Natural Hormone Therapy (Taboo Erotica) (NHT Book 1) Read online

  Natural Hormone Therapy

  By

  Anya Merchant

  Copyright © 2016 by Anya Merchant

  All rights reserved

  Kindle Edition

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons is entirely coincidental. This work is intended for adults only. It contains substantial sexually explicit language and scenes that may be considered offensive by some readers. None of the characters engaging in sexual conduct in this work of fiction are under the age of 18, legally unable to give consent, or related by blood.

  Contents

  Natural Hormone Therapy

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 1

  The sun was up. A small shaft of light fell across the top edge of Ben Murdock’s TV. He paused the game, set the controller down, and stood up to readjust the makeshift blanket curtain hanging from his window, knocking over an empty soda can and almost stepping on a plate of half-eaten food as he did.

  Ben’s legs were half asleep, and painful tingles shot down them as the blood rushed back into his muscles. He started to pull one edge of the blanket up higher. The other side of it snapped loose, letting the sun’s bright light through in a sudden burst. He winced, squinted his eyes, and tried not to make the comparison between himself and a vampire.

  He was two weeks into his summer vacation, and all the days were beginning to run together. Ben planned on playing video games and staying in his room for the duration. His cell phone was turned off and had been since he’d finished his graduation ceremony. He’d been procrastinating turning it back on, to the point that now the idea of checking his texts and voice mails felt equivalent to giving himself a bad papercut.

  After putting the blanket back into his place, Ben made his way back over to his spot on the floor, his back leaning against pillows stacked between him and the side of his bed, and unpaused the game.

  Ben was busy looking for the Orc Umbros. He’d read online about him being hidden a short distance off a beaten mountain path, between two of the in-game cities. If he could find him and kill him, the sword he’d get as a reward would become his new primary weapon.

  The volume on the TV was turned up loud enough that Ben didn’t realize his stepmom was outside the door until she started knocking. He didn’t react. The door was locked, and he had no intention of getting up to let her in.

  “Ben! Honey, did you hear me?” Alexa’s voice was worried, authoritative, and a little desperate. “Please, just open the door.”

  He did his best to ignore her. Out of all the people in his life, his mom was the one that he’d failed to retreat away from or push back. She continued cooking his meals, washing his clothes, and taking care of him as best as she could.

  Alexa had been in Ben’s life since shortly after he was born, and was the only mother he’d ever known. Along with his adopted sister, she’d essentially raised Ben on her own, given the long stretches of time that Ben’s father, Richard, would be away for work.

  “I’m coming in!” There was a clicking noise in the mechanism of the door, and Ben’s mom appeared on the other side of it, holding a plastic gift card in one hand and looking somewhat pleased with herself. She started to reach for one of the blankets on the window and then thought better of it, turning on the overhead light for illumination instead.

  “What do you want, mom?” asked Ben. He frowned and paused the game to look at her, blinking twice as his eyes focused on her features.

  Ben was, at that moment and in general, very aware of the fact that Alexa was his mother with a capital m. She was the authority in the household and managed to discipline him and get her way more often than the other parents in the neighborhood, as far as he’d seen.

  But that, apparently, didn’t stop his red-blooded, 18 year old hormones from flaring up as he looked her. She was a petite woman, about a head shorter than him, now that he’d made it through to the other side of pubescence.

  Her hair was a shiny dark blonde and a little longer than shoulder length. It was wet, and tucked into the hem of a white cotton bathrobe. Her eyes were a deep crystalline blue, and they fit her lovely oval face like gemstones set into expensive jewelry.

  On top of all that, Alexa had a body that even Playboy starlets would have been envious of, had any existed in their tiny town. Her breasts were large and buoyant for a woman in her thirties. The soft curves of her hips and butt were eye-catching and absolutely mesmerizing in the right outfit.

  All of this meant that his mom was the center of attention everywhere she went. Men lusted after her. Women loathed her. And all the while, Alexa smiled politely, as though oblivious to the true extent of her attractiveness. She was the type of woman that legitimized the definitions of concepts like “beauty”, “sex appeal”, and “drop dead gorgeous”.

  Ben realized that he’d been staring at her blankly for several seconds straight, not listening to her as she spoke. He glanced away, remembering again that she was his mother, and tried to blame his reaction on the fact that it had been over a week since he’d seen another woman in the flesh. She was just a woman, like any other. She happened to be somewhat attractive, and she also happened to be his mother, and Ben reminded himself that neither fact was all that big of a deal.

  “Uh, Ben?” His mom folded her arms across her chest and frowned at him. “Are you listening to me?”

  “Oh, uh…” His voice felt scratchy and weak after going unused for days. “Sorry, what did say?”

  “I made you an appointment for this morning, sweetie,” she said. “Look, I know you’re still unsure about this kind of thing, but I researched this therapist ahead of time. Her name is Dr. Kimberly Heart. She specializes in cases like yours.”

  “Cases like mine?” Ben shook his head and scowled. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Honey…” His mother leaned forward, the slit of her bathrobe coming slightly open and revealing a bit of cleavage. “You know exactly what I mean. You’re a young man with your entire life ahead of you, and you’re withdrawing from the world.”

  She set her hand on the side of his cheek and slowly turned Ben’s face to meet her own. Then, she slowly leaned in and planted a soft kiss on his cheek. The contact of her lips against his skin felt much hotter than it should have.

  “I’m just tired, mom,” said Ben. “I’ve just been recovering from the stress of the end of the year.”

  “And I’ve been helping you as much as I can,” said Alexa. “But this…” She gestured to the room around them. “It’s not healthy past a certain point.”

  Ben took a deep breath. His mom set her hand on his chest, as though she was trying to impart some of her own energy and will into him, directly through his heart.

  “Okay,” said Ben, after several long seconds. “But I’m only going so that you’ll stop bothering me about it.”

  “That’s fine by me.” His mother smiled at him, looking very pleased with herself.

  CHAPTER 2

  A strange, irrational fear began to form in the pit of Ben’s stomach as he made his way over to the door. His room had become his entire realm over the past two weeks, and any time he was outside of it, be it to grab food or drop off clothes in
the laundry room, he felt exposed and a little anxious.

  He forced himself to walk down the sunlit hallway, which was almost too bright for his eyes to take. Ben stopped at the bathroom, stepped inside, and closed the door behind him, regaining a little bit of a sense of control.

  The face staring back at him in the mirror was disheveled depressed, and hard for him to recognize. Ben brushed his teeth, shaved, and then climbed into the shower, trying not to think about how long it had been since he’d last done all three.

  The water felt good against his hair and face. He took deep calming breaths. Maybe seeing the therapist would help, he thought to himself. A small part of him was eager to get back to a normal life, with a normal sleep schedule, and normal habits. The rest of him wasn’t sure if it knew how, and he wondered if therapy could be what he needed to bridge the gap.

  Ben’s mind wandered. He thought about all of the things he missed about the outside world, the smell of the summer air, feeling the grass underneath his bare feet, and women walking around in thin, flirty sundresses. He began to get excited, mentally and physically.

  “Ben?” Again, there was a knock at the door, along with his mother’s voice. “One of your friends is on the phone.”

  The door started to open and Ben rushed to turn the shower off. He hastily wrapped a towel around himself as his mom stepped into the bathroom.

  “Jeez, mom!” He shook his head and tried not to blush, hoping that she didn’t notice the bulge against the towel’s fabric. “You could have told them to call back.”

  Alexa frowned, looked as though she was about to say something, and then thought better of it. She passed him the phone, and as Ben took it from her, his towel slipped loose, letting his hard cock snap out into the air. He winced and turned to the side.

  “Uh, hello?”

  “Ben, buddy!” James’s voice was unmistakable on the other side of the line. “I thought you’d died, or something.”

  “Oh, uh, sorry,” Ben mumbled. He glanced over his shoulder and saw that his mom was still in the bathroom. She looked as though she was waiting to take the phone back from him, but she was blushing, and her eyes were tilted downward.

  “I’ve called and texted you like, no joke, a hundred times,” said James. “Are you trying to avoid me, or something?”

  “No, it’s not that,” said Ben. “I just…”

  He trailed off, feeling out of practice with conversation, and more than a little distracted by his mother’s presence. He crouched down and fumbled for the towel, managing to pick it up and hold it over his erection like a shield.

  “We’re on the way to your place,” said James. “We’ll be there in five minutes or so.”

  “James, hold on,” said Ben. “I-“

  “I’m not taking no for an answer! See you soon!”

  The connection clicked off. Ben frowned at his phone, and then looked back over at his mother. She was staring at the wall of the bathroom, but her entire face was flushed bright red.

  “Thanks, mom,” he said, handing her back the phone.

  “Whatever I can do to help, sweetie.” She left the bathroom without looking at him.

  Ben finished his shower as quickly as he could and then headed back to his room to get dressed. A strangely compelling voice in the back of his head screamed for him to stay in there, to forget about James and his friends. Nothing good could come from seeing them at this point, and everything good could come from playing some more Valenfall, and getting a new sword.

  He shook the thoughts away, finished pulling on his clothes, and headed back into the hallway. Walking through the house in the morning was something he hadn’t done since the start of summer vacation. When he entered the kitchen and caught a whiff of the breakfast Alexa was busy cooking up for him, the smell was almost too much.

  His mom smiled at him. She’d changed into one of the thin, flirty sundresses he’d been thinking about before, and it fit her well, though Ben did his best not to notice.

  “We’ll be leaving in about fifteen minutes,” she said. “I hope this doesn’t get in the way of things with your friends.”

  Ben shook his head slightly.

  “It’s fine,” he said. “Really. Don’t worry about it.”

  A car beeped from outside the house. Ben walked over to the front door, opened it, and stepped outside.

  He felt awkward, and a little terrified. James’s bright red sedan was parked on the street in front of the house. A couple pushed a baby in a stroller down the sidewalk, and another man jogged by in athletic shorts and a tank top. Ben felt like they were all staring at him, waiting for him to make a fool of himself, and even though he knew it was irrational, he couldn’t shake the thought.

  James beeped the horn again, and Ben blinked a couple of times and started walking over. All of the windows were down, and Ben could see Jerome and Aiden in the passenger and back seats.

  “Hey,” said Ben. “Uh, what are you guys up to?”

  “We’re getting ready to drive up to Lakewood University,” said James. “They’re doing a special open campus thing this afternoon. I figure we might as well go, given that we’re going to be spending the next few years there.”

  A lump formed in Ben’s throat. He wanted to slam his head into something hard. Lakewood University, or rather, not being accepted into Lakewood University, had been what triggered his retreat from the world.

  “I…” Ben tried to speak but found it hard to make words. “I… can’t.”

  “Why the hell not?” asked James.

  Ben hadn’t told him. He hadn’t told anyone, other than his mom.

  “I didn’t get in,” he finally managed.

  Everyone in the car looked at him as though he’d just revealed that he were a space alien.

  “You didn’t get in?” James was smiling, with a single eyebrow raised. “That’s ridiculous, everybody that applied that I’ve talked to got in.”

  “I didn’t,” said Ben.

  Jerome let out a chuckle in the back of the car. Another jogger, this time a woman in her twenties, slowed down as she approached where he stood on the sidewalk, as though appraising the situation from the dreadful look on Ben’s face.

  “Wow, that uh, that sucks,” said James. His expression hadn’t changed. If anything, it held a bit more humor in it, as though a cruel joke had been played on Ben that he couldn’t help but find funny.

  “Yeah…” said Ben. “I should probably-“

  “Wait, what are you going to do?” asked Jerome. “For the next few years, I mean.”

  Ben chewed his lip. His heart felt heavy, and his stomach was twisting in knots.

  “Go to community college here in Pinecross,” he said.

  “You’re seriously telling me that you’re going to stay stuck in this tiny town?”

  The words cut Ben deep, although he knew that James hadn’t intended them as such. He forced himself to smile, even though he wanted more than anything to be back in his room.

  “Like I said,” he said. “I didn’t get in.”

  This time, Jerome and Aiden started laughing. James looked like he wanted to, despite the empathy that he clearly also felt for Ben.

  “Ah,” said James, once he’d regained his composure. “Well, I guess you probably wouldn’t enjoy coming with us then.”

  Ben shook his head, past the point of wanting to converse.

  “Later man!” James pulled his car forward, making a u-turn in the empty street and noisily speeding off through the neighborhood.

  CHAPTER 3

  Ben was halfway back to the front door when Alexa appeared in the doorway. She made no attempt to get out of his way as he tried to slip inside, instead leaning forward and passing him a homemade breakfast sandwich.

  “You can eat on the way,” she said.

  “Mom,” said Ben. “I’m not sure I feel up to it. Can we just reschedule?”

  His mother shook her head slowly and placed her hands on her hips. A gust of wind blew acros
s the lawn, lifting the bottom hem of her dress up slightly and giving Ben a brief flash of his mother’s thighs.

  “Do this as a favor for me, Ben,” she said. “I know you’ve been depressed lately. I know you don’t want to be stuck in this town. But sometimes we get stuck in situations that are less than perfect. We just have to do the best we can.”

  She smiled at him, the expression giving off a beauty and warmth of its own. Ben let out a sigh and nodded his head. He turned toward the car just in time to see a man walking his dog pass by on the sidewalk, whose attention turned to Alexa as he openly ogled her from afar.

  “You’re probably right, Mom,” said Ben. He sat next to her in the car as the two of them drove through the small collection of residential areas and essential services that composed Pinecross.

  “Thank you, sweetie,” said Alexa. “It’s all about maintaining that kind of attitude. Things will get better for you if you believe they will.”

  “I know,” said Ben. “It just sucks knowing that I’m going to be all alone for the next few years.”

  “You aren’t alone.” His mother smiled at him and reached her hand over, resting it on his thigh as she slowed the car to a stop at a red light. “I’m here, too.”

  Neither of them said anything for a moment, and the air in the car felt unusual, almost electric. The light turned green and Alexa pulled her hand back, driving the car through the intersection and then around the next corner.

  She pulled the car into an open parking spot outside of a small spa on one of the town’s busier streets. It was owned by the mother of another student that had graduated the year before, and Ben raised an eyebrow at the window.

  “This is it?” he asked.

  “On the second floor,” she said. “Dr. Heart started renting the space a few months ago.”

  “Ah.”

  The two of them got out of the car. Pinecross only had a handful of buildings over three stories high, and they were headed into one of them. The sidewalk was made of interlocking red bricks, giving the area a rustic, mid 20th century ambiance.