Lew had thought he would continue his work at Nordstrom's while he made plans for his future with Cara. It was obvious to him that he would need to introduce her parents to Tessa's gift. Once they had accepted him as the perfect mate for their darling daughter, he could start moving in on their money and influence.

What he hadn't counted on was the reaction of his other Elves to Cara's sudden attitude adjustment. He was sitting in his costume Monday morning waiting for the girls to arrive and present the first customer of the day, when Kimi stalked towards him. Her eye's were flashing and she looked like she wanted to strike him.

"What the hell did you do to Cara, you bastard?" she demanded without preamble. She didn't miss the way the young Santa's eyes shifted and then met hers again. Her anger doubled as she decided that this proved that Lew had done something.

"What are you talking about Kimi? I saw Cara come in just ten minutes ago and she looked fine to me. I haven't done anything to her!" Lew protested his innocence. He had to be careful. He wasn't ready for this, and hadn't thought he would need to explain Cara's sudden romantic interest in him.

"Looks fine Hell!! What did you slip her you fucking Weasel? Since she got in this morning she can't stop talking about you. She's back there right now telling Kathy all about your wonderful, romantic, date. She doesn't seem to have a whole lot of details but she is real clear that she has fallen in Love with You! YOU? Puhleasse! That girl has dated boys that will be Senators and Millionaires. What could she possibly see in you!!? Buddy if you've done something to that girl.... I'll .... I'll make sure they cut your damn..." she seemed ready to have him tried and convicted on the spot. Cara ran up in full costume and interrupted her friend's verbal attack.

"Kimi! What do you think you are doing?" Cara was honestly upset. She took up a position in front of Lew to protect him from the angry young woman. She hadn't enjoyed Kathy telling her she was crazy, when she had told her about her feelings for Lew. The pretty redhead had seemed to think any feelings Cara had for Lew, were evidence of insanity. Her tone said that it would be more likely for the sun to come up in the west than for a person of Cara's breeding and social standing to actually have feelings for a piece of garbage like Lew. She had angrily accused Cara of acting as if she was attracted to Lew as a way of hurting her family. Then, to find Kimi out here accusing the man she loved of having drugged or somehow programmed her was just too crazed for words. She knew her feelings for Lew were real and although she could see that Kimi and Kathy might think this was sudden; she didn't see how it was any of their business. Of course, she couldn't even mention the nights of incredible sex that had followed her first date with Lew. That was private, and it didn't really bear on the fact that she was totally 'In Love' with and devoted to Lew.

"What do I think I'M doing? Girlfriend if you can't even see how bizarre this is than you have really gone mad!" Kimi said directly into Cara's distressed face.

"I don't understand. Why are you so upset that I have feelings for Lew? I love him! I want to be with him forever. People do fall in love you know?" Cara said in her own defense. Her thoughts on her feelings for Lew were so clear to her. She truly couldn't see their point. It didn't occur to her that to the young women that knew her before Friday, her new attitude and beliefs were suspiciously false sounding. They just didn't fit in with the Cara they knew. Unknown to them she wasn't the Cara they knew anymore.

Kathy had finally shown up, adding her disapproval to Kimi's. She stood shaking her head at Cara in disbelief. She was sure that Natalie, Marisa and Tamara would feel the same way that she and Kimi did. What Cara was saying and the way she was acting just weren't natural.

Looking back over her shoulder at Kathy, Kimi said "I don't know how he did it, and I don't care!" Pointing at Lew she accused, "He's done something to her!!.... Right??" she asked Kathy. The question of what Lew could have possibly done to accomplish Cara's conversion was still a mystery to both of the girls.

"I guess Kimi? But what should we do?" Kathy asked the smaller young woman.

Ignoring Cara and Lew as if they had ceased to have meaning Kimi said, "What we talked about doing to get rid of him before. Come on! We're going to see Mr. Laundstron right now!" Stalking away with Kathy trying to keep up with her, Kimi shot a look of pure hatred back at Lew.

Lew and Cara didn't have to wait long to find out what Kimi's plans were. Lew comforted Cara and even gave her a hug and gentle kiss on the cheek. He tried to reassure her that things would be all right. Unfortunately he wasn't feeling too comfortable himself at the moment.

They were working the display by themselves when Mr. Laundstron, from Human Resources, and Mr. Ethelwhite, the floor manager, came back with the two females elves. Kimi had a mean triumphant gleam in her eye that said she had gotten exactly what she wanted, as usual.

Pulling the silk rope in front of the line of waiting children and mothers, Mr. Ethelwhite said, "Sorry folks we need a moment to speak with Santa. Personnel matters. We will be open again in just a few moments." He closed the door to Santa's workshop effectively creating a private space for the six of them.

Laundstron from Personnel took charge. He planned to handle this problem with the minimum amount of fuss and bother. He wouldn't beat about the bush. "Mr. Halston, it has come to our attention that you may have made inappropriate sexual advances to more than one of your coworkers. Claims that you have attempted to enter and observe the ladies in their changing room had also been made. If proven, either of these charges of sexual harassment would be grounds for dismissal. It has also been accused" his eyes indicated Kimi, "with corroboration" he eyes touched on Kathy, "that you have assumed a personal relationship with one of your coworkers, which is in direct contradiction to our company policies. What do you have to say to these charges?". His voice indicated that he had already judged Lew to be guilty and was wearily expecting a long drawn out fight, when he fired Lew.

Cara gasped. Stepping up to Lew's side she clasped his hand. She was angered and scared by Mr. Laundstron's attack on her Love. Inside she admitted that there was probably very little that she and Lew could do against the concocted sexual harassment charges of Kathy and Kimi. It wasn't likely that her father would take her side once her learned about her relationship. It didn't affect her love for Lew in any way, but she was sure her father was going to strongly disapprove of Lew.

Thinking quickly Lew decided the situation was a loss. He didn't like the sneering look of triumph in Kathy and Kimi's eyes though. He had plans for the two girls, which just might remove those looks. He could almost admire the underhandedness of this attack. If they stuck to their stories and backed each other up, there was no way he could defend himself. The best he could hope for was to duck the sexual harassment charge and avoid any police or lawyer involvement.

Putting an arm around Cara he let her snuggle happily up against him. With true love shining in her eyes, Cara looked up to him and trusted him to make everything better. Taking off his Santa Clause glasses and hat he tried to impress his seriousness on the two men facing him. "Gentleman. I think I can explain what has happened here. First of all, let me say that this is my last day. I'm quitting. While it is true that I have developed a relationship with Miss Hesterton", he gave Cara a warm hug. "It is not true that I have made any type of inappropriate advances towards the other girls." At least not yet he thought.

Kimi snorted but then slid the look of a hurt victim on to her face before anyone could catch her condescending, sneer.

"I think that you can trace these charges back to the over protective nature of Cara's friends. They are having trouble accepting the intensity and speed with which our Love for each other has grown."

"Speed?" Kathy blurted "Friday she wouldn't give you the time of day and now she wants to pick out a China pattern".

"You see." Lew said to the two men. His tone said that as men they should understand that he was being reasonable but when it came to pretty young women, 'what could you do?'

"I don't deny my relationship with Miss Hesterton. I glory in it." Cara again helped his case by beaming her devotion at him. It was obvious to both of the men that had known Cara most of their lives, that she was truly infatuated with the man in the padded red suit. It was hard to believe, but obvious.

"What say we deal with this quickly and quietly." Lew suggested, knowing that was exactly what the management types would want. We can go and quickly handle my discharge. Then I'll come back and finish the day. I hope that you can find a replacement on such short notice. I can see now that it just wouldn't work with Cara and I both working here considering our feelings for each other." Lew could tell from the look on both the men's faces that they found this a perfectly acceptable solution.

"Ladies?" Mr. Ethelwhite said to Lew's two accusers. His tone indicated he wanted to know if this arrangement was acceptable to them. From the angry look on his face they could tell that he wanted this over with and wasn't even sure that the right person was getting dismissed here. They could almost see his thoughts. Elves are a dime a dozen, even if they come from good families, but a good Santa is hard to find.

"I just want him out of here. I don't like the way he looks at me." Kimi said and acted out a shudder.

"Yeah,...What Kimi said... he has to go and not come back" Kathy lamely supported her friends argument.

"Fine then it's decided. If you'll come with us Mr. Halston." turning on their heels the two suited men left.

"I'll be right back. Don't you worry Love." Lew said to Cara to reassure her. Fingering the bottle in his pocket he rushed after the retreating backs of the two men. He wet his fingertips with a drop of Tessa's magic potion as he entered the elevator. As the doors closed he could be heard saying "I want to shake both your hands gentlemen and assure you that there won't be any hard feelings over this." The doors closed with an authoritative SNAP.

Less than twenty minutes later he was back in his costume and accepting the next child from Cara's hands. He had insured, with the power of Tessa's Christmas present, that neither man would ever pursue the matter any further.

They liked him so much! It was obvious that the whole unpleasant incident was actually Kimi and Kathy's fault after all. The girls had made the entire sexual harassment issue up. Lew would never do something like that. They regretted his quitting. They would work to get him a big bonus and his full salary, if possible. For what he had to put up with, they both thought that Lew deserved it. They wouldn't mention the incident to anyone else, especially Cara's father. Cara was nearly an adult and wouldn't appreciate their meddling in her personal affairs. It was already becoming hard to remember exactly what had happened anyhow.

The rest of the day was an uncomfortable battle of nerves for Cara. She and Lew spoke and worked together and the other girls treated Lew like a leper. Early in the day Lew gave Cara a small bottle of liquid. In a hurried whisper he told her to make sure she touched each of the girls with a drop of the fluid and then to signal him which girl she had touched. She lovingly agreed to perform this strange service for Lew. Any questions she had about doing it were quickly erased when Lew told her that this was important and would please him. From that moment forward she was Lew's eager secret agent. Pretending to want to talk to each of the girls, she made excuses to make moist seemingly innocuous contact with Kathy's elbow and later Kimi's hand. She gave the nod to Lew each time. She usually ended up in a fiercely whispered argument about her relationship with Lew immediately afterwards.

At lunchtime Cara and Lew bought a sandwich and then went to her car in the parking garage. The demure young woman that entered the car with him disappeared as soon as she had confirmed with Lew that they were alone. Cara and Lew spent thirty sweaty minutes together. Cara swallowed every delicious drop after slurping and happily sucking Lew's cock to a sweet explosion,. She then laid her seat fully back at Lew's suggestion. Lew examined and fingered her freshly shaved pussy, till it was slick with her creamy juices. He sucked her left nipple until she orgasmed. He had her remove, regrease and replace the small plug in her ass. He fingered and stroked her slippery slit to two more orgasms. She continued to rub and stroke herself like a cheap whore when he was done with her. Stroking her clit with one hand she chewed and swallowed her sandwich with the other. She kept her lust-glazed eyes fixed on Lew's prick whenever she could. Whenever she put her sandwich down, her hand naturally began to stroke Lew's hot length. She begged him to take, 'Cara', into the back seat and fuck her full of his hot cum. Lew didn't think that they were quite that alone even in this third sub basement of the parking garage where he had directed Cara to park. He had her fuck herself to a mind-blowing orgasm with the fat pink dildo she now carried with her wherever she went. After licking the device clean she replaced it in her purse and walked Santa back to work.

They still had to deal with the afternoon crew of girls. As soon as Kimi saw Tamara, Natalie and Marisa walk in, she was over to them like a shot. Kimi didn't seem as sure anymore of why she had done what she had done, thanks to Lew's mental conditioning. Instead of angrily telling the other girls what she had accused Lew of, she just told them that Lew was quitting because of his personal relationship with Cara. She delivered this shocking news to the three girls, as if she couldn't really summon up any interest in the whole matter. Kathy seemed to feel the same way. After dropping their bombshell, Kimi and Kathy left. It was the end of their shift. Before going they both managed to ask Cara a number of whispered and agitated questions.

Tamara with an angry look on her face as much as told Cara to leave, but Cara refused. She wanted to be there to defend her Love, so she stayed to continue working with him. Besides Lew had told her that she had to continue with her mission of touching each of the girls with the fluid he had provided. Obeying Lew was becoming second nature to her now. She hardly even questioned why she was doing what she did. By six, Lew had made sure that each of the girls had been given a very special set of thoughts and beliefs.

A typical scenario went like this:

Cara turned around holding her own water bottle and a second for Natalie. Walking over to the pretty blonde she offered her the bottle. Her expression conveyed her sorrow that the girls were so mad at her. Cara said, "Water?" making it a peace offering. Once Natalie had accepted it, Cara smiled a false smile and took a quick sip of her own water. "I really hope that we can be friends again, Natalie. I hope that someday you and the rest of the girls will understand how real my feelings for Lew are."

Tilting her head and looking at Cara as if she had just sprouted an extra head Natalie drank her Evian and said, "We are all still hoping that you will come to your senses and dump this loser. It will never work. He isn't good enough. You have nothing in common. Cara, what did he do to you?". Even as Natalie was turning away in disgust and anger, Cara was giving Lew the signal that Natalie had drank the fluid tainted water that Cara had prepared.

From his chair Lew said his magic phrase and went to work. The eerie thought echo's radiated out silently from his mind to Natalie's.

Natalie, You don't care about Lew's relationship with Cara.

Natalie you have a secret, it is a terrible dirty secret

You can't even bring yourself to think about it

Natalie... Lew knows your secret

It would be terrible if Lew revealed your secret

You would be hated and condemned by everyone

You must seek Lew out and beg him not to reveal your secret

You will grow obsessed with finding and convincing Lew

Your impressions of Lew will grow more positive.

Lew is handsome, Lew is trustworthy, Lew is special.

You are slowly becoming sexually and emotionally attracted to him

At your next meeting you will feel compelled to do whatever Lew says

You won't question your new obsession with finding Lew

You want to write an autobiography about yourself and deliver it to Lew.

You want Lew to know everything about you

No one else can know about your mission to find Lew!

Nothing else has changed. You are otherwise happy and content

Before the day was through, all five of the affected girls had managed to surreptitiously question Cara about Lew. Most important to each of their warped thoughts was where and how they could find Lew later. Concerns about Lew and Cara's relationship had evaporated. In fact, they were already beginning to see what Cara found so attractive in Lew.

He was a special, handsome man, and it was obvious that he could be trusted. The only problem was that Lew knew their SECRET. That was awful! They would have to do something about that! What if he revealed it! They would be ruined. Maybe.... Just Maybe if they told Lew all about themselves and convinced him of what good people they were he would take pity on them and maintain their SECRET.

At the end of the day Lew said his good-byes to Natalie, Marisa and Tamara. He enjoyed the look of quiet, secretive desperation that was on all three girl's faces. He had no doubts that he would be hearing from all of them again soon. With Cara on his arm he turned in his red suit and padlock. It was with very little regret that he left this part of his life behind. With Cara to guide and support him he already had plans to remake Lew Halston into a new man.

One month later:

Lew parked his brand new Mercedes in the parking lot outside the Royale Lounge. Cara's father and mother had insisted that he accept the car from them as their personal pre-wedding gift. They were currently overjoyed with the prospect of Lew joining their family. The new attitude was a direct result of Cara's inviting Lew in to meet her parents, the day after he quit his Santa position. She'd applied Tessa's magic liquid to their coffee and Lew had applied the mental molding. All he had needed was a few minutes to insure that Mr. and Mrs. Hesterton were now his biggest fans.

Checking his look in the rearview mirror, Lew found the changes in his appearance a little shocking. Cara had insisted that before he met her parents that he allow her to make some adjustments. They had spent the entire day after his release from Nordstrom's running around town. His beard was gone. His mustache was gone. His white hair had been groomed and cut short. He had a distinctive, GQ, executive VP look now. He had let Cara help him pick out a number of dress and casual outfits, at her expense. When he had walked into the Hesterton house that night he looked like a MBA from Harvard in his six hundred-dollar shoes and expensive designer jacket and tie ensemble. The camouflage had worked perfectly. Cara's parents had no suspicions about Cara's new boyfriend until it was much too late.

Tapping his billfold, Lew smiled. It had been especially nice of Cara's Dad to supply him with twenty thousand dollars cash until he needed more. With Cara's guidance he would soon have all the Bank Accounts, and Platinum Credit Lines he would ever need. Cara was back at her parents house now. She was working to set up the suite that her parents had insisted Lew use whenever he wanted. He had already broken the room in. With the doors closed, Cara had done her slutty best to drain his prick in every room and on every available surface. With the mental manipulation that Lew had performed on Cara's parents, they were now eager to help Lew continue his molding of their daughter into his perfect sexual toy and eventually his wife.

Lew was currently letting the line play out on the other girls he had used Tessa's Gift on. Within days of his mental manipulation of the young women, they had started to trickle into his web. Each of them had been so eager, and so ready to do whatever he said when they had met him here at the Lounge. Cara had made sure that each of the girls knew exactly where to find the keeper of their 'Secrets'. It had been short work using his magic, and the information they provided, to change the beliefs and desires of each of the girls. He had used the power to semi-punish each of the other young women for their little cruelties to he and Cara. Each of them was now experiencing a whole New World of sexual and psychological discovery.

If he had already tired of Cara, he might have added them to his bedroom games. Fortunately Cara was a source of near infinite new fun. Just last night she had finally managed to take him anally. With his hands stroking her nipples to multiple orgasms she had grunted and groaned her way onto his meat. She had been working for weeks to stretch her anal ring to accommodate him. Her wild cries of triumph and the greasy feel of her hot back tunnel had almost made him lose his nut before he was even a third of the way in. Managing to control himself he had established a slow gentle in and out motion. The heat was incredible. Between the view of his shiny prick disappearing into Cara's ass; the sound of her panting, crying, ecstasy; and the feel of incredible constriction; he hadn't lasted very long. When he fired his salvo of sperm into her clutching passage he knew it was going to be the first of many such trips into this formerly virgin territory.

Cara was a perfect lover. She was totally uninhibited. She was wantonly joyous in both giving and receiving pleasure. Dedicated to finding new and mutually enjoyable ways to prove her slutty subservience to her man. Her advice and loving attitude when they were not making love were just as precious to him as the mind-blowing tricks she pulled when they were. He realized it was all false. Cara the person didn't love or desire him, only Cara the slave. He lied to himself alot and told himself he didn't care. In his own self-serving way he loved her and would be as true to her as he could.

That didn't mean he hadn't tasted the fruit of his changes in the other girls. At the very least, all of them had tasted his cock and surrendered one if not many orgasms to him. With Cara and her family filling most of his time, he was just too busy to give much attention to the other five girls. He had performed his mental conditioning on them. Now he visited the Lounge occasionally. The girls had all been programmed to return there as their schedule's allowed and report on what their new lifestyles were like.

Lew noticed that the black hared gypsy beauty was at the bar again as he crossed to his regular booth in the back. Her flashing dark eyes considered him for a second and then she returned to her discussion with the barkeeper. Lew considered what she might be like in bed and then smiled as he noticed that Tamara was waiting for him and drinking a club soda. It didn't alarm Lew, but the young woman with the Slavic features, seemed to be in the lounge or appear there on her barstool, every night he came in lately.

He didn't realize that he was the quarry in a very dangerous hunt.