Rebirth: Rise of the Slave Master

Chapter Nineteen: Clumsy

“She’s drunk.”

This was the thought that immediately came to mind when Theo reread the conversation. He’d have to be an idiot not to come to that conclusion. Just imagine, it's Valentine’s day and a woman you have no intimate relationship with texts that she’s going to show up your place. This situation reeked of drunkenness. It was possible that she was just a lonely stalker, but Theo thought he knew better. Mary Ann was cheerful and social with what had always appeared to be a well-adjusted personality. There could be kinks in Theo’s perception, naturally, though that would make him a rather poor judge of character.

Then again...

After a moment’s decision making, Theo turned to the princess, “I’m going now, guard the cave and wait for the green one to return,” he ordered.

The woman, who was still chewing on her jerky, simply nodded.

Theo shook his head tiredly and logged out of the game. The Lucid Lock menu greeted him with a polite chime as he returned to the real world, and he became aware of his slightly awkward posture on the futon. After rolling over and disconnecting, Rick stood up and looked around his apartment. It wasn’t depressingly empty, but there was a certain level of poverty apparent in his belongings. The most expensive piece of property Theo owned was the Lucid Lock, but everything else seemed to have been fished out of a thrift store.

That wasn’t too far from the truth, actually. What Rick hadn’t taken from his college dorm, he had picked up on the side of the road. It was amazing how much you could accomplish with some determination and a friend with a truck. Although the place was a little pieced together from odds and ends, it was by no means dirty. Rick didn’t use his home enough to get it too messy, instead opting to spend most of his time in the game. Whatever he dirtied was quickly cleaned by habit after a rather strict upbringing.

“Well, it’s not like I’m under any responsibility to tidy up for trespassers,” Rick chuckled to himself, though he was already in the process of doing it.

Lately, the more RIck found himself interacting with people in the real world, the more he found himself thinking of his family. In his past life, they were never on his mind that much, but he couldn’t help considering the choices he had made before and the possibility of changes this new life might let him make. It gave him an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach.

Bzzrt!

After about twenty minutes of waiting, the buzzer on his apartment wall rang loudly, drowning out his thoughts. His room was on the the first floor of a long, two-storey residential building that hugged a minor thoroughfare on the outskirts of the city’s downtown area. The whole neighborhood had been subsidized housing before a flood ravaged most of it, but the buildings had long since been refurbished. Now, the majority of the current residents were poor college grad-students, and he was grateful for how little noise they made. Excluding a few rage-fits during finals season.

Rick unbolted the lock on the door and opened it just as the buzzer went off for the second time. What he saw almost took his breath away.

Mary Ann had always been pretty, but Rick had only seen her in a work uniform. After he left the minimart the first time, he never spoke to the woman again. It wasn’t until he saw her now that all of the memories and impulses of the unrequited, boyish crush he had harbored at the time came flooding back to him.

“Rick!” Mary Ann had a sort of excited lilt to her voice that was obviously the result of her flirtations with a hearty amount of alcohol.

Her pupils were wide and her face was flushed, though it looked like she hadn’t walked too terribly far to get here. Rick felt a bit bad when he saw the pair of high heel shoes dangling from her slender fingers, and quickly moved out of the way.

“Hey, come in,” he said.

Unceremoniously she dropped her shoes on the floor and began to remove her coat.

Anatomically speaking, Rick wondered where she had hidden all of this hair? It was everywhere, instead of tied up like at work. The warm brown stood out against the soft creamy tone of her skin as it curled around her face and flowed down to the middle of her back. Her red silk dress hugged her modest breasts with a slight v-neck that showed off a hint of cleavage, and a daring seam plunged to her hips in the back. It was the type of dress that demanded in the wearer a decided amount of bravado, due in no small part to its inability to hide one’s undergarments. In this case, Mary Ann had solved the issue by simply not wearing any.

It was clearly not an outfit someone would wear on a first date. Whoever she had been planning on meeting was a lucky man.

Mary Ann snuck by him with a little wobble in her step and an expression of slight disappointment. He wondered if she had been hoping for a more jaw-dropping reaction, but Rick wasn’t the sexually inexperienced kid he appeared to be. He could thoroughly appreciate her looks without letting it show on his face, and he wanted to reveal no intention of getting into bed with her tonight.

Rick was a proud creature, and while not really a romantic, he wouldn’t tolerate becoming someone's ‘bad night booty call.' He chuckled internally at the thought as he shut the door and rebolted it.

“Wow, it’s a lot cleaner than I thought!” Mary Ann exclaimed, giving a little twirl as she inspected his living space.

Rick watched the presentation stone-faced, though he silently confirmed that the woman was a sight to behold from any angle.

“It’s home,” he said disinterestedly, taking note of something in her hands.

“You didn’t clean up just because you *hic* had a girl coming over, did you?” she playfully nudged Rick with her shoulder, and he couldn’t help but get a whiff of her perfume from the sudden bodily contact.

Rick ignored the question and pulled a brown paper bag out of her hand. Even if he wasn’t necessarily a big guy, he was still strong enough to dislodge something from her unsuspecting hands. Mary Ann opened her mouth as if to protest the sudden action, but Rick cut her off. He pulled the bag down, revealing a tall glass bottle filled with clear liquid.

“Vodka?” Rick had guessed she would bring something to drink, but he had expected a cheap wine or some other kind of fruity beverage.

“This is more serious than I thought…” he muttered internally.

Mary Ann retrieved the bottle back into her arms with a pout, turning her head, “It’s not for kids!” she chirped, smiling impishly, “Not unless they ask nicely.”

Rick almost gulped. This girl was really planning on having her way with him! What a different side of her he was seeing. He actually considered playing along with her clumsy plan for a moment, but quickly wiped the thought from his head. Rick wasn’t going to turn his apartment into a crime scene!

He was only nineteen in this life, and so Mary Ann clearly underestimated him and his adolescent libido. Rick thought it was funny considering she was only twenty-two herself.

“Alright, that’s enough from you,” he said with a slightly furrowed brow, though his tone couldn’t help but be inviting, “Are you going to tell me what you’re doing here or not?”

Mary Ann stripped the bag and threw it on the floor, triumphantly holding up the bottle of liquor.

“You ask too many questions! Drink with me!” she urged, tugging at his arm and pressing something decidedly perky against him.

Rick sighed, “You’re not going to talk to me until I do, are you?” he asked.

Mary Ann cutely shook her head, took a step back, and unscrewed the bottle. Rick could pick up the smell of cheap Vodka even from a few feet away. Without an ounce of grace, she tilted the bottle up to her lips, but Rick once again snatched it from her. This time he had to strong arm it a bit, and some of the liquor splashed on his feet.

“Not like that,” he couldn’t help but reprimand her.

He ignored her demure complaints and set the bottle on his kitchenette counter before opening a cabinet and retrieving a set of shot glasses. Being underage didn’t mean a thing to a college bachelor, and Rick had received these as a gift from a buddy on his last birthday. He didn’t know if he had ever ended up using them, though. Rick wasn’t a particularly heavy drinker.

“Sit,” he ordered, and Mary Ann shockingly did as he said.

She plopped down on the old futon and crossed her hands over her lap. Was this good-girl act supposed to be part of her seduction attempt, or was she just too drunk to protest? Rick sat next to her and placed the bottle and glasses on the little table in front of them. A piece he had proudly picked up at a yard sale for next to nothing.

“This is an interrogation, not a party. One shot, one answer, got it?” he wagged a finger at the woman, reminding him of how he treated Meatshield most of the time.

Being a Slave Master might be affecting his perception of how to deal with people in real life… Well, he had always been pretty bossy. Rick was hoping that if he could keep her talking instead of drinking, he might be able to avoid a messy situation tonight.

Mary Ann nodded eagerly, and the pair knocked back the shots of the hot, unpleasant swill with practiced motions.

“Okay, so what happened?” Rick asked with a long exhale, still airing the taste of gasoline out of his mouth.

Mary Ann opened her mouth to reply, and somehow, half an hour passed in the blink of an eye. Why was there only a third of the Vodka left?

“And then he *hic* had the balls to break up! With me! With a fucking text message!” Rick was having trouble following what Mary Ann was saying.

His face was hot, and it felt like his ears were stuffed with cotton. It wasn’t until Mary Ann slapped the table and poured him another shot that he was overcome with a panicked moment of sobriety.

“Shit! I forgot! This isn’t my old body! I can’t hold my drinks...” the thoughts passed through Rick’s head in a fleeting, elusive manner.

He still drank the shot.

Mary Ann’s body was already shoved up against his own on the small futon as they had unitentionally gravitated towards the center. There was a pleasant, warm feeling that spread through his shoulder as she rested her head on him, hair draped over his arm. Rick felt as if his heartbeat was speeding up, and he watched Mary Ann rock gently as his chest rose and fell.

How much time had just passed?

“So why did you come here?” Rick spoke slowly, unsure if he had already asked the question.

Mary Ann turned and stared at him, her eyes a bit distant while she was lost in thought. Rick immediately regretted asking the question, as the soft gaze tore into his mental defenses. He had always been most attracted to Mary Ann’s eyes, especially when she had that lively and confident look to her, but he didn’t think this was a bad change of pace either. When she finally moved to speak, he couldn’t help but redirect his vision to her moist, pink lips.

“You know, Rick, you’re a good fr-”

“Fuck it, doesn’t matter,” Rick said, cutting her off as he leaned in and stole the words from her mouth.

Neither side paid any attention to the strong alcoholic taste of the kiss, which seemed to go on for a few seconds too long, and Mary Ann collapsed against Rick’s chest when they finally parted. She was panting. One of her hands fell on his shoulder and the other in his lap, and there was only a split second glance between the two before she pulled herself up to rush headlong into another kiss.

“Mmf,” a cute noise escaped Mary Ann’s mouth as Rick pressed against her.

She ran a hand through her hair to push it behind her ear, and then delicately swept her fingers down the line of Rick’s jaw, leaving them resting against his neck. Rick’s hands grabbed her by the waist and pulled her into his lap with a surprising amount of strength, leaving her straddling him as she struggled to command more of the kiss than Rick would allow.

Tongues brushed as the hazy minded couple blissfully reveled in the feel of one another. Just as it seemed they were about to suffocate in their embrace, Rick pulled and sucked on her lower lip. Mary Ann let out a gasp as her thighs tightened around his waist, and her nails pressed into his firm skin, searching for some kind of purchase. She grabbed the collar of his shirt and stared at him with wide, hungry eyes.

The look on her face only served to ignite the carnal centers of Rick’s mind. His hands ran the length of her back, pulling up the hem of her dress as his fingers explored the woman’s supple curves through the thin fabric. Mary Ann’s tender lips locked with his own and after a moment she sank her teeth into his bottom lip, seemingly pleading for more.

Rick gently pulled away, his breath grazing her cheek and sending a warm, tingling sensation washing over her body. Taking advantage of the slight recoil, Rick’s mouth pounced on her delicate, exposed neck. The flushed skin was quickly drawn tight.

“Ahn!” Mary Ann let out a moan.

The surprise motion sent Mary Ann’s spine straightening and she snapped her head back. He relentlessly teased the sensitive skin below her jaw and she involuntarily bucked against him. When she felt the second quick bite coming, her grip tightened and her chest heaved.

Rick felt as if a hot wire was burning his skull, driving him to kiss and pull and possess more of the woman on his lap. It wasn’t enough to say he was excited as his arms supported the small of Mary Ann’s back, her hips gently rocking. The more he teased her the more fervent her movements grew, until he felt her fingers running through his messy hair. When they tightened and pulled, his mouth moved down her neck and he found himself toying with her collarbone.

As if she couldn’t stand the sudden stimulation, Mary Ann pulled on Rick’s head and dislodged him. Before he could send her mind reeling any further, she cut off that dangerous tongue of his with her own. The barriers between the two fell one after the other as they exchanged hurried breaths and their greedy hands began wandering. Rick could feel the slender fingers tugging at his shirt as the fabric was rolled up and something ticklish dove beneath it to caress his bare skin.

Mary Ann’s dress was pulled past her hips as his own hand returned the favor. It was like lighting a match, and the woman shuddered under his touch. There was a whirlwind brushing past Rick’s ears as Mary Ann tore the shirt up over his head and pressed her lips against his chest. She ran her mouth up his sternum and licked at his neck playfully. The heat that was filling his lower body was almost unbearable, and he felt a welcome relief in the pressure as the button on his pants was undone.

“Mary Ann,” Rick said with a heavy breath as she began prying at his zipper.

Even if he’d had a bit to drink, the barrage of overwhelming sensations had restored at least some of his sensibility. Rick was still single in this life, and had been for a while. He was living alone and hadn’t been planning on female company this evening. How could he have possibly been stocked with the necessary precautions?

Before he could force the Mary Ann’s skillful hands off of him, something hot fell over his shoulder and ran down his back. An awful smell immediately assaulted his nose, and the raging libido was doused in cold reality.

She threw up on him.

“Mmn… Rick…” Mary Ann was murmuring peacefully on the futon when Rick finished washing off.

The woman had scrambled to the bathroom seconds after the incident and stumbled out a short while later spouting one rampant and incoherent apology after the other. Not sure what else to do with her, Rick patiently calmed her down. She passed out almost as soon as her head hit the futon.

His own head, among other things, was throbbing, but it wasn’t a problem that couldn’t be fixed by a shower. Since he felt uncomfortable leaving her out there alone, he only took as much time as he needed and left the bathroom with a sober look on his face.

When he checked the clock, Rick was surprised by how little time had actually passed. He leaned against the wall with a sigh, skull still buzzing. The bizarre affair had only taken an hour, but left what could be weeks worth of awkwardness. At least it could have, but Rick didn’t dwell on these things. Although others might complain about the mess she had made, Rick found such a woman compelling in her unsightliness.

He was understandably averse to anyone who tried to hide their motives, but Mary Ann had ended up showing him a refreshingly human scene. The little flame he’d harbored for her was long gone, but in its place a genuine interest had taken hold. Not that anything would come of it. Rick didn’t want, nor did he have the luxury, to date. Few outside of weirdos like himself would qualify this as a pleasant experience. On the other hand, he’d be lucky if Mary Ann was able to look him in the eye again.

Rick tossed what remained of the crime scene in the garbage and pulled the spring on the futon. The creaking metal monstrosity promptly unfolded from couch size to bed size, but the jarring movement and loud noise failed to rouse the sleeping woman in the slightest. She rolled over and mumbled something as her arms locked one of his pillows in a vicegrip.

“Looks like I was worried for no reason,” he mumbled as he fell on the virgin half of the futon.

Rather than allow himself to sink into the peaceful embrace of exhaustion, he pulled the Lucid Lock helmet over his eyes.

It was the first pang of guilt he had felt all night.