Louise rocked back in her chair. Did he just say what I THINK he just said?
"That goes double for Nurse Tolliver," Robert added, watching Louise closely.
He DID! The little sneak just announced that he wants to fuck! Louise realized. She locked eyes with him. "We usually do such things on Wednesday. Do you want me to assign Beth?"
Robert gave his response a moment’s consideration, deciding that it was no time to close doors. "You do what seems best to you."
Louise schooled her expression. Well, well, well! Suddenly, he’s VERY gutsy! But a verbal response wasn’t required, so she merely nodded, maintaining eye contact.
Robert got her message; yes, she recognized that he had left open the option of servicing HER, too — and yes, she WAS available! Well, well! Of course, in a pinch, he had a little blackmail material — but apparently, it wasn’t required … Smiling, he returned the nod and moved off. Things had just gotten a whole lot more interesting — but what he HAD was Nurse Carter, not Nurse Tolliver…
Beth came back from her errand to find Louise working at charts and humming. "So what happened?" she asked.
Louise’s eyes danced. "I had a very, VERY carefully phrased conversation with the good doctor," she replied, "and it appears that he has suddenly become highly ambitious where we’re concerned…"
"We?" Beth blinked.
Louise nodded. "While I’m not his primary interest, he indicated that if I was willing, he would be, too."
"Well, that takes care of you," Beth grumped. "What about me? I thought you were checking on THAT, not trying to grab him for yourself!"
"Oh, we took care of that early, Hon — like I said, I’m not his primary interest. From some perspectives, he was probably merely being polite — or getting himself a backup, in case you said no."
"Well, okay," Beth replied. "But how do I say yes?"
"Oh, that’s simple, Hon! Just look over your shoulder at him, catch his eye, and smile!"
Robert, of course, was watching the pair as though his life depended upon it. When Nurse Tolliver looked over at him and smiled, it was tentative, at first — bit it firmed right up when he smiled back…
Tuesday morning, the women got together for breakfast for the first time in days. Early on, there was a lot of wariness; recent events had stressed the bonds between Candace and Jean almost to the breaking point, and Jean hadn’t really talked to Beth about her activities, either. None of them arrived at the coffee house certain of how things were going to go.
Candace arrived first, which was unlike her, but she had a few things to organize, if possible. The last couple of days had brought on some heavy thinking; she was wondering if she had hocked her soul to Toby for nothing.
Beth also arrived early, which made things a bit easier for Candace. "Hi Candace!"
"That’s Mistress, Hon, when we’re alone." Candace locked eyes with her, but remained genial — merely making a point. This was the first test…
Beth blinked, got more serious, and settled into her chair gingerly. "Yes, Mistress."
"Good girl." Candace, pleased, patted her on the knee. "In front of strangers, it’s still Candace — although I’ll expect proper respect — understand?"
"Yes, Mistress." Well, this isn’t too bad, yet… ' Beth thought. 'I can do this, no problem. She’s not abusing me like Roy would.
Candace smiled. The controls were apparently still in place. At least THAT was working. "Why don’t you go chase down Tom, over there, and get me a second cappuccino? He knows what I like. Get your own, too, and get Jean’s — she’ll be along any minute."
"Yes, Mistress." 'Okay, I’m a servant. I can do THAT, too… ' Beth went off to collect the drinks. When Jean arrived (punctually, by the way), she was just returning with the coffees, "Here you are, Mistress."
Jean settled into her chair, glancing around to see if anyone noticed. Apparently, no one had. "Um, what’s going on?"
"Nothing," Candace replied, "I merely had Beth get us our coffee…"
"And the Mistress thing?" Jean prodded.
Candace shrugged. "That’s our new relationship — isn’t it, Hon?"
"Yes, Mistress." Beth seemed unperturbed…
"I’m uncomfortable with that," Jean murmured. "It seems … wrong…"
"I’m uncomfortable with this relationship thing you have going with Toby!" Candace retorted. "It’s not like you can get married, you know. And you’ll probably stunt his development — he won’t know what to do with girls his age, or he won’t be interested…" puffing up for a full-fledged rant, she continued, "And it messes things up for Lon and I, too — you two making like lovers…"
Jean waved her hands, "I know, I know. Toby and I talked about it. That’s my fault, and, well, we’re going to fix it. I just needed to punish Lon first…"
"If you hadn’t been acting up, Lon wouldn’t have gotten stupid, and he wouldn’t NEED punishing!" Candace grumbled.
Jean arched an eyebrow, but murmured reasonably enough, "Oh, I don’t know. It seems to me that he had a basic problem that needed attending to…"
Candace flicked Jean a hard glance, but Jean stopped there, so, "All right, I guess you have a point." She cracked a smile. "I’d say from the sad tale I got from the boys last night that you put it to them pretty hard! I really didn’t think you had it in you!"
Jean shrugged. They were treading close to a subject that Candace no doubt found embarrassing, but they hadn’t drifted over the line. "The punishment seemed to fit the crime."
Candace chuckled. "You’ll be glad to know that I added insult to injury — and that Rick got no relief from me, either! Do you plan to repeat the treatment?"
"No, I think he’s sorry enough. I don’t want to turn him into some kind of — Jeez, I don’t know what, actually! Besides, I think I crossed the line with Rick — he was a whole lot more worked up than anyone should be…"
"What ARE you talking about?" Beth burst out.
Candace giggled. "Well, you’ve been out of it, I guess. You know what Lon did to Jean on Saturday, right?"
"Yes." Beth nodded.
"I sent him over to Jean’s yesterday to have her work him hard to punish him," Candace continued, "But Jean figured that that wasn’t enough, so she gave him a little object lesson in how to not think with his dick…"
Candace handed off to Jean; Beth’s head swept around to pick up the new speaker. Jean blushed. "I made him give me cunnilingus — twice — to teach him self-control. And he wasn’t allowed to even touch himself. I had Rick there to ensure that he didn’t do anything stupid — and to punish HIM, too — but that might not have been smart…"
"They were both hurting when they got to my place — and you were working, so Lon was out of luck…" Candace chuckled. "And I let Rick know in no uncertain terms that HE was out of luck, too! You should have seen them…" She shook her head, remembering.
Jean murmured, "I don’t know what got into me. This whole situation seems to lead to excesses…"
"That will settle down," Candace replied confidently. "As long as everything balances out, one way or another…"
"It will," Jean promised. "I’m not that comfortable about it, but Toby and I are going to, well, be available…"
Candace eyed her. "So you’ve settled down, then? No more lovey-dovey?"
Jean grimaced. "Well, no, not like that — or I hope not, anyway. I need that; I can’t just put myself out there for sex like you can. But if I HAVE that, I can sort of use it as a foundation. If I’m confident about THAT, I can go ahead and just have sex with others — or at least, that’s the plan."