Librium

by PJ Bayliss

  Now his moment of spontaneity had finally come to fruition.

  Problem was, Chaise still had an ounce of doubt in his mind about the prospect of a long-term relationship with her.

  3

  Chaise took a deep breath to alleviate the pain of his grandfather’s suffering. Even though his illness and health wasn't unexpected, it was still very tough to fathom.

  He adored the old man and they kept in touch on a regular basis, be it company-related or otherwise. Federico had maintained close contact with Chaise over company developments, despite having retired many years ago, and was an influential patron for several University projects that involved the twins.

  No doubt Federico had been involved with Julie’s work permit too. That was a real game-changer for Chaise. It was something he had dreamt about happening, but couldn’t comprehend what it would do to his relationship with her. He dwelled upon the message it would send to her and the commitment it would represent.

  He continued driving up North Street, turned right up Golf Place toward the British Golf Museum car park and found a parking space overlooking St Andrews Bay. The chilly Easterly wind pressed into his back as he gazed up the West Sands beach.

  This was the very beach where he first met Julie several years ago during a student party. Like a lost spirit, her silhouette appeared out of the flickering flames of a bonfire, swaying to a rhythmic beat as she danced to the music with her friends. Chaise was instantly mesmerised by her beauty and elegance and watched her for what seemed to be a lifetime from his vantage point nearby.

  Julie was wearing a long dress that evening but her concealed body was illuminated by the flames behind her. From the shadows emerged the elegant curves of her hips and thighs and as he came approached her, the outline of her breasts materialised in the light and he gulped back a swig of potent Dutch courage before introducing himself to her.

  Chaise never had a problem chatting to girls and as he started to recall his first nervous conversation with Julie, his phone rang.

  He checked the number and promptly answered it. ‘Hey Carlos.’

  ‘Hey, bro. Whatcha up to?’

  ‘Nothing much. I’m at the beach, just down from the golf course…’

  ‘Cool, just around the corner then. You still heading my way?’

  ‘Definitely. I just got caught up with something.’

  Carlos laughed, ‘Ha! Julie keeping you busy again this morning?’ he jested.

  Chaise sighed. ‘Peyton just called me from New York. Nostro nonno è molto malato’

  ‘Oh…’ Carlos paused. ‘How sick?’

  ‘It didn’t sound too good. I think this could probably be it.’

  ‘Seriously? Did Peyton tell you that?’

  ‘Not in so many words, but you and I know he’s been suffering long enough. I almost hope it is.’

  ‘True. I know how you feel dude,’ Carlos sympathised with his older brother. ‘What’s the plan then?’

  ‘It sounds like the ol’ man and Peyton are flying there shortly. Mama is already there, I think.’

  ‘I know she went to Italy weeks ago,’ Carlos replied. ‘Never heard if she returned home or not.’

  ‘Possibly not. Peyton’s been run off her feet by the sounds of things, and she’s the one that organises their travel arrangements. She suggested we fly out this coming Sunday. Can you make it?’

  ‘Can’t see why not. Let’s talk about it when you get here.’

  Chaise agreed, hung up the phone and hopped back into his car. He rubbed the dash, ‘Well girl, that’s the last time you and I will see that beach together.’

  Selling his car was just one of the things he needed to do before heading back to New York. Most of his possessions needed to be packed up and shipped home. Packing bags after each term had become familiar and the flat was almost empty now, especially with the other flatmates having left the place a couple of weeks ago.

  Chaise entered the laboratory. His nostrils filled with a sweet scent, like liquorice, ‘Mmmm, what’s cooking?’ he called out.

  Carlos peered from behind a Bunsen burner on the other side of the glassware rack and grinned.

  ◆◆◆

  Carlos Antonio Vallati was born a couple of minutes after Chaise and all his friends and family usually referred to him as ‘Carl’. Their parents never expected twins as Carlos had remained undetected by the doctor throughout his mother’s pregnancy. Josephine only had a single scan throughout her pregnancy and the ultrasound never detected him during any of her terms.

  Carl was inclined to take on greater challenges and adventures than his older sibling. He enjoyed adventure sports and introduced Chaise to rowing at Saint Andrews as a way to keep fit while away from their home in New York. Both boys enjoyed the gruelling grind of the double skulls upon the water and their training session regime shone through anything they chose to wear.

  They both had perfectly lean, hardened athletic bodies that were accustomed to lengthy periods of physical activity. The only other difference between the pair was Carl’s coverage of tattoo’s upon his forearms, shoulder and chest. He donned the words “La varietà piace” upon the top of his shoulder, which then ran into a gothic grapevine design down his arm toward his tricep. Embedded within the grapevine was a cornicello symbol with an Italian flag tangled within the vine’s grasp.

  If Chaise was the logical left side of the brain, then Carlos was the right. He was always prepared for any adventure, or misadventure as it so often turned out, and that was as plain as day with his willingness to explore new ideas in the laboratory.

  ‘All sorts of treats being brewed up here bro,’ he removed his ventilated gas mask and greeted Chaise with a hug, ‘You want to try a sample?’ he grinned.

  Chaise shook his head. ‘No thanks mister lab rat. What have you got on the boil now?’ He circled the desk checking out Carlos’s experiment.

  ‘It’s another recipe for the firm. Just doing my job, that’s all.’

  ‘Whatever…’

  ‘What?’ Carlos pleaded, ‘You think I’m doing this for my own pleasure?’ he said with a mischievous grin.

  ‘That had crossed my mind,’ Chaise replied. ‘It’s not as if you haven’t benefited through experiments before, is it?’

  Carlos couldn’t answer his brother’s accusation. ‘Well, this time it actually works as intended. And it’s nowhere near as overpowering as the aphrodisiac sticks.’

  ‘Thank Christ for that! What is it this time?’

  ‘Paralysis,’ Carlos replied.

  ‘What?’

  ‘It’s Paralysis dude. And this time it works!’ Carlos replied with a beaming grin from ear to ear.

  ‘Paralysis? Seriously?’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘You’ve actually fixed the formula?’

  ‘…. Yep.’

  ‘No more blacking out?’

  ‘Nope. Complete consciousness the entire time.’

  ‘The entire time?’ Chaise raised his eyebrow.

  ‘Relax. I know what you’re thinking,’ said Carlos. ‘It was only for a couple of hours this time, not weeks.’

  Chaise was impressed with his brother’s effort and persistence.

  Carlos had been working on this formulation for several weeks now as part of his final chemistry exam but encountered a problem with the half-life of the final compound. The first test subjects had become paralysed for several weeks at a time. Carlos had considered it a success, but the lecturer felt otherwise. It was, after all, a dose falling just short of death itself.

  ‘That’s awesome dude! Congratulations! So how do you know it’s been fixed then?

  ‘I’ve tested it, obviously.’

  ‘Uh-huh. Where are the rats’ then?’ Chaise said, looking around the laboratory.

  ‘No rats’ this time, dude.’

  ‘Pardon me?’

  ‘No rats' this time. Sleepy little shits…’

  ‘What did you use then?’

  ‘More of a case of whom,
not what I used.’

  Chaise rolled his eyes. ‘Tell me you didn’t try it yourself?’

  ‘Oh, hell no!’ replied Carlos as he collected one of the glass jars simmering above a Bunsen burner flame. ‘I tested it with Lisa.’

  ‘Lisa? You’re friggin kidding me!’

  Carlos laughed, ‘No, I’m afraid not, bro.’

  ‘Who the hell is Lisa?

  ‘She’s a girl in my Chemistry class. We partnered-up in the Lab a few months ago and she volunteered to help.’

  ‘You’re not joking, are you?’

  ‘Nope,’ Carl’s infectious grin had seeped over to the edge of Chaise’s mouth.

  ‘I don’t believe you, dude. You’re just… I hope this experiment was consensual?'

  ‘As always…’ Carlos replied, ‘…and the rest.’

  ‘Good grief! Another one? I hope you used some protection?’

  ‘C’mon Chaise. I’m not all that bad, am I?’ Carlos gloated. ‘It doesn’t matter anyway. We didn’t even get that far.’

  ‘You expect me to believe that?’

  ‘Seriously. I didn’t fuck her. We agreed beforehand that I wouldn’t. You have to admire this girl because she suggested that my getting involved through sex might influence the clinical results.’

  Chaise frowned, ‘How’s that then?’

  ‘She’d relax and enjoy it more…’

  ‘I think I’ve heard enough bro,’ Chaise put his hands up in the air. ‘I don’t know how on earth you do it, but somehow these test subjects of yours always seem to return for more and more punishment.’

  ‘Punishment? Hardly! Both of us got the desired results. That's all that mattered.’

  ‘What results?’

  ‘Oh, nothing. Just…’ Carlos flicked his hands outward in an explosive gesture, ‘…Splash!’

  ‘Splash?’

  Carlos nodded slowly ‘Yes. Splash!’

  ‘Ohh. She’s a squirter, then?’

  ‘Uh-huh. Well, she is now.’

  Carlos shook his head in astonishment, ‘You’re kidding?’

  ‘No. She didn’t even know. But I guess, after five hours of testing…’

  ‘WHAT? Five hours?’

  ‘Yeah. It was a pretty strenuous test.’

  ‘I'll say!’

  ‘She was completely paralysed for five hours, unable to move or anything.’

  ‘That sounds a little creepy dude. I mean, not moving ‘n all, you know what I mean?’

  ‘It’s not so different than a bit of bondage Chaise, and I thought the same thing at first, but there was a reason why we did it like that.'

  ‘And you were at it for five hours?’

  ‘Pretty much. I mean, she felt absolutely everything throughout the experiment. I would ask her questions, she would hum once for yes, twice for no.’

  ‘Jesus Christ…hum?’

  ‘Yeah. Apparently, that was all she could manage in the very beginning. It was a bit unnerving at first. All she could do was hum and blink, but she kept wanting more.’

  Chaise wasn’t too sure what more meant, but it obviously was very appealing to Lisa. ‘Okay… How long did that last for?’

  ‘Well, for the first two orgasms - at least that’s what she told me afterwards. It took about 40-minutes or thereabouts.’

  Chaise scratched his head, ‘Hang on, I thought you said she could barely move?’

  ‘Yeah dude,’ Carlos scoffed. ‘Seriously, she was completely motionless. Nothing flexed at all, not even her pelvic muscles.’

  ‘So how the heck did she manage to orgasm?’

  ‘That’s the thing! She told me later that the first couple were all completely contained inside her. A complete body climax, without the mess, moans, or movement. Completely involuntary.’

  ‘Oh…’ Chaise sucked the inside of his lip up and nibbled. ‘That must’ve been incredible to experience, and what an incredible lab assistant.’

  Carlos laughed at his brother’s reaction. ‘Let’s just say it was a very thorough experiment and all of the toys were put to the test.’

  ‘What happened after that?’

  ‘She just kept on building up inside somehow. She told me it was like an unfathomable mega-climax that was all boxed up inside of her. Finally, several hours into the session, she started to feel like she could finally release but still wasn’t able too.’

  ‘Weird. What did she say about that?’

  ‘It was like desperately wanting to pee but not being able to,’ replied Carlos.

  Chaise chuckled.

  He felt something similar when he woke in the mornings with an erection, but never envisioned how a female would feel it. Not in this manner anyway.

  ‘Did you keep on going?’

  ‘She just kept on begging for more because massive stomach cramps would creep in every time I stopped. I just continued to tease her through every convulsion.’

  ‘How many times?’

  ‘Just under a dozen. It was incredible. She just kept asking for more. There was no physical exhaustion, just plenty of moaning, waterworks, and mind-blowing orgasms.'

  'Did she have any side-effects?'

  'Only what seemed to be nervous twitching around the eye until the chemical wore off.’

  ‘Little surprise. You’ve almost made my eyes twitch just telling me about it!’

  ‘The finale was spectacular.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘She just had this crippling orgasm bro! Like nothing I’ve seen before. Complete collapse. And this massive explosion. I mean, it was ten or eleven feet.’

  ‘What was?’

  Carlos laughed. ‘The squirt of course!’

  Chaise was speechless at the recollection of his brother’s paralysis experiment. He knew it would be of significant value for the family business and their planned pharmaceutical market expansion. Alternatives for medical paralysis were in hot demand, but Carlos's experiment was only part of the equation.

  ‘Will the professor accept this for your end of year project?’

  ‘Most likely, yes. She’s catching up with me this afternoon.’

  ‘I’d leave most of the details out if I was you. Maybe some repeat testing on more appropriate subjects, huh?’

  ‘Too true. Good idea,’ replied Carlos. ‘But an interesting side-result for the lifestyle product range, don’t you think?’

  ‘Definitely. I meant to ask, why did you perform the experiment like this? What did she want out of this experiment in the first place? Other than the obvious…’

  ‘I’m pleased you asked.

  Lisa told me she was recently diagnosed with anorgasmia. We talked about that problem first. What she’d already been prescribed with and how that was helping her out. Or at least supposed to be, but it wasn’t working for her.

  So, we thought of some alternatives and came up with this idea.'

  ‘I think you probably killed two birds with one stone there dude. If so, Papa will be pleased.’

  ‘If Lisa’s testimony is anything to go by, he’ll be ecstatic’

  Carlos knew he didn’t need a testimony from her though. The physical results were plain and obvious to anyone that had seen, and he wished he had recorded the ordeal to prove it worked.

  ‘Has Papa said anything more to you about the lifestyle range Chaise?’

  ‘Only that he wanted more than just our Aphrodisiac Sticks and the Viagra needs to be diluted down more.’

  ‘No surprise there I guess…’

  ‘No shit, but it sounds like the New York lab is pumping formulations out. Peyton is running around with a bunch of product samples. We need to get together with her to check them out and I’m sure we can come up with a few more ideas of our own yet.’

  ‘Are you talking like a brainstorming session? That could be lots of fun. We can get a group of girls together and test out the samples for ourselves!’

  ‘All in due course Carl. We will catch up with Peyton in Italy I believe, so it’ll be a good opportunity to compare n
otes.’

  ‘Are we flying there direct?’

  ‘No. She suggested we might be able to, but I want to drive down to London with Julie so she can visit her father.’

  ‘You want to meet her father? That sounds serious,’ Carlos rubbed his finger hinting that the relationship was developing into something more permanent.

  Chaise rolled his eyes, ‘I never said I’d be meeting him, and it’s not that serious dude. I doubt Julie is prepared to take it to that level.’

  ‘That’s just your opinion Chaise.’

  ‘Whatever. I know her a little better than you do Carl. Anyway, I also need to know if you are still okay for this afternoon?’

  Carlos checked his watch, ‘With bells’ on brother. Wouldn’t miss that for the world.’

  Chaise smiled and exited the laboratory after a hefty fist bump and left his mad brother behind with his experiment.

  He considered what Carlos had said about her father and the trip to London. They had never intended it to become a permanent relationship. It was always about having a little fun while studying abroad, no strings attached. Neither of them felt the attraction toward a long-distance relationship. However, that was before the working visa had become part of the equation.

  It seemed likely that a drunken, spur-of-the-moment text to his father may change his life forever.

  A group of students appeared ahead and he sliced his way through the mob as they passed by; his eyes catching the glance of a petite brunette who smirked as she walked by. Chaise couldn’t help but wonder if she was Carl’s obliging assistant. He conjured up thoughts of the entire group of students being involved in one of his brother’s experiments.

  Nooo, surely not. Not even Carl could come up with a plan so wicked?

  Nothing would, or ever did, surprise him when it came to his brother being involved.

  As he left the building his phone buzzed with a text from Peyton.

  Gatwick Airport, South Terminal.