Havermouth, Present TimeAislen had the clear impression that she was the most unusual customer that the hardware store had seen, from the stares of the check-out clerks as she entered, and the hovering of the clean-cut, slightly nerdy clerk at the end of the aisle who seemed to not realize that he was stacking, unstacking, and then restacking the same packages to the shelf, his eyes on her.She caught her bottom lip between her teeth and heaved a sigh. “I’m looking for something to tie my lover to the bed,” she told him. “I like my men helpless and begging. You look like someone who shares my kinks. Do you have any recommendations?”He blushed and left in a hurry. She shrugged. “I guess not.”She found a shovel and brought it and a collection of native plants over to the cash register.The woman scanned it nervously. “Doing some gardening?” She asked. On the wall behind her was pinned a “Secret Keeper” bulletin and Aislen had a moment of glowing achievement and pride.“Planning on di
Havermouth, Five Years Before Although the football oval was overflowing with cars and people, Rhett and Cameron found parks next to each other, just down from where a collection of mobile food vans were busily trading. “I’ll get you some strawberries and cream to eat,” Rhett grinned at her as they leaned on the side of his car watching Heath and Cameron strip down to their uniforms and begin warm up stretches. “Unless you’d prefer a corndog?” “Strawberries sound nice,” she leaned a little against him, and he put his arm around her shoulders. She indulged in the fantasy that they were just an ordinary couple come to watch their friends play football - until Cameron pinched her arse. “If I win this game for us,” Cameron laughed, on a pre-game high. “I’m f-king our slut in the locker room.” Heath laughed and said something that she didn’t catch but he and Cameron bumped fists. “F-k you Cameron,” Aislen felt her cheeks heat and she looked around, knowing that too many people had ove
Havermouth, Present Time Aislen called the realtor and cancelled the sale of the house for two reasons – she didn’t want to become homeless before she was ready to move on (and, from her interaction with Cameron on the porch, she was far from ready), and having a massive sexy-time bed and cupboard full of toys would probably not project “family first home” to buyers. It was too early to get ready for the night with Talen, so she took herself for a walk up to the main street for coffee. She enjoyed the way that the coffee shops werewolf patrons all tensed the moment she entered, and how Diana darted worried looks her way as if afraid to take her eyes off Aislen lest Aislen do something unpredictable. “Hey,” a man sitting at one of the tables stood as the shifting queue moved Aislen up to him. “Aislen Carter, isn’t it?” “Perhaps,” she looked up at him warily. “Who is asking?” “You wouldn’t remember me,” he said. He had clear, light blue eyes and a flop of brunette hair that fell ove
Havermouth, Five Years BeforeAislen was getting good at covering bruises, she thought as she inspected her make up in the mirror. There was only the slightest darkness on her eye, the slightest puffiness, to betray that she had been on the receiving end of her father’s backhand the night before.It had been the first time, in her memory, that Patrick had hit her, and the shock of it, the betrayal of his refusal to listen to her side, had been worse than the blow had been. She had never known him to be so angry, waves of it rolling off of him as her control over the bubbles had shattered. She had been sent to her room without dinner and had stayed in there until she had heard both her parents leave in the morning although it made her late for school.Heath had come for her after the game, she knew, having heard the doorbell the evening before, but her father had turned him away.The Triquetra hadn’t arrived by the time she finished in the bathroom and was ready to go, and she stood by
Havermouth, Present TimeAislen took her time with her preparation for Talen’s arrival, pin-curling her hair in order to get the maximum baby-doll bounce to compliment the Lolita dress, painting her nails glossy black, and applying her makeup to make her look as doll-like as possible. She had a suspicion that she’d tapped into Talen’s DaddyDom/little fetish, quite by accident, but now that she had come to realize it, she planned on having fun with it.And with his many toys.She found a vase and arranged the flowers in it, setting it onto the dresser in the master bedroom, before setting out a range of candles, using their wax to fix them to the furniture. She wriggled into the underwear and the Lolita dress and was breathless and aching with lust at the front the door when the front windows lit with car headlights.She threw open the door with a grin that faltered as she saw Heath walking towards her. He stopped dead on the gravel and looked her over, his expression shifting from pen
Havermouth, Five Years BeforeA hammering at the door woke Aislen. It was late afternoon, slipping into dusk, and Toby snored on the mattress next to her. The room was littered with debris from their day, scattered clothing, take away food wrapping, the nearly empty whiskey bottle, the bong, the bag of drugs on the table, and the cigarette ashtray overflowing.“Your time is up room twenty-three!” A man bellowed from outside.“Yep,” Toby snorted awake and yelled back. “We hear you. We’re going. F-k,” he sat up and looked around him blearily, his eyes focusing on Aislen. “F-k,” he winced. “How old are you again?”“Eighteen,” she realized. It was her birthday, and that fact had completely slipped her mind in the drama with her parents and the Triquetra. “I’m eighteen.”“Thank f-k for that. Not that it makes any difference. I’m probably going to jail anyway,” he muttered as he began to dress.“Because they drowned,” she said softly. The memory was fuzzy of him weeping out his confession s
Havermouth, Present TimeTalen released his hair from the bun, and ran his fingers through to loosen it, flicking it back over his shoulders before beginning to undo the buttons of his shirt, watching Aislen through heavily lidded eyes with a small smile on his lips. He deliberately teased her, taking his time, and turning just as he reached the last button, in order to shrug out of the shirt with his back to her.“I like this view as much as the front one,” she told him, enjoying the display of muscles shifting beneath the lion’s mane fall of blonde hair as he undid his belt and toed out of his boots.“Hmm,” he flicked an amused look over his shoulder as his jeans sagged off his hips. He left them on, the top button undone and the fly straining to contain his erection and took a sip of champagne as he walked over to the armoire.He opened the cupboard door nearest to her, blocking her view of what he did within the cupboard, but she heard the buzz as he tested the charge on a vibrato
Havermouth, Five Years BeforeAislen could hear her parents arguing in the kitchen through the too-thin walls of the house.“It’s been three days, Patrick!” Tiffany was furious. “She barely talks, barely eats, and, although she leaves the house every morning in her school uniform, she’s not going to school – they’ve been calling to ask where she is.”“I don’t know what you want me to do, Tiff,” Patrick snapped back. “We’ve both tried talking to her. She won’t even look us in the eyes. She flinches every time I go near her.”“You did give her a black eye,” Tiffany reminded him. “And that’s why you won’t do anything about it now. You’re afraid that she’ll report you. When did we lose control of this situation?”“If my mother was still with us…” Patrick said in a softer tone of voice.“I blame your mother for this. Aislen changed once she started going to stay with her over the school holidays. I thought it was just… hormones. But what if… What if she was abused?”“She wasn’t abused,” Pa