Surviving Contact

Audrey gave him a stern look. "And you're not allowed to avoid me," she said.

She was dressed in the same form fitting dress she'd worn to dinner the night before, but Trevor could still picture her in the nightie. He saw her point. It would be hard to simply fold this latest development into their existing relationship.

"I won't," he told her. "I promise."

"Good," she nodded. "Until next time then."

They shared a smile and then Audrey slipped out the door. Trevor sighed, pouring himself a cup of coffee. It was hard to believe that Audrey, of all people, had given him a handjob. Could they really just move on as if nothing had happened? No, of course they couldn't. That hadn't been her point though. They'd just need to find a way to reconcile it with how they knew each other. He wouldn't let Violet's show drive a wedge between them, and it seemed like Audrey was on the same page.

Trevor tried to take a seat to enjoy the rest of his late morning, but a knock at the door stopped him in his tracks. He closed his eyes and sighed. Knocks had never yet proven to be a good thing. Bracing himself for whatever bullshit waited for him on the other side, Trevor walked over and opened the door.

He found Chloe. That would have been unusual to begin with, but it was the maid outfit she wore that really rendered him speechless.

A servant stood next to her and explained the situation. "Miss Chen has accepted a bounty off of the bounty board and will be taking over for us this morning, sir. We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause you. You are free to correct her performance if it is in any way not up to your standards."

Chloe glowered. The servant performed a quick curtsy then excused herself down the steps to return to her other duties.

"Um, come on in then," Trevor said, stepping out of the way. Chloe walked past holding a container with various cleaning supplies in one hand and a feather duster in the other.

The costume could have been worse, he figured. It was sleeveless and low cut, but with Chloe's small chest the effect was underexaggerated. It fell far enough down her thigh to cover her ass, but not far enough for true modesty. The black stockings drew attention to her thin legs. The heels were nowhere near tall enough to hide her petite stature. She wore a maid's headdress, a stereotypical and somewhat humiliating finishing touch on the ensemble.

Trevor shut the door behind him. "You don't have to do this, you know."

Chloe glared at him. "I kind of do, actually. I'm down ten points and this will make up the difference."

"Maybe there's another way," he offered.

Chloe widened her eyes.

"Not that! I didn't mean...I just meant, you know, a way to get points that wasn't..." Shit. He was really bungling this.

"There isn't," she said. "Trust me, if there was a way out of this I'd have taken it."

"Well...I can just tidy up a bit and then we can tell them you did it."

"You think they'll give me the points if I don't do the whole routine? Because I don't."

"No," Trevor sighed. "Probably not." He gave her an apologetic look. "I'm sorry. I'd get you out of this if I could."

"Yeah," she said under her breath. "Funny how that works."

Unsure of what else to do, Trevor sat down at his table while Chloe got to work. This had to be embarrassing for her, but he couldn't think of a way to make it any better. His mind immediately started to go to a place he'd rather it didn't, so he shook his head and turned to look out his balcony window, focusing on his coffee and the view.

Chloe had disappeared into his bedroom. Trevor was brought out from his self-imposed distraction by the sound of rustling sheets. She was stripping his bed. Shit. He really couldn't just sit there and let her do that.

Trevor stood up and made his way to the bedroom doorway to find Chloe bent over the corner of his bed, pulling off the sheets.

"Hey, Chloe," he said. "I'll handle that. Why don't you start on dusting or something in here."

She gave him a flat look. "We went over this. I need the points."

"Yeah, but it's not like Violet is going to take them away from you just because I did this one thing."

"Can you guarantee that?"

Trevor was silent. He couldn't. But neither could he just stand there and do nothing. He waited indecisively, trying to figure out some way to make things better.

"So you're just going to watch?" Chloe asked, not doing a great job of keeping the bitterness out of her voice.

Trevor sighed. He was in a lose-lose position. "No, sorry. I'll be in the other room."

He went back to the living room and sat back down at the table. After a few minutes Chloe stalked out from the bedroom carrying a balled up pile of sheets, her lip curled up slightly in disgust.

Trevor swallowed. Despite his best efforts he couldn't help but find the situation somewhat stimulating. Chloe had been his student, she planned on becoming a lawyer, but here she was dressed up like a tart and carrying his cum-stained sheets.

He tried his best to sequester those thoughts to the back of his mind, and he was successful for a time while Chloe finished cleaning his bedroom, but when she returned to begin dusting the living room his self control began to slip. His eyes traced the subtle curves of her small form, tightly wrapped by her maid outfit. Chloe's petite proportions worked for her, and though he knew it went well into the territory of impropriety he couldn't deny that he'd have liked to see them with less in the way.

Underlining his attraction was the simple knowledge that if he really wanted to he could have her any way he wanted. He could have her right then. It wouldn't even be hard. Daddy knows best, he thought, eyes glued to her tight ass, you'll really like it if you come over here and suck me off.

He shook his head, but it was no use. Daddy knows best, it'll feel really good if you bend over the counter and let me fuck you. Jesus, the idea of her losing her virginity in an unceremonious rutting in the middle of cleaning of his apartment was hot.

And awful. Unthinkable. Trevor screwed his eyes shut in shame. He never would, of course. But that he was tempted at all was enough to make him feel awful.

Chloe continued to strut through the living room. The heels were doing enticing things with the roll of her hips, and every time she reached up to dust a shelf he got a tantalizing look at the pale flesh of her thighs. There's nothing wrong with letting me fuck you up your tight little ass. It'll be fun, and it doesn't really count. Daddy knows best.

God damn it. What was wrong with him?

Trevor was just about to leave the room when Chloe did it for him, moving into his kitchenette. He let out a sigh of relief and took a sip of his coffee. It had mostly gone cold by now, but he sure as shit wasn't going to go into the kitchen to get another cup.

Chloe peeked out from around the corner, holding up the bottle of wine he and Audrey had split the night before. "Are you done with this Daddy?"

His eyes shot wide and he nearly choked on his coffee. Chloe's face had gone beet red, and she stared at him with something akin to horror. She made a small little **** sound.

"Um...yes," he said carefully. "You can throw it out."

Her question answered, Chloe shot back into the kitchen. Trevor tucked his erection into his waistband. The last thing he needed was for Chloe to see that.

He set his face into his hands. Things couldn't go on this way. It wasn't sustainable. And it wasn't right to let Chloe keep walking on eggshells around him. Somehow he'd have to find a way to fix this. He braced himself, then rose from the table.

Trevor made his way to the kitchen where Chloe was bent over the counter, scrubbing. He pointedly didn't look at her ass. That would have been a quick way to torpedo everything he was going to try and accomplish.

He cleared his throat. "So, you have to call me Daddy, right?"

She stopped and looked at him. "I can call you other things instead, sir." He thought he caught her suppressing a sneer. She went back to cleaning the countertops. "But...yes. If I don't think about it, I say that."

"I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you don't like that very much."

She didn't even bother responding.

Trevor sighed. "Despite what you might prefer, we're going to be interacting with one another, and despite what either of us would prefer we can't unwind the changes the show has made to us. It isn't a going to be good for us if we can't even talk. We need to figure something out."

"Yeah? What do you have in mind."

"You know that thing where if you say a word enough it kind of loses meaning?"

"Semantic satiation?"

"Right. That."

Chloe paused. "What are you proposing?" She sounded skeptical, but not entirely closed off.

"I think you should call me Daddy until it isn't weird anymore."

She scoffed. "Yeah, you'd like that wouldn't you?"

That stung. He was genuinely trying to help her. "Think about it. The entire point of the transformation was to embarrass you. If you can take away the embarrassment, you win. Besides, aren't you tired of having to police yourself?"

She thought about it. Taking a deep breath, Chloe conceded his point. "Yeah, fine. So...how do we do this?"

Trevor shrugged. "I guess just say it, and then we try and not be weird about it."

Chloe chewed on her cheek, then cleared her throat. "Alright...Daddy."

It was almost surreal hearing her call him that, but Trevor didn't let his face betray the way he was feeling.

"Good. Again?"

"Sure...Daddy." It still sounded stilted, and Chloe was still scowling, but it was better.

"Keep going. Say it a bunch of times."

Chloe sighed. "Daddy. Daddy. Daddy. Daddy. Daddy."

She looked up at him expectantly. He nodded. "We're getting there."

"If you say so, Daddy."

Trevor worked his next question around, trying to find a way to make it sound less like an accusation. "Hey, Chloe?"

She waited for him to continue.

"Do you mind if I ask...it's just, you don't seem to like me very much. And you don't have to or anything, but, well, could I ask why?"

She gave him a hard stare. "You can't imagine why I'd have a problem."

"You have every right to be upset," he said earnestly, "but you know I didn't have anything to do with this, right?"

"I don't think you masterminded any of this," she conceded, but her voice was bitter. "But you're always the one benefiting. Even now. My 'victory' over the audience, of calling you Daddy without feeling embarrassed, has you standing to gain. This whole show is like a Chinese finger trap. It doesn't matter what I do, you win. Not to mention that if you hadn't been perving on me in class then I wouldn't even be here in the first place. So yeah, I know you're not a monster. I know you didn't put this show together. But I still resent you. Why wouldn't I?"

Trevor stood dumbfounded. She had cut through to the core of his guilt. "I...I never did anything inappropriate in class," he said, defensively.

"Please. Show me some respect."

"I..." He'd just got done explaining to Chloe why they couldn't afford to walk on eggshells around each other, that they'd have to interact and so needed at least some kind of working relationship. That was to say nothing about Violet's promise that they were bound by fate. Since the first moment he'd seen Chloe walk out onto the plaza he'd been repressing a truth. Longer than that even. He'd never let himself acknowledge a simple fact, because to do so was to admit his own moral failings.

"I wasn't perving on you," he confessed, "but I did think you were cute. I never would have done anything about it though!"

He felt naked. That confession had cost him something, a part of his self-image.

"Right. And now here I am, a part of your literal harem. You still think your hands are clean?"

"I expect nothing from you Chloe. You have to believe me."

"No," she spat bitterly. "I don't. That's the beauty of the show. You don't have to lift a finger. Violet and the audience will do your dirty work for you. In the end you'll get exactly what you've always wanted but without having to feel like you did anything wrong."

Chloe's eyes grew damp as she laid Trevor's guilt bare. She was at least as torn up as he was. He wanted desperately to make things right.

And he could.

No. Trevor pushed the idea away forcefully, but it crawled back anyways. They were bound by fate. Unless Chloe won the entire show and got herself out of it, they might well spend the rest of their lives together. Leaving things like this, even if Chloe was absolutely correct, wasn't workable.

And who really was better off this way? They were both miserable. Why wallow in it when he could fix things?

Chloe's look softened. "Look, I know I'm being harsh. You're probably not a bad person. At least, not any worse than most people. But you can't expect me to be ok with this. Go back to the living room. There's not a lot of space in here and I need to get cleaning."

Chloe turned from him and went back to scrubbing the counters.

Trevor swallowed.

"Yes, I had an improper interest in you before this. Left to my own devices, nothing would have ever come of it. We're here though. I can't make any promises about the show, or about Violet, or speak for the audience but what I can tell you is that I'll never make you do anything you don't want to, and I'll never expect you to do anything you don't feel comfortable with. Whatever we do or don't do, you get to make the calls. Even and especially if that means nothing at all. I don't have any intention of us being more than we are right now. When you're with me, you can feel safe. Trust me..." Trevor swallowed the lump in his throat. His pulse was pounding. "Daddy knows best."

For a brief moment Chloe paused in her scrubbing and her eyes unfocused. It only lasted a second, and then she was back to how she had been before. She turned to look at him, a slightly confused look on her face.

"I still don't like the way you stand to benefit from this whole farce...but alright. I believe you. It's good to clear the air I guess, Daddy."

She went back to cleaning.

Trevor's heart raced. He hadn't abused his power over her, he told himself forcefully. He hadn't convinced her of anything that wasn't true, or gotten her to do anything she wouldn't have wanted to. Given enough time she probably would have grown comfortable around him anyways. All he'd done was move the timetable up a little. To make her feel better.

A part of him screamed that he'd just sold a piece of his soul, but he'd done what was right, hadn't he? He had to use whatever tools he had available to him to hold things together.

Trevor watched Chloe work and stewed in his own emotions. Maybe he should have thought about this more, just to be sure. He'd crossed the Rubicon now though. There was no walking it back.

His contemplation was cut short by a knock at the door. Trevor closed his eyes.

A knock was never good.