Everyone hates going to the dentist. Landon Ashby was no exception. Even though he'd had relatively few dental issues over his 29 years, the idea of a stranger drilling, tugging, scrapping and scouring God knows what sorts of implements through his mouth always made Landon's stomach turn. The fact that he was an adult now, and actually had to pay for the pleasure of all that out of his own pocket, just added insult.
At least for a few years the company he worked for paid a good chunk of his dental insurance, but the economic downturn inevitably caused them to drop that benefit from their expenditure page, leaving Landon and Lisa, his wife of five years, on the hook for 100% of the cost.
The routine, six month cleaning visit was easy to swing financially, but when Lisa suddenly developed a few issues that required a root canal the same week the transmission went out on one of their cars, the Ashby's finances were suddenly stretched paper thin. Landon discussed an installment plan with the office manager at the dental office, but they'd been burned so often by delinquent patients, they were demanding a healthy chunk of the cost up front.
The fact that they'd been going to that dentist for all those years pissed Landon off to no end. They could have put the surgery on one of their credit cards, but given the vehicle issues, not to mention Lisa's little issue with retail therapy, all four of them were maxed out. He could have borrowed the money from his folks, but that wasn't something Landon wanted to do a few weeks before his 30th birthday.
He continued to stew over how to pay for his wife's procedure until she came home later that night saying she'd scheduled the root canal for the following morning, and that she'd worked out a payment schedule.
"I just spent all morning going round and round with the office manager...how did you get them to agree to this?" Landon curiosity couldn't be contained.
"Don't worry about it, Hon...sometimes a little subtlety goes a long way," she told him in a way that left Landon feeling utterly inept and worthless.
"We don't need charity," he maintained as Lisa made her way upstairs.
If that little hit to his pride was tough to swallow, Landon Ashby hadn't tasted anything yet.
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The Ashbys had been going to Ned Cameron's dental practice for many years without incident. A dashing man in his late 40's, Cameron evoked a vibe of a younger George Hamilton, only with a less orange tan. As you'd expect from a man in his profession, Ned possessed a dashing, near perfect smile. One that nearly led Lisa to ask, several times in jest, who his dentist was so she could go to him.
Going to the dentist had never been a fearful experience for Lisa. The daughter of a physician, she always had a feeling of trust, and safety around men in that position, and other than an occasional cavity, or one small bout with a gum infection, Lisa generally got off easy in the chair.
In addition to the feeling of ease she felt in the presence of men who's job it was to provide comfort, Lisa privately had always felt a certain stirring attraction to them as well. The fact that she'd married a construction foreman hadn't quite added up, but many things in life don't always compute.
Like what she'd allowed to happen at the end of her routine cleaning that one fateful afternoon, nearly a year earlier.
Truth be told, Lisa Ashby should have filed a sexual harassment lawsuit right then and there before things tumbled so far out of control. And also while there was actually something of Dr. Cameron's to get.
Lisa had always felt a calm come over her each time she visited Dr. Cameron, not to mention a certain little itch that she couldn't quite reach when she was in his presence. Most of the time, his hygienist would do most of Lisa's cleaning and Cameron would swoop in towards the end just to double check and make sure everything was OK before sending her on her way. This particular day however, the hygienist must have either been on lunch or had the day off, leaving the owner of the establishment to provide the full service treatment.
Lisa was quite content to sit back in the reclined and raised chair so Dr. Cameron could do his thing. Listening as he made small talk, Lisa would alternately nod or grunt her tacit agreement to whatever he was saying. After all, it was rather difficult to talk with something in her mouth.
So put at ease by the good doc's charisma and chair-side manner, Lisa nearly found herself drifting off several times as she stared straight up into Ned's smoky blue eyes, feeling strangely as if she was a lump of clay on a potter's wheel.
"Sure you didn't slip me some knock-out gas when I wasn't looking," Lisa asked once Cameron pulled the cleaning utensil out of her mouth and told her to spit.
"I've got some if you think you'll need it," he joked.
"No...I think I'll be alright...," she smiled before opening her mouth again and allowing Ned to work on her top row of choppers.
Even though it was early Fall, it was still warm enough for Lisa to wear a nice skirt and blouse set to her appointment. For whatever reason, Lisa always felt the need to dress up somewhat for her visits to Dr. Cameron even though she didn't for several of the other medical professionals she occasionally saw.
The hem of her skirt draped over her lower thighs as she rested in the chair, Lisa tucked her hands neatly together on her waist, just below the sliding tray the dentist used to organize the tools of his trade. Her jaws flexed all the way open as all 10 of Ned's fingers steadily worked in and out of her mouth, it wasn't long before the fire that seemed to ignite inside Lisa's loins on each visit suddenly sparked to life. With the tray hiding her hands, she was almost tempted to try and quell that burn.
Closing her eyes to keep from making any sort of telling eye contact with the handsome face hovering above her, Lisa drifted lazily through her self imposed darkness, all of her other senses heightened as she allowed him to do his job. With this being the first time he'd performed her cleaning since maybe her first visit years earlier, even though Lisa was doing her best to remain in a state of relaxed calm, for someone as astute as Dr. Cameron, it was clear to see his patient was sending out signs.
Ned kept his exam rooms colder than they truly needed to be. In the Summer, he wanted his patients to be comfortable and sometimes he just forgot to dial the AC back as September gave way to October. While Ned believed he worked better in the cold, there was also a far more devious and sophomoric reason he kept the air conditioning on full blast. It provided a few added 'perks' he'd never readily admit.