Chapter 1

As Jacob walked down the block, his mind flashed back to when he had been a kid living on this street. The size of the houses had seemed crazy when he was little, but now, even if they seemed a little smaller, he could truly appreciate the insanity of the wealth they represented. Lot after lot of beautiful multi-story mansions stretching the width of three homes on his side of town. He hadn’t been poor growing up, but his family certainly hadn’t had anything close to the amount of money of the people on Juniper Avenue these days. There’s no way that his family would have been able to live there now. Talk about gentrification…

And there, at the end of the cul-de-sac, was the crown jewel of the neighborhood: the Fairchild house. A gorgeous modern mansion, built from white limestone and glass, it gleamed in the afternoon light as Jacob approached the massive double gate. The iron bars swung wide as he got close, and he saw, on the front porch, Jessica Fairchild waving him in.

The Fairchilds had been family friends for as long as Jacob could remember. He had spent many summers playing in their giant pool with their two daughters, and seeing Mrs. Fairchild standing there waving brought back a flood of happy memories.

“Jacob!! Come on up here!” Mrs. Fairchild called as he walked up the drive. She was always so warm and friendly, and pretty to boot. Jacob figured that she had to be in her late forties, but she didn’t look a day over 35. Whatever her husband’s bio-tech firm had been cooking up recently…well, it sure kept her looking young and fit.

“Hi Jessica!” Jacob smiled, stepping onto the front steps, and the next thing he knew, he was wrapped up in a big cushy hug. Her petite yet buxom frame was doing its best to envelop his much-taller body.

“We’re so excited to have you!” Jessica exclaimed as she led him inside. A recent graduate of UNC, Jacob had come home for the summer to relax a bit before heading off to law school in the fall. He had looked for an easy job he could work to make some extra cash, and low and behold, the Fairchilds happened to be looking for a summer tutor for their youngest daughter, Jordan. As it happened, she had also been at UNC, and Jacob had seen her around a bit, but her freshmen year apparently had gone very poorly.

“I just know Jordan will be so happy to see you,” Jessica said as she walked him upstairs, her round, toned ass rippling in his eyeline. “She’s just been having such a hard time adjusting to the academic level, and we don’t want her to lose her spot in the honors program.”

As much as Jessica might’ve believed that, Jacob privately figured the real story actually had more to do with the fact that Jordan’s complete lack of interest in school led her to not give a single fuck as she partied and drank her way around the campus fraternities. Jacob had known Jordan his whole life, and, for several years now, she had never missed an opportunity to needle him about his actual enjoyment of scholarly pursuits. She was smart, he knew that, maybe even crazy-smart…but she was also pretty lazy, and because she was so hot, she had largely been able to get away with it, at least until now. It had actually occurred to Jacob before that, if Jordan had been even the least bit interested in school, he would've probably had a massive crush on her. He wasn't bad looking himself, tall, mildly athletic (track and field), but her attitude was enough to turn him off permanently…or, at least, so he thought.

Jessica knocked on Jordan's door before slowly cracking it open.

“Honey, Jacob’s here,” she said sweetly as they entered. And there, lounging on the four-poster bed, in the middle of her massive bedroom was Jordan, her sumptuous blond hair framing a face buried in her phone, her feet dangling her sandals, in the perfect picture of cool nonchalance. Jacob hadn’t seen her in a few months, and, from the way her hips and thighs were pressing into those jean shorts, it looked like Jordan had gained some weight…and damn it looked good on her. But he was confident in his role, and easily brushed aside the obvious sense of attraction.

“Hi Jordan,” Jacob said pleasantly, already steeled for whatever she had to throw at him.

Jordan had spent most of the morning annoyed that her mom had even put her up to this shit. Like...seriously!? Okay, she got it, she had had a bad semester...a bad couple semesters...but so what? The classes were sooooo boring, and the professors were nothing like she expected them to be. Most of them weren’t even professors! They were, like, six years older than her, tops...graduate students who had decided that they were gonna stay in school forever and ever. Well guess what? Spending time doing what those people told her to do was NOT her idea of fun. She was 19 years old for godsakes! She was SUPPOSED to be having fun! And now that she had, what was it – below a 2.0 GPA...? – her dad was all up in arms and her mom was having a fit and telling her that they were going to make her come back home if she didn’t shape up. Like hell they were.

Jordan knew that she could do well if she WANTED to, and if it came to that, she figured that maybe she could put in a LITTLE more effort. But she had time...like all summer, to figure things out. But nooooo, her mom had told her that she had to get lessons.

‘And from Jaaaacob of all people....ugh,’ Jordan had sighed to herself when she heard the news. She wasn’t complaining about his looks or anything – he was actually kinda cute – whenever she caught him by surprise or knocked him off his rocker, at least. He was insufferable when he thought he was in control.

‘Well,’ thought Jordan to herself a few moments before, when she heard Jacob’s car pulling into the driveway, ‘I've got something up my sleeve for this afternoon that he doesn’t know about. I’M gonna be the one in control today.’

So with her plan in mind, she told herself that she could just relax and flirt with him when he came in, needle him a little, and have some fun verbal jousting-matches before the REAL fun began. She was chewing gum and scrolling through instagram on her phone when Jacob came in.

“Oh....it’s you…” Jordan said in an unenthusiastic monotone, gazing up from her phone briefly, “Guess you’re gonna be...teaching me today, huh?”

Jordan waited for her mom to roll her eyes and leave before she put her phone down and sat up straighter in her bed, stretching out her legs and crossing them slowly, making sure to give Jacob a good long stare.

“How much is mom paying you?” she asked, point-blank.

As he watched Jordan sit up and slowly cross her legs, Jacob blinked as the light from the windows illuminated their toned contours, silky in the light. Her chest rippled a little as she leaned forward, her overly-small white tank top hugging the round weight of her breasts. Jacob quickly averted his eyes, fully understanding what she was up to. He couldn’t get distracted; there was no telling what she’d try to pull if he let her exert control over the situation. He walked over to the desk, amazed at the clutter of makeup and nail polish surrounding her open laptop, set down his bag, and pulled out some of the materials he had brought.

“Um I don’t know if that's really an appropriate question,” he said, trying to clear space, before looking back around at her, his movements slow and poised, his expression matter-of-fact. “It’s a fair amount, doesn’t really matter though.”

He watched as she gave a mischievous smile and tilted her head gently to the side.

“Um I thought we could start with some of your history courses,” he continued, reminding himself that momentum was important, “Your mom said that you had taken ancient Greek Civ but couldn’t really get your head around it?”

Jordan felt a shiver of warmth go down to her toes. She loved it when Jacob was like this...she didn’t know why she hadn’t realized it before, but now that he was her “tutor” for the afternoon, he was literally trapped, not only in her bedroom, but also in the “role” that he was being paid for. That meant that she could tease him and prod him and play with him and he just...kinda had to take it. And that wasn’t even considering the little surprise she had planned for him.

She hummed, nodding as she took a deep breath, inflating her chest (she saw him look – he had tried to avert his eyes quickly but she saaaaw him!) as she luxuriously slid down off her bed, her body jiggling a little when she hit the floor. She wasn’t that tall...like 5’4 or something...but she wasn’t exactly tiny, as Jacob had immediately realized when he came into her room. In fact, since being in college for a year, she had filled out pretty well. The freshman 15....more like the freshman 30. She had been a beanpole in high school, even senior year, but now that she had been eating and drinking like two times the amount of calories (she blamed all those Long Island Ice Teas), she had gone from 105 to 135 in less than a year. And, as far as she was concerned, it was an improvement

“Yeaaah…” she whined, sighing as she sauntered up to her desk, lingering there for a moment before plopping her big ass down in the seat next to his, “It’s just sooooo much crap…”god” this and “goddess” that and all these boring voyages and wars on and on and onnnnnnnn…”

She paused, chewing her gum as she fixed Jacob with her eyes. She knew full well that she was hot, and she was used to guys blushing when she looked them square in the face. Jacob was no different, even if he did an okay job of hiding it. She could see the color in his cheeks now as she kept her eyes concentrated on him, chewing her gum a bit quicker.

“Except The Odyssey,” she added, suddenly getting a fun little idea, “That one’s okay. Odysseus is so sexxxxyyyy. Know why? The first time we meet him he’s crying on a beach because he’s being held prisoner by Calypso. That’s kinda hot, isn’t it? Mmmmm, and Circe…”

She crossed her legs, dangling her sandal again on her bare foot as she eyed him closely, “I like her too, because she changed men into...well...whatever she wanted!”

Jacob could feel his heart beat a little quicker as Jordan sat down next to him. He was realizing that he wasn’t actually prepared for how much she had physically changed in the last year. Her attitude had always been there, but in high school it had just seemed like annoying teen girl BS. Now though, her curves had transformed the brattiness into something...tantalizing? He felt like an asshole just thinking about it, but he was also having a hard time drawing his eyes away from her full lips, which hid a set of strong white teeth that were making quick, aggressive work of her chewing gum. And beneath them lay the long, deep line of cleavage. Plus that comment about Circe, holy crap… she was already toying with him.

But Jacob was determined not to lose this battle. He wrestled his thoughts back towards the topic at hand, and dared to meet her eyes as he responded, trying his hardest to seem like he had control of himself.

“Yeah, sure! The Odyssey isn’t a bad starting place – we should definitely try to find things that speak to you.”

Without breaking away from her deep, green eyes, he continued:

“Circe’s definitely a fun story, since there’s a lot of action in that part. But some people interpret Circe as this representation of the dangers of comfort and luxury, and a lot of Greek philosophy also speaks to this idea that the things we strive for shouldn’t necessarily all be pleasurable. Discomfort often can beget progress, right? Like for instance, if we think about your dad’s company, and the scientists there...I’m sure there are many late nights and difficult, complex problems they have to address in order to build what they build.”

Jordan kept chewing her gum, not allowing herself to raise her eyebrows in reaction to Jacob meeting her challenge. She had to say, it was fun jousting with him like this. Most dudes couldn’t have said what he just said, pulling it off in that kind of affected, nonchalant way. Normally she’d just roll her eyes and move on to someone more fun, but right now she was actually enjoying this. She could feel that they both knew what was going on. And, of course, she wasn’t going to let him gain the upper hand.

“Ohhhh you’re talking about the Stoics, huh?” she laughed, making big eyes as she opened her mouth wide (showing him her big wad of pink gum in the process) and mimed sticking her finger down her throat to express disgust, “The guys who are all about enduring pain and practicing virtue and....ahaha...moderation!?!! Ugggggh, no thanks. I like the Epicureans way better. You know, the “life is pleasure” people? And I knowwwww, I know, that wasn't all they were about. But I stopped listening after I heard that first part, and it sounds good to me!”

She leaned forward slightly in her chair, fully aware that she looked good right now. She had made sure to dress a little skimpy for Jacob before he came. And what he didn’t know was that there was something in her back pocket...something from Daddy’s lab...which was about to make things a LOT more interesting. She fingered it, feeling the smooth metal, and suddenly she got so excited that she decided to take it out. It was just a nondescript little remote control. But Jordan knew that it was actually a VERY powerful piece of technology.

“But it’s interesting you bring up Daddy’s company, Jacob,” she smiled, showing him the remote control, “Because, well...I was feeling kinda naughty last week, and I lifted this from his lab when I was visiting him. Looks like a normal little device, right? Made with all that blood, sweat, and tears that the Stoics would love!? Hmm, well...what if I told you that this little thing here proves that the Epicureans have TRUE wisdom...because they know how to take someone ELSE’S hard work....and have fun with it?”

Jacob looked down at the little device in Jordan’s hand, her finely-manicured fingers rolling it over in a slow deliberate motion. He had no idea what it was, but the fact that she had stolen it from her father tracked all too well with what he knew about her. He could tell that she was enjoying their little back and forth, and he was honestly feeling a little proud of himself for managing to get her to engage in an actual conversation about Greek philosophy. She had even brought up the Epicureans?! In just two minutes he had managed to get her talking animatedly about something she supposedly didn’t give a shit about.

‘Who knows what I could do with a whole summer?’ Jacob thought optimistically. He leaned in, meeting Jordan’s challenge with a determined gaze. He could feel the heat radiating from her skin as she smiled coyly, holding steady, intense eye contact. She was clearly trying to direct his gaze downward, back to her luscious form, but he wasn’t going to fall for it. He wasn’t going to let her drive the ship.

“Alright,” he replied, “I’ll bite. I don’t think that’s true – I think the Epicureans were all for doing the work themselves, at least enough to be self-sufficient. But come on, give me your thesis. You were on to something intriguing there. You were saying that the Epicureans would have been in favor of co-opting someone else’s hard work for their own pleasure. What text can you use to back it up? What evidence can you present to convince me that little device in your hand proves your point?”

Jordan could feel the hot color rising in HER cheeks now....ooooooooh god she couldn’t wait to try this out! She knew it was going to work...she had already tested it on a couple people walking by the house...and this little remote had some RANGE! And those people had hardly noticed! She had switched them back almost immediately and they hadn’t even known what hit them!

But here...NOW...this was different. This was more personal...HOTTER. Jordan leaned forward, smacking her gum, so that her face was less than a foot away from Jacob’s. He leaned back slightly, just for his own comfort, and her face wound up into a knowing smirk.

“Well you know,” she began, hardly able to contain herself, “The Epicureans weren’t just about PLEASURE....they thought that atoms never changed, and that the universe depended on atoms never changing, or else everything would be destroyed. Pretty prescient for over 2000 years ago, huh?”

She was using those “SAT” words on purpose, just to unsettle him a little, before the real fun began.

“And take this device here, Jacob. Do you know what it does? It doesn’t DESTROY anything, you know. I’ve been playing around with it, and I think I’ve got it figured out.”

She suddenly stood up out of her chair, looming over him, so that he was in her shadow. Her deep green eyes gleamed, and she stepped forward, right up to Jacob’s chair, so that she was actually brushing into him. She aimed the device at his chest.

“All it does is boil the atoms of a substance down to a smaller point, all in proportion, scattering the rest unseen into the air...see, watch!”

And, with that, she pressed the button. A light purple glow flashed, and Jordan’s eyes went wide with unvarnished pleasure as she watched Jacob shrinking down in his seat. With a cry he leapt up, and she took a quick step back, grinning, giving him space to see the reality. She made sure to take her finger off the button after only a couple seconds, so that she didn’t take it too far...at least, for now.

There he was, staring straight into the top of her stomach, trembling before her in baggy clothes, all of FOUR FEET TALL.