Andrea patted her on the shoulder. "Just try not to take it out on the customers, love," she said. "Friday's coming soon, you'll have the whole weekend to try to get your head together."
"Alcohol helps that, doesn't it?" Ursula said as she headed to her cube, and the two parted with a laugh.
But the joke sparked a thought in Ursula's mind, as she went through the normal routine of skimming through memos and checking email (still nothing from Chandra) and answering call after dull, interminable call. Alcohol. Not right that moment, of course; Ursula might be fried, but she wasn't fried enough to drink on the job. No, Ursula was thinking about Friday nights after work, office girls getting together to have a drink or two to unwind after a long, stressful workweek. Ursula hadn't been to one since the dreams had started, she'd been too afraid that liquor would loosen her tongue without getting rid of her stress, an ugly combination. But if she went tomorrow night...and if she could convince Chandra to go as well, just for one or two drinks...
Ursula felt certain that all she needed to do was just talk to her. They'd been friends for four years now, ever since they'd both been trainees here. They'd shared the heartbreak of Ursula's big break-up with Keith, Ursula collapsing into a puddle of sobs on Chandra's couch. She'd returned the favor when Chandra's grandfather had died, consoling her friend and going to the funeral with her. Whatever this was, it couldn't come between them forever. Could it?
She signed out of work a half-minute early, drawing another tiny glare from Andrea that was met with a pleading glance. She'd make it up to her boss tomorrow. Today, she needed to already be on her feet as Chandra was signing out of the network, already heading down the row as Chandra was standing up, so she could shout, "Chandra!" in a tone of forced cheer.
Chandra looked anything but cheerful as she spun around. She looked like she'd been cornered by an angry tiger. "Urs..." she said, nervously. "I, um, I can't stay. Got to hurry home..."
"Tomorrow," Ursula said. "Friday nights at the Roving Pony? Just come out for a drink or two, us and the girls. Neutral ground, one drink and then you can skip off if you want." She tried to sound casual, keeping the pleading out of her voice.
"I, I...can't, I can't, I'm sorry," Chandra said as she gathered her stuff up hurriedly. All around them, co-workers hurried out the door, trying to be polite and not eavesdrop on what was obviously a private conversation. (They'd all just try to get it out of either Ursula or Chandra the next day.)
"Look, I can't remember what I did to make you so mad," Ursula said, "but whatever it is, I'm sorry."
Wrong thing to say. Chandra clutched her handbag convulsively like a gunshot victim, and practically sprinted for the door, with one last "I'm sorry," trailing her out as she left.
Ursula sighed, making her own way to the exit. Whatever it was that had made Chandra mad, it was clearly one of those things that Ursula was expected to not need to be told. Which would only make things more difficult, if (as was the case) Ursula really did have no idea what she'd done wrong. She tried to think back to the last night she and Chandra had spoken...
And decided it must not have anything to do with that night. That night had been perfectly normal, just two good friends having a quiet evening of boring telly and casual conversation. Nothing important, nothing to worry about, and certainly nothing that would cost Ursula a friendship.
Which left Ursula just as confused about Chandra as she was about the dreams, she thought as she got back to her apartment. (Not that the two had anything to do with each other.) It was all just a big mess, a bunch of big messes all tangling together and leaving her strung up in the web of it all. She flipped on the TV angrily, hoping for some sort of distraction.
Instead, her body distracted her from the TV. She sat there on the couch, trying to numb her brain with one reality show or another, but her hand just crept down into the waistband of her trousers. She found that hot, needy crease and slipped a finger inside, hand trapped by the fabric of her pants (couldn't move her hands, just quivered in ecstasy) as she diddled her clit. The television just became a blur of images as her eyes unfocused (staring straight ahead, eyes vacant and empty) and she felt like she was getting closer, like she was almost there, almost remembering the perfect pleasure of the dream...
And as soon as she thought of the dream, she lost it. It was like a gate slamming down in her mind, cutting her off from the memory and the pleasure with it. Ursula almost cried. Her mind couldn't remember the dream, but her pussy certainly could, and it seemed like nothing else would satisfy it. She never stopped being horny now, she wanted to masturbate herself stupid...
Instead, she went to bed.
*****
Ursula thought she remembered the dream that night.
It was right there, all crystal clear as she woke up. She remembered it perfectly, in every vivid, glorious, hot, sexy, wonderful detail. It seemed so silly that she'd ever forgotten it. The knowledge completed her, not just filling the nagging ache that came from not knowing but filling in every missing part of her soul. Ursula reveled in the knowledge, holding it in her mind like it was a tangible object, one that she just wanted to hold forever...
Then she really woke up.
That was almost the last straw. When she realized that she'd just been dreaming that she remembered the dream, Ursula let out a choked sob into her pillow, the despairing cry of a woman close to her breaking point. She looked over at the clock, and even though it was still an hour or so before the alarm would go off, Ursula knew she wouldn't be getting any more sleep that night. She got up wearily, trudged into the shower, and cleaned herself off perfunctorily before slipping on her clothes. At least today she had time to dry her hair before heading off to the tube.
She got to work twenty minutes early, which earned her back some of the goodwill she'd lost yesterday with Andrea, and made another deposit in her friendship bank by promising to buy the first round at the Roving Pony. But the rest of the day passed in a haze, punctuated by moping stares at Chandra's back, bathroom breaks that always seemed to end with her fingers in her snatch, and a dull, grinding headache that aspirin couldn't cure. The pub promised to help with none of that, but at least she could get too drunk to care.
Ursula walked into the Prancing Pony to a round of cheers from eager co-workers; she tried to hide her disappointment on seeing that Chandra wasn't one of them. Instead, she bought a round of drinks and listened politely to the gossip currently circulating through the office (Mrs. Halliday was preggers again, Jakob was schtupping a girl in HR, and something about someone being gay that got stifled rather quickly when she came in earshot.) After a few rounds, she found herself sitting by Andrea.
"Glad you decided to come out here," Andrea said as she took a gulp of stout. "It might not help you with your sleep problems, but at least you can forget them for a while. Shame Chandra didn't make the trip, though. I thought that maybe once you'd forgiven her, she--"
"Me?" Ursula said, trying not to sound bitter. "I've got no problem with Chandra at all! She's the one who's got the problem."
Andrea quirked her eyebrow. "Well, whatever her problem is, you seem to be the one who's not letting it go. I've seen the looks she gives you when you're not watching. She feels terrible about it, Ursie. Whatever 'it' is." Andrea put her hand on Ursula's. "You've been friends forever. Whatever it was she did, is it really worth losing your friendship over?"
Ursula furrowed her brow. "But she didn't do...I mean, I thought she was mad at me, because..." She knew she was babbling even without the worried look that Andrea was giving her, but her head seemed to be coming apart and she couldn't seem to form proper sentences. "If it's her that feels guilty, then...it couldn't have been, I..."
And then Ursula remembered the dream.
*****
"I'm not so sure about this, Chan," Ursula said as she wriggled around on the couch, trying to get comfortable. "I mean, yeah, I did say I was curious, Derren Brown and all that, but you're not exactly a professional, are
you?"
Chandra smiled. "Not to worry, Ursie," she said as she unclipped her necklace, letting the crystal pendant dangle from her hand. "This is an old hobby of mine, I used to do it all the time with my brothers and sisters."
"And I used to give my little brother Chinese burns all the time, but you don't see me offering to demonstrate that to you," Ursula said with a wry grin. All the same, she took a deep breath, inhaling the reassuring scent of spices that always seemed to linger in Chandra's apartment, and let it out.
"Trust me," Chandra said. "You'll love this. It's easy, Ursie. Easier than easy. You don't even need to do anything. Just...hang on." She reached over and pulled Ursula's glasses off. "There. Like I was saying, you don't need to do anything at all. That's what trance is all about, Ursula. Just letting things happen."
She held up the pendant, letting it sway just slightly in her hand as she brought it up just above Ursula's eyeline. "You can just watch the pendant, Ursula, and all you need to do is watch and listen and relax. And that's really just like doing nothing at all. You don't need to do anything to watch the pendant, it's just swinging back and forth right in front of you. You don't need to do anything to listen to my voice, my words just go right into your head as you sit there. You don't need to do anything to relax, Ursula. It just happens all on its own."
Ursula took another long breath. Really, this felt kind of silly. Chandra wasn't really doing anything especially 'hypnotic' to her, she was just talking in a sort of low, mellow tone about relaxing. It did feel nice, and Ursula did feel sort of relaxed listening to her, but that wasn't anything special. It was just soothing, that was all. In a few minutes, she'd tell Chandra it wasn't working, and they'd have a good giggle and order pizza. Once the pendant had stopped sparkling, she'd just have to tell Chandra she couldn't be hypnotized.
"That's right, Ursula," Chandra said. "You're relaxing, and it just happens all on its own. It's like gravity, pulling you down. It's always happening, you don't need to think about it. You're drawn down by my voice, just like the pendant is drawn down by gravity. Always further down, never stopping. Just like you're always relaxing, never stopping. The pendant always dangles down, you always sink down, further and further."
Ursula let out a sigh, now, feeling like her body was melting into the couch cushions. Her arms and legs felt heavy, liquid, but almost floaty at the same time. It was kind of a neat feeling, and it just seemed to increase as she continued to watch the pendant sparkle at the end of the chain. It spun and flickered in the soft light, each facet glinting with rainbow light, but it wasn't swinging much. How could it? It always dangled down, like she always sank down into Chandra's soft, soothing words.
"That's right, Ursula," Chandra said again. "You're doing so well, sinking so easily, and you find that you really don't want to stop. You find that you can't stop, because you don't want to stop. You don't want to resist, and so that means that you can't resist the relaxation, can't resist my words, can't resist the sparkle and sway of the dangling pendant..."
"can't resist," Ursula responded, the soft, docile tone in her voice surprising her a little. But even the surprise was muted by the dreamy, pleasant feeling sweeping through her body and into her head, leaving her feeling floaty and sleepy and dizzy.
"Very good," Chandra said in delighted tones. "Just so heavy, and relaxed, sinking down and down and down, now. Eyes so heavy, body so heavy, lost in the pendant as the pendant dangles and sinking down as it sinks down..."
Ursula tried to hold her head up, but it didn't really seem possible anymore. She just felt it slump forward, chin hitting her chest as she tried to watch the pendant by looking up even higher with her eyes, but all she saw was the inside of her own eyelids. She wondered for a moment why that was, but then she heard Chandra say, "And now your eyes are too heavy to keep open," and as soon as she said it Ursula felt it and her eyes closed all the way down into sleep.
Chandra's voice seemed to be coming from everywhere now, right inside her head, saying, "Very good, Ursula, very very good. So relaxed now, so easy to stay relaxed. Always sinking deeper, opening your eyes now but still sinking deeper." Ursula opened her eyes, staring straight ahead, eyes vacant and empty just like Chandra said they would be. She let out a tiny sigh as her thoughts drifted to just how soothing and hypnotic Chandra really was.
Everything seemed dreamy, disconnected. She took in the tortured expression on Chandra's face without really registering it. She saw the way that Chandra reached out a hand slowly, hesitantly towards Ursula without really thinking about anything except for the way it felt nice when it finally touched her bare arm and began slowly rubbing up and down just a little. When Chandra said, "I'm sorry, Ursie," Ursula took in the words but they just seemed to sit there in her hazy, empty mind without triggering any kind of thoughts.
She just let Chandra's hand stroke her skin, sighing at the way that the sensation just seemed to amplify her dreamy trance, and the way that trance seemed to heighten the sensation. She didn't need to think at all, as Chandra said, "I shouldn't, I know I shouldn't but oh god, this is why I never told you I could do this because I knew that if I saw you like this I wouldn't be able to stop myself, I'd just have to..." Chandra's words turned into a guttural moan of lust as she leaned in and pressed her lips to Ursula's ample breasts, suckling on them through her t-shirt.
She felt Chandra moaning against her body, and the vibrations of the sound made her moan as well. The pleasure seemed to echo in her empty brain, her nipples stiffening as Chandra licked and sucked and kept stroking, her hands finding all sorts of places, slipping under Ursula's shirt and sliding down the swell of her hip...
Chandra pulled back. Tears were running down her face, and her voice was unsteady as she said, "Ursula, I want you to take off all your clothes. Go ahead and slip them all off for me now, you know you can't resist..." Her voice was unsteady, but she said it anyway.
"can't resist," Ursula husked out as she slipped her shirt over her head. Idly, she noticed the wet spot where Chandra had been suckling her. She undid her bra, giving Chandra a clear view of her tits. Not for the first time--she'd changed in front of her friend, thought nothing of it, but this was different... As she slipped off her trousers, she realized her pants were damp with arousal.
Then Chandra's hands were all over her again, sliding up and down her legs, and Chandra sobbed out, "I'm sorry, I just, I wanted this for so long, Ursie, but I never could, not ever, I couldn't even let you think it, but I..." Chandra climbed onto Ursula's lap, and Ursula felt warm, slick wetness as Chandra ground her cunt against Ursula's thigh. "Oh fuck you're so pretty..."
Chandra kept fondling, and she whispered in Ursula's ear, "Everywhere my hands touch, Ursula, you'll keep feeling it, even after they move away, you'll keep feeling them stroking and fondling and rubbing and it feels so good," and it was true. Chandra ran her hands up Ursula's thighs and over her hips and all along her back, and even as her hands moved to fondle Ursula's titties, she could still feel them all over the places they'd been.
She heard her own voice moaning, "feels soooo good," and she practically shuddered in bliss.
She felt hands all over her body, now, and she started to slide her own hand down to her pussy to relieve that insistent ache that was all she could feel now, but Chandra whispered something, and suddenly Ursula's hands decided to clasp together behind her back. She couldn't move them, she could only quiver in ecstasy as Chandra rubbed and stroked and fondled, and somehow that teasing touch all over her body felt even better than cumming, like she was just floating in pleasure all over while her mind went totally blank and empty under Chandra's guidance and control.
"You must obey," Chandra gasped as she slid her hands down from Ursula's nipples, but Ursula could still feel them there. She could feel a hand on her hip, a pair of hands rubbing her nipples, and then hands right down between her thighs, putting pressure with the thumb right on her clit.
"must obey," Ursula moaned out in response. If the
touches had felt better than cumming, what she felt now was absolutely beyond even that. Her whole body shook as the fingers just kept stroking, kept rubbing, kept pumping until her whole brain was glowing white-hot with orgasmic bliss and she moaned out, "must obey," again and again and again because it just sounded so sexy to hear herself say it in those lost, mindless tones as she came and came and came.
She didn't even remember Chandra letting go of her. The phantom touches kept her in that endless pool of lust while Chandra left the room and came back, and she wasn't even aware of that until Chandra guided her down to her knees and commanded her to suck on the strap-on, getting it slick and wet with her saliva. The rubber dildo tasted somehow erotic in her mouth as she bobbed her head up and down on it lewdly, thinking of nothing but obedience and wanting nothing else but to please Chandra. When Chandra finally pulled the fake cock out of her mouth, when she finally stuck it into Ursula's pussy and started rolling her hips in thrust after thrust of buzzing, tingling pleasure, all that registered was how good it felt to obey.
The fucking was a reward for obeying, the touching was a reward for obeying, everything was part of the sweet, glorious pleasure Ursula now understood was part of the reward for sinking down into trance and letting Chandra guide her empty, docile mind like a good girl. Every thrust, every orgasm (and oh, fuck, there were so many orgasms, even when she wasn't cumming she felt like she was cumming) it was all part of pleasing Chandra and receiving pleasure in return.
And when she was allowed to lick Chandra's pussy, the salty taste of sweat-slick flesh in her mouth, that was just another part of the reward. She was allowed to please her mistress, to drink in the taste of her mistress' juicy pussy and know that her mistress was cumming too, cumming until they were both wrung-out from the sheer pleasure of it all.
And finally, when it was all over, Chandra's sweet, soothing voice was still there in her ear, whispering to her that it was alright to forget every bit of this, that she didn't need to remember it at all. The night had been perfectly normal, just two good friends having a quiet evening of boring telly and casual conversation. And Ursula sighed, and forgot...
Arousing Family Page 14