Love Bound (40 page)

Henry tried, and failed, to suppress a
grin. "Three partners before marriage might have qualified as promiscuous
a generation ago during the Eisenhower administration, but it's hardly unusual
today and a little ordinary teenage experimentation certainly doesn't make
anyone a bad person. To hear you tell it, I would think you a fairly normal
youngster."

"You wouldn't have thought so to
listen to my parents," Claudia replied.

The doctor raised his brow. "Your
parents yelled at you then?"

"I already told you they didn't.
But they scolded me just the same."

Henry set the clipboard on his chest
and clasped his hands across his abdomen. "I see. Go on. Tell me more
about how your parents reacted to your normal teenage rebellion and
experimentation. Every detail that comes to mind."

"Everything?"

"Yes. If your brain recorded it,
it did so for a reason."

Claudia's head moved in a nod. She
then continued to relate the history of her adolescence until the hands on her
watch told her that her hour was at an end. "Do you think we got anywhere,
Doctor?" she inquired while she was gathering her things. "I don't
feel any different."

Henry stood and straightened his suit.
"We shouldn't expect to make any real progress for several sessions. It
takes at least that long to establish a rapport and begin to understand what
makes you tick."

"Oh," Claudia smiled.
"I know what makes me tick. That's the problem."

Dr. Stuart returned the smile.
"Ok. We'll maybe focus a little more on that next time. Do make an
appointment with the receptionist for next week."

"That long?" Claudia
queried.

Henry nodded. "A week is
typically a good amount of time between sessions. Allows us both to absorb and
consider things, but isn't long enough for us to forget much."

"I see." Claudia replied in
a near whisper. "Well, thank you, Doctor. See you next week."

***

Henry Stuart passed the following week
in a completely forgettable fashion and entered his next meeting with Miss
Burns the same way he had exited the previous one, confident that a simple
self-esteem issue was the source of the dilemma. He figured he had but to make
the lovely lady aware of her own worth and she would soon solve her own
problems.

"Do you still prefer the
chair?" Henry asked as his patient entered the office.

"Yes," said Claudia.
"If you don't mind."

"Not at all," replied Dr.
Stuart, reclining once again on the sofa. "I believe last time we
discussed your relationship with your parents."

"That's correct."

"This time, I'd like to focus on
your first marriage. There have been two, correct?"

"Yes," replied Claudia.
"Two."

"Tell me about the first
one."

"Daniel was in the army,"
Claudia related. "He was quite a jerk, really. Treated me very respectable
in public, but at home he was always slapping me and telling me how useless I
was. And when he was drinking, which was often, well, then he was really
mean."

"What attracted you to Daniel in
the first place?"

Claudia put her fingers to her lips
and turned her eyes upward. "I don't really know. He was really nice to me
at first, so it's hard so say what attracted to him. He didn't show his nasty
streak until after we were married."

Dr. Stuart twitched his lips as he
tried to digest what the young lady had really just said. "So there was
nothing about him that you found initially attractive?"

"He had a nice ass."

Henry nodded and shifted his own ass
to a different place on the sofa. "How long were you together?"

"Four years."

"Who terminated the
relationship?"

"I did."

"Why?"

"Because he could never seem to
get it through his head that I wasn't mad at him for what he did when he was
drunk, or when he was sober—for that matter."

"So you weren't upset with the
way he treated you when he was intoxicated?"

"No," Claudia insisted with
a shake of her head. "More like why he treated me that way. And because he
was always apologizing. Plus the sex was pretty lame."

"Why was the sex
unsatisfactory?"

"Because he didn't excite me much
when he was sober and he was never interested—or good—when he was drunk."

"I see," said Dr. Stuart.
"And how did that make you feel about yourself."

"I felt fine," Claudia
professed. "He's the messed up one. He needs two women, a pretty one for
in public, and a spineless one for at home."

"And which of those women were
you unwilling to be?"

Claudia paused. "Neither, I
suppose. Yet I could have been both and been very happy."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I'd have been
perfectly content pretending to be a proper wife in public if he'd have only
given me what I wanted in private."

"Sounds like he did just that;
treated you nice in public and not so nice in private," Dr. Stuart noted.
"So what didn't work for you about that situation?"

Claudia considered the question for
the better part of a minute. "I guess it was that he didn't respect me for
who I was."

"How did he not respect
you?"

"By not understanding what I
wanted," Claudia said. "And giving it to me freely. When he did give
me what I wanted, it was by coincidence, because he was an asshole. He didn't
do it because he loved me."

Dr. Stuart raised his brow and blinked
a couple times in succession. "I see," he said at last, though it was
something of a fib. "So then what? How long before you married
again?"

"One hundred and sixteen
days."

"One hundred and sixteen
days?"

"Yes."

"I see," the doctor lied
again, more confused than ever. "Ok. Tell me about your second
husband."

"Oh, George was the perfect
gentleman. He always treated me like a lady."

"And what attracted you to
George?"

"Nothing," Claudia declared.
"My friends all said he was such a good catch and I believed them. He
probably would have been, for anyone else. In fact, he is; for someone
else."

"So why did you leave
George?"

"I didn't," said Claudia.
"He left me for his cute little secretary."

"Were you angry about this
betrayal?"

"No." Claudia sighed.
"She was nice too, perfectly right for him."

"So you didn't hate either one of
them?"

"No," said Claudia.
"I'm happy George found someone that could make him happy; and someone he
could make happy."

"Did George cheat on you with the
secretary?"

"Yes," Claudia replied.
"And no."

"What do you mean?"

"He fucked her, yes,"
Claudia related. "But he told me about it first."

"So he asked your
permission?"

"Not exactly. He confessed he was
attracted to her. I suggested he see if she felt the same way. And when she
did, I told him I wanted him to have sex with her."

Dr. Stuart lifted his brow. "You
did?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

Claudia shrugged. "Why not?"

"So you suggested this for the
sake of your husband's happiness?"

"I'm not sure."

"What do you mean?"

"Well," Claudia sighed.
"I had some silly fantasies about having sex with both of them."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"What did you hope would
happen?"

"In my wildest fantasies, I would
serve both of them. I often masturbated while imagining I was licking her pussy
while he fucked her and that when he pulled..." Claudia's eyes widened as
she turned them from the ceiling back to her doctor. Her smile vanished.
"Is it inappropriate to be so graphic?"

"Nothing to worry about, that's
why we're here." Henry swallowed. "Please go on, tell me exactly what
you wanted."

"Ok." She adjusted herself
in the chair and leaned forward. "I would picture how she'd put her knees
on the sofa, resting her arms on the back, you know, facing away from me. Then
I'd kneel behind her and lick all of her, but especially right where he was
fucking her. And she'd never even look back. She mustn't look back."

"And then?"

"She'd climax. Multiple times.
And so would I, just thinking about it. And when George climaxed, I'd clean her
out. Or maybe he'd pull out and give it to me. I'm not picky, you see."

Henry squirmed. "Ok, but in the
big scheme of things; what did you hope would happen? Did you expect that
George having sex with this girl would somehow improve your relationship with
him?"

"I don't know," Claudia
admitted, settling back into her seat. "But she was cute, and I'd never
been used by a girl." Her face followed her eyes fell to the floor.
"Still haven't."

"Did you imagine she was prettier
than you?"

"Not at all. She was just
cute."

"I see. Did you share your
desires with George?"

Claudia giggled through a smirk.
"I always shared my desires with George. He was never interested in doing
anything I wanted—and he was certain she wouldn't be either."

"How did this make you
feel?"

"Unloved."

"So, you suggested George and the
secretary get together and they did?"

"Yes."

"So then what?"

"I gave him a quick divorce so he
could be with her. You think they could have thanked me by giving me my fantasy
for one night, wouldn't you?"

"That's not a very traditional
way to say 'Thank you', is it?"

"I thought you weren't into
tradition," Claudia noted.

"Not for it's own sake, no."

"What would you have done then,
if you were in George's shoes?"

"This session is really about
you," Dr. Stuart reminded his patient.

"Hey," Claudia started,
"I'm the customer and the customer is always right. What would you have
done if you were my husband?"

Henry released a long sigh through
puckered lips. "I suppose, I wouldn't have married you in the first place
if I wanted some prudish type instead. So why did George marry you in the first
place."

"Pretty sure it was my
tits," said Claudia, leaning forward again. "Now quit dodging the
question. If you were my husband, what would you have done?"

"If my wife wanted something
weird, I'd have given her what you wanted. I mean, what she wanted."

"Really?" Claudia's eyes
sparkled. "Even if it was weird?"

"Yes," Henry said with a
nod. "Even if it was weird. Now tell me what happened after you and George
split."

With a smile, Claudia again settled
into her seat and continued to discuss this and other relationships for the
remainder of the session. The more she talked, the more the good doctor was
convinced the lady's troubles were deeper than he had ever imagined. Even more
disturbing, he found himself enthralled by her explicit recollections. Soon he
found himself using the clipboard to cover his groin lest his patient notice
his burgeoning interest.

"I think our time is up,"
Miss Burns declared, interrupting one of her anecdotes.

Dr. Stuart glanced at his watch and
stirred. "Indeed it is."

Claudia began to gather her things.
"I still don't see as how we're getting anywhere."

"It always seems that way at
first," the doctor related. "Don't despair."

"I was just hoping to see some
little bit of progress," Claudia said.

"If you want to make a tangible
change, perhaps you might consider wearing less makeup for our next
session."

"Why?"

"Heavy makeup is sometimes a sign
of self-doubt," Henry explained. "I think it might help if you feel
comfortable about yourself the way you are."

Claudia tilted her head to one side,
"But Doctor, I thought we were here to change the way I am?"

"Well," Henry began, "I
was referring to your appearance."

"I don't have any problem with my
appearance, do you?"

"No," Henry replied quickly.
"I didn't mean to imply that."

"If anything, I'm too
pretty."

"What?"

"Guys always want to put me on a
pedestal and treat me like a goddess," Claudia related. "But that's
never what I want."

"I see."

"Do you think I'm pretty?"

Dr. Stuart paused, unsure how best to
answer the question in a professional manner. "Not particularly," he
at last responded, knowing it was easily one of the three biggest lies he had
ever told.