The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

The alarm beeped, cutting through the fog of sleep that Kate was buried in. She rolled onto her belly, the white sheet wrapping around her more tightly, clinging to her nude form as her muscles protested the movement, her arm stretching to quiet the alarm. After two fumbles, she ended its call and lay there for a moment in the dark contemplating her surroundings.

There was a wet spot on the pillow, as she had drooled a puddle onto the fabric. Her muscles told her that, after the end of her frenzy she’d collapsed and simply hadn’t moved. There were other spots of wetness on the bedding and, between them, the fact that she felt the layer of dried sweat still on her skin, and the lingering scent of arousal still hanging in the air, they were triggers enough for her to remember how she’d spent her evening...vividly.

Oddly, enough, even with so little sleep, she didn’t feel overly fatigued. She’d slept deeply, as though her mind had shut down and rebooted. One thought hit her with force: There’s work to be done.

Shit. I can’t lay here all morning. Along with that thought came the memory that Rose Khyber would be here today if Vanessa spoke the truth and there were things to be done before that. She scrambled from bed, throwing her dress in the wash before and taking a shower for as long as she dare and still have time to get ready.

She didn’t want a repeat of yesterday. Vanessa wouldn’t be happy and, for all Kate knew, she might say that the disrespect was enough to call the whole thing off. Finishing up in time for her dress to complete the wash, she tossed it in the dryer before heading to her closet for another perfectly clean and pressed dress.

Slipping it on and pinning her hair back she had to admit that the dress was comfortable in a way it hadn’t even the day before. Yesterday it felt heavy, hot and constricting, but there was little of that today. It’s just what I have to wear to fit in here.

Looking around for it, she found her cotton and lace headgear on the floor facing upward, straps wide apart as if welcoming her to it. Kate had a sudden feeling of...shame? My outfit has to be perfect like everyone else’s or they won’t trust me. She picked it up, studying it to make sure it wasn’t wrinkled or dirty.

It seemed all right so she carefully placed it to her head before the mirror just so before beginning to tie the bow. Her hands moved in that subtle and intricate dance as she took time with it, from feeling the fabric against her fingertips to seeing how her actions tightened it around her head, cradling it. And when she pulled the loops of the bow she stopped when it felt the most right.

Checking the clock, she went to the laundry room window at the other end of the house to see Vanessa already walking towards the house. “God, I can’t afford to piss her off now,” she muttered.

Correctness.

She went quickly to the door to meet her before Vanessa came knocking and maybe saw the bit of a mess in the house had become. She gave a small wave and a smile. “Hi.”

Vanessa smiled back and called out, “Hello, Kate.”

She waited on the porch for Vanessa to approach the house before planning to just start walking alongside. That had been the plan. Instead, she just found herself standing there under Vanessa’s critical gaze, waiting for judgment. “Not wearing the slip on the outside at least.”

The comment made her squirm on the inside even if she didn’t show it.

She gave a curt nod. “You look proper today. Good morning and good job.”

Correctness.

She wasn’t quite able to hide her happiness at the praise. A quick smile bloomed as she stepped from the porch to make pace as they headed to the cows. Kate carefully composed her thoughts before speaking. “I...just wanted to say that I’m sorry for getting as upset last night like I did. It just..felt like you were turning everything around on me when all of this isn’t about me.”

It was clear she was measuring her own words as well.“Well, this is my home and everyone in the community is someone I love. That may have made me a bit,” she groped for the word, “testy. But, if this is going to happen, I want my life and the people I love to get a fair shake. It upset me because what you see as a little thing that no one should care about, I see as a sign of your bias.”

“You avoid your own name because, in your own words here and in your internet world it’s ‘quaint,’ ‘old-fashioned,’ and ‘ridiculous in this day and age and makes you sound like a dress-weaving spinster.’ So things you deem quaint and old fashioned are also ridiculous.” “The former can absolutely describe my life and those of everyone else here. In the face of that, I don’t think I can be faulted for pointing that out.”

Correctness.

Kate shook her head.“You sure do sound like you were a lawyer.”

She laughed a hearty laugh. “Told you so.”

“But...can you talk to your husband like that?”

“Of course, I can. He doesn’t want an empty little thing. He wants my skills and gifts as much as he does my body, my love, and my obedience.”

Correctness.

“That last bit,” she began as a tingle rushed though her body, sounds almost sexual.”

There was a huskiness to her voice as she spoke of it. “It’s a complete surrender, Kate. You give yourself to your man. You give yourself to the community. I shed everything else for it, and I’ll never regret it. It’s more than sexual, but it makes the sex...” Her mind slipped into a warm memory before she cleared her throat and proceeded with her routine.”Lord, how it makes the sex.”

Kate stayed silent as they entered the barn thinking about all she’d said and how that made her feel. Some of it was probably true. Why not take advantage of conveniences as you found them? Why bother to milk cows when someone else can do it and you can just buy the milk? Why give up everything just so you can wake up before dawn and go to sleep after you’ve finished dinner? What kind of life is that?

Bad thoughts.

Kate almost just stopped in her tracks at the barn door when she realized that Vanessa was right, at least a little. She was coming in with her own biases and, if she wasn’t careful, she was actually going to write the article that Vanessa feared...that they all feared. She’s right and I have to be fair.

Correctness.

They both found their place and set up their stools. Vanessa lubricated her hands as she spoke. “You were right to stop when you did. It doesn’t really matter why. None of us were in the best mood for it just then and no one said things they might have regretted today. Thank you, Kate, I’m proud of you for your maturity.”

Correctness.

The warm feeling that ran through her at the praise felt like the hug from the night before that she was too angry to really feel. It was warm and sweet and simply made her purely happy. She let it ebb before speaking again. “I’d like to think I have my moments.”

She fell into the routine of milking; the rhythm of her fingers drawing down the teats and the high pitch of the milk tinkling against the metal as it slowly filled the bucket. She flushed at the thought of the question, but asked it anyway. “So the sex is good, huh?”

“Now we’re getting to the crux of your article?”

She couldn’t see Vanessa as cows made poor windows, but there was no accusation in the tone. Indeed, there was more than a little good humor to be heard in it. “C’mon, you knew before you checked out that sex sells. It still does If I can get an angle and talk a little bit and get people to keep clicking through pages, they might get to some of the things that matter more. So, it’s good?”

“I could describe it in exquisite detail, Kate,” she began, “and it wouldn’t be enough. Even the simplest acts are...electric. Touching those you love, being touched by them. Having the man who has picked you plowing deep and hard like he’s trying to till through hard clay. It’s glorious. I’ve never had a lover on the outside that even came close.”

Correctness.

With the sense of right came another far more familiar rush of feeling as her nipples were being teased now by the soft fabric of her slip. That sensation brought with it another remembered thought. It’s enough to have him inside and screwing them to keep the little cult pussies happy. She sighed, feeling warmth bloom between her legs so powerful her body stopped doing anything else just to feel it without missing a bit of it. Vanessa sure seems happy.

Correctness.

Her pussy clenched in response.

“You okay over there, Kate?”

The sudden mention of her name brought her back to the now, and with that transition came a host of feelings, from embarrassment at feeling caught to annoyance over...something else. She couldn’t put her finger on what it was so quickly dismissed it as just humiliation at the places to which her mind sashayed at the first opportunity. “I’m just fine, Vanessa.”

She chuckled. “Everything just sort of stopped so I wasn’t sure.”

“No worries.” She milked faster at first to sort of catch up, at least in her own mind before she settled back into that pattern once again. Having milked enough now for what she extracted to hit more milk rather than the metal of the pail, she looked down and saw a fair amount inside with yet more milk to be drawn down and she felt a wave of pride. I’m doing something that helps everyone. I didn’t go to the store for this. This is a result of my work.

Correctness.

They finished their work in the barn and headed to the main house for breakfast after Kate went to collect her legal pad and an extra, just in case.”How does the community make money? You all have pretty big families, and, even if you aren’t keeping up with the Jones’s, it can’t be cheap.”

“We do well enough,” Vanessa told her. “Some families breed horses, some of us cattle. All the women do all sorts of hand-crafted and baked goods. Some of the money goes to the community as a whole and we all have enough to raise our families properly. We’ll get you into some needlepoint or something sooner or later,” she promised. “You make pretty things and it’s very cathartic.”

She entered the house to find the other girls cooking breakfast, the smell of sausages attacking her empty stomach with a vengeance. All moved again in total concert, each seeming to know where the other was, what they were doing, and where they themselves were needed. Kelsey saw them and greeted them with a smile. “Early enough to really help today. Wonderful.”

She took Kate and led her to her own space the counter. “You can work the pancakes if you don’t mind.”

Kate was a bit embarrassed and it showed. “Like I said, I don’t really cook.”

“Stop, sweetie,” she said, pushing her to her counter space. “You can follow a recipe. Follow the recipe.”

“You watched yesterday, you do today,” Vanessa said firmly as she collected oranges for squeezing.

Okay. How hard can it be to follow a recipe? She started by reading it twice and making sure that she had everything she needed. It didn’t take long before she was caught up a bit in the chemistry of it all...a pinch of this and a teaspoon of that.

“How are things over there,” Adette wanted to know.

“Doing pretty okay, I think. Nothing’s burned yet. Of course, I haven’t put anything on the griddle yet, so we’ll see. Question: is this a guest house or something? Vanessa said her family visits, so is that here or somewhere else?”

“Here sometimes,” Jennifer answered, “or at one of the other outlying houses. This is actually my home. My family cleared out for you, so that you might understand us better.”

“Us. Here. All of this is for you,” Adette told her.

Emotions played about that Kate didn’t expect; shame that she had taken someone else from her life and gratitude that they would go to all of the effort for her. “Sorry that I took you away from them.”

Jennifer was entirely untroubled. “They are everything, but this matters, too, so it really is okay.”

The other women continued to chat as they continued their respective efforts. “She finally went there,” Vanessa said as a tease.

Jennifer piped up,“The sex, you mean?”

“Yes. She went silent for a while, so I think she kind of liked it.”

Adette wondered,“What’s not to like about good fucking?”

“Nothing.” Vanessa agreed. “A man pounding that hole is what’s meant to happen to it.”

“I’m not sure I get your attitude.”

Kelsey looked at her out of the corner of her eye. “A level tablespoon, Kate. Run your finger across to level that out.”

“Oh. Sorry.” She kept talking as she quickly corrected herself.

“Better. What are you not getting?”

She searched herself for the best approach. “You seem to be...pretty open about sex when most...groups like yours shun it...or at least get all puritanical about it. I...guess I just didn’t expect you all to be talking about it in the open, even if it’s just girl talk.”

“No reason not to,” Vanessa said plainly. “It’s what men and women do. We are simply animals that can think about sex as opposed to just act on an urge to do it.”

The batter was finally mixed and she hooked her arm around the bowl began to work the whisk from the center out to smooth the batter and kill the lumps that wanted to ruin breakfast for them all.

Kelsey sounded pleased indeed.“All I can tell you is that before coming here, a lover making me cum was like him solving a puzzle, a little touch here, but not too much; this pressure there, but not for too long. It was a victory for everyone if I could find that moment with someone else.”

“But now,” A sound came from her that came off suspiciously like a purr. “now, just him slipping inside me is enough to set me shrieking like a banshee.”

The women agreed and swapped sexual anecdotes as they worked, each seeming more salacious than the last. Maybe that wasn’t it so much as the fact that, as she listened she saw the visions in her head as the whisk cut its swirling patterns through the batter, center to edge and back again.

She saw in her head the rare clips of these women where they walked together, shying away from the lens as much as they could when they knew of it and smiling and chatting in near whispers when they didn’t.

She saw the women in her mind’s eye as they casually described themselves here, splaying wide and performing all manner of depravity for their men, Jennifer describing in exacting detail how she could orgasm simply being on her knees for her husband’s cock. Adette talking about how she could go from a dead sleep to waking to find her man on top of her, wet almost at once and his wild need driving her so insane with lust that she would literally forget how to speak English, giggling at the fact that the German words and phrases he knew best all centered around sex.

Kate listened, and whisked, and felt her panties dampen and her thighs squeeze.

Correctness. Reward.

“That’s plenty smoothed out,” Jennifer told her.

“Huh?”

Those green eyes conveyed mirth with perhaps a bit of empathy. “That batter’s ready for the griddle anytime you are.”

“Oh,” she said, looking down to see that she had slowed her stirring but still hadn’t stopped, “yeah. I told you I don’t really cook.”

“Not too much now.”

She poured carefully with Jennifer watching her and tended her portion of breakfast, feeling that same sense of satisfaction that came with the milking. She was doing something for them all as much as herself.

And she really liked that.

They really aren’t bad. They’re a little crazy in the patriarchy department, but there’s plenty of that in the outside world, too. At least they’re honest about it and embrace it.

Correctness.

She made notes as they spoke at breakfast. Kate asked them to elaborate on the day to day of their lives and finances, and how that’s handled when it comes to decisions and life in the community. And she was somewhat surprised that Kelsey actually managed the household finances. “He’s never been any good at it, so I do it,” she said.

Kate was about to delve more deeply into that when there was a firm knock at the front door. Jennifer rose and peeked out the living room window before she bolted to the door. “It’s Greg!”

“Her husband,” Kelsey filled in for the momentarily confused Kate.

The door swung open and she embraced him as though she might break k him in half. He was well over six feet and lanky, but handsome with bright eyes and rugged features as though he’d spent most of his life in physical labor and relished it. He was definitely a little older. Perhaps ten years or so based solely on Kate’s rough eyeballing of things.

He looked her over carefully. “How is my sweetie?”

If a person could melt Jennifer would have. It was all over her face. It was in the way she shied away from his eyes, wanting to smile at just a glance from him. It was in the way she’d shiver at just the touch of his hand. It was in the way that the rest of the world seemed to fall away and leave only him as the center of everything.

She belongs to him, Kate realized. She’d heard of love at first sight and all that, but this seemed so much more. Jennifer even spoke to him quietly as one might speak to a God.

Correctness.

The man who was with him stood exchanging pleasantries with the other women who were unquestioningly deferential to him as the man. There was some uniformity in their dress as well, black pants with matching belts with silver buckles. With them went charcoal gray shirts and black vests with matching silver buckles. Otherwise, as he’d seen before in clips, the men could go without hats and otherwise manage their appearance as they chose.

Kate looked him over. He was well shorter than she and his brown hair and wide brown eyes gave him a boyish look. He seemed to be avoiding looking at her out of shyness that she was very familiar with. She found it at tech trade shows and pretty much anywhere her fans would gather. To be honest, she found it at bars and such, too. It was the look of men that wanted to talk to her, but feared she wouldn’t give them the time of day.

And, to be honest, she probably would have passed this one over with a smile and politeness, and that’s pretty much it. She had network anchors and swimwear models hitting on her. This boy wasn’t hideous or anything at all, but he was so plain that he wouldn’t have garnered her notice at all.

Bad thought.

She instantly shied away from it herself. She didn’t even know this man and here she was judging him.

He turned to her and she felt more than a little mortified, as though she had been caught by him even though all he’d done is smile and say hello.

Adette gave her own little nudge.“Kate, this is Brandon.”

“Hello, Brandon,” she said warmly, extending her hand.

She heard some of the awestruck that she was also familiar with. “I know who you are, Kate. I’ve been a big fan of yours for a long time.”

When there hands met it was like a current passed between them that rooted her to the floor and added two hundred beats a minute to her heart rate. She struggled to stay composed, never having been so flustered in her life.

Correctness.

“You’re one of the men that likes the internet?” It had come out a bit more simple than she’d planned in her head, but she got the point across.

He nodded and gave her a grin. “Even most of the men limit their access to it. It can...take up a lot of time if you let it. It’s just always been a little more my thing...technical and mechanical things, really. I’m not much of a farmer”

“It surely can,” she agreed. “And I’ve never been much into domestic. It was no small victory for me to manage pancakes this morning.”

He glanced toward the kitchen. “I’m sorry I missed it.”

Suddenly she was, too.

Correctness.

He was still a bit of that shy boy in her presence and she felt a growing need to make him comfortable.

Correctness.

“So, is ‘Kate’ okay, or do you prefer ‘Lady Technomage?’ he asked, noting her online persona with that fanboy smile.

“You can call me Ivy if you like.” She blinked almost as soon as the words left her lips. What the hell? Why would I want him to call me Ivy when nob...

He nearly jumped in the air he was so thrilled with the notion. The fanboy in him knew full well what the offer meant. “Thank you so much, Ivy.”

Correctness.

The objection died in her throat before she could form a word about it. It felt right when he said it. It felt comfortable in her ear coming from his voice in a way it never felt even from her own. She didn’t know if she’d ever truly make peace with her spinster name, but, for right now, ‘Ivy’ was for him. It just was.

Correctness.

They talked for a few minutes and she learned how well-versed on tech and ‘Lady Technomage’ he was, which was ‘very.’

“Once I heard you were trying to branch out into harder stuff,” he began,”I knew that you were the one to come here and write about us. I’m so glad you came.”

“Me, too.” That came out a bit flustered, too.

“Anyway, you wanted to talk to my wife, so I thought you two could take a walk and you could do your interview that way if that works for you?”

It took a moment for her to process the actual meaning of his words and her own eyes couldn’t hide her bewilderment. “Rose Khyber? Rose Khyber is your wife?”

He looked down and away for a moment even though his voice held some humor. “Come on Ivy. I know I’m not chiseled from granite, but I’d like to think I have something to offer any woman, much less one admittedly of her caliber.

The look on his face in that instant wounded her. “I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean...”

“It’s all right,” he said as though he meant it. “Go on, now.”

She was in such a rush to grab a fresh pad and make sure she had enough pens that she didn’t really register that it sounded like a little like an order.

She bolted from the house, closed the heavy inner door and let the screen door slam shut on its own as there stood Rose Khyber, pop icon. She was a vision with those sharp brows over piercing blue eyes. The cover of one of her albums was simply those eyes staring upward in predatory fashion was iconic all by itself and, if one wanted they could spend all day looking at fan renditions, from anime versions to a blacklight version that had become a popular avatar image all over the web.

People still wrote to her. People still clamored to hear Rose and know about her and here she was ready to talk to Kate and no one else. Everyone from music industry executives to talk show personalities would have killed to be where Kate was at this moment and she took a few more moments to bask in it.

Rose was beautiful by any standard, but what made her even more so was that soft smile. She seemed to exude serenity, as though she could stand in that one spot for hours on end.

“Hi, Kate.”

Kate was, for a second, that overwhelmed fan before coming over to shake her hand, pleasantly surprised to feel Rose put her arms around Kate in a warm embrace that she was content to simply...feel.

Correctness.

“Hi, Rose,” she began as she enjoyed the embrace. “I hate to sound like everyone else and not come up with something special for the occasion, but...big fan.”

She laughed and that was like music all by itself. “Thank you. I’m glad people still listen to the music. I’m proud of it. Can you walk and take notes or do you want to sit somewhere?”

She shrugged, still in some awe. “Whatever works for you. Really.”

“Then I’d like to walk. It’s a nice day and we have as far as the eye can see to ourselves. It’s a shame to just waste it in one spot.”

So they walked a leisurely walk over the green grass heading in the general direction of the stables. After a few basic background questions Kate worked her way to the crux of things. “Why don’t you come back? My God, a four song acoustic set recorded from your porch here and you’d make enough to buy one of those tiny European countries.”

She laughed, shaking her head. “I already have enough to do that. My work still sells well and I spent years in a studio recording whatever I felt like. There’s probably enough in the vaults for a new album every few years for as long as anybody cares.”

“Yeah...so...why? Why did you leave? Why come here?”

“Why leave?” Stress crossed her features remembering. “Fame is a mess. All of it, or almost all of it. Realize what it takes out of you to do a world tour? Do you realize what a soul-sucking nightmare it is? And I’d been doing that since I was fourteen. Years and years ground away doing that, or sitting in a studio. There were nights when I had to write where I was on my hand so I didn’t shout out to the wrong city.”

“Then there were the fans. Not all of them, but enough to make it hard all by itself. For all the sweet letters that said my album helped them through a hard time, there were ones that made it sound like I owed them something more. Then having to watch what I said everywhere, always because God forbid I upset a fan or do something human so I’m not some perfect role model for someone’s child when that’s their job, no matter how much else their child’s exposed to. And all that’s not even mentioning the stalkers.”

She turned noticeably, not bitter, but sad. “Then there’s the money-grubbing sycophants. They want to keep their money flowing so they push and they push and you always wonder if your friends are your friends because they are or because you have money. I went to the bathroom and cried once. I just sobbed my eyes out, know why?”

Kate shook her head.

Because one of the girlfriends I had since middle school insisted on paying for dinner. She wanted to spend time with me without just assuming I’d foot the bill. And forget having an actual relationship. Either I’m left wondering about him too, or he was famous, so it felt more like a mutually beneficial alliance than a relationship. The real question, Kate, is not why I why I quit, but why I stayed in all that for so long.”

That peace began to fall over her again. It was palpable. Visible. “I was burned out. I was done.”

She barely said the word even as she wrote it. “Suicide?”

She shook her head. “No. I wasn’t that far gone, but I’d be lying to you if I said I never saw the appeal. No. I just needed somehow, some way to stop being that Rose Khyber for a while. I heard about the different little communities in this part of the country and thought maybe I could get away from everything. I met the people here a few towns over at one of their craft sales. A couple of the men knew who I was an invited me to rest here a while.”

She smiled. “I didn’t take long for me to realize that I’d found something so much better here. Everything is so clear and simple. Men are men and women are women. You work and give to the community and each other. It’s the life that was meant to be, at least for me.”

“You don’t miss the fame and all that?”

She shook her head with a smile. “Not even a little bit. Here is simple. I know my place and he knows his. I know that my husband loves me for me and not my platinum records.”

“About that...”

Rose gave her a knowing glance, jumping to the point rather than see if Kate danced around it. “The three hundred million dollars, you mean?”

“Umm...yeah. Did you have to give it all to the group?

She shrugged it off. “The community could have it all, I don’t care. They’re my family. If you’re asking if they control it, no. Like everything else, some is community property, but most of it’s mine through my husband.”

“So he controls it then?” She thought she was onto something there.

Kate could tell by the look in Rose’s eyes that she still had her street smarts intact. “And well, too. Mismanaging it would hurt the community and, in the end, his family, too. He’s very careful. He knows his place as I know mine.”

Kate smiled.“At least you don’t have to bake sale your way to a new car.”

Rose was playfully offended. “I’ll have you know that my double fudge brownies are sublime. Vanessa will tell you that at least ten of her pounds are my fault. Of course, the men don’t care because they all say it just goes to her breasts anyway.”

She blushed at the thought, but she found herself really looking into the others fierce eyes that seemed so even when she was light of heart. “You really are happy.”

“Like nothing the outside world ever gave me or could give me.” Those eyes appraised her critically. “You’re starting to see it now, aren’t you? You see what we have to offer? Part of you wants that peace. I see it.”

Correctness.

She felt exposed to those eyes and even as she warred with the discomfort of that, the bigger fight was the fact that there was truth in the words. There was an alluring certainty and simplicity to their lives and a profound contentment that she touched herself now and then even in the course of the day.”I thought...”

Rose finished for her, “that we were just a bunch of Bible or some other book thumpers? Or that some Svengali was making us swoon with some doomsday nonsense? No. Nothing like that. We just accept each other, the nature of men and women, and our place in that.”

Rose’s voice was a bit distant. “Brandon alone would make it worth it. I was never loved for me. Even my mother just got to the point where she wanted her cut because I got the stardom she always wanted. But he’s...everything.”

She gave Kate a nudge, sounding like a gossiping teenager. “He sooooo wanted to meet you. As soon as he learned you were interested in coming here to meet us, he lobbied hard to get approval for you to come. He has such a crush on you. Eventually he convinced them how your understanding could be important for the growth of the community and our acceptance.”

They made it all sound so important. “I’m not sure what I was expecting when I came here, but it wasn’t quite this. I wanna dispel some of the rumors if I can.” This time though the thought came without the notions of a springboard to fame that had always previously followed.

Correctness.

She turned her focus elsewhere. “Don’t be jealous now,” Kate teased.

“Oh, never,” she said with some seriousness. “Jealousy is a vile poison and I have none of that in me. None of us do.

Her mind drifted, floating on that sense that it just felt right to be in that place. “I could tell he did and, well, does. Not the type of guy I usually go for but he seems...sweet.”

“He is sweet,” she affirmed with a sigh. He’s everything...and he picked me.”

Correctness.

It still sounded ‘culty’ to her ear, but if she’d looked inward she would have noticed that the negativity was gone.“And I hear that the sex is good, from the other woman with theirs anyway. They aren’t shy about it.”

“You have no idea.”

They spoke at length about that and other things as they wound their way around the land and back to the house. Rose put her in another big hug that Kate sank into. “As far as interviews go that one was just about the most painless and fun I’ve ever had.

“You’re welcome.” She held the embrace, liking how their heads rested against one another, the softness of the fabric having an almost electric feel pressing to her flesh.

Rose didn’t seem to mind. “Come in and you can talk to Brandon some more. It might be good for the story and, besides, I can actually watch him get all blushy and crushy over you.”

Kate laughed. “Sounds like a plan.”

So inside they went. And talked. A lot. That need to make Brandon comfortable returned, so she turned on her own gentle charm like she hadn’t in a long time to draw him out. At first, part of her didn’t even know why she was bothering, but after a half an hour or so she didn’t care. Once you got the man talking he was bright, funny, sweet, and better than most of the men she had been dating lately by miles and miles.

And when he called her by her name she initially worked to hide the bashful smile, but gave that up at some point just after lunch and just let it be. So what? He’s chill, makes me laugh, and is kinda cute.

And he’s...so gentle with rose. It’s like he...worships the ground she walks on in his own way. With the thought came a twinge of, not jealousy, but unabashed envy. I’d be nice to have someone like that myself.

Correctness.

Lunch gave way to fixing a few odds and ends around the house. With older houses like these there always seemed to be a squeaky hinge or loose molding to be tended. The men handled those matters while the women tended to, what only days ago Kate would have derided as the male interpretation of ‘woman’s work.’

As it was, she dusted and mopped with the rest of them, taking frequent breaks to jot down questions and answers that she found interesting. The women were forgiving that way, with Rose teasing her that Kate planned multiple volumes just so as to escape work for as long as she was there.

Kate always felt an affinity to Rose Khyber as a fan. She was strong, energetic, whip smart, and enjoyed her feminine power. Her lyrics could be fit for the dance floor, or bring a tear to the eye. She expected the person she met today to be some vapid, glassy-eyed, empty shell of her former self, but it was all still there. She was still there. It had all just turned...inward and refocused in a way that left her centered and perfectly happy.

There would be a lot to write.

Kate helped with dinner, actually managing to perfectly medium-rare steaks even though she hadn’t ever even tried before. The look of satisfaction on Greg and Brandon’s face, and Brandon’s in particular gave her far more pleasure than it had any right to, but it so did. Something simple that she had done made him happy.

Correctness.

After dinner, they spoke a few more minutes before the men took their leave. Kate’s cheeks reddened like fire as she watched Brandon and Rose kiss. It was deep and passionate, her arms encircling his like he was all that mattered in the universe and she was going to make sure he knew that before he left.

Something in her stance...something in the coltishness that came in the way that they played together, teasing one another before the next kiss said that she knew her power and her power over him, but she had well and joyously surrendered it and wasn’t ashamed to show anyone.

He broke the kiss and pulled himself from her with some effort in order to take Kate’s hand. She felt a rush of excitement to her toes and her body responded to the simple act of his hand on hers as though it were an hour of supremely skilled foreplay rolling over her in a wave.

“It was so great to meet you, Ivy. You’re every bit the woman I thought you’d be.

Correctness. Reward.

She felt the same nervous excitement as in those moments by her locker many moons ago when she knew her first kiss was coming. “It was great to meet you, too. I kind of see what pulled Rose away from everything to be with you, I mean...join everyone here.”

And she was just as flustered now as she was with that first kiss, so she cleared her throat conspicuously.

Rose grinned and, for his part, Brandon seemed as though almost as awkward. His voice was commanding in its own way, but, in its own way, still boyish and uncertain. “Could I come call visit you again tomorrow?”

“I’d love that,” she blurted. Immediately she looked to Rose, ready to apologize to no end, but Rose just looked at her, those unique blue eyes inviting her to fall into them as she smiled a small, almost knowing smile. She really was telling the truth, Kate realized. No anger. No jealousy. Jealousy is a vile poison.

Correctness.

With a bit more of the old Kate McCallum certainty, she repeated it. “I’d love that. We can talk more.”

He smiled and that seemed to beam through her heart. “Me, too.”

Greg gave him a friendly punch on the arm. “Come on, you. Let’s give these girls the night.”

The men left and she looked to see that, for a moment, Rose ached that he was gone. Kate understood it almost as though she felt some of it herself without quite grasping why.

It passed though and the women decided to chat for a while while working on their needlepoint pieces. As they began to set up around her. Kate realized how awkward she felt in what was, again, a bit of a teenage days gone by way. She couldn’t fathom just sitting there like the odd one out, talking to them while they did their little communal thing. “Could someone..show me how to, you know, do that?”

The other women glanced to one another. “See? This isn’t some fancy nightclub or trade show,” Vanessa began, “but we have our own fun.”

“I was hoping you’d ask,” Rose said excitedly. She took a place next to her on the couch as they went through a book of patterns that one of the women brought with them. Kate found herself as excited to try needlepoint as she had been when she got the latest batch of two-in-one laptops. She told herself that she always did like to try new things and the sense of correctness that followed quelled the fact that she never in a million years would have sat down to learn needlepoint.

She’d picked a pattern without thinking twice about it. Or thinking about it at all, really. It was simply the one she knew she had to try.

Rose smiled.

Kate felt that jump-out-of-her-skin giddy feeling that she felt with Brandon yet again.

Rose showed it to the other women, who, again simply glanced at one another, amused. She handed it back to Kate and smirked. “Suck up.”

Kate defended herself.“I can use it as a border for your picture in the article.”

“If you say so.”

In a matter of minutes, with some initial help from Rose and a few false starts she was well on her way to creating a Rose with only needle and thread. She had taken to it quickly, so deftly en fact that after those three false starts her effort was error free with each stitch in place and tight as could be.

She talked about her life and listened to them about theirs, and sewed away time. She made mental notes here and there of things she might have wanted to add to the article, but she just basked in the contentment it all came together to provide; the soft voices of the women talking together when they did. When they didn’t, the quiet was something that she could feel.

It was safe and peaceful, like being wrapped in a warm blanket after a good night’s sleep on a winter morning. And when they laughed together and with her she felt as though she had known them her entire life. She’d finished two of the petals, surprising herself with how detailed they were, managing subtle bits of shading. Rose looked at it carefully. “You must have always been good with your hands.”

She nodded, “Build and repair my own gaming rigs. Queen of the PC master race.”

“Well, you sure have talent there. It’s waaaaaaaaay better than my first few times. Pretty perfect already.”

Correctness. Reward.

The pride co-mingled with the humility with a force that nearly swept her away, almost making her want to weep. “Thanks.”

She sewed a bit more before feeling a desire to head back to her little cottage in the field, not that she was tired, really, but she just felt there was a lot to do there. The women were understanding and each hugged her goodbye.

Rose lingered the longest in the embrace and Kate found that she didn’t want it to end. What made her heart pitter-patter was the look on Rose’s face that suggested that she didn’t want it to end either. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

As soon as she entered the house she knew why she broke away and knew what had to be done. This place is a mess. They make it all nice for me and I leave the bed unmade and my dress in the laundry. I owe them better.

Correctness.

She placed her yellow legal pads neatly on the table and set to cleaning. One thing fell into the next and, before she knew it she had cleaned the entire home. One thing that was certain was that she was glad the house was small. She was never much of a cleaner back home either, leaving the mess until she was sick of looking at it. But now all looked as it should to her mind before deciding to start the task of pulling her notes together into something interesting, or at least legible.

She waited for her laptop to boot while she thumbed through her scrawls trying to decide where to start. Once all was ready, she opened her word processor to find that it stung her eyes to even look at. The white was almost blinding, making her eyes water and setting the room to spinning. “Damn,” she muttered, dabbing the tears away on the sleeve of her dress while she glances only long enough at the screen to try out different background and text combinations to find that, not only was nothing helping her eyes, she was becoming almost nauseous looking at it.

Finally able to take no more, she slapped the screen down as though the thing had set out to hurt her. After a bit, the nausea stopped and her eyes stopped burning as though she’d poured bleach in them. “Must be the early mornings,” she said to herself, “and not looking at the damn thing at all in two days.”

Well, it had to be done and if her eyes weren’t going to cooperate, freehand it is then. So she started work and, after a while she got a really nice opening going about Rose’s youth, exuberance, and generational and a review of her career that had the virtue of popping. She thought she captured her rise and the depth and breadth of her impact without sounding like a wiki page.

Looking at her clock, she realized it wasn’t as late as she thought. Still...an early day tomorrow. Chores to be done. She could rattle them off already and enjoyed the certainty it provided. Unlike city life, there wasn’t a lot of time for boredom that you had to fill with gadgets.

So she got ready for bed. Tonight though, wearing her slip just seemed...correct.

She awoke in the pitch dark to a feeling of confusion and muted surprise. Back home she would have done nothing short of bolt upright, scream, claw, and generally fight for her life. Now though she’d no more than opened her eyes to feel a hand caressing her arm while a pair of lips planted angel kisses over her forehead while fingers ran through her hair before a thought entered:

No one harms anyone here.

An exhale followed that and expelled whatever worry she had with it, leaving only a general curiosity that wove its way into her still sleepy voice, “Is something wrong?”

“No, Kate. Nothing at all,” the voice nearer her feet told her in a soft, smooth whisper.

“Rose?”

“Mmm-hmm. Don’t worry.”

The very idea seemed silly. “I’m not worried, but...”

“Shhhhh.” The firm, but loving admonishment above her clearly came from Vanessa.

“I missed you.” She kissed down the bare arm before taking her hand and kissing, with reverence, each fingertip. “I need to take care of you. I want to take care of you so much. I want to be with you and teach you, so that you understand all the ways we love and take care of one another here.”

She slid the covers down, exposing Kate’s slip as Vanessa disappeared in the dark. Everything was still sort of confusing, but at least Rose’s intentions were clear enough. “I’m straight though.”

“I was, too, before here,” she said teasingly. “Kiss a girl in a video or one of the dancers on stage and the boys ate it up, but I was strictly a boys-only kind of girl. Know what I learned when I came here?”

Her breath caught as her body trembled, feeling Rose’s hands knead her flesh and nails graze it as her hands meandered towards her panties. They were already beginning to feel hot and slightly damp at the truth that Rose was about to lay at her feet even as her slip crawled ever upward.

“Your mind can be as straight as it wants, but pussies like girls, too. Get the right girl to talk to your pussy and your pussy will change your mind. I know I’m the girl for that. It’s what’s meant to be.”

The bed shifted under the weight of Vanessa’s return. “Lift your head, honey.”

In the midst of her confusion of the whole situation and her remaining sleepy cobwebs in her mind she obeyed without giving it any thought, feeling her bonnet hug her head. It was snug and comforting. Indeed, it hit her at that moment that it had stopped feeling alien within hours. “That’s my bonnet,” she breathed.

“It is. It’s yours,” Vanessa purred, touching the ties to Kate’s cheek and chin, and jaw, using their softness to tantalize. “It’s a reminder to you of a simpler time: a time when men cherished their women and knew their responsibilities.”

Kate shivered at the touch of the fabric around her head, bending her legs so that her panties could be pulled away.

“A time when women knew their place and their purpose and not have everything so cluttered by such a busy world and notions that they have to be able to do everything and be everything all the time. All they have to do is be their man’s everything; be what he wants and needs and revel in it and your life together.”

“Your bonnet helps you understand. It shows you the way and leads you to the truth. It makes understanding so much easier.

Kate moaned, not knowing what was more arousing at that moment, the feeling of the little incidental touches of Vanessa’s fingers on her cheeks and chin as she slowly tied the bow, or the way Rose lifted her legs until her knees touched her chest, exposing her pussy that was now undeniably hot and drooling wet.

She growled lewdly when the knot of the bow of her bonnet touched her chin.

My bonnet.

Correctness. Reward.

Kate came. Kate came like she never had before. She came like a thousand orgasms had conspired and combined to smash through her brain. Her nails tried desperately to claw the fitted sheet and her legs bucked, pushing hard against Rose’s forearm, that quite effectively kept her legs pressed to her body.

The tip of her index finger rolled circles over that now hard nub of flesh, keeping the little tremors in her muscles coming. “Did you like that, Kate?”

“Awwwww, yeah. Oh fuck, yeah.” Vanessa’s sweet angel kisses began again.

Correctness.

“Mmmmmm...”

Kate could hear the smile in Rose’s voice. “You have a dirty little mouth on you. Brandon likes dirty little bitch mouths. I like dirty little bitch mouths, too. There’s a time and place when Brandon needs that so much.

She thought of how they spent the day together, a smooth succession of moments and words and closeness. She liked the idea of being what Brandon liked.

Correctness.

“Do you like how I play with your pussy?”

Each swirl of a fingertip brought with it fresh shocks of pleasure. Brandon likes dirty little bitch mouths at the right time and place.

Correctness.

Rose likes dirty little bitch mouths.

Correctness..

“Yeah, I like how you finger my wet little fuck button.”

“Press it and turn Kate on?” She pressed her tongue to it in a long, dragging motion, letting her mouth water all over it, savoring the tang of her flesh before sucking the button hard and drawing out an animal grunt. “I think your cunt’s bi, Kate.”

“I think you’re fucking making it bi.” She’d said it simply to drive them both, not even beginning to realize how close to the truth it was.

Correctness.

“Because I want it to be bi because Brandon wants it to be bi. He told me what he wanted and I wanted to make that happen. Though, to be fair, there isn’t a man here that doesn’t want their pussies to be bi pussies.”

“Even if he didn’t tell me to want you, I’d want you.” She licked and flicked again. “I need to talk to Ivy now.”

“But I...”

Vanessa answered with a kiss and a hand down the front of her slip to cup a tingling breast. “Ivy, honey. We need to talk to that simpler part of you; that part of you that likes and needs what we have here. You’ve felt her. You felt her when you milked the cows and did your needlepoint and when you knew, for a while, that you really were a part of things here. We need to talk to quaint, old-fashioned, Ivy.”

Another long, languid lick interrupted her mid-sentence making her nails try to rip the sheet again. “I don’t under...stand.”

Rose answered, her sultry purr making what was coming sound like the most desirable thing in the world “I’m going to lick Kate to sleep and then we’re going to talk, Ivy and I.”

She squirmed, more in trying to clear her confusion than any real desire to escape. She did not want to escape those baby kisses or that commanding tongue.

Correctness. Submit.

The confusion ended and her mind stilled. She still wondered what exactly was about to happen, but It doesn’t matter. Rose knows. Vanessa knows.

Correctness.

“Just relax now,” Vanessa cooed soothingly.

“Okay.”

Correctness.

“Let now fade to a lovely, dream, Kate,” she said as Rose licked.

She squeaked when Rose’s tongue began to curl, flick and explore in earnest, sending blissful sensation through her. And with each spike of pleasure, her muscles grew weak and her limbs grew heavy as though Rose was literally licking the strength from her body.

Rose needed her to sleep, so she let it go. She let her power drain until her eyes fell shut. She lifted her brows, trying to open them to no avail. It was too tiring to try more than once so she let that go, too, slipping deeper and deeper. Rose wants me to sleep so I will sleep.

Correctness.

Kate slept.