A Step Too Far - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Teddy held his phone close to his ear, waiting for his father to pick up. He had to dial two or three times before his father finally answered.

“Hello?” Reed answered, sounding annoyed and distracted.

“Dad, you have to come home,” Teddy blurted out. “You need to come home right now.”

“What? Slow down, Teddy,” Reed replied. “I’m in the middle of some important…negotiations. I can’t just drop everything.”

“No, you don’t understand,” Teddy interjected. “Morganna…that woman you married. She’s not what you think she is. The house is totally different now.”

“I know she did some redecorating,” Reed said. “I think she should be allowed to make the house more of a place for her. It’s only fair, and her taste is alright. You need to adapt. It’ll be a good thing in the long run.”

“No, that’s not what I mean!” Teddy sighed. How could he explain what he’d just witnessed? He barely believed it himself.

“Well, what are you on about? Please don’t get on her bad side, Teddy,” Reed sighed. “She’s a pretty strong-willed woman, although she has only shown that side to me a couple times. I really would like you to get along with her and her daughters.”

“But she says she is the head of the house!” Teddy exclaimed. “She even…well, something happened tonight. She got…like…bigger.”

“What?” Reed asked. Teddy heard him talking to someone else in the background. He was only half-listening. “Listen, Teddy. I have to go. We can sort this all out when I get back. Just let her settle in. She’s in a new environment. Help her feel comfortable.”

“No, dad wait!”

But Reed had already hung up.

Teddy sighed. It wasn’t surprising. He’d never phoned his father like this before. He was usually left to his own devices for weeks on end, and and learned to get things he needed himself using the internet, or to wait for his dad to resurface.

In the corner of Teddy’s his eye he detected a motion. He quickly turned away from his window and saw Vivianne peering through his slightly ajar door, watching him. How long had she been listening to him?

Before Teddy could say anything, Vivianne pushed into his room. “So, you’re running to your daddy and bad-mouthing my mom now?”

“No. I have a right to phone my own father,” Teddy said. “You shouldn’t eavesdrop on people. I am allowed to have some privacy in my own house.”

Vivianne rolled her eyes. “It’s not your house anymore,” she said. “Give me your phone.”

“What? I don’t think so.”

“Yes, give it to me,” Vivianne said, stepping closer to Teddy. “I want to see if you’ve been taking pictures of us or doing anything else creepy like trying to turn your dad against my mom.

“No, get out of my room!”

Vivianne reached out for Teddy’s phone and grabbed his wrist. His eyes widened at her sudden physicality and he put his hand on her shoulder, trying to push her away. Vivianne twisted with a smooth move and suddenly Teddy found himself wrestling with the blonde daughter of Morganna, desperately trying to keep his smartphone from her grasp.

“What the…let go of me!” Teddy grunted. “Stop it!” He struggled.

“Hand it over,” Vivianne said. “You got something to hide?”

Teddy felt her foot come around his leg and suddenly he was on the floor, on his back. Vivianne was straddling his torso, trying to get into a schoolgirl pin over him. One knee was already over his arm. The wet crotch of her jean shorts pushed closer to Teddy’s face. He could see the material of her blue one-piece, taut over her fit slim waist and sizeable full breasts. It was becoming clear that her sculpted physique was capable of much more than getting social media likes and the glances of admiring men. Vivianne was a frighteningly skilled grappler with shocking core strength and powerful thighs, especially for her 5’4” frame.

“Get off me!” Teddy screamed.

“Make me,” Vivianne said, scooting forward, grabbing his arm and pushing her other knee down on it. She peered down at him triumphantly as he bucked under her.

“Oh my god this is epic,” Vivianne giggled. “I always wanted a little brother to beat up.”

“I’m not your little…ungh… not your little brother!” Teddy said. No matter how hard he bucked, Vivianne stayed on top of his chest, riding his struggles and making it increasingly harder for him to move as she gradually got into a better position.

“You might as well be!” Vivianne said. “I think you’re a few months younger than me, aren’t you? Anyway, you sure act like a younger brother.” She began prying his fingers off his phone, her tight jean-shorts inseam inches from Teddy’s face. He felt her silken thighs bear down, her leg muscles squeezing as she rode out his desperate struggles.

“Get the fuck off me!” Teddy shrieked.

Vivianne put her hand over Teddy’s mouth and he heard his phone clatter to the floor. Her hand smelled like chlorinated pool-water. Vivianne picked up Teddy’s phone with her free hand and smiled. “Now, what’s your code?”

Teddy screamed into Vivianne’s palm.

Vivianne laughed with evident self-satisfaction. “Aww…come on, give me your code!” She repeated. “You treated my mom so rude today. Did you think nothing more would happen? Give me your code and I’ll leave you alone for a while. Besides, the cell service out here sucks. I can barely get a signal half the time. You don’t even really need a phone all the time, do you?”

Vivianne pulled her hand off Teddy’s mouth.

“No!” He immediately said. “I’m a grown m—”

Her hand clamped back down on his mouth. “Tsk tsk,” Vivianne sighed. “Come on, it’s totally clear you grew up an only child. Don’t you know how this works?”

Vivianne scooted forward, bringing Teddy’s face closer between her legs. “Give me your code, or I’m going start taking pics of this with my own phone.”

Teddy’s eyes widened above Vivianne’s hand. This was a compromising situation he’d never been in. What would she do with those kinds of pictures?

Vivianne’s hand raised slightly. Teddy gasping for air and then blurted out the six-digit numeric code for his phone.

“Thanks!” Vivianne stood up, hopping of Teddy. Before he could even sit up fully, she had sauntered out of his room, taking his phone with her.

Teddy felt humiliated. Worse, he felt a serious erection in his pants. Had Vivianne noticed? Teddy quickly sat down at his laptop, looking for the application that would let him wipe his phone’s hard drive or lock it out remotely. He didn’t need Vivianne looking through his phone. It was like a key to his life. But even if he did manage to wipe it or lock it, he would have no phone until he got it back or bought a new one.

The only person he could conceivably talk to in order to get it back was Morganna. Teddy swallowed and shook his head. No, he couldn’t do that. She was still somewhere downstairs, angry that he’d run away from doing the dishes or facing her.

But he really wanted his phone back.

———

Teddy stood at the top of the stairs. Before he’d been able to wipe his phone, the wireless router had turned off. It was located in his father’s office. Teddy wasn’t sure what to do now.

He was still and careful not to make any noises as he considered his options. On the one hand, Vivianne was right. There wasn’t much he could really do with a cellphone here. It was hard to maintain one or two bars of reception even on the top floors of the house. More often, his phone reported no signal at all, especially anywhere near the trees or on the bottom floor of the house. Sometimes it seemed to make no logical sense where he could catch a signal on a given day. But that was okay as long as the wireless router was running.

But now that Vivanne had his code, she could theoretically snoop around his phone, his social media accounts, his texts, his browsing history…

No, he had to get his phone back. It was a matter of principle.

Teddy began to step down the solid wooden steps, moving slowly past the unsettling yet artistically impressive paintings Morganna had hung on the wall. He listened for the sound of voices, but it was quiet for the moment. Teddy took care to walk quietly, rolling his socked feet on the floor in a manner that would limit any sound made by his footfalls. He stepped carefully into a smaller sitting room that was connected to the dining room and had a large set of French doors which opened onto the patio and swimming pool. One of the French doors was slightly ajar and Teddy could hear the liquid sound of someone moving around in the pool.

“Looking for Vivianne?”

Teddy nearly screamed in surprise as Nimue’s voice cut through the quiet. He whirled around and saw her seated in a burgundy upholstered wingback chair with thick button-tufted padding - another piece of furniture that Morganna must have brought with her.

“Oh, you startled me!” Teddy exclaimed.

Nimue lowered her book and re-crossed her legs. “You were too busy creeping around like the creeper you seem to be to notice me,” she mused. “But then again, you don’t seem to be very attentive to a lot of things.”

Teddy sighed and turned to peek out the French doors, but he couldn’t make anything out past the glare of the golden late evening sunshine.

“She’s in the pool, yes,” Nimue said.

“Oh,” Teddy said. “She took my phone.”

“I know,” Nimue replied. A smirk crossed her lips for a moment. “She said you were snitching to your father about how mean and scary we all are.”

“I just thought he should come home and help kind of of sort things out,” Teddy said. He could feel his anxiety rising again and felt a twinge of nervous fear that Morganna would come strolling into the room and begin berating him all over again.

“Sort what out?” Nimue asked. Her voice was unsettlingly calm.

“I…” Teddy hesitated. The question was obviously a trap. “Listen, I just want my phone back. It belongs to me.”

“Not until you clear the table and do the dishes, like my mom told you to,” Nimue said. She gestured with her book as she talked, leaving a finger between the pages to mark her spot. “You ran away to your room all in a bratty huff and now you act like some great injustice has been done to you, just because my sister teased you and took away your precious phone. You think everything belongs to you by default - the house, the decor, the yard, the security gate, your dad’s attention, even all the electronic devices you can grasp.”

Teddy felt his face grow hot with a mix of humiliation and rage. “This has been my home for years. He’s MY father. Of course I think that. You and your family are practically strangers to me,” Teddy said. His voice came out haltingly as he tried to control his emotions before Nimue’s cool expression. Her sea-blue eyes and freckles seemed to conceal a very analytical mind.

“But things have changed, and you need to learn to accept that,” Nimue countered, sounding almost like his father had on the phone for a moment. “My mother told me that you were informed about the marriage months ago. It’s not like you’ve done anything to earn the things you listed anyway: the house, your father, even your phone. You were just born into these things. You had them handed to you or they just were that way as long as you can probably remember. It’s clear you’ve never had to share anything, ever.”

“But that doesn’t justify physically attacking me and taking my phone away by force!” Teddy exclaimed. He felt frustrated by Nimue’s reasoning. How could she even consider making him feel guilty for the things happening to him?

Nimue rolled her eyes and shook her head. “It’s like I’m talking to a teenaged boy or something,” she said. “All Vivi did was take your phone away for a bit. You’re all pouty because a mean girl took one of your toys and you don’t want to share.”

Teddy turned away from Nimue, clenching his jaw. “Phones aren’t toys,” he said.

“Right…”

Teddy heard the sound of footsteps on the patio tiles outdoors and then Vivianne came around the corner, a white towel around her waist like a sarong. She was still wearing the same blue swimsuit she’d had on all day. Teddy wondered how many times she’d been in the pool during the day. She clearly had a lot of physical energy to burn.

“Hey, phone-boy came out of his room!” Vivianne exclaimed, grinning as she opened the French doors and stepped in.

“He’s been whining about his precious phone to me,” Nimue said.

“It’s not whining!” Teddy retorted.

Vivianne laughed and put a hand on her hip, shifting her weight to one leg. “You can have it back if you do one thing for me,” she said.

Teddy sighed. “Seriously?”

Vivianne nodded in mock earnestness, her mouth pursed for a moment before breaking into a grin again. “Very,” she said. “You can have it back if you clear the table and do the dishes like my mom wanted over an hour ago. Do that, and I’ll give you your precious phone back. Or not. It’s your call.”

Teddy was trapped. If he refused, he might never get his phone back, at least not until his father got home. Yet the mere thought of giving in now and doing the dishes was a defeat, a humiliation. The image of Morganna growing taller and bigger was still in his memory, yet it seemed like something he could only have imagined.

“That seems reasonable to me,” Nimue said. “More than reasonable, in fact. I literally said the same thing a couple minutes ago.”

“Do it or I’ll tell my mom about your little phone call to your dad,” Vivianne said, stepping closer to Teddy. He flinched and stepped back, not wanting a repeat of the impromptu wrestling match that had occurred in his room.

“Okay, okay,” Teddy said. The last thing he needed was another lecture from Morganna. “Just promise me you’ll give it back when I’m done.”

“You don’t trust me?” Vivianne asked, tilting her head and looking Teddy in the eyes.

Teddy held her pale grey gaze for a moment and then looked out the window. “I barely know you,” he said.

“Well, we’re changing that quickly, don’t worry,” Vivianne said.

Nimue smiled.

“I promise,” Vivianne said in a syrupy sweet voice. “I promise to give you back your phone when you finish your chores, Teddy.”

Teddy left the room in a huff, walking quickly to the dining area. He heard Nimue scoff behind him, but didn’t care. He began to gather up plates and dirty cutlery, carting them to the kitchen, moving with quick and aggressive actions. He just wanted to get it over with. But Vivianne followed him, walking lazily to the edge of the dining room, then peering into the kitchen.

“That’s more like it,” she said. “See, you’ll be done soon enough.”

Teddy sighed and let hot water flow into the kitchen sink, adding dish soap. There was no detergent for the dishwasher machine. It wasn’t something he’d ever even thought about. Maybe there was some somewhere in the house, but Teddy had never really considered the logistics of dishwashing or other such household chores. They just seemed to get done, eventually.

“Oh, by the way,” Vivianne said. “Your friend Elliot seems nice. He seemed to really like my selfies when we talked on your phone.”

Teddy turned around, the sink slowly filling behind him. His was stunned and was careful not to explode into a fit of shouting. “You were in my contacts?” He asked.

Vivianne shrugged. “Sure, why not? Your phone had all sorts of fun things on it, at least when I was able to get a decent signal.”

Teddy turned away, grabbing a dirty plate and began to scrub it with vigour, not wanting Vivianne to see how upset he was. He felt violated. Morganna and her daughters had not only inserted themselves into his family structure and home, but now Vivianne was spreading her presence into his social life and invading his digital devices. Nothing was sacred to them. It had been barely a day and already Teddy felt like there were a dwindling number of places he had to himself. The house felt completely different.

He turned back to warn Vivianne not to text any other of his friends, but she had left the doorway. He sighed and returned to the dishes. Teddy wasn’t sure if he was doing the best job of cleaning up, but he didn’t care. He just wanted to get his phone back. If Morganna and her daughters wanted a better dishwasher, they could do it themselves, or better yet, hire someone or buy some detergent for the dishwashing machine.

Teddy picked up the empty pitcher that had contained milk during dinner. He hesitated and then lifted it to his face, inhaling. The residue at the bottom still smelled delicious - not even sour after sitting on the table for an hour. Teddy plunged the pitcher into the hot soapy dishwater and began to clean it. His mind wandered back to the memory of Morganna looking down at him, to the glimpse of her shiny silver panties as her hips seemed to burst through her tight slacks.

As he washed different cutlery and glassware, Teddy felt a growing haze of desire cloud his thoughts. He was emotional and angry about how the afternoon had gone down, but he couldn’t shake a deep almost dizzying aura of sexual urges. He was literally getting hard the more his mind wandered back to the day’s events. Teddy made sure to stay snug against the counter, his hands in the sink, washing dishes. The last thing he needed was to be caught with a tent in his pants.

Teddy’s thoughts kept shifting between Vivianne in her tight blue one-piece, straddling him in his bedroom, to Nimue’s clear complexion and lightly freckled haughty expressions, to Morganna’s widening eyes as she realized he was looking at her thong. His penis was hard as a rock and stiff, pulsing in his pants.

What was happening? Teddy leaned over the soapy water and shook his head, trying to focus. Despite having most of the dishes clean, he could still smell the sweet cloying aroma of the milk he’d drunk an hour ago. Had he missed a glass?

Teddy looked around the sink. Only a few dishes remained, with some random bits of food in them. He closed his eyes and inhaled. He needed to focus. Get his phone back. He could stroke himself later and relieve this surge of pent-up horniness. He needed to purge these thoughts. Why couldn’t they be about one of his sexy classmates from college? Why did his stupid mind go to Morganna first?

Teddy quickly did the rest of the dishes and wiped down the dining room table. He remembered that being something people did, from a trip to camp he’d been a part of in high school. The last step was always wiping down the tables. Teddy’s erection softened slightly as he worked to clear his mind, but his arousal never went away completely.

Tossing the sodden sponge into the sink, he left the kitchen to find Vivianne.

Teddy checked several wallpapered rooms on the lower level, briefly noting the expensive furniture, books, lighting fixtures, and paintings that Morganna had put in each of the big Victorian house’s rooms. Then he looked out at the pool, but he didn’t see either sister about. The house really was quite big.

Teddy sighed and headed for the stairs. Maybe they were upstairs.

That was when the doorbell rang.

Teddy suddenly recalled that Morganna had mentioned she was planning to have a couple of friends over in the evening. In all the shock of what had happened toward the end of the meal, he’d forgotten all about the fact that guests were coming over later.

The doorbell rang again, playing musical bells in a little chime tune. Teddy glanced at the stairs, desperately wanting to get his phone back. He sighed and quickly walked to the door.

“Just a second!” He exclaimed. Someone had clearly let whoever was at the door past the front gate. Had Morganna buzzed them in while he’d been pre-occupied? Did these strangers have the gate code?

Teddy opened the door, only to be confronted by two well-dressed dark-haired women in their thirties, each looking down at him as they stood in high heels and professional attire. Both were quite attractive and curvaceous, yet with a poise and bearing that Teddy recognized from major cities. It was like two sexy executive ladies from the financial district of a major centre had suddenly been airdropped into the countryside.

Teddy felt self-conscious as his member twitched in his pants. Hopefully neither woman would notice. He planned to be upstairs soon anyway.

“Hello,” he managed to say.

“Hello little boy, is your new mommy home?” One of the women, with dark black hair inquired.

“Andrea!” The other woman exclaimed. She pushed a lock of dark brown hair behind her ear. “Oh my god, I can’t believe you just said that.”

But then both women laughed.

Teddy wanted to shout back a contrarian reply, but he was worn down. What could happen if he started another first-impression with an argument in the same day? Teddy stepped aside, hoping desperately that he wasn’t blushing, and let the two women inside.