Holden

by Olivia Gaines

It turned out, he was right.

  Holden was right about so many things.

  The morning drifted into afternoon as they lay on a blanket, sharing stories of childhood antics. Laughter drifted languidly down the river along with Tallulah’s reservations about giving up her Saturday. He read a few more chapters of the book they started the night before, leaving the door open for a discussion of plot points up to Chapter 12 over a lunch of cheese, turkey jerky, crackers and fruit.

  One sentence was followed by a touch his long fingers, which sent shivers down her spine like a dark lover on a bright day.

  She read a chapter, followed by more exploratory touches.

  Never one to be the aggressor sexually, she leaned in, kissing him. Holden tried to read some more, but he couldn’t because she continued to kiss him. Her hands roamed his taut frame, touching him, memorizing sections of his body with her fingertips.

  “Uhmm, Tallulah. I think we’d better get back to your place,” he said, bounding to his feet.

  “You sure? I’m loving it out here,” she said, her hand coming to his calf and caressing his muscles.

  “Yes, I’m positive,” he told her. His erection scraping against the zipper of his pants told him for certain that it was time to leave. They were lucky they didn’t get a ticket as the man nearly broke the sound barrier, pushing the little Spider to its limits to get Tallulah home.

  “Shower,” he commanded as they walked into the back door.

  “You coming with me?”

  “No, I’ll use the guest bathroom,” he said as he hurried and locked himself inside the small room. He was so far gone that he was afraid one touch and he was going to be fifteen all over again in the back seat with Jenny Strombol. One date with that Italian temptress and all it took was two touches and a tug and he was done. Holden also knew something Tallulah had yet to realize – she was sitting on the throne of her power. He also knew she was about to unleash it on him. The only way to save himself was to fire off the first round in the shower so he didn’t embarrass himself with what she was about to put on him.

  The excitement of it all made it easy to fire the first shots.

  Every spot on Tallulah’s body hummed with new energy and new life as she washed her skin until it tingled. Everything else on her tingled as well, and she wanted him. Extra care was given to her special parts as she sang softly during the cleansing routine. This sensation was unlike anything she’d ever felt before. Sex usually occurred for her when she’d hit her limit of doing it herself.

  Damn it, Holden.

  After slowly drying herself with an extra-large fluffy towel, she left the bathroom to find him sitting in a dining room chair in the middle of her bedroom floor.

  “You’re going to need at least four scarves,” he said to her.

  Tallulah dropped her towel, walking about her bedroom bare as she collected the scarves. He adjusted his seating in the chair. She was a fine looking woman in clothes or without them.

  “Tie one to each of my legs, the other one to my hands, the last one blindfold me,” he said. “Not too tight to cut off my circulation.”

  The silk scarves bound him to the chair and covered his eyes. He couldn’t see her, but he could hear her breathing. The idea of him being helpless in the chair stumped her.

  “You are in control,” he told her.

  “Okay,” she said softly. But what do I do?

  Tallulah took a bit of body oil from her dresser, wetting her palm as she freed her new best friend from the constraints of the cotton underwear holding him hostage. With her hands, she rubbed and stroked him until he throbbed in her hands. Small moans escaped Holden’s lips as her hand squeezed, pulled down, went and back up, making circles over the bulbous head. The more he moaned, the wetter she became until the dampness between her legs made her thighs protest in fear of drowning.

  She held the rigid flesh upright as she straddled his lap. Bracing her feet on either side of the chair, she lowered her body over his erection, taking him inside of her. Holden’s mouth opened but no sound came out as she bounced up and down, trying to fit him completely inside of her. It seems bigger tonight.

  “You feel so good inside me,” she said, crushing her breast to his hairy chest. The thick strawberry blond curls rubbed against her nipples, creating sparks. She needed more. Her hand rested on his left thigh as she began to rolled her hips against him, grinding hard into him, riding him like a seated belly dancer. The more she moved, the deeper he went. Using the back of the chair as a harness, she latched onto the seat, pulling on the chair each time she rocked into him.

  “Damn, damn, da-da-damn,” she moaned as she bucked hard against him. Her lips came to his, kissing him, her tongue darting inside of his mouth as she reached the crescendo. The dirty words she mouthed in his ear made him shudder. The passionate side of her bordered on animalistic.

  “This is mine,” she commanded. “Mine, you hear me!” she yelled at him, riding him harder.

  Holden’s muscles twitched in his left leg as the pleasure took over him. The words she said meant nothing since he was too busy drowning in the moisture of his own emotions. The back of the chair began to creak as it loosened, giving way under the force of her thrust, snapping, landing them on the floor in an awkward heap. It didn’t stop Tallulah, who finished big, riding him, crying out his name.

  His hands had come undone, and his left hand reached up to touch her breast, pinching down with just enough pressure on the nipple as she came. An orgasm so powerful it pulled him with her although seconds before, he was nowhere near finishing. Holden started twitching like he was having a seizure.

  “Bae...are you okay?” she asked as she detached herself. The doctor in her kicked in as she checked his vitals.

  “Don’t touch me,” he said curling into a ball.

  “Holden, baby, are you okay?”

  “Nooooo,” he mumbled.

  Tallulah snatched off the blindfold and untied his ankles from the wooden pieces of broken chair. His eyes were distant and unfocused and he had started to drool. She ran in the kitchen to grab a wooden spoon. Please, please, don’t let him be seizing.

  “Holden, baby, I’m here,” she said kneeling down next to him, trying to jab the spoon in his mouth.

  “Stop it,” he said trying to swat at the spoon with flopping wrists.

  “You’re having a seizure,” she said.

  “No, I’m not,” he mumbled. “I just came so hard I think I was temporarily blinded.”

  He struggled to sit up, looking at her sideways. Her hands were covering her mouth as she watched him try gather his bearings.

  “Holden, talk to me...are you okay?”

  He threw the scarf that hung loosely about his head on to the floor. Try as he might, he could not stop the trickle of tears that ran from the corners of his eyes, nor the snot and drool that joined in on the wet party. I am actually crying. I am crying. What in the world?

  “Holden...you are scaring me. Oh, my God! I hurt you!” she exclaimed.

  “I’m okay, Tallulah,” he said. The rubber band on his pony tail sat sideways, making his hair poke out to the side. His skin flushed red. His cheeks hot pink. The vision in his right eye compromised.

  “You sure? You are looking mighty...I dunno. This has never happened before. What do you need me to do?” she implored.

  “I need you to clean me out a drawer because I am about to move in with you. Any time you say you want me, I need to be right here to take care of you,” he said as he fell back onto the pile of scrap wood. “Good Lawd, woman!”

  “You’re the one who said I needed to feel my power!”

  “I felt your power. I love your power. That was soooooo good. I am going to keep that switch turned up,” he said, trying to stand. His legs were like rubber, unable to hold him as he tried to maintain his balance. Giving up, he instead crawled over to the bed and fell back. “I need to sleep that off.”

  “Wait, I was going to make us some dinner,” she said. I
t was too late, he was out.

  She couldn’t believe it. “I think I just broke him,” she said to herself.

  Chapter Nine – Positive Charge

  A dull sharp pain whittled its way through his lower back muscles, waking him with a groan. Whatever Mac truck had run him over, Holden hoped someone wrote down the license plate number. He turned slowly, cracking open one eye and trying, for all intents and purposes, to collect his bearings. Tallulah was lying beside him wide awake, staring at him.

  “So you are alive. I thought I had killed you,” she said softly.

  “It would take a little more than some sensory deprivation and possibly one of the most intense, sexiest encounters I have ever had in my life to take me out,” he responded.

  “I was worried...,” she said to him.

  “I’m okay, Tallulah. I needed the sleep. I’ve been working pretty hard here lately,” he said, rolling over, looking for a clock. He squinted at the ornate time piece on the wall that resembled something Salvador Dali pooped out after eating Mexican food. “Is that after 8?”

  “Yes, it is.”

  “Crap!” he exclaimed, throwing back the covers. He swung his legs out of the bed, looking around for his shoes. His pants he had left on a hook in the bathroom. Scrambling down the hall, he grabbed the jeans, hopping on one leg while trying to get them on. “I have to run,” he said to her.

  “Yeah, I have to get ready for church.” As much as she dreaded going, after the past few days with Holden and the things she’d said to him, she truly needed a closer talk to Jesus to make it right.

  Holden made quick work of brushing his teeth, washing his face and putting on his shoes. “I’m sorry to run out like this, but my Dad was expecting me almost an hour ago,” he told. “It’s cheese-making day.”

  “Excuse me...what?”

  “Yes, second Sunday of the month, we have to make the cheese. Like what we had at lunch yesterday,” he told.

  “Your Dad made that?”

  “Yes and Meg has to get my Mom to church...your Dad’s church...,” he said, buttoning his shirt. “She really likes his sermons. It makes her feel...lighter.”

  Tallulah watched him gather his things to leave. Her heart was filling with all the wrong words to say to him. Don’t say the wrong thing. Temper it. Explain why you want some space...why he can’t have a drawer in your house for his things.

  “Holden...the next few days are kind of hectic. I’m working half a day on Wednesday,” she said to him.

  “Okee-dokee,” he said back.

  “Okee-dokee what?”

  “Call me when you want me to come back over,” he said. “Wednesdays are delivery days, and Jem doesn’t have his license yet, but I normally finish around 3 or so.”

  “Finish what?”

  “Making the deliveries for the co-op, my teas, my Dad’s cheeses, the lavender honey, Mom’s cookies. We have several standing orders,” he told her.

  “Oh,” she said to him.

  “I gotta go, Tallulah,” he said, moving close to her. “Last night was...amazing...powerful...fantastic....” He took her left hand, isolating the ring finger again, kissing it gently. “When is your birthday?”

  “July 22nd,” she said as she watched him closely. The strawberry blond hair hung loosely on his shoulders, cascading in thick waves as he moved his head.

  “Rubies. Cool. Your ring size?”

  “A seven,” she said, still looking at his hair. It was gorgeous. Hell, he was, too. He also had a really nice, thick coc...

  “Earth to Tallulah– baby, let me out of the garage,” he said to her. “I need to roll. Call me okay?”

  “Okay,” she said to him as he held her in a quick embrace. Holding him tighter than she intended before he left, the scent of him still on her skin, she reluctantly let go. She raced to the living room picture window and watched him roll down Mulberry Street. “Damn, damn, da-da damn.”

  “I am starting to like him too much,” she said with a satisfied sigh. “I also like the feel of owning my power.” She kissed her fingertips and pressed them to the glass. My Holden.

  My everything.

  “Before you can share your life with anyone, you have to understand who you are when you are by yourself,” the good Reverend Doctor Strom shouted across the pulpit. “I don’t think ya’ll heard me congregation...please allow me to repeat myself!” he said to the crowd filling the seats of the Greater Mount Zion Baptist Church as he spit the words out again.

  “I want to make sure you all are understanding what I am about to teach you. Open your good book to Matthew, Chapter Five. When you leave here today, worshipers, you are going to leave with nourishment to get you through this week. I am not going to give you just a slice of white bread. I’m giving you the meat to go with the meal,” Reverend Strom added.

  Big bosoms bounced in agreement while hats swayed in pews. Choruses of ‘Amen’ went up in the air, hoping that the ears in Heaven would receive their praises. Tallulah sat on the pew, hoping that the ears in Heaven couldn’t hear her thoughts. The moment her father mentioned a piece of meat, her mind went to Holden.

  I like his piece of meat. His meat stick. His mighty meat on white bread... I am so going to Hell for sitting in church thinking such horrible, hot, sexy, dirty, thick white meat thoughts....

  A slight giggle escaped her lips. Her mother looked over at her, and Tallulah gave her a toothy grin. “Amen Reverend! Feed your flock!” Tallulah exclaimed, her hand waving in the air as if the Holy Spirit had reached down from on High and held her hand, pulling it upwards with an imaginary string to the throne. By the end of the sermon, Tallulah was almost giddy because it didn’t matter what her father said, she found some way to tie it to that sexy Holden.

  “Dr. Tallulah Strom as I live and breathe! I swear, you seem to only become more beautiful each time I see you,” Donnie Brasserhorn said to her.

  “Funny, you saw me last week, Donnie,” she told him, trying to be polite. The man was a hot-winded blowhard who owned a used car lot off Main Street. He also fancied himself to be a ladies’ man. He edged his belly closer to her. The buttons from his waistcoat screamed out in pain trying to hold the fabric together under the strain of his large gut.

  “I was thinking, if you are free Friday night, we can get together and maybe download a show to ‘da Netflix,” he said.

  Her eyebrows shot up. “I don’t watch TV, Donnie. I’m reading this great new book by Ruth Ware. Are you familiar with that author?”

  “Naw...I can’t say that I am,” he mumbled.

  “Are you a reader, Donnie? Because books are my new thing,” she said. It wasn’t a total lie. It was a new thing she was beginning to enjoy. After dinner, she did plan to finish the novel so she could be ready to discuss it with Holden on Wednesday.

  “I’m not a book reader,” he confessed.

  “Then, I am so sorry, Donnie. You and I would have so little to talk about,” she told him. For good measure she gave his hand the pity pat before walking away.

  The big-bellied blowhard didn’t spoil her mood, which was quickly noticed over dinner at the all you can eat food trough her father loved to drag them to every second Sunday. For some reason, every single black man in Venture believed themselves to be her last chance for a husband and children. She was stepping into this feeling of power, understanding that it was okay to say no. I don’t need to go out with someone as a tester. I don’t need to feel as if I am doing something wrong by enjoying my life as it currently stands. I am okay being me. Hester Strom picked up on the difference in her daughter immediately.

  “Whatever you’re doing, it’s working for you, Tallulah. You appear so relaxed. Dare I say...you seem happy,” Hester said to her.

  “Mom, I am learning to feel my power,” she said with a smile.

  “That’s good, dear,” he mother said and patted her leg. “I hope your power brings a nice engagement ring when he comes back over.”

  Monday and Tuesday dragged like mol
asses on a cold sidewalk in downtown Atlanta in the middle of January. Holden was seen talking to himself several times as he stood in front of the jewelry counter at the strip mall, looking at ruby rings. Each ring seemed duller than the last.

  “I’m sorry, Joey. I’m going to have to go to Valdosta to the mall to get something,” he told the guy behind the counter.

  “I have some catalogs in the back, Holden,” Joey said with his slow Southern drawl. “We could order you something. Chuckie Robinson also makes custom pieces that I sometimes feature in the store.”

  “Yeah, but you feature his stuff during Halloween. I’ll head to the mall. Thanks, Joey,” Holden said to him after he dropped off his supply of special herbs. He also left Joey a detoxifying tea so he could pass the frequent drug screenings his boss liked to give him. Holden had to get moving. For some odd reason, his father chose today for additional bonding time.

  Bert Cimoc sat in the vehicle, waiting for his son. Sunday was the only day he got to spend any real time with his eldest boy. Today, he decided to ride with him on the deliveries. Something was off with Holden and Bert wanted to know what it was.

  “Are you having sexual relations, Holden?” his father asked him.

  “Dad, I have been having sex for a while now,” Holden answered.

  “What?”

  “Dad, seriously, I’m about to turn 27. I’ve been around the block a few times,” he told his father.

  “Yes, but it appears you are in a new neighborhood. I sense something off in your Xi. This woman, she is very powerful. I can feel that your energy is low,” Bert said to his son.

  Holden sat in the truck, not certain how to explain it but then he realized he was an adult and there was nothing to explain.

  “I’m good, Dad,” he told Bert. “I think she may even be the one.”

  “If that’s the case, I can’t wait to meet her,” Bert said, happily staring out the window as Holden rolled him towards home. “I’m looking forward to some grandbabies.”

  I can’t wait to see her again myself.

  Two o’clock approached faster than he’d hoped, but he still needed to get to the mall. The deliveries were made in record time with Holden nearly dumping his father on the sidewalk in front of their home. Alice Cimoc stood on the front porch, taking a good look at the worn down structure covered in graphitized images of time long forgotten. It needed some fresh paint to cover all the peace signs.