Juicy Secrets Forbidden Tales of Lesbian Love

A quick recap of the Story Thus Far: Rural paramedic Nettie Hastings finds herself in the middle of a flurry of unexplained overdose calls and, with the help of her best friend and former lover, Terry Wilder, has begun putting clues together linking the source to her own hometown. Some suspect Terry’s involvement, as his ex-wife is a convicted drug trafficker. A DEA agent named Bridgette Ramscone is brought in to work the case, and she takes a special interest in Nettie who, in the meantime, has entered into a clandestine affair with Terry’s preteen daughter Halee. After a late night sex party at Nettie’s, Halee accidentally discovers that her long out-of-the-picture mother Kathryn is involved in the overdoses. She slips out on her own, intent on confronting her mom. Nettie and Terry follow, but too late – Halee arrives first. The three of them are captured by Kathryn and her gang, and in the melee, Halee is shot. Kathryn is persuaded to let Halee go, along with Nettie to take care of her, but she holds onto Terry as a hostage.

For a more detailed breakdown of this story’s chapters, please consult the Chapter Links.

by Rachael Yukey

Late that evening, I sat alone in Terry’s living room. I’d liberated a small pile of records from my apartment while I was picking up a few changes of clothes, and was indulging a long-held desire to test out my own music on quite possibly the only audio system in town that was superior to mine. Sure enough, it sounded fucking great. King Diamond’s horror-story classic Abigail, of which I had recently obtained an original 1987 pressing in mint condition, was full of body, depth, and rich dynamics. Poor stereo, I mused. The bad man is wasting you on crap like Chopin.

I felt a sharp pang at the thought of Terry, wondering what he was going through at that moment. I knew where he was; the media had picked up on the hostage situation, and helicopters carrying camera crews had followed the two Ford Explorers on their trek north. At one point Terry had even briefly appeared on TV, when he exited an SUV, entered a service station in the company of two of Kathryn’s men, then came back out again. Now the two vehicles were hunkered down in Smokey Bear State Park just outside of International Falls, a few miles south of the Canadian border. Nobody knew what they were waiting for, or what the plan was.

Thanks to the media circus there’d been no keeping the situation from Naomi, who knew that her dad was a captive and her sister had been shot before I even made it back to Bronning. Of course, anything Naomi knew, Chelsey knew, but thankfully my mother, who was still looking after Terry’s girls, had prevailed upon them not to discuss it with Dawn or Maya, who were still mercifully in the dark. Mom had also quite militantly shooed away the ladies and gentlemen of the press who came calling in hopes of interviewing the children. She’s not really a bad sort, my mom, despite her controlling tendencies.

Now Chelsey was at her grandma’s house. That frail old lady was going to have a job taking care of an injured child, but she’d insisted, and there was no real basis for anyone to object. Thankfully, Chelsey had an appointment to be divested of her arm brace in two more days. Naomi, Dawn, and Maya were home now, and in their respective beds, although I doubted very much that Naomi was sleeping well. I figured I’d check on her when I turned in, and invite her to crash with me if she was still awake.

Halee was in Minneapolis, having come through surgery well, and transferring without incident. Shannon Hudtsted at Thormleton handled patient care during the transfer, and graciously kept me informed throughout the three hour ambulance ride. The plan was for Halee to undergo a second operation the next morning, then be extubated and brought out of sedation in the afternoon. I’d already arranged care for the three younger girls, intending to be at her bedside when she woke.

My right hand rested lightly on a glass of bourbon from a bottle I’d liberated from Terry’s liquor cabinet. I was on my third LP since I’d poured it, and had yet to take a sip. Something felt wrong about drinking while I was responsible for those little girls. I’d seen Terry do it often enough, but I’m not him. He has what seems to me an extraordinary ability to enjoy a drink or two without craving more, but if I have one, I’m going to end up having another three or four at least. I don’t drink to mellow out or catch a light buzz; I drink to get drunk. I contemplated the fact, wondering why it had taken me so long to realize this about myself.

My phone chimed, and I glanced towards where it lay on the end table, right next to the untouched bourbon.

Then I blinked, and looked again. The message was from Terry.

I snatched up the phone, almost knocking over the glass of booze in the process, and opened the message with trembling hands.

It read, Is Halee still alive?

Not “how is Halee”, but “is Halee still alive”. I was stricken at the thought of what the past twelve hours must have been like for Terry, watching his beloved daughter shoved into the boo boo buggy on the ragged edge of death, then not knowing what happened next. I couldn’t even imagine his state of mind.

I got my brain in gear and typed rapidly.Yes. At Children’s. Had surgery in Johnstown, then transferred. More surgery scheduled in AM, then hopefully extubation. Prognosis positive.

Thanks, Nettie, the reply came a moment later. Thought she was a goner.

Where u at? I typed. Can’t believe they’re letting u use phone.

It was over a minute before I got a reply. An agonizingly long minute, but I needn’t have worried. It was simply Terry’s inability to abbreviate.  

They’re not. I managed to squirrel it away between the seats when they first stuffed me into the vehicle. Told them afterwards I dropped it back at the farm. Vigilance has become increasingly lax in the intervening hours, and I was able to retrieve the phone. Am now in a room by myself, so I have a few minutes to communicate.

Any way we can help? I typed.  Do u know what plans are?

Terry spent so long on the next reply that I’d almost given up waiting and was about to call Bridgett. But then it came.

They’re in a bind. They had an escape plan invlving a Canadian border official amenable to bribery, but with present media coverge, the plan’s been scrapped. They have passage off the continent arranged, I think by air, but they’re trying to decide how best to get across the boder. They have little faith in the Canadian authorities’ willingness to let them pass on the basis of my hostage status. 

But they’re feeling rushed. They’re afraid of someone or something, and I don’t think it’s the DEA. Sooner rather than later they’re going to make a move. Hopefuly Special Agent Twinkle Titties and her merry band will be able to take advantage of any errors. Kathryn seems flustered and uncertain. 

Despite the tension in my gut, I felt a grin spread across my face as I read the typos. Terry’s usually so meticulous about such things. The grin faded as I tried desperately to think like an agent; to anticipate any questions Bridgett would want answered. Who knew when Terry would be able to text again?

Are u all in the same cabin? I replied after a few moments’ thought. Also… is ur spellcheck broken, or did u fail 2nd grade?

Once again, the reply seemed to take forever. Woe is me, I have misspelled. When news of my suicide reaches you, you’ll know the reason why. As for the other… the entire entourage is in Cabin 505, designed to accommodate a large number of campers. I’m alone in a single-bed room at the northwest end, with armed dickweeds occupying adjacent rooms. They have a watch schedule arranged for the night; can’t exit without tripping over dickweed on duty. Windows in this building are all secured shut. 

Kathryn has taken the room most southward. The dickweed who broke his leg has not yet received medical attention; they’re using Ibuprofen and cheap booze to keep him quiet. That’s all the info I have; please pass it along to Special Agent Lipgloss. I have notifications silenced, so don’t hesitate to text me back; just be advised that there may be gaps in my ability to respond. Also, I have no means to charge this phone, so once the battery runs out that’s the end of my ability to communicate. Fortunately it was fully charged this morning. Who’s watching my unhospitalized kids?

Me, I replied. Am leaving them with mom 2morrow so I can be there when halee wakes. If ur worried about battery, try texting like a normal person. The reply, when it came, made me smile.

U R so rite LULZ!!! 

Then a few moments later: Going to try to get some sleep now, have no idea what tomorrow will bring. Will check the phone when possible to do so; keep me apprised. Thanks for everything. Remind me to ask you sometime what lulz means.

I sent him back a thumbs-up emoji, then decided it wasn’t enough. Hang in there, my friend, I typed, then called Bridgett.

***

“Hi, I’m Doctor Fletcher, but you can call me Hannah. I’m an anesthesiology resident.”

I shook the proffered hand, captivated by depthless green eyes that bored into mine. The woman was an absolute knockout, her perfectly proportioned face framed by a shock of red hair pulled back into a sensible hospital bun. A head shorter than me, her body was tight yet curvy in all the right places, with ample breasts and a luscious ass. I longed to see that ass in something more provocative than hospital scrubs.

Her gaze traveled downward, inclining her head sufficiently to peek at my toes, then back up. It was nothing one would ordinarily take offense at, or even notice, but I’ve been in the periphery of Franklin County’s gay community long enough to read the signs. This hot little number was checking me out! I was glad to have chosen nice jeans and a sweater that hugged my figure.

I had to force myself not to stammer. “Nettie Hastings. Pleased to meet you.” Hannah fixed me with a radiant smile, then turned to the bed upon which Halee lay, wires and tubes crisscrossing her body, the ET tube I’d placed en route to the hospital still protruding from her mouth.

As she examined the readings on the infusion pumps, Hannah spoke over her shoulder. “Nettie. Is that short for something?”

“Antoinette.” Hannah bent over to inspect some tubing, and I didn’t even try not to stare. Oh my God, that ass! Suddenly she glanced back at me, immediately noticed where my gaze was fixated, and hit me again with that big, sunny smile.

“Antoinette,” she said. “That’s lovely. It’s almost a pity to abbreviate it.”

I caught myself beaming at her; I’ve always privately agreed. But it’s been ‘Nettie’ for as long as I can remember, and sometimes it’s pointless to fight the wind.

“I’d love it if you called me Antoinette,” I heard myself say. Good God, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d experienced this kind of immediate, panties-on-the-floor attraction to someone I’d just met, and I was pretty damn sure the feeling was mutual.

She straightened and faced me again, her eyes this time roaming my body a bit more overtly. Yup, it’s mutual, all right.

“When we have family or friends present for an extubation,” she said, “I like to just go over the process, so they know what to expect,” she said. “Right now Halee’s receiving an infusion of sedatives. The main one is this white stuff hanging from the pole here.”

“Propofol,” I said, “and right next to it you’re running a Ketamine drip. With timed bumps of Fentanyl for pain management.”

She looked up at me, a delighted smile cracking her face.

“I’m a paramedic,” I explained.

Suddenly her expression changed to that of a woman coming to a realization. “Antoinette Hastings. Now I know why your name sounded familiar. You actually sank this tube, didn’t you? We get all the EMS reports for patients in ICU. All right, then.”

She turned back to the pumps, pressing the stop buttons for both of the sedatives. “There we go,” she said. “She’s off the sedation. Halee’s nurse should be back soon. I’ll be back in twenty minutes to take her off the vent, assuming she’s breathing spontaneously.” Those gorgeous green eyes positively sparkled. “It was nice to meet you, Antoinette. I’ll see you soon.”

***

Twenty minutes later I stood anxiously at Halee’s bedside in the ICU, my nervousness balanced somewhat by clinical curiosity. I intubate a dozen or so people a year, mostly in cases of cardiac arrest, but the last time I was present for an extubation was my clinicals during medic school. It’s just not a thing we do in the field.

Hannah the Smoking Hot Anesthesiologist tapped a brow experimentally; Halee’s eyelids flickered. Hannah looked back at the ventilator, set to a mode that allowed a patient to take their own breaths. She pointed to a reading that told us Halee was now breathing spontaneously at a rate of eighteen per minute, with the machine only assisting those ventilations. She nodded at me, and I grinned back.

Turning back to Halee, Hannah disconnected the ventilator hose from the endotracheal tube, using her other hand to hit the standby button on the vent before it started throwing alarms. Halee continued to breathe, the air rushing through the open end of the tube making for a strange, hollow sound. Hannah, the middle aged, matronly RN and I watched the monitor expectantly.

“End tidal is holding, and she’s satting nicely on room air,” the nurse observed after about a minute.

“Better than I’d expect with that pulmonary trauma,” Hannah agreed. She indicated the tube, turning her eyes to me. “Let’s get rid of this thing. You put it in there; would you like to be the one to pull it?”

I crossed to the rack of gloves on the wall, selected a set of mediums, and returned to Halee’s side as I pulled them on. Hannah handed me a syringe, which I connected to the air line on the ET tube.

“This is a first for me,” I said. “I put these things in every once and again, but I’ve never pulled one before.”

“Hell of a lot easier than putting ‘em in,” Hannah observed with a chuckle.

I used the syringe to suck the air out of the cuff, then eased the tube from my lover’s throat. Halee started, squirmed a little, then settled back, breathing comfortably under her own power.

“Excellent,” Hannah exulted. I crossed to the garbage can, flinging the tube and syringe into it with satisfaction. Stripping off the gloves, I tossed them in as well.

“Sats at 97 percent, and a rate of 16,” the nurse observed in a cheerful voice. “Can’t ask for better than that.”

“She’ll probably wake up before too much longer,” Hannah said. “I don’t suppose you bring a lot of people out of sedation on the box.”

“God, no,” I said. “Mostly putting them under, or keeping them that way.”

“She’ll be groggy,” said Hannah. “Partly the lingering effects of sedation; partly the pain meds she’s still getting. She might remember everything that happened right away, it might take her a while to retrieve those memories, or she might never remember. It’s okay to ask her what she remembers, but not so good to pressure her. Let it come, or not come, in its own time.”

There was a ding from the little collar radio the RN was wearing. “Excuse me,” she said. “That’s my other patient. If I can’t come right back, I’ll send someone else so there’ll be a nurse in here when she wakes up.” She left, sliding the glass door closed behind her.

Hannah turned back to me, an entirely new expression on her face now that the nurse was gone. “Are you staying in the metro tonight, Antoinette?”

“I… I’m not sure yet,” I stammered, knowing exactly where she was going with this. “It depends on how Halee does when she wakes up. I’m kind of responsible for her sisters at the moment, too.”

“Yeah,” said Hannah, “I heard that this is the girl whose dad is a hostage up by International Falls. God, that sucks. But listen: if you stay tonight, or any other time you’re down this way and need a place to crash, I’ve got a pretty nice house over in Bloomington. It’s just me and my daughter there, plenty of room.”

With a smile that made her intentions abundantly clear, she stuck out her hand. I shook it… and let her slide the scrap of paper it contained into my palm.

“It was a pleasure to spend time with you, Antoinette,” she said. “I hope we can meet again under happier circumstances.” Tipping me a wink, she left the room.

I slipped the paper into the pocket of my jeans just as Halee’s nurse was returning to the room. She smiled at me, commencing the hourly checks ICU nurses have to perform on their equipment. She took notes on the numbers displayed on the infusion pumps, visually verifying those against the amount of liquid remaining in the bags.

I returned to Halee’s side. She was starting to stir. Then she lifted her hands, stopping suddenly as if something didn’t feel right. Her left hand crossed her body, fingers playing across the IV catheter and attached line in her right forearm. The nurse instantly dropped what she was doing and unpackaged a moist wipe.

I reached out and took the hand that was toying with the IV. She started a little, then relaxed. I squeezed her hand gently. “Halee,” I said, “it’s me, Nettie.” Her mouth moved, soundlessly forming my name.

“Halee,” said the nurse, “my name is Bobbi, and I’m your nurse. You had surgery, and you’re coming out of sedation. Don’t open your eyes yet, and don’t try to talk. Okay, honey?”

Bobbi swabbed gently at Halee’s eyelids with the wipe. “There we go. Now you can open your eyes whenever you’re ready, Halee,” she said. “I’m going to sit you up, and we’ll get you some water. Your throat probably hurts a lot right now. That’s because there was a tube down it.”

Bobbi pushed a button on the side of the bed, and the head began to incline upwards. “If it hurts as we move, just hold your hand up to let us know,” she said. “You got hurt, and your tummy and chest are probably going to be sore.”

Leaving Halee in a semi-reclined position, Bobbi took a large cup of water with a straw through the top from the side of the bed. “Can you open your mouth just a bit, Halee?” Halee’s lips parted, and Bobbi slipped the straw between them. Instinctively she closed her lips around the straw.

“Try to drink a little,” Bobbi advised. Halee sucked some water up through the straw, wincing as she swallowed. But then the cold liquid’s soothing effects took hold, and she drank a little more. Suddenly her eyes flew open. Instantly she closed them again, her left hand flying up to block out the light.

“Nettie,” she croaked in a soft voice. “Are you there?”

“I’m here, Halee,” I said, squeezing her hand. “Just rest and try to drink a little more.”

Halee groped around, found the straw that Bobbi still had positioned near her lips, and stuck it into her mouth. This time she took a longer drink, and it seemed to go down easier. Then her eyes opened again, just slits this time. She blinked a few times, adjusting to the light. Finally the eyes were fully open, if a bit droopy, and they flicked back and forth, taking in me, the nurse, and the room she was in.

Extracting her hand from mine, she felt around on her torso with both hands, coming to rest on the large dressings that covered most of the right side. She looked back up at me, extending her trembling hand. I took it, held it firmly against my chest. Tears were burning my eyelids.

“Nettie, wh-what happened to me?”

The nurse held up a hand before I could speak. “What’s the last thing you remember, Halee?” she asked.

Halee’s eyes seemed to unfocus a little. “Mom. Chelsey had a picture of her. I went to the house…”

“It’s okay,” I assured her. “Don’t try to force it.”

Suddenly those eyes were boring holes in me. “I had a gun. That guy fell, and I picked up his gun. Then I just hurt. All through here.” The hand that wasn’t clutched in mine swept across her torso in a broad gesture. “Nettie… did I get shot?”

“Yes,” I said. Tears were on my cheeks now. “You got shot, but you’re going to be okay. You’re going to heal, Halee. Try not to worry.”

The eyes cast downwards. “I didn’t shoot anybody,” she said in a small voice, “did I?”

“No,” I assured her, “no, you didn’t. You didn’t hurt anyone, Halee.”

Her mouth tightened. “My mom’s a bitch. I hate her.”

“Don’t think about that right now.”

“Nettie…” Her head moved slowly, rising once more to meet my gaze with dawning awareness that all was not as it should be. “Why isn’t my dad here?”

***

The ICU staff kicked me out at five. CT showed some remaining abnormalities in Halee’s gut, meaning another, much less invasive surgery would have to be performed the following day, and unless I was next of kin I wouldn’t be getting anywhere near her until late afternoon at the earliest. I knew some bureaucratic machinations had already taken place to get me the access I’d been granted, and elected not to push my luck.

I’d ended up telling Halee everything that had transpired, knowing she’d learn the truth anyway the moment she saw any news on the big flatscreen mounted to the wall opposite her bed. She blamed herself for her father’s captivity, despite my best efforts to dispel that line of thinking.

Kathryn Wilder’s little party was still holed up in Cabin 505 at Smokey Bear State Park, and completely incommunicado. The authorities had attempted to open a dialog, with no response. I’d texted Terry three times throughout the course of the day, filling him in on Halee’s status, but he had yet to reply.

As I rode the elevator to the highest level of the parking ramp, I dug out the little scrap of paper Hannah had given me. It contained her name and a phone number. I punched the digits into my phone.

She picked up on the second ring. “This is Hannah.”

“Hi,” I said. “This is Antoinette Hastings, we met this morning in ICU.” I took a certain delight in letting my unabbreviated name roll off my tongue.

Her voice went from neutral to sensuous in an instant. “Oh, hi, Antoinette!”

“I just got kicked out of ICU for the night,” I said as I exited the elevator and tried to orient myself, “and I’ve decided to make a run for home.  But I wanted to thank you for the offer. I might take you up on it another time.”

“I understand,” said Hannah. “But I’m wondering: were you planning on getting something to eat on the way out?”

***

I ended up meeting Hannah and her daughter Bethany at a little Italian restaurant in Roseville, conveniently situated on my way out of the metro.

“It’s a three hour drive for you,” Hannah had insisted on the phone, “and I know what an emotional roller coaster you must be on. Let’s get some decent food in you before you head out. My treat.” It simply sounded too good to say no.

Bethany, aged thirteen, was a younger carbon copy of her mother. Red hair, green eyes, and a delightful developing figure. I caught myself staring, and when I looked away, I could see that Hannah had caught me in the act. But she didn’t appear to be upset. In fact, she sported a knowing little grin.

“You don’t look old enough to have a thirteen-year-old,” I told Hannah as we examined our menus.

“Oh, I’m not,” she said with a wry smile. “I had Bethany when I was fifteen.”

“Ah,” I said. “I’m impressed.”

Hannah’s brows disappeared into her hairline. “That’s not a response you get very often when you tell someone you were a teen mom.”

“Well,” I said, “usually the tale of a fifteen-year-old mother is pretty tragic. There are several women with stories like that in my hometown’s trailer park. They’re underemployed, on drugs, and their kids are on track to end up the same way.”

I leaned forward, arms on the table, and lightly placed my fingertips on the back of her hand. “But look at you. You became an anesthesiologist while taking care of a little girl, and now you have a successful career, a beautiful daughter, and a house in Bloomington. I’m impressed.”

Hannah captured the hand that was touching hers and squeezed. “Thank you,” she said.

The sexual tension between Hannah and I was palpable, and it suddenly occurred to me to wonder if it might be making Bethany uncomfortable. A glance to my right dispelled that concern. The girl was staring at me with the corners of her mouth turned up, something akin to hunger in her eyes. I was instantly aroused, yet caught off balance at the same time. What exactly was happening here?

“You sure know how to pick ‘em, Mom,” she said, her voice low and husky. “She’s really cool, and smoking hot.” The girl placed a single finger on my shoulder, then slowly drew it around the outside of my shoulder blade and down my side. I shivered deliciously. The fingertip reached my waist and trailed away, the hand smoothly returning to the table and lifting a water glass to those thin, delicate lips.

Heart pounding, I looked back at Hannah, who was just sitting there placidly, still holding my hand, wearing a sly smile.

“Was I wrong?” she asked.

I was casting about for the best way, some way to answer when the waitress arrived. As we placed our orders, I realized how isolated we were – a back-corner table in this dimly-lit establishment, no other diners nearby. I wondered if Hannah, who seemed friendly with the staff, had arranged it that way on purpose.

“I knew right away you liked women,” Hannah said as soon as the waitress disappeared. “You were looking at me the same way I was looking at you. But I also thought I saw something in the way you were looking at the girl we extubated. Like she’s more to you than just your friend’s daughter. Was I wrong?”

Discomfiture warred with arousal, mixed with a certain sense of relief. Bridgett Ramscone had told me that it would be easy to find kindred spirits in the metro. It appeared I’d already found one when I wasn’t even looking. Nevertheless, I was uncertain how much I ought to reveal.

Perhaps sensing my nervousness, Hannah came to the rescue. “I’m sure I wasn’t wrong,” she said, “but I guess I’ll break the ice. I already knew I was gay by the time I got pregnant with Bethany, but I was still trying to run from it, which included sleeping with half a dozen guys in my high school and not being careful. That’s how I got knocked up.”

She took a sip of iced tea. “Anyway, while I was pregnant my eleven-year-old cousin had a lot of questions about pregnancy, and how you got that way, and all the anatomical stuff that goes along with it. I ended up showing her my lady place, and what all the parts were. It got me so excited that I came.”

Oh, the images that were churning through my head. It was an effort to regulate my breathing.

“It ended with me helping my cousin have her first orgasm,” said Hannah. “We became lovers after that, and I haven’t had sex with a man since. It was the start of me accepting myself for who I am. I’m a lesbian who loves both girls and women. Bethany found out when she caught me with her fourteen-year-old babysitter about four years back. Then two years ago, she told me she’d been trying to have an orgasm, but hadn’t managed it on her own. That was the big turning point in our relationship.”

I was staring at her, mouth agape. I looked from Hannah to Bethany and back again. “So, you two…”

“Uh-huh,” said Bethany, grinning.

I sat back in my chair, chewing the inside of my cheek as I assimilated all of this. I met Hannah’s eyes. “So what exactly did you have in mind when you invited me to your house?”

“Well,” she replied, “I didn’t have any solid expectations. I mean, it was pretty obvious you were devastated over Halee getting shot, plus that whole situation with her dad being a hostage. But at the same time we were obviously attracted to each other, and I thought at the very least I could save you a hotel bill and we could get to know each other a little.”

She smiled a wicked smile. “Or, if you were into it, maybe we could have a little fun to take your mind off things. And if I’d read the situation right with you and Halee, then maybe you’d be interested in getting to know Bethany, too.”

She took another sip of her tea. “I wasn’t wrong, was I?”

I was feeling relaxed now. Actually, a little elated. “No,” I said, “you weren’t wrong. Halee and I are lovers. But we’re not exclusive, and if I didn’t feel like I have to get back to Terry’s other kids, a little fun to take my mind off of things would have been perfect.”

Bethany lightly touched my shoulder. “Would you maybe want to have some fun with me, too?”

I looked at her with a smile. “Definitely. But I have to ask: do you two do this a lot? I mean, Hannah brings someone home, and you both…”

“We do it very seldom,” Hannah broke in. “for obvious reasons. I don’t even hint at it unless I’m pretty sure I’m with someone who’ll be okay with it. Too much risk.”

I realized that Bethany’s fingertips had moved from my shoulder to the back of my neck, and were lightly massaging. I caught her eye, and she smiled at me.

Hannah chuckled. “You’re in trouble, if we ever get you to our house,” she warned me in teasing tones. “Bethany goes nuts for tall women with dark hair.”

Bethany pulled her hand away as the waitress arrived with our food, and talk turned to other things as we enjoyed our wonderful meal. They told me about Bethany’s father, who sounded like the absolute model of the non-custodial parent.

“I was sleeping around so much that we had to do a paternity test to be sure who the dad was,” Hannah admitted. “Ralph took the responsibility seriously from day one, never missed a child support payment even when he was in college and hard-up for cash, and he absolutely dotes on Bethany. He works in another state, but he keeps an apartment up here just for his visitation weekends.”

In my turn, I told them about Terry and his girls, and my strange sort of semi-domestic situation there. My tales of small-town living fascinated and horrified them by turns.

“You seriously can’t buy a cup of coffee before eight AM?!” Hannah sounded flabbergasted.

“Yup,” I replied. “That’s when the cafe and the grocery store open. Our only convenience store closed down last year.”

“So… you don’t even have a gas station?” Bethany sounded confused.

“Oh, we do,” I said. “But it’s really old-fashioned. They do full service, which means an attendant comes out and pumps your gas for you. It’s the only one I know of that’s left. And they’re also a really good auto repair shop; I get all of my work done there. But it’s not a convenience store. They sell candy bars at the counter and have a cooler full of off-brand pop, but that’s it. No groceries, no medicine, no coffee.”

Finally we were standing in the parking lot next to my car. “I like you a lot,” said Hannah. “I know we live a few hours apart, but I’d love to see you again.”

“That goes for me, too,” said Bethany.

“I think you can count on it,” I said with a grin. Hannah approached me boldly, body flowing against mine like a cat. Then our arms were around each other, and then we were kissing. Hannah, as it turns out, is a phenomenal kisser. We were both a bit breathless as we pulled apart.

“God, I wish I could get in on that action.” Bethany sounded more than a little disappointed.

“Not in a public parking lot,” said Hannah with a smile.

“Will you take a hug?” I said, holding my arms wide. The girl settled in, body melding itself against mine in a way that was almost as sexy as her mom’s kiss. It was with great reluctance that I let her go.

“Thanks so much for dinner, and for the company,” I said, taking Hannah’s hand briefly in mine. Then I popped the car door, folded my six-foot frame behind the wheel, and keyed the ignition.

On to Chapter Nineteen!

by kinkychic and kinky’s_sis

The next day we were all seated on the verandah enjoying the cool of the early morning when a messenger arrived, asking for Tiny. He passed over a letter.

Tiny called out for Agetha. “The dog basket and some blankets. We’re going to have visitors.” He asked us to come with him and Vusumuzi in the truck, since Susy’s help might be needed. “You have tranquilizer if we need?”

We drove to Susy’s base camp to fetch two baby dik-dik. Tiny explained that someone had brought them to the camp. They’d recently been orphaned when baboons killed their mother.

“A dik-dik… that’s a small deer of some kind, isn’t it?” Susy asked.

“Actually it’s a tiny pygmy antelope,” I told her. “There are quite a few around here but we hardly ever see them, they’re so shy. They won’t last long without a mother. Once we did try to save one, but it didn’t survive. We’ve got to try, though. I’m sure you’ll agree.”

The two tiny animals appeared surprisingly calm. but didn’t look to be very strong. They wouldn’t have been more than ten or twelve inches tall had they been standing.

Susy stepped straight into her vet role. “They can’t be more than a few days old, which in some ways is good,” she said. “They don’t look frightened of us, so I don’t think we’re going to need the Diazepam after all. However, they urgently need to be fed.”

Vusumuzi explained to her that dik-dik didn’t drink water. He didn’t know why, but at that age, all they would take was mother’s milk.

Susy was thinking hard. “There are a number of animals that don’t need water. They get it from the plants they eat. I doubt that cow’s milk is the same as their mother’s, but we don’t have a choice. That’s what we’ll have to give them.”

Tiny rummaged in the bag he carried. “Here, I have these.” He produced two baby milk bottles, sealed in a plastic bag. “I guessed we might need them.”

Grinning hugely, Susy gave his arm a squeeze. “Good job, Tiny!” 

Susy had some milk warmed to blood temperature and filled the two bottles. She passed one to me before kneeling beside one of the two orphans. It immediately took the rubber teat in its mouth and began to suck. I did the same to the other dik-dik and was rewarded with the same result. “Not too much at first,” Susy murmured. “Just enough to give them a little strength. Then we need to get them moved.”

Tiny told us the dog basket was the nearest thing we had to the way their mother would have kept them hidden, safe from predators. Neither animal seemed unsettled when we moved them into the basket, and they snuggled together as we carried them to the truck.

Back at the farm, a short distance from the house, there was a sturdy fenced-off area that my father had set up years ago. At one end was a small building. It only had one door, but there were several hatches for ventilation. Each opening had burglar-proof mesh over it – to keep baboons out when the place was occupied, Tiny explained. To the side was a small porch-like structure with a couple of rickety old chairs, a deal table, and a wooden bed.

Although the place hadn’t been used for some time, it was clean and tidy. Both members of our newly acquired family seemed to be asleep when we placed them in a corner.

“We have to feed them four or five times a day, I’d guess,” said Susy. “Oh, and tomorrow I want to weigh them, so that we can check their progress.”

The three of us fed them twice more that day. By the third feeding, they were used to our presence, and began to expect the bottles.

I was awakened in the middle of the night by Susy. She was getting dressed. “Wait for me,” I said. “I’ll come with you.”

We fed the dik-dik again, then fetched the chairs and sat, watching them snuggle back down. Quite soon, they were fast asleep. Susy took my hand in hers. “It’s too early to be sure, but I think they’re going to be okay. A couple of more days should tell the story.”

***

A week later, Susy had gone back to her unit. She did have a job to do, after all. Spotty and Stripey – our names for the baby dik-dik – were by then walking about when they weren’t sleeping.

“We should leave the door open today, see if they will come outside,” Tiny said to me. Lucy and I sat under the porch and waited. It was ages before a tiny snout poked out, then disappeared. Ten minutes later, two snouts were in the doorway. Then the babies emerged, glancing nervously about. Spotty saw us and came straight over, clearly looking for his bottle. Stripey soon followed.

After they fed, the dik-dik explored the compound. One section had a number of bushes growing there. Together they found a spot inside the largest one and settled down side by side, almost hidden from view. It was exactly what they would have done in the wild.

We knew they couldn’t be left unguarded in the open. There was too much danger from baboons, possibly even cheetahs. We decided to wait until they wanted to feed again, so we could entice them back inside.

Then a young native boy turned up. Tiny had sent him. “My job is to guard dik-dik,” he said, puffing out his chest. “I have my game,” he continued, showing me the pile of polished stones in his hand. The natives play a kind of solitaire with a series of holes dug in the ground.

I told him that we’d be back in a couple of hours. He looked puzzled. “When the sun is about there,” I said pointing to a tree. Then he nodded and grinned.

That evening, Susy returned. “Let’s weigh them again, and see how they’re doing,” she said. The first time we’d tried weighing them, they hadn’t even registered on the scales, which weren’t sensitive enough. It was two days before they did register. Now, a week on, their weight had almost doubled. 

Susy pointed to a small pile of droppings. “Have you noticed? They’re almost house-trained. They only go in two places.”

I had forgotten, but then I remembered Dad telling me about the little piles of scat. “It’s how they mark their territory,” I said. “All of the family go in the same places, sometimes making quite large piles.”

We’d already discussed how long we thought Spotty and Stripey would need milk, and when they would begin to eat from the bushes. “They don’t eat grass,” Vusumuzi had told us. “Only leaves.”

In fact, the very next day, we saw Spotty nibbling at a bush, though he still came for his milk. I knew then that we had succeeded. They were going to be fine. The next question was going to be whether we could let them go back into the wild, or would they always be domestic pets.

***

I checked with Mum first, then asked Agetha if we could stay on a little longer. I told her I wanted to see Spotty and Stripey progress a bit more before we left. A couple of phone calls and our return airline tickets were put on hold.

It was Saturday, and we were expecting Susy sometime after breakfast. Tiny and Lucy were off to the vineyards.

As soon as she arrived, we exchanged kisses, then went to check on our two youngsters. They came straight to us when we were inside the gate. The guard boy, Ngozi, was sitting in the shade, happily playing his game. He was delighted with the fresh supplies we had brought him.

Spotty and Stripey took very little milk. They clearly didn’t really need it anymore. Satisfied that all was fine, Susy and I walked hand in hand back to the house.

“Maddie, I’d like to go to the river today. Would you mind?”

“Brilliant, I’d love to!” 

Under our now familiar tree, we sat and watched the surroundings. I thought Susy was unusually quiet. Finally, I spoke up. “There’s something on your mind, Susy. You want to tell me?”

“Give me a kiss, Maddie, please.” It was a lovely kiss, but felt a little strained.

“Tell me,” I whispered.

She was struggling to find the right words. I could see the worry on her face. “You’ve decided, is that it?”

She took both my hands in hers. “Maddie, I love what we have and what we share together. You’re my best friend, and my lover. Well, you and Lucy. But especially you. It’s just… I can’t commit to a permanent relationship. My work is too demanding. It wouldn’t be fair to you.” She paused, struggling with what to say next.

But I spoke first. “Susy, I understand, you don’t have to say anymore. I don’t know what I expected. But I’ll still be there for you if you just want a friend… or more, sometimes.”

She pulled me to her, squeezing and then kissing me. I fought back my tears, not wanting her to see me cry, or make her feel guilty.

But I came even closer to crying when she said, “I knew you’d understand. No, I don’t want our friendship or anything else to end. It’s just that I can’t put my life aside for anyone right now… not even you. It would make me very happy if you could accept our relationship on those terms.” She sighed heavily. “Oh God, it sounds awful when I put it like that.”

“No, Susy, it’s not awful. Now, how about you stop talking and kiss me.” She didn’t see my clenched knuckles as I fought my tears.

We shared a passionate kiss, then slowly undressed one another. Laying me down in the shade of our tree, Susy began to caress my bare body. 

I gradually felt better as she made the sweetest, most beautiful love to me. It took far longer than usual before I reached a climax. But finally, I was able to forget my sadness and succumb to the rising heat.

Sometime later, when I had returned the favour, we cuddled together. I resisted the temptation to say how much I loved her. For the moment, being in her arms would have to do.

We had showered and were ready for dinner when Tiny and Lucy got home. Lucy has an uncanny way of sensing things. She didn’t push herself on Susy at all. She was surprisingly sweet and friendly. Susy had relaxed. The two glasses of wine she’d drunk no doubt helped.

I was okay, coming to terms with how things were to be. I resolved to be patient, yet clever and cunning. I’d work my way into her heart. She would be mine, or whichever way around it worked.

The weight lifted from my mind, and I smiled as I took her hand. She looked searchingly into my eyes, then nodded. She could see I was content.

***

After dinner we went to visit our little friends, arm in arm, the three of us. “You okay, Maddie?” Susy asked me.

“Never happier, honestly. I’m fine.” And I realised that I was. Everything was going to work out in the end.

Spotty and Stripey skipped about, seemingly content with their lot. We watched them play a while. “Tiny thinks we should open the gates tomorrow and see what they do,” I told Susy.

“Oh God, no. Surely it’s too early?”

“No, the time is right. They’ll decide whether to go or stay. If they go, we can do nothing more. If they stay, they won’t ever have a natural life.”

“Maddie, I know you’re right, but my heart doesn’t want to see them go, to never know what happens to them. I should know better, of course.”

We took the chairs outside of the enclosure and, leaving the gate open, sat and watched. As always, it was Spotty who led the way, his sister trotting behind. At first, they came to us, and I could see that they were skittish at being out in the open. They explored their new freedom for a while, then of their own accord went back inside the enclosure.

When we went to check, they were both inside the hut, snuggled together as always.

For the next two days we repeated the exercise in the early evening, but each time they still returned to the hut. On the third day, they were gone quite a while. I was about to say that I thought they’d left us when they calmly walked up and came back inside.

It was the fourth day when they failed to return. We sat for an hour but there was no sign. Finally, leaving the gate open, Susy and I went home. We both cried along the way.

It was several days later, and the three of us were on the way to the rock. I sensed something was following us but as hard as I looked, I saw nothing. To be honest, I was growing increasingly worried.

We were having a nude swim when I glanced up to the top of the rock. Spotty and Stripey were there, watching us. “Look,” I squealed, “it’s them!” Quickly, we rushed to them, and when we sat down, they sat beside us. 

After a short while, Spotty came and sniffed at each of us before he turned and nudged Stripey with his snout. Then they turned and leaped away. We never saw them again. But I knew they were fine.

That evening, Agetha said. “Is first time we ever know dik-dik survive after try and rescue. Is good, yes? You very clever girls.”

***

We were flying back to England the next day. I would be sad to go. In fact, I’d rather have stayed, but by then, Mum was insisting that Lucy and I come straight home.

Susy was coming to dinner that evening. I felt incredibly nervous, scared of making a fool of myself. I was sitting on the verandah, alone with my thoughts. Then Tiny came and sat down. He passed me a glass of wine. I realised that I was going to miss this wine. I’d actually grown to love it.

Tiny took my hand in his huge paws. “I’m not as stupid as Agetha thinks. I see your suffering and your love. I don’t pretend to understand, but I respect. Let me tell you, little one. Susy does love you, it is clear. Everything will be as you wish, just wait and see.”

I looked at him, astonished. “Tiny, how…”

He stopped me talking. “I see very much but say very little, and I am a good judge of people. You two have love, real love. She will see in time. Be patient. You have all become like the children we never had and we love you as such. The way you love is your choice. I say I don’t really understand but I am old-fashioned and set in my ways. Things are very different today, very strange to me. But respect is also important.”

I squeezed his hand. “Tiny, I don’t know what to say, but thank you for such kind words.”

On the surface, dinner was the usual happy affair. I tried my best to not show my sadness. Tiny stood up, glass in hand. Agetha looked at him. “Tiny, you drink too much. Now sit down, fool.”

He looked at her but didn’t sit. Instead, he raised his glass. “I invite you to drink to family. My lovely wife, Agetha.” She scowled at him but he continued. “Our new daughters, Lucy, Maddie, and Susan. You have made us happy with your presence in our home. A joy. Yes, a joy to watch. Next year you will come again,  we pay. It would make us very happy.” He raised his glass, “To family… our family.”

Agetha was staring at him as if he were a stranger. “Mijn God, first time he speak sense for years.” She looked at each of us. “He right, maybe not so stupid. You will come, you must promise. Is your other home.”

After the table had been cleared, we went to sit on the verandah. Lucy came with us, but Agetha reached to take her hand. “Come, child. Maddie and Susy, they walk now.”

As we exited the house, I turned to Susy. “I want to say goodbye to my dad.”

We stood quiet and still for a while, Susy holding my hand. Then we walked to the now-empty animal enclosure. 

“We leave very early in the morning,” I said. “Are you staying with us tonight, or would you prefer Tiny to run you back?” 

“Of course I want to stay, I have to be here when you leave. Would you stop talking and kiss me, please?”

At bedtime, Lucy climbed into her own bed. Susy and I cuddled and kissed but by some instinctive mutual agreement, neither of us tried to go any further.

Agetha called us at the crack of dawn. Breakfast was ready. It was a sombre affair, except for Lucy being her usual cheery self.

Then it was time to say goodbye. Susy gave Lucy a long hug, then took my hand and led me back to the bedroom. We fell into each other’s arms and I held her tightly as my lips sought hers.

She was kissing my tears away. “Maddie, I’ll see you soon, I promise.”

I made a huge effort to control myself. “I know, I’m just being silly. Come, we have to go.”

They were waiting for me when we emerged. I gave Susy one last hug and then ran to the truck. Tiny barely waited for me to settle myself before he was in gear and moving off.

We all heard Susy yell. “Wait!” Then she was charging towards the truck. Tiny braked as if he’d been expecting it.

She reached up and grabbed my hand. “I love you,” she whispered to me.

I leaned out until our lips met for a fleeting kiss. “I know you do, and I love you too.” We pulled apart and I gave Tiny a nod. “Thank you.”

I turned and stared at her dwindling figure, giving her a last wave as we rounded the corner. Then she was gone. Lucy held my hand – not speaking, just giving me something to cling onto.

On to Chapter Five!

A quick recap of the Story Thus Far: Rural paramedic Nettie Hastings finds herself in the middle of a flurry of unexplained overdose calls and, with the help of her best friend and former lover, Terry Wilder, has begun putting clues together linking the source to her own hometown. Some suspect Terry’s involvement, as his ex-wife is a convicted drug trafficker. A DEA agent named Bridgette Ramscone is brought in to work the case, and she takes a special interest in Nettie who, in the meantime, has entered into a clandestine affair with Terry’s preteen daughter Halee. On this particular evening, Nettie hosts a sleepover with Halee, Halee’s ten-year-old sister Naomi, and the sisters’ good friend Chelsey. Nettie and the girls play a game Truth or Dare that gets very wild. Later, while Nettie is asleep, Halee accidentally discovers that her mother Kathryn (Terry’s ex, the drug trafficker) is in the area, and clearly connected to the recent overdoses. Furious, Halee sets off on her own to confront her mom before Nettie awakens. A horrified Nettie attempts to pursue the girl, but Halee has a good head start.

For a more detailed breakdown of this story’s chapters, please consult the Chapter Links.

by Rachael Yukey

Terry answered the phone on the first ring. “Morning, Nettie,” he said, as my Kia’s engine purred to life, “I was about to call you. Did something go down with Halee this morning?”

“Has she been there?” I asked, backing out of the driveway and onto the street.

“Yeah, about twenty minutes or so ago. She said everything was fine, you guys would be along shortly, and she was going for a bike ride. But everything wasn’t fine. She was about ready to swallow nails and shit a barbwire fence. Who pissed in her…”

“Terry, shut up,” I broke in desperately. “Listen, I’m coming to pick you up. Call my mom and ask her to come watch the kids for you. Tell her from me it’s an emergency.”

“Whoa, Nettie, what’s…”

“Just do it, Terry. I have to make another phone call, and right now.”

I killed the connection. “Hey Siri,” I said, “call Ramscone.”

“Agent Ramscone, DEA.”

“Bridgett,” I said, as I turned onto Terry’s street. “Kathryn Wilder is in the area, and she’s staying at a house on Shadow Lake Road. I can’t remember the fire number off the top of my head. Halee Wilder found out and took off on her bike; I’m pretty sure she’s heading that way now. I’m just now picking up Terry. Can you get some of your people and…”

“No, I can’t,” she said, as I pulled up to the curb. Terry was standing on the porch with an ominous expression, and less than a block away I could see my mom approaching on foot with that hoity-toity walk of hers, like she’s the fucking queen of England or something.

“We were ordered out last night,” Bridgett went on, “and I’m doing an exit debrief with the county sheriff’s department in Johnstown, with all of my agents.”

Terry got into my car, already beginning to speak. I urgently held up a finger.

“Fronse is here too,” she was saying. “Look, I’ll tell the sheriff’s department to dispatch some people, but they probably won’t be there right away. Meanwhile I’ll get moving in that direction. Nettie, listen to me: do NOT approach that property. Do you understand? Those people are dangerous. I have to hang up now and get units moving.” The line went dead.

“Goddamn it,” I growled, dropping the phone into my lap..

“Okay, Nettie, what the hell?” said Terry.

“Your fucking ex,” I said. “Remember that old blue farmhouse just off of Shadow Lake Road where Crabby Drunk Guy used to live, with all the machinery and crap all over the yard? She’s staying there. Chelsey’s mom and aunt are mixed up with her somehow. Halee found out while I was still asleep, and I think she’s heading out there now.”

Terry’s face drained of color. “I assume you were just on the phone with Ramscone?”

“Yeah, but she was ordered out, and she’s got all of her agents in Johnstown for some debrief right now. Fronse, too. She’s going to come, and get the sheriff’s department moving. She said we should stay away until they get there.”

Terry was shaking his head. “The moment Halee gets there, Kathryn will realize she’s been found out. She’ll crawl into a hole, probably never to be seen again, and she might just take Halee with her. Our only shot is to catch up with Halee before any of these things happen. If you want to stay here, that’s fine.” He reached for the door handle.

My gut clenched at the thought of Halee being taken away. “Fuck that,” I told him, shoving the gearshift into drive. I slammed the accelerator to the floor, my gimpy-ass Kia actually laying rubber as we pulled away from the curb.

“How fast do you think Halee could get there on her bike?” I asked him.

“In the mood she’s in? Halee does everything at double speed when she’s pissed, and she’s been working out on the elliptical all winter. Besides, that place is very close to town as the crow flies. She can cut through on the bike trails, assuming she knows the route, and that’ll knock five miles off. If she’s pushing it, she could be almost there by now.”

I punched the accelerator as we headed out of town, kicking it up to ninety on the heavily patched blacktop of County 225. It was mostly cropland, punctuated by old homesteads flashing by on either side. Collapsing barns and outbuildings stood incongruously within fifty yards of modern homes, mostly occupied by people commuting to jobs in town. The remnants of dairyland.

Just a few miles south, I braked hard, forcing Terry to snatch at the OS bar above his window. Tires screeched as I turned onto Shadow Lake Road, almost skating right the fuck into the ditch as asphalt suddenly gave way to macadam. Significantly, Terry didn’t tell me to take it easy, or slow down. Gravel sprayed as I laid into the gas again.

“Grab my phone,” I told Terry, “and pull up Bridgett’s number. It’s in there as Ramscone. Once we have the mailbox in sight, text her the fire number so she knows where to send people.” I felt his hand scrabbling around in my lap, plucking the phone from between my thighs. At the speed I was going, I didn’t dare take my eyes off the road.

After what felt like hours but was really only a few minutes, I was forced to dump some velocity as the road became twisty and hilly. We were almost there. I braked as the driveway came into view, the old mailbox a little worse for wear than the last time I had been here. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Terry stabbing at the screen of my phone.

The rutted driveway was almost a quarter mile long, and in appalling condition, which didn’t jibe with the theory that someone was living out here. Pine trees pressed in on either side. I dimly recalled that there was another entrance to the property from County Twelve, mostly used by the grain farmer who had been renting the cropland for years. I supposed any new residents might be using that.

“Nettie, watch it!” Terry yelled.

Even as he spoke, I was slamming on the brakes, my front bumper coming up just short of a tree that had fallen across the driveway.

“Fuck!” Terry exploded. Both of us were pushing our doors open, scrambling out of the car.

“The homestead is only maybe a hundred yards up,” Terry was saying, neatly vaulting the lower part of the trunk. “Come on.”

I got over it with somewhat less grace, but right on his heels. As he ran, Terry was texting on my phone. “I’m telling Special Agent Perfume Factory to use the County Twelve entrance,” he tossed over his shoulder.

In spite of everything, I smiled. Leave it to Terry to keep his wits about him, doing his best to take the edge off of a tense situation.

As the woods gave way, we slowed to a trot, looking around. The farmyard was the same war zone it had been ever since I’d first responded here, six years gone. Rusted hulks of farm machinery, dead lawnmowers, piles of rotted wood, scrap metal, and general debris. Bizarrely, a water tower reservoir rested on its side on the ground, brought here for some purpose long forgotten. The old hip barn was half-collapsed, as were several other outbuildings. A long, rectangular poultry barn appeared more or less intact, and a few old sheds were still standing. A house stood in the rough center of it all, it’s blue paint chipped and weathered. As we neared the house, we could hear a voice shouting. A familiar voice.

“Mom!” Halee yelled furiously as we approached, rounding the corner of the house into our view. She banged her fist on a windowframe. “Mom! Come out, goddamn it! Mom!”

“Halee!” Terry called out, taking off in her direction at a dead run with me close behind. Halee’s head whipped around. She stood there waiting for us with hands on hips and feet apart. We slowed as we neared her. Halee’s face was red.

“The whole place is locked,” she spat out. “I was just about to break a fucking window.”

Terry hauled up short next to his daughter, pulling her into his arms. I piled in, hugging her from the other side. Terry pressed my phone into my hand.

“You’ll do no such thing, young lady,” he got out,breathless from running. “We’re getting the hell out of here, and right now. Law enforcement is on its way.”

“Are they?” said a female voice from behind us. “Good to know. That means we’ll need you with us to clear out an escape path.”

Disentangling ourselves from Halee, we turned around. Emerging from the open garage door of the old poultry barn was the curly-locked blonde woman, and four men with guns in their hands. Don’t ask me what kind of guns. I grew up rural and can tell you all about deer rifles and shotguns, but one handgun looks like another to me. All I can tell you is that they looked enormous.

I instantly understood how Kathryn Wilder could weave a spell over a person, even a man as bright and self-aware as Terry. From thirty yards away, she had a presence. Fashionable slacks protruded below a long, elegant coat. A scarf that was more an accessory than a neck-warmer looped around her neck. All these things enhanced her appeal, but I knew immediately that this woman would command your attention were she wearing sackcloth.

The five of them approached deliberately, the four men fanning out as they moved forward.

Terry’s face was pure venom. “You unimaginable wretched bitch,” he said.

“Nice to see you, too, Terry. It’s been, what, almost five years?”

Her head turned towards me. “Is this who you’re shacking up with lately? She’s pretty, but Jesus, she’s almost as tall as you are. That must be really strange in the sack.”

She stopped about ten yards from us, and held out her arms. “Halee. My God, I didn’t even recognize you at first. Come to Momma, sweetheart.”

Halee’s face got even redder. The veins in her neck stood out. “People are dead, Mom,” she said. Her voice was low, but vicious. “Kids have been overdosing. Nettie’s dad was killed.” The voice was trembling now, rising in both pitch and volume. “And I heard about what happened at the meat locker. Seven kids tied up in there, and they all would have died if things had gone just a little bit different. You did that!” She was yelling now, tears streaming down her cheeks. “You killed people, Mom! And you tried to kill more than you actually got. Kids I go to school with. Go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself, you bitch!”

Kathryn’s arms were back at her sides, her appearance still utterly composed. “I never tried to kill anybody,” she said. “We didn’t anticipate the withdrawal symptoms until they actually started to happen, and then we did what we could to ameliorate the effects. When we realized that people were getting too close… and you have your dad’s girly-friend there to thank for that, by the way… we were bringing the kids in to give them some stuff that our chem guy said would help wean them off before we pulled out. Then a couple of them got lippy and threatened to go to the cops. The guy I left in charge panicked, doped them up, and put them in that room. If I’d been there, that wouldn’t have happened.”

“So what about the explosion?” Terry demanded to know.

“I have no idea,” she said, “and I probably never will, because we’ll never get near the place again. Now look.” She glanced one way, and then the other, as if suddenly on the lookout for something.“I don’t have time to play Twenty Questions. We need to move, and the three of you are going to be our safe passage. We have vehicles just over that hill there.” She jerked her thumb over her shoulder, indicating a rise. “Start walking in that direction, and don’t do anything cute.”

As we got moving, I found my voice for the first time. “What kind of person uses her daughter as a hostage?” I spat out.

She gave me a sour smile. “Aren’t you adorable. Ever been to prison, honey? It sucks worse than just about anything you can imagine. I’m going back there for decades if I’m caught, and I lost my kids a long time ago, anyway. Don’t worry… I intend to fuck right off the continent as soon as we’re clear of Minnesota. Once we’re there, we’ll let you go.”

As we crested the rise, I could see three Ford Explorers parked at the bottom of a ravine, in what looked for all the world like a graveyard for antique farm equipment. The four men had closed in on us, and were only about ten feet behind, Kathryn bringing up the rear.

“Why here?” Terry asked as we descended the hill. “Why the fuck did you have to bring it out here, where your goddamn kids go to school?”

“Oh, Terry,” she said in a sweet, almost singsong voice. “You gave me the idea. I still can’t figure out what possessed you to move to a nowhere place like this, but I realized it was a perfect location to develop the new product. It’s too out of the way for anyone to notice, and the only active police presence was that moron Fronse. That, and there are certain raw materials we needed that happen to be abundant in the area.”

She let out a bark of laughter. “Then there was you, Terry. You’ve been watched ever since they started investigating me. It wouldn’t be hard to shunt any suspicion your way, maybe even set you up to take the fall if things went wrong. Unfortunately it all went south before I had a chance to arrange that. Too bad, really – I’d love to see how you like being behind bars, lover boy.” That sweetness in Kathryn’s voice now dripped with venom.

We’d reached the bottom of the hill and the waiting SUVs. Kathryn seemed to consider options for a moment.

“Okay,” she said with an air of decision. “We’ll leave one truck behind. Let’s have…”

“DEA! Stay right where you are!” boomed a woman’s voice through a bullhorn. Bridgett. I looked around frantically, trying to make out where the voice was coming from. Before  I could orient myself, rough hands pulled me behind the rusty shell of a combine, a gun suddenly at my temple. We were quickly joined by Kathryn and the remaining three gunmen, two of whom were holding guns on Halee and Terry. Bridgett was still speaking into the bullhorn.

“You are directed to place your weapons on the ground and your hands on your head! You are surrounded by greatly superior numbers. I repeat, weapons on the ground, hands on heads. You have two minutes to comply before we start moving in.”

“Dammit,” muttered the man who was covering Terry. “I knew we shoulda cleared out the moment the fuckin’ locker got hit.”

“And you also understood perfectly well why we couldn’t do that,” Kathryn replied calmly, then raised her voice. “Listen up, DEA. In case you somehow didn’t notice, I’ve got hostages. I want a clear path, and safe passage out of here. We’re going to be driving out in two of these SUVs, and if you interfere in any way, there’ll be one less hostage. Any questions?”

Silence. Kathryn smiled grimly. “I guess they don’t have questions. All right, let’s go. Hostages out front.”

I felt the pistol nudge me in the back, and somehow got my feet moving. I hadn’t realized until this precise moment just how scared I was. Every step was like trudging through quicksand. Terry, Halee, and I walked roughly abreast, me in the middle, guns to our backs. Halee looked pale and afraid; Terry’s face a mask of purest hatred.

Suddenly from my left came a yelp and a curse. My head jerked around in that direction, and I saw Halee’s captor pitching forward, pinwheeling his arms. The lower third of his right leg had disappeared into a hole in the ground. As he passed the fulcrum point there was a snapping sound, he screamed, and the gun in his hand went flying. All of this happened in the barest fraction of a second.

The man hit the ground whimpering, then screaming again as he withdrew his leg from the hole. I saw Halee dive for the ground, coming up with the gun. She turned towards us, handling the weapon gingerly, fear written into every facet of her expression.

“Okay,” she said, her voice trembling with pure terror. “Okay…” she seemed at a loss as to how to proceed. She was slowly backing away, trying and mostly failing to steady the firearm.

One of Kathryn’s men, the one who wasn’t covering Terry or myself, stepped towards her. “Listen here, kid,” he said. “Quit wavin’ that thing around, okay? You’re just as likely to shoot your dad as one of us. You don’t want that, do you? Just put it on the ground, nice and easy.”

The man was still moving, having detached himself a bit from the main group. Halee swung the gun towards him. He made a flinching motion, raised his gun, and fired.

Halee dropped the gun with a hideous scream, a hand flying up to clutch the right side of her chest. Another shot, and the girl fell to her knees, still screaming. Then she pitched forward. It was all happening in a macabre sort of slow-motion before my eyes. Terry yelled “Halee! No, goddamn it!” and was rushing towards her, heedless of the weapons arrayed against him.

“Stop shooting, you idiot!” Kathryn was yelling, all vestiges of her former composure lost. And then my paralysis broke.

“No!” I screamed, breaking into a run. It was only maybe a dozen steps to where Halee lay, and I fell to my knees next to her, Terry at my side. “Oh no; no no no no,” I heard myself saying, but another part of my mind was clinically considering the two exit wounds in her back. One was in the upper right, the blood foamy and pink, a sure sign the bullet had gone straight through a lung. The other was through the right lower side of the abdomen and bleeding profusely.

“Let’s get her on her side,” I said. The voice seemed hardly my own, as if I was merely a spectator. Terry helped me roll her onto her left side, with another pair of hands assisting. Kathryn.

“Get away from her,” Terry spat out at her through clenched teeth.

Kathryn ignored him, her face once again the picture of utter calm. A quick glance up told me that the three of Kathryn’s men who were still functional were standing over us, weapons trained on myself and Terry. Clearly Kathryn had no intention of giving up her hostages.

I tried to move Halee’s clothing aside as best I could, inspecting the entrance wounds. The chest injury presented in almost identical fashion to its counterpart in the rear. The abdominal wound was oozing red blood, but I had some hope that it hadn’t hit anything too important. Halee’s eyes cast around frantically, coming to rest on Terry.

“Daddy,” she moaned. Her breath hitched and gasped, and I watched the foamy pink stuff being sucked into the chest wound, then expelled again.

“Don’t try to talk, Halee,” I said. “Just rest; we’re taking care of you.”

Her eyes flicked to me. She seemed to be having trouble focusing. “Nettie,” she whispered. “Love…”

“Shhh,” I said, putting a finger to her lips. I shrugged out of my jacket, reached around behind her, and pressed the fabric to the exit hole from the abdominal wound. I looked up at Kathryn. “Give Terry your scarf,” I said, “so he can hold pressure on the entrance wound.”

She pulled it free of her neck and handed it to him.

“What about the sucking chest?” Terry asked me as he pressed the scarf against his daughter’s abdomen. His voice was raw and harsh with emotion.

“Is medical attention required?” a voice called out from above. I looked up, and Bridgett was standing just uphill from us on the opposite side of the ravine, not far from the treeline.

“If we don’t get an ambulance out here, she’s going to die,” I called back.

“No ambulance!” one of the gunmen snarled at me.

“I have one of the Bronning rigs staged just over the ridge,” Bridgett called back.

“Kathryn, listen to me,” I said, putting as much urgency into my voice as I could muster. “She has a punctured lung. Hear how she’s breathing? That’s only going to get worse.”

Halee shifted a little on the ground, and suddenly she screamed, hands clutching at her wounded abdomen. The initial shock had worn off, and the pain had arrived. The scream choked off into a fit of agonized hacking. My heart was hammering in my chest. Kathryn Wilder was simply staring at her daughter, face a mask of impassivity.

“Kathryn, please,” I begged. “She needs to go to the hospital, and I need to go with her.”

That, at least, got a reaction. Kathryn flicked her eyes towards me, a sardonic grin curling her lips. “Nice try,” she said. “You’re not the only ambulance driver around here. The crew that came with that truck can take her just fine.”

“No, they can’t,” I shot back. “Without me it’s a basic life support crew, and she needs more than that. She needs a paramedic on the way to the hospital, and I’m the only one within thirty miles. The EMTs on that truck are good, but they can’t do the things that’ll keep her alive.”

“She’s telling the truth, Kathryn,” Terry put in.

I looked down at Halee. Her face was twisted in agony, her breathing increasingly labored. I was starting to get mad.

“Look,” I spat out. “I’m taking Halee to the hospital. And if you have any love left for your daughter, you’ll let us both go.”

I gathered Halee up in my arms, freezing as I heard the sound of a safety being flicked off behind my head. I very nearly lost control of my bladder.

“Just stay still, missy,” one of the men said.

I turned my eyes to Kathryn. Fear warred with determination. “Is this really what you want?” I whispered.

Bridgett’s bullhorn-assisted voice boomed forth. “EMS has been apprised of the situation and is requesting permission to extract the patient. Will you allow it?”

My mind rebelled at the idea of allowing EMS personnel in a hot zone, but I knew that Kathryn would never allow agents or cops to get near, and Halee was dying by inches. Even if I wasn’t permitted to go with her, they could get an intercept coming with an ALS rig from another agency, and there would maybe be a chance. I held eye contact with Kathryn, daring her to look away.

“Fine, send them in,” Kathryn called out suddenly.

“Can I go with her? I really am the only provider nearby that’s qualified for this.”

She threw up her hands. “All right then, go. But Terry stays.”

One of her men rounded on her. “What, are you fucking kidding…”

“Let her go!” Kathryn turned steely eyes on him. He held it for a long moment, then dropped his gaze. “Just keep your guns on Terry. One hostage will be enough. If the cops try anything cute, we shoot him in the leg to prove we mean business.” She gave Terry a thin-lipped smile. “I’ll take care of that myself.”

An ambulance crested the rise, jouncing badly on the rutted path that had been beaten into the long grass by the SUVs. As it neared, I could make out the occupants of the cab: Nate Hauss was driving, with Lori Hendersen in the shotgun seat. Both were volunteers of long standing, and knew what they were doing.

The rig pulled up alongside. Lori slid out of the cab, eyeing the armed men warily. I could see Nate getting out on the other side. Lori’s eyes shifted down to Halee, widening slightly.

“Lori, grab me the ALS bag and the first-in bag, right now,” I said. Frightened for my own life and dying with anguish over Halee though I was, years of habit kicked in, and I took command instantly. Lori spoke not a word, just popped the side door, and trundled her dumpy yet somehow graceful body up the two steps into the box. She emerged a moment later with both bags, dropped them on the ground beside me, and went back for the monitor. Nate was at the back doors, pulling out the cot.

Terry and I tore into the bags. “Occlusive dressings?” he inquired, even as he was ripping one out of its packaging.

“Both front and back on the chest wound,” I replied. I had extracted a set of trauma shears, and was slicing away the jacket and sweater. Terry mopped blood from his daughter’s chest and adhered one of the dressings to the skin, valve over the wound, and then looked in the bag again.

“Fuck,” he spat out, “there’s only one of them. We’ll have to make one.”

“Already on it,” said Nate, who was using shears to cut out a neat square of plastic from the packaging Terry had just ripped open. As the two men worked to secure it to Halee’s back, Terry holding the plastic and Nate taping it down on three sides, Lori was applying large dressings to the still-bleeding abdominal wounds. Me, I was frantically searching for an IV site. Fortunately Halee had good vasculature, and a vein was easy to find.

I fought a momentary battle with myself over the use of a clotting agent. My horseback estimate of Halee’s weight left her right on the cusp of being big enough for it. Then I looked back down at the rapidly-soaking dressings over her abdomen, eerily reminding me of Sam Jensen’s injury only a week ago, and decided to chance it. There wasn’t much hope otherwise. At least with the occlusive dressings preventing her from sucking air into the chest cavity, Halee’s breathing was starting to ease.

“Load her up,” I said. As several pairs of hands lifted Halee from ground to cot, I feverishly dug the clotting agent out of the ALS bag and drew it up. Halee screamed with pain as she was lifted, the first sound she’d uttered in several minutes. Her eyes fell on Terry.

“Daddy, help me,” she moaned. Her voice was phlegmy, and I wondered how much moisture there was in her pipes. Terry tried to move towards the cot she was being strapped to, but a gun to his temple and a muttered, “Uh-uh, buddy boy,” from one of the gunmen brought him up short.

Carrying my loaded syringe, I made for the rig as the cot was shoved into it. “Tell your hired goons to help with the bags,” I tossed over my shoulder to Kathryn.

“What about him?” Lori wanted to know, indicating the man who had broken his leg. I glanced in his direction. He was lying on the ground, clutching his deformed calf, and weeping.

“Fuck him,” I said shortly. “Let’s go.”

The last thing I saw before slamming the side door behind me was Terry. He stood staring at the rig into which his daughter had disappeared, mouth a little slack, tears coursing down his stricken face. It’s an image that’s burned itself into my brain forever.

***

“Just what the hell were you thinking, Nettie?”

I was in the passenger’s seat of Bridgett’s black DEA suburban, situated in the visitor’s parking lot at the Pinewood Memorial Hospital in Johnstown. Halee was at that moment undergoing emergency surgery to get the hemorrhaging under control, after which she’d be transferred to Children’s in Minneapolis. Unless the weather improved, she’d be making the journey by ground with Thormleton. I’d already been on the phone with my boss, asking if I could be allowed to personally oversee the transfer, and Greg Wahlberg had politely but firmly told me to go the fuck home.

Bridgett was eyeballing me over a steaming cup of Starbucks coffee, the question still hanging in the air between us. I took a sip of the coffee she had bought me, mulling over the crazy, fucked-up sequence of events. Kathryn Wilder and her men were currently en route to the Canadian border, Terry still their captive. They were being shadowed, but the hostage situation prevented any direct action.

“We were hoping to get to Halee before she got to Kathryn,” I said at last. “Terry was afraid that she’d disappear and take Halee with her, long before your people made it to the scene.”

Bridgett pursed her lips. “He probably wasn’t wrong about that, but nevertheless you’ve immensely complicated things. Now we have a girl in critical condition, and they still have a hostage.” Her expression softened. “To be fair, it doesn’t sound like she got shot because of anything you or Wilder did. It was just rotten luck.”

I felt a sour smile take hold of my face. “Poor Halee,” I said. “She thought really fast and got hold of the guy’s gun when he dropped it, but then once she had it she didn’t quite seem to know what to do.”

“We can hardly blame her for that,” said Bridgett. “Most adults would have done no better. Nobody is ever really prepared for the reality of having a loaded weapon pointed at them.”

Tears stung my eyelids. “I was so goddamn scared,” I admitted, focusing my gaze on the steam issuing from the drinking orifice in the lid of my coffee cup. “I almost pissed myself at one point.”

Bridgett laid a hand on my forearm. “I got shot at once, during a sting,” she said. “I shit my pants. There’s no shame.”

I sipped more coffee, fighting to keep my emotions in check. Once I was sure I wasn’t about to explode in a fury of weeping, I spoke again. “So what’s the plan now? How are they getting Terry back? Come to think of it, why aren’t you out there directing traffic?”

“Because they’re not even within my regional jurisdiction at this point. I’m still in the loop and part of the operation, but my job is the situation on the ground here. There are still a lot of unanswered questions. According to what you’ve told me, Kathryn stated that there was a reason they stuck around after the locker operation got hit. It might tie into whatever the hell Darren Sanders was doing on that ATV out on Merlin Creek Drive. And the one good thing about this whole shitty turn of events is that I’ve been given some extra time and resources to look for those answers.”

She sipped more coffee. “As for Mr. Wilder, for the moment we just hope Kathryn makes good on her promise to let him go. We don’t have the slightest clue what her exit strategy is, so all we can do is hope that once there’s no longer a hostage, there’ll be a weakness we can see and exploit to prevent her from getting away.”

“Have you questioned Judy and Lisa Milne?”

“They’re both in custody, and they both instantly lawyered up. We’ll probably have to offer them a very good plea deal to get any information. Of course, that also brings up another question. Mr. Wilder’s three younger girls and Chelsey Milne are now at Mr. Wilder’s residence, under the care of your mother. Do we bring the state in for short-term care arrangements, or is there a better option?”

“Chelsey has some other family in the area who might be able to help,” I said. “If not, I can take her for a little while. Terry’s girls, too. There’s no need to get the state involved.”

“I was hoping you’d say that,” said Bridgett. “There’ll be a little bit of red tape, but nothing my people can’t handle. Look, I need to get back to Bronning and coordinate a few things. Why don’t you ride back with me?”

“I should be here when Halee comes out of surgery,” I said.

“What for? My understanding is that she’ll be kept under sedation, and transferred to Minneapolis on a vent.”

I sighed, knowing she was right. “Fine,” I said. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

On to Chapter Eighteen!

by kinkychic and kinky’s_sis

Susy and I were still holding hands when we got back to the farmhouse. Agetha was sitting outside. She waved a greeting and called for us to sit with her.

“You have nice day, yes? I can see you both happy.” She peered closer at my face and then at Susy’s, then nodded thoughtfully. “You good friends now, very good friends, no? Is good, I am happy for you. Not let Tiny see, he will not like. Anyhow, he stupid and see nothing. But I love him anyway.” Then she laughed.

I was taken aback. She’d seen right through us.

“You stay for dinner, Susy. Nice having young people.” She didn’t wait for an answer. “Is settled, good.”

I showed Susy to my room. She saw the two piles of stuff on the beds. “Sharing with someone?”

It struck me that I’d not yet mentioned Lucy to her. “Oh, yes… my little sister Lucy. She’s out with Tiny.”

We had a little snog together, then I told her, “If you want to have a shower, take one of my towels. I’d love to join you, but I guess Lucy will be here any minute.”

Sure enough, Tiny and my sister were back. They’d just come into the living room, and it appeared that Tiny was going to show Lucy how to clean his gun. I figured they’d be occupied for a while, so I went to ask if I could help Agetha, even though I knew she would shoo me out. Which of course she did.

When I saw Tiny dismantling the gun on his own, I realised that Lucy had gone upstairs. Shit!

I raced up after her. Once I’d reached the top, there was my sister in the hallway, giggling to herself. When Lucy saw me, she grabbed my arm and all but dragged me into our room. She wore a wicked grin. “I see now why you’ve been happy here on your own! Fuck me, she’s a stunner.”

I felt myself colouring, and was unable to meet my sister’s gaze. “That’s Susan – well, Susy. She’s a vet working near here. We met at Dad’s grave yesterday.”

“So, you get in her panties yet? If I know you, then you did. No wonder you’ve gone a bit cool on me.”

I turned around to shush my sister, then gasped, horrified. Susy was standing right behind Lucy with a hand to her mouth. Oh, NO.

Lucy wasn’t a bit fazed. Turning around, she offered Susy her hand. “Hi, beautiful lady. I’m Lucy. Don’t mind me, or what I say. I’m just like that, spouting off the first thing that comes into my silly head.” Going up on tiptoe, she kissed Susy’s cheek. “It’s lovely to meet you, and no wonder Maddie kept you a secret from me. I accidentally saw you in the shower, and I was just telling my big sister how totally gorgeous you are.”

Susy looked flustered, torn between embarrassment and feeling flattered. Hell’s bells, Lucy was already flirting with her!  “Lucy, will you behave yourself, please?”

Lucy glanced from me to Susy, then back again. “Me? Behave, sis? Like, when do I ever behave? Anyway, I’m going for a quick shower.” And with a huge wink, she made her exit.

Susy and I took a glass of wine each out onto the verandah, where we seated ourselves on deck chairs. “Maddie, she’s only a kid! Does she always act so grown up and flirty? My God, how old is she, anyhow?”

I rolled my eyes. “She’s supposed to be twelve, but sometimes I wonder if Lucy isn’t a very wild twenty-five-year old in disguise. And yes, she does always act like that. And yes again, she was flirting with you.”

“Oh, my. And, er, was she implying that the two of you were, er… how can I put it?” Her cheeks were bright red.

At that moment, I could have happily throttled Lucy. Once again, her utter lack of restraint had landed me in the soup, this time with someone I really, really liked. “Susy, please don’t be shocked. Yes, my sister and I have sex, but we can still have girlfriends of our own. I love Lucy, but we’re not in love, y’know?”

“Okay, but… how in the world did that happen? I’ve got a brother, and I couldn’t even imagine, um, fooling around with him.”

“Well…” It occurred to me that I’d never told anyone about Lucy and me before. “Actually, it was Lucy who got things going between us, back when she was ten.”

Susy’s eyes widened a bit, but then she nodded. “If I hadn’t just met her, I’d find that hard to believe. Your sister seems like a – a force of nature!”

“That she is. Lucy figured out she liked girls at a very early age, then she decided I was going to be her first fuck, and told me so. I resisted, but she wore me down soon enough. Anyhow, Lucy’s the one who convinced me that I liked girls, too. But really, can you blame me? You’ve seen how cute she is.”

I could see Susy was picturing Lucy, perhaps picturing her in my arms. But before she could reply, my sister appeared in the flesh. She’d changed into panties and a t-shirt.

Lucy didn’t waste any time, just went straight to Susy. “Do me a favour?” she said. “Tie my hair up at the back for me, please.” She turned herself around and seated herself between Susy’s legs.

It took a moment, but Susy soon did what Lucy wanted. But instead of getting up, my sister leaned back against Susy’s chest. “Mmm… you’re really comfy.”

Susy didn’t seem to know what to do with her hands, but Lucy took hold of them, wrapping Susy’s arms around her waist, then placing both hands on her tummy. “You don’t mind, do you, Susy? It feels nice,  having you hold me.”

We were saved from what was quickly becoming an awkward moment when Agetha called us to the table. Susy had a very dazed look as she followed me to the dining room. We took our seats at the large oaken table, Lucy and I on either side of Susy.

That evening, Tiny was in a very expansive mood. It seemed the grape harvest was up twenty percent over any previous year. And the quality of the grapes, he explained, was the best ever.

Perhaps the wine we drank was of a lesser vintage, but it flowed freely until we finished our meal. Then Tiny fetched a bottle of brandy. It wasn’t long before I felt more than a little woozy, and Susy was stumbling over her words.

I saw Lucy rest a hand on our new friend’s leg, but Susy seemed totally oblivious to it. Fascinated, I watched my sister’s hand moving, lightly stroking as it inched higher.

Susy leaned closer to me. “That’s nice, Maddie,” she whispered, “but shouldn’t you wait?”

Then she saw my hands resting on the table. Peering beneath, she blushed at the sight of Lucy’s hand, but said nothing, just reached for her brandy and took a swig. By then, Tiny had gone outside to smoke his pipe and Agetha was busy in the kitchen.

Clutching my arm, Susy leaned in close to me, until her lips were touching my ear. “Maddie, your little sister is touching my pussy,” she said. “What should I do?”

“Tell her to stop,” I replied. “She’ll do it if you say so. Or let her keep doing it. The choice is yours.”

With her free hand, Susy reached down to take hold of Lucy’s wrist. I thought she was going to pull it away, but I was wrong. Instead, she pressed it firmly against her vulva. “Oh fuck! I c-can’t help it,” she whimpered. “Don’t stop, Lucy!”

Her grip on my arm tightened, and I could feel her body tremble. She was coming. And she finished just as Agetha returned to the room.

“Miss Susy, I think you stay here with your friends,” Agetha insisted. “Too much drink to go back your camp.” As usual, she didn’t wait for an answer – which was just as well, because I’m not sure Susy was able to speak. “Good. Is settled.”

I suggested that we needed a bit of fresh air and told Agetha we were going to sit out back.

Susy was unsteady on her feet, and I don’t suppose that I was much better. I guided her to the high-backed bench seat, where we sat side by side. Lucy was following close behind. Approaching the bench, she quickly straddled Susy’s thighs, facing her.

Yet again, Susy looked completely bewildered. Lucy spoke up. “I made you come,” she said. “Don’t you think I deserve a kiss at least?”

Susy didn’t move, just stared – so Lucy leaned in and brought their mouths together. Of course, my sister was an expert kisser. She was gentle at first, then grew increasingly fervent as Susy gradually began to respond. Soon, they were kissing like passionate lovers.

Taking Susy’s hand, Lucy slipped it under her top, right up to her budding breasts. I half-expected Susy to pull away, but she left her hand there when Lucy withdrew hers. Then I saw movement beneath that thin t-shirt, and knew that Susy was fondling my sister. Lucy wanted more, though. Taking Susy’s other hand, she shoved it into her knickers.

I saw the exact moment when Susy penetrated my sister. Lucy threw her head back, a choked scream escaping her throat before she managed to clap a hand over her mouth. Susy began to work her finger – or was it fingers? – in and out.

I was gobsmacked. Just a few hours ago, Susy was very nearly too shy to undress in my presence. Now she was finger-fucking my underage sister, and groping her mostly flat chest.

They also were trying to kiss, but Lucy was panting too hard. Then her body was shaking frantically as she came, moaning, “Oh my God, oh m-my God!”

Fuck, I was turned on. I’d just seen my sister and my new best friend get each other off in the most erotic circumstances. And me? Not a sniff.

Finally spent, Lucy squirmed about until she was nestled like a child in Susy’s lap. It’s funny – my little sister is anything but innocent, but somehow she always looks like a perfect angel after sex.

Her eyes closed, a smile lingering on her lips, Lucy whispered, “I love you, Susy.”

Susy cradled my sister close, emotions flooding over her face. Finally, she spoke. “You two have really turned me around today. I give in. I – I love you, Maddie.” Bending down, she kissed Lucy’s forehead. “And you,” she added

It was time I had my say. “Huh, it’s all right for you two… but poor me, I’m feeling hot and frustrated.”

Lucy looked up at Susy. “You think we should take her to bed, lover?”

Susy laughed. “I do believe we should. Let’s you and me take Maddie upstairs and fuck her silly, shall we?”

So up the stairs we went. Giddy as I was, I still recall Lucy spreading several of my towels on the bed before we got started.

Susy was puzzled. “What’s that for?”

“Because Maddie’s had so much to drink, she’ll probably let fly when she comes.”

“What? You mean she’s gonna pee on us?” Susy seemed a bit shaken.

Lucy looked at her, astonished. “You mean, you never squirt when you come?”

“No, never. I wouldn’t let myself,” Susy replied.

Lucy took her hand. “Well, it’s time you did. We love it, and I really want to taste you.”

Susy stared from one of us to the other. “Are you fucking serious?”

Lucy looked at me. “You need a pee, sis?” I shook my head. Then to Susy, she said, “You sit on her face, toward me, so you can watch me eat Maddie’s pussy while she licks you.”

So Susy positioned herself over my face, Lucy and me giggling when she nearly lost her balance. I thought it was a good job that Agetha and Tiny’s room was at the far end of the house.

Lucy dove into my pussy. God, I was already hot and wet, in desperate need to feel my sister’s tongue. Of course I couldn’t see, but later Lucy told me how Susy had stared open-mouthed as my little sister sucked my clit, then how Susy squirmed when she felt my tongue between her lips. How she grabbed her own tits to squeeze and massage them while never, not even for a second, taking her eyes away from Lucy’s mouth on my pussy.

Lucy worked her usual magic, and it wasn’t long before I felt my blood racing. My eyes were glued to the sight of Susy’s arsehole right in front of me. For the briefest moment I hesitated, but I knew she was just as drunk as me, and more open to trying something new.

First I dipped a finger into her pussy, getting it nice and wet. Then I touched her puckered hole, and Susy instantly went rigid. I thought she might try to move away, so my other hand firmly was gripping her thigh, holding her in place. I twisted my finger as I pressed forward, and then I was in. “Maddie, no!” she called.

But I only went deeper into Susy’s anus. As a distraction, I took her clit between my lips to suck. “Oh, God,” she moaned. I slowly began to withdraw my finger, and her bumhole relaxed, so I pressed forward again – and this time, it went all the way in.

Susy heaved at my tongue, and I knew she was close to coming, so I started fucking her arse with my finger. Her rhythm changed, and now she was meeting my thrusts. Lucy told me it was then that Susy reached out for her hand, clutching it tightly.

Suddenly my back arched, my pussy spasmed, and I was there, coming hard. Lucy pulled back a bit, though her fingers were still toying with me. I felt the surge roll through me like an earthquake as juice flowed from my cunt. Lucy opened her mouth wide, taking it in.

Susy gave a huge shudder, her pussy grinding at my lips. “Go on Susy, let it go!” Lucy cried. Susy groaned, and then she flooded me in a seemingly endless stream of her nectar. Then she simply collapsed on top of me. I withdrew my finger from her arse but continued to lick her dripping pussy.

After a long rest, Lucy and I rose and cleaned ourselves up. Susy was fast asleep, so we let her doze in peace. She never stirred once as we got into bed on either side of her. We snuggled close and soon went to sleep ourselves.

***

At breakfast the next morning, Tiny told us there was a group going out that day to try and find a sick elephant that had been reported. It had attacked a kraal, injuring two natives and causing a lot of damage.

Normally, elephants never attack a human habitation. It usually happens only when one goes rogue and is cast off from the family, usually when the animal is driven mad by poachers’ poisoned arrows. If this was the case, it couldn’t be saved. The poor beast needed to be put out of its misery before it killed someone.

I got up from the table and rushed outside. I was weeping uncontrollably when Susy put her arms around me. “Maddie, what is it – the elephant?”

“It’s… it’s how Dad died,” I blurted between sobs. “He went out after one, exactly the same, but he ran into the poachers. He was wounded by an arrow and died from sepsis.”

Agetha came up beside us. “Told you Tiny stupid, forgets everything. He very upset now, feel bad.”

Tiny stood in front of me, holding out his arms, I went to him and he hugged me tightly. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Forgive me for not thinking.”

“No, Tiny, it’s me. I shouldn’t react like that. I’m okay, honestly. When are we leaving?”

“We?” he said. “You can’t go.”

“Why ever not? Susy’s a vet, and it’s what my dad did. I want to be there, to see its suffering end.”

He took a while to consider, then Vusumuzi walked over. “I look after ladies,” he said. At that, Tiny gave a nod.

A convoy of five assorted vehicles set off. Lucy elected to stay behind with Agetha. She didn’t want to see an elephant killed, even if it was for a good reason.

We were now in open country punctuated by occasional scrub. Between us, Vusumuzi and I pointed out and named the many animals we saw for Susy’s benefit. Her favourites were the huge kudu with their majestic horns. I told her the ones with the long straight horns were the males, while the females’ tended to be slightly curved and swept-back. Vusumuzi said that even the lions were wary of those horns. They were as long, sharply pointed, and as deadly as spears.

We saw a pair of rhinos, two pride of lions and any number of the many species of antelope. And then the ugliest of all the wild animals, the warthog.

We stopped at several small villages, inquiring after the elephant. The villagers knew it was about, but no one knew where. Some just pointed vaguely toward the north, others more westerly. They did, however, warn that we should take care, as poachers had also been seen. The men decided to divide the convoy into two, and once more we set off.

Several hours later, a lone native told us the elephant was not far away. He said we would most likely hear it before we actually saw it. It was in terrible pain and had gone quite mad.

A short distance farther, we parked beside some fairly dense scrub. As soon as the noise of the engine died, we heard the elephant. Vusumuzi said it was about two or three hundred yards away on the far side of the scrub.

Vusumuzi, Tiny and one other member of the crew disappeared into the bushes. The other four remained with us, rifles at the ready as they kept a lookout for any sign of the poachers.

I expected to hear only one shot but when we heard several, fired in quick succession, we knew there was trouble. The men told us to get back in the truck and keep our heads down.

No sooner had we done so than we heard a vehicle start, followed by the sound of crashing and breaking undergrowth. A battered jeep rocketed out of the bush only fifty yards away. The driver swung the vehicle away when he saw us, and the man beside him raised a rifle and fired in our direction. The four men of our crewl fired at the fleeing jeep. I saw the rifleman drop, but whether he had been hit or was just ducking, I had no idea.

Two of the men decided to go and check that Tiny, Vusumuzi and the other man who had joined them were okay. Just as they were setting off, there was one more shot and the wailing stopped. The two men came back, and everyone climbed back in the trucks.

On the far side of the scrub, we saw Tiny and Vusumuzi standing by the huge elephant lying on the ground.

I grabbed Susy’s arm as she went to climb down. “No – stay here, Susy, you don’t need to see this.”

She gazed at me through her tears. “I do. I have to see what those bastards do to these beautiful animals.”

The missing men came out of the bush, one of the group shoving a stumbling native along. Tiny asked him, “Just the one, Jake?”

“Another one in there, dead,” he answered.

They collected the dead poacher. His body, together with the prisoner and the elephant’s extracted tusks, was loaded into one of the trucks. Susy was horrified at the removal of the tusks, until Tiny pointed out that they had to be taken to the police. Besides, if they were left behind, the poachers would only return for them.

On the drive back, Tiny told us that the elephant had indeed been shot with poisoned arrows, probably several months ago. He said that these poachers weren’t the ones who had done it. These guys had rifles, not bows.

It was already dark when we arrived back at the farmstead. We were all tired, filthy with dust and ravenously hungry. Tiny offered to drive Susy back to the research base camp, but Agetha told him, “She stay here.”

Susy looked chuffed for a moment, then her face dropped. “I’ve got to go back,” she sighed. “I don’t even have a change of clothes.”

Agetha, as ever, took charge. “Tiny take you and you fetch back, dinner nearly ready then. Is settled.”

I had finished showering and put on fresh clothes by the time Tiny and Susy returned. She headed straight for the shower with Lucy following.

I noticed that Susy seemed a bit jumpy when they returned to the dining room. Something was off about her, and I couldn’t figure out what it was. “Are you okay?” I said.

“Uh, yes, fine. But, um, I could do with a drink.” I saw her twitch, then frown. Then she abruptly raised her eyebrows, her mouth falling open.

Oho! I thought. I bet my little bugger of a sister is up to her favourite game. Oh well, this should be fun.

Susy almost spilled her wine just before she took a gulp. Yep, there was no doubt. Lucy had somehow got Susy to wear her vibrating bullet in her pussy, and Lucy had control of the remote. I gave my sister a look but she smiled sweetly at me.

As I walked past her, I said very quietly, “Only on low until after dinner, and I mean it!”

How on earth Susy kept a straight face through dinner, God only knows. She did clutch my leg several times, but other than that, she did fine. I did notice she smiled a lot, though. She was clearly happy – or perhaps just relieved to have got past the horrid events of the past twelve hours.

After dinner, I suggested we take the wine out to our new favourite back-garden bench. It was just light enough for me to see Susy rubbing her front as we walked. “Got an itch?” I asked her.

“Yes, I bloody have.” Then she almost jumped two feet, so I knew Lucy had turned the remote up. Susy flopped down on the seat, both hands pressed between her legs. “Oh God, that’s soooo nice.” Then she grabbed my hand as she twitched again. I knew she was on the highest setting now.

“You want some help?” I asked, pushing her skirt up. When I touched the front of her panties, I found them drenched. “These aren’t much use,” I said. “Let’s get them off.” I soon had Susy’s knickers out from under her arse and down her legs. Spreading my lover’s thighs apart, I sidled in closer and went down on her, my tongue going straight for her clit.

I could hear the buzzing of the toy inside her shaking body. She was almost there. It would take just a few licks to send her over the top. Her low moans were suddenly stifled, and when I took a quick peek up, I saw Lucy bending over the back of the seat, kissing Susy passionately.

Susy had one arm wrapped around Lucy and the other hand tangled in my hair as my sister and I made love to her. Within seconds she was shaking violently through a massive orgasm that seemed to last for ages. The long slow build-up through dinner must have pitched her need at a higher level.

Finally, Susy calmed down, relaxing her grip on my hair. She looked at Lucy, then at me. “Shit!” she said, and I couldn’t tell if that meant she was delighted, exhausted, or ticked off at my sister.

An hour later Susy and I lay on the bed while Lucy was washing up in the bathroom. She turned to face me. “Maddie… am I a lesbian now?”

I smiled at her. “Susy, you’re what you want to be. Just because you’re our lover, that doesn’t make you gay. That’s for you to decide. Not now, not in a hurry. Take time to think about what’s happened between us and where you want to go from here.” I gave her a little kiss. “If you want to carry this on when you’re back in England, I’m offering myself to you. I think I love you. The question is whether or not you want my love.”

She touched my cheek. “It’s a lot for me to take in. It happened so fast, but I do know I’m happy being with you… and with Lucy. I’ll be out here for another four, maybe five weeks after you go back. Hopefully, I’ll know then what my feelings are. Can we leave it at that for now?”

We were startled by Lucy clapping. “Ah, that’s so sweet. You want my opinion, you two are made for each other. You’ll see.”

It had been a long and tiring day, and we were knackered. We lay together and cuddled for a while. I was almost asleep when Susy kissed us both goodnight.

On to Chapter Four!

Note from JetBoy: Before this chapter kicks off, a bit of history. This story began running at Juicy Secrets over three years ago, and the previous, fourth installment ran a few months later. After that, author 3 Fingers Neat got hit by a serious case of writer’s block — starting the fifth chapter repeatedly, but never ending up satisfied with the result. He offered to hand the story over to me to complete, but as usual, I had too many stories in progress as it was. (These were the dark days after Cheryl’s and Naughty Mommy’s departure, and before Jacqueline Jillinghoff and BlueJean took up residence here as associate editors. So instead, I encouraged 3 Fingers to keep plugging away at this concluding chapter… and bless him, he did just that. A few weeks ago, I found the first draft of what you are about to read in my inbox. Please join me in thanking the author for his dogged perseverance.

Lord knows, I’ve made this request of you readers many times before, and will no doubt make it again… but I do strongly suggest reading the first four chapters before delving into this one. Your appreciation of the whole will be made much greater, I promise.

by 3 Fingers Neat

Turning off the shower, I wrapped my towel around Chelsea and pulled her to me, the soft terry cloth enveloping us both. She peered up at me with a soft smile of contentment. As I held her close, I was once again marveling at the good fortune of having this sweet young girl as my lover.

“Kim,” she asked as I began to dry her glistening body, “What time will Mom be here?”

“She’ll be here at four this afternoon. She has to drop your dad off at Seatac for his flight to Chicago, then plans to drive straight here.”

“Yeah! Oh, Kim, I can’t wait to see her.”

“That gives us four hours to get ready. Your mother won’t be stopping, not even for lunch, so she’s going to be really hungry when she gets here. Do you want to help me fix dinner? I’ve got some steaks, potatoes to bake and everything we need for a nice salad. There’s plenty for the three of us.”

“That’s perfect!” she exclaimed, gleefully clapping her hands.

After we dressed, which included a cute turn on Chelsea’s part when she teased me by dancing in nothing but panties, I saw her expression suddenly turn sober, like something was weighing on her mind.

Finally, she spoke up. “Kim? I’m sort of not feeling so sure about this…”

I thought I knew what was wrong, but thought it best to let her explain. So I merely asked, “About what, Chels?”

“About Mom. About me and Mom. I’m… kinda nervous.”

Kneeling before Chelsea, I took her in my arms, looking into those warm brown eyes. “What exactly are you nervous about, sweetie?”

“I’m worried if we make love, she and I won’t be the same after that. I mean… I don’t want things to change between us. Mom always tells me to make my own decisions, and not worry so much about what people say is good or bad… but this is a big, big step.” She paused, weighing her words. “I want us to be lovers… but I need her to be my mom even more. Um, does that make sense?”

I gave her a squeeze. “It totally does… and the fact that you’re concerned about it only proves how mature you are.”

“Okay, but what can I do so I won’t be so worried?”

“Tell her what you just told me. I think it’s exactly what your mother needs to hear from you. She’s nervous, too, you know.”

“Will you help me with what to say? I don’t know the right words.”

“If it were me, and you were my daughter, I’d want to be absolutely sure you wanted something to happen between us before I made a move. Actually, I’ve been thinking about this, and it seems to me that you should be the one to take the first step.” I bent down to kiss Chelsea on the forehead, hugging her close. “You know, one of the things I love most about you is your confidence. Well, tonight you’re going to show your mom that same confidence when you let her know that you want to be her lover. I promise you, that will be the icebreaker she needs.”

Gazing up at me, Chelsea nodded. “Thanks, Kim. That really helps.”

I patted her shoulder. “Good. Now c’mon – we need to take a quick trip to the grocery store if this dinner is going to amount to anything.”

Once Chelsea and I returned, laden with shopping bags, we got down to some serious prepping for our evening. As I arranged flowers, Chelsea got started on the salad. While working, we discussed how the evening should play out. After a while, I could see her confidence had returned, and knew my little lover was ready to entice her mother into bed.

Just as the daylight was starting to fade, candles were lit on the table and around the living room. We were ready.

The bell rang at 4 PM, right on the nose. Chelsea raced to the door and opened it. Karen reached down to embrace her daughter with a big hug, then playfully swung her around in a circle. Setting Chelsea back down, she reached out to take my arm and pulled me into their hug.

“Kim, thank you so much for inviting me. Are you sure I’m not intruding? This was supposed to be your time with Chelsea,” she said, pausing to kiss my cheek.

“We’re both excited you’re here,” I told her. Looking up, Chelsea nodded in agreement. “Now, are you ready to eat?”

“Please! I’m famished.”

We got Karen settled in the living room with a glass of red wine, which Chelsea insisted on pouring, then my young lover and I adjourned to the kitchen to put the final touches on our evening meal.

Soon, we were sitting at the table, ready to tuck in. I raised my glass. “Here’s to love,” I said, looking at Chelsea, then her mother.

“To love,” they responded as our glasses clinked.

Our dinner conversation was surprisingly normal, given that we all had a heightened sense of excitement over what was to come. When dinner was done we cleared the table, then moved to the living room to continue the discussion. Karen told us that Jim’s trip would likely be extended, as his company was counting on him to take over management of the Chicago office.

Suddenly Chelsea was wearing a troubled expression. “Um, Mom…?”.

“What’s wrong, Chels?” asked Karen.

“Are we gonna have to move to Chicago? If Dad’s working there, won’t we have to?”

“Chelsea, your father and I have talked about that and, for the time being, he’ll be spending Monday through Friday in Chicago and coming home on the weekends. Nothing will change with my schedule, so I’ll be home every day after school. As for the long-term picture… well, we’ll just have to wait to see how things play out. Are you okay with that?”

“I guess. I sure don’t want to move. That would mean leaving all my friends,” Chelsea said, as she looked directly at me.

“Sweetie, we won’t have to think about that for at least nine months. That’s how long your father’s company said it would take them to decide on the future of the Chicago office.”

I thought this would be a good time to change the topic. “Chelsea, let’s worry about that later. Didn’t you have something you wanted to tell your mom? Something we discussed earlier?”

Chelsea was visibly nervous, but when she looked at me for support, I nodded and said, “It’s time.”

Taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders, Chelsea rose from the couch and walked across the room  to stand before her mother. “Mom,” she said, “I’m really glad you’re here.”

“I am, too, Chels. Thank you for inviting me, Kim,” Karen said with a quick glance my way.

“Mom, I think you know what Miss Johnson… um… Kim and I have been doing together this weekend. And I think it’s something you wanted to happen. Am I right about that? Did you set this up?”

“Yes, you’re right. I wanted to give you and Kim the chance to – to be together…”

“It’s cool, Mom,” Chelsea said, breaking into a big smile. “It really is. It’s exactly what I hoped might happen. I love Kim so much. I’ve wanted this for a long time.” She hesitated, then carried on. “A couple months ago, when Emily slept over after the pool party, she told me how she’d walked into her sister Madison’s room and caught her, um touching herself… down there. Madison wasn’t mad or anything. She even showed Emily what she was doing, then taught her how to do it. Well, that night Emily slept over, she showed me how. I got to watch her pull her panties down and rub herself, until she came, then she watched me while I did it.”

“Oh, my,” murmured Karen, a hint of red in her cheeks. “So… did you enjoy touching yourself that way?”

“I did, Mom. A lot. Ever since that night, I’ve been doing it; what Emily showed me. She said her sister likes to think of sexy things when she touches down there, so I’ve been doing that too. That makes it even better.”

Placing both hands on her daughter’s waist, Karen drew Chelsea close for a brief but loving kiss, then asked, “What sort of sexy things do you think of, dearest?”

Chelsea gazed into her mother’s eyes as she answered.  “I think of Kim… and you.”

The sigh that escaped Karen’s lips was one of purest happiness. “Thank you for telling me that. Now, can I tell you a secret?” Chelsea nodded. “I touch myself, too. Nearly every night. Do you want to know who I think of when I do that?” Her arms were still twined around her child’s waist as she answered her own question “More than anything else, Chelsea, I think of you. Lately I’ve been thinking about you walking around the house in nothing but your panties and t-shirt. You’ve been doing that on purpose, haven’t you? To get your mommy all hot and bothered, am I right? Oh, my lovely, wicked little girl.”

“Yeah, you caught me,” Chelsea answered, blushing a bit. “Mom, you’re so pretty. Everyone says so. All my friends think you’re the best looking mom at our school. I’ve been letting you see me in my underpants ‘cause I wanted to know if you thought I was pretty, too.”

“Silly girl, of course I think you’re pretty. You know that. I think you’re the loveliest creature in the world.”

“Of course you do. You’re my mom!” Chelsea giggled. Then she looked away, suddenly bashful. “It isn’t just that, though. Um… do you think I’m sexy? That’s what I really wanted to know.”

“Oh, I do, sweetie,” Karen answered. “You’re incredibly sexy.”

“Sometimes, Mom, I – I imagine what it would be like to kiss you. Really kiss you, not like mothers and  daughters are supposed to… but I’m scared if I do, it’ll mess things up between us.”

Karen arched an eyebrow. “Mess things up?”

“Yeah, ‘cause moms and daughters aren’t supposed to kiss like that. But I… I can’t stop thinking about doing that with you. And there’s other stuff I want to do, like, um, take off all your clothes, then my clothes, and snuggle with you with both of us bare naked. Is that… is it bad?”

“Well, some people might think it’s wrong,” Karen began, “but like I’ve always told you, it’s your life and you have to choose what’s right for you. By making our own decisions and not focusing on what others say is good or bad, that’s how we learn what works for us, makes us happy.” Karen paused, giving her daughter a shy smile. “Besides… I like to think about being naked with you, too. And when I have thoughts like those, you and I are doing a lot more than snuggling.”

Chelsea slowly nodded. “So it’s okay if we kiss, huh?” Her eyes were shining with anticipation.

“More than okay, sweetie.”

I felt a bit self-conscious, watching this mother/daughter exchange, but wasn’t about to look away. I was fully aware of their mutual desire, and eager to see what happened next.

It didn’t take long. Cupping Chelsea’s face in both hands, Karen drew her daughter in for a kiss.

For a good two minutes there was no break between them. The kiss was bashful at first, but gradually just got deeper and deeper until Chelsea’s lips parted. Karen was quick to seize the initiative, slipping her tongue into the girl’s mouth. Chelsea responded right away, meeting and matching her mother’s passion.

Finally breaking away, Karen gave Chelsea a brief kiss on each cheek, then bent to nuzzle her daughter’s neck below the ear. “Oh, wow,” the girl whispered.

When Karen sat back, a dreamy cast to her eyes, Chelsea grinned. “Mom, you kiss really good!”

“So do you, my love. Where did you learn to kiss like that? As if I didn’t know,” she added, glancing over at me.

“Oh, I had a very good teacher,” Chelsea replied, giving me a wink.

As mother and daughter came together in a loving hug, Karen gazed at me over Chelsea’s shoulder. “Kim, it looks like we’re all going to get what we hoped for. Would you like to join us?”

“Not just yet,” I answered. “You and Chelsea need some time together first. For right now, I’m happy just to watch.” My panties were already soaked all the way through, though.

Karen returned her attention back to Chelsea, who simply said, “She’s right, Mom. Me and Kim have this all planned out. Everything we’re gonna do tonight. You just sit back and enjoy.”

What followed was probably the sexiest scene I’ve ever witnessed.

Chelsea was wearing a yellow floral patterned sundress she’d worn, wanting to look cute and girly for her mother. Reaching back to unfasten the clasp at the neck, she shrugged it off her shoulders. The look on Karen’s face as the dress dropped to the floor was one of unbridled desire. Underneath, Chelsea wore a baby blue panty and bra set that she knew her mother would love.

As if on automatic pilot, Karen reached out to her daughter, but Chelsea and I had worked out this part in detail. Seizing her mother’s arms, she pushed them back against the cushions of the couch. “Mom, I have things I want to do for you right now. Just sit back and relax, okay? You’ll get to play with me soon, I promise.”

Karen glanced at me, wide-eyed and thrilled to bits. I told her, “Trust me, you’re gonna love this.”

Chelsea’s mother was wearing those Levi 501’s that fit her ass so beautifully, the same ones I’d followed through her house just a few weeks ago, the night we fucked when her husband was out. Her top was an untucked white long sleeve camp shirt with the sleeves rolled up. She hadn’t bothered with a bra, and her nipples were clearly outlined through the fabric.

Reaching out, Chelsea allowed her fingers to lightly brush the tips of her mother’s breasts. They strained against the thin material, and Karen gave a quick intake of breath.

“You like that, Mom?” Chelsea murmured as she continued to tease the stiffened buds with feather-light touches.

“Yes, sweetie. I like that a lot,” Karen responded in a husky tone, her eyes glazed over with pleasure.

Chelsea began to unbutton her mom’s blouse with fingers made clumsy by her own excitement. Working her way down, she kept glancing up at Karen, who could only stare in wonder as she was undressed by her eleven-year-old daughter. The hunger I saw on their faces was so intense I thought I might come just from watching them.

When the buttons were all unfastened, Chelsea took a deep breath, then slowly spread the blouse open to expose her mother’s breasts. By then, my hand had found its way between my legs and I was rubbing my clit through my jeans.

I’ll never forget the image of Chelsea reaching out to take her mother’s nipples between index fingers and thumbs, then giving them an experimental pinch. Karen’s head lolled back and she moaned as her daughter, my fifth grade student, rolled her nipples, then tugged at them.

“Oh, my God,” Karen whimpered. “So nice, soooo nice.”

I could see Chelsea feeding off her mom’s reaction to what she was doing. The more Karen moaned and squirmed, the more attention Chelsea lavished on her nipples. Karen’s face was lit up with purest rapture, while her daughter’s expression was serious, a girl of eleven focused on making her mother feel good. I don’t think either of them believed they’d ever fulfill their fantasy of being lovers, but now it was happening for real, and they were losing themselves in one another.

I unbuttoned my jeans, shoving a hand in my panties to play with my pussy. As I plunged a finger in and out of the juicy opening, I noticed Chelsea straddling her mother’s thigh, rocking forward and back, grinding her clit against the rough texture of Karen’s jeans.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Chelsea,” I reminded her. “Remember what we talked about; how we’re doing this.”

“Oh, yeah… sorry,” Chelsea responded. Giving her head a little shake as if to clear it, she slid back on her mother’s leg, then bent to kiss Karen’s nipple.

I’d taught Chelsea to take this step very slowly, to tease the tip of the breast with her lips and tongue before she began to suckle. I watched her lick around each nipple in turn, taking care to only touch the areola. It only made Karen desperate for more; at one point, she twisted her upper half in an attempt to push more of her breast into the girl’s mouth. But Chelsea responded by pulling away and moving to the other breast, which elicited a mournful cry from her increasingly frustrated mother..

“Sweetheart, please,” Karen begged. “Please!”

Chelsea finally gave in, taking the right nipple into her mouth. I knew she was circling the tip with her tongue while lightly sucking, a technique I’ve used for years on my female lovers. I’d taught her to be gentle at first, let the sensations build slowly. I could also tell Chelsea was carefully using her teeth to exert the slightest pressure on the nipple, just enough to stimulate without hurting. The rapturous look on Karen’s face and her sharp intakes of breath told me the technique was having its desired effect.

After giving ample attention to each of her mother’s breasts, Chelsea pulled back and teased the moistened nipples with her fingers while gazing deep into Karen’s eyes. A dazed Karen stared back, her expression a mixture of awe, adoration and helpless lust.

Reaching down, Chelsea grabbed her mother behind the knees. When Karen felt the girl’s tug, she lifted her hips, allowing herself to be positioned on the edge of the couch.

“Mom, I’m gonna take off your jeans and panties now. Is that okay?”

Karen could only whisper, “Yes, sweetie…”

Chelsea bent over to unbutton her mom’s jeans, then slowly wriggled them down, taking a pair of sexy lavender panties along with them. Pausing to yank Karen’s white Converse sneakers off and toss them over by the fireplace, Chelsea finished removing the pair of snug jeans, which then she draped over the arm of the couch.

Now Karen was naked from the waist down, and her eleven-year-old daughter paused in the midst of her work to take a long, lingering look, gently easing the woman’s knees apart until only inches remained between her face and her mother’s cunt.

Chelsea took a moment to study her mother’s private parts, drawing closer to breathe in the tantalizing scent. I saw her react with a little smile that aroused my curiosity. Getting to my feet, I quickly stripped out of my own clothes.

Looking up at her mother, Chelsea said, “Mom… you asked me what I think about when I touch myself. Well, kissing you – that’s the first thing I imagine. The second? That’s this,” she said, leaning forward to lick the length of her mother’s pussy. A whimper escaped Karen’s lips. “You’ve always taught me to go after what I want. Well, Mom, I want you. I want this.”

The look on Karen’s face was one of utter disbelief as she watched Chelsea licking her, over and over, from anus to clit. Then the girl settled in to explore, first sucking on her mother’s labia, then probing the vagina with hard thrusts of her tongue.

“Oh, God,” groaned Karen, bringing her left hand up to caress her breasts and nipples while the right hand stroked, then gripped the long blonde hair of her daughter. The sound of Chelsea’s exertions grew slightly muffled, telling me that Karen was pressing the eleven-year-old’s face against her vulva. Not that Chelsea seemed to mind. She was gripping her mother’s hips as if hanging on to the woman for dear life.

Karen was lost in sexual rapture. Her head lolled back, eyes closed and mouth open, moaning soft and low. Chelsea briefly raised her head to draw a deep breath before re-engaging with her mom’s cunt, snaking her tongue into the juicy hole. I could see how wet Karen was and hear the liquid sounds of Chelsea’s mouth as she went down on the woman who had birthed her, had raised her to the verge of womanhood.

By then, my pussy was dripping with arousal, and I fingered myself hard and fast to the sight of this lewd mother-daughter sex show. I brought my fingers to my mouth, dripping with nectar, and sucked them clean.

Karen was panting like a marathon runner as she arched her back, forcing her pussy against Chelsea’s face. She was clutching her daughter’s head so tightly that for a moment, I wondered if the girl was able to breathe.

Chelsea wasn’t letting up for a second, I could see that much. In fact, mother and daughter were moving together in a shared rhythm, each lick of Chelsea’s met with a matching thrust of the hips from Karen. Neither seemed to show any signs of tiring. Short, sharp cries escaped Karen’s trembling lips with every lick, kiss and tongue thrust from her little girl.

It was a sight that filled me with pride. Chelsea had always been a top-notch student school, especially in my class, but the sheer dedication she’d brought to learning the ways of lesbian sex was downright awe-inspiring. An honor graduate from my school of love, I thought with a smile.

A small spark of ecstasy surged through me, and I knew my own orgasm was fast approaching. I seemed to hover in that giddy moment between anticipation and release when I saw Karen freeze in place, letting out an impassioned moan as Chelsea attacked her clit. Then that moan rose into a scream, and Karen gripped the couch with white knuckles as a wall-shaker of a climax shook her body.

Chelsea didn’t stop, though, just kept sucking her mother’s clit until Karen blurted, “Enough! I c-can’t take any more!”

My own orgasm followed quickly. I was plunging two fingers into my cunt while I mercilessly assaulted my breasts with the other hand, giving each nipple a few hard pinches to accentuate the pleasure I felt.

Finally I collapsed, utterly spent, into the chair and basked in the sweet aftermath… that is, until I felt kisses on my inner thigh and a young girl’s lips nuzzling my cheek. My lips parted to accept Chelsea’s tongue, then I moaned into our kiss as the feather-light caress of Karen’s tongue began to soothe my throbbing. She was so gentle and tender, using her mouth and fingers to lovingly relax me.

I was soon surprised to feel another orgasm approaching. Somehow Karen was coaxing it out of me with her lovemaking skills. Damn, she’s good, I told myself.

Momentarily breaking our kiss, Chelsea whispered, “We love you, Kim. Come for us.”

My young lover’s words were like a trigger, setting me off in a climax unlike any I’ve ever felt before. It was light. It was love. And it made me feel as if I was floating on a sunlit cloud, wrapped in the arms of angels. I felt warm tears of joy on my cheeks as I drifted off.

My blackout was a brief one. When I opened my eyes, Chelsea and Karen were snuggled against me. “Look who’s come back to earth,” Karen cooed. I sighed, wrapping an arm apiece around my eleven-year-old lover and her mother.

I gave my head a gentle shake. “My God, that was amazing. That was everything I could have hoped for, more than I could imagine. I’ve never experienced anything like it.”

“Which part?” Karen asked.

I raised my hands, palms up, and said, “I don’t know. All of it, I think.”

We shared a laugh, and I managed to prop myself up on both elbows. Looking at Chelsea, I asked, “Just before you smelled your mother’s pussy I saw you smile, like it made you think of something. What was that?”

Chelsea’s cheeks took on an extra hint of pint. “Oh, that,” she said, clearly a bit embarrassed. “Well, as soon as I got Mom’s panties off, I remembered how much I love that smell.” Glancing at her mother, she added, “Um, Mom… I’ve kinda been sneaking panties out of your laundry basket and, er, taking them to bed with me.” She looked away. “I like smelling them when I touch myself.”

Karen took her daughter’s hand. “It’s okay, sweetie… to tell the truth, I’m not at all surprised to hear that. I noticed my panties have gone missing from the hamper, and I’ve found them stashed in your pillow case more than once. I imagine you’re already very familiar with the smell of my pussy. Maybe the taste, too.”

“It tastes even better when it’s fresh, though,” Chelsea murmured, reaching out to caress her mother’s cunt. You knew I was sneaking off with your panties? And I thought I was being careful!”

Karen laughed at that. “Well, I have favorite pairs,” she said, ”and I noticed they weren’t in the laundry. It only took me a couple of minutes to guess where they probably were. Sure enough, I found them in the first place I checked.”

“Chelsea, you are so busted,” I chuckled.

“Me, busted? I’m not the only one with a thing for used undies.” She gave Karen a penetrating look. “Mom, I know you’ve been sneaking panties out of my room, too. Whenever Dad’s out of town, a pair or two always seem to go missing from the floor of my room. I didn’t find them in a pillow case, but when I looked in your nightstand… well, there they were.”

I gave Karen a look of mock astonishment. “You’ve been stealing Chelsea’s used underwear? Aren’t you the naughty mommy!”

“You’re not off the hook, either, Kim,” Chelsea continued, turning to me. “I know you and Mom got into my dirty laundry the night you visited. When I went to bed, there was a huge damp spot on the bed, and I could smell your perfume on my sheets. Then the next morning, I noticed all my dirty panties were piled on top of the laundry on the hamper.” She wagged a finger at her Mom and me. “Naughty mommy and naughty teacher, I’d say.”

After a stunned pause, the three of us burst into laughter, carrying on so hard we ended up falling together in a heap. Karen was first to pull herself together and she grabbed Chelsea, taking her down to the carpet so the girl was lying beneath her. “You little tease, you’re quite right. Kim and I had your panties in a pile in the middle of your bed and we sniffed them while we fucked. We really enjoyed that… in fact, I’d like to do it again.”

With that, Karen pushed Chelsea’s legs apart, burying her face in the dampness of her daughter’s panties. Taking a deep breath, she made a real scene of savoring the scent of a young girl’s arousal.

“Oh, wow,” Chelsea whispered, staring at her mother.

Karen looked up. “How was that, sweetheart? Do you like me smelling you this way? Don’t answer. From the look on your face, I can tell you do. Maybe being a naughty mommy is a good thing, eh?” She turned to me, her eyes alight with renewed desire. “Join me, Kim. Help me make love to my little girl.”

As I moved closer, Karen arranged herself in a sixty-nine position with Chelsea on top, the girl’s cute little bottom jutting out, inviting me to explore. Karen was looking up at me, lightly teasing the gusset of Chelsea’s panties with swipes of her tongue.

I joined the game, burying my face between the buttocks of my eleven-year-old lover, then taking a deep, audible sniff of her ass through soft cotton panties. She wriggled with delight, and I raised my face to say, “Being a naughty teacher is pretty fucking hot, too… don’t you think so, Chelsea?”

“Oh God, yes,” she moaned, “but it would be soooo much hotter if you guys would take these stupid panties off and lick me for real. Okay?”

We shared a laugh, a brief one. Hooking two fingers in the waistband of Chelsea’s panties, I gave it a gentle tug, giving Karen a knowing smile. She got the idea right away, grasping her daughter’s underpants from the other side, and we pulled them down together. With a blissful sigh, Chelsea lifted her knees so we could finish stripping her naked.

I pressed the sodden panties to my face for one last sample of that luscious scent, then placed them on the end table. Meanwhile, Karen was staring at her daughter’s pussy, the gentle cleft framed by rosy pink labia. Chelsea’s sex glistened with wetness; I watched as a single droplet slowly trickled down to her mother’s waiting mouth. Karen’s lips parted as she extended her tongue to capture it.

It was a mesmerizing sight, guaranteed to warm the heart of a girl-loving lesbian like me: a beautiful naked woman, tasting her equally lovely underage daughter for the first time. I’d had a knee-trembler of an orgasm mere moments earlier, but I was already frantic for more. Christ, my cunt was throbbing like a V-8 engine.

The smell of arousal filled the air, which only served to spur my lust higher. Bending down, I buried my nose between Chelsea’s cheeks, allowing myself to bask in her most intimate aroma. A hot shiver coursed through my body. I’d been patient all day, holding back from getting naked with my young lover and having her yet again, putting our bedroom festivities on hold until Karen arrived. Now I was ready to play.

Eager as I’d been to see Chelsea seduce her mother, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy while I watched. She was my girl first, I kept thinking, and much as I adored Karen, a small part of me didn’t want to share. Selfish and stupid, I know, but the heart of a lover is anything but rational.

Putting these damaging thoughts aside, I sat up for a moment to gaze at the scene below me. Karen had carefully spread Chelsea’s nether lips apart and was exploring the interior of her daughter’s vagina with quick, flashing licks. Chelsea was so turned on that her mother’s mouth and chin were already generously coated with her fluids. I was already making plans to give Karen a big, messy kiss afterwards.

Returning my attention to my young lover’s tiny, upturned ass, I noticed Karen’s licking seemed to be causing Chelsea’s rosebud to relax. I placed both hands on those wondrously soft buttocks, then bent down to press the tip of my tongue against the girl’s anus.

Chelsea’s delighted squeak and her subsequent moans told me how much she loved being rimmed. I continued to work my tongue in as she gradually opened up to receive me. Soon enough I was able to push my tongue in about an inch, and I could feel Chelsea pushing her ass up to meet my downward thrusts. Karen was still below me, tongue-fucking her little girl’s cunt.

Little whimpers from Chelsea’s lips told us she was on the verge of orgasm. A small shudder ran through her body and didn’t stop, just got bigger and bigger until her entire body was bucking up and down. Karen and I held on for dear life, trying to keep Chelsea steady as she came. I could hear the liquid sounds of Karen’s mouth and tongue as she feasted on her daughter’s nectar. Having gone down on Chelsea several times by then, I could eagerly attest to the sweetness of her pussy.

Chelsea’s orgasm was frantic, intense and loud. The girl’s moans of pleasure became short little screams as her ecstasy reached its unimaginable peak. Finally her body gave out, and she collapsed onto her mother.

Gently rolling the limp girl onto her side, Karen kissed the top of her daughter’s head, burying her lips in the tousled hair. Chelsea turned to face Karen, wrapping both arms around her smiling mother, and the two new lovers came together in a passionate kiss.

“That was amazing,” Chelsea barely got out when they broke apart. “I’ve never felt anything so nice.” She immediately went into a huge yawn, making it clear that she wouldn’t be awake for much longer. Settling down with a contented purr, she buried her face in her mother’s neck.

Karen looked up at me, her eyes misted over with happy tears. “Thank you,” she whispered. “Oh, God, thank you, Kim. I’m so, so happy!” I scooted up to kiss her, and we shared the taste of Chelsea between us.

“Would you like to help me put her to bed?” Karen asked, cradling the girl to her breasts. “I think she’s down for the count!”

“Happy to,” I said, my heart warmed by the blissful expression on the dozing child’s face.

Karen scooped Chelsea up in her arms, and we headed back to the master bedroom. I turned down the covers so Karen could place her sleeping beauty in the center of the bed. We each gave Chelsea a tender kiss on the cheek.

Standing behind Karen, I reached around to hug her, pressing our nude bodies together. “How about we finish that bottle of wine?”

Karen clutched my arms to her. “Well, I wouldn’t say no.”

I plucked the wine bottle and a couple of glasses from the kitchen counter and took them out to the family room, where Karen was spreading a couple of blankets out by the fireplace. After switching on the gas fire, I sat down with her and filled our glasses, handing her one.

Taking a sip, she shook her head in wonder. “Kim, I can’t believe how beautifully this worked out. It’s a dream come true.”

“Isn’t it?” I replied. “God, it happened so fast.” I reached out; took her hand. “Karen, I… I love your daughter so much. More than I ought to, honestly. I know that the two of you might have to move one day… but Christ, the thought of giving her up – it just kills me inside.”

Karen nodded thoughtfully. “Well, there’s something you need to know, something I haven’t told Chelsea yet. Jim and I have decided to get a divorce, and he’ll be moving to Chicago for good. We thought it best to make our split more of a gradual process for Chelsea’s sake. Jim’s a good man and a fine father, but we’ve grown apart. I told him that I needed to be with other women, and he admitted to having found someone new in Chicago. He’s already set up a place with her, actually.”

“My goodness,” I said. “It feels like I should say how sorry I am, but it seems to be for the best… except  that Chelsea will be losing her dad. I imagine she won’t be happy about that.”

“Oh, Jim will definitely stay involved in Chelsea’s life,” Karen said. “And he’ll be providing financial support, of course. But I’ve got resources of my own. My business is doing very well, I’ll be only two years away from owning our home outright, and we already have the money set aside to cover the cost of college for Chelsea. Here’s the thing, though: my work is pretty demanding… and as the business grows, I’m going to need someone to help me run it.” She paused. “Kim, I want to hire you.”

I could only gape in disbelief. “Me? I don’t know anything about marketing. How could I be of any help to you? Besides, I have a job already.”

“Kim, you’re smart, personable and you’re a great teacher. I know you’ve got what it takes to communicate with the kind of customers I want to attract. I know I’m asking a lot, but this could be a very lucrative move for you. This job would give you real financial security.”

“I… I’m flattered you think this is something I can succeed at. Can I have some time to think it through?”

Karen smiled. “Of course. Take all the time you need. Now, enough about business matters. I want to show you how much I appreciate what you’ve done for Chelsea and me.”

Placing our wine glasses on the hearth, Karen shoved me onto my back. She gave me a brief but fierce kiss, then nuzzled her way down to my nipples. The tenderness of our earlier lovemaking was gone… this time, my partner intended to take me hard and fast. She squeezed my breasts, then gave each nipple a sharp love bite.

My cunt was on fire, and a wet spot was already spreading beneath me.

Peering deep into my eyes, Karen murmured, “I know you and Chelsea like to keep it sweet and romantic when you’re in bed. But I also know you like it a little rough sometimes. So buckle up, lover, ‘cause we’re about to take a wild ride…”

With that, Karen thrust two fingers deep into my cunt and began to pound me mercilessly. I couldn’t recall the last time I’d been to thoroughly fucked. Not since my bar days, right after I’d come out and was making like the proverbial kid in the candy store.

Thankfully, Chelsea slept through the next two hours of her mom and me, spread out in front of the fireplace,  getting into the kind of sex that a girl of eleven wouldn’t be ready for any time soon.

Epilogue

Three years after that first weekend Karen, Chelsea and I are living together as a family. Sure enough, I left my teaching gig to work for Karen and it turned out even better than she hoped. Last month, Karen and I became partners in a new venture, KK&C Marketing Consultants. The following week, we expanded our partnership even further by getting married.

Jim did take over the Chicago office for his company, and is also married and expecting a child in three months. He visits occasionally, and Chelsea always spends at least a day or two with him. She jokes that she probably sees him more now than when he and Karen were together.

My home life with Karen and Chelsea is actually fairly typical, given its unusual origin. We co-parent just like any couple does. Of course, there is one very crucial, very secret difference. At least twice a week, the three of us end up in the master bedroom for what Chelsea calls, “play time,” where we get naked and come together as lovers.

Honestly, though, that isn’t what defines our relationship. What does define us is love itself. I am madly, desperately in love with Karen and Chelsea, and they adore me and each other with the same fierce passion.

I have to run now. Chelsea is having a sleepover tonight with Emily and two of her other friends, and I promised to fire up the grill and cook hamburgers.

The End