Chapter 103

Wednesday-Thursday, Aug. 1-2

I pulled into Arlene’s drive about 9:15 and hadn’t even settled in at the apartment before the redhead was knocking at the door. When I invited her in, she instead insisted I come up to the house with her.

“Morgan said you have some good news,” I said as I followed the redheaded goddess up the walk.

“I guess she would think it’s good news,” Arlene said as she opened the kitchen door. “The Victoria’s Secret store in the mall has booked you for an appearance at 10 a.m. Saturday. Bob Alvarez has been informed. It’ll be just like I told you. Smile and sign some autographs, pose for some selfies with the shoppers. You should be out of there by 2 p.m.”

“Why would Morgan think that’s good news?” I asked.

“She’s going to be your handler for it,” she said as she led me through the house. “I’m leaving town tomorrow and probably won’t be back before Monday. I’ll pay her for her time to hang out at the mall. I guess that is good news for a 16-year-old girl.”

I followed Arlene to the master suite, where she informed me of her nefarious plan.

“Get those clothes off,” she said as she unbuttoned her blouse. “This could be our last chance for a couple of months, if not longer.”

My redheaded goddess tried to exact revenge for the way I treated her the night before, but I didn’t go down without a fight. While she rode my face, I slipped a finger around back and teased her anus as I sucked her clitoris. The way she shuddered and cried out indicated she hadn’t been expecting the move.

When she slid down my body to lie atop me while she recovered, I put myself in position and held her hips in place as she tried to avoid penetration for the moment.

“Too ... sensitive,” she panted as I threatened to thrust deep.

I gave her a moment to recover, then rolled her over so I was on top and locked her into a kiss. She groaned into my mouth as I slowly slid into her sheath. She tried to squeeze me to death with her thighs while I targeted certain spots deep inside. We were both making odd noises as we each tried to force the other to submit. I gladly settled for a draw as one last violent tremor from Arlene helped push me over the edge.

We rolled apart for a moment to regain our senses. As I came to, I rolled back to take her in my arms. She buried her face in my chest with a sniffle, wiping an eye with the heel of her palm.

“Hey, what’s wrong, babe?” I asked, once again wondering how many times I was going to say those words to an upset female.

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” she sniffed as she clung tighter.

“And what’s wrong with this?” I asked.

“You were just supposed to be a reward to myself for getting those deals done,” she whimpered. “A little bit of fun to start the summer, maybe not even last that first weekend. Just a spur-of-the-moment fling. I didn’t have to worry about you getting your heart broken with all those teenyboppers ready to swoop in and take over.”

I just continued to hold her. I’d been waiting for her to kick me to the curb almost from the start.

“But something changed, didn’t it?” I asked.

She burrowed a little closer and shook a little harder.

“Care to talk about it?”

“Don’t make me say it,” she pleaded.

“Say what?”

“Goddamnit!” she swore, beating a fist on my chest. “I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with you!”

That caused the dam to burst. The redhead was wracked with sobs as she finally voiced her feelings. I held on for dear life, not knowing what else to do.

I put little kisses on top of Arlene’s head as she cried herself out. It took awhile. She’d apparently been holding this in for some time.

She finally looked up at me with teary eyes.

“I don’t know if I can give you up after this weekend,” she sobbed.

“Who says you have to?” I replied. “Just because we have to lay off of certain activities for a while doesn’t mean we have to have a complete break.”

“But you’re going to have all those pretty, young girls,” she said. “And Jan and who knows who else. You aren’t going to want me if I’m as big as a whale.”

“If sex was the only reason I was hanging around,” I said, “you wouldn’t want me to want you. You’ve done too much for me to have me just drop you because you want to fulfill a biological imperative.”

Arlene continued to cling to me, occasionally sniffing and shuddering.

“You know we can’t be together,” she said, “like married. Even if we waited 10 years, people would talk.”

“People already talk,” I said. “You wouldn’t be contemplating single parenthood if you didn’t know you could handle the gossip. And it’s not like any child of yours won’t be cared for.”

She looked up at me with big, shimmering green eyes. This woman, normally so self-assured and confident, needed me to assure her.

“Please love me,” she said, almost begging.

I couldn’t resist her plea. I lowered my face to hers for a gentle kiss and the rest of the world evaporated. For the first time in my life, I made love.

Arlene and I gave ourselves to each other in a way I’d never imagined possible. Even my best times with Kacie fell short of what transpired. Everything else had just been fucking.

However long it lasted, however many times we reached the pinnacle, I can only recall staring into those green eyes as our souls melded.

When it was finally over, I laid back and held the redhead in my arms as she rested her head on my chest. I swear she was purring.

“I want to be able to snuggle like this at least one night a week after school starts,” she said, lifting up to kiss me on the chin, “even if sex is off limits. I’ll talk with Claire about you having Saturday nights free. You can still take one of the princesses out on a date and fuck them senseless, then come home to me.”

“Speaking of my mom,” I said, “any idea of why she was so cool about you and me? She just kind of threw it out there after she confronted me and Kacie.”

“I told her after the incident with Aaron,” Arlene said. “If there were going to be any issues about you being underage, I wanted to be up front about it.”

“I’m having a hard time believing she’d just let that slide,” I said. “She seemed to know about most of the other girls, too.”

“She wasn’t exactly thrilled, but she said she’d been waiting for them to pounce for a couple of years now,” the redhead said. “As far as we’re concerned, she said it was nothing compared to the things Doug got up to when he was young. Apparently, your father cut quite the swath back in the day.”

“So, you’re OK with me being with the others?” I asked.

“As long as you keep it to that,” she said. “I don’t want you going out and bringing anyone else in.”

“I didn’t go looking for anyone to begin with,” I said, only slightly defensively.

“You don’t have too,” the goddess said. “They come looking for you. That’s one of the reasons I want Morgan with you Saturday. She’ll be able to shield you from them a little bit. I expect you’ll still get some offers.”

“And what about you?” I asked. “Any extras I should be aware of.”

“There’s not any,” she said. “You’re the only guy I’ve slept with since Eric moved out.”

I was going to have to take her at her word on that.

“I know, you’re thinking about the box of condoms,” she said. “Those are nearly two years old, left over from Eric. He said they helped him last longer. I always thought they were so he didn’t bring anything home from his extracurricular activities that he didn’t know I knew about.”

“And Debbie Wilkes?”

“A bit of weekend fun,” Arlene said. “Like you were supposed to be. It was also to distract her from going after you. She wanted to know what all the fuss was about.

“She claimed she hadn’t done anything with another woman since college. It’s my understanding she and Ellen Harris once had an arrangement similar to Keri and Erin.”

Our conversation eventually turned to Arlene’s upcoming treatment. She’d need to be at the facility tomorrow afternoon to undergo an in-depth examination. If everything checked out, the procedure would be performed Friday or Saturday.

“I’m going to have to be up at the regular time,” she said, “so no more taking advantage of a poor, weak woman, you savage. My bag’s already packed and in the trunk. I’d appreciate it if you would stay in the apartment for the weekend.”