The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Skin to skin contact, that was all he had to do. Daniel looked across the table at Detective Bernake, his hand laying forward on the interrogation room table. All he had to do was reach for that hand. He could make the detective forget everything. He could make him not care about Daniel. He could make him feel wretchedly sick and unable to continue with the investigation, anything.

Yet it wasn’t that easy. It never was. So many things could still go wrong.

As it was Daniel wanted to trust him. But he wasn’t sure that he could. Telling him wasn’t like telling everything to Carol, he’d known her for years. She had known him for years and she trusted him. The detective staring back at him with azure eyes was an unknown. If the detective thought he was nuts he’d still be thrown in the cell. If he didn’t...that thought was almost scarier to him. If it turned out the detective believed him than he had no idea what he might do.

“Daniel, I know you’re a good kid,” Bernake began, “so how about we lay the bullshit aside and you level with me?”

“Or else you throw me in a cell?”

Bernake nodded,“ Sharon will be all alone. You won’t be there to help her. And I will be trying to deal with Andrew just the same.”

Daniel continued to chew the thought over in his head. His eyes looking down at Bernake’s hand. His head turned towards the two way mirror along the wall. He wondered if anyone was on the other side. Would anyone see him if he did it? What might they think? And if he did it would it come to light that -

“There’s no one looking back Daniel,” Bernake said, as if reading his thoughts, “Just you and me.”

That didn’t make his decision easier. That meant that he knew he could get away with it. But he could be lying. He could just want him to act, to get tell him something without actually saying anything. But then again it was late. Much of the media had left the police station and he knew just by looking that there were fewer police officers there. Most would be out on the streets doing patrols.

“How,” Bernake continued, “did Andrew manipulate those people to do those things? Why were they all women? How did both you and him recover almost overnight from injuries that should have kept both of you in the hospital for weeks? There is no logical answer to those questions Daniel, or maybe there is, but someone just has to have an open mind about it.”

Daniel turned his eyes towards the detective, a slow nod, “Then what happens next?”

“That depends on what you say.”

That caused Daniel to pause. What did he mean by those words? Could he tell the complete truth? Caution pushed into his mind.“We used a series of drugs to mess with their brain chemistry.”

Impassive, Bernake’s head in his hand, “How was it delivered?”

“A...a syringe, we’d belt them down.”

“Both of you would do this? ”

“I don’t know.”

Still the even tone in Bernake’s voice,“What are you trying to protect?”

That caused Daniel to pause.

<He’s not believing you.>

Bernake smiled, amused,“You’re a terrible liar Daniel. The only reason you’re here right now with me and not in a cell is because you told me the truth before. And you have no idea how close I am to throwing you in a cell right now.”

Daniel bowed his head. He thought about the hand again. That was still his option, the chemical, skin to skin contact and Bernake would be letting him out the door. But it wasn’t right. But what other choices did he have?

Then he found that memory, the flecks of a conversation he had with Simon years ago.

“Listen Daniel, trust means taking a chance. It means a risk of rejection, and of being disappointed, and so many other bad things. But if you don’t take that risk you’ll never know anyone. And you know what happens then?”

“What?” he’d practically screamed with irritation.

“Nothing.”

That had been the start there. He’d always fought Simon before, and even after he continued. But those words had always seemed to follow him everywhere he went, making him wonder, making him think. Daniel stared down at the silver table in front of him, his hands below him in his lap, his eyes shifting and thoughtful. Silent. Maybe he had to take that chance.

He watched Detective get out of his chair and walk towards him. His hand came to rest on Daniel’s shoulder. “It’s your choice Daniel.”

“There’s a creature inside of me...and Andrew,” he heard himself say, “Skin to skin contact allows temporary mind control of any person.”

He felt the hand relax on his shoulder. Daniel continued, “Sex can alter their personality...turn them into anything that you want, it’s more permanent. “

Daniel felt the hand lift away from behind him, “And I take it that this creature allows you to heal faster than normal, allows you to do superhuman type things.”

Daniel nodded, “Yeah.”

He heard Bernake’s steps behind him, he saw him come forward and lean on top of the table, his eyes scanning him up and down slowly. After a few moments he slowly nodded, “Okay,” his head issued towards the door, “Get out of here.”

Confusion, “That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

Daniel stood up slowly from the table, his head turning between Bernake and the door, uncertain of whether he truly meant what he said.

But the detective made no moves to stop him. And Daniel had no intention of sticking around for him to change his mind.

“By the way kid,” he heard Bernake say.

Daniel paused at the door, his attention turned back towards the detective.

“You might want to check on Ms. Papadakus when you get to the hospital.”

Bernake caught the momentary surprise in his face. “What is she doing in the hospital?” Daniel asked.

“Andrew choked the hell out of her.”

Daniel face went thoughtful, fearful. “How?”

“You probably know that answer better than I do.”

He just nodded slowly as the door out of the interrogation room closed. Daniel on his way out of the station and towards his next destination.

Bernake slipped into the adjacent room, the one sitting behind the two way mirror. Charlie, his partner turned his head up towards him at the sound of the door opening.

“Nice work Phil,” he said to Bernake with a smile, “Why’d you let him go though?”

Bernake ignored the question,“Did you get it all?”

Charlie nodded,“Yeah, but if this shit‘s true... the whole thing is far too big for us to handle. We should be getting the FBI or the CDC or something like that.”

Bernake walked over to the VCR, pressing rewind on the machine,“Do you remember what his question was before he started lying?”

“ Yeah something like ‘what happens next?’... so what?”

“What do you think is going to happen to him if we tell those people?” Bernake pressed play on the screen. Five minutes ago came back to life, Daniel sitting in his chair across from Bernake. There’s a creature inside of me-“ Daniel says

“They’ll make him a guinea pig, but that’s not our responsibility. We’re just police officers Phil.”

He pressed the stop button on the machine, the screen went blank,“I can’t let that happen to him. He really thought that no one else was watching. And if what he said about his powers was true-“

“If this stuff breaks it falls on your head and mine.”

Bernake pressed the eject button on the machine, reaching for the tape, “I know, but I can’t do it, the kid hasn’t done anything really wrong. And it’s obvious that he’s trying to stop what’s going on with Andrew.”

Charlie watched his partner take the tape up in his hand, wondering what his intentions were to do with it and the interrogation it had recorded on it,“Are you supporting vigilantes Phil?”

He slammed the tape hard against the edge of a nearby table. Black plastic shattered everywhere on the floor. The memory tape slithered out in twisted and torn bundles. The contents of the recording lost. Charlie watched as Bernake picked the pieces up off of the floor and tossed them in the trash.

He turned his head up towards Charlie, “Yeah...I guess I am.”

Daniel stared at the white tile floors, the hospital beds and IV stands and steril overhead florescent bulbs humming ever quietly above. He walked mostly alone down the halls, his mind thinking about his destination; room 312, Immanuel Sanchez.

Visiting hours had ended about an hour ago. Few people gave much notice to him. The night nurses sat on duty, tending to the main desk duties and the occassional janitor mopped the floors. And of course the doctors that had worked in the emergency room, doing what they could for Immanuel Sanchez. The special circumstances had allowed them to extend those hours to both friends and family.

He’d been both surprised and grateful that Sharon had put him on the list for acceptable entries. It wasn’t that he had any intention of using his powers on the front desk clerk. He just had to see Immanuel. He had to know he was okay, and he didn’t want to be waiting outside to find out.

The questions kept running through his head as his empty foot steps trod on the pristine white linoleum floor. What could he do? What happens next? Andrew had to go, and he knew it, but how could he find him? And even then what was he going to do? He had to kill him. But even as he made that thought the fractitious seconds of the earlier night played in his head. Andrew had let him live. Andrew had let them all go when all he had to do was tell his slaves to finish him off. And in that fraction of a second when their eyes had met he had seen the tears in his eyes. And in the cracking of his voice he was almost sure of the regret.

<He still caused it.>

Do you believe in rehabilitation or punishment?

<Can people change?>

I’d like to think so. I’d like to think that I did.

<You think he should pay for what he has done.>

Yes, but what good is a dead man? There are other ways. There has to be.

It wasn’t simple anymore. He wasn’t sure if it ever was. It had started being about just saving his girlfriend at all costs. If that meant killing Andrew he had been prepared to do it. But somewhere between talking with Carol and Sharon, and seeing Andrew again things had changed.

But what could he do? What choices did he have?

His thoughts brought him to the doorway of 312, Sharon sitting just outside with a chair against the wall. She sat bent down, her head staring down at the ground. She didn’t even turn her head up as Daniel approached her.

He laid a hand down on her shoulder, “Hey, how you holding up?”

Her head shot up, her eyes relaxed as she saw who it was, “Daniel,” she gulped, her eyes looking away,”The same. Dad’s not doing too well either.”

Daniel took a step forward, his eyes peering in on the room. Jose Arcadio sat in a chair next to the hospital bed, his head in his hands, covering his face. He saw how his body shook and could swear that he heard the sound of crying. The woman he remembered as Aunt Mercedes clasped him by the shoulders, holding him.

Daniel turned towards the hospital bed, the attention of Sharon’s father. Immanuel’s eyes were closed, an IV and blood connected into his forearm. The heart monitor beeped with an almost anemic repetition. His skin was deathly pale.

“He was so proud when he was born,” he heard Sharon say behind him, “ someone to carry on the name you know?”

Daniel nodded slowly, turning his head back from the open door. He looked down at Sharon, her face stared up into his. He could see the wear on her face, the rings around the eyes, lines against her cheek pulled back and strained, like she was trying really hard to put on a brave face. It seemed to him that she’d been making a great effort to keep the tears in check. But it looked like at any time that the control might give out. “I’ve tried to help him, but I don’t know what I can do,” she whispered.

Daniel took a seat next to her, laying his arm over her shoulder, pulling her body against his. She leaned back into his arms, but her head continued to look away. He heard her haggard sigh.

“You okay?” He heard himself say, sitting in the empty hallway.

She turned her eyes on him. “Would you be okay right now?”

“No” he said simply hush.

Sharon nodded her head slowly, her eyes looking down, thoughtful. Her words came slow, almost far away. “What am I supposed to do Daniel? What can I do?”

He shrugged,“There’s nothing you can do.”

“And I’m tired of it” she said, bent down in a whispered exhale.

Daniel leaned his head against the wall, but his eyes never left her. Sharon with her back to him. He sighed,”What other choice do you have?”

“Something that scares me. But the other choice” the words trailed slowly out of her mouth, “Doing nothing is scarier.”

“What do you mean?”

Her head turned back towards his, he could see the tears starting to form in her eyes, “He hurts my family and I can’t do anything. I hate being powerless. And you, you can-”

And then she was in his arms, wrapping her arms around him. Daniel found his arms moving to do the same. Her head lay in his shoulder as the tears fell from her eyes. He felt her deep breaths gasping against his body. Her body heaving into his.

His head bent low. His arms stayed close around her, “You want me to put one of the creatures inside of you.”

She shook her head against his shoulder,”I want to stop Andrew.” Her bleary eyes turned up towards his, “And I’m tired of being someone to save.”

“There has to be another way.”

“If you have another one lets hear it.”

“Sharon” he found himself hesitating,”It could destroy you. You’re talking about sacrificing yourself for-“

“My family, for my own need for justice. I’m prepared to make that choice.”

Daniel turned his head away, leaning against the top of hers, “You’re overwrought,” he sighed heavily, “this is not the time to be making a choice like that.”

She shook her head,“Don’t do this. Don’t take this away from me. I need to do this. I need to be able to stop him.”

He couldn’t take it. He couldn’t do it. He wasn’t going to do it. “I have to...” he started, stopped,”I should go.” He slipped from Sharon’s grasp, moving into the hallway and stepping away. “I’m sorry.”

She sat, still turned towards where he had been, her head down towards the ground, “There is something to think about.”

He paused,“What?”

“You” as her head turned up towards his, “You still have you’re free will, and you have a creature.”

“But I’m a ‘master’ and that was purely a fluke. I don’t even know if that’s possible with a woman. Hell, there’s still so much that I don’t know about these things. That’s a chance Sharon. That’s a hell of a chance. I don’t know if I want to take that. I don’t think you should be either.”

Her head turned back down towards the floor, “I trust you Daniel. Look at what you’ve done so far. Think about what you could have done.”

Daniel felt his shoulder sag, the rising tension slipping from his body, “But you don’t know me. Hell I don’t even know ‘me.’ How can you trust me?”

“Because you ask stupid questions like that.”

His head shifted down the hall, spying the elevator, no the stairs. He sighed. He needed to walk. He needed to think. His head turned back towards Sharon. “I can’t answer you right now.”

She nodded her head, looking down the hallway he had been. “I know.”

He stood there for several moments longer, staring down at the ground. Why was he being confronted with these kinds of problems? Why couldn’t everything just be easier? Why did it have to be his responsibility to do these things?

His steps took him away from Sharon, down the stairs to the main floor. His head low, his body pausing, so many incomplete thoughts and feelings running through.

<There’s that feeling again.>

Daniel cast his eyes down the hall and out the door, wondering what he could do, wondering what he should do. Thinking about Sharon. I know. He thought to the creature inside of him. I know.

“So what now Phil? The kid, as far as you know is telling the truth. We have a story that makes sense in the context of what has happened, even if it is still nuts. That doesn’t get us any closer to Andrew. And there’s nothing stopping that kid from doing exactly what Andrew is doing.”

“Except for himself. You saw him. Kid looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.”

“Well I know what I would do if I had those kind of powers.”

“Yeah, and you’re not him.”

“You’re stupid fucking ‘gut instinct’ Phil.”

“Will you keep a lid on this?”

“Are you taking responsibilty for everything if it goes to hell?”

“Of course.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing.”

“I do too Charlie.”

“Where you heading?”

“Professor Malarkey.”

“I thought that was supposed to be me.”

“Well now I want to know something first hand.”

The night was cool, the evening clear, a near full moon set and shining in the dark sky. The stars remained hidden in the city light’s pollution. The exit on the side of the hospital building was empty and quiet. Carmen stood alone at the guard rail just outside, her back to the automatic doors, a pale cloud of cigarette smoke floated above her.

Daniel sighed. As the doors opened she didn’t even turn notice to his approach. Her body bent over the side. Her eyes staring skyward.

“Do you have an extra cigarette?”

Carmen turned her head down to Daniel. Her red rimmed eyes looked him up and down slowly,“Yeah...yeah, sure.”

The open box was passed to Daniel’s hand.

She watched him pull one out and place it in his mouth, using the offered lighter to give the embers life, “I didn’t know you smoked Daniel.”

“I almost never do,” he said, taking a long drag and an exhale. He passed the box and lighter back to Carmen.

“You know those things cause cancer” she said with a wane smile.

Daniel ignored it. He took the smoke in his two fingers, inhaling the smoke, the buzz. His eyes closed with an exhale. The nicotine high offering what little help it possibly could.

His eyes fell on Carmen, her almost hollow and red rimmed eyes, a noticeable pile of cigarette butts resting at her feet. She’d been there for awhile.“You okay Carmen?”

“No,” she said, taking a drag on her own, her head turning back up towards the sky.

“I know,” he said, following her eyes, gazing up at the purplish sky. The cloud of cigarette smoke rising slowly up towards it. “I think Immanuel will be alright. I hope that he comes out alright.”

“What are you doing here?” he heard Carmen say.

“What do you mean?”

Her head still remained turned away,“We don’t hang in the same crowds. And as far as I know until that party you hadn’t talked to Sharon once in the whole three years you went to school together. And I don’t even want to go into everything else that has happened since then. What kind of mess is Sharon in? What the fuck is going on?”

His head lowered, his body turned towards her leaning against the rail. He wasn’t sure how to phrase what had happened. He’d told too many people the truth already, and like Carmen had said, he hardly knew her,“ Andrew Smythe was coming after her, this man has some real power. He can do some terrible things. And I stopped him at that party. But now he’s coming after me and her. And to get at us he’s hurting a lot of other people.”

“So that shit really did happen at Wendel’s house?”

“What do you think?”

Abruptly she turned towards him, her eyes stared hard at his face.“Than you can stop him Daniel. You have to stop him. If the police can’t do it you better stop this shit. My mom goes missing. My family- I can’t even ignore it anymore. And I’ve been really fucking good at doing that.” The words spoken first strongly like a demand and then slowly ebbed away into the cracking, tearful whisper he knew all too well.

“I don’t know if I can,”he said, turning away, “I don’t like what I’ll have to do” he added after a moment.

Carmen lowered her head slowly downward, leaning heavily against the front guard rail. He could see her eyes shifting, her thoughts running. He waited for her to say something, but all he seemed to get in response was a heavy sigh.

Daniel swallowed hard, thinking about his problems, wondering,“Your sister wants me to do something...something that will change her...something that I don’t know if I can do-“

Again she just stared away,“It’s some really heavy shit going on isn’t it?”

“You have no idea.”

“And you can’t tell me what it is.”

“No...no I can’t.”

She stared long and hard at the ground in front of her, tossing her cigarette butt to the side,“I’m not the right person to be asking for advice Daniel. I’d always counted on Sharon for that. She’s always been really good, even when I didn’t want to hear it. If she doesn’t have it together I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

Daniel nodded his head slowly. He turned to leave.

“Daniel.”

“What?” he said with a pause.

“Don’t tell her I said that.”

That brought a small smile to his face,“I won’t.”

Jim held the cellphone in his hand, he heard the phone ring on the other side, “Come on. Come on, pick up.”

He heard the familiar click. Hi, you’ve reached Daniel Bates’ cellphone, apparently he doesn’t want to talk to you right now- He closed the flip phone shut, hanging up on the call. That had been the third time that he’d tried getting a hold of him, and a third time that he hadn’t picked up. He’d seen the recent news. He’d saw his face played out on every major news show on television, walking out of the Sanchez household, the media making guesses as to how he was connected with what had just happened, not lost on how he had been involved in the previous events.

He sat there, silent on the front stoop of his house, staring at the cellphone’s illumination, trying to make sense of everything that had happened. He thought about his voice, those words he had said to Lydia at the party, those words she had said before she jumped through that window, “Give Lydia back to me” he whispered.

What could he have meant by that? Why had he been saying it to Lydia? It was like the person standing in front of him hadn’t been her, or maybe he had been talking to someone else. No...no that wasn’t right, she’d responded to it, it had to have been her. But what then?

He felt like the outsider, trying to make sense of something that seemed to defy any of his usual definitions. He thought about the face that he saw on the television screens, the live camera feed, the tired eyes, and slumped posture, Daniel. Daniel being guided to the police car. Daniel being taken away.

Daniel...

He sighed, after all of the times they’d hung out and talked, and not just about bullshit. Sure there was the hot chicks, and movies, but sometimes also about stuff that really mattered. He hadn’t come to him. He wouldn’t come to him, which only could make him guess at how big what was going on was.

He couldn’t believe that anything that he might have done was criminal.

Which left only one choice for him. Jim turned his head back to the inside door, the bicycle sitting inside on the front porch. It was only a fifteen minute ride to the police station.

Daniel stands in the doorway of the open hospital room, leaning against the doorway, staring at the woman lying unconcious in the hospital bed; IV’s, a breathing mask over her face and tubes running in and out of her body.

Nikki Pappadakus.

His eyes run up and down the length of her comatose body, the familiar bleet of the heart monitor beating in the background. He takes a few closer, faltering steps, coming along her bedside. He pauses on her face, her closed, and peaceful eyes, her chest rising and falling with the pumping of the respirator. How did this happen?

Why isn’t she better already?

He could feel the creature’s hesitation, the pause it took in trying to come up with an answer It doesn’t know. It wants to know. It fears for her.

His attention turned back to Nikki, a beautful woman of an ice queen. Even under all of the different apparatuses he could still see that. Her large dark eyes, the prominent nose and slender lips, all working together to form the exotic greek of her face. How much better it had seemed to him with the softness that was forced in his intervention. And with that thought the other that flowed through it; she was here because of him, and the creature that had made her what she was now.

Daniel eyes dropped low I have to stop this you know. I have to stop all of this.

<It knows. It understands. It still lives.>

He stood, his mind rapt still with the unconscious woman laying before him. He wanted to know what was going on. Why wasn’t she up yet? Why wasn’t she conscious? What had Andrew done? His eyes continued to gaze upon her face, his hand rising to lay against her cheek.

Skin to skin contact, and then he felt the shock. A flurry of sensations and feelings seemed to vibrate through his arm. He felt the darkness, the world around him disappearing; the IV’s and tubes gone into nothingness, awareness of the hospital room shifting away into a faint residual. Pain, confusion, exhaustion.

And then Daniel’s eyes opened, he was lying on the floor, looking on the hospital bed’s wheels, the familiar bleet of the heart monitor in the background. Everything else remained the hospital quiet as his head slowly looked about him, slowly coming back to remember where he was.

What the hell was that?

<Her...It thinks it was her.>

I...I felt her?

<Yes...It thinks so.>

He sat up slowly from the linoleum, staring up at Nikki, trying to come to grips with what had just happened. Those thoughts, they were intense, incomplete, I was just aware of things, but couldn’t do anything else.

<Damage.>

Brain damage he added after a moment. I felt a bustle of work, like the creature inside of her was trying to...but couldn’t. He let the words trail off. As he concentrated on what the feeling had been he slowly began to realize the continued presence of what it was. In the back of his mind he still could see the darkness, he could still sense the half formed thoughts, and he was aware of the pain, but he no longer felt it.

<You notice that?>

What... it stood like a delicate thread between him and her, with an effort and concentration he seemed to be able to hold onto it. But he knew that the moment he stopped everything would disappear.

<It needs help...both do.>

Daniel stood up from the ground, again walking towards the bedside, looking on Nikki in a different light, knowing the real struggle that went on just underneath the surface. He carefully focused on the mind held within her face. He felt the darkness behind her closed eyes, the surge of a mind trying to come to life, unable. He looked down at his hand, the weak trepidation.

He was scared, but as his eyes fell down upon her he knew that he had to do something. More importantly though he knew that he could.

If I supply the base her creature might be able to do the rest.

<But the threat.>

I could lose myself in it. That was when a thought in his mind clicked. He was willing to take that chance. It was his responsibility. It was him that had brought Nikki to that. That was where Sharon was in her own mind.

I have to do it.

<It knows.>

He closed his eyes, feeling the thread between him and her strengthen, concentrating on the darkness, on those sensations, pushing into the opposing force of her nothing. His hand fell into hers and then the force hit him.

He was sitting in the hospital chair just inside the room, his head held in his hands, and his shoulders sagging. He looked tired, about as tired as she herself felt, and yet something seemed off about that entire picture, something that didn’t quite fit, the faintest touch of a smile at the edge of his lips.

“I thought that you might be here,” she said.

Daniel turned his head up to her suddenly. She watched him relax, his eyes turned between her and the hospital bed briefly,“Yeah.”

Sharon looked over towards Nikki,“How’s she doing?”

He nodded, his eyes looking away and thoughtful,“Better, it’s still a wonder that she wasn’t dead.”

“This is Andrew. This is all Andrew.”

“Yeah” he said slowly, “I’ve been thinking about that a lot.”

“It isn’t easy.”

His head stared down at the floor,“He outnumbers me now, significantly outnumbers me. You’re asking me to even those numbers.”

“That’s not what I’m-“

And just at that moment they shot up and stared solid into hers,“But that is what it means. If I turn you into her, where’s my reason to not keep going? If I’ve turned someone that I know into a slave, what difference does a stranger on the street make? Do you understand where I’m going?”

But it wasn’t like that. He wasn’t like that. She had to believe that he wasn’t like that. She looked hard back into his almost accussing eyes,“But you’re different from him.”

Daniel shrugged,“I’m different now. I might have good intentions, but how many great tragedies are written on the backs of people with good intentions?”

“Then you won’t do it.”

The hard edge diminished, giving way to a vague helplessness,“Why are you willing to take that chance? What are you seeing in me? I can’t understand it. I can’t.”

That caused Sharon to pause. She knew what she saw in him. She knew what she saw in those dark brown, thoughtful eyes, something that she hadn’t seen, something that she hadn’t known in another her age. But she didn’t want to say it. She couldn’t say it. He had to have guessed,“You know my reasons Daniel.”

He shook his head, tired eyes showing,“No, I don’t.”

For many long moments she stood against the doorframe silently, hoping Daniel would say something, but realizing after several moments that he wasn’t going to say anything. Her eyes shifted in his, searching, finding only a muddled honest uncertainty.

She didn’t want to say it. She couldn’t believe it. He really didn’t. He really hadn’t thought like that. Exhaustion turned to agitation, “You can be so dense.”

Realization suddenly dawned in those eyes, as Sharon turned away from him and turned to leave.

He reached and grabbed for her arm,“Hold on.”

“What?” she said, turning her head, almost yelling.

“You don’t know me. You don’t know how I’ve been. “

“You think I’m foolish?”

“That’s not what I’m say-“

Fuck this.“You could have taken me as yours at any time, but you haven’t. You could have let Andrew take me as one of his, but you didn’t. You could have let your father continue to abuse your mother, but you couldn’t. And you don’t think that any of that is anything special.”

She took in a deep breath of air, thinking that Daniel might say something in the momentary silence, just a small nod and a listening stare.

She continued to look hard into his eyes stepping closer,“How many people deal with those kinds of challenges in all the times they spend together? I’ve seen you stand up to those kinds of ridiculous hardships and make the right decisions. All those other details, they’re just crap compared to that. If I can’t trust you Daniel-“

And then his lips were on hers, pressing furiously down into her. Sharon’s eyes closed as his hands lifted up to rest against the sides of her face, holding it up. Her lips pushed hard against his, their shared warmth of the moment pressing against each other.

She’d wanted this. She’d almost known that she had wanted this from the moment her eyes fell on him at the party. For the first time in what felt like ages her body relaxed as it leaned into his.

Daniel was the first to pull back, his forehead leaning against hers as the intensity of his eyes searched deeply into her face,“You understand that I’m just trying to protect you, right? “

She nodded her head slowly,“And I’m tired of being protected.”

“And I believe you. You have no qualms then? No fears about this?”

“No...no I don’t,” she wondered, hoped he didn’t pick up on the lie in those words.