Protecting Heather

This is a work of fantasy and fiction. The author does not condone any sexual activity among persons under legal age in real life.

Oliver found himself sitting in the lab, but he couldn’t remember how he’d got there.  Everything appeared just as he remembered it.  He knew he should be checking something but couldn’t remember what.

Then he saw Chani.

“Hello, Oliver.” She said to him in that beautiful, proper Indian English accent of hers.  And she was beautiful, her eyes dark and dancing, matching her smile. She from a wealthy, upper cast family in India. The two of them had worked together for two years on this new polymer.

He felt an ache for those years at Oxford.

So conservative.  You would never answer any of my gentle hints out of strict obedience to your upbringing and position.  But oh, how her eyes would dance when I tried.  She wanted me to keep trying, even though, she could never answer me and keep her family.

Then Oliver got confused.  “Chani… you look so beautiful today, but… how?  I.. I remember… something.”  The accident.  The terrible accident.  “Chani, you’re dead.”

The smile faded from Chani’s face. Then the color, as she turned grey.  She placed her cold hand on his.  “I’m sorry, but I really must go.” She said, then turned and began to walk out of the lab.  And then the explosion, dark as far as explosions go, but the brief flash outlined her body in shadow and smoke.

Oliver woke with a start, tears streaming down his face.  

Chani.  I loved you, and we’re forever saying goodbyes.

The world outside was off to a bright morning.  He took a moment to collect his thoughts. And to reorient himself to reality outside the dream.  He was a fairly successful, physically devastated, reclusive engineer, who happened to be keeping all to himself the most wonderful, intelligent, and beautiful young lady.  

He took stock of himself then.  He was increasingly aware of the shift in his world view, as his old self slowly eroded away.  Once upon a time, the world was a hostile place that he hid from and dealt with at a distance.  It was a place he handled through agents, contractors, and brokers.  His fantasy world below had been the dead husk of a fevered dream, a hollow hope.

Now, over the course of the weeks, he had come to think of the apartments below as his real world.  He realized, as he looked out across the forest preserve, that his heart beat for his princess in her inverted tower.

It’s time… Time to let go of the past. After checking his monitor to ensure that Heather was still peacefully dreaming, he found himself in front of his bathroom mirror.  Slowly, carefully, he unzipped and removed the mask.  He carefully shaved  those places that still bore hair, washed and dried off carefully.  Everything he did with his mask off, he did carefully.  

He felt the cool morning air on his skin…  and left the mask off for a time. It was a sensation that had become somewhat rare for him over the past decade. Seen from the right side, his face almost looked normal.  From the left, however, the ruin, the remains, and the rework were clearly visible.

How many skin grafts? How many operations?  There wasn’t much pain there.  That required working nerves.  What the doctors had reconstructed of his bone structure served it’s function but not the form.  

I have paid a heavy price, but others paid far more.  He thought.  Turning to his closet, he withdrew an ornate wooden box.  With a moment’s hesitation, he opened it.  Inside was the half-mask that covered only the injured side of his face, leaving as much of his ‘good’ side exposed as the skilled craftsman who worked the mask for him could manage. Completed only the month prior, he had not yet opened the box except to inspect the work itself.

Removing it from the box, Oliver surveyed the work again, turning it this way and that. Sebastian has outdone himself with this.  He noted the wire inlays, the plastic portions that would give the mask some structure without needing the full encasement that the prior masks had relied on.  The silicone  strips that would help secure it in place.

He put it on. Carefully.  He couldn’t help himself but to turn his head all the way to the left, so that he could see his right side.  He noted that he looked a bit older than he remembered himself being.  He had become a stranger to himself.

Visible in profile, like a journey to the hidden dark side of the moon was the covered side of the mask.  He pivoted his head slowly, imagining what an astronaut would report back to Earth as he surveyed that far, dark, and cratered country.

Overall, the new mask left him feeling exposed.  He had to get used to living without the feeling of protection that the more complete mask had afforded him.  He had a moment’s insight into just how much living behind the mask had affected him.

Picking up his old, faithful mask he had a moment’s impulse to swap masks again, to go back to what was comfortable.  But he filled his heart with determination, and instead, put the old mask into the box instead.  With one more look at his left side in the mirror, he nodded a greeting to the familiar stranger in the mirror before turning to greet the day.

--------------------

When he first walked in that morning with his half-mask, Heather gasped, thinking a stranger had entered her apartment. Since she was treated to the right side of his face, the mask was almost invisible.  If it hadn’t been for the breakfast tray, and the beaming smile he wore, she almost wouldn’t have know him.

“Hi, Honey. Good Morning!” he said on the way to the table.  She, however, was speechless.

As usual, he came over to release her.  Finally, she found her voice. “Oh, honey… I can SEE you!  You’re so… handsome!” And it was true… he had fine features, kind eyes… everything.  

“I’m glad you like it” he replied.  Then she noticed how fragile his smile was… eggshell thin.  

I can see him!

(Yes, and he’s watching you seeing him.)

Why is he so worried behind his smile?

(He is seeing his reflection in your eyes.)

He’s so handsome!  

(He’s very exposed.)

What happened to him?

(*Silence*)

“Honey…  can I…?” she asked, and her newly released hand extended above her, hovering by his right cheek, asking…   

He winced, but held firm.  She took this for assent, as she slowly brought her fingers closer, until finally they touched his cheek.  He closed his eyes, not breathing, as her palm lay flat on his cheek, and along the side of his face.  She felt every contour of his face, being careful not to venture close to that other half.  She sensed that this would be too much, right now.

“How… how did it happen?” she asked.  

He took her wandering hand, kissed it, and gently placed it on the other side of the mask.  Her breath hitched as she slowly, gently felt along it.  His right side was alive, and real.  This side was hard, even for soft leather. The contours were irregular.  She gasped when she felt the indents of the imperfect repairs.  

“I was working in the lab.  I was promising chemical engineering student.  We were working on a new polymer.  It was going to be revolutionary.  As it turned out, it was, too.  But there were many false starts, wrong paths…  Some of the chemicals were very caustic.  Some were carcinogenic.  Others were just really bad to have around water.  Like the water in skin.  Properly reacted and combined, they would be safe as houses.  But there was a flaw in the reaction vessel.”  His eyes had gotten distant with memory.

“We had maybe 5 seconds warning.  Not enough time to know it for what it was.  Pressure spiked, and the vessel exploded.  One of my fellow research students, Akai, was killed instantly.  I had just enough reaction time to turn my head away, and shielded my eyes. But my face… the chemicals made fast work of it.  I was disoriented.  I couldn’t find the wash station.  And the air itself became a toxic haze.  It was all I could do to get out.”

He didn’t tell her how he had held Chani’s hand.  How she had coughed from the heavy elements she had inhaled.  How he had left his own bed to find her (and how one nurse actually helped him do it).  He held her hand in the Intensive Care Unit, with her intubated and unable to speak. Her eyes spoke to him then… of regret, of love, and then… of fear.  As she slipped away he openly professed his love, and she gripped his hand.  She was gone before her family could arrive, and they wanted nothing to do with him.  In their grief, they took her body away long before the doctors were done with him.

He looked at Heather then, the pain etched in his face. “Later at the hospital, they did what they could, but the chemicals had done a lot of damage to this side of my face.”

“Does it still hurt?” she asked sympathetically, imagining the horror of the accident.

“Only when I look at it.  Or sometimes, when someone else does.”  He reached out, brushed her cheek, then directed her face to his. “But not when you do.”  

She threw her arms around his neck, pulling him down into a kiss, and he found himself laying beside her, feeling her fingers tracing over his good side.

“Honey?” she asked, suddenly embarrassed, face flushed red and looking away.

“Yes, baby doll?”

“I think… maybe… I think I’m… ready.  For you.”  She flashed him a grin, and wiggled in close beneath him.

“Well…”   He let his hands rove down her torso, around her front and cupping her crotch.  His eyes locked deeply into hers.  “I think we should make it special.  Tonight.”

She giggled, her hand on his chest.  “You’re going to make me wait?!”

“Hey, I have to wait too.  It will make it even better, I promise. I must ask something of you.”

“Oh?  What is it?” she gave him an impish grin.

“Wear the red dress with the black lace panties, matching hose and garters.”  His eyes got a smoky, intense look that tightened up her stomach muscles.  

In a daze, she heard herself answer breathily. “Yes, Daddy.  For you.”  

With a last kiss, and some effort, he pulled himself away.  “Let’s make breakfast, before I lose control right here and now, and spoil the evening.”   

Oh!  “Mmmmmm…  you make it hard to wait.”  

He broke out into a real laugh.  “Oh no… Don’t think you can bait me with clever double entendre. Come on, eggs this morning, your turn to cook.”

His arm around her, they walked towards the kitchenette.

“Show me again how to flip it all at once?”

“Oh, I’ll definitely flip it all at once!” he grinned.

“How is THAT fair!  You said that I couldn’t…”  and he stopped her in mid sentence with a sudden and deep, toe curling kiss.   

They ate in bashful silence for a while, the air hanging heavy with anticipation. He sat wondering if he’d pushed things too fast, before reminding himself that she’d brought it up.  It was at that moment that he felt her bare foot slowly gliding up the inside of his pant leg.

Looking up from his plate, he found her innocently looking over her portion of the morning paper, her face set in prim contemplation, as her foot worked its way higher nearly to his knee before returning to stroke him again.  She glanced up, met his eyes briefly and broke out into a huge grin before returning to her game of footsie under the table.

“Try what you will, baby. But we’re waiting until tonight.  Just imagine how wet I’m going to make you.  How hot you’re going to be.  Hot and puffy swollen and needing me.  And I’m going to enter your body.”  He could see that her breathing was getting more ragged as he distracted her.  Her foot stopped for a moment as she groaned, but then she forged on.

“You’re going to feel me slide into you, moving past that point where no one and nothing has been before.  I’m going to fill you completely.  You’re going to feel me stretch you from the inside, and you’ll quiver.  Your whole body will ache for me, and I’ll be inside you.”

She closed her eyes involuntarily and pictured the scene.  She squirmed on her chair.  “Ohhhhhh….”

“Tonight.  Just wait until tonight.  I think, breakfast is over. Come with me.”

She looked at him and for the first time, he saw her raw hunger, her need.  Yes, she was ready.  She stood from the table.

He walked with her across the carpet to the open area in front of the couch.

“Kneel on the floor.”  He said.  She knelt, her knees shaky and suddenly weak.  “Wait here.” he said.

He was gone only a minute in the other room, then he returned.  

“I will show you how you will wait for me tonight.  Cross your ankles, and spread your knees apart.  Wider, until they’re at a 90 degree angle.”

She felt her crotch dampen as she did, spreading her legs for him.

“Back straight.  Eyes lowered… look at the bottom of the sofa if that helps.  Don’t look at my eyes until I invite you to. Now, place your hands on your thighs. Yes, that’s good, right there. At five o’clock, be dressed in your red dress, black panties, matching hose and garters, high heels… And waiting for me, just like this. Ok?”

“Yes.”  her heart was hammering in her chest.

He reached into his back pocket, and with a metallic clinking sound, he produced a pair of handcuffs.

“And you’ll have these on, behind your back. Ok?”

“Yes.”

“When we’re like this, call me ‘Sir’”  He smiled gently but firmly.

“Yes, sir”.

He handed her the handcuffs.  She looked them over, transfixed.  She applied one side to her right wrist. The cold feel of the metal on her wrist was a shock.  She then looked back up at him, spellbound.

“Look at me, in my eyes, and don’t look away”

She looked at him, and was quickly lost in his depths.  “Yes, sir.”

“Now reach around back, and cuff your other wrist. Keep your eyes on me as you do.  Just feel the cuff and slide it into place.”

She did as he asked, feeling a bit awkward. Finally she felt the ratcheting clicks as the cuff tightened.  She felt her wrists connected together, making her feel powerless and light headed and hot everywhere.  She had never willingly bound herself before.

“Wait like this until I come.  You won’t know how long you have to wait.“

“Yes, sir.”

“Until tonight.  Don’t touch yourself.  Save it all up for tonight.  Understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Think about me filling you up.”

“Yes, sir!” and she audibly groaned, the promised ache forming in the pit of her stomach.

“We will be together… you… me… our bodies and our minds moving as one.”

“Ohhh…. Yes, sir!”

“I’ll have you bound and helpless and tickled and gasping.  Straining and grunting and we’ll be loving each other.”

“Y...Y… Yes sir!” Heather felt faint, as if she might swoon right there.  Her heart was pounding and she couldn’t get enough air into her lungs.

“Now, I have to go, and you have your studies. I won’t come down for lunch.  But I’ll be back for dinner.  And… desert.”  His smile turned wicked with lustful promise.  Yet somehow there was still that background of gentleness that drew her to him.

“Yes, sir!”

He waited a minute, her eyes still locked with his.  He could see her eyes becoming increasingly restless, the inherent need in her eyes to scan, to seek, but she quickly brought them back to him.  And back to him again.   The handcuffs clinked behind her back as she swayed.

“Until tonight, then, my darling. I love you, Baby.”

“Yes, sir.  I love you too, Daddy!”  and a big grin spread across her face, and still her eyes remained locked on his.

“Now close your eyes, and let yourself drift in your mind.”   And she did, sighing with release.

He reached out, stroked her cheek, and she leaned against his hand, feeling warm and dizzy and blissful.  He unlocked the cuffs, folded them up, and placed them on the coffee table.

He ran his fingers through her hair, clearing a few strays back behind her ear, and her breath came quicker.  Then tearing himself away, he turned and resolutely left, closing the door behind him.

She remained in her waiting posture for some minutes, her eyes closed, feeling like she was floating on air as she knelt there with her legs spread for him.  Her ankles crossed for him. With an effort she arose and started school for the day.