A few hours later the two young women arrived at Keryn's apartment with two bottles of Italian Merlot. They entered to find C.J. at work in the kitchen with a variety of pots going on the stove.
"Holy shit," Stacey said, when she walked in. "He's your new cook."
"Oh!" C.J. said with a smile. His usually tousled hair was washed and neat, and he was wearing Keryn's kitchen apron over his black t-shirt and jeans. "Hi! I'm making spaghetti."
Keryn came in behind Stacey. "We wanted to see if you wanted to join us out somewhere for a drink. But you're cooking."
"Yeah. Nothing fancy. But if you guys want to eat first, that would be perfect because I made too much for two people." He extended his hand toward Stacey. "I'm C.J."
"I'm impressed," she replied. "Stacey." She smiled at Keryn. "We'd love to stay for some spaghetti. I'll find a corkscrew." C.J. turned his attention back to the stove. "He's hot," Stacey silently mouthed to Keryn, who shrugged.
C.J. had vegetables going in one pan and he added them to the sauce, mixed everything up, and had dinner served ten minutes later. They sat down at Keryn's dining table and started eating.
"This is really good," Keryn said.
"Thanks."
"Are you a big time cook?" Stacey asked. "Like, your own recipes and stuff?"
C.J. shook his head. "The sauce is out of a jar. This is a four dollar meal. The trick is to put zucchini in it. It makes it look fancy."
Keryn speared a piece of zucchini on her fork. "Clever."
The three of them finished the meal and quickly cleaned up, and then Stacey and Keryn took C.J. out to a local brew pub. It was a nice place, full of rich, highly polished wood and brass. He ordered a pint of local draught, and the girls got gin martinis.
There was still a level of awkwardness between Keryn and her brother, which Stacey thankfully broke by asking a never ending stream of questions which propelled the conversation along. Any girlfriends? A few, nothing lasting longer than a year or two. Any plans to stay in New York? Maybe, if he starts making money. Any plans to find a girlfriend here? Maybe, but that's hardly the priority.
Stacey talked and talked, and as the gin got into her, she steered the conversation toward sex more and more often, to the point that Keryn and C.J. were exchanging amused glances and laughing to each other during Stacey's monologues.
Later in the evening the bar turned up the music and opened a small dance floor near the back. Stacey, who had had a lot to drink, got up and started dancing by herself. Keryn and C.J. stayed at the table and watched her.
"She's a lot of fun," C.J. said.
"Yeah, she keeps things entertaining."
"So, how about you?" C.J. asked.
Keryn looked at him. "How about me what?"
"Do you have a boyfriend?"
"Oh!" She laughed. "Um. Sort of. There's a guy I've been seeing. We've been together for a while, but it's never gotten too terribly serious."
"How come?"
Keryn smiled and rolled her eyes. "I don't know. We're both very busy people, so we don't see each other very often. I guess that keeps the relationship from getting too serious. And we're... I don't know. We get along, but I'm not sure there's a deep connection. We're casual at this point."
He nodded. "Yeah, I know how that can go. I hope things work out for you. You seem really cool. I know that might sound weird to say. I was pretty worried about coming to stay with you, you know, because of how we were sometimes as kids." He looked her in the eye. "I'm glad I came. I'm glad I'm able to meet you as an adult."
Keryn smiled. "I feel the same way. You know, I almost feel like I don't know you at all, it's like a totally fresh start."
"Yeah. You can call me your new brother."
They went home not long after. Stacey got a cab and disappeared into the night, and Keryn and C.J. found themselves alone in her darkened apartment. "What now?" he asked. "There's still wine."
"Oh, not for me," she said. "I'm back up early in the morning. "Hang out as late as you want though. I've got to go to bed."
"Okay," he said. "I guess I'll crash too. Greg is supposed to call me tomorrow morning."
They each did their evening routines, taking turns in the bathroom. Before she closed her bedroom door, Keryn gave C.J. a kiss on the cheek. "Good night, new brother," she said, and slipped into her room, closing the door behind her. She turned out the light and crawled into bed. In the darkness, she could hear him softly strumming his acoustic guitar until she fell asleep.
She got up early the next morning, made her green tea, and found that this time, C.J. was sleeping facing the living room. Keryn went back into her bedroom and slipped into her tiny blue yoga shorts and checked herself out in the full length mirror. She looked at herself from behind, appraising the toned legs and the sculpted behind. She bent over, trying to see what her crotch looked like when she was doing toe touches, with legs apart and together. She was trying to judge whether it would be too much, if he were to wake up while she was exercising and see her from behind in the little shorts. Eventually she decided to switch into a pair of baggier sweatpants, with a t-shirt instead of the sports bra.
C.J. was still asleep when she lay out the mat. She put in the disc and performed the routine, twisting herself back and forth, spreading out, pushing back and forth, up and down. Occasionally she would look back to check if he was still sleeping, but his eyes were always closed. Even so, it felt a little weird, like he was still somehow watching her through his eyelids.
When she finished she went into the bathroom to shower up, and before she came back out in her towel, she opened the door just a crack and peaked out. She could see him on the couch from there. His eyes were still closed, but he didn't look like he was sleeping now. His brow was furrowed and his face looked slightly red. His blanket was pulled up around his neck, and he seemed to be moving under the covers. What was he up to?
She decided on the robe instead of just a bath towel wrapped around her, and she came out, gliding directly into the bedroom without a word.
They exchanged banalities over breakfast, and nothing was said about the yoga or afterwards. She went to work, and again that night he was out when she got home. He returned around ten and they talked for a while about the music work he was doing with his friend Greg. It looked positive, and he liked the material they were coming up with. He didn't know how fast things would move, but he was sure that he would be able to build a career here.
Thursday's routine was similar. She woke early and performed a yoga routine in front of him, often looking back over her shoulder, but never catching him with an open eye. "It's in my head," she kept saying to herself. The two ate breakfast together, and didn't see each other until the late evening, when they shared some wine and had a good chat about how things were. She talked about her work, her life. He talked about his music career, and how much he was loving this opportunity. And they talked about how easy it was for them to co-exist now.
"We should go out this weekend," he said. "Or sometime. Dinner, a club, whatever. You would know where to go, right? I feel like celebrating, you know, this. Us. How well it's going for us."
She smiled. "I like that. Yeah, we definitely should. Oh, not tomorrow night though. I'm seeing Bryce."
"Bryce?"
"The guy I told you about? The casual boyfriend?"
"Oh, right," he said. "That's cool. I think Greg is going to see some bands play with his buddies tomorrow. I'll catch up with them."
Chapter Three: Brother's In Town
The date with Bryce was typical. They went to a restaurant and had a drink in the lounge, then took a table. As always, Bryce ate steak and drank whiskey. He talked about his work in corporate governance, they talked about city politics, city events, city celebrities, and so on. They were two New Yorkers on a date. They had little in common except for the city they lived in, but in New York, that was enough. New York provided a lot of conversation material.
After dinner they went to a bar and ha
d another drink. They talked and people watched, and then got a cab back to Keryn's apartment.
Their relationship was fairly simple. They each got what they wanted from it, and they didn't like each other enough to progress any further. Love was never mentioned. But they both wanted nice meals out, pleasant company over drinks, and they both wanted to have sex every few weeks without serious strings attached. And they were compatible enough in bed.
They got into her apartment. It was dark. There was no sign of C.J. "My brother's in town," she told Bryce, "but he's out seeing some bands. He should be back late."
"No problem," he replied. "But just to be sure, we'll skip the sixty-nine on the breakfast bar."
"Right," she laughed politely at his bad joke and led him into the bedroom. She closed the door behind her and turned on the small desk lamp for a little illumination. Then she began to undress.
Keryn was a beautiful woman, with a proud, intelligent face, and a graceful, elegant body. She shrugged the straps of her black cocktail dress off her shoulders and slid the garment down, over her full breasts, down her smooth belly, and past her hips. It dropped to the floor, and she stepped toward Bryce in only her black bra and matching thong.
Bryce was not a big man. He was just below average height, and although he was thin, his eating habits and lifestyle choices were beginning to give him a small gut, which stood out on his little frame. He took off his glasses and set them on her desk, pulled off his tie, and stepped to meet her in a kissing embrace.
His hands ran up and down her flawless back, stroking her body before honing in on the hooks holding her bra on. He fumbled and then opened them, and she let the article slip to the floor. Meanwhile, she worked her way down the buttons on the front of his shirt, pushing it back off of him. Then he grabbed her roughly by the shoulders and guided her to the bed.
As well as not being a big man, Bryce was not confident or aggressive. In his developmental years he had always been easily intimidated, and had always been especially afraid of beautiful women. From this fear grew his fetish for domination, and after they'd been sleeping together for a while, he gently suggested that they try a little role playing while they made love.
Keryn, a fearless, feisty, aggressive woman in most situations, played along with him. She trusted Bryce, and wasn't afraid of him in the slightest, so being submissive to him was easy and fun. Plus, he fucked her until she came anyway, and since there was no danger of being locked into a long term relationship, she played along willingly enough.
Bryce's big thing was dirty talk. He was the kid in high school who couldn't talk to the pretty girls, and so for some reason he decided they were sluts if they ever went out with any guy who actually had the balls to ask them out. He released these repressed feelings with Keryn by telling her how much of a slut she was, and constantly reminding her how much she loved cock. There was never any mention of this until the bedroom door was closed, but after that, it was pretty constant.
He got on top her on the bed and began kissing down her neck, working his way to her breasts. As he moved, he began to talk. "God, you're so hot. All the boys love you, don't they? All the boys love these beautiful big tits." He squeezed her breasts, kissing and sucking the nipple of one and then the other. "You love to have your tits sucked, don't you? Yeah, you love it."
Keryn removed her thong and Bryce got down between her legs, and as he went down on her, he carried on his monologue of rhetorical questions. "What a beautiful fucking pussy. Every guy in your class licked this pussy, didn't they? Yeah, you know how to make the boys like you, don't you? If you want a boy to like you, you just let him lick you pussy and then you'd suck his cock, wouldn't you? Because you love cock, don't you? You have to have it all the time..."
By this time he'd worked his way out of his pants and underwear, and he moved up to bring his cock up to Keryn's face. "I know what you need," he said, breathing hard. "You need a cock in your mouth right now."
She took his penis in hand and took the head between her lips, slowly sucking the bell inside her mouth. The slut and cock and pussy talk didn't offend her. It was almost comedic, and she knew why Bryce liked it, so she went along with it. Although in any other situation it would have made her explode in indignation, with Bryce it was just silly and sexy. And he hadn't crossed any lines yet. Until he did, she would play along with his little game.
"Oh, suck that cock, you fucking slut," he gasped. "Oh, you're the best cock-sucker in town. You've sucked thousands of cocks, haven't you? You have to suck a lot of cocks to get that good at it. But you want that cock in your pussy now, don't you? You need to get your pussy fucked by cocks every day and every night, right? I'd better let you have this cock right now."
He slid down on top of her and mounted, working his way in. The physical reactions played out by themselves, and his hard pumping began to get her going. She was wet and his rhythm was getting her hot, but at the same time, it was a little dull. The same routine of positions, and the same sophomoric dick and pussy talk. She suddenly wished she'd gone to see some stupid bands play with C.J. instead.
Bryce was carrying on with his routine, explaining how she'd fucked every boy in her school and how she liked to get fucked by big gangs of men at the same time, starting from when she was in high school. She had no idea how he'd been so traumatized by high school that he had to bring it up two hundred times every time he had sex.
"Tell me," he said, as he rode on top of her, "how did you get to be such a slut? I just don't understand. How can you be such a slut?"
"Get off it," she said.
"What?"
"I said get off it," she repeated. "That's enough. Knock it off."
"That mouth is for sucking cock, you bitch."
"That's it, get off!" she said, and she pushed at his face, trying to force him off of her.
"What the-- you fucking slut!" To both of their surprise, Bryce raised his hand and slapped her across the cheek.
What happened next was a bit blurry in the darkened room, but the bedroom door was suddenly kicked open, and C.J. stormed in, yelling like a bull ape, rushing the bed with a flurry of punches. He grabbed Bryce by the head and yanked him backwards, then wrestled him into a headlock and dragged him out of the bedroom, across the living room, and out the door of the apartment into the hallway. Bryce, who was naked, tried to rush back inside, but C.J. punched him squarely in the forehead, sending the smaller man flying into the wall across from the door.
C.J. slammed the door, and then went into Keryn's bedroom and retrieved Bryce's things, grabbing them up in an armload and then throwing them out into the hallway.
The last thing they heard out of Bryce was a shout: "Who was that guy?"
C.J. returned to Keryn's bedroom door. She was still on her bed, but she'd pulled the sheet up to cover her naked body. She looked at him as he stood at the door. "Are you okay?" he asked.
"What the fuck was that?" she said.
"What the-- what?"
"Were you standing at the fucking door? Were you listening? How did you get in here so fast?"
"I-- I just got back. I just got in, and the first thing I heard sounded like commotion. Then I heard you shout, and a slap. I guess I kind of snapped."
"I guess you kind of did," she said. "Look, I appreciate that you think you were trying to help, but that was a massive overstep of boundaries. I can take care of myself, and I already told you that you'll respect the privacy of this bedroom."
He looked down at the floor. "You're right. I'm sorry. I was trying to do the right thing, but I'm sorry for interfering. If I can just say this one thing though. I heard some of the stuff he was saying when I came in, and I'm glad I threw him out of here. You shouldn't have anyone in your life talk to you like that. Sorry."
He closed the door behind him, leaving her alone in the dark.
Keryn sat, wondering what to make of it all. If nothing else, she was now done with Bryce, and the whole incident had saved her the trouble of having t
o break up with him. And the slap hadn't hurt much. It was the fact of the slap that hurt more than anything.
And how had C.J. come in so fast? She didn't buy it that he had just walked in the apartment. He arrived a split second after Bryce hit her. He must have been at the door. Could he have been listening? Could part of his rage at Bryce been motivated by jealousy?
It was hard for her to get to sleep. She eventually slipped on her pajamas and slipped out into the kitchen for a drink. She could see C.J. He was on the couch with the blanket pulled up. He was wide awake. He looked over at her.
"You okay?" she asked.
"Yeah. It's taking a while for the adrenaline to get out of my system."
Keryn smiled. She walked over to the couch and knelt down. She kissed him on the cheek, and smoothed his hair with her fingertips. "I didn't say thank you. So, thank you."
He smiled, and Keryn got up and got her water from the kitchen. She managed to get to sleep, and when she woke up in the morning, she peaked out of her bedroom door. C.J. was still asleep on the couch, facing out into the room. She made her green tea, picked out her yoga DVD, and then pulled on the tight little yoga shorts that rode up her ass. She looked in the mirror again. They were so tight they were like blue skin on her bottom.
Who cares if he sees? she thought to herself. Who cares if he looks? She went into the living room and inserted the disc, spread out the mat, and even though she could feel his eyes on her, she faced the TV and stood with her legs shoulder-width apart and began to stretch.
Partway through the routine she was bending over, twisting herself half around, and basically jamming her ass toward him. She looked down under her armpit so she could see him. His eyes were open. He was watching her.
"Good morning," she said brightly.
"Good morning," he answered with a shy smile.
Chapter Four: No Big Deal
Keryn was in a ball room. It was huge and dark, and was decorated for some kind of event, but nothing was happening. Nobody was around.
Into Her Life: (The Complete Taboo Story of Forbidden Love) Page 2