Kissing My Angel Goodnight

"Alright get on the bed," he said.

"Don't forget the condoms," she said. "Without them you get nothing."

"You always told me that you hated the feel of rubbers," I said quietly. They both turned at the same time.

"Oh God!" she screamed.

"No, just your husband," I replied.

"Look little guy, get your ass out of here," he smirked. "I'll send her home so you can clean her up when I'm done with her."

My eyes narrowed and I looked at the room.

"What're you going to do?" he laughed. "Your best bet is to just go home and stay healthy. If you're lucky I'll be tired of her in a few weeks and you can put her back together again."

"Fuck you," I said. "Fuck both of you."

"Uh oh," he said. I was beginning to get bored with her. She wasn't really much of a challenge. She spread her legs so easily it really wasn't worth the trouble. But now that you're getting on my nerves, I'll probably keep her longer," he said.

"No problem," I said. "She really isn't what I thought. Thanks for pointing it out to me. I need someone new myself. I'm tired of women my age. Most of them are apparently stupid. I saw a nice slightly older woman, who lives on a diagonal from my house. She drives a BMW. Maybe I'll have a talk with her."

Now it was his turn to get upset. "Leave her out of this if you know what's good for you."

He got off of the bed. And I took a step backwards. It put me in line with the table I'd noticed when I scanned the room. Seeing me retreating brought out the predator in him and he came after me. Even that far away from me he towered over me. He played right into my cat and mouse game.

As he got within range and reached for me, I went John Wayne. I gave him my Sunday punch. Just like in the fucking movies. I reached all the way back to Cleveland and threw the hardest punch I'd ever thrown against a living being. I expected to have him laid out on the floor in front of me and I was totally disappointed. His head did turn with the enormous force of my punch but that was about all. I think I did more damage to my fist than I did to his jaw.

He turned back to me and smiled. He knew that he was much bigger than I was and he counted on his sheer size to carry him through this. "Was that it?" he asked, reaching for me again. "Are you ready to take your medicine?" Apparently his size made him forget how vulnerable naked men are.

"Fuck no, asshole," I said and I kicked him right in the clock weights as hard as I could. Then I picked up the lamp on the table beside me and broke it over his back. And unlike the lamps on TV this one was hard to break. It wasn't one of those thin pottery lamps. It was a heavy wooden piece. He just laid there groaning. I kicked him once in the side for good measure. Then I walked over to Sandy.

"Don't bother coming home. You heard the deal I made with asshole down there. You belong to him now," I told her. I took her purse off of the table and took her keys out of it.

"But Dale, it..." she began.

"Sandy, just shut up. No matter what you say, it'll just sound stupid," I said. Then I walked out of the room. On my way out, I kicked him again. And when I got to the parking lot, I used all of my keys to customize the sides of his Ferrari.

I drove straight home. I called my office to tell them that I wouldn't be back that afternoon. I called a locksmith just in case Sandy had a spare set of keys somewhere. I called my lawyer to tell him what had happened and to be ready with the divorce papers. My last call was to Sandy's Mom. When she first realized it was me she started in on her usual rant. "Are you calling to tell me that she's pregnant, finally?"

"Nope, sorry Mom," I said.

"Oh God, please don't tell me you're buying her something else. What doesn't she have?" she asked. She'd always told me that I spoiled Sandy.

"Well, she doesn't have a husband anymore," I said. "I need you to come over and get some of her stuff." Sandy's mother was in shock. She thought that I was joking. I told her that she could come over any time she wanted over the next few days.

The locksmith got there a little after that. He changed the locks on all of the doors. One of the things I loved most about my house is the shutters. They look just like those decorative wooden shutters that houses all over the country have. But mine are actually metal and they're functional. They also lock from the inside. As soon as the locksmith left I went all over the house locking all of the shutters. Then I put my Mustang in the garage.

A short time after that I was in the back relaxing on my deck when Sandy got out of a cab and walked up to the gate. She couldn't open the gate since I'd taken all of her keys

"Dale, I know you're in there. We need to talk. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Honey. I just lost my head for a while. I really couldn't control it. Open the gate so we can talk," she yelled.

I didn't bother answering. She went around to the front of the house and started knocking on the door. I watched her through the window. She was crying as usual. I called her sister and told her to come and pick her up before she did something stupid. Sandy's sisters both liked me, so Tina agreed to come and get her.

Before I got off of the phone with Tina, the police pulled up. I called my lawyer and told him that the police were there. He said he'd be ready to meet me at the police station.

I went out through the side gate and went around to the front of the house. I walked right up to the police car with Sandy trying to follow me.

"I'm Dale Masters, officer," I said.

"Mr. Masters, do you know a man named Richard Grayson?" he asked.

"Yep, I know that Dick," I spat. "He's the bastard I just caught in a motel with the whore who used to be my wife."

That stared Sandy crying. "I still am your wife," she cried.

The cop seemed to be sympathetic to me. "So what's your version of what happened?" he asked. "Mr. Grayson claims that you assaulted him."

"I did, but it was self-defense. He's huge. He's at least twice my size and he came at me. I had to defend myself," I said.

"Yeah, I saw him. He's a cocky son of a bitch," said the cop. "You should probably get a lawyer."

"Wait," I said. "Aren't you going to arrest me?"

"Well, we could," he said. "But I wanted to give you a chance to get your affairs in order. He's still at the hospital. It'll probably be about an hour or so before he comes down to the station to press charges. He may not even come. His wife seems to want to just sweep this under the rug."

"Nah, you may as well take me in, That way I can present my side of the story and have all of this out in the open," I said. "Plus you seem to be stand up guys. I'd hate to have anyone think that you weren't doing your job."

I stuck my hands out so they could handcuff me, and Sandy went crazy. She threw herself at the cops, screaming, "No leave him alone. This is my fault."

The bigger of the two cops got his Taser ready. "Look lady, why don't you follow us down to the station. You can bail him out if you want to, IF anyone even decides to press charges."

"Dale, where's my car?" asked Sandy.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I said. Unfortunately my timing was off. Tina pulled up then and agreed to take Sandy to the police station.

I went down to the station and spoke to a detective who was investigating the case. The whole thing was weird. Grayson came in, along with his wife. She'd convinced the detective to drop all of the charges, but Grayson looked at me and refused to sign off on it. His smug look told me that he wanted me to go to jail. I smiled back at him.

He looked like hell. Apparently the lamp had broken his collar bone. His face was also swollen up. That was probably the lamp as well. And he was walking funny too. When the detective started trying to get him to go over what happened, Grayson agreed not to press charges. He didn't want his wife to know where he'd been or what he was doing. She apparently thought it was some kind of bar fight.

He asked for a meeting with me. The detective said that he couldn't allow that. Grayson suggested that the detective stay in the room.

Before the three of us made it into the room Sandy showed up, screaming and begging to see me.

Grayson, the detective and I went into a small conference room and closed the door behind us.

"Look, dude," said Grayson. "I'll agree to your terms and drop all of the charges. This all ends here and now, deal?"

Before I could even answer another cop knocked on the door and brought Sandy into the room. "Excuse me detective," he said. "This lady said that she was there when it happened. She claims to be the only witness."

"She can stay," I said. Grayson nodded his agreement.

"I just told your husband, that I'd leave you alone and drop all of the charges and we'll just walk away," said Grayson. "So this is over."

Sandy looked at me and smiled. She breathed a sigh of relief. I wondered what kind of attraction he held for her. This was now over in his eyes because he'd said it was. I was sure of two things. One was that he was lying. And two that any time in the future that he called her, she'd willingly go back to him. There was also the fact that I needed my pound of flesh. He'd ruined my marriage and I had no intention of letting him or Sandy off so easily, if at all.

She came over to me and I jumped back like she was a snake. I could see the hurt in her eyes. She simply couldn't understand the concept of me not wanting her. Grayson was also shocked. He had no experience with situations where he didn't dictate the terms.

"No," I said. "Fuck no, this isn't over, and whether you want to press charges or not, I don't need to take care of your garbage. You wanted her, she's yours now. I don't want shit to do with her."

"As soon as they let me out of here, I'll be giving your wife a full run down on what happened," I smiled and looked into his eyes. "Be careful what you go after, you might just get it."

Then Sandy started in. "Dale we have to work this out. He said it's over. We can work on rebuilding our marriage."

"Sandy, too little too late," I said. "Frankly, you're not the woman I thought you were. For the past twelve years I've been living a fantasy. It's time for me to find something real."

"But..." she said. "I just made..." her bottom lip started quivering and her eyes got wet. Every single muscle fiber and neuron in my body was firing in an attempt to go to my angel and comfort her. If my body had been in charge, I'd have gone to her and wrapped my arms around her and told her that it was all fine. But since my brain was in charge, I didn't move. I just looked at her.

"Sandy, it's over," I lied. "I don't love you anymore."

Then I turned. "Detective, he's right I attacked him but it was in self-defense. As soon as my lawyer gets here, we'll go over my version of it. He can arrange my bail."

"Are you sure?" he asked. "There was obviously a fight and from the looks of things, you won. Why not call it square and just go your separate ways?"

I wasn't sure whether he believed me, or whether he was on my side and didn't want to see me go to jail. Maybe he was just lazy as hell and didn't want to do the paperwork.

A few minutes later my lawyer arrived and we went in front of a judge. "I think I can get you off on your own recognizance," said the lawyer. "You have no previous record and that's a really big son of a bitch. Plus, it's obvious that there's something going on here."

"Fuck that," I said. "Set it up for twenty thousand dollars bail. I'll only need to put up ten percent of that."

"But I can get you off for a lot less. No more than five thousand max, you didn't kill anybody and when they see the video you shot and your pictures, this will probably get thrown out," he said. "Jeezus, you're acting like you want to go to jail."

"Look, I'm the client," I snapped. "Just get me twenty grand for bail." He nodded and went to speak to the prosecutor. The prosecutor looked at me and shrugged his shoulders.

A few minutes later we were in a small court room. The judge heard the charges and asked my lawyer to speak. My lawyer told the judge that it was self-defense under mitigating circumstances and we'd prove it in court. He asked that bail be set at no more than twenty thousand dollars. The judge looked at the prosecutor. He shrugged and said he could live with it. The judge banged his gavel and I'd be free as soon as someone came up with two grand.

Strangely enough, my plan almost didn't work. Grayson's wife had hired a lawyer and he offered to pay my bail. I told him to thank the lady but I would make other arrangements.

Sandy ran over to the judge and whipped out her credit card. The judge told her that she couldn't pay him but that my lawyer could help her arrange it. I smiled at her for the first time in weeks.

I knew that paying my bail would wipe out all of the money that I'd left Sandy, the bitch deserved it.

Tina came over and asked me what was going on. I told her that she and Sandy could talk about it since they'd probably be living together from then on. Tina just shook her head and told me to call her if I needed anything. I told her that if her mother didn't want to pick up Sandy's stuff that she could.

My lawyer drove me back to my house and almost as soon as I got in the phone rang. Sandy wanted to know if she could come home so we could talk.

I decided to get it all over with. "Meet me at the park," I said. "Tell Tina to wait for you, it won't take long. Just long enough for you to tell me some more lies and me to say no."

I walked over to the park, slowly.

Sandy was already there when I got there. "You know you hurt me," she said.

I frowned and shrugged. She looked like she'd been crying again. A few months ago she was always smiling always happy. This had been awful for both of us. Our happiness just ripped away and for reasons I still didn't know.

"Nothing in my life has ever hurt me as much as you saying that you didn't love me anymore," she said.

"I'm pretty sure walking into a motel room and seeing the woman you love sucking some other guy's dick and hearing that not only is it not the first time, but that they've been fucking pretty regularly has to be close," I said, louder than I'd intended. My words hit her like a fist and she winced.

"It won't ever happen to you though," I said. "Because "A" you never really loved me, I can see that now. And "B" when I get through the divorce and start dating again, I'll probably move away so you don't have to watch me fall in love with someone who'll really care for me." That was enough to start the water works again.

"Dale, you were, are and always will be the only man I will ever love. If you can't help me work through this, I'll still love you forever. I wish you could see that I have no control over this. I don't love Richard..."

"No," I snapped, interrupting her. "You love Dick."

"It's not the sex," she said. "That's all it is to him. It's all I am to him, just another woman to fuck. He has lots of them. He doesn't love me either. He doesn't think I'm beautiful or special at all..." she started crying even more.

"After the first time he fucked me, he told me that when I came, I was as ugly as a red headed step child. He calls me Step, that's his pet name for me and that's where he got it. Dale, if you hadn't come in the motel this morning this would all be over. You never would have really known and over the next few months I'd have made you forget all about this. We could have gone back to our lives and maybe even been stronger, because we'd realize that it doesn't take much to destroy our happiness. We'd never let it happen again," she said.

"No Sandy, your flaming hair must've finally burned through your brain, because none of that shit is true," I said. "In the first place, I've known for a few days about your motel visits and your talks before that. I just hoped that you loved me enough not to let this happen to us. As soon as you started lying to me about this bullshit, the trust between us died. From the second you told me about this bastard and I told you not to do it, our marriage was on life support. Your lying killed it."

"No, Dale," she started yelling. "Don't say that. Lots of marriages have been through far worse than this and survived. All it takes is two people who love each other enough to try. We can and we will survive this. Twenty years from now this will be a dim memory."

"You're right about that," I said.

She smiled at that. "I'm pretty sure that if you go over to his house and talk to him, or better still just call him, he'll still go for the deal," she said. "This can be over with tonight. I'll try to explain the whole thing to you when I get home okay?"

"This IS already over with. I am going over to his house. But to talk to that wife of his," I said.

"But you said I was right," she sniffled. "I don't understand. Don't you want me back?"

"No, Sandy," I lied again. Though my heart was breaking and it was all I could do not to cry myself, I stayed stronger than I really was. "I don't want you back on someone else's terms. When I said you were right about this being a dim memory, I only meant that twenty years from now I'll be married to someone else. I'm sure both of us have a future, but I don't see you in mine."

"That is not possible, Dale," she said. "Remember, we're forever."

"Sandy, if you think I'd want you back after you whored yourself out like this you're crazy. You belong to Grayson now. I only agreed to talk to you to get this over with. We're done."

"Dale, do you remember how I told you that when I was young, nobody liked me?" she asked. I nodded. "Well, both of my sisters had all kinds of boyfriends. I didn't even get a kiss until I was nineteen. Even then it was a joke. A lot of guys just don't like the pale skin and freckles thing. The first time I had sex was two years before you and I met. I was twenty. Both of my sisters were really pretty. Neither of them had the red hair or all of my ugly freckles. Well, Meg does have a few on her nose, but hers are cute, not all blocked together like mine."

"Anyway, they used to turn down a lot of guys. Some of those guys were only after one thing and they didn't care where they got it. One of them got it from me. He didn't keep it a secret either. In fact he made a point of telling Meg. Kind of like okay, you wouldn't give me any, no big deal. I fucked your sister." I was shocked and I looked at Sandy as if seeing her the first time. I knew none of this.

"After that," she continued. "Word got around. I was easy. It was more than that. There were some guys who couldn't get anything out of me and others guys who could make me do anything they wanted. It took me a while to realize that I'm very submissive. If a man is dominant enough he can just totally control me. Things got so bad that a guy made me pull my panties down in church. If Tina hadn't come in, he'd probably have fucked me right in the choir stand."

"My sisters had a long talk with me. I told them how I didn't want to be alone all of my life. They told me that I just hadn't met my guy yet. But that someday he'd come along and the sky would open up. He'd love me and only me, and I'd know him as soon as I saw him. It took me a while and a bunch of really lonely nights but I built up the strength to resist men who only wanted to fuck me. After a while I got my self-respect back too." She smiled for the first time in a long time.

"Then, I met you, Dale. I knew from the first second that our eyes locked that we belonged together. All the things that I'd written off as not for me came true. You are the only person that I love. I will never let anything separate us. I am fighting this as hard as I can. And I have won some victories too. I have never let him fuck me without a condom. I have never let him fuck my ass. Fucking me bareback and fucking my ass are things that only you will ever do. When you stop working so hard and we decide to have kids, you'll know immediately that they're yours and yours alone. That's why I always make him wear the condoms even though I'm on the pill."