Crushing (The Southern California Wine Country Series)

by Smith, J Gordon

  Benjamin moved his hands around her jeans, digging his fingers over the top edge, following it around to the front. He tipped his torso away to make space to unbutton her pants. Her hands slid between his and undid his clanging belt and button on his khakis. The zipper ground down as she opened them. Each nub of the zipper ratchet made Benjamin’s body sway. She slowed the pace as she neared the bottom of the zipper’s run.

  Benjamin had flailed open her pants and pushed them down over the arc of her bottom. Haley dropped her leg and wiggled her hips against Benjamin so her pants lowered to her feet. She lifted each foot out of the crumpled clothing, using the movement to slip out of her shoes. She had debated wearing panties but she did and Benjamin now slipped his fingers over her smoothly shaved legs. The black silk panties were unmistakably feminine and sexy but built to take a soaking. Benjamin tugged the panties down her body, the delicate elastic slowly ruffling her cropped hairs into excitement and she squeezed her legs together. Benjamin lifted her thigh to bring her foot out of the panties. Haley gasped when the chill air hit the heat and the wetness now exposed. He set her leg down and lifted the other thigh until her panties dangled from the end of his finger and free of her body. His other hand followed the contours of her body and slipped low against her heat. Her knees wobbled and her eyelids closed as he met her first unfulfilled desire.

  Haley pushed Benjamin’s trousers and boxers away, unloosing his length so it bobbed hot and firm against her thigh. Haley pushed with her hands against his stomach muscles. She kissed him and pushed him backward. He stumbled free of his pants and redirected her hand lower while sliding his hand around the small of her back. She felt her panties snagged around his wrist but the fabric tickled her bottom in an unexpected thrill. She squeezed his dick and Benjamin moaned. She tugged him toward her and slipped the front edge of herself over the top flange of his penis, like sliding along a heated rail. The wetness, the heat, and the touch of her made his dick iron hard in her hand. She pushed him toward the leather couch in the living room but Benjamin bent away, causing him to slip from her hand and he scooped her up in his arms. He danced in the hallway using his feet to take his socks off and then proceeded deeper into the house to his bedroom. He kicked the bed covers to the side with a sweep of his foot and laid Haley down. His hand pulled out from under her, the elastic of her panties stretched, pinched between her and the mattress and sheets, until his hand slipped free. The snap of the panties against her hip like a sharp spank only drilled passion through her hot center like a spike. She really wanted a spike. A whole railroad of spikes and hammers. Guys with thick arms and muscular bodies hammering away at her. “I want you in me. Now!”

  Benjamin pushed her legs apart, her knees bent practically to her nipples where he had laid her at the edge of the bed. He gripped one boob, flicked, and twisted a nipple as his arm captured the back of her knee. She felt his bicep against the back of her knee that whispered more sensation to the freely exposed seam in her body that needed to be abused and quenched. “Flop that cock on me. Yes. Rub it like that. Yes! Oh, yes!” Haley put her ankles on his shoulders and then tipped the sensitive skin on her inner ankles against his head. Another layer of rawness opened in her. Her hands flung out across the bed. She moaned, “Now in me! I want to hear you grunt!”

  Benjamin growled as his tip slid back, down, and dipped into her, a roller coaster pausing before the screaming plunge. He thrust deep and strong. Haley’s body tugged on him.

  He exclaimed, “What are you doing? Shit! How are you gripping me like that? Like molded hands squeezing and massaging me. You feel –”

  “Go deeper. Faster!”

  Benjamin struck deep, and then pulled out. Haley squealed when he repeated. A heavy freight locomotive trundling into a tunnel only then yanked back by massive rigs. The wheels spun, sparks shot from the undercarriage, the pistons pumped and the engines roared as the locomotive sped furiously back into the darkness, rail straight and hard.

  He pulled out and dropped his body back so his tongue lapped at her heat.

  Haley’s hands came down between her legs and twined in his hair, pulling his head toward her, “What are you doing? I want you in me.”

  “I won’t last with what you’re doing.”

  “And I won’t come with that ridiculousness.” She urged his body forward and wrapped her fingers around his penis. She massaged and squeezed him and then yanked him toward her pelvis and jammed him in herself like a wedge meant to burst the dam. Her legs wrapped around his hips and her heals dug into his back. Haley shrieked and her body exploded in waves, every muscle tight against every other as her hips bucked uncontrolled.

  Haley pushed Benjamin’s shoulder and rolled him over onto his back. She cinched her knee over and pulled herself on top. She guided him into her. Her hips moved up and down; swiveling, twisting, and grinding against him like a maniacally devious belly dancer. Her breasts dangled before Benjamin’s face as she supported herself forward on her arms. She whispered in his ear as he licked and sucked on a breast, “Tell me when you are getting close.” Benjamin could only moan. She felt his body inching closer to that point. His hands held her bottom and rubbed it. He spanked her hard. The burn striking though her, she moaned “Again!” He spanked her with a welt-inducing strike and her body coiled explosively. Benjamin cried out, “Close!” She forced her body to move as the passion and reflexes still controlled her being. She slid down and engulfed all of his cock in her mouth. She moved up and down, feeling it slide along the back of her tongue against her throat. She tickled the tip with her tongue until she felt his body warp and the taste of his hot fluid filled her mouth. She sucked on him as if drawing snakebite poison out of his system until his body relaxed on the bed. She moved up and lay next to him.

  “You are amazing, Haley,” Benjamin’s fingers stroked along her shoulder and her back, following the contour of her body. Smooth and lovely. His fingers trolled across her waist, along her hip, and down her thigh, tracing around her tattoos.

  “You kept up; for an old guy.”

  “I’m probably the oldest guy you’ve been with?”

  “No, but a close second or third. It’s a trade since age gives experience and skill. You know how to push a hot button until the bell rings.” She smiled. “I might keep you on my list.”

  “You have a list?”

  “Of course – all the guys I like to bang. I figure I have about ten or twelve years of play before I have to get a serious list and invest in some dude on a permanent basis before this body starts coming apart.” Haley squeezed up her breasts with her hands and fondled her nipples in front of Benjamin’s gaze. “These are my 401k savings plans – guaranteed tax free returns for … years to come.” She giggled.

  “Practical, I guess.” Benjamin nodded, somewhat uncomfortable. “You never told me who you wanted to see at the hospital.”

  “This guy Kyle I know. He had a roofing job, the ladder slid under him, and he rode it down to the ground only to get shingles dropped on top of him. He must be doing better since they discharged him already.” Haley mumbled, “I bet that girl Amanda is pining after him.”

  An old memory, that Benjamin had forcefully hidden and mostly forgotten, bobbed uncontrolled to the surface. He squinted at the window.

  “You look like you remembered something old. What is it?”

  “Oh, it’s a popular name.” He waved his hand.

  “Amanda?”

  “Yes.” His head spun with the approximate dates with what he guessed Haley’s age. “The age might be right.” Benjamin stood up. That still left a lot of people and the Amanda he knew was a dozen states back there, where he left. “What does this Amanda look like?”

  “Your typical good girl with long pretty blond hair, brown eyes, and perky boobs. Scientists track them out here like cockroaches to the square mile.” She laughed at her play on the words. “Fucking cock roaches.” She laughed again, helped by the post sex nervous energy still coursing through her body li
ke a bundle of bees. She touched Benjamin’s arm. “She is probably saving herself for some young knight to forge her a magical ring and whisk her away to dreamy castles in the air.”

  “What is her last name?”

  “I have no fucking clue.” Haley pushed herself back in the bed until she leaned against the headboard, the sheet pulled up covering her breasts and clamped by her arms hard to flatten them. She wanted a cigarette now for being pissed and needing that drag and the taste of tar across her tongue. She rubbed the roof of her mouth with her tongue and drew in air. She still tasted the remnants of this man’s salty curd, now bitter with this discussion.

  “I want to meet her. How can we do that?”

  “That Amber Mountain bar wench is not mine to track down. In fact, she likely hates me.”

  “Why is that?”

  “We were at a party and I forced her into body shots with friends of mine. Then that is how she met Kyle. It was fun until I saw she liked him rescuing her. Like a fucking prince chasing a cock roach.”

  -:-:-:- -:-:-:-

  Ophelia said, “It’s nice you offered to take care of me, Benjamin.”

  “What else could I do? You cannot get around very well in casts on both legs, metal pins and rods holding your leg bones together, and one arm in a sling with its own rivets. You get some rest.” Benjamin flipped the light switch. “Good night.”

  “What’s this?” Ophelia said.

  Benjamin turned around and flipped the light back on, “What, honey?”

  “What is this?” Ophelia shouted, squirming in the bed to sit up, the stack of pillows moved behind her like sand and gave her less purchase to sit higher. She held up a pair of black lace underwear. “Did you have a woman in this bed while I was out? Jesus! I was in the hospital for three days and you needed a woman in here?”

  “Now settle down. You need your rest to heal.”

  “I’m not settling down. We were discussing children and here you have this other woman.” Ophelia threw the panties at Benjamin. The lace caused them to slow in the air and drop to the foot of the bed.

  “It’s not like that.”

  “You got scared I wanted more so you wanted to sabotage what we had?” She rocked in bed trying to get her legs over the edge of the mattress and onto the floor. “A hooker? Someone you picked up at the bar? Then you don’t even wash the sheets?”

  “She seduced me at the hospital.”

  “At the hospital? One of the nurses? What kind of man are you?”

  “No, not a nurse. I’m, I’m sorry.” Benjamin dropped his head. He snatched the panties from the bed and dropped them into the wastebasket. His sensitive nose picked up Haley’s lingering scent. Was it the smell awakening some primitive vestige of prehistoric instinct or just picturing the curves of Haley’s body or the trace of sensation from being inside her? He was not sure. His groin swirled with emotion looking for feeling, “I know it’s inexcusable.”

  “Take me to my apartment.”

  “Sure.”

  “Then we are done. I don’t want to see you ever again.”

  Benjamin nodded.

  -:-:-:- -:-:-:-

  Benjamin drove home from Ophelia’s apartment. His vehicle was quiet and the night remained clear. He passed a billboard that advertised a movie about a zombie apocalypse due out in six months, a corporation run sideways producing bio-engineered tattoo inks. A big glowing biohazard logo adorned the far end of the billboard. The image of Haley’s shoulder suddenly superimposed itself across the billboard just as he sped past. Haley had that same tattoo. The same tattoo that he saw on the naked girl’s shoulder fleeing from the car accident.

  “Shit!” Benjamin nearly swerved off the highway at eighty miles an hour. His rage boiled. “The police at the accident told me the driver of that car had stolen it from a party. Wanted for breaking and entering, auto theft, arson, and serving alcohol to possible minors.” Though everyone they had caught up to that point were college age they guessed a few must have slipped in there. Benjamin asked the empty vehicle. “What are you Haley? You seduce me after you nearly killed my girlfriend, which caused me to lose that girlfriend. I should turn you in to the police.” He hit his fist on the steering wheel. “Shit. I don’t even know where you live.” His body needed her again. “I’ll find you, fuck your brains out, and then call the cops. That would do it. Maybe Ophelia would take me back after I turn you in, too.”

  Chapter 12

  “You can’t be healed up already?” Bob said. He wore wide silver and turquoise bracelets, and a flannel shirt with arms and pockets ripped away at the seams. His scuffed up orange safety hat indicated his rank.

  Kyle pleaded, “I need the money. I don’t care what I do.”

  “I can’t risk having you fall off the ladder again. Can you even carry a bundle of shingles?”

  Kyle’s arm cradled his side. The tight wrap around his torso kept him together like a broken eggshell. He played at the winery the previous weekend and the weight of the guitar he built nearly became unbearable by the end of each night. He needed money to continue replacing their band equipment and something extra to eat. Amanda had created the need in his soul to get a stable job, so he could offer her something more than his broken body. “I need the money.”

  “Show me you can pick up that tool box. It’s about as heavy as a bundle.”

  Kyle reached down and gripped the handle. The bundles were much more awkward, not having an easy handle as this toolbox. He pulled it up slowly, one end of the toolbox hovered over the dusty dirt at their feet. He tried getting the other end off the ground. Pain shot through his side. The toolbox clattered back to the dirt. Kyle nearly pitched forward to his knees but caught himself.

  “Like I thought. You’d never be able to move shingles around.” Bob looked around. He reached into the back of his battered pickup truck and slid out a nailer. “Here, pick this nailer up and show me you can punch it down on the tailgate. Don’t worry; the gun needs air pressure to work. My sixteen-penny stud nailer is nearly as heavy as that toolbox but these roofing tools are a lot lighter. You might be able to work this.”

  Kyle slid his fingers around the grip. He ground the tip along the tailgate until it was to his left about half the width of a shingle. He pressed the trigger. Then he lifted and dragged the nailer to another point and pressed the trigger. He pretended to nail three more nails in a row.

  “Good. A shingle only gets four nails, but Henry can show you the technique. You might be able to place and nail shingles. You can see straight to line up shingles? The bottom edge must be horizontal and the slits must match every other row from the drip edge all the way to the peak.”

  “Yes. I can keep a straight line.”

  “You’re not on any special medication?”

  “Just aspirin,” Kyle did not say that he could only afford aspirin that came in the economy size bottle even though he had a prescription for more powerful stuff.

  “We’ll try you out on the back side of the house first, see how you do.” Bob looked around then spied the rooftop supervisor. “Henry!” He waved him over.

  “Yes boss?” Henry fidgeted from foot to foot and wiped his sun-darkened fingers through his slick black hair. Kyle watched his teeth when the man talked wondering how they looked worn half down as if the man chewed on concrete every evening – which might explain his poor nutrition inspired gauntness.

  “Show Kyle how to lay shingles. Start him in the back over the rear porch.”

  “Yeah, a good spot. Low pitch so he doesn’t roll off and harder to see any wavy shingle lines.”

  “We don’t want to have to pull up new shingles and lay them a second time.” Bob looked at Kyle.

  “I know,” Kyle nodded.

  “Show Kyle the good tricks so he can put shingles down at our regular crew speed by this afternoon.”

  “Boss, that’s skill.”

  “Henry, I know you’re the best in the business at laying shingles. You’ll get him there, easy.”r />
  Henry lifted his calloused hand and gave Kyle the signal to follow him.

  Bob said, “Good luck. Don’t nail your pants to the roof. That happened to me my first day with a nailer. The crew let me stew there until after lunch.” He laughed.

  “You got to be able to climb faster if we are doing this,” Henry said from the roof deck.

  Kyle had the nailer draped over his neck, balanced by the long airline. He needed both hands to hold the ladder and twist his body up one rung at a time. He stepped from the ladder out onto the decking. The crew had already rolled out the black tar paper and nailed it in place.

  “These lines printed on the tar paper are used to line up your rows going across the roof.” Henry yanked a shingle off the top of the bundle, “Peel it like this so you don’t tear the shingle nor get the bundle to slide down the tar paper. If it falls off the roof they are ruined and someone has to carry another bundle up – I don’t have to tell you that part of the work. Place it on the roof like this. Then use the gun like this.” Henry swept across the shingle as if a magician waved his wand over a black hat. Four shiny roofing nail heads glittered in the sunlight. “That’s how you put the nails down. Not too close to any edge and not farther down than the notch in the tabs, otherwise the next row won’t cover them.” He nailed down two more shingles at the end. “Always keep the shingles straight.” Henry took out a shiny new utility knife, flipping the blade out and slicing across a shingle. “This is how you start the second row, cut off a tab, and put it down like this. See how they overlap?”

  Kyle nodded.

  Henry put another shingle down. “The next row you start like this. Some cut the tab so they start with a single one here, but that can rotate out under heavy winds. We like to use a full one. Then you run three or four rows in a block across the roof. When done, hit the typewriter carriage return, come back to this edge, and start again. Got it?” Henry held out the nailer for Kyle. “The starter row was done already; I can show you how to do that when we get on the next side and then more tricks for valley flashing and caps but that will come later. You work on these big wide open areas and learn fast.”