Ch. 8: Preview #1

I'm back! Got a fair bit of content built up now, so I'll be posting more regularly in the coming weeks and try to keep things rolling along. Here's the start of Chapter 8.

***

On the way home, Jen thought a lot about what Alice had said: how, as she became stronger and more competent and capable, those around her would start to seem different by comparison.  That’d been so very true just now at school.  Her classmates (boys and girls alike) and even her teacher – people she used to look up to and be intimidated by, who she used to yearn for their approval – they all seemed so much lesser than she remembered.  Not scary at all.  Not invincible.  Flawed, just like her.  Well, not just like her.  There were differences. 

Anyway, some things she used to make a huge deal of just weeks ago now seemed almost kinda trivial.  And on the flip side, some people she used to write off as petty and mean seemed actually really nice, when she made an effort to get to know them.  There might be a lot more nice people out there than just Amir, and that had been really eye-opening to see.  And it put her in an unexpectedly good mood.

Although … she was about to come home to her lazy teammate again, so who knows how long that mood would last.

 ***

Fuuuuuuck fuck fuck fuck – Alice kept sending pictures to Theo’s phone!  Each more sultry and steamy than the last.  More revealing.  More completely impossible to ignore.

Once again, his erection was forced to abort before it could even begin.  The chastity cage served as a constant, almost minute-by-minute reminder of how completely Alice controlled him right now.  One thing was certain: she was not messing around, in terms of her threat to ask Jen about his behavior today.  She would absolutely cut him off from sex, in any form, if he gave her even a slight reason to.  For days and days, if she felt like it.  No doubt tormenting him the whole time.

Jen’s car pulled into the driveway, and his spirits sank.  He had no choice here.  He simply did not.  He had to play the game Alice’s way.  Which meant, among other things, doing exactly what Jen tells him.  To a ‘T’.  All day long.

Oh helllll.  His cock tried to stir again as he peeked out through the blinds.  He wasn’t supposed to react that way to his own daughter!  He knew that wasn’t Alice’s intent.  It was just a terrible, persistent side effect of the lust already swimming through his mind.  One look at Jen’s attributes stuffed into those tight, edgy, distressing clothes pulled his mind unavoidably into forbidden territory once more.

He scurried across the room, anxious to emphasize his total focus and commitment to chores when Jen walked in.  He’d worked his ass off all morning – seriously.  His butt and all his other muscles were sore from so much nonstop crouching and cleaning and scrubbing, knocking task after task off Jen’s preposterous list of assignments.  And now he was wrapping up lunch, though running a few minutes behind from instructed.

Jen stepped in and noticed the very clean entryway immediately.  The tidy living room.  Hell, even the office looked pretty well picked up.  “Uhh… teammate?” she called, walking toward the kitchen.  “I’m home.”

With a quick pitter-patter of feet, her teammate appeared – and OMG, he had an oversized apron on and a big spatula in his hand.

“I—ack!—lunch is almost—I-I’m just waiting for the sandwiches to be … um …”  Her teammate trailed off in confusion.  “What?”

Jen’s mouth had curled in a surprised smile.  He just looked … honestly adorable in that way-too-big apron.  It may’ve stopped above his knees once, but now hung almost literally to the floor like an actual dress!  That plus the unwieldy spatula in his hand gave him a surprising air of a young one playing dress-up.  If this was Amir she would’ve died of cuteness overload, but even on him the effect was not dissimilar.

She’d come in ready to scold and berate him for more half-assed behavior.  But so far he’d completely flipped her expectations around.  She found herself easing off; even smiling again.  “Nothin’.  Carry on.”

He frowned uncertainly but whisked back into the kitchen in some big hurry.  She trailed after him to find—oh gosh—he had to literally stand up on his toes to reach into the skillet and flip the sandwiches on the stove.  The jarring likeness to Amir hit her again, prompting her to let loose even more as she sauntered up to the diminutive fella from behind.

“Ho-ly shit,” she hummed, taking liberty to reach down past his head and lift up the corner of one of the sandwiches.  “Ham and swiss grilled cheese,” she declared, her smile broadening.  “You know that’s my literal favorite?”

“Well yeah, that’s why I—u-uh—”

Her teammate’s voice was suddenly chopped off as he turned and found himself face-to-midsection.  The popping of his eyes and sudden wriggle were not lost on Jen.  Lol!  Funny how much effect the extra six inches of heels seemed to have on him.  Inspired to mischief, she leaned a little farther still to inspect the soup on the back burner.  “Tomato basil bisque, too!  Damn, somebody’s tryin’ hard to get on my good side.  Lucky for you, I think it’s kinda working.”

Theo wrenched his eyes from his daughter’s hovering tits just in time to see her hand settle atop his head – and muss his hair vigorously.  Bewilderingly.  Almost painfully.  What the--

“Hey.”  She turned serious for a moment, her gaze beaming down from miles above.  “Just to be clear, you’re not off the hook for this morning.  Your attitude was total shit and I haven’t forgotten.  Buuuut … gotta say this is a freakin’ good start for makin’ up for it.”

She attacked his hair again, buffeting him, before she swiveled and strutted away.  Even half breathless and dizzy, his eyes still focused right in on that skirt.  That ass.  Those shoulder-high, picture-perfect legs that twisted his mind in knots at the mere sight of them.

Holy crap, he needed desperately to jerk off, to clear his head.  Oh, this was baaaad…

Minutes later, he felt like a kid sitting at the grown-up table as he sat across from Jen.  He’d need a booster seat soon at this rate.  Permanently blushing now, he kept his eyes fixed on his plate, away from her far too alluring physique, while he wondered if he’d even be able to finish this one big sandwich.  It was the same size as the one Jen had wolfed down in under a minute flat then asked if she could have the last two.  He’d said yes, of course; even hopped up and fetched it for her, unbidden, like the ridiculous wimp he was.

And yet her surprised, appreciative smile gave him a slight rush of adrenaline again.  Only from basic relief, surely.  Self-preservation.  Not … gulp … not because an arrestingly big, beautiful young woman had just smiled at him.  Not at all.

“S-So things went well?” he prompted aloud, currying favor.  “At school?”

She stopped chewing in mid-bite, quirked her brow.  “Uhh, what?  Since when have you asked about my personal life – like, ever?”

“Huh?  I … I do,” he protested, caught off-guard.  “A lot!”

“A lot?”  Jen snorted half-humorously and leaned forward.  “Name the last time you’d asked.” 

Shit.  He literally couldn’t remember when.  It … It may’ve been a verrry long time.

She folded her big arms.  Strummed the table.  “I’m waiiiiiting…”

He shook.  “U…Uhh…”

“Dude, just fuckin’ with ya.  Relax!”  She cracked up and took a big bite of sandwich.  “Already told ya: for the time being, you’re gettin’ a free pass for all that shit you did before – or didn’t do.  Get to start fresh!  You’re judged only by what you do from yesterday on.  Pretty nice, huh?”

She seemed unsurprised when he didn’t muster a reply.  “I kinda like that you’re taking an interest in me now.  Smart move, Mouse.”  She winked, took another bite, and divulged, “So, to answer your question: yeah, school actually went pretty damned great!  I guess you know by now I used to get bullied a ton there and had the worst time making friends.  It was really, really awful for me.  Things changed lately when I took the growth pills, buuuut I basically fucked that situation up too.  So at first I had literally zero desire to go back there or see any of them ever again.  But it turns out I was wrong, maybe – some of ‘em are actually really nice people and I’m kinda glad I went back.”

Bullying.  That was completely news to him.  Or would’ve been, except that she’d mentioned it in Saturday’s pre-round interview.

So apparently she hadn’t just been making it up for the show.  Jesus, how had he been that aloof? 

It dawned on him that maybe Jen was right.  That maybe he hadn’t been the best parent in the world.  That in some ways, he maybe really had sucked at it.

Ow.  This unprecedented thought made his head actually hurt.