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An Erotic Christmas Carol

By: elsol



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Stave 1: Marle's Frustration
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Marle, pronounced Marr-lay in a particularly horrid French accent if at all possible, was dead.

Now, due to the wonders of modern medicine, a reader might think 'There's dead, and then there's DEAD.' Be assured though, doctors making that much money to delay the inevitable do not allow a somewhat dead patient to be buried. He must be irrevocably dead before they will allow such a wonderful, kind, and generous man to escape their acquisitive hands.

Eben knew Marle was dead. They were full partners for five years, and worked together for a couple of years before that. Eben was Marle's CEO, the hand-picked heir to Marle' business, even if truth be told it was Eben who made the business what it was at the time of Marle's medically lamented passing. Eben made all the funeral arrangements and was one of the few mourners at the appropriately cloudy day. The doctors who stopped by could not be counted as mourners since their tears were for the loss of income. Eben was curious about an attractive middle-aged woman in black, who seemed genuinely sad, but thought she must have been a distant relative of Marle's.

So my dear internet porn afficianado, this is not an Elvis was seen at a 7-Eleven in Kelowan, Kansas type of thing. If the fact that Marle and his false French airs had truly left the mortal coil is not something that you can accept, well then... read this anyway, there are a couple of scenes worthy of staining a paper towel or wetting a pair of fingers.

Eben did not rename his company, though everyone said he should. It stood as it was even after Eben moved it to a modern office building, Marle Security Specialties, better know as Marle's. Sometimes his company's high profile customers called Eben by his name; others called him Marle. He did not mind either, probably preferred Marlem, truth be told.

Oh, but Eben was a workaholic! Working, shaping, molding, digging new niches for his firm, traveling to ensure every detail was taken care off when many of his staff could have accomplished the job as well; hard and sharp, that no competitor would find merciful, nor could they get ahead of him and his firm; secretive, unyielding to any challenge business or personal, an island habitant who bred sharks in the nearby waters. The cold inside hardened his features; his lips were an unmoving line; and he spoke commandingly in a voice echoing a lion's roar. Snow prematurely touched demon black hair, and ice-blue eyes showed no warmth to the world.

He ignored the elements. The sun could not force the suit-jacket from his shoulders, and the cold could not make him grimace. No winter wind could cool a room like his implacable stare; no fire more heartless in its purpose; no tide less caring of the drowned. Foul weather did not know where to have him. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet could boast only one advantage over him. If you were caught in one of them, the warm confines of your home would protect you.

Eben followed you in.

Nobody ever looked at him across a conference table and with smiling looks said "Mr. Razz, wonderful to see you. When will you stop by to see the family?" No charity came to his door without a financial report of the deductions he would receive for signing a check; no babies crawled to be taken into his lap. Stray dogs avoided his path having no profit to offer for a scrap.

And when Christmas cheer dusted the air, he was worse.

But what did Eben care. It was the very thing he wanted. To tread his way through the crowded path of life warning all human warmth to stand to the left, or right, or be mowed down. 

Warmth, love, happiness, joy, friendship; none of these things did Eben desire, even the darkest loneliness of the midnight hour.

Once upon a time of all days not to be, Christmas Eve, Eben sat busy in his corporate office planning the move of his company into providing Internet security and anonymity to some very rich clients. The windows at his back were battered by the cold, biting weather. Through the open door of his office he could hear the muted enjoyment of his employees at the necessary, if foolish, annual office Christmas party. The black clock on the wall chimed three, but outside the dark struggled to douse the light shining from the building. From the windows could be seen the valiant battle the lights of other offices fought to bring the gaiety of Christmas parties to the darkening city. The night fought back with fathomless dark that obscured sight outlining other buildings with a touch of fey. To see the black clouds lurking above, hiding the stars, one would have thought that Nature birthed something darker still.

Eben could hear the swelling and ebbing of the party; he was somewhat distracted by having to make sure his personal assistant stayed at her desk, in case she was needed. Eben worked day and night, and his assistant had to follow at his pace. She could not slow down for her boss never did, and the stare Eben gave when he had to wait was as close to real anger as she ever wanted to see from him. Wherefore, she squared her shoulders and tromped along in a race she could not win or even compete in; she was the closest Eben had ever found to achieving the mark so he made due.

"Mr. Razz, I'm sorry. She..." came over the intercom seconds before a bright, if well-covered tornado, exploded into the room.

"A Merry Christmas, Eb. God keep you safe," cried a muffled cheery voice, a voice that was the torment of Eben's soul. 

Brenda, his foster sister, born after her parents gave him a home.

"Yeah," said Eben softly. "Right."

She had so covered herself that it took a comical struggle to unwind the lengthy scarf from her face. Her clean complexion came into view as she defeated her adversary. The heat of battle flamed her pretty face, and sparked in her dark blue eyes.

"Come on, Eben," she said as she threw her defeated opponent down. "Stay in character, be proud of who you are and shout from the rafters 'Bah! Humbug!'"

She laughed warmly taking in how he watched her. It was the slight softening in his eyes when he looked at her that gave Brenda hope.

"Yeah... right," said Eben. "Merry Christmas. You have as little reason as I do to be merry on that day, less actually."

"Come, then," said Brenda Rollins shaking off the deep sadness that swallowed the fire in her eyes for a long moment. "What reason do you have to be so dismal? What reason do you have to be so morose? I really like that vocabulary book you got me for my birthday; dismal, morose, they really are wonderfully descriptive, don't you think. Anyway, you said it; your reasons are significantly less than mine. After all, you're so rich most of my friends want your number."

Eben, having no better answer and not wanting to see the sadness again, said "Yeah," and followed it with "Right."

"Not even one 'Bah! Humbug!'?" she said amidst a giggle; almost the ghost of a smile touched Eben's face. "Can't you try? Just for me, I promise I won't tell anyone."

"No, Brenda." 

The ghost fled. 

"I won't celebrate in remembrance of your parents. Maybe there are reasons for someone else to overindulge, or overcharge credit cards. I won't stop you, or anyone else. I'll even let them throw a Christmas Party and give them bonuses if they earned them. I'll think hard about your Christmas gift because... Don't ask more, Bren."

"But, Eben," she pleaded as she had done for many years.

"No!" The voice cooled the room. "Have your Christmas, sister, but leave me to the memories of your parents."

"They were your parents, too."

He nodded solemnly.

"But I'm not your sister," she said firmly and then smiling mischievously. "Not where it would count, anyway."

"Leave it, Bren," Eben growled, "That was a mistake. It never did you any good."

"Bah! Humbug!" she said in a strong voice. "That was no mistake. Maybe you're right, and I should be sad on the anniversary of someone killing my parents but it's also the anniversary of my best memories. My first bicycle and how you taught me to ride it in two feet of snow. I remember watching you from the living room window shovel for three hours to clear enough space. Sitting between Mom and Dad in church learning that Christmas wasn't about gifts. That memory got me through their deaths, Eben. Believing like a child and not the teenager I was that they were in Heaven waiting for us. Yeah! I spend too much, and so do a lot of people, but you're the only one who doesn't give me the smile that makes it all worth it. You know what? That's okay too, Eben. No Christmas memory is ever going to compare to the one we made together. So okay, our parents died on Christmas day, but EVERY other memory is happy so, 'Thank You, God!'"

Eben's assistant, standing at the door, gasped in wide-eyed wonder. Gasped again, realizing Eben would not appreciate an audience and fled back to the minor protection of her desk.

Eben stared at his foster sister on the edge of showing emotion that only she had ever raised in him. The muscles in his jaw moved as he struggled to hold everything inside.

She smiled innocently at him.

"Come on," she said. "Don't be mad! I'm here to invite you to my Christmas get-together. You're going to say no, but I have to ask, right?"

She bent down to pick up the scarf, bravely moved to his side, grabbed his arm tugging him toward the party.

He stood up and let her drag him towards the noise.

"No, Brenda. I don't think so."

"But why not?" she said as she passed the assistant's desk and winked at the typing woman. She moved circling the party to get to the elevators.

"Why? Why do you date that empty-headed blonde woman?"

"Because it annoys the shit out of the only man I ever wanted. Maybe he'll try to save me from her inane conversation. Plus, she is great in bed."

Brenda froze as what she had glimpsed through an almost closed door registered. She took a step back and in front of Eben to see through the crack. He looked over her head into the office of his new head of the computer security section. The man had the office manager pinned against his desk with his lower body. His hands were underneath her skirt pushing it up so that he could caress her thighs. The woman had her head back exposing a wealth of skin at her neck for him to nibble, or lick, or suckle. He was taking full advantage and the occasional moan from her accentuated an especially pleasurable touch of his mouth. He was not what one expected from a computer geek, looking more like a beach-volleyball pro than anything else.

Eben tried to move Brenda past the door, but she backed into him and planted herself in place. He reached around her to close the door. She put a death grip on the knob and fighting her would have gotten the couple's attention.

The man inside was technically sound, but even better at getting and keeping the best computer security people. It was an irreplaceable talent that Eben needed, so he allowed the man his liberties, even at the office.

The woman pulled herself on top of the desk. When the man pushed her skirt high enough, she wrapped a long leg around him, pinning him and the skirt. She used him as a living rubbing post. The man did not fight the motion but mirrored it. His hands pushed the skirt higher. They kissed frantically; the pressure had been building for some time. Eben knew they had an active flirtation that was the titter of office gossip, but no one knew if it had gone any farther. The pace they were using to drive themselves had all the impatience of new lovers desperately wanting the wonder of a first completion together.

The office manager brought her hands around to grab him by the hair and used her grip to pull his head back so she could bite into the juncture of neck, shoulder, and shirt. The man reacted as she meant him to. He tried to shove her skirt out of the way, needing madly to be inside the core of her heat.

Eben felt himself get hard from viewing the scene. He heard Brenda's breathing deepen and briefly struggled for control of the door. Brenda's grip had not softened and when the door squeaked, Eben stopped.

The office manager had enough. She put her hands on the desk and lifted herself up. The man immediately grasped the elevated seriousness of the situation. He pushed her skirt past her hips and onto her waist; reversing the motion, he stripped her pantyhose down.

She let herself down, and watched him continue slowly down the incredible length of her legs. Eben could hear her ragged breathing as the man's obvious enjoyment heightened hers. The head of the computer section kept the pantyhose moving downward slowly, enjoying the unwrapping and taking longer than necessary to regain control.

Eben recognized the deliberateness of the motion; the man wanted this woman satisfied completely. Finally, he pushed her shoes off and took the pantyhose completely off her body. As he straightened, she held his eyes with her own. She reached out and pulled him between her legs. They shared a slow grinding kiss that promised an end to a lot of waiting. She pushed him away and started working the buttons of his dress shirt. The man had taken off his jacket and tie before Eben and Brenda started their voyeur's adventure.

The woman ran her nails on his upper body taking the same slow pleasure that the man had while removing her pantyhose. The head of the computer section reached between them and did something out of the view of the watchers that propelled the office manager to the next step of anticipation. He continued to work furiously between her legs as she worked on his belt and slacks. His pants dropped suddenly, and her hands dove into silk boxers. He joined her on the next step of anticipation. She reached to his waist and lowered the boxers to gain free access. He reached down to take another one of those slow grinding kisses. They stopped for a second as she whispered something to him. He smiled beatifically and reached for an upside down coffee cup on his desk. He lifted the cup to expose a threesome of condoms. She stared at them for a second and dug a hand's worth of nails into his chest. He smiled down at her and extended himself far enough to place a bite between shoulder and neck. She reached over to the condom with one hand and tore it open with her teeth.

Eben decided that was enough. He put his arms around Brenda, lifted, and pulled her back. Her grip on the door worked to close the door. She started kicking but stopped and dropped her head back onto his shoulder. He put her down slowly, stepping back quickly when she made a slow caressing motion with her hips into his.

"But that was fun!" she complained sexily.

"They deserve a little privacy," Eben said, purposefully misinterpreting what she meant.

"Spoilsport!" she said pouting her lips and walking towards the elevators. He sighed and followed.

She pressed the button and waited pensively. The elevator arrived and she stepped inside. She turned around and pressed a button. He stood outside the elevator watching her.

As the doors were closing, her face broke into a smile.

"By the way, I didn't take my Christmas present from your desk so you're going to have to bring it to me tomorrow."

He watched the elevator doors close and stared at the numbers as they descended. He shook his head and turned to walk back to his office. He considered reprimanding his computer section head, but both sexbirds were valuable members of his team. A relationship, as long as it did not sour, would tie them to the company more firmly for a couple of years. 

He stopped at his assistant's desk.

"Are the charity people still here, Ms. Cratch?" he asked.

"Yes, sir. They're eating some of the party food."

"Ask them to come in," he told her as he walked into his office.

A couple of minutes later, a man and a woman walked into his office. The two took a moment to study the man behind the desk as he stared out into the darkness catching him in a rare moment of introspection.

Eben turned the chair around and nodded for them to sit.

The woman gave one meaningful look to her partner that said quite clearly that she would handle this. The man nodded; they came to talk to Eben twice a year.

The very first meeting had been nearly disastrous, especially because Marle had been a part of it. It was only the fact that the woman had come to understand very quickly that for Marle Security Specialties charity was strictly a business transaction that had saved them from having their potentially largest contributor find another organization. The man thought to appeal to Eben and Marle's softer side; and when rebuked, he attempted an eloquent speech that did nothing more than try to shame his listeners into giving charitably for the 'right' reasons.

Eben and Marle sat through the entire speech watching the man carefully. Afterwards Marle gave the man advice about how he should control the raising and lowering of pitch to manipulate an audience better. The man did not take that well, but took Eben's asking for the name of some other institution that would not need those 'right' reasons to accompany a healthy check even worse.

The woman who had been the junior partner when the two came in immediately intercepted any possible reply. She started to discuss whether the company wanted the publicity from the charitable contributions to be aimed towards the owners or towards the company. The man was ignored for the rest of the meeting while Marle discussed with the woman exactly how he wanted things to be. By the end of that first meeting, they established that the focus of any media attention would be on Marle's Security Specialties, and that the woman would be the one to deal with them for the length of her relationship with the charity.

The man came to the meetings as window dressing.

The meeting went smoothly, and the pair walked out with a very generous payment for publicity rendered during the Christmas holidays.

Eben remained in his office even after the party died down, and everyone except his assistant and he had gone home.

Outside the windows, the clouds waited with even more menace.

Ms. Cratch finally gave up trying to outlast her boss. She walked into the office with the paperwork he had wanted done for the day. He looked up from his work. She put the work down on his desk and stood back.

He nodded.

"Will you need me tomorrow, sir?" she asked trying to keep the hope that he would say no out of her eyes.

He sighed to himself. He turned the chair and tried to cut through the darkness with a cold stare, but it ignored him.

"No, Ms. Cratch. I'll get whatever I need done myself."

She grimaced to his back as she realized that meant she would have not only the 26th's worth of work to get done, but also whatever he managed to produce on the 25th.

"Thank you, sir," she said squeakily polite.

He nodded in dismissal.

He sat still staring out the window after she left. He was trying to find a way to avoid visiting Brenda the next day. He knew he would not be able to control his disapproval of her present lover. It was not that she was female; he cared too little about what the rest of the world thought for that to matter. It was the woman's petty maliciousness. 

Petty malice was a waste of effort by Eben's standards.

He packed several things into his briefcase and walked past the janitorial staff on the way out of the building without acknowledging their existence. They, on the other hand, watched him carefully enough to be sure they were not in his way.

It was bitterly cold outside and he made a quick decision on the way to his car.

He drove to a small restaurant he frequented. None of the staff was surprised to see him. They sat him at his usual table, and the waiter took a quick order. Everyone at the restaurant knew only a select set of waiters were allowed to serve Eben. It did not have to do with any preference on his part, but he tipped well over what would be considered magnificently generous as long he was served efficiently with no problems beyond the normal human control. He held many of his business dinners in the restaurant and thought of tipping as buying future stock in good service. The owner of the restaurant let only people he trusted wait on Eben or work his business dinners. 


An Erotic Christmas Carol



Eben asked the waiter for the restaurant's phone. It was not an uncommon request so the waiter rushed to get the phone.

Eben dialed the number from memory.

"Good afternoon?" a husky feminine voice.

"Hello, is Asa available?" Eben asked as businesslike as any other transaction.

"And who may I ask is speaking?" the voice asked.

"Eben."

"Asa is available, sir. At your domicile or elsewhere?"

"The penthouse is fine."

"The normal billing procedure?"

"Yes."

"A tip?"

"The usual."

"Thank you, sir."

"Goodbye."

"Goodbye, sir."

Eben hung the phone up; the waiter was there to take it out of his way. Eben ate without tasting his food. He looked out into the night trying not to think about Brenda's teasing but unable to stop.

He finished, paid, and walked out to his car. He drove home mechanically, still trying to avoid thinking of things in his life by not thinking of anything.

Suddenly a luminescent shape floated out of the darkness and shattered on his windshield. He turned the wheel to the right trying to avoid it but ducked as it hit the windshield.

"Jason!?" he exclaimed as he reacted to get his car back on the road. The apparition had seemed solid enough. It had glowed slightly as if the fog it was composed of had a bright light shining through it.

He shook himself as he pondered what he had seen. He looked at the rearview mirror.

The apparition had looked like his deceased partner, Jason Marle. It even had the condescending smirk that usually marred the aristocratic lines of Marle's face.

Eben shook himself again. When he had to stop for a red light, he rubbed his eyes.

"Next, I'll be seeing him on my door knocker," he whispered sarcastically.

"Oh, wait! I don't have a door knocker," he said, laughing for a second.

The light turned green, and he finished the drive home. He parked his car in building parking lot, walked inside, and took the elevator to his penthouse.

It had been Marle's penthouse; but as with everything else, Eben inherited it. It was a large place that had plenty of space for decorating, but Eben kept it spartan. The only distinctiveness to it was the black and glass furniture against surgical white walls. Every room followed the same austere, modern coloring from the deep black bathtub to the glass-top table next by his bed.

No splash of color scarred the entire living space.

He removed his coat and put it in his bedroom closet. He took off his suit and walked into the master bath to take a quick shower. Afterwards, he put on a black bathrobe and mixed himself a drink in his living room. He stared out into what little he could see of the city as he waited.

Few men and women in the city knew the number he dialed. Jason Marle introduced him to it saying simply that some things you were better off not fighting and that deflecting worked just as well. Discreteness was not a way life for the people that answered the number; it was life. At a nearly a couple of thousand dollars per visit between services rendered and the expected gratuity, they had to ensure non-disclosure along with complete satisfaction. After ensuring himself of their reputation, Eben made use of the number often. Keeping a mistress might have been less expensive but not by much, and Eben preferred the almost business feel to the relief of his needs.

Brenda had teased him with the touch of her hips, but the real damage was done by the reminder of a long ago Christmas Eve. The spectacle of his computer section head and the office manager only added to the pressure.

The doorbell rang. 

The building doorman was as discreet as the agency. He called ahead to warn Eben of Brenda's surprise visits but never bothered him past the initial explanation when Asa stopped by. It was, of course, a further sign of the amount of money Eben doled out for services efficiently rendered.

He opened the door. 

The woman gave him a warm smile as he stepped aside for her to walk in. She removed her coat and dropped it on the couch. The movement spoke of understanding this man's need.

She was Asian; Eben had never found out anything more specific about her nationality. She was short with curves proportional to her size. She was not beautiful, only slightly above pretty. Makeup only added a touch of false class so she never wore it especially with Eben. Most people would not have looked at her and thought she was paid so well for what she did, but most people could not afford to find out why she was. 

Asa was Eben's choice at the agency. Eben called the number two or three times a week on average and could only remember two instances of Asa not being available; both had resulted in unsatisfactory dealings. 


He turned around as she motioned for him to sit on one end of the couch. He smiled at her efficiency; with one look, she understood his need.

He moved to the end of the couch, sat down, and leaned back against the corner. She was wearing a black mini-skirt and top. She hiked the mini-skirt out of her way and knelt between his legs long enough to undo the robe and spread it open. He was already semi-hard and the hardening to fullness when her hand encircled him told her everything she wanted to know about what was required.

She moved away from him and lay down on her stomach. She impaled her mouth and throat on him in one smooth, much, practiced motion.

He moved his hips up trying to drive deeper. She had him completely inside her, but moved her head back to give him room to thrust. She had been here at times when he wanted to take his time; she had been here at times when he wanted her to scream in the wild abandon of pleasure; and she had been here at times like this when he needed a vehicle for his release.

She brought one hand up to caress his balls and ball sac. He was driving, and she allowed him to.

He dropped his hips down to the couch, but she kept her head in place. Only when he did not immediately plunge upward into her mouth, did she move her head back to release him completely. She held him towards the top of his dick to allow her thumb to stroke the underside of his crown. She moved down to place small licks on his balls. He reacted, and she moved up to take him into her mouth. When she had him in place, she took her hand off him and gave him free reign.

He immediately drove up into her mouth and dropped his hips again. This time as he held himself away from her, she used her tongue to bathe the head of his dick. She felt the bunching of effort and relaxed as he drove into her throat again. He pumped in and out several times before settling back down. She waited to ensure he had stopped, took him in an inch, ran her tongue hard against the bottom of his dick, took another inch, repeated the tongue action on the bottom of his penis, took him another inch, and caressed him hard with her tongue. She continued this until he was fully embedded inside the warm, wet confines of her mouth and throat again.

She unwound herself from him, only to receive a thrust into her mouth from him as he surged. She waited patiently allowing him the freedom to thrust in and to the edge of her mouth and back in again.

He started to press up and she moved onto her knees leaning forward. He got up but continued to guide her back with his dick still inside her mouth. She looked up at him, and he nodded for her to lay back. She released him and moved her legs around and lay back with her head propped by a corner cushion. He moved towards her until his dick was pointing at her mouth. She opened her mouth and received him. She got as comfortable as she could and reached up to rake nails as far up his torso as she could reach. 

Eben began a slow deliberate in-and-out pace that would carry him slowly over the edge. He wanted nothing more than to thrust viciously, but he let her get used to him being in charge of the pace. She used her nails on his stomach and ran them down as if driving the pressure toward his dick, guiding it to where it could find release into her mouth. He picked up the pace slowly; she moved her tongue on him as much as she could as he withdrew and accepted his thrusts into her mouth. She fondled his balls as his thrusts became more purposeful and let him use her mouth to relieve his need.

He withdrew himself almost completely from of her mouth and with one final thrust growled as he buried himself in her throat. She accepted him that final time, and used a swallowing motion to work the sensitized head of his penis as he finished coming. He tried to move away, but she wrapped her arms around his thighs trapping him with no escape except forward into the depth of her mouth. He leaned over her, but she continued to overload the nerves on the crown of his dick. He fought her but it only added to the sensations, as she had to continuously adjust to keep him in place. She continued her licking, sucking, and rubbing until his nerve-endings shut down. She felt him relax above her and settled into gently caressing him with her mouth and tongue.

She had been here before after one of his sister's teasing visits and though she did not know what caused the mood she knew what he needed from her. She pushed him gently onto his back and walked sexily into the downstairs bathroom. He heard the sink run and waited for her to come to him. She had gotten naked in the bathroom and moved towards him with purpose. She again lay on her stomach and took him in her mouth. It was a momentary caress only to warn his body. She kissed, licked and nibbled everywhere she knew on his body that would enjoin him to hardness again.

It was not long before she could crawl up his body and sink herself onto him. It was a small orgasm that caused shivers through her body; an appetizer for what she knew would come when he was in this mood.

The surge of wetness took Eben over the top. He stood up with his cock still buried in her and lay her down on the couch. She straightened a leg and rotated herself so that her ass was pointing towards him. He grabbed her butt cheeks and his fingers slipped on the lubrication she had coated herself with for later.

It was more of what he needed so he pulled back and thrust hard into her. She squealed as she smiled thinking of how good the hot bath felt on her sore muscles after he was done with her on these kinds of nights. It would be the only afterplay she got, but it would a good cap to her pleasure. She squeezed him with her pussy and arched her ass to allow him more freedom to fuck into her.

He felt the change in her attitude and position. He put one foot up on the couch, pulled back, and thrust into her with no thought to her pleasure. She grunted and pressed back against him to wedge him deeper inside her. He pulled back and thrust into her again. Asa's head went down to the couch, and she pushed back as another thrust penetrated as deeply as she wanted. He held at the deep end and used short thrusts to give her something more than a monetary reward for her body. She growled as she felt the action that always gave her the best orgasm. It was not long before her body exploded in pleasure as her nature took over her body.

She took her legs off the couch and cornered it with her hips. It dropped her hips, but she knew it left her at a better angle for what he needed next. She did not even protest when he pulled out of her and moved his cockhead upwards until it was aligned with her anal opening. She did grunt when she felt him push himself into her. He was always hard enough to easily penetrate into her tight anus with sturdy pressure. She put her hands under her head and relaxed waiting for the pleasure that always came when Eben did this to her. He pushed himself into her with steady, constant pressure until his hips where touching her buttocks. She sighed and shook her ass to sink him deeper. He pulled back slowly and moved into her with the same steady pressure. It was a few strokes before she loosened enough to take him smoothly. Eben reached down and grabbed one of her asscheeks in each hand. He spread her ass gently and thrust into her hard. She reached around her to hold his hips as a small gasp of pleasure escaped her mouth.

It released him from the last chains of control he demanded of himself. Asa was enjoying him so there was no reason not to drive to the release. She was tighter than any woman he had ever touched except one. He dropped his head back as he remembered a snowy Christmas Eve that was the last time he had truly lost control of himself. He thought about what it felt like to thrust into a virgin's body as he thrust into Asa. He could not hold out long, and Asa squeezing him as her orgasm overwhelmed her was too much. He pulled back and thrust, releasing into her body. He leaned over her and put more of his weight on her ass as she milked him of the last vestiges of pleasure.

Eben climbed off Asa and sat back on the other end of the couch. His breathing slowly evened out. He didn't move so she got up and walked to the bathroom again. She was holding a wet and a dry towel. He closed his eyes as she gently cleaned him off.

Eye contact told her she could leave. She allowed him to assist in dressing her, and he walked her to the door.

He closed the door behind her. If he had looked through his peephole, he would have been surprised to see that she turned and touched the door with a loving smile on her face. Asa was different from the other women at the end of the phone number he dialed. Marle had picked her for Eben carefully. She was always available because Eben was her only client. She even paid taxes on the checks the agency cut her. Considering how often he needed her body, she was, for all intents and purposes, Eben's mistress. Her eyes turned sad as she wondered how much longer it would last; she had only had two lovers before she turned to the agency. She knew she had been lucky that Marle chose her for Eben. She had been richly rewarded both in pleasure and monetarily. She turned from his door and walked proudly out of his building.

On the other side of the door, Eben walked to his phone and dialed the number.

"Hello," a different voice answered, not as husky as the previous one.

"Eben."

"Yes sir."

"Everything was satisfactory."

"We are happy to serve, sir."

He hung up the phone knowing it would show up on his next charge card statement. He reached for his liquor glass and took a careful sip.

"That was beautiful!"

He turned around as the voice came to him from the door to his bedroom.

He blinked.

Blinked again.

He looked at his liquor glass and at the door to his penthouse. He looked back at the man he refused to believe was standing at the entrance to his bedroom.

"No, I'm serious Eben. That was truly beautiful. God, I wished I'd kept her for myself! Then again I had Amelia, and let me tell you, I had her enough to pay for that fancy agency Asa gets your money from."

Eben nodded as Jason Marle, his very dead, partner walked towards him.

Eben took a step back.

Jason waved a hand at him, chiding him for that step. Jason sat down on one of the seats that matched the couch. He looked around the living room before he spoke again.

"God, man! What's with the black and glass shit? Even I had enough make-believe class to go for antiques."

Eben sat down heavily on the couch. He looked at his liquor glass again. He shook his head briskly and looked at Jason. Incredibly, enough the thought that Jacob had never looked better flashed through his mind.

Jason was looking much better than when he died or any of the years that Eben knew him. He seemed vital again. Eben could not quite see through him, but he could make out the black of the couch through Jason.

"Well, boy! Are you going to continue fucking your life up?" Jason asked in a frustrated but still friendly voice.

"Fucking up? The business is doing much better than when you died."

"Ah, to the hell with business! Well, not totally to hell... I mean it's a nice way to make money, no matter what anybody says."

"And you certainly made a lot of it."

"Yeah, but not much of anything else," Jason lamented.

"What's wrong with that?"

"Well, I'm fucking here talking to you," Jason replied. "That's not all too wonderful compared to the alternative."

Eben raised an eyebrow slowly beginning to accept the whole thing as a hallucination. The Marle he knew would never have discarded the fake French accent.

"You don't believe I'm really here, son?" Jason said suspiciously.

"Not at all," Eben replied honestly.

Jacob laughed, "Too bad, kid! Cause I am, and I got some shitty news."

Eben leaned back waiting.

"You're fucking your life up according to the powers that have. And I'm supposed to help you get a life," Jason said.

"Get a life. I have a life," Eben replied heatedly.

"No, Eben. You have an existence, just like I did," Jacob said, turning his head but not before Eben saw the wave of sadness that shadowed his eyes.

"What's wrong with that? You did well enough. Look at you now. You look better than you ever did. You can't tell me that's too bad."

Jason turned around, and his eyes burned with pain.

"It's bad, Eben."

Eben waited, not so sure it was all a dream again.

"They let you look into the other side. They let you see everything that you could have had if you lived right: then they take it away, and let you go."

"What's so bad about that? At least you're not on fire. If I have the 'who they are' part of this right."

"Yeah, I'm not on fire. But now, I get to watch life pass me by as I did when I was flesh."

"Pass you by?"

"Yes, Eben! I get to watch people live. I get to want to be a part of their life. I get to remember every time I could have lived. I get to remember love, and I get to watch it. But I can't touch any of it, ever."

"Hmm... I still don't see what's wrong with that."

Jason sighed quietly and stared at the only person, other than Amelia, he had been close to.

"We weren't evil, Eben. We just weren't good."

"I give to charity!" Eben defended himself.

"No, Eben. You buy good publicity. You don't actually give anything."

"What's the difference?" Eben asked sarcastically.

"Living and living like me," Jason answered. "You know, I'm not the only one that gets to do this."

"I'm still not clear on what this is." Eben replied.

Jacob shook his head, "This is being horny like a 14-year-old boy, being able to watch someone get what Asa just gave you and only having it build more. You can't complete anything on this side, Eben. You just get to feel it build. Sometimes it subsides, but it all comes rushing back the next time you walk in on someone having sex. It all builds and builds, until you go crazy. Then you go sane, and find out none of the pressure ever went away."

Eben shuddered remembering what that had been like, being 14 and the mindless horniness that came with some physical maturity.

"It's like that with everything. We can't ever escape that we didn't live life, Eben. They make us continue to live the exact same way, but they open up whatever that place in your soul that the people in your life should have been able to touch."

Eben sat quietly listening.

"You know we can do some weird shit on this side."

Eben shook his head again.

"Yeah, I walked up into the clouds one time and watched the sun that way. Kept walking. Never got tired, only bored, and then I came back. I think I could have walked to the sun. Imagine how long that would have taken."

"You can't move faster?"

"No. I can only move faster if I'm with someone moving faster than I can walk."

"Why are you here, Jason?" Eben asked suddenly.

"I told you. I have to help you get a life."

"Why you?"

"I don't know, beyond being the only one you know on this side that can still interact with you."




An Erotic Christmas Carol



Eben nodded.

"I guess I have to give you a real warning about what's on this side."

"You're not doing a very good job."

"Can you see how much I hurt every now and then."

"Yeah."

"How do you remember me, Eben?"

Eben froze.

"Yes, Eben. It's that bad. Worse even." Jason lifted his right arm exposing his wrist, encircling it was a rusty bracelet. "It's the only thing I can feel physically. The weight of my life and how worthless it was to other people. Supposedly when it gets lighter my penance is being relieved bit by bit."

"Has it gotten lighter?"

A tear seemed to form and move down Jason's cheek as he replied, "I don't know. I can't remember how much it weighed. I don't even know if it's true, maybe it's not. Maybe it's a hope they dangle in front of you like everything else. You wait and wait, hoping for something that's never going to come."

Eben looked away.

"You have to change, son. They gave you this opportunity because there are people that will be here like this if you aren't what they need. The power that have are more than happy to punish you, but not if it means taking down everyone that needs you."

"So how does one change? Give a little more to charity?" Eben smirked.

Jason stared at him until Eben looked away again.

"You'll be visited by three spirits."

"You gotta be fucking kidding me! What is this? A remake of The Christmas Carol starring Eben? Does this have something to do with your name? I always thought Marle the way you said it should have been spelled Marley."

Jason surged up from the chair.

Eben stood up to face the challenge but Jason just watched him.

"Three spirits, Eben. You know the deal: one at midnight, one at the stroke of two, and one at four. Change or live wanting to touch. Change or watch the people whom you hid your soul from live like this with you."

Jason waved for Eben to follow. Eben shook his head, but his legs were moving. Jason walked to the window and opened it.

He stepped up to the sill and stepped into air. As he did this, the window was hit with a wave of painful sound. It struck Eben full on, and he fell to his knees as the sound washed through him. It was a chorus of uncounted millions, crying incoherent sounds of inexpressible sorrow, self-accusation, lamentation, and regret. It was mindless! Millions of souls driven to insanity and beyond by viewing everything they could have had and denied themselves.

Eben covered his ears and the sound lessened, but not because of his hands. The sound lessened of its own volition. He could still hear the loss, but it did not attack him. He looked up at Jason who was watching him.

"Three spirits, Eben. Joke about it if you want, but each is a lesson about the path back. Learn each one well! You're not the only one you have to bring back from this."

Jason screamed his own pain at Eben. The voices rose again assaulting Eben. His mind tried to rebel against the sound, but the emotions battered at the place where he hid his own. He covered his ears again, but they continued mercilessly driving every ounce of sorrow and pain into him, digging for the core of his soul.

He blacked out as the chorus reached a natural crescendo as it touched the living wound on his soul.

==========
Stave 2 -- The Boy That Was
==========

Eben woke up on the floor; an echo of pain floated through his brain. He sat up slowly, looking around. The window was open; the cold of the evening was taking advantage and entering the penthouse.

He stood up carefully and walked the three steps to the window.

"No fucking way!" he whispered as he looked outside for something he refused to accept he might see.

A heavy bell from somewhere in the night struck eleven times; he wondered why he had never heard it before. He turned around to stare at his own clock. The thought that he would know the truth of his experience in an hour flashed through his mind.

Struggling with his disbelief, he reached out to close the window. He thought, and thought, and thought. He fought with his rational mind as the echo of sorrow danced in his soul. The more he thought the more the confusion built, as the echo became more noticeable and the headache more pronounced.

He sat down on the edge of the bed holding his head in his hands. He screamed inside himself hoping rage would drown out the sorrow.

Rage won, shouting down the accusation in the chorus of voices.

He lay back determined to win a thorough victory. He resolved to wait for whatever demons his mind cared to throw at him. He was sure none of it was real anyway.

The alarm clock woke him up. He smiled relieved. He opened his eyes to a dark room. He slept with the shades open so morning light should have been streaming inside. He looked at the alarm clock next his bed.

12:00 AM.

He did not remember setting the alarm for that time. He got out of bed to check the rest of the penthouse, but the door to his bedroom slammed opened. His eyes snapped to see who could have opened it. 

Another demon had come!

A nymph with chin length curly hair stood in the doorway. Her face shone with innocence; certain visible body parts declared her pleasantly female. Her light brown hair seemed to glow as she looked at Eben. Her eyes were a cloudy blue that spoke of a sadness for the things that had come and gone. She stared at Eben before she stepped into his bedroom.

"I expected a little more light," Eben said as he stepped away from the bed.

The nymph smiled, which suffused her entire body with a soft light.

"Like that?" she asked.

Eben sat down on the bed, and shook his head.

"I think I would prefer the non-nightlight version of the Ghost of Christmas Past," Eben said her.

The Spirit laughed as the light around her died.

Eben stared at the nymph for a second. She was dressed in tight red shorts with bright green trimmings, an escaped elf from Santa's workshop. Her lips drew his eyes. He had thought he had outgrown the nubile phase of his attraction to female, but there was an age in her eyes that belied the innocence that surrounded her. Her eyes spoke of age beyond age, or maybe it was experience beyond age.

The nymph smiled again as if she could read Eben's mind.

"So you are the Spirit of Christmas Past?" asked Eben.

"None other," the Spirit answered. She made a leap across the room, over Eben's head, and onto the bed. The Spirit started a lively bed-bouncing episode, looking at the pillows out of the corner of her and at Eben.

Eben got off the bed quickly and turned to face the Spirit. She laughed freely as she sat down hard on the bed and allowed the bounce in the mattress to spring her standing again.

Eben watched her for a moment before speaking. 

"I forgot my next line," he said.

"Long Past?" the nymph giggled.

"Huh?" Eben said confused.

"You're supposed to ask me if I'm the Spirit of Christmas Long Past, or is it the Long Spirit of Christmas Past." 

The Spirit bounced powerfully and jumped towards Eben. He reached out to catch her. She looked with those sad blue eyes into Eben's. She wriggled and Eben let her go.

Eben watched as the Spirit walked around picking up different things in the bedroom and tossed them aside when she saw they were things no self-respecting nymph would be interested in.

"So are you?"

"Am I what?" the Spirit asked not looking at Eben but with mischief lacing her voice.

"Are you the Spirit of Christmas Long Past, or is it the Long Spirit of Christmas Past?"

The Spirit turned around, pulled her shorts from her waist, and looked inside.

"Well, I'm a girl so definitely not the Long Spirit..." she replied. She reached into her shorts and looked for all things like she had stuck fingers inside herself. "Deep enough though."

Eben broke into a second's worth of laughter; the nymph smiled peacefully. Eben stopped his laugh, and tried to look down at her.

"Your Christmas past." 

Blue eyes turned sadder as she approached Eben.

"What?" Eben asked.

"I'm here to try to help you, Eben. Not everything that can help you, but a small part."

"What part do you serve?"

"Memory."

Eben nodded trying to understand the cryptic remark. The nymph jumped again, but this time she crashed into Eben. He thought it would hurt but found himself flying slowly backwards onto the bed. His robe flew open as he landed with her on top of his thighs.

He looked up to find her staring at his crotch with a raised eyebrow.

"Yummy!" she said and scrambled down his legs so that her face was in his crotch. She licked him and his dick reacted by hardening even though Asa had done her best to drain him of potency.

"Hey!" Eben yelled reaching down to pull her away from his crotch. He grabbed two fistfuls of hair but a moan escaped him when she wrapped her too full lips around his dickhead.

It felt like her lips looked: thick, wet, and warm.

Incredibly warm.

She pulled him out of her mouth and smiled. She gestured, and Eben's hands shot away from her hair as his arms extended outward from his sides. She stood up and pushed his thighs apart with her feet. He tried to fight the pressure but could not resist. His dick demanded he do what was necessary to get it between her wonderful lips again.

She knelt between his legs and looked at him. She reached down to grab his dick. She stroked up and down as the sadness in her eyes turned to desire.

"You know Eben," she said. She leaned down and licked around his crown before speaking again, "That pretty sister of yours would have happily done this many, many times."

She took him into her mouth deeply and stroked him with the love another would have if he had allowed it. He thrust upward and found that motion was allowed.

She pulled up from his dick and smiled as she met his eyes.

"She dreamed of it," she said sexily. "She practiced with everything she thought was your size. She caught a lot of peeks at you, and her favorite was watching you masturbate."

She took him completely down her throat and hummed a merry Christmas jingle. Eben thought that 'Jingle Bells' had always been one of his favorites.

She pulled up again and kissed the tip of his dick.

"Do you know how she prayed for you to come to her: how she still prays?" she whispered. "You've been the one all of her life, and to drink your cum would have been love to her."

She took him in her mouth and stroked with her hands until he was at the edge. She pulled off him and took the side of his dick in her lips. She ran her lips up and down that side, and then moved to give the other side the same treatment.

"Do you know how long she's been wanting you?" she asked before sucking just the tip. "How long she's known you're the one, the only one, for her?"

She took him in her mouth and down her throat. She did not hum this time but instead her tongue did things only a Spirit could have. Her throat massaged the head of his penis drawing his seed to the surface.

"Brenda!" Eben yelled imagining what it would have felt to be with her all the time he had denied himself. It was too much and he came hard; all loss of control and a blinding attempt to empty his body inside the nymph's mouth. She drank him as if through her another woman would be able to taste him.

The Spirit continued her gentle loving, but Eben's body was too empty from the power of his orgasm to feel anything more than pleasure from her touch.

Finally, the Spirit got up from the bed and walked to the open window. She reached a hand back to Eben.

"Do we really have to do the whole flying-through-the-night thing? I'm not really all that into heights without parachutes," he said getting up and tying his robe. His knees felt weak, but it felt as if having lived even a shadow of his desires had lifted a part of the burden he had been carrying for years.

The Spirit laughed, walked back to Eben and took him by the arm. Eben felt warmth and energy spread to his extremities as her hand touched him.

"You are going to hold me up, right? No letting go, and then flying down to catch me. 'Cause that's definitely not a thing to do."

"Brenda isn't that type of woman," she replied.

The Spirit stepped up to and over the sill. Eben followed absentmindedly, trying to figure out what the Spirit meant by her last remark.

They were soaring through the night air, which got Eben's attention. They flew into a low level cloud and when they came out of it everything below had changed. There were fewer lights and none had the harshness of city lights.

They came down onto a porch.

"I haven't been here in a while," Eben said quietly.

The Spirit nodded. She pulled Eben toward the door, and passed with him through it. They should have entered into the front hallway, with the steps to upstairs directly in front of them. Instead, they entered the kitchen.

"Mom!" Eben exclaimed as soon as he saw the couple standing in the kitchen of his old home.

"They can't hear you Eben, or see you."

Eben stared at the woman leaning against the sink. He turned to look at the man sitting down at the table looking up at the woman.

"You never called her mom before," the Spirit said coming to stand by Eben.

"Did you tell him?" the woman said walking to the oven. She opened the oven door and looked at a sheet of Christmas cookies.

"Yes, I did," the man replied standing up and pacing around the kitchen.

She closed the oven door slowly, straightened up, but kept her back to him. Eben smiled as he recognized her reaction to having to ask questions that she did not want to.

"What did he say?"

The man sat down and looked at her back before he replied, "He asked if he would be moving out now."

Her head dropped. She reached around behind her; her hand touched one of the kitchen chairs, and she collapsed into it crying softly.

The man shot to her side, and stroked her hair. 

"It's not us, baby. You know it's not us. Eben's parents died a year ago. He doesn't understand. He's barely five years old."

Eben turned toward the door to the living room. He knew it would be open; enough for a five-year old face to watch the man and woman that had taken him in crying over his loss. He knelt down so he could look at the face. He remembered every emotion and watched them color his young face. The shock that these people cried over him when their own child was going to come into the world, the guilt of feeling for someone when he desperately missed his parents, and the final acceptance that his parents were really gone forever. 

Eben watched emotion fight emotion.

The door closed.

Eben knew the child would go to his room, and cry a last time for dead parents before burying them deep in his heart.

"Come," the Spirit said to Eben taking his hands.

"Wait!" Eben said staring at his foster mother.

"No! Come!" the girl insisted dragging Eben to the door.

They walked into a spacious living room. Eben knew they were in a different time of his past. Memories flooded him, threatening to overwhelm.

"No!" he exclaimed angrily. He ripped his arm from the nymph's grip. He turned to walk back into the kitchen but the door swung open, and he was beaten.

A teenage girl walked through the door carrying a small tray of cups smiling at someone in the room. Eben's heart skipped beats as he saw the excitement shining in her eyes.

Brenda had just turned eighteen; in her eyes was the decision that tonight was the first night of the life she wanted.

He turned to see himself at twenty-three sitting on the floor in front of the couch. The younger version of Eben was staring at the tree, unsuspecting what his foster sister planned for him.

Brenda sat down next to the younger Eben putting the tray on the couch. She handed Eben a cup. The older Eben smiled as he remembered the first taste of alcohol in the eggnog.

The younger Eben reacted as he remembered.

"Bren, what the hell did you put in this stuff?" he asked, a hint of laughter was in his voice as he took another more careful sip.

"I thought you needed to relax. I mean all studying and stuff," she whispered. The older Eben saw everything he should have noticed at the time; how she watched him drink carefully, how she only used her cup to warm her hands, how her breathing had nervous hitches in it, and the shining in her eyes as her decision solidified the more the alcohol hit the younger Eben.

The scene blurred, and he knew that time had passed. He took a step back not wanting to relive what was coming, but he felt a wall behind him. He turned to look but there was nothing behind him. He scanned the room and saw the Spirit sitting on the back of the couch avidly watching the two people on the floor.

Eben looked down at himself and Brenda. She had taken off the sweater and was dressed in only jeans and a t-shirt. He remembered his own surprise when he noticed she was not wearing a bra. His hands itched as the old blast of pure lust hit him again.

Brenda reached up and started running her hands along the younger Eben's face. Eben knew what the younger version was thinking. The alcohol had fuzzed the thinking process though. He had known what was happening but rationalized that it was just a sisterly touch, holding onto that thought until it was too late.

She tickled him, starting a wrestling match. He knew how much she did not like to be tickled so it was a fight to make her stop without retaliating. She ended up on top of him, their faces inches away.

Too late!

The first kiss was a tentative touch of lips, a suggestion, a hope they both held deeply. The second deepened the hope into prayer, as long built up pressure came out. Eben had wanted her; she had been his in a special way from the day of her birth. He had protected her, cared more for her than himself. He never really loved her as just a sister; what happened between them that Christmas Eve was what he had felt for her every day since her birth. 

He had always believed she was his, only and forever.

The kiss deepened as tongues fought to say more than they could with words. The younger Eben's hands came around to caress her ass. The hands touched, cupped, and became more insistent as the clothing kept them away from skin. Eben pulled the t-shirt from her jeans and let his hands run along her lower back. She ground her hips into him.

The older Eben saw what he had not wanted to see afterwards; he had not taken advantage of his sister. She wanted it as much as he had but more openly. He felt his knees buckle, his eyes frozen on the couple.

She disconnected their lips long enough to take the t-shirt off. She was coming back down but was stopped as Eben brought his hands from her ass to hold her breasts. His thumbs lightly passed over nipples. She groaned at the initial contact, and her breathing deepened as he continued the passes. She gasped as Eben reached up to capture one nipple in his mouth and applied gentle suction. She grabbed his head lending him support, needing him to continue. He switched breasts and she gasped at the assault of sensation from a different place.

Eben knew what was about to come; maybe it would have been better if he had been more careful. He shook his head; no nothing would have dimmed the guilt he had felt at betraying his foster...

No! His parents!

The younger Eben sat up holding Brenda in place and turned so she was on her back. He reached to her jeans undoing the belt and buttons of her jeans in frantic motions.

Eben shuddered as he saw the loss of control the younger man was going through, but he also saw why he had been so successful. She was as frantic to remove her clothing. It was her who pushed her jeans and panties down her thighs. He helped, but she led in her disrobing.

The younger man hesitated when she lay naked beneath him. It was only the older Eben that saw the victory in her eyes. The younger man dove to the juncture of her thighs, as the older man remembered how badly he had wanted to taste her.




An Erotic Christmas Carol



Victory fled from her eyes as pleasure flooded her body from her center. Eben was not being careful or giving, he was there to learn the flavor of her need, but the results were the same. She had thought he belonged to her, only and forever, all of her life too. She gasped and reached down to run her fingers through his hair. The older Eben watched her face as lust continued to overpower the younger version of him.

He remembered.

"Eben!" she nearly screamed as she went over the climax of pleasure. Her toes flexed attempting to make themselves fists; her hands tried to get a grip on the carpet; her thigh muscles began to vibrate as she reached the apex of sensation. She bit her lips to stop from screaming, but her eyes rolled back as she could not control the mindless chanting of her lover's name.

She had just begun to come down again when the younger Eben knelt between her legs using his to keep them spread. He was taking off clothing as fast as he could. She had not completely drifted down when he was naked with a rampant erection pointing towards her. He reached down to grip her below one knee. He pushed her leg up and reached with his other hand to get a grip on his dick. He placed himself at the entrance to her pussy. She gasped as the hard warmth bumped her clitoris; it stopped her downward movement away from pleasure. She opened her eyes to look at him; her hands moved to grab his hips to pull him into her. It was unnecessary, a small adjustment had put his dickhead in a position to open her pussy lips with the tip. Her hands touched his hips but the forward movement into her had already begun. She dug her nails in as he moved inexorably forward. It was an unstoppable thrust to sink him completely inside her.

Her cry of pain jolted both the younger and older Eben. The older came out of his trance as guilt assaulted his lust, but the younger man did not understand. His eyes looked lost as he looked down. He needed completion; of the act, of every fantasy he would not admit to, of love he did not have the words to speak of. The guilt was enough to buy her a small reprieve so her body could accept him. She did not need much; his need was something she believed was hers to satisfy. She moved her legs higher as the pain and discomfort became secondary to what had always come first in her life, Eben.

She dug her nails into his hips and began to slowly gyrate her hips, much sooner than the older Eben remembered. The younger version thought it was a small eternity where every part of his body wanted to pull out and thrust back in, but he had to wait for her.

The younger Eben pulled out slowly and thrust back inside. He had wanted it to last to give her pleasure beyond what any man ever could. She had different plans as her nails spurred him. He could have held against that but she helped by moving her hips the two inches that she could move them trying to ride him from beneath. Eben's head moved back as he pistoned both of them towards climax.

There was plenty of volume as she screamed his name when she felt the thickening that came before his orgasm. He leaned down to kiss her, to take her screams inside him as he exploded inside of her. He ground his hips releasing into her body as her arms came around him to pull him tighter against her.

The older Eben saw what his younger self missed. It was not his body that caused her shudders during her first orgasm with her life's penis inside of her. It was the thought that she was his, that it was Eben's cum wetting the walls of her pussy; her body had nothing to do with her orgasm.

Her love sparked it.

The Spirit came to stand in front of the older Eben blocking his view.

Eben stood up and let the Spirit take him by the hand. He refused to look back at the couple intertwined as sleep overcame them. The Spirit turned him toward the door.

Eben felt them shift as they touched the door. 

He walked into the Christmas office party at his real first job. It had been a good experience. He met one of the firm's best clients Jason Marle, but somehow did not think that would be what he was here to see.

He saw her.

Sylvia.

Blonde hair streamed down her back as her blue eyes searched the people for the only face that she would recognize. He had met her in their first year at law school. He had been purpose, but she was passion. She defended every one of her beliefs with the full voice of her heart, which he could not match with cold logic. They started as friends, but the guilt over his Christmas Eve with Brenda hounded him into Sylvia's open arms.

He had thought he was doing the right thing by staying away from Brenda. The truth was that he had run, and in doing so had hurt two women.

"We don't have to be here," he told the Christmas Spirit.

"Yes, we do, Eben."

"Fuck!" Eben said knowing what was coming.

Sylvia finally found another young version of Eben in a corner talking to Jason. The two men were engrossed in conversation. The older Eben could not remember exactly what they spoke of; considering what resulted he should have.

Sylvia walked towards them. The older Eben followed as if he could stop what was about to happen. He watched as she politely said hello to Jason but motioned for Eben to talk with her in the conference room. The older Eben was already moving in that direction.

He was inside the room when the younger version of him slammed the door closed.

"Sylvia, what are you doing? I needed to talk to that man."

"Why? Is he going to fund your first grab at a million dollars?" she yelled at him.

Both Ebens turned to look outside, but no one heard her.

"Goddamnit, don't yell! You know I hate that."

"So what? Am I supposed to accept that you don't have time for anything but work anymore? That you fucking treat me like a sex-stop on the way to your success."

"You know it's not like that, Sylvia," he said losing some of his temper.

"I know it's not like that, Eben. But that's how you make me feel."

"If you know it's not like that, then what is this about?"

The older Eben winced at the stupidity of that remark.

Sylvia froze looking at him. The older Eben could see the pain in her eyes. The younger man refused to.

"Why did you cancel our Christmas visit to your house?" she asked simply.

The older Eben nodded, this had been the one thing she could not understand. Their breakup had been completely his fault, but the last straw was not something he could have ever avoided giving her.

"I need to work on the 26th," the younger Eben said simply. The older man watched as Sylvia searched for an opening that was not there in the younger man's face. His face shutout all emotion; he stared back at her with eyes that said nothing.

That gave nothing.

"You know it's over, right?" she said as tears streamed out of her eyes.

The face still gave her nothing.

She nodded, squared her shoulders and walked out of the room proudly. The older Eben watched her smiling that she had not left defeated even though he knew, as he had known then, that she loved him. The lovers knew the relationship was collapsing; the younger Eben could not give enough. Neither the older or younger version blamed her for leaving.

Eben admitted to himself that he had loved Sylvia, but somewhere deep inside of the younger man believed that there was someone else meant for him. He had been cold to Sylvia, but a part of him understood now that as much as he loved her, he would always loved Brenda more. His foster sister was someone he could not let go of. Breaking it off with Sylvia was a step towards claiming what had always been his.

The younger Eben stared out the window for a few minutes. There was a knock on the door. Both Ebens turned to the door. Jason Marle stuck his head and smiled.

"Woman problems, son?"

The younger Eben smirked confirmation.

"Well, here's as good a solution as I know," Jacob said lifting up a bottle of Jack Daniels.

The younger Eben smiled and nodded, walking towards his future.

"That's the end of my painful Christmas pasts. We can go home now."

"No," the Spirit said.

Eben nodded angrily, steeling himself for what was coming.

The Spirit took his hand and walked him to the door. Eben felt himself shutting down inside. This part he did not need to remember, every part of it burned in his soul.

They walked through the door, and onto the porch of his foster parents' home again. It was the Christmas day after Sylvia left him, he had returned home to claim Brenda. 

They were waited; Eben saw the police cars in front of the house that he had not noticed at the time of the scene. He turned to look up the street as the taxicab made the turn. It stopped in front of the home. Eben stepped out of the cab, paid, and started up to the door. He had not noticed the officers and none tried to stop him. The older Eben saw it in their eyes; they knew who he was but did not want to be the one that told him the bad news. The older version remembered that he had been thinking joining Marle's firm in the New Year. He rang the doorbell; he had keys but did not use them anymore out of respect for his parents.

The door opened and a tall black policeman stood stared at him. Eben took a step back to look darkly at the uniformed cop. Brenda came to the door.

"Eben!" she cried before jumping into his surprised arms. They had not touched since the Christmas Eve that consummated their lives. She sobbed uncontrollably. She was gasping words between sobs but both Ebens only heard the important ones.

"Mom... Dad... dead!"

The older Eben shut his eyes in pain, as Brenda fainted; the assault of emotions was too much for her. The younger Eben fell onto the porch; his eyes empty again. The child inside resurged as a remembered pain was echoed in his new life.

"We leave, now!" Eben said to the Spirit.

He turned to confront the nymph. There was no need to hear again about the home invasion that left his foster mother and father dead. There was no need to see the relief in his eyes and the litany of "Thank You, God!" that poured out of him because Brenda had not been home.

He looked around wildly but was back inside his bedroom. He turned back to look at the younger Eben and Brenda, but all he could see was the other half of his bedroom.

He looked around the room.

Nothing.

He reached up to wipe the tears that bled out of his eyes as the loss of his second mother and father came back. He betrayed them with his relief that Brenda had not been there. He had not mourned, as he should have, he only thought that Brenda had not died.

He had punished himself for that betrayal. He buried his feelings for Brenda, denied every one of her advances. He did it because the day her parents died his first thought had been to thank God for not taking Brenda too.

He turned and lay down on the bed.

=========
Stave 3 -- Lost Women
=========

The light woke Eben. It was pouring in from around the frame of his bedroom door. He thought about staying in bed for a second.

"Eben!!! GET IN HERE!!" an exuberant male voice shouted from the other side of the door precluding any further thoughts of not heading in that direction.

Eben stood up angrily, stomped to the door, and threw it open.

The tableau nailed his feet to the ground. The light was coming from a massive Christmas tree with candles festooned on every branch. There was a bright torch beside a throne-like chair. Stacks of gifts spread out from the tree in an ocean of wrapping paper washing, over every piece of his furniture.

He looked at the chair to see a giant of a man sitting with three sprite-like women kneeling around him. They were attacking a horse-sized cock that looked monstrous even on man his size. The sprites were wrestling the massive dick from each other for an opportunity to lick it. One won out for a second and managed to get the head in her mouth. Eben moved unconsciously into the room to get a better view as she tried to impale her head on the hard cock. It should have been impossible, but she managed to stretch her mouth open enough to happily suckle the head.

Eben looked at the women again. They were perfectly formed albeit three foot-tall human females with curves proportional to their height. The size of the man they were attending to made them look even smaller. The giant reached down to caress a well-developed breast. One of the women climbed onto him to capture his lips in a hungry kiss. The giant's hand moved down to cup her tight ass.

It left two women at his dick; they decided to share their mammoth toy instead of fighting over it. One began a vigorous licking of the man's ball-sac as the other treated his penis to the same. They switched locations, but the one at his ball-sac took a testicle completely into her mouth while the other did the same to the bulbous head of the man's dick. 

The third woman tired of kissing. She put one foot on the head of the women sucking the dick and pushed her off unceremoniously. She did the same to the other woman. She straddled the sitting man, reached between them to place the tip of the massive cock at her pussy lips. 

"Yeah... right!" Eben said as he compared the size of the woman, and the man's cock. The woman's pussy was tiny, and Eben was sure she would be split in twain if she insisted on her course of action. 

She was determined!

She hyperventilated and pressed inexorably downward. Her pussy lips spread obscenely as she dropped her head back and gasped in a wild mixture of pain and pleasure. She held each millimeter she gained for a length of time before impaling her pussy another millimeter onto the man's dick.

"HOLY SHIT!" Eben exclaimed as she accepted more and more of the man's penis inside herself.

Each tiny bit gained heightened her pleasure. She finally hit bottom with less than half of the man's penis inside her and orgasmed more powerfully than any woman Eben had ever seen. Her body trembled uncontrollably as the man reached down to hold her weight up so she would not collapse; if she did her weight would drive him farther in than she could possibly take. She regained control and began a slow trip up at the apex of which she hesitated before fucking him back inside of her. The pace that her pussy allowed her to move increased with the wetness caused by her orgasm, but it would have driven a normal man crazy in its slowness. The giant seemed unconcerned; pleasured by it, but nowhere near being driven insane by her slow travel up and down the most sensitive part of his dick. 

The action had a noticeable effect on Eben and the other two women. One stood up and moved determinedly toward Eben. He backed up trying to escape her intent but hit solid wall behind him. The third woman climbed the throne and dropped her pussy onto the man's bearded face.

The woman tackled Eben low, dropping him alongside the wall. She sat on his thighs and loosened the robe around his waist. She smiled gleefully at the erect penis. There was no foreplay, no hesitation. She looked him in the eyes, and crawled into position. She moved to where her pussy was just beyond the head of his penis. She dropped her hips onto his stomach and slid backward. The angle was wrong for penetration, but she was obviously driven. She moved down until his penis stood up against her pussy. She took a playful bite at his nipples looking up at him.

She smiled sex. 

She moved towards him, his dick sliding lower and lower. She gasped as the alignment became perfect for her intent. She hitched her hips to capture the tip of his dick inside her pussy lips. She smiled sex at him again as he pushed up with his hips attempting to lodge the head of his penis inside her. Eben was nowhere near the size of the horse-cocked giant, but he was not lacking in that department either. The woman was tiny though, and Eben barely managed any headway.

She stopped smiling as her body frustrated the couple's efforts to join. She snuck a hand between their bodies, wrapped her fingers around the top of Eben's dick, and pushed down on him. 

The word tight did not begin to describe the sensation of a three-foot woman, who probably did not weigh seventy pounds, wrapping her pussy around Eben's dick. 

Like the one with the giant, this woman felt great pleasure as she slowly worked her pussy down Eben's cock. Eben was not small and when he felt himself bottom out in the woman there were still a couple of inches outside of her. She sat up, and Eben brought his hands to her ass to hold her up. She rotated her hips in a grinding motion that rubbed the head of his dick on the walls of the deepest part of her body. She leaned forward to increase the amount of contact between her clit and him. 

She began to grind again. 

Eben lifted his hips and dropped them fast. Her weight drove her forcefully onto his cock. She grunted as the sudden drop lifted her higher on the trip to orgasm. The position left Eben with a great deal of sexual control since her grinding stimulated him but did not force his climb to orgasm.

He had not counted on her need for more stimulation when her orgasm hit. As pleasure took over her body, her pussy flexed uncontrollably around Eben's intruder. She wanted to stay in the middle of orgasm, wanted that one step higher in pleasure. She did everything she could to reach it. She moved up and down his penis while squeezing as tight she could. He grabbed her hips trying to stop her but the extra girth his dick gained as he approached his orgasm drove her that half-step higher, but still she needed more. She pumped harder, until he joined her motion with the force of his own. He came and she reached that next level at the same time.

"Fuck!" he shouted as he felt a wave of dizziness hit him as she screamed out her powerful release. She continued to stimulate his dick while smaller waves of pleasure crashed into her. Finally, as Eben thought he might have to forcibly remove her from his dick to survive, she collapsed on his chest breathing heavily. He looked up at the ceiling trying to regain control of his own breathing. 

He did not know how long the whole thing lasted.

"How you doing there, Eben?" the giant asked as he came to stand at Eben's head. He had put on a Christmas-green robe with fur trimming.

"Oh, it's pretty good," Eben answered trying to get out from underneath the woman. The man knelt down and spanked her buttocks firmly. She snapped up and looked at the giant with playful anger, seemingly prepared for another go-around. The giant laughed heartily as he shared a distracting kiss with her. Eben stood up and tied his robe shut.

The giant stood up.

"Thanks, Eben. I can handle one, maybe two of them, but not three. I ain't got THAT much dick." 

The giant laughed at his own joke for a full minute. Eben nodded his head, pretty sure one of these three women was more than he could handle.

Eben stuck his hand out to be shaken. 

"The Spirit of Christmas Present?" he asked.

The giant wrapped his massive hand around Eben's, "Yep, that's me. Got a present for me?"

The giant nearly collapsed in laughter again. Eben could not help smiling. The man had life and the joy of it pouring out of him infectiously.

"Well, I guess you know the story, right? The 'shithead that wasted his life, woeth with me' ghost, past, present, and then hoodoo-voodoo future."

Eben nodded.

"Well, come on, let's go. I'm the nice one." 

He moved towards the window but stopped to speak again. 

"I'm not heart wrenching the way the others try to be. Overdramatic twits if you ask me. Me and my sprites, we'd turn a man around in no time flat if we were in charge of this whole fiasco."

Eben thought about the people he knew. 

"There's no Tiny Tim in my life so how are you going to get the whole sympathy thing going?" he asked.




An Erotic Christmas Carol



"Child, there's a Tiny Tim in everyone's life! They just don't pay enough attention, like you haven't," the Spirit replied seriously.

The Spirit stuck his arm toward Eben. 

"Grab my robe, and we can get this show on the road."

Eben shrugged and grabbed the robe. At his contact the room flowed and solidified into a living room he had never been in.

"Wooh!" the giant exclaimed happily. "Now that's better than that window flapping shit the Past Spirit does, right?"

"Roberta?" Eben asked the Spirit as he noticed his assistant, Roberta Cratch, decorating a Christmas tree alongside a teenage boy and a younger girl. There was an older woman that resembled Roberta sitting on a loveseat near the tree pointing out uncovered spots.

"Tiff, why don't you come help us," Roberta said towards Eben and the Spirit. Eben turned around to see a girl almost out of her teens looking out the window.

"Tiny Tim?" he asked the Spirit without turning away from the girl.

"Yes, Eben."

Eben walked to get a better look at the girl. She was beautiful in the same way her mother was attractive; raven hair, jade green eyes. Her features declared that in her maturity she would be her mother's twin. Eben knew that Roberta was only thirty-six so she must have given birth to the girl in her teens.

"What's wrong with her?" he asked the Spirit continuing to admire her. Eben had always found Roberta attractive but believed their work relationship was too comfortable to put pressure on.

The girl stared out to the road. He moved so he could look into her eyes; the only spark of life was deep inside her. He was sure it dimmed every day.

"It was a mugging that went wrong," the Spirit said.

"What?"

"The mugger wasn't happy with the amount of money he scored. He thought fun with Tiffany would be a good consolation prize. Her father would have none of it and struggled for the gun. The shot drew enough people to save Tiffany, but her father died. She held him as the life poured out of him; she was looking into his eyes."

Eben looked at Tiffany. 

The darkness that was dimming the light was self-recrimination. No matter how many people told her that her father would have done the same for any of his children, Tiffany would not listen. He gave his life to prevent that type of horror from touching his baby girl but she could never understand that he would not have had it any other way.

Eben watched as Roberta walked over to the young woman. She sat next to her and stroked her hair.

"Honey, Peter and Michelle would really love for you to help decorate the tree. Why don't you come and join them?"

Tiffany turned to look at the two children still decorating the tree. Eben saw the flash of need in her eyes before loss overwhelmed it, and she shook her head.

Roberta nodded sadly.

"Maybe later, baby?" she asked.

It was obvious to Eben she was trying to keep desperation out of her voice. She lost a husband and was slowly losing a daughter. Roberta got up and walked to a door to the left; opening it she stepped out of the room. Eben and the older woman followed Roberta.

She was sitting down on one of the kitchen chairs with tears threatening to escape. The older woman sat next to her.

"Baby, I know you don't want to, but we might have to. It's beginning to affect the other children. Peter has been in two fights over Tiffany this year."

"I know, mother, but I don't want to hospitalize her. She ought to be in college, not in some institution."

"We don't have a choice. She's going deeper into her depression, and we can't stop her. Right now was the biggest reaction I've seen from her in the last couple of months."

"But if we leave her, she won't have any reason to stop herself from going down that path."

The older woman nodded and sat back. It was obvious to Eben this was an argument they had gone over more than a few times. It was tougher on both women because a part of them agreed with the other's arguments. 

"So have you asked that Scrooge of a boss for a raise?" the older woman asked with a wicked smile on her face. The change in subject surprised Eben, but he got the idea that Roberta's mother was trying to distract her daughter.

"Mother!" Roberta said angrily. "He pays me more than enough. Eben Razz pays all of his people very well."

"Bah. You're not just his assistant, dammit. By now, you can run that place on your own!"

"It really helped in my management classes."

"Bah, again!"

"Come on, mom. He's a machine when it comes to business. I had more experience than anyone in my classes. He just about wrote all of my case studies while I was in school, all I had to do was watch him."

"Still for everything he has you doing, you should get more money and one of those fancy titles."

"Mother," Roberta said in a tone voice that Eben recognized as the one he used when a decision had been made and someone was still arguing. "You know he pays me enough to take care of us and more."

"But you have that fancy paper. You could get better."

"Better for my ego, but not for my family. Maybe someday I'll tell him about my 'fancy piece of paper' and see if he gives me a different position, but only after the kids are taken care of, mom."

"But..." the old woman began

"Mother!" Roberta said angrily. "Believe me, I get paid significantly more than the entry-level management. We cannot afford the pay cut. Michael's insurance paid off the house and will handle most of the kids' college education. As long as my family needs this check, I will not rock Eben Razz's boat."

The older woman nodded. Roberta looked around the room for a minute. 

"Can you take care of the kids for a bit? I need to lie down."

The older woman nodded again and walked into the living room. Roberta waited a few minutes and then walked into the living room also.

"Come on," the Spirit told Eben.

"What?"

"Come on!" the Spirit repeated anxiously following Roberta through the living room, up the steps and into her bedroom.

"What are we doing?" Eben asked as he trailed behind them.

"You need to see this," the Spirit replied. "So do I!"

Roberta closed the door, but the Spirit and Eben walked through it. She sat down on the bed for a few minutes staring at the wall across from her bed.

"What am I supposed to see?"

"She's got a lot of nervous energy built up," the Spirit said. "The kids are about to drop, but her energy is different. She's stressed and hasn't been with a man since her husband's death."

"This is about to get perverted," Eben said quietly.

"No, Eben. It's about to get human." 

The Spirit shook his head at Eben before continuing, "Some people have needed you for years. This is one of them."

"You want me to sleep with her!?!" Eben exclaimed surprised.

"Yes. No. That's up to both of you, but she needed a friend. You could have been a lot to each other if you had let her. Maybe not for sex, but you could have been there for her."

"Fuck!" Eben said realizing that Roberta had worked years for him, and he had not learned about her 'fancy piece of paper'. He had sent his condolences to her husband's funeral and let her take as much time off as she needed but never offered her a kind word about her tragedy.

She stood up and walked over to the mirror and started to strip.

"Shit!" Eben said as his eyes became glued to her. He walked over to get a better view, forgetting that he had argued against being in the room.

She took off her clothes and admired her body. Eben did a lot of admiring of his own. Her body was mature and womanly. The slight sag in her breasts made them seem fuller, her wide hips looked like a comfortable resting place. The stress of her life kept her thin but could not hide the gentleness of her curves. 

She made a decision as she cupped her breasts. She moved to her bed and lay down.

"She's not going to!" Eben said as he followed. 

He felt himself get hard. The Spirits must have been doing something to him, because he had already cum four times in the span of several hours he thought distractedly. 

Roberta spread her legs a comfortable amount but did not begin at their juncture. Eben studied her idea of good sexual action just in case he needed the information later. She ran small circles around her nipples, not quite coming into contact with their tips. Eben felt a shiver run down his spine from the base of his neck.

She ran fingertips along her stomach, and down her legs as far as she could reach. She played with her pubic hair.

"She's needed a man for a long time," the Spirit said clinically as he came to stand by Eben.

"This was a mistake," Eben whispered mesmerized by Roberta as she reached between her legs after one long sweep of her hands through all the skin she could touch.

"What was a mistake?" the Spirit said smiling.

"Me and her, not! Huge mistake," Eben admitted as Roberta made contact with her clitoris with the pad of one finger. Her hips' reaction to the contact was paralleled by a pulsing in Eben's penis.

The contact also ended Roberta's playfulness. The self-foreplay barely lasted a couple of minutes. Eben figured Roberta was the get-right to the fucking type of woman. She rubbed her clit in small circles, every now and then changing the direction her fingers moved in.

"She knows what she wants, doesn't she?" Eben whispered.

"You hired her for that very reason, didn't you? You pay her well for that 'efficiency'."

The pressure must have been immense because after only a few minutes Roberta's hand motions became a straight up and down movement rubbing her clit as her hips came off the bed to grind at her hand. 

Eben's dick got even harder.

Roberta grabbed a pillow and bit into it to stop from yelling as the wave of orgasmic pleasure broke on her body. She kept rubbing through it trying to maintain it. Eben felt his hands itch with the need to keep her on the orgasmic high. Finally, her hips dropped onto the bed and she let the pillow go. She slowly drifted into sleep.

Eben approached her and knelt on the bed. He put his mouth above her bellybutton and tried to put his lips on her skin. She shivered in her sleep but did not waken. He moved his face downwards and took a deep breath above her pubic hair. 

She smelled like sweet musk. 

"Dammit!" Eben said looking at the Spirit.

"Hey, you're the fucking idiot! I would have been waiting at her door after the mourning period. You could've been in her bed the last two years instead of paying for it. This woman would have treated you right, not that Asa doesn't, mind you."

Eben nodded accepting the truth of it as he looked down at Roberta. He smiled as she hugged the pillow tighter.

The Spirit dragged Eben to the door.

"Come on, it's time for our next visit."

"Brenda?" Eben asked looking back at the peaceful shape of Roberta.

"Not quite yet," The Spirit said. "Grab my robe!"

Eben did as commanded and again found himself in a room he did not recognize.

He recognized the woman sitting in front of the fireplace though. Asa had a glass of wine in her hand and tears in her eyes as she stared into the fire.

"Excuse me, but she's a paid escort," Eben said looking at the Spirit wondering why they were there.

"Excuse me, she's only YOUR paid escort," the Spirit replied. The giant stretched out his arm and ran the sleeve over Eben's head.
Eben was swarmed under Asa's need for more with him and her sad acceptance that his whore was all she would ever be. Eben could feel her emotions and her voice invaded his mind.

Eben stood under the onslaught. He held back the emotion pressure and looked for what it was that made the Spirit bring him here. He turned to the giant angrily when he absorbed all the knowledge he needed.

"How the fuck was I supposed to know Marle did this?" he asked gesturing at Asa.

"You did not have to know what Marle did," the Spirit said looking at Asa sadly. "We expect you to see the people around you, Eben. You used her like a whore even though a part of you KNEW she was only yours. You can hide behind whatever you want to, but you did the same to Sylvia. If you had ever asked Asa, she would have told you the truth."

The Spirit moved beside Asa. He kissed her forehead and for a moment she looked up at him as if she could see him. She smiled and Eben recognized it from when Sylvia had walked away.

Lost.

Knowing what they needed but not able to get Eben to give it to them. 

"You have been a sore disappointment to the women in your life, my friend," the Spirit said putting his arm up for Eben to grab the robe.

Eben looked away as he touched the cloth.

He felt the transition and this time Eben recognized Brenda's living room. Her house was large enough for a woman or even ten. Eben was generous in making sure she had everything she wanted.

Except him, he admitted finally.

There was an intimate party going on. He did not recognize most of the people though. He did see Brenda's two best friends and her most recent thing, as Eben referred to the attractive blonde. They were all sitting around the sofa talking.

"So Brenda," one of the males Eben did not recognize asked, "you ever going to give one of us guys a chance with you?"

Brenda's best friends laughed. It was obviously a joke as the man had his arm around another man. The other man acted jealous for a second but smiled. Brenda's fling did not react well to the joke. The malicious look in the questioner's eyes said he had asked the question in an attempt to score of the blonde dip's head. 

Obviously, Eben was not the only one present that did not care for the blonde. It would have been fine if she had just been unintelligent, but she carried a grudge against the rest of the world. Eben did not understand how Brenda got along with her, never mind had sex with her.

Brenda smiled and nodded her head at the questioner. She did not look angry at the question or that it was meant to needle her lover. Eben saw his coldness in her eyes.

He blinked in surprise and looked at the Spirit.

"You helped raise her, Eben. A lot of you rubbed into her, not as much as she wanted to, though." 

The Spirit looked at Eben and laughed at his expense. 

"She finds the blonde attractive but understands her cruelty. It won't last the night, not a good idea to test Brenda on the anniversary of her best memories and her worst," the Spirit finished.

"I already gave my heart away, Sean. You know that. I have to be absolutely sure he's not a factor before I try another... man."

Everyone in the room laughed.

"Why do you pine over him? He's your brother. That's disgusting!" the blonde spit out.

Several people turned toward Brenda with fascination in their eyes.

"He's not my brother."

"What is he, then?" one of the other men asked as people got closer.

"His mom and my dad were very close in college. I don't think they were lovers so much as the best of friends. Eben's parents died in a car accident so my dad and mom took him in. It was an agreement between the families. Social services tried to get involved because Eben had other family, but my dad won the custody suit. Eben was five when his parents died, later that year I was born. He was never adopted so my mom and dad were only his legal guardians."

"They didn't want to adopt him?" one of the women asked disapprovingly.

"They asked him A LOT, but you haven't met Eben, Melissa. I know what you like in a man so you'll be impressed if you do and then realize he was the same way as a boy. He's probably nicer now or at least more civilized. He always said no to my mom and dad. They respected how he chose to honor his parents."

She looked at her lover with anger in her eyes, "So he's not my brother, by blood or legally."

"You were raised with him," the blonde retorted.

Brenda laughed. 

"No, he helped raise me, but we weren't raised together. I guess the death of his parents matured him a lot. I know, I grew up a lot when mom and dad were murdered."

"That doesn't say why he's the ONE," Melissa asked.

"You have a big brother, right Mel?"

Melissa nodded.

"When I was six years old, I followed Eben around like I was attached to him by a leash. He never said anything about it. If his friends wouldn't play with him because Eben didn't want me left out, he walked away and played with just me."

"Oh Shit! She's gone," Michael's male friend said. "She's been in love with him since she could remember if he was really like that."

"He won't do anything with you?" Melissa asked.

"No, damn him!" Brenda said angrily.

"You're not still a...?" Michael started to ask.

"Nope," Brenda said blushing.

"But wait, you won't let another man touch you, and Eben won't have anything to do with you. Did you fuck some random guy on a drunk night?" Melissa asked curiously.

"I said he wouldn't have anything to do with me. I didn't say it was always like that," Brenda said triumphantly.

"YOU DID NOT!!!" Melissa said as her eyes widened.

Brenda's lover sniffed, stood up, and stomped to the kitchen.

"Damn right, I did! Seduced him on a beautiful, white Christmas Eve."

"On Christmas?! Now, that's a Christmas gift," Michael said.

"Shut up, Michael! So what happened afterwards?" Melissa asked.

"I don't know. I fell asleep in his arms but when I woke up he was gone. He went back to school, and I didn't see him again until that summer. My parents knew something had happened between us, but they did not push either of us. I tried to talk to him, but he always cut me off as soon as I started talking about us. My parents were murdered two Christmases after Eben and I made love; I needed him too much to ask for more after that," Brenda said as she looked off into space.

"And now?" Melissa asked.

"I'm trying to get through to him. Every now and then I can see I'm almost there, but then I lose him," she said sadly.

Melissa walked over to sit next to her; she took Brenda's hand in her own. Both women smiled at each other leaving all the rest of the people in the room out of their communion.

"Come on, Eben. It's time to go," the Spirit whispered.

Eben nodded as he turned from the two women. He looked at the Spirit and thought about for a moment.

"Are we done?" he asked.

"Unless you can think of something else," the Spirit said looking at Eben curiously.

"Sylvia?" Eben asked quietly.

The Spirit shrugged his shoulders and nodded. He extended the edge of his robe for Eben to grab. Eben did so almost reluctantly though he had asked for this.

The room blurred for a moment and they were in a child's bedroom. Eben looked around confused. There was a sleeping girl on the bed.

"This isn't what I..." he started to say but the door to the bedroom opened and in walked a mature Sylvia. She was everything he remembered: the long blonde hair, the eyes, and elegant beauty.

She walked over to look at the little girl. She leaned down and moved the covers to make sure her daughter stayed warm through the night. She smiled down at the child as she caressed an innocent cheek. A man walked into the room. Sylvia looked up to smile at him. The child on the bed resembled the man more than Sylvia, but had her mother's cheekbones.

The man hugged Sylvia from behind as she straightened away from the bed.

"Merry Christmas, babe," he whispered kissing her hair. Sylvia leaned back against him in a practiced motion that had the touch of a heart at peace while in its love's arms.

Eben nodded and turned to the Spirit.

"We can leave now," he said. 

The Spirit extended his robe. The room blurred, and Eben was alone in his bedroom.

==========
Stave 4: Lives That Never Were
==========

Eben did not bother to look around his bedroom. He walked into the living room and prepared a stiff drink. He had read the story as a child; he knew what the next Spirit was coming to do. He accepted some things in his life had to change, but others were non-negotiable.