Guardian Program Ch 22

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Guardian Program Ch. 22

A novel by R.C.PeterGabriel, all rights reserved.

07:05 AM EST. Just outside McLean, Virginia: an annoyed Secretary of Defense answered his cell phone. "You just made me pharaoh my shot Henderson, either you have good news, or you owe the president fifty cents."

"Good and ... touchy news, Sir."

"Get on with it, Henderson."

"The party that we've been concerned with has re-surfaced in the company of Mr. S. Indications are that this person was able to establish close contact, and has intel. A face-to-face meeting should take place as soon as the party returns from France. That was the good news.

"The other is that we may have serious issues to deal with, in the form of Mr. S. being short-fused. I'll know more after the face-to-face. Do you wish to be present, Sir?"

"That isn't much to go on, but this is too important to leave to chance. Set the meeting ASAP, I'll be there." Lieber disconnected and turned to the President. "Sorry, Sir."

The President smiled. "No problem, Martin. Maybe, I'll start calling you on every hole. It seems to be improving my game." He laughed at his own joke and then asked, "Anything I should know about?"

"No, Sir. I can honestly say that it would not be healthy for either of us if you were informed of this issue. Plausible deniability is required."

"I trust you, but don't embarrass me," replied the President, before turning to the ball he already had waiting on its tee.

The SECDEF watched the moderately good tee shot lift into the morning air as he thought that he would never want to embarrass the president. Because his image was the only thing the man had going for him. He was way too arrogant to realize that for the most part, he was only a puppet.

********************

08:37 AM, Poison Montana. Smelling bacon, Toni slowly opened her eyes. It took her several moments to figure out where she was.

Ah, yes the Clemons'. She closed her eyes again as the memories of the last few days came flooding back. "Maybe if I go back to sleep, this will all go away," she thought and pulled the comforter over her head. Unfortunately, neither sleep nor a magic do-over seemed to be in her near future, so she concentrated on figuring out what she should do.

Mentally pondering her situation, her thoughts flashed on several ideas almost at the same time. "I could leave, and walk home naked, wrapped in a borrowed comforter. I could try to pretend I wasn't naked and walk into the kitchen and eat breakfast like it was a completely normal thing to do. Or, I could ... cry."

She decided that if she were to ever regain her dignity, she needed to face the situation head-on. She got up, gathered the comforter around her the best she could, and headed for the basement.

"Good morning," she called out as she passed the kitchen.

Toni made it halfway down the stairs before Debra called out to her. "Toni, your clothes are up here."

Toni sighed and started back up, just as Debra came around the corner, wearing a short robe and carrying Robert's neatly folded pajamas.

"Here you go, Love. You can get dressed in the loo," Debra suggested while handing them over.

Toni gratefully accepted the clothes and retreated into the restroom. She took her time, washing her face and giving herself a quick sponge bath. She combed out her hair the best she could with her fingers, got dressed, and made sure all her cuffs were neatly rolled up.

She also examined her cut and noted that it was healing as quickly as she normally did, but that it seemed to be forming a thin scar. For the first time, she wondered whether or not Robert was telling the truth about keeping her phone nearby. Or maybe the difference was in the fact that she hadn't had any of his protein shakes all week. Or both.

Steeling herself for the upcoming humiliation, she made her way back to the kitchen, where Bill was setting the table for three, wearing nothing but a pair of boxers with super-villain characters printed on them.

She could see the red welts, had changed to deep purple, and that he was moving rather stiffly. Debra was pulling bacon from the pan and placing it on paper towels to drain. Since Debra was facing her, she greeted Toni first.

"Good morning," Debra's greeted her again. "We didn't know what you eat for breakfast so we went a bit bonkers. We have bacon, pancakes, blueberry muffins, toast, melon balls, pineapple, orange juice, coffee, milk, or tea, and I was waiting for you to get up so you could tell me how you like your eggs if you want any," she paused. "Oh, we have several kinds of cereal, or I can make oatmeal. What would you like?"

While Debra had been talking, Bill had turned, smiling at Toni, and pulled out a chair for her. She hesitantly allowed him to seat her.

"Coffee to start with, please. French vanilla creamer if you have it, cream and one sugar if not." She was hoping to have escaped, but obviously, they had gone to a lot of trouble.

"We have hazelnut if that will work?" Bill suggested.

"That will be fine. You didn't need to go to all this trouble. I could have gotten breakfast at home."

"Don't be daft," Debra replied, as she sat the plate of bacon in the center of the table. "We have to eat too."

Bill had gone to the oven and turned it off, then retrieved the plates it had been keeping warm, with the pancakes, muffins, and toast. He made two slow trips, placing them next to the bacon.

"Did you want any eggs?"

"No, thank you. I'm sure there's plenty here to fill me."

Debra fried three eggs, sunny side up, then put two on Bill's plate, and one on hers. Once everyone was seated, they filled their plates in silence.

Toni studied Bill's movements for several minutes while they ate. She could tell he was really hurting. She smiled to herself but covered it by taking a bite of pancake. Then she heard herself say. "I'm sorry Bill, I didn't realize I had hit you that hard."

Bill's eyes shot to hers, as he finished chewing the bite he had just put in his mouth. "I deserved it. I had been your friend, and I betrayed that. You could beat me like that every weekend if it will repair our friendship."

He paused to take another bite but stopped himself with the fork an inch from his mouth. "Um, but can I make one request, for next time."

"You're assuming I've forgiven you enough for there to be a next time," stated Toni. "But, I won't stop you from asking."

Bill finished putting his food into his mouth partially because it hurt his side to hold his arm up anymore, but mostly because chewing would help him hide the smile that wanted to spread across his face. When he thought he could talk without grinning, he swallowed. He glanced at Debra, who was pretending to be disinterested, by eating without looking at either of her table mates. He returned his eyes to Toni's

"Toni, what I'm about to say, is not meant to upset you, and my request will come in a moment, but first, you must know the truth if we're ever going to be friends again. I ... I have been attracted to you since the day we met. I believe that I expressed that clearly enough over the years, but what you may not have known is that Debra felt the same way."

Toni looked at Debra, who looked up into her eyes for several moments, then nodded her agreement.

"Anyway, the truth is that we've both been trying to seduce you for ... I don't know how long. Debra has been trying to sleep with Robert in hopes of being able to get you into a threesome. She thinks you're as hot as I do."

Again, Toni's eyes flicked to Debra, who nodded in response to Bill's statement but was looking slightly braver as Bill continued to talk.

"I promise, that I allowed you to beat me, because I was sorry for taking you without permission, and not having anything to do with Debra liking you. But that being said, we both agree, that we would like to continue to have sex with you.

"Now before you say anything, my request is that if you decide to beat me again, which I think I deserve, you don't do it with the threat of castration."

Toni's mouth dropped open for a heartbeat or two. "Bill, let me get this straight. You think that if I beat you again, that means I'll let you fuck me again?"

"No, that isn't what I'm saying. I told you how we feel because I wanted you to know what we would like our relationship to include. Friends like we were a week ago, or friends with benefits ... you choose, that part is up to you.

"What I'm saying is that you deserve to have justice served. I will willingly accept your sentence, to the point of, but not including castration. Just the thought of it scares the shit out of me. If you want to beat the crap out of me to the point of hospitalization so be it. If you want to come over and flog me until your arm is tired, you can do that. But if you don't feel forgiveness without castration, then we will move away, and you can go on with your life, never having to see us again. I know that wouldn't quite be justice in your eyes but it's the best I can offer."

"I wish I could say that the idea of causing you pain didn't excite me Bill, but I can't. I've discovered several things about myself over this last few days, that I'd have denied until Hell froze over. One is that I genuinely liked hearing your screams. It turned me on knowing that I caused them. I realize that makes me a sadist, and I don't care. I felt satisfaction from seeing your bruises when I walked in this morning. I not only want to torture you because of what you did to me but because I liked it."

Toni turned to Debra before continuing. "I also discovered that touching you wasn't as unpleasant as I had assumed ... not as foreign, or ... I don't know, weird. I know I'm not a lesbian, and I don't even think I'm bisexual, but it was pleasurable enough.

"As for the anal part, I'd already figured I'd like it. I like it when Robert uses toys on my ass, but there is no way I am letting him stick his dick in there, he's too big.

"Anyway, the question you should be asking isn't whether or not I'd be willing to have sex with you ever again. The question is whether or not Robert is willing to allow it. That's if he doesn't pull your head from your shoulders first, and I won't do it without his approval."

Bill and Debra exchanged a somewhat hopeful look before saying, "So, if after I tell him what happened, and he doesn't kill me, you wouldn't be opposed to letting me try to talk him into allowing it again?"

Toni ate a few more bites before responding. "Bill, I've thought a lot about this and I plan on thinking about it some more but what I'm contemplating is how to tell Robert what you did. My idea of justice may be moot. He ... I just can't tell you what he'll do. He might castrate you himself, or make the bruises I gave you look like hickeys."

"I thought you said that I could tell him?" Interrupted Bill.

"The more I think about it, the more I believe that it wouldn't be a good idea. For one thing, he would know that I withheld it from him, and we just plain don't keep secrets where our relationship is concerned. I'm going to tell him what happened ... I just need to figure out how."

Debra reached over and touched Toni's arm. "I have an idea. You might think I'm totally daft, but would you be opposed to telling him after you get permission to have sex with us?"

"And exactly how do you expect me to get permission to have sex with you?" asked Toni.

Debra continued. "I have an idea that would allow us to feel him out. If he seems upset at the thought, then we can back off. You can still tell him the truth, but you'll know what to expect and can spin your tale to fit whatever outcome you're wanting a little easier."

"Just how do you expect to be able to 'feel him out', without bringing up the subject?"

"Almost every time we play cards we play for different stakes. Next time we play, you suggest strip poker."

Toni started eating again. For several minutes she quietly contemplated the mess she was in, and whether or not she could wait long enough to suggest clothing as a stake, or would she tell Robert everything first? Finally, she responded with the only answer she could.

"I can't promise anything. I'll think about it and ultimately do what feels right at the time.

"I do think your idea has merit. If Robert goes for the strip poker, and we allow things to progress past just nudity, then I'll wait until after he comes back from out of town the next time to tell him what you did. I just won't give him a time frame and he'll probably assume it happened after the fact.

"However, I may tell him flat out before you see him next. I won't lie to him, and if the subject somehow leads around to my sex life while he's been gone, then I'm going to tell him. You have to understand that."

"What are the odds of that?" asked Bill, with a concerned expression.

Toni gave a sardonic laugh "Better than average."

End of chapter 22. I hope you enjoyed it and all of my work.

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