"Where are we going again?" Kari asked.
From the driver's seat, Sean shot a worried glance her way. She blushed, averting her eyes. It was a stupid question, she knew, one that he'd likely already answered. But she couldn't help it--her head had been spinning since leaving the Team Salt compound, her thoughts struggling to find purchase without any orders to anchor them.
"We're going to a hotel," her savior patiently explained.
"Oh." She shifted uneasily, tugging at the seatbelt between her breasts. "Not your apartment?"
Again, that troubled look. "We...already talked about this. Don't you remember?"
"Um..." She scrunched up her face. "Kinda? Sorry, things are still a little...weird for me. Can you explain it again?"
So a dumb slut like me can understand
, she nearly added.
Sean sighed, rubbing the traces of stubble along his jaw. "We can't go to my apartment. That'll be the first place your coach looks. I tried to be careful, but it's only a matter of time before he figures out I'm the one who took you. We'll have to lay low for a while to throw him off the trail. Hopefully, he's too worried about covering his own ass to call the cops."
"Oh. Right." Kari nodded gratefully, brimming with admiration. Sean was so smart. So strong. So in control. She was so lucky to be in his care. "So...what happens next?"
"Next?"
"Y'know, after we've escaped. Then what?"
A weighty pause. Sean's hands wrung the steering wheel. "I'm...not sure. Guess we'll have to figure it out as we go. Don't worry." He offered a reassuring smile. "It'll be fine. You're safe now-- that's all that really matters."
"Right. Totally." Kari tried her best to mirror his confidence, but it was a fragile, fleeting thing. Because as much as she wanted to agree, as much as she wanted to believe that all would be well...
...The warm stickiness between her thighs begged to differ.
Kari crossed her legs, smoothing the ruffles of her skirt. Despite what Sean claimed, she wasn't safe--not completely. Though she'd escaped the compound, the training program had followed her out, its tendrils still buried in the soft, sensitive recesses of her mind. She could fight their influence if she tried, but resistance was a muscle she hadn't exercised in ages. Already, she could feel its strength beginning to wane.
That was why she couldn't stop blushing whenever Sean looked her way; why she found herself fascinated by the strong lines of his arms, the manly heft of his shoulders as they rose and fell with each breath. Kari had always known her friend was handsome, but in an abstract sort of way, a fact she recognized more than felt. Now, the shape of him was practically branded into her brain, alluring and impossible to ignore.
Of course, she knew this was her training at work; knew that it had conditioned her into a state of sexual suggestibility. And yet, she struggled to find the will to fight it. Especially when Sean's mere presence made her weak in the knees.
He worked out--how had she never realized before? How had she never wondered what it would feel like to be pinned by those powerful arms? To have those hands grasp her hips, her tits, her throat?
Kari shivered, biting back an involuntary moan. Sean noticed, his eyes hesitating briefly before returning to the road. He cleared his throat.
"My, uh, jacket's in the back if you're cold," he offered.
Kari peered over her shoulder, then down at the frilly maid uniform still binding her body. "That's okay." She smiled. "I'm fine like this."
Sean's lips quirked, then broke into a forced laugh. "Might be a good idea to cover up anyway. Y'know, in case someone sees us or something."
Unable to argue, Kari reached into the back seat, retrieving the garment as instructed. Yet even as she knew what was expected of her, she still couldn't bring herself to wear it, to deny Sean a view of her flushed, vulnerable flesh. Instead, she folded the sleek fabric on her lap, watching her savior the entire time, inviting him to object or argue.
"I'll keep it right here," she murmured. "Just in case."
At the next red light, Sean's eyes met hers. He glanced at the jacket, then the areas it was meant to cover, lingering over her lace-lined curves, her shivering midriff and pert, pink nipples. Kari bit her lip, goosebumps tingling wherever his searching gaze roamed.
The light turned green. Sean faced forward, throat ticking as he swallowed.
Kari's fingers clutched the jacket tight, heat blossoming beneath her belly as she realized the truth. Sean hadn't offered the jacket to protect her modesty; he was trying to shield himself from temptation. Even as he played the white knight, his motives weren't entirely pure. There was still a part of him he couldn't trust, a spark of lust that he had to keep smothered, lest it catch and engulf the object of its desire.
The object currently seated next to him, salivating at the thought.
No! Kari looked away, digging her nails into her palms. What was wrong with her? She was supposed to be fighting her programming, not helping it along. Seeking escape, she forced her gaze out the window, desperate to distract herself from the lewd heat coiling inside her.
"Sorry." Sean grimaced, apparently misinterpreting her discomfort. "I know I shouldn't keep staring, it's just...weird."
"Weird?" Kari repeated. "How?"
"Well, it's like...you're still you but...different, y'know?"
"I guess."
An uneasy pause. "Was I right? Were they really, y'know...brainwashing you?"
Kari stiffened. Sean had no idea how dangerous that question was. Nor how powerless she was to refuse it. "I-I think...maybe...I dunno..."
"Do you...um. Do you remember...what they did?"
"B-bits in pieces," she admitted, struggling not to say more. If he pressed further, if he made her remember...there was no telling how deep she might fall. The impending danger made her slick thighs clench.
A silence followed that seemed to last an eternity. "Like...what?" Sean finally asked.
Kari let out a shuddering breath, unable to hold back the memories any longer. "There was this...program," she began. "My own--I mean, my coach--told me it was an aim trainer. But something about it was...weird. There were all these spinning colors and strange noises. I thought it was annoying at first, but the more I watched...the more I listened......the more I...understood. They were...helping me. Training me. Making me...better. Making me...making me...haaaahhh...."
Her eyelids fluttered, her head drooping slightly as she sank deeper into the seat. At some point, she'd shifted the jacket aside to sneak one hand beneath her skirt, her stroking fingers slick with arousal.
