Parfum Ch. 06

All characters are over the age of 18. All the science in this story is utter bunk. This series of stories involves a very slow build-up which is just the way I like it. This is also my first attempt at writing fiction (and I can tell you that it's hard work!). So be warned, impatient ones!

James was lost in his own world during lunch on Saturday. His aunt, Carla, had joined them and was busy yakking away with his Mom while his Dad ate his meal quietly, also apparently lost in his own world, but absorbing every nugget of gossip being bartered between the sisters.

"Earth to James! Earth to James!"

James looked around. "Huh? What?"

"Welcome back to the world of the living, nephew. Boring you, are we?" giggled his aunt.

"Er, no. I was just distracted. Sorry," he apologised.

"So your mom tells me that you know Jill Saunders."

James' heart skipped a beat. "Um. Yeah. She's my Chem teacher," he replied, trying to keep any panic out of his voice.

"Rumours have been flying around that she's been fired. For having an affair with a teacher or according to some, for sleeping with a student. You know anything about this?"

James really hoped that his face hadn't gone completely red.

"Um. No. But she's been on leave for a while now."

"Yeah, that's what Charlene told me too. But she doesn't like to share the juicy details," Aunt Carla replied, scowling. "Is she your teacher too?"

"Not this year, no," he replied. "Mrs. Madsen isn't very popular in school. The students have a ... sobriquet for her. They like to call her 'Grumpy'," James added, trying to steer the conversation away from Jill.

His Mom and his aunt looked at each other before cracking up.

James finished the rest of his lunch in comparable silence before heading back up into his room. He locked his door and collapsed on his bed. He wondered if these were the last few days of his life as he knew it. If people, and specifically, his parents found out thathewas the student that Jill was having sex with, the shit would hit the proverbial fan. But how had people found out? He, of course, hadn't told anyone. Mrs. Madsen could have put two and two together as she had been the one who had given Jill's address to him. It sounded plausible. Could it have been her? Who else? Jill might have told someone. A friend or neighbour of hers, perhaps? But he couldn't see Jill being so shortsighted. And then, there was her husband, Frank. Could he have been the one?

There was no way to deny the fact that Jill had been having sex with someone. If she really was pregnant, it would be obvious to everybody in a couple of months' time. James wondered if she'd heard these "rumours" too. She'd told him that she'd resigned. Nothing about being fired. He also reasoned that it was highly unlikely that she was having an affair with a colleague. James sighed. This was going nowhere. His phone rang. It was Jill.

"Hi"

"Hello James. We need to talk," Jill said, without preamble. She sounded on edge.

"OK. I'll come on over right now," he replied.

"No. I'm ... I'm in the neighbourhood. I'll pick you up. Can you wait a couple of streets from your place? Near the playground?"

"Sure. I'll be there in 10 minutes," he replied. Jill must have heard the rumours too.

He quickly ran a comb through his hair and headed downstairs. Avoiding his Mom and aunt, James headed quietly out the door.

James climbed into Jill's Elantra and she quickly pulled away from the curb and headed for the highway. Jill was wearing a green cardigan over a dark top and a pair of Capris. He'd never seen her wearing sunglasses before today. Her blond tresses framed her face in a kind of organised chaos. She was beautiful!

"Hi," he said, breaking the silence.

"Hi, James," she replied. "Sorry for dragging you away on such short notice. But it's important."

"I take it that you've heard the rumours too," he said, air-quoting "rumours".

She glanced at him sharply before sighing. She nodded. "Who told you?"

"My aunt Carla. Mrs. Madsen from school knows about it too as she's my aunt's neighbour."

"Fuck!"

Jill pulled into a rest area on the highway and placed the car in park. She unbuckled herself and removed her sunglasses before turning towards James.

"So, what did you hear?" she asked him.

He told her what he'd heard. She had heard much the same thing. She looked straight ahead for a few moments and he could see that her eyes were brimming with tears. He placed his hand on her knee and squeezed gently.

"Don't worry. Things will be fine, Jill. We have done nothing wrong," he told her in a calm reassuring tone.

Jill blinked and let a pair of tears stream down her cheek. She smiled at him. "Thanks, Coco."

He smiled back trying to project an air of confidence that he didn't particularly feel himself.

"Do you have any idea who might have started the rumours?" he asked.

"I don't know. I really don't. While I don't believe that even he would do something like this, I can't think of anyone besides Frank. Haveyou... talked to anybody?"

"No. Nobody," he replied. "But Mrs. Madsen knew that I was trying to contact you. She's the one who gave me your address."

"Oh fuck. Really?"

James nodded. "Sorry. But I don't think she was the one."

"Why is that?"

"Um. She doesn't seem the type," James replied trying to add conviction to his voice. He didn't particularly want to tell Jill that he'd masturbated her colleague a day before he had had sex with her. The last thing Charlene would want to do would be to draw attention to a teacher being ... promiscuous.

"Hmm," was all Jill said in reply.

"Tell me something," he changed tack, "how did you feel when you heard the rumours?"

"I was devastated. Why?"

"I'm just curious. Humour me. How did you feel on the drive to pick me up?"

"Hmm. Not very well. I was really panicking at the time. I remember almost running a red light on the way to your house."

"And how do you feel now?"

"I guess I'm much calmer now. The lump of fear in my chest is gone. I guess having a friend is comforting," she said, smiling softly.

He smiled back. This was either very interesting or he was over-thinking this. But this wasn't the time or place to pursue his line of thought. And he certainly didn't want to screw up his relationship with Jill.

"So what are we going to do?" he asked, changing tack once again.

She sighed once again. "I have no idea," she said looking straight at him. "It all depends on whether I'm actually pregnant. I guess we'll have to wait for a few days. Thismustbe Frank's doing. Maybe he's doing this to torment me. Or maybe he's doing this to avoid having to pay me alimony. I really don't know."

Jill's eyes suddenly widened in panic. "Oh fuck, James. What are people going to think of me?!"

"It doesn't matter, Jill. What they think doesn't matter. You did nothing wrong," James replied.

"But I had sex with one of my students. Will I be jailed? What will happen to the baby?" she continued with an edge of hysteria to her voice.

"Nothing of that sort is going to happen, Jill. Trust me. We can fix this."

"But how?"

"Don't worry. I have a plan," he lied. But it wasn't entirely a lie. He did have the outline of one forming in the back of his brain.

"What is it?" she asked looking at him. She appeared to be calming down again.

"I'll explain later. Can you take me back home now?" he asked.

Jill looked at James for a couple of seconds before buckling herself in and starting the car.

A short drive later, they were back outside the park where she had picked him up. Jill looked at him expectantly.

"I'd like you to not worry about anything for the next 2–3 days. Just trust me, okay?" James said, unbuckling himself from his seat.

Jill nodded.

"Don't talk to anybody or confide in anyone. If you need someone to talk to, call me. Otherwise, try to stay indoors and safe."

James reached over and cupped Jill's face in his hand. He couldn't resist pulling her towards him and kissing her. He breathed her scent in as their lips met. Although he had only intended to kiss her goodbye, he ached for longer contact. But Jill didn't seem into it. He pulled back.

"See you later, Jill," he said as he exited the vehicle.

"See you, James," she replied, smiling sadly.

Joanne Taylor had no idea why she had agreed to this date. James was not butt ugly or anything. He actually had the most piercing eyes she'd seen. But he was a bit of a nerd and the quiet, boring type. Her Mom would have categorised him under "marriage material". But that was hardly what she was looking for now, the last few months before university. Well, at least he wasn't ugly. She so wished that she had cancelled on him. Too late now, she told herself. Besides, one of the mottoes that her family had impressed upon her was that once you make a commitment, you need to try your level best to honour it. Anyhow, such dates were good for life-experience, she reasoned philosophically.

He had picked her up at 6 in what was obviously his mom's car, a homely Ford Focus. He had complimented her dress, a summer outfit that came to her knees, and had the manners to hold the door open for her to get in. While she had thought that they were going to watch a movie at the mall's multiplex, he had insisted that they go to the local drive-in instead. He had apparently never been there before. But he did, unsurprisingly, come prepared with a hand-drawn map. He was also a very careful driver seeing as to how he drove like her Dad. She sighed. It was going to be alongevening.

They had arrived at the drive-in early and were one of the few cars there. James got them some popcorn and a couple of sodas and they sat patiently waiting for the movie to begin. Joanne was surprised when she found the park filling in with cars as they waited. There was plenty of space though and none of the other cars parked next to theirs. She realised that she didn't really want to meet anybody she knew. She mentally groaned as her date began making "polite conversation", asking her about "her interests", mundane formulaic stuff from, she was certain, a book onhow to impress a girl in 30 daysthat his Dad had probably lent him. He then asked her about school and her favourite classes. She stifled a yawn as she politely answered his questions and conjured up a couple of insipid ones of her own.

Apparently his favourite teacher was that blond slut, Jill Saunders. She soon disabused him of any angelic qualities that he was attributing to her. He had no idea that she'd even been fired leave alone the fact that she had been fired for fucking around with a student, no less. He asked her how she had found out about this. He'd only heard that she was on an extended leave of absence; nothing about her being fired. She pointedly informed him that everybody in town knew about this now. Mrs. Saunders' husband had left her because she was cheating on him. Ah! The movie had begun.Finally.Joanne settled back in her seat and tried to make the most of her evening.

A short while into the movie, she felt James stretch and clumsily try to place his arm around her seat. Seriously, what kind of moron takes a girl out to a drive-in in a car with bucket seats? If he was trying to get frisky with her, this was hardly the car to do it in. What a fucking dweeb! She moved away from his arm and leaned on the door and tried to concentrate on the movie once again.

James excused himself after a few minutes.

"So far, so good," James murmured as he generously dabbed himself all over with Adam B. Joanne was definitely not his type. She came across as shallow and condescending and was not a particularly riveting conversationalist. He could tell that she was bored out of her skin which made it obvious that if it hadn't been for Adam, she would never have agreed to go out with him. She had also not been terribly kind to Jill which made him feel a little less guilty about using Adam on her again. The thought of Jill hardened his resolve to figure out how to best make use of Adam. And Eve too, for that matter. While he had some meticulous notes on the aphrodisiac properties of Adam, he still needed reliable data on its, er, hypnotic properties. All he had now was haphazard conjecture.

He made his way back to the car and got back in. While there was some ambient light from the movie screen and a few footlights around the park, the area was largely dark. Joanne was glued to the movie and hardly acknowledged his return. As per his routine, he noted the time on his watch and kept an eye on his date's reactions. He couldn't observe her pupils in this light, but he could make out her general body language. The first fidget began just as the stop watch hit 2:40. He couldn't help grinning to himself in the dark. He repeated his ham-handed manoeuvre from earlier and stretched his arm across to her seat.

Joanne wasn't very tall and her head didn't reach far up on the head rest. Seeing no reaction from her, James moved his hand to the front of the seat, just near her neck. His fingers lightly grazed her ears and he thought he felt her shudder. She shifted again in her seat.

"Tilt your seat back, Joanne," he whispered.

"I'm ... I'm fine," she replied hesitantly.

"Don't you think it'll be nice to lean your seat back and relax completely?" hesuggested.

She seemed to hesitate again before pushing the seat lever that tilted her seat back. He could see her looking at him in the dimness. He was getting aroused too. Yes, he could see the outline of Joanne's beautiful face, framed by her dirty blond hair, and the rise of her breasts under her filmy dress as she inhaled in his hypnotic scent. Yes, all her curves were arousing him. But this was a physical arousal which paled against the sense of power that he felt coursing through him. The power to possibly be able to do anything to this girl, seemingly out of her own free will, was akin to a mental arousal.

"Don't you think you should take your shoes off, Joanne?" he suggested.

A few seconds later, "My feet are killing me. Do you mind if I take my shoes off?" she asked him. She didn't bother waiting for his answer and lifted her leg to unbuckle her shoes, a strappy affair of some kind. The exercise resulted in her dress sliding up her knee and resting at mid-thigh. Even in the low light that illuminated the inside of the car, James could make out a delicious expanse of clear skin from hem to knee. His hand began to reach out on its own accord before his brain reestablished control over it.

He tilted his seat back as well.

"You are really beautiful," he complimented her. Even though he wasn't crazy about her personality, she really was beautiful.

"Thanks," she murmured as she slid forward on the seat before adjusting herself back up. She was inhaling deeply now. Her reactions were far more pronounced than Charlene's and definitely, Jill's. But there were other variables at play too. Joanne was far younger and possibly at her sexual peak and, if the rumours were true, more sexually active than the others. James made a mental note to read up on sexual maturity in women.

"Don't you think it's really hot in here?" he suggested even thought the night was actually quite cool. When under the influence of Adam, subjects appeared to be suggestible, but the way they often paraphrased his own suggestions as if they were their own seemed to imply that the subjects believed that they were their own thoughts.

"Could you please turn the aircon on?" Joanne asked him still apparently keeping an eye on the screen.

Bingo! "Um, but if I do that, we'll have to roll up the windows and we won't be able to hear the speakers."

"Oh. OK," she replied. "But it's just so hot," she complained. Her legs were tightly pressed together now. She was definitely aroused now.

"I know. Sorry," he replied, trying to sound contrite. "But I can turn the blower on which should give us some air."

James switched on the AC and turned it to the "fan" setting. Cool air immediately began to flow out of the vents. He tilted the central louvres toward Joanne and reached across to open the vent on the passenger side of the car. As he moved back into his seat, his hand lightly grazed Joanne's thigh. She jumped up in her seat as if she'd been shocked.

"Are you alright, Joanne?" he asked, genuinely worried.

"I'm ... I'm fine," she replied, looking at him strangely.

James relaxed. "Tell me, how are you feeling right now?"

"I'm fine," she breathed, apparently trying to regain control of herself.

"Why don't you tell me how you are feeling right now?" he asked again, rephrasing the question.

"I'm fine. Really," she replied, a hint of frustrated annoyance creeping into her tone.

James sighed. Did the question always have to be phrased using the same structure? Anyhow, back to his plan:

"Don't you think you should be open with me, Joanne?" he suggested.

"Don't you think you should trust me?" he further reinforced after waiting a while.

"Don't you think that you should do whatever I tell you to do? After all, we are good friends."

He waited for a few seconds in case these suggestions needed time to sink in. These were also similar to the instructions he'd given Jill.

"Lift up your left arm, Joanne," he ordered softly. This was a bit of a risk as he wasn'tsuggestingan order now. He didn't really want her to remember him giving her commands that seemed to test her obedience. It was safest if she believed that all her actions were controlled by her own thoughts. But he had to make sure that she was doing something because she was under his control rather than because she was aroused.

She looked at him for a long couple of seconds, long enough for James to think that it wasn't working. Then she lifted her arm. "Like this?" she asked.

James didn't realise that he'd been holding his breath. He let it out in a mixture of relief and triumph.

"Yes, that's fine. Put it back down now."

Joanne placed her hand back down. He could make out that it had now joined her other hand which was strategically located right on top of her groin. While a stranger might not have thought anything untoward about this position, he knew exactly what she was doing.

"What are you doing with your hands?" he asked pointedly.

"I'm ... just really horny right now," she whispered truthfully. He could barely hear her over the sound from the speakers.

"That's not what I asked you. What are you doing with your hands?" he pressed.

"I'm pressing down on my ... on my pussy," she whispered again. She was looking straight down now.

"So, are you trying to masturbate right in front of your date?" he asked her cruelly.

He couldn't really tell, but he guessed that she was blushing. He could make out the outline of her head nodding quickly.

"Masturbate for me, then. Properly."

Joanne hesitated for a second before pulling her dress up and smoothly sticking her hand into her panties. She moaned as her fingers reached her pussy. James could smell her from where he sat. And going by the squishing that he was hearing, she was soaking wet! A sudden explosion ripped through the speakers outside either window, but that did not seem to distract her. Reaching over he tilted the vent of the AC so that it blew right on her pussy. She shivered as the cool air hit her drenched panties. She looked so vulnerable! James' cock was now straining hard against his jeans, threatening to punch a hole right through his zipper. He couldn't control himself any more. Quickly sticking his hand between her legs, he rubbed a finger up and down the groove of her slit even as he felt her ferociously rubbing her clit through the damp cloth. As soon as he made contact with her pussy, her thighs clamped together on his hand which felt like a slice of bread in a toaster.