Second Thoughts and Last Chances

By

Latikia

Edited by

The Old Fart

Copyright © 2007, 2008

Chapter 37

“Hey! Who’s in the bathroom?” I called out the moment my feet crossed the bedroom threshold.

Like I didn’t already know.

“I am!” Peggy hollered back thru the partially open door.

I dropped my suit jacket on the bed, kicked off my shoes then sat down and removed my socks and shirt.

“How’d it go?” Peggy asked to the accompaniment, an instant later, of a flushing toilet.

“Not bad, I guess.” I replied, getting up, unbuckling my belt and sliding my pants down off my legs.

I heard her turn on the sink’s faucet and then followed the sounds of hands being washed. I gathered up my discarded clothing, carried them into the closet, dropped the lot on the floor and backed out just in time to watch Peggy come strutting out of the bathroom.

She had on her favorite workout clothes, which at the time consisted of a pair of skin tight black spandex cycling shorts, a loose fitting tie-dyed t-shirt whose color combination and pattern were horrific enough to give veteran sky-divers vertigo, white ankle socks and day-glo pink running shoes.

She looked absolutely adorable.

I leered and gave her a low pitched wolf-whistle. “Baby, you look good enough to eat.” I said before heading to my dresser and digging out my jogging pants and a loose fitting long sleeved gray t-shirt.

Peggy sashayed over to the bed, hopped up on the mattress and stood up in the center.

“How bad is ‘not bad’?” she inquired.

I pulled the faded blue pants on, one leg at a time, adjusted the waistband and then shook out the t-shirt.

“Well, nobody died, if that’s what you mean.”

“It wasn’t, but I’m still glad to hear you say so.”

I shoved my arms thru the bottom opening and into the sleeves, slid the shirt over my head and tugged it down over my torso. Then I gathered my hair and pulled it outside the collar, allowing it to fall freely down my back and across my shoulders. From the top drawer I snagged a fresh pair of socks, backed up to the bed, dropped down and started pulling them over my toes.

Peggy fell to her knees, bounced over, put both arms around my neck and pressed comfortably against my back.

“Come on Ike, what happened?” she demanded, nuzzling my left ear.

I grinned and finished putting my socks on. “Later, squirt. The only thing I want to think about right now is playing tag.”

Peggy snorted and pushed away. “Be that way then.” she groused.

I chuckled, bent down and fished around under the bed for my running shoes.

“I think I will; thank you very much.” I located the shoes, put them on and laced them up. “I also think that if I were you I’d be focusing on our game to the exclusion of everything else.”

Peggy flopped back on the mattress and stretched like a cat. “Oh you would, would you? Why?”

I turned my head to the side and grinned. “Well, you could win yourself a pretty big wish if you beat me. On the other hand…I’ve had plenty of time to work out what’s gonna happen to you when I win.”

“If you win.”

“If you say so.” I murmured softly. “Have you decided what you’re gonna ask for?”

“Yep.”

“What?”

“I’m not tellin’. Not yet anyway. I want witnesses around so you can’t back out.”

I stamped my feet a couple of times and stood up. “I wouldn’t do that. Don’t I always keep my promises?”

Peggy ignored my question. I turned around, reached out, put my hands around her waist, lifted her up and set her on her feet.

“Ready?” I asked.

“Okay.” She leaned forward and kissed me lightly on the lips.

I ran my hands down over her slim hips then back up along her sides, under her shirt, over her ribs and across her soft skinned back. “Don’t you want to know what I’m gonna get when I win?”

“If you win.” she corrected with a soft sigh.

“When.” I repeated firmly.

“Huhh!” she snorted. “Guys always want the same thing…sex.”

I snorted in return. “And how, pray tell, would you know that?”

She laughed brightly, batted her eyes coyly and then gave me a wink. “Oh, I have my ways.”

I snorted again in mock disgust and gave her a raised eyebrow.

“I just bet you do.” I continued to run my hands over the skin of her back, enjoying not only the warmth of her body and the silky softness of her skin, but the little shivers of delight and faint tingle that spread thru her body at the same time. “You know, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately, quite a bit of it just about you, and after extensive review I’m prepared to confess that I’m guilty of a rather grievous error in judgment.”

Peggy grinned sarcastically. “Not you?”

I dropped one hand down her back and gave her a quick smack on the behind.

“Be nice. I’m serious about this.”

“Okay; what grievous error?”

“When you came and told me about being in love with Izzy, I didn’t respond the way I should have.”

Peggy gave me a bewildered look. “I thought you took it very well. Much better than I expected, actually.”

I nodded. “Yeah, and that’s where I made my mistake, wasn’t it?”

Her mystification increased.

“I failed the test, didn’t I squirt? You probably should have known that I would, given my vast and wide-ranging experience with the opposite sex, but still…even if I wasn’t aware it was a test, I still failed.”

Peggy shook her head. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I wasn’t supposed to take it well, was I? I wasn’t supposed to take it in stride; be all mature and adult, was I?”

Her eyes widened fractionally and her heart began beating faster.

Got’cha!

“You weren’t expecting me to react like that, were you? You didn’t want me to react that way.”

Peggy began shaking her head firmly from side to side.

I smiled briefly then let it dissolve into a frown.

“I think what you really wanted was a display of hurt feelings, disappointment, anger…maybe even a full blown jealous outburst. I think you wanted a whole lot more than simple acceptance.”

Her head shaking became more frantic and increasingly desperate.

“Today I’m going to rectify that error.” I flashed her a wicked leer. “So little squishy, when I win, sex is the least of what I’m gonna get from you.”

Peggy pulled back and looked at me apprehensively.

My lips and eyes were on fire. Literally. “The first thing I’m gonna do is put you over my knee, peel off your shorts and paddle your bare bottom until it glows in the dark. Then I’m going to spend about twenty minutes licking every inch of your sweet sexy little body, and when I get tired of licking I’m gonna diddle your clit, pinch your nipples and probe every orifice you’ve got until you beg me to let you cum. And when the begging gets really loud and pitiful, I’m gonna put you back over my knee and paddle your cute little ass some more. Then, when you finally break down and scream for me to stop, that’s when I’m gonna get really nasty.”

Peggy’s breathing became raspy and erratic. Her eyes were glazed and her heart was pounding a mile a minute.

“I’m going to fondle and caress, manhandle and maul you. Tease and torment every nerve and sensitive spot you’ve got…the ones you know and the ones you aren’t even aware of yet. I’m going to take you to the edge of orgasmic insanity, push you over and, just when you’re ready to surrender to the madness, I’m going to yank you back, suck every one of those deliciously agonizing feelings right out of you and start all over again. And again and again and again… I promise, each succeeding time the feelings will be stronger and more intense than the time before.”

I eased my hands around and lightly grazed the edges of her small breasts, just barely touched her stiffening nipples then traced my fingertips down over her smooth quivering belly.

“I’m gonna make you my personal cock warmer, little squishy. You’ll squeal and shriek and eventually, when I’m damn good and ready, you’ll cum for me. You’re going to cum so hard and long that you’ll probably think you’re dying. It’ll be the most exquisite pleasure and the most god-awful pain you’ve ever experienced, and it’ll go on and on and on and on…”

I smiled serenely, closed my eyes for a moment to catch a glimpse of the images I’d promised, and a low rumbling worked its way out of my chest.

“It’s gonna be sweeeeeet….soooooo fuckin’ sweeeeeet.” I drawled. “You may be in love with Izzy, Half-pint, but by the time I’m done playing with you, we’ll all know beyond a shadow of a doubt who loves you.”

Peggy shivered, shuddered and shook. Her breath was coming in heaving gasps and her fingers were clamped tightly on my upper arms. Her knees wobbled, her legs folded and she dropped down.

I caught her under the arms, pulled her to my chest and wrapped both arms around her twitching torso.

She moaned weakly, indistinctly…a weedy whimper.

“In a few minutes I’m going to do something completely alien to my nature. Something I’ve never, ever done before. I’m going to chase a woman. I’m going to chase you, Peggy my sweet. And do you know why?”

She tried to shake her head, but couldn’t quite manage the muscular control necessary to perform that simple little gesture. But I could feel her trying.

“Because I want you. I want your mind, your soul, your love and your sweet sexy body. I want you so much it hurts Peggy. Can you feel how much I want you?”

She gasped, exhaled faintly and went limp in my arms, her arms and legs occasionally twitched spastically, driven by random and unthinking chemical/electrical impulses.

“I’m going to chase, catch and possess you; and once I’ve done all three, you’ll be mine…always and forever. Because nobody wants or needs you the way I do.”

I lowered my head, kissed her temple, linked and filled her body with as much of my raw desire and love as she could safely hold; fusing the mass of undiluted and only slightly amplified emotions into the ring I’d given her more than eight years before.

“And maybe then you’ll understand that nobody, absolutely nobody, will ever love you as much as I do.”

I carried her limp body downstairs, out thru the hothouse to the back deck we’d had installed not long after the girls had been born. Izzy, Lilly and Peggy had decided that they needed a place to sunbathe and they didn’t fancy lying out on the grass, so we’d scraped together the money and hired ourselves a contractor.

The deck had been a minor irritation to me, back in those days. There wasn’t enough of the kind of sunblock I used available for me to cover my entire body, so I was never able to enjoy sharing the deck with them. Instead I would stare out the window of my bedroom, which overlooked the sundeck, and watch them laying out in their skimpy little bikinis, or more often than not in even less, constantly reminded of the fact that nature had denied me the simple pleasure of laying out in the sun with my girls. Summer was never one of my favorite seasons and after we built that deck I began to actively detest warm weather even more than when I’d traipsed the Iraqi desert.

But they wanted it, and I wanted them to have whatever they wanted. So I suffered in silence, never letting on how much it bothered me.

Izzy, Lilly and the kids were already out on the deck; Izzy leaning back against the long front railing, Lilly and the children gathered around one of the two small circular tables, sipping from mugs of what smelled like hot chocolate.

I carried Peggy up the short plank stairway and laid her out on one of the reclining deck chairs.

Izzy pushed off the railing and walked over.

“Were you two having a little pre-game warm-up?” she asked with a grin.

“Not exactly, more like a pep talk.” I said, and wrapped both arms around my big sister, pulling her tightly against me. Izzy kissed me warmly and returned my embrace with her entire body.

“How was your day?”

“Interesting. Very interesting. How ‘bout yours?”

“Not bad. Lilly inventoried the pantry and did some laundry, the kids and I worked on geography and history lessons, and Peggy spent her morning giving check-ups to the horses. She says one of the older mares has a split hoof.”

“Dr. Peggy doubtless has the situation well in hand.”

Izzy frowned. “Don’t do that Ike. It’s cruel, making fun of her like that.”

I smiled warmly at my big sister. “Honey, no one’s prouder of Peggy’s accomplishments than I am. It might sound flippant, but I meant what I said. She’s as good at what she does as I am at what I do. Maybe better.” I gave Izzy a quick peck on the cheek. “I’m certain she gets fewer complaints about her bedside manner.”

I gave her another squeeze before putting an arm around her shoulders and guiding the both of us over to Lilly and the children.

AJ spotted me first and his face lit up, which, along with the chocolate moustache on his upper lip, gave him a comical expression.

“Did you get to talk to the President, Daddy?” he asked eagerly.

“Sure did. Got to meet his wife and the Vice President too.” I said.

Tink twisted around in her seat and looked over her shoulder. “How come Mommy’s asleep? Doesn’t she want to play?”

I chuckled. “She’s just resting. Trust me; she really wants to play this game.”

I took my arm from around Izzy’s shoulders, walked around the table and pulled Lilly against me. She snuggled up close, snaking both arms around my waist.

“Do you still have a job?” she asked.

“For the moment.” I said, enjoying the warmth of her body and her emotions.

“No problems?”

“Sweetie, every time I have to deal with politicians there are problems.”

“But nothing you can’t handle, right?”

“So far.” I replied noncommittally. “I’ll tell you all about it later. Right now is much more important.”

I released Lilly, knelt down between Rosie and Belle and spent the next several minutes answering their questions about the White House and its occupants.

I felt Peggy’s return to consciousness long before I heard any movement from her. I noticed Lilly make eye contact with Izzy, Izzy stifling a smile and shaking her head negatively then caught Tink’s smile widening from the corner of my eye. I heard a faint creaking sound behind me then an even fainter vibration in the deck beneath my knees.

I spun around quickly on one knee, just in time to catch Peggy as she launched herself at me. Her arms coiled around my neck and her legs scissored tightly around my lower ribs.

“You rat!” she hissed, seething with indignation. “How could you do that to me?”

I grinned happily, put both my hands over her spandex covered bottom and squeezed.

“It wasn’t hard, squirt. As a matter of fact, almost too easy.” I tilted my head and mashed my lips against hers, stabbing my tongue between her lips. Peggy sucked my tongue deeper into her mouth, making me believe for a moment that she was trying to swallow it. Then she bit down hard and pulled her head back.

My tongue popped out of her mouth with a nasty sucking sound as the pain from her sharp little teeth lanced down my neck.

“Did you mean what you said?” she demanded.

I blinked a couple of times then pressed one of my middle fingers firmly between the cheeks of her butt and goosed her anus.

“Every word.” I assured her as the flames in my eyes began to flicker.

“You bastard!” she hissed, smiling and wiggling her hips.

“Don’t cuss in front of the kids.” I chided gently. “We don’t want them picking up my bad habits the way their mommies have, now do we?”

“A few of your bad habits were worth picking up.” she replied with a grin.

I rolled my eyes. “You’re such a pig.”

Peggy giggled and ground her pelvis against my belly. “I know.”

“You gonna have any problems with the mare’s hoof?” I asked after a couple of moments of mutual fondling.

My little sweetie’s eyes went from sexily narrowed to wide open in a heartbeat. She leaned back and stared up at me.

“How’d you know about that?”

I shrugged. “While you were sleeping I asked Izzy about her day. She told me.”

Peggy continued to stare intently. “What?” I asked.

She shook her head, smiled and pressed her face against my chest. “Nothing.”

The kids, Belle in particular, began to grow restive…and vocal.

“Come on Daddy! Smooch later, we wanna play tag!”

With Peggy wrapped around me like a bacon strip around a fillet mignon, I got to my feet and turned back towards the mini-mob surrounding the table.

“Okay, okay…first we’ve got to set the rules for this first game. And since it’s my game, I get to make the rules.”

Peggy wiggled, indicating that she wanted me to put her down, which I did. “Don’t I get some kind of say here?”

I nodded. “Sure; once I’ve laid out the rules you can offer counter suggestions, after which the game starts. Okay?”

Peggy nodded her acceptance.

“Right, this game between Tink’s mommy and me will last for exactly fifteen minutes. Lilly will be the official timekeeper. In order for Peggy to win, she has to keep from being tagged for the full fifteen minutes. If I tag her before time runs out, I win. A tag, for this game, means I have to put both hands on any part of her body, at the same time. One hand alone won’t count as a tag.”

Peggy put both hands on her narrow hips and glared up at me. I grinned in return, knowing exactly what was most likely on her mind right then.

“And just to be fair, you get a two minute head start.”

Peggy’s face lit up like a lightbulb.

“Those are the rules. Anything you’d like to add?” I asked my little half-pint.

“How will we know when the fifteen minutes are up? Is Lilly going to run out there with us?”

I shook my head, reached into my left pants pocket and pulled out one of my old dogtag chains with a brass whistle hanging from it.

“I think this ought to be loud enough for us to hear.” I tossed the whistle to Lilly, who caught it with both hands, put it to her lips, took a deep breath, closed her eyes, puffed out her cheeks and blew with all her might.

The shrill blast was piercing, painful and loud enough to wake the dead. The children shrieked almost as loudly and clapped their hands over their ears, as did Izzy and Peggy. Once the noise stopped everyone slowly lowered their hands.

Lilly smiled apologetically. “Sorry, just testing.”

“Yeah,” Peggy said a little loudly, “that should work.”

“Anything else?” I asked.

“Yeah, one more thing…no cheating, Ike.” she said, with a marked inflection on my name. “And you know exactly what I mean, don’t you?”

I gave her my best indignant expression. “I can’t stop being able to feel you, but I promise, no active use of my talent.”

She flashed me a sweet smile, which then morphed into a sly grin. “Alright, let’s play.”

I held up my right hand. “One last thing. I already told you what I’m gonna get when I win; now you tell me what you’re playing for.”

Peggy blushed furiously at the memory then squared her shoulders and straightened up as tall as she was able to.

“When I win, you have to give me and my sisters our freedom back.”

All things considered, recent events, confrontations and discussions included, I should have anticipated her demand.

I hadn’t. It caught me completely by surprise.

Izzy’s amazed expression, and Lilly’s matching one, told me that she hadn’t informed them either.

The smile on my lips dribbled away, replaced by a stoic acceptance that I didn’t really feel.

I nodded. “Agreed.” I turned to Lilly. “Timekeeper, start the clock.”

Lilly hesitated before taking a look at the watch on her wrist. “Fifteen minutes from…now!”

Peggy leaped forward, slapped her hand against my belly, “Tag! You’re it!” she squealed, spun around and sprinted across the deck, down the steps and out across the back yard towards the trees some seventy yards away.

Peggy isn’t a runner in the same sense that I am. If there were an Olympic marathon race of more than thirty miles I don’t think there’s a human being alive who could keep up with me. I’m not fast enough to win any kind of sprint, even one twenty-six miles long, but I’ve got enough physical endurance and stamina to run damn near any living creature to death over a long…and I do mean long…distance.

Peggy is fast and quick. And she’s always had a surplus of energy that simply amazes me. When she took off across the back lawn, it was like watching a giant jackrabbit scamper across the desert; dashing in a straight line one moment then shifting directions as if on a rail, with absolutely no loss of speed or momentum.

And she looked so damn cute doing it. I just love watching her body in motion.

She covered the distance between the deck and the woods in less than thirty seconds and promptly vanished from sight. I looked over to Lilly, who was staring intently at the watch on her wrist.

I moved away from the table and went to stand next to Izzy at the rail.

“We didn’t know what she was going to ask for.” she said quietly.

“I know.”

“Will you give her what she wants, if she wins?”

“Of course. A deal is a deal.” I closed my eyes and allowed my senses free reign. Emotions poured in from miles around.

There you are!

A slight smile formed on my lips.

“How far can you reach now?” Izzy asked.

“I’m not sure. About a hundred miles or so. I keep meaning to test it, but I never seem to find the time.”

“So you know where she is?”

“Not precisely, but give or take a few yards…yeah, I know.”

“How? How can you tell it’s her?”

My smile grew wider. “Everyone feels and tastes different. Like fingerprints. I know her emotional states so well that she couldn’t hide from me in a city packed with people.”

“Can you do that with anyone?”

“I suppose. If I knew them well enough.”

“So you can do that with all of us?”

I opened my eyes, looked down at my dark skinned sister and wiggled my eyebrows.

“If I went blind right this minute I’d still be able to tell where you were, my love. Your feelings are burnt into my memory. They call out to me like a siren song, drawing me irrevocably onto the jagged rocks of your love.”

Izzy snorted derisively.

I lifted my hand and brushed my fingers over the side of her face. “I always know where you are and what you’re feeling.” I dropped my hand. “I usually keep those feelings to myself, like I keep my own. Everyone deserves a little privacy.”

“Time!” Lilly called out loudly, looking up. Her expression was conflicted. Divided loyalties can be such a nuisance.

“Where is she Ike?” Izzy asked.

I raised my arm and pointed to a spot between where Peggy had vanished into the trees and the horse’s stable more than two hundred yards to the left.

“Skirting the yard, moving just beyond the trees towards the stable. A little winded, very keyed up, eager and….smug? Half-pint’s got something sneaky on her mind.”

“I’d wish you luck, but…” I waved off her protestation, planted a quick kiss on my sister’s forehead and then started moving.

I vaulted over the railing, dropped the five feet to the ground and took off like an avalanche with a head start; long, easy strides carried me straight at Peggy’s bundle of hyper emotions. I was a little eager myself, and at that point completely focused on my prey.

It’s never been a problem for me to cast aside the trappings of civility and genteel behavior. They’re like a suit I put on to impress other people. Besides, I’ve never had much more than a paper thin veneer of good manners anyway. Deep down, where it really counts, I’m a hunter. It’s who I am…what I born to be.

I let my eyes take in my physical surroundings; the ground beneath my feet and the woods ahead of me. My senses kept track of the prey. It felt good to be on the hunt again, even if it was only a game. I felt strong, powerful, unstoppable and inevitable. I was locked on target and homing in fast. I felt a jump in Peggy’s heartbeat. She’d spotted me.

So what? Nothing was going to get between me and my prize.

So naturally, something did.

I felt the vibrations first; low pitched, sub-sonic vibrations that worked their way up out of the ground, thru my leg bones and up into my skull where they bounced around between ears and brain like a maniac on PCP.

Louder than a herd of thundering aardvarks racing across a linoleum tiled prairie, faster and bigger than a series of seven foot high brick walls on roller skates, they came out of nowhere, circled once and then formed up in ranks between me and Peggy.

Peggy’s little herd of horses pawed the grass, bobbed their heads, flared their nostrils, snorted and huffed loudly. The seventeen hand high male at the front, not more than ten feet in front of me, was the very same animal I’d put Peggy on when we’d first come to the ranch. He’d been little less than two years old at the time, but he’d grown a lot since then. I once asked her, after she’d spent several months researching his lineage and breeding history, what the horse’s name was.

“Virginia Seabreaze.” and then she rattled off a long list of names: so-and-so from so-and-so from so-and-so…none of which meant a thing to me. Apparently, at least according to Peggy, the youngster had a pretty distinguished family tree, going back on his sire’s side to ‘Justin Morgan’, whoever the hell he was. Peggy seemed to think that was better than being related to George Washington. Still didn’t mean a thing to me. Peggy informed me that Mr. Virginia Seabreaze was, as far as she could tell, part Morgan, part Spanish Barb and part Andalusian. As far as I can tell, horses all look pretty much the same. I’ve ridden before (well twice, but that still counts, doesn’t it?) but that’s as far as my knowledge, understanding or interest in horses goes.

“But I call him Junior.”

“Okay, I’ll bite, why Junior?” I asked.

Peggy grinned and blushed. “ ‘Cause when I ride him it feels almost the same as when I’m riding you.”

What is this fascination women have for horses? I don’t get it, but that probably has a lot to do with my not being a woman. After hearing Peggy’s little confession, I found that I had two completely divided viewpoints on the subject. As a psychologist I was intrigued by the variety of possible explanations for that fascination. As a man with three wives I discovered that it was a subject I really didn’t want to examine too closely, especially once the girls began referring to me, during rather intimate and inappropriate moments, as their ‘stud’ or ‘stallion’. To each his, or her, own kink I suppose.

He’d grown a lot since the day I’d put her up on his back for her first ride. As a youngster his coat had been a rusty brown with lighter patches around his lower forelegs. He’d also been shorter than me back then. He’d grown a lot. His head was slightly higher than my own, and his rusty coat had darkened considerably. For such a large muscular animal, he moved very fast and without a lot of wasted motion. Like a buffalo performing ballet.

Junior and Peggy had bonded over the years, even more than she had with the other members of his family, and I could feel the protective aggression swelling in his massive body. He was defending a member of his herd.

And Peggy, yards off in the trees, was linked to him, encouraging and bolstering those murderous feelings.

I slid to a stop, just in time to watch the stallion rear back on his hind legs and paw the air with his forelegs. He slammed down, driving his hooves thru the grass and into the spongy ground not more than three feet in front of me.

I’d promised I wouldn’t cheat. Apparently Peggy hadn’t intended that particular proscription to include her sneaky little self.

I shifted quickly to the left, attempting to go around the horses. The stallion whinnied loudly and the animals on his right drifted out to block my way.

“Goddamnit!” I swore angrily under my breath. “I don’t have time for this.”

I opened my senses wide, inhaled every negative emotion for miles around and flames burst into full bloom behind my eyes. Amazingly the flames never got past my eyes, though I have no idea how I kept them reigned in; Peggy’s horses quickly passed the point of simply pissing me off and lept right into full blown provocation and displeasure.

Horses may not be the brightest creatures on the planet, but they know danger when they see it, or more likely smell it, especially when that danger is fire, and particularly when it’s within spitting distance. Their first instinct when confronted with fire, even the small blast furnaces that spat at them from my eyes, was to run and that’s what they did.

All except Peggy’s pet stallion. Junior held his ground, stepping easily from side to side, keeping himself between me and my prey for far longer than I would have expected.

I growled deep down in my chest, lowered my head, squared my shoulders and stalked directly at the horse, eyes ablaze.

Junior twisted around, leaned in my direction and slammed into my right shoulder. I braced and shoved back with all my strength.

Can you picture what must have happened? Eleven hundred pounds of ornery horseflesh crashing into two hundred and fifty pounds of even more ornery me? It was the proverbial irresistible force meeting up with one highly movable object.

Damn right I moved. There really wasn’t much I could do to alter the laws of physics. My feet tore up a long swath of grass as I was shoved unceremoniously aside. I lost my balance and went sprawling inelegantly to the ground.

I did the best I could; controlled my fall, tucked, rolled, jumped back to my feet and darted past the dark amber colored beast as fast as my legs would carry me, heading for the safety of the trees. Big-ass horses don’t move well in heavily wooded areas. And Junior was one big-ass horse.

I got closer and closer to the trees; my lungs were heaving, my blood was boiling, my heart was hammering in my chest and the pounding of Junior’s hooves behind me drowned them all out as he rapidly closed the gap between us. Over a long distance I could have run him into the ground. But Junior and I were engaged in a sprint. I never had a chance.

Something the size of a small landslide hit me between the shoulder blades and I went flying.

Flying is an interesting sensation, kinda like dreaming while you’re wide awake; it’s rather freeing, the sensation of weightlessness, watching everything around you whizz by and realizing that none of it has anything at all to do with you…but it’s hard to recall that blissful feeling when its abruptly contrasted with the pain and indignity of the uncontrolled landing that inevitably follows.

Face first into the grass, head first into the brush and brambles; rolling, flopping, bending in all the wrong places and at the wrong angles, banging into rocks, shrubs, fallen branches and being jabbed and stuck by an assortment of sharp sticks.

No, I think I’d just as soon pass on flying, thanks very much.

I ended up in a heap covered with leaves and torn foliage, my tee-shirt ripped and torn, bloody, bruised and royally pissed. My back ached, my left shoulder had a torn muscle, two of the fingers on my right hand were sprained and I was bleeding from an assortment of cuts and scrapes from my head down to my hips.

I got to my feet, swaying slightly, dizzy and seeing lights flicker before my eyes, brushed myself off, turned around and saw Junior standing twenty yards away, just beyond the edge of the tree line, his head bobbing up and down on his long neck.

The damn horse was laughing at me. No, it wasn’t even remotely like human laughter, but it felt the same.

“If she didn’t love you so much, I’d turn you into dog food, you know that, right?” I snarled.

Junior reared up, twisted around and pranced away, tail held high as though on display at a horse show. Oh yeah, I really had him worried.

I cast a mental curse at the four legged demon, turned into the depths of the woods and opened my senses, casting about for Peggy.

There!

Moving away quickly in the general direction of the stable. But she wasn’t as far ahead as she’d been before.

Hung around to watch Junior stomp me, I suppose.

I didn’t bother to get angry. Instead I started running; skirting trees and bushes as needed, hurdling fallen trees and heavy limbs when necessary and gaining ground on her with every footfall.

I was in my element for the first time since that day when I was thirteen. I was meant to be a hunter. Granddad had as much as said so, even if he’d ultimately advised me to avoid the activity.

But it felt right. It felt great, running down my prey; hunger in my heart, her scent in my nose and her emotions coursing thru my body as if they were my own.

It felt so damn right! Nothing I’d ever done before had felt so absolutely perfect.

Peggy stopped moving.

Why?

Don’t know, don’t care…get around behind her…swing wide, keep quiet and move quickly before she knows what I’m doing.

I shifted wide, slowed my pace just enough so that my feet made little or no sound, and looped around her position.

Why’s she stopped? She must know I can track her.

Peggy was planning something sneaky again. Her heart wasn’t pounding like it had been earlier, but she was still keyed up, eager and anticipating.

And she was doing something…odd…with her emotions. She was linking. I could feel her form the link, but what the hell had she found to link with?

Her horses were well away from us and I couldn’t sense any other animals closer than two hundred yards.

What are you up to, half-pint?

I slowed to a fast walk, still swinging wide of where I felt her to be, paying particular attention to where my feet landed, careful not to step on anything that might give away my position.

Closer and closer, step by cautious step I move behind and around until I was directly behind the point where she’d gone to ground. Then I began moving in for the kill; senses wide open and nerves quivering from the strain of keeping precise track of an unseen target.

Unseen, but not unknown or unfamiliar.

In some ways it would have been easier if I hadn’t been so intimately familiar with this particular prey.

I didn’t want to hurt Peggy. I just wanted to win the game. I badly wanted to get my hands on her. I can’t even begin to express how badly. It was beyond desire, or lust, pride or any of those other simplistic and basic emotions.

Beyond and less than basic…it was primal and primordial; written deep in the cells of my body, burned into the core of my psyche, a driving urge that was so far beneath conscious thought that I was barely aware of it.

Except that I could feel it driving my movements and thoughts.

Mostly.

I won’t deny that there was, at a completely conscious level, simple physical need pushing me as well. I wanted her. I really, really wanted her.

And I was damn well gonna have her.

Closer. Moving so quietly I couldn’t hear my feet on the ground, so slowly that I could barely tell I was moving at all.

Time…how much time’s passed?

Two minute head start, five minutes to get past Junior, five minutes to catch and get around behind her…say roughly three minutes left.

Three minutes.

More than enough time.

It never pays to get overly confident when you’re on the hunt. Prey, especially smart aggressive prey, sometimes have a nasty habit of laying traps for their predators…or worse, doubling back and turning the hunter into the hunted. That was a part of Granddad’s earliest lecture to me on the fine art of hunting.

Another section of that lecture involved not forgetting that just because you were hunting deer some cagey mountain lion might not be hunting you.

She was close. So very close. A tightly wound little bundle of fulminating emotions that pulsed hypnotically with every beat of her heart.

The colors of her feelings were so vivid to my mind, their taste spectacularly strenuous; the lure of Peggy just pulled at my mind.

Not more than fifteen feet directly in front of me, just beyond a waist high expanse of brush and berry brambles.

I crept forward and began to rise up, ready to leap over the obstacle and pounce, when the strangest thing happened.

Where there had been one bundle of Peggy emotions waiting ahead, there were suddenly seven.

Seven distinct bundles of emotions, scattered all around me…to the left, the right, in front, behind…they were all over the place.

And they were all Peggy. They felt like her, they tasted like her…they were her.

I felt as though I’d just been hit between the eyes with a two-by-four.

This isn’t possible! It can’t be happening!

And yet, it must have been possible because it had most surely happened.

But how?

Did it matter?

You bet your ass it matters!

“When did you find out about my Father?” Peggy’s voice called out to me.

I couldn’t tell for sure where her voice came from, I was so preoccupied with trying to figure out which of the seven Peggy bundles was the real one that her voice hardly registered on my awareness.

“Right after Tink and the girls were born.” I replied without thinking.

“You never said a word to me about it.” she accused.

“What was I supposed to say Peggy? Hey honey, guess what, I found your father, the rat bastard sonofabitch who molested and abandoned you as a child?”

Anger and hatred flared from all seven bundles of emotion in nearly equal amounts. Her link lines criss-crossed, each one linked to each of the others in a web of interconnected and integrated flows; pulsing, throbbing and blazing with powerful life energy.

As a result, any one of the bundles could have been the real Peggy. I couldn’t tell which was her.

“Did you kill him?” she asked after a brief pause.

“Would you have wanted me to?”

“Answer the fucking question!” she cried.

I stood upright, stepped over the bramble thicket and moved out into the open.

Trees. Her emotions were coming from the trees. I could pinpoint which trees, but not which one in particular she was hiding behind.

There was something I could have done that would have eliminated my problem altogether. I could have cut her links; that would have told me right away where she was. But I’d promised not to cheat…and I, much as it sometimes pains me, keep my promises.

I’d lost.

“No, I didn’t kill him.”

“Why the hell not!”

I exhaled loudly. “Peggy, he died in prison while serving thirty years for raping two other little girls. He was killed by a fellow inmate four years before you and I even met. But if he had been alive, you know damn well I would have killed him. I’d have pulled whatever strings I had to, gotten him out of prison, taken him someplace far, far away and spent a weekend peeling him like a banana.”

Her links collapsed and the seven bundles faded into one confused and miserable mass. I followed her emotions to a tree not more than fifteen feet away from where I was standing. Moving around the trunk of the large oak tree I discovered…nothing. She wasn’t there.

I looked around, a flash of pink caught my eye and there she was, maybe ten feet up in the branches, just out of reach, curled tightly around the main trunk, her cheek pressed against the rough bark.

And that’s the exact moment when I heard the whistle; faint, but oh-so acutely painful in my ears, announcing to the world that I had lost.

Really though, it wasn’t so much that I’d lost, but that Peggy had won. She’d beaten me, at the game of my choosing and on my terms, fair and square.

“Hear that?” I asked. “That’s the whistle. You’ve won.”

Peggy looked down at me, tears, bark dust and streaks of sap smeared across her pale cheeks.

“I won?” she asked absentmindedly.

“Yeah.” I smiled and held my arms out to her. “You don’t have to hide anymore.”

She nodded, wiped her eyes and cheeks, leaned to one side, put both hands on the branch she was sitting on, swung out and dropped into my waiting hands.

I caught her around the waist and lowered her to the ground.

“That was one hell of a trick. Very clever.” I said when her feet hit the leaves. “How’d you think of it?”

She gave me a half smile. “I don’t know. It’s just sort of came to me. I didn’t know if it would work, or if I could even do it.”

I dropped to both knees and wrapped my arms around her. “I’d say it worked pretty well. Very impressive. You just keep finding new ways to make me proud of you.”

“Yeah?”

“Oh yeah. I never would’a thought of it.”

Peggy choked out a chuckle. “You wouldn’t have had to.”

“Maybe not, but that doesn’t make it any less impressive.”

“Thanks…Daddy.”

I pulled back. “Hey, let’s not start that…”

Peggy put the fingers of her right hand over my mouth. “You’re the one I’ll always think of as my Daddy. You gave me the life I have, the life I dreamed of, not him. You didn’t have to do what you did for me, I know that now. I don’t even know why you bothered...but thank you for my life, and for loving me.”

I pulled her close. “I gave you an opportunity, that’s all. You’re the one who turned it into a life, not me. I never thought for a second that you’d end up being someone I’d fall in love with.”

Peggy clutched at me, holding on for all she was worth.

“I’m sorry about siccing Junior on you like that.” she said apologetically. “He didn’t hurt you too badly, did he?”

“I’ll live. But if it ever happens again, Junior might not.”

“Don’t be mean. He didn’t do anything that you wouldn’t in his place.”

“I’ve never laughed at anyone I just got done stomping.”

Peggy giggled. “No, I don’t guess you would. But don’t forget, he’s still just a baby.”

“Peggy, a ten year old horse is hardly a baby.”

“He’s my baby. You gave him to me.”

I sighed. “I introduced you. He gave himself to you.” A brief pause then, “Have you told Tink about her half-ton big brother?”

Peggy laughed hoarsely. “She loves him too.”

Women and horses. Must be genetic. Must be.

Peggy tugged at my torn and bloody tee-shirt. “I really didn’t think he’d be able to hurt you.”

I held her close, alternately stroking her back and hair. “Does this round-about apology mean you’re conceding the game to me?”

Peggy pushed away from me, a great wide grin on her face. “Hell no!”

She twisted out of my arms and began to bounce around, twirling, gyrating, hopping from foot to foot, and leaping into the air with her arms extended, laughing with glee and shouting at the top of her lungs.

“I did it! I won! I beat you! I beat big bad Ike…yesyesyes! I’m the greatest. I’m the champ!”

Honestly…is there anything worse than a bad winner?

Peggy insisted that I carry her piggy-back all the way back to the house, and even with all my newly acquired aches and pains, I didn’t mind. I enjoyed having her lithe little body clinging to my back. I didn’t even mind, much, her continuous victory song ringing in my ears.

When we arrived Peggy climbed down, announced to one and all that she’d won, and then began an overly dramatic retelling of her heroic adventure, leaving out the bit with her father.

I kept my mouth shut on that subject. I’d never wanted to bring it up in the first place.

While Lilly, Izzy and the kids were giving Peggy all the attention she’d earned, I went inside, cleaned up, changed clothes and reapplied my sun blocker.

When I came back out, everyone was watching me closely.

“What? Did I forget to zip my fly?” I asked.

Peggy smirked. “Your fly’s just fine.”

“Did Mommy really beat you?” Tink asked.

“Yup. Fair and square.”

“Aren’t you mad?” AJ inquired, a mischievous look on his little face.

“Mad? Nooooo….I’m not too happy about losing, but I’m not mad.”

“A girl beat you, and you’re not mad?”

“AJ, nobody wins all the time. Not even me. And I didn’t lose to just any girl; I lost to one of my three best friends, who also happens to be one very talented lady.”

We spent the next hour playing family tag, with all of them ganging up to make sure I was ‘it’ more often than not. Even with all the high pitched screaming and squealing that ensued, it was one of the most enjoyable hours of my life.

Later that evening, after we’d put the kids to bed, I was soaking in the master bedroom’s hot tub when my three girls came filing in, closed and locked the door and then seated themselves around the edge of the tub facing me.

“Okay, spill buster…what happened this morning?” Lilly demanded.

I lowered my eyelids and shifted my legs so that I could slouch lower into the water.

“The First Lady told me that she knows all about you three.” I said.

Izzy frowned, Peggy grinned and Lilly shook her head.

“She wasn’t too thrilled about my retiring Senator Gottschalk either. I guess they were buddies or something.”

“Screw ‘em both…what about your job? Do you still have one?” Lilly persisted.

“The President, along with the most senior members of the government, offered me a new job. Inspector General of the United States. A lifetime appointment.”

All three of them looked puzzled.

“Doing what, exactly?” Izzy asked.

I smiled and shook my head. “Near as I can tell, pretty much anything I like.”

Peggy frowned. “That’s nuts.”

“That’s what I said, more or less.”

“What exactly did he say?” Lilly wanted to know.

“In effect, you’d be the sole arbiter, the ultimate oversight authority, for the entire federal government.”

“You would be the court of final appeal. As Inspector General, you’d have the power and authority to resolve all federal conflicts, to ensure and enforce the orderly operation of any and all government agencies. There should be one person with perspective who’ll step in when necessary to make sure we as a nation don’t lose sight of what’s important; someone with a clear vision of where this country needs to go, and a plan for how to get there.”

By the time I finished repeating the President’s comments for them, their jaws had dropped.

I nodded my head slowly. “Yeah, that’s pretty much the way I felt.”

“Can he do that?” Izzy wanted to know.

I shrugged. “The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the House and Senate leaders, most of the Cabinet and the Chairman of the Joint Chief’s are all in on it, so I guess it’s possible.”

“But why...?” Lilly asked rhetorically.

“The President’s been talking to Dr. Wills. And it turns out he’s an empath, about on par with Wills’ ability. I don’t know how he found out, but he knows some of what I can do.”

“If he knows…it’s crazy. He’s got to have some kind of ulterior motive, don’t you think?” Izzy wondered aloud.

“I wish I knew. It’s one thing for me to covertly maneuver to take over the government; it’s completely bizarre having it handed over on a silver platter.”

I put my feet firmly on the bottom of the tub and sat up, rising out of the water’s warm and soothing embrace.

“The whole idea is ludicrous.”

Peggy pursed her lips and gazed absently into the water. “I don’t know. It’s not the dumbest thing I’ve heard come out of the White House.”

“Sounds pretty dumb to me.” Izzy insisted. “These are career politicians we’re talking about. They’ve trained, worked, schemed, plotted and planned for most of their lives to get where they are, to get themselves into positions of power and control. I’ll bet not a single person at that meeting was less than fifty years old either. Why would any of them agree to simply turn it all over to someone they barely know? And to someone as young and politically inexperienced as Ike…I don’t think so.”

Peggy looked up, meeting my eyes. “How many of the people at that meeting have you already gotten to?”

“All but two of the Cabinet and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. I’ve been putting off turning the Senators and Congressmen…their emotions make me feel oily and I’ve never laid eyes on the Chief Justice before. Oh, and the President, First Lady and the Vice President of course. Never seemed worth the effort, though I was tempted to ring the First Lady today.”

“She annoyed you that much?” Lilly grinned.

“That’s one way of putting it.”

“Whose idea was this ‘Inspector General’ thing anyway? One of yours?” Peggy continued.

I shook my head. “The President claimed it was all his, and as far as I could tell he wasn’t lying.”

“What does he stand to gain from this crazy scheme?” Izzy wondered.

“The man’s on his way out of office in a little over a year, along with his Cabinet. About the only thing left to him at this point is establishing some kind of positive legacy.”

“Maybe he figures that making you the conscience-in-chief will somehow solidify his position in the history books.” Peggy suggested.

I frowned. “It might…if I were foolish enough to let him announce it to the whole damn world.”

Lilly lowered her shoulder and dipped her hand into the water, wiggling her fingers. “Did you tell him you’d take the job?”

“No. I said I’d think about it and give him an answer Monday.”

“Are you going to take it?”

“You mean am I going to let them give it to me? Probably not.”

“Why not? You were pretty keen on the idea not so long ago.”

“I’ve kinda soured on being dictator.”

“What changed your mind?”

“Peggy.”

My little half-pint gave me a pouty look. “When did you start listening to me?”

I sighed faintly and sat back against the edge of the tub. “I’ve always listened to you; to all of you. Most of the time I’ve been willing to go along with what you wanted, not just because you wanted it but because what you’ve said made sense.”

“You’d make a pretty lousy dictator, with that kind of attitude.” Izzy grinned.

“Maybe not.” Lilly said firmly, looking up from the water. “Why have you given in to us so often?”

“Is this a trick question?”

“Hardly.”

I cocked my head slightly and narrowed my eyes.

“Like I said, because you made sense.”

“Wrong answer.” Lilly said sternly.

“Just because we made sense doesn’t mean we were right.” Izzy said, apparently catching on to Lilly’s train of thought.

Peggy’s head swiveled on her slender neck, looking from Lilly to Izzy and then back to me.

My blood turned cold and the moisture in my eyes become an icy film.

“What do you want me to say? That I give in to you three because I don’t want to lose your affection? That I go along to get along? That I am now, and always have been, completely whipped? Is that what you want to hear?”

Lilly shook her head, her shoulder length hair swaying from side to side. “No. Because none of that’s true, is it?”

I smiled coldly. “Maybe just a little.”

“So then, what’s the real truth?”

“You already know the answer to that question.”

“Yeah, I know. But we want to hear you say it anyway.”

I smiled just enough to allow a gust of frosted breath to escape from between my lips.

“And what if I don’t feel like telling you?”

Lilly smiled back serenely. “The answer to that question is encapsulated in the answer to my question, isn’t it?”

I laughed and the water around me began to warm. “Touché! You know, this just isn’t my day. I can’t seem to beat you girls at anything.”

Peggy giggled and Izzy beamed at me. “I’m sure you’ll be back to your usual charming self in no time.” my sister said, with only a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

“Come on Ike, tell us; we’re waiting.” Lilly insisted.

I looked each of them in the eye, first Peggy, then Izzy and finally Lilly. “I give in to you three because it makes you happy, and there’s nothing I want more than for you to be happy. When you’re happy, I’m happy; when you’re not, I’m not. It’s as simple as that.”

“You don’t give in to anyone else though, do you?”

I shrugged. “Maybe to the kids, on occasion.”

“No one else?” Lilly stared intently at me as she asked.

I watched her just as closely and then nodded. “Dr. Wills.”

Lilly smiled softly. “You should talk to him before you make up your mind.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s the only other person I know of that you respect. And from what you told us he’s partly, maybe even completely, responsible for arranging this. You should go see him.”

Izzy and Peggy nodded their agreement.

“Alright. Tomorrow.”

Lilly smiled, leaned forward, put her hands on the floor and crawled up next to me on hands and knees and gave me a very sweet kiss on the lips.

“We had a lot of fun today, all of us.” she whispered. Her breath was warm and tickled my skin.

“So did I.”

“Even though you lost?”

I smiled sagely. “Who says I lost?”

Lilly grinned. “That’s my boy.” she purred and rolled to the side, got to her feet and disappeared behind me into the bathroom.

Izzy slid her way over beside me, stretched out on her belly, put one arm around and under my chin, tilted my head back and planted her lips over mine. Her kiss was a little less sweet and a whole lot more demanding. When she pulled back to look at me, I could see and feel the moisture building in her eyes.

“Be good to our girl. She’s had a rough day.”

I nodded slightly. “She’s not the one who had to wrestle Junior.” I said archly, indicating the cuts and bruises that decorated my upper body.

Izzy smiled, one corner of her mouth curling up. “Only because you’re a foolishly honorable man.” She brushed my hair back, kissed me quickly and hugged my head against her breasts. Then she too rolled away, got to her feet and vanished into the bathroom.

I refocused my eyes on the lone figure sitting across from me at the edge of the tub. Peggy had a wistful expression on her face as she watched Izzy shut the bathroom door.

I stood up slowly. Peggy snapped free from her musings and eyed me warily. I moved forward, dropped down, my knees on the bench below the water, reached out and took one of her pink shoed feet in my hands.

With great care and deliberation I untied the laces and slipped the shoe off her foot and set it to one side. Then I peeled the sock off and tucked it inside the shoe. Gradually I eased her bare leg into the water, all the while caressing and massaging her arch and toes. Peggy murmured and sighed. After a minute or so, I took my hands out of the water and reached for her other shoe.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Peggy asked.

“Your feet are tired and your legs hurt.” I replied reasonably, unlacing the second pink sneaker and prying it from her foot. “And you’re still all wound up. You need to relax.”

I pulled her sock off, shoved it into the shoe then lowered her leg into the water, working my thumbs in and around the ball of her foot. Peggy groaned and closed her eyes; her head fell back between her shoulders, exposing her throat and neck.

I smiled and began working my hands up to her ankle then to her calf. After a while I switched back to the first leg and worked that calf for a time.

Peggy grunted happily while I massaged the tightness out of her legs. Her upper body fell back to the floor, drawing the hem of her shirt up and putting her flat little belly on display. She had a silly little smile on her face and the tip of her tongue emerged a couple of times, wetting her tantalizing lips between gasps and groans.

“That feels so good.” she said dreamily. “…such strong hands.”

I took those strong hands out of the water and began to dig my fingers into the heavy muscle of her thigh. Peggy’s head came up, her eyes wide open. There was an accusing look on her face.

“You’re getting my pants all wet.” I matched her stare, eyes wide and unblinking, my expression relaxed and speculative.

“I could always take them off.” I suggested, raising one eyebrow.

She shook her head and grinned. “You better not…I won, remember?”

I smiled and nodded. “Trust me, your butt is perfectly safe. Still, if you’re worried that much about your pants getting wet…”

I let go of her thigh, bent forward and put my hands on her waist, slid my hands up her sides and pulled her into a sitting position, while at the same time pushing her shirt up her torso.

Peggy giggled as the shirt dragged over her breasts and nipples. My hands continued up, lifting her arms over her head and pulling her shirt along with them. I tugged the shirt over her head and off her arms. The whole maneuver took less than five seconds, at the end of which Peggy was sitting in front of me naked from the waist up.

She dropped her arms and crossed them over her chest. She tried to look annoyed but couldn’t quite pull it off.

I tossed her shirt to the side, slipped one arm around her back, the other gathered up her legs, and then I scooped her up, stood and backed my way to the far side of the tub and sat down in my original position then lowered Peggy into the water and onto my lap.

She squealed and laughed, kicking her legs and feet, splashing water everywhere.

“There, now you can stop worrying. Your pants are as wet as they’re gonna get.”

I pushed my legs out, leaned back and pulled Peggy against my chest, wrapping both arms around her. We sat there together for several seconds, just enjoying the closeness and the water, which had, by then, returned to its normal state of just hot enough to poach eggs.

Then I returned to massaging the hard muscle of Peggy’s thighs.

She sighed and snuggled back, rocking her shoulders and hips, getting more comfortable.

Three minutes later she was as limp and relaxed as over cooked spaghetti noodles. One minute after that the bathroom door opened and Lilly and Izzy emerged. They walked around in front of us; short linen robes belted tightly around their narrow waists and satisfied smiles on each of their freshly scrubbed and very lovely faces.

“See you two in the morning.” Lilly said, gave us a little wave and headed for the bedroom door.

“Where are you guys going?” Peggy’s head came up like a shot, her eyes wide open and the relaxed look replaced in a flash by one of confusion.

“To bed.” Izzy said matter-of-factly. “We’ll see you tomorrow. Don’t stay up too late.” she grinned and followed Lilly out, shutting the door quietly behind them.

Peggy began to panic. It was an altogether unreasonable reaction, but reason often has little to do with feelings or why we experience them.

I put both arms around her once more and held her close.

“Shhhhhhh…

I sucked the panic out of her, every last bit; hair, horns and hooves, as Granddad would have said.

“I was thirteen years old the first time I cuddled with someone besides my mother.” I told her, rocking soothingly side to side.

“Izzy?” Peggy asked, tensing up again.

“Uh-huh. After she went off to college I didn’t get to do that again until I was nineteen. It surprised me how much I missed it. Carlie and I used to cuddle a lot, before we went to bed at night. She had a little trouble accepting it at first. I think it violated her personal gestalt; what with my being a guy, and a younger one at that. After she died…it was a long time before I held anyone again; a long time before I wanted to.”

“You’re not a touchy-feely kind of guy, are you?” Peggy stated more than asked. “I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I’ve seen you shake hands with someone.”

I shook my head slightly and chuckled. “More than eight years we’ve been together and you haven’t figured me out yet? My mother used to say that I was the most affectionate child she’d ever seen; always wanting to be held, always hugging and kissing her. But people change, and when I was eight I lost all interest in overt displays of affection.”

Peggy sniffled and lowered her head. “I don’t think you lost it. I think you had it taken from you.”

I gave her a tight squeeze with both arms and put the right side of my face on the top of her head.

“Maybe. Now-days I’m rather particular about who gets close; but the important thing is that I got it back. You played a big part there, you know?”

“Me?”

“Of course you. Who was the first woman I saw naked after Carlie died? Who was the first one after her to lay hands on me sexually; the first one after her that I had sexual thoughts about?”

Peggy twisted in my arms, rolled her head back and looked up at me. “The first girl you ever spanked?”

I laughed and kissed her forehead. “Yeah, that too. And the first girl after her that I wanted to cuddle. Not fuck or have sex with, but cuddle. Just hold…you know?”

Peggy lowered her head. “Yeah.”

“I really like holding you. It makes me feel…I don’t know, relaxed. Calm. Happy.”

“Holding me makes you happy?” she asked suspiciously. “More than sex?”

I laughed softly. “Apples and oranges squirt…apples and oranges.”

“Meaning what in English?”

“Meaning that you worry too much about things you don’t need to worry about.”

“Such as…?”

“Well, my wanting to hold you for one. What’s wrong with that? Is it so unimaginable that I might actually enjoy holding you? Do you honestly think the only reason I’d want to would be as a prelude to sex?”

Peggy lowered her eyes. “I guess I never gave it much thought.”

“No, I guess not. And as long as we’re on the subject there’s something else you’ve been worrying way too much about lately; your age. Somehow you got it into your head that being older has made you unattractive. Trust me, it hasn’t.”

“Well you haven’t helped, you know; going on and on about antiques and wrinkled old bodies and shit like that.”

I tightened my arms around her a little. “Peggy, face facts; you were born before me. So was Lilly and so was Izzy. So was Carlie. Every woman I’ve been in love with has been older than me. Frankly, if I didn’t occasionally poke fun at you girls about something, I’d never be able to get you guys down off your pedestals.”

I slipped one arm under her legs and stood up, climbed up out of the tub and carried her across the room, leaving a trail of water with every step, to the full length mirror the three of them insisted on installing in my room. I set Peggy on her feet in front of the mirror and dropped to one knee behind her.

“Look at her, Peggy. Take a good look at that woman in the mirror. Look closely at her face. I dare you to find even one wrinkle. Check her hair. Not so much as a hint of gray.” I put my hands on her bare shoulders and shook her upper body just a bit. “No fat, no middle age spread, no cottage cheese thighs; the woman in the mirror is young, sexy and infinitely desirable…and I love that woman in the mirror more today than I did eight years ago.”

A faint glimmer of a smile twitched at the corner of her lips and a single tear drop fell from her left eye.

“My boobs are too small.” she protested.

I smiled and shook my head. “Too small for who?” I asked, turned her to the side, bent down and gently kissed each taught little nipple in turn. “Not too small for me.”

Peggy’s smile grew just a little more noticeable. She turned her head to the side and glanced back at her image in the mirror. “These pants make my butt look huge.” she pouted.

I slid my hands down her arms to her waist, gently turned her towards me, hooked my thumbs in the waistband of her spandex pants and rolled them down to the tops of her thighs, exposing her backside.

“Honey, it would take ten pounds of fat in each cheek and a magnifying glass the size of my head to make your butt look huge.” I spread my fingers, placed the palm of each hand on its very own butt cheek and then laced the fingers together. Her bottom vanished completely from view.

“There’s no way I could do that if you had a huge ass. Peggy, there are girls a third your age who dream of having a body as great as yours. There are ten times as many men and boys who’d kill me in a heartbeat to get their hands on this wrinkled old body of yours.” I smiled at her reflection in the mirror. “And I’d cheerfully kill each and every last one of them to make ensure they never got the chance.”

Peggy giggled and pushed her bottom back against my hands. “You wouldn’t.” she demurred.

I let the smile drain from my face and allowed flames to blossom behind my eyes.

“You bet your cute little ass I would.” I pulled her close, pressing her bare belly against me. “I might be willing to share you with Izzy and Lilly, but you, little lady, are mine. And heaven help the sorry sonofabitch who thinks he can take you from me.” I snarled between clenched teeth.

Peggy ground her hips against me and laughed brightly, the first truly happy sound I’d heard from her since we’d stopped playing with the children.

“You’re very sexy when you get all surly and macho.” she laughed.

I lifted an eyebrow; flames licked my eyelashes and the fine pale hair on the ridges above them. “You think?”

“Oh yeah.” she drawled, dragging a fingertip along the edge of the flames ringing my eyes. “The fire’s a nice touch too. Very manly.”

I chuckled, deep down in my chest. “Pull the other one.”

Peggy frowned slightly and pushed away with both hands. “How come I can’t feel you anymore?” she demanded, suddenly changing the tone and subject in one fell swoop.

I tilted my head to one side. “You can’t feel me at all?”

She shook her head. “None of us can. Haven’t been able to for months now.”

“Not even a little?”

“I still get buzzed when you kiss me, and when we’re linked, but otherwise…”

I smiled. “Good. Then it’s working.”

Indignation blossomed within her. “What’s so good about whatever it is?”

“It’s a little trick I learned in Los Angles. I wasn’t sure I could keep doing it this long, but I had to try.”

“Doing what?” Indignation was giving way to exasperation and anger.

“Using your emotions to mask mine. It’s kind of like having a mirror in front of me; you feel your emotions reflected back at you instead of feeling mine.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because I don’t want you girls to feel all the crap I’ve got running thru me now.” I sighed softly. “There are millions of other people’s emotions in me, most of which aren’t very pleasant. You think I want you guys to feel that mess all the time? Hell, even I wouldn’t choose to put up with this shit if I didn’t have to. But I have to. What I don’t have to do is inflict them on the people I love.”

Her anger dampened slightly. Very slightly.

“That’s very sweet, and terribly noble, but it’s also unbelievably selfish and insensitive!” The heel of one small fist hammered against my breastbone to emphasize her displeasure.

Women!

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me. Selfish and insensitive!” Two more blows to the chest punctuated her declaratives.

Can’t live with ‘em, can’t stuff ‘em in a freezer and dump ‘em in the ocean.

I unlaced my fingers, pulled back one hand and gave her a quick sharp smack on the ass.

Peggy squealed and lurched forward, banging her head against my chin.

“Hit me again Squirt and I’ll blister your tiny little butt.” I cautioned gently, but firmly.

“Big bully…” she muttered.

“Little bully.” I countered with a satisfied smirk.

“Okay…I’m sorry I hit you. But you make me so mad sometimes. What’s the point of us being tied together if you’re just gonna hide behind your mirror?” she asked.

“You don’t really want me to answer that, do you?”

Peggy shuddered and then quickly shook her head. “Sorry. Sorrysorrysorry…goddamnit I’m sorry.” she hissed in a rush.

It was the first time she’d actually come out and directly apologized for…well, we knew what she was sorry for.

I put both arms back around her and held her close. “You and I are a lot alike, Peggy, but we’re not that much alike. Compared to most people your abilities are truly extraordinary, but as powerful as you are, as powerful as you might become one of these days, you’re not me.”

She looked up at me, a curious expression on her face. “Are you afraid that if I could feel what you feel I might become like you?”

“You think I’m trying to prevent you from becoming more powerful? You really think I’m that petty?”

“Well what then? What other reason is there to hide from me?”

I exhaled loudly. “Peggy, this afternoon I gave you a nice big blast of love and it knocked you right out. I didn’t give you all of my love, just more than you’ve ever felt at one time before, and look what happened. And that’s a good feeling. How much pain can you take Peggy? How much suffering do you think it would take for you to lose your mind? How much before your body gave up and you died? Do you know? Because I don’t, and I’m not the least bit interested in finding out either.”

“If you’re hurting I want to know.” she insisted doggedly. “I want to share it with you. We’re partners, and partners are supposed to share. The good and the bad.”

I smiled fondly at her earnest face and patted her still stinging bottom.

“I appreciate the thought, and your noble intentions, but this is one thing I can’t share with you. It’s my burden and mine alone.”

“I don’t believe that. Not for a minute. You wouldn’t let it hurt me. I know you…you’d protect me.”

“That’s what I’m trying to do. Why not just let me?”

“Because it’s hurting you. It’s hurting us. And it feels like you’re drifting away again.”

Cognitive dissonance, for those not familiar with the condition, is a distressing mental state in which people feel that they’re doing things that don’t fit with what they know, or having opinions that do not fit with other opinions they hold. The theory, generously presented to the world by Leon Festinger in1957, is concerned with the relationships among cognitions. A cognition, for the purpose of Festinger’s theory, can be thought of as a piece of knowledge. That knowledge may be about an emotion, an attitude, a behavior, a value, or whatever. For example, the knowledge that you like the color blue is a cognition; the knowledge that the Supreme Court outlawed school segregation would be another. People hold large numbers of cognitions simultaneously, and these cognitions form irrelevant, consonant or dissonant relationships with one another.

Irrelevance simply means that the two cognitions have nothing to do with one another. Two cognitions are consonant if one cognition follows from, or fits with, the other. People like consonance among their cognitions. Science has no idea whether this preference stems from the nature of the human organism or whether it’s learned during the process of socialization, but people appear to prefer cognitions that fit together to those that don’t. This simple observation is what gives the theory of cognitive dissonance its interesting form.

Cognitions are said to be dissonant if one follows from the opposite of another. What happens to people when they become aware of dissonant cognitions? The answer to this question forms the basic postulate of Festinger’s theory. A person who has dissonant or discrepant cognitions is said to be in a state of psychological dissonance, which is experienced as unpleasant psychological tension. This tension state has drive-like properties that are similar to those of hunger and thirst. When a person has been deprived of food for several hours, he/she experiences unpleasant tension and is driven to lessen the unpleasant tension state that results. Reducing the psychological state of dissonance, however, is hardly as simple as eating or drinking.

Peggy’s comment about me drifting away from them, combined with her insistence on sharing my enhanced emotional state, put me into one gut wrenching state of cognitive dissonance.

Psychological dissonance often occurs when an individual’s beliefs come into conflict with their self image.

Interestingly enough, I’d never experienced that kind of tension before. With my screwed up self image and off kilter emotional state it probably should have manifested earlier in my life. In fact, it should have been making guest appearances on a regular basis from age twenty–two on.

Perhaps my divided psyche prevented it. I held onto the idea of there being a real physical difference between the kind, decent me and that rat bastard darkness for quite some time. And then to have a cold hearted rational side show up…maybe those divisions are what kept me safe.

Integrating those personalities might not have been such a good thing after all.

Protecting the family had become something more than a priority. I was fully aware it had turned into a full blown obsession. I was also conscious of the fact that no matter how powerful I might be, I was never going to be able to protect them as well as I wanted to. More importantly, I struggled with the knowledge that the greatest threat they faced on a daily basis wasn’t from outsiders. It was from me.

Lilly and Izzy because I’d tied them to me, Peggy doubly so because of the similar gift we shared as well as being tied, and apparently Tink was also at risk because of her ability to sense my power.

The conflict between these facts and my need and desire to protect them had been building for months.

I saw my aggressive drive to conquer and co-opt the government as a feeble and futile attempt to erect a defensive wall around them. Feeble in that it could never protect them from the greatest threat of all. Futile in that I knew there was no way I could separate myself from them.

I needed my family. They were all that kept the monster in check.

So….

…what now?

I blinked, looked into Peggy’s eyes and blinked again.

“Let me think about it. Maybe there’s a way.”

Peggy smiled, pressed her body into mine. “You’ll think of something, I know you will.”

I hugged her to me with one arm, tugged her damp shorts down to her ankles with the other, stood up, kicked the shorts in the direction of the rest of her wet clothes and then carried her into the bathroom.

I set Peggy down on the bathmat, pulled one of the towels off the rack and proceeded to dry her off. When I’d finished she took the towel from me and returned the favor, paying special attention to my long wet hair.

When I felt dry enough, I snatched the towel from her hands, dropped it into the hamper, scooped her up in my arms, shut off the light and carried her back into the bedroom. I flicked off the overhead light switch then headed to the bed. Pulled back the quilt and sheets, set Peggy down and climbed in next to her. I hauled the bed clothes up over our bodies and pulled her close.

Peggy shifted onto her side and backed up, pressing her bottom against my hips, her back into my chest. I slid one arm under her head, draped the other over her arm and cupped her right breast in my hand.

She sighed, pillowed her head on my bicep and almost immediately began drifting off to sleep.

“I love you, Peggy Driscoll.” I whispered into her hair and then kissed her cheek.

She murmured faintly, smiled, arched her back and pressed her butt back into my groin.

“Blacktower.” she mumbled. “Mrs. Peggy Blacktower.”

I smiled to myself and gave her breast a gentle squeeze. “I love you, Mrs. Peggy Blacktower.”

“…love you too.”

“We’ll start setting up a new clinic for you next week.”

“…you mean it?” she asked sleepily.

“A promise is a promise.” I confirmed.

“…what about Izzy and Lilly?” she inquired, while pushing her little body harder against mine. Her hips began that wonderful rocking motion that never failed to rouse my interest.

“They’re free to do whatever makes them happy. I won’t stop ‘em.”

“…want to put the girls in a private school next year.”

“As long as I get to check out the faculty first.”

“…deal.” she agreed then reached back between her bottom and my belly with her left hand grabbed hold of my cock and moved it up, sandwiching it between the two halves of her firm, narrow ass.

“…and freedom means we have the right to be as close to you as we can get, know what I mean?”

“I’ll see what I can do.” I said noncommittally.

The rocking of her hips continued their slow, tantalizing motion. Her hand came back up and she placed it on top of the hand I held over her breast, patting it fondly.

“You’re a good cuddle-buddy.”

I tightened my hold and nuzzled her neck. “Thanks. So are you.”

Peggy giggled ever so faintly.

“We want to join the PTA…meet people…just like a regular family.”

“Honey, we’re a little different from regular families.”

“…big deal.”

“And how do you guys plan on explaining me to the PTA?”

Peggy chuckled, turned her head and kissed the arm beneath her head. “…our Sugar Daddy and personal boy-toy.”

I grimaced at the thought. “Doesn’t put me in a very good light, does it?” I groused.

“…thought you didn’t care what people think…”

I smiled; picturing Peggy’s imaginary PTA cowering in the corner of a school gym, with me at center court, blue and covered in flames.

“As long as they’re polite.” I whispered.

Peggy smiled, licked her lips and continued to rock her hips.

“…big teddy bear…” and as she faded into sleep, her hips slowed then stopped.

I spent most of the night thinking, remembering, trying to put enough pieces together to come up with a plan.

How the hell could I share my power and keep them safe at the same time?

I wasn’t even sure why it hadn’t killed me. What was it about me that was so different from other people?

Peggy could do just about everything I could, before I went out to the west coast, except for amplifying. She could link, she could project…what else was there?

Amplifying was a pretty big difference, but was that what made my abilities so much more powerful than hers? Obviously it did, but why could I when she couldn’t?

I’d tried, years before, to explain how I did it, or at least how I thought I did it. She’d been unable to replicate the ability.

What else? What else was there that was different?

Memory.

I remembered everything. Granted, I wasn’t aware that I could do that until I started working for Dr. Wills and went back to school.

I’d always known I was smart. All of my parent’s children had above average intellects. Ivan and Izzy had both done much better in school than I had, but I knew I was no slouch. The first clue that I had a phenomenal memory only became obvious to me after I began reciting poems and quotes from books that I’d only read a single time…and hadn’t even liked.

But did that have anything directly to do with my abilities? Well, it certainly made categorizing emotions a lot easier. It meant that I only had to experience an emotion once before I could call it up at will to be used as I chose.

Combine that with amplification and it gave me a nearly unlimited store of power at my beck and call.

But it didn’t explain why, after amplifying an emotion to the point where it could kill, burn, or explode, it didn’t do the same thing to me.

I could heal. Peggy couldn’t do that. Was that the key?

I had to backtrack on that one. I didn’t know for certain that Peggy couldn’t heal. All I knew for certain was that she’d never demonstrated the ability. Perhaps she wasn’t aware that she could.

Maybe it was latent, or even passive. After all, I’d been hurt pretty badly over the years, and yet each and every time I’d had the three of them with me and I’d healed far faster than I should have been able to.

Had I healed myself, or had they healed me? Was it possible that the four of us combined had done it?

Or was it that they magnified my own abilities? An amplifier for an amplifier?

That was an intriguing thought. It might explain why they, why none of us, were aging at the same rate as our contemporaries.

But would it explain why amplified emotions didn’t kill me they way they killed others? I’d caused people to explode, to vaporize, in milliseconds. Even I couldn’t heal that fast. It took time and effort. At least it had the way I’d been going at it.

So, what else could account for my surviving concentrated power that so easily destroyed others?

An image came to mind as I lay in bed cradling Peggy.

The early morning sky was cloudy and gray; a thick mist hovered over the grass, moving in and around the trees that surrounded the vast expanse of the property. There wasn’t much wind, just a small breeze that swelled from time to time and blew the chill air against my face. There were no birds chirping that morning, the only sounds, apart from my footsteps on the ground, came from the swaying of the taller trees and the occasional cracking of their bark.

I took a seat on the porch steps and scanned the area, keeping my eyes loose and looking for signs of movement.

I was loading a round into the rifle when I spotted a small figure moving towards me at the far end of the drive, some two hundred and fifty yards away. It was definitely human; and from the way it moved I guessed it to be male. There was no way he should have gotten past the external security unnoticed, so I immediately was alert. I linked with him and flipped the covers off the rifle scope, bringing the weapon up to my shoulder and the sights over his torso.

Thru the scope I could see his features better and was surprised to find that he was a young boy, maybe fifteen or sixteen years old. His hair was damp, hanging half way between his ears and shoulders, a reddish color several shades darker than my own had originally been. He didn’t have any facial hair; his skin showed signs of acne but was otherwise a fairly good looking kid…

“You shouldn’t be here. Turn around and go home.” I said looking down at his boyish face.

“My name’s Tim. You have got to be Ike Blacktower. There couldn’t be two people that look like you.” he said in a light tenor voice that was just a little reedy and nasal…

“You came here to kill me?” He nodded. “Have you ever killed anyone Tim?” I asked him.

His eyes lit up and his grin got bigger. I felt his heart pounding and a flash of almost sexual excitement filled him.

“Yeah. It was wonderful!” he gushed…

“I’m not a kid, you fucking freak!” Tim screeched, his voice cracking on the final syllable. Then he lashed out at me thru his own link.

He had power; there was no doubt about that. Lot’s more than I’d had at his age. The wave of pain hit me like a tidal wave and before long I was fully immersed in the emotion.

I smiled at the boy. “Not bad.” I said. “But pain only works if the person you use it on can’t take it. I’ve felt worse.”

Tim continued to try and drown me with pain, and I can’t say it didn’t hurt. It did. My head felt like it was going to explode, every joint ached, every muscle screamed with agony. But it was only pain and I’d hurt worse before. Pick ‘em up and put ‘em down.

The pain fed my rage and I let the flames of that inferno rush down the length of my arms and thru my hands into his body. Tim screamed loudly as his entire body burst into flame and then turned into one man sized charcoal lump which crumbled into gray ash and fell thru my fingers to form a pile at my feet.

Pain. There had been pain for almost as long as I could remember; emotional and physical, sometimes both at once. Some had been self inflicted, but most of it had come from other people.

I’d survived it all, including the pain of death. I endured. I was able to endure pain and suffering that would kill or drive other people completely insane. Assuming, of course, that I wasn’t already insane and merely in denial.

I could remember in exacting and precise detail those instances of horrible mind shattering pain and suffering. I could remember, relive and then survive them over and over again.

That’s what made me able to hold millions of emotions. That’s what made me truly unique.

Hold the fuckin’ bus!

A rapid series of memories began dashing across the screen of my mind.

Isabeau lunged forward, flinging her arms around our neck and clamping her mouth over ours, while at the same time compassion, understanding and unconditional love came smashing down the link with the force of a swollen river breaking thru a picket fence. Her feelings were genuine and mostly soothing…but hidden within the torrent of positive emotion was a furtive dash of resentment that was just as real, and just as honest.

I linked to Lilly and exposed my heart, soul, feelings and emotions, fully and completely for the first time in my life.

I didn’t force any feelings on her, didn’t try to impose or impress, amplify, suppress or mitigate. It was all there for her to explore and poke thru as she chose, if she chose.

Her smile exploded in my mind, rendering me incoherent, as her feelings reached across the link like questing vines in search of a place to take root.

“Why not link with me and find out for yourself?” I suggested. “But…be careful. I’m linked with the kids.”

Peggy’s frown increased, but in the end her curiosity won out.

She formed her link and cautiously extended it. I felt it build between us, felt the feathery touch, the slithery worming sensation as it worked its way in.

Peggy’s entire body began to shake, vibrating from head to foot like an oscillating crystal. Her eyes rolled back in her head, only the whites showing and her mouth opened in a silent moan.

I took pity on her after a few seconds and snapped her link, although I have to confess that I rather enjoyed the effect her shaking body had on my lower body. But I didn’t want any of that making its way down the links I had with the children. They didn’t need that kind of stimulation in their lives just yet.

Her body went slack and she gasped for breath.

I held her close and she pressed her face against my chest, still laboring for each breath after two minutes had gone by.

“You okay?” I asked.

Peggy nodded, rubbing her face against my jacket. “That was incredible!” she muttered.

“Not very much fun though, was it?”

Peggy pulled back and hammered her fist lightly over my heart. “It was and it wasn’t.”

I nodded fractionally.

“What was that?” she exclaimed in a whisper.

“What did it feel like?” I asked in return.

“Like french kissing a lightning bolt.” she replied.

I shot a blast of love, large enough and powerful enough to kill a rhino, directly into her inner ring. Peggy groaned quietly, shuddered softly and sighed.

I spread my arms wide and the girls slipped in close, Lilly on my left, Izzy on my right and Peggy in the middle. Their arms closed around me, their faces pressed against my torso and their love flowed over, around and thru me.

I linked and filled each woman with as much love as their fragile bodies could hold.

They shivered, quivered, moaned, groaned, whimpered and sighed. Their arms clutched and clenched, their fingers formed fists, then extended, nearly going perpendicular to the backs of their hands, then curled again into grasping claws that raked my shirt. Their knees went weak and buckled, then steadied and locked, their nipples grew hard and hyper-sensitive, between their legs they heated up; became molten, moist and needy.

But the one thing they didn’t do was pass out.

I found that very interesting. Lilly hadn’t passed out when I’d sparked her on the plane either. Every other time I’d given one or more of them so much as a taste of my love they’d cum and passed out. But not since LA.

It was so obvious. Well, most things are obvious in hindsight. This one, however, was standing in the middle of the freeway in afternoon rush hour traffic, buck naked, painted day-glo orange and carrying a billboard sized sign proclaiming in letters six feet high: FUCKING OBVIOUS!

Over the years, slowly and almost completely unnoticed, I’d been getting stronger; while at the same time, totally overlooked even by me, so had the girls.

Was the change inadvertently or sub-consciously due to my presence?

Who knows? I’m certainly self-centered enough to believe it was all because of me, but I couldn’t prove it one way or the other.

Maybe I was the cause, and maybe I wasn’t. Maybe the process had been accelerated when they linked themselves together, or it might have happened when I tied the three of them to me. Maybe Peggy’d done it all on her own and taken Izzy and Lilly along for the ride.

Who knows, it could have been a completely natural occurrence, totally independent of, and unrelated to, Peggy or I.

Did it matter?

Not really. What did matter was that a significant something had changed.

The three of them had changed; they were stronger, more resistant, less susceptible than before.

Izzy and Lilly had been able to project their emotions at me. Not as well or as powerfully as Peggy could, but they’d done it.

And Peggy…there was no doubt in my mind that she’d grown stronger. That little trick she’d played on me in the woods, there was no way she could have managed that earlier in the year.

But were they strong enough?

Was I? Strong enough…confident enough…in my own abilities, to risk their sanity and lives on a hunch?

Everyone says you’re a cocky and arrogant sonofabitch. Instead of wishing for what you haven’t got, make due with what you have.

Words to live by.