Jack and Madison were sitting on the couch looking through FairStay listings when Madison's phone rang. She picked up the phone, but not recognizing the number on caller id, she was about to ignore it when she saw the person was leaving a message. Curious, she tapped the button that would allow her to listen in while the person was leaving a message.
"...said you were trying to contact me. I'm not sure why, but-"
"Yes! Finally!" Madison crowed, while mashing the button to connect with the caller mid-message.
"Hello?" she said. "Yes. Hi, I'm so glad you called. What? Um...no, sorry. The reason I called was because I need to confess- Oh! Um, I mean that's not...Um, I mean I might be- Look, can you please just let me finish? Thank you. The thing is, I lied about Jack. I told you he and I were together, but that was a lie. We were just friends. Why? Because I was afraid I would lose him, lose his friendship if you said yes. So, I lied to get you to turn him down. No, no, none of that is true. I lied about all of that. I wanted to make sure you would say no when he asked you out. Yes, you're right. It was a horrible thing to do. Why? Because he found out. No, I told him. He said something that made me realize that what I had done was horrible and hurt him terribly. And, I confessed. No. He doesn't hate me. No. But he did tell me he wouldn't forgive me unless I confessed to everyone I lied to about him, and cleared his name. Yeah, seriously. No, not yet. Not ever, not like that anyway. He, um, he said that because of what I did, I could never have him all to myself. No, really. I don't mind. The fact that he's still giving me a chance, really helped me like, unclench. Yeah, I think he would. He's right here."
"What!" Jack heard a faint yell over Madison's phone.
"Well, do you?" asked Madison. "Okay, here he is." then as she handed him the phone she whispered, "Analise".
"Analise?" said Jack.
"Jack, Hi, um, hi. Oh, man. I am so sorry about what I said-"
"Hey, it's alright. I don't blame you. If whatever she told you had actually been true, then what you said probably would have been justified."
"But still, it must have hurt," she said.
"Oh, it did. But would you have said those things if Madison hadn't lied to you?"
"No! No, never!" she replied.
"There you go. It wasn't your fault."
"Are you sure? Will you ever forgive me?" she pleaded. It was clear from her tone that she still blamed herself, even though it was really Madison's fault.
"Yes, Analise. And what's there to forgive?" he tried to reassure her.
"Please?" There was genuine angst in her tone.
"Okay, fine, if it will help you," he said with a sigh. "I forgive you."
"Thank you!" she said, sounding relieved.
"So, what would I?" he asked.
"What?" she asked, puzzled.
"You asked Madison something, and she said 'Yeah, I think he would'. So, what was it you asked?"
"Oh! Um...I...Um...You...Um..."
While Analise was hemming a hawing, he looked at Madison questioningly.
"She wants to know if you're still interested in dating her," said Madison.
"Sure, I'd like that," said Jack.
"What, really?!" said Analise in surprise.
"Yes. Really. Do you like hiking?" he asked.
"What? Oh, yes. Yes, I like hiking. I mean, nothing hard-core, but anything under sixteen kilometers is okay with me."
Sixteen kilometers? The hike to Lake Valhalla was ten kilometers round trip, and he was always a little tired afterwards. And, while he could do, and had done, sixteen-kilometer hikes, he always found them exhausting.
"Great, there's this Lake I like to visit. It's ten kilometers round trip. I start classes in a few days at North State and my next few days are booked solid, but I was planning to go hiking next Sunday. Do you want to join me?"
"You're going to North State, so am I!" she said excitedly. "What classes are you taking? Oh, and yes, I would love to go hiking with you on Sunday."
"Great. As for classes..." he listed off all the classes he was taking. He had registered for the maximum class load they would allow for a first year freshman.
"Damn! All that? Can you even spare the time to go hiking? Won't you need that time to study?"
"I have my ways," he said.
"Hmm. Anyway, I was going to suggest we meet on campus, but with your schedule, I don't think you can spare the time. But...who do you have for Chem 203?"
"Berkheimer," he replied.
"Oh! Me too! Then I'll see you on Monday. This is so exciting."
Then, before Jack could think of a reply, she continued, "Oh, sorry, I gotta go. My sister's dragging me to the mall. You have my number, right?"
"Yes, I'll get it from Madison's phone. Besides, we'll see each other in Berkheimer's class on Monday. We can work out the details for Saturday, then."
"Ok, see you. Gotta go, bye."
"Bye," he replied, then she hung up.
And just like that, he had a date. A date with one of the girls he had originally asked out. The last one, in fact. The one he almost didn't ask out because of the dread he felt. He felt something inside him unclench. From the way Analise had talked to him, he got the distinct impression that she was genuinely excited to meet him. Of the five girls he had asked out, Analise's rejection had been the least severe. Not that it had mattered at the time. But now, he wondered if she had genuinely been interested in him even then.
"Um, Jack?" asked Madison, interrupting his thoughts.
"Hmm?"
"That was the last. I've confessed to all five now."
"Good. That's good to hear."
"So, um am I forgiven."
He thought about it. She did what he asked and confessed to Katie, Sam, and the five girls who had rejected him because of Madison's lies. And one of them had even agreed to go out with him. He examined his feelings and decided that, yes; he did forgive her. But, like she had said, he would never allow her to have him all to herself. The only reason he was able to forgive her at all was because of the soul bond. He could tell that she was genuinely remorseful. But, he could also tell that she was still obsessive and possessive, and letting her "win", by getting him all to herself, would just be rewarding her possessive tendencies.
"Yes, I forgive you. But-"
She squealed, then climbed into his lap, and mashed her lips against his. He had no experience kissing, but had read enough to know that simply mashing your lips together as hard as you could was not how you kissed. She was smashing his lips against his teeth so hard it hurt!
He placed his hands on either side of face and pushed, trying to get her to let up, but instead of relenting, she grabbed his head and pushed her mouth against his even harder. Getting angry at her violence, and wondering why the soul bond wasn't preventing her behavior, he opened his mouth and bit her lower lip, hard.
She yelp and jerked back, then put her hand to her mouth saying, "Why?!"
He just glared at her, trying to ignore the closeup view of her tits through her almost see through camisole.
"It fucking hurt, that's why!"
"But-" then her eyes went unfocused for a second, before she said, "Oh shit. I'm so sorry. I didn't- I just-"
Then he remembered what Jeeves had said. The soul bond would only prevent her from doing things she knew would harm him. And, if he didn't like something she was doing, or was about to do, that would propagate down their soul bond connection and she would notice and change her behavior. When she smashed her mouth into his, it had hurt, but wasn't actually injuring him, so the volume of his displeasure traveling over their connection hadn't been strong enough to overcome her excitement. At least not right away. He bit her on the lip before she could notice that she was causing him pain.
He caressed her cheek. "It's okay to be excited, but pay more attention to what you're doing."
She nodded, then he grabbed her face with both hands and pulled her closer. When their lips touched, he gently nibbled and pulled on her lower lip with his. She tried to push forward, but he squeezed her face tightly until she stopped pushing. Then he continued to nibble on her lips with his. After a few minutes of this, he pushed his tongue out and stuck it between her lips.
The moment she felt his tongue touch her lips, she opened her mouth and her tongue darted out to swirl around his. Their tongues danced and explored each other's mouths and eventually he relaxed and let go of her face. Then, he reached around and caressed her back, running his hands lower and lower until his hands were reaching down to encompass the firm swell of her ass. When he squeezed, she moaned into his mouth.
After squeezing and caressing her ass for a few minutes, he ran his hands up along her sides and pressed his palms against the sides of her tits. When he did, Madison grabbed one of his hands and pushed it around so his palm was firmly pressed against her breast, and he could feel the hard nubbin of her eraser head sized nipple poking into his palm. As he dug his fingers into her pillowy soft flesh, she moaned again and pushed her breast into his hand. He reached up and grabbed her other tit, then with both hands occupied, began exploring her firm yet soft flesh.
By this time, he was so hard it hurt, but thankfully his hardness was angled up and to the side, so she wasn't painfully crushing it like the last time she'd sat in his lap. They continued kissing while he explored her wonderful assets for a few minutes before he realized there was something preventing him from even more pleasure. Her camisole. When he reached down to slide his hand up under her top, she leaned back and grabbed it with both hands and began to pull it up over her head. But just before she could pull it up high enough to expose her luscious naked flesh...
CRASH!
Jack's front door slammed open. Madison screamed and pulled her top back down, as several large armed men wearing FIS blazers rushed into the living room.
"FEDERAL AGENTS! HANDS WERE WE CAN SEE THEM," yelled one of the men.