Incest/Taboo Mother - Hostile Makeover

"It's paradise," were Janet Palmieri's first words to her husband when they'd disembarked on Kai'ulau. At the time, Frank Palmieri had agreed. Standing together on the broken tarmac of the little airfield in the faintly humid afternoon breeze, under a cloudless sky and white tropic sun, the remote island nation had seemed an ideal getaway spot. Tranquil and completely private.

The Palmieris weren't vacationing. They'd come a great distance to do business at the invitation of Novak Global Traders. Still, Frank saw no reason that their fairly simple mission shouldn't allow for time to relax and enjoy themselves. Away from the distractions of the outer world and the pressures of helping to run Blue Oasis, he might even persuade Janet to make one more try at salvaging their twenty-year marriage.

But Janet was enjoying herself far too much, and Kai'ulau had become a nightmare from which Frank was desperate to escape.

He sat this evening on the outer sill of their tower bedroom's tall, narrow window, surveying the landscape below. Their hosts had quartered them in the centuries-old structure that served the Novaks both as home and business headquarters. Locals called it the Hermitage. It had been erected ages ago by the French, using slave labor, for the use of their missionaries. The Novaks had been continually modernizing and extending the original buildings ever since the 1940s. The Palmeris were in a tower of the original building, built out of basalt blocks and overlooking a sheer two-hundred-foot ocean cliff.

Janet was asleep. Frank hoped that she'd stay that way. Seeming to always be in a state of restless agitation these days, she'd taken to resting in short, fitful naps. To get out of this place he'd have to leave her behind. He told himself he'd return for her later--if she even wanted that, at all.

He couldn't make out much of the landscape in the fading orange twilight. It looked like about twenty feet from the sill to the slender ribbon of land that hugged the bottom of the tower directly below. It might be thirty. He could try the trick of tying bedsheets into a rope, but if he came up short and had to drop the last few feet his momentum might carry him tumbling over the crumbling lip of earth onto the surf-swept rocks far below.

If he didn't fall over the edge, he'd have to thread his way around one of the corners of the building, to where the land opened out into a long walled courtyard. The French had built the place more like a fortress than like any religious retreat he'd ever heard of. It stood on the flat summit of Kai'ulau's highest coastal promontory, backed up against the cliffs and commanding a strategic view of the lagoon harbor entrance several miles to the east. The promontory was almost a small island on its own, accessible from the rest of the island by hundreds of stone steps winding down along the ridge of a narrow isthmus.

Those stairs were at the far end of the courtyard on the far side of the compound from where a fifty-year-old, overweight business tycoon sat in a window and contemplated becoming an action hero tonight.

He sighed. The notion was preposterous.

"Frank? Frank...where are you?"

He cursed under his breath. When he backed into the bedroom she was gathered up in the middle of the carved rosewood bed with her chin on her knees, bedclothes pulled loosely up around her to not quite cover the soft points of her pale nipples.

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to find a way out of here."

"What's wrong with the front door?"

"You really think they'll let us go?" Frank snorted in contempt.

"And why not? They invited us here so that we could make a first-hand report to our board about this miracle pill of theirs."

"Exactly. They damn well know that when we get back I'm going to torpedo their fucking scheme so fast--"

"But, Frank...the drug works." Janet giggled.

The mockery in her eyes was too much.

He lunged and grabbed at her wrist. She dodged and darted to the far corner of the bed. Her reflexes were quick, not at all those of a confused or drugged woman. That in itself further enraged him. He caught hold of her wrist and yanked her back across the bed, sprawling her naked on her stomach. She yelped and twisted away, scrambling to her knees.

The bedroom door flew open, slamming against the wall. Strong hands gripped Frank's shoulders from behind, pulling him off of Janet, spinning him around. "Here! Here, what is this about?"

Frank glared up at Jakob, assistant to the CEO of NGT. Bracing his forearm across the younger man's chest, Frank struggled unsuccessfully to shove him off. "Fucking stay away from us!"

"It's all right, Jakob," Janet said. "I'm okay."

"You shut up!" Frank snapped. Someone moved out in the semi-darkness just beyond the door. Dominic and big Manate, the two islanders who accompanied Jakob everywhere, were waiting out in the hallway.

Frank hadn't been in so much as a scuffle with someone near his own size since his school days. He couldn't handle one of these men, let alone any two of them. He stopped fighting. Jakob released him and stepped back.

"Please, Frank, calm yourself. I am not certain what is so troubling you." Jakob shook out the sleeves of his light jacket. His strong, white teeth flashed in a soothing grin. He was always so sure of himself and the situation, damn it! Frank wanted nothing more right then than to knock those perfect teeth down Jakob's throat.

"You know exactly what, you son of a bitch."

"I suppose I do." The grin never faded. "But however you may feel about what has passed between us, you cannot have meant to harm your lovely wife."

Janet sat naked on the bed with her legs tucked under her butt, making no attempt at modesty. Her sparkling eyes had not left Jakob since he'd burst into the room. Her cheeks flushed with excitement.

"Were you waiting out there for your cue?" Frank demanded.

"I came up to check on you. One of the grounds staff saw you out on the window ledge and I was alarmed. Our medical facilities are very limited. If you were to fall, help could not arrive from town too quickly." His eyes narrowed. "What were you doing out there? You are not prisoners here. You're free to leave at any time."

"Yeah, right. I told you last night that we wanted to leave. After..." He choked and cut himself short. If he let himself dwell on the events of the last three days, he would be sick again.

"Yes, I recall. But you must understand, Kai'ulau is so far from...everywhere. Mr. Novak has taken the company jet to America. The next commercial flight from Papeete is not due for another six days."

"We'll take a room in town until then."

"Very well. I will find the rooms for you and arrange a car for the morning. I only ask that you take your leave by the front entrance, as befits a guest." Jakob looked pained. "This will be a great disappointment to Mrs. Novak. My employers had hoped you'd spend more time with us, to better understand our operations and have a fuller demonstration of our product."

"We've seen enough. Too much." Frank didn't know exactly where Jakob stood in the inner circles of Global Traders, but he appeared closer to CEO Aleksandra Novak than simply an employee. He had the straight, black hair and dark bronze complexion of the indigenous Kai'ulauans who were the vast majority of the island's small population, but his ice-blue eyes marked him out as one of many unacknowledged Novak offspring, the scattered seed of old Lukasz, Aleksandra's dead father. Frank assumed that she knew and approved of everything he did.

"I don't want to leave." The pink tip of Janet's tongue darted across her upper lip. Light perspiration sheened the curves of her throat and shoulders, the swell of her breasts, and the shadowed lushness of her belly and thighs.

Frank's cock stiffened involuntarily. He turned away and caught Jakob's gaze lingering on his wife's body for a heartbeat before shifting to the iron nightstand by the side of the bed. An amber vial lay overturned on the little table.

Jakob walked over and picked up the empty bottle. "How many pills were there left?"

"Three." Janet affected a penitent tone, but her lips curled up at the corners.

"And you've taken them all." Jakob exhaled heavily. "Frank, we can continue our discussion in the morning. Now, I think that you and Janet have a more pressing matter to attend to." He nodded to Dominic and Manate. They all started to leave.

"No!" Janet rose to her knees, muscles tensed as if she might launch herself at Jakob. "Stay. Please..." She dismissed Frank with a glance. "He won't fuck me."

Her emerald eyes burned with aggressive lust, that animal thing that had so intimidated Frank in their first years together, before she'd learned and accepted her proper role. He took two steps toward her, fists clenched. Manate bounded into the room and clamped a massive hand on his shoulder, nearly pulling him off his feet.

"Frank, this is very upsetting. I'm concerned for you, and for your wife's safety with you so agitated." Jakob rested his hand on Janet's shoulder. "Under the circumstances, perhaps it's best if I attend to Mrs. Palmieri in your stead. That is, if she wishes it."

Janet's eyes widened. She placed her hand on Jakob's and nodded.

"Fuck me," she whispered, and then repeated more loudly, "Fuck me." Her small fingers plucked at Jakob's trouser front. "I need you to fuck me again."

"Don't do this, Jan. Not again! Please, you don't know what you're doing..."

"Shut up, Frank." Janet couldn't believe that after manhandling and threatening her, her husband was pleading now. It was too late for that. She'd put up with too much for too long. Going on with him meant only more heartache and fear. The Novaks promised freedom.

The unbridled freedom to be who she really was.

All she had to do was reach out and take it.

In her eagerness, she fumbled with Jakob's belt buckle as if she'd never seen one before. She made a pleased little noise when she got his penis out. She'd thought of little else in the hours since they'd last been together. His erection curved out supple and brown and sturdy as the bole of a young tree.

"Ah well, Frank, it appears you'll be getting that full demonstration after all." Jakob chuckled. His mask of affable concern had slipped at last.

Janet had liked Jakob immediately when she and Frank had arrived on Kai'ulau. He'd been reserved, professional, and friendly. At some point in the days that followed, for reasons she didn't understand, the young islander's attitude had changed. He seemed to have become determined to humiliate her husband.

What they were doing together was cruel. She should stop. She should say no. But as Jakob stood before her with one knee on the bed and his hard cock swaying in front of her face, only her bone-deep craving mattered.

Craving for sex.

Craving for his cock.

He ran a finger lightly along her jaw. "You'd like to suck me off, wouldn't you, Janet?"

"Yes!" Janet grabbed his taut buttocks and pulled him to her, craning her neck forward and opening her mouth automatically to slip her lips over the warm velvet head of his prick.

"As you see, Frank, our product does have some minor side effects. Overconsumption can create a strong susceptibility to the power of suggestion." Jakob spoke as if he were demonstrating some new kind of household gadget. "It is largely temporary. But in your wife's case, I'm afraid that she's taken so much that at this moment she will respond to any stimulus that promises her sexual pleasure."

Janet let his hard shaft glide halfway down her open throat and began bobbing her head to and fro, taking more of him on each stroke. The heady male scent of his flesh intoxicated her. She curled her fingers around his heavy balls and bounced them lightly in her palm. They were full and swollen and she looked forward to the treat that she would coax from them.

"That may present a challenge," Jakob continued. "We shouldn't want to give the impression that the drug is in any way dangerous. That would complicate our marketing efforts, wouldn't it?" He laced his fingers behind Janet's head, holding her in place, and eased his cock into her mouth to the root. He moved his hips in a slow pumping motion, withdrawing most of his prick from her mouth and sliding in again.

The lust that had simmered inside her since she'd gulped down the last of the pills finally boiled over. As eager as she had been to have Jakob's cock in her mouth, now her pussy channel spasmed with a need to be filled. She wanted to fuck him, as she had fucked him before, as she'd fucked the others, in that all-consuming way that she'd never fucked anyone in her life before coming to this enchanted place.

"Give me your cunt," Jakob said, as he could read her mind.

She lay back and spread her legs in silent welcome. Jakob's cock, wet with her spit, slid against one of her thighs as they embraced. Her moist labia parted and her vagina opened to receive the dome of his glans. His penetration was pure bliss. As the hot column of flesh burrowed deeper inside her the sensations in her pussy spread and washed over her entire being, a kind of sexual ecstasy she had never known.

She wasn't sure that Jakob's was the biggest cock she'd ever taken. She didn't care. He fit her perfectly. His long, unhurried strokes massaged every nerve ending along her snug sex tunnel as he entered her fully.

His deep kiss drew the breath from her lungs at the same time that he angled his hips up and back to withdraw from her. She snaked her arms up to clutch at the corded muscles of his back, fighting to hold him inside her, to keep his prick where it belonged. He was too strong. He slid from her vagina, leaving her empty and agape.

"Nooo..." Her anguished squeals were muffled by Jakob's mouth covering hers as she thrashed wildly. "Put it back in, please! In! In!" she mumbled, arching her pelvis desperately upward, trying to recapture his cock.

Jakob drove all the way into her again with a single thrust.

"Ahhhh!" She climaxed so hard that her head swum. As the Novaks had promised, the Kai'ulauan drug multiplied the intensity of her orgasms what seemed a hundredfold. Sex, as she'd known it before, had been nothing but a shadow of this, as if she'd lived in the foothills of a towering mountain all of her life and had never climbed the summit.

"Oh God yes yes yes YES!" She wriggled and churned her hips, tightening her inner muscles to suck at Jakob's shaft and hold it inside her. It was a forlorn effort. He pulled out, paused until she felt panic, and plunged back into her to the hilt. He kept fucking her this way, pulling all the way out and then in again, his balls slapping her upturned buttocks on every powerful drive.

She came again, blinding light exploding behind her eyes, and then a third time before she could take as many desperate gasping breaths. Repeated orgasms didn't satiate her yearning in the slightest; she pounded her heels against his ass, bucking and grinding and straining toward yet another release as the antique bed squeaked and shook beneath them.

"Fuck me!" she cried again. "Oh God, keep fucking me!"

Their hips rocked together in fluid harmony. His lips abandoned hers, trailing down her long neck to fasten on her left nipple, sucking and gently biting it even as his right hand cupped and molded her other breast, thumb flipping back and forth across that nipple as well. She climaxed yet again.

Somewhere beyond the yellow circle of light cast by the bedside lamp, Frank choked back angry, helpless sobs. The sound barely registered in Janet's ears. She knew that Dominic and Manate must be watching as well, and that sent a little thrill rippling through her belly.

They would want her, too. Hell, she'd even let her husband fuck her if he were willing.

Janet was a practical woman. She kept her unlacquered nails clipped short and neat. So she drew no blood as she raked them frantically across Jakob's back. But her fingertips dug deeply enough to bruise the muscle as she anticipated the group fucking yet to come. He flinched but kept hammering into her cunt. Lust and satisfaction played across his sweat-streaked face, but nothing to mirror her own boundless rapture. Even as she gave herself completely to him she pitied him, for it was clear that no matter how good the fucking might be for him, he could not scale the same heights of pleasure that she did.

Why was that? She knew that Jakob used the Novaks' drug himself. Everyone on the island did, in one form or another. Maybe they became habituated to it? Or maybe the effects were simply different for men than for women. Even in the throes of passion, Janet could not entirely suppress her researcher's curiosity on this and other points.

Whatever the answers might be, she was sure of one thing: this glorious moment and the promise of many more ahead were worth everything that she must sacrifice for it. Naturally, Frank couldn't understand this. She doubted that Jakob truly did, either. Despite all that he must know of the drug's effects, in his youthful pride he probably believed that his masculine appeal would itself have been enough to seduce her.

Perhaps no man could understand what Janet felt. As she soared toward another climax she thought fleetingly of her friend Lauren, waiting in America for her report on NGT's new product.

Lauren would understand. Janet was sure of it.

"Jon, are we about ready to go, here? I have a 10:30 call with the Pharmavite people."

Lauren Chase looked at her laptop, scrolled through the summary spreadsheet labeled "Novak Proposal," and then back at her husband. Jon Chase slouched at the head of the conference table, his attention fixed on the big wall-mounted flatscreen. He held up a finger for silence as GCTV anchor Mikaela Ruiz teased the hourly business update.

"The rumor mill is buzzing this morning about Blue Oasis Nutrition, the upstart online retailer that's grown in the last two years to dominate the dietary supplements market. The privately held firm was said to be on the verge of an IPO. Now that's been thrown into doubt, as an international group is reported to be seeking controlling interest in the company.

"Jim Matthews has some background for us on Blue Oasis, its surprising success in the current business climate, and the challenges it's facing."

Ruiz's image was replaced by prerecorded video, a long pan of warehouse shelves stocked with colorfully branded opaque plastic bottles and boxes of different sizes, all with different brand labels identifying ingredients like "L-Arginine Powder" or "CoQ10" or "Keto Protein." Matthews read the voiceover.

"Mikaela, over three-quarters of Americans say they use some form of over-the-counter medicines, herbal or dietary supplements at least once a week. And if you're one of the growing millions getting your remedies online, chances are that you're buying them from Jon Chase.

"If Blue Oasis is the Amazon of the industry, then forty-five-year-old Chase is its Jeff Bezos. Chase founded the company just over twenty years ago, beginning from an organic food truck serving the neighborhoods around Desoto University where he and his partners--then-fiancé Lauren and friends Janet and Frank Palmieri--were students. The quartet branched out into mobile delivery, added herbal supplements to their inventory, and finally made what seemed then an unlikely leap to become one of the first OTC drug retailers on the Internet."

Lauren couldn't help smiling at the on-screen photo montage of the four of them, in those days: Jan with her taped-up horn-rims, Jon and Frank smiling and loading the old blue Stepvan.

There was a posed shot of them all hovering around Janet's iMac, admiring the first Blue Oasis homepage, that featured Lauren's gratefully forgotten neon-ginger hair disaster. She could have done without that memory.

"A gene for innovation seems to run in the Chase family; son Ethan developed the online giant's proprietary retail and data mining software platform while still a sophomore at Cornell. Six years and countless iterations later, Ethan Chase's unique contribution is the company's secret sauce. Says proud mother Lauren, 'Thanks to Ethan, we almost don't have to ask what our customers want. We know that before they do. Our real job's just to get the products to them.'"

Back from the taped segment, Matthews had joined Ruiz in the studio. "Thanks, Jim. Now, what about the stories that Blue Oasis is having a cash crunch?"

"That's what we're hearing, Mikaela. The company was ideally positioned to take advantage of rising health anxieties, combined with the explosive surge in online shopping, during the pandemic. But at the same time--"

Jon muted the TV. "I wish you wouldn't oversell the software like that. You make it sound like we're all just monkeys working in the warehouse."

"He compared you to Bezos, dear," Lauren pointed out. "Anyway, what's wrong with bragging a little on our son?"

"Cheer up, Dad. You have more hair than Jeff." Ethan Chase sprawled in the chair across from his mother, Nikes planted on the edge of the table. Lauren could tell that he was restless and that he'd rather be somewhere else--solving an algorithm, taking a car apart, or just out hiking the Marion. Despite his disinterest in meetings like this one and the routines of corporate management, she had not exaggerated his central importance to Blue Oasis. The vote among the four board members making Ethan a full partner had been unanimous--even if that of the CEO himself had been a bit grudging.

Jon rubbed at his thinning scalp and frowned. "Fine, let's get on with this. Are Frank and Janet online?"

"I'll try Jan's phone again," Lauren offered. "I'll bet Frank's had too many pineapple rums. I don't think the sun's even up out there."

"They're not there to party, damn it. This meeting's pointless without their input."

"Not entirely, sir. I've done some more digging on Novak Global. Things you should know." Everyone turned to the slight, colorless man seated at the far end of the table. Lewis Bradley was the company's lead attorney, and the only one in the room this morning who was not a Blue Oasis partner.

Bradley had joined the company just before they'd relocated headquarters to California two years ago. He'd never impressed Lauren all that much. His strongest qualification for the job seemed to be his gift for sucking up to her husband. And she disliked him personally for the way he'd treated his first wife, who he'd dumped over a year ago for a European runway model named Irina.

He glanced at his notes. "So, not much of a footprint in the States, but NGT's been trading in the Pacific Rim for nearly fifty years. Mainly vanilla and copra, other foods and botanicals. Even pearls. Family-owned, so we have that in common. Aleksandra and Stefan Novak are the current partners. They have an office in Hong Kong, but really run everything from Kai'ulau. They're not small-time operators--"

"We know all that already," Jon cut him off. Bradley tugged nervously at his tattered mustache.

"Uh, yes, well...here's the thing, sir...the Novaks have a pretty rough reputation out there. Not people you want to cross. Their competitors tend to have issues with unexplained shipping delays, suspicious damage to their goods, you know. Key employees quit suddenly. Or just drop out of sight altogether."

"Wait--wait a minute," Lauren interrupted. "You're saying that these people are shakedown artists? We're talking about selling half the company to gangsters? All for the chance to sell some mumbo-jumbo sex aid?"

Jon held up his hand. "No one's selling anything." He pushed himself away from the table and crossed his arms. "Not yet. I agree that as it stands the offer's insulting. The Novaks want to buy into us for what amounts to pennies on the dollar."

Just as Lauren started to let out her breath, he added, "But they are offering us exclusive distribution rights to this, uh, Lipidrone?"

Bradley hesitated. "Libidramine," he corrected.

"As in 'libido.'" Ethan laughed sardonically. "Wow, that's some sweet branding, huh? It's the miracle aphrodisiac that's gonna change the world! So much better than red ginseng! Which we already sell, and which doesn't really do much, either. In case anyone's wondering."

He winked at his mother. Lauren looked down at her keyboard. Her cheeks were suddenly hot, and she fought to keep a smile from her lips.

"Not so fast, Junior." Jon bristled at his son's ridicule. "If there's anything at all to this, the market potential is--well, it would be incalculable, wouldn't it? An all-natural, over-the-counter sexual enhancement med that works for men and women. That's a hell of a pitch."

"Come on, dear, you know it's bullshit," Lauren objected. "Anyone can take a pill and have fantastic sex, all night long, and no side effects at all? Novak's trying to sell us a lurid fantasy. A very old one at that."

"If we were sure it was bullshit, we wouldn't have sent Frank and Janet out there," Jon countered. "You know, up until a few decades ago, a drug like Viagra was a pipe dream. Pfizer's still raking in half a billion a year on it--and that's since it's gone generic." He paused, as if letting his keen insight sink in before delivering the coup de grace. "Partnering with NGT would wipe out our capital problems. Hell, if there's anything to this Libidramine at all, we could double our total revenues in a couple of months."

There were days when Lauren swore that her job consisted largely of talking her husband down from his latest brainstorm. Getting between him and his self-image, as a visionary who saw solutions where others saw only problems, was an unending assignment. So she'd agreed to the Palmieris' trip out to Kai'ulau to placate him, fully expecting a decisive and negative outcome.

"If Jan were here, she could explain to you exactly why these claims don't make sense. She understands the science."

"She's got a B.A. in botany." Jon rolled his eyes. "Lew, read the datasheet that Novak sent us."

"They're playing this real close to the vest. All they've provided are summaries of several preclinical studies," Bradley hedged, anxious to support Jon. "There are indications that Libidramine..." he read from his laptop,"...uh, 'supports increased VO2 uptake and functions as a vasodilator. Regenerative and anti-agathic actions have been observed...'"

"Anti-what?" Lauren asked.

"It's sci-fi jargon," Ethan explained. "They're claiming their shit stops you from getting old. On top of everything else, they're selling the Fountain of Youth."

This time, Lauren did smile. Her son's ebullience at the absurdity of all of this was infectious. By nature, Jon Chase looked for the easy answer and the big score. It made him credulous. Ethan was the opposite, an unaffected skeptic. The contrast between them favored Ethan in his mother's eyes, as did most of his other qualities. As Lauren's relationship with her husband had frayed over the last few years she'd found herself more and more drawn to Ethan.

He's your son, damn it. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. That she should have to remind herself of that so often was making her psychiatrist a small fortune these days. But Ethan was far from being a kid anymore, and "proud mother" didn't scratch the surface of her disturbing feelings for him.

Ethan was oblivious to his effect on her. At least, she hoped he was. She was sure he'd be mortified by the idea of his own mother crushing on him.

"Jesus Christ, Jon, how would we even market something like this? We can't run ads with these kinds of ridiculous efficacy claims," she argued. Never mind being laughed out of business, the first time we try, half the government will dogpile us--FTC, FDA, the works."

"We sell a lot of pills that people believe in without proof that they work," Jon pointed out. "People sell themselves on supplements. And then they sell each other."

Bradley cleared his throat. "I've been thinking about that. If I may?"

"Go ahead, Lew."

"Well then...My sense is that NGT proposes to market Libidramine as a food supplement instead of as a medication largely to avoid just that kind of regulatory scrutiny, at least initially. They're sacrificing the security of patent protection for making a big splash in the marketplace. If the Novaks think that word of mouth will make this drug--uh, this supplement--a success, that's a sign that they really believe in it. It's not just a hustle to them.

"And they're set on controlling the product supply chain, right down the line. They own a manufacturing plant in Manila. They want to have a partnership stake in their worldwide distributor as well."

Jon scowled. "And if we don't take the deal, another company will snap it up."

"So they'll sell their snake oil elsewhere. Tragic." Lauren said. "Let's go back to the part where they sabotage their competition. No way the board will approve a merger with a gang like that. I won't go along, and neither will Ethan or Janet. So--"

"Uh, Mom, hold on a minute."

"You wouldn't."

"No, of course not," Ethan said. "But Lew bringing up the manufacturing angle got me thinking. If we turn them down flat, what happens next? We have a supply chain of our own in that region. Manufacturers, wholesalers...maybe Novak doesn't just take their offer to our competitors. Maybe they turn around and knock us on our asses for good measure."

"Kid's got a point." Jon snapped his fingers, moving to take advantage of a rare disagreement between his wife and son. "What about that, Lew? Could these people make trouble for us?"

Bradley spread his hands in a helpless gesture. "I don't know, sir. If you're going to turn them down, I'd suggest that it's best to be diplomatic. At least sit down with the principals, face to face. Aleksandra Novak rarely leaves the island, but Stefan is in the States right now."

"Her husband?"

"Her son. Mrs. Novak's husband passed a while ago. Stefan's out east in New Derby, supposedly on business. But he's getting a rep as a jet setter. Spends a lot of time here and in Europe, dates around, models and actresses. What you might expect from a successful young guy who--"

"Yeah, we get it." Bradley blanched at Lauren's icy glare.

"Ah, at any rate, Stefan Novak manages to stay off of the gossip sites while blowing a nice little fraction of the family fortune."

"Hmm." Jon nodded, hands folded across his chest. He closed his eyes as if in deep thought, smiling to himself. His wife recognized the signs of trouble brewing. "Lauren, how about you fly back East and meet up with Stefan?"

"What?" She rose from her seat. "How about, no?"

"Something informal," Jon continued as if he hadn't heard. "Lew, can you reach out, set something up in a hurry?"

"Y-yes, sir," Bradley stammered, "I have his contact info--"

"No!"

"You heard Lew. Mr. Novak likes the ladies. You're still pretty hot, Laur. Go do your thing."

"Oh, thank you. My 'thing?'"

"Charm him, string him along. See if there's a way to keep them off our backs while we figure this all out."

Lauren's mind raced. She trusted Ethan to lie for her if she beat Jon senseless with her laptop, but was none too confident that attorney-client privilege would prevent Bradley from talking to the cops.

"Do you want me to put out, or do you think maybe just a hand-job will do?"

"Lauren!"

"You know what burns me up?" she asked as calmly as she could manage. "It's not so much that you believe what the media says about you, all the 'Visionary Founder' bullshit. No, it's that you can't make room in your self-made myth for the rest of us.

"Frank? You're good with Frank because he always agrees that you're the smartest guy in the room. But to you, Janet's just an airhead with suspect credentials. Your own son's an overpraised IT nerd who's getting too much credit for our success.

"And me? I run the day-to-day, I deal with the banks and play hardball with wholesalers. And I do all that media stuff, which I hate. But you think the best use of my time is to drop everything and fly three thousand miles to shake my ass for some Polynesian huckster who you're hoping will bail you out."

Bradley looked like he wanted to sink into the floor. Ethan looked like he might applaud.

From the look on her husband's face, Lauren guessed he'd tuned out just after "visionary."

"Us," he said at last. "Bail us out. Will you please go talk to this guy, darling?"

"Yes I will, darling. Oh, and fuck you."

Later she would wonder what her life might have been, had she refused to meet Stefan Novak. By that time, there was no going back.

Janet slid further down into the hot water of the enameled steel tub until bubbles covered all but her face, luxuriating in the warmth of the early light streaming into the bath chamber.

She'd fucked from sunset until well past midnight and awakened refreshed after five hours of serene slumber. At one point, she'd briefly stirred at the sound of angry voices echoing down the stone corridor from another room somewhere down the hall. She'd recognized Frank's reedy voice and Jakob's low, calming rumble. Their argument was heated but she could not make out the words. She'd drifted off again until just before first light.

She turned her memory to last evening's pleasures and slid one hand between her thighs to touch her clitoris. The stubborn little button seemed to always be stiff these last few days. It demanded a lot of attention whenever she was alone for very long. As a woman with some understanding of pharmacology, she found it difficult to wrap her mind around the notion that a simple pill could catalyze such extraordinary changes in her body and mind.

She started at the sound of heavy footsteps on the wooden floor outside the bath chamber door. She wasn't ready to face Frank again. What was there to say, really? The marriage was certainly finished, with few of the regrets that she'd have had a month ago. She didn't just want to remain here on Kai'ulau; she needed to stay. She had a sense of mission for the first she could remember. Her life and purpose unfolded before her, plain and whole. Libidramine was a gift that she would help the Novaks to bring into the world.

The door scraped open. Manate and Dominic leered down at her. They were both naked and hard. Trembling, she draped her ankles over the high, round lip of the tub, tilting her pelvis up so that her freshly-shaved vulva emerged from the suds. The cool morning air tickled the folds of her open pussy. She ran her tongue along her lips. "I'm pretty wet."

Manate braced a big hand on the rim at the foot of the tub and started to step into the water. Janet curled her toes around the edge of his forearm to stop him. "Up here. I want you in my mouth," she rasped. "Dom can have my cunt--this time."

Manate was a giant, nearly seven feet of solid muscle with a cock to match. Janet hadn't seen that cock soft yet. He easily straddled the clawfoot tub with both of his feet flat on the soapy, wet flagstone floor. Janet lifted her chin. She extended her tongue, dragging it along the underside of his prick, coaxing the bulbous tip into her wide-open mouth.

"Hot mouth," Manate grunted as his glans slipped past her lips. "Good as your pussy."

"What a dear thing to say," Janet murmured. Those were the most words she'd heard out of the big islander in one breath since he'd met her and Frank on their arrival at Kai'ulau's little airport. That day seemed like a lifetime ago, now.

Properly managed, young men were simple and satisfying creatures. Janet's feelings for these two studs ranged somewhere between maternal and the affection one might feel for pets. They were like a pair of big, unruly, eager-to-please dogs. The key was to show no fear or hesitation. Dominate them. Get them hot, make them wait, then reward them with the kind of fuck that an experienced woman could throw.

Dominic stepped into the tub behind Manate with a splash. She couldn't wait to get him in her. He had a nice penis, a sort of club-shaped cock with a big blunt knob and a slimmer but deeply-veined shaft. Whenever he entered her, she'd swear that she felt the coronal ridge and could count those veins as they glided up her snug sex hole. Libidramine heightened her physical sensitivity that much.

After her first long round with Jakob last evening, she'd gone two with Manate and another with Dominic before finishing with Jakob again. But this would be her first time in decades with two men at once. How she'd missed double-fucking! She nearly came just at the awareness of her own wickedness. Was there was any limit to her supercharged sexual appetite? She meant to conduct the experiments to find out.

Dominic lifted and held her thighs wide apart. Her labial lips clung to his shaft as he pressed steadily forward into her vagina. He and Manate fucked her in rhythmic counterpoint. Janet moaned around the giant's throat-plugging cock as he withdrew while Dominic drove deep and fully into her with each powerful stroke. She gyrated her hips against him and worked his cock with her talented pussy muscles, and as he pulled out she sucked Manate's huge cock all the way down her throat.

Janet climaxed hard and frequently, thrashing so violently beneath the men that she was surprised there was any water left in the tub by the time she felt the pulsing of Manate's cock signaling his imminent ejaculation. She pulled him deep into her throat one last time before letting all but his glans slip from her mouth. Growling like a grizzly bear, he fed her long jets of warm semen, filling her mouth more rapidly than she could gulp it down.

Dominic quickened his pace, approaching his own orgasm. Janet raised one foot to his flat, muscular belly and gently pushed him back with her toes, causing his cock to slide out of her cunt. He grimaced in disappointment until she said, "Change places. I'll suck you off while he fucks me."

Janet had not wanted to bruise either of the islanders' feelings by admitting aloud that she needed Dominic to go first in her pussy to stretch her for Manate's mammoth tool. Her channel was wide open now, more than ready for the biggest cock she'd ever seen. She squealed happily as he stretched her out, at the same time welcoming Dominic's wet cock between her cum-smeared lips.

Dominic erupted after only a few minutes. When he subsided, she licked and kissed his cock to keep him hard. She'd discovered that males on the island recovered from orgasm within minutes, with only the mildest stimulation.

So much to explore! She would dedicate her life to learning all she could about Kai'ulauan sexuality.

For science.

Jakob waited for Janet in her bedchamber. She was a vision when she appeared, china skin scrubbed pink, her short locks lying damp against her brow, aglow with the contentment of a well-fucked woman.

Yet when she saw him lounging on her bed, her eyes sparkled with fresh desire.

"Mrs. Novak wishes to meet with you. To further discuss your plans together. In her office."

"Right away?"

Jakob smiled. "This afternoon."

"Then we have time." She climbed onto the bed and knelt between his legs, undoing his trousers. Even as she admired his erection, he could tell that something else nagged at her. "Where's--Will Frank be meeting with Aleksandra too?"

It was the question he had dreaded all morning. "Not today, Mrs. Palmieri. Your husband is not here."

"Where is he? Did he leave without me?"

"Would you be very unhappy, if that were the case?" Jakob had to be cautious. He was growing too attached to this woman, this outsider. That awareness brought with it an unaccustomed gnawing of conscience. He could not afford to falter.

"Well..." Janet looked bewildered. "Do you know where he is?"

"In all honesty, no." It was not a lie. Not entirely a lie. He reminded himself that there was a reason for this cruel drama; that a greater purpose was served by what he'd done.

"H-He was paranoid. He really wanted to get away. Maybe he's gone down to the town," Janet suggested. "To find another place to stay?" She searched Jakob's face for reassurance. At the same time, she closed her fingers around his cock and started moving her hand up and down along the shaft. A lustful haze clouded her eyes. For the present, she would believe what she needed to believe, to get what she needed. That was a state of mind that he understood too well himself.

"Yes. Perhaps he will return this evening," he said gently.

Janet jacked him off in silence for a while. "Do you have any more Libidramine?"

He reached into his pocket and handed her a bottle containing a dozen of the blood-red caplets. "But of course. Have as many as you like. There aren't really any troublesome side effects, you know." He wound his fingers through her blonde curls, guiding her hungry mouth to his cock. "None at all."​