiously taken as she sat at her desk, as she walked back from the vending machines, a can of Coke in one hand, lost in thought. Between self-induced orgasms, she planned her seduction. Being the target of predators for so long had left her with no actual experience in seducing a woman, so she retreated to fantasy.

The next morning, she was in a state of frenzy when she arrived to work. She went to her friend Nadine for advice. The woman had a reputation as a player. If anyone could help, it was Nadine.

The first words out of her mouth confirmed her worst fears. She had no chance with Annabelle. Maybe her ex had been right and she was a failure as a woman.

"Poor baby. You're a fright. Come here." Nadine took her in her arms. She knew some of Anne-Marie's history and how fragile her ego was. "Who did this to you? Now, now, stop crying or let me take off my top so you don't get it all wet."

That got the desired result. Anne-Marie looked at her with a quivering smile.

"I did it to myself. Again" She said. "I need your help."

"Let me guess. It's the new girl. It was fine when you stalked her. Being in the same office is another matter, isn't it?"

"You know I was only scouting her." Anne-Marie slapped her shoulder. This was familiar banter. Only, it was hitting closer than she wanted to admit. "She's not a fantasy anymore, Nadine, and I don't know what to do. Help me, please."

Nadine looked at her closely. This lovely soul deserved happiness. Nadine had long ago recognized it wouldn't be with her. When they first met, she had been attracted by Anne-Marie's artless beauty, but she soon saw the vulnerability beneath the social grace and she backpedaled, curious at the discrepancy.

Over the years, they had become friends instead of partners and Nadine realized she had made the right choice. She always had the feeling Anne-Marie was waiting for someone.

"First things first, darling. You are a mess. You need to splash some cold water on your face, then put some of those collyre drops. Your eyes are all red and puffy. At least you're wearing waterproof mascara or you'd look like Marilyn Manson."

"Thanks, Nadine. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Yeah, well..."

"You know what I mean, silly." Anne-Marie looked away, shyly. She was aware of Nadine's feelings for her.

"Sooooo... The toughest part is finding the right opening line, then you let conversation flow naturally. Either she'll go along or she won't. One way or another, you'll know quickly if you have a chance."

"But what do I say? You're the expert at one-liners, can't you give me some examples?"

"You don't need those. You have the perfect opening. She's new, so you're the friendly co-worker who wants to show her around. Just be yourself and everything will be fine."

"Are you sure? What if she doesn't like me?"

"What's not to like? Now shoo. I have work to do. Go make some whoopee and give me all the details later."

So Anne-Marie fidgeted until nearly noon, figuring lunch would be the easy way in. She hesitated at Ann's door until she heard someone coming down the corridor. She saw the empty food wrappers as she walked in. Her heart sank, her opening gambit has gone down the drain. Then her mouth took over as it often did when she was nervous.

When Ann resisted her invitation to a grand tour of the place, Anne-Marie spontaneously took her hand to pull her from her desk. She had to turn away quickly to hide her blush.

As they walked around the rest area, Anne-Marie discovered that the woman was actually easy to talk to. It helped that they found they were both gearheads. Everything was going fine, then things got personal and Annabelle ran away.

'Is it possible she's as unsure as I am?' Anne-Marie wondered. 'How can that be? She's so self-assured, so easygoing. I saw her seduce a woman in minutes and they obviously had sex. And she was drunk at the time!'

She pondered the situation for a while before coming to a decision. She took out her personal laptop. She sent an email to Ann with a couple of pictures attached. If she could resume the conversation on their common ground, maybe she still had a shot.

The afternoon went by without a reply. She couldn't count the number of times she checked her emails during the evening. Afraid something was wrong with her program, she sent test emails from one account to the other. She cried herself to sleep, sure she had wrecked her opportunity to get close to the woman of her dreams.

The next morning, she was feeling despondent as there was still no answer. With a deep sigh, she resigned herself to resuming her life of solitude.

When her email program pinged, she didn't even look up from her work until the calculations she was working on were done. With a sigh at the interruption, she glanced over and whooped as her gambit wasn't rejected out of hand. She replied with a picture of her trailer, adding a plan to get Annabelle's Harley and her offer of storage. She attached a picture of her in full riding regalia, a reminder of the pleasure of the open road as further inducement.

Anne-Marie had just hit 'send' when she noticed there was a third jpg file attached. Dreading what she would find, she opened it. Mortified when she saw which one it was, she wanted to run to Ann's office to delete it before the woman could open it, but she knew it was too late. The photo had been taken by friends on a dare at Laconia during the previous Summer's Bike Week.

'That's it!' She thought. 'She'll take me for a pervert and won't have anything to do with me.' The crash of defeat after the high of hope was too much for her. Head on her crossed arms, she was leaning on her desk, crying when her email program pinged again. She didn't even bother to open it, certain it was threat to report her to HR if she didn't cease and desist immediately.

Eventually, curiosity won out. She stared at the answer for a moment, eyes wide in astonishment. She was shaking when she walked in Nadine's office, but the smile she was sporting said it all. Nadine came over and, hands in hands, they cavorted all over the place. When a co-worker stopped to ask what the celebration was all about, they laughed and informed him that it was a girl thing.

When Anne-Marie explained the incident with the quasi-porn picture, Nadine whooped in glee.

"That's perfect. If she didn't know before, she can't ignore the evidence of her own eyes. So if she said she'll spend two days alone with you on the road, she must be interested too."

"What if she's only taking this opportunity to get her bike?" Ever practical Anne-Marie asked.

"And where will she park it? That's right. In your garage. So she's not averse to seeing you on a regular basis. Hell, I bet she's going to diddle herself looking at your photo tonight. I know I did when you first showed it to me."

"You're kidding, right?"

"Of course, silly." Nadine lied. "So, what are you going to wear?"

"I don't know. What should I wear?"

"What am I going to do with you?" Nadine sighed and rolled her eyes. "Something sexy, obviously. You're trying to seduce her, remember. And she's already seen you naked." Nadine teased.

"I was not naked!" Anne-Marie protested. "Well! I wasn't. Okay, she could see almost everything." She relented under her friend's raised eyebrow.