Chapter 17- Invited

"July ninth."

"No kidding," Lupe excitedly replied. "Mine's July tenth!"

They were exchanging birthdays, which Richard found to be a trivial exchange considering that he had just had the best sex anyone in the fullness of time had ever had. It had been very late when dinner and drinks and then dessert and then more drinks at another bar had ended, but once he got home he was able to shake off the superficial nonsense that had clung to him all night. Lupe had been waiting in his bed for him, although she had been asleep when he finally came home.

He would have been perfectly content to just hold her for a while before falling asleep himself, but she woke up when he turned on the light in the bathroom to get undressed. She told him to hurry up and get undressed because she had been waiting for him. Waiting for him and wanting him and dreaming of him.

Richard had stripped as quickly as he could to join her under the covers. Lupe was warm and soft and giving and gentle. She was everything that the city wasn't. It had been the most natural thing when he had climbed on top of her. It wasn't like he had fantasized about in his masturbation sessions; there had been no spanking or roughness or forcefulness. Instead they embraced and kissed and held each other as closely as possible.

She had called him Richard. It wasn't a game for her either. It was much more real than the artifice of metal and steel that he was trapped within. Holding her yielding and receptive body to his as he thrust into her was liberating.

Being inside of her wholly felt like what he was made for, that there was nothing else on the entire planet that was more correct for him than being with her. Each and every movement they made together went beyond pleasure and into the realm of the ethereally divine.

I'm in love, Richard realized. He also realized that he had never been in love before. Or anything even in the ballpark. "We can celebrate together," he mumbled absently and put his face into her tousled hair and sighed happily. Never leave me, he thought as inhaled her scent. She smelt faintly of vinegar.

Lupe happily snuggled against him. "What shall we do?"

"Go dancing," he immediately answered. He had gone dancing in Marseille before he was sent to Germany. The women there had been overjoyed to see him and the other soldiers and practically fought to take their turns with the young men in the crowded tavern. It was the happiest he had felt up until this moment and he figured he may as well combine the two sensations.

Lupe giggled a little. "I don't think your wife would appreciate that very much."

Richard's bubble of bliss popped at the mention of Dorothy. If she knows I love Lupe, Lupe will be in much more danger than she is now. As it stood Dorothy tolerated Lupe as a vessel for Richard's 'perversions' but if she suspected it ran deeper than that she would feel much more threatened. I have to placate Dorothy and lead her to believe that Lupe isn't a threat until I get enough money together to divorce her.

"It's only March, we still have several months to go. Hopefully things will be different by then," Richard whispered into her ear.

Lupe took her hand in her and held it to her chest. "I know the perfect place to go. There's so much I want to do with you."

He could feel the beat of her heart. He wanted to protect her and keep her safe and now what he was no longer limited by his body he could. Yet within his own home lay the greatest danger to her. Dorothy was very capable of lashing out violently and he was putting Lupe in harm's way by daring to love her.

Damnation, I'm going to have to start sleeping with Dorothy again, he unhappily concluded. Richard was aware that it was not a long term solution. But he didn't care to think about the future, at least not right now. The present was too seductive.

Richard turned off the bedside lamp. I'll pull out though, Richard compromised with himself. No children. He successfully finished outside of Lupe so it should be a cakewalk to manage that with Dorothy.

Lupe let out a slight sigh of irritation. "Ugh, don't you hate it when you are just about to fall asleep but you can't because you must use the toilet?" She scooted out of his arms and rolled out of bed.

"I've often thought they had it right in the old days, you know? Just have a little bucket to piss in by the bed." Richard was only half joking. Getting out of bed with his wounds had been a frustratingly painful experience.

"Yeah, and who's got to empty that? Me, that's-" Lupe suddenly gasped in surprise.

Richard sat straight up. "What is it?" Dorothy with an ax?

"It's, it's glowing, like your eyes," Lupe stammered. "Your fluid."

So it was. He could see it now on her stomach, a smear of lightly glowing yellowish semen. "What in the hell?" Richard exclaimed and turned the lamp on.

The glowing disappeared in the light. Lupe put her finger in it and brought it up to her face to inspect it. "Looks normal now," she observed.

"Don't touch it!" Richard said, half-panicked. I've poisoned her, I've traded what was left of my soul to be able to walk again and she's going to pay the price! What that price was exactly was unknown, however.

Lupe laughed. "I've done a lot more than touch it, now haven't I? I don't think it will do anything to me that hasn't already been done to you." She sniffed the sample on her finger. "Smells normal."

"Ah, no, don't, don't put it in your mouth," Richard protested as she flicked her tongue onto her finger.

Lupe laughed again. "Swallow my fluid, Lupe," she mocked him lightly concerning his behavior earlier that day. "It's fine. It's probably good for me like the way it is good for you. Did you notice that the cut on my cheek healed overnight after you kissed me there?"

"I don't know, is it really good for me? Look what it's done to my eyes and to my semen," he pointed out.

"You don't have the pain anymore, you can move normally, you're restored," Lupe argued as she walked into the bathroom. "A little bit of a glow is a small price to pay."

He shook his head. "This isn't right, I shouldn't have done this," he slowly said.

"How about you go and get a second opinion?" Lupe suggested while presumably peeing. "You go to a different doctor and not one in the Medical Pavilion. There was a doctor who'd do work for us when I was in the dormitory. Disgraced or something and got thrown out of the Medical Pavilion, but he seemed smart enough and I don't think he was dishonest about our medical problems."

Richard sighed and laid back in bed. "Disgraced how?" None of his options were appealing but at least this one had some logic behind it.

Lupe came out of the bathroom. "I went in for an ear infection and he insisted on taking photos of me in my slip for 'research' purposes. But the medicine he gave me worked and he didn't charge me much for it."

"That's awful," Richard huffed as Lupe climbed back into bed. He protectively put his arms around her to retroactively protect her. "I think I'd rather give him a sock in the jaw than utilize his services."

"Please don't, he's the only doctor women like me can afford," she replied and nestled against him. "I don't want to scare him out of the business."

Is there a single decent doctor down here? Probably the ones who had no issues with oaths and review boards stayed on the surface. "Alright, I'll see him," he assented and turned the lamp off.

"Good," Lupe drowsily replied. "I bet everything is…well, maybe not normal, but healthy."

What even is healthy? Richard mused while listening to Lupe's soft slumbering breaths. Is it healthy to have this glow even if I have my legs back? Did I just trade one ailment for another? He felt fine; better than fine, he felt like the pinnacle of health and that he could take the entirety of Rapture on in a fight. But it could very well wear off in a few weeks or days or even hours. And there was no telling how his fluid may affect Lupe internally.

Richard shifted in bed. Suddenly he could no longer find a comfortable position to lay in. Despite his bodily weariness from the long day and vigorous intercourse he found it impossible to fall asleep.

Would you kindly imagine a page break here?

Annette's and Robert's invitation to move to Rapture last year could not have come at a better time. They were both facing multiple civil lawsuits concerned alienation of affection and libel and other forms of busybody rubbish from the women that Annette had helped Robert seduce and the men who had been cuckolded. When promised of a city where a person's personal business remained personal neither could resist the offer.

She and Robert had been running a nightclub in Atlantic City for nearly a decade. They made a tidy sum from the legitimate side of the business, but the money they made from the backroom gambling was the real cherry. It would have been even more too, but so many of their greenbacks walked out of the door in the pockets of the cops for the privilege of keeping their gambling den open.

So personally and professionally, Rapture was a paradise for the couple. Robert's casino, Lucky Duck, had raked in so much over the past year that he was opening a second property, Luckier Duck, in the next month. The Luckier Duck had five floors of rooms, three gambling floors, and a bar/restaurant. It also had amenities for her and Robert's amusement as well, but none of those were in the advertisements.

And personally they had been thriving as well. Annette considered herself the luckiest duck in the whole wide world that she had found a man who shared her passion for mischief. And as there were no legal repercussions in Rapture for their brand of interpersonal mischief she and Robert were staring down a virtual smorgasbord of fun.

Annette had quickly and correctly identified Muriel as the easiest target and plotted with Robert how to knock her down a peg or two or three. Rapture was stuffed to the brim with beautiful and charming women who were desperate for social mobility and financial security. Annette and Robert worked together to plot the destruction of Muriel's marriage. And now they were looking for another fun project.

Originally Annette had not considered Dorothy to be a potential target; her crippled husband did not hold too much potential for entertainment due to both his cane and his long working hours, but the arrival of that saucy maid caused Annette to reevaluate the situation. Dorothy was obsessed with appearances and watching her slide into an ever-deepening river of denial was highly amusing to Annette.

From day one it was evident why Richard had retained the services of the 'maid' and it was even more clear that Dorothy was going to pretend as though it wasn't happening. Watching Dorothy pretend to not notice her husband smoldering gazes at the maid during the dinner party had been more entertaining than anything on the radio. Just to be certain that the maid was in on it as well she had paid the chef to do a bit of interrogation and Annette was pleased to find out that the maid was indeed screwing Richard.

Once she shared the lurid story with Robert he expressed his desire to have his way with the saucy little maid. Annette was, as always, happy to help her husband achieve his desires. They made such a great team and Annette took special pride in procuring for her husband whatever it was he desired. She didn't know exactly how she would do it, but as she rang the doorbell to the Stone's residence that afternoon she had a starting point.

"Good afternoon," the maid greeted her sans emotion or interest.

"Yes," Annette impatiently replied and tossed her coat at her.

"Annette dear, what a pleasant surprise. If I had known you were coming I'd have the place cleaned up a bit better," Dorothy greeted her as she came down the hall.

"Oh, don't bother, I'm sure your maid already has enough on her hands," Annette simply said.

Dorothy's jaw clenched in an almost imperceptible manner. "Please, come into the sitting room. Lupe, bring us some of those nice little cookies, hm?"

The maid wordlessly went to the kitchen. Annette followed Dorothy into the front room and made herself comfortable on the settee. There was a dirty cup sitting on the coffee table and Dorothy sighed in exasperation when she noticed it.

"Goodness, I don't know what we pay that woman for," she muttered.

"Now Dorothy, I'm sure she was up all night taking care of things around here. Sometimes I don't think we appreciate our servants enough," Annette sweetly said. "After all, what are we going to do without them? Can you imagine me doing the washing up or you cleaning the toilet?" Annette gave a cheery laugh.

Dorothy also laughed but it was markedly forced. "How dreadful, yes. How is uh-" Dorothy stammered as she tried to find something to change the subject to. "The casino, your casino, Robert's casino, how is the grand opening coming along?"

"Still planned for the seventh," Annette answered. "In fact I just got the invitations back from the engravers today."

"It must be lovely working so closely with your husband. Why, I'd die of boredom if I tried to do it with Richard. All those charts and numbers, talk about a dull time," Dorothy said, gladly seizing upon the new topic of conversation. "How are the invitations? I do assume you have one for me, I am looking forward to it and Richard is too. Did I tell you his leg is completely better now?"

Annette's ears perked up at this. "No, you didn't. Well, that's just amazing, isn't it? How'd the maid - I mean, you, my dear, goodness, I must have maids on the mind – how are you taking his sudden return to mobility?"

The look of concealed rage on Dorothy's face was delicious. "It's been a dream, it's like we are newlyweds again," she slowly said through gritted teeth.

"Fantastic, just fantastic." Annette opened her handbag. "I have one for you and Richard, of course. And one for your maid as well."

Annette could almost hear Dorothy's mind come to a screeching halt at the last sentence. "I'm sorry, what?" Dorothy said, stunned.

"Well, weren't we just talking about how little we appreciate our help? I thought this would be a fun way of letting them know how much we appreciate all they do for us and our husbands. A fun night out, right? You couldn't possibly have a problem with that, now could you Dorothy?"

Dorothy coldly stared at Lupe as she entered the room with the tea service in hand. "No, no I don't," she icily replied. "It's just that I am concerned that it may be a burden on her to find a suitable dress, that's all."

"Let's ask her, shall we? Lupe, right? Lupe, would you find it difficult to pull together an appropriate outfit for a night at a casino?" Annette asked the maid as she set the service down on the coffee table.

"I do not believe so, ma'am," the maid answered perkily. "I know an excellent place to get used but still fashionable clothing, and the Stones are kind enough to pay me a generous salary."

"Then it's settled," Annette declared with true excitement in her voice as she handed the maid an invitation. "Please come to the grand opening of our new casino and hotel. It even includes an overnight stay in one of our brand new rooms. Who knows, perhaps you'll strike it lucky at the roulette table and win enough to quit your day job."

The maid read the invitation. "Thank you very much Mrs. Turner, I am already looking forward to it."

"Great," Dorothy remarked through gritted teeth. "As am I. We will all have a wonderful time, I'm sure."

Annette knew it in her mischievous little heart that they'd have a wonderful time indeed. At least she and Robert would.