Controlling Jennifer VI: Splices of Life part II
Jennifer drifted them to the outskirts of the dance floor. She noticed Derrick was glancing around nervously, like he was going to take off all his clothes or something, and wanted to be sure no one was watching.
Jennifer sighed, confident that the music would mask her sigh. She had never understood those who were embarassed to dance. What was the big deal? Why was it so frightening to dance when you were in a room full of people, all of them dancing? She leaned in towards Derrick. "Come on, let's dance!" she told him.
He just smiled sheepishly, and looked around at everyone. Jennifer shrugged, deciding she would have to set an example. She started to move her body to the beat, smiling at Derrick in encouragement, and then she remembered Mark, and abruptly she stopped.
She tried to stop herself from glancing at him, but she was a second too late. Mark was watching her, she had almost forgotten. He was staring at her, an expression of melancholy etched on his face. His eyes were lost and unfocused. What's wrong with him? she wondered. For once I'm doing what he wants, on my own, without his power. Why isn't he happy? Maybe he likes to use his power, she thought, and succeeded in generating a shudder down her spine. She turned back to Derrick, and thought about dancing with him. The moment was growing long, and she could tell Derrick was getting uncomfortable. He was looking back at his seat, his eyes longing for it like a security blanket. Jennifer started to dance again, drawing his eyes to her, and when she thought about herself dancing again, she almost stopped, but kept going by will alone.
The problem was, for some reason, her dancing seemed artificial.
Jennifer usually danced by letting her body go, allowing the music to manipulate it while her mind floated over other things. But everytime she tried to do this, she would always think of Mark, watching her. How could she dance while he watched? It made her self-conscious. She probably felt a lot like Derrick.
Derrick had not started dancing. He would start, then stop immediately after, shaking his head and laughing at his own foolishness.
Jennifer's eyes narrowed. How do I get him to dance? she asked herself.
How do I do it when Mark's watching me like he is? Before, Mark had always told her exactly what to do; this was the first time she was supposed to act...well, slutty...all by herself.
Who cares if he dances, she decided. Just turn him on, Jennifer. Think if you were him, and you were faced with an attractive girl, what would you want her to do? Jennifer tried to imagine this, but couldn't think like a guy would. Only the obvious things occurred to her, and she certainly wasn't going to do them in a public place. No, she would have to be more subtley slutty. Now the only problem was, how? Derrick was starting to dance now, which was good. It made her feel a little less silly, although his dancing style kind of reminded her of Frankenstein walking; stiff and goofy-looking. Now how to turn him on? She thought about dancing slutty, shaking her breasts to make it obvious she wasn't wearing a bra, grinding her hips into his pelvis, basically dancing dirty. She actually gave her breasts an experimental wiggle, but it felt very false to her, and she stopped. It just wasn't a natural part of dancing for her. She continued to dance, as normally as she could with the awareness that Mark was watching her in the back of her head. The music stopped, and another song came on in its place. Jennifer danced.
During this next song, she tried something else. She danced forward, coming teasingly close, and gave him what she thought was a seductive smile. She wasn't very experienced with this, and forgot to calculate in his awkward dancing style; as a result, she came a little too close to him, and he accidently pushed his arm right against her breasts. It must have been obvious that she was braless; he stared at her and then looked away, blushing furiously, before he even saw her attempt at a seductive smile.
Oh, well, it had probably worked better than she intended. She tried this again, this time slower, coming closer and closer until he became uncomfortable and backed away. For some reason, she thought this was funny. If she came close to him, he would always back off. It was like he feared her. Finally, her heart beating, Jennifer moved up until her face was less than two inches from his, and, her eyes locked on his, slowly licked her lips. She smiled immediately after, feeling very silly, but Derrick was hooked. His dance faltered, and he seemed hypnotized by her.
Jennifer danced back from him, and, very aware that his eyes were on her, pretended to stretch. She arched her back, trying to stretch her blouse and get it tightly pressed against her breasts. She pretended to have her eyes closed, but she was looking out through the crack in her eyelid, and she could see Derrick's eyes were fixed on her breasts. She felt a thrill spin through her stomach.
And she knew Mark was watching, too.
She opened her eyes, and overcome by temptation, looked down to see how much of herself she was exposing. Her nipples were dark circles under the fabric, and she gasped at how visible they were. She quickly eased out of her stretched position, fighting to control her blush, trying to appear cool and deliberate.
She needn't have bothered. As she continued to dance with Derrick, his eyes stayed on her breasts more than anything else, waiting for those dark nipples to resurface. It bothered her, even though she knew she had pretty much asked for it by giving him a peek in the first place. She didn't particularly like being reduced to a pair of breasts.
Determined to get him to acknowledge all of her, she slid up to him and linked her hands behind his neck. He abruptly stopped dancing, and stared open-mouthed at her. She moved up against him so there was a faint but undefined contact between their bodies; just enough to tease. "Is it just me or is it *hot* in here?" she whispered in her sexiest voice. He gaped at her.
"You have to go to the bathroom." It was Mark's voice. Mark was beside them.
"Uh...excuse me, I have to go to the bathroom, I'll be right back though!" Derrick pulled away from her, and raced off to the bathroom.
Jennifer watched him rush off, then turned back to regard Mark.
"Why'd you do that?" she asked, puzzled.
Mark walked back to the seats on the side of the room, and after a moments hesitation, Jennifer followed. He sat down, and she sat beside him, waiting.
"I thought you might need a break." he said finally, looking on to the dance floor. "I mean, you've been dancing for fifteen minutes already. I thought you might want to sit down or something." Jennifer shrugged. "I wasn't really tired. Anyways, I could have taken a break by myself. No one was MAKING me dance. Derrick would have let me go if I had asked." "Derrick." said Mark. "What do you think of him?" He faced her, his e yes lost in shadows.
She thought for a moment. "I...don't know." she said. "He seems kind of awkward, I guess. A little socially inexperienced. But nice, otherwise he would have probably felt me up by now." Jennifer considered this, and was surprised at how casually she reacted to the thought of Derrick feeling her up. She crossed her arms over her breasts, pressing the fabric against her nipples.
Mark turned away from her again. "I think you're doing too good a job." he said coldly. "You're teasing him too much. He's going to expect something." Jennifer considered this, pulling the dark strands of hair from her eyes. "That's all right, isn't it?" she remarked. "After all, if he gets too demanding, you can always do some control thing to him, right? I mean, I hate to suggest it, but its an option. Anyway, I don't think he would do that. He seems like a gentleman. Too shy to go any further than I'll let him." "And how far will you let him go?" demanded Mark.
"Mmm? Oh, I don't know....actually, it's been kind of fun so far. I suppose I'll have to stop eventually." She shrugged. "Who knows? I'll decide that when I get there." She peered at him. "What's wrong? I thought you liked me making a fool of myself in front of guys." Mark didn't say anything for a while, and Jennifer finally decided he wasn't going to answer. Finally, he said "This is different. I don't like Derrick." "Why not?" she ventured.
He glared at her. "I just don't." And that was all he would say.
"Hi, Jen!" Jennifer heard the voice from above her. It was Darlene's voice. She looked up to see Darlene. Darlene's dark curly hair was in a disarray, probably from dancing, and she had goofy smile that undoubtedly came from being drunk.
Jennifer was acutely aware of Mark sitting beside her. "Hi, Darlene." she said quickly. "Look can I talk to you later?" Darlene ignored her, dropping onto the seat beside her. "Why'd you stop dancing, Jennifer?" she asked, leaning back against the back of the seat and resting.
"Oh...I just got a little tired, that's all. Where's Amy and the others?" Jennifer wished desperately that Darlene would go away.
"Oh, them. They're over there, still dancing." Darlene pointed vaguely towards the dance floor. "I guess I got a lil' tired, too. Whatcha up to, Jen?" Darlene blinked at Jennifer, her eyes unfocused and dreamy.
"Me? Oh, nothing, really..." Jennifer started. Then she noticed Darlene was looking past her.
"Hi!" said Darlene.
"Hi." said Mark. He had entered his formal mode of talking again. "I'm Mark. You must be Darlene." He offered his hand, and when she put hers forward to shake it, he instead took her hand and kissed the back of it.
Darlene giggled.
"Wow. What a gentleman." Darlene said. "Yes, I'm Darlene...Jen's roommate. Heh, but you probably know that already. Jen...Jennifer's told me about you." Darlene smiled and blinked.
Jennifer felt like she was in some weird dream. She leaned back and numbly followed the conversation that was occurring over her, feeling powerless to do anything but listen. Mark's wore a carefully neutral smile. "Oh? Hopefully good things." His eyes shifted quickly toward Jennifer, perhaps looking for a clue as to what Jennifer had told her.
"Not really anything." admitted Darlene, grinning. "Jen likes to keep her secrets. She's just mentioned your name. I didn't know you were going to be here. Jen didn't tell me." She gave Jennifer a sly poke with her elbow. Jennifer ignored it.
"Oh, she didn't know. It's just coincidence that we showed up at the same place at the same time." said Mark.
"Oh. Well, I guess I'll leave you two alone then. I can sense Jennifer wants me to take off." Darlene grinned at Jennifer, and was about to stand up, when she noticed Derrick hovering uncertainly near them. "Oh, hello." she said.
"Hi." muttered Derrick, or at least his lips moved. Then, louder.
"Marcie...you wanna dance again?" His voice was a little bolder now. He's gaining confidence, thought Jennifer. Oh, god, how am I going to explain this to Darlene? Darlene looked at her confused. "Marcie...?" she started.
"I'll tell you about it later." whispered Jennifer.
Darlene grinned widely. "Damn right, you will. I'll talk to you later, 'Marcie.'" She giggled, then stood and walked off.
Derrick watched them uncertainly. "Marcie?" he asked toward Jennifer, his voice uncertain and nervous.
Jennifer flashed him her brightest smile. "Ok, but why don't you get me a cup of punch first. Please?" He smiled back, and seemed almost grateful to go off and get her a drink. She watched him go.
"I had to do that." she explained to Mark. "I just know Darlene's going to be watching me now." "I don't think so." observed Mark. He pointed over in the distance.
Darlene was talking to some blonde guy, and seemed oblivious to anything but his words. "Looks like she has other things on her mind." "Oh!" said Jennifer, watching them. "I hope she'll be okay. She's drunk, you know. I told her I'd watch out for her." "Aw, she'll be all right." said Mark. "I know that guy; he's not the type that would take advantage of her. Don't worry, she's safe." Jennifer looked back at Mark, regarding him openly with her dark eyes. "For a second there, I thought you were going to introduce yourself as my master or something." she said.
Mark shook his head and smiled. "No, no. Don't worry, Jennifer. I wouldn't do that to you." Then his smile faded. "Here comes Derrick." he said.
Derrick was returning, clasping a cup of punch like he held the holy grail. He held it out to her with a wide grin. Jennifer smiled in thanks as she took it, and drank it down, surprised at how thirsty she was. Dancing takes a lot out of you, she supposed.
The music had changed; the tempo had slowed down, and Jennifer could see that the people on the floor were dividing into couples. She saw Darlene slow-dancing with her blonde guy.
Derrick followed her gaze, out to the people slow dancing. Then he turned back to her and offered his hand. "You wanna dance, Marcie?" he said, smiling sheepishly, as if expecting to be refused.
"Ok." she said, and took his hand. He led her out to the dance floor, and uncertainly started to put his hands around her waist, swaying at least a foot away from her.
What the heck, thought Jennifer, and she clasped her arms around him and pulled him close to her. After all, she was supposed to be turning him on, and slow dancing from a distance seemed so awkward anyhow.
Their bodies pressed together. Jennifer could feel a hardness below against her waist; his erection. He's hard, she thought. Wow. He seemed uncomfortably aware of this, too, and tried to pull away, but she wouldn't let him. Instead, she started to move slightly, rubbing herself slightly against his hard-on. Wow, she thought, I hope Darlene doesn't see me.
She'll think I'm a real slut. Jennifer grinned, and leaned her cheek against Derrick's shoulder, swaying back and forth in time to the music.
Derrick was tense against her, but gradually they fell into the rhythm of the music. At first his hands fell limply around her back, but as he became more confident, he started to hold her tighter. They swayed together.
"Wow." he wh ispered in her ear. "You're...you're really beautiful, Marcie..." Jennifer wondered whether he was really serious or if his words were just motivated by lust. In the end, she supposed it didn't really matter.
"Thanks." she whispered back.
She felt him sliding his hands up her back. If he needed confirmation that she wasn't wearing a bra, he received it when his hands couldn't find any straps. She hugged him, the pressure of his hard penis pressing into her. Well, she thought. I've succeeded in turning him on. The only problem was, she was a little turned on herself. She enjoyed her control over Derrick; her ability to make him hard, and to make him want her.
She knew she had to stop sometime. She didn't want to go too far.
But as Derrick tightened his grip on her, and she felt the slickness develop between her legs, she hoped she would have the strength to resist her own temptation.
Abruptly, Derrick loosened his hold on her, and she looked up at him to see what was wrong. He was staring at her, his breath coming fast, and as he started to pull her to him again, she could feel his heart beating rapidly beneath his chest. He was slowly bringing his lips to hers. They were going to kiss.
This was wrong! It wasn't the way it was supposed to happen. A slow kiss while holding each other tight and slow dancing, that was a love thing, wasn't it? It was too romantic, too personal. What if it was his first kiss? What if it meant a lot to him? Jennifer didn't want to be some strangers first kiss. She twisted her head, moving her lips from their collision course with his.
She could feel his hurt, his feeling of being rejected. "I'm sorry, Marcie." he whispered. "I didn't mean to...." "Shhh." she said, and his voice drifted away. They swayed together.
Jennifer felt lost. She wasn't a seductress; she took things too seriously for that. And she felt bad for rejecting him. If only it hadn't been so perfect, then she would have kissed him.
"Derrick..." she said.
"Yeah?" Jennifer leaned up and mashed her lips against his, pressing her body tightly against his hard-on. It wasn't a soft, romantic kiss; it was a hard, lustful kiss. A passionate kiss. How Jennifer imagined a slut would kiss.
She could feel Derrick tense up like a statue against her; his lips were frozen with shock. As a final touch, as she withdrew her mouth, she let her tongue dart out and caress his lips. There, she thought with satisfaction, that should do it.
"What the fuck is this?" A voice, beside them. Mark's voice? No, not Mark. Jacob's voice.
Jennifer recoiled from Derrick, gasping in shock, and spun to look beside them. It was Jacob, all right. His eyes were bloodshot and bulging, his muscles were tensed, and he was holding a beer bottle, which he took a chug of as she watched. He had two others with him. Jennifer didn't know either of them, but they both were big football players, and they were both obviously drunk.
"You little slut!" snarled Jacob. "You just can't keep your hands off any guy, can you?" He drank some more of the beer.
"Jacob, go away! You're drunk." said Jennifer. She wished Derrick would go away; Jacob wouldn't dare do anything to her, but he might do something to the man she had been kissing. But Derrick was frozen in his tracks, like an animal frozen in the headlights of an approaching truck.
"Drunk, damn right, I'm drunk, Jenny-fer. Fucking slut Cailly. I come looking for you, and how do I find you...fishing for another dick." He glared menacingly at Derrick.
"Who the hell are you?" asked Derrick, his voice quavering to be firm.
Jennifer wanted to scream at him to shut up.
"Who am I? WHO AM I?" bellowed Jacob. People were staring now.
"I'm her fucking boyfriend, is who I am! The boyfriend of the girl you were just frenching!" "You have a boyfriend?" Derrick gaped at her.
"You're not my boyfriend, Jacob!" Jennifer shouted. She turned to Derrick. "Derrick, be quiet, ok? Please?" she pleaded.
"You fucking prick." growled Jacob, and he gave Derrick a shove.
Derrick staggered backwards. Before Jennifer could react, Jacob had latched a hand around her wrist. "Come on, Jennerfer." he said. "I said we need to talk, now we're gonna talk, whether you want to or not." He started to pull her from the floor, ignoring her struggling.
Then, a shout. "What's going on here!" a voice demanded. Mark's voice.
Jennifer gasped in relief. Always, always, he was there to save her.
Jacob glared at Mark. "Mind your own business, mother fucker!" he growled.
Mark took in the situation at a glance, and he smiled. He actually smiled. "I would prefer it if you called me 'master.'" he said casually.
Jacob glared at him. "I said, fuck off,...uh....master." Jacob's face contorted with confusion.
"Good." nodded Mark with a grin. "I would also like it if you would refer to yourself as 'this wretch.' I usually like things to be named as they are. Don't you?" Mark's grin was easy and confident. "Now let the girl go." Jennifer felt Jacob's hand grow limp around her wrist. She quickly pulled out of his reach, and retreated to stand by Mark. Jacob, along with his two buddies, stared at Mark in drunken astonishment.
"Now, then. What seems to be the trouble? Perhaps we can work things out." "Uh." said Jacob. He looked confused. "Well, you see, thas my girlfriend beside you, an' she wuz necking with some other guy, and...uh...
this wretch was just gonna take her outside and have a talk with her..." Mark whirled to face Jennifer. "You have a boyfriend?" he asked.
She shook her head. "He's not my boyfriend! He just thinks he is. Tell him to go home, would you, Mark? Tell him to go home and sleep it off." Mark shook his head. He had a malevolent glint in his eye as he looked back on Jacob and his two friends. "No, I don't think so. Let's try and work things out. Where's the guy Jennifer was kissing?" Mark quickly spotted Derrick. "Derrick! You can see and hear me now. Come over here." Compelled by Mark's power, Derrick walked forward. He twitched nervously, glancing at Jacob and his friends uneasily.
"This is the guy?" Mark looked at Jacob, and pointed at Derrick. Jacob nodded.
"Mark, what are you doing? Please, just let this end." begged Jennifer. She had thought Mark would stop things, but it appeared that he was having too much fun manipulating the situation.
"Quiet, Jennifer." And Jennifer felt his power catching hold of her.
When she opened her mouth, her voice wouldn't work. She closed her mouth again and waited.
"Now, then, Derrick. Let's hear your side of the story. What was happening between you and Jennifer?" "It wasn't me!" babbled Derrick. "I don't even know any Jennifer..." Mark rolled his eyes. "I meant Marcie. Marcie is her nickname, her real name is Jennifer." Mark flashed Jennifer a quick smile.
"Oh." said Derrick, also glancing at Jennifer. Then he started babbling again. "I didn't know she had a boyfriend, otherwise I wouldn't have done anything, honest! I swear I didn't know." Mark shook his head critically. "What kind of a loser are you?" he said, his voice edged in contempt. "Don't be a wimp! Stand up for the woman. This is Jennifer! Don't you think she's worth fighting three guys for, e ven guys as big as these three?" Mark must have used his power, because Derrick's eyes became as hard as steel. He pointed a finger level at Jacob. "Hey." he said, his voice flat and dangerous. "You leave Jennifer alone." Jacob grunted and lunged for Derrick, but Mark simply said "Freeze." and Jacob froze where he was. "Let's take this outside." said Mark. "You three, Derrick, and you, too, Jennifer. Follow me." It was not a compulsion, at least not for Jennifer, but Mark must have known she would follow anyway, just to see what he would do.
Jennifer strained against the bond he had put on her mind, but as hard as she tried she could not speak. She mutely followed them out into the parking lot. Mark walked them over to a secluded corner.
"Now then." said Mark. "I see only one solution here. You're going to have to fight for Jennifer. It's the only way to decide things." Mark peeked at Jennifer, smiling. She was trying to scream at him, but couldn't make the noise. "This wretch against him?" asked Jacob eagerly, sizing up Derrick and apparently not finding much.
"I'll gladly fight him for Jennifer." declared Derrick fearlessly, balling his hands into fists.
"No, not you against him." Mark answered Jacob. He waved at Jacob's two friends. "All three of you against him." Jennifer's mouth fell open. She prayed Mark wasn't serious; they would kill Derrick.
Derrick wilted slightly, then pulled himself together. "I'll gladly fight all three of them for Jennifer." he swore.
"Let's go, then." said Jacob.
"Wait!" said Mark. He grinned. "One more thing to make this fair." He turned to Jacob and his two friends. "You three. Every time Derrick touches you, it will feel like he is burning you. Ok?" Jacob and his two friends watched him in confusion; they did not understand. But that was all right. They would soon enough. Mark nodded. "Very good. Let the games begin!" Jennifer was tugging hard on Mark's arm. "Urg!" she managed to croak.
"Don't worry, Jenny." Mark told her, grinning. "This'll be over soon enough." He stood back to watch, and Jennifer, helpless and silent, watched with him.
Jacob strolled over towards Derrick. Derrick lunged in with a clumsy punch, and Jacob easily avoided it. He brought his fist up into Derrick's gut. Derrick grunted as the air was forced from his lungs.
Jacob, on the other hand, screamed.
He pulled his hand away, and it was bright red, blisters forming on its surface. He staggered back in shock. Jacob's two friends stared, astonished.
Derrick recovered, and popped a blow toward one of the football player's cheeks. It connected, and the football player staggered back, clutching his cheek. Jennifer could see that it was also burnt, like Jacob's hand. The third guy backhanded Derrick, and Derrick fell, his lip split and bleeding. But the third guy's hand was also burnt.
Derrick was apparently smart enough to figure out what was going on, because his next act wasn't to try another punch; instead he walked up to the third guy and threw his arms around the guy's body. The guy screamed, and struggled to free himself, finally breaking Derrick's grip.
Instead of retaliating, he stared wide-eyed at Derrick, then turned and ran. Jacob and the second guy took in the situation, and followed their comrade in beating a hasty retreat, Jacob clutching his swollen fist. Soon all three were lost in the distance.
Derrick looked proudly at Jennifer. "I've won you." he declared, his lip bleeding onto his shirt. Jennifer felt like crying, but she managed to keep it in. Why me? she asked herself. Why always for me? "No." Mark told Derrick. "Jennifer is mine. You will go back to your bedroom and go to sleep. When you wake up, you will remember all of this as a distant dream." And with that, Derrick's eyes blurred, and he turned and staggered away.
And then it was just Mark and Jennifer, alone in the darkness. Mark turned to her. A tear had succeeded in making its way down her cheek, and Mark wiped it off with a finger.
"Don't cry, Jennifer." he sighed. He took her in his arms; she was powerless to resist, and now the tears were spilling down her cheeks, staining his shirt, as she cried soundlessly. "It's not you, it's me." Mark whispered to her. "Sometimes I'm a twisted bastard. The power... well, it makes it easy to hurt. Far easier to hurt than to help." He hugged her.
"Speak, Jennifer. I can't stand it when you're quiet." And she could speak again. She could hear herself cry, hear herself sobbing like a child. She suppressed her tears, pushing them away and reducing them to sniffles and stained cheeks. "Why'd you do it?" she whispered. "Why'd you make them fight?" "I don't know." he said back. "I don't know. Jennifer..." and pulled away from her, staring down into her eyes. "Kiss me, Jennifer." But she could only stare into his eyes, helplessly. She couldn't kiss him.
"Kiss me, Jennifer." he said again, and this time his power washed over her mind. Compelled, she stretched up and pressed her lips to his.
After a couple seconds of contact, she pulled back again. Staring at him wordlessly, waiting for his next order.
Mark sighed. It was a deep, lonely sound, like the howl of a wolf in the distance. He pulled away from her, shaking his head. "Jennifer. Close your eyes and count to twenty." he ordered.
It was his power again, and she closed her eyes, counting to twenty as ordered.
And when she opened her eyes, she was all alone.
To be continued
Thus endeth this chapter.
