Caroline aimed her death stare at the student. Silent and still, like a predator waiting for prey to be in the perfect position, Caroline waited for him to make his move. Ben squirmed in his seat, facing the Head Teacher across her desk, not wanting either choice before him.

"Okay" he relented. "I'll go see the social worker every week and do what she says." He sighed. He knew when to make the best of a bad situation. He'd been doing it all his life. "And I'll clean up what I wrote on the wall of the gym."

"Thank you." Caroline's gaze changed to something more supportive and friendly. "The maintenance team will give you the right tools and will help you to clean it up. They're expecting you to visit them this afternoon, so perhaps you could do that now before your mathematics class." She dropped her chin to look over her glasses at him, "You also have detention for a week. Don't do it again."

Annafrid stood up and motioned Ben to do the same. "I'll see you on Tuesdays at 11am in my office."

"Yes miss."

Ben left the office and Annafrid closed the door behind him. She was grinning when she turned to face Caroline, who took off her glasses and leaned back in her chair. They were both trying not to laugh in case Ben could hear them through the door as he left the office.

"For heaven's sake. What was he thinking, that 'Ben woz here' wouldn't get him into trouble? Idiot." Caroline snorted.

Annafrid laughed. "Thank you for doing that. He wouldn't have accepted option B if you hadn't threatened him with detention in here every night for a month. That just terrified him."

"I know. I've never understood it, but 15 year olds can scare easily I've found." She chuckled. "Thank you for offering to take him under your wing. I gather from your email that things are tough for him at home at the moment."

"Yeah. Not something a 15 year old should have to deal with, but that's how it is." Annafrid took a breath and the mood of the room changed. The two women looked at each other and there was a sly smile on Caroline's face that invited more.

"So..."

"So..." Annafrid clutched at her courage. "Would you like to have coffee with me?"

Caroline observed Annafrid while she contemplated her answer. She knew there was chemistry between them, but didn't want the difficulties of getting into something with someone from school. Too many problems, too much like last time. But god this woman was heating her blood, which felt like it was sizzling rather than circulating around her arteries. Duty vs desire; never a good match and often a disastrous outcome. While Caroline was calculating risk vs reward, Annafrid was gently shifting her hips, moving her weight from one leg to another. It was captivating in its subtlety, a movement that caught Caroline's attention as she dropped her gaze to the seductive swaying of the hips just in front of her.

Caroline looked up to examine Annafrid's face. "Is this really what you want? It comes with complications because of our positions here." She wanted to be really clear that this was coming from Annafrid, and not from herself, the person in power.

"I know. I don't want anything serious, but this is seriously tempting for me. I think we're both adult enough to manage this, don't you?"

"Okay." Caroline paused in thought. "We need to have some rules though, don't you think? Just to clarify things so it doesn't get messy. Neither of us needs more problems."

Annafrid subconsciously licked her bottom lip. "Well, I do like a woman who takes charge, and I'm happy with rules."

Caroline's eyebrows shot up under her fringe. "Really? Interesting." She smirked. "Perhaps something can be arranged. When were you thinking, because I'm not thinking of coffee any more?"

Annafrid squirmed, the heat between her legs growing by the second. "I'm free most nights, and I live alone."

Caroline swallowed. "That's convenient." Tonight Flora was with Greg and she remembered that her mum and Alan were at Gillian's tonight too, so that would work. No evidence and no questions were what she was after. Against her better judgement and not wanting time to second-guess her decision for pleasure, she boldly decided the sooner the better. "I'm free tonight, if you like. If that would suit you."

Annafrid breathed with excitement. "Great. I'll write down my address. 6pm?" She almost sashayed the few steps to Caroline's desk, picked up a pen and wrote her address on the notepad.

Caroline was close enough to catch the tall woman's perfume and she could even smell the faint scent of arousal. Her nostrils flared and her temperature rose markedly. She had a sudden need for the time to be 6pm already.

Annafrid dropped the pen on the desk, looked Caroline in the eye and her lips opened. "Until six then." She nodded and strode out of the office, not looking back.

Caroline sat at her desk, stunned, wondering what had just happened. Never in her life had she negotiated s*x like that, but that's what it was. A negotiation. And that's what it was about; s*x. It left her shocked at her own behaviour, another side of herself becoming apparent. Perhaps this was another closet for her to come out of, that of the s*xually confident player. Her body seemed to be dictating the rules this time around, rather than her head or her heart. It's a ride, a risky one she thought to herself. Roll on 6pm.

.

.

It was a quiet street in a small town, not one in which you would expect a slightly sordid s*xual arrangement to be coming to fruition. She didn't know how else to label it; Halifax hunger games? It was 5.50pm and Caroline was sitting in her Jeep a short walk from Annafrid's house, tapping on the steering wheel wondering what the hell she was still doing there. She had nearly turned around twice during the short drive from her house. She had driven like a little old lady, fearful that being pulled over by the police would immediately render her suspicious for the level of anxiety she exuded from every pore. Player indeed, she scoffed to herself.

She felt like she was sweating fear, although she was sure it was also mixed in with as many pheromones as her body could produce. She ran through the list of 16 androstenes in her head, rolling the word androstadienone around on her tongue, knowing that her beloved chemistry and a dash of lists would help to calm her.

Caroline also knew that while she had a natural propensity to be in charge, it didn't always appear in the bedroom. This was going to be a first, to do it on demand rather than responding to how they were both feeling on the day. She'd of course found a few minutes to do some research when she got home - this was not the topic to investigate on a school laptop - so had a vague idea of what might be expected, but how she would actually feel about it once they got going was a mystery. The situation made her nervous. The lengths she was now prepared to go to for pleasure was a surprise.

She stepped out of the car, automatically brushed at her pants, picked up her bag and strode towards Annafrid's house. She was going to need all the faux confidence she could manage if she was going to play this game. Noticing that her hand was shaking when she went to push the doorbell, Caroline shook out her hands and tried to loosen up her shoulders while she waited. It didn't take long.

Annafrid opened the door with a nervous smile. Relieved to see Caroline looked nervous too, she laughed quietly. "Hi. Come in." She opened the door wide and Caroline stepped inside.

The first thing Caroline noticed was the floral smell. Plants and flowers were everywhere. It was like a small forest had taken root in the house and it had the humidity of a terrarium. Ever practical, all she could think about was how sweaty this was going to make the evening. She had weird thoughts of f**king in forests racing through her mind, wondering if this was some sort of kink she hadn't expected tonight when Annafrid broke into her fear-driven escapade with the prosaic.

"Would you like a drink?"

"Sure. Something strong would be good, thank you."

"White? Red? Or would you prefer a whiskey? I have some Laphroaig if you like."

"The red would be good to start, thanks. Interesting habitat you have created. Very green." Caroline mentally kicked herself for such a mundane conversation, but she was happy not to be tripping over her tongue at this point.

"Yeah, my ex was a gardener and I picked up the habit. I wouldn't want to live without them now." They moved through to the kitchen at the back of the house, which was more dated with a light apricot paint and a funky table and chairs that didn't match. It was more in keeping with what she assumed would be the style of a social worker, not that she really knew what that was.

Annafrid opened the bottle of red on the kitchen bench and poured a glass for Caroline, who guzzled half of it before looking up and taking in the tall woman before her. "Sorry. I'm a bit nervous, I have to admit. I've not done this before so...umm...well, I've had female partners, but not this. This is...new...to me."

Annafrid closed the gap and placed her hands on Caroline's hips. Caroline gasped quietly at the contact, not expecting Annafrid to be quite so forward. It was a blessed relief if she was to be honest, but she knew this was not the game to be played tonight.

"We can take it slowly if you like, or I can get us started. This isn't new for me, although I've never 'played' with anyone from work."

Caroline could feel Annafrid's hands gently shaking, so knew she wasn't the only one who was still nervous. "Shall we set some ground rules, just to make sure we're both on the same page?" It felt like her brain was in meltdown and she was speaking cliches in abundance.

Annafrid nodded. "Okay. I figure there are the standard ones; No telling anyone at work, nothing in writing, no telling our names to anyone, no violence, an agreed safe word that we stick to...anything else?"

Caroline was really feeling out of her depth now. "That works for me. However, no safe word is required. A simple 'no' or 'stop' will suffice. I'm not into violence or non-consensual s*x. It isn't me and I won't do it."

"No, no, that's good for me too."

"And lastly, one night only. It doesn't happen again." She held her breath, waiting for the response.

"Oh. Okay. We could do that." Annafrid looked a little disappointed but she could work with it she figured.

This felt surreal for Caroline. The negotiation had cleared the air, but this was so beyond her understanding of what s*x was that she almost wanted to go home before it started. Time for courage she told herself. That her cl*t was already throbbing in anticipation was persuasive. It had been months; far too long between drinks.

She had always tied s*x with love in her mind and that's how it had been with all of her lovers prior to Olga. Olga was the first sign of change. After crashing into the back of her car at a roundabout, Olga had shown up at her home with dozen bottles of good wine and an apology. Three hours and two bottles later, Caroline was in bed with her. The connection they had was fairly loose; Olga was fun and great in bed, but Caroline was never in love with her. She knew she was still grieving Kate at the time, so love wasn't even possible for her then. Tonight, however, she wondered if this was the final dissolution of her understanding of love, or an admission that she just really needed s*x, something purely for her in the sea of obligation that was her life.

Caroline gulped down more of the liquid courage and placed the glass carefully on the bench. She slowly took off her jacket and undid the top buttons of her shirt, for air as much as anything. Annafrid watched her silently, enjoying the prelude to the event. She looked inquiringly at Annafrid.

"You're really sure about this?"

"I'm sure."

She walked up to Annafrid and gently placed her hands either side of the beautiful face. She slowly stroked the dark skin of Annafrid's cheeks, feeling the softness of the skin and the downy hair as Annafrid parted her lips. She leaned in to Annafrid's neck and took in a deep breath, letting the scent of this woman infuse her nostrils and warm up her blood. Open-mouthed kisses down the woman's neck and throat drew a mo*n from the woman she could feel through her lips and tongue. This was going to be more fun than she'd hoped.

.

.

She pulled back a little so she could see Annafrid's face. They looked into each other's eyes. No matter their stated rules, this connection was always going to be more intimate than either perhaps wanted. Caroline leant forward and gently kissed Annafrid on the lips. "Thank you. You were amazing." She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. "I feel like I can breathe again."

"So were you, especially for someone who's never done that before. You're a natural at being in control."

"Well," she admitted, "I quite like being in control." She grinned.

They held each other for a while, until Annafrid started to get cold. "How about we have a quick drink and then take this upstairs? I have some toys we can play with."

Surprisingly, Caroline felt like she had some of her old confidence back. She smiled knowingly. "Sure. Why not."

.

.

Folks, there is a description of the scene between Caroline and Annafrid, which appears in the full version of the story in archive of our own dot org. The story is called Friday Night Dinners and it is listed by KatieDingo, if you wish to read that.

The whole scene is also listed in the M version of this fic on FanFictiondotnet, so do change your filters to "all" for that one if you wish.