Insanity sure is funny when wrote

This evening with Cinder had started off with a lot of tension and awkwardness, which had put Nick into a difficult position. Now, the tension and awkwardness had continued, but in an entirely unexpected direction- Cinder was acting like a completely different person, and he didn’t know how to handle that properly.

Her behavior was so unprecedented that it almost made him wonder if this was some third personality that he’d never met before, who was manifesting.

While Cinder leaned towards him, her eyes sparkling with gleeful, almost malevolent excitement, Nick felt an uncomfortable swelling in his chest. He tore his eyes away from her and searched the table for any signs of support from his friends- and that was exactly what he found.

He found it on all of their faces, but when his eyes met Dani’s, a strange sense of clarity fell over him and he suddenly found himself able to breathe again. Breathe, and confront Cinder directly.

Yeah, that’s right, this is Dani’s night. Tonight is supposed to be about Dani, not Cinder. Nick had been putting Dani’s feelings on the backburner unwittingly, and upon realizing that, he also immediately understood why. It was simply a matter of priority. Because Dani wasn’t “really” a member of his harem- as in, not someone he was in a relationship with- he had unconsciously been deprioritizing her needs in favor of the other women in his life.

That might have been an understandable response on his part, but that didn’t mean it was a good thing. Dani may not have been a bigger priority to him than someone close like Mary, or even her girlfriend, Carly, but she was still his friend, and this night was still supposed to be about her. Not Mary and Holly, not Dawn, and certainly not the woman staring at him with an inscrutable expression on her face. No, tonight was about him and Dani.

And he wasn’t going to let Cinder ruin it for either of them.

“…Cinder,” he said, looking directly into her eyes. He saw a spark of challenge in them, which only further confirmed his worst fears.

“What?” She asked, almost sounding coy. But it was just an act. He could see that now. An act facilitated by alcohol and a desire to cast judgment into the wind and try to pretend like the consequences weren’t real, but still, an act.

And Nick wouldn’t indulge her acting.

“I can’t ask you to leave, it’s too late for that. But I am going to say that your behavior right now isn’t making me inclined to be with you. I’m sorry, but I don’t think I’ll be able to help you with your collar tonight.”

A hush fell over the table, saved for tiny gasps from Holly and Dawn, and a big one from Mary. Nick anticipated a response like that.

And it tore him up inside to say that to the woman in front of him, too. He didn’t like telling Cinder his feelings like this, it made him feel dirty. But he had to be open and honest with her, and address how she was making him feel.

The mask cracked off her face and shattered on the floor as rage took over the intoxicated woman’s flushed complexion.

“What?” She growled, the veins in her forehead throbbing. “But you said-!”

“I know what I said,” Nick replied, keeping his voice as firm as possible. “But to be honest, is it even worthwhile? For you to be forcing yourself like this? You obviously don’t want anything to happen between us. And while I’m happy to respect that, you don’t seem to be willing to yourself. And worse- you’re disrespecting me. I don’t want to be with someone who keeps making me feel this way, like I’m the worst person in the world for something that isn’t even my fault!”

He stood up and faced her down, withstanding the smoldering rage she flung at him with her eyes. Her nails dug into her palms and she started grinding her teeth, and he could tell that, if not for the collar, she would have flung herself at him and done God-knows-what.

But that couldn’t matter to Nick right now.

“Tonight isn’t about you, Cinder. Or about what you need, or what Ella needs. I’m sorry that you’re in this position, I am, but you don’t get to control how this night is going to go! That isn’t fair! Tonight is Dani’s night! She’s the one who should be deciding how tonight goes, and it’s like she’s been forced to take a backseat! That’s not fair to her, and the way you’re acting isn’t fair to me, either.”

It felt good to get all of that out. It almost felt as good as it did bad. But it felt really bad. The kind of awful feeling that made Nick question if he was a horrible person for telling off someone who was so obviously suffering like Cinder was.

All the relief he felt for finally expressing his feelings to the volatile girl couldn’t hold a candle to that guilt.

“What are you saying…?” Cinder shook her head slowly and stared at him. “This… this isn’t, I-! My collar is-”

“Yes, and I’m sorry about that,” Nick said. “Really, I am. But that doesn’t justify the way you’ve been acting. So, I’m going to ask you right now. What do you want, Cinder? Do you want me to help? Do you want to get involved with me? Or are you forcing yourself to go through with this because you think you have no choice?”

Nick didn’t want that. If Cinder was going to be dragged into his bed kicking and screaming, he didn’t want her there at all. He didn’t want the resentment and bitterness that would no-doubt arise from that once the collar came off and she was free again.

Whatever damage he was doing to their relationship right now, it would have come back on him tenfold if he went through with this and she didn’t want it.

And he would deserve it, too.

So, if Cinder was going to be angry with him either way, he would rather it be because he did the right thing and not the wrong thing. No matter how bad he felt about her situation, he cared about her too much.

Even if she refused to let that care into the cage around her heart.

Cinder was still shaking. Not like before, though. There weren’t any tears in her eyes. Just white-hot fury coming off of her in waves.

As silence took hold over the air, Dani felt just as trapped as she knew Nick must have felt. Because right now, this was all on her. Nick was standing up not just for himself, but for her, as well, without her even having to ask. Even though he knew fell well what it could do to his relationship with Cinder, and Ella, by proxy.

Which touched her even more, because he was saying those words for the sake of the damaged girl in front of him as well, even if she couldn’t see it.

Dani wished she could reward him for his kindness in some way. But it just wasn’t enough.

I could temper Cinder’s anger right now. With my Serene Serenade. I could do that. But… if I did… what then? It would just a band-aid. It wouldn’t actually fix anything. Cinder… Cinder would still be… like this. Dani bit her lip. What she was considering was little better than a tranquilizer. The alcohol had lit a fire in Cinder after mellowing her out slightly, and she had been contemplating smothering that fire again, for the sake of a smooth night.

Maybe…

Maybe that wasn’t what they needed.

Maybe Cinder’s flames needed to be stoked.

“…What do you want me to say!?” Cinder finally exploded. She slammed her fist down on the table. “You’re right, okay!? You bastard! I… I didn’t expect this! This stupid collar… I thought… that if I went along with this, then I could just get it over with, but… I don’t know what to do!”

Tonight had been too much for her. Her emotions had swung around too wildly for her to feel comfortable. Ella… Ella was supposed to be the stability. The balance. Cinder couldn’t cope with all this! But she couldn’t turn her body over to Ella, if she did, then Ella would suffer for her sake, and then what would Cinder do about that!?

Why couldn’t there be an answer here!? Why couldn’t this just be easy!?

“Why-!?”

The next thing Cinder knew, Nick’s arms were wrapped tightly around her. Her own arms were pinned to her sides as she felt his warmth engulf her, and her eyes widened incredulously as she struggled to process what was happening to her.

It made no sense. None.

Why was Nick hugging her like this? What did he hope to gain from it?

“It’s okay,” he said gently into her ear. “Just breathe. You don’t have to hug me back. Just… just breathe. Okay?”

In her stubbornness, she had half a mind to stop breathing. Just out of spite. That would show him!

But even as reckless as she was, she wasn’t that stupid.

Cinder stood there in silence as she processed what she was feeling.

If Nick thought that hugging Cinder would make her feel better and help her calm down, then he was an idiot. No two ways about it.

He probably expected her to pull away from him immediately and force him off of her. To fight him tooth and nail, even as the collar sent her into orgasm after orgasm.

But she didn’t do those things. She stood as still as a statue.

…But that wasn’t to say that she was calming down. No, quite the opposite. Cinder’s heart raced faster and faster as she felt him hugging her. Her brain was swimming in a fog of alcohol and outrage, and as sobering as her outburst had been, it hadn’t completely snapped her back to her senses.

At least, that was what she was telling herself.

What am I doing?! Why am I not fighting this!? Cinder tried to understand what was going on with her body, and found that she could not. I should be kicking and screaming right now! I don’t want him hugging me! Touching me all over, like-like some sort of pervert! Ella’s the one who likes things like that! Not me!

But it wasn’t Ella who was being hugged. It was Cinder.

And the person whose body was feeling this way was Cinder, as well.

Cinder may not have fully understood what was going on, but at the moment, forces were acting on her body that she had never stopped to consider before getting into this position. It wasn’t entirely her fault- Nick hadn’t fully considered them, either.

But, that whole episode over dessert, when she’d tried at being coy and coquettish, trying to regain control over a situation in which all of her control had been taken from her, had made her feel strange and weird. Like trying on a shirt that didn’t quite fit.

She wasn’t feeling that now. Not when Nick was hugging her… and not when Nick had chewed her out so severely, either.

Cinder wouldn’t have stood for a tongue-lashing like that under normal circumstances. She would have immediately lashed out right back. But as he uncovered more and more of her feelings and laid them bare for everyone to hear, Cinder had found herself stuck in a deep and twisted mire that she struggled to pull herself free from.

It had almost felt… freeing. The way her heart had raced when Nick talked to her that way, when he told her in no uncertain terms that he had no intention of forcing her to do something that she wasn’t comfortable with, the way he’d stood up for her and let her know that she could trust him not to take advantage of her…

That moment had left her with a deep, profound sense of…

…

…Frustration?

Was that what she was feeling?

But why would something like that leave her frustrated and wanting?

I’m so embarrassed! The feeling in Cinder’s hands finally returned, and she managed to clench her fists. He’s hugging me… it’s like he’s treating me as a child! And everybody is looking at me, too! They’ve been looking at me all night!

Ever since being fastened with this collar, Cinder had been forced to become far more familiar with sex and her sexuality than she’d ever had to before. Everyone in this room had seen her orgasm multiple times at this point, entirely against her will.

And she had a transformation that cared about that. A transformation that had gone untriggered until this point, and as a result, had slipped under everyone’s radar in the wake all the hectic events that had transpired after the last transformation vote.

A transformation that even Cinder had forgotten about herself, and didn’t even realize was acting on her at this very moment.

• A Princess’s Modesty: A princess must always remain chaste and modest. With that said, on Harem Hotel these are difficult goals to aspire towards. Whenever either alter finds themselves embarrassed by a sexual occurrence and feel they’ve behaved immodestly, they will receive a spike of arousal that may compel them to repeat the behavior again. [NOTE: If repeated too often they may no longer find themselves embarrassed, so this may have diminishing returns. Use sparingly! (Or don’t.)] (Faerie Tale)

Cinder had cum in front of people multiple times. People who mattered to Ella. Her friends, people she looked up to, even the man she was infatuated with. Any form of sexual interaction was embarrassing for Cinder, but this was a whole different level.

Being exposed and vulnerable with everyone staring at her, arriving at an orgasm while everyone else was fully-clothed and feeling uncomfortable about the whole thing… it went well beyond the realm of immodesty.

And the pleasure that her collar had been giving her as she tried not to get angry at Nick through his chastisement?

That was quite immodest of her, as well, to be enjoying that.

The collar, her transformation, and the surge of hormones that kept spiking through her body, they all coalesced together into a cocktail of energy that left Cinder breathless, overwhelmed… and too excited for her own good.

And now, Nick was hugging her.

In front of everyone.

“…Aaannnggghhhh!” Cinder finally summoned enough strength to break away from him. But not for the reason that she’d thought she wanted to. A fact that she didn’t even realize until she’d managed to free herself from his grasp, and stood facing him, struggling to catch her breath.

Her face was on fire, but she didn’t care.

Her heart was racing, but she didn’t care.

Her brain was boiling, but she didn’t care.

Nick was standing in front of her.

Stunned.

Defenseless.

Looking at her.

That she did care about.

Before Cinder could fully realize what she was doing, and well before she’d ever be able to stop herself, she lunged at him. Her dark fingers slapped down on his flushed cheeks, and she seized his head in a tight grip. Proper comeuppance for the unwanted hug, no doubt. That would have been her post-hoc rationalization (not that she knew what any of those words meant) had what happened next not occurred.

Nick was pushed back against the table from the impact of Cinder leaping onto him. He felt the wood jab into his side, but he hardly registered that.

All of his body’s sensory processing power was concentrated in his face- specifically in his lips, which Cinder was voraciously devouring.

“Hmm! Mmmfff! Hah!” Cinder jammed her tongue into his mouth while she clung to him with everything she had. She was shorter than Nick, but that didn’t matter when he was bent back over a table. Her mouth swirled all around his as she feasted on him like a hidden oasis in a dessert to a thirsty traveler.

“Oh my God…” Dawn’s jaw dropped.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Dani shook her head incredulously, her eyes bulging in shock.

Mary was so stunned she didn’t even chastise the two women for their blasphemy, she just sat and stared at the woman feasting on her husband with a look of utter disbelief on her face.

Only Holly seemed at all prepared for this outcome transpiring, and even she didn’t know what to make of it.

This would have been a turn of events that she’d have been happy to see, but she was so stunned that she didn’t know if she should feel like that or not.

“Shin-! Shuh-! Shindhurr!” Nick struggled to form a coherent sentence in the midst of all the kissing the other girl was doing. It was like she was possessed!

It wasn’t until she finally pulled away from him to breathe that he had an opportunity to stabilize and properly communicate, and it was a narrow window indeed.

One Cinder was closing already with how fast she was moving to resume her kissing spree.

“Shut up,” she hissed, her voice throaty and gruff as she practically snarled at him. “You got to kiss last time, now… now it’s MY turn!”

Cinder’s True Love’s First Kiss transformation was running the show right now. With that transformation, every time they got kissed anywhere, it resulted in a spike of pleasure. Something that Ella had practically dragged Cinder kicking and screaming into accepting for herself. The more intimate the kiss, the greater the pleasure, and if a kiss had enough love in it, it could even be enough to bring them to orgasm all on its own.

…

This was not one of those loving kisses.

This was more akin to domestic violence in kiss form.

Cinder had been pushed and pulled and played with all damn day, and while she knew that she shouldn’t be doing this…

She could feel the desire deep down inside of her coming to the surface. Ella’s desires. Only they weren’t Ella’s, they were Cinder’s too, and they were pouring out of her and into Nick’s mouth almost as quickly as her saliva was. And, in exchange, she was feeling the desire he had for her, as well.

As much desire as she could feel while pinning him to a table, anyway.

The fact that he could still want her after that spoke volumes about him, and it was enough to assuage any feelings of guilt that she might have later.

Nick wanted her to show him how she really felt about being sexually involved with him? Well, he was going to learn not to challenge her now, that was for sure!

And if he still had any doubts by the time the fire in her heart had been extinguished, and what little rationality she had returned? Well, she’d just have to show him again.

Cinder’s desires had been at war with her anger for so long now, and Nick had forced her hand. She could make excuses for her behavior later, right now, she deserved this just as much as Ella did, even if it WAS Dani’s night!

…Not that Dani was complaining, watching them go at it like that. The moistness on her seat could attest as much.