Amber raised her eyebrows. "You good, handsome?"

I jerked a nod, then forced myself to relax. It was odd to put on my every day, semi-forced smile when I looked at these women. With them, I had always acted how I was truly feeling.

I let the look turn a little sheepish. "Sorry," I said. "Just got a text from you know who..." and I glanced meaningfully down the hall. "I'm a bit nervous. I don't know if I'm equipped to handle this kind of boss battle." I realized a second later that my nervous humor fell flat when my fellow gamer nerd wasn't present. Still, the others nodded, as though my explanation made sense.

It was a lie. A small one, because it was partly true. But a lie all the same. I couldn't remember if I'd ever lied to these women before.

All of you are liars, Devil Chance commented.

I ignored the words, and the twinge of unease that said part of me believed them.

Daisy was checking her own phone, and then she raised her eyebrows at me. "She didn't even message me yet," she said, surprised. "I figured she was still sleeping."

"Do you want to go?" I asked, gesturing. I wasn't sure why I offered. Right now, going to Carmen seemed like a good escape from the uncertainty that assaulted me as I looked at Amber and wondered what she was hiding from me. But, somehow, I felt like I was coming between the two sisters by going in first.

"It's okay," the teenager said, shaking her head. She tucked her hair back under the raised Tigger hood. Then, she flashed bright smile. "She wants you."

The other women nodded and made sounds of agreement, but I was already backing slowly away and hoping I didn't look as clumsy as I felt. "Alright. I'm going to go check on her, then."

The hallway moved by under my striding feet.

DC, I decided, a moment before my hand clasped the handle. That's what I'm going to call you.

Devil Chance, startled at being addressed, turned suspiciously. What?

An initial name, I thought. For you. Maybe if we were on a nickname basis, this part of my mind would be less of an asshole.

What the hell is an initial name? Devil Chance was irritated.

Like that driver last night... Whatshisname. I didn't actually remember the initials from his card. I wasn't sure why I thought of him then, either.

Then I remembered my promise. I'll look after her, I'd said.

I turned the handle, and walked into the room beyond. I felt good, suddenly. I could keep that promise.

* * *

Carmen was sitting against the headboard, knees up and wrapped in the comforter. She was turning her phone in her hands but not looking at the screen.

"Hey, you," I said. The sunlight was streaming in through the big window, and it hit her crimson hair when she turned her head. She looked pretty. Really pretty, I thought.

"Hi, Chance." She put the phone down on the bedside table and held out her arms.

I smiled, crossing the room in several long steps. It felt, strangely, like a weight had lifted off my shoulders. I knelt on one knee and scooted up next to her, wrapping her in a hug and kissing her warm mouth gently. "Good morning," I murmured.

"Mmm..." she said, snuggling her head against my neck. "I'm glad you came."

I laughed softly, stroking her hair. "Of course I did. Will you tell me what's going on?" I tilted her chin back with one finger. It was easy to be confident when it was her who needed it, and not just me. "The others are waiting for us out in the living room. They've got coffee and are busy talking about what an awesome day we're going to have."

"Chance..."

I was used to seeing Carmen's face without makeup. It was how she normally looked when we ran in the mornings, after all, so I already knew that taking it away made her look a little younger and more innocent. Today, for the first time, she also looked a little bit vulnerable.

"I feel really nervous," she said. She shrugged and looked at her hands, which were playing with one of mine. "It's weird. Usually I don't worry about this kind of thing. I don't care about peoples' opinions. But... I don't know. I don't want you guys to think badly of me. Like I ruined everyone's night by throwing a tantrum."

I lifted our entwined hands and kissed her knuckles. "No one thinks that," I said. "I promise. We all had a good time. Hell," I added, and I gave her a flirtatious grin. "I even had an excuse to cuddle all night with this girl I've got a crush on."

The redhaired girl blushed, green eyes twinkling. "Yeah?" she asked. "Is she cute?"

I leaned in. "Very cute," I said, and I kissed her again, gently.

I couldn't have said exactly when the kiss became something more. It was just a few short seconds, her soft lips under my mouth and her lashes fluttering closed against my cheek. But what started out soft and encouraging turned harder, hotter, and when we pulled back my eyes were sharp and body tingled with a flush of fire.

Carmen's eyes were glowing emeralds. "Kiss me again," she said, and she was pushing away the covers and coming up on her knees. Her hands were on my shoulders and then behind my neck and we were kissing again.

My hands slid up her smooth back, pulling her against my chest and holding her there. Her lips were demanding, now, and I felt her tongue slip into my mouth. Her hair tumbled across my knuckles.

The teenage pornstar groaned, her fingers trailing across my chest and then down my stomach. She could feel the tent in the front of my sweatpants, and a trickle of heat crept into my core as she gently cupped and began to brush up and down.

"Is that for me?" she asked, her voice now a throaty whisper. Her mouth was by my ear, her breath hot on my neck. She kissed the corner of my jaw as her slim hands dove beneath my waistband.

I groaned. "Yes..."

"My man getting all hard and ready... So big and strong and ready to fuck his gorgeous teenage fucktoy..."

I could tell that Carmen was slipping into a persona, her pornstar training giving her the words that zapped my brain and sent all the blood rushing directly south to my throbbing length. Her slender fingers wrapped around my shaft. They began to stroke.

"Yes..." I said again, not sure what I was agreeing to but knowing that I was ready to do just that.

The girl kissed me again. "Ready to pin his little girl down and show her who's in charge?"

My hands wrapped around her upper arms and then I was pulling away from her touch, clambering up onto the bed and pulling, turning her down and away from the headboard and onto her back. I sat back briefly to tug my sweats down and away, and I felt the mattress move as my 18-year-old lover kicked away her panties. My shirt hit the floor.

Then I was on top of her, my fingers wrapped around her wrists and my knees between her spread legs. I kissed her throat and her chin and her mouth, hot kisses that made her squirm with pleasure and left a trail of sparks up her skin.

"Oh, please..." she groaned. Her chest was rising and falling with quick breaths, her lacy bra brushing against my bare chest. "Please fuck your horny little plaything..."

My cock slid inside her tight, dripping snatch in a smooth thrust.

Carmen gasped, her inner muscles squeezing around my girth. "I belong to you. My body belongs to you. My pussy belongs to you. My tits..." She mewed softly with a jolt of pleasure as one of my hands cupped a perky breast and squeezed. "My tits belong to you..."

"Tell me," I said, and then I grinned. My hips were moving, my manhood sliding in and out of her wet, hot core with a steady rhythm. "Are you my horny little nympho slut?"

I felt the twitch of the teen's body, saw her head turn and her eyes lose focus for a moment. "Yes, sir." On her back, the crimson-haired pornstar gazed adoringly up at me. "I'm whatever you want me to be."

"Good girl..." I muttered, and green eyes fluttered as a wave of bliss washed over her.

"Thank you, Master." Carmen's wrist pulled gently free of my hand and her fingers rose to touch my cheeks.

My core pounded like she'd thrown fuel on the burning fire. There was something tender in the touch, but also something electric. Like she was a succubus luring me in. I hadn't intended it when I said the trigger words, but now I knew what I was going to do. I grunted, my girth splitting the girl's slim body in half.

Then, I felt a hint of déjà vu as I murmured, "You trust me."

She moaned, her fingertips curling into my chest and raking softly down. "I trust you."

"You know I'll take care of things." My hips met hers, my length deep inside her.

"I know you'll... ahhh, yes, Master! ... take care of things." Carmen shuddered and came, her lips parting in a panting gasp before I covered them with my mouth.

We kissed for a long moment, my cock pounding into her faster and faster as her body spasmed and shook.

I pulled back. "You know I'll take care of you," I declared. My girth was being massaged by her inner muscles, her talented body doing exactly what it was trained to do — bring me closer and closer to inevitable release.

"I know you'll take care of me..." The girl was panting and moaning but her eyes glinted with gratitude. Her back was arched, her lithe body offered up to me.

"You know you never have to be nervous around me." My hand was on her hip and pulling her onto my thrusting cock with every movement.

"Never..." the teen groaned, out of breath.

"Good girl," I grunted.

Carmen shuddered with bliss at my praise, and then her fingers raked down my chest again. "Please, Master..." she gasped, her red lips parted. "I feel so much better now... Will you fuck me like a good girl who pleases you?"

"Fuck..." My breath caught in my throat at her words and my body sped up.

The teen writhed in the sheets, clamping a hand over her mouth to muffle a soft cry.

Both of my hands were holding her down, now, my throbbing, pent-up length buried deep in her molten core. The crimson-haired pornstar's eyes were rolled back with ecstasy, and the harder I pounded her dripping snatch the more I knew that there was no going back.

The mounting climax inside of me grew closer and closer. My arms tensed, fingers pressing into her smooth skin. Maybe they would leave marks later. No matter. She was mine.

Mine.

And I would mark her if I wished.

"Cum for me, Master..." Carmen's voice was a whisper, hushed and almost reverent despite the speed and strength of my movements. "Cum for your needy little plaything... Cum for your good girl who will do anything you wish..."

I growled and buried my face in her neck, kissing hard as I sheathed myself to the hilt in her body and came like a fire hose. My pulsating rod fired stream after stream of sticky white spunk, coating her womb. She gasped at the feeling of my cock and my seed, and I couldn't be sure she didn't cum again.

Carmen's head fell back onto the pillows, her body going tight and then relaxed.

On top of her, held up on my hands with trembling arms, I admired her pretty features. "God you're hot..." I groaned, and then rolled off onto my back beside her. "Goodbye for now..." I murmured, and felt Carmen stir as the trigger reawakened her normal personality.

"Ohfuck..." The teen's voice was a soft groan as the sensations washed over her, and the sound send a shiver of lust through me.

My cock twitched against my thigh, but I didn't move. Instead, I stared up at the window above me. I hoped that my intervention with Carmen and her emotions had been enough to set her mind at ease. If not, I thought. I'm more than down for another round of hypnotherapy. From this angle, I could only see a sliver of blue sky above.

"Chance..."

I sucked in a short gasp as Carmen's hand landed softly on my upper thigh, brushing up the muscle. "Yeah?" I asked. My body was starting to warm up again.

"That was really good..."

Something about hearing her say it, in that youthful, satiated voice of hers, was unbelievably hot. "Yeah..." I said. "I'm glad. For me too. It was also good, I mean. For me."

Carmen giggled as I stumbled over my words. "Someone is still missing a little bit of blood from his brain," she teased, and her fingers brushed lightly over my half-erect manhood.

I hissed, tightening my fingers into the sheets by my side. "Don't toy with me..." I groaned, but in a way that let her know how much I enjoyed it.

"Mmm..." The teen murmured, kissing my shoulder. The mattress shifted as she wriggled closer, lifting her knee and brushing her inner thigh up my leg. "You don't like it when your toy toys with you, Master?" she moaned softly. "You just want a needy, mindless fuckdoll? A good girl who just wants to suck and fuck and please you...?"

I grunted and pulled away, sitting up. My cock was now hard as a rock in my lap. "We can't," I groaned. "We have to go join the others..."

I knew I was on the verge of giving in, so instead I raised myself up on my knees. The window was partly open, I realized, and so I reached over to pull it closed. As I did, I glanced directly out it for the first time. A second later the image registered, and I realized that this window actually looked out over the corner of the balcony where I'd been standing on the phone with Mike Lassiter.

The redhaired teen came up on her knees beside me, fingers stroking down my shoulders and sides. "Don't you want to play, Master...?" she murmured. "Don't you want your little girl to make her Daddy feel sooo good...?"

Carmen hesitated when she saw me glance over. There was a question in my eyes.

"Did you see me on the phone?" I asked. It wasn't an accusation, but I felt a sudden jolt of worry in my chest.

Carmen hesitated. Then, she shrugged. She fell back on her knees, no longer touching me. "Yeah," she said. But there was something more, in the way her green eyes suddenly avoided mine.

"Did you hear me on the phone?" I asked, frowning.

The teenager had the grace to look bashful. "The window was already op—..." she started to say, but then she met my eyes and stopped herself. "Yeah... I did."

My mind raced. The warmth and post-sex glow were fading as I realized that my private conversation with Lassiter had had a witness. "What did you hear?"

Carmen's tongue wet her lips. She could sense the change in mood. "Everything at the end, mostly. But I think that was the important part. Something about TRANCE having a Director of Platinum Services and him being interested in Amber. And..." Her shoulders moved in a shrug. "that you don't know if she is involved in something and isn't telling you."

"Ah."

Green eyes met my brown ones. They were worried, like she knew she'd done something wrong, but there was also determination in them. Like she didn't want to back out. Like she wanted to help.

"Okay," I said. I felt nervous, but also, oddly, secure. As if Carmen and I had come to an unspoken understanding. I had her back, and she had mine. She would keep my secrets.

"What are we going to do?" she asked, as if she had also understood our silent accord. As if we were a team now, facing the problem together.

"We're going to find out who's trying to mess with a member of our family." I said, taking Carmen's hand.

Just who? DC commented dryly. What about why? And how? And what?

I ignored my inner pessimist, squeezing the teen's fingers.

We got dressed quietly. Then, I led her down the hallway to the living room. As we walked, I felt an unmistakable sense of unease well up in my belly. Worse than all the questions that I pushed aside was the sneaking suspicion underlying everything else. The suspicion that there was something more going on.

And the suspicion that I had no clue what it might be.

"Hey everyone," I said in a confident, happy voice. We stepped out of the hallway and into the light.

Three beautiful faces turned our way with big, genuine smiles.

I returned with one of my own, a little less genuine. "Who's ready for a great day?"

* * *

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Thank you so much for reading the twelfth chapter in this series — TRANCE, Inc.

I really hope you enjoyed it, and if you did then please rate it and leave a comment. It means the world to me and even if I don't respond to all my comments, please know that I read every one. When I feel like my work doesn't matter, I come back and am reminded that wonderful people out there really are reading what I publish.

If you're going to be spending a lot of time alone this coming month (what with the virus and all) I hope that reading these stories gives you a little entertainment during long, boring stretches of time.

You can read ahead of Literotica by reaching out to me or finding me elsewhere online.

Lots of love, and I'll see you soon for my next publication!!!

JC