FORBIDDEN FEELINGS

Charity Bentham is a typical Beta Minus with a huge crush on her boss. But then she gets in trouble and is sent to a very strange place. This is my first fan fiction set in the BRAVE NEW WORLD universe. Please comment nicely!

Charity Bentham was certain her boss was the most gorgeous Alpha Plus male she had ever seen. His name was Harry Voltaire and he was tall and dark and devastatingly attractive. He'd had her during his first week on the job, of course. For Harry it had been a pleasant introduction and nothing more. But for the shapely little redhead with the wide green eyes and lightly freckled snub nose, it had only whetted her appetite for more.

"Charity my love, would you care to run these magnetic files over to the Assistant Director?"

"Of course, Harry!" Charity was breathless just from standing next to her dark-haired boss. When she looked up into the blue of his eyes it was like staring into a mountain lake. "I'm going to the Feelies tonight," she confided eagerly. "There's a new story about a Beta Plus girl who has three men in one night. And they're all Alphas! Have you seen it yet?"

Harry grinned. "No, I haven't. But there's nothing better than a Beta. Off you go now, Charity love."

Charity felt that she was entitled to have her boss again, but he just couldn't seem to take the hint! She wished he wouldn't keep sending her on errands out of the office. It was almost like being sent into exile on some island. On top of that the Assistant Director was a chilly blonde Alpha Plus female who gave herself the airs of a World Controller.

"Miss Bentham, I see you've damaged this disk of magnetic data," said the Assistant Director sternly. Her name was Edith Beddington, but Charity secretly called her Batty Beddington.

"I didn't mean to!" Charity had only been checking her reflection in the polished metal doors of the lift tube when the stupid doors opened too fast. The whoosh of air made her drop one of the data disks on the floor.

"You realize this will have to be reported to the Central Office?" The tall, slim Assistant Director gave Charity a chilly look, patting the tightly coiled bun of her perfectly arranged ash-blonde hair. "If this sloppiness continues, we may have to transfer you to another office."

"My boss loves my work!" Charity was so angry and so upset that she suddenly felt a terrible craving for a gram of soma.

"And who is your boss?" Edith Beddington inquired, reaching into one of the drawers of her gleaming stainless steel desk.

"Harry Voltaire, head of Sleep Teaching Research!"

"Oh, Harry!" The perfectly put-together Assistant Director instantly put on a complacent smile. "He is a charming young man, Harry Voltaire. I had him last week. Have you had him lately, dear?"

"I've only had him once," Charity muttered, eyes on the floor. "That was more than three months ago. I don't know when I'm going to have him again." Her cheeks felt burning hot, and without thinking she slumped into a chair in front of the Assistant Director's desk.

"It's horribly anti-social of you to harbor such built-up desires," the Assistant Director said. She offered Charity a couple of bright pink pills. "Remember, dear, a gram . . ."

"Is better than a damn." Charity took her pills at once, feeling that the older woman wasn't such a bad sort after all. "The trouble is, Harry has all the girls he wants, whenever he wants. I'm just one more face in the crowd!"

"Well then, the thing to do is find a way to make your face stick out."

"What do you mean? All the Betas in my birth group look exactly alike!"

"Precisely," Edith Beddington said. "That's why we have to make you stick out in some other way. It's all about mystery and experience, my dear. That's what draws Alpha males."

"Oh, my." Charity had never heard such words used before. How could there be any mystery in having a boy you liked? And if everyone had the same experiences, how could hers be more interesting?

"I may be able to help you," the Assistant Director said grandly. "But for right now, back you go to Mr. Harry Voltaire. And not a word to him about any of this, do you hear?"

"Yes, madam director." Charity smiled automatically, already liking the Assistant Director much better after swallowing the two grams of soma.