13 comments/ 16918 views/ 7 favorites Lilian By: 3158NastyTeacher "Lillian, how many times do I have to say that I'd love to hire you as my professional dresser? You've always been good at that sort of thing, dressing, making clothes, being mommy-ish. And you would still be in the wedding pictures. The photographer is taking shots of the entire wedding day and one might be in the magazine. Especially, if you dress right, not in those old rags you wear to every other event that you attend." As always, my perfect model sister Abigail Jane Westwood, aka. Abbi West knew exactly what to say to make me feel as inferior as possible. "I would have had you in the wedding, but Monique just doesn't make dresses that would look good on you. You may be tall but your hips and breasts make it impossible to make the bridesmaids dress look good. By the way what do you plan on wearing?" UHHH, she is sooo self-centered. "I plan on wearing the same vintage lace gown I showed you last week, Abbi," I replied exasperated. "Why don't you buy something else? I saw the perfect dress in Designer Wearhouse the other day." "Abbi, I know that you have a hard time understanding that I love my job, even though I don't get paid much, but I do. I love my low paying position at The Learning Train. I can't afford anything from that store, unless you are willing to help me pay for it." In her ever so beautiful way, my sister rolled her eyes and said "I'm not helping you. I told you, you are never going to freeload off of me." I have never, ever wanted her to support me. "Abs, I've never asked you to support me or help me in any way, but this is your wedding. If you want me to wear what you want, I need help. It was hard enough paying for the plane ticket and hotel," I said. It was hard, almost all of my savings had gone to getting me to Barcelona and a room in the hotel where all of our meager family was staying. "Lillian, I told you I hate when you call me "Abs". Please stop it before I tell Uncle Frank and Aunt Abigail. You know how much they hate it when you make fun of me," she whined with a smile. Uncle Frank and Aunt Abigail were my father's brother and sister and had raised the two of us after our parent's went to prison for abusing us and killing our little brother John. They were absolutely enamored of Abbi and treated her like the daughter they never had. Their four sons protected her at all costs. I was there but, I had to fend for my self. You see Abbi is 5'10" tall, blonde with ice blue eyes and a perfect body. I am 5'9" with red hair, green eyes large breasts, hips, and thighs. I'm not fat but, I could not be a model. All Abbi has ever wanted to do is to be a model. That is all she has ever worked for. Sometimes I understand her desire to rebel against what happened to us. But it makes me sad that she lies about the four, inch long scars on her back. She should be proud that she survived having our cracked out parents try to stake a sheet to her back. I've been sewing since I was four years old. Our temporary foster mom taught me how. She said she was teaching me to sew the good times together and cut out the bad. Sewing was very comforting to me while I was growing up. Living with my aunt and uncle I learned to love photography and drawing. Those became my hobbies, while they were carting Abbi to beauty pageants, their sons to sports, I was at home playing with a camera my grandmother found for me at a rummage sale (our grandparents had a little more affection for me, but everyone was still attached to Abbi) or drawing in the sketch books that I bought with the money I earned doing minor sewing jobs for the people in our neighborhood. Let's get back to our story. "Abbi, is the only reason you called me here, directly from the airport after a 16 hour flight, to criticize me? I would love to get to the hotel and get some sleep. I have a lot of plans for tomorrow since it is the only day I'll have free for doing these things." "No. I wanted to make sure that you know to behave yourself during the pre-wedding festivities. And to ask you to pleeease be my dresser on Saturday," she said the latter half with her big puppy dog eyes and baby voice that she knows gets to me. "Fine. I won't tell Juan and his family about how you fell off stage in your first beauty pageant and showed the judges the where a piece of stage equipment scratched your butt. And yes, I'll help you dress on Saturday. May I please go get some sleep now?" More eye rolling, "Yes. Go. Sleep. Enjoy what ever it is you plan on doing tomorrow." I left gratefully and went to the hotel. My day got better from there. They accidently double booked my room and I had to be upgraded to a suite, free of charge. I took advantage of the terrace and offer of a free bottle of wine. Dinner from the restaurant was superb. And the light from the sunset was perfect for sketching. I drew a wedding dress with out even noticing what I was doing. When I looked down I realized that is was the wedding dress of my dreams. It had a simple a line skirt with a scoop neck bodice and long sleeves. The back came down under the shoulders. The sleeves were long and flowing. The neck, waist, and bodice were decorated with golden embroidery. It was breath-taking. The next day I took my camera, my sketch kit, and the few Euros I had and went wandering. As I was walking down a small street I saw a man deeply involved in painting a portrait. I asked if I could snap a few photos while he worked. He grunted a yes and I began snapping away. I started over his shoulder and worked my way around catching glimpses of his face but, never the whole picture. Until he looked up. When he looked up my breath was lost. I was looking into the most handsome face I'd ever seen. Black hair, chocolate eyes, an aristocratic nose, and deep skin were accentuated by luscious lips. Our eyes met for a moment and I raised my camera, took one last shot, and prepared to flee. As I turned he took my arm and asked, "Como te llama? What is your name?" It took me a full few seconds to catch my breath and answer "L-L-Lillian Ann Westwood." He gave a brief chuckle and said, "Well, Lillian Ann Westwood, how about I, Angel Pedro Vega de la Cruz, take you to dinner tonight?" My mind badgered me with a "Say yes, stupid" and eventually my mouth said "I'd love that." "Meet me in front of the Angels Hall Cathedral at 7:00 and wear a nice dress. I have some place very special I want to take you." "Okay. I'll meet you there," I managed to get out before turning and running. It was already 4:00 and I needed to shower, do my hair and make up, and figure out what to wear. I nicest dress I had was the one I brought was for Abbi's wedding and my other nice dresses were day dresses for the pre-wedding events I was being forced to attend as one of the few bride's relatives. As I was walking back to the hotel I passed a vintage shop that was displaying a tux in the window. Inspiration struck. I ran in and haggled the sales lady down to a reasonable price for the tux and silk napkin. I always had needles and thread with me, I never knew when I was going to pop a button or rip a seam. I got back to the hotel just in time to cut the napkin in half and sew them to the tux jacket so that they covered most of my breasts and bra. As I stepped out of the shower I heard a knock on the door. I answered it to discover the hotel hair dresser at my door. "How can I help you?" I asked. "I am Angelina, the hair dresser here and I am here to make you over. I have also brought some jewelry for you," replied the diminutive woman. "But, who's paying for this? I don't have the money to pay you," I replied. She shook her finger at me and said "You don't worry about that. I am being paid by someone else and they wish to remain a secret. Now let us see what you are wearing so I can do you up beautifully." She pushed me back into the suite and found my out fit on the bed. "Que belisima. How beautiful! Did you add the extra fabric to the lapels? De acuerdo. Of course you did. It is genius. Now sit down so I can do your hair and make up. Maribel will be up in a second to do your nails." She pushed me into a chair in front of the make up mirror in the dressing room. "Your hair is beautiful I know exactly what to do with it," and she did exactly what she felt like as Maribel arrived and gave me my first manicure. When Angelina was finished my hair was back in a luxurious braided knot with a few tendrils curling down my face, neck, and back. "Now take off your robe so I can do your make up. I want to match it all the way down to where your jacket will hit," she said. "I can't," I replied. "Go on don't be shy. I've seen women undressed before. You will be nothing new. Go on, undress," she said. I repeated "I can't. It's not because I'm shy about being nude but, because I have scars I don't want you to see. They are too horrific. I wouldn't want to scare you." "Go on, tell me about them. They won't be so painful for people to see once you've unburdened yourself to Angelina's ears. Angelina keeps everyone's secrets secret and might know ways to make the hurt disappear. Poof!" Her manner relaxed me enough to open up. " When I was little my parents were highly addicted to drugs and one day when I was four, my sister Abbi was two, and our baby brother Jonathan was just a year old, our parents were extremely high and they went after us. They smacked us around a few times then when Abbi was down, they tried to stake a sheet to her. They got the spikes in about an inch when I threw a shoe to distract them. Abbi got the stakes out and ran for it as I distracted them. They took a knife and stabbed me in the back as I tried to run. I got a way, sort of, but ended up with a scar from hip to should on my back. As I lay bleeding they took Johnny and swung him against a wall repeatedly, then went after Abbi again. I ran in front of her and they picked me up and threw me on the lit stove. I managed to roll off but, I was still on fire and I chased them to the front door screaming for help. They ran out side and down the street. I fell down the steps and that put the fire out. I had second degree burns over most of my body. I went inside to check on Johnny and Abbi. Abbi was okay just bleeding and scared. Johnny was still breathing but unconscious. I called emergency and they came and got us. Johnny died that night from his injuries. Abbi had a few stitches and I had to stay in the burn unit for a month while my burns and cuts healed. My parents had been caught that day trying to buy more drugs. The doctors told them what else had happened and my parents were put away for life. We went to a foster home until my grandparents made my aunt and uncle take us in. They knew that family, even family that was biased, was better than foster parents. I've always been careful about letting others see my scars." I began sobbing. "Ohh you poor bambina. Angelina will make you look so espectacular that you will forget every hurt. Now get rid of that robe and let me get to work," she ordered with a gentle bossiness. I did as I was told and she applied concealer to the scars that would peek out of the jacket even a little bit and then did my face so that I had a hard time recognizing myself. Angelina and Maribel helped me into my outfit, shoes, and jewelry and escorted me down to the lobby. They ordered a cab for me and paid the driver. Angelina gave me a wink that told me that the anonymous backer of the hair and make-up was also backing the cab ride. I met Angel where he told me to meet him. He gasped when he saw me and then held out his hand for mine. I laid my hand in his and he took it and kissed it. "You look so beautiful. I could drink in your beauty all night. Come on. Let us go before our reservation is gone. I'll drink more of you on the way." He helped me into a horse drawn carriage and we rolled down the street. He held me close and whispered that he'd love to paint me some time. I told him that I'd only be in town until Saturday. He replied "We'll have plenty of time, trust me." For some reason, I truly believed him. We arrived at a stunningly beautiful bistro and were led to the best table in the house. Dinner went by in a haze of meaningless conversation. Meaningless conversation punctuated by meaningful glances. As we were walking back to the carriage he leaned in and kissed me. At first I was hesitant but, as I felt him putting passion into the embrace, I kissed him with everything I had. His hand reached for my breast and I let it linger there allowing the rapture of the moment wash over me before pulling away and saying "I'll not be a one night stand. Any one who wants to get involved with me has to understand a few things about me. And has to care about me enough not to run when I tell them these things." "Is this about your scars?" he asked. I looked at him and asked how he knew about them. He gave me a look and I realized "Angelina and Maribel told you didn't they? How do you know them?" "Angelina is my madre and Maribel is mi hermana. They don't really work for the hotel. I asked them to go help you get ready. I wanted to do something nice for the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. By the way, I think you are incredibly beautiful and strong. And I can't get enough of you. Please let us go to your hotel room. We can talk. It will only go further if you want it to." It was the most sincere offer I'd ever received. I trusted his word implicitly. "Oh Angel. Your mom was the kindest woman I've ever met. I feel like she helped me get so much closer to you. Let's go." We made it back to my room and began to talk. He asked me about what I do in real life. "Are you a photographer? I see your camera and I know that you were snapping avidly at the other artists on the street. Or are you an artist?" he asked noticing the drawings I'd left lying about the room. "Neither. I teach art in an early childhood program in New York. I've been sewing since a couple months after my parents... well, after my parents left. Photography and drawing followed a few years later. My grandparents bought me my first camera and art kit when my sister started doing pageants. They wanted to make sure there were plenty of pictures of her for the family," I said somewhat bitterly. "Your sister?" he said quizzically. "Yes, my sister, model extraordinaire, Abbi West. The most beautiful woman in the world is my sister." "Wow. Your family must have done a real number on you because I think you are beautiful," he kissed my eyes "strong" my nose "and incredibly sexy" my mouth. "I want to make sure you know how much more than your sister you are. Please let us make love. Now. Tonight." I knew he was telling the truth so I answered "Yes. Help me know what it is to be truly loved. I must warn you though, I am a virgin. No man has ever been able to hide his revulsion at seeing my scars." "Mi amor. Nothing can stop me from showing you what you are truly worth. Angel de mis suenos you are worth a million Abbi Wests, a million sunsets and sun rises, a million kisses and a million more." Be began kissing my lips gently and cupping my breasts through my clothing. He kissed my eyes and began working his way down slowly unbuttoning the jacket he kissed until he reached where the scars began. He took his time and kissed each and every one of them tenderly. He moved the jacket off my arms and unclasped my bra. He moved around to my back and traced the scar from left shoulder to right hip and all the miniature scars with his lips. He reached around and cupped my breasts, tweaking my nipples then slid his hands down to unbutton my pants. I leaned back moaning in rapture as he continued kissing my scars. I wanted to cry at his tenderness but I was too busy moaning in ecstasy. As my pants fell to the ground he hooked his fingers under the band of my panties and drew them down and continued his assault moving his mouth to my buttocks and his fingers to my mound. He gently toyed with my outer lips then delved inside. My knees started to weaken and he picked me up and carried me to the bed where he placed his lips on my nether lips and began his true assault on my senses. I began writhing on the bed wanting something. Something more. He moved up and began kissing my lips again. I tasted my own musk on his lips it was the most erotic thing I had ever felt. Moisture immediately flooded to my already throbbing apex. I ripped at his shirt and he got rid of his pants. His member was huge and throbbing and incredibly hot. I reached down and held it in my hand. I started stroking it until a drop of precum lubricated it and he surged upwards until he was at my throbbing entrance. He pushed just the tip inside of me and looked at me. "It will hurt this first time but, I promise it will get better." He resumed kissing me and stimulating my nipples as he pushed further in and met the irrefutable proof of my virginity and pushed past it. I felt a quick burst of pain that was quickly diffused by the pleasure he was spreading else where in my body. He slowly drew out and plunged back in, stroking in and out in a rhythm that set my pulse beating a million miles a minute. The pressure began to build and build until I couldn't take it anymore, then I exploded. Stars burst behind my eyes as I felt Angel follow me over the edge. His seed spurted long and hard into my womb. We lay there, exhausted. "You know we may have made a baby tonight. And I know that this sounds insane but I know that I want to marry you. I knew that you were special the minute I looked into your eyes. Please say that you'll consider marrying me. We can go on more dates while you are here if you want to be sure but, I know that you are my once in a life time." I was bowled over. I did not let reason rule me as I answered "Angel I feel the same way. I'm scared and happy all at the same time. I don't know much about you or your family, but I do know that these feelings that you create in me make me feel like more than I ever was. I will marry you. I don't know how we will live. I don't make a lot of money and I know you must struggle as an artist but, I know that we will make it." "Suena, let us not think of heavy things. Let us think of now and the pleasure we give each other and of the life we may have created tonight." We made love the rest of the night and into the morning. He told me that he would put his mother and sister at my disposal for the rest of the trip. They did my hair and make up and gave me chapter and verse on how to act around Spanish nobility and kept me dressed and jeweled enough to keep up with my sister. At night Angel took me on dates to fantastical places and we made love at every opportunity. The morning of the wedding I finally worked up the nerve to ask him how he's been able to treat me so much. He said "I'm sorry to have kept this from you but, I own the villa where your sister is getting married. I am the Marquis of Rosado and the owner of the biggest shipping company in Spain. I hope this does not change anything between us. I love you and I can always move business to New York. Or if you move, I have the means to help you do anything you want, if you want to do anything at all." "Angel. I love you more than life itself. I don't care what you do for a living or if you do anything. I would never ask you to move to for me. I will move here. I've always had a dream of opening my own boutique and photography studio." "Suena, we can do that. Thank you for agreeing to marry me. What will be the first thing you design?" "I've already designed it. My wedding dress." I showed him the sketch that I had done my first night in town. He loved it. Maribel and Angelina helped me get ready and over to Abbi's hotel so I could get her ready. The wedding went off with a hitch and Angel met me at the reception. We danced all night and at midnight he took me to the gardens where he kneeled down pulled out a gorgeous diamond ring and said "Lillian Ann Westwood, will you marry me and be my marchioness?" Lilian at the Resort I guess every boss who has an attractive secretary has at one time or another fantasized about having sex with her. I know I certainly fantasized a lot about Lilian, who had been my secretary for about 2 years. She is a very attractive sultry Venezuelan, about 5'4", with long dark hair and a lovely voluptuous figure, perhaps slightly overweight, but in a very sexy way. We had a great relationship at work and I'd even been out for drinks with her a couple of times, although nothing happened except that I would get home and masturbate while fantasizing about her. About two months ago, we finally got a chance to travel together to an island in the Caribbean where a conference was being held. At the time, Lilian was nearly five months pregnant, although it didn't prevent her from travelling. In fact, she thought it was a great opportunity. The resort we were going to stay in was one of those really classy, expensive ones, all paid for and we found that we had been given adjacent rooms on the beach side of the resort. We seemed to have plenty of free time during the conference and spent quite a lot of time socialising together over the first few days. By the weekend, we were very good friends and had got quite used to slipping in and out of each other's rooms. As often as not, I'd be in my shorts when she walked in and I'd gotten used to seeing her look approvingly over my torso and occasionally eye my groin. After several days away from home, I'd begun to wonder what it would be like to have sex with her. On the Saturday evening, we decided to have dinner together at the resort restaurant. I dressed and then dropped in to pick up Lilian. She had just about finshed dressing, wearing a very attractive black dress with a plunging neckline, and with her thick black hair tied up. "Hi, just let me finish putting some make-up on." she greeted me. "You look great already." I smiled, watching as she slipped on a pair of shoes and then applied some deep red lipstick. She did in fact look amazingly sexy and I felt a slight stirring in my cock as I glanced at her freckled cleavage. God, I needed a fuck badly, and if Lilian didn't oblige I was going pussy-hunting tonight. Dinner was pleasant and we got on really well. Of course, Lilian wasn't drinking, but I had a couple of glasses of wine and then we watched a little of the cabaret show before heading back to the room. The disco had started and I was planning to head that way later to see if there was any nice pussy to be picked up. Back in Lilian's room, we sat on her huge bed and chatted for a while over a coke. I said I would soon let her rest while I went to check out the disco. "Hmmm…I noticed you checking out some of those Caribbean chicks." she laughed. "Was it that obvious?" I protested. "I'd say it was. You couldn't keep your eyes of one of them." I laughed ruefully, "Well, I can't deny it. It's not easy being in a resort with a beautiful woman but in a separate room. I guess I'm just getting horny." "Since I got pregnant, I've been horny all the time." she giggled. "It's normal." I smiled. "Anyway, it's easy enough to take care of, isn't it? I bet your husband likes it." "Oh he does, but he's not here right now, is he?" "Hmmm .. that's true," I said, playfully, "there's always masturbation, though." "Oh yes … but it's not quite the same thing though. Not the same as a good stiff cock." By now I was totally aroused and so replied, "Well there's one of those right here in this room." She moved her face a little closer to mine. I could feel the warmth of her breath as she whispered in a sultry voice, "So why don't we make good use of it, then?" Instinctively, we kissed. A hard, deep, passionate kiss, her tongue probing my mouth. I responded likewise, pulling her into my arms and feeling the warmth of her body against mine. "Are you sure about this?" I asked. "Oh yes." she replied. "Just for tonight. I need it as much as you do." We kissed again. This time, as I kissed her sweet-scented neck, I ran my hands over her firm, warm breasts. She responded with passionate kisses, harder and harder. "Would you undress me, please?" she sighed. I helped her stand and, turning her back to me, unzipped her dress, then slowly slid it off her shoulders and down to the floor. Underneath, she wore a black bra and panties. I unclasped her bra and then running my hands over her shoulders, gently slid it off, so that now my hands were cupping her heavy breasts, her head pressed back against me and my fully aroused cock pressing into her buttocks. I felt her nipples swell against the palms of my hands. Her breasts, normally a 38C, were already larger than usual, and her nipples were now huge and dark from her pregnancy. At least three inches in diameter, they must have been at least an inch long now as I continued to tease them between my fingertips. Continuing to play with one nipple, I slowly ran my hand down over her swelling belly and under the waistband of her panties. I felt the coarse thickness of her pubic hair as my hand probed deeper. She was already wet and began to writhe against me as I located the outer lips of her pussy. I withdrew my hand and, nibbling at her neck, presented my fingers to her lips. Sensuously, she drew my fingers into her mouth, sucking her scent off them. I slid her panties down over her full hips and allowed them to drop to the floor. She was naked. I turned her around and guided her back down on to the bed. She spread her legs a little, drawing one knee up and let one hand stray down to the thick triangle of black hair between her legs while the other stroked her breast. "Now you get undressed." she smiled. Standing in front of her, I stripped down to my boxers. Then, all the time looking at her, I slowly lifted them off my throbbing erection, which was now just about as hard as it was possible to get. "Nice cock." she smiled. "Come closer. Let me take a look." I moved closer to the bed, and she rolled over onto her side, reaching for my cock and taking it in both hands. "Mmmmm," she purred, "I didn't realize my boss had such a big cock." "And I didn't realize my secretary was so horny." I laughed. "I've often wondered what it would be like to have sex with you." she said. "I must admit I've had that fantasy quite a few times." I admitted. "Really? I wouldn't have guessed." "Haven't you ever noticed me looking at your breasts?" "Not really … you're very sly, aren't you?" "Mmmm. Just keep wearing those button-through dresses, that's all." She laughed and we kissed again, this time fondling each other's bodies and then nibbling, kissing and sucking one another all over. Being careful not to place too much weight on her belly, I kissed her breasts, sucking hard on each distended nipple in turn. She groaned as I bit down, pulling the long, dark nipple into my mouth, feeling a small trickle of fluid drip into my mouth as I did so. I was kind of lying across her now and I felt her reach out between my legs, running her hand up and down my cock, then wrapping her fingers around it. I moved a little closer to allow her to get a tighter grip. At the same time I twisted myself so that I could lick her belly and all the way down to her navel. Normally, I prefer shaven pussies, but I found myself enjoying the sensation of Lilian's thick, dark hair against my face. She was fully aroused and her juices had already soaked her hair, filling the air with the heavy scent of her arousal. As I nuzzled her inner thighs, my fingers penetrated her moist bush to find her swollen labia, sticky with her juice. Gently parting them, I exposed the glistening wetness of her vagina. She moaned as I slowly ran my tongue from one end of her slit to the other, tasting the metallic saltiness of her on my tongue. We were both laying on our sides, her with one leg raised high and wrapped around my shoulder. I felt her press down on me as I thrust my tongue into her. At the same time, I felt her pull me towards her and take my cock into her warm, wet mouth, so that we were in a 69 position. She began giving me a very nice, wet, blow job. We went at each other for a while like this, my face buried in her cunt while she ran her lips up and down my shaft and caressed my balls. All of a sudden, she reached down and quickly slid a long finger into her pussy, wetting it with her juices. I thought she wanted me to finger fuck her, so I gently slid my own finger into her dripping hole, while continuing to suck on her engorged clitoris. In fact, the next thing I felt was her lubricated finger pressing on my asshole as she struggled to take more of my cock into her mouth. By now my finger was pressing on her g-spot and I felt her muscles tighten as she began to cum. At the same time, she was groaning, vibrating my cock to the point where I was sure I was going to cum. "Hey, take it easy." I protested, pulling away slightly, "You're going to make me cum if you keep that up." She stopped sucking and began muttering something in Spanish while continuing to masturbate my cock. I returned to her pussy, nibbling her clit while massaging her g-spot. She came with a sudden guttural cry, never letting go of my cock. As I continued lapping at her pussy, my face was suddenly drenched in a new jet of fluid … she was actually squirting. I couldn't hold on any longer and felt myself cum, spurting once, twice, and then again as she milked me dry. I felt her lips close on my cock and suck the last drops out of me. As our orgasms subsided, I turned to look at her. Thick globs of my sticky cum covered her face and streaked her thick black hair. She laughed and said, "It would make a great cum shot, wouldn't it? I look like a real slut" "Sorry." I said, "I didn't mean to cum so soon." "Don't worry, I love it. You tasted great too." "So did you." I laughed. "Man, you get seriously wet, don't you." "I do when someone sucks me like that. You have a great tongue." She turned to me and we kissed again. I could taste my saltiness on her and no doubt she could taste her own juices on me as my face was drenched in them. As we kissed and caressed I felt my cock begin to stiffen again. "So, are you ready to fuck now." she whispered in my ear. "Do you want me to fuck you?" I asked. "Yes." she gasped, harshly. "Fuck me. I want it." I turned her over into a kneeling position, ready to fuck her from behind, admiring the way her heavy breasts hung down beneath her. "Look in the drawer" she murmured. I leaned over and opened the drawer of the night table. Inside was a slender vibrator and a small bottle of lubricant. "Do you see it?" she asked. "I've got it." "Use that in my ass at the same time." she whispered. I laid the items on the bed and moved back behind her. Stroking the smooth taut olive skin of her thighs and ass, I spreading her ass cheeks wide open. Then I again licked her swollen pussy lips and then slowly slid my tongue up to her sweetly puckered asshole. Very gently, I began rimming her. She began to gasp, her anus involuntarily twitching as I gently swirled my tongue around the edge and then flicked at the taut little hole. She spread her legs a little wider and moved a hand back to her pussy, beginning to frig herself furiously, her juices now flowing freely. I continued to caress her asshole with my tongue as she experienced a mini-orgasm, then I judged it was time for the vibrator. Reaching over, I grabbed the lube and spread some on her ass, then teased her by working my finger into her. She groaned deeply. Grabbing the vibrator, I turned it on and slid it gently into her about half an inch at first and then gradually deeper as she loosened up. She began to buck her hips back and forth, still masturbating hard. "Now fuck me. C'mon, fuck me with your cock." she grunted. I stood up, still holding the vibrator in place in her ass. "Do you need me to use a condom?" I asked. "No. No condom. I want you to cum inside me." she gasped. "Quickly. Fuck me." I slid the length of my rigid cock all the way into her. I guess every boss has fantasised about fucking his secretary. Here was I doing it for real. It was a beautiful sight. My hard cock thrusting slowly in and out of her, glistening with her juices, with a vibrator buzzing on her ass. She began to moan more loudly as I increased the pace, burying my cock as far inside her as I could and probing deeper with the vibrator. Her moans turned into a high-pitched wail as I located her G-spot and she came. "Harder." she whimpered. "Fuck me harder." Abandoning the vibrator, I grasped her hips and began to fuck her harder and harder. As she approached another climax, I felt myself begin to cum and with a final deep thrust, emptied my swollen balls into her. I held myself inside her for a satisfying moment, before slowly withdrawing and allowing her exhausted body to roll sideways onto the bed. A wad of thick white cum oozed out of her swollen pussy and slowly trickled down her inner thigh, glistening with her own copious juices. I watched in fascination as she collected it on her fingertip and slowly lifted it to her lips, her tongue savouring the salty flavour of our mingled juices. "That was nice." she murmured. "Let's do it again in a little while." Suffice to say, we did. And again, and again. In fact, the rest of the weekend was spent mostly fucking… but that's another story. Lilian Garcia & the New Recruit "Great, just the way I wanted to spend my weekend!" Lilian Garcia thought to herself as she drove her rented Lincoln Continental to the WWF headquarters in Connecticut. Lilian pulled into the parking lot as she cursed at her boss. She was scheduled to go to a creative meeting with Vince McMahon over the new announcing schedule. Lilian was mad to say the least. She had been rotating with the other two announcers for months and all she was getting was to announce on monday nights. On one hand she thought this might be her chance to get more work but, on the other she had to miss her cousin's baby shower this weekend and now her entire weekend would be ruined. Lilian parked her car and walked into the main lobby. She checked in at the desk and was told her meeting was on the 4th floor. As Lilian walked down the hall to the elevator she heard something from an open door. She looked inside to see one of the newest additions to the WWF roster working on his moves in a training session in the ring. Now, Lilian has been around the wrestlers now for a while. But, this recruit was something to look at. He was about 6'5 , enormous arms, and one of the handsomest men Lilian had ever laid eyes on. She had seen men like him before but, he was awesome. She looked as he tensed his muscles. How when he lifted up his opponent his abs flexed and stuck out like soupcans. They way his skin was so smooth, and black as coal. His smile as he laughed with his opponent as they trained made Lilian tingle. Lilian watched him for about 10 minutes before she felt a warm moistness in her panties. She wanted to finger herself right there it. It had been 3 months since Lilian had been laid and her last boyfriend wasn't exactly hung. She looked at her watch and realized she would be late. As much as it pained her too, Lilian left and headed for the elevator. Lilain got to the 4th floor and entered the meeting room. Lilian took a seat as she began her meeting. The meeting lasted about an hour and all during it Lilian couldn't concentrate. All she could think about was that black wrestler she saw before. Lilian crossed her legs to conceal her now completely soaked panties. She sat and daydreamed about his full lips and dark eyes. When the meeting came to an end Lilina quickly left with her new schedule and headed to her hotel room, since she was obviously not going to make her flight for that day. Lilian got into her hotel room at around 9:30. As Lilian stepped out of her shower she looked at herself in the mirror. She ran her hands over her smooth stomach and full breasts. She looked at nice ass and slender thighs. She thought to herself, "Damn, I still got it." It was then that she got an idea. She had remembered hearing the wrestlers often in the locker room talking about a bar they liked to go to while here in Connecticut. She thought perhaps she should go and have herself a good time. More importantly find a man to take care of the ache in her pussy left by that wrestler she saw earlier. Lilian got dressed in party dress. It was a light purple summer dress that hung off of her body in all the right places. It showed off her breasts as well as her ass. She put on some light purple high heels that she loved and sought out the bar. She drove for about half an hour before she finally found the bar. She thought it was kind of a seedy place to go to but, what the hell i'm here so i might as well go she thought. Lilian stepped into the bar to notice two burly men playing pool and another passed out on the floor. This was definitely not the place she wanted to be. She wanted to leave but, just as she turned around she noticed a hot looking black man at the bar. She knew who it was. It was the wrestler from earlier that day. He looked she thought as she looked at his back which was shown off nicely in a tight black t-shirt. The way his ass looked in his jeans almost made Lilian cum right there. She slowly walked to the bar and took a seat one spot from his and ordered a beer. The black man turned as he heard the wonderful voice of a woman in this dive for once. As he turned he saw Lilian. "Your the announcer lady from the WWF right?" he asked. Lilian looked at him startled he spoke to her. She blushed but, found the strength to answer him back, "Yes, I guess I am." The black man asked her, "So what are you doing up here?" Lilian said back to him, "I was called up here for a meeting. Are you a wrestler?" She answered back innocently knowing full well who he was. "Yeah I am, I'm up here training right now. I'm surprised to see you up here." He answered. Lilian quickly answered back, "Well, I'm Lilian and since I guess I'll be saying your name soon on TV maybe I should know it." The black man smiled at her and said, " Oh, Vince hasn't thought of a name yet, but my real name is Greg." "Oh well pleased to meet you Greg." Lilian said as she extended his arm to shake his hand. As Greg shook her hand and smiled at her she almost melted at the feel of his warm skin against her white hand. They talked for awhile after that until they saw the time was 1 in the morning. Greg put down his drink and said to Lilian, "Well guess I better get back. I've got to get up early tomorrow, and I still have to walk back to my hotel across town." Lilian was surprised he walked, since she knew where the wrestlers usually stay. "You walked all the way here?" She asked. "No, I got a ride from my friend but, he had to bail out on me." Greg told her. Lilian without hesitation offered him a ride. She took her keys out of her purse and started to walk out the bar. As Greg followed her to her car he couldn't help but, watch her ass sway underneath her purple dress. The dress fell about to 3 inches below her ass and her thighs looked great as her muscles tensed as she walked. The sight gave Greg a huge boner. They both got into the car and started to drive. "You'll have to tell me which way to go, I don't know my way around here." Lilian said as she glanced down at Greg's lap. She saw a huge lump sitting in his crotch and nearly swerved the car in the wrong lane. Greg saw what she saw and said, "No problem I'll guide you." As he put his hand on Lilian's knee. Lilian couldn't believe how huge his hand was, but how good his warm hand felt on her knee. Without saying anything Greg began to run his fingers in little circles around her knee. Gradually his hand began to go a little bit higher up Lilian's thighs. Lilian wanted to say something but, could only manage a moan as his hand was half way up her leg. Lilian's hotel was half way between Greg's hotel and the bar and they were about a mile away. Lilian could barely concentrate on the road when she felt his fingers tracing her cunt lips through her purple panties. Lilian couldn't stand it. She saw her hotel and swerved into the parking lot. "This is my hotel i'm in room number 104." she panted as they both got out of the car. They walked straight to her room where Lilian could barely get her key to go into the keyhole in her hotel room. Lilian finally opened the door and walked into her room. She turned around as Greg was closing the door behind him. She looked into his eyes and immediately they kissed. The was on her tiptoes as he bent down to kiss her. As their tongues danced with each other, Greg reached down with his massive arms and grabbed each of Lillian's ass cheeks and began to grind them. Lilian wrapped her arms around his massive neck as they continued to kiss. She couldn't believe how hard his body was. She reached down with her hands and slowly lifted his shirt to reveal those abs she had lusted for earlier in the day. She ran her hands over his chest and shoulders as they kissed again. Greg had know slipped his hands underneath Lilian's ass and was feeling her cunt lips again. He slowly put his right hand down into Lilian's panties and began to flick and play with her cunt lips. Lilian began to bite gently on his full black lips as he teased her pussy. She couldn't believe the size of his fingers as he slowly entered her with two fingers. He began to work his fingers in and out of her pussy. Until finally she had orgasmed. Lilian kneeled on the ground with her for head all sweaty form the powerful orgasm she had just had. Lilian looked up at Greg. As she looked up she saw his smiling face, hard pecs and amazing abs. She got on her knees in front of him and gently began to undo his belt and jeans. Greg helped her as they pulled down his jeans. Lilian was shocked as she looked at his grey boxers. The lump she had seen earlier looked now as though he had a log in his boxers. Lilian slowly put her fingernails underneath the rubber of the boxers and slowly pulled them down. Lilian could not believe the size of his penis. As she slowly pulled down his boxers to reveal more it seemed that the penis would never end. She finally exposed the bulbous head at the end of a 9 inch penis hanging softly in front of her. Lilian tilted her head down and slowly took the enormous head into her mouth. She loved the way it looked as she pulled the foreskin back and licked over the wrinkled head. The smell from his balls was potent as she inhaled it and began to slowly try to deep throat this monster. She looked up to see him smiling. She was having now effect on him, especially now as the monster began to grow. She took her mouth off of it and looked as the black cock now stood straight out pointing out at her. It had to be a foot in length she thought. Determined to make her new lover pround she swallowed the head and sucked for al she was worth. Lilian played with his balls as her other hand jerked up and down the long ebony shaft. She sucked and licked up and down the cock until it began to pulse. She put her mouth on the head and sucked on the cock furiously jerking the cock with both hands. She wrapped her little white hands around the cock. She couldn't touch her fingers around the enormous log as she jerked it until finally with amazing force a pool of cum hit the back of her throat. Amazed at the sweet taste Lilian swallowed it and began to clean the cock with her tongue. She couldn't believe that it was still hard after that blast. Her last boyfriend's 5 inch penis was usually done for the night after a good blowjob from her. Lilian wanted to play with the cock some more when she felt Greg's hands reach under her arms and lift her to her feet. Greg carried her near her bed, and set her down on it. His naked body hovered over hers as he played with her breasts which were still under her purple dress. He kissed her calves, and knees and kissed and licked the inside of her thighs. Lilian couldn't believe how good his kiss felt against her skin as she slowly opened her legs and took off her panties. Greg slowly kneeled at the end of the bed and began to lick around Lilian's pussy. Lilian moaned and writhed in ecstasy even though he hadn't even tasted her yet. Greg then took his fingers and opened up the lips of Lilian's soaking pussy. He delved his long, hot tongue into her farther than any boyfriend of hers had ever fucked her with their little cocks. Lilian closed her eyes and moaned and screamed, "God that feels so good baby, little more please god it feels so good...." Greg flicked his tongue along her clit and then began to fuck her pussy with his tongue darting it in and out. Lilian wrapped her heels around his bald black head and began to buck her hips wildly against his face. The feeling built up insider her as she played with her own tits until finally she came all over his face. Lilian opened her eyes half in a daze as she looked down. Greg began to get up his face coated in her juices. She watched his chiseled body stand up as his still hard cock swayed in the air like a weapon. Lilian kneeled on the bed almost making her eye level with him. Greg reaches his hands down and lifted Lilian's dress over her head. Now naked in front of him Lilian was over come with lust. Greg got on the bed and began to kiss her nipples and lick her breasts as she continued to moan. Greg then slowly eased Lilian on her back and spread her thighs. Still wearing her heels Lilian moaned softly, "Give it to me Greg, Give me that big black cock, please." As she looked in his eyes. Greg told her, "Close your eyes. Tell me how big was your biggest boyfriend.". He proceeded to put his cock head against her pussy, barely nudging it into her cunt. "MMMM, he wasn't that thick keep going,...." she moaned until Greg put his cock halfway into her, "Aaaaieeee yoru so big god your so big," Lilian opened her eyes in fear as she saw he wasn't all the way in her yet. As Greg thrust into her burying himself to the hilt Lilian was over come. She looked as his abs tensed. She grabbed onto them as she wrapped her long legs around his thin waist above his muscular ass. "Fuck me, Fuck me, please god it feels so good, please with that big black cock please." As she pleaded with him he began to slowly pull out of her and go in. As Lilian got into the rhythym she tried to meet him thurst for thurst until after about a minute she had the greatest orgasm of her life. Greg stopped his assault on her as he watched her writhe in ecstasy. Lilian recovered and found that Greg hadn't pulled out of her. Greg began to pump into her again attacking her pussy. Lilian orgasmed another time until Greg pulled out of her. Greg layed down on the bed with his foot long cock sticking straight up in the air. Lilian stepped over him. Her high heeled feet on each side of him. Greg watched as she lowered her puffy cunt lips onto his enormous weapon. He looked at her thighs tense and she began to go up and down on the ebony shaft. Greg grabbed Lilian around her thin waist. His hands were so big they fit around her entire waist and soon using his strength he was sliding her up and down his pole. Lilian was about to orgasm went she felt Greg's cum shoot into her like a rocket ship. She loved the feeling as she felt the hot jism shoot into her and she slid off his cock and fell to his side. Lilian looked and his cock was once again soft. Disappointed but, now relieved she looked at her new lover. They laid side by side as Lilian stroked his massive chest. She found her hand running down those abs she loved and she grabbed a hold of the huge cock. She squeezed it like a tube of toothpaste and soon had her tongue running all over it. This time the cock tasted different. It tasted wonderful but now she could taste her own juices on this enormous black cock in her mouth. She began to suck his limp cock when she felt his hot tongue run across her pussy. It sent chills down her spine as he began to attack her pussy again with his tongue. Lilian now determined to return the favor began to suck his cock to full staff until the full 69 was going. All of a sudden Greg stopped Lillian looked behind her taking her mouth off of his cock. Greg slid out from underneath Lilian leaving her on all fours. She knew what was coming. She was terrified, she had never ever let anyone take her in the ass, but she was going to let Greg do it. The monster between his legs was wet with her juices and spit as Greg grabbed ahold of her ass pulling them wide. Lilian wanted to say no but the lust in her kept her quiet. Greg began to insert his cock into her anus. "God, it so big stop your hurting me!!!!!!" She screamed until she felt his rock hard body slam against her ass. Greg had now begun his attack. His muscular body tensed as it rocked back and forth continually pounding Lilian's little white body bent over in front of him. The little white girl began to slam her ass against his rock hard black body as she began to get into the rhythym. She felt his big black hands grabbing and rubbing her ass cheeks as he pounded away at her ass. Their body's making slapping sounds against one another. Lilian could feel his enormous sack fly up and hit her clit as their bodies hit one another. Then in a flash Greg's cock spasmed and he shot the biggest wad in his life into Lilian's ass. Tired from their night they collapsed and fell asleep. In the morning Lilian awoke to Greg getting out of her shower and drying himself off in front of her mirror. She looked at his beautiful ebony body as hit black cock swayed in the mirror. She got out of bed and hugged him from behind. She felt his tight ass against her taught stomach as she rubbed her hands over those abs and chest that she had loved. She reached down and jerked his cock. He turned around and Lilian dropped to her knees as she sucked him off. She drove him back to the WWF headquarters that day and then she drove to the airport. She hoped she would see him on a Monday night soon. P.S. I would love to hear comments, complaints, or requests from my readers' please e-mail me. Lilian "Angel, of course I'll marry you," I said near tears. Then with a mischievous glint in my eye I said "How will I ever tell Abbi?" We were married two months later. I wore the dress I designed and he a matching suit. We were married on the steps of his villa. It was on that day that I revealed to Angel and the rest of the world that I was pregnant with twins. Liliane (the first story I posted on Lit, the original Liliane, which was written twenty years ago or so, received a lot of very pertinent comment - the new version is an attempt to do something with it. It got a little longer in the process, I'm afraid.) * The lights were very hot overhead and everyone on the bed was sweating profusely. Lillian didn't really notice - she delighted in being sandwiched between two sexy, big-dicked, horny fellows who gave her all they had, long and hard, both senses, both ways! Her tiny, red-lace panties hung halfway her left leg and the man underneath had pulled her left breast from her bra. He cupped as much of it as he could hold in his hand, to feel the soft smoothness - and then you saw him caress the bottom, the dark circle round the nipple standing out - before he viciously pinched her stiff, big, swollen nipple, and she slapped him hard. He gave her a bored look. The bitch. Got ideas of her own, he wouldn't wonder. The man on top clawed her buttocks, peachy and smooth between the straps of her garter belt and the soft tops of her stockings. When the camera zoomed in on her abdomen you could see a little of the inside of her cunt, red and shiny, lush and oozing with her juices, and the narrow strip of auburn pubic hair, sticky with sweat and come, and the gleaming shafts of her assailants, pumping back and forth like well-oiled pistons in a steam-engine. The man underneath panted like a steam-engine, too, and you could hear a wet, slapping sound as the upper guy slammed into Lillian's cunt and hit her clit, rubbing that super-sensitive spot every upstroke, and the sucking noises that her cunt made as he retracted from his orifice, as if reluctant to let him go yet. Then the camera moved to Lillian's face, red with lust, and fanned out to include her breasts. She impatiently shoved back the other cup of the red lace nothing that served for a bra, and, pushing away the eager hand that was still clumsily caressing her tits, took over the job herself, moaning throatily, without words. The view included the three of them for a moment, and then, as Lillian slid one long-nailed hand down the upper back, returned to the centre of attention. Lillian's red, polished nail scratched his sweating back, and then dived down to find the crack between his cheeks. Her finger easily found his wrinkled little hole, and slid into his arse. Together with this movement she slowly put up speed, and the top fellow felt her strong cunt muscles massage his prick like a soft, wet hand and groaned. Lillian threw back her head, to watch their antics in the big overhead mirror. "Ooohh - come on! Come on, fuck me harder - yeah! deeper - deeper - deeper - unnhh - yeah - let me feel you - give it to me!" she panted, and she wiggled her wonderful bum in the bottom guy's lap, and he suddenly could not stop himself coming. He pulled his prick from her flick. The camera concentrated on his sperm squirting against the top fellow's prick and balls and Lillian's swollen cunt - too much for the other guy who half raised himself and pulled out his cock to come all over her stomach and breasts. Then he offered his tool to her, and sitting up on the other's chest, she sucked it in her warm, wet mouth to get the final drops of sperm well out, while she rubbed the surplus come all over her glistening, sweating body. "Cut!" the director said, and the man stepped back. "Gimme back your prick, you brute," Lillian complained. "No," he said, "you've taken enough out of me - whore!" "What about mine?" the director offered hopefully. Lillian was a pro alright. He didn't like her, but she had a great body, she never had any trouble making the men shoot their loads, and he wouldn't mind her mouth on him. "Bah," Lillian said. She got up and readjusted her bra, pulled on her panties and went to her dressing room for a quick wash and to put on her closely-fitting, short woollen dress, before she went to the director for her money. "Great work, honey," he said. "Yeah - but I haven't even come. Get me real men next time," she grumbled. "Real men - no poofters." She slammed the door to and walked across the landing. There she waited for the elevator to come. Jim, who worked as a civil engineer for an expensive firm, had finished a fatiguing day's work. He usually stopped at five, but this day he had been out of luck. The meeting that had been planned had been delayed because a client's plane had not been allowed to fly on schedule due to a thunderstorm. The meeting itself had been a tough one that had only resulted in anything that could be called satisfactory after hours of negotiating. Eventually the visitors had left and they had stayed on with the draft for a contract on their desk. It meant doing a lot of overtime. They had had a meal delivered to their office, and now, eventually, he was on his way home. He pressed the button for the lift. The place would be manned for another hour, but the top floors of the building felt spooky enough now. He shivered. The indicator over the lift said 14, 16, 18... it slowed to a halt on his floor. He got in. The lifts were a little old; they were usually alright, but sometimes they just stopped, and they had to be unblocked by the maintenance firm that was always quite reluctant to arrive, especially at night. Jim stood looking at the indicator change floors. Home again to a lonely place - Heather, his girlfriend, had ended their relationship with a bang when she had thrown the frying pan at him in a sudden fit of rage. Fortunately it had missed... It had taken hours to get the grease off the wall and floor. He felt lonely now and then. The constant quarrelling was gone; but so were the good times that had certainly been there, too. He especially missed her at times like this, when he came home tired. During good times there had been an arm round his shoulder, or better... "Bother," he thought when the elevator halted on the eighth floor. "Yet more delay!" The doors slid open and a young woman came in. Jim had seldom seen such a gorgeous one: long auburn hair in supple waves, breasts he'd only seen in pictures, shown for a good deal in a low-cut, ruby dress that clung to her firm body, lovely rounded buttocks and long sexy legs in sheer black nylon and high-heeled sandals - and what a bearings! She seemed to be oozing sex from every pore, and she smelled it, too - a heady perfume, mingling with the essence of female sexuality. The doors slid close. "Hi!" she said. Jim swallowed and said hello. She smiled at him and ran a lovely, wet little tongue round her teeth, giving him the once over. It made him wonder what she would be like in bed, and he felt uncomfortably aroused. She lifted a leg, ostensibly to readjust the straps of her sandal, and this sent her dress up over her hips. Jim just couldn't stop himself from sneaking a peep at her crotch, encased in a very tiny pair of flimsy, red lace panties. Then he realised what he was doing. He blushed and tried to look away - which wasn't too easy in the confined space of the cabin. She lowered her swell leg again, stroked down her dress and, yawning, stretched herself, which made her breasts almost pop out of her bra and dress. Then she smiled at Jim again. This, she thought, was something else from the guys she'd just had to fuck work-wise. Jim was in his early thirties. He had a slightly crooked nose from a traffic accident, but he looked intelligent - he was - he was not covered in tattoos or ironware and he looked humane and friendly. She'd noticed that he'd looked at her; she also sensed his discomfort. It made her smile a little. The guys she was familiar with wouldn't feel abashed, not they. While she unceremoniously scratched her waiting, achingly hungry pussy, she pulled the emergency-brake. It so often happened that an elevator went out of order that no one was likely to bother, and it certainly wouldn't be noticed soon, there being four of them, and then she said, "Have a better look, or?" while she pulled the dress over her head in one movement. "I'm Lillian," she said, while she slowly turned round to give him a good look at her back, and round again, pushing up her breasts and chest for his benefit, "and you?" Jim blushed fiercely. He couldn't get out; the lift was between floors, and he couldn't reach the control panel since he would have to push the lady aside. Now what? "Hello," he said inconsequentially. "Er, I'm Jim." "You lovely hunk, you," she drawled in a hoarse voice that seemed directly aimed at his crotch while she clasped her arms around his neck and rubbed her breasts and belly against him. He tried to back away - but his body reacted different from his common sense, and although he wished himself far away, he also felt intensely turned on. "You're all stiff - you've a hard-on - you're not going to be naughty to the poor little girlie, are you?" She expertly removed the bewildered young man's trousers and felt his prick and balls, all with her left hand - the right hand was still on his shoulder and now slipped around his neck. "What a vicious big monster - now don't you hurt your poor, trembling little baby girl, pretty, please? Pretty, please?" She pulled away the foreskin and rubbed the pulsating tip. Jim suddenly seemed to wake up from his anaesthetics as his body won over from his sense of propriety. He'd never ever experienced anything remotely like this before - but then he'd never chanced upon a top porn-movie actress who'd not been satisfied and who loved sex. This woman completely went to his head, perfume, titillating figure and all, and swallowing hard again he moved a hand down her buttocks to squeeze her closer, and then on into her panties to feel her wonderful bum; he found the fastening of her bra with the other and unhooked it. When his fingers met her nipple and slowly rolled it he felt it stiffen and harden and this made her go really wild. "Oh yes - yes - yes," she growled while she rubbed closer to him. She pushed down his cock between her voluptuous thighs, and with her left hand she shoved the crotch of her panties aside from behind. She bit his lips and sucked his tongue into her mouth, and rubbing Jim's pecker from beneath with a loving hand she rode her dripping wet cuntlips over his member, moving her pelvis and hips back and forth in a maddening rhythm. She squirmed with pure joy as she rubbed her cunt against the veins on Jim's prick that stood up like cables, and she scratched her nails across the little piece of skin that connected the mouth of his cock with the shaft. Jim had never felt anything like it. He abandoned every inhibition and devoted all his energy to Lillian's breasts and bum. "Ooh - you horny boy - don't you know you oughtn't to be fresh with unknown girls in elevators? But what a prick! What a lovely steaming pulsating piece of flesh -" "Hhh - ouch! You're a bit wild, aren't you? Yeah - rub your breasts against my chest - yeah, that's right. Hey -" Lillian had undone the buttons of his shirt with her free hand. She felt she was ready for him. She wrung herself loose from Jim's embrace. His cock slapped against his stomach with a wet sound that was like music to Lillian's heated appetite. She turned round, opened her legs wide, and put her hands against the side of the elevator for balance. "Now! Go for it!" she spat at him. "Give it to me long and hard - Yeah - unhh - like this - yeah - ooo - oohhh -" Jim slammed his cock right up Lillian's wet hole, until he felt his balls slap against her Venus mound. "Oohh - but this feels so good!" she panted. "Yeah - rub my clit - please, yeah - oohh, unhh huh -" Jim had found her clit and ran a finger round the swollen, hot button, while he stroked her buttocks with the other hand. He retracted until only the hot, burning tip was still between the moist invitation of her swollen cuntlips, to tease her for a moment and then to slam back in. He did this a couple of times until she started bucking back impatiently, and then fell into a slapping, pumping rhythm. "Oohhh - ouch. Oohhh - ouch," she went as he furiously gave her all he had. Wow! She certainly knew how to fuck! She rode him like an expert rodeo-hand, and seemed to milk him, too - and then Lillian came, with complete abandon. She screamed so loudly that, had anyone been near, he'd certainly have heard, and she rocked uncontrollably in a long series of convulsions that almost made Jim lose his balance. "Hhhh - oohhh, so good, so good -" she moaned. "Ooohhh - yes, yes, yes - hhnnnn - ahhhhh..." When she finally regained her poise she smiled back at Jim over her shoulder and said, "Now it's your turn!" She let his prick slip out of her sopping cunt, turned round and went down on her knees. Jim felt her long hair caress his cock and then she closed a well-manicured hand round his stem. She smiled up at him and licked her lips - to moisten them, but also in genuine anticipation. "I love eating a good cock," she said - and she slowly closed her lips round the tip. Jim saw her red, glossy lips move slowly round it - lubricating it teasingly - lovingly... She looked up at him. He returned her gaze and put a hand on her head. Lillian expected him to hold her head and ram his cock down her throat, the way she was used to from her shoots, but instead he just stroked her hair. He smiled at her a little nervously. Her breasts hung free against his legs, and she rubbed her cunt against his shin. He saw her legs in their black stockings and high-heeled sandals, and became even more aroused. It seemed as if he got even harder. "Oh, good!" Lillian growled. "Even bigger - good work!" and then she started going in earnest. She moved her hands in a maddening way, up and down the shaft, wringing the fleshy length, sucking, nibbling and licking the head, bobbing her head up and down the shaft and rolling his balls now and then. "Hey," he panted, "I'll be coming in your mouth if you don't stop soon, er -" She pushed a finger up his arse, and with a cry - pain and lust in equal measure - he shot his load right up her throat. He saw her swallow and swallow, and still some white come trickled down the corner of her mouth. Breathing heavily she remained silent for some time while he stroked her hair - a gesture of warmth that she had never met with before. "Thank you very much," Jim said. "This was nice." He put out his hands to help her to her feet. She got up and smiled at him; then they got dressed and she switched off the brake. The lift quickly went down the last few floors and Lillian hurried off without another word. Jim left the building with his thoughts in considerable turmoil. On second thoughts he wasn't quite sure if it had really been nice. It had been satisfying; he'd not even in his wildest dreams envisaged anything like it. But it certainly had felt like being hit by a whirlwind, and he was certain it had not been about him at all; he felt used. Only the final part, when she had looked up at him, had been more or less pleasant. He wondered what Lillian - Lillian who? - had felt, and what on earth had induced her to the action he'd been part of? She'd smelled of sex when she rushed into the lift. Hmph. What with her looks, it wouldn't be inconceivable if - He didn't think he would ever know. Even if she worked in the building the chances of his meeting her ever again were flimsy in the extreme. And what if they met? Would he want to meet her again? He felt hot and bothered and passed a hand over his brow, and his nostrils caught the smell of Lillian's sex on his fingers. Damn. It took Jim a long time to drive the experience from his mind. His flat seemed even emptier and he sensed its loneliness more keenly than ever. But he did not think someone like Lillian would be a good substitute for Heather - or would she? Oh well, he'd never know, he supposed. Lillian drove home. She parked her car and went in. First she had a soak in the bath, and then she stuck a frozen meal into the microwave. She sat down with a can of beer in front of the TV, but none of the channels seemed to show anything interesting. Nothing doing there, she thought. When the microwave indicated her food was ready she sat down at the table with it. Somehow she didn't have an appetite, and she sat sticking her fork into the bits and pieces without making any headway. No. She emptied her plate into the bin, and emptied her beer can in the sink. She went to bed; but she couldn't get to sleep. Now what on earth had made her throw herself at that man? She had wanted to come, and her impulsive action had made that happen. She wondered what he might think about that - she hadn't really giving him a fat chance to back out. She was certain that if she hadn't forced him he would not have made any overtures. But then... She had expected the usual treatment from him when giving him a blowjob. His awkwardness, the almost tender way in which he had stroked her hair and his hesitation about coming in her mouth were quite alien. He had seemed - what? Shy? Friendly? Yes, but that was not quite what she felt. Respectful? He hadn't called her whore or bitch; he hadn't taken over when he was almost there to come over her face and he had helped her to her feet. He probably thought she was a slut - she'd definitely acted like one. Now was she? She was often asked, and for all kinds of shoots - in pink plimsolls, white stockings and a chequered skirt, with girls or in glasses with young men - she'd never quite understood why the woman should be labelled "dirty milf" while the men were at least as dirty. It was never the other way round. The physical aspect felt alright, but she wasn't sure if she cared for the end products. She'd certainly not have her own pictures on her walls. After she'd completed her further education her then boyfriend had introduced her to the sex world under false pretences; it had been physically satisfying and the various directors and photographers had been enthusiastic about her. He had expected a percentage of her earnings; she had put an end to that straight away. Somehow she had hung on. She was indifferent to most men in the scene; there were a few she actively disliked. There was no one there she'd ever care to have around at her place. She tried to imagine someone like Jim around. He had seemed to be quite nice. But if he was he'd probably not want to see her ever again, let alone talk to her. She shrugged her shoulders. Life seemed difficult. She wondered what it would be like to find a normal job; she'd miss the money, she supposed. On the other hand, could she go on for years and years? Who'd want to look at an old woman have sex with some smooth unfeeling youngster, and what would it be like when your partner felt physically repulsed by you? Over the next few months she found herself more and more disgruntled with her work. She tried to tell herself it was only a job, but the satisfaction she'd got out of it in the past was missing somehow. Her feelings of dissatisfaction with her job and her life in general made her try and find a regular friend. She went to discotheques and bars and once or twice picked someone up; but she didn't have too lucky a hand in them and her attempts came to nothing. The few men she'd tried were clearly attracted by her body and when she didn't want to sleep with them straight away they backed out or became intrusive and pushy, and she had enough of that at her work; she didn't want any of it in her spare time. After the fifth attempt she gave up. Jim went through a very busy period at work. He usually came home exhausted, and he had no time for anything but a handful of daydreams, that somehow seemed to centre around his encounter in the lift. When eventually things at work slackened a bit he went for a date with a young woman who had came to work for the same firm a couple of months earlier. He thought she seemed nice, she was funny and had a sharp tongue about a couple of colleagues they both found a little pompous. They had quite a pleasant night on the town, and when the pubs closed he asked her around for dinner at his place the next weekend. Liliane She readily accepted, and he went through most of the week looking forward to having her round. Then, that Thursday, when he came into the copy room he overheard her joking about him to another colleague. She described the way he had behaved on their evening out. He had been an awkward bumpkin, she said, and she mentioned their forthcoming dinner date as an immense joke. She wasn't sure how to back out yet, but she wasn't going, of course. Then he heard nothing any more but the sound of kissing and mortified to his soul he left the room. So that was that. When he saw her later that day he said he was sorry, but he couldn't make it that weekend. She didn't seem too sad about it, and he didn't try to find another date. His altercations with Heather came back to his mind with a vengeance. Women. No thanks. Lillian had made a few half-hearted attempts at finding a different job. The main problem was her CV. She did have the right papers; but how to explain the years of inactivity after her graduation? She could hardly be honest about them. She hadn't even been invited for an interview once. It seemed she was really stuck in the porn industry unless she could think up some very convincing lies. She felt so dissatisfied with everything that she had put herself on a rigorous work scheme redoing her home. When there were no shoots she'd be stripping off old wallpaper - it was amazing how many layers had amassed over the years - and sandpapering doors and door frames, and painting them a pleasant off-white. She bought a lot of new wallpaper and glue and a special table. She didn't succeed in getting the papering right. She'd tried a couple of times; but she either got blisters in the paper when it dried up or she didn't get the paper straight; once it even fell off. She wished she had someone to lend a hand. She shot another movie at the building Jim worked in. It was rather ridiculous. She ended up covered in washing up liquid; it would probably be labelled buck cake or something equally disgusting. She'd wondered lately how on earth people could fall for the improbable amounts of artificial come - the studs she worked with were rather average as a rule. A fisheye lens would change sizes out of proportion. Some fun, she thought. When she'd collected her pay she walked to the lift to go home. It took some time before it came, and then she saw with a mixture of pleasure and embarrassment that that man, Jim, was going down, too. "Er, hello," he said. "Lillian?" "Hello Jim," she said. To her surprise she felt almost shy; he seemed to feel the same for she saw him blush. "How's life?" he said. "Oh," she said, "I'm fine." She didn't feel too happy, really, and this unexpected and, as far as she was concerned, unhoped-for meeting didn't lift her spirits at all. It rather drove home the fact that she was surrounded by too many impossible men. Jim looked at her with raised eyebrows. "You don't sound it," he said. "Look, could I buy you a drink somewhere around? I er, I have been thinking about you from time to time, and I never expected to see you again." Lillian sighed. "Alright," she said unenthusiastically. "At the bar on the ground floor?" Jim nodded. That way they'd be close to the parking place; and there weren't any really pleasant pubs nearby, so this one was as good as the next. They went in. "What'll you have?" he said, and then went and collected their drinks at the bar. He took them over to their table, handed Lillian her glass and sat down. The conversation was rather strained at first, but when Lillian found Jim didn't make any allusions to what had happened some months ago and that he neither made ambiguous remarks nor tried to stare down her cleavage she thawed a little. She asked him about his job, and he told her a little about it, in a way that was funny and unassuming, and then she asked him where lived and he explained about his situation there. She kept hoping he wouldn't touch on her work in return, without realising he wouldn't dare. When she found he didn't she inwardly heaved a sigh of relief. He told one or two funny stories and then she decided to tell him about her papering antics. He grinned. "It's better to have one of your friends come over to help out," he said. "I have never managed alone. They say it will help you in finding out if you really get on well together, too. If you don't, you'll end up quarrelling long before the wall's done!" She nodded. "I think I'd better," she said. Fat chance of that, she thought. Her colleagues were definitely not into wallpapering, and the few friends she had weren't really anything more than chance acquaintances - rather like Facebook friends. She grinned bitterly. Jim saw the look on her face. He wasn't quite sure why it was there but he thought he could guess. He asked her her family name, and told her his. When they'd finished their drinks he thanked her. She said, "I'm afraid I haven't been too good company." "You really don't seem too happy," he said. "Is there anything wrong?" Lillian said there wasn't, but Jim saw a couple of big tears form in her eyes. She wiped them away with her hand. "I'm sorry," she said. "Would you mind if I saw you again some time?" Jim asked. He expected to be told off - but to his surprise she said no. "If I can have your number I'll call you some time next week," he said. She nodded and they exchanged numbers. Then she fled. She went straight home. The place was a big mess; apart from the spare room, which she hadn't started on yet all the rooms were innocent of wallpaper and the furniture stood in the middle waiting for the walls to be done. The kitchen seemed the only place where she could sit in relatively normal surroundings. She decided she should go and get a painter to do her stuff for her, and she opened the yellow pages and called one. A couple of days later a man duly arrived around noon to survey the work to be done, measure things and make an offer. She opened the door for him and he stepped into hall. She expected him to start asking questions; instead he looked at her with a bearish grin. "You're the missie I saw in the movies," he said. "The sweet slut. My God, I've always wanted to get my hands on your T&A." He stepped her way. Lillian didn't hesitate for a moment; she ran and locked herself into the toilet. "Come on, bitch, don't be a spoilsport," the man said. "You're not the woman to be bashful! Open up and give us some head!" He gripped the door handle and tried to force the door open. Lillian had her cell phone on her and called 112. She stayed where she was until she heard the police arrive; when she came out of the toilet the man had gone. She gave the particulars to the officer. When the police had left she went to the living room, took the sheet off her favourite chair, sat down and cried her heart out with huge, painful sobs. When she had calmed down enough she thought about things long and hard. She called off all engagements for the coming period. Then she found Jim's number in her list. Jim was about to have a short break when he heard his ringtone, a couple of bars from "When the spell is broken," which he'd put on after the debacle with Heather. He picked up his phone. Lillian, it said. He answered the call, and got a hysterical account of a painter and an attempted rape, and he couldn't make head or tail of it. He let her go on for some time and then he said, "Look, you'd better tell me in person. Do you think you'll be alright?" She said she would and he asked her address. "I'll pick you up at your place straight away," he said. "Then we can have coffee somewhere and you can tell me all about it. Alright?" "Yes. Please, you will come?" She was almost inaudible now. "Of course I will," Jim said. He rang off. He kept wondering what exactly could be the matter with the woman, and he dropped the work on hand. It wasn't pressing, fortunately. He went to his car as fast as he could and drove to Lillian's place. When he rang he saw her look through the small window in her front door before she opened it. "Please," she said, "Come in quickly." Lillian had spent all afternoon worrying. She'd always loved her home, and now it felt all wrong, and she was red-eyed with crying and her face was tear-stained. Jim wasn't good at tears. "Look," he said, "hadn't you better wash your face first? You really look a sight. My, you do want to get the place papered. What a mess." It wasn't the most diplomatic thing he could have said, and it elicited a fresh torrent of tears. "Oh dear," he said and put an arm around her. That was much better, even though it really opened the sluice gates, and he instinctively sensed he'd better let her cry. She felt so miserable she couldn't stop, and Jim's shirt front got quite wet in the process. When she stopped crying at last he produced his handkerchief and patted her eyes. She smiled somewhat self-consciously at him. "Just excuse me for a moment," she said, and went to the bathroom to wash her face. Her make-up was ruined, and she just washed it off. Better no make-up than such a mess, she thought. Then she went back to Jim. "You'd better tell me all about it," he said. "Er, if you'd rather not -" "No, I will," she said. "Can we go somewhere else? I have to get out of here for the moment." He nodded. "Some pub or restaurant?" he asked. "Or shall I take you over to my flat?" Lillian considered for a moment. She didn't think Jim would make free with her, but she didn't feel at all at ease either. "I'd like to go somewhere safe," she said. "And quiet." Jim nodded. They went to the car together and he drove her to a small restaurant that was usually reasonable quiet. They were only just open and they were the only customers as yet; they sat down in a far corner. Without her make-up and with all the sadness on her face he thought she was hardly recognisable as the woman he'd met in the lift - but she took on a rather more human aspect for him now. "Do you feel like some food?" he asked. Lillian realised she hadn't had anything since seven o'clock that morning. "Yes please," she said with a sigh. "I'm famished, actually." "Good. I can't drink as I'm driving. But you could do with a stiff drink, I suppose." "Yes please," she said again. He ordered a double whiskey for her while they studied the menu. When they had ordered their food he said, "I suppose you'd better tell me your troubles now - if you trust me at all. If I can help you out..." Lillian swallowed. She took a large swig from her glass, cleared her throat and then she haltingly told him about what had happened that morning, and about her job, and how she didn't know what to do next. She concluded, "You must think I'm an absolutely immoral person and a complete slut. But I'm really fed up with it all." Jim shook his head. "I don't, really. I er -" He smiled a little sadly. "I don't think you are. I was a bit taken aback by your shock tactics at first, but I highly enjoyed it afterwards. I can imagine a person gets fed up with that kind of job, though, and being seen as easy meat by some painter just because you've done some steamy movies is absolutely horrible." He shook his head again. Lillian took another swig of her drink. She started to cough violently, and Jim had to pat her on the back before she stopped. "Watch out," he said. "I don't want you to die on me." "I'll be careful. But I'd like another whisky, please." "Right. So what do we do now - if there's anything I can do? I'm reasonably good at wallpapering, so I could lend you a hand with that. Do the police think there's any chance of that creep returning? I mean, should there be someone to look after you?" Lillian shook her head. "They know him. He always listens to them; so he'll leave me alone. You've no idea how threatened I felt." She thought for some time and then she said, "The problem is that I don't see how on earth I can get round the gap in my CV. I'd love to stop this way of life - I cancelled all my engagements. But they'll think I'm ill, or maybe that I've found one that pays better. If I want to I can always go back." She consulted her glass again. "I don't. But it pays well. Another job would probably pay less - but maybe..." She didn't finish. A few tears ran slowly down her nose into the glass she held in her hand. She sniffed. "It's all my own mistake," she said. Jim bent over an patted her hand a little clumsily. "You'd better not start blaming yourself," he said. "It isn't fair and it doesn't help. I understand you want another job. I will try and think along and I can help with the mess at your place. And maybe you can think more clearly when that's off your mind. What kind of a job do you have in mind?" She told him she'd been looking for secretarial work; she thought she'd be good at it. But oh, how to get past that one insurmountable hurdle... Their meals were served. "Another whisky?" Jim asked. "I think I'd like one more," she said. "I don't usually drink this much." She smiled a little at herself, and rolled the remains of her second drink around in her glass. "Like the maelstrom I'm in." "Yes. But it's not irrevocable. Er, I mean that you can change things if you like. Let's try and find some way out." They did enjoy their food. Lillian was famished indeed, and Jim rather enjoyed sitting and looking at her. She was really beautiful, he thought, and without the make-up plastered all over her face or the provocative clothing she wasn't quite so daunting. He definitively preferred her like this. They talked about other things during the meal. Jim asked her about her hobbies, and she told him she liked travelling, and music - her father had taught her a lot about it, and her brother after that. He used to have a lot of music, she said. But after he suddenly died her sister had sold the lot for near to nothing. She still knew most of it, and she had been very sad about it. She had no other siblings and her parents were not alive any more. She watched TV now and then, but she wasn't a great fan. And he? Jim told her he only watched TV when he was dead tired. He played the guitar, and he liked art. He had a couple of original paintings and he enjoyed going to museums. Lillian nodded. Hmm. She'd gone there, too, in the past. Somehow she'd more or less forgotten. As to family, Jim said, there were only two aunts and one aunt and uncle left. The old aunts were in their late eighties, the aunt and uncle getting on for seventy. That was all, though. They'd been a small family all along, just like Lillian's. After their meal they decided that Jim would come and help her out that weekend. Jim footed the bill and then he drove Lillian home. He escorted her to her front door but there were no creeps around. "Thank you very much," Lillian said. "Not at all. I hope you're a little better now - And I hope you won't have a headache tomorrow. But that's a minor problem. I'll try and see if I can think of something." Lillian went inside and Jim gave her a wave of his hand. "See you on Saturday, then. Bye!" Lillian looked at all the furniture in the middle of the rooms. "Oh my God," she said aloud, "I hope he can knows how to get this done." She went to bed straight away and slept like a log. The next morning she went all over the house, and cleared away what little evidence of her involvement in the sex industry there was. She didn't want any visitors to get the wrong idea ever again, not if she could help it, and she didn't want to remind Jim too much of their talk that afternoon. But he had guessed anyway, she thought. Oh well, he didn't seem to reject her offhand. It wasn't too bad to have a friend around. She hoped it would not just be this one thing, him coming over to paper her walls. That Saturday morning Jim duly arrived, armed with an iron ruler, a roll-up tape measure - "I bought one of those, too," Lillian said - a large pair of scissors, a sharp knife and a common big brush with bristles of the kind you use with a dust pan. But it was new and clean. He showed Lillian how to prepare the starch, and how to apply it, and they used her brush for the glue and his to apply pressure on the paper once it was in its place. They only talked shop: measurements and new starch, and could they pass the scissors, please? Together they work fast and methodically, and when they'd ended their first day they had finished the living room, the bedroom, the study and part of the corridor. "We should be able to finish the lot tomorrow," Jim said. "Come on, let's go out for dinner. Any suggestions?" They went to an Italian restaurant. Jim had a pizza and Lillian a lasagne dish with mushrooms. Lillian had a few glasses of Chianti and Jim stuck to water like a few days before. "Are you feeling any better?" Jim asked. "Oh, and by the way, how was your head that morning?" "Yes I do, and no, no problems. I think I just needed it, really. Working like this is good, too." "It boost the morale," Jim said. "Silly expression, but absolutely true." They grinned at each other. "I'll be round at seven tomorrow if you like," Jim said. "Then we can finish everything, including replacing you furniture. Ok?" Lillian nodded. "Yes," she said. "That would be wonderful." He dropped her off at her place and drove home. He turned in at then but sleep came hard. He wondered how on earth he could help her find a job, and the things she'd told him about her modelling and the encounter in the lift were a muddle in his mind. He tried to envisage her face when she'd blown him that evening and then decided against it. What if he - No, he wouldn't. He went to the bathroom and masturbated, thinking strictly of Heather in their good days. Lillian didn't need him to brew more trouble. Then he went back to bed. He kept mulling the past few days in his head - and suddenly he got a flash of inspiration. His uncle would be retiring in three months' time; he had his own firm and employed a couple of girls to do the typing. He decided to call on him that Monday and see if he could help out. Better keep mum about it, he thought - no false expectations, please. He fell asleep with a grin on his face. They duly finished the task. The furniture was returned to its proper place, and the whole house looked shiny and inhabitable again. "Wonderful," Lillian said. "Thanks an awful lot!" They had a simple spaghetti dish at her place. Lillian was a competent cook, and Jim was employed to cut some tomatoes, cucumber and goat's cheese for a salad. Jim left at about eight and promised to call again in a few days. That Monday he visited his uncle's firm in his lunch break. To his relief he was in, and they sat talking for quite some time. Jim asked him to employ Lillian in a secretarial capacity for the final months of his working life, and to agree to tell possible future employers that she had indeed spent the last six years or so in his firm. His uncle, Brendan Barnes, raised his eyebrows. It wasn't that he didn't trust his nephew, but he found it a rather tall order. "She is not trying to cover up any criminal behaviour, is she?" he said. "No. She has a gap in her CV she couldn't possibly explain away without great embarrassment. I think you can trust her; I do, for one. She is going through an emotional bad patch to say the least, and - oh well, I think she deserves better of life." "Could you tell me about this gap?" Jim considered. "I could, I suppose, although I'd rather not. I certainly could not tell Aunt Marge." "I see. Well, I want to meet her first. You will understand that if she seems unsuitable in any way I cannot employ her. If not, I'm willing to help you out. Her wages will lower your inheritance; but I don't think you'll mind." Liliane Jim grinned. "You're dead right," he said. "I'm very glad you're willing to see her. I'll call her and send her round." Lillian was over the moon. She made an appointment straight away; and she went to the interview dressed in a businesslike suit, on flat heels and with no other make-up than a hint of green over her eyes. Mr Barnes liked what he saw. The interview was conducted in very good spirits, and it was decided Lillian would come to the office the next morning to be shown the ins and outs by Janet, his trusted secretary. She was one year past retiring age, but she hung on to stop together with her boss. Lillian liked her. After a few days she really had the hang of it. Janet told her employer he could entrust things to Lillian. He happily worked along with another secretary on his books, one who could take some things off Janet's hands. He knew she was getting tired, and he thought Lillian's participation was an excellent idea. Lillian had called Jim to tell him the good news. She felt very excited, and very happy, and thanked him profusely. Jim downplayed his involvement in the business. It was all thanks to his uncle, after all. Lillian made a face - which Jim couldn't see - and invited him for a celebration meal that weekend. Jim went to the restaurant by taxi. He did not want to have to resort to water again; and that meant he couldn't drive. He'd bought Lillian a bunch of roses, and he had dressed for the occasion. Lillian was already waiting for him. She beamed. Jim gave her the roses and congratulated her once again. Over dinner Lillian gave a detailed account of her new job, the firm, Janet and Jim's uncle. She was completely happy with everything, and her pay was more than she'd expected. It was quite enough to live on, she said. "And what's more," she added, "I don't have to hide anything any more. I can simple tell anyone what I do and where without having to tell lies now and then. Oh, I'm so happy!" She looked it. Jim sat watching her, delighting in her radiance, and he reflected that she looked so incredibly different from the woman that had assaulted him months ago. It was strange to see how drastically her feeling of worth changed her features as well. She was clearly Lillian, and yet - but he highly preferred the woman he saw now. She was almost painfully attractive this way. After dinner Lillian asked him over for coffee. Jim came along happily, and they sat on the couch talking and laughing over their coffees. Jim looked around at the newly done-up room. "We really did a good job at this, didn't we?" he said. "Yes," Lillian said. Then she fell silent. She smiled a little at Jim and sidled up to him. She put an arm round his neck and kissed him. It was quite unlike the first time, and Jim felt hot and cold at the same time when he felt her breasts touch his side. Then she got up. "This is to say thank you," she said. "Your help has made all the difference." She stroked his cheek and sat back again. They had some wine after that and sat talking until ten when Lillian indicated it was her bedtime - she wanted to be fresh and alert for her job that next morning. Jim called a taxi and when it arrived he said his goodbyes a little reluctantly. Lillian cleared the cups and glasses away. She glanced at her living room, turned off the lights and went upstairs. When she lay in bed she thought a bout Jim. She knew a lot about him, she thought. He was gentle and a little awkward sometimes; he was good with hands if her walls were anything to go by. She had certainly liked his physique, but she didn't want to think of that too much. She did like his presence - his voice, his eyes, his smile... he was a real friend. You could have a lot of friends, it seemed; she felt she had made another one in Janet, and in a way, one in Mr Barnes. The people from her modelling hadn't seemed like friends. She realised there wasn't one she'd be happy to see again, and the feeling was obviously mutual; not one of them had cared to call and ask her why she hadn't shown her face any more. The male staff at Barnes's was alright; they didn't qualify as friends but she highly preferred them over her former colleagues. She wondered why and decided it must be a matter of decorum and manners and - and what else? At Barnes's she wasn't seen as inferior, for one thing; her male colleagues appreciated she was good at her work. Jim - He had told her he was impressed by her painting skills, and when they had discussed music he had not laughed at her. And he'd come as fast as he could when she had gone haywire over that awful painter. She wasn't sure what exactly she felt for him, but she was certainly happy when he was around. She fell asleep and woke up at two, feeling a little dazed. She went to bathroom and returned to bed and resumed the train of thought that had been interrupted by her falling asleep. She wondered if she'd like him around more often. You did have to like someone very much then, didn't you - she wasn't certain if she did. Perhaps, she thought, they'd get on each other's nerves - and she didn't want to get physical with anyone again. And men seldom took no for an answer... she fell asleep with a sad heart without realising just why. She woke up much too early with Jim on her mind. She remembered with pleasure how he had held her after the incident with the painter. It had been comforting; and he hadn't made for her private parts or her breasts. She could do with a cuddle... Jim - but suppose he remembered the silly talk she'd given him in that lift - she felt her face go hot with embarrassment. How could he ever look on her without a smirk? But he didn't smirk when they were together. He actually seemed to enjoy her company as much as she did his, and they always had fun together... She lay awake until the alarm forced her to get up. Janet and Lillian were engaged in arranging Mr Barnes's farewell reception, and Lillian was often told what to do about Janet's. Mr Barnes was adamant that the two of them should be feted at the same time; they'd more or less run the business together, after all. There were invitations to be printed and addresses to be found, and stickered onto envelopes, and the caterer had to be instructed, and the venue arranged - Lillian loved the job, and she turned out to have a knack for that sort of thing. Life at the office became hectic. There was only one more week to go before Brendan Barnes would call it a day, and all the staff had applied for work elsewhere when the firm would stopped. Most of them had already found some, and Lillian had received invitations to come for two interviews. She'd asked Mr Barnes which one he would prefer for her, and he had been quite clear about it. It was her second interview; there were two days between them, and she wondered if she'd be given enough time to wait until the results of the second one were known. She didn't know, but Mr Barnes had written a glowing recommendation to the firm he'd wanted her to be in after he'd received word from the PO that he'd like to know some more about Ms L. Stanley. The first interview was alright and the firm seemed pleasant; but the second one was conducted in such a way that she immediately understood what Mr Barnes meant. When they asked her if she had any other irons in the fire she told them about her first interview. "Good," the PO said. "We'll let you know later this afternoon. Where can I reach you?" She gave Barnes's telephone number. She'd hardly returned from the interview when they called her to tell her she could come. "If you accept we'll expect you to start in three weeks," they said. Alright, that left her one week to get accustomed to the idea after the reception. "Thank you very much," she said. "I'll be there." Finally, she thought, finally. A good job with prospects in a firm Barnes liked - what else could a girl want? At five she went to her car and drove down to Jim's place to tell him the good news. Jim had visitors for the night; a friend of his was staying at his place with his wife. They had wanted to go to a couple of museums and a concert and as Jim had a lot of room to spare in his apartment, especially since Heather had parted company with him, it was a pleasant pied-à-terre. He was very fond of these people and he had taken the afternoon off to be with them. He had done some shopping with Marguerite. He liked her a lot and he found it easier to talk to her than to Fred, her husband. He told her all about Lillian - bar a few embarrassing details - and Marguerite listened to him with a broad smile. "So you're in love again?" she said. "She sounds very nice, but a bit difficult. Are you sure it's a good idea?" Jim had wanted to deny he was, but her final question threw him completely off guard. "Of course it is," he said. "And if it gets hard we can weather that." "Does she know?" "I don't know - I've never told her. I er -" "Don't you think you'd better? Nobody can wait forever." "We haven't known each other that long yet," he said. "but I suppose you're right." They were almost home when Lillian saw them chattering away, arm in arm, each of them carrying a shopping bag in their free hand. She felt her face go hot. The bastard, she thought. So he has got himself another friend. She turned her car around, and drove off with screeching tyres. Jim and Marguerite looked around, but Lillian was already too far away for Jim to see it was her. Lillian's joy in her new job had vanished completely. She went home, cooked an uninspired dinner and threw half of it into the dustbin. She slept badly and it was hard for her not to be unreasonable to the other staff at Barnes's. She made an effort to put Jim off her mind and muster her old enthusiasm for the reception, but it was only a rather poor pastiche. The day of the reception came. It was not much of day, weather-wise; it started with a thin drizzle that turned into chilling rain as the morning progressed. The day that to Lillian seemed cold and grey anyway became positively grim in her eyes. She shook herself and forced a smile. Mr Barnes had been very good to her, and he did not deserve a secretary in a foul mood on his special day. She drove to the room they'd hired for the occasion and went in for the final touches. Doing something lifted her spirits considerably. It boost the morale, she thought - and then she felt the tears run down her face. Damn him, she thought. Fortunately she hadn't used any eyeliner. She dabbed her eyes with a paper serviette, and then gave herself no more time for thought. They had arranged everything to t he smallest details and it all went very smoothly. Barnes and Janet were the centre of attention and there were all kinds of people: members from the golf club, business relations, close friends, Janet's reading society, a cookery club - Lillian was greeted by her future employer who knew her by name and who spent some time talking to her trying to learn some more a bout her. He seemed the right kind of guy, she thought. Then her heart skipped a beat. Jim. What was he doing here? It took a moment before it dawned on her that he'd just as much right to be there as she had, if not more. Jim looked around and saw Lillian in the throng. He walked up to her and greeted her enthusiastically. She looked at him with a pinched mouth; her face felt taut and she wanted to shout at him. Instead she nodded briefly and turned on her heels. Jim was flabbergasted. He went very white. He hadn't minded when the woman at the office had played a game with him; but Lillian's rejection hit him like a fist. Lillian deliberately kept her back turned hid way. She didn't want to see him. She didn't want to speak to him. She wished never to see him again - but he was still on her retina, laughing and talking arm in arm with that woman. Jim stood open mouthed looking at Lillian's angry back. It took someone to speak to him before he realised. "I'm sorry," he said. "I er -" He shook his head. He looked about the room, located Janet and his uncle. Janet was very happy to see him, as usual, and he talked to her for some minutes. Then he went up to his uncle. He wished him a good retirement, and said he'd visit them shortly. Then he asked him to say hello to Lillian. "She's here, you know. Why don't you go and find her?" "She doesn't seem to want to talk to me," Jim said almost inaudibly. "I hope you don't mind, but er, I'm afraid I cannot stay here now." His uncle had known Jim since he was a little boy, and since Jim's parents had died they had become very close. He looked at him sharply. "I see," he said. "I'm sorry. Please take care." Jim fled the room. He found his coat, put it on, blundered outside and unlocked his car. He sat down at the wheel and stared through the rain into the distance. Mr Barnes considered for a moment. Then he told Janet to hold the fort and went off in search of Lillian. "Jim asked me to say hello to you," he said. Lillian froze. "Thank you," she said with compressed lips. She stood stiffly waiting to be released. "I'm afraid he's left again, so you needn't worry," Barnes said gently. "I'm an old man. I'm afraid I don't understand. I've had my share of trouble and I recognise it when I see it; I usually fight it. My marriage hasn't always been a bed of roses but it was worth fighting for. Trouble isn't invincible. I'm always glad to help, but I lack the data to solve this equation. Maybe you can put me wise?" Lillian couldn't. Mr Barnes patted her shoulder, and waited until she stopped crying. Then he said, "Hadn't you better go and find Jim? Whatever happened it's always better to talk." "But your party?" she blubbered. "It'll take care of itself; the two of you arranged everything perfectly. I'll see you again, I hope. By the way, did you get the job you wanted?" "Yes I did." She smiled wanly at him. "Thank you!" "Right. Off you go." After sitting with his head in his hands, staring at the wire fence that surrounded the car park for a long time Jim had turned the ignition key and slowly reversed out of the slot his car was in. Then he put the clutch into first gear and drove to the gate of the car park. Home would be the only place to go to; he didn't really want to go there, but there didn't seem to be any other possibility. The windscreen wipers made the world a little visible; they didn't succeed in making it clear. Lillian picked up her bag and her umbrella and went out into the rain. She entered the car park. To her surprise she recognised Jim's car coming slowly to the entrance. She waved her umbrella at him and knocked on the window. Jim stopped. He gave her a bewildered look and motioned to her to get in. Lillian did. She shook out her umbrella and sat down next to him. "Jim," she said, "your uncle just spoke to me; he said we'd better talk." Jim put the car in reverse and backed into the open place he'd just left. He killed the engine and looked at her. He felt the hairs in neck stand up, and made a gesture with his hands that spoke of his bewilderment. "Lillian," he said, "What is the matter? Have I done something wrong? I hardly recognised you just now." Lillian sat motionless in the passenger seat. She tried to control her anger, but her misery and disappointment broke out together. "I've got the job I wanted. I told you I had applied, and I was so excited about it, and then I was called by the new firm and I drove straight to your place to tell you - and you were there with your girlfriend... and I had been so happy and..." She couldn't possibly finish what she'd wanted to say. She rested her chin on her chest and cried noiselessly. Jim sat stricken. He couldn't for the life of him see what she meant. "I haven't got a girlfriend, for Pete's sake," he said - and then he realised. "I had friends over for the concert that night, and I have known them for a long time, and I went shopping with Marguerite. You must have seen us come home -" He remembered the car they'd heard screech off. It took a moment for his words to sink in. Lillian sat frozen and clenched the grip of her umbrella as if she were to break it. "She was just a friend?" she said. "You looked so happy, and I -" "I was happy," Jim said. "But in a different way than I was when we were papering you walls. Marguerite is married and I like the two of them equally much." She was just a friend - Lillian felt the world fall to pieces around her. Oh God, she thought, I must have ruined everything. Everything. She couldn't stop her tears. "I'm very sorry," she said. "I didn't mean - I thought -" She shook her head and looked out into the desolate weather, into the desolation of her own heart. "I hoped that we -" Jim tired to say something consoling but Lillian suddenly opened the door of his car and ran back into the reception room. Jim sat looking at her disappearing form for a moment. Then he picked up her bag and umbrella, got out and slammed the door shut, and ran after her. When he came inside he saw that both his uncle and Lillian were not in there. Some other guests looked at him and thought he looked as if he'd seen a ghost - all colour had drained from his face. He looked around and went to Janet. "Is my uncle -" "Yes, he's with Lillian. What's happening?" "I wish I knew," Jim said. "Lillian's upset, and she saw me with an old friend..." "You'd better wait, Jim. If Brendan can't make her pull herself together, I will try and help. Is she in love with you?" "I don't know. I don't think she does, either." "And you?" "Yes, I am. I just came to admit it to myself when I discussed her Marguerite. I thought I might make her get to trust me and eventually - but I'm afraid I can forget that now." He stared gloomily at his uncle's trusted secretary. When Mr Barnes saw Lillian blunder back into the room, her face wet and upset he took her into a side room straight away. "Now, now, now," he said. "Jim must have been very awful to you. What did the bastard do?" "He is no bastard," Lillian said looking at him angrily through her tears. "He's no bastard; he's nice. It's just that I - I have ruined everything. I thought I saw him with his girlfriend and -" She sniffed, and he gave her his handkerchief. "And you were angry and jealous and decided that was it, right?" She nodded and started to cry again. "Does he like you?" "I think so - I thought so. I don't know. He cannot like me any more after this..." "My dear young lady. This is the second time you've decided for him what he feels. That is not the thing to do. I know; I made the same mistake a couple of times. It's damaging, but not irreparable. Do you want to try and mend things?" She nodded a little shakily. "Good. Where's Jim now?" She shook her head. "I don't know," she mumbled. "I just ran for it." "I will go and see if he's followed you back in." He went into the large room and saw his nephew standing with Janet. Their conversation didn't seem too lively either, he thought. He went over to them and asked Jim to come along. "Is Lillian a little better?" "Let's try and get the two of you sorted out," his uncle said. "Do you like her?" "Yes," Jim said. "She's er, she is... It is hard to explain. She is difficult. But that's not really what I mean. She doesn't trust people... and I tried to get her to trust me..." "So there lies a nice task for you, my boy. Did you ever tell her?" Jim shook his head. "I didn't want to scare her off. Maybe I should have; Marguerite said that no one can wait forever." "She's damn right. Come along." Jim followed his uncle into the side room where Lillian was waiting. She had thought about Mr Barnes's words, and decided that he was right. She'd better ask Jim how he felt about her and not take her own surmise for gospel truth. Lilibeth the Candy MILF Carrying the grocery bags into the house, I stopped just inside the door, smiled, and took a deep breath. The whole house smelled of my handiwork. I wanted to just stand there and savor it, but I had so much to do. Only half my party decorations were up, and while yes the house was taking on a wonderfully creepy feeling of macabre, the end result would be so much better. I needed to finish pulling the cotton cob webbing across the door frame corners, I had light bulbs to change out in half my lamps and the dry-ice fog machine was not working right yet. At least I had the graveyard in place. The PVC iron fence was freshly painted flat-black, and I had gotten it placed around the two sides of my front yard. All the Styrofoam tombstones were in their normal spots, I had touched up the stone gray paint on them as well. Now. Back to work in here. Sitting down the bags on the counter, I saw my sons "crap" all over my island. And, of course, I could see where inroads had been made into my finished boxes of candy. "ROY!" I was answered by a distant "Yeah, Mom?" "GET YOUR BUTT DOWN HERE!" I tried to make a guess at what all had been plundered while I waited for him to show up. There were a half-dozen chocolate-covered cherry mice gone. My Pop Rock acid pops were also showing signs of candy snatching. The pumpkin fudge! The boy was lucky as hell that there was a knock on the back door just as he arrived. Not that seeing the pimply- faces of his friends Zane and Jeffery, standing there when I opened my door, was any better. Jeffery showing up was guaranteed to cost the party a handful of white chocolate pretzel haystacks and Zane .... Zane, I just didn't like. While it was nothing new for a guy to be looking at my boobs when he talked to me, it really creeped me out when it was a teenager ... a punk, greasy-haired, smelling like he bathed in AXE, teenager. He wasn't three feet in the door when his eyes took up permanent residence on my breasts. Like the horny little fucker had never seen anything bigger than a c-cup before. I eyed both boys, and my son too for that matter, with mild disgust when they looked at the dozens of boxes of candy sitting around the kitchen and dining room. If it wasn't sex it was food. Teen fucking boys! I gave Roy a look while his friends piled their own "junk" on the island next to my son's "crap" making an even bigger pile of "stuff" in my way. Enough is enough. "Mom can we ...?" "No. Not a chance. Don't even ask, I'm already mad at you." I pointed the finger-of-death at my son and then turned to the other. "And you two, even more so, no. Enough already. I have twenty-five guests coming here tomorrow night, the house isn't half-finished and I am going to need all that I have made so far, and then some, for the Treat bags I make for my guests. No more candy till after the party." I picked up an armload of my candy making ingredient, (various tools, and boxes of confectioners' sugar, chocolate bark, edible glitter, caramel cubes, and powdered ready-to-mix colored icings) and all but pushed their mess off my counter. "I want all of you out of my kitchen, and certainly out of my candy boxes, for the rest of the night." "That's what I was just about to ask about," said Roy defensibly. "I wanted to see if I could go hang at Zane's tonight ...." "Get! I don't care, so long as you're out of my hair." With a final look at him, I went past the other two other teen boys in my kitchen, avoiding Zane's attempt to be enough in the way so that my boobs might brush him in passing. Fuckin' scummy-smelling, hormone-driven, little toad. His trying to get either a peek or a "brush-feel" of my breasts at least once per visit was getting so damn old, so damn fast. As I went out the door, to retrieve the rest of my supplies from the car, I knew the horny perv's eyes were on my ass. Out at the car, I stopped and took a deep breath. "Rick, you fucking prick I need you." I cussed my ex-husband, Roy's father. Leave it to him to decide to have a midlife crises--and run off with a twenty-year-old convenience store clerk who smiled at him--just as his son hit the difficult mid-teens. In the three years since the divorce my son, my once so loving son was getting out of my control so quickly. He wouldn't listen to me anymore, talked back more often than he listened, and to make matters worse was more and more often hanging out with little punks like Zane. As I watched the three of them, laughing and pushing each other, walk out to that battered up old Mustang--with it's too big wheels and crappy as hell flat black paint job--I wished I hadn't snapped at Roy back there. Telling him I didn't care what he did was worse than anything I could do but I was just so frustrated with him. Half the time he didn't even seem like the same kid I raised. I sighed and shook my head when the garage door twenty feet from me started to open and I saw my neighbor, Gabriel Cooper, standing there with his weed eater. Suburban warrior ready to tackle his lawn, yet again. For at least the next four, un-muffled-gas-powered-yard-tool-after-yard-tool, hours. I looked to the trees, mentally wishing for all the golden and red leaves to suddenly drop at once, so that maybe ... please maybe, this would be the last time I would have to hear his fanatical levels of yard clean up for the year. He smiled and lifted a hand in greeting when he saw me. I nodded, smiled back and waved. Why had I invited him to the party tomorrow? Yeah, he was cute, in a salt and pepper gray goatee way. Yeah, he was single, a not too unattractive fact that I noticed more and more often of late. But he was also nutty as a squirrel turd! Since he had moved in last fall he had done more yard work that three landscaping companies combined. Every day, three to four hours per day, he would be doing ... something! ... a loud, noisy, or simply uber-obnoxious as hell at ungodly hours ... something. "Hey, Lilibeth." His smile was an ear to ear grin. I saw his eyes dart from my nose to my toes and back quickly, he was one of those kinds of guys. Wanted to look, was going to look, but didn't want to look like he was looking. Men! "Or should I call you Mrs. Wonka? I've been smelling candy for days now. Any samples?" His grin was infectious, and if I hadn't been dealing with teen thieves for days I might have been more susceptible. I shook my head. "I'm already behind in what I need to make. I'll have you a goody bag tomorrow night, don't worry." He gave me a nod. "I'll be looking forwards to it. I think I put on twenty pounds last year because of your holiday candy. I'm going to need to do more yard-aerobics to keep in shape this season." Oh, Joy. With a nod that I had heard him, I took the last of my groceries out the trunk, shut it with a magical combination of elbow and hip, and headed inside ... to find they had raided my damn pumpkin fudge again! Grabbing my phone, my thumbs flew as I texted an angry message, but then didn't send it. I sighed. Candy was meant to be eaten and they are just boys. I looked around at the raided boxes, made a mental count of what I needed to make more of and went to work. As I heated the sugar I realized that was the problem, what had once been fun now felt like work. Every year, year after year from the earliest days of my marriage to Rick, I had taken such pleasure in making candy for all of our friends and relatives. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas was the times of year I had looked forwards too. Now with him gone off to fuck a younger, skinnier, woman and me alone, with friends who seemed more and more to come more for the free treats than for my company, I wanted to throw all this out. But I couldn't. It was almost like an addiction by now. My eyes started going to recipe websites, my fingers started to ache when I walked down the baking aisles at the store, and I would smile when I thought about what new confections I was going to try to make this year. I got a pot of coffee going; it was going to be a long day. To cheer me up I spooned some of my purple decorative sugar into the coffee when it was ready, just to be more in the spooky season mood. I cranked up some "Ghostly" music and got to some serious candy making. ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ~ "... bubble, bubble, boil and trouble. Something wicked this way comes!" ~ With my kitchen resembling an Oompa-Loompa wet dream, I sang along with one of my favorite songs off the Harry Potter soundtrack as I made magic. Letting all the stress of the morning slide, I suddenly found myself with more energy than I had ever known. In bursts and spurts I shot around the kitchen, going from one candy station to another, then to the stove and back. Making magic. Sugar boiled, chocolate melted and powdered sugar and shaved coconut got everywhere. And I mean everywhere. All my worry and depressions over who was coming to see me and who just came to the parties for the candy faded. This was my meditation. My Zen. I wished I could just hover here in this single second forever. Let the world slip away, let time stop and let me make candy, a confectioners heaven of sinfully caloric delights. This was me. I was, in an odd way that made such sudden sense to me, candy. I was sweet, no other word for it. I was a bit bad for you and, as my ex had showed me, you could get to the point where you've had too much of me and just can't take me anymore. Looking over at the stacked boxes, I smiled. And then, after you dump me like I'm trash, I can still cost you a leg. Giggling at my own humor, I poured melted colored sugar into cold water and laughed my delight at seeing the little hard ball forming as I pushed it around in the bowl. Taking the syrup to the counter I poured it over the popcorn, peanuts, and marshmallows. Working quickly, I got it mixed with my wooden spoons, and then hand rolling golf ball size popcorn balls, I shook them in orange sugar and set them aside to finish up with jack-o-lantern icing smiles ... later. Ding! Out the oven came my Dia de Muertos skull cookies. Setting those aside to cool. I filled a piping bag with the fancy icing ... also later. Going to the dining room, I looked over the dozens of colorful clear plastic cups. I pulled out one of my rock candy suckers and mischievously stuck it into my mouth. Two weeks old and the vanilla rum taste, and the super sweetness of the rock candy, simply flooded my mouth. Oh, they were so very ready. Mouthing my creation, I spent the next thirty minutes hanging all my rock candy pops so they could dry. Back into the kitchen, I flew about my candy land. Taking boiling water, I mixed up green Jell-O, and then went about making my gummy worms. I grinned as I poured the mix into a worm-mold, I got from a website that let fishermen make their own fishing worms. Then, giggling, I tipped the last of it into a brain mold I found ... oh, I don't know where I found it. It was perfect! "If you want to view paradise ...," Singing to myself, I stopped by the sink to get more sanitized spoons from the pot of water I had boiled. Looking out the window, I saw Gabriel working in his yard. "... pure imagination. Damn he has a nice ass." Biting my bottom lip, I chuckled at the wicked thoughts running through my head. "I've got a golden ticket..." Turning my head a bit, to get a better angle of that view, I suddenly jumped at the face in the window glass. I panted for a half second at my own stupidity. My own damn reflection scared me. Leaving the weed-eating lunatic, with the nice ass, to his normal insanity, I went back to my own. My own? Was that what this is? A form of insanity, one that has me trapped in a perpetual candy making loop.? Year after year of this, decade after decade, century after century of making candy. How many millennium will I be bound, no chained to this stove? Boiling sugar, adding colorings? Watching the mixtures making sure they boil only to the proper point and never beyond that. Never. How many times have I made a mess of something? How many times has something I've done, dozens of times over and over, and over and over, gone to hell at the last moment? How much sugar have I wasted? How many cups? Losing track of time for a moment looking at all my various size measuring cups, I jumped when the cooking timer behind me went off. "Damn it!" Taking the pumpkin fudge off the stove, I poured it into the dozens of shot glasses. I quickly stuck cut bamboo skewers into them and popped them into the refrigerator to quick set. I put the cream cheese for the icing to slowly heating up in some hot water so that by the time they were set I would have the glaze. What next? Ah ... decorating the house? Yes? Everything either needed time to set or was cooling off. Good enough. As I stepped into the hallway, I screamed as a spider the size of a Yorkie terrier moved across the back of the couch in the living room. Clutching the door frame, I stopped cold in my tracks and then laughed. The huge, dollar-tree-bought, plastic spider hadn't moved. Of course not, silly me. Candy making fumes getting to me. Fanning my heated face, I moved into the living room and walked over to the spider. I absently scratched at the fake fun ruff behind its plastic head. "Don't scare me anymore. You're supposed to scare my arachnophobic guests, not me. Understand, Skippy?" I chucked at its soft purr and went back to changing out the normal fluorescent spiral bulbs for the black-light ones I bought yesterday. As the room took on more of an ethereal glow from everything white now shining, I would pause and stare at the oddest things. Old family memorabilia, all the decorations still to hang, one of Roy's socks that he had left under the coffee table! "Damn it. I told him to pick that up yesterday. And now I have to touch it. Yuck! That boy! His damn socks can walk off on their own." Having just said that, I really shouldn't have been surprised when the glowing white sock began to inchworm across the hardwood floor headed towards the laundry room. Standing there with my jaw open, I watched the glowing white sock leaving the living room. "Wait, what ... the fuck?" Backing away from that, I stretched out to catch my balance on the wall and my hand became tangled in the cobwebs. Looking at my enmeshed fingers, I screamed as all those tiny glowing, clear-plastic, spiders went running up my arm. Brushing them away, I fled in a panic to the haven that is my kitchen. I stopped in the doorway and screamed again. The walls were melting chocolate! Running my hands down both sides of the hallway I shook my head, denying what I had just seen. That's when I tasted the papery color of my gray-dotted wallpaper. With my fingertips? Looking at my hands, I brought them to my face and smelled the years of sugar built up on them. Decades after decades, centuries after centuries of candy making. Chained to that damn stove. Working till the skin slumped off the bones. Like it was doing now. Not able to understand, I tried to push my flesh back up onto my hands, it molded like putty them slumped like wax. I moved by instinct towards ... any place but here. When I hit the dining room table and bumped it, all those little cups of sugar syrup I hadn't dealt with yet, they tipped over and spilled and I stood transfixed. Trapped, caught like a fly in one of the draped webs, looking at all the spreading colors. How beautiful. They ran in flowing circles towards the corners of the table and dropped like colored stars to the floor. How long I stood there I have no idea but I didn't leave that color swirl till the smelly demon showed up. "Ms. Foster?" I looked at the demon with his face covered in boils. That terrible reek from his skin blistered my nose and I cried out covering my mouth, least I vomit out fountains of candy tastings. "You alright?" it asked. Shaking my head, I tried to get away from him but crashed into the china hutch. I cringed myself down into the corner between the side of it and the wall. "No, you're not alright. Hey, did you take some of this?" I flinched back from the glowing bag of purple stars he held out towards me. "It was on the kitchen table. Did you? Some of its missing." Not knowing why this demon wanted to know if I took his stars I tried to move but found myself unable to make my legs work. "You did, didn't you? Oh, how fucked up is that." He smiled a hideous mouthful of golden fangs then laughed in a way that hurt my hair. "Well, well, well." I gave a scream when his hand darted out and his claw ripped one of my nipples off my breast. Trying to push him away, I tried again to run, but I tripped over something and splashed into the floor of the hallway. The blue carpet runner had turned into a deep pond of icy water. His foot was suddenly on the small of my back, holding me under the water. I tried to scream and got a throat full of thick brackish sludge. "Oh, this is just too good." The demon grabbed my hair and pulled my head from the water. "I've wanted to have you since I met your son. And now look what I've got. His mom fucked out her head and no one here to keep me from this ass." A fish bit my butt! I tried to swim down the hall to get away from him, and biting fish, as he grabbed at my sweat pants. He laughed at me all the harder and pulled them down off my struggling legs. Then I was again held under the water by his foot on my back. "You're going nowhere, bitch. Not till my cums leaking out of you somewhere at least. Come on, let's see those tits." I was grateful that the demon pulled my face out the water, but then the smell of him hit me again. I retched then gasped for breath when he turned me over and punched me in the stomach. I screamed or tried to when his hand went all the way through me. I cried as his fingers caressed my spine. "Lie still you cunt. And .. oh damn, look at those." I felt cold air then hot, scorching hot hands on my breasts. The one with the nipple torn away still hurt like madness. I tried to struggle to keep my shirt on but he was so strong and I was in the dining room sitting in a chair while he was taking my shirt off in the hall. I couldn't reach him. Moving my hand to the table top, I absently swirled colors while out in the hall he finished undressing me, ripping my white panties in his hurry to see my pussy. I can understand that, sitting here swirling colors, looking at myself lying there in the hall, I have to admit I have a beautiful pussy. All nice and trimmed up, as trimmed as the hedges next door. Thinking of those beautifully manicured shrubs I opened my legs a bit thinking of the manicurist. "Getting hot for this cock, huh? Well, Lilibeth, don't worry, you're about to get all you could ever take of my snake. In every hole." He pulled at the patch of blonde pubic hairs making them stretch out like taffy. Then he patted my pussy. "But I'm putting it right here first." I squirmed my ass on the hard dining room chair, I don't like snakes. I've never put them up as decorations. I tried to leave the chair, to walk out the dining room when he stood up and began to unzip his pants. I didn't want to see any snakes. "Lie still!" Then it was there ... oh god no! Uncoiling bigger than ten pythons it wrapped its way out of his pants impossible long, running down the hall, through the living room. Then the head whipped into the dining room and appeared right before my eyes, hissing at me. Then the demon screamed! Part of smelly demons penis coils had crossed the webbing of Skippy, my spider friend, and the huge, annoyed arachnid did what all spiders do. Plastic or not. It bit the snake. With that massive worm thrashing from one side of the hallway to the other, I crawled down the last few yards of water. My arms stretching out to grab at the kitchen island to help pull me free of the grasping hands of flesh colored tentacles. Pulling myself to my feet, I ran out the back door screaming with the demon right behind me. He was howling and coils of bloody, spider venom swollen penis whipped around trying to grab at me, to pull me back to him. Back to where the smell of him would drive me to my knees. Lilibeth the Candy MILF An Angel! With a sound that shook the heavens an Angel appeared. His hand raised above his head, a thunderous sword of green, billowing flames and smoke. Behind me the demon stopped, in awe of the powerful being before it. But then with a snarl it tried to grab at me again. And the Angel was upon him. In a titanic clash, the angel smacked the demon to the ground with all his fury. That growling sword sent a spray of blood out like a red fan then, as I crawled through damp grass to get clear, the angel began to destroy the demon. Breaking him into little pieces that each whimpered, begged, and pleaded for mercy. The very words I had been using in the hallway in fact. The very words. I heard my own voice saying them over, and over, and over. "Help. Please. Stop. Enough." I begged the cool grass to stop moving under me, to stop trying to tickle me. It was such naughty grass. "Easy, Lilibeth. I've got you." I was lifted from the ground. "Are you taking me to heaven, my angel?" I asked him as his huge white wings spread out and we floated towards a doorway. "A haven," he said softly. "Lilibeth, did you take something? Did he give you something? Make you take something?" "The demon? Purple stars. He asked if I took any of his purple stars ... green clovers, yellow moons ... sugar." "Easy, my Lilly." His voice was soothing. "Demon? Did that punk kid look like a demon to you?" "Yeah." "A hallucinogen, then. Wait sugar? Did you say sugar? Was it sugar cubes?" he asked me as I floated along, his wings fanning my face now. "No. My sprinkling sugar. I was naughty; I put some in my coffee. Then that demon got mad because I was naughty, he attacked me with his snake." I suddenly began to pull at the angel's arms. "You're not taking me to hell are you? Not for being naughty? It was only sugar." "Shush. Easy, my Lilly. No. I'm just putting you in a bed. There is no hell here. Just clean sheets. Soft pillows, warm blankets." I drifted along as his voice eased my fears. The walls of this haven were a pale white, nothing jumped out to grab at me, no spiders scuffled around the light fixtures. This was a haven. A safe place. I snuggled into his warm chest. He smelled of cut grass. I never knew that angels would smell of grass. Angel ... "Gabriel?" "That's right. It's just me. I'm here. Here, Lilly, I want you to just lie still and listen to the music for a bit, okay? I need to find out what you took." He slid me into a giant cool marshmallow. "I have an idea what it was, but I have to make sure." I clutched at his fingers as he spread his wings and flew away, a monstrous dove. When he was gone I felt the music he talked about playing in my bones. Making them hum. I snuggled in among the thick marshmallows, wishing I had a hot tub full of hot chocolate to let me enjoy them all the more. I smiled when I felt my bare ass rubbing against the cool white milk. The milk ... solid milk? No, I was in a huge bowl of ice-cream. Oh! I'm sprinkles. Lilly sprinkles. How delicious. Listening to the music, a soft blend without words, I swam through the ice cream till it got warm and melted, and then I too melted and flowed into it, becoming Lilibeth swirls. I ran a hand down my body, smoothing out the places where there was any pain, letting the good spots get petted, nice kitty, pretty kitty, silkily kitty give it a pet, let it purr till your fingers get wet. I giggled at my thoughts, Opening my eyes I looked up seeing my angel sitting next to me in my bowl of ice-cream. I smiled at him and petted my little kitty all the harder, loving how it purred. Harder. He gave me a smile and took the fingers of my unoccupied hand in his. "Lilibeth, I know you won't understand this but listen to me. You took LSD. How much sugar did you put into your coffee?" "Two spoonful's. Nice kitty, pretty kitty. This kitty is licking my fingers, they're getting wet." He smiled, his eyes sparkling. "Feels good, huh? That good, for the next few hours just do whatever feels good for you." He tucked me into the melted ice cream a little deeper, I smiled. "I'm going to be here with you through this. Understand? I'm not going anywhere. You're not alone. You're safe." "Safe. Yes. Safe." I listened to the sounds in the room, the music, his heartbeat, the soft purring of ... of ... me? With a moan, I felt my whole body drop away into a place where thousands of tongues licked every tiny hair on me. Where I was the queen bee and the workers all fanned me with their wings to make me comfortable. There was a sound then above the music, a gasping cry of pleasure so strong I envied whoever was making it. "That's right Lilly, just do what feels good. There is no reason to fear anything. No one will hurt you here. No one will. I'll make sure of that." "My angel, my Gabriel. You have such a nice ass for an angel." I stopped suddenly afraid. "I'm not going to get in trouble for saying that am I?" He laughed. "No, my dear. Nothing you do is going to get you into trouble. Just rest and let yourself flow with it. Let the world slip away, and float, don't try to fight that feeling. I'm here, I'll catch you if you fall." "That's' nice. Nice angel." He had such a sweet laugh and such a soothing voice. It was that voice that became the anchor point to which I clung as I felt myself drift more and more towards the ceiling, lifted through plaster and drywall, past shingles and through the pale dark sky to the stars overhead. I walked among them, dodging passing satellites, pausing only to watch my favorite songs on the radio waves, never minding that the sun was hot, I loved the feeling of it warm on my bare ass cheeks. Time, body, stupid stuff like that fell away in a haze of other words about equally worthless shit. Meaningless drivel that was made up by mankind to explain what was beyond their comprehension. But not beyond mine. Even as I thought it I knew there was nothing under the heavens that I did not know. I could answer any unanswerable question. I knew it all. I knew why I was like this. I knew what made the little sparks in your vision when you rub your eyes. I knew how to open a box of macaroni properly and why milk went bad. I knew what the leaders of the world were afraid to speak of. Spiders! I knew what made them scary. You could kill one with a shoe, but people were scared to death of them. It was their legs, too many legs in motion. Whenever I felt myself being pulled back I would see Gabriel there, holding my hand, his wings draped over me keeping me safe. He was such a good angel to watch over me like this. With his voice keeping me protected, I joyfully launched myself back into space. ** ** ** ** ** ** ** "What time is it?" I asked of the ceiling above me. "About three in the morning." Came the quick response from next to me. I looked over to see my neighbor holding my hand. "Feeling more yourself, Lilibeth?" Not sure what was where and why, I looked around. I was not in my house, I could see that. "What happened? Why are the walls moving? Where am ... where are my clothes?" Those questions suddenly seemed the most prominent in need of an answer. But no, one other seemed even more in need. "Gabriel ... am I going mad?" He smiled and shook his head. "No, Lilly. You got drugged is all. You took a heavy dose of LDS, in some sugar you put into your coffee. That greasy haired kid who hangs out with your son fessed up when I put my size twelve boot into his nuts twice and promised him ten more if he didn't answer me." He grinned then shrugged. "That punk is a dealer. He was at your house to sell your son some acid he had cooked up. The baggie of it fell out his bag and ended up in your candy making stuff." He squeezed my fingers. "How are you feeling?" "Strange still." "Yeah, you're in the comedown. You took a lot. I've been here with you for about seven hours." He smiled. "Keeping you mellowed, letting the trip pass good. Figured it was the best thing I could do for you." "Why didn't you call the hospital, get me there?" I asked, not mad, I'm not sure I could get mad at that point but it seemed strange at he hadn't. "Not much point. You can't O.D. on acid. I also didn't think you wanted to involve the police since it's your son who was getting the drug." He grimaced and I closed my eyes at what that simple gesture did to his face. "Not till you were down off the drug anyway. Now you might want to give it some thoughts. That punk tried to rape you." Vague memories of snakes, demons and running in terror welled up and when I started to pant he smoothed his hand over my eyes then caressed my hair back from my face. "Easy, Lilly. You're still too deep in the drug. No bad thoughts. Let them pass like water or the trip can go bad again. Be like water. Go to soft places." He continued to caress me. "Gentle tones, even thoughts. Let nothing pull you in, stay here with me." "How do you know I couldn't have overdosed? You could only guess at how much I took." "You could take acid by the handful. The overdose point of acid is ridiculous." He laughed. "I know I tried to get to it at one point." "You've done acid?" "My sweet Lilly, I've probably done every drug you've ever heard of and then some." He looked down at me his smile bitter-sweet. "I was not always the way I am now." "A lawn care maniac?" He belly laughed at that. Reaching up after a moment he wiped a tear from his eyes. "Yes, I've not always been that. Although, that's part of my recovery." "Weed-whacking?" He nodded, biting his bottom lip. "I was in the drug counseling for a half-dozen year, one of the councilors used hypnosis. Now whenever I feel the need to take a hit of something I get this overpowering desire to rake the leaves, cut the grass. Whatever, just anything that gets me out the house and into the yard. Away from whatever setting has me wanting to take something." His eyes cut to a Ziploc bag sitting on the nightstand next to me. I looked at it, still seeing purple colored stars but able to see it was sugar at the same time. "So that's what caused this nightmare?" He shook his head. "No, what caused this is that pile of shit I left whimpering out in the driveway, clutching testicles the size of oranges. The drug itself is not terrible; it's just what it is. Something man came up with to expand the mind into places it was never meant to go. All in all, I used to like acid, but Mescaline or Ecstasy was always my drug of choice. When I still could make a choice." "You sound like you miss be a drug addict." I shook my head. "How could you miss being like I've been tonight. This was horrible." "Of course it was, my Lilly. You didn't know what you had taken, there was no control, no guidance, and then there was the setting. I've seen what the inside of your house looks like at Halloween. That is about as far from a good place to have an acid trip as you could get. Add that piece of crap forcing himself on you, in the middle of the trip, and that's a recipe for total bad-drug-trip-horror." He took my hand. "Tell me this, though, once you were here, safe, with me guiding you ... it wasn't so bad was it?" "It was ... strange, I still feel strange." "Not much worse than alcohol though right, the world is all muted, the colors are strange, then you feel like you can fly. You look around and the whole of the universe is yours to reach out and touch and you have no body, nothing to restrain you from touching everything at once." His fingers tightened in mine. "Yeah, I miss it. The good trips. The days when I felt more alive than I have ever felt before. The days when I could have jumped up and waved the flags on the surface of the moon if I wished." His eyes went back to the baggie next to me. "I've got to go for a bit, think you will be okay for a few minutes? An hour tops." I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. There had been a passion his face, his eyes had become alive and that was such an alluring look for him. Like the sexy got turned up to eleven in an already handsome man. "I need clothes and my cell phone from my house." "I'll go grab them for you. But I promise, till that drug is out your system, you do not need to go back into your house." "I have got to call Roy. Oh, that boy is grounded till he gets Social Security." Gabriel laughed and nodded. He brought me a cordless house phone and for a moment I struggled to remember Roy's cell number, who remembers numbers nowadays, and my mind was not exactly in its best shape. No, it more still felt like my thoughts were on frappe. "Hell ... hello?" My son's voice held a dream like quality that I knew was not from sleep alone. "I know about the drugs, Roy. Home. Now. Very, long talk coming your way." I took a deep breath as my anger flared and the room around me tried to melt "And tell your buddy Zane he comes around the house ever again I'll blow his brains out with my .38 Colt. Got all that?" "Mom? What ...." "Home." My voice held an icy calm I was not feeling. "Now!" Then I dialed the next number, got an answering machine. "Rick, our son is doing drugs. And I nearly got raped by one of his crackhead friends." I took a deep breath; I would not let my ex-husband hear me cry. "Thought you might like to know what that piece of trailer-trash, convenience-store-cunt you're fucking has cost the family you abandoned. I'll get him into rehab. You just get your child support caught up, so I can afford it or I'll let the court take it from your ass in bloody chunks." I hung up on my Ex. I must have held that phone for a good half-hour trying to strangle the life out the silence it held. It was in that silence that I heard the first sounds from outside. Getting up from the bed, I looked out the window to see Gabriel out in his yard, raking leaves. He was going at it like a man possessed. I looked to the bag of "sugar" next to me and realized why. I picked it up, walked across the room, out into the hallway and to the bathroom. This house was a mirror image to my own so I knew where to find it. I dumped the baggie into the toilet and flushed away what had my neighbor out raking leaves at four in the morning. Then I found myself stopped looking into my own reflection. My face looked horrible, my hair was like twenty kinds of fucked up. I had yesterday's makeup making my eyes look like I had been beaten, and there were bruises on my neck and shoulders. Hand bruises, finger bruises. I opened the bed sheet I had wrapped around me and looked in horror at the purple hand print across one breast. That nipple ached. I hurriedly wrapped back up when I heard footsteps. "Lilibeth?" Gabriel was standing behind me. He had his eyes on mine. "Looking at mirrors isn't a good idea, even as far down the come down as you are. Come on, I've got you some clothes. I raided your laundry basket, by the dryer. Figured that way I could be sure I got stuff that would fit." I saw his eyes go to the empty plastic baggie on the counter. He smiled, nodded, took it and tossed into the trash. "Come on, let get you into some clothes. Beautiful naked women are more addictive than any drug and far more tempting than acid." His eyes were merry with humor and I felt none of the embarrassment that should have been there. This man had been with me the whole night, with me naked, and if he had wanted to do anything to me there was nothing I could have done to stop him. And probably I wouldn't have remembered it. When we got back to the room I saw a pair of my pink sweatpants and a baggy, longs sleeve t-shirt. My comfy clothes, as I always call them. I looked at him, before opening the bed sheet, to find him already not looking, his back turned. I've never felt more comfortable in my comfy clothes than when they hid nudity I had unintentionally been showing off. Bruised nudity, manhandled nudity. I suddenly felt like the world was closing in around me, there was not enough air, the walls were pressing in. I ... "Easy, Lilibeth. It's an anxiety attack. Those are common with acid, especially in the comedown. Here just have a seat." He patted the bed. "Try hugging a pillow to your chest, anything that gives comfort. It will pass." With tears soaking soft, white linen I did as he suggested, I didn't know what else to do. I've never felt like this before. He sat behind me brushing my hair in a way that was comforting and not. It reminded me too much of the propriety "petting" Rick used to do to me. Like I was his dog. I turned over, taking my pillow with me and looked up at this man, my neighbor, who had spent the night with me at my most vulnerable. "Thank you." He smiled and then chuckled ruefully. "I'm not as nice of a guy as you think, my Lilly. Memories of this night will fuel my private fantasies for a long time to come. A beautiful woman, rushing naked into my arms to be saved, from a fate worse than death. How wonderfully cliché." He placed his hand on my hip. "And I took more than one good look at you" He shrugged. "I'm male, and you're smoking hot. And you were naked." I should have felt uncomfortable, embarrassed, even offended, but when he winked I smiled. "That's alright. I've looked at your ass while you work in the yard." I smiled and winked back. "Those tight white shorts. What's with you and white by the way?" I pointed around the room, where ninety percent of everything was white. "You just went through an LSD trip and don't know the answer to that one?" His hand caressed my hip. "I want colors to be under my control, I don't always see the world the way others do anymore, I've done too much consciousness expansion to my poor brain cells." The white sheet bunched up under his hand. "White is calming to me now." Slowly rocking on that pillow, I looked out the window and watched the sunrise. I was exhausted, but the idea of sleep was impossible. Almost as if the visual nightmares from the drug was hovering right there waiting to pounce on me the second I closed my eyes. Minutes or hours may have passed, I can't say. My ability to tell time had been lost at some point during it all. When I looked at Gabriel I saw that he was asleep sitting up. I tapped his hand and his eyes instantly popped open, making me question that, but those eyes were tired. "Why don't you get to bed. I think I'm okay, now." I took hold of his fingers in mine. "I probably need to go home and give my son a royal telling off. Then I have the house to finish up, and I still had some more candy making to do. I ... I think I'm good." "I'll walk over with you." ** ** ** ** ** ** ** My kitchen was a disaster area, and that mess spread down the hall and throughout the dining room as well. Spilled sugar syrup covered the dining room floor. When I saw my sticky footprints on the hardwood floor, the signs of the crazed struggle, and then my crawl down the hall and through the spilled trays of candy making supplies to the back door ... well, I nearly broke down again. If Gabriel hadn't been there, if he hadn't taken charge and gotten me into a chair and then--with an energy I wished I had--he cleaned up for me. Looking at the small table by the back door, I saw Roy's book bag. Any personal privacy he might think he deserved had been lost. Going to it, I pulled everything out and went through it all. The small bag of weed was not even a surprise. The snack baggie of giant horse pills was. Gabriel took them from me and looked at them with a shake of his head. I saw his left hand begin to shake till he made a fist. "Mescaline." He bounced the bag in his hand in his hand. "About a two hundred bucks worth. I haven't seen him working this summer, is anything missing?" He glanced around the house. "Little items easy to sell, DVDs, CDs, the cat, stuff like that?" Lilibeth the Candy MILF He then very quickly set the baggie down and wiped his hands on hi pants. I could only shake my head, unable to answer. I had never even thought of this scenario let alone that my son would be selling stuff to buy this crap. This ... this ... I fell into this man's arms, this almost stranger, my neighbor. He held me as I cried myself sick. He whispered my name in a gentle, soothing way that brought long ago memories of the early days of my marriage. When I had been loved. That my tears were not staining his shirt red was surprising since I wept from my very heart. ** ** ** ** ** ** ** Where this man found the energy to do what he did I have no idea. Over the next few hours he got me put back together, helped me fix the house, and then spent time having a long talk with Roy about drugs, something I was not up to. In fact, one look at my son made me want to cuss him like a sailor's wife. Then of course his father, two times zones over, woke up and began to blow up my phone with calls and text messages. He, I texted. One so very, very long text. Any desire to talk to my Ex was years gone. And to make matters worse, the candy I had made the night before, well before my world went loopy, was the strangest looking stuff I have ever seen. Even I could not tell what they were supposed to be and, since I had only partial memories that far back, I was not sure what I had put the special sugar into so I had to toss them all out. By noon, I was a panicky hot mess. But there was Gabriel. An inner pillar of strength, simply waiting there for me to reach out and grab hold of when the world kept smacking me. Apparently, dickhead-ex Rick decided to call some of our old, mutual, friends and clue them into how bad a mother I had become. So just after the last pumpkin pastry was out the oven and my watermelon Jell-O gummy worms were unmolded, some of my guests began to call and cancel. One after another, after another. I was sitting in my kitchen, weeping bitter tears over that, when my Ex sent me a text saying have a nice party, slut. Gabriel came walking down the steps, from talking to Roy and found me there with twin lines of salty misery running to my chin. I simply bawled out a terribly messed up list of how badly my life was in a shambles, and he stood there, holding me to his chest, listening to it all. Then he lifted my chin, brushed tears from my cheeks, smiled at me and said. "Let me handle it." Gabriel winked at me. "And make more fudge." While I got out the chocolate cocoa and pumpkin puree he got out his phone, went outside, and I watched him walking circles between his house and mine talking and texting. Then he went to his garage, got out his numerous noisy tools of lawn care and went after my yard. Mine! I was weeping for different reasons as I watched him out the windows, cutting trimming, blowing and then doing weird things to hedges that were probably scared for their lives it had been so long since they had been trimmed. "Mom?" "In here." I looked at my son. He was not the visible mess he had been when I first saw him earlier. He had taken a shower and was at least in clean clothes. At this moment though Roy looked so much like his father, I had to bite down on my anger hard. Oh, I was mad as hell at my son too, but I didn't want my anger at his father coloring what I wanted to say to him. "Dad called. He, ah ... he wants me to like come stay with him and Shelby for ... well, for a while." He couldn't look at me all of a sudden. "I told him I would talk to you about it." And with that I felt like the three-legged stool of my life lost its second leg and I was now sitting on a pogo stick. I could hear in his voice that he wanted to do it. I knew the basis of that, his dad wouldn't watching him like I do ... but then Roy had become a drug-head with me watching him so I guess I was sucking hind tit at that too. I looked at my son. Just looked at him. "And you want to do it?" I poured the bubbling hot fudge into the pan and shook the pan to take out the air bubbles as I poured. "You will have to change schools here at the beginning of your senior year. And just so you know, your dad is most likely doing this to keep from paying me what he owes. He's not doing it because he wants you there with him. Not saying it to be mean it's simply a fact about your father." I moved over to him and lifted his chin till he was looking me in the eyes. "If he wanted you in his life he would have stayed. Or at least fought me for custody." "He says you hate him." I thought about it for a moment then gave a small nod. "Yeah, that's a pretty close assessment of it. He was my first love, he stole my heart." I looked at him seeing his father at the same age. "Then, when I was suddenly not a size two anymore, he broke my heart. So, yeah, he is tops on my shit list, well he's tied now with that fucker who had better not ever show his ass around here again, Zane." "I spoke to Zane about that," There was suddenly a defensive tone in my son's voice that set a fire in my throat. He was actually defending his friend, too me! "He said you got it all wrong, that he was just trying to help you deal with the trip. And then Gabriel attacked him." Moving my hand to the collar of my shirt, I pulled it down till the hand print, now a nasty green-purple-black, on my breast showed. "Well, his helping left this. Don't. Just don't. I'm still not sure I'm not going to press charges for at least sexual assault against him. I need too. Hell, the only reason I'm not is that you're involved and I don't need a scandal. My job sucks, but I can lose it over that sort of thing. No matter that I'm the victim or not." "Mom, I ..." "Don't say you're sorry. Don't. You made a choice. You. The drug came into this house and I took it as consequences of your choices." Outside the sound of a leaf blower, or some other gas powered yard tool, ended. "The only reason I didn't get raped last night is Gabriel. Every choice you make affects not only yourself but those around you. Now, I have to finish getting ready for a party, which thanks to your father, and his petty level crap, no one may be attending. I want you to think about that, what I just said, and about going to live with your father. Then make your choice. We'll talk about it tomorrow." I turned my back--probably robbing Roy of a chance to apologize again--as the backdoor opened and my angel, all sweaty and smell of exhaust fumes and grass, stood there. He looked uncomfortable for a moment at the two of us, and then I heard Roy leave the room behind me. Gabriel shot me a questioning look. "We talked. We may have a lot more to talk about, or no more, depends on him." I looked at him. "How are you on your feet still? You worked in the yard all day yesterday, then was up with me all night, and now have been going at my yard like mad for hours, after helping clean my house!" "Well, I attribute it to clean living; the body is a temple after all. Whole foods, raw veggies and nothing but natural spring water, taken by my own hands from a stream in the Rockies." He looked at me and chuckled. "Truth be told, I'm dead on my feet, my Lilly. I just wanted to come by and see you before I go take me a nap. Make sure you're still okay." "Making sure I'm not curled up on the floor in a corner crying like a baby?" I swallowed down the desire to do that very thing, or to at least go into his arms "I've been kicked before. I bounce back. It's just taking me longer this time." I watched him move the last few feet till he was standing in front of me. "You're coming to the party right?" "Of course I am, all my friends are coming." His smile was that infectious one. "What?" "I told you I would take care of it." He took my hand into his. "I have replaced your rude no-show guest list with a choice selection of my own friends from my various drug rehab days. All are straight now, I know that for sure. But, they were not doing anything tonight but sitting on their butts, so I have them coming here to celebrate Halloween with you." "But I don't know them?" "You didn't really know me too well, till last night. And now, I can say with confidence ... what color your nipples are and that you look sexy as hell in just a bed sheet." Now I blushed! When I was stark naked in front of him, not even a hint of reddening to my face, now I'm blushed to my breasts became he ... wait, did he just flirt with me? My eyes went to the way his shirt was hugging his chest, damp with sweat. The stubble on his cheek; those dark sexy eyes. My Angel was a very sexy man, and why did it take me getting hammered to the moon on Acid to think of asking him over? Ricks been out my life for years now, and when have I even dated? "Thank you," I finally said when I found my breath. "It was defiantly my pleasure, my Lilly." His eyes were all over my face. Taking in every curve. "I'm going to go ... go get some sleep. I'll see you later." When he licked his lips I knew what was on his mind, but then it was on mine as well. How long had it been since I had been kissed? Really kissed, by a man that wanted to kiss me? How long ... years certainly. Even well before the divorce. I took a step forwards, my tongue wetting the inside of my lip and then I rolled it across the top. Our eyes were doing a dance to determine if we both had the same idea. I liked that I didn't have to stand on my tip toes but did have to lift up just a little to touch my lips to his. Then his hands were on my hips and I felt a bit of my weight leave my toes. Whether it was him lifting me or me simply floating I can't say, I was preoccupied. Oh, he's a good kisser. My hand went behind his neck, pulling him in deeper to me. I had no desire for this to end anytime soon and the more his lips took mine the more I could tell he felt the same way. My hips were now held tight in his strong hands. He broke our kiss, panting. "My Lilly, I ... It's been awhile. I ...." He took a deep sigh. "Same." Gabriel nodded, his forehead rubbing on mine. He was about to say something, or kiss me again when we were interrupted. I jumped when his phone, in his pocket, buzzed again my breast. He took it out and glanced at it. "One of the partygoers. She's probably wanting to know what to bring. Let me catch this." I nodded and went to step back, but his hand on my hip pulled me back into his chest. "Hey, Jade. Yeah, that will be fine. More the merrier. Alright, yeah see you." Pocketing his phone, he leaned in but stopped right at touching my lips. "You have five more coming." His lips brushed mine. "By the way, you are an awesome kisser, my Lilly." "Same" I tried to say thought out pressed together mouths, it came out mumbled, but I think he got the gist. We kissed for a few moments more and then just held each other till my oven timer beeped behind me. "Cookies. Let me catch that." "I need to go anyway." And he kissed me again. I did get the cookies out before they burned. ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** And the webbing was hung by the spiders with care, in the hopes that a party soon would be there ... oh, my god did that hope come true. By six o'clock the first guest showed up. A middle-aged biker named Rickard. His Harley announced itself from two blocks away. Intimidating looking? Ah, well if you're not scared by six-foot-plus guys, with full sleeve tattoos on both arms, dressed like he's auditioning for Sons of Anarchy. And with a grey-black beard to make ZZ Top envious, then no. Not intimidating at all. Then, after I let "Kard" in, he went into the kitchen and took the various ingredients out his backpack and began to make a huge bowl of spinach artichoke dip. From scratch. Then, while he was telling me about culinary classes he took during recovery, there was a sound outside and knocks on the front door. I opened it to twenty people. All in costumes ... of sorts. "Trick or treat!" Laughing, I let them in. Okay, I now had a naughty nurse, named Candace, in my kitchen setting out sliced deli roll sandwiches. All of the Village People, and most of the cast of the Rocky Horror Picture Show had divided themselves between the living room and the dining room, where I had snacks set up. Then Gabriel showed up in his costume. Wearing ice-blue contacts which, with his salt and pepper scruff made him, look a spookily accurate, modern day, Bret Michaels. He had a single rose for me, which promptly got him teased by all his friends. The chorus of "Every Rose has its Thorn" was out of time, off key, and a few singers mumbled a lyric or two, but it had us all grinning. And me blushing. Then Jade showed up. Oh, my dear god in heaven I have met my twin on this earth. A person more in love with Halloween than myself. I mean it's not every day that Marilyn Manson pulls up, in a 1930s black and chrome hearse, and walks in. For all of ten seconds, that was what I thought I was seeing, till I realized it was a woman. Admittedly, there are times even with the real singer it's hard to tell, but Jade was him spot on. "Oh, I'm in Heaven," she said as she walked in, looked around at the decorations and smiled a metal grin. "Gabe, you never told me you had a neighbor with such exquisite taste. Naughty rock god, no Rock of Love reruns for you tonight." "Aw!" Gabriel grinned at her, walked over and gave her a hug which, given his costume, looked like an MTV clash of the 80s and 90s. "I'll just have to fantasize about you then." "Gabe, you couldn't handle me even in a wet dream. Now where is the woman I need to seduce? Oh, there you are." With a smile and a wink, this Goth Talk escapee sauntered up to me. Leaned in and whispered right by my ear. "Talk to me when you feel the need. I was an acid addict. I know about bad trips from hell ... and their aftereffects." I stood straight as a board when I felt something hard and sharp touch my breast, but looking down I saw a business card now rested in my cleavage. Tucked into my lace edged bra. Her lips brushed my cheek as she leaned back and looked around. Then she took a deep smell. "Ah, dark chocolate, my lover I can tell you are here somewhere." "Oh, let me get some candy trays going around." I shook my head, hearing the marbles rattle. "I am a mess tonight." "I'll help," she offered taking hold of my arm. I looked to Gabriel, he smiled, nodded and went to talk to Kard the Harley rider who's a chef --and who I don't think was in costume at all--He was busy munching on a tuna sandwich and talking to the Village People's leatherman/biker. The words Kitchen stadium and Iron chef seem to be coming up a lot. Jade all but dragged me into my kitchen. "So ... I hear from Gabe you had a non-voluntary Acid experience. Those are fun, huh?" She began opening boxes and using the tongs to place candies onto the tissue paper flowers I was putting on my trays. "My first one was in a haunted house. I spent two weeks in a mental ward to recover my sanity." I nearly tripped over the air at that. She looked at me and winked. "I ran with a strange crowd of people back then." She popped a piece of my fudge into her mouth and made an orgasmic sound. All I could do was eyeball the outfit she was in. Then my son walked into the room. "Enter the villain stage right," she said with a lick of her chrome canine tooth. "So, tell me ... how does it feel to have nearly gotten your mother ...." "Jade." She looked away from Roy over to Gabriel standing by the kitchen door. After a second she smiled that snarled lip smile and nodded. When she looked back to me that smiled faded. "Call me, if we don't talk more before the party is over. Hell, call me anyway. I feel the need for some girl time in my life." She looked back to Gabriel. "The best horror story contest started in there yet? Good, I want to get in on those." "You always win them, Jade." "Not my fault I'm not as plain as Jane. Now is it?" He shook his head looking sadly at her. She gave me another wink. Then, as she walked past Gabriel, she cupped his crotch, spun around behind him to stand looking back over his shoulder at me. She whispered something into his ear too low for me to hear. Then patted his flat belly, and gave a startlingly girlish laugh and left the kitchen. "Okay, who is the psycho bitch?" "A very good friend of mine," Gabriel said looking at Roy sternly, then he gave a sigh. "And the question is really more, what happened to her to make her the way she is." "So what happened?" asked Roy. He reached for a piece of fudge and I popped his hand with a spoon before it got there. He sighed and rolled his eyes. Part of his grounding was no candy this year. I call it just. "Why don't you go to the living room and listen. There is a best drug horror story contest that my friends like to put on whenever we get into a group this big. Everyone bets theirs is the worst. Here." He took a five from his wallet. "Enter and give it a listen. See if you have anything that even comes close. Of course Jade will win but it's worth the five bucks just to listen." Roy took the money, clearly as confused as me but he shrugged, and headed down the hall towards the living room. "How you holding up?" I looked from my departing son to the man I wanted to kiss again. He was looking at me with soulful eyes, under that ridiculous headband, full of concern. "I've had better days. My ex is trying to lure my son away from me to keep from paying me back child support he owes. If I fight it in court he will site this whole drug fiasco, and on top of it Roy wants to go." Absently, I picked up a chocolate mouse from the tray I had gotten halfway finished before Jade nearly told my son off. I looked at the perfectly placed almond slices for mouse ears. "I do all this candy work every year and most times, by this point, I don't even want any of this." "So why do you do it?" "My friends got to expecting it." I set the candy back on the tray. "Not to be crass, but did those same friends not just dump on you?" He grabbed a stool from under my table and pulled it out. "They just called and left you with all this candy you make for them, sitting here and you're out ... what? A several hundred bucks every year in candy? Made for them? And they did this crap? Sorry, but to me those are not your friends. Lilly ... I've never seen the first one of these people coming around here, at any time other, then when you hold this party and your Christmas party. That's not friends." My mind began to tumble over so many past events, times when I had called on these very friends and been told they were too busy to get together. Even for a simple dinner. There was laughter from the living room. He glanced over his shoulder with an odd look on his face. "Alright ... normally Jade's stories do not bring laughter. Come on." I took his offered hand and he led me to the living room. I smiled seeing that there was a party in full swing now. My guests had taken the many party games down and there were all kinds of "normal" Halloween fun going on. What I expected from a crowd of former drug addicts I don't know but smiling laughing people watching one of them. One of the Village people, the cop, was in a blindfold trying to hook an alligator clipped rope "Tail" on the other guests. Then Sweet Dreams up came on my home karaoke machine. Looking over, I saw several of the guests trying to push the mic into Jade's hands. Finally with a roll of her eyes she got up. Snatched the mic away from whoever was holding it and brought it to her black painted lips. ~"....who am I to disagree? Travel the world..."~ "Wow." I breathed softly. Not only did she have the look but she was spot on voice wise. I looked at Gabriel and he nodded. He moved till he was standing behind me, and leaned in till his lips were by my ear. His body was pressed against my back in a very pleasant way. Lilibeth the Candy MILF "She does stage shows as a singing impersonator. Jade can do about twenty other singers, that I have heard, at least this well." He placed his hands on my hips and I snuggled back into his chest impulsively. Gabriel held me closer. "But Manson is her best, everyone knows it, and she constantly gets asked to sing him." "Well, she is dressed as him." "She always is." He chuckled, a wonderful motion of his chest against my back. "She was a groupie back in her teens. He saved her life at one of his concerts. Now he is her Personal Jesus for true. It's somewhere between worship and stalking." "He saved her life?" "Yep. One of those stories that will give you chills. She overdosed in an alley behind the Goth club he was playing at. When he went to leave by the back way, to avoid the mobs at the front, he saw her leaned against the brick wall by the door, a hypo in her arm." Gabriel took my hand when I moved it to his. "He got her an ambulance, followed to the ER, stayed with her till she came out of it." "Why? Why did he do that, I mean?" He pointed with his chin, moving my hair along his jawline. "She was dressed like that. She said he felt like he was looking into a mirror, helping himself up out the gutter." There was a tone to his voice and when I looked over my shoulder I saw his eyes were on Roy. My son was sitting on the sofa watching the show. He's hip-hop in his music tastes so this was probably an oldies goldies moment for him. "Anyway, she had already been a fan, and after talking to him for hours? Well, it's love-lust-worship at first sight." I was about to comment when behind me there was giggling. Two people came out my dining room. Both had chocolate smeared around their mouths like Augustus Gloop. They saw us and stopped, then giggled again. "That is the best candy for ... kissing," said the guys, then chuckled when the girl elbowed him. I looked back at Gabriel when they scuffled off towards the kitchen to find paper towels or napkins. "Adam, and Kaitlin. He was an alcoholic who only stopped drinking when he drove his car off into a lake." He grinned. "She was, and in a way still is, a sex addict." He shrugged. "The met at a place that holds two types of support groups in the same night." He grinned. "Since they got married she's not doing the stupid stuff anymore, but ... finding the two of them grabbing a quickie somewhere, public, is not unheard of." For a second, I was offended that someone had done that in my house, but then the fact that any sex at all was happening here was such a novelty that it stopped being a problem. Then something he said hit me. "The stupid stuff?" Gabriel nodded and looked around. "Don't let it go any further, but she would ... well, she went to a lot of bad places to be a woman alone at. She would have sex with strangers there at the drop of a hat. It's not as fun as it sounds, being a sex addict." He bit his lip and shrugged. "It's addiction, like another, pure and simple. Like they told us in one place I was ... interred at ... till you've lost all control over your own body's cravings, and come back from it, don't judge what anyone is addicted to." Again I saw that his eyes were on Roy. ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** Hours flew by as I got to know these people. Each had a story; though some would not tell them. Each been a slave to something and had walked a path through blood and fire to bring themselves back from it. And as the hours eased past I came to hear more and more of what the man who lived next to be had gone through. What he had done to help others after he had managed to free himself from his own demons. And just how many times helping others had made Gabriel fall back into the clutches of those demons. More than a few in this laughing, partying group had him to thank for him being sober or clean. Often, though out the night, I would find him trying to interact with my son. Roy rebuffed him the first few times, but then after a few of the other party goes got involve a continual circle of Gabriel's friends seemed to be talking to Roy. To see near strangers trying to help him, put a lump in my throat. When I was getting more napkins from my pantry I turned to find Jade standing right behind me. She looked at me, a troubled expression on her face. "There are people at the front door, asking for you, and I don't think they came for the party." She took a deep breath; let it out in a sigh. "You're Gabe's friend. I've got your back. We all do." Troubled by that statement, I blinked and went through the house to the front door. Gabriel was standing there, and he clearly had the door blocked to keep someone from walking in. Beside him was the big biker Rickard who also stood as unmovable as a steel post. Beyond them, I saw my ex-husband Rick, his young skank of a wife-to-be Shelby, and a man I had hoped to never see again this side of hell. Rick's lawyer, Devon Boyd. "LILIBETH! Tell these guys to get out the way." My ex's voice held a tone I remember all too well. "We've come to get..." When he took a step forwards he found a very big hand on his chest. "I don't give a shit what the hell you think you have come for, fuck meat."Kard's voice was as rumbly as a rockslide. "You take a step through this door and I'm going to stomp a mudhole in your ass." The oily looking bloodsucker, in the four thousand dollar suit, put a manicured hand on Rick's shoulder and motioned for him to step back. Then he moved to take my ex's place in front of the door, clearly not intimidated by the biker. He held up a piece of paper. "This is a court petition asking for the termination of the parental rights of, Ms. Lilibeth Foster--of her son Roy Everett--to his father Richard Everett. If you do not allow us to see, talk to, and access the current physical health of the boy, this will be in a judge's hand within the hour." "And by this time tomorrow night ..." Jade stepped past the two men and moved till she was right in the lawyer's face. "I will have had a long talk with my golf buddy, Eric Whyers, the state attorney general. I'm sure he would be interested in knowing exactly just how far in arrears your client is on his child support payments, to my client Ms. Foster. That he seemed to have the cash to afford your service's Mr. Boyd seems suspicious. That kind of insider knowledge is vital before a story like this hits the news." She looked at my ex-husband. "See, I'm going to have your face on every TV station's 'deadbeat dads' news segment by the end of the week. I'll make you famous. You prick." The lawyer took a half step back to maintain his personal space between himself and Jade. His eyes narrowed. "And you are, miss?" "Jade McCray." A business card appeared between her fingers and before he could stop it, she had it tucked into his suit pocket next to the silk handkerchief that matched his powder-blue tie. "Legal malpractice attorney, with Wilkins, Jones, and McCray. I represent Ms. Foster, pro-bono, from this moment forwards till her son is past his majority at twenty-one. And, be legally advised, anything you wish to say to her, or her son, had better come through my firm and me first. Unless you wish to see harassment charges delivered to you as a Christmas gift." She looked at him and then smiled her gold-toothed smile. "Now shoo, this is an adult Halloween party. We're not handing out candy to trick-or-treating kids anymore. That time has passed. Sorry, you missed out." Rick started to say something, but his lawyer stopped him. A manicured, gold ringed hand on his shoulder and a whispered word or two in his ear and my ex was walking off my porch, towing his girl toy Shelby with him. She gave a wave that Jade returned with a tilted head and an insane smile. When they pulled out the driveway, jade at last turned and, with a smirk, gave a bow. Catcalls, wolf whistles, cheers, and applause filled the living room. A second card appeared and she handed it to me. It was different from the first one she had given me earlier. "He shows back up tomorrow, or any day after, you call me before opening the door. Got me?" she asked giving me a serious look. "And I also advise your pressing charges against that punk that Gabe told me about. Don't ever let them see you crawl and then get to walk away clean." ** ** ** ** ** ** ** I've held parties where everyone has left too early. And I've had parties where I, bored to death with the hangers-on, had to get a broom to chase the last guests out the door before the sun came up. And, in all honestly, I would not have cared if they had burst into flames like a vampire. This time? There were not enough hours in this Halloween night. Given the crowd that the partygoers were sober is a given, but that didn't mean they were not fun. In fact, they seemed all the more fun for their past misdeeds. Take my karaoke machine. Once it was discovered the house was awash with badly sung songs for the rest of the night. Laughter and it was often given more power from a total lack of embarrassment by the singer, filled the house as well. Party games started as simple fun and drifted to being a bit naughty. But hey, it was all fun, and I got a lot of tongue kisses at one point, in a game Jade suggested, called Keep the Jolly Rancher. Even from Gabriel. But then when I was kissing him I didn't try too hard to keep the candy. I was distracted. Then one by one, with bags of candy in hand, my guests began to make their apologetic goodbyes. Each had left a phone number for me to give them a call "At any time you need me." And we had even made lunch plans for a couple of us to get together on Saturday. Jade left with a grope of my boob. She also told me to use her card if I had any trouble with my ex and his lawyer, and that she would "Be in touch." That was when her hand appeared on my breast and gave it a squeeze. Honestly ... I didn't mind it. Roy vanished up to his room. When one of the lady party guests, (a cute blonde in her mid-twenties) appeared from that direction about an hour later I had a moment when I wanted to pop my top, but then figured a little maturity might help him. He had been with nothing but girls, maybe a woman with some life experiences might make him finally grown the hell up a little. Besides I can't blame him for having similar thought as myself. Or for following through on them.As I was thinking fo doing. I was smiling and handing out the candy bags at the front door when I looked towards the kitchen hallway and saw Gabriel lift his hand goodbye. He was down the hall and out the kitchen side of the house before I could say anything. For a moment, I felt a wash of anger then remember what kind of day the man had been through. He needed his rest. Disappointed, I put my smile back in place and saw the last of the guests leave, happy and candied. Kard cranked his big Harley, gave me a smile and a wink. His offer to go kick the shit out of Rick for me had been so tempting. As he drove away, I saw him lift his hand in a wave to the house next door. Walking to the end of my porch, I saw Gabriel on his knees trimming the edge of his sidewalk with a pair of hand sheers. I leaned a hand on the wood post that holds up the roof of my porch and just watched him for a moment. Yesterday I would have chalked it up to mental illness. Now I know better. He was trapped. Locked into doing that by a hypnotist to help him resist his own mind's cravings for the drugs he was addicted to. A tear fell from my eye as I realized just how perfectly manicured everything his yard was and what that meant. Even this late in the year, with winter coming at us, he was still at it. It was past midnight and he was still at it. Stepping off the porch I walked over to him. "Come on, my angel. It's too late for that." I held out my hand to him. "Let me help." He looked at my extended hand. "It was all the stories. Always brings back memories." He took my hand and my help to get to his feet. Then he opened his arms when I stepped into his chest, pressing my face against his shirt, smelling him on the fabric. "My Lilly?" "Life is too complicated." He chuckled. "Life is simple. People are complicated. What's got you upset?" "I want to sleep with my neighbor." I tucked my hand into his back pocket. "Mr. Nice Butt." "He must be a pretty special guy if you want to do that." "No." I looked up at his face. "He's a guy with as many issues as I have, just trying to make his way from day to day." I ran my hand across the hard muscles of his back. "He's got problems, troubles, and is more than a little screwed in the head, but yeah ... he's pretty special. My guardian angel." Gabriel laughed at that. "I always figured mine is in a corner somewhere weeping." His hand went under my chin and lifted my face to look up at him. "Kiss me." His lips met mine as I lifted myself onto my toes. As kisses after midnight, in the middle of my neighbor's front yard, on November first, go ... it has to be the most spectacular in the history of that type. And when he shifted his hand to the small of my back and pulled me in tighter, well ... all qualifiers went away. Damn, he was a good kisser! "From what I remember," I mumbled when our lips briefly parted. I placed a hand on his chest to stop him from kissing me for a second. "Your bed was quite comfortable. How about taking me back to it?" "You were naked last time I did that, but because you asked so nicely, I'll wait till we get there to fix that problem." His grin was rakish. "Probably for the best. I've done enough free shows for the neighbors this week." It startled me when he picked me up in his arms. But then he had carried me last night and this time was no different. Gabriel had certainly benefited from the yard work. As I snuggled my face into that muscular neck and shoulder, though, I had to imagine that I was about to benefit from it even more. Through the side door, across the kitchen, down the hall and into the bedroom, and he showed no strain at all. Then true to his word he began to undress me. I was going to help but he stopped me, and piece by piece peeled me out my clothes. A slow sensuous striptease, which I had no control over, and wanted none. I had shivers all over me making me twitch by the time I was down to just my underwear. Then those kissing lips were on my nipples and I wanted to melt at the dull achy pain of him sucking them to a tingling hardness. His teeth skimming the puckered skin, making my nipples all the harder and then he had the whole of my nipple in his mouth. I ran my fingers through his hair and held him tight, loving the feeling of his lips nursing at me. Then it was me going after his clothes. I lightly popped his hand when he tried to help, then smiled and dropped to my knees in front of him. I tugged his belt loose and then undid the brass button and slow zipped down his pants. I smiled at the camouflage underwear. "Going deer hunting?" "Yes, dear." He grinned down at me. "Never know when the urge to ... hunt might hit." "Um, hum." I caught the elastic waistband and tugged them down over his hips to join his pants around his knees. His cock popped free. "Well, now there's a piece of candy I didn't make." I looked up at him. "Guess it's mine to try then." Leaning those last few inches in, I opened my mouth and lipped in the head of his cock. Tonguing the wet tip, I curled my fingers around the base to keep him in place. I slid my mouth over the puffy head, then a bit down the shaft. Licking the underside the whole time, letting my lips compress the veins along the side. There was a wonderfully male scent about him and the more of him I took in the wetter I felt myself growing. I shut away old memories of doing this, none of them were as welcome at the moment as the present. Gabriel was groaning low in his throat as I pushed him further towards the back of my throat. Then the spongy head tipped down and I gulped, and his hands came to rest on my head. For a moment, he held me there, making me do what I was enjoying so very much. Testing my gag reflex. Oh, then he was directing my mouth on him and I had merely to keep my teeth out the way and let him enjoy himself while I took great delight in the sounds I was getting from him. His breathing was ragged, in moments. Then, when I moved my tongue along the bottom, letting his slide across it while I feathered the underside, I thought he was about to cum. Gabriel's fingers tightened in my hair, pulling it in a way I loved till I realized he was pulling me away from him. "My Lilly, I'm too close for you to keep doing that." Panting a bit, he brushed my hair back from my face, looking me in the eyes when I looked up mock pouting. "I want you to cum first." I shook my head. "I don't. I mean, it takes me too long to get there." "I'm in no hurry." Again I shook my head. "You don't understand. Let me just get you off once, to take the edge off, and then we can play for a while till I get you hard again." He stopped me when I went to put his cock back into my mouth. "I won't understand ... if you don't tell me." I sighed and looked at the wonderfully wet cock twitching its need in front of me. "Ever been looking for your cell phone? How desperate you get to find it, how the more you look and the harder you search the worse that feeling gets. Then finally you give up and decide to just go without it. And then you find that you left it plugged up in the car and you just feel stupid for not remembering. That's what an orgasm is like for me. The more I work to have one the further from it I get, only when I've given up on having one do I suddenly get one." He slowly nodded. "That sucks." I grinned at him. "Yes, but so do I." I took him back into my mouth and pushed that nice cock against the back of my mouth, making the hot, wet tip go into my throat and then I grabbed his ass and worked further down him. He was moaning like mad by the time my nose hit his salt and peppered colored pubic hairs. I held him there as long as I could, just making myself not pull back. I smiled around him when he cried out my name in a throaty groan. It had been so long, I had forgotten how much I love teasing a man with my mouth like this. Slowly I pulled back from his curls, letting my teeth touch him lightly, raking the top and bottom till they caught on the flared head. For a moment I thought he was coming, but then the taste told me it was still precum. He certainly gave a lot of it. I lapped the head wanting more. Gabriel leaned over, cradling my head against him, all but weeping my name. Then his thighs against my breasts tensed, his cock gave a pulse and I took him back into my mouth a little further. I cupped my tongue under the head a little and then he was holding me tight, pulling my hair tight, and moaning. The first tribute to my mouth's skill came out hot, bathing the back of my mouth with its force. Then two more easier pulses of cum poured out of him. I let him enjoy the warmth and added wetness for a while before I gulped against the bottom of his cock and he moaned as I swallowed his cum. He was sweeter than my ex, but there was still a salty-bleachy taste and the texture of it, like egg whites, was not any more pleasant than the last time a man came in my mouth. But, when Gabriel panted "Thank you, Lilly." I smiled and promised myself that he would get to do this at least once more tonight. He more than deserved it after last night. I shivered a moment as memories from that came back with far too much clarity. "Cold?" "No. I'm fine. I would like to get into bed, though." He smiled. "Yeah, me too. My legs aren't steady at the moment." His smile became a grin, and he helped me to my feet. "That felt incredible." Lilibeth the Candy MILF It surprised me when he kissed me. I had never had a guy do that, not after I blew them. Certainly not Rick, homophobic fucker that he was. He seemed almost as afraid of his own cum as of any acid known to man. Gabriel shared no such fear. When he held the blanket open for me and we crawled in together I, for a moment, almost wished the sex was over and we were just going to snuggle up now. But I had promised him we would play and I wanted that at the same time. Feeling his hand slip across my stomach to brush through my curls, I decided both could be achieved and snuggled into him while he played with me. Now it was me moaning as his fingers, slightly rough for all the time he spent working with hand tools, hunted for and found my clit. He scored instant blowjob points with me by rubbing circles next to it and not directly on it. I squirmed my ass on the cool sheets, feeling them warm under me. When he fingered between my lips for a moment, I moaned agreement but then he was back with the tight circles. I let my nose scrub at the bristle on his jawline as I purred my pleasure. Gabriel brought his hand to his mouth and tasted me on his fingers. "You're as delicious as the candy you make." He dipped back into me making me moan as those fingers went much deeper, opening me up to his explorations. Then he had his fingers back in his mouth and moaned at the taste, which made me moan in lust. "I want a lot more." I nodded a begging agreement. It had been years since I had felt a man's mouth on me and the half-forgotten pleasure of that was too desirable for words. I opened my legs more for him as he began to places kisses across my breasts, my belly, I laughed at the tickling of my bellybutton by his lips and bristle goatee. Then his nose was in my tangle and I relaxed into the pillows, determined to simply enjoy this and not chase after an orgasm. To let it come if it came, but not to hunt for it like a dog for a bone. So many times before I had done that and not even enjoyed what was being done to me. When his lips pushed my pedals open and his tongue went into me I sighed, smiled and let my fingers go to his hair. I toyed with the short locks, enjoying the silky feel of them between my fingers. I moaned and moaned, never letting him feel un-encouraged in what he was doing. It simply felt "too" good. Like I was riding the crest of a wave of pleasure, I would feel my body respond but then that wave would die out and I would have to turn and paddle back out to wait for the next one. I was doing it. I shook my head. Even after telling myself not to I was still chasing the dream. With a low sigh, I pulled at his hair, lifting his head. Gabriel looked up at me puzzled. "Not so much on my clit. It gets oversensitive too quickly, and then I feel nothing." "Sure." He went back to work, and I sank my head deeper into the pillows that smelled so much of him. His mouth was all over me now, that velvet tongue finding places that gave me tingles of ecstasy. I would grab at those, but they were cotton candy in between my fingers. All fluff and spun sugar pleasures. Enjoyable certainly, but not filling. "Hey you," I said softly after about ten minutes. He looked up at me. "Come up here to me." That confused look returned, but he crawled his way to my side. "You okay?" "Yeah, no, maybe. Just not feeling it." I realized even as I said it might have just hurt his feelings. "What you were doing was feeling great I mean. Don't get me wrong, but it was..." "Not what you're in the mood for." He pushed his hair back from his eyes and nodded, "I should have told you, but I didn't think of it. Sex on acid is incredible. Sex the day after taking some ... well, the normal world is kind of bland to your over-jacked nervous system then. Your brain hit a peak it has never been to before; it's a hard act to follow." He gently caressed my breast under his hand and looked down into my eyes, I saw then that he still had the ice-blue contacts on from the party. "Great. How long does that last?" I asked. "Not too long. A few days, give or take." Taking the corner of the bed sheet, he wiped his mouth dry and then leaned in by my ear. "It's one of the reasons I got hooked on hallucinogens. The way it made sex feel." I snuggled into his warm chest. "It made the sex better?" "It made it different. It takes something that should be perfect and adds an element to it that makes perfection seem not good enough." "I didn't enjoy anything about that drug." He nodded. "Yeah, well if I wasn't clean I would take you through it again. A good one this time. Something to make the bad trip nothing but a bad memory. As is, the best I can do is help you to find pleasure as best I can." He smiled at me again. "And maybe, at some point, even get you to relax enough to have an orgasm." I let my hand move down his stomach and found him almost hard. "This might be a good place to start." Gabriel smiled, kissed me and rolled over in the bed to the nightstand next to the bed. He took out a silver packet, and I smiled watching him put on a condom. I hadn't given it a thought. When was the last time a man had been in me with a condom on? High school? I pondered that while I moved with him to get into a better position as he slid in between my legs. I grinned at him, looking up into his eyes and reached between us to position him. I bit my lip in pleasure when I felt him push into me. "Oh yes, my angel." Too many endless, frustrating nights of solo masturbation. Too many long years of broken memories as my only place to find pleasure. The feel of him, the slow way he moved his hips. The simple things like the way his body warmed mine as he moved on top of me. Then an amazingly comforting feel of his weight, being partly supported on me. The friction growing between us. The fuzzy hair on his chest, like a too soft fleece blanket on a cold night, brushing my nipples. I pulled him to me, letting more of him press me into the bed. Loving the feel of that again. Then his lips were on my neck, his breath hot by my ear. In every thrust giving me soft whispers of his passion, some of them carrying my name in a low chant of adoration he was offering up to me. "My Lilly." "Yes. I am yours." My fingers dug into his back, making him stay with me, whether he wanted to leave or not. Which I'm sure he didn't. I gave a surprised gasp when he caught one of my legs and rolled us a bit. I was on my side with him straddling my other thigh and his cock was entering me on its side. The head and thick shaft rubbing the inside of me in a different way. A very good way. "Oh, my angel." He was too breathless to speak, but I saw him smile. His hips were driving his length into me in sharp pops that rocked me, making my breasts jump with each. The top of my head touched his headboard lightly, and I wiggled back against him to keep that from happening again. The feeling of me moving down him encouraged him to greater effort and again I touched the headboard. I moved a pillow with my head to give me a cushion again it, resigned that it was going to happen, and by that point I was too far gone towards wanting him to cum in me to ask him to let me move down a bit. But by then, I didn't care if I got a concussion. He moved his hand to my breasts, cupped the nipple between his thumb and forefinger and pushed as deep into me as he could and held it there. Simply enjoying the hot feel of the inside of me enwrapped around him. It was, strangely enough, his smile that started my orgasm. Like a small spark that pops out of a campfire, scaring you on a dark night, it was there sudden and intense and startling and then just as quickly gone. I squirmed myself on his hardness enjoying the ripples of emotional bliss that rolled over me following that momentary looking into the gate of my heaven. Then like the glowing sun on your skin on a hot day I felt all warm from the tips of my toes to my hair and then I was tingling like mad. Almost an irritation feeling, but so wonderful at the same time. Then he was coming, filling the tip of his condom with his passion ... instead of me. A sense of disappointment that I didn't get to feel it, and relief that I didn't have to rush to the bathroom to get rid of it, both hit me then. I pulled him to me as I let my leg ease back out of the cramped position he had put I in. He slid in behind me, his still hard cock resting against my ass. Gabriel wrapped me up in his strong arms and held me to him while he tried to catch his breath. After a few minutes like that to catch his breath he removed the condom and tossed it into a waste can by the bed. Then he settled back in behind me. Holding me in the close snuggle I needed. Only after he placed a hand under my breast and began to breath more evenly did I figured out that he was falling asleep. When he mumbled my name, in a voice half-asleep, I smiled and let him hold me. I wasn't really sleepy, but simply content to lie still and enjoy the little warm post-orgasmic flashes of sensation floating over me. Damn it for it being so light. I'm needed a scream at the sky orgasm and I get butterfly wings. Sigh. But ... it was so pleasant to have a man holding me again. I wiggled back into his chest tighter and he held me by my breast. Thoughts tried to intrude. But I pushed back at them just as hard. Tomorrow was soon enough to worry about my son, my ex, taking down Halloween decorations, deciding if I was going to take a drug-dealing-punk-kid to court. If I was ... yeah, tomorrow was more than soon enough. I closed my eyes and drifted asleep, my mind trying to figure out what to do with .... Lilies and Roses Chapter 1 Surprise, surprise, surprise Ted looked up from his computer screen at the clock that said 6:15pm and slumped back in his chair. 'Ah crap,' he thought. 'Another evening out shot to hell. Well, might as well get it over with.' He picked up the phone to call home. His wife Megan picked it up on the second ring. "Not going to make it again, are you?" she said without letting him say hello. "Let me guess. Didn't get your work done again and now another planned night out not going to happen?" "Hey, well hello to you too," Ted replied. "That's right. Lost another person today and the deadline didn't change. I shouldn't be more than another hour or so and then when...". He didn't get to finish his sentence as she cut him off. "No way in hell am I sitting around here waiting for you to wander home. These reservations were made 2 weeks ago and I am going, with or without you," she yelled at him. "This is the third time in a row we've had plans to go out with Greg and Gretel, and I'm getting tired of your excuses. It's almost as if you don't want any friends anymore, much less a wife or even a marriage. Get your own damn dinner when you get home, you incompetent asshole. I'm going out," she finished and hung up the phone. 'Damn,' he thought. 'This was really getting serious.' He leaned back in his chair again and thought about what she'd said. Greg and Gretel Howard were their best friends. Greg was a lawyer with his own legal firm and specialized in business law and real estate. Mary worked in the office as a paralegal. The couples had met years ago when Greg and Gretel moved to town. The company that Ted worked for built their house. He and Megan spent about as much time there as they did at home, and Greg and Gretel were over at their house almost as much. Now both couples were "empty nesters" since Greg's youngest had moved to Denver. It was rather ironic that Greg's kids were business gurus while Ted's were lawyers. Looking at the clock, he realized he'd been wool gathering for 5 minutes. 'Screw it,' he thought. 'I'll do this in the morning. I'd rather spend some time with them than do this all night.' Picking up the phone, he called home. It rang until the answering machine picked up. 'She must be in the shower getting ready,' he mused. "Megan, it's me. I'm leaving the office now so we can go together. I love you and will see you in a few minutes." He tidied up his desk and locked the office. The parking lot was already empty, so he was able to get out onto the highway home in just a few minutes. When he got home, he parked next to Megan's car in the driveway. He smiled thinking about them going out together tonight. Inside the house, it was quiet and dark. He saw the red light on the answering machine flashing. It was his message. The bedroom was neat, no signs of putting on makeup or changing clothes. Hmmm. He checked the bathroom and it, too, was clean. The shower walls were dry, the clothes hamper was empty, and ... what? This was weird. The reservations weren't until 7:00, it was just now 6. Feeling strange about the situation, he decided to go to the restaurant and see if they just went early. They usually went dancing after dinner, so maybe they wanted to get started dancing early. He and Megan loved to dance. They'd been dining and dancing since their honeymoon and had been going every week they could get away since the kids were in high school. Greg and Gretel had learned to love it also, so it was the four of them on Friday nights, with Canasta or sometimes Bridge on Sunday afternoons. Now it had been months since they had gone out on a Friday and the card playing had almost disappeared during that same time. Well, she must have ridden over with Greg and Gretel since they only lived 3 blocks away. The Elite was the best restaurant in town and dining reservations had to be made 2 to 3 weeks ahead of time. Striding back out to the car, he drove directly towards the restaurant. With rush hour finished, it was a quick trip. He spotted a florist shop in a strip mall a block from the Elite restaurant, so on impulse he pulled in to get some flowers. The clerk looked up from her work bench as he came in and smiled. "Do you have any lilies and roses that I could put into a bouquet?" he asked. "My wife loves that combination," he added. "Certainly, sir. As a matter of fact, I made 2 bouquets this afternoon and you get the second one," she said. "They are $30 a bouquet, but since I am closing you can have it for half price." "Great," Ted beamed. "Here is my credit card." The clerk looked at the card and looked at him strangely. "May I have some ID, please?" Ted pulled out his drivers license for the clerk to see. She rang up the purchase and he signed the slip. She checked the signature against the license, handed back the cards and smiled. "Thank you. It looks like you are still you." As she gave him the bouquet, it looked as though she wanted to say something else. Ted was in a hurry though and didn't give her a chance as he left for the restaurant. Pulling into a parking space, Ted looked around the lot, but didn't see Greg and Gretel's car. He knew it was the right place, maybe they stopped somewhere else on the way here. 'I'll just wait inside until they arrive and surprise them,' he thought. He headed inside and joined the line waiting to be seated. He gave his name to the reservations clerk and waited while the list was checked. Frowning, the clerk motioned to a man who was standing in the corner. The man came over and introduced himself as Fernando the maitre 'd, and asked if there was a problem. Pointing at the list, the clerk said, "This party arrived 30 minutes ago, but this gentleman says he is with them. Four people arrived and the reservation was for four people." Ted frowned and said, "Yes, I'm Ted Johnson. The group is my wife Megan and I, and our friends the Howards. The reservation was supposed to be at 7pm and it is just now 630pm." Fernando coughed slightly and asked Ted to step to the side with him. They went to the corner of the small lobby where Fernando had been standing earlier. Ted could see that it was a small seating area waiting alcove and the entire dining room was visible. Ted didn't remember seeing it before on other nights out, but blamed that on the discreet manner that various plants and a privacy screen had been placed. Fernando used it to keep an eye on the wait staff and to help insure no problems arose. Gesturing towards the rear of the room, Fernando said "That group sitting at that back table. Is that your wife and friends?" Ted saw Greg and Gretel eating and said, "Yes, those are our friends Greg and Gretel Howard." Just then he spotted Megan. She was coming back from what looked like the rest room area. Wow!! She was dressed to kill tonight. There was his wife of 23 years with beautifully coifed brown hair and interesting red highlights, 3 inch heels on her black shoes, and the hottest black strapless dress he had never seen her wear with black nylons. He couldn't remember the shoes nor understand why she had them. They were almost the same height and she had always been self-conscious of being taller than other people. No way she could dance in those shoes. She hadn't looked this good in public with him since ... well since he couldn't remember. Then he lurched inside. He felt his face lose color and his legs turn to stone. As she arrived at the table, the person sitting with his back to them stood to help her with her chair. Ted thought he was going to puke. It was Ron Clark, his boss. Ron was 5 or 6 inches taller than he was. Wearing those shoes, Megan would be almost eye to eye with him. What the fuck was going on here? He noticed Megan leaning forward a little and saw her smelling the flowers in the centerpiece. Lilies and roses! She straightened and smiled at Ron. Damn! This was getting to be too much and he needed to sit down. Fernando had been watching Ted carefully and nudged him through a side entrance into the kitchen area. He got him to a chair, gave him a glass of water, and watched as he tried to come to grips with what he'd seen. As he sat there, some color started coming back to his face. Quietly Fernando said, "This group has been coming here for about three or four months now on Friday evenings. If I might ask, can you identify the people in that group?" Ted realized he had been holding his breath and he shuddered as he let it out. "Greg Howard is on the left. His wife Gretel is to his left. Megan ... my wife, Megan ... was just seated. The weasel faced rat fucker is my work supervisor, Ron Clark," he answered. Fernando said, "Would you give me your drivers license, please? I would like to help you clear this up." Ted pulled out his license and handed it over. Then quietly, Fernando stepped out of the kitchen. A myriad swirl of thoughts and feelings flashed through Ted's mind. 'No! Stop it!' Ted thought. 'Get your act together here. This could be innocent enough or it could turn into an ugly situation.' He thought, 'Megan was the only child from an upper middle class family and had aspired to be a gentleman's wife and live in a penthouse. She and Ted met, dated, fell in love and were married within 6 months. Their families had accepted them both and were ecstatic when first Timmy and then Joan had come along as the first grand children on either side. Could it be that she was now missing that rich man's life she had always wanted? Was this why she was here dressed like that? He didn't know fashion, but he did recognize expensive. And that hairdo must have taken an hour in the salon. But why was that bastard Clark here? Is this why he is getting all the overtime? Too bad that she hadn't talked to him earlier. Well, screw it. When he got his ID back, he would go and see what kind of story they would come up with. Or would he? He would have to start looking at his life without the tunnel vision he had developed, both at work and at home.' Just then Fernando came back in and handed back his license. "Mr. Johnson," he said. "I apologize for this evening. I don't remember seeing you here before, but this reservation and for several weeks back have been made in your name. In addition, a reservation is in place for next Friday evening and the Friday after also. I have two requests of you, if it is ok?" Ted nodded for him to go on as he finished the water and stood up. "They will be here for about 45 minutes more as they have just been served their entrees. I would prefer to avoid the public spectacle if you confronted them now. Therefore, we are closed on Mondays, but I would like you to come here for a casual lunch about 2pm. We have a small work staff taking care of business and I would like to talk to you in private. Just come to the back door and knock. Would that be acceptable?" "Yes, I understand. Your patrons might not like having dead rat with their dinner," answered Ted sourly, "and the other request you have?" "My nephew Freddy is on duty at the Marriott hotel just up the street. He is the assistant manager there. I would like you to go and talk to him, please. I don't want to say anything else at this time." Ted looked at Fernando and then slowly nodded. First dinner here and then going to the Marriott. Looks like they had changed their dancing style. Numbly shoving the empty feeling back down deep inside himself, he heard himself say, "Ok, I'll do that and I'll see you for lunch on Monday." Fernando escorted him back through the lobby and watched him go to his car. After glancing around the packed dining area, he stepped back into the kitchen. He picked up his phone and speed dialed the Marriott. His conversation was brief, then he went back to work. Ted drove to the Marriott and went inside. For some reason he was still carrying that damn bouquet of flowers. The desk clerk looked up as he came in and approached the desk. "Uncle Fernando asked me to talk to you," he started. "But first I would like to ask you for your ID." "What's the deal with my ID? I've been asked for it now at three different places. I know who I am. Why do I need to keep proving it?" he snapped back. Freddy just looked at him with his hand out, so he pulled it out and handed it over. Freddy disappeared into a back room, then returned and handed back the license. "Please come with me, sir," Freddy asked. Taking a key card, they entered the elevator and went to the 6th floor. Freddy opened the door on room 613 and entered. Ted went in and looked around. It was a nice very nice suite. It had a living room with television, microwave, mini bar, and sofa. The bedroom had a door to the bathroom and was filled with 2 king sized beds and dressers. On the table was a magnum of champagne chilling in a bucket. Ted was getting nauseous at the reality of the situation and about puked looking at the wine. He looked over at Freddy who cleared his throat. "Ted Johnson has reserved this room on Friday evenings for about three months," he started. "Before that time, he and his wife would come twice a week during the day. They said they liked to spice up their lives with an illicit rendezvous while the kids were in school. Then about two months ago, another couple joined him and his wife here on a Friday and now that group comes here every Friday. During the week, it is still just the couple. The group likes to use the Jacuzzi and the steam room down stairs. Only guests are allowed to use the facilities. I asked to see your ID because a person calling himself Ted Johnson puts the charges on a credit card in Ted Johnson's name. Fernando asked me to help you in any way that I could. We have surveillance cameras in all common areas and hallways. Please come back on Monday afternoon. That will give me a chance to go through our tapes. We try to keep them for 60 days and I will let you have as many tapes as I can find. That is, if you want them. We must leave now as they should be here soon. I'll make sure to put in new tapes when they arrive." Ted had settled onto a chair next to the table as Freddy filled him in on the situation. Looking at the flowers in his hand, he rose and placed them on the pillow of one of the beds. Let that cheating slut try to figure out this one. "Thank you," he said quietly. "Yes, I would like the tapes and if you could, I would also like copies of any credit card account numbers used along with the dates and amounts charged. Identity theft can be a real pain in the ass, but then again, so can real life." They went back downstairs and after shaking hands with Freddy, Ted drove away. He went back home and went into the empty house. The message light was still flashing on the answering machine, so after listening to ensure it wasn't somebody else, Ted cleared it out and thought about what he had learned. She must have been dressed and ready to go when he called. That hairdo must have taken an hour at the salon. She'd been counting on him working and she hadn't been worried about being caught. When they were going out together, they came home around 2am or so because of the dancing and socializing. Since he had been missing out and not going, she usually came home from these events around midnight or so. Well, so much for the dancing. She must have decided she preferred dancing the two backed beast or the spread leg limbo walk. He hadn't seen her dressed like that around here and they shared a closet. He would have seen the new clothes. Maybe she was keeping her new wardrobe at Gretel's house. Yeah, that would make sense. Well, if he threw her out, she wouldn't need anything and already had a place to live. Wait, if she was planning on throwing him out, she would have to move that stuff over here. Ted shook his head, trying to think straight. So, now what to do? This marriage was over, no doubt about that. He needed to get some hard evidence before they cleaned him out. He wondered what she was getting out of this. Well, laid was obvious because they hadn't had sex more than once a month since the company Christmas party 7 or 8 months ago. Jesus! July already and sex only 8 times this year. He knew that Rosie Palm and her 5 ugly sisters had been helping him out a lot. He just hadn't realized how much. He must be getting really old and complacent if he hadn't noticed that she had cut him off. They had always had an active sex life, and yes they were getting older and slowing down. Was that what this was. Out scratching the old itch without him? Of course she had cut him off, he realized. She had Ron twice a week and the group on Fridays. But why were Greg and Gretel in on this? All of them must be calling Ron by Ted's name, at least when it was credit card time, otherwise, they would have to use cash. When had this whole mess started. Was it the Christmas party? Before? Ron and Tabitha Clark had been introduced at that party as a new manager over the sales and marketing areas which included Ted's team. In his mind that was a really dumb move. They had just added a layer of management that wasn't needed and combined two areas that sounded alike but had different purposes. Ron and his wife Tabitha were a couple in their late 30s and had moved here from Dallas. Ron looked like a tall, brown-haired weasel with a long nose, beady eyes, and a weak chin. Ted had wondered how he had landed the beautiful Tabitha. She was gorgeous looked like a beauty pageant winner. Just by looking at her, you would never know they'd had the girls. The dress she'd worn had emphasized her flat stomach. He knew that 2 girls, Sara and Jennifer, were in high school. The oldest girl, Melissa, was in college. 'Ok,' he sadly thought. 'Looks like maybe 2 marriages are going to dissolve and the shit will hit the fan with my so called best friends.' That was probably why Fernando wanted him in on Monday, to go over the credit card receipts. He thought about staying up to confront Megan when she got home. No, that wouldn't be a good idea. He needed evidence, he needed reasons, and he needed to know what kind of shit was headed his way. He was over his head and drowning and hadn't seen it coming. He couldn't tip her or them off that he knew until he found out what he needed to know. Well, tomorrow was another day. He went to bed with a sad, sick feeling that wouldn't leave him alone. He looked at the clock and it said midnight when Megan slid into bed quietly, trying not to wake him. 'Screw you too,' he thought. 'She smelled fresh and damp. If they had gone dancing, she would have smelled of sweat and smoky bars. Yeah, weren't showers in hotels a good idea.' He went back to sleep. The next morning he got up and did his morning routine. He went into the kitchen for a cup of coffee. Megan had always been an early riser and was reading the paper at the table. "Good morning," she said without looking up. Ted drank his coffee while looking out the window into the back yard. 'Damn,' he thought. 'I won't get to use this pool anymore. Well, I'll get a gym membership and use their pool.' Megan looked up and said louder, "Good morning, I said. You have no reason to be rude to me. I didn't do anything wrong." Ted poured the rest of his coffee down the sink, then turned and stared at her. 'Yeah, right. Go on the offensive and deny, deny, deny,' he thought, 'I wonder how much advice Greg has been giving her?' He couldn't tell that she'd had her hair done up last night. Well of course she would. Can't chance giving me any clues. She was turning red in the face while he continued to stare at her. Finally, he put the cup down on the counter and quietly said "Fuck you bitch. You want conversation? Go talk to your friends. I've got better things to do. Oh, and one more thing. Don't you ever call me incompetent again." Her eyes widened in shock because he had never talked to her like that before. She started to sputter something as he walked past her, but she never got anything out as he walked out the front door to his car and drove away. Lilies and Roses Pt. 02 Ok, here it is folks. I finally finished this saga. Hopefully I have filled in some of the holes from the first story. This is a work of fiction. A lot of things in life happen for no apparent reason. Was it really our choice or mere happenstance? The definitive question I must ask is 'Will it matter a hundred years from now when we are dead?' Usually the answer is 'no'. Judge for yourself. Oh, and please, before you comment would you take the time to read it again? Thanks to Patricia51 and HenryDavidThoreau for insightful comments and elucidation. Cheers. * Megan's story Chapter 1 The five o'clock whistle blew and the women moved to put away their tools and tidy the area. They all stood by their work areas as the matron moved among them, checking to see that all was in order. The matron yelled, "Clear!" The women moved to the wall in order, formed a line and waited for the matron to open the door. Upon opening, the women moved through in single file going down the corridor to the cafeteria where they stopped at the end of the line ahead of them and waited to get their trays. The trays were stainless steel which had been formed into divided areas, no plates needed. Each portion went to its own section and was spooned on as the ladies went through the line. Each inmate picked up a glass of milk, juice, or coffee (warm) along with their plastic utensils, then moved to sit down and eat. Nobody said much. When they were finished, they moved to the line to leave. Megan Johnson had the routine down pat. She'd been here since her sentencing after her trial. Hell, she wasn't even embarrassed any more in the open bay showers. Naked women moved in under the running water, soaped up, rinsed off, and went for a towel. They put on clean clothes and moved in a line back to their cells. She didn't think she would ever get used to the sound of that cell door slamming behind her. At least, she'd never cried out loud the way some of the other women did and some of them still do. She'd been lucky, she realized, when she first came inside. She had been marched in with some other 'fresh meat' after being bussed to the prison. She had undergone the usual 'full body cavity search' with the others and had dressed in the utilitarian white underwear, pullover shirt, and pants with no pockets or belt. When she was moved to her cell, she saw a young dark haired woman sitting on the upper bunk. They introduced themselves to each other. Megan and Linda were now cell mates. Contrary to the rumors she had heard about prison life, she hadn't seen any violence or heard about any gang rapes. That wasn't to say that she wouldn't later on, it just hadn't happened yet. There were a few books to read and stories to pass back and forth. Time moved slowly and she thought about where she'd been and what she had to look at for a future. Not much. She decided to keep a diary of her prison life, but after she received the writing materials, she changed her mind and decided to write about her past. Maybe she could figure out where she had gone wrong. Chapter 1 Some of you are wondering what I was thinking when I threw away everything in my life that was important. My marriage of over 20 years to a hard working, faithful, and loving husband. The finest two children anyone would want. The esteem and respect of our neighbors and friends. Well, obviously, I wasn't thinking about any of that. I was thinking about myself. Now look at me. I'll be here in prison for probably the rest of my life. If they do let me out, it will be to move into a nursing home. I guess the best way to explain, no that's the wrong word; relate my story would be to start at the beginning. I was born at an early age to Phyllis and Harold Phillips in Chicago. I was their only child. There were times when I wondered why they had me at all. Mother was an interior decorator and consultant, constantly on the move going far and wide to take care of her clients. Father was an architect with a prestigious firm and never went anywhere but work. Never since have I met anyone as conceited and narcissistic as either of my parents. They held grand parties where the alcohol would flow and caviar was as commonplace as peanuts are in a bar. I remember the gowns. These weren't just dresses, these were special gowns. Most were private label designer gowns, designed to be worn once and then tossed on the heap going to a Goodwill box. All the clothes worn to my parents parties were haute couture, but I remember the gowns most of all. I also remember dreaming about the day when I would attend my parent's party in my own special gown. When my big night arrived, I was in for a shock. Nobody appeared to care, except me. My gown was black, cut down to there and with a slit on the right side. I had my hair in an upsweep and my makeup had been meticulously applied. I entered the room alone after my parents had already 'arrived', but I wasn't noticed at all. Bummer. What does a girl have to do to be noticed around here? I hung around most of the night on the periphery, watching how people acted. I listened in on various conversations, but didn't join any. Who would want the observations of a barely eighteen year old naïf? I went to private schools and had European vacations, but not with my parents. I never lacked for anything, well physical. I do think I was a little emotionally stunted since I hardly ever saw my parents together. It seems the older I got the more distanced they were. I don't think I ever rebelled. Oh, I might have, but it is hard to rebel when you don't know what to rebel against, you know? Chapter 2 I decided to go to college, but didn't declare a major for a year while I tried various odds and ends classes. You know, Art Appreciation (basket weaving 101), Geology, Math and Physics (once and only once!), Sociology, Political Science, etc. I finally ended in Business Administration. I wasn't really scatterbrained and unsure; I was just wasting a lot of my parent's money. I mean they spent their time spending it, why shouldn't I? Anyway, I met Ted Johnson in college. What a hunk with his dark eyes and dark hair and that slender build. It sent chills down my spine whenever I saw him on campus. After following him around and getting his schedule, I started arriving before or just after he did at various campus places. I suppose that could be called stalking these days, but I was only trying to be noticed. That is also how I ended up in Business Administration. Eventually, he finally noticed me and asked me out on a date. Now, I had done the high school dating thing and I wasn't impressed at all. There were some make out sessions along with the (almost mandatory it seemed) groping in the car, but nobody ever got into my pants. Nobody did at all. Try that, buster, and just take me home! No more dates in the future, either. After all, a girl has to have standards. That is, until Ted came along. I don't know what it was that separated him from the others, but I couldn't help myself. I checked his major and he was into business marketing. He tried to explain the various differences to me between sales and advertising and marketing, but he often just gave up when I gave him that blank stare. I do remember him telling me about when his parents had died. They were in a small plane that went down in the Rockies someplace. He was still trying to recover from the devastation that the tragedy had visited upon him. That's why it took so long for him to notice me. He was still grief stricken and was just going through the motions at school. I like to think that I helped him recover a little bit. It was nice to feel needed. It was shortly after he had told me about how his parents had died that he asked me to marry him. I was in my own heaven for the next few months. We married almost immediately after graduation. And yes, I was still a virgin. I think he was a little experienced, but all I cared about was how tender and gentle he was with me. Anyway, I did get to meet his grandparents, who turned out to be really neat people, before the wedding. Of course, my folks said they adored Ted. I wasn't so sure about that. We had gone to the house to meet them immediately after the engagement, but they seemed preoccupied for the entire evening. I still think after all this time that my parents didn't notice when I moved out of the house. I just wasn't that high up on their priority list. I hadn't seen Ted throwing money around, but was rather frugal like most other college students. I presumed he was on some sort of scholarship or was living on loans. The money subject never came up. Shortly before we got married, I remember one time when Ted and I were talking about the future and he wanted to bring up the past. He started to tell me about what he called the 'Johnson Family Tradition'. Then he started talking about his many great, great, grandparents and who married who, and I lost my concentration. Now, I'm not some scatterbrain who can't focus on anything for more that 2 minutes. It just didn't seem to me to be that important at the time. I know I should have paid better attention. What can I say? I made a very large error in judgment, and that error was to not listen to my husband. I prefer to think that knowing about the blind trust and the heirlooms and so forth ahead of time wouldn't have affected my life all that much. Yes, I would have loved going to the society events in town wearing fancy gowns and not having to put off doing things because we didn't have enough money for them. I loved Ted and wanted to be with him regardless of his financial circumstances. We did take family vacations and trips and had a very good time. I hope that I didn't harbor any resentment for going coach instead of first class. I certainly didn't consider myself a gold-digging bitch out to fleece him of his heritage. But, who knew? Would knowing about his wealth have changed what happened with Ron? I really don't know. I mean, here I am in prison because Ted mopped the floor with all of us. I guess I'll never know what would have happened otherwise, and now I have to live with that pain. Sorry, I digress. But I couldn't keep track of a thing he was talking about, so I asked him to tell me about it later. I know, I know. Talk about stupid. But whenever he brought it up to tell me about it, I got cross eyed and stupid. I just couldn't listen to his family tree, even after his grandparents and his Aunt Rose all passed away. He didn't have any family left except for us, and I hurt him terribly by not listening to him and being there for him. I did listen when he told me about his safe deposit boxes at the bank because I needed to know, but I never, not once ever, went to the bank to check out the boxes myself. As far as I was concerned, they were full of this Johnson family stuff and I didn't care! Chapter 3 Life goes on, so they say. First we had Timmy and what a handful he was, let me tell you. He had croup for the first four or five months, every night about 8:30 and he would cry with it until at least 9:30 or sometimes until 10:00. Egad! And of course, we didn't have any family around us. My folks were in Chicago and his grandparents were in Los Angeles. We had a small circle of friends and acquaintances from Ted's work. I stayed home with Timmy. We made it through, but I just knew I would never be caught up on sleep again. Silly me. About the time I thought things were getting better for us, along came Joan. Wow! What a difference. The sweetest child you ever saw with her chubby cheeks, brown hair and eyes like Ted's. She was sleeping through the night by three months. As the kids got older and started school, I felt somewhat at a loss. I didn't really want to go to work and, after all while Ted's income wasn't the best, he supported us well. It wasn't that I was unhappy with life. I just wanted to do other, different things. I'd read in the newspapers some of the things that various volunteer groups were doing around town, so I thought I would go volunteer when I had some free time. I ended up working with the Public Library, the local Museum, and Mercy Hospital. I thought I was happy. Hah! If I was so damned happy, why am I now sitting in prison? That mealy mouthed, money grubbing, lying, manipulating piece of shit named Ron Clark, that's why. We had raised the kids and they were both now in college. They wanted to be lawyers, only God knows why. I sure don't. The only lawyer I ever knew socially was Greg Howard. He and his wife Gretel moved to town a couple of years before from someplace in Texas. They were fun to be with and had kids who were just a little older than ours. That was how we met, a school function. We started going to each other's house on weekends to play cards. Later on when the kids were older, we started going out on Friday nights for a nice dinner and then dancing at clubs around town. It was a nice way to get out and do something different. I think that we had started doing this as a means to try and stay connected to and with each other. I mean, Ted had his work and I had my committees and we had the kids. What we didn't have was a whole lot of each other. Yes, we still bounced ideas off each other and so forth, but I wasn't there with him and he wasn't there with me. We had lost the feeling we were sounding boards for each other. As time went by, the things we were talking about just didn't seem to register with the other, so we started talking about them with other people instead. The typical ennui in an overly comfortable existence where each partner was now taken for granted. Of course the sex life also went almost kaput, falling in frequency as well as passion. It was now comfortable, occasional, and overlooked. We'd try to spice it up now and again, especially now that the kids were gone, but even those occasions started to pale. We were too comfortable, too self satisfied, too wrapped up in ourselves and not each other. An insect called an ant lion lays its eggs in a hole in the sand. The hole is at the bottom of a cone and is surrounded with very loose sand. A victim steps onto the sand and starts to slip downwards. The insect knows it must get away, so it valiantly starts struggling to go up. Of course we all know that said victim can only slide downwards on that slippery slope until it reaches its fate. Chapter 4 It was a fund raising event for Mercy Hospital. They had one every year in the fall and this one was a carnival. I was on the organizing committee this year. It was hard work to make an event like this successful, especially since it was a fund raiser and that meant we couldn't spend any funds. Yes, I know the old axiom "You have to spend money to make money." That was the world of finance, not the world of fund raising events for a hospital. The money we raised went to pay the 'uncollectible' bills. Homeless and low income people need medical care too, but the hospital can't go on treating people without getting some reimbursement somewhere. Don't get me started on HMOs and the like. Yes, I just loved 'John Q'. Before he left for work that morning, Ted told me that he would take me out to eat after I got home. We used to attend events like this as a family, but since I was on a committee I had to be there all day. The kids were both away at school, so it was only the two of us. Anyway, there I was talking with some friends and a stranger came up to me and asked me if he could talk to me for a moment. I excused myself and we stepped off to the side. I found myself checking him out. He wasn't bad looking, but I noticed his brown eyes were rather small. He had brown hair and wore a nice brown suit, and he was over 6 feet tall. It was nice looking up at his eyes since Ted and I are almost the same height. I had stopped wearing high heels because I didn't want to be taller than Ted, but I found myself thinking that I could wear heels next to this man and not feel self-conscious. Don't ask me why that thought occurred to me. "Hello," he said. "My name is Mr. Clark, Ron Clark. I asked those people over there who put this event together and they directed me to you. I wanted to complement you on your efforts." "Oh, well, hello, my name is Mrs. Johnson, Megan Johnson. Thank you for the complement. I try to do my best for the hospital." "Yes, I'm sure you do. But, please! No false modesty here, you have done an amazingly good job. All of the exhibits flow seamlessly, donation areas are well marked but subtle. It takes an excellent organizational mind to place things just so. How long have you been working on these events? It must have been years to become this smooth and functional." "Why, thank you. I have been working with three organizations here in town, and I have been doing so for almost ten years now. It just gets easier with practice," I gushed. This was getting to be a bit much for me. Something in his manner invited my responses and I found myself wanting his approval. I mean, I knew that my efforts were appreciated at the hospital. Ted has often remarked on my ability to organize and manage, but this man was over the top. After lauding my praises longer than I should have let him, he said he had to leave for some business meeting. Before he left, though, he asked where he could meet me the next day. He stated that he was the chairman of some upcoming charity event in Dallas and that he would really appreciate it if I could give him some ideas on how I accomplished the job. He also stated that he was leaving the next afternoon, so I suggested meeting for a lunch. He was staying at the Marriot Hotel and asked me to meet him there and then we could go someplace and talk. Sure. I fell for it. He left and I went back to the group. After Ted showed up, we went out as planned. I started to tell Ted about Mr. Clark, but he was going on about how good a job I did again this year, so I put it off until later. All these complements in one day overwhelmed me. Whew. The next day, I was at the Marriott to meet Mr. Clark about 12:30. I asked for him at the desk and was told he was waiting for a phone call and had asked that I be sent to his room. I was hesitant about that. After all, I am a married woman and I wasn't real thrilled about going to some man's room at the Marriott. I told the clerk that I would wait for Mr. Clark in the lobby. The clerk nodded and pointed to some chairs where I could wait. About ten minutes later, Mr. Clark came into the lobby, looking around the room for me. He was dressed casually in a short sleeved shirt and brown slacks. I stood up and went to where he was standing. He had a frown on his face as I approached and I became somewhat nervous. "I told the clerk to send you to my room when you arrived. You're still down here. So, what's the problem," he said rather abruptly. I was taken aback at his tone of voice and became rather agitated. "Just wait a minute here, bub," I replied. "I'm not some chippie off the street and I don't go to men's hotel rooms just because someone said so. I'm here to meet for lunch and have a discussion. Going to your or anyone else's room is not part of that plan. Now, if you want to go to lunch, then let's go, otherwise I'm going back home." He'd started turning red in the face when I stood up to him, but he managed to calm himself down with some effort. "I'm sorry," he replied. "I've been on the phone with my people and things are getting messed up. I shouldn't have taken my anger with them out on you. Of course, I want to take you to lunch. I really need your expertise to help control that fiasco. I didn't mean to offend you by my request; I was just busy and didn't consider your point of view on the matter." "Ok, apology accepted," I said, "Shall we go eat now? I get grumpy when I'm hungry." Lilies and Roses Pt. 02 "Yes, let's go to lunch. I have a lot of ground to cover with you and need to get started." Just then his cell rang. With a glare at the caller id he answered it, listened for a moment, and then looked at Megan. "I'm sorry, but this call is from my lawyer and I'm not going to talk to him in public like this. If you would, please, come to my suite and we'll order room service. If you don't want to, then feel free to remain here in the lobby. I don't know how long this call will take." Then he stood there waiting for me to reply, holding his cell phone with the mouthpiece covered. What could it hurt to eat room service? "It looks like the fiasco wins. I'll come up with you, and room service sounds fine," I stated. I was a big girl and I was certain that I could handle Mr. Ron Clark. That was the start of the slide down into the ant lion's trap. He said something into the phone, then escorted me to the elevator and then to his suite. He let me into the room and motioned for me to go to the chairs by the table. It was a double room suite. The sitting room had the TV, table with 4 chairs, microwave, small refrigerator, mini bar, and an open closet. Looking into the other room I saw two queen sized beds with a night stand between them. I also noticed the bathroom door which was open. 'Quite nice accommodations,' I thought. While I was checking out the suite, Ron moved into the other side and sat on a bed while talking quietly on the phone. He talked for about five minutes, hung up, and dialed another number. Long distance from the number of buttons he pushed. This call was shorter and then he hung up. He sat looking at the phone for a moment, then shook his head and came over to sit at the table. "I'm sorry about all of this," he apologized. "Let me call room service and get some food up here. You must be famished. I know that I am." He called room service from the hotel phone, and then sat down. We talked about vendors, event participants, how to advertise the event, and in general everything associated with setting up a charity fundraiser. The food arrived and we both ate. He'd bought a bottle of wine sometime before and it was chilling in the little refrigerator. We drank it while we ate our lunch. During the hour I had been there the phone rang three more times with him moving into the other area where I couldn't overhear. He was a very intense person and seemed to exert a lot of energy getting his points across. Chapter 5 Anyway, I was finished with lunch and was waiting at the table when he finished his latest call. He didn't move to sit down. Rather he came to the table and, noticing that I was finished eating, held the chair for me as I stood up. He moved me right into his arms for a warm, gentle kiss on the lips. He didn't restrain me, just held me until the kiss was finished. Wow. I hadn't been kissed like that in ages and I felt myself flushing a bit. He looked into my eyes and oh so quietly said, "You are so beautiful. I'm sorry if I surprised you because I surprised myself." Then without taking his eyes from mine he leaned in and kissed me again. I didn't hold back. Our tongues fenced in that age old dance as the kiss lasted a million years. I would like to think that I was overwhelmed by his charm and smooth moves, but that wouldn't be taking responsibility for my actions. I didn't put up even a token resistance, but found myself encouraging him. My sudden fall from grace was barely noticed as I gave in to my building desires. This wasn't a time for thinking, but for feeling and taking. It wasn't until he rolled off of my sweaty, well fucked body that I realized what it was I had just done. I lay next to Ron on the messed up bed, trying to regain my senses as it hit me. I had just cheated on Ted. The only man I had ever loved had just been stabbed in the back. I got up from the bed and went into the bathroom. I knew that there would never be enough hot water to wash away the stained, used, and dirty feelings that I knew covered me and by default our marriage. 'Oh, God. How could I have done this?' I wailed inside my head. Tears flowed unnoticed into the water flow circling the drain. 'How symbolic,' I thought. 'There goes my pride, dignity, and the remnants of my now broken marriage vows. Everything is down the drain and I don't know how I can ever get it back.' Finally I pulled myself back together. I dried off and moved into the bedroom to get my clothes. I didn't look at Ron while I dressed. He stopped me as I started to leave the room. I noticed he was still naked, but I looked at his face instead of his flaccid cock. "I'm going to be back here next Tuesday. I have already reserved this room. I arrive Monday evening and I will leave Tuesday evening. I want you to be here for lunch on Tuesday," he stated. "I will bring some papers I want you to look at, and then I want your opinion on the feasibility. Oh, and next time, don't wear panty hose. I hate that shit so either wear thigh highs or slacks." My God. What kind of man is this? I looked at him like he was on drugs or something. "I'm sorry. I have no intention of coming back here, either as someone who will help you with your fiasco or as a cheap slut. I refuse to give you an opinion on any project you have, and will not participate in any future ventures of yours. Is that clear enough Mr. Clark?" I replied. He stood looking at me for a moment, seeming to weigh what I had just said. I swear I didn't see him move, but the next thing I knew; he had both my nipples in his fingers. He pinched and twisted them between his fingers so hard I thought they were coming off. Then he pulled down on them towards the floor and that is where I came to rest, on my knees in front of him. "Right, slut, whatever you say, slut," he quietly said. "If you want your nipples back, you put your hands behind your back and you suck my cock. Just lean forward, open your mouth and get it hard." I rested on my knees with my nipples burning and tears flowing down my face from the pain. He twisted a little harder and pulled my nipples towards him. Reluctantly, I leaned forward and took his cock in my mouth and started to suck. The harder his cock became, the less pain I felt in my nipples. I still can't believe I was subjugated by a tittie twister of all things. "Now blow me, bitch," he commanded. "The sooner you swallow my load, the sooner your tits stop hurting." Then he cranked up some more pain for motivation. I did it. I worked on his cock like it was the only cock in the whole world and I was the only one lucky enough to get it. When he came, I pushed the head as far back in my mouth as I could. He finally finished coming and released my nipples. He looked down at my teary face and smiled. It was more a smirk, but his eyes still looked like small glass beads. "Now, you and I both know you will be here Tuesday afternoon. You will do your best with the papers I give you. You will be nice. And you will be my slut whore for whatever time I am here. I have your cell number and your number at the house. When I call, you come. Do you understand me?" he quietly asked. "Or will I have to come looking for you? I can see you on your knees in your living room in front of your family sucking my cock. Those are your options. Think about it, carefully. Now, get out of here. I have work to do." Then he turned around and started to get dressed. I slowly stood up, retrieved my purse, and left. As soon as I got home, I went to the kitchen and got ice cubes and put them inside my bra. My nipples were so sore I swore they would never be normal sized again. No sex at home, again. Good thing since my nipples were sensitive almost the whole week. They finally stopped hurting sometime Sunday, but I could still see some bruising on both breasts. Whoever thought that sore nipples were fun was way off base. The next Tuesday, I was right on time. I wore a nice blouse and a pair of slacks. He had already ordered lunch and it was on the table. I sat down and ate while looking at the top page of the stack next to my plate. It wasn't complicated, just needed some editing. I finished lunch about the time I finished the papers. Ron had already finished eating and was sitting on one of the beds, talking on the phone. I finished the last page, then picked them up and bounced them off the table on the edge to straighten them. Just then Ron finished his phone call. "Ok, Megan, what's your opinion on the papers?" he asked nicely. 'Damn, he's being nice,' I thought. "Everything looks fine from my point of view. Of course I'm not going to be there to run anything, but whoever does will be able to get through all right. I wouldn't touch a thing. Is that all?" I finished. He stood there a moment, apparently lost in thought. Then with a shake of his head he came back to the present. "Yes Megan," he replied slowly, "that's all for today. I have to leave now, but I will be back on Thursday, so be here for lunch." "All right, Thursday at noon," I confirmed. Then I picked up my purse and left. The whole drive home I felt confused, but couldn't figure out why. I read the papers, answered his questions, ate lunch, and left. It was quite simple, but something was missing. I turned the TV on to a gardening show I like, but sat on the couch thinking about the afternoon instead of watching the show. Finally I realized that I missed the sex. It had been painful and degrading, and my feelings or wants hadn't been considered. At least after the seduction they weren't. 'What was wrong with me?' I wondered. 'Last week he was nice while he seduced me, but after the fuck he turned into a mean bastard. Today he barely talked to me at all. After the way he treated me, did I really want him to use me like a whore again?' I went upstairs and did something I hardly ever do. I ran a bubble bath and soaked away the afternoon. I put in about twice the amount of Calgon that I usually do and just vegged out. I finally dragged myself out of the tub, dressed, and went to fix dinner for Ted. I put a plate for him in the microwave, and then went to bed. I couldn't believe how tired and drained I felt. I didn't wake until the next morning. Ted was getting ready for work and was being quieter than normal. I didn't move letting him think that I was still asleep and let him leave. I closed my eyes and didn't wake up until after two that afternoon. 'Jesus, God, and Mother Mary,' I thought as I looked at the clock. 'I never sleep this much. What the hell is wrong with me?' I got out of bed, dressed, hit the bathroom on the way to the kitchen, and fixed myself something to eat. I looked outside and saw that it was a beautiful day, so I changed into my bikini and went out to lounge by the pool. Ted woke me when he got home from work. At least I had rolled over while sleeping so my back was as red as my front. I thanked him for waking me up and told him I must have caught something. I had him slather some aloe on me, and then I went back to bed. Thursday I was at the Marriott. I talked to the clerk and he called Ron. A few minutes later Ron was ushering me into the room and to the table for lunch. We barely spoke to each other at all. When I was finished eating, Ron stood and took my hand leading me to the bed. Our clothes came off and we hit the bed. Half an hour later I was showered, dressed, and heading out the door. 'Damn,' I thought, 'just like a call girl. Get in, get off, and get out. What's he doing to me?' The next few weeks were more of the same, but in the middle of December, things changed. Ron asked, "Are Ted and you going to attend the company Christmas party?" "Yes we are," I answered. "We always go since Ted is marketing manager. Why?" "My wife and I have been invited and are going to attend. I want this to be a special night. Here is five thousand dollars," he said handing me the money. "I want you to spend most of it on a hot dress and sexy lingerie. Sometime during the evening we will get away for some privacy and you will show me what you bought. I want your hair in some kind of upswept hairdo that complements your neck line and soft shoulders. I'll leave the makeup and etc. to you." First, I looked at the cash in my hand. I had never seen a stack of bills this size unless they were ones and these were hundred dollar bills. Fifty of them in one pile. Holy Shit! I finally looked back at him and asked my big question, "Why?" He looked at me as though I were an idiot before answering. "Megan, you are a beautiful woman. I want you to dress beautifully. But more than that, at that Christmas party I want you to know that I am the reason you are dressed so lovely. You do this for me and I will guarantee more evenings of this type. You are the kind of woman for which any man will spend money to ensure she looks the best." I looked from him to the money in my hand. This was really strange, and I felt that if I accepted this money for that purpose, the relationship between us would be forever changed. How right I was. Ted and I went to the Christmas party. I'd spent most of the money on a dress and the lingerie, just as Ron had asked. Ted noticed the new clothes, but I told him they were on sale at the Outlet Mall. The party was just like every year, stand around to see and be seen, dance and eat a little. This year was different though, because after the food and before the dancing, Mr. Harvey got up and introduced Ron and his wife Tabitha. Ron was Ted's new boss! Ted didn't look fazed by the announcement and made a point of taking me over for introductions. Ron eyed the gown I was wearing and smirked when Tabitha or Ted weren't looking. During the dancing portion of the evening, Ron and I danced a few times while Ted was dancing with Tabitha or some of the other women present. I don't think he knew that I only danced with the two of them all night - my husband and my lover. Somehow, I didn't think it was wrong and whether or not anyone else noticed, I didn't care. At least, no one ever said a word about it. Chapter 6 We didn't get together again until the middle of January, and then things began to get intense. We talked about the usual stuff while we ate then we fucked as usual. I went to the bathroom to get cleaned up. I came out of the bathroom to get dressed when I froze. Greg Howard was standing at the foot of the bed with a big smile on his face and nothing else. I looked at Ron for an explanation. He was still naked but didn't say a word; he just sat there staring hard at me. My mouth was dry and my heart was pounding as I looked back and forth between them, trying to discern a clue. Finally Greg stepped around the side of the bed and took my elbow. "Hi, Megan," he said with a huge smile. "Ron has been telling me about his hot piece here in town. He didn't tell me that it was you. If I had known, I would have been here for threesome months ago. I have always wanted in your pants and now here we are. I will be eternally grateful that he invited me here today. My greatest fantasy has been fulfilled." I was totally at a loss, my mind went blank and my body went numb. I couldn't believe this! Just then Greg reached out and took my elbow as he moved himself to me for a kiss. That energized me! I slipped out of his grasp and put my hands on his chest and shoved him back. "Now just wait a god damn minute here," I screeched. "I don't do group sex of any sort and I damn sure aren't going to have sex with you." Then I turned my attention to Ron and screamed at him, "Just who the hell do you think you are? As far as I'm concerned I will never see you again! Do you understand me you slimy sack of shit? Don't ever try to contact me again for any reason." I stepped around Greg and went to get dressed. Both men watched me pull on my panties and bra and then Ron spoke. He sounded very calm and sure of himself, he didn't raise his voice, and he sliced me into little pieces with his words. "Megan," he started. I paused when he said that. No, not what he said, the tone of voice he used. It was flat, emotionless, and cold. "Now that you are done screaming, it is my turn. First of all, don't you ever scream at me like that again. Secondly, you whore, I am the man who owns your cheating ass. For the last two months I haven't called you once. Not one time. But you were here, and on time, every fucking week. You and I both know that you haven't fucked Ted since the Christmas party without me telling you to stop having sex or saying anything else. You two are about history and you know it." Then he stood up and moved to stand with his face inches from mine. My heart was still pounding and all of a sudden I was afraid. He stood looking in my eyes and then the side of my head exploded with pain. Without moving or giving any warning, he slapped me so hard I stumbled to the side. I managed to grab at chair for balance or I would have been on the floor. Tears came unbidden to my eyes and I looked at him with a surprised look on my face. He hadn't moved, just stood there watching me while the side of my head burned with the impact of the blow. Without looking around he said, "Greg, get your ass over here and help Megan get dressed. The whore has decided to leave early today and I think I'm going to let her." It took a moment for Greg to move, but then he came over and handed my blouse to me. Slowly I put it on and buttoned it up then took my slacks from Greg's hand and put them on. I stepped over and slipped my shoes on, picked up my purse, and walked unsteadily to the door. Just as I grasped the door handle, Ron spoke up again, "Megan, if you leave today, don't ever come back here. Never. No more playtime with Ron, and back to your boring, lower middle class life. Before you make that decision though, it might help you to know that I have some of the surveillance tapes that the hotel makes as a part of their security. I have some with dates and times of you arriving here and also leaving here. I don't think it would be too much of a stretch for someone to figure out why you were here. And no, I don't mean just lunch from room service." I turned to look at him just then. He used a threatening tone as he continued. "I am also your husband's boss at work, but for how much longer depends on you. At least I think you like your home and his and her cars. Go ahead and leave if you want to. I am not going to make you stay." Then he paused a moment and in a much more confident and non threatening manner he stated, "Just be aware that life as you knew it is going to be a lot different from now on. Things change, Megan. After today, your home life from now on will be changed, one way or the other. That will be your choice. And yes, the activities here will be different. This is my choice. And now I've changed my mind. I'll let you go home to think about things." Then he stepped over to his clothes and started getting dressed. Greg looked disappointed at not getting to fuck me, but he followed Ron's example and started getting dressed. I opened the door and went home. I had a lot of things to think about. I didn't go back to the hotel on Thursday. Friday afternoon Ted called me and said that he wouldn't be going to the Elite Restaurant for dinner and then for the dancing afterwards. He said he had to work late to get a report finished. I didn't know it then, but Ted would never participate with us at the restaurant and activities again. I wasn't even hurt after the call nor did I consider whether Ron had anything to do with that report or not. I just called Greg and asked him to pick me up at the house. I wondered how I would feel in Greg's company after that Tuesday lunch, but he acted as though nothing had ever happened. I suppose that was true to a certain extent. We hadn't had sex at the hotel that day. I wasn't sure how I was feeling that night. I wasn't tired per se, but at the same time I felt exhausted. It was a dead tired numb feeling and I had to force myself to focus on the conversation. More than once I started when I felt as though I had drifted away. The look in Greg's and Gretel's eyes told me that I wasn't all there. Finally I asked Greg to take me home because I wasn't feeling well. He just nodded and we left. Lilies and Roses Pt. 02 Chapter 7 I was in a half dreamlike state the entire weekend. I am not sure how I spent the time. Ted never remarked on my appearance or mood. He did his normal weekend chores while I drifted around the house. Finally Tuesday morning arrived. That terrible Tuesday. I drank almost a whole pot of coffee for breakfast. I wanted to break out of the lassitude which had me in its grip, and I wanted to break out before time to go to the hotel. I guess that was when I made the decision to return to Ron and fuck both him and Greg. Why not? It wasn't as though I had anything else going on in my life. Sex was sex and I didn't love either one of those pricks. I painted my toenails a pretty shade of pink to match my fingernails, put on a nice springtime type dress with no underwear, and my heavy coat. I pulled into the parking lot at five minutes before one. I went inside, took the elevator up, and went to the room. I didn't knock, I knew it was open. Ron and Greg were sitting at the table and just looked at me as I came in. I sat down and we all ate lunch. Gee, they waited for me before starting. When we were done eating, I took off the coat and draped it over the chair. I walked over between the beds and took off my shoes. One of them, I don't know who, came over and undid the back of my dress for me. It hit the floor and I was naked. I heard them undressing behind me while I stood there, passively waiting for what was next. When they were ready, we all got onto the bed. I was pleasantly surprised at the ease in which we all moved together; I had been expecting some sort of fumbling around because I was new at this. Later I found out about the threesomes they'd been having with Gretel. Anyway, I sucked and fucked them and they did the same for me. I was just about exhausted from all the orgasms and I sensed that they were also. I was lying on my side sucking on Greg's cock while he lay on his side facing me. He slowly rolled over on his back while keeping me on his cock. I had moved between his legs and was up on my knees when I felt Ron behind me. Ron scooped some juices from my sodden pussy and rubbed them on the inside of my thighs and up my ass crack to my lower back. He did that about three or four times before he stuck his cock back in my pussy. They must have sent some sort of signal between each other, because Greg took my hands off of his cock and pulled them up to his chest. I felt him moving around some and then he came up with a scarf or some type of cloth that he used to bind my wrists together. I let him because I didn't think we would be doing anything else after I sucked him off. Stupid me! After tying my hands together he moved so he could put my tied wrists behind his neck and leaned back. He put his hands on my head and started fucking my face with his cock. I was uncomfortable because I had to stretch under me to get his cock, but I didn't say anything. Greg waited a stroke or two, and then pulled my head off his cock. He had my panties in his hand and stuffed them into my mouth before I could react and close it. I looked at him with a question on my face, but didn't spit out the gag. Greg looked over my shoulder at Ron and nodded. Then Ron made his move. He'd been moving the juice in my soppy cunt around and up on my ass. I felt something blunt and then I screamed. He'd rammed his cock into my ass and didn't stop until he was balls deep. The pain was excruciating as he speared me to the core, but I couldn't move any part of myself to get away. Tears were running down my face and I looked at Ron over my shoulder. He was holding my hips steady while he knelt behind me. He had no expression on his face. As sadistic as this bastard was, he didn't have lust, greed, passion, or anything else. The man was inhuman and didn't give a flying fuck about anything or anyone, and here he was raping my ass. After a pause of seconds he pulled back until he was just inside me and then he rammed it in again. Thank god it didn't hurt as much as the first time, but it still hurt! I knew that I was torn up inside. If he thought he was getting a cherry, he was dead wrong. I gave that to Ted on our honeymoon and oh so much more. Greg pulled my head back around and put it to his waiting prick. I felt so degraded and humiliated. 'Why the hell had I come back here,' I wondered. 'This has to be the stupidest shit I have ever pulled.' Ron only lasted a few ramming strokes before he dumped his slimy load in my bowels. Greg came about the same time and dumped his down my throat. Greg lifted my head and turned me to the side. I felt Ron move behind me and then he stepped next to my head, his cock scant inches from my face. I saw the evidence of my rape; blood and shit were clumped at the base of his cock with brown and red streaks along the sides of the shaft. The head was mostly pearly with the evidence of my juices and his sperm. "This time, Megan," he said quietly, "I will allow you to wash my cock and balls with a warm cloth. After this, you will clean everything off with your mouth and tongue. I don't care about any personal peccadillo you might have concerning the bowels. If you don't wish to eat it, you might use the bathroom first. If you want more lube than just cunt juices, you might try filling your ass with KY or something. I won't use any. Any questions? I didn't think so. Let her up Greg." I looked up at Greg's face when he let me go, expecting to see a smirk of some sort. What I saw was a sober expression and a fleeting look of ... what? ... in his eyes. I leveraged myself off the bed and went into the bathroom. I couldn't look at me in the mirror. I wet a washcloth and went back out to clean Ron's cock. A few minutes later I was standing under the shower, watching the last remnants of my pride, dignity, and self esteem pour down the drain along with the residue leaking out of my abused holes. I finally got out of the shower and dried off. Taking a large handful of toilet tissue, I crammed the mess between my legs hoping to help stanch the blood still seeping out of my torn, bruised rectum. I didn't look at either one of them when I put on my panties and adjusted the paper to sit directly under my asshole. Quietly and quickly, I dressed and left the room. I didn't want either of them to see any of my tears, but I cried all the way home. I took my clothes off in our bathroom and checked the wad of tissue to see that most of the bleeding had stopped. I started to draw a hot bath to soak in and poured some bath salts in it. Then I paused a moment to reflect. I wanted to soak the soreness in my muscles, but with my ass torn up the way it had been I didn't want to cause more bleeding. Reluctantly I stopped the bath water and sat on the toilet to think. Even that hurt, so I decided to go take a nap and think later. Right now everything hurt too damn much. Chapter 8 I walked into Ron's suite at the Marriott half an hour early the next Tuesday. As expected both Ron and Greg were sitting at the table. Ron continued to study the papers he was perusing while Greg gave me a look of surprise. I pulled out a chair and sat down on it. When Ron looked at me, I asked, "Just what is this big project that is so fucking important? You are supposed to be working at the Harvey Construction Company, but every week and sometimes twice a week, you are ensconced in this same suite. Do you get a special rate or frequent sleeping miles for the amount of time?" Ron looked at me with those cold, calculating eyes of his. Ted had told me about some of Ron's stares. He had also told me about Ron's temper tantrums and how he would turn all red when he got mad. Ted had also discovered that Ron loved to lurk behind doors or around corners to hear other people's conversations. I didn't take my eyes off him for a moment, not even when Greg finally stirred. "What we have right now Megan," Greg started, "is a private meeting between a lawyer, me, and his client, Ron. In this case, attorney/client privilege is in effect which means you aren't allowed to be here. Since you are early, I am going to have to ask you to return to the lobby until one." I sat there staring at Ron's eyes. I was waiting for him to flinch and damn it this time he would. Nope, he didn't. I did. I stood up and started for the door when Ron spoke. "Ok, Megan. You want in on this or are you just bullshitting me? If I let you in, you are in all the way. No second chances, no getting cold feet, and no god damned whining about how life is unfair. It's your choice now. Make a decision right now and know it will affect the rest of your life. Whether that is for the better or not will be determined later." 'What the hell is this?' I thought. 'A life changing decision and I have to make it without any information or details. I'm thinking that I should just run from here and not look back.' I thought it, but I didn't do it. One more slide towards the ant lion, one more decision closer to hell, my woman's intuition screaming at me to get away at once, but no, I sat back down at the table. Ron lay the scheme out for me, from beginning to end. Greg had been with him from the start when the 'project' started, but he didn't speak. The bottom line for this 'project' was 10 to 15 million dollars profit with no taxes. How Ron could feed me the entire project without me zoning out, I have no idea. Whenever Ted started talking like this, my eyes crossed from the boredom. Was it the money? I can say in all honesty that I didn't know. Then Ron gave me the rest of it. Oh, shit. Chapter 9 I really don't know why I bought into the notion that I could do this to my family and friends and not feel any emotion. God knows that I love Ted. I did then and I still do. But something inside me seemed to take over my thinking and feeling processes. I became a type of robot, I guess. I cut myself off from my family, and I knew that when I did there would be no coming back. I was lucid enough at that point to realize the ramifications, but nothing seemed to matter anymore. Simply put, I was going to help Ron put Ted in prison for the rest of his life, I was going to cut myself off from my children and family, and I was going to share 10 million dollars with Ron while living in Los Angeles in a 2 million dollar house. As Ron's wife. But Ron's name would be Ted Johnson. Yes, I said earlier that the project was 10 to 15 million dollars, but Greg and Gretel got a million dollars for their involvement while Ron's two helpers at the Harvey Construction Company got 500 thousand apiece. I didn't know if anyone else was in the group and I didn't ask. So I was the exit strategy. Ron had been looking around for someone to take his wife, Tabitha's place when he changed his name and disappeared. He found me at that charity event and when I showed up at the hotel, he decided that I would be 'the one he'd been looking for'. Yeah, right. It also helped that I was Mrs. Ted Johnson, married to Ted Johnson the so-called 'incompetent wimp marketing man' at Harvey Construction Company, who was the targeted fall guy. Ron's two helpers were the Human Resources VP and CFO. They arranged to acquire company credit cards, put them under Ted's name, and then gave the cards to Ron to use. Ted would be accused of stealing from the company through fraudulent use of company credit cards with Ron's two helpers as company witnesses. He would go to prison for a long time. It would be a longer time if the embezzled money that Ron and his helpers could be traced back to Ted. Apparently, that is where the fiasco occurred. It was turning out to be tougher than they thought to pin the embezzlement on Ted. They were going to steal his identity to assist in the theft scheme, and Ron was going to assume Ted's identity to disappear to California. That was my job. I was going to swear that Ron was Ted. Greg was the lawyer in charge of the legalities, which was a bullshit line meaning that Greg was a crooked attorney who was helping Ron cover his tracks. I didn't ask about any of the other details, not from lack of curiosity but because I really didn't want to know. Greg started to tell me a few times, but Ron shut him up. We had talked through the lunch time without eating, so I asked about room service. Ron looked at both of us for a moment then shook his head. "No, Megan, not today," he said. "You can stop by a McDonalds on the way home. I don't care. Greg and I have some paperwork to finish. However, Greg told me about the Friday night activities you undertake weekly and I have decided we need to get started changing my identity to Ted's. I will be going in Ted's place as Ted to the Elite restaurant and then we will adjourn over here. The hotel has a great Jacuzzi setup just for guests and I'm thinking a nice hot Jacuzzi beats dancing in some smoky club someplace." Then Ron went to his coat pocket and pulled out a wad of cash. When he handed it to me he said, "New clothes and fancy lingerie. Get some high heels also. Make sure you go to the beauty salon to get your hair done." Looking at Greg he continued, "Since you guys live close to Megan, have Gretel make some room in her closet and dresser for Megan's new clothes. We don't want to make Ted suspicious. I want to keep him like a mushroom for a while, in the dark and covered with shit. Megan will change at your house and you can bring her along. I'll meet you at the Elite. Don't worry about Ted, I've come up with a whole lot of work for him to do and I'm draining people away from him to get it done." That last he directed at Greg and myself, but then he surprised me, "Megan I want you to become an uncaring unsympathetic bitch. I want the home front to become as stressed as the office. With two sets of pressures coming to bear on him, he won't be able to do much of anything. When this little charade is over, he'll be sitting downtown in jail wondering what the hell happened. Now go on home like a good girl and wait for your loving husband." So, I did just that. After stopping at McDonalds of course. I was hungry and I didn't want to be too grumpy. The first Friday evening went off without a hitch. I went to Greg's house and changed, we went to the Elite and ate, then we went to the Marriott and fucked. That was my first time with a woman and I didn't like it nearly as much as Gretel did. It made me wonder if she were a lesbian, but then why would she be married to Greg? Silly me. Our Friday evenings slowly evolved and finally we were eating no later than 630pm instead of 730pm. Ron wanted more time in the bedroom, eating Gretel while fucking me. Greg wanted more time in the Jacuzzi to ease his aching bones. Ron agreed to the Jacuzzi because he liked the thought of fucking both of us in public. Chapter 10 We fell into a weekly routine. I went to the Marriott on Tuesdays and fucked Ron. Sometimes Greg would show up, but mostly it was Ron. Fridays we dined and fucked some more. I was going to the beauty salon every Friday afternoon for a nice hairdo. I loved it! I used one of the credit cards with Ted's name on it and no one said a word. After all, I am his wife, right? I bought a new outfit, usually on a Thursday to wear on Friday. Sometimes I brought Gretel along so she could get something new. Greg really was a miserly SOB, at least as far as she was concerned. Sometime in there I started shaving my pussy. Not a trim, but totally bare. Ron wanted it so I did it. I didn't fuck Ted at all after the time Ron raped my ass. Oh, I could have if Ted had been really pushy about it, but with all the stress at work and me working on him at home, pussy was probably the last thing on his mind. We all knew we were getting close to the end when Ron and I flew to LA to sign papers on a house. I found our old marriage certificate and took it with me when we left. Ron was Ted and I was me. It was a beautiful house with an in ground pool and its own Jacuzzi, tennis court, expansive lawn, 6 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. Two bedrooms had their own en suite bathrooms. Ron and I spent three different days in LA. One to look at the house, one to sign the papers and to ensure the keys worked, and then another day just looking around the neighborhood. We flew out in the morning and flew back home that afternoon. Ted didn't have a clue. One Friday night after we had eaten, we arrived at the hotel as usual. I saw a bouquet of lilies and roses laying on a bed pillow. I picked them up and smelled - heavenly. I thought it was somewhat odd because Ron had bought a bouquet just like it and it was the centerpiece at our table. Well, maybe the tyrant had a soft spot in him someplace after all. We did the usual suck and fuck, did the Jacuzzi, and then got ready to leave when Ron had us all sit at the table. "We are almost done here," he started. "Greg, are those divorce papers about finished up? We really need them done. I want them delivered to our respective spouses at 11am, Friday morning. That is next week, people." Then looking at me he asked, "Is everything done on your end? We'll be flying out on Saturday morning and we won't be coming back." I just nodded dumbly. I'd been feeling sick the last couple of weeks at the thought of the move, the end of our charade, and the results of our endeavors. Ted would be going to jail Friday afternoon on top of being served with my divorce papers. The kids were supposed to be down for the weekend, but Friday would be my only time with them after I fetched them from the airport. They were going to have a really hard weekend hit them in the face. I felt like such a lowlife maggot eating pond scum for what I was about to do to their father and them. I was brought back to reality when Ron said, "All right, let's go home and use the rest of our time here to finish the loose ends." I changed at Gretel's before going home, as usual. I felt like shit. Did I ever consider the ramifications of the illegal activities I was wrapped up in with Ron? No. I think it says a lot about my mindset at the time that I can say that I did not consider the consequences if this little deal was exposed. Of course all of us were looking at a lot of prison time, that goes without saying. But like all criminals, I didn't think I was going to be caught. I'm sure that the others felt the same way. After all, the others had successfully executed the same scheme in Dallas as they were doing here and nothing untoward had happened. We had no reason to suspect a foul up this time. I don't wish to belabor the events of the next week. I was at my bitchiest best towards Ted. I had to keep the pressure on. I was taken aback somewhat when he received a call from someone called Jorge. Ted left to meet this Jorge at a sports bar downtown. I called Greg and told him, so we went down there to see who this person was. We'd been sitting in the bar for over an hour when I went to the bathroom. When I came back, Greg told me about Ted coming back. His face told me the story, so we all left. I was on pins and needles the rest of the week. Ted was acting pretty much the same as always except I could feel an underlying confidence in his demeanor. I could have said something to Ron about it, but I wasn't sure and I didn't need to have Ron on my ass for nothing. Silly me, I put it down to nerves. On Friday, I went to the airport to get the kids. I wanted to take them out, but they begged off saying they were both really tired from the trip. Something wasn't right because you can't get tired from an airplane trip which lasted less than an hour. I told the kids on the way home that I was serving Ted with divorce papers, but when they wanted details and reasons, I told them we would talk about it tomorrow afternoon. I didn't tell them we were flying out tomorrow morning at 1025am. Cold? Heartless? Continuing along a path of mean hearted bitch? Yes to all of the above. When I signed the divorce papers in Greg's office, I finally realized the total extent of my betrayal of Ted, our family, and everyone else. I dropped the kids at the house so they could grab a nap and I went to see Gretel. Lilies and Roses ++++++++++++++++++ Chapter 2 Working on Saturday has its' benefits Going back to the office, he finished up the work he had left the night before. It took him the hour that he had estimated to Megan. He put it all together and took it to his secretary's desk, all nice and neat. Just like always. Only this time it wasn't just like always. Callie was a good secretary. He was thinking about that when he thought he heard someone come into the building. He went to check and the door opened as he arrived. It was Tabitha Clark. She was casually dressed in a sleeveless white top and loose white shorts with ankle socks and sneakers which set off her nice tan. She hadn't used any make up except for a little pink lip gloss and her blond hair was brushed and held back with one of those scrunchy hair things. "Hi Ted," she smiled at him. "I was looking for Ron, isn't he in his office this morning? I didn't see his car outside, but he told me that he would be in his office all morning." "No," replied Ted. "I'm the only one here working and have been all morning. I have never seen Ron here unless it is during the week." She frowned at that and then asked, "May I come in and talk to you for a few minutes? I have a few questions that, hopefully, you might be able to answer for me." "Sure, come on in. Would you like some coffee? I made a pot, but I don't think I can drink it all." She nodded and entered his office while he fetched her a cup. "Black is fine," she offered to his questioning look. He sat in a chair next to her instead of behind his desk as he handed her the coffee. "Ok, what can I do for you this morning?" She handed him an envelope and let him read it before asking, "Why is your name on a credit card company statement with my address printed on it? I was going to give it to Ron, but since you are here I will ask you." It was a window envelope from the credit card company that Fernando and Freddy had asked him about the night before. He felt that hollow feeling pushing up again and considered the possibilities. Possibilities, hell, they were probabilities now. He realized he hadn't answered when Tabitha cleared her throat. Her face was carefully neutral he noted, but she was obviously very curious. "First of all, I have no idea why you would be getting my mail at your house," he said. "Especially since I don't have an account with this company." For some reason he couldn't explain, he decided to trust Tabitha. After all, she had brought this information to him. He then said, "I have recently received various indications that things aren't what they appear to be in my life and now this is another disturbing item. Umm... If I might digress for a moment, were you and Ron home last night?" "I was, but Ron had a business meeting of some sort. He told me that this one was about some real estate venture. He is usually gone every Friday night to one of these meetings. He told me that because of incompetent employees, he has to redo everyone's work and doesn't have time to take care of his own until later. That's why I came here. I also need to tell you that this isn't the first time a bill of this sort has been delivered to our house. I gave the others to Ron and he said he would talk to you. From your expression, I gather that Ron didn't tell you about this. This is very upsetting to me right now. Do you have any idea what is going on?" "Ummm, look, I really need someone to talk to about this crazy situation. Unfortunately, I won't have anything solid until Monday. I have been invited to have lunch at the Elite on Monday at 2pm. Could you meet me there? I'm sure we both would like to find out what is going on and this could be a first step in that direction." Tabitha looked at him for a moment, then made her decision. "As a matter of fact, I don't have anything planned at that time. Yes, I will meet you there, but isn't the Elite closed on Mondays?" "Yes it is. Just one more piece of a big puzzle. I would appreciate it if you didn't say anything to Ron until after we get some answers. Since he hasn't told me about any other credit card statements, he might get upset with you for bringing this one here and probably very upset if he knows you gave this to me." "Ok, so I will meet you there at 2pm on Monday. I do have to be home by 4pm because we are going to a school function at 630pm." "I'm sure that won't be a problem. I will keep this envelope in my desk and bring it with me, if that is all right." Nodding slowly, Tabitha arose and left the building. Ted sat thinking for a long time about possibilities, probabilities, and sure things. Hmmm. He stopped at a small diner and ate a BLT and drank a beer. He was putting off going home for a little while longer. Finally he went home. Megan was watching some gardening show on the television and ignored him when he came in the door. 'Fine with me,' he thought. He changed into his trunks and went for a swim. He lay on a chaise lounge the rest of the afternoon. He finally went inside, showered, and changed into a casual shirt and slacks. He walked through the house and Megan was still watching the television, only it was a different gardening show. She didn't look his way. He mentally shrugged his shoulders and decided to go out to eat. Someplace different this time. If he was going to be doing this a lot in the future, he would need to explore his options. He really didn't want to talk to her or be in her company. She made no indication she had even noticed him. He had a beer with his steak, potato, and some vegetable. Well, what the hell? It wasn't as though he was missing anything at the house. She apparently didn't want or even need his company and she damn sure didn't want to sleep with him. He considered moving into one of the kids' rooms. No, why make it easy on her and it was his damn bed. If she wants to move, more power to her. Finally he went back home and went straight to bed. She never asked where he'd been and apparently hadn't fixed dinner for them. He didn't smell any cooking odors. Maybe she is eating over at Gretel's also. Wouldn't it be easier to move over there? 'Just as well,' he thought. 'This way he wouldn't have to worry about her poisoning him.' He didn't know when she came to bed. The next morning he didn't get up until almost noon. He went outside and spent the afternoon on yard work and some chores. Megan was by the pool, so he worked around the rest of the house and in the garage. About 6pm or so, he showered and changed into some casual clothes. Megan was sitting at the kitchen table when he came out of the bedroom. She just looked at him when he paused for a moment. She still looked pissed and he didn't feel like fighting. He turned and left for the diner. He was sitting in a booth with his back to the door when Greg slid into the other side facing him. "Hey, old buddy. What's going on? My wife got a call from your wife saying you were acting strange. Your upset wife got my wife upset, so I have to drive around and find your car and you and find out what is going on. Why is everyone upset?" Ted drank some of his beer and just looked at Greg. Jesus, he was a good actor. Was it something they taught school? Finally he said, "I'm sorry to hear that my wife is upset. She didn't look upset to me, just pissed off. That could be because I said 'fuck you bitch' yesterday. And, no, I'm not going to apologize to her. She didn't say anything to me about being upset. As a matter of fact, she hasn't said anything at all. And that too is fine with me. Since you and Gretel have been such good friends to us in the past, I'm sorry that Megan got Gretel upset. I'm also sorry that you had to leave your loving home to find me. I personally don't think that anything going on between me and Megan is worth your time and effort, much less your business. Now, you have found me. I'm not upset, you don't look upset, and now you can go home and tell Gretel not to be upset. If Megan is upset, then she can either tell me that she is upset and discuss it or she can stop being upset. Either way, I don't care what she does. I meant what I said and I'm not about to apologize to her or anyone else." "Oh, come on now Ted," Greg grinned at him. "I know you better than that. I want you to know that whatever problems you think you might have, I am here to help you. That's what friends are for, right?" Turning in the booth, Greg motioned to the waitress and ordered a beer. He didn't see the look of hate that flashed on Ted's face. "Now, how about we start with the 'Fuck you bitch' you said to Megan," Greg continued. "That doesn't sound like you at all." 'Friends don't stab friends in the back and fuck their friends spouses', Ted thought. 'I wonder what kind of shenanigans you all are trying to pull. I'll bet not very many card games are played, that's for sure. It also puts a new meaning on rubber set.' The waitress brought the beer and sat it down in front of Greg. "Do you want another beer?" she asked Ted. "No thanks," Ted replied. "Just bring a check for me, please. My friend will be staying. He'll be needing a shot of courage before going home to his upset wife." He then looked at Greg and said, "That was nice. We'll have to do it again sometime. Maybe next time I'll make a reservation for us and maybe even show up. Enjoy your beer." Greg sat there with his mouth hanging open. Ted noted he had never seen Greg so flustered before. He thought that lawyers were trained not to show their feelings like that. Maybe he was just getting too complacent. He paid his check and left Greg sitting in the booth. Let him pay for his own damn beer. Getting in his car, he slowly drove around town. Saturday night used to be fun. He was thinking about the old days and not really watching where he was going and for some reason he found himself on the south side of town. A new development was coming in and was being hyped on billboards. A combination of residential and commercial buildings on one side of the highway with a new industrial park on the other side. The rumors around town were that it was ready to go, especially since some unknown Dallas area investor had put over 6 million into it. For some reason, however, Ted thought something was wrong. Why would some investor from Texas want to invest in this type of development in Colorado when Texas had just as many good opportunities? Most people that he knew wanted to know where there money was and wanted to be able to keep close watch on it. Ted had a bad feeling about this, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Finally, he decided to wander on home. He went inside expecting Megan to be really pissed, but she wasn't home. 'Fuck it,' he thought and went to bed. Monday morning he got up early and left for work. Megan was asleep and he didn't disturb her. When Callie, his secretary, came in he told her he would be taking a late lunch and wouldn't be back the rest of the day. She raised an eyebrow at him, but agreed to cover for him. She looked like she wanted to say something else, but he waved her out of his office so he could get his work done. He didn't want to get too far behind. He left for the Elite restaurant and arrived a few minutes before 2pm, parking around back. He got out of his car just as Tabitha pulled in next to him. She surprised him a bit because she was driving a newer BMW. He had thought she was more like a soccer mom with a mini-van. She was dressed much as she was on Saturday, but she had on tan slacks instead of shorts. 'Damn, she looked good,' he thought, 'but then, she'd look good wearing a potato sack.' He escorted her to the back door and knocked. Fernando opened the door and silently looked at them. Ted made the introductions. "Fernando, this is Mrs. Ron Clark. Tabitha, this is Fernando. He is the maitre d' here at the Elite and he invited me to lunch today. Fernando, I asked her to meet me here since I think we are in the same boat." Fernando nodded and let them in. He locked the door behind them and escorted them to his office. "Thank you both for coming today. What we are going to discuss this afternoon is very private and I don't want any of what we are about to discuss getting out." Addressing Tabitha he stated, "I am glad to meet you, Tabitha. I was wondering how to contact you discreetly, but this time things worked out for the best." He looked at them and asked, "Are we agreed on confidentiality?" He waited for their assent before he continued. "Yes, I am the maitre d', but I am also a partner in the business. Therefore, what concerns the Elite also concerns me." Looking at Ted he said, "I called Freddy and he told me about your meeting. Now, may I ask how you were able to bring Tabitha today?" Ted related the events on Saturday morning with Tabitha, then took the envelope from his coat pocket and handed it to Fernando. "Why didn't you open it?" Fernando asked. "I wanted to wait and see what you and Freddy had to show me. I might have to send it back home with Tabitha and I wouldn't want to alert Ron ahead of time." "Good thinking," mused Fernando. Straightening up and handing the envelope back to Ted he continued, "What it looks like from here is a case of felony fraud and identity theft." He paused at Tabitha's gasp of surprise. Ted had been thinking about this over the weekend, so he wasn't as surprised. He felt stabbed in the back, used, betrayed, made a fool of, and fucked over, but not surprised. "I'm sorry to give you that bad news, but let me show you what I have put together." He picked up a computer print out from a stack of papers and handed it to Ted. "This is a list of dates and amounts charged on that credit card and also a list of charges made in your name. As you can see, there are three different account numbers and two different credit card companies. That means 6 different cards are being used. Now, these charges go back approximately 4 months. I will ask you now, Ted, have you made any of these charges?" That hollow feeling came back again, but this time Ted managed to keep his composure. Ted scanned the list and then again slowly for confirmation. He noted the total was almost $5500. "No, Fernando. I'm sorry, but these are not my charges." He handed the list to Tabitha and asked, "Do you recognize any of these dates?" She also scanned the list and rather bitterly replied, "No. We've been here twice since we moved here and that was well before any of these charges were made." Looking at Fernando she asked, "Didn't you ask for any identification before you accepted the cards?" Fernando looked back at her and said, "Yes. We always ask for an ID, whether for checks or credit cards, every time they are used. Our regular customers are used to it and, I think, enjoy that feeling of being protected. I also have copies of the receipts for the last month. We keep them on file in case of credit card statement problems with the companies or with our customers. Now, Ted, would you look at these receipts and check the signature for me?" Then looking a Tabitha again, he asked, "Maybe I should see your identification also. I need to make sure of the players on each side and I think this is going to become rather complicated." Tabitha cocked her head at him, then with a half smile she gave him her drivers license. Fernando looked at it and her, then nodded as he gave it back. "Thank you for being patient with me," he stated quietly. He handed Ted the stack of receipts. Glancing through them, he didn't see his signature on any at all. Without being asked, he picked up a piece of paper from the desk and wrote his signature, then handed it to Fernando. He then pulled his license from his wallet and offered it for comparison. "I know I showed you my ID last Friday, but I didn't give you a signature sample at that time. And, no, I'm not offended," he told Fernando. Fernando checked both and then offered the receipts to Tabitha. She compared the signatures, then looked at them a little closer. Looking at Fernando she said, "This looks like Ron's handwriting. See the loop at the end of Johnson? He puts a similar loop on the end of Clark. OK, so what do we do now?" Ted looked at Fernando and Tabitha and then said, "Well, let's see now. Ron has been using at least 6 credit cards in my name for several months. Apparently he has also been paying the bills, otherwise he couldn't continue to use them as I would have been notified. This indicates that he doesn't want to ruin my credit or stick me with a bunch of unanswered questions about these bills. Therefore, it could mean that he is trying to establish a pattern of credit card use or abuse of some sort, or he wants to establish himself as me in certain situations or businesses, or maybe even there is something else going on that is bigger than that. I would also point out that my wife and best friends are obviously helping him, since they all call him Ted. I don't remember whether I told you, but the other couple have a legal firm here in town. He is a commercial business lawyer specializing in real estate and she is a paralegal working in his office." Tabitha had been trying to reconcile her thoughts about Ron's actions while listening to Ted's suppositions when she snapped her head up and asked Ted, "Who is the other couple? What are their names?" "They are Greg and Gretel Howard. They have the Howard and Howard Legal Offices downtown." Tabitha chewed on her lower lip and then said, "We have had them to dinner a few times for a social evening and then we played Canasta. They seem to get along quite well with Ron. Apparently they knew each other even before we moved here from Dallas, but I didn't meet them until we were all here. They have been discussing some sort of real estate development project here, but I get the feeling sometimes that they don't want me to know any of the details." She paused for a moment then asked, "By the way, you mentioned Freddy. Who is he and is he also being defrauded?" Ted had been following her line of thought. She was logical and had a sharp mind. She was also doing a good job of maintaining her self control. Smart and beautiful could be a dangerous combination. Adding patience and self control to the mix would make her formidable. He avoided a direct answer, instead replying, "Freddy and I agreed to meet after I was finished here. Would you like to come along? I'm sure it won't take very long." "Yes I would," she averred. "I've had a bad feeling for quite a while and now I'm just as curious as you are. I'm also wondering how my husband's actions are going to impact me and the girls." Ted looked back to Fernando and said, "Thank you for your time. I will be looking at some sort of legal action in the very near future. May I count on your support? I would like to make sure that your business doesn't take a hit, but things need to be made right." Fernando nodded as he smiled and said, "Yes. I will help you in any way possible. I also think you need a more impartial lawyer than your friend and I can help. I know some good people and will have one of them contact you, very discreetly I might add." Ted replied, "Thank you Fernando. Tabitha, why don't you ride over with me and then I will bring you back? It shouldn't take too long." "Ok, let's go." Ted drove to the Marriott and parked near the door. Tabitha's face paled and got a strange look as they arrived, and then she was suddenly very nervous. Ted watched quietly as her mind processed this additional information and knew she was going through the same trauma he had last Friday night. Finally, he got out and opened her car door. "I'm sorry, I didn't know how to tell you, so I took the cowards way out and just brought you here," Ted said quietly. He helped her out of the car and escorted her inside. He saw Freddy seated in a chair at the side of the lobby and steered Tabitha towards him. Freddy rose and shook hands as Ted made the introductions. Lilies and Roses "Come with me to the office. It will be more private there," Freddy said as he escorted them through the lobby. Closing the door behind them, he gestured toward two seats with his hand and sat behind his desk. He retrieved a computer print out which looked like the one Fernando had shown them. "Fernando called me when you left and told me about the signatures and the evidence he showed you. I will make this quick. Do either one of you recognize any of the dates or credit information?" As at Elite restaurant, Ted and Tabitha scanned the print out and shook their heads no. Ted had the account numbers from Elite and he compared them. They all matched. "Ted, did you make any of these charges?" "No, I did not," he replied. "Do you recognize this signature?" "No, that is not my signature." Tabitha supported Ted's replies. "As I told Ted the other night," Freddy explained to Tabitha, "only guests may use any of our facilities. We have security cameras in hallways and in public areas. I found 6 tapes which match dates and times to these credit charges. I did not look at any of the tapes so I am not sure whether your questions will be answered. I will give you the tapes for you to use as you wish. From a legal standpoint, we are not liable for any actions of our guests and we will not be a party in any civil litigation except to verify the authenticity of these tapes. That said, however, since we have possible evidence of fraud and other criminal activity, we would join in any criminal investigations as injured parties. I'm sorry I can't give you any more of my time, but I have some other business to attend to now. I thank you both for coming here today." They all shook hands. Carrying the tapes, Ted and Tabitha left the office and went to the car. Ted sat there quietly for a few moments collecting his thoughts and he was sure Tabitha also needed a moment. Finally he started the car and drove back to the Elite. Before she got out of the car, Tabitha quietly said, "For what it's worth, I am really sorry about all of this. I've often suspected Ron of cheating on me and I know that he has chased the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I have never considered the possibility he would stoop to illegal means to get what he wanted." "Thank you for that. I am supposed to be the unsuspecting fool here, but now it seems that I am also being set up as some kind of target," Ted replied. Then he asked quietly, "Now, how and when do you want to view the tapes? I would rather they didn't know we have them until it is necessary. I'm also not sure I want to know what is on them. Well, I suspect what is on them as you probably do also. I'm just not sure if I want that reality hitting me between the eyes right now." After a moment Tabitha looked over at Ted and asked, "The company has a tape player and television in a meeting room, don't they?" "Yes there is and yes we can go there. I know you are busy tonight with school, but is there any other time you are able. Well, wait a minute. I guess I should ask whether you would rather watch them on your own or with me? I don't mind either way." "I suppose that seeing them together would be easier. Wait a minute here. What are the dates and times on the tapes?" she asked. Ted checked all the tapes and then answered, "There are four tapes for the last two months and two tapes for the previous two months. It seems they spend Friday nights together from about 6pm till midnight. Freddy also told me that our spouses use the facilities about twice weekly during business hours and they are alone. We could meet at the office if you want since we know that we won't be disturbed. These tapes are marked H and J. I would presume that would indicate if it is a hallway tape or a Jacuzzi tape. We can go faster with the hallway tapes first to verify how long they were in the room and so forth." "Yes, that would be fine. By the way, he told me that he was going to various real estate business meetings. What does your wife tell you?" Ted was quiet a moment then replied, "For several years, we and the Howards went to dinner and then dancing at various clubs. Megan has been going without me for several months because I have been working a lot of overtime. Ron has been moving people out of my team in addition to upping the work load and since deadlines don't change, I have to go in extra early and also work late to keep caught up. That is what I was doing at the office on Saturday and why I know Ron isn't there on the weekends. It looks like Ron is taking my place at dinner as well as in the bedroom." Then he told her about leaving Friday night, the flowers, the Elite, and finally the hotel. It was just dumb luck that he was at the office when she had come looking for Ron. They both had tears in their eyes when he finished. They both knew where things were going. Then Ted told her, "I'm not sure, but I don't think that this charade can keep going very much longer. I didn't eat at home over the week end and then once Megan sent Greg after me. He tried the buddy buddy thing to find out what was going on with me. They might be getting skittish if they think I am getting close to their schemes or even suspicious of them. I just thought I'd warn you and now I'm going to be more careful." "Thank you for that," she replied. "I've been getting that downhill feeling since before we left Dallas. It is nice knowing that I've got a friend in this mess with me. I'm wondering now who is in the bigger mess." Looking at him askance she asked, "You are a friend, aren't you? You're not just looking to nail a soon to be jilted wife or pursue some personal agenda with me?" "No way," retorted Ted. "Like I said earlier, your coming to the office was just a very fortunate coincidence and pure dumb luck. May I also say that yes, it is good to know I also have a friend. As far as the bigger mess, I don't know. I don't know why they picked me, but I think they greatly underestimated me. I think you are an innocent bystander. Whether you and the girls will be considered excess baggage at the end will depend on whether you still have value as Ron's camouflage. If he thinks you are naïve enough, he might just keep you around. At this juncture, I can't predict what he will do with either you or Megan. I'm sure, though, that he has already made up his mind." She smiled and said, "Thank you for your kind words. I just needed to hear it from you. How about I come to the office about 6:30pm Friday evening. Should I bring popcorn?" Ted smiled inside. He was glad she hadn't lost her sense of humor. "Sure, and I'll bring the sodas. We do have to drive home afterwards." "Ok, I'll be there," she replied and went to her car. She waved as she drove away. Ted drove home feeling a lot better than he had since Friday. It had been a long weekend and this would be a longer week, but at least he had a short term plan. It was nice finding some good allies. He had a feeling he would need all of them. +++++++++++++++ Chapter 3 The start of an interesting evening Arriving home, Ted headed back towards the bedroom to change. He noticed Megan sitting at the kitchen table looking as though she had been waiting for him. He stopped by the kitchen door. "We need to talk," she started to say. Ted cut her off. "We don't need anything," he said emphasizing the we. "However, if you have a need to tell me something I can listen." Her eyes flashed at him and a flush started rising in her face, but she took a breath and visibly forced herself to calm down. "I'm sorry," she said. "Please, let me start again. I would like to talk with you for a moment, if I may." 'She was really piling on the angry spouse routine,' Ted thought. 'I wonder when she will start piling on the romance. Oh, God. What if she decides she wants sex with me again. Even if it is to keep me from getting suspicious, I'm not sure I can do it without getting sick. None of that sloppy seconds crap for me, and that's for damn sure.' Ted stood there for a moment before replying, "Ok. What would you like to say? I'm listening." "Thank you for that," she said and managed a smile. "I didn't cook dinner tonight. I wasn't sure if you were going to continue going out to eat, either with or without me, and I didn't want to waste any food. I know we don't have any extra money to throw away." She paused a moment to see Ted's reaction. Not getting one, she continued, "I wanted to ask you what your dining plans were, both for this evening and for the future." She managed to keep smiling at him as she went on, "I don't know what happened this weekend to cause you to hate me so much. It wasn't any different than it has been. We keep making reservations with our friends, and then you don't show up. I needed to go out and get away from the house. I really wish that we could do more things together like we used to and I really miss having you with us at dinner or dancing afterward." 'Jesus, this is really starting to make me sick,' Ted thought. 'I wonder if she would blow me here in the kitchen if I asked her to? Nah, too much out of character for her. I'd get suspicious.' Ted started to answer when the phone rang, so he said, "Just a moment, let me get that." Striding over to the phone, he checked caller ID out of habit before picking up the receiver. Jorge Mendoza, whoever that was, was calling. "Hello," he said. "Hello, is this Ted Johnson?" a male voice asked. "Yes, hey Jorge! How are you doing, buddy. Long time no see," Ted said for Megan's benefit. The line was silent for a moment, then the voice said, "Yes, this is Jorge Mendoza. My friend Fernando at the Elite restaurant asked me to call you. I presume from your answer that you are not alone and don't wish to talk. Very well. I will ask you some yes or no questions and you can embellish your reply as necessary. Now, could you like to meet tonight?" "Oh, yes. I am glad you called. Golly, I haven't heard from you since the last reunion. How long are you in town?" Ted said. "Ok ,Ted. Since the Elite is closed tonight, we will meet there. Give me the name of someplace local where we can meet first. You will leave your car there and ride to the Elite with me, so no one will follow us. Is that acceptable to you?" "Oh, that is too bad. I know how these overnight trips are tiring. Hey, listen, there's a sports bar called 'The Line Drive' on Spring Street and 4th Avenue and that's not too far from your motel. Let's meet there and have a cold one, my treat. I hope you brought some pictures of Carla and the kids, too. I could be there in about 15 minutes." "Very good, Ted. Park your car close to the front door in case someone is looking for you. Get into the black Escalade with out of state plates on it. I look forward to seeing you. Goodbye for now." "All right, Jorge. See you in a few. Bye." Ted hung up and turned around. Megan had listened to the conversation and was frowning at him. "Well gosh, Megan. I guess I'll be eating out tonight," Ted told her. "You do whatever you want to do. Don't wait up for me because I don't know when I'll be back." "When are we going to have time to talk, Ted? I've never heard you mention anybody named Jorge," Megan said loudly. She looked like she might start crying any moment. "I guess you really don't care about me after all, do you? At least I thought we could have dinner tonight. Why didn't you tell this Jorge person you would bring me along? Why aren't you asking me to go along? Are you ashamed to be seen with me? Or is this some sort of cheap revenge for me going without you last Friday night?" Then she changed tactics going on the offensive, "What the hell is wrong with you? Damn it, just answer my questions. I think I deserve that much." "Well, ok. I guess we could discuss this," replied Ted. "For tonight, I will be with Jorge doing some reminiscing. And yes, since you chose to go to the Elite without waiting for me, I choose to go and meet Jorge without you. Call it what you will, revenge or not. It doesn't really matter, now does it? And it wasn't just last Friday either, was it? You've been out of the house every Friday evening for over 3 months now going to dinner and then dancing, and every time it is the same old crap. I get a load of shit from you and then am left to fix my own damn dinner. Well, tonight I'm eating out with an old friend who is in town for one night. One night, Megan. Not every Monday for the next 3 months and then rubbing your nose in it." Ted paused for a breath before saying, "I'm tired of the continual name calling, the belittling, the criticism and the entire atmosphere of 'it's all my fault'. It's really too bad that I don't have the pleasure of dining with the Howards as well, but since I've been so busy lately, I guess I've had to learn how to get along without them. I really am glad that they have remained your friends. Since I'm not here for you to bitch at, that gives you and them plenty of time to talk about. I guess that makes me a better target for the town's gossip mill." He really needed to go meet Jorge so he said, "So, how about a compromise. I'll go meet Jorge and you can go meet the Howards or do whatever you do without me and we will both be happy. I don't have a problem with eating here during the week, as long as I'm not causing you any more work. This last weekend worked out well for me, so maybe I will continue to eat out on weekends. As far as dinner at the Elite restaurant or any other Friday night activities, as long as Ron Clark continues to act the petty tyrant who is trying to force my resignation, I will have to let you and the Howards continue to have each other and carry on without me. I really don't like being a fifth wheel on a tricycle. At this point even if I could get out of work on time, I wouldn't place any bets on me going anywhere with you, the Howards, or anyone else. Maybe if you were still interested in me, you would have heard me mention Jorge. I believe consideration, caring, and communication are two way streets. Take care, Megan, and don't wait up." Ted turned on his heel and left the house. As he pulled away, he saw her standing in the window watching him. 'Screw it,' he thought. 'This time he had the 'date'.' Heh, heh.' Pulling in to 'The Line Drive', he found a parking spot as agreed. The Escalade was idling in a spot not too far away. He walked over and got in the front seat. A neatly dressed Hispanic man was driving. "Are you Ted?" he asked. "Yes I am," Ted replied. "I will take you to Jorge. Please use the seat belt." Nothing else was said until they stopped behind the Elite restaurant. "I will be here when you are ready to go," the driver said. Ted got out and went to the back door of the Elite. It opened before he could knock. Fernando beckoned him in while saying, "Thank you for coming. Please follow me." They went through the kitchen into one of the private dining rooms. Fernando made the introductions. "This is my friend, Jorge Mendoza," he said. "Jorge, this is Ted Johnson." Jorge stood and moved to shake Ted's hand. "I am glad to meet you, sir. My friend Fernando doesn't ask me for help very often, but when he does I am glad to help in any way that I can. It is small repayment for his generosity and help over the years. Please sit down." Fernando informed Ted, "I have told him everything I know and he has seen the documents. I will leave you alone. When you are through talking, let me know and I will have your dinner served." Fernando left the room and closed the door behind him. Ted and Jorge sized each other up as they sat down. Ted was 5'11" and a trim 175. He was getting some gray in his short brown hair, but that was okay. It helped him look distinguished. Jorge was somewhat shorter at 5'9", but he also looked like he worked out and kept himself in shape. He looked to be in his mid to late 40's and his black hair had no trace of gray. Ted was still wearing his brown business suit from work, but Jorge was dressed casually in a maroon polo shirt with gray slacks and highly polished black shoes. "First off, I want to tell you a little about me," Jorge started. "I am a lawyer. I grew up in a poor little southern Arizona border town and we were about the poorest family in town. I busted my ass to make something of myself, so that I could help my brothers and sisters. It must have worked, because all of us graduated from university with various professional degrees. Fernando has been and always be my friend. He asked me to help you and I will. Please, tell me your story." Ted smiled back saying, "Ok, but first, Jorge Mendoza from a poor border town graduated number one in his class from Harvard law school. He was elected to Congress three times as a representative and is known far and wide as one of the few honest politicians in Washington. You have a private law practice with few clients and a small staff. I am the luckiest man in these United States right now and I wish to say that I am proud to make your acquaintance." Ted paused and drank from a glass of water. "Let me tell you an interesting story of suspected fraud, conspiracy, id theft, betrayal, and secrets." For the next half hour, Ted related the story of the long weekend. Most of the information Jorge already knew. He wanted Ted to tell the story, because a lot could be learned from body language, voice inflection, and turn of phrase. He hadn't been surprised to know that Ted knew who he was. When Ted finished the story, he took another drink of water. As Jorge started to speak, he held up his hand. "Please wait," he said. "Now I am going to tell you the rest of the story and give you some extra background. This is not public knowledge as only 4 people in my life know any of it." ++++++++++++++++++++++ Chapter 4 An interesting discussion continues After pausing for another drink, he continued on, "Everyone knows me as good old Ted Johnson, Marketing Manager for Harvey Construction Company. What they don't know is that I own the company. After I graduated from high school, I spent the summer working with my grandparents in a nursery business they owned. They started the business because they liked working with plants. They could have expanded into a really big company, but that wouldn't have made them happy. Working with the plants and their customers kept them happy and satisfied. My grandparents were well off in their own right before they married and after they married they were quite wealthy. Money didn't make them happy. I learned from them the satisfaction of doing a good job for its own sake. Before I married Megan, my grandparents warned me about her need to be some rich man's wife and live a life of luxury. I didn't agree and in my arrogance told them that we would always be happy just as they had been. After my grandfather died from a stroke, grandmother put everything in a blind trust set up for me. Within a month or so she died of loneliness and a broken heart and went to be with my grandfather. My parents were killed in a plane crash while I was in college. The only other family I had at that time was grandmother's sister, my Great Aunt Rose. She'd married into a wealthy family of back stabbers and manipulative control freaks who loved to abuse those of lesser fortune than themselves. She finally tired of being abused, so she got a divorce. She'd managed to keep her accounts separate from her husband and his family and had added to the small fortune on her own. She arranged through my grandmother's lawyer that all assets she had at her death would be placed into that same blind trust. In short, I am a very wealthy man." Ted stopped for a moment and gathered himself. Then he continued on saying, "About 10 or 12 years ago, Mr. John Harvey who started Harvey Construction Company had a massive heart attack and almost died. John and his wife Martha almost lost everything to medical bills and rehabilitation. They remind me of my grandparents in that they do what they do for the satisfaction it gives them. One day at work, I went to John's office to drop off some paperwork. I found his secretary Betty in his office and crying. She told me that John and Martha would have to sell the business to pay the medical bills. Betty and I had a long talk that afternoon. That weekend, I spent Saturday with John and Martha. I bought the business from them, but I required John stay there in his position as President and CEO. I didn't want anyone to know that anything was different. Betty and Martha worked it out so that John wouldn't have a lot of work to do, but he was still in charge. The only changes I made were to add or increase employee insurance plans and other benefits." Lilies and Roses Ted drank another glass of water, paused a moment to collect his thoughts, then said, "I was on vacation when John made the decision to hire Ron Clark. Our CFO, Mr. John Pound and Mr. John Jensen, the HR manager recommended Ron to John. They suggested that Ron's expertise was needed in both marketing and sales. They told John that we needed to expand our business and Ron would be able to get it done. John's college roommate, JR, owns a construction business in the Dallas area and John asked him about Ron. It seems that Ron was working for JR, but some kind of internal problem had come up, so JR asked John to hire Ron as a favor to him just to get Ron out of town. JR's Construction Company went out of business about 6 weeks after Ron left. A huge amount of money came up missing and still hasn't been found. In addition, one of their competitors undercut JR's bids on some sizeable business contracts. Without new contracts and missing that money, they were forced into bankruptcy. After John told me what had happened in Dallas, I started worrying. Now, after this weekend's events, it seems that I was right. I know that you are helping me as a favor to Fernando. Thank you for that. I have come to the conclusion that the Harvey Construction Company has come under attack and I don't want a repeat of what happened in Dallas. I would like to know if you could bring in some computer people and some financial people to help the company." Jorge had listened to the entire incredible story. "Let's get something to eat first. Then we will talk again." They went to the kitchen and ate with Fernando and the kitchen staff. When they finished the meal, Jorge asked Fernando to join him and Ted in the private room. After they were seated, Jorge addressed Fernando and said, "As usual, old friend, your instincts were right. I can and will help with everything here. I agree with your assessment of Mr. Johnson here. He is an honorable man who is looking out for the welfare of others. Both he and his company are the target of thieves and I am going to help." Looking at Ted, Jorge continued, "Tomorrow at work, Mr. David Jones will come to your office concerning a marketing idea. He will need to show you on your computer. You will have a long meeting with him." Jorge allowed himself a smile. "David will tell you what he needs from you after showing you his presentation. My financial advisors and accountants should be able to have answers to you in a day or two. In the meantime, have you considered what actions you wish to take?" Ted had been considering his actions since Friday night and was fairly certain he was doing the right thing for himself. Nodding to both men, he answered, "Yes I have and I have decided. First off, I will want a divorce from Megan. With her cheating and her criminal behavior, I need to protect myself. This wasn't some fling she had, but a full blown affair lasting for months and I will never forgive that. In addition to that, I want to file civil lawsuits against Ron Clark for identity theft and breaking up my marriage. I will press criminal charges for whatever crimes he committed against the company. Because Megan has been helping in the identity theft, I will press criminal charges against her. Finally, Greg and Gretel Howard have been at least complicit in the identity theft. I don't know yet whether any criminal charges other than conspiracy can be filed, but I will press any criminal charges against them. I haven't seen Freddy's surveillance tapes, but if there is evidence against them, I would also like to sue them for breaking up my marriage. I hate crooked professional people of any sort. Finally, I will also press criminal charges against anyone else in the company who is helping Ron Clark. I would like to know how he got a credit card in my name. I'm certain that Mr. Pound and Mr. Jensen at the least are helping him in some way and I'm sure conspiracy charges will stick in both cases. Oh, and by the way, Tabitha and I were going to look at Freddy's tapes on Friday evening, but now I think it should be done sooner. I haven't asked her, but I'm sure she will be getting a divorce. I think I would like us to see the tapes tomorrow evening. Fernando, I think you and Jorge should see them too. How about 6pm at the company meeting room? A tape machine, computer, and television are already in place. We use them for presentations." Jorge agreed and said, "I will contact Tabitha tomorrow morning and tell her. After we watch the tapes, I will prepare the divorce papers for both of you and we can set a time for serving them." Fernando then said, "Wait. Freddy called me and said he found another tape. This one is of the lobby area. He said that Ron Clark identifies himself as Ted Johnson. When you leave here, Ted, stop at the hotel and get that tape. You can watch it tomorrow night also." "I'll go do that now," Ted replied as he stood up. "I thank you both for a most interesting evening and an incredible dinner. I will see you tomorrow." Then he shook hands with both men and left the building. The driver started the Escalades' engine as Ted got into the front seat. "We have to go to the Marriott so I can pick up a tape at the front counter," Ted told the driver. "Then we can go get my car." The driver just smiled at Ted as he said, "Yes, I know." +++++++++++++++ Chapter 5 The end of an interesting discussion The trip was uneventful and soon Ted was back at the sports bar. Since he was already here, he decided to use the restroom first and then decided to get a beer. He had told Jorge that he was buying a couple of cold ones, his treat, and Megan had overheard him. Coming out of the restroom, he decided to go sit at the bar and watch the game on the television. People sitting in booths at sports bars don't normally tend to flinch during commercials. Ted spotted the movement going to the restroom, so he stopped by the booth on his way to the bar. "Hello Greg. Hello Gretel," he said as he was walking past. "Yes, I am here. No, I do not wish to join you. I am going to the bar to watch the game. Since I know that you are just dying to know, my friend Jorge and I went back to his motel to look at pictures of his family. When Megan comes back from the bathroom, tell her I'll be home later. Thank you." Without waiting for an answer from the slightly astonished couple, he went to the bar and ordered a beer. He sat on a stool between two other guys, drinking his beer and munching on the free snacks. A few minutes later he noticed the group leaving through the front door. None of them looked at him. After the game, Ted drove home to a darkened house. He went directly to the bathroom and showered before going to bed. Megan was already in bed. He wasn't sure whether she was awake or not and he didn't particularly care. He crawled into bed and settled down for sleep. As he started dozing off, he felt her turn towards him. Breathing quietly, she slid an arm under the covers and lay her hand on his shoulder. He ignored it and went to sleep. He woke the next morning laying on his side with Megan pressed in behind him with her arm around his stomach. It almost felt normal to wake up this way, the same as they had for so many years. After a moment he slid out of bed and went to the bathroom. He got ready for work and headed for the door. He smelled coffee in the kitchen. Megan had gotten up and was cooking breakfast. He could smell bacon and eggs and the toast popped up as he stopped by the door. She was wearing her old blue terry robe cinched up tight and her bedroom slippers. She turned as he stopped and said, "Want some breakfast? I can fix some for you and the coffee is ready." "Sure, why not. I might as well since the coffee isn't ready at work yet," he replied. "How was your reunion with Jorge? I told Gretel that he called and you went to catch up last night. Greg thought we should go and welcome him to town. I wasn't aware that we wouldn't be welcome to meet him, even after the tantrum you threw. I'm really sorry that we intruded on your evening," she said only a little bit sarcastically. "You didn't intrude. I watched the game at the bar while you three were able to talk about me," Ted replied feeling defensive. "It was good seeing an old friend. I'd forgotten how much fun we'd had when we were younger. We weren't there at the bar for much more that greetings. He told me that he is a recovering alcoholic and didn't want to screw his life up by hanging around bars. He said it was bad enough the first time. I agreed with him. We went to his motel and got caught up there. If I'd known about his alcoholism, I certainly wouldn't have suggested meeting in a sports bar. As it was, we ordered in a pizza and drank sodas." Megan fixed their plates and sat down across the table from him. They ate quietly. Ted didn't rise to the bait about their being unwelcome. She didn't bother offering an apology. 'Well, hell,' he thought. 'She doesn't apologize for anything she does or says anymore, so why should it matter this time.' He ate while thinking that the gulf between them would never be bridged. It was too big and he couldn't go back in time to stop it. Of course, now that he knew she was cheating, he could care less about bridging any gulf. He finished eating and put his dishes in the sink. Megan stopped him by asking, "What time will you be home this evening? Are you going to be eating here or do you have other plans?" "I don't know when I'll be home," Ted replied. "That asshole Clark was talking yesterday about moving Jenny over to HR. Some kind of nonsense about needing her to help with that new sensitivity training being implemented. I'm about fed up with him and his bullshit. He keeps taking people from my team and not the others. He keeps pushing for me to quit and, by God, I might just do it." He paused a moment, wondering how far he should push this. He didn't want to tip anybody off or make them nervous. This had to play out, regardless of anyone's feelings. But at the same time, he had to stay in 'character' as the unsuspecting doofus standing on the trap door they had set up. Then he continued, "Of course, that means you will have to find a real job. You know, the type where you get paid for what you do. I'm fairly certain that any job I get in this town after I quit will not be for the same extravagant salary I'm getting now. You can start thinking about how we'll get by without my salary until I can find another job." "I'm thinking that I should invite John and Martha Harvey here for a pool party this Saturday. Since Joan and Timmy are both coming in for the weekend, it would be nice to kick back and grill some steaks or something." With storm clouds gathering on her face, Megan glared at Ted and leaned back in her chair. "Oh, really now," she started, "you are going to invite people over for a pool party. Thank you for discussing it with me. It is so nice to know that I have input when planning and having parties in my house. When will I be informed as to what you are serving? Thank you for considering whether or not I might have had anything planned for the kids while they are home, or even whether or not they want to be around your boss or work friends. Are these people going to be invited, even if you quit? Have you thought about how long you will be out of work? How are you going to pay for the steaks and other food if you are out of work? We don't have enough money to get the things we need now, so what will happen next?" Megan was on a roll as she continued, "I was going to check and see if tickets were still available for the museum's grand reopening. I haven't brought it up for discussion with you yet, because I didn't know if you were going to be working or not. I suppose I should be grateful that you have decided to let me know this far ahead of time rather than just springing it on me Saturday morning. Gee, Ted, this sounds like so much fun. Since it seems that you have made the guest list, might I beg that other people be allowed here for your party, or is adjusting your plans permitted? Like you said, consideration and communication are two way streets." The sarcastic response struck a chord in Ted. 'Ah,' he thought. 'Now the façade shows its tattered edges.' "Thank you for the breakfast," he said. "Concerning a party, I was just thinking out loud. No, I don't have a party planned. I also didn't have a clue whether you would be here or not, nor whether you would be at all interested in a pool party. It's obvious I haven't said anything to the kids or asked them. They're probably in class and I couldn't ask them until tonight anyway. Therefore, since nothing is planned, no adjustments are needed." Then Ted thought he would take some digs at her also saying, "In addition, don't get a museum ticket for me. It seems that any time reservations are needed, I end up working. It must be really boring going to all these events either by yourself or with Greg and Gretel. This time, the kids should be able to keep you from being lonely. At least you haven't said anything about finding a replacement for me. Or should I add a 'yet'? A gorgeous woman like you hanging with Greg and Gretel all the time. I'll bet that Greg is getting worn out from all that dancing, first with you and then Gretel. Do all three of you get out on the floor and dance? Or have you found a dance partner on your own to help keep you interested in dancing? Not that it makes any difference to me because I'm working." She sat there looking at him with uncertainty crossing her features, possibly wondering if she had overreacted too quickly. "I will give you credit though," he finished. "That was a really good attack and the extra sarcasm was a good touch. It made me realize just how little we know about each other anymore. I think I need some time to consider just where I fit into this family, if indeed a family still remains." He turned to leave for work, then stopped at the front door to say, "Don't wait dinner for me. After this fun breakfast, I think I will eat somewhere else tonight. Someplace that doesn't serve extra stomach acid for dessert. See if you can come up with another nasty ambush for the next time we indulge in a conversation. Or not. You could just go back to ignoring me instead. That wouldn't take any effort at all with all your practice." He went out and closed the door quietly behind him. He noticed as he drove away this time that she didn't watch him from the window. ++++++++++ Chapter 6 The cavalry arrives Ted was sitting behind his desk going over the data needed for the next marketing analysis when Callie brought in a young man with a briefcase. "I'm sorry to interrupt you," Callie said. "This is Mr. David Jones and he says he has an appointment with you about some of his marketing ideas?" This last was said as a question because he didn't have an appointment on her calendar and she was curious. Ted stood up and moved to shake his hand, "Hi, David. Come on in. I've been expecting you." He then turned saying to Callie, "It's all right. It wasn't an official appointment, and I'm sorry I didn't let you know. I can handle this from here, thank you. We will need privacy for our meeting." This was their code in reference to Ron Clark. The nosy bastard was always interrupting or sneaking around eavesdropping. He was the poster boy for hostile work environment and workplace harassment if ever one was needed. After closing the door behind Callie he said, "Just a minute, David, while I close this out. Ok now. Jorge said you would need to work on my computer, correct?" "Correct Ted, and I thank you for your time. Could you give me a quick overview of your work here, the network, and the programs that are in use throughout the company?" Ted had a white board he used in various meetings, so he used it to give David a visual representation of the company. It went a lot faster that way. When Ted had covered everything, he asked for questions. "No," David replied. "I should have everything I need in just a few moments. Please just bear with me. Oh, and as far as you know, does everyone here in the company use the same servers or do people keep data on their own work stations?" Ted thought a moment and then shook his head. "I don't really know if anyone is using the hard drive in the workstation they use. Company policy is to keep all company related information on the server. You can use this machine to get anything you need and you are authorized to access any and all programs or computers in the company. It would make sense to keep any nefarious plots off the main server and bury them in personal workstations, I suppose. I hadn't thought of that before. Maybe the company needs a new written policy on that. Of course it would make even more sense to not write anything down in the first place." Then he smiled and said, "How do you like your coffee. I need a refill." David smiled back and said, "Black, thank you." Walking past Callie's desk, Ted asked her if she would like some coffee. Callie nodded and went back to work. Ted got the refreshments and took them back to the office. Callie said thanks as he put the cup on her desk. She liked how he treated her as a person and not his personal valet or servant. That was a major reason she respected him and she knew others in the company felt the same way. Ted set the coffee for David on the desk as David leaned back and smiled. "All done and thank you. Yes, I found information on several hard drives. Not to be pushy, but I suggest hiring an IT Manager for the company. It could save a lot of heartache down the line. You might also wish to impress upon the other employees to back up their data on a regular basis. I have copies of some policy letters that I have seen over time and I will get some copies of them for you. You don't have to use them, but they would make a good basis for any kind of IT policies you implement later on. Sorry, I digress. Now, I wrapped up all the data, copied it into an attachment file and emailed it to myself. We should have something for you by this evening." Finishing his coffee, he picked up his briefcase and left. Ted heard him thank Callie for her time as he walked past her desk. Callie was immediately back into Ted's office quietly asking, "Who was that guy? He doesn't do marketing or sales, at least with any company around here that I know. What is going on?" Ted motioned to a chair and she sat down. He thought for a moment, then asked quietly, "Who's side are you on?" She looked surprised at the question and started to reply, but Ted held up his hand and shook his head to stop her. He'd seen a furtive motion in the other room. Raising his voice Ted asked, "What do you want now, Ron?" Ron stepped out from behind the door where he had been hiding. Giving Ted a scowl he said, "That is Mr. Clark to you. I'm wondering if you are going to have those projections done on time this week. You must be way ahead on the data if you have time to sit here and put the moves on your secretary. By the way, who was that man who just left here? I wasn't notified that any outside people were coming into the building today. You are responsible to me, remember?" Ted sat expressionless through the little tirade while waiting for it to end. Callie hadn't moved or looked around, but Ted had seen the scowl on her face when Ron had accused him of making moves on her. It made him wonder if Ron was trying to get into her pants also. That thought made his blood start to boil, so he went into chill mode. When Ron finally stood there without speaking, Ted decided that the little rant was over. Without moving or changing his expression, he replied, "First, I am right where I need to be with working on those projections. Second, I am not putting moves on my secretary. We were going over the presentation setup. Third, that man who just left was Mr. David Jones. He has a marketing idea he has been working on and he wanted my opinion. Fourth, please take note how quickly you get answers to your questions when you ask them instead of hiding behind doors to eavesdrop. It could take all day getting answers that way. Finally, don't ever let me catch you pulling that bullshit in this office again or I will go to HR and file a harassment complaint against you. Now, I have work to do. Callie, go get started as we agreed. Thank you." Lilies and Roses Ted calmly sat there watching Ron seethe. It was obvious he wanted to argue, but he couldn't without tipping his hand. Callie went to her desk and then finally, Ron left the office. After a moment, Callie turned around in her chair and, looking right at Ted, mouthed the word, "Yours." Ted nodded and they both went back to work. About an hour later, Ted received a phone call. Picking up the phone, he heard his son Timmy say, "Hi, dad. Do you have a minute or so? I need some advice, I think. "Sure, Timmy. What kind of advice do you need?" "Well dad, I was first wondering about you and Melissa's dad, Mr. Clark. Are you two getting along better these days?" "I'm sorry, Timmy. No we aren't. As a matter of fact, I'm thinking about quitting because of him. Why? What's going on that you are worried about him?" "Well, dad, Melissa and I have been dating here at school. I got to know her because she is in a couple of my classes and I've been helping her get through them. We know that you two aren't getting along very well and we don't want to mess things up for you at work." Ted cut him off saying, "Whoa, Timmy. Slow down here. I keep hearing a lot of 'we' in there. You don't need to worry about me and crap at work. You have your own life to lead. What is it you want advice about?" Timmy paused a moment then the words started gushing out. "Dad, I think I am in love with Melissa. No, wait, that didn't come out right. Dad, I am in love with Melissa. I've been thinking about marrying her and I'm sure she feels the same way about me. I've been worried what beings will do at work. Of course if you quit your job, then it becomes a moot point. Melissa and I don't want to become a bone of contention and cause problems. Can you see my quandary here?" Ted sat for a moment. Wow. His son was wanting to get married. He had always been the logical thinker in the house. "Look Timmy," he started, "it is your heart and Melissa's heart we are talking about here, as well as your future lives together. I would like to be the first to congratulate you. I don't know Melissa's mom very well at all and can't say anything about her feelings on this matter. Have you said anything to your mom about this?" "No, as a matter of fact I was going to call her next," he answered. "What about Joan? Does she know?" "Oh, of course dad. You know how she likes to mother me. She's totally cool with the whole idea and I think actually she is going to be the bridesmaid or something like that. I don't think that she has discussed anything with Melissa, though. I think she wants us to be engaged before she gets into planning mode." "All right then, wait until this weekend and everybody is home before making any announcements to your mother. We have some things to discuss before that happens." "Ok, dad. I'll wait until I get home," Timmy said. After a moment's pause he said, "Dad. Whatever you decide to do about working there, you have our support and I'm speaking for Joan also when I say that. I'll see you on Friday then." They hung up at the same time. Ted sat for a moment, wondering if he should have told Timmy what was going on. 'No,' he thought, 'he has enough on his mind without worrying about his folks. I shouldn't have even told him I was thinking about quitting.' Ted shook his head and went back to work. Back at school, Timmy hung his head thinking. Just then somebody knocked on the phone booth wall. He stepped out and took Melissa in his arms while someone else moved into the booth. After hugging for a moment, they turned and walked towards their next class. At 515pm, Callie put on her coat and shut down her computer. She left with a group of employees who were going to a small bar down the street for a drink. As she was driving out of the parking lot, 3 cars drove in. A black Escalade pulled up and parked first followed by a newer BMW. The BMW parked in Ron Clark's space. Callie waited a moment and saw Tabitha Clark get out of the car. 'Ron left work early again, today,' Callie thought, 'and now his wife parking in his spot. Obviously she knows he isn't here. I'm having a talk with Ted real soon,' she decided. She decided to hurry to the bar. If she had waited, she would have seen Mr. David Jones get out of another car. +++++++++++++ Chapter 7 What you see is what you get Tabitha led everyone into the building and motioned them into the meeting room. She was wearing a white tee shirt with a light blue sweater and blue jeans. Ted came out of his office when he heard them and started setting up the equipment. Everyone was seated and he was ready to put in the first tape when they heard the coughing. Turning to look, everyone looked surprised as Mr. Harvey came into the room. "Well, I'm glad the meeting hasn't started yet. I do hate to come in and stir things up after they've already started." Everyone sat in place until Mr. Harvey moved to his seat at the head of the table. "Ted, where are your manners? I know Tabitha, of course, and Congressman Mendoza, but who are these other people?" Ted stood up straight and made the introductions. Then looking at Mr. Harvey he asked, "Do you want the background first or should we just watch the tapes and then have the meeting?" "Oh, turn on the tapes first please. I think they will be enough to bring us all up to speed here. I really don't think I need to hear it twice." Ted nodded and said, "This first tape is marked L. I presume that stands for the lobby. It's the extra tape that Freddy found. The next 3 tapes are marked H for probably hallway, and these last 3 tapes are marked J for Jacuzzi." Ted turned off the lights and started the tape. He put it on fast forward until he saw movement, then went back to normal speed. They saw Ron, Megan, Greg, and Gretel step up to the counter. They were all dressed very well and had apparently just come from the Elite. He had never before seen the dress Megan was wearing this time, either. It was a soft blue with white trim around the hemline. It was strapless and stopped about 5 inches above her knees, and accented the curves of her pretty ass very well. 'Jesus, I wonder how many more new clothes she has that I don't know about? More importantly, how did she buy them?' Ted thought. Ron announced himself as Mr. Ted Johnson and said that he had a room reserved. He presented a credit card to pay for the room and then the clerk asked for an ID as he signed for the room. Ted pulled out a drivers license and asked, "Why are you asking for ID now? We've been coming here a long time now without any problems." "The hotel has just implemented new procedures, sir. I apologize for the inconvenience. We now require positive ID for all checks, travelers checks, and credit cards. Thank you for your understanding." Ron picked up the papers and cards and they all went to the elevator. That tape ended and Ted got up to change tapes. He stood by the tape machine as it started. He pressed the fast forward button to speed things up. When they appeared in the hallway, he changed the speed back to normal. This was a different day and again Megan was in a dress he hadn't seen before. This was getting to be way too much. No one spoke in the hallway as Ron opened the door and they all went inside. Ted checked the date time stamp and wrote it down. He sped up the tape until they came out of the room. This time they all were wearing robes, so they were apparently going to the Jacuzzi. Ted noted the time stamp. He also noticed that both women's hair was mussed. So much for the salon hair do. He remembered when Megan had gotten new hair dos at the salon and then didn't let him touch her hair for a week. She wanted it to last as long as possible. Now it looked as though she was getting rid of it as fast as possible. 'Fucking bitch,' he thought. Fast forwarding the tape again, it ran out before they came back to the room. Ted went through the same procedure for the other hallway tapes. He noted time stamps and each time the tape ended before they came back from the Jacuzzi. The first Jacuzzi tape started with an empty room. Ted fast forwarded until they came in, then he slowed down to normal speed. He walked around the table and sat as they all watched the group. The bubbles were rather loud, but they spoke up to be heard and the tape picked them up very well. They all dropped their robes and all were nude. Ted felt like a spike punched him in the gut when Megan turned around. She had shaved her pubic hair. Totally. She was bald. He noticed that Gretel was also shaved bald, but he had never seen her nude so he didn't know if it was a change for her or not. "Ahhh, Jesus, this feels so good," sighed Greg as he slid into the hot water first. "Too bad we can't keep doing this for a while longer. I'm starting to get used to this. Hey, Ron, what do you think? Can we add a couple of weeks?" Ron's head snapped towards Greg as he snarled out, "What's the matter with you, dipshit? You NEVER call me anything but Ted when we are away from the house. The last thing I need is you screwing this up when we are almost finished. God damn it, but I wish I had people who could actually use their brains." Greg just bowed his head and said, "Geez, Ron, er, Ted. I'm sorry. I just forgot, that's all. Can't I make an honest mistake?" Ron glared at him for another moment, then looked at Megan. "Come here bitch and make me feel better. I don't know which is worse, putting up with that incompetent pussy at work that you married or this dumb fuck." Megan got up and moved in front of Ron. She placed a hand on either side of him on the hot tub and leaned down to take his dick in her mouth. She swallowed the entire length and kept her chin on his balls while she worked to get him hard. After watching for a moment, Gretel turned and did the same for Greg. Ted noticed that Megan hadn't said anything in his defense. It was bad enough seeing her shaved, but now she was doing something for Ron that she hadn't done for him since their honeymoon. Even then, when their life together was new and exciting, she refused to do it again once the honeymoon was over. Now she looked like she was a pro, licking his now hard cock from bottom to top and then sucking on the head before shoving her head down to his pubes. It was obvious to Ted and probably the group in the meeting room that this was a routine for them. They silently watched as the group went from sucking to fucking and then changing partners. Ted felt more than a little sick from watching their actions. Megan had never said anything about her having sex with other women. He had never known Megan or Gretel to indicate any sexual attraction between them, but they were very comfortable with what they were doing with and to each other. There was no hesitation at all. Ted wondered if it was Ron's doing or whether they just took the initiative themselves trying to please him. He did think that Megan didn't like sucking on Greg while Ron fucked her at the same time as much as Gretel did. Finally, the tape ran out with them still pounding away. After a moment, Ted got up to change the tape. Looking at the group he said, "Once was enough for me, so I am going to step out for a moment. If you would please let me know anything of interest in their conversation ..." He let his voice trail off and he started the tape in fast forward. When they came in, he put it back on normal speed and left the room. He was somewhat surprised a moment later when Tabitha came out of the room to stand next to him in the hall. He could see the traces of tears on her cheeks and her bottom lip was trembling. Silently he held his arms open and she stepped into his embrace. They stood there, each silently comforting the other while they shuddered with sobs. After they had somewhat calmed down, Ted took her to the break room and offered a soda from the machine. He took the cans in one hand and held her hand with the other and led her back to his office. A box of tissues was sitting on Callie's desk, very conveniently. He offered the box to Tabitha, then took a handful for himself. They sat in silence drinking their sodas until Tabitha remarked, "Damn, I forgot the popcorn." Ted smiled at her and remarked, "That's ok. We weren't scheduled until Friday evening anyway. Maybe next time." After a few more minutes, David came for them. Walking back into the meeting room, Ted saw the tapes stacked in a pile on the table. Mr. Harvey looked around the room, then cleared his throat to speak. "You two lost everything tonight. I am here on record here and now to state you have my complete and total support however you decide to proceed. I have known Jorge for many years now, and I know of no finer lawyer in the country. After talking with him about this evening, I have decided to take this bull by the horns." Looking at Ted, he quietly asked, "Is there any way you will get back with her?" Ted just shook his head, not trusting himself to speak. Tabitha looked at Mr. Harvey and said, "Me either. This is despicable and I still have two girls at home. I guess I am a very lucky person never to have seen Ron act like that. He has the Jekyll and Hyde routine down fairly well." "Ok then, we are in agreement. Jorge if you will hand them their copies of the paperwork, we will leave them some privacy to go over the particulars. I need a bathroom break and will back in a minute or so." Starting to cough again, he got up and left the room. The others headed to the break room. Ted noted all of the assets were going to him and no mention was made of the blind trust. 'Thank you, Jorge,' he breathed to himself. He saw that Jorge had preempted their agreement from yesterday to start preparing these papers until after they'd seen the tapes. 'Well, that was using common sense on Jorge's part,' he thought. 'Maybe I just didn't want to see reality in front of me. Tabitha made a small choking noise and Ted leaned forward and put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you all right?" he queried. "Jesus, Ted. How do these people find out all of these things? I had no idea we had all of these assets or even where they came from. My God, we're rich and I didn't have a clue. According to this, he's going to owe more in monthly child support and alimony than he has been getting paid here. Of course, I wondered how he was going to pay child support while sitting in prison. But now, all these accounts and assets belong to me." That last bit gave her a small smile. "And here I was worrying about how we would get by if I threw him out. We do have friends here, don't we Ted?" That smile made Ted feel a whole lot better and he began to relax for the first time in days. And then he started to tense up again. 'Oh crap,' he thought. 'Ron's been hiding assets from her. She didn't know that they are very well off.' He felt a little sick to his stomach as he realized that now, after all of this, he was really no better than Ron. 'In fact,' he thought, 'I'm really worse. I've known since before we were married about the blind trust. All of the scrimping and saving over the years and trying to live on his income while raising the kids was totally unnecessary. All I'd ever had to do was go to the bank and make a withdrawal. His stubborn pride and damned insistence on working for his job satisfaction had probably cost him his family.' Despite the way he felt about Megan's cheating on him and the criminal activity she was actively pursuing with Ron, Ted had never felt so low. He felt like the most miserable, self-centered, SOB on the face of the earth. Tabitha was patting his arm and trying to get his attention. She looked very concerned and as Ted looked at her, he realized her concern was for him. "I'm sorry, what was that again?" he asked. "Ted, what's wrong? You suddenly seemed to be miles away and you don't look so well," she replied. She was staring intently at his face. "Look, Tabitha, I've just had this epiphany of sorts... I'm sorry, just a moment here... damn it...," he tried to talk, but the tears started and he couldn't see her and he couldn't talk and the next thing he knew she had her arms around him and was holding him to her bosom while the tears poured. "No, damn it, no, just stop, please," Ted was sputtering at her while she just held him and patted his head while he cried. 'Everything is all wrong,' he thought. 'She doesn't know what a chicken shit self absorbed asshole I've been.' That realization kicked him in the gut and he lost any semblance of control. Tabitha held him in her arms while he cried, not realizing her tears were falling like rain into his hair while she stroked it. She'd been in this town about a year since their move from Dallas. She'd left her home and family behind to follow her husband and bring the children on this move. It had been lonesome at times, but she had stayed focused on her family and their needs. It felt good to be needed like this. She felt more than heard the door open behind her. She turned her head that direction and shook it twice. The door closed. They were alone together again to share their grief. It took another few minutes before Ted snuffled loudly and pushed himself up. Tabitha let him go easily, feeling that he would be embarrassed about his breakdown. She still had some of the tissues and silently offered him some. They sat quietly for a moment, then Ted began to speak. "Thank you, Tabitha. I didn't know I needed that, or at least, needed it that much." She just smiled at him, letting him talk. She'd needed it also, she had just realized. "Tabitha, before we go any further here tonight, I have a confession of sorts to make," he started. "What started me off was the realization that I am a world class self serving asshole. It took the surprise you showed upon learning what Ron had been hiding from you to wake me up to my own crappy behavior." He paused a moment and blew his nose again while Tabitha sat in quiet surprise. "Tabitha," he said, "I'm rich. I've been rich since before I ever met Megan. It is all in a blind trust sitting at the bank. Not once since the day I learned about it did I ever tell Megan about it. Not once did I ever do anything for the kids, Megan, the family, or for me based on what is in that trust. We scrimped, we saved, we cut corners wherever we could. They always thought that we were living within our means. All I ever had to do was go to the bank and make a withdrawal and whatever problems we had at that time would just go away. I am so ashamed that I didn't do anything positive with that trust fund to help my family. I was so wrapped up in the philosophy of working for the satisfaction of a job well done, that I forgot the philosophy doesn't take care of some of the other things in life." Tabitha listened to him while his pain poured out in words. His words were falling like the rain his tears had been. She was shocked at what he was saying, to be sure, but she was also feeling his pain in his self recriminations and self loathing. As he started to slow down, she reached out a hand to cover his on the table. "Stop," she said quietly. "Just stop. Slicing yourself to pieces at this point is a pointless exercise in futility. You had your philosophy and you lived it. You learned that philosophy from people who loved you and you in turn taught that philosophy to your children." He didn't say anything, he just sat and watched her face while she spoke to him. "The main difference between you and Ron," she continued, "is the fact that you did not act out of malice. You did not ever intend to harm your family. Ron lies, cheats, steals, and abuses anybody and everybody who gets in his way. He has never cared about me or the girls except for how best to use his family to achieve his selfish goals." Lilija of Clan Zyszudko Ch. 01 Chapter 1: The End of the Journey **NOTE ONE to all readers**: This will be part of a longer story, with a focus on characters and not just sex. It will try to be more than a stroke story (don't worry, there's still sex). That being said, the sex won't always be lovey-dovey or utterly romantic, so be forewarned. –Enjoy!! **NOTE TWO Pronunciation Guide**: (basically, sz = sh and j is like y) Lilija (Lee-lee-ya) Zyszudko (Zish-ood-ko) majalia (may-al-ee-ya) Korvyn (Kor-vin) Krisztir (Kreesh-teer) Zandisz (Zan-deesh) Miszelah (Meesh-el-ah) Levisz (Leh-veesh) * * * * * Spring was late this year. Lilija of clan Zyszudko looked skyward, toward the sun. It shone brightly, but the wind quickly chilled away any would-be warmth. She drew her heavy cloak closer about her slim shoulders. Adjusting the fine silver clasp at her throat, her fingers swept over the fur lining peeking out from the sides of her hood. She shifted in her saddle and repressed a groan. But Lilija couldn't manage to hide the slight grimace that crossed her face. "Do not fret, majalia," a deep voice murmured at her shoulder, "we will arrive before evening meal. And, instead of your darling mount, you will have other more…pleasurable options before you…or above you, or beneath you." His tone lost its teasing nature as his voice fell into a gravelly baritone, "I leave myself utterly at your disposal this eve." Lilija stared forward resolutely. "Korvyn, I shall share my bed this eve with no man. I am not your flower and—" "Of course you are not my flower," Korvyn interrupted innocently. "You are majalia—delicate flower. And, we need not confine ourselves to a bed," he finished smugly. Lilija sighed in frustration. A Zyszudko guardsman looked toward the pair from the corner of his eye. Lilija surreptitiously signaled him away. She could handle Korvyn herself. Korvyn had only grown this bold over the past few weeks. At the start of their party's journey, he had been far more circumspect in both his behavior and his words. In the beginning, his smile was not smug; his words were not grossly lascivious. She had thought him charming—his deep blue eyes would glint as he laughed and his manner was open and easy. Lilija turned her head, now, eyeing him appraisingly. The same bright eyes. The same unruly curls of deep scarlet hair falling across his forehead. The same strong jaw line, though it was now covered with a deep coppery red beard due to the weeks of travel. His face, his muscled figure had not changed. Yes, she had thought him handsome. It would be hard fact for any woman to deny. Yet, when she had once found him appealing, she now found him appalling. "Korvyn," Lilijana began, "how well do you believe my uncle would receive news of your kind 'offers'? Your attentiveness," she continued—her voice dripping with sarcasm, "is surely something I should mention to him. I am convinced if he knew of it he would have something to give you." Preferably a dagger to the ribs, she thought. She locked her own green eyes with his blue, matching his stare. Korvyn's jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. He said nothing. She arched her left brow. "Perhaps you should return to your men," Lilija nodded toward a knot of men wearing the Krisztir clan's colors. Kicking her heels, her horse trotted on. Korvyn stared after Lilija's pine green cloak fluttering in the wind. A tendon in his neck tensed. After a moment of silent reflection, a small smile twitched at the side of his mouth. Gradzi rode up to Korvyn, laughing, "I would not expect to see you smiling as you sat in Lady Lilija's dust." His Brown eyes shone merrily as the Krisztir guardsman spoke. "But, here I find you, smiling, even as she rides off." Korvyn gave his own short laugh and responded, "Act as she will now, in a short while she will have to ask permission of me in order to leave my presence." "You still believe her uncle will give her to you?" "Chieftain Zandisz has called specifically for my father to send me to represent clan Krisztir in this meeting. Certainly, he should want to stabilize the Zyszudko clan's position. How better to do that than through a joining with Lilija?" "She is quite an attractive token for him to maneuver." "One that I mean to acquire. She will look splendid on my arm—almost as splendid as she will look in my bed." * * * * * "Lady Lilija, was he harassing you, again?" Lilija could hear her attendant's voice held an undercurrent of genuine concern. "Miszelah, Misza, Miszka. Do not worry. He is annoying, yes, but we will be reaching my uncle's stronghold before dusk. Sooner, perhaps. Lord Korvyn," she rolled her eyes, "will never dare to presume such liberties in my uncle's castle." "As you say, my Lady." Miszelah looked unconvinced as she rode beside Lilija. "Misza, please, you know there is no need for titles when you and I are alone!" "It just seems so odd…Lilija." Lilija's lilting laugh rained through the air. "Misza, Misza. You have grown too accustomed to the ways of your former Lady. She must have been stern!" Miszelah laughed a little herself. "She was more formal than you, by far." "I am glad you were able to come with me—I have never had cause for an attendant to travel with me before." Miszelah looked shocked. "My Lady—Lilija—it would be horribly improper if you did not have a female attendant travel with you! You are a woman. You cannot travel alone with a group of men—even should they be guardsmen sent by your Uncle. Besides, it is time you had an attendant for daily tasks. You will be living as a Lady within Chieftain Zandisz's castle." Lilija smiled at Miszelah's seriousness. "Eighteen summers. I suppose I am now officially a woman to be 'protected' with an overabundance of restrictions and limitations." She finished with an irritated sigh. "As if the rules of proper comportment for a young girl were not stifling enough…" Miszelah looked over without sympathy, quipping, "I do not believe it was ever proper for you to hunt with the men, nor to train with them while you stayed in the northlands." "There were few men there, virtually all of them bordering on elderly—there was no impropriety! And, acuity with the bow and short sword are important skills!" Miszelah's mouth quirked. "Skills that I doubt Chieftain Zandisz will permit you to hone while you are under his roof." "I am sure my dear uncle will allow me only to do battle wielding an embroidery needle." The corners of Lilija's eyes crinkled as she smiled. The two young women laughed. Lilija stopped short when she saw the green flag in the distance, whipping in the wind. Then, a second. A third. As they crested the hill, four green pennants flew above the slate gray stones of an impressive castle and fortified wall. They had reached Chieftain Zandisz Zyszudko's stronghold. * * * * * "Lady Lilijaniszka Ludyszka Ziszka!" the page announced loudly. Lilija grimaced slightly at the sound of her full name and title. Lilija's uncle rose from his great-chair and descended to greet her. Chieftain Zandisz Zyszudko was a large man—tall and broad, well into his fifties, but in peak physical condition from constant training and campaigning. His dirty blonde shoulder-length hair showed hints of gray only at the temples. His beard, however, was speckled with it. His cheeks were rosy and his eyes were bright as he approached his niece. "Lilija," he cried warmly, "it has been five years since we saw you leave for the northlands, but you are arrived!" Zandisz was elated to see his niece again. She was like a daughter to him after her parents—his little sister, Pilaszka, and her husband, Varek—had died all those years ago. When his own wife died in the childbirth of his son, Levisz, it was little Lilija, then, only nine years old, who had brightened his grief. Finally, he felt whole with Lilija returned. "How beautiful you look, my dear. You have truly blossomed into a fine young woman. You are the image of my sister, your dear mother." Lilija felt her cheeks heat slightly at the compliment and her eyes grow damp at the memory of her mother. Almost without pausing for breath, her uncle continued on in his whirlwind way, "I almost do not believe you journeyed five weeks in order to arrive here. Come, come, little Liliszka," he said with paternal affection, "there is someone who has been waiting for you. Yes, yes, leave your cloak here. Tylk will take it." As the Chieftain spoke, a servant appeared. Taking the heavy cloak, he quietly informed Zandisz of the other members of the travel party. "My Lord," Tylk began, "the animals, Zyszudko guardsmen, and travelers have been tended to. Your guests from the Krisztir Clan have been escorted to their rooms in order to refresh before the arrival feast this eve." "Good, good." Zandisz answered. "See to it that their needs are met. For now, until the feast, I will be visiting with my son and my niece, see that I am not disturbed!" The competent servant bowed his head and retreated. * * * * * In his quarters, Korvyn looked around him. The stone walls were covered with thick tapestries woven in various earth-toned hues featuring Clan Zyszudko's vibrant pine green. Not unattractive, he thought, but hardly preferable to the crisp sea blue of the Krisztir Clan. He tossed his cloak upon the bed and walked toward the massive fireplace in order to finish thawing himself from the long journey. A knock sounded. "Enter!" he called. Two young men entered, each carrying two large buckets of steaming water. "For the bath, my Lord." They then proceeded to empty them into a large carved tub that had been set to one side of the fire. After the young servants left, Korvyn eyed the steaming water eagerly and quickly stripped himself of his clothes. Hmmmmmm, he sighed, sinking into the bath's heat, all this is wanting is some attractive wench. His thoughts had been focused upon Lilija for the better part of the day, and he had hoped to take some of his frustration out before the feast. Another knock sounded. "Enter!" he called out in irritation that the sevant boys should be disturbing him. To his surprise and satisfaction, a young woman entered this time, carrying bath linens and fragrant soaps. Korvyn eyed her appreciatively. She seemed a little startled to find him already naked and in the bath. She quickly lowered her eyes. "For your bath, my Lord." She laid the linens and soap on a chair and spun quickly on her heel, heading for the door. "Did I dismiss you?" She froze. "No, my Lord." "I thought not. Come bathe me." Korvyn eyed the girl's figure appreciatively as she approached the tub. She was short and quite buxom. Her breasts bulged beneath her smock and jiggled as she walked. Her pale hair was tied back, but loose ends escaped, framing her face with its wide doe-eyes. She hesitantly began lathering the soap upon a linen washrag and touched it gently to Korvyn's shoulder. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back as she moved in deliberate circles. Across his chest, over the other shoulder, down his arms, further down his muscled stomach…until she stopped. "Did I tell you to stop?" he growled in frustration. With a quiet squeak, the girl continued moving lower until the cloth rubbed against his half-erect manhood. "That cloth is far too harsh." "M-my Lord?" "Stop using it, girl. Are you deaf? Use your hand." She looked uncertain, but quickly backed down upon seeing the harsh glare in Korvyn's eyes. As she bent forward to grasp him, he stared openly at her plump breasts as they strained against the scooping neckline of her smock. Korvyn closed his eyes and groaned loudly in satisfaction as he felt her small hand encircle his rapidly hardening cock. The maid looked nervous—surprised that he should make such a noise. "Don't stop, wench." She slowly began to move her hand up and down his pole. He opened his eyes and looked at her breasts again. As her hand fought to fully encircle his now-erect meat, he began to fondle her. Her eyes darted over to him, unsure. He grabbed her nipple through the thin material of her servant's attire. "Did I tell you to stop stroking me?" he asked, twisting her nipple until she gasped. She quickly renewed her movements, squeezing his fat cock as he twisted her nipples. Soon, she began to whimper quietly. "I think you're enjoying this." The girl paused, unsure what to do. "Answer me!" "Y-yes, my Lord." "Say it." "I am enjoying this." "This? Describe it." "I…I am enjoying stroking your manhood while you squeeze my breasts and twist my nipples." "Call it my cock." "Your cock, my Lord. I enjoy stroking your cock while you squeeze my breasts and twist my nipples." "That's better. Are you wet, whore?" "S-s-sir?" "Lift your skirt and bend over the bed on your stomach." The girl did as commanded. Korvyn stood and exited the tub, his rock hard cock standing out before him. As the young girl raised her skirt he slowly stroked himself from base to tip. Once her skirt was raised he quickly tore down her undergarments, leaving her ass and pussy exposed. "Spread your legs, slut." She complied. "Ahhhh, what a nice, fresh little cunt." Korvyn ran his finger over the soft pale lips of her cunt. "No hair?" "'Tis customary, sir, when a-a girl of our clan reaches her eighteenth year to sh-sh-shave it." "Hmmm. A custom it would well serve the Krisztir maids to learn." He felt the smooth hairless skin, leaning in for a closer view. He opened his mouth and ran his tongue over her lips. She gasped. Spreading her legs wider, he opened her pussy. It glistened pink and wet before him. Inhaling the scent of her sex, he ran his tongue from her clit to her hole—slurping the juice as he went. Legs spread wide, ass and pussy exposed, the girl moaned and grasped the bed sheets. "My, my. You little slut, you are quite wet." He slid a finger into her tight, wet twat. "What a bad little girl. You are not as innocent as you look, are you, slut? There is no maidenhead." Korvyn grinned as he removed his finger from her cunt. He slid two fingers in this time. They made a wet slurping noise as he forced them in. The girl had long since stopped clenching the bedclothes and was fondling her own tits, the top of her dress unlaced and pushed down, her fingers stroking and tweaking her nipples. Korvyn began to finger fuck her slowly, watching the juice dribble out and run down her thighs and his hand. "What do you want, slut?" The girl moaned as he continued his assault on her tight hole. "Oooohhhh, my Lord, I want your thick cock inside my pussy. Please, please fuck me!" Korvyn felt his cock twitch at the note of aching desperation in her voice. He removed his fingers and rubbed her juice on his meat. Lining it up with her tiny pink hole he pressed the bulbous head in, causing them both to groan in pleasure. Without waiting for her to fully adjust to his girth, he pressed more in. "Aaaahhhhhhhhhh!" she cried half in pleasure, half in pain as he stretched her. Korvyn laughed and slapped her ass. "You love the feel of my thick cock, whore. Don't deny it." He began playing with her clit as he forced the last few inches in. Her cunt began to flow as he rubbed her button, fucking with short hard strokes. Soon, he stopped rubbing her clit altogether and held onto her ass, kneading it as he plowed into her from behind. Every few strokes he would slap it, hard. Her cheeks soon went from pale pink to a glowing red. All the while, she gasped and moaned, edging closer to her own orgasm. Panting, Korvyn felt his balls begin to tighten. He ran his right index finger up the inside of the girl's thigh, collecting her pussy juice, and began rubbing it against her crinkled rosebud. She tensed at first, but after only a few seconds of rubbing along the edges of her puckered hole, she relaxed. "Good little slut," Korvyn praised her, "you'll enjoy this—you'll beg for it." Still fucking her hot, wet pussy, Korvyn pressed against her rosebud's center. Slick from her pussy juice, his finger began to penetrate her back passage. The girl bucked back against Korvyn, crying out as his finger slid in past the first knuckle. Feeling both her holes filled, the maid began thrusting back wildly, trying to get more of his finger into her clenching ass. "Yes, yes, slut. Take it. Soon you'll take my cock in your tight little ass." Korvyn grunted as he felt her pussy begin contracting. At his promise to fuck her in the ass, the girl began to cum. Her rippling cunt squeezed Korvyn's rigid cock. He sank his finger into her ass as deeply as he could as he thrust fully into her pussy, balls spasming. With his finger up her ass, he could feel his cock pulsing rhythmically. Each throbbing pulse from his cock shot hot, sticky semen. Finished, he pulled himself from her, smacked her ass and bade her turn around and kneel. "Clean it." She obediently opened her mouth and licked his sticky cock clean of both of their salty juices. He gripped the back of her head and forced it down his shaft, groaning at the sensation of his cock lodged at the back of her throat. She choked and gagged, but he held her in place. As she fought for breath, her throat convulsed around the torpid meat. Quickly, the warm, wet pressure of the helpless girl's mouth and throat set Korvyn's cock rigid. He pulled out and let her suckle his cockhead. After a few moments, he pulled her off and held his index finger before her mouth. "Clean it." She balked. He gripped the mass of her hair and yanked her head back, mouth open. "I said clean it." Scared, she accepted the digit into her mouth and licked it clean. "What a good little slut," Korvyn said, eyeing the girl on her knees. As he looked down at the servant girl, he imagined Lilija's face. His cock, already hard, became almost painfully so as he pictured Lilija kneeling at his feet. He grabbed the used girl's hair, again. Holding it closely by the root, he forced her face toward his throbbing dick. Her plump lips parted and her small pink tongue extended to lick the pearl of pre-cum that had formed. Korvyn closed his eyes and slowly pressed against the back of her head, urging more of his pole past her lips. He felt his sensitive head bump the back of her throat and held the girl in place. Seconds later, she began gagging. He looked down to see tears streaming from her eyes. He thrust three or four times, bumping the back of her throat, and then pulled out. The girl gagged and coughed, sucking air into her burning lungs even as her saliva dripped from his slobbery cock and down her chin. "Good girl, good girl. Don't worry, I'll teach you how to suck cock. Open wide, again." This time, he didn't stop pushing when he felt his head hit the back of her throat. With nearly half of his length still before her lips, he pressed until he saw her eyes bug open and felt his shaft slide deep into her throat. He didn't stop pushing until he felt her nose and lips pressed against his pubic hair. His breath hissed past his lips as he savored the warm slurping motion her throat made as it convulsed around him. It was not often a woman could take all of his length and girth in her mouth and throat—even if he tried forcing it in. "Ohhhh, what a cock slurping slut. How many other cocks have you sucked? Have they been as big as mine? Did they make you cry?" he asked as he saw tears continuing to run from the corner of her eyes. "Lick my balls," he ordered quietly. Lilija of Clan Zyszudko Ch. 01 Jaw already aching, the girl struggled to open her mouth more. Face still mashed into Korvyn's pubic hair, she extended her tongue and began slobbering on his sac. Grunting, Korvyn pulled out of her throat and began fucking her face. Hands on either side of her head, he held her in place. Minute after he minute he punished her mouth with his cock, fucking it until he bumped the back of her throat. With one hand still holding her head, he reached down to the girl's plump tits and found her nipples pebbled and hard. He grabbed one and pulled out and up, lifting her heavy tit as he twisted the nipple. The girl groaned around his cock, the vibrations running up the shaft and causing his balls to tighten. Pulling past the sucking seal of her lips, Korvyn began cumming. He shot hot cum across her cheeks and over her closed eyes. Taking his still hard, still sensitive cock, he rubbed it all over her face, smearing the warm cum. "Clean it." The girl meekly accepted the sticky meat and suckled it as it softened. "You may leave." Timidly, the girl stood and backed toward the door. She struggled to stuff her tits back into the dress, but there was nothing she could do to hide the glistening cum spread about her face. She opened the door and hurried out. * * * * * On the main floor, Chieftain Zandisz smiled as he led his niece from the meeting room, down the hall, and into the study. There, a tousled white-blonde head bent over a rather large book. "Levisz? Is that you?" Lilija almost could not believe her eyes. The young boy looked up from his book and a grin lit across his face. "Lili!" he shouted. Levisz darted off the chair and ran headlong toward his cousin, slamming into her with the reckless hug of a nine-year-old who desperately missed his favorite cousin and confidant these past five years. "Lili! Oh, you look so pretty and your hair is so long now—and look how tall I have grown! Papa says I shall be as tall as him when I am older. Now I have hunting dogs, I named them Mijod and Lud—night and day. Mijod is all black with one white paw and Lud is light yellow with a brown tail! I can show them to you. I shot a duck on the last hunting trip! I love to practice with my bow, Papa says—" "Slow down, Viszko," Lilija laughed, using her pet name for her little cousin. Chieftan Zandisz laughed with her. He commented good-naturedly, "Yes, yes. Lilija has traveled long and far to see us, you should make her comfortable instead of bombarding her with questions!" Levisz grabbed Lilija's hand and led her to a large, overstuffed chair before the great stone hearth. "Sit, sit, Lili! And you can tell me about living in the Northlands. Why do all girls have to go there?" Lilija sighed contentedly as she sank into the soft chair. Levisz scrambled to curl up beside her. Chieftan Zandisz settled himself in a chair nearby and with a few glances and softly spoken words between himself and a servant, hot mulled wine and fresh bread were set on a small table for Lilija's refreshment. "Well, Viszko," Lilija began, tearing off a piece of bread, "not all girls must travel to the Northlands; only Ladies do so." "Like you!" the small boy chirped. Lilija smiled, "Yes, like me." "Why?" At the sound of his son's question, the Zandisz spoke up. "Levisz, all nobles must learn special lessons; the men and the women. They each have different lessons. Noble ladies learn their lessons in the north and they begin their study at the age of 13. It is our clan's tradition." "But what have they to learn?" "We must learn the proper way of behaving, dress, etiquette, the running of an estate, and mathematics, politics, and various languages." Lilija smiled when Levisz made a face as she spoke of learning 'etiquette'. "And that takes five years, Lili?" "It does, Viszko." "I am glad you are back, Lili," Levisz said decidedly as he leaned against her. Lilija felt warmth and happiness spread through her at the words and thought, I am glad, too, Viszko. Seeing Lilija stifle a yawn, Zandisz decided to put an end to Levisz's questions and instead entertain her with comedic stories of the servants and the training of his men. He soon had Lilija and Levisz holding their sides in laughter as he described the young trainee so desperate to impress a passing maid by mounting his horse that he flung himself over the back and into the mud of the stable yard. They laughed and listened to Zandisz until he noticed the sun setting and called to have Lilija escorted to her new chambers so she could ready herself for the feast. "Am I not to have my old room, uncle?" "My dear, that was a little girl's room—you are now a woman, a Lady. You must have a room befitting your new station." Lilija shook her head slightly and realized she had much to get used to, now that she was officially a Lady. Her attendant, Miszelah, arrived and led her through a maze of halls to her new quarters. Lilija entered the room and began preparing for the feast. * * * * * Still in her quarters, Lilija drew in a deep breath and slowly released it. Nerves always took her before entering a large crowd of strangers. Tonight was no exception. And she could hear them downstairs, a jovial crowd ready for the arrival banquet to begin. Lilija closed her eyes and then opened them, looking blankly at her reflection. Long, honey-hued tresses fell past her waist, shining gold and rose-amber in the candlelight. Her brows arched gracefully over deep forest green eyes framed by long, dark lashes. Beneath high cheekbones were her full lips—a delicate pink against the pale alabaster of her skin. She watched as her attendant, Miszelah, finished pinning back part of her hair, securing tendrils with gold pins decorated with emeralds. The stones complimented her eyes and her dress. The gown was just that—a gown, not a girl's frock, but a true gown. Her first true gown. This was to be Lilija's first official display as a Lady. The gown was designed to emphasize that fact—to an extent that had Lilija trying not to blush. The neckline was low, sweeping from just below her shoulders, scooping down to display the small but firm breasts that were confined by a tightly laced corset. With each breath, the tops of her breasts rose and fell. The long form-fitting sleeves ended at her slender wrists with a band of woven gold material accenting the rich, green silk of the gown. The bodice itself was embroidered with gold thread in a delicate leaf motif. Panels of gold material along the sides of the bodice accented her slender figure and drew the eye to her petite waist, and from there to her gently flaring hips. The skirt was of emerald green and swayed with each step Lilija took, revealing accenting gold insets with each movement. She was used to more modest attire. In the northlands, there had been little reason to wear revealing clothing—and not only because of the cold! There had been few men present at the isolated convent in which Lilija had spent the past five years. Oh, yes, uncle. You were right to tell Levisz of the tradition of our clan, educating its Ladies in the northlands…I have more than a suspicion that the tradition was begun in order to cloister the Ladies to ensure their purity before they are bartered away in marriage like so much silver or gold. At that last thought, Lilija became conscious of her dress once again and tried not to blush. "Lilija, you look beautiful!" Miszelah whispered as she stood back from her work to admire her Lady. Lilija took one last look in the mirror. It was time to descend. Lilith & Blade: Rescued Legend Lilith & Blade: Rescued Legend Eyes of fire watched the maiden as she floated completely submerged just beneath the surface of the pool. Her dark hair, soft as a ghost's whisper, fanned out in the water, the ends of it curling and swirling with the slightest current of the water. The girl remained motionless almost too long, causing her viewer some concern. Upon the flinch of his muscles to rescue her, the maid arched backwards and brought her face up and back out of the water. Her eyes were closed, oblivious to the world outside of the water. Her voyeur allowed himself a slight smile as the woman glided in the water as though a part of it. Yes, he thought, bringing this one back home was already proving worth his trouble—even if he wouldn't be able to keep her. A kind of sadness inside him banished a part of his smile at his conscience's reminder: this was Lilith. It was legends that inspired the young man to seek out the lost or the improbable. Dragon's he now had by the dozen; he was raising them. Unicorns were boring; except for use as maiden bait. The gods tested his worthiness almost as a matter of routine. It was Lilith who fascinated and inspired him from the beginning to seek out the reality of stories that grew into legends. It was he who rescued just such a legend from her sealed sarcophagus deep in the heart of the Hell Furies Mountains, its chain a somewhat active group of volcanoes. It was now three days since he brought the sleeping maiden home with him and this was the first bit of real activity she had shown. Until now the local clerics were caring for her, seeing to her revival and reporting back to their lord. No one knew for sure how the maid would react after having been in a magically induced slumber for the last almost millennium. If it was a normal coma lasting only days the girl would be re-teaching herself a good many physical acts. It appeared no such lessons were needed here. For the moment he was quite satisfied in watching his newest treasure discover the world all over again. Lilith brought her head out of the water and found her footing on the pool's floor. Brushing her hair back fully exposed her slanted ears that marked her as a member of the sylvan race. She opened her wide, grey eyes and gazed directly at her voyeur. "Do you see something that pleases you?" she asked in the old elven tongue. The bluntness of her question caused a devilishly delicious smile on the stranger's face. "Yes, I do," was his reply in kind. "Do you have a name?" Lilith asked swirling the waters gently about her chest with her arms. She gazed at a youthful man whom she found most pleasing to look upon. He stood over her at the poolside with one foot propped up on a stone bench and his arms crossed over the knee. Blonde wavy hair that was almost white fell over his shoulder in a ponytail caught by a leather strap. He was broad of the chest and muscled in the way she'd seen many an ancient human warrior. But this one's eyes were different. His eyes were of a reddish hue, almost smoldering; surely they were enough to frighten most of the humans he would associate with. "You waste no time with formalities, do you?" he said. Lilith's mouth curved and her eyes narrowed to a bedroom bold, almost cunning. "Formalities are something I save for court. Are you going to stand there all morrow trespassing me with your eyes or are you going to do something?" The stranger allowed his eyes to smile; one of his more charming—and alarming—features he was told. He stepped away from the bench and knelt poolside. "Come here," he told her. Intrigued, Lilith complied. At the stranger's gesture she offered him a hand. He gently cupped her hand within both of his, but did not help her out of the pool. "For you, my lady, I would do anything." He kissed the back of the hand offered and his eyes never left hers. "My name is Blade." Skepticism flashed in her eyes, but then, so did interest. "Do you know me?" she asked. The stranger's smile broadened. "I have studied your legend for most of my life, my lady." "What legend?" Lilith blinked. "Of course, you couldn't know, unless the clerics told you." "Know what? As easy as you are to look upon, this is getting tiresome." "My apologies," Blade offered. "What do you remember of your last adventure?" What an odd question, Lilith mused. "Four—no, five of us, six, counting the dragon, breached an ancient tomb. Two were felled by traps and my Sard, the dragon, died when he took a chestful of arrows—from a door trap. I'd never seen so many deadly traps in one place in my life. I crossed a 'spanse of molten lava to get to a sarcophagus set upon an island—knowing the best treasures would be on the mummy. I started as I saw myself lying dead inside the sarcophagus—and then I was yanked inside. I awoke to your priests. Now I am here, with you." "The sarcophagus was about nine-hundred and fifty-seven years ago," Blade told her. "Nine—?" Lilith pulled her hand out from between his. "How do I know you're not lying?" "Why would I lie to one whose fabled abilities is to recognize a lie at will?" "That would be foolish, wouldn't it?" Lilith said neither acknowledging nor denying the ability. "It was said that you were as beautiful as you were cunning," Blade said. "I'd like to get to know the cunning part, if you don't mind, my lady, Lilith. Lilith of Ever—" Lilith pressed her fingers against Blade's mouth. "That's all right," she said. "I believe you." She hesitated. "I uh— it would appear that I owe you a debt." Blade took her fingers again and began kissing them as a man in love. "Does this mean you've decided on what you would like in return?" She bobbed her head to get his attention. "I want you." "Uhm... For how long?" "Forever." "Really?" Imaginary chains rattled loudly inside Lilith's head threatening to wrap themselves around her heart and her ankles. "I don't know how much of the me you really know, but I'm not able—" "I know," Blade said, "but I'd like to try." Her gaze softened. "Many others have tried. I simply can't stay with any one person or in any one area for long. I can't." "Stay the night. Share my bed. For the trouble I went through to get you out of that volcano I deserve that much." One of his hands strayed down her arm to cup a breast beneath the water. Lilith leaned forward into his grasp. "That, I can do." "And, perhaps, a little while longer?" "We shall see," she breathed feeling herself drawn in by the touch of this man's hand upon her breast. "Uhm... Help a girl out?" she asked. "Gladly," Blade said offering both hands and a strong grip that allowed her to climb out of the pool. Lilith landed with a little hop that made her bounce off of Blade's chest. She suppressed a gasp as she realized she looked him mid-chest. "You all right?" Blade asked at her raised eyebrows when she looked up at him. All the easier to reach your crotch, she thought. "Uhm, yeah—yes. You know, coming out of the water that quickly has me a bit light-headed. Can we—?" "Bench is right here," Blade offered as all he need do was take a step back and he was there. Lilith looked ahead but managed to stumble nearly onto his lap. Blade smiled recognizing the play from the lady. No formalities, but still the pleasantries, he thought. "You're chilled," he said. "Shall I offer you my shirt?" "Dearheart, the people of my age invented the chivalry you practice," she replied. Holding her temple and half-lidding her eyes was making for a convincing display she knew, but the reality of it was the wave of dizziness she felt the moment she brought her head up was genuine. "Wow, laying down for a millennium can wear a person out." "You're tired then?" "Uhm, did I just say that out loud?" Blade laughed easily at Lilith's consternation. "I'm sorry. Here, come sit closer." Lilith was almost on the man's lap as she cuddled into his warm chest and arm's. A heartbeat... She listened with almost the same amazement as her own slip of the tongue caused her. Most men she spent time with never stayed around long enough for her to sense their reality with something as simple as a heartbeat. "You're warm." "Here," Blade untied the lacing of his shirt and pulled it off over his head, then drew Lilith against his chest again. "Better?" An eyebrow rose in interest at the sight of him. "Worlds," she said. Not a hair on that chest, she mused as she snuggled in closer. An overwhelming sense of safety filtered in through her mildly fogged mind. "I need to—" Blade thought for sure Lilith was going to say, "sleep" but instead she reached up to kiss him. His brain whirled and his crotch tightened in his pants. No time wasted with this one, he thought excitedly. She was so much smaller that he, yet when he tightened his hands on her the unmistakable tension of strong muscle firmed beneath his grip. Her arms snaked around his neck and shoulders; hers was the grip of a warrior—a hungry one. "Not that I mind—" he started to say. "Oh, fuck it." With her tongue in his mouth and her naked hips grinding into his abdomen Blade lost all control. Before he could get a hand down to his pants' lacing she already had one there expertly slipping through the knot and diving her fingers beyond to the inside. He groaned aloud as she wrapped her hand around the stiff shaft of his cock and fed hungrily of his mouth. "Damn!" he swore as the dark-haired vixen suddenly left his mouth and dove for his purpling dick. Between gasps, "Were there many women like you in your day?" he hissed. His reply was the vibration of her laughter through her teeth. "Gawds!" Lilith's head flew up through his grasp before his cock-head sensitivity got to him. The sudden motion made her a touch dizzy, but she was finding that she liked the feeling. Her tits enveloped his throbbing shaft as she grinned up at him. Oh yes, that face was even more gorgeous as he was cumming. "Now, now," she teased, "We can't have you loosing your head just yet." "Brazen! You can't stop now!" Lilith rubbed her tits up and down his hot, wet cock. "We ain't even started yet," she reassured him. "But, it might be best if we pulled up a little grass instead of roll around on this bench." "I like the bench!" he protested his red eyes hardening. Lilith snickered. "Not if I am in charge here, dearheart." Blade frowned. "I don't want you falling backward and busting your head open." She grinned wickedly and gently patted the head of his cock. "It's this one I want gushing." Blade returned her wicked grin for one of his own. "You can be in charge in a few minutes. Right now I want to feel my dick in that hot little bare pussy of yours." Lilith brandished a coy look, "What happened to that man of chivalry from a moment ago?" Blade lifted Lilith onto her feet, then spun her around to where she faced the bench. "On your knees," he pointed at the bench. She complied and he pushed her down forward until her breasts were smashed against the stone. Bending at the knees a little Blade plunged his rock-hard penis into her hairless, juice-covered slit. He grunted with her yelp of his sudden thrust. "The gentleman left when you sucked up his dick into your mouth," he lunged, "my lady." Lilith alternately wrapped her arms around the bench and grabbed at its sides as her rescuer had his way with her. Deeper it seemed he plunged with each gasp and moan she uttered. Faster and harder he drove as she rocked with him and pushed against him just to feel the slap of his balls against her bare pussy. Lilith's face ground into the smoothed stone of the bench as she slipped a hand to their colliding genitalia. Her fingers danced through the slime between them as she rubbed his balls. "Not me!" Blade hissed. "You! Rub yourself off!" Lilith's intended laugh became a howl of delight, as she happily obliged. Blade watched between slitted eyes as the woman fucked him back in earnest. Lustily fingering her clitoris as he slammed his hips against her gorgeous ass. "Put 'em in!" "What?" "Your fingers. Slide 'em inside you! Now!" She gasped as her fingers made her pussy's grip around his cock tighter. Blade slammed deeper still as he groaned himself to the feel of her fingers. "Yes!" he growled as he exploded inside her, his dick pulsing hard with each final thrust. Lilith cried out with the strong pulsing of his cock inside her. She ground her hips into him reaching, pressing for more. Slime oozed out coating her bald little pussy. Blade stumbled backward a step and had to sit down—on the ground. "No!" Lilith cried, "You can't be done!" Blade pushed a lock of hair from his sweating brow. "Give me a moment. I can go for more." Lilith's wicked grin returned. "Promise?" She stepped toward him almost standing over him rubbing her wet pussy before his eyes. Blade nodded. "Oh yes. You just got me a little excited a little fast, is all." He indicated for the pool. "Jump in. Wash up. And it'll be my turn to feast of that wonderfully bald cunt of yours. Then I'll be ready to fuck some more." "Can't wait," she said still rubbing her fingers over herself. "Neither can I," Blade remarked as his rescued legend disappeared under the water. (End of this story, but she's just getting started all over again...) Lilith, Demon Spawn Author's note: This is pure fantasy, with demons and demonesses playing superheros and supervillains blessed with unrealistic bodies and weird powers. It also has fairly obvious inspirations, and it becomes quite hard-core, with bits of brutal and extreme sex. It's also horribly over-written and has far too many words in its sentences, because it was fun to do that way. You have been warned. Read with caution. # Lilith dressed conservatively. She always did. The attention she would attract otherwise was always more trouble than it was worth, for she had little tolerance for fools, none for lecherous idiots, and her self-control was fragile at best when all it took was a spark of anger to unleash hell. She wore a pants suit in a muted shade of brown, over a basic white business blouse and simple black court-soled shoes. Her clothes were tailored carefully to hide the fact that underneath them her body was hard and followed both the supple muscular curves of an athlete and the long-limbed, tiny-waisted, large-breasted proportions of a dancer in the clubs where the first rule was Don't Touch. Indeed, she chose her bras well, to restrain and conceal breasts that filled out a D cup with ease, and needed no support at all, and for the same reason wore her blouses loose and in styles that buttoned to the neck. Her hair, which would not be suffer itself to be cut, was auburn-red and flowed to her waist, kept usually in a single clip with Celtic knot-work showing to the world. She often wore a scarf about her neck, to more effectively conceal her figure, but it took real concentration to carry a posture which did not electrify strangers with her self-possession, her natural authority, and her physicality. It was most often the flash in her eyes which cowed them from attempting a more intimate acquaintance than merely a glance, or the briskness and crispness of her walk that soured them to the idea of her femininity. She considered her looks a curse and her body a curse, but for dramatically different reasons, and wasn't sure that she wasn't right about the latter, for she never slept, her hair grew back within seconds of being cut, cuts in her skin healed in seconds and within her mind there lurked a beast which took physical form. It had taken her years to harness it, to force it to her will and to realise that it was part of her to be cherished and used, not feared and fought, and when she did she made it work, and the first thing she was did was to find the boy who had raped her in high school, and peel the flesh from his body. The city knew when Lilith awoke to her self, but did not know what had happened - merely the results. That boy was only the first. Known rapists, stand-over men and underworld debt collectors were found dead in fashions that turned the stomachs of beat policemen and forced nightmares into their heads. Sometimes the bewildered pathologists thought that swords had been involved, sometimes ice-picks, sometimes they suggested pick-axes or even machetes, but none of them approached even close to an answer. There were witnesses - victims who had survived - but not survived with mind entirely intact and those who did not shut out the memory entirely talked in wild, gibbering sentences of monsters and grotesque aliens. The police, however, were in agreement on one word, and that was vigilante, for the killings had neither the direction of turf warfare nor the increase in crime that a new and ferocious crime lord would cause. Indeed, there were periods when crimes of casual violence plummeted as fear warred with psychopathology or the necessities of dirty business in the minds of perpetrators. But it was a rare night that Lilith's beast did not get to slake its thirst, a thirst that never seemed to be entirely quenched. # It was a half-finished block of apartments this time - luxury suites, large and spacious and not yet fitted out. She could smell out violence being done, but this time it was like a hook that had been inserted into her nose. It was like nothing she had ever met, and she went in with her hackles raised, ready to rip anyone and anything to shreds, the beast almost willing to kill itself in a glorious orgy of death if it found itself outclassed. The building was locked, but that proved no obstacle to her, and even through the concrete and the solid, expensive-apartments construction she was drawn upwards as if to a beacon, moving up staircases with effortless and noiseless bounds from floor to floor. The reek of violence done was smeared all over the inside of the building, trailing in and out of rooms, and leaving one guard who had been not merely killed, but shredded and eviscerated. Lilith was shocked, but the beast howled for blood and drove her onwards. She followed the reek in her mind up to the roof, up past floors which were increasingly bare concrete, with first exposed wires and then none at all, and concrete dust and discarded rubbish lying scattered about, until she came to the last staircase, the last door, and burst once more into open air upon the very top of the building. The rage of the beast drove her on, or she would have stopped stupefied at the sight. The figure standing on the open expanse of roof was not a man because it was not human. It towered eight feet tall and five broad, with the short, bandy legs and huge arms of an ape, but all as if carved out of mobile, segmented and floating plates of granite, with a torso a crude travesty of human proportions. Dangling in his arms was a female security guard, chunky but big-breasted and unconscious, which Lilith could tell, without knowing how, was due to the pall of musk which hung about the figure nearly tangible. She was breathing raggedly, breasts heaving, eyes rolled back in her head and twitching like a woman in the depths of brain-wiping, energy-sapping lust. He looked up as she exited the door and smiled, lips not quite rock and not quite scabbed flesh, parting and splitting, revealing jagged teeth and a crimson snake-like tongue that ran over them as if to taste her presence. "Ah, I could taste you as soon as you entered the building," he said with a voice like gravel tumbling down a hillside slope, "But what are you? You look too delicious to be good, and too human to be evil." The beast did not let Lilith be shocked or surprised or worried, it was baying at the leash to be released and drove her forwards, confident through lack of fear. "I am me," she said levelly, still in her human voice, "And I am going to fuck you up, whatever you are." He laughed, hugely, and casually tossed the security guard to one side, letting her hit the ground with a wet thump. "Show me how!" He challenged her. "Show me what you are!" As they confronted each other, she changed. Chitinous-looking armour, sharp-edged and uneven, covered her limbs, swallowing her flesh without concealing entirely her long-limbed, large-breasted, narrow-waisted physique and, with barely a flicker of reality, displacing and removing her clothing. From above each wrist, extending forwards at least two feet, grew two curved, dully gleaming blades, sharp top and bottom and tapering to a needle point. She became an eye-deceiving, migraine-inducing, sculptured and sculpted travesty of a human form, as dangerous and friendly as a scorpion. He laughed, a sound at once harsh, delighted and triumphant. "You're a demon, girl!" He shouted. "Your mother was used by my kin and now you're one of us! Look at you! Why are you even trying to fight me, instead of join me so we can rape this city together?" She was panting with physical arousal, her heart beating at a rate no human organ could achieve, the chitin flexing at multiple joints over her belly and breasts, eyes glowing red and the last exposed area of skin, around her eyes and mouth, flushed scarlet. Her voice, when it emerged between teeth grown pointy and cruel, was as grating as his, drilling through human ears like fingernails down the inside of a skull. "I make my own choices," she rasped. "I choose to follow good. The blood in my veins may resemble yours, but it hasn't made me its bitch." His eyebrows rose, but before he could think of a riposte she sprang, legs propelling her forwards with startling speed, moving from vertical to a sprinter's crouch without bothering with inertia along the way. Her arms moved forwards, blades seeking his chest, and her lips pulled back as her mouth opened wide, a feral and hungry gleam in her eyes. He barely even moved, didn't even bother changing posture. He simply opened his arms a little wider, and somewhere between them, even as she closed as fast as a striking whip-snake, white threads began to coalesce in the air, not seeming to emanate from him but rather to bind themselves together out of the miasma that had overcome the security guard. Her eyes opened wide in shock, but despite the speed of her movement she could not change direction and, twisting wildly to try and evade the threads, she succeeded only in drawing them about herself. They wrenched her to a halt, entangled like a fly in a spider's web, mere inches from her blades landing in his chest. She screamed, a sound containing primeval hatred and hell-doomed fear, and thrashed wildly, trying to cut the threads, to slash him, to untangle herself, but every movement drew more of them about her as they formed out of nothing and wrapped themselves about her limbs. Within seconds she was trussed helpless and immobile, able only to faintly flex the now solid white web that encased her, held in a distorted parody of movement, legs akimbo and one bent at the knee, arms held in an attack/defense posture, torso twisted and bent sideways, only her head exposed, her face contorted with futile rage. He laughed, patronisingly, and stepped forwards between her extended talons, reaching up to hold her cheeks between two fingers of his massive right hand, laughing again straight in her face, the reek of his breath nearly making even her choke on her own vomit. "Silly girl," he said indulgently. "Thinking to fight a demon you don't understand." He leaned forwards to kiss her, smothering her nose and mouth alike between his scaly lips. Her eyes opened wide and she tried to struggle anew, but he simply sucked the breath form her body, taking some of her soul with it. Her eyes rolled up in her head and she sagged, unconscious. Her armour faded away, and as her outline changed from jagged and strong to her dancer's slim, heavy-breasted, feminine, organic curves the web around her also melted away into mist, dropping her to land heavily at his feet, naked now and exposed in front of the most lecherous, lascivious gaze she had ever encountered. # When she awoke, she was sure that she had been taken straight to hell. She was bound by more of his web, by foot and hand up to her knees and elbows, stretched in a cross shape and suspended from what seemed to be one corner of the roof of a space vast distance, stretching into darkness relieved only faintly by wooden torches held in sconces halfway up each wall, and roofed by a low but vaulted ceiling. She was naked, and her skin felt oiled not dry. Her position saw her drooping between her limbs, her shoulders aching with the strain of supporting her, and, she was acutely aware, her cunt spread below her sight and her breasts hanging, heavy, towards the ground. A reflexive heave assured her that her human strength was inadequate to break her free of her bonds, and with minimal concentration she flipped the focus in her head that changed her from human to beast. Nothing happened. She hung for a moment in shock, too stunned to move, and frantically tried it again with the same effect. She closed her eyes, stilled her breathing, concentrated harder and, with great deliberation, very clearly shifted her self form human to beast, yet felt only emptiness where before there had been power. Neither panic nor crying were in her nature, but her entire body went cold with shock and helplessness as the hole in her self grew in her perception from a tiny thing not relevant to her human self, to a gaping maw that engulfed her whole world. Footsteps sounded, echoing in the hall, as she hung for a moment mentally paralysed, and slowly grew nearer as they sounded sharp and disciplined in the shadowy distance. She froze and waited, clamping down discipline upon herself. A figure coalesced out of the shadows, male and neat and attractive, dressed in a tailored grey suit and gleaming black shoes, hair styled and face impeccable and beautiful, although it took an artist's eye to see that it was unnaturally symmetrical and neat. The figure smiled up at her with eyes that remained cold, hard and lifeless, and she could tell, through what senses she had no idea, that this was the demon who had defeated her. "You are awake on time," he said in a voice that had human inflections but no human personality in it. She merely stared at him, having no assets that she could tell, and not wishing to engage in petty verbal sparring and put off whatever was in store. His smile widened slightly at her silence, and he seemed to shrug off with no small regret the joys that taunting her would bring. "Welcome to my home. A home that you should be sharing already, demon-kin." At that she couldn't stop herself hissing slightly, which made him smile all the wider. "Yes, demon-kin! You can try and deny it, you can try and even convince yourself that you are somehow angel-kin instead, but you should drop that charade before your blood festers in your veins. Your little vigilante habits can't hide your nature, and your nature is in your blood! Hide it as long as you like, you cannot hide it forever, and every time you call upon the demon you bring closer the day that you realise the demon completely." Her mask-like face hid a violent struggle as she writhed inside her own mind, trying to find the beast, to drag it out, to shred these bonds and fall upon him furiously, all to no avail. "I have no patience for you to bumble through your existence until that day. You will annoy me, I am sure, and I need to advance this city towards damnation, a task which will go faster with you alongside me. "In addition to which," he added with his smile slowly turning into a leer, "I will enjoy the task of awakening you." He reached up, arm unnaturally long, and seized one heavy breast, squeezing hard enough for the flesh to turn white between his fingers. She cried out then, but in fury not in pain, and her arms spasmed as though trying to tear free and slice his head from his body. He laughed openly then and reached up with his other hand to seize her spread and uncovered cunt, squeezing it not nearly as hard but with more effect, tearing another frustrated scream from her. "These are the rules!" He announced to her anger-twisted face. "You cannot change, cannot call upon any part of your demon-nature, until you have accepted the demon as yourself. Your attempts until then will do no more than feed my delight! Rule two: You are mine, my toy, my bitch, my fuck-toy, my cumslut, until then, and believe that I can and will do what I like with you. You are part human and part demon, and I have powers over you that I do not have over mere humans! "I will awaken you, and you will become my partner, and all you can do is choose to either participate in the destruction of your human soul, or fight against it and suffer longer!" Spontaneously, the only recourse open to her, she spat in his face and he took it without flinching, without even his harsh, cruel smile altering, keeping on with her spittle trailing down over his dead left eye and onto his cheek. "I will torment your mind through your body. Because you're a human you will suffer when I torment your flesh, and because you are a woman you will suffer more and I will enjoy myself more!" "Are you going to torture me, then?" she spat at him. "I was beaten and raped years ago and never forgot the pain. The more you do to me, the more I'll try and kill you." This time his smile changed, growing wider. "Oh, I won't torture you. At least, not much. I have a much more enjoyable plan. I'm going to abuse you, instead!" She laughed at him, her mind still determined to find any chink to maintain her self-control and some form of authority. "I told you, I've been raped, and I shredded the flesh from his body!" "Oh my naive little half-breed. When I said I have powers over your body, I meant it." He walked forwards, legs moving with not quite human cadence, arms swinging forwards with no harmony between their joints, and passed under first her face and then her breasts, before reaching the slit between her spread-wide legs. He reached up, suddenly, easily the right height instead of three feet too short, seized her buttocks clenched tight by her posture, and thrust his tongue with no ceremony inside her. She felt it enter with the mingled rage, disgust and humiliation of the rape, but her stomach did not truly heave until she felt it slide deep inside her and tap the entrance to her womb, and do so at least as hard and thick as any cock she had ever taken inside her. But cocks can not flex, and twist, and writhe inside you, and she found herself choking back bile at the thought of whatever gross snake was sliding from between his teeth. She thought for one second that it was a mercy she could not feel his lips on her flesh as well, but as soon as the thought was formed it was torn away as he pushed himself upwards further and fastened his mouth over her whole mound. Even as she tried, unsuccessfully, to twist her hips out of the way, Lilith felt the squirming snake inside her force her body to respond. As she desperately seized for self-control she found it slither away from her, gasping in surprise as the demon, unbelievably, sucked part of her soul through her cunt, robbing her even of the discipline she needed to clamp down on the gasps that were beginning to rise in her throat. She fought to stop herself responding, to stop herself at least give him the pleasure of giving in, but she suddenly felt weak in body and spirit and lost the unequal battle as his tongue, writhing within her, and his mouth, fastened over her mound with his teeth pressing into her clit, made her mewl like a horny virgin. She almost sensed that he was laughing, no sound escaping the seal between his lips and the flesh between her legs but nonetheless she knew, in that part of her mind where the beast dwelt, that he was laughing in delight at how easily she succumbed and, weak and beginning to feel wracked with the pleasure that was being pumped into her in a raging torrent, she could do nothing to wipe the smile from his mind. When her orgasm came it was like oily fire, ripping through her but leaving her feel polluted in its wake, wracked but unsatisfied, twisted but not spent. The demon stepped back and, with a gesture, made the webs about her melt into nothingness. Shooting pains stabbed through her shoulders and hips as soon as she was free to move, and she was barely able to get her feet and hand down in time to clumsily break her fall and land stumbling and sprawling on the floor. At the same time as her body was reacting in panic to the fall, her mind leapt instinctively, unbidden, for the beast, and once again found nothing there. She tried to throw herself at him regardless, fingers curling into claws, screaming inside her head the incandescent, humiliated rage she felt, but she could only slither, spastically, forwards, grappling now for control of her body which, unbelievably, she did not have. She sensed as much as saw, felt as much as heard his transformation, only partial, to a rock-skinned, still almost human beast who reached down, seized her about the waist in one impossibly large hand and lifted her bodily off the ground while she twitched impotently and dangled helpless before him. Lilith, Demon Spawn His voice when he spoke was halfway between his polished nearly-human voice and his demon's gravel rumble. "That is just a taste," he growled into her face as he held her up and she tried, with little coordination, to kick him in the teeth, "Of what I can do to you. You could resist me, but that needs your full demon power and that, my little darling, you won't have until you accept it!" He flung her over his shoulder and walked back through the hall, as she bounced painfully on his cruelly hard skin and struggled to gain control once more of her own body, managing only in twitching weakly, making him laugh all the more. The walk seemed to take hours as she struggled to make even a single finger obey her, but with his half-demon long strides it took mere minutes to travel the length of the hall, climb a long, spiralling staircase and emerge into a vaulted-ceilinged chamber. With no warning or ceremony she was lifted off his shoulder and thrown across the room, helplessness letting panic grab her before she landed, bouncing and then sprawling, on a large and firm bed, staring with futile rage down the length of her naked body at the tall, monstrously half-human figure filling the doorway and laughing at her with mockingly lecherous eyes. "I have raped human women in every continent and most countries," he said as his gaze travelled over her limply sprawled form. "And some of them have been famous beauties of their day. But it takes demon blood to give a woman the spark of libidinousness that you possess. Look at you! You're too old for a human to have tits like that, and not even dancers keep their body the way you have! Oh, I am going to have so much fun with you!" She tried to squirm away from him, but only managed to move one leg before he grabbed it and flipped her over onto her face with one heave. She landed on one arm, painfully, and couldn't stop herself crying out. He hauled her backwards, sliding her over her trapped arm until it flopped above her head, and pulled her legs roughly apart by the ankles, until he dropped her with her hips on the very edge of the bed, knees not quite reaching the floor. "Now," he growled, with the heat of arousal in his voice. "I am going to show you just how much control I have over your human flesh." With no more warning than that, and without seeming to position himself first, he slammed inside her cunt in one thrust, bottoming out painfully inside her, stretching her so wide that she screamed, the feel of him like rocks being scraped over her walls and yet, despite this, there was an explosion of pleasure from her tortured flesh. As the pleasure made her eyes bulge wide with disbelief, it was followed by lust searing through her so that as he began a violent rhythm she tried, pathetically, to push back and received her second shock when her body responded. As he rammed hard inside her, she pushed back with her arms on the bed and found her former strength, meeting him so hard that she howled with pain even as she screamed with pleasure, the tearing, searing agony from her stretched cunt and the bruised entrance to her womb riding alongside, without being dominated by and without destroying, the surge of delirium. He began laughing at her once more. "You see! When you give into your demon side, I have no control over you! Only when you try to be human are you helpless, and as a demon you are lecherous and perverted!" He grabbed her around the upper arms and pulled backwards, lifting her off the bed. She reached back, mindlessly, and grabbed his sides, her shoulders bent painfully back but her fingers finding easy purchase in his craggy torso. He reached around and seized her breasts, the firm globes supporting her weight easily in his huge hands, the edges of his splintered flesh digging in, sending more shooting pain/pleasure through her body as, no longer with the leverage to push back against him, she accepted his brutality with animalistic glee. The human part of mind was fracturing, scrabbling for her sense of self but unable to grab hold of anything more tangible than loss, emptiness, unfamiliar and terrifying impotence as the demon half, given control of her body, seized control of her consciousness as well. The demon fucking her, with blood beginning to slick his cock, felt the battle swinging in his direction and, laughing, extruded two sharp spines from his index fingers, carefully and almost delicately thrusting them through her engorged nipples. She gave a howl that echoed both the torments of hell and the summed excesses of Sodom, and erupted in an orgasm violent enough to nearly tear free from even his grasp. He let her drop and stepped back, letting her juices dribble out of her cunt and down one leg until they reached the carpet, where they sizzled gently with a smell of sulfur. He waited until her breathing had stumbled back to normal, and the scattered fragments of her mind were, without his unholy stimulus, returning to normal. "Do you accept your demon nature now?" he asked in his voice like granite cracking. She stirred weakly on the bed, drained now of energy not by his will but by the orgasm that had nearly taken her senses. "Never, you sick fuck," she said in a weak, broken voice. "So be it," he replied without rancour, not caring whether he gained his pleasure with her consent or against it. She tried to fight him once more when he picked her up, and this time he let her, enjoying her human-strong but still futile attempts to punch and strike him, attempts which rebounded off his rocky skin but broke hers until she was bruised and bleeding in a hundred places. He carried her further up the same staircase, into another room lit only by unearthly phosphoresence on the stone walls. Filling most of the space was a massive metal cage, the bars barely wide enough to admit a cat. The door was open, and he threw her accurately and without ceremony through it, her flailing limbs only managing to catch glancing, bruising blows against the iron on the way past. She was barely able to break her fall, collapsing and skidding, hearing the harsh metallic clang of the closing door merge with the dull thud of her aching body impacting with the stone of the floor. As she lay with senses dazed and throbbing pains from her wrists, elbows and hip where she landed, she heard his demon voice bludgeoning its way through ringing ears and straight into her brain. "This cage has locks which only demons can find. You can not escape until you realise your self, and you can not fully awake the demon until you feed. You have from now until you starve to death to think about it." As the demon's heavy footsteps receded into the distance behind her, Lilith raised her head and saw, barely visible in the gloom but outlined to her demon senses, a young, full-fleshed, naked and terrified woman bound as she had been, limbs wrapped in web, to the opposite wall of the cage. The pinioned girl looked at her and screamed. She was used to this reaction, but always before had bypassed it, ignoring the victim in her hunt for the guilty ones, and let them deal with themselves. Now there were hungers twisting her gut which made the girl, her flesh, her fear, central to her whole world. In her pain and her fear and her confusion, chitin writhed across her body, forming and disappearing on her calves and thighs, her arms, her torso, one breast at a time, writhing around the edges of her face and lapping over the nauseating pain in her injured groin as she huddled on the floor of the cell, arms wrapped around herself, and wept as the lusts in her blood fought against the discipline in her mind. Her body convulsed, chitin leaping forwards into talons as she leaped with one heave of her legs straight at the girl, landing little short as her terrified mind struggled to regain control of her limbs. For a second she succeeded and thrashed over the floor, crawling backwards in a blur of twitchy demon-speed jerks and human limbs thrashing bare-skinned in the flickering torchlight. But a red mist rose behind her eyes, and crawled over the back of her brain, seizing the lizard-brain and her mammalian hind-brain, removing the parts of her that were still human and remaking them demon, the blood pumping through the blood-brain barrier no longer wholesome red but ichor-black. For five heartbeats she experienced the torments of an eternity in hell as her human abilities, perceptions, conceptions, personality and beliefs were peeled away and replaced, making her mind bit by bit demon until the last part of her, her self, screamed in despair before being squashed bug-flat. The girl bound by web to the wall watched as the monstrous half-woman crawled away from her, arched off the floor as muscle fought against muscle, screamed hard enough to split her ear drums and then for a second collapsed, face turned away, shuddering but otherwise still. Her heartbeat thudded in her ears as she drew ragged breath two, three, four times before the woman stirred. There was something so animalistic in the movement that the girl, who had been daring to hope, gave a whimper of fear once more. Chitin rolled and retreated across the flesh not as though warring but as though caressing the shapes it must cover. Slowly the woman pushed herself to hands and knees, hair hanging down over her face, then with an animal-quick movement looked up, eyes blazing red and teeth suddenly conical and sharp bared in a horrible rictus. As the girl started to scream again the woman scuttled forward, moving like an insect, reared up and drove one curved claw straight through the girl's throat, destroying not flesh and bone but her voice, rendering her suddenly soundless as her stomach roiled with the sensation of the talon forcing her jaws apart, filling her mouth but not hurting or even seeming to touch her flesh. Then Lilith pulled back her claw and left the girl, mouth working frantically, unable to make so much as a wheezing sound in her throat. So she could not cry out when Lilith thrust into her belly, up to the ridged chitin covering her fingers, and pierced her womb. The girl felt lust consume her, so powerful and pervasive that she would have cried out if she had sound, and would have doubled up over her womb had she not been bound to the wall. Frail and human, her mind was consumed by the fires of her arousal and all fear, all thought, was extinguished. Lilith, who could hear the girl's cries of abandonment in her mind, dipped forwards and opened her mouth, a tongue longer than her hand sliding out thick and pointed, dripping with black saliva and seeking out the captured girl's already slimy cunt, spearing inside with no trace of resistance and plunging right to the entrance of her womb. The girl had not noticed when the talon through her belly was withdrawn, for to notice requires consciousness and she had none left at that point. Lilith's talons withdrew into her chitin as she gripped the girl's hips hard enough to draw blood, holding her immobile as she fucked the girl with her tongue, flicking inside and out until the pinioned body came with a silent scream that echoed inside Lilith's head as she tasted the sweet girl-cum, sucking it into her mouth and feeding on the sexual energy it was saturated with, realising at last her identity. # Later, he looked for her, but could not find her. With a teeth-bared grin he followed his nose out, through the hallways and out onto a balcony, and his demon senses told him to look up. She was standing on the parapet two stories above him, silhouetted against the moon, armour encasing her legs and her arms, but only twisting in lazy extrusions about the naked, gleaming skin of her torso, supporting and possessively cradling, listing and proudly displaying her firm breasts, one of which was exposed to him in partial profile as she looked out at the city. Her hair, reflecting no colour from the gleam of street-lights, moonlight and the light spilling out of the door behind him, streamed in more than just the brisk night breeze of the city. She both heard and sensed him, and turned, the stronger curves of both her breasts coming into view, the thickness of the armour accentuating their size against her lean and muscular ribcage and concave belly, making his outsized demonhood twitch and move in his pants, shouldering its way through his clothing with the mindless hungry seeking of his kind. She looked down at him, feeling his arousal and smirking, her lips curling back from her fangs more than a smile warranted, her eyes blazing scarlet from a face mostly black with shadow, and he could feel her sexuality unfurl and reach outwards, lazily but unerringly, towards him, wrapping him in its warm and invisible tendrils. With a shrug, he split the seams of his tailored suit and became half demon, the embodiment of sin, his demonhood reaching up like a tentacle from between his legs. She flexed her hands, her blades growing from her forearms and sliding into position, chitin forming mistily and solidifying into thin plates also about her torso as her arousal curled in upon itself and become lust for blood, a transformation that triggered his into full demon form. Her already wide grin grew wider, and her tongue licked from ear to ear, across her chin and around her lips, sliding without hurt over teeth that gleamed with diamond points. "Let's hunt," she said.