Finally, she sat up and exhaled heavily. “I can’t sleep at all. I’m too nervous.”
Andrew hummed distractedly. “Hmm, me too.”
That wasn’t the response Jenn was hoping for. She only had one thing on her mind tonight, something to take away the stress of preparing for the trial before the adrenaline actually took hold. “Andrew?”
“Hmm?”
“Do you ever think about trying something new?”
“Sure, yeah.” He licked his finger and flipped through a couple of pages — not paying attention to Jenn at all.
I’ll make him notice, then, she thought, and gently pulled his glasses down from his face.
“No, I mean, in bed. You know, weird stuff.” Now Jenn had Andrew’s attention.
He placed the papers down on the nightstand. “What? Jenn, I don’t want to talk about that. Now’s not the time.”
“Aw, come on, I want to know. You know pretty much everything about me.”
“I don’t want to say. It’s embarrassing.”
Those words alone made Andrew more irresistible to Jenn, and she giggled. She swung her leg over the top of him and straddled him. “Well, now I have to know. What’s so embarrassing? Come on! This is a judgment-free zone!” She gestured with her arms extended out.
“I don’t have much experience. I just want to try new things.” She leaned down and planted a firm kiss on his lips. “What do you want to do?”
Andrew sighed. “Okay, fine. Just don’t freak out, okay?”
“I promise.”
“Okay. Well, I like it kind of rough.”
“What do you mean?”
For a split second, Andrew pursed his lips, debating whether to reply. Then he realized his vulnerability was nothing compared to Jenn’s. “I – I like to be tied up, blindfolded, being spanked — bondage and submission in general, really.”
Jenn didn’t know what to say. “I didn’t see that coming.”
Below her, Andrew’s face turned bright red. “Forget it. It’s not something we have to do.”
“No, no, I want to! It sounds kind of fun. Tell me more.”
Now suddenly invigorated, Andrew sat up more and grabbed Jenn around the hips. “I don’t know, I just really like that moment where you can’t tell pain from pleasure. Not too much pain, just a little sting. I like the feeling of—” he hesitated, looking for the right words “— of being totally at the mercy of someone in bed. It takes a lot of trust to be under someone’s total control.” He shrugged. “It’s really freeing.”
Jenn thought for a minute. “You know, I’ve never really been in control like that.”
Andrew emitted a small, suggestive moan. “Do you want to be?”
“I could try it.” Jenn bit her lip coyly; Andrew felt even more desire, seeing her eager to try something new. “What do you want me to do first?”
“Whatever you want. I’m all yours.”
Jenn liked the sound of that. She could feel Andrew’s erection pushing up against her as she sat on top of him, but she hopped off him and pulled him up; she reached down to his waist and pulled his shirt off over his head. Then she left the room, leaving Andrew confused.
When she returned, she was holding the cord that normally held the living room curtains in place, and she grabbed Andrew’s hands tightly, wrapping the cord around them and securing a knot. Then she found his tie from work that day hanging on his doorknob and pulled it over his head to use as a gag. Andrew whimpered weakly in response. She ran a finger down his cheek, then his chest and further down his body, where she tickled his balls under his shorts. He giggled.
“Hey.” Jenn said, reprimanding him. “Did I tell you to make noise?”
Andrew’s eyes lit up.
She looked around the room, spotting one of his law books; Jenn picked it up, pushed Andrew to his knees and struck his rear end with the book. There was a satisfying thwack sound, and his ass immediately turned red.
All the while, Jenn could feel herself getting wetter and wetter. She’d never felt like this before, powerful over herself and someone else. She pulled the tie out from Andrew’s mouth and tightened it around his neck to pull him onto his knees. Then, after removing her panties, she positioned herself above his mouth, resting her lower lips on top of his tongue. He moaned inside of her as he licked her inner thigh and ran his tongue all over her wet juices. She writhed with pleasure standing over him, grasping his hair tightly, forcing his face more inside of her.
Andrew struggled to free his hands from their ties, desperate to touch Jenn’s skin. Every time he made even the slightest noise, Jenn stepped away as a punishment, and he felt his passion for her grow even stronger. Finally, after Jenn felt ready, she pulled Andrew up to her face and kissed him forcefully. Her hands ran gently down his chest to his shorts, which were barely clinging on above his erect cock; Jenn pulled them off all the way, and then, suddenly, pushed Andrew backward onto the bed.
“You want me now? You want this pussy?” Jenn began removing her top and reached around her back for her bra clasp.
Andrew nodded, pulling at his restraints. Jenn made as if she was going to straddle his cock, but instead she reached down to his chest with her lips and gently pressed her mouth against his torso. There she sucked on his skin, putting pressure on each spot she touched; she worked her way down his body until she got to his cock, and kissed the head seductively, looking up at Andrew. She extended her tongue out and licked all the way up and down his shaft before taking him in her mouth once, twice, three times — and then she stopped. Silently, breathlessly, Andrew leaned his head back in intense pleasure. She was teasing him, and he loved it.
Now she couldn’t resist. She grabbed at his neck with her hands while pressing down on his chest at the same time. Jenn brought herself down on top of Andrew. The pleasure shot through both of them as their bodies came together, and Jenn rode him until he was on the verge of coming.
When she felt him tense up and sensed he was close, she stopped her movements. “You want to finish?”
He nodded.
“Should I let you come? Or should I make you wait?”
Andrew’s head was tilted back; the intensity of the tingles he felt below his waist was growing far too much. Jenn only tormented him slightly longer, laying a messy kiss on his lips before turning over to allow Andrew to take her from behind. “Come now. Do it. Hard.”
Hearing Jenn speak like that, so unlike her, pushed Andrew over the edge, and he thrust into her faster and faster until he had nothing left. The two lovers fell over on the bed together, breathing hard. When he recovered, Andrew laid a gentle kiss on Jenn’s forehead.
She smiled. “Was that good?”
“That was great. Thank you.”
After both had cleaned up, Andrew fell asleep almost immediately, having been fully satisfied — and impressed — by Jenn’s newfound domination skills.
Jenn herself was surprised by what she was made of tonight. She never knew all of these new traits were within her all this time.
As she drifted off to sleep, her unconscious mind took control of her body, and she saw herself through the lens of her old recurring dreams.
Her adult self is watching herself as a child chased by a giant snake with bright green eyes. The child can barely move her little feet to outrun the monstrous creature, running through the jungle and avoiding hazards in the path — but suddenly, she sees herself as an adult coming down from the trees, chasing the snake. The child cowers in the shelter of nearby trees while adult Jenn wrestles with the snake, trying to strangle it. They thrash around together and the snake tilts its head to attack adult Jenn, and its one sharp fang pierces her skin briefly, sending a searing pain through her whole body. She feels the venom slow her movements and create lethargy in her body, but she holds fast, and within minutes the snake limp, motionless.
The dream snapped Jenn out of her sleep, and when she sat up she realized she was covered in sweat and breathing heavily. Next to her
, Andrew was sound asleep and had not noticed the commotion. She leaned over and checked the time on her charging cell phone on the nightstand: 6:20. Any other morning, she would have cherished another twenty minutes of sleep, but now she felt wide-awake; her mind was completely clear and her stress was shortly gone.
She hopped in the shower, humming quietly to herself. The steam from the hot water woke her up completely and left her feeling clean, fresh, and ready to start the day. Once she dried off, she headed to the kitchen and made a surprise breakfast for Andrew: pancakes, eggs, and fresh strawberries. The two shared a quiet morning together before getting dressed and heading to the courthouse.
They walked into the building together, but before they entered the courtroom, Andrew pulled her abruptly aside into a private hallway leading downstairs. He put his free hand around her waist and pulled her close, leaning down and grazing her lips with his own. She pressed firmer into him, her heart pumping faster now. “Good luck,” she whispered to him. “You’ll be great.”
He smiled. “So will you.”
Chapter 4
They walked in like two action heroes, striding confidently to the table on their side of the room. As soon as Andrew and Jenn were seated and had spread out all their documents on the table, the courtroom doors opened again and there stood Richard Connelly, his son and his entire team of six attorneys, each of them calm, poised, and ready for business. The hospital team surveyed the room with laser-like eyes. Steve’s own gaze revolved around, locking onto Jenn’s eyes, and lingering there coldly for a moment before continuing.
So it began. The presiding judge opened the session and allowed both sides to start with an opening statement. Each went as Jenn expected; Andrew put up an impassioned appeal to the jury to present Jenn as an unwitting victim, and Bill presented St. Benedict’s staff and executives as victims of a slanderous scheme by the Walsh family to obtain loads of hospital money.
Then it was Jenn’s turn to give testimony. The judge called upon Andrew to present the prosecution’s case to the jury, and both Andrew and Jenn stood up from their seats slowly. As Jenn stood up, her head swayed slightly; she suddenly felt dizzy, but she couldn’t tell if it was just her mind tricking her body into being more nervous than she was. She took the stand awkwardly, and after being given the oath, she began to answer Andrew’s questions establishing the facts of the case.
By now, this was old hat: Jenn had become used to explaining everything that had happened to her quickly and succinctly, and here she was again, recounting the painful events of her recent past. For all the time’s she’d said it, it never got easier. Some days explaining the realization of her secret rapes and abortion was excruciatingly traumatic, and as she gazed out over her audience today — an audience that contained her former boyfriend, Steve, who was now taking sides with the perpetrators as far as Jenn could tell — she felt her chest seize with anxiety and pain thinking again about the details.
Andrew began questioning her gently, asking her to merely establish the facts of the case, no more than that. The prosecution had to present Jenn in a sympathetic light for the jury, but her story wrote itself in this way. None of Andrew’s questions were different than Jenn had answered for either of her media interviews, and Jenn sat calmly and spoke in as straight a voice as she could manage.
Between responses, Jenn watched Richard and Steve closely. They alternated between staring straight back at her with cold, unreadable facial expressions and whispering among themselves, perhaps in preparation for when the defense would get its chance on the stand. Steve sat erect in his chair, his stiff suit mirroring that of his father’s. Jenn had a premonition of the future; she could easily see Steve being in the exact same situation as his father one day. The thought shook her, and she shuddered on the stand.
Finally, Andrew concluded his questions, thanked his witness and rested the prosecution’s case; Jenn, too, stepped down from the stand and walked back to the table. When she sat back down next to Andrew, he gave her hand a secret squeeze under the table.
She smiled back at him meekly.
The defense had no questions for Jenn, but now it was time for Richard’s testimony on the stand. He stood up, adjusted his suit, tie, and strode to the front smoothly, gliding over the floor. After being administered the oath, he took his seat and gazed in anticipation toward Jenn, smiling maliciously at her. She stared back at him with a stern facial expression; she was disgusted to see him again. After gathering his papers together, Bill stood up to question his witness.
“Mr. Connelly,” he began, “how long has Ms. Walsh been a patient in your hospital?”
“A little more than four years.”
“What kind of treatment has she been receiving there?”
“We provided her with dialysis treatments several times a week until she abruptly switched to a different hospital after raising the allegations for which we are here today.”
“I see. Just dialysis? Nothing else?”
“No, sir.”
“How much do these treatments costs?”
“A typical hemodialysis treatment can cost up to $500, which ends up being around $75,000 per year.”
“That’s certainly a lot of money, possibly more money than the average middle-class family could afford to pay in medical bills.”
Andrew was tense to begin with, but this was an absurd statement to him. He stood and raised a hand to the judge. “Objection. Your Honor, that is conjecture.”
The judge allowed the defense to continue its questioning, albeit giving Bill a warning to hasten the process.
Bill continued. “Right. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I’d like to switch directions a little bit. Mr. Connelly has already told us that all patients have meticulous records kept for them by each doctor treating them. Mr. Connelly, I’d like you to read aloud the treatments Ms. Walsh received during the time period she is accusing Dr. Blake of inappropriate behavior.” Richard donned his reading glasses and scanned the chart. “Dialysis. Dialysis. Dialysis.” Down the paper read a single word with details of the amounts of medication used and the status of the patient.
“Is it safe to say, Mr. Connelly, that the only person convinced that anything other than regular dialysis treatments occurred is Ms. Walsh?”
“I would say so, yes, sir.”
“Why do you think that is?”
“I couldn’t say.”
“Hmm. Mr. Connelly, what sort of effects can lupus have on a patient’s mental health?”
“Well, it can cause a wide range of anxiety or depression spectrum mental illnesses, but sometimes cognitive dysfunction — where the patient spaces out for a while — or in extreme cases, mild to severe memory loss, depending on the status of the disease.”
“Could it be possible that Ms. Walsh has developed mental delusions over the course of her diagnosis with lupus?” Richard nodded, knowing Bill would implore him to say his answer aloud into the microphone — and he did. Richard leaned right down into the microphone, locked eyes with Jenn and said firmly, “Yes. It is possible that she believes things happened that did not.”
Jenn felt her blood pressure rise immediately; her skin felt hot, and she clenched her fist so hard she broke the pencil she was holding in it. Andrew flinched at the sharp crack, but his blood was on fire, too. He shot her a look, and in both of their eyes was disbelief.
“Mr. Connelly, it’s my understanding that the plaintiff was in an intimate relationship with your son, Steve Connelly, is that right?”
Jenn could barely keep her mouth shut. How dare they use her relationship with Steve against her! She turned to look at Steve, but his expression was stone; there was nothing on his face to indicate what he was thinking. He only stared straight ahead at his father on the stand. Jenn could hardly believe it — his father was bringing their personal lives into this courtroom, and he wasn’t doing anything to stop it!
“Yes, sir.”
“Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, young Mr. Connelly here
has declined to be a witness on the stand today, but he has talked to his father extensively, and Mr. Connelly here is bound to tell the truth under this court’s oath. So, Mr. Connelly, did you know your son and Ms. Walsh were in a sexual relationship?”
“No, not immediately.”
“What did your son tell you about the relationship?”
“He said Jenn asked him out on a date and was interested in something physical.”
Jenn’s mouth gaped open. Richard was telling a blatant lie on the stand — or if he wasn’t, and Steve had really told him that, then Steve was lying so Richard wouldn’t be. She couldn’t believe it. Her head snapped toward Steve, her face contorted in an angry glare, but like usual, Steve stared straight ahead, motionless. The only sign that he wasn’t a statue was his twiddling thumbs under the table. She nudged Andrew. “Can you believe this?” she whispered incredulously.
“No, I can’t,” he whispered back, and then stood up, pressing his palm into the table. “Objection. Your Honor, this is hearsay.”
“Objection overruled,” the judge said. “The witness has taken an oath to tell the truth.”
Jenn’s eyes widened. Her heart sank. She was so sure the jury would have no doubt about finding the hospital guilty, but now the judge was allowing evidence and testimony that made no sense and had no backing. She looked back up at Richard on the stand; every time she looked at him, he appeared to be staring right back at her, a knowing look on his face.
“Please continue, Mr. Connelly,” Bill said. “What else did your son say?”
“He mentioned Ms. Walsh’s eagerness to begin a sexual relationship. When everything was over and Dr. Blake was dead, she told him she had also had sex with him. It sounded to me as though Ms. Walsh had a certain reputation for it.” Richard crossed his arms and leaned back.
The jury members, as a collective group, had immediate reactions to this turn of events. Some had leaned forward; some had covered their mouth with their hands, while others stared wide-eyed at Richard or Jenn. At her table, she put her face in her hands.
Kane (Alexander Shifter Brothers Book 1) Page 30