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Ivan Horton's Choice Ch. 01

By: AutumnWriter



Acknowledgment

The sound that readers might hear in the distance is Sir Walter Scott turning over in his grave. To give credit where it is due, the general story line of the following work, "Ivan Horton's Choice", is borrowed loosely from the great novel, Ivanhoe, written by Sir Walter Scott in 1819. Some of the character names in the story were inspired by those in that novel, as well 

Ivanhoe is a great, inspiring novel because it can be read on so many different levels: adventure, historical, prejudice, love and courage. Thank you, Sir Walter. I hope that I have done justice to your great work.

Autumn Writer

***************** 

Coach Martin thrust out the little slip of paper at him. Ivan Horton looked down at it, then back up at his coach, who didn't look at him at all. He was talking on the phone. As Ivan hesitated, he pressed the 'hold' button.

"It's the best I can do for you, son." 

Ivan didn't move.

"Is there something else?"

Ivan took a breath to begin his speech. "Coach, I..."

The older man put up a hand like a traffic cop to stop him.

"Now, I normally wouldn't go this far, but with your record, I thought we owed you something. Ivan, every year at the opening team meeting we told you guys to take care to make sure that you credits were in order. Instead of listening, you were daydreaming about which cheerleader you were gonna bed next."

"Coach, I always had the utmost respect for your daughter..."

The older man's stunned, angry glare stopped Ivan in mid-sentence. A wrong assumption, Ivan had always thought that Coach knew about the little affair in sophomore year. Now he knew he was lucky that to have that little slip of paper.

"I've got a recruiting prospect on 'hold' right now. This is all I can do," the older man said.

Ivan turned to shuffle out of the coach's office. He took a long look because he knew that it would be his last one. As he reached the door he heard Coach's voice behind him.

"Take care of yourself," he called out.

************** 

The months between the end of football season and Ivan's supposed graduation had been a time of rude awakenings. First, he found that pro football teams were not impressed by the exploits of an Ivy League star. That wasn't really a big surprise. The real shock came when he was ordering his cap and gown and found out that he wouldn't need them. The neglected biology course that was required for graduation came back to haunt him. He tried everything he could to get a waiver, but the Dean insisted: "no 'Bio'--no diploma".

It seemed such a short time ago that Ivan found himself a newly arrived celebrity football recruit. In those early days all the coaches and alumni boosters had told him "if there was anything that he needed, just ask." Ivan didn't ask for much. He took what he wanted without asking. The world seemed to acknowledge his right to it. Ivan gave back, too. He ran and passed his way to stardom through four seasons of football crusades, guiding the team to winning seasons. 

With his football exploits, he assumed that the Athletic Department or a wealthy alumnus would persuade the Dean to relent and let him graduate on time. He found quickly that his assumptions about that were wrong, just like those about the coach's daughter and the pro scouts. As he ambled back to the fraternity house he pondered his plight.

It hadn't been an act of forgetfulness that made Ivan lose track of those bio credits. He had enrolled in the course once and dropped it because he knew that he had no chance to pass. He told his parents of the error. They were patient, as always. His fiancée, Robin, her family and the upcoming wedding was a different story. During the past weekend he had told them all about it. What a scene that had been! Robin was sobbing uncontrollably. Her parents shook their heads with that 'I told you so' look. It wasn't just the humiliation. Robin's father had promised Ivan a position in his Wall Street investment house after graduation. There were two conditions: marriage to Robin and an Ivy League sheepskin. Ivan was certain that the job offer would not survive past August if the missing biology credits and elusive diploma were not in hand. He was sure that Robin would have no part of a life that lacked the security of that lucrative fiefdom in the family empire.

Ivan took a look at the scrap of paper the coach had given him. On it was the name and phone number of a tutor that would guide him through the minefield of Biology. It was his ticket—sort of a ticket---to get his ticket punched. He read the name: Rebecca Isaacs. He recognized the phone number as being from College Town. It was a Bohemian area adjacent to one end of the campus where crammed, ramshackle apartments were perched over pizza parlors and coffee houses. Ivan had been there very few times during his student days. It wasn't his style.

"You've gotta do what you've gotta do." he said to himself. 

****************** 

Ivan felt lucky to be engaged to Robin. She was a 'knockout' by any standard. Tall and statuesque, she was blond and blue-eyed. Her body was toned and her large breasts stood proudly out from her chest. Ivan was required to cup, caress and suckle them on command, but forbidden to call them by name or mention them at any time. Robin had a classic face whose features were accented ever so correctly by the expert application of all kinds of cosmetics. She was a popular coed, a member of the most popular sorority. She was princess of one of The Hamptons baronies that predated the Revolution. She was the youngest child, the only daughter. Her mother was in the DAR. Her parents' home looked like a castle. The lawn could be a golf course. They had a view of the ocean. The wedding would be held on the grounds. The opulence was intoxicating.

Ivan and Robin met late in their junior year at a 'mixer' between her sorority and his fraternity. Robin was the best catch among the women. Ivan stepped up for his accustomed first pick. It thrilled Robin to have this campus hero with the finely buffed muscular frame in pursuit. Soon they were an item. Then, her parents showed interest because of his gridiron fame. He was always on his best behavior in their presence. As graduation approached, the nuptials were announced.

Robin had bedroom skills that matched her perfect body. Neither came to the other as a virgin. For Ivan, the challenge was to satisfy his appetite from a menu with a single entrée. Robin did a good job at making him accept monogamy. Whatever she did not do for him, she promised to save 'for the honeymoon'. It fed his ego that his friends knew that he was 'getting it' from the best looking babe on campus. Yes, Ivan held all the cards and played them just right. 

This Biology problem had to be solved.

****************** 

Rebecca Isaacs sat in her professor's office. His name was Boyd Gilbert, PhD, Professor of Biology. By reputation, his name was synonymous with dedication to his chosen science, avowing a monk-like existence in a sacred quest. He was like the Knights-Templar of old, a warrior-monk for the department, chasing the holy grail of alumni donations and government research grants. His vows did not prevent him from the pursuit of wealth, or for the favor of whatever department female he fancied. Like the Knights-Templar, his victories and status granted him indulgence from his vows.

He had summoned his student, Rebecca, to him. She was a good student, now about to graduate with honors. She had been accepted into the Masters' program and verbally promised a Graduate Research Assistantship to pay her way. She deserved it; she was at the top of the class. She earned it with hard work and talent, driven to excel in her field. Rebecca spurned anything that diluted her effort in that regard, including a relationship with a young man earlier in the school year. 

Rebecca knew of Gilbert's reputation with the ladies. She had even been told by a friend that a single evening spent in the professor's bed would yield up the coveted Graduate Assistant position. She insisted that her academics earn it, wanting no part of the shortcut. 

Rebecca was not a virgin, but neither was she promiscuous. She slept with whom, when and if she wanted. It wasn't a loss of innocence that she feared, but of integrity and self-respect. It would be no different with this profligate mentor. 

When she dressed to go to the meeting with the professor, she wore the uniform of the day for the College Town set: white tee-shirt, denim bib overalls two sizes too large, black knee socks and sneakers. Her black hair was tied behind her and over that was tied a triangular scarf of thin cotton cloth that covered the crown of her head. Her eyes were hidden behind glasses with thick black frames. She wore no makeup or jewelry, except for her watch and a thin gold chain with a chai hanging from it.

If she were quizzed on her mode of dress she would say that it was designed for comfort. In reality, she clothed herself that way to show her nonconformity with the established fashion, and those who sought to belong to the establishment. She was, after all, a young, independent Jewish woman from Long Island. She didn't belong to the gentile mainstream and she needed to show it. Not all of her Jewish sisters dressed this way, nor did she at all times. She crossed in and out of her traditional and 'counter' look with ease.

Professor Gilbert entered the office and sat at his desk. Rebecca sat across from him and waited for her mentor to begin. The professor didn't care for his student's 'kibbutz look'. For one thing, he wished that all of his department would be 'photo-ready' in case visual material might be required for fundraising materials or alumni tours. Equally important, by dressing attractively, the females on his staff were acknowledging their availability to him for fun and games when he chose to pursue them. At least, that's how Professor Gilbert saw it.

Today, however, it would be business. He could see that Rebecca would require some 'indoctrination'. 

"Rebecca," he began, "I asked you to come in for two reasons."

Rebecca leaned forward to listen because she had a feeling that her Assistantship was on the line.

"First," he continued, "I am pleased to tell you that your position as Graduate Research Assistant has been approved for the next semester."

Rebecca gushed. "Professor, that's wonderful! You don't know how happy I am! You won't be disappointed, I promise."

"The only guarantee is for next semester," he cautioned. "You've impressed me in your undergrad work, Rebecca. I hope someday you'll take a doctorate from this institution, but who knows..." His voice trailed off. 

"The second reason, Professor?" Rebecca wasn't quite done gushing.

"We need you to tutor a young man so that he can pass Bio 101 this summer. He has your name and number. He'll get in touch with you. I think that he is one of the football players that didn't quite get his requirement in for graduation."

Of course, Rebecca was planning to stay the summer, but this assignment was unwelcome. A summer of working on projects in the lab meant plenty of free time for bicycling around the nearby lakes, visiting her parents in Nassau County, maybe finding a new boyfriend. Besides, she didn't like the 'jock' type. She didn't know many of them, but she knew what they were like: beer guzzling brutes that were loud and crude. She wanted no part of it.

"Professor Gilbert" she replied, "I don't think that I can do this. I don't have any teaching experience and I don't think that I'll have time."

The professor held up his hands, as if to halt the flow of argument from her.

"You'll have to make time," he answered. "It's only Bio 101. If you can't handle that I've mistaken your abilities."

"Look, Rebecca," he continued, leaning forward. "A rich alumnus, who's a sports booster, asked me, personally, for this. He is also considering a research grant for this department. You're a grad student, now. You'll find that that your job includes favors like this."

Rebecca cast her eyes down. "Of course, Professor," she acceded.

"Good!" he exclaimed. "Well, that's all for today. I'll see you next week".

************** 

On Graduation Day Eve Ivan woke up with Robin sleeping alongside him. He glanced at the clock and saw that it was three-thirty in the morning. They were still nude. Robin slept on her side with her back to him. 

Ivan carefully pulled down the sheet that covered them to get a better look at his nude fiancée. He never tired of letting his eyes roam over her body. Although he could only see the back of her, he was reminded what he loved about her. She was soft, yet lean. Her skin was blemish-free. Robin's backbone blazed a trail that pointed to her sculpted buttocks. He couldn't see them, but he knew her legs below were perfectly shaped. Before he could contemplate the front he decided to wake her for another round of sex. Their earlier session had been unsatisfying. Ivan sensed that Robin was going through the motions. He nudged her to start the waking-up process.

Robin turned on her back, yawned and stretched. Her award-winning breasts were finally on display. Well, they would win awards if there were such prizes and if Robin was willing to display them for that purpose (fat chance!).

"I'm glad that you woke me up! I've got to get you out of here," Robin whispered. She had smuggled him into her sorority house bedroom against the rules.

"That's not what I had in mind." Ivan answered. He pressed his hardened member against her flank, in case Robin didn't know what he had in mind.

"Just put that thing away, Ivan! You're leaving now. You're not supposed to be here." She was already putting her clothes on, and throwing Ivan's discarded clothes at him.

"What are they gonna do, throw you out? You're graduating tomorrow."

"I don't care, you're leaving now!" she snapped back at him.

Soon, Ivan found himself walking back to the fraternity house disappointed.

Robin had good reason for not wanting to get caught with 'contraband' in her room. In the morning her parents would be arriving for the graduation ceremonies. A discovery by the wrong person would surely bring a snide remark as she showed Mom and Dad around the sorority house. Besides, she had last minute packing and cleaning to do before they arrived.

Ivan did not attend the graduation. He met Robin and her parents as planned at her sorority house afterward. He was duly scrubbed and primped in his navy blazer and khaki slacks, blue oxford shirt and striped tie. His athlete's physique underneath brought the whole look together. He wanted to remind Robin's father that he looked just how a young Wall Street knight should, and he hoped for some redemption for his confessed academic sins the weekend before.

He spied the three of them near the Mercedes in front of the sorority house. He stepped forward smartly and grasped the older man's hand in a firm handshake.

"Hello, sir!" he intoned. "I hope that you had a pleasant trip."

Robin's father gave no expression and passively returned the pleasantry. "Yes, fine, thank you, Ivan."

Off to the side, Ivan did not see, as Robin's mother, a woman somewhat younger than her husband, discretely licking her lips as she resurveyed the young man from his broad shoulders to his muscular buttocks.

Ivan turned to her. "Always nice to see you, Mrs. Tutlock." She just nodded and smiled.

The four loaded into the Mercedes. They soon arrived at a fancy restaurant a short distance outside of the campus, where they luncheoned. As they ate, Mr. Tutlock questioned Ivan about his progress on his biology course. Ivan assured him that all was in place to have the omission atoned for by the end of August. He would stay on campus to work on getting things in order. He told them about his tutor that he had yet to meet. Out of the corner of his eye he spied Robin frowning.

"Daddy, can't Ivan come down and stay with us on the estate on weekends?" Robin was taking no chances. She didn't like leaving him alone on campus unattended through all those hot summer months. She would make sure he knew on which side the bread was buttered. 

"Of course, Bobbie!" 'Bobbie' was Mr. Tutlock's nickname for Robin. No one else was allowed to use it. Turning to his wife, "We wouldn't dream otherwise, would we Beryl?" 

"Of course!" she answered immediately. Mrs. Tutlock was almost caught in the act of licking her lips again as she was gazing at Ivan.

As the meal ended, Ivan spoke up and suggested that his parents might be invited for a pre-wedding get together some weekend during the summer.

Robin's father responded, "Oh, well, we'll have to look into that, won't we? But Ivan, isn't it such a long drive from Batavia?" 

"About eight hours, sir. But I know that they would do it." Ivan told himself that he had done his best. He knew that the Tutlocks had no interest in hosting his parents of middle class means. He felt badly for them. His parents deserved more respect than they were getting. He reasoned that it would be worse to make them travel to the Tutlock Estate only to be exposed as the small town folk that they were. They lacked the sophistication and the finances to keep up with his soon-to-bes. Ivan believed it was the price he had to pay to cross over the invisible boundaries of class lines. It gave him an empty feeling. After the wedding, he vowed, he would set it right. 

"Make sure that you come down this weekend." Robin piped up.

The three Tutlocks dropped Ivan, the Tutlock to be, at his fraternity and departed for the Estate.

***************** 

Ivan spent the next few days roaming around the near-empty fraternity house. He didn't call his tutor; Monday would be soon enough. He went to the bookstore to buy his textbooks for the Biology course. He hoped that the heft of the texts didn't reflect the weightiness of the course, but he was sure that they did. Then, there was the lab book that represented the part of the course that he hated the most. 

On Monday morning his Biology class met for the first time. Ivan listened intently for the full hour. After class he perused the sheaf of papers given out to outline the course, the lab requirements, and the grading. He was sorry that he hadn't opted to major in history several years ago. It seemed like too much reading back then. If he had, he wouldn't be faced with this impossible-to-pass course standing between him and the Wall Street job and marriage with Robin.

He hoped that he hadn't lost the slip of paper with the tutor's name on it. He hurried back to the fraternity house to find it because he was more convinced than ever that he desperately needed to use it. He did find it on his dresser and hurried to make the call. 

"Hello." It was Rebecca answering.

"Hi, my name is Ivan Horton. If this is Rebecca Isaacs, then I think that you were assigned to be my bio tutor this summer."

"Yes, I've been expecting you to call. I saw you in class today. I am the 'TA' and sat in the back of the room. Why don't you meet me in the library at four, this afternoon? I'm a grad student, so I have a carrel. Ask at the desk and they'll tell you where it is. I'll meet you there."

Ivan was unused to having girls - especially Jewish grad-student tutors - tell him where and when he would meet them. 

"I was thinking about tomorrow morning after class." He said.

"No, I'm not available then." Rebecca retorted. Then, after a pause that she needed to suppress a loss of temper, "Look" she began. "I have a busy schedule. Besides tutoring you, I have to TA this class and a research project in the lab. On top of that, I may have a life! You're the one who needs the help and you're getting it for free. You will have to meet with me according to my schedule!" Well, she hadn't quite lost her temper, but it was close. The part about 'having a life' was just bluff for the moment.


Ivan Horton's Choice Ch. 01



"Okay! Okay!" Ivan answered. "I'll see you then." They hung up.

Ivan took a large breath and let out a big sigh. He told himself that had no one to blame except him for his plight, so he would have grin and bear it.

Ivan couldn't believe how pushy 'those people' were. There had been a few Jewish players on the team. They had seemed alright, but Ivan never got to know them very well. The fraternity setting had a way of insulating a person from multi-cultural contacts. Although Ivan didn't know Rebecca, he knew the type because of her name and College Town address. He was correct in his expectation. She belonged to that other part of the student body that he didn't know very well. He chuckled at Robin's insecure jealousy on Graduation Day. He decided to allow Robin to keep thinking what she would. He had learned long ago that a little insecurity drove girls to try harder.

**************** 

Ivan shuffled through the library stacks to where the desk assistant told him Rebecca's carrel would be. He approached the tiny study room. Through the glass window on the door he saw a young woman working. He knew instinctively that it was Rebecca. Her appearance matched Ivan's expectation in every way. He knocked on the door. She peered up from behind her glasses with the thick, black frames, silently motioned him in.

"Hi, I'm Ivan Horton." He said. He held out his hand to her. She took it weakly. He was impressed by how thin and bony it felt.

"Rebecca Isaacs," she replied. "Have a seat."

"I'm glad that you're going to help me..." Ivan began, but she cut him off.

"Don't thank me! It's just part of a job that I have to do as a grad student," she stated. Rebecca wanted to avoid any aspect of closeness. "I'm here to help you get through the course, but it's up to you to do the work. I won't do it for you,"

She went on to describe how she would review his class notes with him, and his lab reports before he submitted them. 

"The better your class notes and lab reports are, the more I can help you. If you work at as I tell you to, you'll pass. If you can't do that...no promises from me."

To Ivan, she sounded like his football coaches. He resented it in a way—she had no standing to behave as a football coach. He thought again and decided it might work out. It was the passing grade, after all, that he was after, not friendship. In the end, he accepted the arrangement.

"If you're around on Saturday, I can give you some extra help with your lab. I'll be in the lab, myself, checking on my research," she offered. She inwardly winced with regret as soon as she said it. She had taken such pains to lay down the law earlier.

"Thanks, anyway," Ivan said. "I'm supposed to be at my fiancée's house on Long Island this weekend." 

Rebecca was relieved, but feigned irritation. "You'd better have that lab done when we meet again on Monday."

Ivan gulped, thinking of the impossibility of completing the lab and pleasing Robin and her family.

"Where on Long Island?" Rebecca queried, suddenly friendly.

"Near Southampton. They have a big place outside of town on the shore."

Rebecca's mood suddenly darkened. She knew where he was talking about, and the kind of people who lived there. They were not her kind, and she didn't care for them.

"I'm from Huntington," she said, assuming that Ivan should know the significance of it. Then she "hmmphed" and returned to her books.

I'll see you after class on Monday in this carrel," she said without looking up at him as he left.

************** 

As Ivan drove past the Huntington exit on I-495 he started looking for the cutoff to Route 27. At the same time he started thinking of Rebecca and her obvious disdain for all things 'Southampton'. He knew that Robin and her parents would have the same opinion of the 'Huntington' crowd. He had heard of the civil wars between the east and west halves of Long Island. He had never bothered to understand them. To the best of his knowledge they were fought over some colonies in Westchester County. He also heard that both sides had training camps set up in the Catskills and Poconos.

In deference to Rebecca's admonition, he brought his Biology materials with him. It was a big house. He would find a place to study. It might even convince the Tutlocks of his repentance for his earlier failure. As he pulled up in front of the mansion he saw two men standing to greet them. He recognized them both.

The first was Marsden Tutlock, Robin's father, King of the Tutlock Empire. With him was his younger brother, Benton 'Binky' Tutlock, Crown Prince and co-inheritor. Ivan exited the car and strode to where the brothers stood to pay homage to them.

"Good evening, sir!" he thrust his hand to Robin's father, who took it.

"Hello, Ivan. You know my brother, Benton, of course."

"Call me 'Binky'," the brother said as he grabbed Ivan's hand from his brother. "'Uncle Binky', if you prefer, or soon to be 'uncle', I suppose." It was true; 'Binky' was the brother with the charm.

"Of course! I remember meeting you a few months ago. Nice to see you again." Ivan couldn't bring himself to use the name 'Binky'. 

"Well, Ivan," the older brother spoke, "we won't see much of each other this trip, I'm afraid. We're off to the City -- overseas clients, you know. We plan to stay at the club for the weekend."

"Too bad, sir. Good luck with the meeting," Ivan called after them as they piled into the limo that had arrived to collect them. As they didn't answer him, Ivan thought to himself how curious their old-time Ivy League aristocrat accents sounded. To listen to them, one would think that they had some offensive-tasting object in their mouth but were too embarrassed to spit it out. Instead they would roll it from side to side with their tongues, hoping for the object to dissolve.

As the limo drove away, Binky turned to his brother and asked, "Where do you suppose he got a name like 'Ivan'? Sounds rather Slavic, don't you think?"

"Don't know, Benton, I've been wondering about it myself. Perhaps some inquiries are in order."

******************** 

Dinner with Robin and her mother was casual. They ate a light meal. Both women confessed a need to lose a few pounds to get into their respective wedding dresses. Ivan didn't see a need for either of them to shed any weight, and told them so. It was the right thing to do. They both lapped the compliments of the young man. Robin chattered away about wedding details. Mrs. Tutlock said little.

Beryl Tutlock, Robin's mother, was a taciturn woman of forty-eight. She was a bit shorter than her daughter, but every bit as trim. Her hair and eyes were both brown, unlike Robin's. Looking at her, it was hard to tell her age. Her body appeared younger than her years, but her countenance showed more time. It wasn't that she was sagging; a few tucks could have taken care of that. Her expression showed sadness and cynicism that sometimes accumulates with age.

After dinner and coffee, Beryl went to her room to read. She suggested that Robin and Ivan go for a swim in the pool. It was a little chilly for swimming, however, and they opted for a stroll on the grounds. They ambled slowly along hand-in-hand. Robin kept relating wedding details, either theirs or those of her friends. When they neared the end of their perimeter walk, Ivan turned to Robin.

"I've missed you since you came back home." He leaned over and kissed her; she kissed him back.

"You're sweet, Ivan," she said. "I've missed you, too."

Ivan pressed harder. 

"Is there somewhere we can go to be alone?" he asked.

"No!" she replied emphatically. "The servants are everywhere. If they saw us, they would surely tell my parents."

"Would that be so bad?" Ivan asked. "We are engaged, you know."

"That's just an argument that I don't want to have with them right now, Ivan."

"Why don't you come down the hallway to my room after everyone is asleep?" Ivan was resourceful.

Robin turned on her coquette voice. "Well, maybe, if I think that the coast is clear; we'll see. It might be exciting to be so naughty!"

"Try real hard," Ivan insisted, as he remembered how she thought that he was so sexy when his ardor made him aggressive. Ivan continued, "You weren't so timid back at college."

"Oh, Ivan," she countered, "That was there and this is here."

Ivan didn't know what that last remark meant, but knew somehow, that Robin wasn't really coming to his room that night. They walked into the house, and after a few 'I love yous' and passionless kisses they parted for their separate rooms. 

Ivan lay in his bed looking at the ceiling, trying to figure out if Robin might be coming or not. He had stripped his clothing off and lay naked under the sheet hoping against hope that he would see her. He was not much for sleeping. He had a lot of coffee on the long drive down, and he had much to think about. After thirty minutes the house was quiet, except for the gentle rush of the breeze blowing in through the open window. 

He heard gentle padding steps in the hallway. He assumed that Robin had summoned her courage. He listened as the soft steps methodically approached the end of the hallway on the way to his bedroom. The latch turned; the door slowly opened. The moonlit darkness silhouetted a slim female form that slid through the half opened door. He was sure that it was Robin, but she didn't look the same as usual. The form slowly, deliberately, traced its way across the room to his bed. At last, he realized that it was Beryl, Robin's mother.

Ivan sat up with a start. "Mrs. Tutlock..." Before he could speak more Beryl placed her hand over his mouth to silence him.

"Shhh!" she whispered. "Do you think that Robin is coming to you tonight? Do you think that she has the nerve for it? Ivan, she has neither courage nor love. I didn't, either at her age. This wedding will never come off, or if it does it will be over in a few years. I'll leave it to you to figure that out later." She released her hand from over his mouth.

She looked down at Ivan, who sat shocked and motionless in the bed. His lower half was covered by the sheet, but his torso was on display to her. She passed her tongue over her lips, and then spoke again.

"I promised myself that if I ever had this chance, I wouldn't waste it. Marsden is in the New York, in bed with 'who-knows', and Robin is sleeping. You're right here and so am I."

Ivan was as confused as any young man could be. Could all this be true, or maybe a test set up by Robin and her mother? He had never had a woman nearly as old as Beryl.

She saw the consternation enveloping him. 

"Don't worry about Robin," she said. "She will understand," she reassured him. To herself she said, "Someday, she will understand."

She turned to Ivan and swept back the sheet that covered his lower half. She smiled to see his erection starting. Beryl threw off her robe. She wore a full length negligee that cradled her breasts and hugged her slender form. Ivan couldn't make out the color in the semi-darkness. He had little time to sort out the details as Beryl quickly lifted the nightgown over her head. She was nude. The next second she was on the bed alongside him. 

She pushed Ivan's chest until he was flat on his back again. Her hands roamed roughly over his toned, buff torso. She extended them downward feeling the muscles in his thighs and flanks. She had coveted them for so long. She was determined that her daughter would share with her. She, like Ivan, took what she wanted without asking.

"You're going to ride me and pound my bones," she hissed at him. "Work me over! I'll take you to places where you've never been. You'll think that Robin is a nun! "

She climbed on top of Ivan, straddling him, and her mouth devoured his. At first he thought to stop her out of loyalty to his betrothed, but his past week of celibacy and Robin's earlier refusal blocked his conscience. He threw his arms around Beryl as she thrust her tongue into his mouth. She rubbed her body and breasts against his, reveling in the feel of his hardened muscles against her silky skin.

Ivan responded with his tongue in her mouth and reached his hands down to test the firmness of her flanks and buttocks. He was pleasantly surprised. Her quality rivaled Robin's, perhaps surpassing her in some ways. Certainly, the older woman was more adept at cutting loose from her inhibitions as her less-practiced daughter. 

Beryl felt Ivan's hardened penis pressing against her belly. His response inflamed her. She rose up from their embrace, still straddling, and she kneeled over him. The raging woman grabbed the headboard and placed her dripping sex over Ivan's face and then sat down on him.

Ivan thrust his tongue into her vagina, then all around her vulva, searching for her pleasure. He found the swollen bulb, licked around it and sucked it between his lips. The sensation spun Beryl out of control. She raised herself up and down to increase the throbbing. Ivan was able to suck in some air on her upstroke.

Beryl released her hold on the headboard, extending her arms over head. She bounced up and down on his face, arms flailing, like a rodeo rider on a Brahma bull. Soon, her orgasm started. Ivan was barely able to hear her with Beryl's thighs covering his ears. She exhaled three visceral sounds a few seconds apart. After the third, she collapsed her hands back down to the headboard, her body slouched over. As she rested atop Ivan, she secreted a salty and bitter fluid from her vagina that flowed over Ivan's face. Ivan wondered when he would be allowed some air. As he was about to be forced to lift her off of him, she rose up and resumed her former place lying on top. She started licking her emitted fluid from his face. 

Between passes with her tongue she spoke to him in a whisper, "Don't go to sleep—we're not done by a long shot!" Ivan didn't feel very sleepy at that moment. She rappelled her way down his muscular frame, rubbing her breasts roughly on him as she did so. She wanted to taste him. Making no pretense of gentleness, Beryl swallowed Ivan's length. It was one those 'favors' that Robin had promised to save for the honeymoon. Her head bobbed up and down, her cheeks drawn in against her cheekbones as she created a vacuum and scraped her tongue along the underside of his glans. Ivan thrust his pelvis up to push the sensitive nerves of his crown closer to the surface. He sought his ejaculation and Beryl tasted the first drops of clear fluid seeping from him. She released him and rose up on all fours and savored the taste of it, letting the pearl drops roll to all regions of her tongue. Ivan thought that she would resume her fellatio; she did not. She had what she wanted. She moved forward to mount him.

Without ado Beryl impaled herself on Ivan's rigid erection. She took his full length, moving up and down on him. As she would reach the downward zenith of her flight she arched her back into a concave arc that exposed her labia more. As she started on her outward path she rubbed her vulva against Ivan's pubic bone and nest of pubic hair, roughly scraping her pulsing womanhood.

It all served to reset the onrush of orgasm. Beryl sought to tighten her vagina, so she wedged her own thighs inside Ivan's and started humping with short, quick strokes. Ivan tired of the passive role. He wrapped his powerful legs around hers and captured her buttocks with his oversized hands. She was imprisoned in his muscular grip. He gripped her tightly with his legs. As he pulled her more deeply onto him with his hands at her backside, he thrust up into her as hard as he could, through the inner muscles that she had tightened around him.

Beryl was enthralled at his powerful filling of her. Her orgasm was rushing closer. She fought it off to preserve the nearly unbearable approach. As he continued pumping into her, her mouth gaped as if to scream, but sound eluded her. 

All at once, as she was seconds from cresting, Ivan lifted her with his powerful arms. Before she could fathom the switch, she was on her back, legs splayed, Ivan entering her drenched canal. He supported his upper body on his steely arms and imposed himself into her to the hilt. The crown of his penis bumped the back of her vagina. He thrust once, twice, three times. She pulled Ivan's chest down to her face to cover her shrieks of ecstasy. Ivan thrust again and poured his semen into her, leaving himself in there until all of his fluid drained. Then, he dismounted and lay alongside her.

They lay together in recovery, not speaking. After several minutes Beryl rose out of the bed, picked up her discarded negligee and put on her robe.

"Thank you, Ivan. You'll make a fine son," she said, and then quietly left his room.

As he watched her depart his chamber Ivan hoped that Robin would spend the summer in tutelage from her mother.

Ivan was late for breakfast the next morning. The two women sat at the veranda table together, silently sizing one another up. 

Robin broke the ice. "Sleep well, Mother?"

"Thank you for asking, dear. Yes, after some 'tossing and turning'." 

"When it comes to Ivan, Mother, please keep in mind who owns him and who loans him," the daughter asserted.

"I shall, dear, I shall." Her mother answered. Her daughter's warning was strong words with a hollow ring. Beryl knew that she could wrest the deed to Ivan at her choosing. Thus, the younger woman ceded control of her groom with the face-saving, brazen caveat. The two fell silent with secret, knowing looks at each other as Ivan appeared on the veranda to join them.

*************** 

Ivan spent the morning preparing his Biology lab report. The work served a number of good purposes. It got him out of the way of Robin and her prattling on about wedding plans. It also kept him away from Beryl, where a detected glance between them might betray their meeting of the prior night. Finally, he made sure to avoid the wrath of his tutor, Rebecca, for not having done it. Oh, yes—by the way, the report was due on Tuesday.

At noon they had lunch and at one thirty they changed for the pool party. It was a 'let's meet Ivan' party for Beryl's side of the family and Robin's high school friends. Marsden and Binky were still in Manhattan with clients.

It was an uneventful party at the start. There was a lot of handshaking and small talk. Ivan was quizzed on his bona-fides as a future provider and everyone gushed over his athletic fame. Robin's friends huddled in groups and tittered over her fiancé's football physique as he sat in his gym shorts and tee-shirt having a beer with Robin's male cousins.  

Robin was 'dressed' in a flowered bikini that put her assets on display. She wore platform sandals that rose her height above the other women and caused her posture to shift so that the supple muscles from her 'glutes' to the bottom of her calves were flexed and shown at their best. Robin and Ivan posed for some pictures. Their perfect bodies complimented one another. The hired photographer thought that they appeared like two thoroughbred horses selected for breeding. After the formal photo session the group of younger men started passing a football while the photographer roamed the grounds for candid shots of the party. As the cameraman approached the young men, Robin called Ivan over to her. 

She sidled up close to him and said under her breath, "Ivan, why don't you take off your shirt for the pictures?"

Ivan returned a confused look to her.

"Your shirt, Ivan, take it off" she smiled as she commanded him

"Oh, c'mon, Robin, I don't want to show off like that." 

"Ivan", she repeated in an angry hush through bared teeth, "Take...off...your...shirt...for...the... pictures." 

Ivan thought an ugly scene between the two 'lovebirds' would lack what the Tutlocks would have wanted, so he complied. As the camera snapped away he glanced about at the women ogling him and the men eying him with contempt. He realized that at that moment his value to Robin was measured per pound. He was ashamed that he had allowed himself to be humiliated. 




Ivan Horton's Choice Ch. 01



The party broke up soon thereafter. Ivan approached Robin, ready to be soothed. 

"How about tonight?" he asked.

"No!" she answered. "I have a headache. I think that my period is starting."

Ivan shuffled off and drew another beer from the refrigerator near the poolhouse. He sat alone for a long time thinking and drinking. That night Beryl visited him again in his room. As their mouths locked, Ivan tasted like beer and Beryl like gin and tonic. Their intercourse lacked the excitement of the prior night's clandestine newness, but it was good. Afterward, Ivan wondered if Robin's skills would ever match her mother's.

************** 

That night, in their Manhattan club, Marsden and Binky sat sipping Courvoisiers. 

"Marsden", Binky said, "While you were with the clients today I was able to make some inquiries regarding young Ivan. I have something to tell you, I'm afraid."

Marsden's attention sharpened as he leaned closer to his younger brother.

"I ran down the 'Horton lineage' from that Batavia place that Ivan hails from," Binky continued. "It would appear that 'Horton' is really 'Horvath'. His grandfather changed it when he got off the boat."

"I was afraid of something like this," Marsden replied. "Do you think it's...?"

"No, not that," his brother cut him off. "It's Russian by way of Hungary. It's all I could do to get this much in a Saturday afternoon's time."

"You did fine, Benton," the elder Tutlock assured. "What are we to do?"

"That will be up to you, Marsden. I'm sure that you'll do what's best...for everyone."

"Not a word about this until the right moment, Benton."

************ 

Dear Readers,

Thanks for reading. The story concludes in chapter 2. 

I'm interested in your comments and questions. Please send them to me through Public comments, or through the private e-mail facility.



Ivan Horton's Choice Ch. 02



Chapter 2

Ivan left for the upstate campus before the brothers arrived at the estate. It was late; night was falling. He had a long drive ahead of him and a chance to ponder his future. Many things had happened to him during the weekend visit. As he cruised up Route 17 he had plenty of time to play the weekend memory over.

Of course the visitations by Mrs. Tutlock to his bedroom were disconcerting. He had enjoyed the sex, but now wondered why he didn't regret his unfaithfulness to Robin more than he did. Beryl's admonitions about the longevity of his relationship with Robin were ringing in his ears. What did she know? Should he expect a 'visit' from her at his every visit to the estate; and where would that leave him if they were found out?

Robin's behavior disturbed him even more. He could get over her refusals, though irritating. He didn't believe her 'time of the month' excuse. Mostly it was her humiliating parading of him shirtless at the photo session that enraged him. How could she have done that to him? How could he have allowed it?

He thought of his own parents. He realized that he hadn't thought of them enough lately. He resented the Tutlock's snub. Ivan pondered the vast differences between their lives and the Tutlocks. They had not a fraction of the wealth of hiss to be, but he never felt threatened with expulsion from the house by an academic failure, and knew that his mother would never humiliate his father to display a personal trophy.

"Love will conquer all," he muttered aloud, with only himself to hear the words. How hollow they sounded, having only the value of the empty cliché that they were. He stared at the blackened road, following the headlight beam,

He told himself that things would have to change. He knew that he had to play by the Tutlock's rules, but only to a point. Although Robin was the heiress, he would be the husband. Their name would be Horton, not Tutlock. He would bed his bride and he would not be a plaything of her mother. Ivan challenged himself to live up to his bold resolutions.

***************** 

Rebecca met Ivan in the carrel as scheduled. He presented his notes and lab report to her. He thought that she would be pleased. She glanced through it without speaking, making a few notes in the margins. She progressed to the point in the lab report where Ivan knew she would have plenty to talk about. It was a difficult part of the assignment. Ivan had tried hard, but knew that it wasn't perfect. Rebecca passed right through it.

"Done!" she said. "Do you have any questions about the next lab?"

"I'm surprised that you passed right over the hard part of the lab without a word about it."

"I'm sorry," she answered, realizing he was right. "I'm just not myself today."

"What's the trouble? Can I help?" he asked.

"I don't think so." She looked at him more closely, surprised that he cared at all for her troubles.

"I'm not myself, either," Ivan offered.

She continued looking without speaking. His approach to her was not what she expected.

"You tell me yours and I'll tell you mine," Ivan tried again.

She was uncomfortable, forced to deal with her pupil on a human level. She resolved to not be the one guilty of cutting off the contact. 

"Let's go across to the student union and have something to drink," she finally gave in.

Ivan bought himself a coffee and Rebecca a tea. They found an isolated corner and relaxed into the chairs.

"Tell me yours first." Rebecca said.

The trip to Southampton wasn't very good." He began. "I have a lot of things to think about."

Rebecca listened silently as he recounted the events of his weekend to her. He gave her the facts, but more. He confided to her his feelings about them, and about Robin and her parents. He told Rebecca of his shame at his treatment of his own parents. It brought a glistening to his eyes, but he fought it back. As the words poured out of him he was shocked, but he couldn't stop. He had never done this; ripped himself open for others to inspect his doubts and fears. It felt good to unburden to the silent Rebecca. She only listened, issued no judgments. He noticed her eyes glistening once or twice, too. 

He had been speaking for twenty minutes without stopping. The final item he divulged to her was his tryst with the smoldering Mrs. Tutlock.

"I wonder if I did the right thing in having sex with her." He said.

Rebecca finally answered him.

"There is only one acceptable circumstance to have sex with anyone," she said. "It's when you want the other person as a lover and he wants you. Then, you have to make sure that neither you, nor he, nor anyone else is hurt by it. You have to want to wake up next to him. You have to respect him ...and yourself. Otherwise, it is not the right thing to do." 

Ivan sat silently, mouth gaping, absorbing the truth of what Rebecca had said. He was impressed at the passion of her words. Although he said nothing to her, he knew at that moment that the engagement with Robin must be broken. Rebecca made him see sex as something more than a pleasure--filled prize parceled out in proportion to strength and beauty. That was the totality of feeling between him and Robin, and he finally learned that it wasn't enough.

Manhood was summoning Ivan forth from youth. It was a call that came a little late for some things, but he would not refuse it now.

"Now you tell me yours," Ivan almost forgot the deal.

"That's alright." She answered. "I just have to go to a dinner tomorrow night that I really don't want to attend."

*************** 

A person who did not know Rebecca well would not have recognized her as she stood on the hot sidewalk in the late afternoon sun. There, she awaited her ride to the unwelcome dinner. If a single word was required to describe her it would have been 'delicate'. She had put aside her overalls, which made one think that she was a little overweight. She wore, instead, a sophisticated ensemble of georgette material in a black and white print. On top, was a sleeveless shell that she could cover with a black sweater of light material. In the heat she just held it along with her small handbag. On the bottom were matching pantaloons cut full so that at first glance one thought of a floor-length skirt.

The outfit accentuated her thin frame and pale white skin. Her feet, which peeked out from the bottom of the pantaloons were clad in thin-strapped sandals with a little heel to raise her up just slightly. She let her black hair fall free, unveiling her tresses with the natural tight curls. It cascaded down to her shoulders like a waterfall of ink, and contrasted with the skin of her bare arms. She even set aside the glasses with the dark frames, wearing instead her 'good' pair with the small lenses and almost invisible wire rims. It was a look that Rebecca could make provocative or neutral, depending on her intent. She waited patiently for her ride.

It was her idea to wait on the sidewalk. She told her escort it would be easier to do that than find a place to park in College Town. Her real reason was that she did not wish to admit the man into her abode.

Promptly, a luxurious Saab pulled around the corner and Rebecca instantly recognized the driver. It stopped and she climbed in.

"Good evening, Professor Gilbert," she said softly. The air conditioner in the car was running, so she draped the sweater around her shoulders, covering her bare skin.

He pulled into traffic and then turned to admire her. 

"Rebecca," he said, "You are absolutely stunning!"

She didn't answer.

"I just know that this restaurant in Elmira will be exactly the right place for us to discuss your future," he went on. "It's one of the best that I know in the area."

Rebecca was tongue-tied for small talk. She sought a way to gracefully cease conversation.

"May I play some music, Professor?"

"Of course, Rebecca," he answered. "I have mostly classical. You might try some Beethoven."

She disdained the hauntingly restful strains and deep, passionate bass chords of the Master. 

"Have you any Bach?" she asked.

"Possibly," he replied, a little disappointed. "Look through them." 

She found one and started it up. She turned up the sound on the passionless mathematical precision.

She looked at her mentor driving the car. At middle age he had not lost his looks. He was neither fat nor slender. His hair was light brown, showing speckles of gray. He sported a van dyke beard. One could never quite discern his expression because the corners of his mouth hid behind it. He was well-dressed and his car well-appointed.

It was a twenty mile drive to the restaurant and they said little on the way, listening to the music, instead.

Finally, the Saab pulled to a stop in front of an old, but polished building. In front, hung a simple sign, Price's Inn. 

"Here we are!" Professor Gilbert announced. A valet opened the door for Rebecca and the Professor joined her on the sidewalk. He handed the keys to the valet and they entered the Inn.

******************* 

It was a nice dinner at the old inn. It was seldom that Rebecca was exposed to such things. The décor of the restaurant had an understated elegance. It wasn't the darkly lit café style that Rebecca had expected. Their conversation centered on 'shop talk'. Professor Gilbert enthralled Rebecca with descriptions of research projects to be, awards that his other grad students had won, new additions to the labs. All the time the focus returned to Rebecca and her career. It was heady for her. She knew that her imagination was soaring; she allowed herself a self indulgence.

The waiter arrived with the dessert menu.

"Professor Gilbert, I couldn't!" Rebecca exclaimed while glancing at the menu of sweets. She would really have liked one, but knew how much he had already spent on her. 

"Oh, I insist that you have one," he answered. "We must always be sure to taste the sweet things as we go through life."

His philosophical words confused her and she was deciphering the double meaning as she noticed him moving his chair a bit closer to her. Until then she had hoped that his womanizing reputation had been unearned. He had behaved perfectly. She remained silent and waited for him to speak.

"One sweet thing that we have in our department," he began, "is the closeness that we all share. Don't you see that, Rebecca? I decided to invite you here to get acquainted, rather than in my stuffy office. Hasn't it been a nice dinner?" He was leaning toward her ever so slightly, a body language that declared a sharing of personal space.

"I guess so, Professor." Rebecca answered softly. It occurred to her at that moment that although he spoke of closeness he had never invited her to use 'Boyd', his given name.

"You see," he continued, "we need this feeling of 'closeness' to function well together. I try to foster it, especially with female students who need help from those of us in power. I have power to use and share. All my grad students, who's Assistantships are renewed, have a close relationship with me."

He closed his large hand over her small one. "We have so much to give to one another, Rebecca." He finally fell silent, waiting for her acknowledgement. 

Rebecca cast her eyes down. Hopeless desperation descended upon her. Her isolation was overwhelming, smothering her resistance. She was over twenty miles from her apartment and anyone else she knew who could help or guide her. Her career, just starting, now depended upon her yielding up herself to the man next to her. With her body, she would give up the principles and self esteem that formed her core. She had carefully tended and nurtured them, promising to never lose them. In a split second of agreement they would be trampled forever. She knew that the Professor, once she favored him, would keep his promise. Her success would be assured. She knew, too, that a refusal would spell banishment.

She had promised herself that she would not allow herself to fall to this fate. Her abilities and hard work should be enough. There were, however, many brilliant high school Biology teachers. She hoped for more than that. How expensive could be her self-respect? Was it just foolish pride that demanded the surrender of all that she hoped and worked so hard for? 

She asked herself "why not?" Surely, she was no virgin and had no lover at the moment. She had been in bed with a dozen men. On another occasion, a date regaling her with such a fine night out might be one invited to her bed, at her decision. These thoughts played in her mind as she slowly gave way; a little sacrifice of principle for a larger goal. It was such a disappointing result that she should have predicted.

Gilbert patiently waited for her to sort through her options and arrive at the decision that he knew she would. As she nodded her assent it confirmed the lessons he learned in many such encounters.

"I took the liberty of renting a room upstairs. It will be very nice. You'll really be impressed. We'll have breakfast in the morning right here in this dining room."

Gilbert signed for the dinner and the two rose from the table. They stopped at the desk where Gilbert asked for the key. The clerk was expressionless, and didn't even glance at Rebecca. Still, a dirty feeling washed over her. She was ashamed, but committed. She assured herself that she would get over it in time. She reasoned that it was 'just sex'— enjoy it. Many others had before her.

They mounted the stairway and climbed to the second floor. There were only eight rooms in the small inn. They found theirs at the end of the silent hallway. Gilbert turned the key and swung the door open. Rebecca surveyed the small, but luxurious room. It was dominated by a king-sized bed fluffed in the middle by a downy comforter. She knew that soon she would be there on her back, nude, servicing his pleasure. 

They were silent. The only sound was rain pelting the window. She stripped off her sweater and set it on a nearby chair. Gilbert did the same to his sport coat and tie. He kicked off his shoes. 

He didn't remove more of his own clothing. As was his custom, he would strip her first. He enjoyed viewing them, nude, lying in the middle of the bed, waiting for him. Some tried to curl up and hide themselves. Others lay motionless in acceptance. A few, the wild ones, would lie with outstretched arms beckoning him. Then he would strip off his own clothing and look at their eyes as they watched his erection descending on them. For him, this opening ritual was as exhilarating as the actual taking. Of the three types, he enjoyed the second type most: those who had allowed his power to cow them.

Rebecca stood motionless, waiting for his advance on her. It came quickly. He approached her and peeled her glasses from her face, then kissed her. He tasted of coffee and smelled of after-shave cologne. He grasped the bottom hem of her top along with the underlying camisole and began to slowly lift it. As his hands reached midway up her torso, the bottom halves of her breasts were revealed. He noted for the first time that evening that she was braless. He slowed, savoring the unveiling. He took a second to admire the slim waist with the smooth white skin. He wondered how it tasted. He would find out soon. He inspected the round half circles of her semi-revealed breasts. In his mind's eye he pictured her nipples framed by areolas, firm and dark brown. It was almost a shame to complete the lifting of top. The anticipation of the dessert brought almost as much pleasure as the tasting.

Suddenly Rebecca cried "No—No—No!" She ripped away from his grasp, ran out of the hotel room, down the stairs of the inn and out the door. She didn't stop running until she arrived at a gas station down the street. 

****************** 

Rebecca was out of breath and crying. Her hair and clothing were drenched from the rain. There was a pay phone, but she had no money. It occurred to her that in the summer the campus, miles away, was nearly deserted and all her friends were gone. There was only one person that she could try. She dialed information.

At the campus Ivan was playing pool at the fraternity house with his friend, Gerry. Like Ivan, Gerry was a fellow football player and recalcitrant scholar stuck on campus for the summer. The phone rang. Gerry answered it and Ivan went downstairs for two more beers. 

Gerry called out to Ivan, surfacing from the basement with two bottles. "Ivan, there's a collect call for you—someone named Rebecca—you wanna take it?"

"What would she want?" Ivan wondered out loud. "Alright! I'll accept the charges." He called back to Gerry and strode for the phone room.

"Ivan, please help me. I don't know who else to call. Please come get me." He could tell Rebecca was crying.

After Ivan hung up the phone and turned to his friend. "Gerry, we've got to go to Elmira."

Ivan knew little about Rebecca's plight. On the way he told his friend what he did know. The friendship that Ivan and Rebecca struck up wasn't a particularly deep one, but it was enough to bring him out on a rainy night to her aid.

************** 

Rebecca waited at the gas station for Ivan to arrive. It had just closed, so she stood in the rain, wet and shivering. As she searched the dark streets for an approaching car, Professor Gilbert approached her.

"Rebecca, I've finally found you. Please come back to the hotel room. We can start where we left off. All will be forgiven."

"I won't go back there!" she yelled back at him. "You made me into a whore!" She backed away from him and buried her face in her hands, weeping.

"It's not like that, Rebecca," Gilbert answered calmly. "We were just making friends. Think of what you're giving up." He had experience dealing with hysterical courtesans. 

At that moment a car pulled around the corner and slowed at the station. Inside were Ivan and Gerry. They saw a man and young woman arguing in the rain. Ivan recognized the gas station from Rebecca's directions, but did not recognize her. He expected her in her customary overalls.

"It kinda' looks like her, Gerry, but I've never seen her dressed like that," he said.

"Let's get a closer look," his friend replied.

"It's her!" Ivan exclaimed as they got closer. 

As the two young men jumped from the car, Gilbert backed away from Rebecca. She ran to Ivan and threw her arms around him.

"Please take me home!" she blurted over her tears.

"Are you alright—do you need a doctor?" Ivan asked. Rebecca shook head.

"He's got my sweater in his room," Rebecca said to him.

Ivan stared at Gilbert through the pouring rain. He could see the fear in the eyes of the weaker man. Ivan, though he didn't know him, acquired a quick contempt for the dandy.

"Get it!" he commanded Gilbert in as stern a voice that he had ever used.

Gilbert was grateful for the dismissal and turned back to the Inn. 

Ivan turned to his friend. "Gerry, please go with him and make sure he does it."

Gerry McMahan had spent four years as tackle to Ivan's quarterback. He was accustomed to hearing his commands. It has been his function to respond to them. Now he noticed something new in Ivan's manner and the way he asked. It made him want to comply, not out of function, but respect. 

As Gerry followed after the fleeing Gilbert, Ivan called after him.

"There's a handbag, too. Make sure her keys are in it. There's a pair of eyeglasses," Ivan called after them as Rebecca furnished more information.

Ivan helped the humbled and trembling Rebecca into his car. He started the engine and the heater. She lay across the back seat. As Ivan covered her with a blanket from the trunk she murmured "Thank you", and started to drift off to sleep.

Soon Gerry returned with the abandoned items. 

"Rebecca, meet Gerry!" Ivan called out, but she was already dozing. Ivan looked at his friend seated next to him and shrugged.




Ivan Horton's Choice Ch. 02



When they arrived back at campus Ivan let Gerry off at the fraternity house and swung around to College Town to take Rebecca to her apartment. She had awakened by that time, but remained silent with embarrassment except to quietly give Ivan the directions. Ivan pulled to a parking spot in front of her building and accompanied her up the stairs. She opened the door and they stepped in.

It was a modest little space, neat and orderly. It was kitchen, dinette, study room, living room rolled into one. Beyond were two doors that led to Rebecca's bedroom and bathroom. 

"Make yourself at home," she said. "I'm going to change. You must be freezing."

"I'm alright. I won't be staying long. I just wanted to make sure that you got in okay." Ivan replied.

Ivan's clothes were still wet so he didn't sit on the couch. There was a kitchen chair without upholstery, so he alighted on that. After awhile Rebecca reappeared from the bedroom in a bathrobe, her head wrapped in a towel. Ivan guessed that she was nude underneath.

"Are you sure that I can't get you something?" she asked.

"No, thanks", was the reply. "I'm gonna go back to the fraternity house soon and have a few beers with Gerry." 

"Ivan," she said, "I don't know how to say 'thank you' enough."

"You just said it," Ivan answered. He looked at her and saw a pensive expression.

"Don't you want to know what happened?" she asked.

"No, it's your business," he answered.

"I owe it to you, don't you think?"

"No", Ivan said. "I owe you for what you told me when we had coffee together. It helped straighten me out. I think we're friends now. I was glad that I was there to help you."

"Maybe if I told you, you wouldn't think so much of me," she replied.

"Then don't tell me, Rebecca, because I don't want to think less of you."

"I want to, Ivan; I need to. You said 'tell me yours' and I didn't. Now, I need to. I need a friend to listen to my story."

Ivan didn't answer. Rebecca pulled up a footstool near his chair and sat leaning forward with her chin in her hands. She recounted her story of Professor Gilbert cajoling her to the dinner in Elmira and his proposition. She told how they went to the hotel room and her flight. She neither omitted nor embellished.

At the end she dropped her face into her hands sobbing.

"I'm so ashamed! I did what I promised myself I would never do. I'm cheap and easy!"

Her self--condemnation stunned Ivan.

"Rebecca," he said, "you have no right to be ashamed. You have a lot of courage."

"If I had any courage," she answered, I would never have been in that hotel room. You're the brave one. You chased Gilbert away."

"You risked everything when you didn't have to. You could have gone through with it and no one would have known. You would be on easy street right now. I didn't do anything-just showed a scared guy that I was stronger and angrier than he was. Real courage is when you're scared and you do what you have to, just the same."

"I shouldn't have been there. I thought that I was smarter."

"Rebecca," Ivan said. "I couldn't respect anyone more that I respect you right now."

Ivan's assertion surprised her; it warmed her, too. She accepted the friendship that he offered by his affirmation. She determined to give back in kind one day, if she could. 

"I'm finished at this University," she said. "I'll have to find a new one next year."

"I am, too" Ivan joked, "in a different way." They both laughed.

Rebecca leaned forward and kissed Ivan on the cheek. "My hero!" she joked back.

"You look tired, Rebecca, and my clothes are still wet. I better go now."

**************** 

On the following Friday Ivan was driving down Route 17 to Robin's family estate. He had a lot on his mind. Curiously, it wasn't the impending breakup of his engagement with Robin. He had decided on that already. The big item was Rebecca's ordeal that week, and her subsequent treatment by her spurned professor. She had been ejected from her carrel in the library and told that the renewal of her assistantship was 'uncertain'.

Ivan reflected on how unfair life could be. He reasoned that those few people who had power misused it while smaller people suffered for it. He thought of his own grasp for power through his engagement to Robin, daughter of the House of Tutlock from the Hamptons. He asked himself what he would have done with the wealth, had he consummated the ill-conceived marriage. He stopped thinking about it. It would soon be in the past.

He drove into the Tutlock Estate and parked the car. A servant hurried out to meet him.

"Mr. Horton, sir," he announced stiffly, "Mr.'s Marsden and Benton Tutlock are awaiting you in the study and request that you join them as soon as you arrive."

The butler escorted Ivan in and announced him, then left, closing the door behind him. Ivan strode to a spot facing the fireplace. Marsden and Binky stood facing him, flanking either end of the mahogany mantle. There was long silence. Each side waited for the other to move. Finally Marsden spoke.

"Ivan, let us get immediately to the point. Benton and I wish to speak with you about your engagement to Robin."

Another period of silence followed, although the older man had insisted on 'getting right to the point'. Ivan's impulse was to jump ahead and announce to them his intent to break the engagement. He stifled the urge. He thought that he owed it to Robin to speak to her first, and then explain himself to the family. He also wondered about the reason for the brothers' pendulous summons and he knew that his disclosure would silence them. He waited.

"Ivan," Marsden finally continued, "your wedding with my daughter will not take place. It must be called off! Robin already knows; she is not here. She's at her aunt's home on Martha's Vineyard." 

"Of course," Binky added, "our offer to join our firm will be withdrawn.

As Ivan absorbed the announcement it occurred to him to think before speaking. True, it was his intention was to break the engagement, but he realized that disclosure of that now would end discussion. He wondered if his recreation with Beryl was to blame. He didn't think so. If that were the case, Binky would not have been in the room. He fathomed that the brothers, for some reason unknown to him, were sheltering their lineage and fortune.

"Am I to know the reason?" he asked. "I was counting on that job. I could have had other offers, you know. I have an offering letter from your firm."

"Rather not state the reason, Ivan. It's nothing personal; it just isn't the right thing. We're sorry for your obvious disappointment. Look, here is the engagement ring that Robin left behind," Marsden answered. Ivan took the ring from him.

"There could be some compensation for the lost position," Binky piped up. He was the brother with all the charm.

Ivan's outlook brightened. It had been a long time since he had been so smart. It had been 'fourth and long' and he knew he was about to cross the goal line. Ivan looked them in the eye and nodded.

"What will it be, then? We could advance you a sum that could..."

Ivan raised his hand to stop him.

"I have something else in mind, gentlemen."

The brothers leaned closer, listening intently as Ivan presented his demand. 

When Ivan finished the brothers looked at one another incredulously and shrugged.

"That's it? That's all you want?" asked Binky.

Ivan nodded.

"Then you shall have it!" piped up Marsden, borrowing some of his brother's charm. "There are conditions. You must never come ask for more. You must never attempt to contact Robin again in the future."

"It's a deal," Ivan said. He thought to shake hands on it, but preferred not to, and the brothers didn't offer, either.

"If there's nothing else, then," said Marsden, "we'll say good bye."

Ivan turned and left. He didn't glance about for a last look at what could have been his. It didn't matter. All of it would have been ill-gotten goods, bought and paid for with his body, pimped by his own hands.

As he retraced his journey on Route 17 that night he felt better than he had in months. He was free and a man. His opinion of his worth had justifiably grown. He knew his decision on the marriage had been correct. The Tutlocks would never find out that their imposed breakup had been an anticlimax. He felt himself ready to reach out to capture a new life. It would be one that he needn't cover over with borrowed opulence to hide the stains. 

****************** 

The next weeks passed quickly. Ivan resurrected his relations with his parents. He was surprised at their relief of the breaking of his engagement with Robin. The friendship between Rebecca and Ivan grew. She tutored him in her apartment, since she had lost her carrel privileges. Ivan worked hard. He never became an 'A' student in Biology, but did his best. They were intimate in their confidences to one another, but had never contemplated a physical union. Neither of them had a date nor a lover. Their tenure at the campus was too temporary to warrant the effort.

Ivan and Rebecca both had decisions to make. After the Summer Session each would be without a place to be. Rebecca knew that Professor Gilbert would ruin her place at the University because of her rejection of his advances. Ivan had no job prospects and was running out of money.

It was a bittersweet meeting on the evening before the final Biology exam. After the next day, there would be no reason to meet for tutoring, and after that events would drive them their separate ways.

"Tell me again the difference between meiosis and mitosis," he called out to her in the kitchen, as she fixed a light meal for them.

"Look it up," she said. "Then you tell me!"

He promptly obeyed and she was satisfied that he had learned the concept.

"Here is a twenty-minute quiz," she said. "Eat your sandwich and take the quiz. You can look up the answers if you have to. While you're doing that, I'm going to take a shower." 

Ivan bent to the task with the sound of the shower running in the background. The quiz had some hard questions, but wasn't too bad. In the end, he found that he could answer about three quarters of them without looking up the answers. While he self-corrected the test he heard the shower turn off and the hair-dryer running. He thought to ask her to go out for pizza later. As he finished, Rebecca emerged from the bathroom, wearing her terry-cloth robe.

"How did you do?" she asked.

"About seventy-five. Don't you want to see it?" 

"No," she said. "You'll pass. Just walk in and answer the questions. You know it well enough."

Ivan wasn't sure, but chose to believe her.

Rebecca turned quiet and subdued.

"This is your last tutoring session," she said. "Since you're soon to be a college graduate, I bought something for us to celebrate with."

She went to the refrigerator and took out a large green bottle with gold foil over the cap and picked up two wine glasses on the kitchen counter.

"You bought champagne?" He asked.

"What did you expect, Mogen David?" she replied. "Go ahead and open it."

Ivan said nothing, but was touched at the gesture. He opened the bottle and poured each a glassful.

They sipped the wine in silence, heavy with emotions and thoughts of the summer just gone by.

"You never told me why you called off the wedding," queried Rebecca.

Ivan thought for a second, and then answered, "I told her that I liked you more than her."

"C'mon, tell me the truth," she said. "And I don't care to be compared to other women, Ivan."

"Well, that's what I should have told her," he said.

Ivan paused. He knew that she was waiting for more. 

"What if I said that I liked you more than anyone?" he countered.

"That would be different. Did you?"

"Yes."

"What about now?" 

"Why would anything be changed now?" he answered, then went on, "If I had known you a few years ago, a lot would be different now. There probably would never have been an engagement to Robin."

"You mean that you presume that you would be engaged to me?" she demanded. She was touched by his words but would make him suffer for his presumption.

"Who knows what would have happened?" Ivan mused. "But, I would have wanted someone who could have measured up to you."

There it was: honesty as pure as could be told. Even though she had probed for it, she was touched by the simple testimony. It penetrated her and brought a tear of emotion that she hadn't felt since that night in Elmira in front of the gas station those many weeks ago. Even her ostracism from the Biology department couldn't plumb the depth of her so deeply. It had been Ivan's actions that had saved her self-respect at the hands of the Professor and reassured her later that night. Now, in his simple eloquence he had yet again confirmed it.

She contemplated their impending parting, now suffering even more at the loss. She longed to make him feel what was in her soul. Ivan had looked away, embarrassed at his revelation of feeling. Rebecca loosened the cord at the waist of her robe, not all the way, but just enough to allow the cloth to part from her chest and allow a view down to her breasts below if she were bent at the proper angle. It was a test of desire. It could be withdrawn if it were not there, or expanded if the impulse proved right.

She refilled the glasses with champagne. Ivan turned his face back toward her. Rebecca leaned forward to allow the loosened robe to fall away slightly from her chest. Ivan's instinctively took in what was offered, and Rebecca watched him enjoy the view.

"To friendship," she toasted.

"Yes, friendship," Ivan repeated. They clinked glasses and sipped. The toast had a double meaning to him. Certainly he felt the bond that the toast confirmed, but now more, which transcended the sexless bounds of the word. He pained at the possibility that a misread cue might damage what they carved out over the summer.

Rebecca leaned over and kissed him gently on the forehead, understanding him. Her lips felt tender on his skin. It was the softness of a woman. Ivan's pulse was quickening. Rebecca reached out with both hands and held his face on either side. She leaned in again and kissed his lips, slow, soft, warm, affectionate. First she kissed Ivan's two lips at once, then caressed his upper lip with her lower one, then stroked her moistened tongue on his bottom lip. 

Ivan drank it in, savoring every aspect of it and feeling a deep wanting of her. He stood and kissed her back. It was a deep but gentle kiss that probed and claimed her. Rebecca stepped back several paces. She set her glasses on the table. In a single motion she pulled open the cord of the robe, slid it from her shoulders and dropped it to the floor. There she stood, naked and motionless. She wished Ivan to view her, and he did.

She was not like the other girls that Ivan had bedded over the years. She was slender from shoulder to ankle, not voluptuous as he was accustomed. Her breasts were not large, but were round and perfectly hung on her narrow chest. The hardened brown nipples bade Ivan to come forth and suck on them. His eyes roamed downward past her tiny navel to the triangle of jet black hair. It pointed to her juncture where they would soon be joined.

He looked up again to her face and saw her watching him, observing his mounting desire, reveling in the view of her body exciting him. When she knew that he had seen it all she abruptly pivoted in about-face and walked slowly to her bedroom. Ivan watched her gently swinging buttocks. When she reached the door she turned back to him and spoke softly.

"I'll be waiting for you." She disappeared through the door.

Ivan promptly followed her. She had tuned down the covers after her shower. She lay on her back in the center of the bed, her ebony curls tossed back across the white pillow.

"Strip for me, Ivan," she whispered.

Her love for him did not preclude sensuality. In her experience she knew that the two sexual ends were complementary. She wanted completeness in their union, to leave no pleasure or emotion forgotten. In her secret dreams, Rebecca had envisioned Ivan's powerful, lean, muscled body descending and taking her. All her other lovers had been cut of a different cloth, intellectual rather than physical. 

Ivan kicked off his shoes, then paused and looked down at her as she watched him. Her lips were slightly open and her tongue passed over her them as she anticipated the end of her waiting. Ivan stripped off his shirt, watching her breathing deepen and quicken, with the erect brown nipples swelling even larger and harder. He gripped his jeans and boxers as a unit and pushed them down his legs. He was naked before her. He stood with his arms to his sides, allowing her to inspect him, as she had done a few minutes ago.

He saw her gazing at his erection that was now dripping. Her eyes roamed the length of him. He would let her look as long as she wished, but he yearned to be down with her. Rebecca bent up her knees and spread them and reached out both slender white arms to beckon him.

Ivan paused to recite Rebecca's own words back to her. "It's when each person wants the other as a lover, and it hurts neither of them, nor anyone else."

Rebecca remembered the words and occasion, and smiled up at him. "Yes!" she whispered.

Ivan climbed on the bed and kneeled between her spread thighs. Their soft skin caressed his flanks. He fought off the urge to penetrate her immediately. He placed his hands just outside both her shoulders and supported his weight on his arms. He bent his head lower to kiss her, which he did. His swollen penis hung over her. She felt its warm drippings on her belly. It excited her and when Ivan's tongue probed through her lips searching for hers, she grasped his massive shoulders and pulled him on top of her.

There, they savored and ravished each other for some minutes. Desire was mounting. Ivan felt her erect nipples stabbing at his chest. He broke the kiss and slid down to suck on each one in its turn as Rebecca pressed his head to her chest. She thrust out her chest at him to deepen the sensation.

Ivan slid lower yet, below the triangle of black hair that adorned her vulva. He slid off the mattress onto his knees on the floor and turned Rebecca into him. He gently opened her lips and inserted his tongue. She let out a gentle affirming moan. He licked every part, and into her vagina and then found her clitoris. Rebecca gasped at the sudden pleasure. She thrust her hips up and pressed his head down into her. Ivan grasped her buttocks cheeks with his powerful hands and lifted her into his face.

He left off the tender tongue caresses on her clitoris. Rather, he pressed it hard with the flat of his tongue, and then sucked it between his lips. Rebecca, already on fire, exploded in release with a loud cry, then repeated as she pressed her sex at him even harder. She relaxed, temporarily drained of energy, descending from a climax that no lover before had ever approached giving her.

"Let me do you", she whispered as she tried to catch her breath. 

"Later," he replied. "I just want to be inside you."

She eased herself back to her original position in the middle of the bed and reopened her legs to him, bent at the knees. She tilted her hips and her sex was pointing at him as he climbed between her thighs. Her labia were swollen and gaped open. Ivan inserted himself into her, only an inch or two for the first few seconds. He wanted to remember the first moments that he was inside her. He pushed forward. Her canal was warm and slick. He was fully within her. They remained that way for a minute, just enjoying the union.

Rebecca whispered up at him, "Raise up off me a little. Then hold still. Let me do all the work until you come inside me."

Ivan had never contemplated such a gift from a lover. He gratefully accepted and rose up as she had asked. In rising up, he withdrew from her halfway. Rebecca wrapped her legs and arms around him. She thrust up at him until he once again impaled her. She repeated the movement over and over. She felt him deep inside her and she started pulsing with pleasure. Ivan was approaching too, and he had to fight off the urge to thrust back. He remained solid and motionless as Rebecca had asked. She felt the imminence of their orgasms. Tightening the grip of her arms and legs even more she raised up with all her strength to press her slender body against his massive one. She completely left the surface of the bed, clinging only to him.




Ivan Horton's Choice Ch. 02



With the muscles deep inside her she clenched his manhood with her velvet sheath, pulsing it. The pleasure was exquisite. Ivan fought off his climax to prolong the approach. He could not for long and erupted deep inside her. As Rebecca felt the filling, she climaxed as well, long and deep this time. They collapsed on the bed exhausted for the moment. Neither of them had experienced lovemaking on the level that they just had. It was a beautiful sharing of love and affection. The physical thrills were new to them, too. Ivan had never dreamt of them. Rebecca had never dreamt that she would have a lover with the power to allow her to satisfy the fantasies of her imagination.

The couple came together twice more during the night as they spent their energy in many ways, creating their secrets together. They slept, Rebecca atop Ivan, peacefully embraced.

************** 

The next day Ivan took his final Biology exam. He was sure that he passed it. It wasn't nearly as hard as the quizzes that Rebecca had flogged him with in her tutoring. He hurried to her apartment to tell her. 

Her expression was the brightest and happiest that he had ever seen it. He puffed his chest out, assuming it was his sating her the night before. Before he could speak she rushed to him.

"Before you say a word, I have to tell you something." 

"You're pregnant?" he asked.

"No!" Rebecca rolled her eyes and mock-punched him in the chest. "Be serious and listen."

"Professor Gilbert was fired this morning," she began. "Well, they said he 'resigned'. The rumor is that it has something to do with an investigation into diverted grant money. I heard someone say that 'he fell on his sword'."

"That is big news," Ivan said.

"There's more," said Rebecca, her excitement growing. "I have a new advisor, Professor Knight. My assistantship is restored. I even got my carrel back!"

"That's great, Rebecca! I'm happy for you." Ivan exclaimed. "What will happen to Gilbert?"

"I heard that he landed on his feet, as usual. He landed a job as Research Director at a new pharmaceutical company. Some Wall Street firm set it up. Can you imagine that?"

"You never know, do you?" Ivan shrugged.

"I'm so excited! I'm ready to burst," the happy Rebecca lilted. "We have the whole afternoon free. What do you want to do?"

Ivan thought of a few things to do.

*********** 

You might have guessed it! The unlikely pair became an item and then a couple. Finally, they tied the knot. They settled down in the same city as the University. That was thirty five-years ago. They are still there today. Rebecca went on to earn her doctorate and became a Professor of Biology and is rumored to be the next Department Chair. She doesn't wear her bib overalls anymore, but keeps them in a bottom drawer, to remind her of those early days.

Ivan went to the police academy and joined the County Sheriff's office. He later was elected Sheriff, and then County Executive. They stay in touch with their two sons, who have their own families.

Sometimes they reminisce about those few long-ago summer months when everything changed.

THE END

*

Dear Readers,

Thank you for reading "Ivan Horton's Choice". I hope that you enjoyed it. As always, I welcome your comments and questions.

Autumn Writer