Coercion

by Lux Zakari

  Before Valerie could find the words to fill the awkward silence, Daniel got to his feet and handed her the deck of cards, all fifty-two of them stacked neatly and put in their thin, cardboard sleeve. “I better get going, Valerie. I need to get up early tomorrow.” He grabbed his coat from the back of the couch. “I’ll see you ’round campus.”

  She followed Daniel to the front door. “I’m sorry about this.” She dropped her voice. “It’s just...he looks upset.”

  “He sure does.” He gave her a small smile and took a deep breath. “See you.”

  Valerie shut the door behind him and closed her eyes. She hadn’t wanted her night with Daniel to end like this. Still, she couldn’t ignore the fact Michael Vartanian currently sat in her living room, waiting for her. A smile spread over her face, and she took a few deep breaths to try to restrain the intoxicating delight fluttering in her chest. This moment was exactly what she’d been waiting for.

  She returned to the living room, shut the wooden doors behind her and sat on the couch next to Michael, whose legs still bobbed. “You know,” she said after a moment’s pause, “my mom told me once that you shake the luck out of you when you move your leg like that, and when you finally stop, all your luck will be gone.”

  “Too late.” He paused his motions. “So what happens if I never stop shaking my legs? Then I’ll always have luck to lose.”

  Valerie smiled. “I suppose that’s one way of looking at it.” She cleared her throat. “Um, how did you know where I live?”

  “I was just driving around and recognized your mom’s Volvo in the drive,” he said, his tone devoid of emotion. Then he swiveled his head to look at Valerie, his eyes wide. “Your mom’s not here, is she?”

  “Yeah, but she and my dad are already in bed. They always zonk out before ten and sleep like the dead.”

  His shoulders slumped with relief. “Good.”

  Her heart pounded at his reaction as she imagined all the evening’s possibilities. Even though Michael sat on the couch, apparently unaffected by the fact they were essentially alone in the house, it was all she could think about. In fact, being alone with him was all she ever thought about.

  And now here he was, in her living room with Breeze nowhere in sight. Many of her fantasies began with such a scenario, but she didn’t know how the reality of the situation would actually pan out.

  “What brings you here?” she asked, not knowing how to have a conversation with him.

  He ran a hand through his thick hair. “Why? You want me to go?”

  “No. I just...” Valerie trailed off, unable to express how she felt. She hoped he’d acknowledge that him being around her wasn’t an everyday occurrence and offer some kind of explanation.

  He gave her an indolent smile and put his hands behind his head. “I just felt like visiting.” His words were accompanied by a yawn. “I realized we haven’t hung out in awhile.”

  “We’ve never really hung out.”

  “Then what do you call what we did last month?”

  Her face flushed. The way he’d been acting, she hadn’t thought he’d bring it up, but now that he had, she realized she didn’t know what she wanted him to say about it. “I don’t know. But I didn’t consider that ‘hanging out.’”

  Michael chuckled. “I guess it wasn’t.” He studied her for a moment. “Let me rephrase that. I realized we haven’t fooled around in awhile.”

  The fever spreading through her cheeks intensified as she rubbed the backside of her arms. “Well, it hasn’t seemed like you wanted me around.”

  “Sure I have,” he said, clearly unconcerned.

  “Really?” Skepticism laced her words. “But you haven’t spoken to me in weeks.”

  “Be fair. You haven’t talked to me either.” He lowered his hands and leaned into her. “And you know I’m right.”

  Valerie’s mouth went dry from Michael’s nearness as she stared at him wordlessly. A flood of warmth rushed to her most private parts.

  He stared at her, his thick lashes surrounding his dark, penetrating eyes like silky crescents. Then he reached out to her, drawing idle patterns on her arm with his index finger. “You ever think about that day in the parking lot?”

  “All the time.” The words flew out of her before her brain could even process them.

  “Oh, yeah?” A smirk appeared on his face. “Me too.”

  “Really?” she asked, surprised.

  “Mmm-hmm.” His hand moved to her chest, where he traced the underside of her right breast over her t-shirt. “Why does that shock you?”

  “I’m not sure.” Her mind grew foggy as his finger circled her nipple. “I guess because you’re with Breeze, and we haven’t really spoken or anything since—”

  “Do you think of that day when you make yourself come?”

  “I have,” she said after a moment’s pause.

  His hand drifted to the hem of her shirt and disappeared underneath the fabric. Valerie inhaled sharply when he touched the bare skin of her stomach. “And what about it was so hot?”

  “I don’t know.” She bit her lip as his hand suddenly engulfed her breast, encased in a pale blue bra.

  He pinched her nipple through the lacy material. “Figure it out.”

  She winced with pleasure. “I just liked it. I can’t explain it. It was exciting.”

  “It was exciting because you were a good girl doing something bad,” he said in a thick voice as his hand slipped inside her bra and touched her breast.

  She shivered. “You think I’m a good girl?” She’d already started to lose herself in his cool hands on her hot skin.

  “For now, at least.” Michael ceased touching her and instead folded his hands in his lap, almost demurely. “Prove to me you’re not.”

  A twinge of fear and anticipation raced through her. “How?”

  He licked his lips. “I wanna watch you.”

  Dread splashed over her like a bucket of ice water. “Watch me do what?”

  He leaned toward her and kissed her softly. Then he pulled away slightly and whispered against her mouth, “Show me. Show me what you do.” He took her hand in his and guided it between her legs. “Show me what you do when you think of me.”

  She let out a shaky breath. “I don’t think so.”

  “Why?”

  “Because.” She bit her lip. “I’m nervous.”

  He grinned. “You worry too much. What’s to be nervous about?” He kissed her neck, nibbling at the sensitive skin. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought about you fingering yourself and screaming my name when you come.”

  A rash of goose bumps broke out on her arms. “You have?”

  “Yeah.” His teeth nipped at her earlobe. “And it’s the hottest fucking thing.”

  His words sent a shiver up her spine. “Really?”

  “Really.” He gently pushed her down so she lay on the couch. “Now show me what you do. I’ll tell you if it’s like how I pictured it.”

  Valerie swallowed the lump in her throat. There was something wild in his eyes telling her that if she didn’t do exactly what he wanted, she’d lose him forever. He would walk right out the door and never come back. She’d dreamed of this moment—or at least of being with him—for years, even more so since last month. She wanted to do everything she could to keep him. This was a golden opportunity.

  She bit her lip as her hands slowly traveled south on her body.

  “That’s it.” Michael stared at her as she hitched her thumbs under the waistband of her gym shorts and slowly pushed them down her legs, revealing her white panties. “Good. Now take off your shirt.”

  She obeyed him, raising her shoulders off the couch to peel her t-shirt over her head and drop it on the floor. Her gold locket tangled in her hair in doing so and she reached up to free it, her breasts rising in the process. Michael made no move to help her and continued to view her with a smug smile on his face.

  “What do you want me to do?” Valerie asked in a quave
ring voice after she rescued her locket from her hair.

  “Whatever you want to do. Just pretend I’m not here, if you want.”

  She knew that was easier said than done. She found it ironic to touch herself nightly, imagining Michael was there doing all sorts of delicious things to her body, and to touch herself now at his request and deliberately act as if he wasn’t in the room. She wanted to laugh at the thought. Nevertheless, she took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut as she smoothed her hands over her breasts and her stomach and down her legs.

  “Touch your tits.” His breathing grew labored as her fingers slipped beneath the elastic band of her panties.

  She cupped one of her breasts, which rose and fell as she breathed heavily. Her fingers brushed over the curled hair between her legs, while her other hand reached inside her bra to pinch her nipple, just like Michael had done the first time he’d touched her. Prior to that day, she had never known her nipples were so sensitive and responsive to pleasure to the point where touching them was also almost painful. It was a combination of sensations she’d become addicted to since then.

  “Yeah, like that,” he said, his voice husky.

  Valerie’s eyelids fluttered open slightly and she watched him stare at her, his gaze intense. A thrill went up her spine and another rush of heat traveled to her clit. She was under his control, but she couldn’t help but feel powerful at the idea of beguiling him with her body. She closed her eyes again, arched her back slightly and let out a soft moan, partly for effect and partly because she was suddenly feeling so damn good.

  She felt Michael shift quietly on the couch and place his warm hands on her legs. His lips brushed the inside of her knee as his fingers hooked into her panties and started to drag them slowly down her thighs. “I want to see everything.”

  She let out a whimper, feeling the cool air kiss her hot pussy. He pulled her panties over her feet and her heart threw itself against her rib cage as he opened her legs wider. She both squirmed and thrived under his gaze, feeling him study her most intimate parts.

  “Finger yourself. Touch your clit.”

  Valerie’s index finger touched her clit gently, and she trembled and tilted her head backward. She regarded Michael through thin slits as his gaze drifted to her breasts and her bare stomach, which led the way to the dark triangle between her legs. The finger on her clit moved in a circle, gaining in speed.

  He kissed the inside of her knees again, and then his hands traveled to the buckle on his belt. She inhaled a sharp breath as he undid his jeans’ golden metal button and eased down the zipper. She had no idea what was going to happen next, and the lack of knowledge both excited and scared her. Her hand paused, shaking slightly with nervousness.

  “Keep going,” he said in a low, firm voice as he reached inside his jeans.

  Valerie opened her eyes fully, drinking in her first sight of his cock. The image made her clit throb. She had never seen a penis in real life before, except for her father’s, once, when she was five and had opened the bathroom door without knocking. Since then, Shannon had coerced her into looking through several pornographic magazines, but the men, while hard and ready to please, had cocks lacking in beauty. Theirs were practical-joke-size and looked like they could rip a girl apart. But Michael’s was erect, tall and beautifully shaped, with a round meaty head and a thick pink shaft. She absently licked her lips, truly understanding for the first time why a woman would feel compelled to put a man’s cock in her mouth.

  “I want you to fuck yourself.” Michael brushed his thumb over the head of his cock. “I want you to fuck yourself and pretend your hand is my cock. Understand?”

  She obediently dipped her middle finger into her pussy, her mouth open in a silent moan at the sensation. Michael watched her, his hand moving up and down his shaft as her finger moved inside her, her entrance getting wetter after every plunge.

  “Add another finger.”

  Valerie again followed his instruction, biting her lip as she slid two fingers into her dripping cunt.

  His breathing grew choppier, and he rubbed his pulsing cock faster. “Let me see your nipples. I want to see them get hard while you think about me fucking you.”

  She stifled a moan at the intensity of his words. With one hand still buried in her pussy, she pushed her bra upward, easing the material above her breasts. Her nipples pointed toward the ceiling as her hips rose to meet the fingers driving inside her.

  Michael let out a shaky breath. “Keep one hand on your tits and one in your pussy.” His cheeks were ruddy and his mouth was poutier than usual. A sheen of perspiration formed above his upper lip. “And tell me what you’re thinking about.”

  “I don’t know,” she managed to say as her fingers moved faster inside her cunt and her nipples grew more and more sensitive every time she rubbed them between her fingertips. “I can’t...”

  The speed of his hand on his cock increased as he placed one hand on her upper thigh. Her hips bucked at the feeling of him touching her skin, and she felt herself grow closer to the edge as he said, “Pretend your hand is my cock pushing into you.”

  “Oh God,” Valerie choked out. Goose bumps prickled on her arms and her stomach.

  He reached up to circle her breast before returning to her hip. His other hand fisted his cock, bobbing faster as he said, “Now imagine me shoving my cock in your wet pussy. I’m thrusting in and out, making your pussy wetter as you scream my name and shake as you come.”

  “Oh my God, Michael.” Valerie’s eyes squeezed shut, and she arched her back. “You’re gonna make me... Oh my God...”

  At that moment, his hand that had been on her hip took the place of the one in her pussy and he pushed two fingers inside her. He brushed his thumb over her clit only a few times before she cried out his name once more and her whole body convulsed, wracked with orgasm. She turned her head and bit the throw pillow behind her in an effort to not scream. He followed soon afterward, his mouth falling open with a quiet groan as he came in his hand, the sticky whiteness leaking from the rosy head of his cock all over his fingers.

  Neither of them moved for several moments, the room filled with the sound of their heavy breathing. Then Michael reached for her t-shirt on the floor and used it to wipe off his hand and his cock before handing the shirt to Valerie. Still trembling, she wiped her wet, slightly pruned fingers on the soft cotton material and watched as he tucked away his cock and zipped his jeans.

  He settled against the couch, letting his head fall back against the cushions. “Fuck, I needed that.”

  “Yeah,” she said breathlessly, nodding, although she wasn’t entirely sure what she concurred with.

  He regarded her from beneath heavy eyelids. “You did good.”

  “Oh. Thank you.”

  “In case you were wondering, that was just as I imagined it.”

  “Same here.” But she wasn’t sure if that was the truth. Her imagination had never gone as far as to create what just happened between them. She wanted to say more, but she didn’t know where to begin.

  A silence settled between them. Then, after a few minutes, Michael sighed. “I better get going.”

  “You have to go right now?” She struggled into a sitting position, pulling her knees up to her neck and hugging herself to hide her nudity.

  “Yeah, I got a ton of stuff to do.” He got to his feet and stretched his linked hands to the ceiling, and she realized he had never even taken off his coat.

  “Oh.” Her face fell. “But it’s nearly eleven.”

  “Yeah.” He shrugged and offered no further explanation. Then he grinned. “Don’t worry, I can let myself out.” He gave her a wink before he left the room. “Don’t be a stranger, all right?”

  He was out the door before she could say okay.

  Chapter 4

  Wednesday

  December 4, 1974

  The sleeves of Dr. Cantarella’s tweed suit coat inched upward on his arms, his thick, hairy wrists exposed as he clapped his
hands above his head. “Just because it’s your last group project doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use your library voices,” he called over the din of the room as desks scraped against the floor and his students shouted to each other about everything except history. “Let’s see how quietly you can research your chapters before you get up and teach the rest of the class.”

  But Valerie could barely make out her professor’s words. The sight of Michael Vartanian reluctantly pushing his chair toward the cluster of desks she was a part of drowned out all other noise aside from the sound of blood rushing to her head. She flipped open her textbook and tried to look unconcerned, as if the boy who hadn’t had his fingers inside her and made her come wasn’t sitting right across from her.

  Neil Groeger, one of Valerie’s group mates, slumped in his seat and aimlessly thumbed through his book. “What page is this shit on?”

  “Three twenty-five,” replied Angela Saunders, the fourth group member, eyeing Michael and his lack of textbook with suspicion. Michael appeared not to notice, though, as he made himself comfortable in his chair and drummed his fingers on the desktop.

  Valerie struggled to breathe evenly. She didn’t know what to think or say. She could only recall all the times during the past month when he’d barely managed a nod of recognition in her direction, and all the nights she’d tossed and turned, wondering if she did something wrong to turn him off, to turn him away.

  She wondered if it was her body, if she was still not thin enough. She would never be as ballerina petite as Breeze, and that had to be what kept holding him back. She’d increased her number of nightly sit-ups, but even that hadn’t worked. Michael rarely glanced in her direction, and when he did, he seemed to look right through her. It was obvious that to him, she could’ve been anyone.

  A rich, throaty laugh cut through Valerie’s thoughts, and she looked up to see Michael staring at Breeze, the source of the sound. The blonde gripped Tom Courpel’s upper arm, giggling and hiding her face behind the white-and-gold diary she used to take notes in, inexplicably forgoing the standard black-and-white speckled composition books. Michael wasn’t alone in looking—everyone in the class had turned in Breeze’s direction—but the agony and pure want on his face set him apart from their peers. Valerie’s heart plummeted.