Guidance and Discipline 4 (Patreon)

Mark was sitting in his apartment, trying to work on a case Thomas had forwarded him when he heard a knock on the door. He sighed, welcoming the distraction from the document hell in front of him. It was a well-paying consulting job for a criminal case, but it wasn’t the payment that made him pick it up. No, he picked it up because the case was far too complicated for Thomas to handle alone, too complicated to trust an associate, and too lucrative to trust the other vultures in the firm. 

Thomas belonged to his very sparse list of true friends, so Mark decided to help his friend, no matter how much his head hurt by reading endless pages of confessions and depositions. 

He checked the identity of the visitor through the peephole —a habit he had generated after an unfortunate event when he was dealing with the mob cases— he was rather surprised to find Laura at the other side of the door. 

It has been a week since his offer, since then Laura had been consciously avoided his presence even during the classes. He had to admit, despite his expectations, he was starting to miss her enthusiastic presence around, needling about studying harder. 

“Good evening, and welcome to my humble abode, princess,” Mark said as he opened the door, allowing Laura to step inside, trying to reduce the panic dancing on the surface of her expression. Maybe he had pushed her too much, he realized, if she was feeling that conflicted about turning back his offer to teach her. 

“Hi, Mark,” she murmured softly, in an uncharacteristic meekness, at least when they were together. He thought about the relative merits of pulling back the offer before she could reject it, but ultimately, he decided against it, because he didn’t want to baby her. She was strong enough to reject that by herself. 

He decided to give her the next best thing. “Would you like a drink?” he offered, giving her both the space, and the liquid courage from alcohol if she preferred to do so. 

“Just water, please,” Laura answered, but only after gazing toward his liquor cabinet longingly. She clearly understood the implications of asking for alcohol, but still decided against it, earning another point of admiration from him. 

“Make yourself comfortable,” he recommended as he walked toward his kitchen, giving her the time she desperately needed to gather her wits. He grabbed a bottle of water and returned back to his living room, only to find Laura still standing up straight, cycling through a number of expressions, tightly grabbing her trenchcoat. 

He was trying to find the best way to ask her to remove her coat and be comfortable without mentioning her stressed state, when her expression finally stopped on determination and her arms moved, removing her coat…

Mark heard a gasp, followed by a plastic bottle hitting on the floor. He was shocked by what she was wearing underneath her trenchcoat, and more importantly, what she wasn’t wearing. 

“I’m…” Laura murmured before her voice faded. She took a deep breath before attempting to speak once more. “That’s my answer,” she said. 

Mark would have liked to say that the thing he was most concerned about was the way her voice trembled and solidified, showing her determination, but that would be a lie when his eyes were locked on the way her chest moved as she took a deep breath, making her bosom heave. 

A bosom that he could view perfectly, because, under her coat, she had forgotten to wear some critical pieces of clothing! A shirt, for example. Or a skirt. 

Mark took a breath to excuse his silence even as he failed to resist the call to examine her body. He would have loved to say he was focusing on the way her fingers trembled as she removed her coat, showing her panic despite her attempts to hide that from her tone. 

But no, he was much more focused on the ensemble that she was wearing. An ensemble that was black, lacy, and most importantly, thin… Too thin, even, failing to completely hide the pale skin underneath even under the dim lights of her living room. She was beautiful, he thought. Much more beautiful than he had ever thought. The biggest part of her clothing was her stocking, a deliciously chosen thigh-high that connected to her garter belt, enhancing her 

As he looked at her almost naked body, he had realized his mistake. Her daily clothing preference —loose pants, boring cardigans, and cutesy blouses— had given him a childish impression about her, something that hadn’t changed even when she had made that outrageous request about teaching her about the pleasures of the flesh. At that point, it was easy to discount that as a childish reflex. 

But now, looking at her body covered —barely, which made the impact several times stronger— in sexy lingerie, it was impossible to see her anything but a young woman, ready to take the step into the unknown. Mark knew that he needed to say something, but he found it rather difficult to pull his eyes from her delicious areolas, peeking through the edge of her bra, which was too small to properly cover her erotic pinkness. Her nipples, pushing against the fabric, hard with anticipation, made the act of pulling back even more difficult. 

 Ultimately, he succeeded, but not in the direction he wanted. He was supposed to be meeting with her beautiful blue eyes, not trailing down her surprisingly smooth stomach, imagining how her skin would feel under his touch, before arriving at her hips. Her black panties were no more substantial than her bra, hiding her core without hiding the fact that she was shaved clean. Her garter belt, once again black, but with touches of crimson, crowned the whole area perfectly, setting a burning flame in his heart. 

He tried to take a deep breath, but that only intensified the fire… 

*****     *****     *****     *****     *****     

As she removed her coat, revealing the surprise underneath, her body felt like it was on fire. 

It was a difficult thing to do, as a cynical part of her mind was expecting him to disappoint her, as everyone else in her life had done. Maybe he would laugh at her, a little girl trying to play the part of an adult woman, with the underwear she had purchased just for the evening. It was the whole reason she had put a huge dent in her savings to buy them, but she thought that was better than humiliating herself in her usual boring stuff. 

However, spending the money didn’t mean that she felt like she deserved to wear them. She felt like a little girl, trying to fake being an adult woman, only to fail spectacularly. Her confidence was paper-thin, about to be raptured at the slightest negative reaction. 

And when Mark maintained his silence after his initial shock and dropped the water bottle, her hands were twitching as she tried to ignore the desire to put her coat back on, apologize and dash away before changing her school. It didn’t help her confidence when his eyes started to trail her body down with torturous slowness, an emotion that she couldn’t recognize dancing in his eyes. 

Still, looking at his eyes, she felt her heartbeat picking up speed, loud enough to deafen her. 

She bit her lips, welcoming the sound of her own heartbeat. At least, it helped to quieten the cries of her insecurities that he would just laugh at her, saying that she was just a pathetic nerdy girl trying to reach a level of sexiness she could never deserve with her tiny pathetic body. The lower his eyes slid down, the stronger she felt. Her lips parted, about to apologize for her stupid idea…

But then, Mark’s eyes found hers, the expression she failed to decipher earlier still dancing in his eyes, only stronger. Then, he spoke. “Beautiful.” 

Laura was helpless against the gasp that escaped her mouth even as a shiver suddenly covered her skin, simultaneously assaulting her body with a burning sensation. It wasn’t the first time she felt her face burning in front of someone else, but usually, it was about feeling ashamed. This time, the nature of the heat couldn’t have been any different. 

She was not really experienced when it came to her own sexual nature. How could she, when her sexual experience was limited to awkward fumbling with a boy with a serious denial about his own sexual orientation, and a few hasty kisses stolen by an annoying hippy who was too fascinated by his own reflection? However, just one word from Mark was enough to awaken something different in her. 

Mark, who was the first man who had really treated her by anything other than a silly teenager or an annoying geek. Mark, who was tall and muscular and handsome enough to actually work as a model if he so wished. Mark, who was rich and successful—or at least had been in terms of success until whatever happened to send him to Community college, though the state of his apartment suggested that the same thing didn’t affect his monetary status significantly, not that she really cared about the last part. 

What she cared about was that knowing he could probably go to any bar he wanted, and leave the place with a woman much sexier and much more experienced than her own pathetic self —or more than one if he wished— but still, he still somehow looked at her with desire, reflecting a strength that she had never felt before. 

Maybe she was wrong, she suddenly thought as she examined Mark’s expression, a sliver of confidence flaring into life. Maybe, she wasn’t as unattractive as her horrible past experiences had suggested…

Maybe, the night would go much better than she had expected…