Louise shook her head. "That’s personal stuff — I wouldn’t do that. So much for getting to play, I guess…"
"Well…" Beth looked uncomfortable. "It’s not their first choice — but, like I said, they’re worried you’ll wander out and blab. Their first choice is to have me offer you Dr. Rankin to buy you off."
Louise thought a moment and waved negation, "He’s a one-off, as far as I’m concerned. What’s their second offer?"
"They let you in — but they get blackmail material to keep you quiet. Pictures," Beth related.
Louise mulled this over. "Pictures. Dangerous."
"Yes," Beth agreed. "Very."
"Isn’t hearsay bad enough?" Louise asked.
Beth raised her hands. "That’s the offer … Maybe you can convince them of that, after…"
"If I’m an equal…" Louise began.
Beth frowned in thought. "But you won’t be," she replied. "For one thing, you won’t be bringing in any boys…"
Louise froze. "Boys?"
"Ummm, yes…" Beth flinched. "I thought you pretty much had the picture…"
"No, that’s right — sons. Right?" Louise confirmed.
"Uh huh," Beth nodded. "Each of us has a son. Heck, it was THEIR idea!"
"I bet it was…" Louise thought furiously. "What if I brought boys?"
Beth’s eyes popped. "I—I don’t know. That was just kind of an off-the-cuff thing … I really need to talk to the girls." She looked anxious. "I REALLY don’t want another…" She rubbed her ass.
Louise eyed Beth. "Being the middleman is painful, huh?"
"You have NO IDEA!"
"Okay, look — I’ll get back to you. In the meantime, if your little group has a spokesperson I can negotiate directly with, it will take you out of the picture. I don’t have to know her name…"
"That sounds good! I’ll ask!" Beth beamed gratefully.
"Okay. If that works, I’ll ask the questions myself. And I’ll hold back a few cards, to save your ass — okay, Honey?" Beth nodded vigorously. "Now, what are we going to do about the good doctor?"
Beth looked morose. "I can’t … entertain him right now — and I’m not allowed to, in any case. I have to sort of bring him around for inspection … The girls don’t see how I can keep him in the dark, if you know what I mean…"
Louise nodded. "Yeah, I can see that. It’s a problem. Are there other problems, Hon?"
Beth got quiet. "There may be," she admitted.
"What would you be telling him to get him to go out for this inspection?"
"That my, um, girlfriend wants to meet him?"
"Ouch! That’s as in lezzie girlfriend?" Louise clarified. Beth nodded. "Any truth to it?"
Beth looked uncomfortable, but replied, "None of us are lesbians…"
Louise tented her fingers. "But…"
"Louise!" Beth wailed.
"Honey, I TOLD you I used to go to swinger’s parties! Do you think they’re all straight sex? So you’ve shared around a little pussy juice — so what?" Louise replied. "I bet if one of them is beating your ass — hard — she’s not JUST a girlfriend, too…"
"Louise! Please! Pretty please! No more guesses!" Beth begged.
Louise was unrepentant; clearly, she had what she needed to wring the truth from Beth. "How long have you been like this?"
"Like what?" Beth eyed her sidelong.
"Submissive."
Beth’s shoulders slumped. "A long time," she admitted. "But when my ex left, things got quiet…"
"Until now," Louise finished. "Now, you have a Domme…"
Tears leaked from Beth’s eyes. "Please … No more…"
Louise got up, walked over, and hugged the distraught woman. "It’s all right, Hon. I won’t add to your problems — more than I already have." She rubbed Beth’s back. "Thank God Dr. Rankin is off — we need time. And a new plan…"
When Candace’s phone rang at eleven-thirty p.m. and her answer got the response, "Mistress?" she figured that things had gone downhill even further.
"What have you done THIS time?" Candace asked.
"I, uh, did what you told me to, Mistress," Beth replied carefully. "I offered Louise Dr. Rankin, but she says he is just a passing thing. So I told her that we might let her join, but we want pictures, like you told me to."
"And?"
"And she figures I’m just the go-between, so she asked if there was anyone she could talk to directly. Someone in authority."
"And you said?"
"I said I’d ask."
"Were names mentioned?" Candace asked.
"No, Mistress. She told me she didn’t need a name — just a number. She wanted to cut to the chase, sort of, she said. She wants to know things like will she be a full member…"
"I see." Candace pondered this. "We’ll talk about it at breakfast. Get some sleep, Hon, and don’t worry too much about it. How’s your ass?"
"It hurts, Mistress — inside and out!"
"It’s supposed to. Nighty night!"
"Good night, Mistress." The pair hung up.
"So what’s gong on?" Toby, who had been leaning against the doorframe, listening, stepped into the room.
"Holy--!" Beth choked off a curse. "You scared me to death!"
"Sorry." Toby wasn’t, particularly, though. "That was an interesting conversation — why don’t you tell me about it?"
Beth looked unhappy. "I made a mistake," she related, then looked perplexed. "Although I’m not sure how…"
"Okay…"
"You know Louise? Nurse Carter?" Toby nodded. "Well, she noticed that I’ve been, well, more bouncy, lately, at work — and she asked me about it. I tried to be noncommittal and not reveal anything, but she kept making the most amazing guesses…"
"Uh oh." Toby grimaced.
"Toby, I was really careful — REALLY! But she kept reading my mind or something — throwing out these guesses that should have been from left field, but weren’t! And you KNOW how hard it is for me to tell a lie!" Beth defended herself.
"Yeah," Toby sighed. Ma was a TERRIBLE liar — two minutes interrogation and he knew what was in his Christmas presents without unwrapping them! Ma didn’t TELL you anything, but her face was a lie detector — watch her expression while you ask a question, and you knew when you’d hit pay dirt … Nurse Carter had known Ma long enough to have figured that out — but that didn’t explain how she knew to ask the right questions… "How did she manage to come around to our specific thing?"
"I do NOT know, Toby!" Beth swore. "When she asked me about my boyfriend, I told her that I didn’t have one — just a casual thing. But she nibbled away at it … The only real mistake was when we got to discussing men’s … members…"
"Cocks?" Toby grinned.
"Penises," Beth replied primly, then gave up, "Okay, cocks. I stupidly compared yours to your father’s, and that left me in a position of having her think I’d…"
Toby grunted. "I get the picture."
"After that, things went downhill…" Beth murmured miserably. "The bright side is that she wasn’t scandalized, or anything — apparently, she likes to play, and she and her husband used to do swinger’s parties…"
Toby raised an eyebrow. "And she wants in?"
"Yes."
"Candace and Jean know?"
"Oh, BOY, do they know!" Beth rubbed her sore ass! "I’ve been punished — severely! I can’t sit! And Candace had this HUGE strap-on dildo … I won’t be doing much with my ass for a while…"
Toby absorbed this. "Remember to keep me apprised of such things, Ma. There are limits…"
Beth sighed. "Well, I deserved this, I guess — although I STILL don’t know how we got there!"
"Nurse Carter has a pretty dirty mind, I guess," Toby grinned.