The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Heath went up the stairs. Aunt Hazel used the big bedroom right above the front doors. The few times he had stayed here as a kid, he and his mom had shared the big master bedroom on the top floor. It was a four bedroom house, and when the basement had been finished it had become a five bedroom. It had been a good 12 years since all of the family had been here.

More importantly, Aunt Hazel wasn’t here. Her bed wasn’t made. Her dresser drawers were still open. Heath shook with growing panic. He raced all the way to the top of the house and practically flew back down the stairs to the basement. His voice was growing hoarse from calling out. She wasn’t home. She was nearly always home. It was a pain in the ass to get her to come out to dinner if it was her birthday.

He slogged back up to the ground floor. Something at the front doors caught his eyes. He rushed out onto the front step. His socks were immediately soaked in the hard rain and rivulets running down the concrete steps.

There were deep tire treads on the front lawn, like a truck had backed up to the—

He whipped out his phone to call his mom. No bars. Of course.

The boom of thunder was synchronous with the flash of lightning. He frowned and rushed back in.

“We took some yogurt!” Tabitha squealed guiltily as Heath rushed into the back of the house.

“Oh my god!” Aislin worried, running up to Heath. “Did you go out in that?”

“It’s fine.” He walked around her without even looking at her. Everyone noticed but him. He pulled the house phone from its cradle. No dial tone. Shit.

“Oh, crap,” he muttered and left the room. The girls looked at him with wonder and anxiety as he jogged away and up the stairs.

“Wow,” Aislin said, tugging her hair. Tabitha frowned, looking displeased at Aislin. Nadine tapped her foot impatiently.

Uly laughed, half out of nervousness. “Think we can open one bottle of wine?”

The trouble with the old home was that the shape of the hill meant that if you wanted to ping the nearest cell phone tower, you needed to be up on the second or third floor at the backside of the house. The cold rain had started to bother his toes. He stomped his heels on the tip of his sock and yanked them off as he wandered back and forth near the window until he connected.

“Mom!”

“Heath! Baby! Where are you?”

“At Aunt Hazel’s,” he answered.

“Why?”

“Uh, I guess I wasn’t thinking. I wanted to check in on Aunt Hazel.”

“Yeah, you said. We figured—it’s Heath, Karen—that’s your aunt Karen. We’re on our way to Halifax. We were going to meet you at the hospital.”

“What?”

“Yeah, they don’t have the ventilators or whatever at the clinic. So they took her up to Halifax.”

“That… She has—”

“She has symptoms… Oh my! You’re at the house! Oh my! Oh my god…”

“Mom, what—”

“You might catch it! You have to stay! You have to get out of there and—”

“I’ll be fine, Mom,” Heath said. “We’ll leave as soon as my socks are dry.”

Heath breathed a sigh of relief and headed down to talk to the girls.

“I don’t have a signal!” Nadine was zigzagging around the kitchen holding Tabitha’s phone in various places.

“Just wait for Heath, he’ll give you the wi-fi password or something,” Tabitha said. She was sitting on the kitchen counter licking the last of her yogurt off of her spoon.

“I’m not seeing a wi-fi signal at all,” Uly said, and tossed her phone on the counter.

“What?” Nadine stopped and started tapping madly to confirm things. “Fuck!”

“Whatever, someone wanna help me find the washroom?” Aislin asked.

“I’ll come with,” Uly said.

Tabitha regretted not going on the hunt for a toilet the moment she was left alone with Nadine. Aislin and Uly started by trying all of the doors on the ground floor. Nothing. There was a big open sitting room to the east with three large sofas in front of a well stocked fireplace. There was a large ornate dining room between the stairs and the garage with window doored cabinets filled with crystal and silver. There was the kitchen in the back, and a final gallery room to the front with musical paraphernalia and all kinds of family pictures.

“Hey,” Aislin pointed out. “That’s Heath.”

“Oh, he was so adorable!” Uly laughed. Clearly there was a lot of love in this house and Heath must’ve felt at home because it looked like he had been here every summer of his life.

“Glad his zits cleared up,” Aislin said, finding a candid shot of fourteen year old Heath fishing, probably somewhere near in the woods.

“Yeah?” Uly said. “He was still kinda cute back then.”

Aislin smiled softly. “C’mon, I still gotta pee.”

“Right, must be upstairs,” Uly said. “You know, you’d think an older woman wouldn’t want to live somewhere where she had to climb stairs everyday.”

“Or she would if she was capable of it,” Aislin shrugged. “It’s a beautiful house.”

“You think it’ll be Heath’s eventually?” Uly asked, running her finger around on some gold inlay on the stairway bannister.

Aislin cast a baleful look at Uly.

“What?” Uly asked.

“He doesn’t need a gold digger.”

“Then why’d he pick up Nadine?” Uly smirked. Aislin grinned back.

“Oh, hey girls,” Heath said coming out of the backroom. Aislin jumped and blushed. “You OK?”

“We need to find a bathroom,” Uly said. Aislin stared at her wondering how the girl wasn’t caught up in that they had been talking about him.

“Oh, um, yeah, each of the bedrooms has a little one on the side, plus there’s the big one in the basement next to the wine cellar.” He gestured to the doors.

“Cool, well Nadine’s freaking out without a cell signal and I need to get to my flight,” Uly reminded him.

“In that case, use that bathroom.” he pointed to the room over the kitchen. “You can ping the nearest cell tower from the window.”

“Oh, thanks!” Uly said. She climbed the rest of the stairs and rubbed Heath’s arm as she walked by.

“Have you heard about your Aunt?”

“They, uh, actually rushed her off to Halifax. Mom was calling to get me to meet her at the hospital.”

“Well she didn’t communicate that very well,” Aislin frowned. “Any word on why?”

“She had symptoms. Coronavirus symptoms,” he said.

“I hope she’s OK,” Aislin said.

“Me too,” he said. “Oh, sorry, I’m in your way to the bathroom.”

He stepped away from the top of the stairs. Aislin climbed up, passed him, and smiled.

“Drive safe,” he said.

She turned around at the bedroom door, but he had already rushed down the stairs. “Drive safe, what the fuck?”

“Hey girls,” Heath entered the kitchen. “Second floor bathroom if you need to check your phone, Nadine.”

“Oh thank god!” She ran past him and up the stairs.

“Hey! She took my phone...” Tabitha frowned. “I missed the ferry today.”

“I’m so sorry,” Heath said. “And it was all for nothing too. They moved Aunt Hazel before Mom even called.”

“I wouldn’t say for family is all for nothing,” Tabitha said. “But I do need a place to sleep tonight, so you gotta take care of me.”

“Of course,” he nodded. “Though I kinda hope Aislin will let us crash at her mom’s place and let us drive off in the morning.”

“So we’re going?” Tabitha asked.

“As soon as my socks are dry,” Heath nodded. “I put them on a radiator.”

“Wanna make lunch with me?” Tabitha asked. “Might as well leave with full stomachs, right?”

“I like the way you think,” Heath said. Tabitha smiled, he was looking up from her tits again. She had her shoulders back and her chest out. Her thumb worried around on the tip of her other thumb. Thunder boomed.

“Power might go out,” Heath said.

“It’s a gas stove,” Tabitha nodded. “We’ll at least be able to eat.”

“True enough.” Heath walked over to the pantry. Tabitha hopped off to the fridge.

“Can you cook?” They asked each other in tandem.

“Uh, almost.” Heath picked a couple of Kraft Dinner boxes out of the pantry.

“Yeah, same as me.” Tabitha had a pack of hot dogs.

“Classic,” Heath agreed, smiling as big as she did.

Aislin was sitting on the toilet and screamed when Nadine busted in with her phone out.

“Oh fuck off.” Nadine flipped off the peeing girl.

“What’s that?” Aislin said, “and close the fucking door.”

“Jesus, Heath’s downstairs. Don’t get your panties in a twist.” Nadine waved her phone around. “What’s what?”

“The thing around your hand?” Aislin said.

“I don’t know, Tabitha left it in the car,” Nadine said.

“Don’t point your phone at me! I’m peeing!” Aislin flinched.

“I’m not. Heath said phones worked up here.” Nadine ignored Aislin’s complaint.

“The other bedroom, back of the house!” Aislin shouted.

“I’m going. I’m going.” Nadine shook her head. “Psycho.”

Nadine walked out and, soon, in on Uly who was leaning against the window with her smartphone in hand.

“They cancelled my flight,” Uly said.

“Cool,” Nadine said, without listening. She was waving her phone around. “Jesus, do I have to stand exactly where you are?”

“What?” Uly looked up and found Nadine a centimeter from touching her skin. “Holy fuck girl.”

“Oh ease off,” Nadine said, she was still moving though and Uly didn’t budge a millimeter from place, until Nadine’s wrist crossed Uly’s.

“Ow, what the fuck was that!” Uly pulled back her arm and sucked a cut on the bump of her ulna.

“Oh, sorry. Finally!” Tabitha said. She called her dad and set it to speaker. She looked up to Uly while it rang. “Can you, uh, give me some privacy? I don’t want to move and lose the signal.”

“Right, whatever.” Uly rolled her eyes and stalked out of the bathroom.

“Hello?” A man answered.

“Hi Daddy, it’s me! I had to use a—another girl’s phone,” Nadine said.

“Honey?” Nadine’s father replied with palpable relief. “Where are you? They’re saying they closed down the dorms. Why haven’t you called until now? Do you have a place to stay tonight?”

“Dad, shut up,” Nadine said. “You remember Heath? He has a car. We made a stop to check in on his aunt or something and I should be home soon.”

“Heath MacTavish? Jesus, his aunt might have the coronavirus! What the hell baby? Can you even leave where you are? Have you checked in with the hospital people or anything?”

“Dad it’s just some fucking flu, I’ll be fine,” Nadine rolled her eyes, “and home before you know it.”

“Sweetheart, this is a pandemic! We can’t take this lightly and—”

“See you soon. Love you. Bye.” Nadine huffed and hung up the phone. Oh god. She had six weeks of that to look forward to? Maybe it’d be better to try and hook up with Heath?

She watched the lightning flash. She looked down at the phone. The bar was gone.

Hell fucking no.

“What’s going on?” Aislin asked as she walked into the kitchen.

“Well, uh,” Heath muttered, frowned, and stepped a little further away from Tabitha. “Tabby wanted to eat and then we’d get back on the road. My socks are still a little wet from going out and finding the ambulance tracks.”

Tabitha looked miserable and then back to the pot she was stirring with a wooden spatula.

“Oh,” Aislin said. “Can I help?”

“Can we open a bottle of wine?” Uly suggested.

“You girls probably can,” Heath said. “One of the ones over on the counter there. There’s probably a corkscrew in the small drawer by the sink.”

“I don’t really want to sit drunk in a car for seven hours,” Aislin said.

“There’s juice and a water pitcher in the fridge,” Tabitha suggested.

“Well, it is miserable out, and for some reason they cancelled the plane. Something about contamination from Ohio,” Uly said.

“Really?” Tabitha said. “We’re already too late to get me home.”

“I don’t have a clock on me, but I’ve got the furthest to go. Why don’t we wait out the storm and head out in the morning?” Aislin suggested.

“The morning? What the fuck is going on?” Nadine raged. She tossed Tabitha the phone.

“Yeah, we could open some wine.” Uly gestured. “It’ll be like a slumber party.”

“I’d like that,” Tabitha said, picking her phone up from the kitchen floor.

“Dude, I’m just forty minutes down the street,” Nadine said.

“Well, I could drive you—”

Thunder rocked the house. The lights flickered. Uly walked up to the window. The hammering of winter rain on the back step and window was even heavier than it had been on the road.

“Don’t be so selfish. He can’t go out in that.”

The power flickered.

“You guys can come to my place, at least. That way we’re not in the woods and—” Nadine stopped when thunder boomed.

“It’s OK girls. I’ve driven in weather before,” Heath said. “Do you mind waiting until after we eat, Nadine?”

“I’m not waiting all day,” Nadine countered. If she stayed, if the authorities got involved, if his aunt had the coronavirus... She might not be allowed to leave. One look at Aislin, Uly, or Tabitha was enough to confirm that wasn’t a good idea.

“Oh fuck off,” Aislin said, yanking the cork out of a bottle of white. “Have a glass and calm down.”

“What’s for dinner?” Tabitha asked, as she accepted her glass.

“Kraft Dinner and hot dogs,” Heath answered. His eyes dropped when Nadine scrunched her nose. “I’m not really a cook.”

“You don’t have to be,” Uly said. “You don’t even have to be a driver tonight.”

“She’ll feel better if I do though,” Heath said.

“Thank you,” Nadine said. She took a large gulp of wine.

Dinner was quiet. They all gathered around the dining room table. Aislin’s fork clattered the plate as she speared her macaroni and drove Nadine a little mad. Uly loved the wine and moved her chair close against Heath’s. Tabitha hunched forward in her seat and her bangs covered her face as she ate quietly.

This was the only room on the first floor without a window so they had all of the thunder and none of the lightning. Nadine tossed her fork down onto her half cleared plate.

“Take me home,” she erupted. “Please.”

“Alright, I’m sure my socks are dry by now,” Heath said. He put down his glass of juice and edged his chair back out. Uly grabbed his sleeve.

“You are not going out on that road. You’re not getting yourself hurt and you’re not getting Nadine hurt.”

“I’m going home tonight.” Nadine challenged Uly.

“I wouldn’t mind if you got rid of her,” Aislin said.

“That’s three votes for drive me home, majority rules,” Nadine said.

“I don’t want him driving you. I want him to get rid of you.” Aislin smiled and dragged her finger across her throat.

“Please don’t fight,” Heath said.

“Whatever, I’m getting your socks.” Nadine stomped away from the table.

“Oh, she’s fetching your socks?” Uly leaned in on Heath’s shoulder. “Good little bitch.”

“I better check on her,” Heath said. He pulled himself away from the table and climbed up the stairs.

Nadine was in the bathroom failing to get bars. She all but slammed down Heath’s phone. He walked in next to her and grabbed his phone off the bathroom counter. He looked at the semi-solid rain cracking off the window.

“Oh, freezing rain and sleet?” he said. “It really might be better to stay until the morning.”

“Please, take me home. They don’t like me here and you can. And if you’re worried about coming back. You can stay with me,” Nadine suggested. She had unbuttoned an extra button on her shirt when she had heard Heath climbing the stairs. He surely noticed now.

“Well, I—”

“No.” Aislin and Uly said from the doorway. “Icy roads, crazy rain, lots of wind, and you remember that wooded road we just drove up? It’s a mess.”

Nadine, brushed her hair out of her face. She turned her big beautiful cosmetically popping eyes to Heath.

“Drink this.” Tabitha stepped in front of Nadine with a glass of wine.

“What?” Heath said.

“You’re not going to drink and drive. If you drink this glass, we’re staying tonight and she can’t bully you anymore,” Tabitha suggested.

“I’m not bullying anyone,” Nadine growled.

“You’ll feel better if we party too, Nadine,” Uly said.

“Drink.” Tabitha crossed straight to Heath.

“I’m sorry, Nadine,” Heath said. He took the glass and regretted it immediately. Tears threatened in Nadine’s eyes as her mouth tightened angrily.

“Bottoms up!” Aislin pushed up the base of the glass and Uly cheered. Tabitha hugged his arm.

“I’m calling my dad, fuck off,” Nadine said, taking Heath’s phone from his other hand.

“Daddy!” Nadine pleaded. “Come get me!”

“I’m not driving up there, sweetie. I’m not getting sick or your mother sick.”

“No one’s sick!” Nadine growled. “Put Mom on.”

“Baby, you heard the premier. ‘Stay the blazes home!’”

“Don’t laugh along with it!” Nadine growled, to the chuckles of both her parents. “Besides, I’m coming home.”

“It sounds like you’re safe. Keep checking in and I’m sure you’ll be happier with friends than you would be here.”

“I’m not with friends. I’m not with Art.”

“Thank god for that,” her mom said into the other receiver.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Nadine said.

“That I’d rather you were with that nice boy Heath than your selfish boyfriend,” she answered calmly.

“Well, I’m coming home. And if you love me, you’ll want me there,” Nadine said.

“Babygirl, I want you home so much,” her dad said, “I want everybody to be safe. If you can get here, then we’ll make you some hot chocolate and give you a big hug. But, you really shouldn’t.”

“Just put the kettle on and get out the marshmallows,” Nadine said. Clenching her teeth, she hung up.

She stomped downstairs. Everyone was sitting around in the living room with Heath stoking up a fire in the fireplace while Aislin collapsed in a recliner. Tabitha and Uly had the couch. Tabitha saw Nadine and, by the way Tabitha’s hands moved, she was preventing Nadine from taking the free spot on the sofa between Tabitha and Uly.

Great, just what she wanted, a bunch of catty bitches ready to fight over a guy Nadine really didn’t want. Nadine sighed.

“Do you want to grab the next bottle from the kitchen counter?” Aislin asked with a big grin on her face. “Please, Nadine…”

“Your glass is still in the dining room,” Uly explained.

“Great,” Nadine turned and left. She was stuck. She was—

Heath’s wallet and keys sat on the kitchen counter next to the stove. The car key was obvious. She had her beginners. It was just down the driveway, along the road, onto the highway, off at the exit and third left, right by the Tim Horton’s. Easy peasy.

“Where the fuck is the wine?” Aislin asked. She was interrupting Uly who was shamelessly cozying up to Heath. Tabitha had taken advantage of Heath’s first flinch and pinned the boy between them. “Nadine!”

The power went out to the sound of sharp metallic thunder.

“That wasn’t fucking lightning,” Uly said.

“Where is Nadine?” Heath said. He got up. Uly hopped to her feet as well. Aislin sighed and got up. Tabitha just looked down at her wineglass, still a third full, and ran her finger around the rim.

The three walked out to the kitchen. Uly stuck her head in the dining room.

“Maybe she wanted to get her bag?” Aislin said.

“Oh fuck!” Heath shouted. He was running. He stuffed his bare feet into his sneakers and went out into the rain.

“Heath!” Uly shouted. Tabitha was running over now.

The garage door was wide open. The amber rear lights of his car were down and crooked at the end of the driveway where the treeline closed around the road.

“Nadine!” Heath shouted and ran out into the almost opaque curtains of falling water.

Uly and Aislin stopped at the lip of the garage. Tabitha bolted down after Heath. Uly and Aislin swore, and ran back to grab their shoes.

The road was slick with mud. The wheels of Heath’s car had drifted off the path. The driver side corner of the car had swiped into the power pole. That had torqued the whole car around, scouring up the mud, and clapping the passenger side against a tree. The back wheels jutted out onto the driveway.

Heath shouted Nadine’s name again. She was slumped forward, a deflated airbag in front of her. Her seatbelt held her tightly in the seat.

“Nadine!” Heath slapped the window. He yanked the door handle but it was locked. He swore, and yelped when his elbow cracked off the window. His glass breaker was on his keychain.

“Heath!” Tabitha stopped about six paces back. “Get away from there!”

Nadine shook her head. She lifted her hand to her shoulder. Her wrist was bleeding.

“Unlock the door!” Heath shouted.

“Get away from the car!” Tabitha shrieked.

Nadine unlocked the door.

“What are you doing? We have to help!” Uly and Aislin started to say as they ran up by Tabitha.

“Don’t there’s a downed powerline!” Tabitha grabbed both girls’ elbows.

Heath couldn’t hear, didn’t listen, and wouldn’t’ve cared. Nadine had pulled up the door lock. Heath ripped open the door and reached in to unbuckle the seatbelt.

“I’m sorry!” Nadine said. “What did I do?”

“I don’t care,” Heath said, speaking for that immediate moment. “Bend your knees and hold my neck.

She did as told and he lifted her out of the car.

“Heath!” He first heard the girls shouting at him. Lightning. One Mississi—Thunder. The clear evidence of the downed powerline was in his sight. Shit.

He scrambled away. Nadine held on tightly. They all ran up to the garage. Uly hit the button by the door.

Heath didn’t worry about taking his shoes off or about wiping away the mud. He rushed Nadine indoors and in front of the burning fire he had started.

“Tabitha, in the cupboard by the stairs there are extra towels and blankets. Aislin, there should be a medical box under the kitchen sink. Uly, put a kettle of water on the stove.”

The girls all ran off.

“I just wanted to go home. I was impatient and hurt and I—”

“Shut up,” Heath said. He laid her down on the rug before the fire. “How many fingers?”

“Two, peace sign,” she said, looking at the vee of his fingers.

“Did you hit your head? How’s your neck?” He brushed her bangs aside and touched her jaw and the sides of her neck lightly. She didn’t seem hurt. He had seen blood though. He rolled up her sleeve and saw the bronze arrowhead had raked across her palm. “Motherfucker.”

He unwound it and threw it away. Thanks Aunt Hazel. You had better be really sick. Aislin came over.

“She doesn’t look too hurt,” Heath said.

“She deserves to be,” Aislin said.

“Oh, god, I do.”

“Shut up, Nadine. I need to clean out the cut and then band-aid it up.”

Tabitha entered then and handed one of the towels to Heath. “You girls warm her up and dry off.”

“Where are you going?” Uly said from the kitchen door.

“You gotta get her wet clothes off,” Heath said, without eye contact.

“We all do,” Uly said. “You just ran out there like a hero and took care of the girl without one word about your car. Stay, warm up with us.”

“That’s—” Heath blushed to his ears and smiled.

“I’ll go first!” Tabitha shouted and dumped her armful of towels onto Aislin’s back to reach for the hem of her shirt.

“Uh—”

“Wow,” Nadine said.

“Down to our underwear’s OK,” Aislin suggested. “Like a lingerie pajama party?”

“I wouldn’t call this lingerie,” Uly said, throwing her shirt onto the recliner.

“Uh…” was all Heath managed.

Heath did leave the room. As distracted as Uly’s white, Tabitha’s green, and Nadine’s pink bras had him, he was truly pissed. That was his car. She had just taken his keys. He had nearly gotten killed. She had nearly gotten herself killed. Now he was stuck here, without power, without a plan, with company he liked.

“Don’t you smirk at me,” he said, into the mirror.

He had saved money for that car. Money above and beyond what he had to save for school and survival. He had insurance, but what if he had to put in a police report to pay it out? He didn’t want Nadine to go to jail, or get fined, or whatever. But he would like her to pay. He splashed some water on his face. His shirt and jeans were soaked. It was fucking cold outside. Canadian winters do that.

He looked at himself in the mirror with just his boxers on. He immediately wanted to grab a shirt. Aislin had convinced him to mail all of his stuff home to mom. Even if anyone had changes of clothes they were down in the car, in the wet, in the vicinity of a downed powerline. Jesus.

If the girls were brave enough to get down to their underwear, why couldn’t he?

What did bravery have to do with it when you looked like those girls?

“You’re just making excuses,” he told the man in the mirror.

He headed downstairs. He didn’t turn the corner. He listened to the girls.

“I’m sure dad’ll pay for his car!” Nadine was saying.

“Your dad didn’t fuck up his car. Didn’t steal from him, after he was nice enough to drive you home,” Uly scowled.

“But he didn’t—No, even I know how stupid and whiny that sounds coming out of my mouth.” Nadine slumped.

“What are you going to do about it?” Aislin demanded.

“I gotta start with an apology, like the one I gave you guys,” Nadine said. “I really am sorry. I never knew how much of an idiot I was.”

“I think you should do whatever he wants, until he has a new car,” Uly said.

“What?” Tabitha asked.

“What, you mean like sexually?”

“Yeah,” Uly said. “If that’s what he wants.”

Heath was burning ear to ear. He took a slow breath, ready to lunge in and shut down this line of thought.

“No don’t!” Tabitha shouted. “Oh, sorry.”

“So you do like him!” Uly said sarcastically, “Could’ve fooled me.”

“What?”

“I put you two together how many times now?”

“You what?” Tabitha said.

“I even remember pumping you up, picking out the right top, and even feeding you the line to use,” Uly said. “And what happened?”

“Aislin interrupted us and he was into her,” Tabitha muttered.

“What?” Aislin said. “He’s not into me.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Nadine asked. “He drove all of us home, to all corners of the province at once. He wouldn’t do that if he didn’t like us.”

“We’re friends,” Aislin combatted. “That’s neither here nor there. We’re talking about what Nadine needs to do.”

“She doesn’t need to do anything,” Heath said, turning the corner. He stopped dead. Everyone had stripped down to their underwear. Aislin, who had still been dressed when Heath had rushed up to the washroom, was wearing a mismatched black and white bra with sky blue panties.

“Heath! I am so sorry! I was such a selfish bitch! I’ll make it up to you! Dad’ll help you out with the car, I know he will! I am so sorry!”

With the rain and the towels, she had cleared her face of makeup. She still had sharp green eyes and silver-blue hair. She looked more sincere and cute rather than striking and beautiful. Her hair was a frizzy mess from the towel drying. Her pink almost sheer bra and panties still favored sexy over cute.

Uly was the only one standing, hand on her hip, smirk on her lips. Her white bra and panties looked unremarkable. She was the remarkable subject.

Tabitha sat on her ankles, back to the fire, shoulders back, chest forward, eyes locked on Heath’s.

Heath was only wearing boxers. He ground his teeth but couldn’t hide things.

“See, any of us, all of us,” Nadine smiled softly. She caught Heath’s eyes. “Sorry, I’m not trying to get out of it. And what are you looking at?”

She had turned to Tabitha who was white and panicked.

“You can’t just talk about that in front of him!” Tabitha said.

“What?” Aislin said, “He totally heard us, he jumped in the conversation when he walked in.”

“And it’s probably for the best that he hears,” Uly said. “Your hair’s still soaked Heath. Cuddle up by the fire.”

That’s when the kettle whistled.

“I’ll get it!” Tabitha squealed to get out of the conversation and run into the kitchen.

“There’s teabags in the cupboard by the—”

“Is there hot chocolate?” Nadine asked. “That’s what dad used to make for me when I was scared or something.”

“You’re scared?”

“Scared you’ll hate me,” she said. “No, I’m scared you should hate me.”

“I am angry,” Heath said. And being angry helped him get his body under control. “I don’t think I hate people.”

“I kinda hate her,” Aislin said.

“Sit down,” Uly said and pushed his shoulders down and his butt onto the rug. She took a towel, threw it over his head, and roughed him up drying him off. Tickling his ears made his whole body twist and shake.

“There is hot chocolate!” Tabitha shouted.

“And wine!” Uly laughed.

“I’ll get that,” Aislin said.

“So, until her dad pays for your car,” Uly said, pulling the towel off of Heath’s head. she sat down hip to hip next to him, “Nadine’s your slave. Pet. Pet slave?”

“I don’t think I could use a woman like that,” Heath said with cheeks burning red. Nadine sat opposite Uly. She didn’t have the confidence to pull in closer, and she frowned at Heath’s words.

“Thanks for being a good guy,” Nadine said.

“Yeah, Tabitha will be happy to hear that,” Uly said. She elbowed him. “Is there anything to do here?”

“Uh, there’s some board games and stuff down in the basement.”

“Ew!” Uly said.

“Next to the wine cellar,” Heath laughed.

“Now you’re talking my language,” she laughed.

“Yeah, this is the last bottle that was on the rack in the kitchen,” Aislin said, returning.

“Here.” Tabitha came second and put a mug into Heath’s hands and another into Nadine’s. Nadine looked up.

“Marshmallows?”

“Yeah, you can ask for favors!” Tabitha said, with a sarcastic eyeroll, and walked back to get Aislin and Uly their mugs.