The Reluctant Psychic Ch. 07

She stopped and looked past my left shoulder. Then she said, "I'll have the eggs benedict, and coffee lightly sweetened and with extra cream." She delivered her order to the aghast waiter as if he hadn't just heard her talking about revolting cocks.

I was still getting over being startled at how close the waiter was standing without my sensing his presence, not to mention the things that Stefani said. Luckily the waiter was equally startled and it took a minute for him to squeak out, "Sir?"

"I'll have the ham quiche, a glass of orange juice, and a glass of water."

Recovered now, that waiter asked, "Flat or sparkling?"

"Flat."

With that the waiter made a hasty retreat. Stefani gave me a little wink and said, "I feel bad teasing the guy like that. I hated when customers did that sort of thing to me. But, I really meant what I said and wanted to finish saying it, and I don't care who overhead me. I might have fallen in love with Betsy and the other girls first, but you are the center of our family."

Stefani got a far-away look in her eye and added, "I remember being around the other girls after they made love to you. They weren't just happy, they were glowing and alive. They would look me in the eye and make me want what they just got. But I was a lesbian, and the revulsion I knew from earlier in my life kept me at a distance."

Her hazel eyes were now trained on mine, "The first time we had sex, I did it as much to be with the other girls in your bed as to be with you. But when I felt you inside of me, I felt a connection that I'd never felt before. When you came inside of me, I understood what the girls had talked about." She laughed and covered her mouth for a moment. Shaking her head she continued, "I make it sound like your cock is a syringe that injected a mind altering substance into me. But it did alter my mind."

As she spoke, I became less and less comfortable since she was closer to the truth than she knew. I could see that she wanted to say more, but she must have seen my growing discomfort. Had I done that to her? Had I fucked up her brain when I had sex with her body. There would be no way for her to even know she only loved me because my powers had sucked her in. I can't even remember doing that to her; I must learn better control.

I felt Anna's presence, as I do before she talks to me, but this time she remained silent. I don't know if she just wanted me to know that she was watching, or if she changed her mind about what she was going to say.

* * *

After the dinner party at the Painted Doe, I did give Stefani one of my cards. As she took the card, I could see in her mind that she had no intention of ever calling. Why would a girl with a good job, a steady girlfriend and generally bright prospects need anything from a guy like me. As Betsy and I walked out together, I noticed that a few of the other girls were making a point to say something to Stefani.

I don't know if something the girl's said convinced her, or if she was grasping for a miracle, but two weeks later, Stefani called.

I was asleep when Betsy crept into my room. She tried not to disturb Claire or Jill who were curled up on either side of me. My post-coital sleep had been long enough that my powers were nearly full strength, so I was awake before Betsy's hand even touched my shoulder. I could feel that there was trouble brewing.

I was out of bed and pulling on my clothes before Betsy could utter a word. I took a moment to kiss Claire and Jill on their cheeks before I left them there sleeping. I didn't take more than a moment, because Betsy was clearly agitated. Without trying I caught the thought that the girl from the Painted Doe had called and it was urgent.

We hurried downstairs and Betsy made a beeline for the door, stopping to snatch up her car keys and coat. I said, "if it's that urgent, I'll drive my car."

"I didn't say it was that urgent," she said. Her tone was questioning, and I felt her mind asking itself the question again, "Can he read my mind?" Of all the girls, she asks herself that question the most, but she also denies it the most vehemently.

"You wouldn't have woken me up if it weren't urgent. You wouldn't have grabbed your keys if we didn't have to go somewhere."

She nodded her head at my explanation, and I could see relief pass over her face. She thought, "I knew there was a reasonable explanation." The relief didn't stay on her face long, since she reached into the desk by the door and pulled out one of her handguns. I reached for the keys for my Viper, but thought we might need a third seat, and grabbed the Maserati keys instead. It had the added bonus of being jet black rather than an attention grabbing bright yellow.

It wasn't long before we were sitting in the car with the engine running. Betsy sat there looking at me, wondering why we weren't moving yet. I hated to waste the time, but I didn't want to fuel her suspicions about my psychic abilities. Finally I said, "you haven't told me where we're going."

"Oh!" she said with a start, and quickly filled me in. We were soon racing across town to Stefani's apartment. More precisely we were heading for an all night diner a block down from her apartment. I might be a bad driver when it comes to dealing with traffic and playing nice with other drivers, but when it came to speed I knew what I was doing.

It took us less than three minutes to cover the five miles. Two different cops started to pull me over and suddenly thought better of it. I also had Betsy write down the license plate of a car that ended up in a ditch thanks to a suggestion from me. He wasn't hurt, but his car didn't enjoy the trip.

Betsy had more confidence in my ability to drive at those speeds than I did, and she was whistling and looking out the window the whole time. She was about to climb out of the car, when I put a restraining arm across her and leaned over to look out her window. I made a show of scanning the area with my eyes, when I was really searching with my mind.

I quickly found Stefani, and it seemed she was holding up in the bathroom of the coffee shop. She was clutching her mobile phone and glancing at her watch. But aside from Stefani there wasn't a mind doing anything more exciting than cheating on his wife. So, I let Betsy out of the car, and we headed into the diner.

Aside from a rather tired waitress, the place was empty. I told Betsy to wait at a table, and I would check the bathrooms. I noticed with a wry grin that Betsy waited with her gun under a napkin on the table.

I knocked on the door to the women's bathroom, pushed the door open and called in, "Stefani?" I heard a brief scrape on the floor and knew that she had lifted her feet so they wouldn't be visible beneath the stall door.

"Stefani, I know you're in there."

"I... I have a gun."

"You don't have a gun. Just like I didn't have a gun when you found me in a bathroom stall," I said as I moved to stand in front of her. The door that separated us slowly opened to reveal an obviously distraught Stefani holding her phone like it was a gun. Recognizing me, she dropped her phone and grabbed me in a hug.

"They killed her," she finally said between sobs. "They killed Jaz." I got an image of a beautiful woman with mocha colored skin and long curly hair. The woman bore a striking resemblance to Stefani, except she was a light-skinned black woman rather than a darkly tanned white woman. The resemblance was so strong, that I immediately knew what must have happened, but I let Stefani tell it in her own time.

She said that she had just gotten home from work and headed into the bedroom to collapse. Jasmine, or Jaz as Stefani called her, had been in bed reading. Jaz had gotten up to get Stefani a glass of water, or maybe it was aspirins. When Jasmine passed into the kitchen, where there were two large windows, she'd been shot. The hit man had mistaken Jasmine for Stefani.

With a little encouragement she told me the rest of the story, about why someone might want her dead. She had been working at the Painted Doe and had gone into the manager's office to get some papers. She'd heard the owner's voice, my old card-playing associate, come down the hall and she panicked. She hadn't been doing anything wrong, but she knew that she shouldn't be seen in the office, so she hid under the desk. She heard the owner arguing with someone and then she heard a sickening thunk. A second later there was a loud thump that she felt through the floor more than heard.

"But no one saw me! I waited and waited, and eventually he left. I got out from under the desk and Tony, the manager, was lying there. So I snuck out. I didn't call the cops, I didn't leave work early, I tried to behave as if I hadn't just heard--" She clung to me as she cried. Two deaths in as many days will do that to anyone.

I looked into her mind and replayed the scenario, looking for some clue that she might have overlooked. The manager's office was at the end of a hallway which emptied into the back alley. On her way out of the hallway, she had passed one of the busboys who was taking out some trash. He must have noticed she was distraught and mentioned it to someone, who mentioned it to someone. She hadn't even realized she had passed the boy.

I escorted Stefani out of the bathroom and sat her down next to Betsy. I took the seat across from them leaving my back to the door. I looked at Betsy and gave her a bit of a nod, then turned my attention back to Stefani. "We're going to take you to Betsy's place where you're going to stay for the night. Tomorrow we'll take you to Tiffany's, I just hope you like horses."

I was anxious to get going, but I didn't want to make a scene. People might have seen us arrive, and if we left too quickly they might get suspicious in a day or two when someone comes around asking questions. That's always the problem with suspicions, they don't always develop right away. I would feel it if they were suspicious now, like the waitress, but not if they only decide to be suspicious later, with a bit of prompting.

After having a light dinner, I made the waitress less suspicious with a large tip and a small mental nudge. She'd remember that three people came in, she might even remember my face and Betsy's face, but Stefani's face, even her gender was all confused in her mind. Stefani was done crying by the time we left. She had progressed to the numbness that comes from extreme shock and utter exhaustion.

By the time we got back to Betsy's house, at a much more sedate pace than we left it, Stefani was asleep across the back seat with her head in Betsy's lap. Betsy was stroking her hair idly and had a strangely content look on her face. I ended up carrying Stefani into the house, but could only manage that as far as the living room sofa. As I put down my burden on the couch, Betsy was already returning with some sheets, a blanket and some pillows.

"Betsy, go wake up Gwen and ask her to sit up watching until Stefani wakes up. I don't want her to wake up alone in a strange place."

"I can stay up with her," Betsy said. She was eager to help, a little too eager it seemed. But before I could reach out to investigate that thought, I felt a mental slap from Anna. Anna told me in no uncertain terms to leave my daughter's mind alone.

"You're tired, the only reason you're still awake is adrenalin. Now be a good girl and do what I said."

"Good girl? I'm twenty two years old, when are you going to stop treating me like a child?" Again I felt that there was more to it than what she said, but I didn't probe her thoughts. If I had, I might not have waited another year to make love to her. When I didn't respond, she got unusually petulant and added, "Why Gwen? She's so..."

I glared at Betsy in a way that I seldom looked at any of my girls. I knew she was about to call Gwen stupid, all the girl's thought she was stupid and that she was merely my plaything. The truth was entirely more complicated than that. I saw a look of fear on Betsy's face and felt Anna pounding in my head to get my attention. I pulled back in my slipping powers and said in my calmest voice, "Gwen isn't stupid, but she is naive. She is also the sweetest and gentlest person you are ever likely to meet. If you were to wake up in a strange place, can you imagine any face that would be more calming and reassuring than Gwen's?"

Betsy was sullen, but she saw my point. "I'll wake up Gwen, but I'm staying up too. I'm not a minor anymore you know." I thought to myself, why would she say a minor, instead of a teenager, or a child. I didn't even bother thinking about reaching out to find out, since Anna was obviously on the alert.

I turned to go back up to bed, but a sudden wave of hostility hit me from Betsy. What's going on with her, I wondered yet again. I realized that I also had too much adrenalin in my system to want to go to bed, and Betsy's emotions were too raw for me to be around right now. So I left.

As the door closed behind me, a strange sensation took hold of me. I knew instantly that I had a destination in mind, and a purpose. I climbed into my red Ferrari and took off. I laughed to myself and thought about growing a Tom Selleck moustache. That was when I learned the voice in my head could stick out her tongue, a decidedly disconcerting feeling.

* * *

"I still can't believe how quickly you solved my case," Stefani said suddenly. The waiter had just removed our plates and we were relaxing over our drinks.

I took a moment before replying, "Well, I already knew who did what, I just had to prove it to the cops. Once they had Tony's body and they were told about the lamp that was used to kill him, it didn't take them long to have all the evidence they needed." That was the easy part of the case to explain.

"I wasn't talking about Tony. I meant Jasmine." I noticed that she'd stopped calling her Jaz. I often wondered if it was part of the healing process, a way to mentally distance herself from her dead lover. Even though I slip now and then, that is one secret I have never investigated. I am strangely proud of that.

"Well, there are only so many shooters in this town, and I knew all of them in one way or another. You know a little of my past, how I used to run in the same circles as men like that, and men like the one who owned this place."

Stefani fussed with her water glass for a moment before returning her gaze to me and saying, "You're never going to tell me the truth, are you? I know you haven't lied to me about any of it, but it isn't the whole truth. Men like that just don't rat on their employer because someone gives them a talking to."

We had had this conversation before, or variants of it. But I usually had my powers when it came up, and I was able to maneuver the conversation away with only a few subtle nudges. Without my powers, I couldn't come up with a clever misdirection, so all I could do is spread my hands to try to show I had nothing to hide.

With a surprisingly loving sigh, Stefani said, "I know, you think there're some things it's best I didn't know. I also know that you hate it when I ask. Since this meal is about new beginnings, I'll never ask again. But, I hope that some day you'll tell me."

* * *

The drive back home was spent in companionable silence. At least my half of the silence was companionable; her half seemed a bit agitated. I chalked it up to my own paranoia, I always seem to assume the worst while my powers are recovering. But when Stefani took the first turn off the private road leading to the house, I knew something was going on. She pulled into the garage of the guest mansion that I keep at the bottom of the hill.

The girls use the Tudor styled manse when they have outside friends over, or on rare occasions a family member. Most of the girls are orphans, or like Stefani they have been cast out of their family for sins real and perceived. In Stefani's case, her father might have thrown her out, but she still stays in touch with her brother. He doesn't know her real living situation, so when he visits she pretends to live there with her girlfriend, currently being played by Jill.

Actually, Jill and Stefani could currently be each other's favorite, but I can never keep track without peeking into their minds. I still don't see how they can keep having a new favorite without anyone's feelings getting hurt. There also never seems to be any love triangles, except when all three seem to have the other two as co-favorites. The only evidence I have seen of a girl getting left out is when she is experiencing a "chaste" period, that is a time when she only has sex with me. Again, a phenomenon that I am constantly confused by.

"Why are we stopping here?" I asked as the garage door closed behind us.

"I want something from you, something a little different," she said as she led me into the house. I felt my powers try to emerge and seek out her thoughts, but I could only get the barest read on her: she was excited. Anna knew I failed to read Stefani's mind, but that didn't stop her from clearing her mental throat in admonishment.

"Are you finally going to show your brother that you have a boyfriend?" I said as I followed her sashaying bottom across the parquet foyer. That was the only use I could imagine for using this house.

"Not quite," she said with a coy look over her shoulder. She started climbing the stairs to the upper floors and added, "but you were right about the boyfriend part."

She led me into the upstairs sitting room. The warm wood paneling and Victorian furniture complimented her deep tan making her seem like she belonged in this room. That is until she knelt on the leather sofa and lifted the back of her skirt. She then lowered her black panties to her knees and leaned her body against the back of the couch. Her bright pink sex stood out like a beacon from between her tanned thighs. In fact, it's color was by far the boldest in the entire room. I was halfway towards her before I realized what I was doing.

She rested her head on her arms and looked back towards me, and said, "I want you to fuck me. You're always making love to me, but you've never really fucked me. Now is the time." She reached one hand between her thighs, and I saw her fingers emerge briefly before disappearing into her sex. She closed her eyes and pumped her fingers a few times. When she pulled out her fingers I heard the thick moisture trying to suck her fingers back in.

My cock was already straining against my pants as her glistening fingers moved towards her face. She inhaled deeply and moaned. "Can't you see how wet I am? Ready for a good fucking." She took another smell of her fingers and said, "I smell ready, and..." she then sucked her fingers into her mouth and mmm’ed her way into a purr. Her fingers returned to her sex and she spread her labia wide before delving inside for a second helping.

She continued to masturbate as I stood their paralyzed. I had never fucked her, because she was still too much a lesbian at heart. Without my powers, I would be just another man to her. But I wouldn't be living with dozen's of girls if I had the will-power to match my other powers.

My fingers worked at my pants which soon formed a pile around my ankles. My underwear joined them and I penguin stepped towards her. Her lewd display continued unabated, she didn't even appear to remember I was there. The sloppy sound of her probing fingers filled the room and added more hardness to my cock.

I didn't wait for her fingers to move out of the way, and aimed my cock at her bright pink opening. As my cock pushed into her, I felt her body tense and her fingers pull out. But her fingers lingered in the area and I felt them fluttering around my cock as I plunged into her.