Читать книгу Lead Me Not - James B. Johnson - Страница 5
ОглавлениеCHAPTER ONE
HER
She was the kind of girl your mother warned you about. She was the kind of girl boys think about at night. She was the kind of girl they whisper about at school, in the locker room and under the bleachers.
She had urges, mostly sexual urges, she could neither control nor understand.
It was 10:30 that fateful night. She wore a short beige dress, no panties and a touch of black lace showing from her bra.
She was sitting on the top step of his ladder, right in the middle of his living room, and listening to old records. Eric Burdon and the Animals. Her name was Aloha Blaze, for which she alternately would never, ever forgive her parents, or loved them for the uniqueness it bestowed upon her. At times, it made her feel like a stripper. Dollops of red paint splotched the ladder.
Height was her friend and refuge.
He would be here soon. What would he think of her, a patch of thigh showing, sitting atop the ladder in his living room? She was afraid her plans would prove fruitless again. She didn’t think she had the guts to try this one more time. She wanted desperately for him to like her as much as she liked him. At one time, she’d had a crush on his son—but nothing like this.
He was good looking, a pilot, a businessman—and the father of her best girlfriend.
Rudyard Kipling Six walked in the door from an office party, tie loose and jacket thrown over his shoulder. As an ex-Air Force officer, he did not affect the long hair and pork chop sideburns of the mid-seventies, even though now, in ’78, those styles were dying out.
Aloha needed something in her life, she wasn’t quite certain what, and her fantasies made her believe Rudd would fill that void.
Burdon’s bluesy version of “The House of the Rising Sun” came on the stereo and the lights were low.
He saw her on the ladder and stopped. His sports jacket fell to the floor. He stared. The whole scene took on a fantasy twist. His eyes raked her appreciatively.
They locked eyes. Her arms became hungry and her eyes heavy. Words were not necessary.
She knew what he was seeing. She had champagne-colored hair, dark brows, and deep, deep forest green eyes. A touch of ruby lipstick. And her hourglass figure belied her age. All of which gave her the appearance of a tall, sensual animal. Most people mistook her for twenty-one or older.
He came toward her as if against his will. He was seeing how incredibly desirable she really was.
Familiar with each other, they’d talked occasionally as she came and went from visiting his daughter. Nor did he know that Aloha had contrived to have Denise away from the house at this time.
He stopped at the foot of the ladder. Her legs were together so that he knew she wore no panties, but modestly, so that naked thigh and a flash of inner leg mesmerized him. Her nipples strained against the fabric.
She opened her arms self-consciously and he took her from the ladder. Their eyes remained locked. Their mouths touched. Her dry tongue became moist.
She wrapped her long legs around his hips and his strong, hard arms went around her and held her tightly against him. The blues of New Orleans flowed between them and fused a sensual bond. He began to move with the rhythm, their mouths still only touching, feather-like and aching.
She trembled in his arms, fire burning through her body.
They danced slowly around the old paint-splattered ladder, her legs clutching him. She could feel this virile man was aroused. Her arms went around his neck and his hands moved to cup her naked buttocks.
The music evoked a primal urge within her and their mouths no longer simply touched, they were locked together. She growled her pleasure and clutched him rhythmically with her legs. He tasted all masculine, add a little gin and lime flavor. Their tongues danced together.
He groaned into her and pulled her more tightly against him, grinding his groin against her.
“If I ever die?” Rudd said into her ear, tongue darting, teasing. “Kiss me like that one more time. That’s what I want to remember when I kick down the gates of hell.”
“I will,” she whispered. “Promise.”
“Something to carry with me through eternity.”
The Animals were now singing “Bring It on Home to Me.”
The music was raw and the dollops of red paint on the ladder seemed to pulse and glow with their emotions.
He stood her on her feet. At five-seven, she had not yet reached the height everybody said she would.
Smoothly he pulled her dress over her head and she stood there clad only in her dark lacy bra. He drank her in for a moment and she was glad her body belied her age.
Urgency overwhelmed her and with awkward arms, she unbuttoned his shirt and pulled his tie out of the knot. She felt her bra unsnap and his gasp of appreciation.
He kicked his shoes off and she unbuckled his belt and he quickly stepped out of his slacks.
“Ummm,” she mumbled, eyes glazed.
Then they were down on the deep carpet, one of her legs overlapping his buttock and thigh. She captured him. “Oh, my God.”
“Aloha,” he said her name magically.
Their mouths touched again, hers hungry.
Their coupling was long and slow until she reached her very first screaming orgasm. Her entire body was filled with love and she exploded, pure pleasure throbbing through her. He continued, more urgent and demanding, and her craving increased again until they climaxed together, she screaming again, he straining against her and into her.
The wordless emotion-filled noise she made embarrassed her; but she couldn’t wait to do it again.
They were rigid against each other for a few minutes, the hair on his hard chest titillating her nipples. Their mouths were touching again. She felt drugged, out of control, aching for him.
A gust of wind blew the front door shut with a slam.
He was startled and tensed his body arousing her again.
“Denise?” he murmured in afterthought.
“Gone,” she said into his mouth and felt him move inside of her.
“Umm, good.” He tasted her nipple.
She couldn’t believe she was ready again. Never had she done it more than once. Then she was on top of him, rocking gently as he sucked her nipples one by one.
This scream wasn’t as loud, but it was into his mouth and throat. It was the sweetest orgasm of her life.
She knew then that she was no longer infatuated with him. She was in love with him. Or so she thought.
She tried to say “I love you,” but in only came out as a three-syllable moan.
“Say again?” He talked like a pilot.
“I liked that. A lot.” She was regaining her breathing along with her senses.
“Umm. Me too.” His hands were roaming her back, her buttocks, learning her. “For too long I’ve wanted to taste you. Your mouth, your nipples, the sweat under your breasts, your belly button, your vagina. And more.”
“More?”
“The salt in your ear, dried tears on your cheek, rain in your hair.”
Her green eyes locked onto his steel gray ones and she wondered, “What next?”
His mouth captured hers again.
Later, as he nuzzled her hair, she said, “That leaves just the rain in my hair.”
“I look forward to that,” he murmured.
* * * *
“Oh, my God! You didn’t!” said Denise, waving the slice of pizza.
“I didn’t say anything.” Aloha looked defiant.
“My father!” The slice of pizza hung suspended in front of Denise’s mouth, the tip sagging.
Aloha did not respond.
“Look into my eyes,” Denise commanded. “Promise me you didn’t touch him.” Denise was an attractive brunette.
Aloha shrugged and took a bite of pizza.
“He’s been so vulnerable since Mother and him split up.” A mushroom dropped onto the kitchen table and Denise sat the piece of pizza down. “You’re gorgeous, and you radiate sex. You’re dangerous.”
Aloha sat back and looked at her friend. “I am not.”
“You used him.” Rudd’s daughter’s voice was accusing.
“I did not.”
“Then how do you explain that cat-that-just-ate-the-mouse and very satisfied picture on your face?”
“I don’t have to explain anything.”
“You do so.”
“Nu uh, I’m a grown girl.” Aloha felt her face redden.
“Are you?” Ice dripped from Denise.
“We didn’t do anything neither one of us didn’t want to do.” She bit into pizza but it didn’t help sidetrack Denise.
“Just exactly how old are you?” demanded Denise.
They were across from each other in the kitchen. It was two in the morning. Rudd was asleep in his bedroom. Denise had come home with pizza. Aloha was dressed, her hair fixed and makeup repaired.
“Old enough.”
“Proverbs 17:17. ‘A friend loveth at all times.’ You were my friend.”
“I still am, goddamnit.” Anger was replacing her embarrassment.
“Do not take the Lord’s name in vain.” Denise was a born-again fundamentalist Christian.
Aloha had known Denise before her recent conversion and still liked the girl. “Stop yelling at me then.”
“I am not yelling! And you set it all up. You schemed to have me out of the house at the most likely time.”
Aloha was uncomfortable. It had taken three attempts before circumstances worked to her advantage. On this, her fourth attempt, Denise had left the house at the right time and Rudd had come home soon thereafter. Not to mention she, Aloha, had been in the right mood. Of course, she usually was in the right mood.
“You set up that study date for me and got me to have you order a pizza for that exact time so you’d know when I was gonna come home.”
“I thought you liked that boy?” Aloha asked.
“Don’t change the subject.” Speculation ripped across Denise’s features. “Lemme see. How old are you?”
Aloha did not answer.
“Jail-bait. Do you understand? You could put my father in jail!”
“Not if nobody tells the law.”
“Jeez. Not to mention violating some of the Ten Commandments. That was a morally reprehensible thing.”
“Nope,” Aloha said doggedly. She was infatuated with Rudd. Having sex was not wrong...was it?
“Thou shalt not—”
“What?”
“Commit adultery.”
“Rudd’s divorced and I’m not married.”
“It’s adultery anyway, darn it. In Galatians, it says, ‘The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness.’ Don’t you understand?”
“It was beautiful—”
“There. Admitting—”
“I admit nothing.”
“You’re so darkly intelligent; you’re going to get away with it.”
“There’s nothing to get away with, Denise.” Aloha tried to make her voice reflect patience.
“I always figgered you were old for your grade level.” Triumph lighted in Denise’s eyes.
Aloha thought, Sometimes I’m too old for myself. But she treasured what had happened tonight. There was a spark, a light, a hope, an enthusiasm she’d never, ever thought would happen to her. Certainly not as a result of getting laid. She used to think that sex was just a feel-good time. She knew she had little control over her craving for sex. It had certainly been satiated tonight.
“Reprehensible,” Denise repeated.
“No. It was beautiful and natural.”
“So you admit your reprehensible actions?”
“Denise, I admit nothing. And stop showing off by using those big college words.”
Denise was eighteen and a sophomore at Florida State across town.
Denise pulled one finger off her fist at a time. “I always thought you were a year or two behind everybody in our age group. But that doesn’t explain why you’re so bright. If a street smart girl like you were academically inclined....”
“I leave that to you intellectuals,” Aloha lied. Aloha could read something one time and remember it. She did not have to study. She always got straight A’s in school, but did not broadcast that fact.
Denise didn’t notice her sarcasm. “Like I said, suppose I’ve got it backwards. Suppose you’re not eighteen in the eleventh grade, a bit behind kids your age—”
“What are you trying to say?” Aloha’s voice became low and dangerous. This goodygoddamntwoshoes was accusing her of being too young. This got Aloha’s dander up.
“Suppose, like we really know, that you are very smart, but just don’t show it. Suppose you were bright enough to skip a couple of grades—”
My God! Denise thinks I’m keeping a secret. That I’m fourteen or fifteen.
Aloha had been born in July, just beating the Florida August first cutoff for the next grade year. One thing her parents had done was to let her go through schools, more than a few, at her own pace, and end up wherever the she felt comfortable.
This ongoing situation made her very lonely.
Aloha carefully pulled another slice from the pizza and took a large bite, avoiding Denise’s glaring eyes. “You’re full of shit, Miss Six.” It came out mumbled through pizza.
Denise continued to glare at her. She shook her head emphatically. “You’re probably right. Because if what I was thinking is true—”
“It isn’t,” Aloha lied.
“You would be maybe fifteen? In eleventh grade.”
“I am a junior, but you’re wrong about my age.” And she was.
Denise shook her head. “Maybe I’m dreaming. It can’t be true. My father is forty-seven—”
“Eighteen is the age of consent in Florida,” Aloha said impulsively. At her age, she failed to see the relevance of the age disparity.
“You’d have everybody think you’re eighteen.”
“I don’t care what everybody thinks.”
“Obviously. But you are, um, well-developed.”
Aloha tilted her head. “Voluptuous?” She was baiting Denise now.
“Not exactly. You’ve a regal sort of way about you. But you exude sex. All the boys say—” She looked up guiltily.
“I’ve known some of the boys. And I don’t care what they say. I like men better. Like your father. He exudes virility.”
Denise sucked in air. “Don’t talk like that about my father.”
Aloha had successfully changed the subject, but Denise had not caught the thickening sarcasm.
“I’m glad your father did not change into a hotshot religious nut like you did. You used to be my friend, now you quote the Bible all the damn time. Are you some kind of body-snatcher from outer space? What have you done with my friend Denise?”
Denise sat back astonished. “Why, I, uh, found the Lord. And He comforts me in my times of trial and tribulations—like now. He would not be a traitor like you. His rod and His staff, they comfort me.”
Aloha was breathing hard now. “We haven’t been very good friends since you quote found the Lord unquote. Seems to me this religion stuff has changed you, maybe for the worse.”
Her mouth pursed, Denise said, “No, sireee.” Denise took after her mother. Pretty but not stunning like Aloha. But Denise had the same strong jaw as her father.
Denise ripped a bite of pizza. “I knew you were bright. First you seduced my father through a series of machinations, then you successfully distract me by making my religion the issue.” She wagged her pointy finger at Aloha. “My father’s been divorced for years. He’s vulnerable, very much so—”
I hope he stays so, thought Aloha. I’d counted on it. All my maneuvering....
“—and he hasn’t dated much at all since the divorce.”
“What was the real reason for their divorce?”
“I will not again be distracted.”
“Machinations? Reprehensible?”
Denise ignored her. “He’s at a point where he needs companionship, a stable relationship—”
“He needs a woman.”
“He needs, umm—”
Me.
“He needs a wife, a woman, who is not so clever, dark and coldly Machiavellian.”
“I appreciate the compliments, Denise, but—”
“He needs a nice....”
“A nice girl?” Aloha’s tone was soft.
Denise clenched her jaw. “It is not my intention to insult you. But tonight you’ve revealed yourself as a —”
“Harlot?”
“That’s what the Gospel says.” Denise pushed the pizza box away.
Aloha rose. “I’m tired of you wearing your religion on your sleeve. And I’m getting more and more pissed at your accusations.”
“God will forgive you for saying that.” Denise paused. “Daddy was the one who connected me with the Lord—”
“Oh? How?” Aloha couldn’t keep the ice from her voice.
“Every night he put me to bed with ‘Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.’ It was my first step to salvation, thanks to Daddy.”
“If I want to see Rudd, I will.”
Denise stood and stepped toward Aloha. “Not if I can help it.”
“You can’t.”
“I’ll tell him all about you,” Denise spat out.
“Oh? What will you tell him?” Aloha said in a dangerous whisper.
“I’ll tell him about you and all the other boys.”
“Hearsay.”
“Hearsay, theresay, I will say.”
Even if not completely true, Aloha thought about what they said behind her back, there’s plenty of truth, enough to make Rudd hate her. “It’s not very Christian of you.”
That stopped Denise. After a moment of thought, Denise said, “I have to protect my father.”
“From what?”
“From you.”
Aloha forced herself to laugh. “Get real, Denise. Do you think I have designs on your father?”
That threw her. She stepped backward, thinking. Then: “You don’t?”
I do. “Whatever gave you that idea?”
“The fact that you seduced him tonight. The fact that your parents don’t ever care about anything you ever do. The fact that you always get the boy you go after—”
“That’s not true.”
“I can bring in some of my girlfriends to swear to it. I thought you were my friend. The fact that you worked hard to arrange the events of tonight. And now that I mention it, it occurs to me that there have been a couple of other occasions you’ve come over and I wasn’t here but something came up.”
“Please. You are imagining things.” Until tonight, Aloha’s strategies had not worked.
“Am I?”
It was late and Aloha suddenly found herself no longer elated but weary. “I don’t want to fight, Denise. You’re my friend. Look. How about if I promise to stay away from Rudd?” Like hell I will.
“You’d do that?”
“For you. For our friendship.” So you don’t poison your dashing, handsome pilot of a father against me. Somehow somebody had poisoned Rudd’s relationship with his ex-wife. Why had they gotten divorced?
“Well, maybe.”
“And don’t be telling any tales out of school about me.” Damn, shouldn’t have said that.
Denise cast an appraising eye. Denise had leverage over her now. “Maybe, maybe not.”
Aloha knew that Rudd was impressionable now, and whether he believed any rumors about her or not, they would be damning just in the telling. Especially coming from Denise, the apple of his eye. And, while Aloha knew hers was probably just a schoolgirl’s infatuation, something special and different had happened tonight and she didn’t want to lose Rudd so soon. She’d been in heat before. But this was different. She’d even dated Denise’s brother Buddy, but they’d never had sex.
“Maybe I won’t tell him if you reveal your age,” said Denise.
