Blissful Awakenings

by Penny May

  As promised, Franklin began to explore her body, always keeping his hands on the outside of her robe. He moved from her hand, up her wrist, to her arm, and progressed up her shoulder, over her breast, then up to her neck. Only when his flesh touched hers at her throat did she feel any kind of response. Even then, in all honesty, she kind of felt like she was in a doctor’s office. He did the same on the other side of her body then stopped.

  She opened her eyes.

  “Good,” he told her with a soft, clinical smile. If he had appeared to be enjoying that, she couldn’t tell. Which was why she agreed to his next request. “I’m going to have you stand up now and take off your robe. Is that okay?”

  She nodded and did as she was asked. When she dropped her robe to the floor, he did the same, standing naked in front of her again.

  “Now,” he said, stepping forward and taking her hand again. “I’m going to do that same process again. Is that okay?”

  She nodded and closed her eyes again.

  This time, the experience of Franklin touching her body was different. Instead of doing each side individually, he used both hands to touch both sides of Courtney’s body simultaneously.

  When he reached the upper part of her arms, she felt her heartbeat pick up a little. He paused there, moving his hands up and down her arms. It just felt like he was trying to warm her up. Not so sexual. He must have realized this because he then slowed his movements until it was more of a sensual stroke. Courtney felt a faint bit of interest stirring within, which was funny because she’d never thought of someone stroking her arms as sensual.

  “I’m going to try something else,” Franklin said before he suddenly took a firmer grip on her upper arms, pulling her toward him in a more possessive move. She gasped a little, not at the suddenness of the movement but at the spike of desire that Franklin had just elicited in her. It was gone as quickly as it had come, though.

  He released her arms and moved more slowly now, up, over her shoulders and across her collar bones. The sensation made her take in another little breath.

  She remembered Franklin’s earlier advice and imagined it was someone she knew who was touching her. Of course, the first person who came into her mind was Bo.

  It’s just because you’re in his building, she told herself firmly.

  But when she imagined that it was Bo slipping his hands down her front to gently caress her breasts, her nipples immediately hardened under her bra. From there, the hands explored her sides, her stomach, and then her thighs. Here again, she felt an uptick in her excitement when his hands brushed her waist. Like earlier, he suddenly made a possessive move, gripping her waist and pulling her to him. Courtney gasped, and a pure shock of electric need shot through her groin.

  If only it were really Bo standing naked before her.

  Next his hands moved from her waist to her butt. He caressed her through her underwear, then suddenly pulled her toward him again, pressing against her firmly against his naked body. She inhaled sharply as electricity lit up her groin again.

  Oh my, she thought, not willing to open her eyes.

  She continued to imagine it was Bo who, still keeping his hands on her body, moved to stand beside her, pushing his hard erection against her. Moving his hands around to cup her breasts over her bra.

  “You can take it off,” she softly whispered, surprised by her own daring.

  He did, and then resumed his exploration, moving to stand behind her now, pressing his naked member against her. In her mind, it was Bo who brushed his fingers over her nipples before stopping to play lightly with them. She couldn’t help herself. She groaned in response and pushed back against him, suddenly wishing he’d take off her underwear, too.

  Much to her disappointment, his hands left her breasts but only so he could pull her arms overhead, carefully bending her over slightly, so her arms rested against the top of the chair. She suddenly flashed back to the picture she’d seen on the tablet, of the man taking the woman in the cave. Need rippled through her and, almost of its own volition, her body pushed back harder against him.

  With one hand holding hers in the air, he slid his other around her front and down between her legs, gently touching her clitoris through the thin fabric of her underwear. She moaned this time and pushed forward against his hand as pressure began to build from his gentle movements. She was almost panting now, wanting, no—needing Bo inside her.

  Suddenly he stopped and stepped away.

  No! She frantically thought. Her eyes flew open to find Franklin putting his robe back on. She’d known it was him the whole time, but it was still a bit of shock and somewhat embarrassing that it wasn’t Bo standing there.

  Franklin held out her robe with a smile, not showing any embarrassment in the least. “You did a great job, Courtney. I know part two can be kind of weird.”

  Not to mention close to just being a tease, Courtney thought but didn’t say.

  “Lisa will go over your results with you, but I truly think you would enjoy up to a level two or three of kink. Maybe start with masks. That way you can picture whoever you want like you just did with me. Then you can work your way up more or mix that with other fantasy experiences: a masked ball, a masked robber ‘breaking into’ your house.” He used air quotes around the words. “Things like that. Great job,” he said again. “I hope you have a wonderful stay here.” And then he was gone.

  It was honestly the weirdest encounter Courtney had ever had. Part of her had wanted him to stay so they could finish what they’d started, and yet another part of her felt he hadn’t left the room fast enough. It was an odd conflict of feeling that Courtney wasn’t used to.

  Courtney had already put her robe back on when Lisa knocked then popped her head in the door. “All good?” At Courtney’s nod she continued, “Good. Come on, we’ll head back into my office to talk about your results and some suggestions.”

  When they were back on the couch in her office and Courtney had changed back into her own clothes again, Lisa held the tablet out to Courtney. “So, the things highlighted here are what your scores indicate could bring you the most pleasure.”

  The top thing on the list was the picture of the man taking the manacled woman from behind. The image made her flash on her imagined tryst with Bo a few seconds ago, and she felt that pang of need again.

  “Really?” She managed to say in a neutral voice after taking a sip of water from the glass she’d left in the room earlier.

  “Really. Our data is almost never wrong, so some of these, as outrageous as they may seem to you right now, might actually be really pleasurable experiences. My recommendation would be to start at a level one, then, if you feel comfortable, try the next level.”

  Courtney cleared her throat. “Franklin suggested I could mix them up with other fantasy experiences?”

  “That’s also a good idea. Especially if you get bored of something.” She flipped to another screen that showed different sexy outfits mostly consisting of short skirts and lingerie. “These are the types of clothes that give you the most pleasure to wear.” She swiped to another page. “And these are what you might want someone else to wear.”

  The outfits on that page were mostly just pants or old-timey breeches. However, there was one skimpy skirt and a matching bikini top that caught Courtney’s eye. She pointed at it, “Um…”

  “Remember, though your results leaned more toward being attracted to men, it looks like you have some attraction to women as well. There’s no judgement here. It’s a safe place to explore your interests and sexuality, but you might feel more comfortable starting with a man or men as partners first before getting more adventurous. You could also start by being blindfolded with a woman or by being the recipient of pleasure from another woman. In that case, I would recommend that you partner with our highly trained staff. That way you get the best experience, and there are no hard feelings if you decide you want to stop.”

  She paused before continuing on, “If you’re a little lost as t
o how to proceed, we can also create a tailor-made encounter plan for you based off of your SIDI results. These encounters would start with very light, no kink encounters and would gradually step up based off the interests we found from your assessment. A lot of people prefer this as it adds a little spice not knowing what exactly to expect in their next encounter.”

  She looked at Courtney for a second, clearly sensing she was hitting a limit on how much information Courtney could process in one day.

  “Why don’t you go back to your room and look through some of these as well as the optional fantasy experiences. Think on it, and if you want to try one, you can start with something simple. For now, we’ll just leave your interests and desires to the private setting. If you decide to change your mind and want to invite some company to come play, you can switch it to public with the push of a button.”

  Lisa showed her out of her office and back to the elevator. When Courtney was safely back in her room, she sat on the couch for a few seconds still trying to recover from her encounter with an imaginary Bo.

  Did she really want to just sit in this suite for the whole three months? Now that she’d had a taste, she wasn’t so sure.

  Chapter 6

  Dot broke Courtney out of her reverie by reminding her that it was time for dinner. It only took Courtney a moment to find Dot’s food. It had been left in a plastic container in the kitchen. There were even new food and water bowls in one of those fancy raised trays.

  She petted Dot as she ate and told her, “You’re living the charmed life now.”

  Dot was too busy with her food for a response, so Courtney decided to take the opportunity to investigate the suite. True to Olivia’s word, Courtney found all her new clothes had been put away in her walk-in closet. They only took up a tiny part of the massive space. It was kind of tempting to use some of her winnings to fill up the rest of the closet.

  The small suitcase that had held her regular clothes stood empty in the closet. After a quick search, she found that those clothes had been neatly put away in the bedroom bureau. Her toiletry case had been left in the bathroom by the sink.

  “This is gonna take some getting used to,” she said to the empty room before realizing that just the idea of living alone was going to take some adjustment. She’d always had a roommate. She’d lived with Claire in the college dorms, then they’d moved into an apartment after college. After that, she’d moved in with Daniel and had been there ever since.

  She wasn’t quite sure how she felt about the idea of living alone.

  If she was being honest with herself, her biggest fear in leaving Daniel, besides the fear of not having a place to live, had been the idea of being truly alone. There had always been someone else there.

  And now there wasn’t.

  A whirring sound from the hallway was a welcome distraction from her thoughts. As she went to see what was going on now, she caught sight of something she was sure hadn’t been there when she’d left for her tour earlier. There was now a cat-sized opening in the hallway closet door with a little plastic flap. She opened the full-sized door and found that it was an entrance for Dot to access a new, automated cat litter box.

  “Whoa, you really are living a fancy life, Dot.”

  It didn’t take Courtney long after that to open the bottle of wine Bo had sent up and order something for dinner using the OCS. There were so many options that she finally just went with the classic steak and mashed potatoes. She figured it would go well with the red wine anyways. Plus, she’d have plenty more opportunities to try something more adventurous in the next three months.

  Her meal arrived via the delivery system within fifteen minutes of ordering and was still hot when she opened the little delivery door. There was even a bottle of steak sauce included. With the meal, a message arrived on her OCS screen that suggested she keep the steak sauce in her fridge if she planned to order more steak in the future.

  Seems like a logical suggestion, she thought.

  She was sitting at her table, thoroughly enjoying her meal and more than halfway through her bottle of wine when she got a call to her personal phone. She’d been so lost in thought thinking back over her day that she hadn’t even bothered to retrieve her phone when she’d gotten back to her suite.

  She trotted to her room and pulled her phone from the purse she’d left on the bedroom bureau. She was immediately sorry she had.

  Daniel’s name popped up on the read out. Instantly, she felt feelings of guilt for her encounter with Franklin and for her interest in Bo.

  “You don’t owe him anything,” she whispered to herself, but hit the answer button anyways.

  “Courtney?”

  “Yup. Hi, Daniel.”

  “I’ve been calling all day! Why didn’t you answer or call back?”

  “Sorry,” she said, then immediately kicked herself for apologizing. “I left my phone in the room while I was getting a tour.”

  He gave a harrumph like he didn’t believe her. She decided to let it go for now.

  “What’s up, Daniel?”

  “What’s up? What’s up is that I just wanted to see how your trip was so far.”

  “It’s…good. I had a good flight. First class, actually, which was a first for me.” She smiled thinking of all the firsts she’d had just in the last week alone.

  “Must be nice,” he said, instantly dragging her mood down and making her feel guilty again.

  No, damn it. You don’t have anything to feel guilty for!

  “Did you want something Daniel, or are you just calling to try and make me feel bad?”

  “Make you feel bad! How am I making you feel bad? You’re the one who left me.”

  She sighed loudly to make sure he heard her annoyance. “I’ll talk to you later, Daniel.”

  “No, wait! Don’t hang up. Look, I’m sorry. This is just…really hard. I miss you, Courtney. I really do.”

  Her guilt flared back up. Did he really miss her? And here she was having a good time. She slowly sank into the comfortable couch with her glass of wine in one hand, pressing the phone to her ear with the other.

  “I miss you, too,” she somewhat reluctantly said. As the words tumbled from her mouth, she was a little surprised to realize that they weren’t true. It was sort of shocking.

  “Please come back, Courtney. I’m really, truly sorry. I won’t take you for granted anymore. I just didn’t realize what I had until you were gone.”

  His words were a twist of the knife in Courtney’s heart. If he had said something like that before she’d left, she might have backed out of coming to Vegas.

  But he hadn’t, and now here she was. And what if I actually learn more about myself while I’m here? She wondered.

  That wouldn’t happen if she left now. Not if she went back to the way things were. It wasn’t just the occasional, pleasureless sex she didn’t want to go back to, it was realizing that she would be just as lonely living with Daniel than being here in Vegas by herself. Actually, she was pretty sure that she would feel even more alone if she went back now.

  “I’m sorry, Daniel, but I’m going to stay. Maybe we can feel it out in three months and see if staying together is the right thing to do at that point.”

  There was a shocked silence on the other end of the line, followed by spluttering as Daniel tried to think of what to say. “What? How…! I’m not going to just wait around for three months for you to come back from a sex-cation!”

  Courtney suddenly realized that she wasn’t the only one who’d been drinking.

  “And,” he continued, “how dare you just walk out on our relationship! I spent years of my life with you! I thought I was going to marry you!”

  That was news to Courtney. Now it was her turn to be angry. “Daniel, you’ve never once even brought up the idea of marriage! And anytime I even mentioned it, you would shut down the conversation like you were terrified of being locked into something with me.”

  “I guess that’s a good thing now!” He yelle
d. “Glad I didn’t put a ring on your finger before I found out you wanted to whore around with other men.”

  Fighting and confrontation always made Courtney emotional. She found herself wiping away sudden tears while fighting to control the waver in her voice. “I guess you shouldn’t have given me an ultimatum then, huh? We could have stayed together, and I would have treated this as nothing more than a free vacation. I’d have been true to you, and you know it. You know me. Instead, you tried to order me not to go. You don’t own me, Daniel.”

  “You know what? I do know you, and I know that you’ll never do more than get to first base with any of the guys there. Not that any of them would want you anyways after they realize all you’re willing to do is let them climb on top of—"

  She ended the call before she heard any more of his poison. How could she have stayed with someone like that for so long?

  Because you’re afraid that he’s right. That no one else will want you.

  And there it was. Beneath that surface fear of being alone was her real, deepest fear: that no one else would love her or desire her.

  She took another swig of wine, then threw her phone to the other side of the couch. Wiping tears away and feeling a new defiance mostly from liquid courage, she picked up the tablet from the coffee table and flipped through to the screen of her results. With a simple tap of a button, she made her results public, then scrolled through the different suggestions from her SIDI test.

  Shoving back a wave of trepidation, she selected the experience that had turned her on the most. It was the one with the man taking the woman from behind. She also selected that he be masked and set the experience at kink level two. She set the desired encounter to immediate, selected that she didn’t want to know who the other party was, and hit submit while holding her breath.

  She suddenly giggled, covering her mouth with a hand to stifle the sound. “It’s not like anyone is going to jump at the chance to be with you that quickly,” she told herself, then settled into looking through the suggested outfits for such an encounter since she figured she’d have plenty of time. If she changed her mind when she was sober tomorrow, she could always cancel the open invitation and return her settings to private.