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*****
Sylvia pulled to a stop in the driveway of a comfortably old, but well-maintained farmhouse just as her graduate advisor was coming out the kitchen door. She got out of the car and waved, "Hey, Professor Phillips."
"Hey, Sylvia, what brings you out here on so early on a Saturday?"
The student hung her head and got in step with her mentor. "I broke up with Will last night and needed to talk about it, if it's okay?"
"Sure, come on out to the barn. I've got some stock tending to do and we can gab while I feed the beasties. So you dumped William, huh? I thought you two were about to become a serious item."
Sylvia swung her bag back over her shoulder and shook out her hair. "So did I, kind of. I mean, he finally asked if I wanted to move in with him and I had been thinking about it. I went over to his place to tell him 'yes' but when I got there he had about eight of his friends in the living room. They were watching
The Social Network
on DVD for about the seventy-fifth time. I looked around and realized that if I let Will move in with me I'd have all his Star Wars posters and figurines, his beer can collection and the World of Warcraft perpetually on my computer. That's when I decided that no matter how sweet he can be I was not going to live with such a slacker dude."
Angela Phillips nodded gravely in agreement. "I understand completely. Here I am, a tenured professor at thirty-five, with no inclination to have anything to do with men my own age. It's sad, really."
"It is! I don't know whether to enter a convent, try other women or restrict my dating to men over forty."
"There's nothing wrong with either other women or men over forty, Sylvia. I've enjoyed both, occasionally at the same time."
She opened the door to the barn. To Sylvia's surprise the interior held no horses, goats or sheep. Instead there were terrariums stacked high and the atmosphere was damp and warm, much warmer than the April outside. Inside each glass box was an enormous, hairy spider. At their entrance, many of the monstrous forms lifted their gross bodies high and raised their four front legs threateningly.
"Ewww! Professor Phillips, what are those? They're horrible."
"
Phoneutria nigriventer
, Sylvia, they're also known as the banana spider, wandering spider or, as I prefer to call them, the Brazilian hard-on spider."
Sylvia shook her head at the answer and slowly turned to her advisor, "Brazilian hard-on spider? Okay, do I really want to know about this?"
Angie laughed. She filled a box with live crickets, picked up a set of forceps and went about dropping an insect into each spider's lair. As the crickets fell into the terrariums the spiders leaped onto them and bit. Instantly the cricket succumbed and was soon reduced to a dry husk as the predatory arachnid drained its vital fluids.
Sylvia was puzzled. "You keep spiders as pets?"
"Not pets, honey, research subjects."
Sylvia slapped herself on the forehead, "Of course! Many important pharmaceuticals come from natural sources. I presume these nasty looking things have nasty venom?"
Professor Phillips nodded gravely. "It's the arachnid world's worst. Fortunately they most often bite without envenomation and since 1996 there has been effective anti-venom available so no deaths have been reported since then. However, from the pharmacological standpoint they are very, very interesting. Do you know that every adult male who has ever been bitten by one of these has had a very hard, two hour erection?"
"No!" Sylvia's face went from amazement to realization to glee in the space of seconds, "Two
hours
?"
"Mm-hmm, and the specific toxin has been identified; a peptide called Tx2-6 causes it. The first person who tames the peptide and makes it a treatment for erectile dysfunction will make a fortune."
"And how close are you?"
Professor Phillips answer came out of the kind of smile you get from your cat after it eats your canary. "I've already done it. Better yet, I've figured out how to administer it through nasal spray instead of injection. All I need now is human trials and FDA approval. Want to come along?"
"Come along, where?"
The older woman put the remaining crickets back in their pen and walked her student over to a couple of butterfly chairs. She filled two mugs with coffee, handed one to Sylvia and settled back. "Sylvia, do you know Konrad and Melissa Koenig? He teaches evolutionary theory. " "Oh, yes! Such a dear sweet man—and Ms. Koenig is
so
funny."
"She is, and quite passionate, too. I've been in a stable relationship with them for about a year and half. Unfortunately, poor Konrad has ED and really can't join into our play the way he—and we—would like. They were married on the very first Earth Day clear back in 1970, so with it coming up again next week, Melissa and I thought that my new compound would make a wonderful anniversary present. We're going to abduct Konrad, give him this stuff and have our way with him. Like I said, want to come along?"
"Come along as what, an official observer or something?"
Angie sniggered, "No, as part of their anniversary present. Both Dr. and Ms. Koenig would be delighted to enjoy your body, young lady. And so would I, for that matter. But it's your choice."
Sylvia was stunned. Never in her life had she been propositioned so baldly and never before had she been propositioned by a woman. She had been joking when she mentioned trying woman because young men were getting on her last nerve—at least she thought she was. But there was a steamy, predatory gleam in her advisor's eye that spoke of unbridled lust and nameless, decadent delights.
"Let me get this straight. You and Ms. Koenig are going to abduct Professor Koenig, take him somewhere, give him this—this Tx2-6 derivative and then you want to hand
me
to him? So he can celebrate his new virility with a woman young enough to be his—his granddaughter?"
"Got it in one, Sylvia, plus when he's had plenty of fun with you, Missy and I will take turns entertaining him and being entertained by you. You get to play the sex toy in this scenario, girl. Believe me it will give you a whole new viewpoint. Like I told you, I know from experience there's much to be said for other women and men over forty. What have you got to lose?"
"I—I've never been in a top/bottom relationship. All the guys I've hooked up with—we just jumped into bed and fucked. Is it really better?"
"For some of us it's as hot as it gets. Usually I'm the top. You'll do what I say and like it! And you will. But every now and again I get topped. It's great to be down on my knees sucking and licking then get bent over a table and fucked 'til I scream. Not everyone agrees. But there's only one way to find out, you know."
Shakily Sylvia reached into her bag and pulled out her cell phone. She thumbed through the apps until she came to the calendar.
"The twenty-second, well, Will and I were supposed to be going to the local comicon but that's off. Mid-terms are over so I don't have the need to spend the entire weekend studying or writing. You said that you were in a stable relationship with the Koenigs?"
"I am."
"What if he decides he wants to keep me?"
"Have you been reading the Sleeping Beauty trilogy or something? That's the wrong question. It's 'what if
we
decide
we
want to keep you?' and the answer is it depends on whether or not you want to be kept. Either way it has no affect on my being your advisor. We keep school and—uh, playground completely separate, understand?"
"Oh, good, that was going to be my next question. I only call you Angie when we're off campus?" "You can call me Angie anywhere."