Hidden Island Chapter 7, part 1 of 3

Hidden Island
Chapter 7, part 1 of 3
 
Janie looked up, her eyes full of suppressed panic. "How? Did he tell you?"
 
Bella laughed, "You're not the only one who's good at picking up on things."
 
"I did not want you to know." Janie set her quill down. Her shoulders slumped. "I didn't want you to be upset with me, and I didn't want to have to explain myself. I am trying to understand why I did it.  
 
The whole night was bizarre."
 
"Please don't lie to me, Janie. I promise I'm not upset. I think it's wonderful," Bella reached across the table and laid her hand on Janie's.
 
"I am being candid. Candid, even." Janie was quite affronted at being accused of deceit.
 
"Oh, we haven't even begun to get candid," Bella grinned. "You did it because you wanted to, and nothing is wrong with that. You don't owe me any explanation. You do not have to tell me anything you do not wish to. You can, however. If you want, you can tell me all about it, and I will not be mad. I promise. I'll only be happy unless something happened that hurt you."
 
"No... it didn't... It was..." Janie shook her head. "It was the best night of my life."
 
Bella lit up. She leaned forward. "That's wonderful!"
 
"How can you be so happy about this?" Janie asked, the worry still not gone from her eyes.
 
"Janie, we don't know each other well yet, but I like you. I consider you a friend, and I care about you. Why would I not be happy for your happiness?" Bella made it sound self-evident.
 
"I had... carnal relations with a man who you had prior claim to. I also consider you a friend, but I still took Will to bed with me even though I knew you might be upset. That was not very friendly of me." Janie felt ashamed. "I still cannot believe I am having this conversation. It's everything I was trying to keep from happening."
 
"I don't have any claim over Will. I showed up two days ago after not having seen him in ages, and I had sex with him to power a spell. I'd have to be insane to think that meant I had some rights over what Will feels about anyone." Bella rolled her eyes. "If you knew me, you'd know I don't get jealous like that."
 
"He said that's what you'd say." The corner of Janie's mouth twitched into a small, brief smile.
 
"Then you did know, and there's no reason at all to be worried or ashamed." Bella squeezed Janie's hand.
 
"I didn't believe him. I thought he must be mistaken. No one thinks that way." Janie looked at their hands, not sure what to do.
 
"I do," Bella shrugged.
 
"Why?" Janie asked, looking for an explanation to some universal mystery, complete with frustration and need.
 
"My people think differently about sex and relationships and love. We have to. Anyone who learns sex magic has to change their expectations. They have to think about sex differently than most people," Bella said. "It's an idea that is spreading now that hex bags are legal and more common. Women can choose when they bear children now, so sex isn't chained to motherhood anymore. We get to choose now. Why would we want to stay confined by the old thinking methods with so many new options available?"
 
"Because the old ways are safe?" Janie suggested. She knew it was wrong the moment it left her lips.
 
Bella didn't notice the falsehood. She wasn't magistrate-trained, but she had an answer anyway: "Safe is for scared people. What do you think you have to be scared of?"
 
"Not you," Janie smiled. It was a deflection. That is not an answer at all. Bella laughed, not noticing.
 
"Not me. Never me." Bella squeezed Janie's hand, then let go and pushed the bread and cheese toward her.
 
"This is so utterly bizarre," Janie said, picking up the food and looking at it momentarily.
 
"I'm going to be candid for a moment because I want to ask you a question," Bella said. "Will and I are leaving in less than a week. Between now and then, I expect Will and I will have sex once or twice. Does that thought upset you?"
 
"No, of course not," Janie said. "You were with him first. You're going on a grand adventure with him. You're..." she gestured vaguely up and down Bella's body, briefly at a loss for words,” you're beautiful. You are a sex witch. Of course, you are going to be with him again. I'm his office assistant, already stepping over a vital boundary. I won't cross it again, and he is all yours."
 
"That does not want me to ask you," Bella said. "I wasn't staking a claim on him, Janie. I was asking if the thought of me having sex with Will has upset you."
 
"No," Janie said.
 
"So you understand how I feel," Bella shrugged.
 
Janie didn't say anything for a few moments. She took a small bite of her lunch, thinking.  
 
Finally, she nodded and smiled. "You are the strangest woman I have ever met, but I am glad for you. Thank you. And I'm sorry. I know you don't care, but I still feel like I wronged you, and I feel bad about it."
 
"Well, I suppose you'll just have to make it up to me then if it will make you feel better," Bella teased.
 
"How?" Janie knew she was being made fun of, but the suggestion sounded good.
 
"How many times did you orgasm last night?" Bella asked.
 
Janie turned bright red. "I... I don't think that is an appropriate question," she said quietly.
 
"I thought you owed me?" Bella pushed.
 
"I don't see how it's relevant, but fine... I don't know. They blended. Th… three, I think. One was big." Janie couldn't meet Bella's eyes. She spoke into her lump of bread and stared at the messy table.
 
"All right. Then that's what you owe me," Bella shrugged.
 
Janie choked on her bread. "What?"
 
"You owe me three orgasms to make up for the ones you stole," Bella smiled wickedly.  
 
"Seems like a fair trade, right?"
 
"You mean I... Me... with you?" Janie looked utterly dumbfounded and was still bright red.
 
"Sure. Or some other way if you don't want to do that. I trust your creativity." Bella winked at Janie. "One of them has to be big, though."
 
A shudder ran through Janie as her eyes met Bella's. The woman was like desire incarnate.  
 
Against all of Janie's upbringing, sense of decency, and embarrassment, she suddenly realized that she was uncomfortably aroused—just like she'd been when she'd seen Bella splayed out on the table. Just like—she finally had to admit to herself—she'd been when Bella had hugged her after Jacqueline and her entourage had left.
 
She squeezed her thighs together and tried not to squirm. She couldn't speak. What would she even say? She shouldn't have been having these thoughts, and they were so.
 
She knew women sometimes had relations with women. She didn't have a problem with that in the abstract. She believed people should be allowed to love whomever they liked. She frowned on people who disapproved, and in the same way, she frowned on people who disapproved of people of different races having relations. That was one of the things that had driven her away from the Magistrate. She'd learned a childhood friend, a young man she had grown up with, had been excommunicated for carnal acts with another man. She knew he was a good person and could not reconcile what the Magistrate said about him with what she had learned.
 
This, however. With Bella. Now. It was something that had never crossed her mind. It wasn't immoral. She knew that in her mind. Somehow, though, she had never been able to shake free the feeling of judgment and disgust in her heart. It still felt wrong. She could ignore it in every other case. Pretend it wasn't there. Say that what people chose to do with whom wasn't her concern or her business because she knew that was the correct answer, and ignore the discomfort that had always welled up when she thought about the idea of two women together, but now there was no ignoring it. Bella had offered precisely that. Two women. Together. Her.  
 
And Bella. She had to think about it now and could not ignore that it did not feel wrong. Bella made everything feel... right.
 
The leftover judge's mental conditioning was suddenly dragged out of the dark where she had hidden it. As Bella's playful smile forced it into the light, she felt it wither and die.
 
"It's all right," Bella said.
 
Janie's eyes focused again. She had no idea how long she'd been lost in her thoughts.  
 
"What?" she asked.
 
"I'm just teasing you. I'd never ask you to do anything you didn't want to," Bella said gently.
 
"I know," Janie said quietly, some of the redness starting to fade from her face.
 
"I didn't push it too far, did I?" Bella asked, a bit concerned. "I just wanted you to see how ridiculous you were being. No one can owe anyone an orgasm."
 
Janie swallowed. "No. You're right. I was being ridiculous."
 
"I'm glad you can see that. I just wanted you to see that if you want to sleep with Will again, you should," Bella smiled.
 
Janie blinked. "Will?" They'd been talking about Will. She'd forgotten entirely. She sighed and put her face in her hands, rubbing her temples. "This is so confusing."
 
"It's all right, really," Bella said, coming around the desk to stand behind the chair Janie was slumped in. Bella's soft fingers slid to the sides of Janie's head and found her temples. She applied a little bit of pressure and began to massage. Janie tipped her head back, at a loss of what else to do. It did feel wonderful. "Now tell me, what's on your mind? All of it. I promise I can help. I want to."
 
Janie was quiet momentarily, and then words seemed to pour forth. "Yesterday was stressful and full of confusion. It started with me catching you on the table and got more insane from there!"
 
Bella couldn't help but laugh. "Honestly, that was fun. Sorry."
 
"For you!" Janie huffed. She rolled her head into Bella's hands, enjoying the kneading fingers on her forehead and scalp. She hadn't realized how much tension she carried there.
 
"Well, yes. For me." Bella admitted.
 
"For me, it was the start of the longest day of my life! We put in three times as many clients as usual, though, worked late, and then we were attacked!"
 
"What?" Bella said, her hands stopping. She moved and sat on the table's edge to see Janie more clearly. "No one told me that! What happened?"
 
"Timmons! The man who hassled Will when the two of you came out to go shopping yesterday. He came back with two thugs. They attacked us. They held me hostage and forced  
 
Will to make them a map." She stretched her neck so Bella could see the faint red line where the knife had barely cut her. "They held a knife to my throat. I thought we were going to die."
 
All of Bella's playful demeanor was gone. She took Janie's hand and held it fiercely. "Tell me the rest."
 
"I caught them by telling them the truth," Janie said. "The gun went off, but Will got out of the way. I'm surprised you didn't notice the bullet in the table."
 
"That table has many gouges in it. Some of them are from bullets already." Bella shrugged, then shook her head. "Not important. Keep going."
 
"Well, they were trapped after that. Locked in the power of the Telling," Janie said. "We were safe by then. We waited for the Guard to show up, and that was it."
 
"Like the hell it was," Bella exclaimed. "You had three people contained by incredible power, which, by the way, I had no idea you were capable of or that you'd set up a Telling circle in this stupid old lighthouse! That is some serious spellbinding! I thought you were only an Acolyte?"
 
"I am. Well, it was. Not many Acolytes can do it, but there are a few of us. And it was only two," Janie said, frustrated.
 
"Two what?" Bella asked, not following.
 
"Two people caught. Timmons got away. He had some spell breaker talisman." Janie put the last bite of her lunch in her mouth and chewed slowly, not tasting it.
 
"Timmons? How? I've seen him before down at Merry Mary's. Word is he's some second-rate smuggler. Where would he get that kind of magical backup? That talisman would be worth more than his ship."
 
"He's working with a powerful spellbinder. His thugs said he smuggles Ashana's Tears." Janie looked a little sick at the thought.
 
"Rahat," Bella cursed, shaking her head in disbelief. "That would be upsetting to find out even on a normal day."
 
Janie was starting to feel better. Bella was right. Talking helped. "Yes. By then, I was not at my best."
 
"Understandable," Bella nodded.
 
"So, the Guard came and took them away, and it was over, but I was... I just kept thinking how close we'd come to dying, and about how Will was leaving and might not come back, and."  
 
She trailed off for a moment. "So, I kissed him."
 
Bella grinned. "Excellent seduction technique. The aftermath of danger is a powerful aphrodisiac."
 
Janie started to go red again. "That was not my intent!"
 
"Sure it was," Bella teased. "It might have been spontaneous, but that doesn't mean you didn't know exactly what you wanted."
 
Janie looked torn. "Seduction doesn't seem like the right term."
 
"Who initiated?" Bella asked.
 
"I did," Janie admitted.
 
"Who was calling the shots along the way?" Bella continued.
 
"Well, I was. At least, at first. It changed a bit once we finally made it to bed." Janie felt like the Grand Inquisitor was grilling her in the Circle of Truths.
 
"Oh, turned the tables on you a bit, did he?" Bella snickered.
 
"Well, yes..." Janie blushed again, then huffed, frustrated at Bella's gift for breaking her composure.
 
"That sounds like a perfectly executed seduction to me," Bella squeezed Janie's shoulder.  
 
"Congratulations."
 
Janie scowled, "You make it sound so insidious."
 
"That's only because you think seductions are bad. They aren't." Bella tucked a stray strand of hair behind Janie's ear. "Seduction is a game where you're trying to get someone to give in to you. You try to draw them out. You push them in the direction you want them to go.  
 
You nudge and see how they respond. You awaken things in them that they didn't realize or didn't want to admit were there. Control is essential to all of that. The trick is, what all seductions are really about is wanting the person you are seducing to seduce you back. To get them to take that control from you so you can give in to them."
 
 
To be continued