by K. Lyn
“Leah, come in.” Camden pulled her inside and pulled her to him in a bear hug. Leah remembered the clean scent of his cologne and how it contrasted with the stale beer aroma that filled Jack’s little apartment. Camden kissed her as if they had never been apart, but Leah pulled back a little. Camden ignored her hesitation and led her into the kitchen where he was marinating prime cuts of steak. “It won’t be long now,” he promised, as he pulled her arm around him. “I missed you, Leah.” Leah smiled weakly. Camden seemed anxious or edgy and she didn’t know how to react to him. He was all over the place, it seemed. He struggled with the bottle of wine and when he couldn’t open it, he flung it across the room, shattering glass and spraying everything in its path with red liquid. “Fuck! Damn bottles.”
Leah stepped away from him as he slammed his fist into the wall. The kitchen looked like it had been the unfortunate site of a bloody massacre when everything had settled, with red streaks down the walls and shards of glass on the floor. She heard Camden laugh as he tried to salvage the dinner. The steaks were beginning to burn and Leah slowly reached over and turned the fire to off. “What’s wrong with you? The steaks were fine.”
It was the first time that Camden had ever raised his voice to her, and Leah slowly backed away. Camden followed her down the hallway and into his bedroom. He lifted her in his arms as if to cradle her, but instead he tossed her onto the bed. “Wine on my new spread, Leah? That was a gift.” He continued to scold her as he undid the buttons on her blouse, smoothing his hands along her breasts and taking the blouse from her body, tossing the wine stained garment onto the floor. “Mmm, a red bra. I know what that means.”
“It’s the wine, Camden. It stained my bra.”
“So I ruined your bra, did I? It’s all my fault, is it?”
“No, that’s not what I meant.”
The hands that Leah remembered as loving and gentle were now rough and demanding. Her breasts were exposed, and Camden pulled the fleshy mounds into his mouth, looking up into her eyes. “I know you didn’t mean it, Leah. You want me, don’t you?” He forced a hand into her pants, causing her body to tingle with desire. Leah could not deny her desire for this man, and she slid the zipper down and quickly wiggled out of her best dress slacks. “Mmm, someone wants me,” he bragged as he opened her pussy lips with a finger. The usually assured man was now clumsy in his efforts at lovemaking. “Camden, slow down,” she moaned.
Camden stopped and stared into the eyes of the woman who had whispered doubt in his ability to make love. “Slow down? Why? You don’t want me? I don’t make you cream?” He shoved a finger deep inside of her and Leah grabbed his wrist and began making slow movements to show him how to please her. She assumed that he was drunk or high and she tried to calm him down. Camden seemed hurt by Leah’s encouragement and he pulled her off of the bed.
“Camden, what are you doing?”
“Get out! Get out of my house!” He threw her pants at her, tore her shirt before tossing it to her, keeping her wine soaked bra as well as her panties from her.
“Can….can I have those?”
“These?” He ran his tongue along the crotch of her panties and then shoved them into his mouth. When he pulled them out slowly, he cursed her, saying, “You’re not man enough for me, Leah.” He tossed her undergarments at her and Leah ran down the hall, grabbed her purse, and fled to the protection of the car. Camden stumbled on his way out of the house to beg her forgiveness. Leah hated to leave the obviously upset man, but she couldn’t stay…at least not tonight. She pulled on her torn blouse as she peeled out of the driveway and she struggled to get into her slacks and maintain a hand on the wheel as she drove.
When Leah dared to look into the rearview mirror, she could see Camden’s house in the distance. He had not followed her as she feared he would, and she drove back into the city. She caught a glimpse of herself in the rearview mirror and she knew she couldn’t go back to the dorm looking the way she did. Her hair had specks of red in it and her blouse barely covered her naked breasts. She looked like she had been in a play or had just left a bar after a really wild night. She tried not to cry. She blamed herself. She never should have gone. She drove around campus for awhile, trying to figure out what to do. Britni would ask a million questions and she had no answers for her. Then she thought of Jack. He had told her not to come to him unless she was ready to be his. She didn’t know if she was ready to be anyone’s, but she missed him.
With nowhere to go, she parked in the alley behind Jack’s apartment and waited for him. The apartment was dark and she knew it would be late when he returned, but she was willing to wait. She couldn’t walk into the bar dressed the way she was. Jack would call the police and have Camden arrested, assuming the worst. She fumbled around in the backseat and found an old sweater of Britni’s lying on the floor. Pulling it over her shoulders, she locked the doors and lay down in the front seat. Hunched in the corner on the front seat, she tried to stay awake, knowing that Jack would come home eventually. She couldn’t believe what she had witnessed tonight. Camden, her first lover, had been so different. He wasn’t the sweet gentle lover she had remembered. He was rough and crude, saying hurtful things to her, screaming at her, and trying to blame her for the littlest things. She thought of what might have happened had she not left his house when she did. Would they have made love? She wasn’t even sure she wanted him any longer. Maybe he would have calmed down, but then, maybe not. He had said that she was not man enough. How could she be? She was a woman. She heard laughter in the alley and she slid down onto the floor. Peeking out from behind a corner of the sweater, she noticed a man and a woman holding hands and laughing. Her heart pounded as she waited for Jack, hoping that he would be home soon. She hated the dark and it was creepy in the alley. She was gripped with fear, as if Camden were attacking her again and again.
Leah fell asleep and dreamed of a man’s hands at her neck, choking her, screaming at her, and pulling at her clothes. She tried desperately to get him to stop, screaming at him, and shouting for someone to help her. Her eyes popped open in fear when she heard pounding at her window.
“Open the door, Leah.”
She didn’t recognize the voice at first and she screamed with as much force as she could. Huddled beneath the sweater, she waited for her certain death. The car door opened and a man got in.
“Leah, get up.”
“No.”
It was then that Jack noted real fear in Leah’s voice. He stretched out on the front seat and slowly lifted the sweater from her face. “Leah, listen to me. It’s Jack. What are you doing here?” Her big eyes were blank and Jack noticed the few flecks of red in her hair. “Are you bleeding?”
Leah touched her face. “No.”
Taking the sweater off of her, Jack noticed her torn shirt that appeared to be splattered with blood. “Leah, will you come inside with me? I won’t hurt you, I promise.”
The realization that this man was a friend and not a foe finally sank in and Leah gradually came up off of the floor. The buttons had been popped off of her blouse, exposing her breasts, and Jack wrapped the sweater around her. He held her closely and walked her to the door of his apartment. “Down the steps,” he urged, as he opened the door. As soon as the door opened, Leah escaped from his grasp and ran to the sofa, cowering in a small corner against the armrest.
“Leah, who did this to you?”
Leah said nothing. “If you don’t tell me, I will call the police.”
Leah slowly sat up, holding onto her roommate’s sweater as if her life depended on it. “It’s wine.”
Jack opened the sweater and rolled his eyes in disbelief. “Wine…all over you? Really, Leah? Are you going to tell me what happened?”
“I went there for dinner, but he was different, odd, as if his mind was going in a million different directions. He couldn’t open the wine and so he threw the bottle against the wall and it shattered.”
“Are you cut, Leah?”
“No, but I
thought he was going to burn the house down. The smoke was thick in the kitchen until I turned down the steaks. But then he became angry with me and followed me into the hallway and to his bedroom.”
Jack swallowed hard. “Then what, Leah?”
“He tore my shirt and then things got out of hand.”
“Out of hand? Leah, did he hurt you?”
“No, no, nothing like that. He said some things. That’s all.”
“What things?”
“He said I wasn’t man enough, and that if I was a real woman I would be enough for him.” Leah closed her eyes and waited for Jack to order her to leave. She had no right to be there, to dump this on him, but she had nowhere else to go.
She felt the sweater being taken gently from her and strong arms lifting her up. She was laid upon a bed and her torn shirt taken off of her. The dress pants were slid down her slender legs and a gentle hand held her waist. Jack lay down beside her and kissed her lips. His voice was comforting yet sensual and seductive. Leah’s breasts responded to this man’s touch like no other man. She swung her leg over him, begging for his touch. Her wetness pooled for this man and she pulled at his jeans. He did not deny her his body. He never had and he never would. He was full and hard as he waited for her to take him.
“You are more than enough woman, Leah,” he moaned, as he pulled her onto him.
Leah took him like a woman, seducing him with her eyes and pleasuring him with her body. She opened her womanly folds to accept him, all of him, giving to him as he had given to her. She fucked him like a woman, meeting thrust after thrust, taking him to the edge and back, until he held her tightly to him and filled her. Leah gasped as she climaxed, electric pulsations spreading throughout her body like a fire out of control. Jack pulled her to him, forcing her body to become one with his. She was his now and only his. As he held her, he could feel her body relaxing, submitting to him and only him.
Not much sun made its way into the small garden level apartment, but the thin ray that hit Leah’s face woke her instantly. She looked up at the kind and gentle man who lay beneath her. His eyes were closed and with the beam of sunlight on his cheek he appeared as an angel. She kissed him, startling him from his peaceful slumber.
“Am I dreaming?”
“No,” she cooed. Leah could wake up like this every day, with Jack’s massive cock deep inside of her. She made circles around his right nipple with the tip of her index finger. “Doesn’t it ever go soft?” She was embarrassed to ask, but she was honestly curious. They were supposed to…after…weren’t they?
Jack curled a wave of Leah’s hair around a finger. “It is soft.”
Leah turned her head just enough to see his eyes looking down at her. “Uh, uh. Is not.”
He pushed into just enough to prove his point. “It doesn’t move as well as it did last night.”
Leah was surprised, but she felt very lucky.
“You want it to grow to twice its size when it’s hard?”
“No,” she said, her eyes as big as saucers. “Where would I put it?”
With Leah wrapped in his arms, Jack rolled her over and kissed her deeply. He scooted upward, moving deeper into her. He looked at her and waited until she opened her eyes. “Notice the difference.”
“Ohh, yes,” she moaned, adjusting for Jack’s enlarging manhood demanding its space. This man knew how to satisfy her. She could fake nothing with him. He made her gasp and moan, pant and scream as she climaxed on his massive cock. He pumped her slow and hard until she reached the pinnacle. He could take her to the edge and bring her to climax when he did. She didn’t want to leave that morning, but she knew she had to go.
“Leah, do you remember what I said when we returned from Galveston?” He had to set things straight before he let her go.
“Yes.”
“I mean it, Leah. No games. You’re not a child.”
“I know.”
After she had dressed, borrowing a shirt from him, she opened the door to leave but she turned around and said, “Can I come back tonight?”
“I expect you to.”
Leah smiled a little uneasily, and drove to campus. Britni was gone by the time she returned to the dorm, giving her time to get rid of her torn shirt and wash the red wine out of her hair. She had only one class on Thursday but she skipped it today, the first time she had ever missed a class. With midterms next week, she knew it was risky, but her mind was on other matters. She and Jack had not discussed their arrangement, or what time he expected her that night. Nervously, she called the bar but was told that Jack was not working that day. When she called his apartment, he didn’t answer until the fourth ring.
“Jack?”
“Hey, Leah. What’s up?”
“You said you wanted me to come over tonight.”
“I believe I said that I expected you to come over tonight.”
“What time?”
“I’m not working today, so anytime is fine. You need a ride?”
Leah didn’t know the answer to that question, or at least not the correct answer. “Um, I guess.”
“Be right there. Pack a bag.” She heard a click and he was gone.
Leah packed a bag and waited. She left a note for Britni and then tried not to bite her nails as she paced the floor. The knock was expected but it scared the shit out of her. She grabbed her stuff and opened the door. Jack took her bag but offered little in the way of conversation.
Once inside the car, Leah asked, “What did I do now?”
Knowing what the young woman had already been through with Camden’s many moods, Jack took a deep breath and sighed. “Nothing, Leah. It’s me. I need to confess something to you.”
“Sounds serious. What is it?”
“It would be better to show you.” He took her hand in his, and they drove out of the city.
When Leah realized they were coming very close to the cemetery where Camden’s lover had been laid to rest, she was ready to pounce. “Why did you bring me here? Is this a setup?”
“No, Leah. I know that Conrad was buried here. Bear with me, okay?”
Leah nodded. What choice did she have? The old cemetery looked little better in the daytime than it had at night and it still gave her the creeps. “What are we doing here, Jack? Please tell me.”
The pleading eyes touched something deep inside Jack. They always did. He stopped the car and asked Leah to come with him. “Trust me, Leah.”
Leah saw hurt in the eyes of the usually cocky man, but something had changed last night. He had let down his guard.
Jack led her to a gravesite at the opposite end of the cemetery from Conrad’s. “Her name was Shauna. She died two years ago.”
Leah’s eyes locked on the familiar last name on the tombstone. McCormick was chiseled in big bold letters. “Who was she…to Conrad?”
Jack pulled a few weeds as he spoke. “To Conrad she was a sister.”
“And to you?”
“She was my girlfriend.”
“So you knew Conrad.”
“I knew him a little, mostly through Shauna. Conrad was in San Antonio most of the time.”
“With Camden, right?”
“The two of them had a house there, yes.” Jack stopped pulling weeds and stood to face Leah.
She knew he had more to say, but she didn’t know where the conversation was going. “Why am I here, Jack? Why are we here?”
“Shauna was murdered, Leah. She went to the site of Conrad’s murder one night. She said she had to see for herself. It was before they were caught…the murderers. They were waiting there for Camden. It was dark and foggy that night and Shauna was mistaken for Camden.”
“Camden was supposed to die but he was long gone, and you blame him for Shauna’s death.”
Jack pulled Leah close to him and kissed her sweet lips. “No, Leah. I don’t blame Camden for Shauna’s death. It wasn’t easy at first, to see Camden living and going on with his life, but he is suffering still and Shauna is not. I don’t
wish Camden unhappiness.”
“Does he know?”
“No, Leah, Camden does not know about the mistaken identity. To this day he does not know how Shauna died, and he must never know.”
“Why not? He’s not who you thought he was. He’s a bastard!”
“No, Leah, he’s not the man you thought he was. I saw the hurt in Conrad’s eyes whenever Camden went off on one of his ‘sprees’ I guess you could call them. Camden tried to be true to Conrad but it’s hard to be true to someone when you aren’t true to yourself. Camden is bisexual.”
Leah bit her lip. She hated to hear the word. She could have accepted gay, but bi?! That meant that he had rejected her, but not all women.
“What is it, Leah?”
Leah turned and headed for the car. Jack let her go, following a short distance behind her. She kicked at rocks in her way, making them fly. She opened the door of Jack’s car and slid across the seat. When Jack sat down behind the wheel, she grabbed his hand. “How many?”
“Excuse me?”
“How many women has Camden had?”
“I don’t know, Leah. Camden is a volcano. Sometimes he’s quiet and sometimes he erupts, which is what you witnessed at the beach and also at his house. I heard about some of his indiscretions from Shauna, which is why I came down so hard on you. I couldn’t go through it again. I won’t go through it again. When I realized you were torn, I bailed. I had to do it, Leah.”
“You gave me an ultimatum.”
“Yes I did, and I will do it again.”
“It doesn’t matter. He doesn’t want me anyway.”
“Maybe not now, but he will some day. But you aren’t Conrad. I saw the hurt in your eyes and you aren’t willing to live with part of a man, are you? You also are unwilling to be the other woman, tossed by the wayside when convenient and picked up again when Camden is lonely.”
Leah held her hands in her lap, fidgeting. “You’re right.”
They left the cemetery in silence, Leah trying to digest everything she had heard, and Jack remembering some of the tumultuous times of his past. As the lights of the city grew brighter, Leah asked, “Does Camden know that…”