The Devil Owns the Night Ch. 01

High above his head came the lengthy roar of an airplane heading towards the sky. Thaddeus was cruising in his Coupe DeVille down the slow lane of the highway heading back into the city and he couldn't help but admire the sight of the plane as it broke through a blanket of clouds still soaring towards the great blue. He wondered if that was Constance's plane he was seeing. He remembered she had booked herself a window seat at first-class. He could just picture her right now gazing at the sight of the city as it receded beneath her and wondered if she could sight him from up there. He knew nothing would happen to her. He would see her again.

It was a Saturday mid-afternoon, a work-free day for him. As he drove into the city headed towards his apartment, he ran through his mind what he was going to do with himself between now and evening. He hadn't been at his apartment for the past two days, having spent those ones locked between the arms and legs of Constance. As he observed the city traffic he ticked off what his activity was going to be like for the next few hours before it grew dark. First thing he needed to do was take care of his laundry. Maybe clean up the kitchen, even though he couldn't exactly recall the state in which he'd left it last time. That one shouldn't be a problem; he would take care of the rest of the house tomorrow. Done with that, he could always chill at home instead of hurry out to go hang out with someone. He had a new Walter Mosley novel he'd been putting off to read, and then maybe he could sleep off for an hour or two, by which time it would be dark outside and then he could think about hitting the club to find himself a bitch to keep him company. It's been a long while since last time he went club-hunting. Either that or he could instead call someone up. He remembered he still had the card those two rich sluts had scribbled their numbers on when he was at that CLUB EROS party. Yeah, he could maybe give one of them a call and see if they wouldn't mind hanging out with a brother tonight. And even if that one didn't work out ... he could always call up his friend, Pimp Zee, to hook him up with another white bitch. He hadn't forgotten Myra though. The thought of her made his cock nod a reply inside his pants. Had she come to his mind earlier in the day he would have given her a call back then to program her for the evening.

Although he didn't say it out loud, but Thaddeus considered that he deserved himself a much-needed break from work. He'd been working his ass off since the start of the year, dodging bullets and knives, resolving high quarrels and disputes ... and with this most recent case he'd resolved, knowing the cops would be just as anxious to find something to nail his ass with since he'd unconditionally made their asses look dumb, the best he could hope for was to steer clear of anything that might bring him close to them. At least for a month or two, by which time they would have other problems to mend than carry grudges of him on their minds till then.

He was able to beat the querulous late-afternoon traffic and make it to his neighbourhood. He drove into his apartment compound, sheltered his car in its parking space, then climbed out and went in the direction of his apartment door. He let himself inside just as easy, closed it behind him and turned the lock.

He took two steps into the living room, threw his bunch of keys on the centre table and right away his nose caught a whiff of something. It smelled a lot like incense. Cinnamon, if indeed he was wrong. Thad never had any incense in his apartment, and he knew quite well he hadn't bought any recently.

Was someone in the apartment?

He tapped his shoulders and cursed himself for having neglected taking any of his guns with him. He went in the direction of the kitchen. The smell wasn't that much in there; he looked in the sink and was happy he didn't see any leftover dishes or plates in there. He returned to the living room, stood there for a moment, still sniffing the air, trying to figure where the incense smell was coming from. He went in the direction of the bedroom and opened the door.

There was the glass bowl of incense burning on his table, but it wasn't in that direction his eyes went instead to the sight of his neighbour's wife, Erica, who lay on his bed reading one of his books she'd gotten from his library shelf. She looked up as he walked into his bedroom and smiled and threw his book aside.

"Hiya, Thad," said Erica. "I was wondering when you were going to show up." She came down from the bed and approached him, coming to wrap her arms around his neck. She was wearing a summer t-shirt and shorts and right away started grinding her body against his. "I've been lonely upstairs and dying for when you'd return home."

"Damn it, Erica," he groaned, fighting to remove her arms from around his neck. "The fuck are you doing in here? How the hell did you get in here?"

She reached inside a pocket of her shorts and unearthed a key, smiling at him. "Silly of you to forget you gave me one of these some months back. I'm glad I finally got to put it to use anyway."

Thad closed the bedroom door behind him and took off his hat. "How long have you been in here?"

"Not that long. I tried calling you yesterday but your line never went through. This is even the second time I'm stopping by here. Where have you been all this while?"

"None of your business. But if you must know, I've been out. And that's what you ought to be doing right now before Artie gets back home." Thaddeus grabbed her hand, wanting to lead her out of his bedroom and from there out of his apartment. He opened the door but Erica pulled her arm off his.

"It seems like you're reneging on our agreement here, Thad. Remember what you promised me last time we fucked here in your room, on your bed? Do you remember, or do you need me to remind you?"

Thad sighed in defeat. "I remember everything, Erica. But not in this type of situation."

She slinked towards him like a cat with feline grace. Her hands went to her t-shirt and as she came closer to him she uprooted it from over her head and let it fall to the floor. Her hands wrapped around her tits and she muttered a moan as her fingers rubbed her nipples to apparent hardness. She pouted her lips at him, looking like a sad little girl.

"I've been keeping this body all for you since yesterday, and you're going to send me away just like that. Why daddy, don't you know how much I've been missing you?"

Thaddeus brought his hand to cup one of her tits as she pressed her body against his, bringing up her knee to his crotch. Thad's other hand went behind to grab her ass, sliding his fingers into the crack lining of her shorts.

"Artie won't be back till late evening, right?" her hands were helping him out of his jacket. "He told he's got double shift today, and also that he might be stopping to have a beer or two with the fellas. So you and I have got plenty of time to explore. And I'm not going to be disappointed."

Thaddeus now was fighting to be out of his clothes. He threw his jacket aside and was struggling with Erica to undo the buttons of his shirt while at the same time grappling with her kisses. He kicked his shoes off his feet and when he was done with his shirt, Erica came to her knees and unzipped his fly and reached in for the bulging prize pressing against his pants. Thaddeus moaned as he felt her fingers wrap around his cock and freed it from within, stroking pre-cum juice off the swollen head. Thad meanwhile unbuttoned the waistband of his pants and let it fall to his ankles to give her better room at what she held in her hand. She licked his pre-cum off before sucking on the head of his cock and just like that opened her mouth more to take him all the way.

"Ahh shit!" Thad sucked air through his teeth as the feel of Erica's succulent lips punishing his cock to full erection for her. He bent over her backside and grasped her ass cheeks from behind her shorts. Erica kept on bobbing her head with frantic fury back and forth on his prick. She stroked his shaft and licked her tongue over the apparent veins that supplied blood to its swollen head then nibbled her tongue over it before swallowing it once again. She was having herself a good time and wasn't afraid to show it.

"Oh boy, I've really missed this black cock of yours so much!" she muttered as she continued sucking him. "Can you imagine," she continued amidst licking his prick, "lying on your all afternoon, waiting for you to show."

"I'll bet you've been playing with yourself since then," Thad responded.

"Oh, you just don't know how much."

"All right then. I think it's time you showed it to me."

He grabbed her hand off his shaft and roughly pulled her up to her feet. He freed his feet from his pants, keeping only his socks, and pushed her towards the bed. He threw her on it and his hands went to her shorts and within a few seconds he'd undid the buttons and pulled it off her legs. Her pussy looked inviting to him; she observed that she had shaved her coochie too. One hand on his cock, stroking it to remain erect, he attacked her pussy with his tongue and lips. Erica rested her legs over his shoulder and muttered sounds and cries of ecstasy as his tongue slipped into her virgina. Her pelvis rocked up and down, her hands pressed down on his head to keep at what he was doing.

Thaddeus rested on his elbows and punctured her ripe pussy with his fingers while his lips locked on her clit. He nibbled on the tiny knob with his tongue, sending shards and lewd cries escaping her lips. Erica beat her feet and her hands on the bed. She squirmed ever which way, wanting to draw away from him but unable to as Thaddeus had her pinned down. She saw constellation of stars as the work of his tongue brought her crashing to earth in a splitting climax. Still he kept his lips transfixed on her pussy even as her cum juice sprayed all over his face.

When finally he let go of her, Erica had achieved a second orgasm and was rubbing her cunt feverishly, moaning at the same time while she crossed her legs over her hands. Thaddeus came forward on the bed, his hands forced her legs open even as she was still gasping from the after-effect of the bout of climax he'd wrought upon her. She struggled to tell him no, but Thad wasn't listening to her plea. His cock sighted and smelled her pussy and like a blind bat aiming for a prey, the head of his cock found the entrance to her pussy and all it took was a slight thrust to achieve penetration. Thaddeus grinned at her maliciously and held his breath as inch after inch of his cock slipped inside her. Erica looked at him with an amazed glare in her eyes. Air caught in her throat a second before it whooshed out of her like air being released out of a balloon as she felt his cock go deeper and deeper inside her.

Thaddeus muttered a groan. Her pussy's muscles gripped his cock like they wanted to squeeze the life out of him. He slowed his pace and allowed her pussy to get used to his girth before pushing further into her. Erica moaned repeatedly from his actions. Thaddeus now rested on top of her, his hands slipped down under her backside to grasp her ass cheeks while she pressed down on his waistline, forcing more of him inside her. Her legs came in a knot over his backside. Thad rotated his pelvis, pulling back his cock and then drove it back inside her. His fingers dug into the flesh of her ass cheeks and his cock now gained full entrance into her cunt with her juice milking the path for him. He pistoned his cock sharply inside her, pounding her pussy with as much vigour he could muster. Erica bounced her hips back at him and cried in tandem from the fucking he gave her.

"Oh, that cock's so fucking good. Give it to me from behind!" she suggested a moment later. "I want to feel you fuck me from behind."

Thaddeus pulled off from her and turned her over, gave her ass cheek a slap as she presented him with her buttocks. She grabbed his pillows and shoved them under her and tensed herself as she felt the head of his cock slip into her. She sighed as further and further his cock began slamming into her hard. The bed shook from their combined activity. Thaddeus fucked Erica hard, slapping her ass cheeks till they turned red. Each time his cock went into her, she pushed her buttocks back at him. Her pussy was by now so wet that his shaft slid into her with ease each time he thrust back into her cavity. She lowered her head on the bed but Thad grabbed a fistful of her hair and pulled her face up, listened to her squeals while he kept on giving her more and more of his black powered dick.

The sound of her cries filled the room. His heart was racing but still his rhythm never seemed to slow down. He was teaching her pussy a lesson. He rested on top of her and calmed down for a little bit, panting just as she was too, though still feeling her slam her ass back at him. She urged him onward for more. Thad raised himself up from her and resumed fucking her just the way she wanted him to. Her ass cheeks bounced back and forth towards him. Erica pulled herself up and Thad wrapped his arms around her and kept on driving his shaft in and out of her till he perceived the moment they'd both been expecting start its onslaught. Thaddeus groaned—he felt as if his balls were about to explode. He pulled out of her in time and Erica fell forward on the bed. Thad inched forward on top of her, holding his cock in his hand, and grunted aloud as the first jet-stream of his semen shot out of the swollen head of his prick and splattered like milk drops over her buttocks. He off-loaded more and more semen spurt over her backside till all that remained where little droplets oozing out of his deflated cock.

He fell to the side of the bed, breathing heavy and sweating from the sex exercise. Erica inched towards him. Thad rubbed his semen all over her backside, coating her further with it.

"There," he muttered. "Now you're my type of bitch."

She couldn't help but laugh.

Minutes later she asked him: "Where were you yesterday anyway?"

"I was helping out a client get some stuff together."

"Male or female client?"

"What do you care?"

"I don't really. Except I don't want any woman stealing you from me too soon."

"Keep talking like that, and it just might happen."

"Was it the same woman you left the club with that other night?"

He turned to look at her. "I never saw you there," he said.

"You didn't 'cause we were all wearing masks, remember. I was one of the usherettes. I knew it was you the moment I saw you. I went around looking for your room but couldn't locate which one you were in. Either way, I know you must have been quite busy that night."

"Oh yeah, and why would you say that?"

She rubbed her palm over his chest. "Because I'm not the only one who sees something in you." She fell silent for a while, then: "You know, Thad, you ought to start thinking about settling down. Hasn't the thought ever crossed your mind?"

"Time and time it has. I just haven't met the perfect woman yet."

"There's no such thing as perfection," she said. "That I'm certain of. Look at me and Artie. He's the very opposite of the type of man I ever thought of settling down with, yet I'm married to him."

"But do you enjoy fucking him?"

She paused while she considered this question. "Well ... Artie is sweet. He's got a good tongue, and sometimes—most times—he makes me cum with his tongue than he does with his cock. He's not as strong as you, as masculine as you. Of that I'm grateful I have you."

"You're grateful now, but you won't be anymore once I get married. You know that, don't you?"

"No." She came and laid her head on his chest, caressing his other arm. "You'll still be fucking me. You and I, we'll make out time to meet some other place and you'll fuck me all afternoon."

"I doubt it. What if I marry a white woman who's just a nympho like you? I doubt she'd want to let me off her sight."

"She won't be with you all the time. We can always meet during your lunch break." She looked up at him. "Are you thinking of marrying a white woman? I thought black men all preferred the same black women."

"I wouldn't know, Erica. Lots of brothers out there getting hitched. I'm just not one of them yet."

**********

They fell asleep. Thad didn't know when it happened. They had made love a second time and this time he had ejaculated inside her mouth and she had sucked him clean, then they'd fallen on the bed and when his eyes came awake, it was growing dark outside the windows and Erica lay half over his body. Her breathing brought goosebumbs on his flesh.

There weren't alone in the room. Someone stood at the foot of the bed staring down at them. For how long he had been standing there Thaddeus didn't know and he cursed himself when later he remembered that he'd forgotten to lock his front door. He stared back at the intruder in his apartment, his words felt choked in his throat.

"Thad," the intruder said to him, staring at him with a glum expression in his eyes. There was no emotion in his voice. His voice was as expressionless as wall paint.

"Hello, Artie," Thaddeus replied.

************

Had he known how his day would turn out to be, he never would have left home.

Artie spent a lot of waking hours cursing himself for never ever been lucky all his life to blessed with a genius that would propel him towards raking in the sort of money he'd always dreamed to make. The sort of money a lot of baby boomers of his generation were right now making in Wall Street or whatever endeavour of business they might be into. By Jove, he too ought to be in the same league with them. Instead he was working two pairs of jobs, one as a night-time college caretaker and the other as a part-time barman. He much preferred the bar job than he would the caretaking. He got a lot more tips with the latter than he did with the former. The only good thing he gleamed from the caretaking job was the lengthy quiet time it afforded him, after he'd done his rounds going around the school premises to make sure no door had been left unlocked and that no vagrant was sneaking into the compound for shelter or something to steal—such had happened numerous times—he stayed indoors in his cubicle room/office near the main gate with his portable typewriter waiting for him inside and kept on with his writing. For years Artie had been working on the idea for a novel. He laboured over it from morning till next; Erica never ceased to chide him about his obsession and of how it was putting a wedge between them. Artie often snorted at this ridiculous statement. If there was one thing that was putting a wedge between them it was the amount of time she spent working at that stupid private club.

Unfortunately for Artie he depended much on Erica's earnings from the club as it was basically what sustained them, at least until he got to be making the big bucks that he'd always talked about back when they'd first hooked up in Vegas.

On that Saturday evening, he was meant to work at the bar which was to carry him from early in the evening till late. But instead he'd found the bar boarded up with a different crowd than the will, rambunctious college kids that poured into the bar regularly, itching for cigarettes and alcohol. The owner had called him aside and told him a group of local financers were making use of the bar for the evening and that his services wouldn't be needed today. He had however given him his day's wages and told him to report back tomorrow. There was no use him heading down to the college as he knew someone else would be at work there. He went to another bar and downed a few glasses before deciding to return home and maybe see about working on a page or two of his unfinished masterpiece.