“When you kissed her? When you opened your lips and let your tongue explore her sweet mouth?" Althea grinned lecherously.

She pressed her Lips tightly together. "If you want to be crude about it, yes. When I did, it was Like she lost control of herself. I don't want to make someone do what they don't want to do. I don't want them to be mindless slaves."

“Haven't you been listening?" Althea said. For the first time, she sounded irritated.

“That is not how this works. The changes made to your secretions...they do not take away free will. They enhance it. It allows those we love to act on their desires without being shackled by thousands of years of outmoded morality, passed down from the Almighty to Iron Age barbarians. When you touched beautiful Maria, I was able to catch a glimpse of her mind. That's a woman with one hell of a sex drive, Rachel. And a goodly portion of it was focused on you and your family. But it was all bound and gagged with years of inhibitions.

First, her church, which taught her making Love outside of marriage was a sin. Second, her church again, which taught her that homosexual relationships are also a sin. Then there was her employer, who ordered her to avoid personal relationships with her clients. And then there are the issues she had with approaching someone so much higher than herself on the economic scale." Her voice grew disgusted. "She knows what happens when attractive young women aren‘t careful around rich, powerful people.

“But when we touched her, kissed her, it took away those inhibitions.

Maria was able to make her choice based only on her own will and her attraction to you. No fear of eternal damnation. No worrying about bullshit corporate policies put in place to protect the stockholders.

No apprehension that you were going to take advantage of her.” She sneered. "As if someone could rape Maria Ochoa! I'd like to see them try. They'd end up with a vacuum attachment shoved up their ass!

“Maria kissed you because she wanted you. She has for a long time, ever since she was assigned your house. She wants all of you, actually,”

Althea mused pensively.

“You might consider pointing her Alex's way, if you're so worried about ethical considerations." Althea made the phrase sound foreign and slightly distasteful, like a dish at an ethnic restaurant she did not intend to try. "They'd both be grateful. Alex needs a woman in his bed. And Maria is exactly the kind of woman who could make him happy for years to come. She is a true submissive. Did you see how hot it made her when you gave her orders? By the flaming pits of the Netherhells, she was ready to Lie down and let you take her right there. Or even better, have you order her to please you.”

“The same holds true for everyone else you're concerned about. Jeremy might have an extra dose of horniness when you see him on Sunday. But he will make his own choices. And so will you. He screwed you in the office because he wanted you. Not because you took over his mind. Your husband...he never stopped wanting you, Rachel. It was your stubbornness about the children and his art that drove him away, not any lack of compatibility in the bedroom. You know that."

“And Sarah?" She paused pensively, her glorious eyes focused on something Rachel couldn't see. "To be honest, I don't know. I don't think she will be drawn towards you. She is even more boringly heterosexual than you were when I first entered you. But she might find her sex drive ramping up. But by Moloch's Red Balls, who can tell with children her age? They're all sex-crazed nymphos." She grinned.

“That's why I like them so much!"

Rachel frowned. The fact that Maria and Jeremy and the kids weren't going to turn into her slaves was a relief. As was the fact that even a being as obviously sex-focused as Althea had a moral center, even if that center seemed to be no more than Thou shalt not hurt anyone you don't have to and Thou shalt not fuck an unwilling partner.

“That's pretty much all it is," Althea said cheerfully.

“But I don't take stuff that isn't mine, either. Most people are happy to give it to me anyway." She smiled at Rachel's expression.

“Hello? I'm in your head, remember? I know what you're thinking." Her smile grew dark, deep, and wicked.

“And such naughty thoughts you're having, Rachel.

Jealous of Maria when I suggest setting her up with Alex? Who are you thinking should be in his bed, if not her?"