Adam’s heart sank as the charm bracelet he had given his beloved clanked on the table. There was a cruel sense of whimsy to the way it bounced once and then landed on the back of his hand. He had not held out a hand and offered to take it, but there it was, nonetheless. “Maybe you do love me,” Emma sniffed. “I know I love you, but I can’t do this anymore.” She walked away and left him sitting in the food court of the mall, alone for the first time he could recall. She had been his best friend since the first day of preschool, and his girlfriend for nearly the last year, but now she was neither. He had no one except his family now.
“It’s entirely my fault,” he said to her, but long after she had passed out of earshot. Everything that had gone wrong was his fault. He was Tuatha de Danaan, not human, well not for the most part anyway. His life was turning into something that a human girl couldn’t be expected to share. Adam’s parents were almost entirely Fair Folk, and so was he. His charm and sight made normalcy a thing of the past.
It had started slowly at first, but every month more and more girls at school were sighing and smiling when he walked into the room. And they constantly stood close to him and touched his arm when they spoke to him. Even some of the young women his da brought home had begun to take some interest in the teenage boy. In the last couple months it had snowballed to the point that he was becoming overwhelmed by the power of the female urges directed at him. He had clung steadfastly to Emma, her love being the only thing that kept him from being swept up in the flood of potential bedmates that swirled around him. But he was too often distracted by it these days. Too often, now, he returned the flirtatious glances or longing looks. He had never cheated on his beloved Emma, but even he couldn’t have known how much longer that was going to last. He wasn’t quite fifteen, and almost every girl in class thought he was the boy of her dreams.
Even luscious Miss Mokowski had been feeling it, but Adam had asked his mam to step in and help her out. The gorgeous biology teacher had obviously been feeling the strain of her attraction to an adolescent boy until Colleen had stopped by and convinced her that it was just a passing dream, and she didn’t need to worry about it. Colleen left the door open for her son, though. If he made a move toward Miss Mokowski, the feelings would return in full force.
Adam believed that down the road he would seek out the voluptuous redhead with the fire orchid bouquet for a spirit. But until then, there was no reason to burden her with guilt over something that wasn’t her fault. When Adam was strong enough to make sure she felt no regrets afterwards, he would take her hard. It would be a glorious day, but he wasn’t ready to do it yet. He wouldn’t make the attempt until he was sure that he wouldn’t endanger her career or her psyche. As Da liked to remind him, his race strove to be the good guys.
Adam left the mall and didn’t even bother with a cab or the bus. He trudged the four miles home in a foul mood. Even being outdoors didn’t help him, and that usually brightened his spirits considerably. His people were always enlivened by the fresh air, but walking through the heart of town didn’t really offer much by the way of wholesomeness. When he did get home, he flopped down in the almost supernaturally green grass of the huge hillside lawn in front of his house and inhaled the scent of the grass clippings and the much cleaner air here on the edge of town. He was still there when his father found him.
“I’m sorry, son,” his da said as he sat on the grass next to his firstborn. “I knew it would be impossible for you two, but I hoped for it anyway.”
“I still love her, Da.”
“You always will. And she’s always going to love you. You’re each other’s first love, and more than that. You went out and found the great love of your life on the first try. Hell, you found her in preschool. I don’t know if you’re ever going to completely get beyond that.”
“What about her? Can you help her?”
“How do you want me to help her, mac?”
“I broke her fucking heart, Da. She doesn’t understand what’s happening to me. She just thinks I’m a normal guy that can’t resist the temptation of the other girls. And it’s isolating her from them, too, because they keep flirting with her guy. Can’t you find a way to let her get on with her life without it tearing her apart?”
“Do you mean to ask if I can spare her some of what you’re feeling right now?”
“Yes, sir.”
“It’s best if Colleen does it, Adam. This is delicate work, and your mam has an incredible touch with that sort of thing. I mean… if it was any other girl, I’d just make her get over you completely. But this thing between you two isn’t over yet. You’re in too deep for any kind of quick fix. Mam can make it so that your Emma doesn’t ache every time she sees you, and she can even make it so that other boys don’t seem like too bad an idea for her. But if either of us tried to altogether cut out the part of her that hurts because she loved you and lost you, we’d have to take way too big a piece of her spirit. There’d be a huge hole in her bouquet.”
Adam knew what he meant. His race saw women’s minds—more than that, their essence—as bouquets of flowers. The more beautiful the soul, the more beautiful the bouquet the Fair Folk saw. Emma had been a vast spread of pure white roses with a heart-shaped patch of red roses in the middle. Little had decayed in the bouquet, despite the fact that her first love seemed to have developed a wandering eye and had broken her heart. “You and Mam do whatever you can for her, please,” Adam said, and got up to leave.
“Hold on there, mac. What about you?”
“I don’t want to lose a damned bit of what I feel. I need to remember what I am from here on out.”
“I don’t have a stupid son,” his father repeated his oft-used phrase. “Just two brilliant ones. I wasn’t really offering to take your pain away anyhow. I was offering you access to a little bigger share of your powers.”
“Why? So I can do more damage?”
“No, because you don’t want to do anyone any damage. Look, Emma and you are broken up for the time being, at least. Your charm has affected an awful lot of young beauties at your school. Opportunities are about to present themselves. How about I give you some of the tools needed to make sure that the opportunities don’t come at too high a price for the girls?”
“You have my interest, old man,” Adam grunted. He sat down next to his father. “Teach me.”
“Well, here’s the thing. You won’t have control or compulsion. It’s too damned dangerous for someone so young and inexperienced. In a couple years, you’ll have it. Maybe sooner. You’re pretty damned strong, stronger than I was at your age. Maybe even stronger than Colleen was, and she’s much stronger than me in many ways. But we can make it so that you can either make girls forget things or remember them differently than they actually happened.”
“That’s pretty damned potent, Da!”
“Yes it is. There are limits. You can’t erase something that goes too deeply into a girl’s soul or mind. So you couldn’t, say, make Emma forget the first time you made love. Or if you absolutely traumatized some poor little girl—raped her or hurt her—you couldn’t just wipe that out.”
“Da, I would never—“
“I didn’t think you would, son. But it would be stupid of me to not tell you that. Maybe you might make a bad decision because you thought you could force a girl and make her feel just fine afterwards. You can’t. What you could do, though, is get pretty dirty with a girl who was willing to sleep with you in the first place and then have her remember it as completely normal.”
“Okay…” Adam said, not quite following.
“Look, mac. Some girls are born to be submissive, but they rarely tap into that at your age. And some girls secretly desire to be kind of wild, but would feel like a slut after the moment had passed. The path to exploring those things is open to you now. If you make a really vulgar suggestion and she recoils,” his father snapped his fingers. “It never happened. If you call her your little bitch and she hates it….”
“Never happened,” Adam said with a smile. He couldn’t take back huge misdeeds or true loving moments, but he could fix little mistakes. Most boys his age never got to ask for what they really wanted, because the cost of offending a girl was too high. Adam didn’t have to worry about it. He could dare to ask for things the other boys might never be bold enough to suggest. “Thanks, Da. And Emma…?”
“Colleen will stop by Emma’s place tonight. Neither she nor her family will remember the visit.” The two of them went inside for supper, both feeling a little better about the world. Adam went to sleep that night with vivid dreams of what he was going to seek once he was done reeling from the loss of Emma. He reckoned he would find pleasures he hadn’t really hoped to find until the days when he gained the power of compulsion.
Adam did find one bit of joy he hadn’t reckoned on the next afternoon. He ran into Emma at the mall. She walked up and said hello. “How are you, Emma?” he asked and held his breath.
“Shitty,” she said and then thought about it for a moment. “Really shitty. But I’m also a little relieved. I thought it might be months before I could look at you and not cry. When I saw you today, all I could think of was that there’s always going to be something between us… and the sooner we get to a place where we can see each other without freaking out, the better it’s going to be.”
“That’s a pretty damned grown-up attitude about things,” he said, happy to see his mam’s work had truly taken hold.
“I know, right?” she asked, laughing slightly at herself. “So, how are you, Adam?”
“Nowhere near as well-adjusted as you are. Shitty and filled with self-loathing,” he admitted.
“Well, good,” she said. “For a while at least it’s nice to know you’re feeling awful, too.”
“That’s not quite as grown-up as your other attitude,” he said.
“I’m barely fifteen, Adam. I can’t be all the way grown-up yet. As a matter of fact, I’m about to walk away and go back to my friends. I’m kind of hoping you’ll watch my ass as I walk off, and feel like a complete idiot for letting me get away.”
“I will,” he said honestly. She started to walk away. “Hate to see you leave, but I love to watch you go,” he said loudly enough for her to hear him. She gave him an extra little twerk and kept walking. He had been able to see pain in her eyes, and hear it in her voice, but it was controllable. He was happy to see her that healthy. He knew he wasn’t that healthy yet himself. He waited a week, and he seemed a little better, but he was still pretty damned heartsick over losing his first love.
But his da had given him an outlet for some of the things he was feeling. The pursuit of sexual pleasure with little danger of consequences was quite a tonic for a brokenhearted freshman boy. It was superficial and meaningless in the long run, he supposed, but it was one hell of a way to keep his mind off his loneliness. He didn’t want to have Emma see him hustling other girls so soon after the break-up, and he knew she was planning to go to the mall. So he went to the one place in town besides the mall where he might find teenage girls on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
‘King’s Castle’ was a local… well, everything… for a crowd that was a little younger than Adam’s class. It had an amusement park that was mostly kiddie rides, a roller rink that junior high kids used for their first dates, an arcade, an ice cream parlor, a burger joint, and a big city park right across the street. It was all either free or pretty cheap, so there would be high school kids who hung out there if they preferred a little fresh air over the air-conditioned wonders of the mall. Some of them were stoners who used the woods in the park to fire it up. Some of them were couples who used the woods to find solitude they couldn’t get at home. Others were skaters who used the ramps. Still others were just bored kids, hoping for something interesting to find them. Adam headed that way to try and find a girl who might like to give him a try.
He wasn’t surprised to run into Wendy Pfeiffer and Chancey Haroll. They were known to hang out at the park, urging prospective couples to ‘take a walk’ in the make-out woods. The class matchmakers both sported nice tans because of their time in the outdoors. The pair had been flirting with him a little lately, but they were actually a little hesitant about it. They liked him, but they were natural matchmakers. They had pegged Adam and Emma as a couple before the two kids had realized their love for one another themselves. Now, they hated to see the couple break up. It felt to them like some of their best work had come unraveled.
The person Adam was surprised to see hanging out with them was Mariel Swank. The buxom freshman girl had had a parade of high school boyfriends since she was in sixth grade. Every guy in Adam’s class lusted after her, but none of them had ever been able to compete with the older boys. There had been rumblings of late that the older guys were losing interest. Adam had heard the cruel label, ‘dead lay’ tossed around.
He shivered at it. It was a horrible thing to say about a girl, even if it was true, which Adam somehow couldn’t imagine being the case. Adam may have had dark fantasies about dominating girls once in a while, Mariel included. He also supposed he sometimes resented a girl that seemed aloof to the less physically fortunate around her. But he had never quite understood why a guy would be with a girl and then say mean things about her afterwards. Of course, he had never had a girlfriend except Emma, and his mouth was incapable of uttering a cruel word against her.
Hanging with Wendy and Chancey usually meant one thing. A girl was on the market, and the matchmakers were trying to get her hooked up. “Well, hello, Adam!” Wendy declared. “Fancy seeing you here on a Saturday. You doing okay, sweetie?”
“We heard,” Chancey said, nodding her head sadly. “Terrible thing.”
“Yep, it’s shitty alright,” Adam said. “Hey, Mariel, what’s up?”
“Not too much,” she said. “I can feel for you, though. I got really used to having Kevin around, and now that he dumped me… well, it’s hard. But you’ll be able to move on. Lots of girls like you, Adam.”
“And lots of boys like you, Mariel,” he said.
“Used to seem that way,” she said sadly. She sighed, and it made her chest press against her New Mexico Lobos t-shirt. It was one of the many obvious things girls did around Adam lately, but it worked better when Mariel did it. Adam took a peek into her mind. It hadn’t changed much since he’d last looked at it. Her bouquet was all daisies. It was a little plain, except it did one thing that none of the other girls’ did. It had movement. A daisy at the bottom turned slowly, and its petals dropped off one-by-one. It seemed her mind was caught in an eternal game of ‘He loves me. He loves me not.’
It was a truly revealing bouquet, he guessed. Mariel was something of an innocent in many ways. To be honest, she wasn’t very bright. Not stupid, just not as clever as some of the other girls. So, the older boys who professed their undying love for her were almost always motivated by their desire for her beautiful form. She was short, and tightly put together, almost muscular. Her very full chest seemed to spring to life because she actually had the strength in her little frame to carry it. Her hair was slightly wavy, and seemed to sport a little bit of every color from dark brown to almost platinum blonde. Her eyes were big and brown and a little sad, and her smile seemed to match them in both how fetching it was, and in the way it seemed to be a little wistful.
“I like you,” he said. “You’ve always been nice to me even though you were pretty enough that you could have gotten away with being kind of stuck-up.”
“Well,” Wendy chimed in, not at all helpfully, “every girl is nice to you, Adam. You’re kind of dreamy.”
“Yeah,” Chancey agreed breathlessly.
“People see me that way now,” Adam said, always amazed at how little people seemed to recall the person he was before his parents had unleashed his Fair Folk charm. “But think back to the beginning of middle school. I was kind of shunted to the edge of every crowd. Even then, Mariel always said hi to me, even if she did call me Andy once in a while.”
“I never did!” Mariel protested, but then realized she probably had. “Sorry,” she said quietly.
“It was a big school, Mariel, and we went to different grade schools. You didn’t know me, but you tried to be nice anyway.”
“I tried to be nice to everyone,” she said. “I wish I was better at remembering who everyone is like Wendy and Chancey do.”
“They have a gift, don’t they?” Adam said, and the matchmakers both giggled. “Mariel, it had to be hard for you to remember every boy’s name, and we all know that every boy knew who you were because you were ridiculously hot even as a sixth grader.” Adam was prepared to wipe all three girls’ minds of the memory if the statement upset Mariel.
“Adam!” she said, and playfully slapped his arm. She giggled a little. “You’re not still into sixth grade girls now, are you?” she teased. “Because I’ve known a few freshmen boys who were. I don’t think as much of them now as I did then.”
He did find younger girls attractive, but he wasn’t about to try and pop a twelve-year-old virgin. It seemed very wrong to him, given that he could have girls his own age whenever he wanted them. “Nope, I just like girls my own age… and Miss Mokowski from middle school biology.”
“Oh my god! What is it with you guys and her?” Chancey squealed and then laughed. “We get the guys to admit everything sooner or later, and every one of them had a thing for her!”
“She’s my favorite teacher, too,” Mariel said. “For entirely different reasons. She always got what I was thinking.”
“She’s hot, smart, sweet, and something about her makes you think she’d be a little bit naughty for the right guy. Of course the right guy for her probably would be someone like Chris Hemsworth or something.” Adam saw a flicker of confusion cross Mariel’s face. “Bet she has a big Thor poster in her bedroom,” he added quickly, and bailed the girl out of having to fake that she knew who he was talking about.
“I have a Loki poster,” Wendy said. “Love me a bad boy.”
“Virgin! Virgin!” Chancey said and disguised it as a cough.
“You bitch!” Wendy said, not deeply offended at all. “I do like bad boys,” Wendy explained, “but I’m not going to sleep with one until he actually falls in love with me.”
“You’re a true romantic, Wendy,” Adam said and bowed like a gentleman.
“Why, thank you, sir,” she said, putting on the airs of a Southern Belle.
Adam turned his attention back to Mariel. “This may sound a little forward,” he said, “but would you like to…” he paused for dramatic effect, because he knew it would make her catch her breath and that would make her stretch her t-shirt again. “…split a hot fudge chocolate chip cookie sundae?”
Mariel laughed. It was actually a bit more of a happy sound than he had ever heard come from her before. “You had me going,” she said with a blush. “I thought you were going to ask me to go for a walk in the make-out woods.” She paused for a second then. “No, I’m not going to tell you what I would have answered to that,” she said teasingly. “But I will say yes to a sundae.”
He took her hand and walked her to the street. He noticed that Wendy and Chancey were no longer where they'd left them. They had walked on, looking for new adventures. He pulled out his phone and called home. “Da, can you come pick me up at King’s Castle? Thanks.”
“I thought we were going for ice cream!” Mariel protested.
“We are. My da’s date from last night was making chocolate chip cookies this morning to impress my little brother and me. We always have ice cream and toppings in the fridge. I’ll make you a terrific sundae.” He waited to see if she was going to freak out or not. He was ready to undo the whole thing.
“You think it’s going to be that easy?” she said, hovering between offense and amusement.
“Easy? I’m terrified right now. I just made a play for the gorgeous Mariel Swank. I could really go down in flames here.” He noticed she was fighting a smile. “We have sprinkles,” he added.
“You don’t give a girl a chance, do you?” she said and took his arm.
They waited with all the younger kids on the benches outside of the main gate of King’s Castle. Dan had a damned hard time suppressing his grin when he saw who his son was bringing home. “Mariel, I’m Dan,” he said to her as the kids piled into the back seat. “Is your mom anything like you, and if so, is she single?”
“No, and no,” Mariel said. Dan pretended to be crushed. “I look just like my dad’s little sister, though, and she’s twenty-eight and recently divorced,” Mariel added.
“I see!” Dan said and smiled hopefully.
“Dan, I’m not going to give you any more information about my sexy aunt until after Adam delivers on his promise of an amazing chocolate chip cookie sundae.”
“I’d better drive fast, then,” Dan said. “I left Seth home alone, and there were only a dozen cookies left.”
Adam’s eleven-year-old brother had actually left them half-a-dozen cookies, and Adam delivered on his promise of a wonderful sundae. He offered to let Mariel have the whole thing, but she was rather happy to share. “Dan,” Mariel said, handing him a slip of paper as Adam cleared the dishes. “Auntie Jess likes physically active things like windsailing and hiking. I’ll call her and tell her you might call at this number. But you might want to come up with an offer of something outdoorsy to do.”
“She scuba dive?”
“Oh, hell, yes. Has her own gear and everything. You’d like seeing her in her wet suit. Good choice.” Mariel turned to Adam. “Let’s go meet your little brother. We should thank him for leaving us cookies.”
“Seth, I have someone who’d like to meet you,” Adam said as they walked in on his little brother sitting at the table in the den the boy had taken over from his dad. The piles of work folders had been shunted to the desk in the corner, and the room was dominated by models, a very impressive HO model railroad and a vast display of action figures of wrestlers and superheroes.
Seth looked up from the complex set of Avenger action figures he was setting up around a huge model of Stark Tower. “Mariel Swank?” Seth declared in surprise as he looked at the beauty leaning her head on Adam’s shoulder.
“You know me?” Mariel asked.
“Um, yeah,” Seth said, turning a little red. “A couple of the guys in my class sort of have crushes on you.”
“I think I can name one of them,” Adam said. “Hey, little bro, no trying to steal a girl I bring home. Not that Mariel’s my personal property, just my guest today. So, no taking her away from me, or I’ll have to get rough with you.”
“You never beat me up, Adam,” the boy replied. “You’re the nicest big brother in town. All the other guys don’t even know if their big brother likes them. Mine actually loves me.”
“What a cool kid!” Mariel exclaimed. “I’m totally hanging out with the wrong brother. I just wanted to thank you for leaving us some cookies. My little brother would have eaten them all.” She took a couple steps into the den and looked at the complex set-up. She tried to make sense of all the figures. “You don’t have a Superman guy,” she said.
“He’s DC!” Seth snapped, and then looked at Mariel like she was a complete idiot. As soon as he saw the hurt look in her eyes, Seth changed his tone. “Sorry, Mariel that was rude. I guess a girl as pretty as you never had much free time to read comic books,” he said. Adam figured that as far as saves went, it was pretty damned good for an eleven-year-old. Seth walked over to the beautiful girl and looked her up and down for a moment. “In the DC world, you’d be Starfire,” he said with a nod. “You’re not a redhead like they draw her most of the time, but you’re really beautiful like her, and you look like you’re really strong.”
“I guess I am kind of strong for my size,” she said with a blush. Seth was really turning it around. Adam could sense how worried his brother had been that he’d hurt the girl’s feelings, and Adam guessed the boy had seen Da handle gorgeous girls enough to have picked up a few things.
“Starfire’s very powerful. And she’s one of those girls who isn’t afraid to speak her mind. She’s usually hanging out with Nightwing.”
“That’s Robin’s name when he grows up,” Adam added.
“Well, Robin, you come see me when you’re old enough to be called Nightwing, okay?” Mariel said.
“Sure thing, Starfire,” Seth said and nodded. His look was earnest.
“He’s going to hold you to that, Mariel,” Adam said.
“Jesus, I hope so,” she said a little dreamily. It wasn’t until Adam had led her halfway up the stairs that she snapped out of her reverie. Adam realized that Seth had just charmed a girl. He was going to have to speak to his parents about it. A hundred little alarm bells were going off in Adam’s head. The eleven-year-old was showing definite signs of powers. Dan’s lady friends had always seemed to love Seth right off. Adam had just figured it was because he was so young and outgoing. Maybe Seth was something Adam wasn’t. Or maybe their parents didn’t bind his abilities as tightly as they had with Adam. Either way, Da should know about it.
“You still with me, Mariel?” Adam asked.
“Yeah, sorry. He’s a really cute kid, and he sure is smooth,” Mariel said. “You know, Adam. I had a few doubts about whether I was going to go upstairs with you before. Now… hell, all at once I am really horny.” Well, maybe there was an upside to his little brother’s precociousness. But then, Mariel got a look of horror on her face. She hadn’t meant to say that, hadn’t meant to be so wanton. Seth’s charm had lowered barriers she wasn’t quite ready to drop.
Adam quickly intervened. “Forget you just said that aloud. You really are thinking about how horny you are though.” She seemed almost frozen, as if she needed him to restart the conversation. “Mariel, you know that I really do like you, right?”
“I figured, but it’s nice to hear. I like you, too, Adam.” They were standing outside his bedroom door.
“The other guys you’ve been with, they’ve lied to you and told you they loved you when they were really just trying to get in your pants right?” Adam loved the way he now could say anything and know he could get away with it by erasing the moment.
“Yes,” she said a little sadly, “I guess.”
“Well, I’m not going to lie to you. I don’t think I’m falling in love. I just think you are too sweet and beautiful a girl not to try and take a chance with. So, you won’t have to worry about what I’m thinking, okay? We can just relax and have fun.”
“Getting all tense has been messing me up, lately, with my boyfriends. It’s like my life is one big game of—“
“’He loves me. He loves me not,’” Adam finished the sentence for her.
“Exactly!” she cried in amazement.
“Come on in,” Adam said, holding the door for her. She only hesitated a moment. She had likely been headed this way anyway, but her encounter with Seth had left her very open to the idea of some physical play. And Adam knew she was quite horny at the moment. When he closed the door behind her, he stepped right up to her and kissed her. She returned it and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Adam stepped in tight and grabbed her tight little bottom in both hands. She was strong, but she was still small, and he easily lifted her and brought her to the wall. She was a little taken off guard by the sudden fervor of his approach, but she brought her legs up and wrapped them around her waist. “Damn, Adam,” she whispered. “This got hot fast.”
“Mariel, you are the hottest piece of ass in my class, and I have wanted you for three years. I want to take you hard and fast. Then I’m pretty damned sure I want to do it a couple more times.”
She opened her mouth to say something, but Adam stopped her with a kiss. If he was reading the situation right, the less she thought, the better off she was. Her mind had been getting in the way of her bedroom exploits of late. He was going to have her hip-deep in pleasure and passion before she could throw up any mental barriers to inhibit her enjoyment of it. “Adam…” she started to say when she got a breath, but her shirt was quickly over her face, and his lips were nibbling at her nipples through the fabric of her light green bra. “Oh, geez,” she whispered breathily as his hands released the clasp of her bra and he got his mouth on her bare flesh.
Her feet were back to the floor now, and he was almost on his knees in front of her. She was still struggling to get her shirt the rest of the way off when he tilted her forward, controlling her descent as he put her on all fours in the middle of his bedroom floor. One hand began to work her breasts as he ran another between her legs and felt the heat through her denim shorts. One word of protest from her, and he could have wiped the memory of his voracious attempts and led her back to the hall for a more subtle approach. Mariel seemed overwhelmed by the pleasure of his hands and the chore of working her way free from her top and bra. She hadn’t had time to decide to protest.
Adam unfastened the front of her shorts and slipped a hand inside. “Oh, shit,” she said softly as she freed her hands from her shirt. She turned her head over her shoulder quickly, perhaps to say something. But when Adam covered her mouth with another kiss, she returned it hungrily. “Just keep going,” she muttered. She rolled to her back and grabbed at his t-shirt, pulling it over his head quickly so that his hands were free to resume their work. He pulled her shorts and thin panties off of her while she fumbled for the fly of his shorts. There was a frenzied bout of kicking and twisting as they tried to help their partner free them of their remaining clothing. It was comical for a moment, and Mariel giggled, but when Adam slipped his hand back between her legs, she purred slightly and took a deep breath, causing her breasts to rise again. Adam went after them with his lips and tongue while he began to finger her sex with more speed and force.
His year with Emma had taught him a great deal. Both of them had a natural urge to explore their lover’s body, looking for the pleasure spots that drove their partner wild with ecstasy. His thumb found a home on Mariel’s clit as his fingers searched near the top of her passage. It wasn’t Emma who had first urged him to look for this spot. Adam had asked his mam for something that would bring Emma great pleasure. She had explained the idea, but it had still taken him several tries with his first lover to find it. Now, with Mariel, he found it more quickly. She gasped loudly and clutched his upper arm. She leaned up and bit him on the front of his shoulder. “Like that, baby girl?” he asked, feeling proud of himself.
“Oh, shit! Oh shit!” was all she could manage in reply.
Adam loved the feeling he had when he made her buck and moan like she did as he worked the spot. He had a little difficulty keeping his hand there as she moved about frantically. “’Dead lay,’ my ass,” he thought. Mariel had just been confused and worried during sex. She’d just needed to turn off her brain and let her marvelous body go to work. Mariel swung an arm and hit him on the shoulder. She was strong and compact. It hurt a little. Adam put his forearm on her upper chest and pinned her to the floor. Mariel bit him just below his elbow. Adam was flying on instinct, now. He brought a hand across one of her large, firm breasts. There was a loud smack, and both of them froze for a moment.
“I won’t bite,” she said meekly, but there seemed to be a smile beneath the whimper. “I’ll be good if you keep…” her words were cut off by her own shriek as he found her spot again and sent her into a quivering orgasm. He knew his fingers had done a good job, but it had been the roughness that had set her up to go over so violently. She looked up at him, the mischief in her eyes replaced by a sense of wonder.
Adam moved quickly while she was in awe of him. He had a genuine chance to take control of everything, and he knew it might be fleeting. “Suck it,” he said firmly as he stood and pulled her to her knees in front of him. Mariel didn’t hesitate. He knew that a girl who’d been dating high school guys since sixth grade would have probably done this before. She went deep from the beginning, sliding him in until the tip of his shaft pressed against the back of her throat. He pressed a little more, and she opened up her throat. Her eyes went wide as she realized he was pressing it further than her other boyfriends ever had. She tilted her chin upwards and she found that she could accommodate him in her throat. Emma had tried a few times, but had never managed it. Mariel slapped the side of Adam’s thigh and he withdrew so that she could breathe. “Again,” he said. She was more ready this time, and he was able to bury his entire shaft in her mouth and throat. He held it until she slapped his thigh again. He pulled back. She looked up for a moment, and he saw that there was trust in her eyes. She didn’t mind doing this for him as long as she knew he would pull out when she wanted him to. They repeated the process several times.
Adam could tell he was about to lose it, but as tempting as it was to fill her mouth with his seed, he’d always had another fantasy where this girl was concerned. “Get on your back,” he told her. She was slightly surprised. She had been ready to take his load on her tongue. Adam straddled her chest, and Mariel knew what he was going to do.
“I never…” she whispered. She squeezed her breasts together as Adam placed his shaft between them and began to fuck the nicest pair of tits in his high school. She was happy with it, but it wasn’t quite the thrill some of the other things had been. Adam placed his hands over hers and began to pinch and squeeze her nipples. Suddenly, the thrill was back. Da had been right. Some girls had wild urges in them, and Mariel wanted her lover to be rough with her—well rough, but trustworthy. Adam’s ability to charm made girls trust him a little more than they did other guys. Mariel was willing to let him do as he pleased, and she found thrills in the slight pain it brought her. Adam began to see that even more than she wanted a guy who tripped her trigger, Mariel had been dying to be with a guy she understood and trusted completely. Too many had whispered sweet nothings that had gained them entrance to her bed, but had not gained them her complete trust. Adam had gained it.
He moaned loudly as he fired jets of his seed onto her upper chest, her chin and her face. He even managed to get a little into her wavy hair. The ‘pearl necklace’ looked amazing on her. “Clean me, pretty one,” he ordered as he caught his breath. Gently, she cleaned his fading shaft, and it began to regain its strength. He knew he’d be ready to take her soon enough. In the meantime, he planned on exploring the limits of her newfound wild streak. He slid down next to her hip and slowly pushed a finger into her ridiculously tight bottom.
Adam had never done this without using some kind of lube before, but Mariel definitely liked things that stung slightly. Emma had enjoyed letting Adam use his finger—but just his finger—this way, but she had insisted on some KY. Mariel trembled slightly in fear as Adam pressed his finger slowly inside of her. It was clear he was breaking new ground with her. She groaned slightly, and studied his face as he did it. She took some comfort there. He was still the boy she trusted to let do things to her that she had never allowed another to try. After a few moments, he began to move it a little faster. “I like it,” she whispered. “I didn’t think I would.”
“Roll over to your knees, sweet girl,” he said in a voice of gentle command.
“I like that, too,” she said as she got into position. “I don’t want you to call me names, but you can tell me what to do as long as you say it nice like you have been.”
“You are a sweet girl, Mariel. I won’t forget that. And I won’t call you names. If one slips out, I don’t mean anything by it, but you get to bite me again if I do it.” Mariel giggled and made a little chomping sound with her teeth.
Adam was ready to go again, and he pushed her head down and positioned her hips. She was clearly comfortable with this position, and seemed rather happy that he was ready to take her. She took a deep breath and reached back between her legs to guide him in. Adam gripped her hips and buried himself deep within her from the start. He felt a moment of bliss, and he saw a quick vision of the bouquet of daisies that represented her mind. The blossom at the bottom still turned in slow circles, but no petals fell.
Adam had always imagined that he would take Mariel hard one day, but this first time wasn’t the right moment for it. There was a bond between them, tendrils formed by mutual desire and the comfort of what would become a long friendship. He moved slowly in and out of her hot channel and they both bent their backs in slow, graceful arcs. They looked for rhythms of pleasure, and they found them. Time and again, his hardness descended just as her warmth rose to greet it. In a slow and savory fashion, they sought every bit of ecstasy their bodies could provide. And they found all of that, too. Gently he kneaded her full breasts, and he covered her shoulders with fond kisses. Softly, she moaned his name and urged him on with sweet praise of his efforts. He guided her hand to her mound and urged her to take whatever joy she could give herself there. Every effort seemed to intertwine like the strains of a symphony. Adam wasn’t sure how long they had been at this slow exploration of pleasure before Mariel began to push back into him with more urgency. She was clearly signaling that she was near the end and wanted to find her release.
Adam responded with several hard, fast thrusts. The luxurious quest for gentle ecstasy gave way to the quest for the reckless thrills of the final push. Mariel moaned briefly and then took several sharp, quick breaths. The lone hand that supported her gave way, and only Adam’s firm grip on her hips kept her from collapsing on the carpet. She managed to lift her upper body so that her back was to his chest. With a final twisting gyration, she sighed deeply and went limp as her legs quivered and her sex clenched frantically on his shaft. She threw her arm back around his neck and tried to hang on, but it soon flopped down to her side. He sat back and cradled her in his arms. She was silent for nearly a minute. “You didn’t finish this time,” she said at last.
“I’m okay, angel,” he said gently.
“So am I,” she said. “There’s still one more thing to do, but you have to tell me to do it. I don’t have the courage to just do it.”
Adam couldn’t believe his ears, but he wasn’t about to waste the opportunity. “Lay your chest across the bed, pretty girl,” he said. “Keep your knees on the floor.”
“Yes, Adam,” she replied in a voice that could barely be heard.
He moved to the nightstand and got the tube of KY he’d used to lubricate his finger for Emma. Mariel didn’t need it to take a finger, but he thought she might for what he had in mind. He took his time working it into her backside. She was actually getting more and more nervous now, but he knew she wouldn’t back out. Mariel wasn’t easily daunted by the prospect of a little pain.
In the meanwhile, he had lost a little of the hardness that he had while taking her from behind. But when he pressed the tube into her hand and told her to get him ready, he knew he would be as hard as stone by the time she was finished. She did a good job of it, probably seeing the wisdom of bringing him close to the edge so that he could be quick for her first try. Her fingers gripped him firmly, but the lubricant let them fly swiftly up and down his shaft. Adam could barely contain himself any longer. He pushed her torso back to the bed and lined himself up behind her.
Mariel whimpered slightly as he pushed the head into her tiny hole. It stung, but she didn’t seem to be in much pain… not yet, at least. Adam had an idea that he thought might help her, even if it would cause him some pain. He leaned forward so that his palm was flat on the bed. Mariel was short enough that he could do that and still stay inside her backside. “You are such a deliciously naughty little bitch,” he said. Mariel gasped in surprise for a second, then bit him on the wrist. As she began to bear down on that, he buried himself past the halfway point. She maintained her grip with her teeth for another second and then broke away, taking a deep breath. He pulled his hand back before she got another chance.
“Clever. Thanks,” she groaned. “I would have screamed otherwise.”
“I wouldn’t have minded,” he said, slowly beginning to move back and forth, making a little bit more headway each time.
“I guess I wouldn’t either,” she grunted. “But it did help some.”
“Scream anytime you want to, sweet angel,” he said, and thrust deep inside her. She didn’t exactly scream, but the sound she made was pretty loud. He drove one more time, bringing his hips to her bottom this time. “All in, Mariel.”
“Thank god,” she groaned. “I’m okay, lover. Do it harder if you want to now.”
“If I want to?” he thought to himself with a slight chuckle. Adam began to drive in and out of her with abandon. His gentleness had belonged to their sweet first coupling. This was play, and both he and Mariel liked a little more spirit than most in their play. He still wasn’t cruel, but he definitely wasn’t sweet, either. His hands roamed her body, but mainly stayed on her full beasts, pinching them and seizing big handfuls. When he lifted his weight up to readjust, she lifted her torso as well, seeking to throw her arm around his neck.
Adam took it as an invitation. He slapped her right breast. “Did I do something wrong?” she asked, dropping back down to the bed. “Was I supposed to stay down?”
“No, beautiful, that was for fun.”
“Oh,” she said, taking it in for a moment. Then he felt her back rise up beneath his chest, and he let her get back into the position she was in before. She arched her back, nearly causing him to slip out, but it was clear she was offering him another chance. He slapped her left breast this time. She whimpered slightly, but then drove her hand between her legs and began to finger herself. This was getting her hot again. He slapped each offered breast one more time, never too hard, but not little taps either. Mariel moaned and worked herself more furiously. She slumped back down onto the bed and he resumed pumping her bottom. The girl beneath him writhed in ecstasy, “Naughty little bitch,” she muttered, and Adam was quite sure she bit her own arm this time.
There he was, furiously fucking the ass of the most gorgeous girl in his class as she twisted and groaned in delight at the roughness of his actions. Again he marveled at the notion that a few of the older guys had been calling this passionate, almost crazy at times, little sex-bomb a ‘dead lay.’ He wished he was a braggart, because he would love to have seen their faces when they found out that it wasn’t that she lacked desire. It was their inability to tap into it that had made their encounters with Mariel anything less than an absolute wonder.
It really didn’t last all that long once he really set into it. It was probably a good thing. Adam had found himself to be pretty tireless in the bedroom, but he knew fully human bodies had lower thresholds for exhaustion. Still, Mariel’s powerful little body was proving quite rugged, and she wasn’t letting up at all in her efforts to get herself over for a third time. Adam was on his final strokes, though. No force in the universe could have stopped what was about to happen. He took a few ragged strokes and then threw himself deep inside of her one last time. The jets of semen raced up his shaft and began to fire deep into her bottom. Time after time, his body clenched and released with ecstasy as he emptied himself into her. He caught his breath quickly and gently massaged the breasts he had treated so roughly before.
“Pinch and hold,” she hissed, “please, Adam.” Well, since she asked nicely. Her final release was a quiet one, just a bit of trembling and a deep sigh of relief and satisfaction. Adam helped her onto the bed and wrapped her in his arms. She snuggled her back against his chest. After a quiet moment, she giggled. “Look at everything I had to do to finally get you into bed,” she explained. Adam kissed her on top of the head several times. She turned her body to face him, within a few moments, she was quietly weeping.
“What is it, pretty girl?”
“Happiness, relief, exhaustion,” she said. Each word was separated by a slight sniffle. “I wish I loved you, but I don’t think what I have for you is real love. Damn, I like you, though.”
“Yeah. It would be amazing to be in love with you,” he said. “I just can’t be in love right now.”
“You already are in love, stupid,” she said. “You might never be out of love with Emma.” Adam didn’t have a response to that. She was right, but he just didn’t want to say it while Mariel was so vulnerable and naked in his arms. She traced things on his chest and kissed him several times in the next minute. “Can we… again sometime… but not right away?”
“Anytime,” he said. “You’re amazing.”
“We have to wait a while,” she said. “This could be a hard habit to break. Know what I mean?”
“I know,” he said. “It’s going to be hard to let you out of this bed today.”
“That, I have to do,” she said. “I need to get going before I feel like I’m really your girlfriend, and I also really have to pee.” When she heard Adam take a quick breath, she quickly added, “No. I’m not quite ready to have you watch me do that. Sometime, though; with you anything’s possible.” She had beaten him to the question his abilities left him unafraid to ask. She slipped out of his arms and grabbed one of his sweatshirts from the clean laundry pile. She checked both ways down the hallway to see if the coast was clear and then darted down the hall. He heard her curse softly as she opened the linen closet door. In another second he heard the bathroom door open and close. He got dressed and waited for her to return.
Mariel began to dress as soon as she got back, and in a matter of minutes, Adam knew the encounter was about to come to an end. “I have a favor to ask,” she said a little nervously. “It’s kind of weird, and it might go against your nature.”
“Um, if I don’t have to hurt anyone, I’ll probably do it.”
“Okay,” she said and took a deep breath. He noticed her breasts rise and fall under the sweatshirt she was obviously about to steal from him. She cocked her head slightly and repeated the process, smiling as he sat transfixed. “I want you to brag about this a little.”
“What? Mariel, I don’t brag about things like this!”
“I know, but… well, there are some guys saying pretty nasty things about me—um—not being very good in bed. I probably haven’t been lately, but it’s still mean for them to talk about it like that. I kind of want people to know that you enjoyed it with me. Everybody kind of thinks of you as a cool guy, Adam. And, I don’t want to sound full of myself, but I could tell I was pretty good today. If you were to simply tell the truth about it, it could kind of keep from getting a reputation as a… as a… dead lay.” Tears welled up in her eyes. “Look, I started dating high school guys when I was in sixth grade. Everybody and their mother knows I’ve been fucked by some of my boyfriends. So, some people judge me as a slut for that. I don’t think I could handle it if I got judged by a whole different group of people for being bad at it!”
“I’ll do it for you, pretty girl. But I’m not going to tell them any details, okay? I’m just going to tell the simple truth that you were a magnificent lover.”
“’Magnificent lover’ definitely sounds better than ‘dead lay’,” she said. “Want me to say something similar about you?”
“No. Thank you, but girls are getting weird enough around me lately as it is.”
“Okay. How about I just give a shy smile and glow a little bit when they ask? Because girls will ask me once word gets out.”
“Okay,” Adam said with a chuckle. He took one more peek at her bouquet. There were a few other wildflowers growing among the daisies now, splashes of bluebells and Indian Paintbrushes. The daisy at the bottom still turned as always, but for the moment the petals still clung tightly to it. Adam didn’t give himself credit for adding color to her spirit. He knew he didn’t deserve it. Mariel had just finally found the right moment and company to discover what she had been capable of being all along. He was just fortunate that he was able to witness the change in his new friend. He had asked Da once if Emma’s bouquet had always been the same. Da had said that until she hit the age of eleven, there had been only the white roses. The red roses in the shape of the heart had only come with puberty, and the red heart hadn’t really been very prominent until only months before she and Adam had realized they were in love. Mariel’s spirit had just begun its growth a little later. Her initial experiences had stunted her, not helped her blossom.
He walked her downstairs. Adam was surprised to find his mother there waiting for him. Penny and his father were there as well. “I’m guessing you’re Mariel? Dan said there was a very pretty girl named Mariel Swank working on a school project with Adam upstairs. I’m Colleen, Adam’s mom.”
“Nice to meet you, Mrs. O’Dair.”
“I go by Miss Callahan again, I’m afraid, dear. But don’t be embarrassed. Let’s just forget you said that, okay?”
“It’s really nice to meet you, Colleen,” Mariel said.
“The pleasure’s all mine, Mariel. Look, I know that Adam should see you home, but we have a bit of a family crisis that just popped up. Nothing serious, just something we have to handle today instead of tomorrow. Would it be okay if Dan’s assistant, Penny, drove you home?”
“Let me call my mom. She would freak out if I showed up with a stranger.”
“Is your mom Dori Swank?” Colleen asked.
“Yes, she is. You know her?”
“She’s in my book club, Mariel. Let me call her.” Two minutes later Mariel was leaving with Penny. Penny shot a devilish grin back at Adam, and laughed as Adam shook his head. Penny pulled the door shut behind her. “Penny doesn’t like them that young, Adam,” Colleen said with a little chuckle. “She’s one of us to a degree, you know. You already have more power than she does. She can charm, but that’s about it.”
“I was beginning to wonder,” Adam confessed. “So, what’s the big talk about, Mam?”
“You know about Seth?” she asked, suddenly serious.
“I just figured it out this afternoon,” he replied. “I was going to talk to Da about it when we were… after Mariel went home.”
“Here’s the basics,” Dan said, putting his arm around Colleen’s shoulder as he spoke. “Seth is developing way too fast. He’s hit puberty earlier than you did, and his mind is the sharpest of all of ours. Colleen and I are very concerned about it. He has tremendous intelligence, but he’s still a little boy emotionally. But he’s becoming so strong that it’s starting to put a strain on your mam and me to keep him from discovering that he can get people to do what he wants. We can still do it, but we’ll need to cut back somewhere else.”
“Me,” Adam said.
Colleen turned to her husband. “You don’t have a stupid son,” she said, “just two brilliant ones.”
“Or one too brilliant one,” Adam said.
“Precisely,” Colleen said. “Seth is starting to form crushes on girls. Like you with Emma, he is incredibly close to Guinevere Granden. Ginny’s only ten, Adam. She and Seth might… that would be really dangerous at their age. If it was just playing doctor or slap and tickle, that’s one thing. But if Seth got the urge… you understand, right?”
“Completely. Honestly, Mam, I was just joking around with him about stealing Mariel from me today, and there was a sliver of thought in my mind that told me he might just be able to do it.”
“Mariel likes you a lot, mac,” Dan said. “If you felt that Seth might have the kind of power it would take to steal her away…. Sweet Mother Danu!”
“So,” Colleen said, tears welling up in her eyes, “we have to ask your forgiveness for setting your powers free when you are so young. I know it’s a thrill, but it’s also a burden. You’ll face choice after choice. My sweet, gentle, little boy… you’re going to have to bear a man’s responsibility now.” She crossed to him and held him to the slender frame that was now smaller than his own. “I believe you will be a better man than many who are much older, but I’m sorry it had to come so soon.”
“Nobody’s parents ever loved him more or taught him how to take good care of people more than the two of you have with me. I’ll take it seriously, but still manage to enjoy it.”
Colleen wept with pride and regret for a minute. Then she turned to her ex-husband. “Oh, Danny,” she said, “I could use a little something special right now. Hold me in your strong arms tonight.” Adam’s mother had always sounded like she had grown up in New Mexico where they lived, but in that moment, she sounded as Irish as Maureen O’ Hara.
The following Monday was the first time that Adam had ever attended school in full possession of his powers. Dan had spent Sunday afternoon teaching him how to filter the thoughts of everyone around him out of his head. Adam now only heard the thoughts of people he wished to hear, and only when he wished to hear them. So, he didn’t see what was about to happen at lunchtime until it had already happened.
He had decided that as much as he would have loved to see the faces of a few of Mariel’s ex-boyfriends when they found out that they were the ones who were uninspiring lovers, he wasn’t going to boast in the locker room. Instead, he let Wendy and Chancey catch up to him and quiz him about Saturday. Once he dropped the phrase ‘magnificent lover’ in front of them, he knew his work was done. Mariel’s extreme hotness would once again be proclaimed in every corner of the school.
It was proclaimed in whatever corner Emma was in, of course. So, it shouldn’t have come as a shock to Adam when she walked up to him in the lunch line and slapped him. But it did. And of course, the vice-principal saw it and rushed over to try and haul the brokenhearted girl to the office to suspend her for striking another student. He ignored Adam’s protests that it was all his own fault. Emma had unfinished business with her insensitive ex, and she didn’t want to go. The idiot vice-principal put his hand on her elbow and tried to drag her along with him.
“Get your fucking hands off of her,” Adam hissed, and the man quickly drew his hand back. “If you ever touch Emma again, I will go right to Dr. Fenner and she will fire your ass in an instant. I guarantee it. Do you understand?” The vice-principal nodded his head slowly. “Now, go find that bunch of preppy bullies who pick on the freshmen and steal their shit. You know which ones I mean. Do something worthwhile and get them to leave the kids alone for a while. Go!” The vice-principal slunked off toward the end of the cafeteria where the preppies terrorized passing underclassmen.
“Adam?” Emma asked, her eyes open wide in fear. “What did you just do?” She was barely able to breathe for an instant. “No, fuck that! I don’t give a shit. Why the hell are you trying to hurt me?”
“I would never try to hurt you, Emma!”
“One week after we break up you nail the class hottie and then brag to the whole school about how she’s a magnificent lover? What does that say to them about the girl you were with for the past year?”
“I didn’t brag to the whole school. I only told Wendy and Chancey.”
“Same thing, asshole!” she said and started to storm off.
Adam had to explain. He called after her. “Emma! Emma! Dammit woman, stop!” The whole cafeteria fell silent, and Emma froze in place. She looked terrified. Adam felt every eye in the entire room turn toward the two of them. “Mind your own business!” he shouted, and they all turned away. This was not at all the way things were supposed to go. This was all too public, too showy. “Please, Emma,” he whispered as he stood next to the frozen girl. “I’m begging you, please let me explain.”
“Adam, I’m scared. Never in my life have I been scared of you like this. Make it stop, please make it stop!”
“Come with me,” he said. “There are about a thousand things you need to know. Please, Emma.” She clung to him for support as he led her downstairs into one of the storerooms. He made the custodian not notice them without even having to speak the words aloud. Adam sat Emma down on top of a case of paper towels. He ran his hand through his hair a few times and tried to gather his thoughts.
“Adam,” she whispered, tears in her eyes, “say something.”
The moment would always stand out for Adam. His whole life could have hung in the balance. Hell, his whole family’s life could have hung in the balance. If it was anyone else in the world, he would wipe the last five minutes from their mind and make a hasty retreat, leaving them to try and guess how they got into the storeroom in the first place. But this was his Emma, his love, his best friend. “Em, you know how boys always tell their girlfriend that he’s not like other guys? Well, there are some things you need to know about me.” With faith in her love for him, Adam rolled the dice.
