"Thanks, Coach. You'll never know how much this means to me."
"I'm glad to help, son. Gotta go."
"Bye Coach."
BB carried a kicking, screaming Julie into the house in the middle of the factories. He yelled, "Everybody gather round." Five men who looked as brutal as BB walked into the room or stood up. BB said, "This broad still has her cherry. She's worth a lot of money to me. Anybody who breaks her cherry will get his balls cut off. Understand?"
All five men nodded. They knew BB actually meant it. He'd done it before.
Etienne and Veronique knew how hard it was for them, in ghostly forms, to move physical objects. But, they’d done it on a couple of occasions before. They agreed to try again this time. The pair worked very hard together and eventually managed to tip over a vase in the hallway between the two bedrooms. The noise was stunning.
Edward and Angie ran out of their bedrooms at the same time. They saw the vase and each other. Both were experiencing a highly emotional state.
The apologies started immediately. Edward said, "I was wrong. I shouldn't have spent all that time..."
Angie said, "No, it was my fault. If I were a better wife, we'd..."
They ran together at the same time and hugged.
Veronique said, "Now they need to touch and do it for long hours. Now they have to... to... Oh merde, what is the word for coming together, being one person. I can't remember it."
"Do nice ladies say 'merde', mon petit chou-chou?"
"Yes, they do. I am a lady, and I say it, so there. What is the word I want?"
"'Bond', my sweet. 'Bond'."
"Yes. Very good. They must bond. And that requires skin touching skin. I will help." She whispered in Angie's ear and stroked her hair. Angie felt a slightly warm and loving feeling while Veronique did it. Angie said, "We need to be in the same bed tonight. And every night from now on." She rubbed the side of her head against his chin. "Please touch me. I need it so much. Please." She snuggled into Edward's arms, against his chest. She rested her forehead in the curve of his neck and shoulder. "I've been so mean to you. Hold me all night. Make me feel loved."
Edward scooped her up in his arms and headed for her bedroom. Angie said, "Wouldn't we be more comfortable in your bedroom?"
Edward stopped and cleared his throat. "My bedroom is a little disheveled right now, darling."
"Oh. Let's use mine then." After a few steps, she said, "Stop, put me down for a minute."
Edward set her down on her feet. She dropped the thin straps of her evening gown off her shoulders and let it slip to the floor. As she pushed her panties down her legs, she said, "You too. I want lots of your skin touching me."
Edward threw his clothes down the hall and lifted her into his arms again. "You feel so good against me. You were right. We're going to be in the same bed forever."
Angie kissed his neck and enjoyed his naked strength.
Etienne and Veronique looked at one another. Another job well done.
CHAPTER 15
BB threw Julie on top of a bare, filthy mattress. "No one's going to mess with you, bitch. At least, not for a while. The man who buys you will mess with you a lot.” He paused. “You’re not a bad looking broad. But, if nobody buys you, you won’t be a year from now. Being fucked a lot by different men does that. Too bad, but I need the money."
Veronique said, “Bon. This is good.” She paused. “However, I feel a disturbance in my bond with Julie. Something has happened. It isn’t good.” They flew to Julie’s apartment and saw that Julie wasn’t there.
Etienne said, “How can we find her?”
“I can feel her fear in this room. If I concentrate, I can follow it as the hound follows the scent of the rabbit.”
“Very good, my dear. Lead on. We will find Julie and the horror that frightened her.”
They swooped close to the street, flying low to the ground. In five minutes, they located the little house in the industrial section of the city. They drifted through the door and looked at the rough men lounging on the old sofa and overstuffed chair with ripped upholstery. They saw the locked door.
Inside the room, Julie lay on the bed and whimpered, alone and vulnerable.
Veronique floated close to her ear. “My child. We are here. Don’t fret.”
Etienne said, “We need to make the noise in the other side of the house. Let us see if we have the strength left to move something.”
They looked around the old kitchen. Filthy dishes and beer cans littered the counters and the floor. Etienne said, “If we could smell, I think we would smell the strong odor of alcohol. Which burns, very brightly. Come here with me.”
They gathered around a gas stove. It took four tries to blow out the pilot light and five more to turn the knob to one of the burners on the stove.
Etienne said, “We don’t want to blow up the house. We can’t let the gas run for too many minutes. Watch what I do.” He floated into the room with the men inside. They watched ‘Rocky and Bullwinkle’ cartoons and laughed. One set his cigarette on an ash tray. With significant effort, Etienne finally lifted the cigarette and carried it into the kitchen. He couldn’t quite make it the whole way, and a foot of so shy of the kitchen door, the cigarette fell to the ground. It was only seconds later, though, that the gas/air mixture exploded. He braced himself as the flames went through his body. In a moment, the entire room was ablaze. They drifted out of the burning kitchen just as burly men ran in. The men saw the flames, turned around and stormed out of the house. BB unlocked the bedroom where Julie screamed and huddled against the wall. He dragged her out.
The men watched their clubhouse burn. BB kept tight hold of Julie’s wrist.
Veronique said, “Bon. This is good. She is outside now.” She pulled Etienne’s sleeve. “I felt it. When the fire rushed through my body, I felt the warmth. It was nice.”
“I’m glad, mon cher. A feeling after all these years.”
“Yes. I loved it.” Her expression lost any joy she’d felt. “We must rescue the wonderful Julie.”
“What can we do? The physical object manipulation that they had achieved that evening had sapped them of much of their strength. “We’re dead and weak. We can’t so much as lift a piece of paper.”
“We can distract the burly fellow and make him let go of Julie.”
“Yes, that we can do. Whisper in his ear, my sweet.
“Good. I can do that.” Veronique positioned herself horizontally five feet off the ground. It looked like her head rested on BB’s shoulder. She hummed very hard in his ear.
The first and second attempt didn’t do anything but make him twitch. Veronique’s third, fourth and fifth attempt made him rub his ear.
Etienne said, “Do the other ear.”
Veronique nodded and switched to BB’s other ear. She hummed as hard as she could and BB let go of Julie’s hand to rub it. She was so weak from fear and anger that she fell to the ground.
Veronique said, “What can we do now? He will just grab her again. We’ll be back to the place we began.”
“Let us work together and cloud his mind so that he cannot see her.”
Veronique and Etienne stood in front of BB very close to his eyes. They concentrated very hard.
BB moved his head around. His eyes looked everywhere except directly at Julie. He shouted, “Where’d the bitch go?”
Veronique shouted in Julie’s ear, “Hide behind the big pipe.” Julie looked around with glazed eyes. She had to look three times at the yard-wide metal pipe six feet away before it registered. Veronique said it again and Julie crawled behind it.”
BB called his men back. “She’s running away right now. Let’s get on our bikes and ride the roads inside the area. She couldn’t have gotten far.”
BB and his men fired up seven huge motorcycles. “Move it. Find the bitch or it’s your ass.”
Veronique said, “Julie, stay right here. Don’t move.”
She didn’t. Ten minutes later, four fire engines
and two police cars roared up to the burning building. Etienne told Julie, “Now. Stand up and talk with the policemen. They will help you.”
Two hours later, two cops dropped Julie off at Jim’s condo. She had told them to take her to her own apartment, but one of the officers was a close friend of Jim. He recognized Julie from a barbecue they had both attended at Jim’s parent’s house several years prior. He was pretty sure Jim would have his head if he left a friend of his at her apartment with a broken door and terrifying memories.
CHAPTER 16
Jim answered the doorbell rubbing his eyes and hair and looking sleepy. Cody had been vague on the phone and simply said that he was on his way over, and would be there in five minutes. He gave no other explanation, but the situation sounded serious. Jim had put on pants but nothing else. As soon as he opened the door, Julie saw his broad, manly chest and knew it would give her the safety she needed. She launched herself into Jim’s arms. Her knees gave way, and she crumpled. Jim picked her up in his arms, cradling her, and she snuggled into his chest. Even frightened beyond anything she’d ever felt, Julie caught Jim’s scent; a combination of basic male and Ivory soap. She mumbled, “Please help.” She was trembling.
“What happened?”
She started to speak, but found her voice was frozen in her throat. She just stared at him with a look of anguish as tears streamed down her cheeks.
Jim looked up at the police officers, his expression a mixture of pain and anger. Since Jim refused to put Julie down or leave her alone for even a second, Cody quickly and briefly related the story to him. He didn’t want to say too much and cause her to re-live the events of the evening.
A half-hour later, the other officers had gone and Jim and Julie were seated on his couch. Jim still held Julie cradled in his lap. She burrowed into his body. “Jim. I know we only just moved our relationship to a new stage, but I don’t have any family around, and I’m ready to lose it. Could I stay here with you tonight? I don’t want to be alone.” She looked up at him and his heart was ready to explode in his chest, “You can make love to me, if you want…?”
“I am not going to make love to you. Not tonight, anyway. And there is no way in hell I’m leaving your side tonight, either.” She looked almost rejected, so he quickly added, “Besides, there are rules about making love to a woman in a state of vulnerability, sweetheart.”
“Do you think you could just keep holding me, then? Don’t let go yet?”
“I will be right here holding you all night.” The truth is, he couldn’t be pried away from her with a crowbar. He felt guilty for leaving her earlier that evening. How was he to know she wouldn’t be safe? But, still, if he had asked to come in, she probably would have said yes, and he could have prevented her nightmare. He thought he’d been doing the honorable thing by saying goodnight at the door. Well, he wasn’t going to leave her again. If he had his way, he wasn’t going to ever leave her again. Without releasing her, Jim swung his legs up on the couch and rolled on his side positioning Julie in front of him so he could snuggle her into his body spooning her. He held her tightly around the waist with one arm and stroked her hair gently with the other. She snugged with her bottom against his groin and her back against his chest. After a few minutes, he pulled the blanket from the back of the couch and covered them both with it.
“I feel safe now,” Julie said, her voice thick with fatigue. She didn’t say any more. Three minutes later, she was sound asleep.
After an hour, Jim woke up. In her sleep, Julie had moved his hand from her waist under the blanket to her left breast. He felt her softness under his palm and her hand pressing him against her. She muttered, “Jim. Thank you.”
Jim wasn’t sure what to do in this situation. He could feel himself growing harder by the second. He couldn’t wake her up. Besides the fact that she would be embarrassed, she needed her sleep after what she’d been through tonight. He wouldn’t dare take advantage of her for his own sexual gratification. But, try as he might, he couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that her round little bottom was pressed up against his growing erection. He was trying to stop fantasizing about slipping his hand inside her bra and caressing her perfect breasts. He wanted to make love to her more than anything else.
Even though he’d been a jackass not to notice her all these years, he’d know her for a long time. He knew the type of woman she was. He had just never allowed himself to look at her that way before. He’d put a block up in his mind that caused him to think of her as a sister, but she wasn’t a sister. She was the perfect woman for him. The one he’d been looking for all along.
With her, his feelings were a combination of head over heels stomach-churning butterflies of meeting a special someone for the first time, and the ease and comfort of being with an old friend that he’d known for years.
He knew earlier tonight, after he’d seen her safely into her apartment, that he was in love with her. He had planned to show up at her door in the morning with flowers and tell her how he felt. He was going to tell her that he wanted a future that included her.
That confession would have to wait. Who knows for how long she would be traumatized. His confession would have to wait. He would wait until she was ready.
Jim sighed deeply and laid still. He’d get some sleep when she moved, and he could get his hand back.
Julie shifted around, turning over to face him. She huddled her arms against herself and tried to wiggle her way inside him. Her knees pressed against his and straightened his legs. She pulled on the arm closest to the sofa cushion and pushed his opposite shoulder. She wanted him on his back. He didn’t mind. As soon as he turned over, she draped one leg across his and snuggled under his arm. As she moved, her hips ground into his thigh. She made some small pleasant sounds and went into a deeper sleep.
Twenty minutes later, Jim felt her hips moving up and down against his leg. It was a small motion of her pubic bone and subtle, but it went on for what seemed like a very long time. Eventually, Julie slowed down gently and finally slept as deeply as she could.
Jim, and his raging hard-on stared at the ceiling.
CHAPTER 17
The next morning, Julie woke up before Jim. She kept her eyes closed as events of the prior evening played in her head. The whole thing had been highly traumatic, so much so that she’d begged Jim not to leave her side. Why didn’t she feel traumatized now?
Then she remembered. The voices. She could have sworn she’d heard two voices in her sleep. They whispered soothing words to her telling her she was safe; telling her that she would be forever cared for and looked after. This morning, even as she recounted the horrific events, she felt calm and at peace.
Julie turned her head and studied Jims masculine profile. Her hero, her rock. Now, to find a way to move their relationship along.
Since they were both wearing very little, it seemed appropriate to her to increase their physical intimacy. She knew her own emotions. She knew she was ready and she knew she wanted her first time to be with Jim. She had loved Jim for years. Last night he’d taken care of her under trying circumstances and hadn’t so much as attempted to talk her into more than she wanted to do. In fact, he’d been slower than she had. She just needed to get him to stop acting like such a gentleman and take her already. She remembered what had worked for her in the kitchen while doing dishes together: let him take charge, just guide him.
She shook Jim to wake him up. “Good morning, It’s time to get up.”
Jim struggled to wake up. He'd only been asleep for an hour. As soon as he was awake enough to be aware of where he was, he was very conscious of her skin on his.
Julie leaned away from him. “Thank you for holding me last night. You’ll never know how much I needed it.” She gave him a quick kiss. “Time to get dressed and go on about our day.” She wrapped the blanket around herself and pushed herself to a sitting position. She dropped her legs over the side of the sofa and felt a moment of panic because he hadn't done anything to stop her.<
br />
The panic fled in seconds as Jim’s very large hand held the blanket still.
Inside almost every man, there’s a latent caveman. Men control their basic, brutish thoughts and impulses unless there’s a prize to be won or a saber-tooth tiger to be slain.
Jim’s caveman woke up and put his arms around Julie pulling her back onto the couch. He turned her on her back and clamped his mouth over hers. She kissed back. His tongue parted her lips and she thought she actually heard him grunt.
He dropped his knee between hers, pinning her in place and slid up the sofa until his nose was slightly above hers. The kiss he gave her then had nothing to do with delicate sensibilities or the front door after a date. It called up the first time a man threw a woman over his shoulder and carried her off into the bushes.
Julie recognized the change in their relationship. She felt him tower over her and hem her body in with his. She noticed the change in the passion of his kiss. She felt warm and limp. Yes, Julie liked Jim’s caveman.
After they both stopped kissing, Julie was breathless. She lifted the blanket and looked down at their bodies. “Jim, please, I need you to make love to me,” she pleaded.
His voice was low and rough. “Are you sure you want this?”
She met his eyes with intensity and longing, “Yes,” she breathed. As soon as she said the word, his mouth came down on hers again, and he tilted them to the side and slid his hand around her back and underneath her panties. He massaged her firm ass. She made humming noises in his mouth. He slid her panties down and off of her legs and moved so that both of his legs were securely between hers. She gasped. Then, she dipped her hands inside his shorts and stroked her fingers along his rock-hard erection. They made eye contact and kept it.
Bears of Burden: STERLING Page 69