"Not sure. Maybe Toby’s."
"And Toby?"
"He was home." Lon’s expression became guarded. "Why?"
"There’s nobody to put suntan oil on me…"
Lon grinned. "Probably won’t be, either."
Candace sighed. "I’m going to have to find a way to get Jean to go with the program," she remarked.
"I think maybe that’s fixed, Mama," Lon said confidently. "Jean has cut loose Rick again, since she had no room to talk after this morning."
"Oh?" Candace paused.
"Toby rolled over her again this morning," Lon grinned. "Or maybe he rolled her over. Anyway, after he rode her hard on the couch, Rick and I gave her a good talking to and I think she’s seen the light."
"Uh … huh…" Candace eyed her son. He was just a little bit too cocky… "Just how hard did you press?"
Lon pursed his lips. "Pretty hard, actually."
Candace’s glance hardened. "So you twisted her arm, did you?"
"Yeah."
"Hard?"
"Yeah."
"What did you have on her?" Candace asked sharply.
Lon fell back on the pre-prepared excuse. "We used the empty camera trick. It worked pretty well…"
"Damn! I wish it had been a full camera!" Candace cursed.
"Rick wouldn’t go for that."
Candace nodded, then: "Did you fuck her?"
"Yeah."
Candace’s eyes flashed. The idiot! "How bad is it?"
"I went easy. She came…"
"Did she?" Candace chuckled. "Maybe this is recoverable after all! That was NOT smart, Boy!"
"Yeah, I know — now," Lon admitted. "I just wanted things to be fair…"
"Lon, if a woman GIVES you pussy, that’s fair. If you TAKE it, it’s illegal and will get you jailed! There is no turnabout is fair play with pussy! Still, maybe we’ll be all right, here. Thank God you managed to get her off!"
"She sure wasn’t happy about it!" Lon declared.
"Yeah, well, you proved to her that her pussy owns her. She thought her head did. Go away and let me think."
"Yes, Mama." Lon headed for the door.
"Wait! So where is everybody? Where is Rick?"
Lon shrugged. "He was going to go see Beth…"
"And Toby?"
"He WAS at home, I think."
"Toby is gonna be pissed!" Candace warned.
Lon shrugged. "I can take care of myself. And it was for his own good — she was going sweet on him!"
"You’d better hope he sees it that way!" Candace warned. "Go on, get out of here!"
Candace spent the next fifteen minutes thinking furiously. What tactic should she use? The romance angle seemed best — or the assumption that it was broken … She picked up the phone. "Jean? I just heard! I’m SO sorry! Do you want me to ground him or something?"
"Or something!" Jean spat. She wanted his balls on a plate — but that wouldn’t fix things, and after Toby spurned her, she might have to go crawling to Lon for sex… "I’m sure he’s ruined what I had with Toby…"
"Oh, dear, Honey," Candace commiserated. "That’s just … sad. But it’s probably for the best, you know — you were setting each other up for a fall."
"Maybe," Jean sighed. "But it seemed like the way to go…"
"It’ll be all right, Honey," Candace advised. "Toby will probably back off, but he’ll still want sex — and if he doesn’t, I’m sure I can persuade Lon to take care of things. He did all right, didn’t he? He said he did…"
That stung — a lot! "Yes," Jean managed to croak. "He was fine, as far as THAT goes…"
"I’m sure if we put our heads together, Hon, we’ll come up with some suitable punishment," Candace counseled.
"Maybe," Jean grunted. "He screwed up BAD, Candace! If it had been someone else…"
"But it wasn’t Hon — and that’s one of the GOOD things about this arrangement!" Candace pointed out. "Us wiser heads can teach these boys how to make their way without making stupid mistakes — and we get paid for it in raw, hot sex!"
"Yeah, yeah…" Jean had had her fill for the day and didn’t REALLY want to be reminded.
"Oh, come on, Honey — it was good, wasn’t it? Wasn’t it?"
"Yeah…"
"Stop beating yourself up! If you were getting enough, you probably would have had better control; as it is, who can blame you?"
"Toby, I imagine," Jean replied glumly.
"This was a wake-up call, Honey," Candace advised. "So wake up! It’s all for the best…"
"We’ll see," Jean replied. "Thanks for the call…" She hung up — she’d had her fill of Candace — and especially Candace’s offspring — for one day…
There was a knock on the door. Jean went to open it, unwillingly — she wanted to see no one — not even her son — at this point. But when she opened the door, there stood Toby. "Oh shit!"
Toby smiled crookedly. "I guess."
"Oh, God! I actually said it?"
"Yes. Can I come in?"
"I … can’t understand why you’d want to…" Hot tears leaked from her eyes.
"Because Lon put you over a barrel?" Toby asked. "Or because you lost a fight with your sexy nature?"
"Agh." She’d started to reply, then Toby had torpedoed her. Now nothing would come out…
Toby merely stepped forward and she fell into his arms, bawling her eyes out. When she came to herself, they were inside — still standing — but the door was closed. Toby was rubbing her back and making soothing noises. "He blackmailed me!"
"I know."
"There were pictures!"
"I know."
"What are we going to do? If Candace…"
"They’re gone."
"What?"
"They’re gone," Toby repeated. "Rick destroyed them the moment he left the house. For Rick, it was all about getting you to play ball and drop the restrictions; there was no way he was going to let Candace get her claws in you."
"Oh, Gawd, then I didn’t have to!" Jean wailed.
"Yes you did — you didn’t know. You weren’t to know." He held her eyes. "You’re not to know."
"What?"
"Rick will probably figure that I told you — but by the same token, he won’t tell Lon. For now, we’ll let Lon think that you think he has the drop on you — I want to see what he does," Toby explained. "Did he hurt you?"
"No," Jean replied. "He wanted it to be consensual. I tried to make him understand that that wasn’t possible, but he kept holding out this idea that it was my duty, or something. That I owed him."
Toby nodded. "I’ve heard that one." He sighed. "I understand it — and I understand your position, too. YOU need to understand that Lon isn’t approaching this as a relationship thing — it’s just sex. And when you take the emotional stuff out of it — and we’re SUPPOSED to be doing that — then you start looking at concepts like fair and equitable."
Jean nerved herself. "You won’t understand this; he made it good. I … came…" She dropped her eyes.
"I know. Ma told me."
"And you’re here?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Do you two have a relationship?" Toby pressed.
"Gawd, no!"
Toby shrugged. "Then it was just sex — right?"
"Yes."
Again, he locked eyes with her, lifting her chin. "Do WE have a relationship? We’re not supposed to."
Jean was agonized. "Is that the way you want it?"
"No."
The answer should have brought relief, but she’d been up and down the rollercoaster too many times. "Then why… ? She found that she couldn’t even formulate questions.
Toby led her to the couch by the hand and sat her there, then, pacing, began his dissertation, "I need for you to grow up a bit so you can help me."