Chapter 18 Noelle
NOELLE
Noelle’s legs were still trembling when Lupin guided her toward the raised platform surrounded by softly glowing panels. She walked gingerly, the inside of her right thigh chafed from the friction of the silver collar and the lingering ache from the suction cups still pulsing through her nipples.
My body doesn’t feel like mine anymore, she thought for the second time. I don’t feel like myself at all!
Her skin was flushed and hypersensitive—even the slightest breeze raised goosebumps. Her hair clung damply to her back, still tangled from the whirlwind dryer.
“Here we are,” Lupin said briskly, gesturing for her to sit on a round stool in front of a tall, humming machine with dozens of spindly mechanical arms. “Let’s fix that mess on your head, shall we? Even if the rest of you is gorgeous now, we can’t have you looking like a drowned chuba rat.”
Before she could protest, a warm puff of air lifted her hair, and several of the mechanical arms descended like spider legs. Tiny claws combed, separated, and twisted her strands while another nozzle emitted a soft floral mist.
Noelle sat stiffly, her thighs pressed together, hugging her arms over her breasts.
Her entire body felt like it had been turned inside out—invaded, probed, and modified.
Her nipples ached from the suction cups and her thigh still throbbed from the pulsing collar.
Worst of all, her womb felt strange. Like something inside that had been almost asleep due to her age had been stirred awake.
I feel like I’ve been rewritten, she thought. Like I’m someone else wearing my skin…
“All right, my dear!” Lupin said at last, clapping his tiny hands as the metal arms withdrew from her hair. “Now stand up, and come see for yourself.”
He tugged her impatiently toward the tall, three-sided holo-viewer again. The glass shimmered with violet static before clearing to show her full reflection from three angles—front, profile, and rear.
Noelle blinked…then blinked again.
The woman in the glass was her…but not her. Not at all.
The thin silver streaks that had run through her dark hair—her badges of age and stress—were completely gone.
In their place was a waterfall of thick, glossy black hair that shimmered under the spa lights.
Her skin had a new glow—smooth and dewy, like she’d just come in from a sun-dappled spring morning.
The faint sagging under her chin had vanished and the fine lines at the corners of her eyes and mouth had been erased, like they’d never existed.
Even her lips looked plumper, as though she’d had lip filler put in.
Only there was nothing artificial about her new appearance—it was all her, just younger.
She touched her face, unable to look away from the reflection.
“Dios…” she whispered. “I look so young.”
But it was more than just looking younger—she looked like herself in her twenties.
Before the heartbreak of meeting and marrying the abusive Branson…
before the gray hairs…before the bone-deep exhaustion of disappointment had settled into her bones.
Her breasts—round and lifted—no longer drooped.
Her stretch marks were gone. Her hips were full but smooth, her waist softly sculpted.
“It’s not just your face,” Lupin said proudly. “The cellular restructuring I put you through worked marvelously. You’re positively radiant, and so very ripe. Honestly, I’ve never seen such impressive results in a single session. You may be my greatest work of art, my dear.”
Noelle couldn’t stop staring and the images the viewer was showing her.
Is that really me? Really? And what else had changed, under the surface?
Her nipples still tingled in the cool air.
Her womb pulsed with unnatural heat, like embers banked beneath the surface of her skin.
Her whole body was humming—trembling faintly with a kind of tension she didn’t understand.
It wasn’t arousal exactly—it felt like more than that, somehow.
Her body was telling her that she was fertile again, whether she wanted to be or not.
Lupin clapped his hands briskly, shattering her daze.
“Well, let’s get you dressed! We can’t have you parading around in the nude—there are modesty standards to be upheld, even in this facility.”
Noelle turned quickly, grateful for something to break the eerie fascination she had with her altered body. But she couldn’t find the outfit she’d taken off earlier.
“Where are my clothes?” she asked, looking around the arm of the spa chair where she’d folded her outfit earlier.
“Oh, those old things?” Lupin wrinkled his nose. “I tossed them down the furnace chute. Hideous fabric—most unflattering. You should thank me.”
“You what?” Noelle stared at him, aghast. “But those were my only clothes!”
“No need to worry.” He produced a small red bundle and handed it to her with a flourish. “Here. Try this on.”
Noelle unfolded the garment slowly.
It wasn’t a dress—it wasn’t even a slip. It was a red silk negligee, barely long enough to cover her hips.
Noelle had half a mind to throw it in Lupin’s face.
But the cold air against her bare skin and the reality of having no other clothing to wear stopped her.
Gritting her teeth, she tugged the negligee over her head.
It slipped down her new, smooth curves like a second skin. Then she looked at herself.
The bodice was sheer, the fabric whisper-thin and cut low enough to show the soft curves of her newly firmed breasts. The hem clung to her thighs and the thin silky cloth did nothing to hide the sensitive peaks of her nipples. Also, there was no bra—not even panties, she saw with dismay.
“This is underwear,” she said, frowning. “I can’t wear this out in public!”
“Nonsense!” Lupin exclaimed. “You ought to be grateful—it’s the latest style. Very desirable. The silk is woven from the cocoons of the Looja moth—exquisitely rare. And you look lovely in it.”
Noelle ran her hands down her sides. The ultra light silk felt undeniably sensuous and barely there—like she’d been wrapped in a whisper.
When she turned back to the holo-viewer, her breath caught again.
She didn’t just look young now. She looked…
Sexual.
Lush…curvy…ripe in the way of red-light temptresses and forbidden male fantasies.
She looked like a woman made for sin. Was this the middle-aged teacher who had been almost too shy to let Bright and Burn kiss her on the cheeks under the mistletoe?
Surely not—the woman in the viewer was younger, riper… ready for sex.
Noelle took a stumbling step back.
Dios, I don’t even recognize myself anymore!
“Much better!” Lupin declared, stepping back to admire her. “Yes, you’re going to be very popular at the auction—I do believe you’ll fetch the highest price there. Come now, let’s get you back to your cell before the evening meal. I’m sure all that cellular stimulation has worked up an appetite.”
Still dazed, Noelle followed him, the ultra-thin silk negligee clinging to her like mist.
Her feet padded softly over the metal floor. Her skin prickled, her insides still throbbing faintly from the treatment. Her cheeks were hot with embarrassment, confusion… and a strange, reluctant thrill.
She wasn’t sure who she was anymore.
But the men waiting for her in that cell? They were going to notice the difference.
And she wasn’t sure how to feel about that.