Compared to the day before, Jason was in a much better state of mind when he entered the Inn. The pall of despair he had felt the day before had faded to healthy trepidation as the unknown factor had been removed. Moreover, he had not fallen on the first attempt.

He hoped to draw on what he had learned from Elizabeth's journal and ignore the fact that it had not helped her without magical assistance. With a distinct lack of other options, he had to work with what he had.

Cindy spotted him as he crossed the lobby and gave him a sheepish smile. Rather than quell his erotic thoughts, Jason instead chose to accept them and let them play in his mind.

Accept and move on, Jason thought. Just because I desire it does not mean I have to act on it. I have to be at peace with my own failings and temptations.

"Um, hi," Cindy said as Jason drew close.

"Hi, Cindy," Jason said in a voice he hoped sounded casual. "Um, I assume I can just go straight on back?"

"Well, yes, but ... Ms. Missen is running an errand right now."

"Oh. I guess I'll just wait here."

"She said to wait in her office." Cindy hesitated before adding with a forced smile, "I'm supposed to keep you company until she returns."

At once he recalled his dream of a naked Cindy, wet and panting, devouring his cock. Her skills were exquisite, working him like no other girl ever had. She was helpless to resist adoring his delicious cock, believing it far more tasty than that of her current boyfriend.

Yes, I desire that, Jason thought. That is my failing. I accept it.

"Okay, that's fine," Jason said.

Cindy stepped out from behind the counter and followed Jason into the office. He resisted the urge to dismiss the imagery from his mind. To do so would be to deny its existence. Let it play out while he watched as a disinterested bystander. He would detach himself emotionally from it.

He sat down at one end of the sofa. Cindy trailed behind him, pausing at the door before closing it and stepping forward. She hesitated again before sitting down near the other end. "Um ... Jason, about yesterday--"

"It's not a big deal," Jason said. "Just one of those things. I wasn't going to mention it. Or expect more."

Cindy let out a sigh of relief. "I mean, not that I wouldn't like ... I-I mean, I did enjoy it, but I really shouldn't have done it. I'm still not sure what came over me."

She has to talk out her feelings about it.

Having analyzed his own mind on the way to the Inn, he was cognizant enough to realize the thought likely did not come from him. He could disregard it, even though it made sense. He could use that talk to dissuade her from thinking further about him in a sexual manner.

I would love to have her think about sex when she thinks about me. And I accept that, Jason added, less sure of the origin of the initial thought. I accept I would desire her like that. I do not deny it.

Jason saw Cindy's anxious look and realized he had to say something in response. "I enjoyed it, too. You're very good at it."

Cindy gave him a nervous smile, her cheeks pink. "Um, thanks."

Jason wanted to leave it at that, until he wondered if she were better at any particular aspect of sex, even though he knew it should not matter to him. But if I accept my desires, it should be okay to ask.

Something in that conclusion did not make sense. Wouldn't that be the same as acting on his desire? He would not deny the want was there, but he could not see himself acting upon it if ...

"So what part of it are you best at?" Jason asked.

The words had already sprung into his head at the moment of his initial thought, and now something had loosed them to his mouth. He was not sure what had happened, only that now it seemed right.

Cindy's eyes widened, and she placed her hands on her thighs. "That's ... kind of a personal question, Jason," she said in a sightly quaking voice.

I really want to know, now that it's okay to ask. But was it? Had he not thought that he did not have to act upon his impulses? Yes, he could see himself pressing Cindy on the matter, and he had an idea what her response would be. Perhaps I should just tell her what she's best at, then. But that was silly, and he could not see himself ...

"I'll bet it's sucking cock," Jason said.

"How did--?!" Cindy blurted before she caught her tongue and ran her hands down her thighs. "I-I don't ... we really shouldn't be talking about this, not after what happened yesterday. We shouldn't talk about it period."

I should throw that right back at her. "Why not?"

Cindy stared at him, her mouth opening but closing again without uttering a sound. She shifted position and drew her legs together. "Because ... I ... I-I can't think of a good answer right now."

Jason felt he had missed something. His mind had leapt from thought to thought without respite. Now I can exploit her confusion and get her thinking about sucking my cock, came the next free-flowing idea, yet he manged to pause the internal dialog by wedging into its midst: I will not act on that as I do not have to.

He did not understand what had gone wrong. He had accepted his failing and made peace with it. It would not affect him if he did not allow it, yet his cock began to swell. He could not be reacting this way if he ...

"Maybe you're too distracted thinking about sucking cock right now," said Jason.

"That's not ... how would you know what I was thinking?" Cindy demanded, though her conviction was weak.

"Because you're getting horny."

"Wh-what if I am?"

"So are you thinking about sucking a nice, hard cock right now?"

Jason felt both like a passenger and a person standing on the platform while a train roared past. His thoughts were racing down a track which he could not tell if he had laid or not.

I would just love her sucking my cock.

Jason could add nothing. The statement lay bare in his head, exposing his desire to his own personal universe. His cock was hard and cramped in his briefs and needed to be released.

Cindy licked her lips, her breath a soft pant. She spread her legs apart, her hand fluttering near her crotch. Her nipples poked the fabric of her blouse. "Yes," she said in a small voice. "I-I'll do my boyfriend when I get off work. He loves that."

Jason felt a sense of detachment, as if he had stepped outside his body. I should exploit her need and turn it towards me. One part of his divided psyche refused to see himself give into the desire, and it turned its back on the part which undid his belt and pulled down his jeans and briefs, cradling the base of his erect and pulsing cock.

"I've got one you can suck right here," Jason said.

Cindy licked her lips again but managed to give one shake of her head. In this brief moment of resistance, Jason reintegrated his psyche, and he tried to analyze what had gone wrong.

I accepted it, dammit, Jason thought. I know I can do something like this to her, but I don't have to! I want to but I don't have to! I don't deny I want to BUT I DON'T HAVE TO!

Cindy's resistance wavered, and she slid off the sofa, her eyes glazed and dark with mounting need. Jason repeated his last thoughts, and his hands quivered to obey the desperate command to pull his briefs and jeans back up his legs. Cindy again paused, one hand still gripping the edge of the sofa cushion as if it were her last remaining anchor.

Perspiration broke out on Jason's forehead at the sheer effort of his mental battle with himself. Cindy's hand loosened and fell away from the sofa, and she dropped to her knees.

Something flickered by in Jason's head before he could perceive it. With it went what little insight he had gleaned to the inner workings of his mind, and again the dichotomy manifested between what he believed he could do and what he would do.

She wants my cock.

"You want my cock, don't you?" Jason said in a husky voice.

Cindy crawled to him and pulled his jeans and briefs from his legs. "Yes, please, let me suck it, Jason. I have to suck it."

Jason's thoughts were swallowed up in a pall of lust as Cindy grasped the base of his cock with her fingers. She panted as she slid her tongue in slow and measured strokes along the underside of his cock, her breath hot against his hardness. She flicked her tongue at the sensitive spot until Jason squirmed at the teasing pleasure.

"Oh God, you taste so good," Cindy moaned before she closed her mouth around his cock and swallowed it whole, tilting her head to take all of him. He felt her jaw tense as she clamped down on her gag reflex with the exquisite skill he knew she had, and Jason enjoyed the feel of his cock enveloped by lips, tongue, and cheeks.

I want her naked.

She drew back with a grunt, his cock popping from his mouth with a smacking sound, glistening and pulsing from a heart pounding in excitement. She yanked off her top and tossed it aside before licking his shaft again, pressing her tongue as if milking him. She lashed at the drop of pre-climax moisture which had beaded on the head.

"Mmm, that's good," Cindy breathed before taking him inside. Her head bobbed on his cock in slow but deep strokes, until Jason was panting hard in both pleasure and anticipation. At the same time she struggled to remove her jeans, pushing them down alternating hips and legs, all the while never letting him leave her mouth.

She grasped his cock by the base as she drew it from her mouth, teasing him behind its head as she kicked her jeans from her feet. She devoured him again, her strokes bolder, her lips clamped hard around his shaft as she undid her bra. Her breasts spilled from the cups, the nipples hard and erect.

I had envisioned it and made it so. I wanted her sucking me off and she did it. I wanted her naked and she's doing that too.

Jason wanted to point out the obvious fallacies and omissions in those thoughts. He had done nothing, as he had no such power. It had happened at the Inn's direction and not his.

Yet the words felt close enough to reality that they settled into his subconscious and were absorbed into the depths of his psyche. He felt the icy press of the Darkness around the periphery of his mind as a tendril of Dark power attempted to penetrate his weakened will.

The sensation managed to reawaken his resistance, but it was little more than brute force will applied against power. The strategy Elizabeth had conceived and he had tried to apply had fallen apart, and he had no energy to spare to both determine why and maintain his free will.

Heather sat on the front steps of Debby's house, her arms wrapped around her knees. She gazed up at the ice blue sky, squinting at the amber rays of late afternoon sunlight and contemplating the unthinkable.

Heather felt a sense of betrayal, even as it distressed her to think any disparaging thoughts towards her Mistress. Her original compliance had been extorted by threats against her little sister, but now she had been made the one who would destroy that implied protection.

She let out a ragged sigh. Little wonder she could not conjure the same hatred for her mother which seemed to come so easily to Melinda. She shuddered as she anticipated what her Mistress would say to that, the words forming with such clarity they may well have been spoken directly into her ear: "Then perhaps Melinda deserves no such protection, and would be better off as my slave."

Heather lowered her eyes and shivered, trying to ignore the flash of warmth in her pussy. She gave her head a few violent shakes until her dark thoughts eased, only to again contemplate the unthinkable: that she could no longer protect her little sister.

It remained unthinkable because to entertain the possibility would make it easier to obey her Mistress. Each time the compulsion rose in her mind, she thought of yet another likely means by which she could either coax or trick Melinda into wearing the panties. Having Aunt Jo around made the situation worse; how it would serve that infernal woman right to have Melinda's pussy sealed away from her perversions.

Heather would trade one evil for another, the same thing her mother supposedly had done.

Mercifully, the front door opened, and anticipation of something far more pleasant helped keep her demons at bay a little longer. "I'm sorry if you've been waiting here for very long, Heather," said Debby. She clutched her robe and shivered. "Oh, it's quite chilly! Please, come in and get warmed up before you go see Diane."

Heather ducked inside halfway through Debby's invitation. She pulled off her gloves and cupped her hands around her mouth to puff warm air upon them. She had hardly noticed the cold in the midst of all her worries.

"I would hide a key for you somewhere, but Bill is awfully paranoid about such things," Debby said.

"It's okay, Mrs. Radson, really," Heather said. "It's not usually this cold out. Did it go okay with Diane today?"

Debby gave Heather a soft smile. "I am helping her exercise her ability to channel energy through the link before we see to her problem of storing energy. She had a bit of a slow start at first, but--"

"Slow start?"

Debby paused. "She had something on her mind when she first arrived, but I think I helped her through it." She gave Heather a satisfied smile. "After that, her channeling ability proved even better than yesterday."

Heather recognized the orgasmic afterglow in Debby's eyes and grinned. "I really hope you didn't wear her out."

Debby's cheeks grew faintly pink. "I am more concerned with her wearing me out, to be honest. Whatever her problem is, I doubt it's from lack of channeling ability."

"Is she still upstairs?"

"Yes, she thought she would wait for you there." Debby paused before she said in a somber voice, "You cannot imagine how glad I am that your relationship with Diane has survived everything that's happened to you both."

Heather had not been so sure herself when Diane had confronted her on Halloween night. Diane had been so upset over being used like a sex toy by the others that Heather had had her doubts they would ever have anything more than their brief time together.

"I just appreciate you allowing us to ... well, you know," Heather said. With the other Harbingers she felt few qualms over speaking in explicit terms about sex, but with Debby it still felt inappropriate.

"No different than allowing the others their intimacy," Debby said in a soft voice. "I'm just glad to entertain another couple motivated more by love than need."

Heather smiled for the first time since her Mistress had "released" her that past Sunday night. "Thank you, Mrs. Radson. I'm warmed up enough, so I'll head upstairs now."

She had jogged the distance to the foot of the stairs when Debby suddenly called out, "Oh, Heather, wait one moment, please."

Heather turned around with one hand on the banister. "Something wrong, Mrs. Radson?"

"Just ... be mindful of Diane's wishes," Debby said in a troubled voice.

"But I always am. I don't try to influence her anymore. I don't think I can, not with ..." She trailed off and waved her hand, not wanting to dwell on it for too long.

"I don't mean that." Debby's face took on a pained look. "I'm not sure how to word this. Maybe the best I can tell you is: don't make any assumptions."

Heather still did not understand, but she nodded just the same, anxious to see Diane. She raced up the stairs, and only upon reaching the landing did she realize she still wore her coat. She shrugged it from her shoulders as she approached to the bedroom door, her breasts swelling against her tight sweater as she took a deep breath and let it go. She opened the door and stepped inside.

Diane turned her head at her lover's entry, her arm sweeping aside one of the curtains, her lips curling into a small smile. She paused and let one of her lanky legs unfold and stretch down the length of the bed. "Um, hi."

Heather paused a moment, staring at her lover's nude form. One corner of her mouth rose, and she said in a sultry voice, "I love what you're not wearing today, Diane."

Diane's smile broadened slightly even as her cheeks colored. "I didn't think it made sense to get dressed again." She drew in a deep breath and let it go with the words, "I've really missed being alone with you."

Heather draped her coat over one of the bedposts. She wrapped her hand around the post and leaned into it, catching Diane's gaze lingering on her breasts as they briefly jiggled. Even as she gave her lover a sly smile, her eyes shimmered in somber contemplation. Her mind flickered with memories of the slave games they had done together, right before one nearly blew up in their face after Melissa almost made her enslave Diane permanently.

She had resisted thinking of such things for fear of where they would lead. She could easily see Diane submitting to her again, and some part of her still wanted to impose her will upon the willing girl.

Diane drew herself to her knees on the bed. "Heather, please, come closer," she said in a husky voice.

Heather let out a ragged sigh as warmth radiated from her pussy, her nipples tingling under the tight confines of sweater, blouse, and bra. The tone of Diane's voice could have either been a submissive plea or a command. Or she could be reading too much into it, judging everything by a black and white separation which did not exist.

Heather stepped forward, her hand lingering on the post as if using it as an anchor. As she neared the edge of the bed, she let herself be drawn into a slow, lingering kiss. Heather slid her hands around Diane's sides, feeling her tremble in anticipation. Diane uttered a breathy moan into Heather's mouth when hands gripped and squeezed her ass.

Heather broke off the kiss with a breathy sigh. "So she didn't wear you out after all."

Diane closed her eyes and shivered as Heather's fingers kneaded the tight flesh of her rear. "H-Heather, please ..."

Heather eased up and slid her hands up Diane's back. "Too much too soon?" she asked in a concerned voice.

Diane gave her a tiny smile. "I just don't want you to get me too excited before I do something for you."

Heather stared into Diane's eyes, her own glistening. "Diane, you don't have to, let me just--"

"Heather," Diane said, impatience edging her otherwise lusty tone. "Don't analyze it. Please. I've been doing that enough to myself."

Heather's eyes widened, and she drew back slightly, feeling a strange sense of role-reversal. Diane had always been the timid one. Heather saw it every time the other Harbingers gathered, even before Victor had arrived and exploited Diane's weakness to his own aims.

During that confrontation Halloween night, Heather had semi-facetiously suggested that Diane take on the role of the Mistress and Heather the slave in their relationship. Her first exposure to life as a slave under Laura had dashed that idea. She wondered if Diane were playing to that now.

Or, again, Haven had so screwed up her thinking that she could not help but see every relationship in the harsh light of dominator and dominated.

Diane suddenly grasped the bottom edge of Heather's sweater and yanked it up. Heather uttered a small, surprised gasp, but raised her arms and let it be pulled from her body.

Diane began unbuttoning her lover's blouse, starting at the top and working her way down with slow, methodical movements. Heather's breath became a soft pant as the anticipation mounted, each intake of air swelling her breasts against the already tight blouse, sometimes popping a button just as Diane's fingers worked it.

"I love it when you wear all these layers," Diane whispered. "It's like unwrapping a present."

Heather closed her eyes, her thighs trembling as her pussy ran hot and liquid. Her nipples tingled and ached, and she almost begged Diane to touch them, like a wet and needy slave pining for her Mistress' attention.

No, stop it, stop thinking of everything in those terms, Heather chided herself. Just stop ... oh God ...

Heather shuddered and let out her next breath as a ragged moan. Her blouse lay open, Diane's fingertips swirling against the hard bumps which lay tight against the cups of the lacy black bra.

"I missed doing this for you," Diane said in a lusty voice. "Sometimes I miss when you made me do this for you."

"H-how can you miss when I ... uhng ... oh God, Diane ..."

Diane tugged one of the cups until its prize spilled free. She teased the nipple with little flicks of her tongue until Heather whimpered and trembled. "I don't miss the part about you making me do it, Heather," Diane said as she cupped the soft flesh in her fingers, the bounty bulging between them. She yanked the other cup and let the remaining breast fall free. "But I missed how much I enjoy doing this for you."

"I don't understand, I ... oh God, Diane!"

Diane squeezed both breasts such that the nipples stood out as thick points. She closed her mouth over one and sucked hard, her cheeks dimpling. Heather sank to the edge of the bed as Diane's tongue lashed and her teeth nibbled, until the nipple throbbed with her pounding heart and pleasure rose in her pussy as if it had been softly stroked.

Diane drew her mouth back, the nipple popping out with a loud smack which made Heather gasp. "You avoided letting me do this for you since the first week you were Ms. Bendon's slave," Diane said in a sad voice. "Maybe you thought it would be imposing your will on me or something."

Heather had no idea how to respond, and Diane took the opportunity to suck Heather's other nipple until moisture trickled down the inside of Heather's thigh.

Diane drew back and gazed into Heather's eyes, her own shimmering with barely suppressed tears. "Please, Heather, let me love you the way I want."

(Don't make any assumptions)

Heather finally understood and shed the tears Diane had managed to avoid, drawing her lover into a tight embrace. Despite her sobs against her lover's shoulder and neck, both shivered in rising need as Heather's bountiful plumpness pressed against Diane's petite firmness.

Heather felt like an enchantment had been broken. No more confusion reigned when their lips met and Diane guided her onto her back. No question or doubt arose when her lover slowly stripped the remaining clothes from her body, her lover's teasing touches leaving her squirming, wet, and helpless.

Cindy let Jason's cock fall from her mouth as she kicked her panties from her feet. She drew herself up and rolled his cock in the warm, plump flesh of her breasts. Jason's thoughts drowned in the rising tide of lust, his mind swamped with dark thoughts of greater pleasure which could be his. "God, you taste so good, Jason," Cindy panted. "Better than my boyfriend. Better than any boyfriend."

She devoured him again, head bobbing furiously, sending him soaring. Her fingers whipped across her clit until she trembled with her own rising pleasure. She uttered a deep moan as she again swallowed his manhood whole, the noise vibrating in most prurient fashion against his straining cock. Her hips rocked as she finger-thrusted herself, the rhythm falling into sync with that of her mouth.

She should want to suck only my cock.

The thought was alien enough despite the failure of his initial plan that he could deny it had ever originated from his own head. Yet his cock strained on the edge of an orgasm he could no longer hold back, and the denial that he would ever want to do such a thing played into the Darkness' hands.

The icy touch of the tendril which wormed its way into his head was lost to the paroxysms of his orgasm. Cindy moaned and gasped in sheer ecstasy at the taste of his hot cum spurting into her mouth and the powerful throbbing which arose in her pussy. Before he realized what had happened, it was already done. Cindy milked his cock for every last drop and licked his flagging shaft clean even as she moaned in climax. She bestowed one last sucking kiss on the head, licking her lips at the last bit of seed she had extracted from him.

She drew back and let out a long sigh of contentment as she pressed her fingers to her satisfied pussy. She gazed at him in appreciation and gave his balls a loving caress. "Mmm, that was nice, Jason. I didn't know what I was missing. I don't know if I could ever find a guy with a cock that tastes that good again."

Jason wanted to tell her this was a big mistake, that she could do it with anyone she wanted. He could only barely get the words to form in his head, and they dissolved the moment he tried to force them to his lips. He might as well say that the sky is not blue or that water is not wet.

The door to the office opened, and Stacy stepped inside. Cindy shot to her feet, her cheeks glowing red. "I-I'm sorry about this, Ms. Missen. I just ... I couldn't ..."

"Couldn't resist?" Stacy said with a sly smile.

Cindy nodded and uttered a weak laugh. "Yeah. I wasn't sure why I was doing it at first, but then ..." She trailed off and her blush deepened. She turned her gaze back to Jason, then gave his cock a hungry look before collecting her clothing. "I'll just get dressed and go back to work."

Jason was so numb with shock he could only stare as Cindy dressed, barely thinking of his own semi-nudity.

Stacy sat behind her desk. "Cindy, would you mind working closely with Jason on a permanent basis?"

Cindy's eyes widened, and her gaze again flicked to Jason's cock. "Oh, no, Ms. Missen. I'd be glad to work with him."

"Very good. Thank you and good work."

Cindy started buttoning her blouse. "Oh, but I really didn't do anything except ... well ..."

"It's fine. When you're finished dressing, I need to talk to Jason alone before I dismiss him for the day."

"Of course, Ms. Missen," Cindy said, already backing towards the door while still buttoning. She smiled at Jason one last time before ducking out of the office with two buttons still left undone.

Stacy turned to Jason and smiled. "Well done, Jason, you've taken your first real step."

Jason gathered his jeans and briefs. "I didn't do anything. It was all--"

"And that is why your little plan to resist didn't work."

Jason paused as he pulled on his briefs. "I don't understand."

Stacy leaned forward and folded her hands under her chin. "I know everything that's in Elizabeth Jellison's journal. Accept your faults, make peace with them, and you'll never fall. Is that about right?"

Jason slowly pulled his briefs into place. "It's more complicated than that."

"But that will suffice. Yes, it was a clever try, and it works splendidly on paper. Do you see where you failed?"

Jason shook his head.

"Because no matter how hard you try, Jason, no matter how much you claim to accept your faults and your limitations, you never quite do. In reality, you can never quite believe you would ever act that way. That's when it falls apart."

Jason struggled to make sense of it. He went over Elizabeth's words in his head and came up empty. He was fighting to understand his own feelings towards Cindy now, of what should and should not be in his head.

"Elizabeth was quite right when she said she was delving into matters she barely understood," said Stacy. "Once you refuse to believe you could ever act in such a way, part of your mind divorces itself from the rest. Freed from the control of this lofty moral perch, the rest of your mind falls into the pattern of behavior it really wants to pursue. Your moral high ground never interferes because it lives in a state of denial that you are acting in such a supposedly wicked manner."

Jason pulled on his jeans and finally managed to focus enough to understand, yet he thought Elizabeth had solved that problem, or tried to before ...

Stacy smiled. "I can sense what you're thinking, Jason. You have no secrets from me. Yes, she thought she could be conscious of the separation and control it, and allow her to maintain her free will behind that lofty perch and command the demons to leave her mind at will. You've seen how far she got with that."

Jason remained silent, but his emotions whirled in a confused tumult. "But I don't have the power to control anyone."

"True. I took care of that, but it won't be like that for long."

"And ... and Cindy, did I ...?"

"Yes. Before, Cindy was a girl who loved to suck cock. Now, she's a girl who loves to suck your cock."

"But I didn't want ..." Jason began, trailing off.

"Were you about to tell me the sky is not blue?" Stacy asked in a silky voice. "Or that water is not wet?"

Jason let out a ragged sigh. He loved the idea that Cindy would crave only his cock. No matter what argument he could put forth why it was wrong, it changed nothing; he was satisfied with the situation. She gave great blowjobs and now only he would benefit.

"That's all for today," Stacy said. "Penny will pick you up in the lobby."

Jason turned and trudged towards the door. As he reached for the door knob, he froze and stared at his hand. He thought he had seen something, like a wisp of inky black, but it may have been only a shadow.

"Something wrong, Jason?" Stacy asked.

Jason shook his head and let himself out of the office.

Heather trembled, her senses reeling from the both wonderful and maddening slow rise of pleasure in her aching pussy. Her knees lay to either side, her thighs quivering as Diane slid her delicate fingers along slick and tight flesh.

Diane's tongue played in slow and sensual swirls around her swollen clit, a finger teasing her entrance, never slipping inside more than one knuckle. Heather shuddered and whimpered in a plea for more that she did not wish Diane to heed. She wanted this to last; every moment of pleasure was another trouble forgotten.

Diane's pressed her mouth to Heather's slick folds and gently sucked, flicking her tongue at her lover's clit. Heather gasped and drew her knees up, her back arching as her pleasure suddenly spiked. She tossed her head back, her breath hard and heavy, until Diane abruptly relented and returned to slow, swirling strokes.

"Oh God, Diane ..." Heather moaned.

Diane kissed Heather's clit and lifted her head, a small smile on her wet lips, "Now you see what you've been missing."

Heather's heart lurched and her eyes misted, but only until Diane's tongue began licking her in earnest, a finger slowly worming into her tight pussy until her hips squirmed in delight. Her moment of melancholy was again swallowed up by lust and need.

A thread of guilt still wove through the back of her mind, even though she saw her intentions were good. She had wanted to lavish attention on Diane, to make up for what she felt she had done without understanding how they had fed Diane's sense of inadequacy. She had not stopped to think that Diane would want to cater to Heather and her needs.

Heather trembled as Diane's mouth was again plastered to her mound, sucking and licking until she could no longer lay still. Her hips writhed, her hands clenching and unclenching as pleasure spiked and fell. Diane's finger was joined by a second, moving in a slow, rocking thrust which slid against the tip of Heather's clit.

Tears suddenly leaked from Heather's eyes. Diane's loving attention had pushed her mind to a tipping point, where she could ignore her Mistress' directives and associate the pleasure with nothing more than Diane's love.

Heather gasped as her pleasure continued to rise. Her thighs trembled, then tensed as Diane's relentless tongue lashed hard against her clit. Fingers slammed into her cunt until her hips rocked in time to the thrusts. Diane curled her arms around Heather's thighs, mashing her mouth to Heather's mound as pleasure hung at its excruciating height.

Heather drew in a single deep gasp and held it. Her hips jerked and writhed as fluid burst against Diane's face and splashed over Heather's thighs and belly. Her breath was finally loosed as a single, explosive sigh, and she panted as if gasping for breath when her climax seemed to pulse through her entire body.

Diane slid her mouth up and down Heather's slit. Heather's already intense orgasm paused, strained, and let go a second time. She let out a shrill cry as she squirted in her lover's face, her hips pounding against the mattress.

Diane lifted her head and gasped in air, fluid running down her face and dripping to the towel under Heather's mound. She jammed three fingers into Heather's cunt and pumped until Heather reeled in a third, if weaker, climax, a small burst of fluid splashing over her hand and running down Heather's thighs.

"Oh. My. God." Heather moaned.

Diane giggled and withdrew her fingers from her lover's pussy. "I so missed hearing you say that."

Heather lay limp, still panting hard. "I don't ... think I ... can move ..."

She felt Diane's body slide against hers, and she soon gazed into two dark, beautiful eyes. They held hers for a long moment, shimmering with as yet unexpressed need, until the silence and the wait became too great. Diane let out a deep sigh, eyes growing wet as if a dam had burst on her emotions. "I love you, Heather."

Heather let out a ragged sigh and pulled Diane into an embrace. The same words formed in her own head, but her throat was too tight for them to reach her lips.

"I think I knew it about a week after Halloween, when you first had to go to Ms. Bendon," Diane said. "I was so afraid I would lose you."

Heather squeezed her eyes shut, letting out a small sob.

"Then when ... when you wouldn't let me show you how ... I always appreciated you wanting to please me, but ..."

"I know," Heather said in a choked voice. "And ... p-please don't take this the wrong way ... it took me longer to come around ... I only just realized now I love you."

Diane's arms tightened around her briefly before she eased back and gazed into her lover's eyes. "It's okay, Heather. I mean, I would rather you be sure."

"I wish we didn't have all this other shit to deal with," Heather said as she wiped her eyes. "Maybe I wouldn't be so anxious about coming over for dinner and meeting your parents."

Diane gave her a wan smile. "At least we don't have to worry about whether our feelings are mutual. Mother is so worried about that."

As Heather descended from her emotional high, the worry she had held at bay came trickling back. She realized before the words were out of her mouth how foolish they sounded, but she had little resolve with which to stop them. "Diane, you have to understand, I still have ... other desires. Not just because of the Harbingers. I'm not totally lesbian like you are."

Diane shook her head. "Please, don't worry about it. If I was going to have a problem with that, I would have said something."

"But we just shared a lot more than we ever had before. I don't want to feel like I'm going to mess this up if I still want to fuck--"

She was about to say Jason's name but wondered if she would ever get the chance to have sex with him again. She shivered as she realized the ordeal that Jason must have been going through while she and Diane were making love.

Diane sat up. "You won't mess anything up. We have to face it, Heather. We've all changed."

Heather sat up as well. "Only because we're being made to. The link we share and all that."

"I mean, I don't think the changes are temporary."

Heather stared, unable to think of a reply. Had anyone ever stopped to think about it? Had everyone assumed that once things were settled in Haven that their sexual overdrive would quiesce?

"I can't really explain it in words," said Diane. "It just feels like it's part of us, like it was always there. Sort of how I've started feeling like I was always with the Harbingers."

Heather was about to reply when something about Diane's words struck her as momentous. When she realized what it was, she threw her arms around Diane and hugged her.

"What is it?" Diane said in a bewildered voice.

"That's the first time I ever heard you say straight away that you're part of the Harbingers."

Diane paused, then hugged Heather tightly in return. "You caught me on a good day," she said in a quavering voice. She pulled out of the hug, but her arms remained around her lover. "I'm still struggling with it. If Mrs. Radson hadn't talked to me before we started today--"

"I knew she must've said something to you. What was it?"

Diane let out a ragged sigh. "She managed to get out of me what I was upset about concerning you ... and how I didn't know how to talk to you about it. All she told me was 'actions speak louder than words.' I thought ... well, don't tell her this, but I thought it was kind of lame until I started to think about it. When we started our lesson, it must have helped focus my thoughts. Then you came in and ... well, doing it was easier than telling you about it."

Heather slowly smiled. "Like unwrapping a present."

Diane blushed. "I guess that was kind of silly, wasn't it?"

Heather shook her head. "That was the sexiest thing you have ever said to me."

Diane slowly smiled and gave Heather another hug.

The relative intimacy of Thanksgiving seemed in the distant past as Cassie struggled to maintain her poise through dinner. She supposed she should be glad that the gathering was small enough to be held in the normal dining area. At least she did not have to prostitute her grace and good upbringing before scores of sycophants.

She still had to be the good Kendall daughter throughout. She could not allow a speck of sauce to stain her gleaming gown or a crumb of bread to soil her elegant gloves. Each bite had to be measured and proper, and she could eat at no more than a sedate pace.

At first she had been glad that many of the guests had engaged her father in a debate about the economy, but this left her alone with her mother at the head of the table. The tension from Dorothy was thick and swelling, each clink of silverware a little louder than the last, each thump of her wine glass upon the table a little harder.

Cassie knew the sign very well, and her stomach knotted, stealing her desire to finish what was left on her plate. Something had upset her mother, and the only question was whether she would hear it at the dinner table or in the drawing room.

The debate suddenly became quite vociferous, and Robert spread his hands before him. "Gentlemen! Gentlemen!" he called out in a tone both admonishing and admiring. "It is obvious we have several very strong opinions here. I make it a point not to let such debates rage at the dinner table. If everyone is finished, we may repair to the lounge."

"Here, here!" called out a guest to general agreement from the others as they all stood in a noisy shuffling and scraping of chairs.

Cassie was so caught up in her own anxieties that she missed her cue and had to be prompted by a hissing whisper from Dorothy.

She scrambled to her feet. Her fork clattered to the plate and flung a bit of meat onto the table. Dorothy clicked her tongue in disapproval as Cassie turned to the guests and curtsied. Only one barely glanced at her.

Robert snapped his fingers as he followed the others, and a servant rushed up to him. "Serve up a bottle of cognac to my guests if you would."

"Right away, sir," the servant said before dashing away.

Cassie stared after her father, who looked back and gave her a single nod and an approving smile. She sensed sympathy from him as well, as if he knew what Dorothy had in store for her.

"Cassandra," came her mother's crisp voice.

"Sorry, mother," Cassie said as she turned towards her chair.

"Do not sit down." Dorothy dabbed the corners of her mouth with a napkin and tossed it to the table next to her plate. She swiftly stood.

"I have a little bit of dinner left, mother," Cassie said in a helpless voice.

"If you wish to maintain that figure, you have had enough. Come with me."

Cassie held back the sigh she knew would only make things worse. She had no idea what this was about, and her mother's emotions were no help. She felt only indignation and disgust, which would be her mother's reaction to any number of things Cassie did.

Dorothy opened the doors to the drawing room and stood to the side, thrusting an arm over the threshold. "Inside."

Cassie stepped past under her mother's dagger-like gaze, her heart thumping.

Dorothy closed the doors behind her, then glanced to the side as if expecting someone else may still be in the room. Cassie realized now just how often her mother made that gesture, even before her recent revelations.

"I would like to think that I am not giving you very many orders when it comes to your friends. In fact, I feel I am being far more lenient than I should as it is."

Cassie realized the truth to the statement. What Cassie had learned over the last week cast a new light on everything her mother did. Why would she be this lenient? Why did she not simply order Harry to take her straight to and straight from school every day?

"Thus when I tell you there is one person I forbid you to associate with, I expect to be obeyed in that matter."

Cassie's eyes widened. "You mean Richie Gardner, Mother?"

"You know perfectly well that is about whom I am speaking!" Dorothy snapped. "Why have you violated my edict?"

Cassie gave her mother a nonplussed look. "Mother, how can I associate with him except at school? Harry won't take me anywhere near him."

"Harry has informed me you spoke with him on your cell phone, that he called you. Why does he have your number?"

"He had it before your 'edict,'" Cassie replied in a testy voice. "I wasn't going to change my phone number for one person. Mother, I'm sorry, but I don't see the harm in the occasional phone call."

"If it were just that, I could let it slide, but Harry tells me he entered the residence of Deborah Radson soon after you had arrived there. I do not care for you trying to find loopholes around my rules."

"Mother, I ..." Cassie began, the words for her defense failing to come. "It ... we ... we were under adult supervision the entire time. Mrs. Radson was with us every minute."

"Again, loopholes! I did not tell you 'except with adult supervision.'"

Cassie uttered an exasperated sigh. "Why do you hate him so much? What has he done?"

Dorothy folded her arms and gave her daughter an imperious gaze. "Do I really have to explain that to you?"

"Yes, especially if you're about to use the same arguments you did against Ned, and Father is okay with him."

Dorothy raised a finger and narrowed her eyes. "Don't you dare set me against your father. Not again. I will not have it."

"I'm sorry, I didn't ..." Cassie trailed off when her mother's last statement had come with a twinge of fear. "Wait. Again? What do you mean by that?"

Dorothy lowered her finger. "Never mind that," she said in a softer voice.

"But I don't remember ever playing the two of you against each other, unless ..." Cassie's eyes widened. "Unless I did that a lot as a child."

"Never mind!" Dorothy cried, and Cassie sensed as much fear as anger. "Stop changing the subject!"

Cassie wanted to press the point. In her flustered state, Dorothy might let more vital clues slip and obviate the need for Cassie to extract them herself.

The words died before they could reach her lips when she wondered if that form of manipulation was any better.

"Cassandra, the simple fact of the matter is that I fear for your safety around him," her mother said in a more steady voice. "And I am not fond of how his mother sleeps around."

Cassie was surprised at that statement, as she did not think her mother was privy to town gossip. "All I have heard is rumor, and I think I should rise above believing every little bit of gossip I hear."

"I do not base my comments on mere rumor," Dorothy said in a careful voice. "I have far more reliable sources than that, and they tell me what kind of tramp Richie's mother is, and that she has as foul a mouth as her son. There is a term for that type of people, Cassandra: white trash."

Cassie's eyes burned, but she held her tongue. She took some small measure of satisfaction that she had had sex with "white trash" on several occasions and had enjoyed it.

She had nothing to offer in his defense. At least with Ned, she could contend she was judging him purely on his diction and lack of social standing. Despite Cassie's belief that Richie was a good person, it was buried under a great deal of aggression, anger, and attitude.

"So I am going to tell you this once," Dorothy said. "You are not to associate with him in any capacity outside of school. This includes being at the same place, such as Mrs. Radson's house, or speaking on the phone. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, mother," Cassie said in a tiny voice.

Dorothy sighed. "Really, this is for your own good, Cassandra. I am only thinking of you."

Cassie may have resented that otherwise trite phrase if she had not sensed the genuine fear behind it.

"Now, I need to join Robert in the lounge. Head straight to your room and be quiet." She turned and marched away without waiting for a reply.

Cassie watched her mother go with chagrin. She had hoped to visit her mother's mind that night in hopes of learning more about her past. Now, instead of simply reading her mother's thoughts, she was faced with the need to manipulate them instead.

"Shit," Cassie muttered as she fled the room.

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