A Horse with No Name Pt. 01

During this time Megan continued to ignore me. I would occasionally hear Megan refer to me as 'that man' while talking to her mother. Kate's dad called several times a week but didn't come to the house, which pleased me.

Chapter 8 - Life Begins to Get Better

One rainy day I found myself alone in the house feeling very restless. I was wandering around the house looking for something to do when I spotted the materials Kate had purchased to start her renovation project, stacked in the corner of the living room. The old plaster and lath walls were in pretty good shape except for the cracks caused when the house was leveled. I didn't think about how to tackle the job; I just started working. I moved all of the furniture to the middle of the room and covered it with drop cloths that I found with the renovation supplies. I began by scraping the loose plaster from the edges of the cracks I could reach from the floor. Next, I mixed a small amount of plaster and using a putty knife I began filling cracks. I started as high up on the wall as I could reach and worked my way down to the bottom of the wall and continued all the way around the room.

I had just finished the bottom half of the walls and was admiring my work when I heard someone come through the back door into the kitchen. I knew it wasn't Kate because she was working until five o'clock and then she was going to pick Megan up at her grandmother's house. Had my attacker found me? Was he, they, here to finish the job? I stood quietly and listened for any sound. I could hear someone moving around in the kitchen and then;

"Ben, Ben, are you here?" It was Kate's dad. I felt relieved but not happy. Mr. O'Brien coming to see was not good news.

"I'm in the living room," I called back.

Mr. O'Brien came into the room like a man on a mission but stopped when he saw what I was doing. He looked at me, then at the walls and back at me. "You did all that?" he asked.

I nodded my head, and he walked over to the wall and ran his hand over some of my work and looked back at me. "This is a good where did you learn how to do this?"

"I don't know; it just seemed to come naturally," I said. I thought to myself 'I better write that down in my notebook.'

Mr. O'Brien took another look around the room and asked, "Why did you only do the bottom half?"

"I didn't trust my left leg enough to be on a ladder when no one else was here. Wouldn't want Kate and Megan come home and find me dead on the floor."

"Right, well I am here now, you want me to help? I can mix plaster and hold the ladder for you."

I was sure that Mr. O'Brien didn't come over to offer his help; after all, he didn't know I was working on the walls. I guessed that he came over to tell me it was time for me to leave, not to offer help. "I could use the help so I can get this done before Kate gets home. How about I mix the plaster, and you climb the ladder?"

"I could climb the ladder, okay, but I couldn't do nearly as good a job with the plastering as you," Mr. O'Brien said.

Doing the upper half of the walls took a lot longer. Climbing up and down the ladder was a little scary for me at first, but it got easier if not faster. We were just starting the last section of wall when Kate and Megan came in. Kate looked at us, both covered in plaster dust, then looked at the wall. I was waiting for her to say something when she did something I didn't expect. Kate began to laugh and cry at the same time.

"Did we do something wrong?" Mr. O'Brien asked.

"No Dad. You did everything exactly right. Ben, did you do all that plastering?" Kate said.

"Yes. Did I do okay?"

"How did you know how to do that?" Kate said.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Don't know."

"Maybe he did this sort of work in his previous life," Mr. O'Brien said.

Kate came over to me and took my right hand in hers and examined the palm of my hand. "No, these hands haven't done this kind of work, at least not in a few years. He doesn't have the calluses he should have if he regularly did this kind of work.

"You better write that in your notebook."

"I will," I said.

When Mr. O'Brien asked what notebook Kate was talking about she explained that I kept a record of any discoveries I made that might tell me something about my life before the attack, in a notebook."

"Good idea," Mr. O'Brien said. "Now let's get back to work.

When Mr. O'Brien and I finished the last wall, Kate brought us both a beer and thanked us profusely.

"You don't need to thank me, I am just earning my room and board," I said. "Thank your father; he just showed up and volunteered to help."

I think I earned Mr. O'Brien respect that afternoon. He even told me to call him Kevin instead of Mr. O'Brien.

The next evening I happened to be upstairs when I heard Kate talking to Megan as she got ready for bed.

"What did you think of the work that Ben and Grandpa did in the living room yesterday?" Kate asked Megan.

"I don't know; I guess it was okay."

Megan still hadn't warmed up to me, but I had an idea that might help. I walked over to Megan's bedroom and stepped inside the door. Kate and Megan both looked at me in surprise because I had never before interrupted the two of them when they were talking in Megan's room.

"I just thought that maybe Megan would like me to fix the walls and paint her room for her. All you need to do, Megan, is to choose the paint color you want on your walls."

Megan was quiet for a few seconds and then turned to her mother. "Can I have pink walls?"

"You need to ask Ben," Kate said.

"Ben, can I have pink walls?"

"If your mother picks up the paint, I'd be happy to give you pink walls," I said. "You will have to move out of your room for a couple of days so I can do the work."

"You can sleep with me for the next couple of nights while Ben does your room," Kate told Megan.

Painting Megan's room broke the ice. When she saw her finished room with pink walls, without being told to, she hugged me and said thank you. That melted the ice, and after that Megan accepted me, and we became good friends.

One evening the following week Kevin stopped by the house with two other men that could have been linebackers on a professional football team.

"Ben, this is Tom Martin and Craig Benson. They're from my fire station," Kevin said.

I shook hands with them and then looked at Kevin for an explanation of why they were there.

Kevin said, "On their off days, Tom and Craig have a handyman business. I told them how good you were at working with plaster and painting. If you are interested, they said they could give you some work. It wouldn't be full time, but it would give you some money of your own."

"That would be great," I said.

"If you want, Craig and I are doing a drywall job tomorrow," Tom said. "We need someone that can tape and mud the drywall after we hang it. If you can handle that we will have more work for you."

"I can do that." Somehow I knew what he was talking about and I knew that I could do it. It also became another entry in my notebook.

For the next month and a half, I worked two or three days a week doing everything from installing drywall to roofing with Tom, and Craig.

It was the middle of June and I had been working for about four weeks when I got up the nerve to asked Kate if I could take her out to dinner to thank her for being such a good friend. That Friday night Kate got the girl who lived next door to come and babysit Megan while Kate and I went out.

Kate chose the restaurant. It was family owned and served Pennsylvania Dutch style foods that was within walking distance of Kate's house. We had a great meal and shared a bottle of wine. As we were finishing the wine, Kate asked me if I knew how to dance.

"I have no idea if I do or not," I said.

"Would you like to find out?"

"Sure, if you want to," I said.

After we left the restaurant, Kate drove us to a local club called Kelly's, where we danced and had a few drinks, actually several. We had a great time. It turned out I could dance. I especially enjoyed the slow dances. I loved holding Kate close while we danced. I got the feeling that Kate liked it, too. We were both quite tipsy when we left the club.

Kate paid the babysitter, and I watched the girl walk across the yard to make sure she got home safely. When I came back into the house, Kate was standing in the living room with an opened bottle of wine and two glasses.

"I am not ready for bed yet, so I thought we might have a nightcap," Kate said.

"Sounds good to me," I said. I sat down on the sofa while Kate poured the wine, then she handed me a glass of wine and sat down next to me. I felt so close to Kate at that moment that without even thinking about what I was doing I put my arm around her and pulled her closer. When Kate turned to look at me, I kissed her. After the kiss, we just stared at each other. For a moment I thought I had made a big mistake. Kate set her wine glass on the table, then took mine from me and put it on the table.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that. I." That is as far as I got before Kate put her hand on my lips to stop me, then she leaned in and kissed me.

The kisses continued for several minutes and progressed to fondling each other as I nervously began to unbutton her blouse. Once I had her blouse opened, I fumbled with her bra trying to get it unhooked. Having no memory of my previous sexual experience, I thought that I must be feeling and performing like any young man getting ready to have sex for the first time.

With no memory of being with a woman in this way before, I had no frame of reference with which to compare Kate's breasts. All I can say is that to me they were beautiful. Her skin was pale, smooth and soft, and her nipples were big and hard. When I put my hand on her breast, Kate took a deep breath and closed her eyes. I bent down and covered her right nipple into my mouth. While I sucked and teased her nipple with my mouth and tongue, Kate made little sounds of pleasure as she lay on the sofa with her eyes still closed. After several minutes of paying homage to her breasts, I slowly slid my hand up between her Kate's thighs until my hand reached her panties. I could feel the moist heat of her sex through the thin material. I was so excited that it was making it difficult for me to breath. I was about to slip my hand inside her panties when Kate stopped me. She stood up, picked up the wine bottle and said, "Bring the glasses," and then headed for the stairs.

I picked up the two wine glasses and followed Kate up to her bedroom.

When we got to her room we climbed on the bed, and I took Kate in my arms, kissing her mouth, neck and working my way down to her breasts. Then, with Kate's nipple in my mouth, I slipped my hand inside her panties and began to explore her sex. While I teased her clit with my finger, I wondered how I could not remember ever doing anything that wonderful before in my life but at the same time what I was doing felt familiar to me.

When I started to penetrate Kate with my finger, Kate said, "Ben I want to feel you inside me now."

I got off the bed and quickly stripped down to my underwear. While I watched Kate finish removing her blouse and bra, I was thinking about how I had not been expecting to be doing what we were about to do. I knew that I was falling in love with her, but up until then, I thought that Kate only thought of me as a friend. Just the thought of what we were about to do had me so aroused I was euphoric. Kate dropped her skirt to the floor and was standing in front of me in just a pair of white cotton panties. The panties weren't very sexy, but Kate sure was.

Kate looked down at herself and laughed. "If I had known that I would be taking my clothes off in front of you tonight I would have worn some sexier panties."

"They look plenty sexy to me," I said.

"I can see that," Kate said as she looked at the tent in the front of my jockey shorts.

I pulled Kate to me and held her for a moment, enjoying the feeling of her breasts pressing against my chest.

"Are you sure this is what you want?" I asked.

"No... Yes. I mean I am not sure if this is the right thing to do. I just know that right now I want you and I am pretty sure you want me, too," Kate replied.

"I do. I just don't want to rush you into anything that you will regret later."

I guided Kate to the bed, and she lay down and held her arms out to me inviting me to join her. I climbed onto the bed next to her, and our kisses went to a whole new level of passion. It felt as though we were trying to become one person. While we kissed, I slid my hand inside her panties and slipped a finger inside her. As I rubbed my finger on her clitoris, Kate tried to stick her tongue down my throat. When she broke off that kiss, she whispered, "I think you better do it now before I explode."

Kate lifted her bottom as I pulled her panties off, then she spread her legs so that I could get between her thighs. I positioned the head of my cock at the entrance to Kate's most private place. Kate was tight, so I took my time entering her so that I wouldn't hurt her, but when I was all of the way in, Kate bit my ear and whispered, "It feels wonderful."

She wrapped her arms around me and held me so tight that I couldn't move for a couple of minutes. When she relaxed her grip, I began pumping my rigid member into her slowly, and she started lifting her hips to meet each thrust. We soon had a rhythm going that allowed us to pick up the pace. Suddenly Kate dropped her hands to grab hold of the sheets and then pushed her hips up into me as hard as she could.

She had her eyes closed tightly and licking her lips and quietly whispering, "Oh... Oh... Yes... Oh."

When her orgasm passed, Kate put her arms around me again and pulled me down and mashed her mouth against mine. While our tongues wrestled with each other, I picked up the pace and finally climaxed.

As I lay on top of her with my shrinking cock still inside her, Kate began kissing me all over my face. "That was wonderful!" she said, nearly out of breath.

I pulled out of Kate and lay on the bed beside her. Kate snuggled next to me and quickly fell asleep. I listened to Kate's breathing for a while and then I fell asleep.

It must have been about five o'clock in the morning when Kate shook me awake. It took a moment for me to realize where I was. I said, "What's wrong?"

"You have to go back to your room."

Kate seemed to be in a near panic, so I didn't hesitate. I didn't even stop to put my clothes on. I just picked them up and headed to my room. When I got there, I could not get to sleep. My biggest fear was that Kate had decided that our having sex was a big mistake and she blamed me for taking advantage of her when she had too much to drink. If she was upset with me, I didn't know how I could repair the damage I had done to our relationship. On top of everything else, I was hung over from all the drinking we had done.

I lay awake in bed until I heard Kate's alarm go off at seven o'clock. I went down to the kitchen and started the coffee and waited for Kate to come down, hoping that we would have a chance to talk, but when she came down Megan was with her.

Without looking at me, Kate said, "I have to take Megan to her dance lesson, and then she has a birthday party to go to. I have some shopping to do so we won't be back home until around four o'clock."

I was waiting for her to say, "I want you out of the house before we get home," but she didn't.

"I am working with Tom and Craig today, so I won't be back until around six," I said.

"Okay, we'll wait to have dinner after you get home," Kate said, still without looking at me.

I didn't sense any hostility in her voice, but she sounded a little restrained, so I took my coffee up to my bedroom and thought about what was going to happen that evening when we finally had a chance to talk.

We finished the job we were working earlier than expected and I was back at the house shortly after five o'clock. When I walked into the kitchen, there were four bags of groceries on the counter and no sign of Kate or Megan. I started to look for them when I heard Megan laughing. They were upstairs talking, so I left them alone and started putting the groceries away.

With the groceries put away, I started dinner. Kate had purchased some pork chops, so that is what I prepared along with green beans and mashed potatoes.

During dinner, I tried to watch Kate to see if I could get any idea what she might be thinking. That turned out to be difficult to do because Megan was demanding my time. She wanted to tell me everything about her day. She told me about the dance she was trying to learn; then it was all about the birthday party and a visit to her grandmother's house. The expression on Kate's face during Megan's narrative was one of amusement.

After dinner, Megan watched television for an hour while I loaded the dishwasher and cleaned up the kitchen. After that, Kate and Megan went upstairs. Megan took a bath, got ready for bed and then came downstairs without Kate to hug me and say goodnight.

I was beginning to think that Kate wasn't going to come back downstairs, so I went into the living room and turned on the television. Twenty minutes later I heard Kate come down the stairs and go into the kitchen.

Kate called to me from the kitchen, "Do you want a beer?"

I said that I did, and then wondered if she felt that we needed to have a drink to get ready for that talk we were about to have.

Kate came into the room dressed in a long bathrobe and funny looking pink bunny slippers. I was looking down at the slippers when she handed me a beer. "What's with those slippers," I said.

"Megan gave them to me last Christmas," Kate said. "I wear them to make her happy, and they are comfortable."

Kate dropped down on the sofa next to me and snuggled up against me and said, "Finally I get to relax."

"Wow, this isn't what I was expecting," I said.

"What do you mean? What were you expecting?" Kate asked.

"I thought you were upset with me about last night," I said.

"What made you think that?"

"When you kicked me out of your bed this morning I thought you were upset that I had taken advantage of you and seduced you when your resistance was down."

Kate started laughing. "I kicked you out of bed because I thought I heard Megan waking up. I didn't want her coming into the room and finding you in my bed. As far as what happened between us last night, I was at least as much responsible as you. There was no seduction; I wanted you as much as you wanted me. You don't have any regrets do you?"

"No. None at all," I said. "Are you at all concerned that we were unprotected last night?" I asked.

"I am on the pill, and I know that I am clean because I haven't had sex with anyone in over two years and my last blood test was clean. I know you're clean because I saw you blood lab results."

"You are taking birth control pills even though you haven't had sex with anyone in two years?" I said.

Kate looked at me a little sheepishly and blushed. "I started taking the pills two days after you started living here."

"You mean you knew that this was going to happen?"

"I didn't know it was going to happen, but I knew that with the two of us living under one roof there was a chance this could happen and I wanted to be sure I was prepared if it did," Kate said.

"This morning, why wouldn't you look at me when we were talking?"

"I was blushing so badly I didn't want you to see me," Kate said.

"Why were you blushing?"

"Because, when I got up this morning I was thinking about what we did last night and it was making me horny."

"Really? How are you feeling now?"

Let's just say that tonight I dressed properly for the occasion," Kate said and then opened her bathrobe to reveal a very sexy black bra and panty set. "You like?"