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The following story is a work of fiction. It contains adult themes and situations and should not be read by anyone under the age of eighteen. The characters depected are copyright Radical Gopher. No character in this story is under the age of eighteen.

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PINS AND NEEDLES - Part III

Gwen turned off the shower and slid the curtain aside. Stepping out of the tub she grabbed an oversized towel and ran it over her body then looked in the mirror. Naturally her fur was an absolute mess. She focused for a moment, tapped into her manna and waved her hands. Her fur instantly combed and curried itself. Her hair wound itself into a simple, white braid that hung fetchingly over one shoulder.

She slid into a freshly laundered bathrobe, tying its belt loosely in front and padded out of the bathroom and into her living room. The Lappe could still feel a slight flutter of embarrassment and fear within her stomach. Her first reaction to Sapphire's unannounced arrival had been to scream and run for the bathroom where she'd locked herself in and began crying in shame. Naturally, locked doors meant nothing to a djin, but instead of being angry, the vixen had simply hugged Gwen, holding her until her crying fit had faded, then telling her to take a nice, long, hot shower.

Sapphire was sitting patiently in an overstuffed chair, her arms folded casually in her lap. "How are you feeling now?"

"Better," the skunkette replied. "A little less panicked."

"Good," the Zorr said. "Ready to talk?" Gwen hesitated for a moment, then nodded her head and sat down on the couch. "How do you feel about Victor?"

"I don't think I could have asked for a better familiar," she started hesitantly. "He's really been helping me. Having him around to stabilize my manna flow while I'm learning spells has meant a lot. He's patient and encouraging. I don't think he's ever raised his voice even once when I'm practicing magic, except maybe that time I singed his tail with the fire-lighting spell, and he got over that very quick. He's always ready and willing to sit through my lessons with me and..."

Sapphire held up her hand. "No," she said simply. I don't want to know what you think about Victor. I want to know how you feel about him."

Gwen sat quietly for several long moments, her eyes focused on her hands as she nervously massaged her fingers. "I... I'm not ... not sure," she said finally.

"Why not?"

"I'm just not... okay? I mean I like him and all... He's a good person. You're both good people, I like the two of you. I just... you know... feel kind of twisted up in knots."

"When I walked in you sounded as if you more than just liked Victor."

"That was just the dragon musk talking."

"Was it?" the vixen asked.

"It had to be..." Gwen replied. "I mean you don't think I could seriously want to steal him away from you. You're my friend and teacher. I'd never hurt you. I'd never want to hurt you."

"And that's why you're hiding?" Sapphire asked calmly.

"Hiding?"

"From yourself... from your feelings." The djin looked across at the skunkette. "Let me tell you something about dragon musk," she said quietly. "It's an aphrodisiac, nothing more. Yes, it is extremely powerful. It will stimulate and enhance your libido, suppress natural inhibitions and put you into heat. When you're under its influence, you want a cock in you and you don't really care whose or how you get it." She paused for a moment. "What it doesn't do is make you dream about one particular person or lover. It doesn't create a fantasy for you. That comes from your own desire."

The skunkette was silent for a moment, thinking. "I know I really care about him, but I don't know if I love him. I've never been in love before. Is it possible?"

"I think it is rather obvious... don't you."

Gwen's eyes began to mist slightly. "Yes... I guess it is." She was silent for a long time before finally muttering the words. "I really do love him." She looked up at the vixen, her face a tragic mask. "Please don't... don't send me away... Please?"

"Send you away?" repeated Sapphire, slightly confused.

"I promise... I won't tell Victor. I won't say or do anything to hurt either of you. Just let me stay."

"Is that what you've been afraid of... What you're hiding from?"

The skunkette nodded slowly.

The djin smiled softly, reassuringly. "It's ironic in a funny sort of way, isn't it? You don't want to hurt anyone and you don't want to be hurt, but it's too late. You do hurt. You hurt because you're in love and you can't share it."

"I'm sorry," the Lappe sniffled.

"For what? Falling in love? I'm the one who should be sorry."

"You... but why?"

"I'm your teacher," the vixen said firmly. "You hurt so much I should have felt it. I would have felt it too if I'd been listening and not been so wrapped up in this whole baby thing" She signed warmly. "The important thing is I do feel it... now."

"So what happens next?" Gwen asked.

"What we do is get Victor to understand how you feel and understand that love is something best shared with others. He's a little old fashioned in his understanding of love and commitment."

The skunkette's mouth dropped open in surprise. "You mean you want to share your mate? With ME?"

"Why shouldn't I?" she responded. "You're not only my student, you're my friend as well. I haven't had very many of those in the last twenty-five hundred or so years." She reached out and laid her hand on Gwen's. "I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Victor loves me and I love him. We just have to get him to understand that you love him as well and that it's okay to share love."

Gwen smiled nervously. "It almost sounds like you're starting an old-fashioned Arabian Nights style harem.

Sapphire laughed out loud. "Let me tell you something about harems," she replied conspiratorially. "Harems... the good ones mind you, were more like communes than slave pens. They'd start when one woman would find an exceptionally handsome, generous and caring man. She would then decide to share him with her best friend. Between the two of them they'd work to protect him from the evils of the world; evils that ravage a man's spirit; that make him hard and bitter. As time and fortune permitted, they'd draw others whom they felt worthy into their small circle of love. They all focused on the one person they found worth sharing, binding themselves together through friendship, their love for him and his love for them."

"How large would these harems become?"

The vixen shrugged. "The good ones... maybe four to seven females. Any more than that and the sincerity of the love might become diluted. The largest one I ever saw had eleven women sharing two brothers."

"And these women would do what the husband wanted... out of love?"

"Yes, but more often than not it was the other way around," Sapphire smiled. "The wives would discuss things between themselves and decide what they wanted and needed, balanced against any practical concerns they had. Once they'd made up their minds it wasn't too difficult to get their husband to go along with them. After all, he loved them and wanted them happy, just as they loved him. Of course they let him think it was his idea."

Gwen laughed. "Talk about the power behind the throne." She looked across at the vixen more soberly. "Do you think we can get Victor to go along with this? I mean he is so devoted to you..."

The djin nodded. "He is one of those rare individuals who is so full of love and passion that it will benefit him to share it rather than focus it on one person or thing. We just have to get him to see that for himself."

"How, may I ask, are we going to do that?"

Sapphire smiled in a coquettish, almost wicked sort of way. "I have an idea."

* * * *

It was late afternoon when Victor finally reached the outskirts of the city. The flight home was much longer than he thought it would be, thanks to the clear, warm, cloudless sky. On such a day his distinctive silhouette, as small as it was, could not be disguised by altitude alone. If a seagull could be spotted at a thousand feet, then so could an eighteen-inch long dragon with a two-foot wingspan. The nice weather further complicated his trip because there were a lot more people outside enjoying the sunshine, especially on a Saturday. So, instead of making a high altitude beeline towards home, he'd been forced to flit from rooftop to rooftop, hiding in whatever shadows he could find.

By the time he reached the suburbs he was exhausted. Landing on the bough of a large oak tree Victor set aside his wallet and keys and stretched out for a moment. He just had to rest. When he next opened his eyes it was dark. Few stars could be seen because of the brightness of the moon. Warmth had given way to the chill of night and Victor has to spend several minutes stretching and working the kinks out of his overtaxed wings.

"She's going to kill me..." Victor muttered to himself, though truth be told he wasn't so much worried about Sapphire's ire as he was the vixen herself. Stress couldn't be a good during a pregnancy.

He scooped up his effects and launched himself into the air. At least the cover of night allowed him to take a more direct course home. The problem was, the darkness made it difficult for him to know exactly which way he should fly. He knew the general direction well enough, but most of the landmarks he'd gotten use to seeing were those viewed from a train window. An idea popped into his head. He could follow the train tracks home. Now all he had to do was find the local station.

* * * *

Gwen did a small pirouette in the middle of the living room and smiled coyly. "Well... how do I look?"

"I don't know about you, but I look marvelous," the vixen quipped as she examined the young dancer. Gwen laughed. The two females stood looking at one another and smiling in an odd, conspiratorial way. Not only were they dressed in the same sheer, translucent, middle-eastern garb, but they were identical down to the last strand of blue fur.

"Now remember... whatever you do, don't cast even she slightest bit of magic or you'll give the whole game away."

"Right," the disguised skunkette nodded. "When do you expect Victor home?"

"He said he'd be back no later than four. That gives us at least three hours to play our little game and snare ourselves a fox."

"What if he's late?"

"He said he'd call if he got tied up at work. If he is late, we'll just modify our little plan as necessary."

"Won't he be mad when he finds out what we did."

"Not if we do it right," the Sapphire replied. "He knows I like to spice things up with a bit of magic. I'll just say you're a doppelganger I conjured up so we could have twice the fun."

"I hope I don't get too nervous and give everything away" Gwen said. "This will be my first time with Victor and he's going to be loaded with dragon musk."

"Don't worry," the vixen said, "I'll cover for you. Dragon musk has only a limited effect on pregnant women."

"You sound disappointed."

"Well," the djin responded, "wouldn't you be?" They both laughed. The two women talked and waited in the living room of the main house. At about two-thirty there was a knock on the front door. Sapphire glanced over at Gwen and shrugged, then slipped on a bathrobe and answered the door.

"Afternoon ma'am," said a tall, middle-aged human. He was wearing a gray pair of coveralls with his name, Earl, above one pocket and his company logo above the other. "I'm here to install your water-heater."

"Oh No!" the vixen laughed. "I completely forgot about the appointment." She turned and waved at Gwen who scurried out of sight. "How long will it take?"

"Not long, ma'am," he replied. "You bought one of the new modular units so it should take maybe thirty or forty minutes tops."

"Okay, then... come on in and I'll show you where it goes. She led the way down to the basement and pointed out the old unit. The plumber examined it for a moment and smiled.

"You've got an older model of the same system. This will be easy." He returned to his truck and dollied in a rectangular unit about the size of an end table. In less than five minutes he had the old system unhooked and the new one in place. He then loaded the old water heater and muscled it up the stairs and out onto the back porch.

He pulled a mini-register out of his pocket and typed several numbers onto the keypad. "That will be two fifty-four thirty-eight, delivery, service tax and set up charge," he intoned. Sapphire handed him a payment card, which he ran through his register. Handing it back to her he glanced up and noticed Gwen's reflection in a hallway mirror. She smiled at him, waved, then pulled her top down just far enough for him to see her nipples. She winked at him. Earl did a quick double take, looking between the disguised skunkette and vixen. "Who?"

Turning, she saw the image in the mirror wink at her. Sapphire turned back and smiled sweetly at the human. "Oh...that's my twin sister. I'm afraid you caught us in the middle of playing dress-up for a costume party we've been invited to."

"A costume party... in June?"

"Well, it's really a birthday party, but our host has a few ideas about how he wants to celebrate."

"I can imagine..." he replied. "Well, take care, hope you have a good time at the party ma'am." He looked up at the mirror as the figure there blew him a kiss. "You too ma'am."

Turning, he walked down the porch steps and climbed into his truck. Seeing the blue-furred vixen in the hot harem costume had put him in a mood. He decided that after his next and last delivery, he'd stop by the flower shop and buy his wife a dozen roses. Who knew, if he was lucky it might just put her in a mood too.

Sapphire watched the truck drive off then closed the door. "All clear!" she called. Gwen sauntered out from the back bedroom, walking with the grace of a model. The vixen chuckled. "You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

"Me?" she replied. "Au contraire moi petite blue dumpling, zees was all vous!" The two women laughed and settled back to wait for Victor.

Four o'clock came and went without a sign or word from the todd. "This is unusual," the vixen said.

"Maybe you should try calling him at work."

Sapphire shook her head. "No... not yet. He may be busy with something important right now. I'll wait until later."

Later came and went, and with it still no word from Victor. Sapphire finally relented and placed the call. An automatic answering system came on, informing her the offices were closed and that she should call back during normal business hours.

"Maybe you could try spelling him home with that enchantment I used earlier?" Gwen offered.

"Sympathetic Attraction? No, it's too risky," the vixen said. "If I snatched him out of a moving vehicle he'd materialize here with the same velocity as the vehicle."

"OUCH!" the dancer winced. "Stupid suggestion."

"You're an apprentice sorceress. There are no stupid questions or suggestions," Sapphire gently chided her. "Only stupid spells... And the only stupid spell..."

"...Is the one you cast without thinking," Gwen recited. She looked at the clock on the mantle and sighed. "I guess we'll have to put this plan off for the moment. Even if he walked in right now we've got less than an hour before moonrise". She waved her hands dismissing the phantasmagorias that surrounded her. Her body shimmered, then darkened to her normal color and shape.

Sapphire came over to the skunkette and hugged her. "Don't be too disappointed dear," she said. "If we catch him after sunrise we'll have all day to play before we let him in on the secret. By then, he should be a lot more open to the possibilities." The two women sat down on the couch and the vixen rested her head on the skunkette's shoulder.

"I hope he won't be much longer," Gwen said. "I'm getting worried."

"Trust me," the vixen replied. "If he were in danger, I'd know it immediately. We just have to wait for now."

* * * *

Victor found the train station without too much trouble. Now he was following the tracks about two hundred feet up as they wended their way through the wilds of suburbia and into the country. At one point he dove down and flew through a rather long tunnel, making sure first that no train was entering from the other side.

At long last he reached his own station stop. It was deserted at this hour, so he circled it, and then glided in for a landing on the roof. He paused to rest and orient himself. The farm should be about three miles northwest of the station. He took a deep breath, enjoying the cool of the evening air. He could hardly wait until he was safe at home, snuggled in Sapphire's warm, soft cleavage.

Lost in thought, he didn't even hear the owl coming until too late!

To be continued...