[pseudoclever]

Chapter 2

Zayne arrived at Palladian early the next day, but when he got there he found Bella already hard at work. She had loaded the centrifuge for him, and the machine was filling the room with its characteristic noise. His girlfriend was standing with her back to the door, her attention completely focused on the experiment she was running. He resisted the temptation to sneak up behind her and play a game of 'guess who' ? although, he mused, if he startled her it might cause her to spill more of the drug on herself. Instead he put his bag down on the desk and walking into her field of vision, waving hello. She smiled, and blew him a kiss.

He unpacked his things, pulling out his sketchbook. Usually he did this with an air of dread, but today he was excited. Zayne lifted his pencil, and immediately a drawing of Bella began to take shape on the page before him. Bella, dressed in her lab coat, carefully mixing the contents of a pair of test tubes. God, she could make anything look sexy.

Zayne heard the refrigerator door snap shut, and he looked up. Bella was walking away from the unit with a self-satisfied expression on her face, brushing her hands clean. She strolled across the room, and sat down on the desk across from him.

?Did you just load that batch?? he asked, loud enough to be heard over the machinery.

?Yeah,? she replied, kicking her legs as they dangled over the side. ?You looked like you didn't want to be disturbed. It's no big deal. One of those things might've been too heavy for me before, but now....? She pulled back the sleeve of her outfit, flexing her muscle. ?No sweat.?

?Thanks. But you don't need to do that. It's MY job, not yours, and I'd feel bad if I was getting paid just to come in here and doodle.?

?I thought getting paid to doodle was your long-term career goal,? she teased.

Zayne set his pencil down. Turning, he peered up at her, not saying anything. He kept this up for almost a full minute, looking unblinking into her eyes. Bella could only stand the attention for so long before a dark red flush began to spread across her cheeks. ?What? Why are you staring at me like that??

?I just want to make sure I get your face exactly right,? he told her. ?It's a little daunting, you know ? trying to draw perfection.?

?Aw!? she gushed, hugging her arms to her chest.

?Also,? he added, unable to resist. ?It's fun to make you nervous.?

They spent an uneventful night in the lab. Bella would come over in between machine cycles to sit with Zayne and watch him work. Around three in the morning, he insisted on testing one of the batches for her. ?Since you helped me out earlier,? he explained. She removed her goggles and snapped them down over his face. After reminding him how to run the reaction, she stood back and let him do it himself.

?This batch looks good,? he told her when the tube failed to turn silver.

?Yup, everything's in order,? she confirmed. ?You're not too bad at that, you know? You have good hands for chemistry ? nice and steady.?

?I'm sure you can think of a few things you'd RATHER have me do with my hands,? he quipped, already moving out of her reach before she could punch him.

Five a.m. came, and together they walked out into the parking lot. Zayne got in his car and followed Bella back to her place. They pulled into her driveway, and he unloaded a duffle bag of his stuff from the trunk. ?Just put that anywhere,? she told him, opening the front door. ?Do you want something to eat??

?No, I'm fine. Want to just chill out on the couch for a while?? he asked.

?Sure. Just let me get out of my work clothes. Do you want to change too??

?Nah.? He pointed to the t-shirt and jeans he was wearing. ?One of the benefits of being a test tube jockey is the total lack of a dress code.?

?Suit yourself...or rather, don't suit yourself. Sorry, that was an AWFUL pun. I'll be right back.? She went upstairs, carrying her handbag along with her.

Zayne sat down on the couch and closed his eyes. It had been a productive night of drawing. He had managed two sketches, and while neither was as good as the one he had done in his meditative state, at least he was making progress. Maybe, if he kept at it, he could actually make something of himself.

A few minutes later Zayne heard footsteps coming down the stairs. He turned to see Bella standing before him, a strange expression on her face. She was wearing the same white bed shirt that she had the previous evening. The garment was large enough that its bottom edge came down perhaps a hand's length past her waist. It was not large enough, however, to justify going without pants. And yet, in an apparent miscalculation, that was exactly what Bella had done.

?Hi,? he said, looking her up and down.

?Hi,? she replied, and tackled him.

Her lips were locked on his before he had time to react, and then she was shoving her tongue down his throat. He kissed her back, struggling to keep up ? he had never seen her so aggressive before! Bella grabbed ahold of his shirt, and unceremoniously yanked it off of him. She spent a moment caressing his bare skin before her hands made their way down to the bulge in his jeans. Zayne moaned, still trying to get his bearings.

Abruptly she stood up, and took his hand. ?Bedroom,? she growled, and pulled him to his feet. He had no choice but to follow her. Upstairs, she removed his pants and pushed him down ? hard ? onto the bed. Panting, she climbed on top of him, and without even the pretense of foreplay she thrust his cock inside her. She cried out at the top of her lungs, her voice thick and sensual. Again and again she impaled herself upon him. To Zayne it felt like he was some prize thoroughbred, and Bella was riding him to victory in the biggest race of his life.

Reality became a blur of images and sensations. A hot, sticky liqueur was dripping down his leg. There was a wet slapping sound, and a woman's voice screaming. A wondrous pair of breasts, barely contained by a white t-shirt, were bouncing up and down in front of him. As those breasts swelled larger, they were beginning to fill out the shirt, causing it to gradually slide up along....

Wait.

Zayne forced himself back from his ecstasy-induced delirium. No, he was not imagining it. Bella's top, hopelessly baggy on her only moments before, was starting to look like a much better fit. If he watched carefully, he thought he could actually see the top of her head inching upward with each passing second. And her bosom, without question, was expanding much faster than the rest of her body ? he guessed that she was easily a Double D by now.

She looked down at him, her face contorted by an almost boundless amount of pleasure. In her eyes was an unmistakable message ? 'I know, that you know, that I know.' In that shared moment, any question he could have wanted to ask her drifted away into the ?ther. This was not a problem to be solved; it was a fantasy to be enjoyed.

A renewed sense of passion flowing through him, Zayne began to thrust himself into Bella for all he was worth. He took hold of her waist, lifting himself as high as he could off the bed to grind even deeper inside her. With a roar she came, collapsing on top of him in exhaustion. A moment later he joined her, and the two of them lay clutching each other while wave after wave of euphoria rushed over them. And through it all he could still feel her body continuing to pulse larger against him.

?Can you move?? she asked him after a while.

?I...think so,? he replied uncertainly. They gingerly disentangled their limbs, and she helped him to his feet.

Bracing for the worst, Zayne turned to look at his girlfriend. He found himself staring directly at Bella's lovely, smirking lips. She was a few inches taller than him at least, and if possible even sexier and more curvaceous than she had been before.

?Well? How do you feel?? she asked.

Zayne blinked. ?Ah, isn't that my line??

?Oh, I feel fine. Fan-fucking-tastic, is the word that comes to mind. You have no idea. What I want to know is....? She sighed. ?I know you told me you were okay with the IDEA me being taller than you. But that was just on paper. Now that it's happened, and I actually AM bigger...is it a problem? How does it feel??

By way of response, he reached out and groped her cantaloupe-sized breasts, squeezing them between his fingers. ?Pretty great, I'd say.?

She pulled back to punch him, but apparently thought better of it. ?I'm being serious,? she said.

?So am I. You made your case for getting taller the other night, and I agreed with you. Besides that, you KNOW it makes me excited when you grow.?

Her eyes twinkled. ?What about when you have to endure my endless cute nicknames for you? Little guy, short stuff, and so on??

Zayne laughed. ?As long as you say it with a smile on your face.?

She grinned at him impishly. ?And if I still had some growing left to do? What then??

?Really?? he asked incredulously. ?You STILL think it might happen again??

She nodded.

He thought for a moment. ?Well, to be honest...I would probably like that. There's something infectious about all the fun you're having with this. And besides that, you've demonstrated that there are other...benefits.?

?I'm SO glad to hear you say that,? she said, beaming. ?Now, if you don't mind, I think I'd like to know exactly how much taller than you I am.? She pointed at a tape measure resting on her bedside table. Zayne noted that she had been ready for this sudden, unexpected growth spurt ? had she somehow known it was coming?

Bella's height turned out to be six feet, two and a half inches. When he told her this, she replied haughtily that any self-respecting scientist would insist on using metric. He did the measurement again, which came to one hundred eighty-nine centimeters.

The two of them took a quick shower, and crawled into bed together. She snuggled up behind him in a spoon position, wrapping her arm around his chest, and pulled him tight against her. For a moment this felt a little awkward ? usually he would expect to be the one holding the girl this way. The sensation soon passed, and he drifted off to sleep in her warm embrace.

Over the rest of the week, the two of them fell into a routine, of sorts. Each day they would get up, have breakfast together, and go to work. Zayne would sketch, and Bella would watch him. At the end of the day they would go back to Bella's place. She would go upstairs to change, only to come back down in one of her sexy outfits and pounce on him. They would make sweet love ? and this no one would make the mistake of calling routine.

And each day, in the throes of passion, Bella would grow a little bigger. It was never much more than an inch in any one session, and in fact as the days passed her growth seemed to be slowing down. Still, it gave Zayne cause for alarm. For one thing, the bed was starting to become a bit crowded. The same was true of the shower. Bella was forever accidently pushing the small of his back into the soap dish, and as much as he tried to laugh it off, this could be rather painful.

There was also an issue with their sex life. Zayne was accustomed to taking charge in the bedroom, both because he enjoyed it, and because most women expected it. This was no longer the case with Bella. She was never as rough as she had been that first night, possibly because she was afraid she might hurt him. Or, more likely, it was because she understood the fragile nature of the male ego. No matter how gentle she tried to be, however, there was still no question that she was the dominant sex partner. But, as she once put it, ?I rule with the consent of the governed.?

Whenever Zayne tried to take the initiative she would play along, and allow him to have his way with her. Even so, it was painfully obvious that he would not have been able to do this without her permission. Even at six two she had outweighed him, and with each passing day the disparity between them was growing more pronounced. And to top it off, Bella was becoming far stronger than him as well, with her muscle tone increasing in direct proportion to her size. It took a healthy, well-adjusted outlook on life to come to grips with the fact that your girlfriend could easily take you in a fight if she ever really wanted to do so.

All the same, Zayne was as happy as he had ever been. Bella never used her advantages in a way that he didn't enjoy ? on the contrary, he loved the added twist it gave their romantic life. It also didn't seem to have affected her personality in any way, with a few notable exceptions. She was a little more outgoing than she had been, and for some reason she seemed to take a perverse joy in surprising him with glimpses of her sculpted body at unexpected moments.

He wondered sometimes if it concerned her that she had yet to stop growing. Bella had long since passed her stated target height of six one, and she was still getting taller. But from the way she behaved, it was clear she didn't mind. And if she enjoyed it, he could enjoy it as well. She was an amazing woman, and the bigger she became, the more beautiful she was in his eyes.