He went back into the second bedroom, his 'study,' and then came out with his books a moment later. Still naked, he sat on the couch and went over the underlined and highlighted portions of the textbook and the notes in his notebook. Selene looked at him and watched him out of the side of her eyes while he studied. Her eyes sparkled at the intense, studious facade he was trying to maintain, but they soon wandered from his face, down the lines of his jaw to his throat, shoulders, pecs, arms, and hips.
Then he shifted his feet and lifted them up. She watched the lines of his leg muscles as he placed his feet on her thigh on the coffee table, with his heel just on the inside of her upper thigh, placing a gentle amount of pressure there that felt good. She could feel her system starting to spark back to life. She was intently aware of the pressure on her wrists, ankles, and now her legs as she lay there, restrained. She watched him for any sign he would carry her into that promised bedroom, tie her to the bed, and make her his once again.
Arthur was halfway through his notes when he literally jumped off the couch in a scramble.
There was a knock at the door.
He looked at Selene with his eyes wide, and she looked back, too startled from his sudden movements to realize there was someone at the door, though she quickly caught up, and her eyes widened to match his. She looked at the door just as he did, but whoever was on the other side had heard the commotion of him jumping up.
"I know you're in there." It was Kat's voice. It was only slightly muffled through the door, but something else was off about it. It wasn't angry or harsh like Arthur and Selene expected. The last time they'd heard her voice, it was shouting, and she was storming out of the apartment. Now it was almost soft and sounded fragile to Arthur's ears, as if she'd been crying and might soon cry again.
Arthur looked from the door to Selene and back again, at least twice. Then he moved quickly to untie Selene, and she was amazed at how quickly she was free. The restraints on her wrists and ankles were open with a quick movement from his hand, and he used both simultaneously to free her ankles first and then her wrists. She rubbed them briefly as she sat up and spat the thong panties from her mouth.
Arthur caught them before they hit the carpet and, in something approaching a speed only achievable by manifesting panic, he had the vibrators, toys, ropes, and the restraints slammed away in the slightly overstuffed briefcase that he latched closed and placed against the coffee table.
Selene, meanwhile, grabbed Arthur's shirt from the floor and threw it over herself. It hung on her like an oversized dress which she quickly buttoned-up, fumbling with a few of them and not bothering with the top one.
Arthur paused for a moment when he turned around to see her in it. She looked incredibly sexy in it, for some reason. The oversized nature of it did everything to hide her form, but the open collar was wide on her petite frame, and at just above mid-thigh, it was shorter than her usual dresses, with the sides of it arcing up to show the tops of her thighs.
"Just let me in." Kat's voice snapped Arthur out of it. "I'm not going to yell. I just want to talk to my sister."
Arthur and Selene looked at each other and had that silent conversation with their eyes that Arthur took to mean: "I'm going to go hide in my bedroom and maybe get dressed. You open the door and talk with your sister if you want to."
Selene nodded and took a deep breath. Then Arthur started toward his bedroom, stopped, grabbed his books from the sofa, and then went into his bedroom and closed the door behind him. Selene moved toward the door, looked through the peephole (which she had to stand on her toes to do), undid the deadbolt and the chain, and opened it up.
Kat stood on the other side of it. Her eyes were red around the edges of the white. She'd been crying. Her blonde curly updo had lost its shape a little bit. She'd obviously gone back to their apartment because she was dressed in different clothes now. She'd been wearing a business suit with slacks, heels, and blouse before. Now she was wearing a pair of black leggings, a long t-shirt that hung to her mid-thigh, and a hoodie.
Selene opened the door and stood behind it with just her head looking over its edge to let her in, and then she shut the door behind her after Kat crossed the threshold.
"What are you wearing?" Kat's first question came more from surprise than anything else.
"Well, you didn't exactly give us any warning that you were coming over." Selene said sharply.
"I called and texted. You didn't respond." Kat answered softly.
"My phone's on silent. I wasn't looking at it." Selene shook her head.
"I'm sorry. I thought maybe you two were finishing your movie, or... whatever." Kat looked at the TV and shrugged.
"What do you want that couldn't have waited until tomorrow?" Selene snapped.
"I..." Kat started, then deflated. Selene immediately felt guilty for being harsh when Kat didn't respond in kind. It was one thing to be prepared for a fight and to fight it, but it was another when you were the only one fighting.
Selene took a deep breath, but once she'd finished, the silence persisted. Eventually, she decided to change tracks.
"Do you want something to drink? There's water, or I'm sure Arthur wouldn't mind if we took some of his beer." Selene offered.
"You drink beer?" Kat wrinkled her face in a slightly disgusted expression.
"Mmm... usually only when I'm over here. He has some craft stuff that doesn't taste too bad." Selene shrugged. "If we were at our place, I'd offer you wine." She assured her.
"Can we..." Kat looked around but, not spotting Arthur, assumed he was behind the only closed door. "Can we go to our apartment? I - we need to talk. And I'd rather not do it with him listening in."
"He's probably not listening in." Selene defended Arthur, though she would have defended his listening in if it came to that. "We can talk here, in the living room, or go into the kitchen and sit at the table if you want to. He wouldn't be able to hear us there."
It wasn't that big an apartment, and they both knew that he could probably hear them if they spoke at average volume and he pressed his ear up against the door, but if they kept their voices low and he wasn't actively trying to listen in, they'd probably be fine. Kat sighed but relented and moved to the kitchen table, where she took a seat. Selene followed her and took a seat across from her.
"Look, I- are - why does he have clothes on top of the fridge?" Kat asked, suddenly distracted by the piece of fabric hanging over the side of the refrigerator that she could see but not identify.
Selene looked behind her to see it and smirked slightly, but when she returned her gaze to Kat, her expression was stony once more. "Nevermind that." She denied her an answer. "You wanted to talk. Let's talk."
"Okay." Kat agreed. "Look, I'm sorry for blowing up at you earlier." Kat looked down at the table as she talked rather than at Selene. "I was just surprised when I walked in on you guys, and I-" Kat paused as if she hadn't rehearsed this a few times on the way over and was trying to find the right words. "I wasn't expecting you to be on your knees and like, praying, to his cock."
"I wasn't praying to his cock." Selene rolled her eyes and gave an exasperated sigh, even as the hint of a blush touched her cheeks.
"Look. You know, as a family, we don't ever really talk about this stuff." Kat explained, and Selene laughed gently at the understatement.
"Mom's version of the talk, when she had it with me, was to just not talk about any of it, and she didn't bother explaining anything. You know that." Kat shrugged. "We learned everything we know from school."
"And porn." Selene added without blushing this time.
"Well, yeah. Okay. And that." Kat allowed. "I just... I wasn't expecting to walk into a porno."
"What did you expect?" Selene asked as if she'd just caught her sister in a clever trap. She was clearly expecting something when she came barging into Selene's room earlier, but she'd certainly responded in outrage for someone who was expecting something.
"I don't know. I thought maybe I would catch you two cuddling or something. Something normal, and that I'd tease you about it and try to get you to get Arthur to ask you out." Kat shrugged.
"I don't want Arthur to ask me out." Selene countered.
"So you say." Kat rolled her eyes. "But I've seen you talk about him. You worship the ground that guy walks on, and that was before you started literally worshiping him."
"I wasn't worshiping him." Selene let out an exasperated sigh, but Kat held her back by holding her hand in a 'stop' motion.
"Fine. Whatever you want to call it. I just wanted to say I'm sorry for barging in and for reacting the way I did, yelling and freaking out at you and at him. That wasn't fair of me, and I- I'm sorry I yelled at you and him." Kat got out as many apologies as she could fit into the breath.
"It's okay." Selene said immediately, almost reflexively. Of course, it was okay. It wasn't as if they'd never fought or made up before. These things happened on a daily, sometimes hourly, occurrence growing up. She would always forgive her sister.
"Thank you." Kat let out a long exhale. "Can you pass that on to Arthur for me?"
Selene shook her head. "You should apologize to him yourself."
"I..." Kat started, then looked back to the table. "I don't know that I can face him."
"Why not? You just yelled a bit. It's not like you hit him or anything." Selene smirked. She knew why Kat was embarrassed, but it was too late for that. She'd come to Arthur's apartment, after all, she had to know she was going to see him when she did that rather than waiting for Selene to go home.
"No, but I threatened to taze him. And I saw his- I saw him- I saw him naked." There was a blush in Kat's cheeks as though its mention had invoked the memory.
"Did you like what you saw?" Selene arched an eyebrow and gave her sister a mischievous smile.
"Let's just say I saw what you like about him." Kat tried to laugh it off.
"I don't just like him for his cock." Selene sounded almost defensive as she put her hands on the table's edge.
"No?" Kat asked. "What is it about him that makes you like him then?"
Selene stopped and eyed her sister, processing what she had just asked before answering. "I'm not saying I like him like that." Selene preemptively defended herself. "Romantically, or anything, I mean. We're just friends."
"Saying it over and over doesn't make me believe it any more than I already don't." Kat smirked. "But fine. What do you like about him as a friend then?"
"He's a good guy." Selene answered without having to think about it too hard.
"A good guy? That's what rates this kind of praise and devotion? That's why you decided to do that - that kind of thing with him?" Kat scoffed and shook her head.
"No." Selene sighed. "Look. I don't know how to explain it. We're friends. We get along well together. He looks out for me and doesn't ask for anything back."
"Well, I think you're giving him back plenty now." Kat scoffed.
"You're being a bitch again." Selene said sharply, which caused Kat to look up quickly with an expression of anger at the word, but she promptly cooled when she saw Selene's set jaw.
Kat sighed. "Sorry." She looked down again. "Go on. Tell me what you like about him."
Selene measured her sister for a moment. She was trying to determine what she should say that wouldn't get Kat riled up again. After a few moments of silence between them, Selene sighed, stood, and moved toward the fridge. She took out the water pitcher and placed it on the counter. Then stood on her tiptoes to reach into the cabinet next to the refrigerator and took out two glasses, which she filled with water. When she sat back down, she placed one glass in front of Kat and kept the other for herself. Then she took a long drink from it and squared up to Kat.
"He's a good person. A moral person. He thinks about the right thing to do before he does it. He's quick to apologize if he fucks up. More than apologize, really. He goes out of his way to make it right. He looks out for me, not just me but for everyone around him, even in small ways. He's the kind of person who would immediately hop in his car to go pick you up if you were stranded, even if you threatened to taze him the last time he saw you. We like a lot of the same music, and we like a lot of the same movies. Or at least he likes the stuff I introduce him to because he hasn't seen that much of it. We both like theater and we play on stage together well. We work together well off-stage and behind the scenes. And even if it weren't for this-" She tugged on her collar. "I'd still be spending all my time over here hanging out and having fun with him. Now it's just... better."
"I'll bet." Kat scoffed and took a sip of her water. Selene blushed. "It's still weird."
"What, the fuck buddy thing?" Selene asked. "Plenty of people have fuck buddies."
"Well, that, sure, and the whole..." Kat gestured broadly to Selene and ended by pointing to the plain leather collar that clasped her throat.
"You can say it." Selene smirked.
"Say what?" Kat asked and took a sip of her water.
"Sex slave. I'm his sex slave. His slut." Selene lifted her chin to show off the collar.
"Now you're just trying to make me uncomfortable." Kat spat.
"Maybe." Selene shrugged. "But I'm weird. We're all weird. And I like it."
"You really like it?" Kat asked. "You like thinking of yourself as someone else's sex slave and not... a free woman?"
"I do." Selene nodded. "It's thrilling to be able to give up control for a little while and not have to worry about anything."
"So much for feminism." Kat shook her head and sat back in her chair.
Selene sighed. "This has nothing to do with feminism, social activism, or any of that. I'm still a feminist. I'll still vote the way I want to and everything else, not that he would have stopped me or disagreed with me on any of that anyway. This is just... it's a thing between friends."
"It's weird." Kat repeated as if that were the only thing she knew how to call it.
"Maybe." Selene "But it's also relaxing. It lets me shut off and reboot. It's freeing not having to worry about anything and only living in the moment. Only fulfilling one purpose. And the sex is mind-blowing."
"Well, that part sounds amazing." Kat laughed. "The relaxing thing, I mean. I can't remember the last time I didn't have to worry about anything."
"It really, really is." Selene affirmed.
There was silence between them for a moment until Kat spoke up again. "How did it all start?"
"I've been curious about it ever since I was younger. Rachel - you remember Rachel from home, right? Her older brother had a magazine that I found one day, and... well, I've been curious about it ever since. I've been watching videos and stuff for years, but doing it in person is so much better." Selene shrugged and held her glass in front of her with her elbows on the table.
Kat seemed to want to say something but didn't comment.
"What?" Selene asked.
"I meant, well, you and Arthur. When did you two start..."
"Oh. Last night." Selene answered.
"So you lied." Kat grinned. "I knew you weren't watching Lord of the Rings - the DVDs were at our place the whole time." Kat chuckled.
"Sorry." Selene looked down. She didn't feel guilty about the sex, but she did feel guilty about having lied to her sister. "I shouldn't have lied to you or tried to keep it from you. I should have just told you what we were doing. I just... I didn't want you to judge me."
"And I made that fear come true, I guess." Kat grimaced. "I'm sorry."
Selene reached forward across the table and put her hand on Kat's. "It's okay. I was just afraid. You've always been so..."
"So, what?" Kat looked at her sister.
"Uptight." Selene shrugged.
"Uptight?" Kat sounded surprised. "You think I'm uptight?"
"You can be! Anytime I've tried to talk to you about sex before, you always act like you're uncomfortable, and you change the topic as soon as possible. You always say it's none of your business and then practically run away."
"I don't run away." Kat seemed a little defensive but tried her best to hold it back.
"Well... I said practically." Selene smirked slightly as she tried to lessen the point of the attack. She hadn't meant for Kat to feel attacked, but it needed to be said.
"Well, at least I knew where you were and knew you'd be safe here. You guys are being safe - right?" Kat asked, and this time it was her turn to look down as she practically mumbled the question.
"Oh yeah. You should have seen how fast he got me out of the restraints and ropes when you knocked. He had safety scissors and everything, and he checked in and made sure everything was safe and comfortable. And he makes sure nothing is cutting off my circulation or doing me any harm." Selene assured her sister.
Kat's face was as red as Selene had ever seen it.
"I... I meant, like, condoms." Kat explained. "That's good to know, though, that he's thought about that stuff and isn't just being a dick with power issues."
Selene laughed. "Sorry. I just went right to the kink, didn't I?"
"You really like it?" Kat asked.
"I love it." Selene responded. "It's so freeing. You have no idea. It's like I was underwater, and now I can breathe."
"It's weird." Kat said again.
"Don't knock it 'till you try it." Selene retorted. "You might be surprised what you're into when you find someone you can really... explore with."
Kat shook her head and took a sip of water to try and cool the blush that was still on her face.
"Are you jealous?" Selene asked.
Kat choked on her water and pushed the glass down onto the table as she coughed. "Am I what?"
"Are you jealous?" Selene asked again, perfectly willing to play along if Kat was trying to say she hadn't heard the question.
"Jealous?" Kat asked again. "That you're more... more experienced than I am?"
Selene shrugged but nodded. "Or maybe jealous that I found someone I can explore it with?"
"No. I'm not into him or anything. I've been trying to get you two together. Why would I be jealous?" Kat sounded incredulous.
"Not of him specifically." Selene corrected. "I mean, in general. Are you jealous that I have someone I can do this kind of thing with? That I'm getting what I want, need really, while you-"
"Careful." Kat warned.
"-Aren't." Selene finished.
"I've dated." Kat defended herself again. "I've... done things."
"Ever been spanked?"
"Selene!" Kat caught herself and stopped, raising her hand from under Selene's and putting it up in a 'stop' motion. "Sorry. Sorry. Gut reaction." She sighed. "I guess I am a little more like mom than I thought."
"God, could you imagine? She'd freak out if she knew we were even talking about this kind of thing." Selene almost laughed, almost.
"Whatever her hangups are, they're hers. We don't need to share them." Kat agreed. "So let's make a pact."
That caught Selene's attention.
"I won't tell Mom or anyone else what you guys are doing, and you do your best not to embarrass me with it, but keep in touch. Let me know that you're safe. Let me know when you're coming over here, when you're leaving here to come home, and what the plans are." Kat suggested.
"Sure. I can do that." Selene nodded. "And can you do me one more favor?"
Kat quirked an eyebrow as if to ask, 'what?'
"Educate yourself." Selene suggested. "Watch some porn, anything. Figure out what you might like and what turns you on. Masturbate. It'll help you be less uptight."
Kat grimaced but eventually broke into a sigh and said: "Fine."