"Please, enter and be welcome. My name is Nina, and I am to be your guide today." It didn't sound threatening, especially coming from the lips of a slim blonde girl wearing a serene smile and not much else, but thoughts of Jonestown kept running through Malcolm's head as he stepped into the church and closed the door. He'd have preferred to get the head of this weird...cult, church, tax dodge, whatever the 'Way of the Living Divinity' turned out to really be...down to the office for this interview; but she'd insisted that for the sake of transparency, any auditor really needed to see the inner workings of the faith. His boss had agreed, but Malcolm wished it didn't have to be his head in the noose.
His boss hadn't been particularly sympathetic, though. "For fucksake, Mal, it's not going to be Jonestown," he'd said when Malcolm had brought it up. "It's not even the goddamn Moonies. This is just another weird little California cult of hippies. Nobody's brought kidnapping complaints against them, they're not stockpiling guns--we think their tax-exemption is BS, that's all. Hell, you don't even have to tell them that. Just do your evaluation, take some notes, and tell them you'll get back to them."
That was easy for his boss to say. He was in a nice, big, IRS building with security at every door, not inside a windowless "church" with who knew how many followers of the Way of the Living Divinity getting ready to do who knew what to him.
Still, at least he knew Nina didn't have any concealed weapons. In fact, a casual glance at her diaphanous robes told him that she didn't have any concealed underwear, either. The gauzy fabric clung to her body like it was damp, clearly outlining her in a way that made her look almost more naked than if she'd been naked. He wondered if this was some sort of bribe, or maybe an attempt to discredit him. His report wouldn't mean a whole lot if someone from the church said afterwards, "Oh, by the way, did we mention he tried to paw one of our members?"
She didn't exactly act like a sinister schemer, though. She looked at him with a genuine smile that went all the way up to her sparkling blue eyes and said, "I'm afraid Her Divinity is just the tiniest bit busy at the moment; She's administering the Second Sacrament to one of our members. But I'm sure it won't take long, so if you just want to follow me, I'll escort you to Her chambers and you can wait for Her there."
"Um, sure." Malcolm tried very hard to keep eye contact with her the whole time, but it wasn't easy. She was a foot shorter than him, and she was leaning slightly forward and...and, well, he was only human. Those robes gathered her cleavage together in a way that made him very glad he had a briefcase to hold in front of his crotch. "Do you, um...do you mind if I talk to you while we wait?" This could actually work to his advantage, he thought. Whatever the Glorious Leader might tell him at the interview, five minutes alone with one of the rank-and-file would give him a pretty clear idea of what philosophy they followed here...if any.
"Of course not," she said beatifically as she started down the hall, beckoning him to follow. "The Goddess has commanded me to assist you in every way possible until your audience with Her. Whatever the Divine Will commands, I must carry out to the best of my abilities."
"Um...okay." Yeah, that was a big old check in the box marked 'cult'. A lot of small religions had charismatic leaders, of course; any new faith had to have someone pretty convincing up in the pulpit to get people to go along with it. But if the philosophy of the Way of the Living Divinity was really, "Whatever the Living Divinity says, do it her way"? That sounded like someone setting up a church for herself so that she could live the good life without property taxes, in Malcolm's book.
And the good life looked to be pretty good, here. The grounds were impressive enough, but this place looked like they'd spent a fortune on it. Nina led Malcolm through a maze of corridors with marble-fronted walls and alcoves everywhere filled with expensive-looking works of art. The carpeting alone looked to be worth about as much as he'd paid for his whole house. Maybe the cultists paid for that themselves, though. His guide was barefoot, and she wasn't the only one. Everyone he passed wore the same gauzy robes--talk about the good life, he thought. It was like a wet t-shirt contest every day. He'd passed some male cultists as well as female, and they all looked like they'd sprouted permanent boners. Everyone was in good shape, too. Malcolm went to the gym and played handball regularly, but these people looked like they had nothing better to do but keep fit.
They turned another corner, and Malcolm mentally added an "almost" to the "nothing", while finding himself grateful that his skin was too dark to show a blush. There was a dark-haired girl in one of the alcoves, leaning over a marble bench with her robe bunched up around her hips while a male cultist fucked her from behind. They were both facing Malcolm and Nina, but neither one of them seemed even remotely embarrassed at being interrupted.
Nina didn't seem embarrassed, either. She gave them a little wave and said, "Devon! Callie! This is Malcolm Seward, he's a visitor to Her Divinity. Malcolm, this is Devon and Callie."
"Hi," Devon said, giving his hips a little extra pump for emphasis.
"Hi!" Callie squeaked out, obviously having a little difficulty finding her voice at the moment.
Malcolm gave them a frozen smile and waved. He didn't say anything. What was there to say?
"It's wonderful to meet you, Malcolm," Devon said, grinding against Callie's ass. "Would you like to join us?"
Nina saved Malcolm from further embarrassment by cutting in smoothly with, "I'm afraid he can't. I've been commanded to escort him to the Goddess' chambers, and, well..."
"True pleasure is service to the Goddess," all three chorused at once. Callie's voice was a little shaky, but she joined in right along with them. Malcolm made a mental note to see if he could find out Nina's real name at some point. Even if nobody had accused the Way of kidnapping anyone, he couldn't believe that people felt this spontaneously devoted to anybody, Goddess or not.
"We understand," Devon said. He reached around and tugged at Callie's nipples through the sheer fabric, working them like he was milking her. Callie's eyes rolled back in her head. "Perhaps after his audience with Her Holiness." Malcolm tried not to watch, but again, he was only human.
"If the Goddess wills it," Nina said. It took Malcolm a moment to realize she'd started walking again, and he hurried to catch up. After taking another (mercifully coitus-free) corner, he found himself outside an ornate door. "The audience chambers of the Living Divinity," Nina said with a trace of awe in her voice as she opened the door.
Inside, the room was furnished with low tables and comfortable piles of pillows to sit on instead of chairs. Gauzy curtains managed to create an atmosphere of intimacy despite the vast size of the chamber; Malcolm didn't know how many members the Way of the Living Divinity had, but he'd be willing to bet that they could all fit in here at once. A faint scent of some unknown incense filled the air.
"Please, take a seat anywhere you like," Nina said. Malcolm tentatively crossed his legs and sat down on a pile of pillows, holding his briefcase in his lap. "Feel free to set that on the table," Nina commented as she plopped down across from him, sitting in a way that made him more than a little wary of moving the briefcase just yet. He started calculating value-added taxation rates in his head in an effort to calm his bulging erection.
"So, when you said you wanted to talk," Nina said, "did you mean you actually wanted to have sex? Because there's no need to be ashamed if you do. I'd be happy to." Malcolm bit his lip and tried to remember every class of charitable deduction he could think of.
After a moment, he realized that Nina was still waiting for his answer. "No," he said, trying to keep his voice even, "I just wanted to talk a bit about your faith. How did you become involved with the Way?"
Nina's smile went vague and dreamy as her eyes became slightly unfocused. "I met the Goddess," she sighed out. "I'd moved out to LA a few months earlier, trying to get a job in modeling--it was kind of tough going, but I'd started to get a few gigs here and there. One of the other girls was a member of the Way, and she invited me to her apartment to talk about the faith. The Goddess was there when I got there, and..." Nina took a deep, shuddering breath. "The moment I saw Her, I just knew. She administered the Sacraments to me that very night."
Malcolm frowned, his erection subsiding a little as compassion replaced arousal. He wondered if Nina was even capable of remembering events as they really happened, or if she'd totally replaced being held against her will and brainwashed with memories of instant devotion. "And your friends? Your family?"
Nina's smile didn't vanish--it looked like it was a permanent part of her face--but it did dim a little. "I never got along with my mom," she said. "We hadn't spoken in months even before I moved out here, and I think we were both pretty happy with that arrangement. As for my friends, well...I introduced them all to the Goddess and the Way. They all understand now."
"Understand...what, exactly?" Malcolm asked. "What is the Way of the Living Divinity? Help me out, here."