Authors: Lisette Ashton
‘Like we just did?’ he asked eagerly.
Vanessa laughed delightedly at his enthusiasm. ‘Like we just did, and a whole lot more,’ she said. ‘A whole lot more.’
‘NO! I’ve already told you. I won’t do it,’ Kelly said adamantly. She stared defiantly at Helen and found her resolution matched in the blonde’s fierce expression.
Helen’s angry glare was intimidating to say the least. ‘You’ll hide it,’ she hissed passionately. ‘You’ll hide it, or I’ll make you sorry you ever met me.’
‘I’m already sorry about that,’ Kelly retorted.
Five minutes earlier she had been lying quietly on her bed. The hostel had provided her with a clean single room that was just large enough to house a single bed, a small hand basin and a few other items of necessary bedroom furniture. As a welcoming present to the hostel, Kelly had been given a bottle of wine. It stood alone and unwanted on the dressing table.
Her thoughts were filled with the contrast between this new lifestyle and her former life as a housewife. She still felt unable to decide whether fate had granted her a kind hand or a cruel one. There were pros and cons for both sides and she was in the process of mentally evaluating these when Helen barged rudely into the room. She entered so quickly Kelly thought she was being pursued by the resident security staff.
During her first few days at the agency, Kelly had spent her time doing two things. Primarily she had been learning the rules that governed the hostel. There were so many restrictions and regulations Kelly had felt her head begin to spin as she tried to digest them all. Breakfast was at 7.00 a.m., lunch at noon and dinner at 6.00 p.m. All meals were in the main dining hall and tardiness was considered a punishable misdemeanour. Senior staff had the authority to discipline trainees whenever, and however, they saw fit. Tuition was compulsory and accompanied by frequent, rigorous testing. Poor results and lack of subject comprehension, were both regarded as punishable offences. So far, Kelly had managed to conform to the rules of the hostel without suffering the embarrassment of a chastisement. She had witnessed several punishments and made a personal vow that she would avoid such humiliation at all costs.
The other thing Kelly had been doing in her first few days had more to do with self-preservation. She had made a point of avoiding Helen. After their first encounter, Kelly realised Helen was simply trouble waiting to happen. She still remembered the venom in the blonde’s ferocious stare as she had fled the waiting room on that very first day. Whilst she was not certain what offence she had committed, Kelly did not doubt that the blonde would seek retribution if the opportunity occurred.
Now, with Helen standing angrily before her, Kelly wondered if the woman was plotting revenge.
Helen reached out swiftly and caught Kelly’s wrist. Before Kelly knew what was happening she felt something small and cold being pushed into her hand.
Helen pressed her face close to Kelly’s and smiled darkly. ‘Mistress Stacey is looking for me right now. She knows I’ve got this,’ she told Kelly quickly. ‘Hide it for me, or I’ll tell her that you took it.’
Kelly stared in disbelief. ‘You bitch!’ she gasped breathlessly.
Helen’s grin was unperturbed by the insult. She glanced at Kelly’s hand and noticed the wedding ring that she wore. ‘Have you got a husband? Why aren’t you with him, instead of being in this place?’
Kelly glared at her. ‘I don’t have a husband,’ she said stiffly. ‘And I don’t want to talk about him.’
‘Did he beat you?’ Helen asked eagerly. ‘Do you think he’ll come here looking for you?’
He didn’t beat me, Kelly thought miserably. In the last years of our marriage he didn’t even touch me. It seemed, she thought wistfully, as though her husband had put her high on a pedestal. After their marriage, Kelly believed he had forgotten she was up there. By the time she left him, it had been a marriage in name only. She stared sullenly at Helen, knowing that she could never confide any of this to the blonde.
‘Do you think he’ll come looking for you?’ Helen asked curiously.
Kelly frowned. It was a thought that had not occurred to her before. Her husband had never been aggressive towards her but she knew he was blessed with a ruthless nature. He had forged his own business empire single-handedly and such achievements did not come lightly. They particularly did not come to the type of man who just allowed his wife to walk out on him.
‘Well?’ Helen persisted. ‘Do you think he’ll come looking for you?’
‘I’ve told you,’ Kelly snapped. ‘I don’t have a husband and I don’t want to talk about him.’
Helen smiled cruelly. ‘Good. That means you’re here and you’re all on your own. I could hurt you in a lot of ways if I wanted to,’ she said coldly. ‘I have dozens of friends in this place and if I told them what a pervert you were they could make your life hell.’
‘Pervert?’ Kelly frowned. ‘What the hell are you talking about? I’m not a pervert.’
Helen’s face twisted into a doubting expression. ‘Really? I saw the way you were watching when that bitch Stacey body-searched me.’
Kelly began to blush as the memory of that scene returned. She could remember the deep arousal she had experienced and the longing it had inspired. ‘I didn’t want to watch,’ she said, aware that her cheeks were burning furiously. ‘It just happened in front of me. I didn’t have an option.’
‘You got off on it though, didn’t you?’ Helen observed, a wicked light glimmering in her eyes. ‘It turned you on, didn’t it?’
Shrugging, and trying to look nonchalant in spite of her bright-red face, Kelly said quietly, ‘Perhaps I did get off on it. Perhaps it did turn me on. So what?’
‘Pervert!’ Helen exclaimed, laughing nastily. She still held Kelly’s hand with both of hers. One hand held Kelly’s wrist, the other tried to squeeze her fingers closed around the metal object in her palm. Moving closer, Helen rubbed her breast suggestively against Kelly’s arm. Her mood seemed to change in an instant. The taunting expression vanished from her eyes. It was replaced with a look of amorous guile. The tone of her voice altered from being harsh and threatening to a sultry sweet whisper of concern. ‘Then again, perhaps you’re not a pervert. Perhaps you wanted to do more than just watch?’ she suggested in a soft, husky breath. ‘Perhaps you wanted to make love with me?’
Kelly felt dizzy with the heat of this unwanted excitement. On her first day she had thought Helen was uncommonly attractive and she knew that her arousal had not just been caused by the highly charged eroticism of the moment. Aside from her beauty, there was something appealing about the combination of arrogance and vulnerability she embodied. Despite the unpleasant side of Helen’s personality, Kelly felt a reluctant wave of desire for her.
Helen continued to rub her breast against Kelly’s arm, causing a friction that was so exciting it was almost unbearable. ‘It’s not perverted to want to make love with another woman,’ Helen whispered softly in Kelly’s ear. The breath from her words tickled the sensitive flesh of Kelly’s earlobe. ‘I mean, I think that you are a very attractive woman. Very desirable,’ she went on, keeping her voice in the same low, sultry tone. ‘I could want to make love with you,’ she confessed.
Kelly turned to face Helen, surprised by this unexpected admission. She saw a faint smile twisting the corners of the blonde’s mouth. Her lips were broad and sensual, painted with a dark-pink lipstick that increased Kelly’s arousal. As she looked at those lips, she realised they were close enough to kiss. She gazed into the cerulean depths of Helen’s eyes. Cynically, she wondered if this was another aspect of the blonde’s scheme to get her to hide the stolen property. She was a breath away from kissing Helen’s lips, overwhelmed by the impulsive desire to find out exactly how they tasted.
‘Hide that brooch for me,’ Helen whispered sweetly. ‘Then you and I can become better acquainted.’ She smiled into Kelly’s sudden frown of despair. ‘I meant what I said before. I’ll say you got me to steal it if you don’t hide it.’
Kelly glanced at the small golden brooch in her hand. She was confused by the whirlpool of emotions that swirled inside her. It was hard to believe Helen could be so base and manipulative. Kelly had never encountered anyone so calculating before and she felt unsure of how to respond. She did not doubt the brooch was stolen and she knew there would be repercussions if she was caught with it. Similarly she knew there would be repercussions if she did not do as Helen asked. Angrily, she stuffed the jewellery into the top drawer of her dressing table, placing a couple of pairs of knickers over the top to hide it. She slammed the drawer closed when she had finished.
‘It’s not stolen,’ Helen said, placing a friendly arm on Kelly’s shoulder. ‘I found it in the hall. That’s all. I just know what people will think if they find it on me.’ She stroked her hand coaxingly down Kelly’s arm, a winning smile on her lips.
Kelly moved abruptly away, making no attempt to conceal her annoyance. ‘I don’t care what it is,’ she said sharply. ‘But can we agree that we’re quits after this? I don’t owe you and you don’t owe me?’
Helen smiled uncertainly. She seemed genuinely amazed by Kelly’s anger and unable to reconcile it with her own manipulative actions. ‘There’s no need to take that attitude,’ she snapped haughtily. ‘I thought you and I were going to…’
‘You thought wrong,’ Kelly declared. ‘Your stuff is hidden and when you want it back you can have it but, I promise you now, I won’t be helping you like this again.’
Leaning close to her, Helen pushed her mouth near to Kelly’s. ‘What about our making love?’
‘Never,’ Kelly said tersely.
Helen smiled. ‘Never say never,’ she said knowingly. With a sudden lunge, she leant forward and placed a kiss on Kelly’s mouth.
The action was so sudden and unexpected Kelly could do nothing but allow it to happen. Helen’s tongue began to explore her mouth and she was thrilled by the touch of her hands as they carefully stroked her arms, shoulders and neck. The intimacy was more intense than anything she had ever experienced before and, when the kiss broke, Kelly was left feeling short of breath and bewildered.
‘Still say never?’ Helen asked coolly.
Kelly felt her lower lip tremble as she struggled to get her chaotic thoughts in order. ‘Never,’ she replied. There was a note of determination in her voice that sounded far more convincing than it felt. She saw a hesitant frown in Helen’s eyes and found it comforting to think she had unsettled the blonde a little. ‘Never,’ she repeated.
‘What the hell is going on in here?’
Helen and Kelly turned to face the open doorway, staring into the thunderous expression on Mistress Stacey’s face. She stormed into the room, slamming the door heavily behind her.
‘I asked a question,’ she growled, bearing down on the two trainees. ‘And I expect an answer. What the hell is going on in here?’
‘Nothing,’ Helen said quickly. Her voice was little more than a meek murmur. She glanced nervously at the dressing-table drawer, then warily back at the mistress.
Mistress Stacey appeared not to notice. She turned her questioning glare on to Kelly. ‘Nothing?’ she asked sharply.
Kelly nodded, hating herself for lying and hating Helen for having put her in this situation. ‘That’s right, Mistress Stacey,’ she said calmly. ‘There’s nothing going on.’
Mistress Stacey nodded, not bothering to hide the expression of disbelief that distorted her features. ‘Nothing going on,’ she repeated slowly. ‘So why are you two here, together, if there’s nothing going on?’
‘If you must know,’ Helen said with a heavy sigh, ‘Kelly and I are lovers.’
Kelly graced Helen with a shocked expression that was hidden from Mistress Stacey.
‘Lovers?’ Stacey repeated. She glanced doubtfully at Helen, then Kelly. A sceptical smile began to twist her lips.
As if to prove she was telling the truth, Helen put her arm protectively around Kelly’s shoulder and snuggled against her intimately. ‘Yes,’ she said with renewed force. ‘Kelly and I are lovers.’
Kelly allowed Helen’s arm to stay where it was, fearful of the punishment she would receive if Mistress Stacey discovered she had been lying. She could feel herself stiffening beneath Helen’s touch. It was difficult but she tried to relax and appear comfortable with her lover.
‘Is that true?’ Stacey asked Kelly. She stared directly at her as she spoke.
It was a forceful stare that was intimidating in the extreme. Mistress Stacey had a way of studying the trainees with a knowing look in her eyes. It gave the impression that she knew exactly what they were thinking.
Lost in the impenetrable dark depths of Stacey’s brown eyes, Kelly resisted the urge to confess everything to the woman. She had already lied by saying that nothing untoward was going on in the room. In her own mind, Kelly knew that Mistress Stacey would eagerly punish her for such a lie. Unhappily, Kelly realised her only hope of escaping punishment was to support the tale Helen was telling.
‘Yes,’ she said softly. ‘It’s true.’
Stacey nodded solemnly. She did not look as though she believed the pair but for the moment she was prepared to continue with the charade. ‘Do you know the hostel’s policy on cohabitation between trainees, Helen?’ she asked quietly.
‘Relationships between male and female trainees will not be tolerated,’ Helen replied quickly.
Stacey’s smile was a cruel one. ‘You learnt that little lesson well, didn’t you?’ she noted wryly.
Helen blushed, recalling a previous incident that had incurred the wrath of Mistress Stacey. Her lower lip trembled as she searched for a suitable response.
Stacey continued before the blonde could think of a reply. ‘Well done for remembering that,’ she told her. ‘But as I can see neither you nor Kelly are male, I wonder if you’d remind me of the hostel’s policy on the cohabitation of female trainees.’
Kelly frowned, sensing a tension in the room that almost crackled with the electric charge of sexual anticipation. She did not know where the conversation was leading but she felt sure she was not going to like the end result. A flutter of butterflies erupted in the pit of her stomach.
‘Female cohabitation is not condoned,’ Helen said mechanically. ‘But it is tolerated, subject to the discretion and approval of a senior member of staff.’