A Priest in Her Service
CHAPTER 18
Derek returned home in the early evening, having run some errands after his fun with Dr. Hickman’s patients. He expected his wife to just be getting home after a swing shift at the clinic, and noted that she was. He did not expect to be greeted at the door by a strange dog, a little mutt, or maybe some breed of terrier he didn’t know. The dog looked thin, and a shaved patch covered in gauze showed where a wound had been stitched up, but it was clean and greeted him happily.
Living with a veterinary employee, this wasn’t an entirely unprecedented occurrence; all of their several current cats and their dogs when they had them had similarly appeared one day, but he had thought Melissa had at least progressed to the point where she would warn him in advance.
Derek knelt and examined the dog. It was wearing an old leather collar, but had no nametag. He asked the dog where Melissa was, but couldn’t understand its reply. Then one of his cats turned up, and the dog took off to chase him around the kitchen. He was briefly concerned, but Temeraire was a wily creature and could fend for himself.
His wife obviously wasn’t downstairs, or the commotion would have brought her out, so he headed up to their bedroom, and found her in bed with a woman he didn’t recognize. She was young, perhaps in her early twenties, and quite skinny. She was naked, tangled in the sheets, and Derek could see her ribs showing in a way he didn’t think was healthy.
The unknown girl was sound asleep, but Melissa next to her was stirring, wearing only a tee shirt. When she saw him, she nearly yelped in surprise, and looked guilty. Derek tried to act reassuring without actually talking and waking the unknown girl up. Eventually by gestures and whispers, they negotiated a retreat to the guest bedroom across the hall.
“Don’t be mad at me,” was the first thing Melissa said.
“I’m not mad. We had a deal, and I meant it. You can sleep with whoever you want. Who is she?”
“She came into the clinic with her dog. She didn’t have any money to pay for her treatment, but we took pity on her, plus isn’t Scrounger adorable? He’s the sweetest thing. Anyway, Cindy and I got to talking, and I discovered she doesn’t really have anywhere to go, plus I was getting a bit of the gaydar ping from her, and she’s really cute. So I decided I’d bewitch her into coming home with me, and it worked way easier than before, and I’ve since discovered that she’s the best pussy-licker I’ve ever met. Not that I don’t appreciate your recent efforts on that front, but she could teach classes.”
“I see. And what did you tell Cindy the rug-munching professor about me?”
“I hadn’t actually gotten around to mentioning you yet. We got distracted.”
Derek was a bit puzzled by the story. Odd, that she would have such an easy time seducing her. When we tested it, she seemed to have a better time with men. He shrugged internally, and set the thought aside. But...
“There’s plenty of clues around here that I exist, honey. She probably figured it out.”
“I suppose,” Melissa replied. Whatever else she was planning on saying was interrupted by sounds of stirring from the other room, so the couple cut their conversation short and ventured back into the bedroom.
Cindy was sitting on the edge of the bed, completely naked and exposed. She went to cover herself as Derek entered, but he banished the idea from her mind with a thought.
“You must be Mr. Kroger,” she said. She sounded like she was from the east coast.
“I am,” said Derek, looking her over more thoroughly now that she was out from under the sheets. She was young, certainly, but the full bush of light brown pubic hair showed that she was definitely a woman. Sitting up, she looked a little less skinny than she did before, and her breasts showed a little more form, but she was still probably a good 10-15 pounds under a healthy weight. Her face was sweet, though she had acne scars on both cheeks, and her hair was unevenly cut to a little above her shoulders, probably something she did herself or had an amateur do. Melissa had obviously put a little effort into cleaning her up, and she could benefit from more.
They made a little small talk as he looked her over, and he made no attempt to conceal his interest. Cindy drew increasingly awkward and self-conscious under Derek’s study, and twice went to cover herself again. Each time, Derek halted the action. Cindy’s unease and nervousness actually made her cuter, and he made sure she wasn’t in real distress.
However, he couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something strange about the girl. I don’t get it, he thought. She’s not resisting, exactly, but she’s not reacting like anyone else. Is she like Stefan, from the office? No, not really. Then a thought hit him. Maybe it’s me, and my interest. Unlike basically everyone else, I didn’t choose her, and I’m not sure that I would have. That was true, but not entirely convincing. There was something else he couldn’t place.
The conversation wasn’t really going anywhere, so Derek silently started blasting out waves of submissiveness and arousal at the girl. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head as the first waves hit her, and she flopped back onto the bed. The strength of the reaction, again, surprised Derek. He just could not figure this girl out.
But it wasn’t his place to fix the psychological hangups of the entire world. He stripped out of his clothing, discovering that his wife was directly behind him when she started helping, then moved to draw Melissa to the bed with him. She declined, however, and sat in an easy chair opposite, her legs hiked up and her hand getting busy between them.
So Melissa watched and pleasured herself as Derek took Cindy, climbing directly between her legs and giving her a short session with his tongue before advancing to drive his cock inside her. She was highly expressive, and seemed to have difficulty containing her physical reactions to the pleasure he sent coursing through her. She flailed about at random, and even scratched Derek’s arm a little, leaving red welts behind. A hiss came from behind him when this happened, and Derek glanced over his shoulder to see Melissa, four fingers jammed deep into her snatch, glaring at the wound in a mixture of lust and outrage.
Derek steadily drove her into increasing plateaus of pleasure, building and building but not giving her release. Cindy grew increasingly frantic, bumping and knocking into furniture next to the bed, and Derek finally had to mentally cut her ability to move her arms and legs at more than a leisurely pace, lest she hurt herself or break something.
It was time go give the girl what she wanted, so Derek drove into her in a few last vigorous thrusts. Melissa was already coming very vocally behind him, while Cindy built to the top of a new peak of pleasure. Then Derek came, erupting inside her, and let the magic of his semen push her over the edge.
Without the use of her arms and legs, all Cindy had to express her orgasm was her voice and head. She used both of these to fullest effect, slamming her head on the pillow multiple times as she keened a high pitch whining moan. It drew the attention of Scrounger, the dog, who poked his little nose around the corner of the doorway but was too scared to enter the room.
It was a few moments before Cindy became aware of her surroundings again. She looked at them, face flushed and sweaty, then her blissful post-orgasmic expression melted into shock and embarrassment. She snatched a sheet from the bed, wrapped herself in it, and fled the room, before either Melissa or Derek, both languid in the afterglow of their own orgasms, could protest.
“What was that?” asked Derek a moment later.
“Well, I think that was an orgasm, dear, but I’m pretty sure I gave her a few before you got here and they weren’t like that.”
“And after?”
“I don’t know. Let’s give her a bit to sort her feelings out, though. She’s had a rough life, she just might not be used to things going her way.” Melissa looked over in the corner. “And besides, all her clothes are over there.”
They sat in companionable silence, still naked, and talked a little about their days.
After a few minutes, Scrounger scurried into the room, followed by Cindy. She had shed the sheet, and was fully naked. She was carrying a tray, on which she had put a bottle of wine and three half-full glasses. “After that, I need a drink,” she said. “How about you two?”
Derek’s first thought was, Why did she pour the wine downstairs? She might have spilled it! It was immediately followed by a moment of epiphany as Cindy handed a glass to him and his wife. She’s trying to drug us. He hopped off the bed, took the glass from his wife, took a few steps into the bathroom off of their bedroom, and poured both glasses out into the sink.
He turned back, and both women were looking at him, baffled expressions on their faces. Does Cindy look guilty? I can’t tell. Not really. Oh Goddess, I just made an ass of myself. She was just trying to be nice.
“Forget I just did that,” he said, and hurriedly poured another glass for himself and Melissa from the bottle. Both women looked away, and he realized that his power has slipped out with his statement and they had actually forgotten.
Derek ed little of the conversation the three of them had, distracted by his own thoughts. Every few minutes he convinced himself that either Cindy had tried to slip them something, or he was imagining it. I can just find out by asking, he thought. I can make her tell me the truth. But he didn’t. No. If I really think she did it, of course I can confirm it. But if I can’t even decide, it’s not right to take a short cut like that.
The whole thing felt weird, and his resolve was tested several more times. He mainly stayed out of the conversation and stewed in his own thoughts, and proposed that they retire for bed at the first polite opportunity. Cindy’s sidelong glance at his exaggerated yawn sent him on another whole loop of suspicion and self-recrimination.
They settled in for the night and Melissa quickly fell asleep. Cindy had chosen not to them, as their bed wasn’t really big enough for three comfortable sleepers, so she was in the guest room. Derek lay awake for some time, still torn about their guest.
Derek had finally settled into a light doze when a soft bump from downstairs woke him. He lay in the dark, and could hear quiet but urgent conversation. Well, that settles that, he thought. I wonder who she’s brought in?
Slowly, so as not to disturb his wife, he slipped out of bed and donned some clothing. He made no effort to arm himself. As long as he wasn’t surprised, nobody could raise a hand against him. The main lights downstairs were off, but he thought one lamp in the living room must be on. He wasn’t trying to be stealthy, but he made it most of the way down the stairs, standing in the gloom, before he was noticed. Two newcomers, both in grungy clothing, were busy unhooking his television from its wall mount.
They were a man and a women, both his age or a little older. The woman had stringy blonde hair and the gaunt appearance and sunken cheeks of a meth addict. The man looked a little healthier, with thinning gray hair and a bushy beard.
Cindy was sitting on the couch, legs folded up against her chest and head down. Scrounger was beside her, nuzzling her arm, but she wasn’t responding. By the door were several bags that were full of valuables from the first floor of the house.
The woman noticed him first. “He’s awake,” she said, to the room in general. Then, to Cindy, “Can’t you do anything right, slut?”
The man, meanwhile, stepped away from his work and drew a knife from his pocket. He flipped the blade out, and it glittered in the dim light. For a moment, Derek was mesmerized by the threat it represented, until he ed that it wasn’t a threat at all.
“Alright, mister. You’d better—” said the man, then stopped and put the blade away. He and the woman both went to the other couch and sat next to each other, looks of confusion and concern on their faces.
Derek addressed Cindy, who was just raising her head to see what was happening. “So, this is the scam, eh? Seduce somebody with your injured dog and homeless waif sob-story, get them to take you home, drug them, and rob them blind. Is that how it works?” Cindy nodded, mute, but Derek wasn’t having any of it. “Answer me! Tell me what you were doing!” he said, real anger in his voice.
“Yes, that’s how it works, usually,” Cindy replied, obediently. “But this time, it all went wrong. Your wife wasn’t even the mark, but I saw she was checking me out and thought I would try it even though it wasn’t the plan and nothing went right after that. I felt weird with her and then really weird with you and now you aren’t even asleep upstairs and I’m telling you everything and Arthur and Judy are just sitting there and I don’t know what’s happening.”
“And the dog? You hurt the dog, just to have an excuse to go to the vet?” Derek asked.
“Arthur did,” Cindy responded. “I told him I didn’t need it, I could just say he was sick and needed medicine, but he insisted. He promised it wouldn’t be deep.”
“You,” said Derek, looking at Arthur, “are a bad man. You all are, but you in particular. Hurting a dog just to sell a con to steal ... televisions and silver?” He peered into one of the bags. “Half of that isn’t even silver! You’re stealing ordinary steel flatware!” For some reason, he found this nearly as enraging as the thing with the dog.
Arthur and Judy said nothing, probably because they weren’t allowed to, but Cindy came to her defense. “I didn’t want to steal from folks,” she said, “they made me do it!”
“Really?” Derek responded. “Did they force you into the life of crime, keep you against your will?” He didn’t know if he wanted her to say yes or no.
“Well, only sort of.” she said. “I didn’t like it sometimes, and Arthur smacked me around, but it brought in money and kept us off the street more nights than not, which was better than anything else I tried.”
“Derek, what’s going on?” Melissa’s voice came from the stairs, as she descended into view. “Who are these people.”
“These are Cindy’s friends, come by to rob us. Don’t worry, I’ve got it under control.”
“Rob us? You mean—” she couldn’t finish the sentence.
“Yeah. Cindy coming home with you was mostly her idea. It was all a setup.”
“Oh. I was being an idiot, I suppose,” she said, and sat directly on the stairs, head in her hands.
“We’ll talk about it later. Right now I have to figure out what to do with these people.” He peered out the window. “That your van?” he asked Arthur.
“Yes. How the fuck are—”
“Shut up. You answer the questions and nothing else. Anything of ours in there yet?”
“No.”
“How much cash do you have? How much gas in the tank?”
“Sixty dollars. About 5 gallons.”
Derek went over to the front hall table and pulled an old road atlas from the drawer. He opened it up and leafed through it.
“Here’s what you are going to do. I never want to see you again, so I’m sending you somewhere I’m never going to go. There’s a town here called Mountain Home, Idaho. You’re going to head there right now, tonight. When you get there, you will never leave. Make your home there, find honest work, because you’ll never break the law again.”
Judy took the atlas from him and looked where he was pointing. She looked outraged, so Derek allowed her to talk.
“That’s five hundred miles away!” she said. “We’ll spend all our cash on gas just to get there! And what if there is no work. You have it easy in your fancy house, but you don’t know what it’s like down in the real world.”
“You’ll find something, or you aren’t looking hard enough,” Derek replied. He paused, closing his eyes briefly, and reinforced permanent and complete obedience to his instructions as strongly as he could. He pushed for a good minute before finally deciding that his commands were lodged so deeply in Arthur and Judy’s thoughts that they would last forever. Non-verbally, he added a few details he hadn’t specified out loud. Once they were on the road, they would forget all the specifics of this encounter, only ing that a powerful force involuntarily ended their previous lifestyle, and never speaking of it to anyone. He also made sure that they wouldn’t take any violent act, even if they could justify it legally, except for extreme self-defense, and wouldn’t trick or defraud anyone, even if it was legal to do so.
At the very end, he took a little pity on them, and softened their exile by giving them both a strengthened work ethic, to help them in the likely crummy jobs they would find, and sent them out the door. Arthur looked over at Cindy as he stood up to leave, but Derek said, “No, she stays.”
It was just the three of them, now. Melissa on the stairs, silent and unmoving, Cindy on the couch, finally scratching Scrounger behind the ears absently, and Derek, standing the doorway, his rage cooled but still bubbling up with hot bursts.
“And now for you,” he said to Cindy.
“Don’t do anything terrible to her,” Melissa said from her seat on the stairs. “She’s had a rough life. I don’t think she had a real chance to do it right, with the cards she was dealt.”
“How about that,” Derek said to Cindy. “Did you tell my wife the truth about your life? Your trials and misfortunes?”
“Mostly,” said Cindy. “I skipped a lot of the recent stuff with Arthur and Judy, but the other stuff all happened, pretty much.”
“Well, as it happens, I too, think you don’t deserve a punishment like your friends got. I don’t think you’ve ever understood what a normal life is. I don’t think you’ve ever had a chance to be happy. Hell, I don’t think you really orgasmed before today. Your sex life has been tied up in lies and crimes, and it twisted how you think of it.” He wasn’t absolutely sure he was right on this point, but her look of dawning realization went a long way towards confirming it.
“And I like your dog, and your dog likes you.” Scrounger seemed to know this comment addressed him, even though Derek didn’t use his name, and he yapped a few times, happily.
“So, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m giving you a choice. You’ve probably figured out by now I can make people do things, think things, feel things, if I want to. Choice one, I do that to you all the way. You are happy and content in a way you’ve probably never been before. You get to have lots and lots of those orgasms. And you obey and serve us in all things. You’re the maid, the cook, the servant, the concubine. You’ll do anything we want at any time. It won’t be hard for you; you’ll want to do what we want.”
“Or, you can walk out the door and not come back. I won’t mess with your head any more, except to protect me and my wife, so you won’t be able to tell people . You’ll even forget the details pretty quick. And then you’ll do...whatever it is you need to do, I guess. I won’t make any restrictions. If you go back to robbing people on your own, that’s your choice. And that’s the key. Life will be rough for you. Probably rougher even than it has been. But your choices will be your own.”
“You can have till morning to decide,” Derek finished, but Cindy was standing up already.
“I won’t need till morning,” she said, going over to the stairs. “Melissa?” she asked, quietly, standing below her so their heads were the same height. “Do you want me to stay?”
Melissa looked surprised. “That’s not how this is going to work, honey,” she said. “You have to choose.”
“I know, but I want to know what you would do. What you think I should do.”
“I would stay,” Melissa said, quietly. She was crying, just a little.
Cindy turned to Derek. “I’ll stay with you guys,” she said. “Lay it on me.”
So Derek did. He didn’t speak aloud, but sent the thoughts directly. Pleasure comes from obedience. Contentment comes from obedience. Happiness comes from obedience. The thoughts melted from clear language into complex impressions of complete, blissful servitude.
Cindy stood there, quivering a little, then burst out into tears herself. “I’m so sorry,” she said to Melissa, leaning against her and hugging her. “I was a terrible person, and I tried to hurt you, and I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright, it’s alright,” Melissa murmured back, and they cuddled together on the stairs.
The women wound up together in the master bedroom, and Derek retired to the guest room. They were cuddling and crying, and he didn’t feel like he had a place with them. Sleep took a long time to come, and was marked with fitful dreams. He had used his power in anger, to punish people he didn’t like. He had never done that before. Well, except for Gary at the office party, but that barely counted. Was that part of the creed of the Goddess? Was he allowed to do things like that, or was he now a sinner? He had none of the sensation of rightness or wrongness that sometimes guided his actions, so he supposed he had to figure this one out for himself.