Working Out the Kinks (Chain) Read online

  “Why psychology?” I asked when we were standing in line at the food court.

  Whitney shrugged her shoulders, “It’s amazing to me the things that can go on in a person’s head, I guess.”

  While she talked, my gaze traveled from her eyes and down to the choker that caught the light and shined back at me. It lightly jingled as she moved down the line, but it never seemed to bother her, and she continued on as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

  She stepped up to the cashier. “I’ll have a hamburger, please. Plain, with everything on the side.”

  “That’s pretty specific,” I joked.

  “Punishment,” she stopped and looked over at me, then down at her feet once again. “Just trying to watch my weight.”

  I studied Whitney’s figure. She was the polar opposite of overweight. There was nothing on her body to indicate she had ever had a problem with food. In fact, I knew girls who would’ve killed to have the kind of metabolism I figured she had.

  “I’ll have a Caesar salad, please,” I said to the same cashier and handed her my credit card to take care of both my order and Whitney’s.

  When we got our food I followed Whitney over to a table she’d chosen, next to a large window that had a clear view of the people walking by outside. From the corner of my eye I watched as she carefully took her seat in the same cautious manner as she had done in class. It seemed like a challenge to her to find a comfortable spot in the chair. I turned for a moment to look out the window, trying to act as if I hadn’t noticed her situating herself. She started preparing her meal in the strangest way. First, Whitney took the meat out of the hamburger buns and placed it on the platter. Next she arranged the other parts of the hamburger all in a row: lettuce, tomato, onion, and finally the two pieces of bread. Using a fork and knife, she cut through the meat and took a bite.

  I chose to ignore her eating habits and focused my attention back on her choker.

  “That’s such an unusual necklace,” I ventured in pointing out after finishing my first bite of salad.

  “Thank you,” she replied, looking around at the crowd of people, distracted.

  “Is it supposed to mean something?”

  Whitney turned her attention back to me, hesitating in speaking.

  “It means I’m…taken,” she said with a small voice. Something wasn’t right with her answer. It seemed like she had to force herself to explain the choker to me in a simpler way.

  I played coy. “Was that your boyfriend waiting for you in the car last week?”

  Whitney set her fork and knife down and picked at her nails, looking uneasy.

  “Um, I guess you could call it that.”

  “What’s his major?”

  She looked up at me again, slightly perturbed that I was trying to keep the topic going.

  “He works at the hospital.”

  I felt the tension in the air, and I had hoped I could at least get one more answer out of her before things would go wrong for me.

  “Is he an intern?”

  Whitney folded her arms across her chest, causing the necklace to move and dangle gently.

  “Why would you want to know?”

  I played dumb. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know…well, I was just making conversation. I haven’t seen you in so long.”

  That seemed to change her mood, and she physically relax and then sighed, “No, it’s all right. I know you are just being a friend, Lexi. I’m sorry. He’s a doctor, actually, in the gynecology department.”

  I didn’t want another rut to happen in our conversation, so I changed the subject to discussing our class schedules and school in general. Barely five minutes passed when an alarm on her watch went off. It made her jump and groan.

  “I have to go,” she said, as she quickly gathered up her belongings.

  I tried hurrying as she did to pick up my bag and tray. “Do you want to–”

  “I’ll see you in class on Wednesday, okay?”

  I wasn’t quick enough in responding, and it didn’t look like Whitney would wait for me to answer, even if I had asked her to. She left the food court and wove her way around others on the sidewalk and headed into the gynecology building.

  For a brief moment, I had caught a glimpse of my old friend. The one I shared some of my fondest memories with. Whatever had happened to change her personality, I was more than determined to get her back.

  The week dragged by with nothing new from Whitney. She didn’t speak to me on Wednesday when I tried to say hello outside our class. Once more, Dr. Pierce arrived to pick her up and she distanced herself from me quickly. By Sunday, I was grinding my teeth in frustration.

  I hated myself for keeping my mind preoccupied with the thousands of things that could’ve been happening to Whitney that weekend. After our lunch on Monday, I knew I wasn’t going to get any more answers from her. So there came option number two, which required a hell of a lot of courage. I made it as far as the sliding doors to the entrance of the 200 building before the butterflies in my stomach kicked in.

  It was now or never. I had to do this. She would have helped me, I kept reminding myself.

  I made my way over toward the hospital once again, where Whitney and I had gone for lunch. The people walking past me began to change from the normally dressed student to the common hospital worker, wearing scrubs and jackets.

  For Whitney.

  At first, after I stepped inside, I was a bit overwhelmed. UCLA’s hospital was like a family doctor’s office on steroids. There were so many people bustling around, it took me a moment to locate the directory located on a nearby wall. I studied the information and found the gynecology department was located on the third floor. I found the elevator, pushed the button labeled three and went up. My nerves were causing my hands to tremble, so I clutched onto my bag to make it less noticeable how uncomfortable I was.

  When I got off the elevator, I stepped out into the hallway and found the sign telling me which way to go to get to the gynecology department.

  Inside the waiting room, there were a few women waiting for their name to be called, and a nurse on the other side of the counter with her head down toward her paperwork. I approached the front desk and she looked up at me with a smile.

  “You’re here for an appointment?”

  “I was actually hoping to make one? Just for a regular checkup.”

  The woman turned to her computer and began typing away.

  I cleared my throat and lowered my voice. “I’d also like to request Dr. Pierce for the exam?”

  She looked at me and then back to her screen, noisily typing on her keyboard.

  “Okay, right now it looks like Dr. Pierce is booked for two months before anything is open,” she explained.

  I felt the hard slap of defeat. A lot of things could happen in the matter of two months. I suddenly felt like all of my effort had been for nothing.

  “Wait just a minute,” she said, and turned back to the paperwork on the desk, then flipped through a few pages on the file she had been studying. She found the page she was looking for and pulled it up.

  “Wow, this is lucky. A patient called an hour ago and canceled her appointment with Dr. Pierce for next Monday. Would that day work for you?”

  “Yes, but I’d have to be admitted as a new patient.” My heart began to race with excitement again. The woman nodded her head. “That’s fine we’ll get you set up with a patient ID and you’ll need to have your information faxed over to our office before your appointment next week.”

  I nodded my head as she explained to me what I needed to do. The last thing she did was write down my appointment information on a card and hand it to me. When I flipped it over, the name printed was Dr. Eric Pierce, and the sight of it made my hand tremble.

  “Do you need anything else?” she asked me.

  “N-no, thank you very much,” I replied and stepped away.

  On Thursday I made it to the office with fifteen minutes to spare. The receptionist at the front desk
greeted me with a calming smile as I checked in and waited for my name to be called. I began to feel restless, sitting there and letting my leg bob up and down frantically. The moment I entered the office, I had been charged with energy, ready to take on whatever obstacles came my way. And then, with time ticking on, my courage started to fade.

  Finally, the door next to the front desk swung open and a nurse stood there, reading a file in her hand.

  “Alexandra,” she called out. I jumped up and followed her into a back room where she led me into another waiting area.

  “Nervous?” the nurse asked me while she took my blood pressure.

  “Uh, no, not really,” I lied. She smiled and jotted down a few notes.

  “Your heart rate is a little high so I figured you were. It’s totally normal to be nervous but you don’t need to worry. Dr. Pierce is great.”

  Hearing his name sent a shudder through me.

  “Will you need a nurse present with you in the room?”

  “No, I’ll be fine without one,” I answered.

  The woman led me to the exam room and began to set up items on the counter.

  “Go ahead and take your clothes off from the waist down and put the gown on. Dr. Pierce shortly,” she said with another kind smile.

  I nodded and watched her leave the room, shutting the door with a gentle click. I undid the button of my jeans and kicked off my sandals. I slipped my panties off and stepped into the itchy paper hospital gown. Taking my seat, I took in the room’s surroundings. My palms were clammy, and my skin felt itchy. A few times during the silence, I almost stood and dressed to leave. But just as I was trying to calm myself, there was a firm knock on the door. It clicked open and then closed once more. I kept my gaze to the ground and saw a pair of sleek dress shoes walk in. They hesitated for a moment and then continued to walk toward me.

  “Miss Alexandra Hayes,” I heard Dr. Pierce’s announced.

  “It’s Lexi,” I said meekly, instantly regretting the decision to correct him because of his challenging eyes.

  “Look up, please.”

  He wasn’t being rude, just straightforward. I obeyed and our gazes met only briefly before he looked down at my file in hand. He was just as I had remembered. Light blond hair and deep blue eyes. He wore a doctor’s coat over a white shirt with a crisp, light blue tie snug at his neck. I was able to study his features better as he stood there and studied my papers. He was dashing, with a hint of danger. There wasn’t a hair or an article of clothing out of place on him. Dr. Pierce looked over at me and suddenly, with his eyes fixed on mine, I felt the room closing in.

  “So what made you decide to take me on?” he asked with a light grin. The question seemed to hint at something else.

  “I was due for a checkup,” I replied casually.

  Dr. Pierce turned his attention back to my records.

  “That wasn’t my question, though,” he answered, causing me to panic. “I don’t take on new patients normally, and you weren’t referred by anyone.”

  “I…well, I’d heard about you.” I tried coming up with the best generic response, but I still felt it wasn’t good enough. He smirked and turned his back to me.

  “Lie back and scoot to the edge of the seat. Place your feet on the stirrups.”

  I did as he wanted, forcing my wobbling legs to move. Dr. Pierce busied himself with preparing for my exam and then wheeled the tiny cart of supplies over toward me.

  “Place your feet on the stirrups,” he repeated, emphasizing each word.

  “I’m sorry.” I fumbled as I realized I hadn’t done what he had wanted of me.

  Hesitantly, I pushed my legs and placed them into the clothed-covered metal rests that exposed all of me to him. The paper dress I wore blocked my view, but I could see his face well enough when he turned around. He didn’t appear at all phased by what he could obviously see. It was just another gynecology appointment to him, but to me, it was a test.

  I threaded my hands over my stomach and closed my eyes.

  “Take a deep breath and relax, Alexandra.” Dr. Pierce tried easing my discomfort. Surprisingly his words seemed to do the trick, and I found by breathing deep and slow, I was able to relax. The moment I exhaled my third breath, the cool plastic of the speculum slid into my body smoothly. The feeling caused me to let out a slight moan. Dr. Pierce hadn’t been looking, but the moment I made the noise, his attention was back on me.

  “Relax your muscles,” he said, almost in a whisper. Again, I did as he wanted and his hand touched my inner thigh as he worked. This wasn’t supposed to be anything sexual in nature, but having such an attractive man touching me like this was hard not to enjoy.

  “When was your last period?” His questions brought the sexual level to an all-time low.

  I swallowed the knot in my throat and looked up at the halogen lights in the ceiling.

  “About three weeks ago,” I replied after a pause.

  The speculum and his hand suddenly left my body, forcing me to suppress another moan. When I looked back down at him, I thought I caught a glimpse of a grin on his lips before he stood up and walked over to the counter to prepare for the next part of my exam.

  “So you know Whitney,” he mused casually, keeping his back to me. In shock, I watched him remove the latex gloves on his hands with a loud, snapping noise and toss them into the trash bin in the corner. I felt like a deer in the headlights, caught, and knowing I needed to run or risk my life standing there. And with most of my clothes still discarded on the chair beside me, there wasn’t a good chance I could get out quick enough with my decency still intact.

  I mentally told myself to remain calm. To keep relaxed, just as he had told me to do moments ago.

  “Yes, she’s my friend,” I said after regaining some composure.

  Dr. Pierce spun around on his heel, wearing a new pair of gloves, and returned back to stand between my outstretched legs.

  “Why are you here?” he asked me as I felt him touch my thigh. My mouth parted, my breath coming in quick gasps of air. He squeezed my sensitive skin, causing me to suck in my bottom lip between my teeth.

  “I want…”

  Getting words out was proving to be more than a challenge.

  “What do you want, Alexandra?”

  His eyes challenged me to speak.

  “I want what she has. I want a collar.”

  And like that, I had sealed my fate. I hadn’t even given my words any contemplation; they just came. I knew what had been around Whitney’s neck even before I had stepped foot inside the exam room. The thought of it had kept me up the night before, contemplating what I would do with this information. His face changed ever so slightly, but it was still a visible surprise. The glare had softened, yet the sinister hardness about his demeanor remained. He looked down past my gown, pondering my words. Abruptly his hand left my thigh and it started to feel as if my exam was over. I began to lift my legs out of the stirrups and the moment I did so, I regretted it.

  “Put your legs back up,” he commanded suddenly. In seconds, my feet were back in their original position. He placed both hands gently on my knees, warming my chilled skin.

  “Whitney worked very hard for her collar. Did she tell you that?”

  I shook my head. “She didn’t tell me anything.”

  “She doesn’t talk about what we do?”

  “No. I just sort of…guessed.”

  The answer seemed to please him.

  “Good,” he answered with a slight nod. “I would have had to punish her if she had.”

  Dr. Pierce drew tiny circles with his thumbs on my legs and remained quiet for another minute. A thin layer of sweat formed on my body, and I realized my hands had been gripping the cushion under me tightly.

  “I take it you’ve never been trained under anyone?”

  Again, I shook my head.

  “Why would you think I’d want someone like you?”

  Another challenge, his gaze firmly on me, searching for his ans
wer.

  He removed one hand from my knee and before I had time to wonder where it would go, he slid two fingers inside me. My body went on full alert at his touch, but I was afraid to move even a muscle to respond to it.

  “You’ll answer me, Alexandra.”

  “Because you’ll regret it if you don’t,” I answered him sharply. It caused him to grin, and he looked intrigued.

  “I’ll regret it if I don’t,” he repeated my words carefully, “and so if I choose to leave this room?”

  “Find out,” I said. Dr. Pierce leaned in closer, but I stood my ground, even though every part of my body wanted to back away. How could one man have so much power?

  “I just might. You’re a very disrespectful little girl.”

  It hurt to hear that, but I didn’t respond.

  “But perhaps…”

  Dr. Pierce slid his fingers out and then slowly back in.

  “I want to feel your orgasm,” he whispered. “You will keep your eyes on me the entire time you bring yourself off.”

  I wanted to crawl into a hole and die of embarrassment.

  “Begin.”

  Tentatively, I ran my hand down my side and under the gown. My body was a fit of nerves when I placed my fingers just above his, resting on my clit. This wasn’t a test of how I had an orgasm. The point of it was to test my ability to obey.

  To submit.

  Something brewed inside of me, as I started to move my hand in tiny circles. I wanted Whitney safe, but I also wanted more. Keeping my eyes on his, as he has ordered, I slowly began rubbing the bud of nerves. After a few moments of building arousal, Dr. Pierce started to push and pull his fingers from my folds, following my rhythm perfectly. He gazed down to watch our hands working my body into a beautiful pleasure. My eyes closed as I concentrated on my orgasm, feeling it building quickly. Just then, his fingers ceased movement and then thrust as deep as they could inside. I gasped and my eyes shot open to find his ablaze.