“Should I untie you?” he mused. “I think I like you like that. I think I’ll keep you restrained this time. Safer that way anyway.” His finger drifted up and down her arms, stopping to tickle the armpits. Mimi began to scream but he put a hand over her mouth, muffling it straightaway. “No, love. Quietly. Mustn’t wake the wife, must we?”
Her ankles and wrists were sore from all the pulling, but she couldn’t stop herself. He ran a finger underneath the frilly edge of her bra cups, just enough to let the material rustle and shift over her nipples. Hot bolts of fire targeted her crotch and her hips jolted. She was begging again, in a whisper, an intense stream of petitions for mercy hissing out of her.
“We’re going to do it all,” John was telling her, tweaking her knicker elastic at the top of her inner thighs, stroking the sensitised skin over and over while she bucked and sobbed. “I’m going to fuck you in every single position you’ve ever heard of, and hundreds more that you haven’t. I’m going to make you come so hard you lose your senses. I can do that, you know. I’ve done it to Anna. Don’t worry, it’s temporary. I’m going to use you up and wear you out. I’m going to the limits of your kinky imagination and beyond. Every fantasy you’ve ever had can be fulfilled now. Let me see…”
He frowned down at Mimi’s contorted face, reading beyond her streaming eyes.
“Not the one about you being in control. I don’t do that. The rest, though… Why not?”
He smiled at Mimi’s suffering. She was panting now, heavily, trying to force her swollen clit down on his just-beyond-range fingers.
He wriggled one forefinger farther and skimmed her outer lips, up and down. The moment he made contact with her clit, she arched and stiffened and all the unbearable tension roared out of her in the strongest orgasm of her life.
“There,” he said, maddeningly smug, once she had finished making unearthly noises and tossing her limbs as wildly as she could within their constraints. “You liked that, didn’t you? Hmm?”
“You bastard,” she puffed. “You’re evil. Truly evil.” A tear leaked from the corner of an eye. He kissed it away.
“Don’t disappoint me, Miranda. I thought you were strong.”
“I am,” she affirmed, rallying her weakened spirits.
“Good. Because I’m going to fuck you now. And, as you might have guessed, half measures really aren’t my style.”
Somewhere, far away, behind all the need and shame and lust, something clicked in Mimi’s brain and she found a scrap of resistance.
“You need a condom.”
“I beg your pardon.” John stopped in midslither, pressing her down where their pelvises met, staring into Mimi’s wide brown eyes.
“I don’t want to get pregnant.”
He blinked. “Aren’t you on the pill?”
“Anna was on the pill. It doesn’t work on space spunk, apparently.”
“Very funny.” John sucked in his cheeks, thinking. “I guess you’re right. It doesn’t work on me. But I am honouring you by making you my breeding partner, Miranda. You might not like the idea now, but once your belly is full…”
“No,” she asserted, needing every ounce of her strength to hold this line. “Anna is giving you your heir. You don’t need two of them. Especially not from two mothers. Can’t you at least wait until she has given birth before you start trying to impregnate me?”
John exhaled loudly, looking about him as if searching for a satisfactory answer in the air.
“All right. I don’t need another child just yet. I can wait. I can’t wait to fuck you though, and I don’t carry condoms.” He pushed forward menacingly, his hard bulge making contact with Mimi’s crotch.
“Let me suck you instead,” she offered in desperation, watching his hand unbuckle his belt as he lay propped above her.
“Fine.” He threw the belt aside and removed his trousers in a shimmying move before kneeling up and straddling Mimi’s chest. “Can you do it without hands? Let’s see, shall we?”
Mimi worked her jaw until it was sore, the sadistic Stone deliberately holding himself back until she was aching and breathless before releasing into her mouth.
“You did that well,” he noted, smearing his juices around her face with his thumb. “You have a mouth that was made for cocksucking. I’ll use that again. Perhaps I should make my seed your staple diet. Did you know that it’s very good for you? So much protein, and vitamins too. Not like your human crap. Your skin and hair will thank you.”
“What’s the difference?” asked Mimi. “Biologically speaking. Between you and a human?”
“My cellular structure is completely different. I don’t have DNA in your sense—I could kill you right now and they wouldn’t find a trace of me anywhere.”
“Lovely.”
“Handy.” John smiled, almost affectionately. “How familiar are you with human biology?”
“Not very,” Mimi admitted. “I didn’t pay much attention in those lessons. Learned most of what I know behind the bike sheds.”
“I won’t go into detail then. I look like you, but I’m different. That’s all you need to know.”
“Do you feel hunger and thirst?”
“I’ve tampered with myself so that I can eat and expel organic matter, as you do. Off this planet, I wouldn’t digest in the way you do. We inhale our nourishment where I’m from. It’s so much more efficient. The time you people spend in the kitchen. Madness! Though I must admit, I’ve come to rather enjoy cooking. It’s like chemistry, an experimental art with the potential for disaster or triumph.”
“I’m starving,” Mimi hinted. “I haven’t eaten all day.”
“You just did,” John said with a wide smirk. “Didn’t I fill you up? Perhaps second helpings?”
“A piece of toast will do.”
“Noted. Don’t run away, now, will you?” John leapt off the bed and pulled on his trousers, grinning at the still-trussed, sex-mussed girl on the bed.
“As if I would. As if I could.”
“Oh, you don’t fool me, Miranda. You’d run a million miles if I let you out of my sight for one second. I’m keeping you close, love. I’m sticking to you like glue. There is nowhere you could go that would be safe from me. Just keep that in mind.”
As John shut the door behind him, Mimi convulsed with dread, her appetite suddenly killed stone dead.
“What the hell happened to you yesterday?”
Mimi swore an internal blue streak. She had deliberately taken the back entrance into work so as not to run into Liam, and here he was, balancing various paper bags of muffins and croissants and several coffee containers, accusing her at the foot of the stairs.
“Sorry,” she blurted. “Something came up.”
“Something that involved going to a mobile black hole?”
“Yes. Look, can I pass? I’ve got an urgent meeting with Prendergast.”
Liam stood aside, confused at Mimi’s icy, unrepentant demeanour.
“Call me,” he said, watching her take the first few steps. “I’ve got stuff I have to tell you. About Anna, and Stone.”
“Yeah. Later.”
At her desk, Mimi stopped to open her handbag and stare disconsolately at its contents. Her mobile phone winked a red light at her, reminding her that the Thought Link was on, and could not be broken. Before she had left for work that morning, John had taken the phone and done something complicated with it, ensuring that, though she was out of range for normal alien telepathy, the technology would keep her brain completely under his remote scrutiny. If she so much as thought about disobeying him, he would know immediately.
She pulled herself together and headed for Prendergast’s office. His PA looked up and smiled, a friendly girl with whom Mimi had shared many a drunken confidence.
“Hey, Mimi. You coming to Shots tonight? It’s school disco night.”
“No, can’t, sorry. Listen, can you tell Prendergast I need to see him? It’s urgent.”
“Really?” The PA was surpris
ed; Mimi didn’t usually cover the kind of content that needed running past the editor.
“Yes. Potentially huge story I’ve sort of stumbled upon. Not my usual thing.”
“Can you give us a clue? He’ll want to know.”
“It’s to do with the ozone replacement machine. It’s dynamite, seriously.”
“Okay, I’ll let you know. I’ll give you a call, yeah?”
“Thanks, Jo.”
“Good girl.” Stone’s voice reverberated in her head as Mimi made her way back to the Ministry of Trivia. “Do this for me and I will reward you tonight.”
Tonight. That reminded her. She was to go to the chemist and buy condoms. Much as she tried to make that thought revolt her, the throb between her legs would not die away, and the prospect of the evening in Stone’s bed refreshed that desire until the urge to go to the ladies’ and relieve herself of it became almost unbearable. But Stone had stipulated no masturbation. She knew he wanted her to ask him to take her, rather than just doing the deed without her consent. She knew the act of acceding to her request would be more sexually satisfying for him that the orgasm that would follow. She knew all this, but she couldn’t find the fight inside herself to resist it. It wasn’t worth it. And there was something else. Something that drew her to him, besides the crude mechanics of sexual need. Something she hadn’t quite worked out yet, but which nonetheless held her better judgement to ransom.
She went to the ladies’ anyway and stood regarding her face in the mirror.
“Am I different?” she asked her reflection aloud. “I don’t look different.”
Stone’s voice through the thought link answered her. “You’re different, Miranda. You’re different because you belong to me now.”
“Stop gloating,” she said to him, before taking out her mobile phone and checking it for messages. So many missed calls from Anna. Agonised sympathy convulsed her for a moment, driving the itch for sex with Stone away for just those few seconds.
“I want to speak to her. I should be there for her,” she insisted.
“Leave it. Speak to her tonight. You can say you had too much work.”
“Have you seen her today? Can’t you be kind to her? Tell her you forgive her?”
“I’ll think about it. Now go to your desk. I don’t want you missing that call from Prendergast.”
Anna lay on her bed, holding her mobile phone above her head, as if insistent concentration on the slim rectangle would cause it to burst into song, presaging Mimi’s mother hen advice and sympathy.
It remained obstinate in its silence, though, and Anna’s arms were beginning to tire. She let it drop onto the duvet, sinking down with her limbs, which felt weighted today. She couldn’t get up if she tried—and why try? Why try anything now?
More tears. Were there really any left? After last night, she thought the well must have run dry. Perhaps these tears came from the babe. Would he still want the child? She managed to lift one hand high enough to place it on her still-flat stomach, protective even in grief.
The sound of footsteps outside caused her to turn her head away. It would be Luana, to dust and vacuum the room. She could not face Luana today.
But the voice that spoke after the handle was turned and the door opened was not Luana’s.
“Anna.” It spoke gently, almost apologetically. Her heart quickened with sudden hope.
“John.” She sat up, reaching out her hands. “Please believe me.”
“It’s after midday,” he said, perching on the bedside but refusing to take hold of the proffered hands. “You haven’t eaten anything. Luana is making soup. I’ll have her bring some up.”
“I couldn’t, not until you…please…”
“Think of the child.” The cold edge in his voice was unmistakable.
Anna lay back down, thumping her head back on the pillow in despair.
“You don’t love me anymore,” she said, her tone flat. “There is nothing for me here. I’ll leave.”
“No, you won’t.”
Anna mistook the certainty in his voice for passion, and she sat back up, finding a spark of hope in this insistence.
“You won’t take my child away. You’ll stay here. As for love, if I didn’t love you, why would I be…going through this? Why would I suffer? Do you think I’m not suffering? Anna, I am blameless in this. I left you for a few days, thinking—”
“John, how can you think this of me? How?”
“You still deny it? Even though you were asleep in his arms?”
“I was just tired, John. Pregnancy does that to you. And I didn’t plan to be alone with him in the house. Mimi was supposed to be here. We didn’t know where she was. We spent the whole evening trying to contact her. I still can’t get hold of her now.”
“How convenient. I suppose she’s at work today? With Liam?”
“I don’t know.”
“You mean you haven’t called Liam? I find that hard to believe.”
“There is nothing—nothing—between me and Liam. Never was. Never will be.”
“Never was, eh? I remember a girl in a bar, fleeing from a date she’d made by mistake because she thought she’d been asked out by somebody called Liam.”
Anna shook her head violently, tears flying out and splashing her cheeks.
“That was before I met you! Before I…fell in love with you. At first sight. John, no man can ever compare with you. You will always be the love of my life.”
“But you just lied to me, Anna. Blatantly lied to me without even stopping to think that I must know it was a lie. How can I trust you? Hmm?”
John’s face was so sad, his eyes beleaguered, his brow creased. He looked devastated. Anna reached for his arm, but he shrugged her off.
“You can trust me, John. I’d never, ever do something that would hurt you. Never. Ever. I swear on every Bible, every holy book in the world. You must believe me.”
He stood, looking at the ceiling to avoid her appeal, as if he knew one look from her would shatter his resolve.
“I have to go to the office. Luana will bring you lunch. See that you eat it.”
He left, striding rapidly out the door without looking back.
Anna took refuge in tears again, but she felt a tiny bit more hopeful than she had before his visit. He was just in shock, that was all. In pain. He would see soon enough how silly and insecure he was being. It would be all right.
“So, Mimi. The ozone replacement machine.”
Prendergast sat back with his cup of coffee and sipped, waiting for Mimi to dazzle him with something that would knock the miserable state of the nation’s coffers right off the front page.
“Yes. I’ve become quite friendly with John Stone.”
“Oh yes, Stone. Interesting fellow. I’ve met him—he’s a devil to get the measure of. What do you think of him?”
“I think he’s a clever man. A genius, even.”
“So you think this machine is more than just some harebrained piece of eccentricity? Because I’m afraid that’s how it’s viewed. A silly season story in the making. From stockbroker to sci-fi saviour of the Earth. You see how it plays.”
“I’m confident that it will work, and he will be able to repair the ozone layer. It will benefit more than the environment, as well. He told me that there will be some secondary effects. He thought Rodney Merchant would be very interested to hear about them, because they will affect his satellite media networks.”
“Merchant? Seriously?”
“Stone told me,” said Mimi, keeping her voice low, knowing that she had Prendergast’s full attention, “that once the ozone layer is sealed, he will be able to add a number of features to satellite signals. Features Merchant might well want to consider.”
“Such as?”
“Subliminal messaging.”
“Mind control?”
Mimi simply held Prendergast’s gaze until the editor sat back and laughed. But the laugh was an effort to mask disquietude, and it did not convince.
“You mean Stone reckons Merchant could use his networks to become some kind of international Svengali?”
“That’s the implication. He is very keen to meet with Merchant to discuss the idea. Could you set it up?”
“Hang on. I know Merchant is our ultimate boss, but I’m still not sure I like the sound of this. Why would I want to help Stone with what sounds like an old-fashioned evil plan to take over the world?”
“Need it be evil?” Mimi smiled sweetly. “Think of all the charitable, compassionate impulses that could be manipulated. We could build an ideal world.”
“Merchant isn’t about an ideal world.”
“All the same, he owns the satellites.”
“Listen, Mimi, I’ll tell you what I think. This is a pretty straightforward ruse for your man Stone to solicit Merchant for cash for his tin-pot invention. Okay. So far, so predictable. But I think it will at least give Merchant a laugh or two. And in this economy, a laugh is exactly what we need. I’ll set something up for you.”
“Thanks.” Mimi shook hands with Prendergast and left, nursing the remains of the coffee.
“Well played.” John’s voice in her ear was approving. “Though you needn’t have made me look quite such a nutcase. Ah well. The job’s done, and that’s what matters. Now get to the chemist. And don’t forget the lubricant.”
Mimi called the lift, on her way to that vital lunch break shopping trip, only to find that Liam was the sole other occupant of the elevator car.
“Do I get my explanation now?” he asked, his face sour.
Mimi worked on looking as if her hackles were rising. “Explanation? What, I owe you all that, do I? I’m not your girlfriend, Liam. It was strictly friends with benefits, and the benefits are finished now. Jury’s out on the friendship too.”
“What?” Liam looked so flabbergasted that she had to turn her head away.
“I know you, you, um, were just using me to get closer to Anna. I’m not a mug, you know. I’m not second-best.”
“That’s…what? That’s bonkers. Have you been talking to Stone? Because he’s got the wrong end of the stick. He jumped to conclusions, and… Mimi, listen.” Liam grabbed hold of her wrist.
Under His Influence Page 13
