Challenge 01 - Heather in the City

They were very alike - these two men. They rejoiced in their ability to please a woman and to take pleasure from her. Harley had got the blonde off almost as a matter of course, seemingly with very little effort. Just fine technique and experience. A virtuoso for whom the female form was his preferred instrument.

Just as it was for Cassius. He had Allie lying on her front on their bench now. He moved behind her parted legs and reached for a small container. He dipped in his fingers and then moved them to Allie's rear end.

'OMG,' thought Heather, 'he can't be going to... She'll never be able to take him.'

Allie lay there as greased fingers explored and gently opened her butthole. She didn't seem to share Heather's doubts. In fact she pushed her pale butt up to make access easier. Cassius moved up behind her and pushed his cock against her. There was a moment of resistance but then the thick cock of his head was in her and he began to gently move deeper at each calculated thrust.

"You giving it all up girl - every part of you belonging to the Black man."

"Fuck yeah - fuck yeah - fuck yeah." Allie was almost chanting now, lost in the moment. Lost in her submission to Cassius.

The big club-owner pushed half-way and then paused. His hand came down on Allie's exposed butt with a hard slap. Allie shuddered but held her position - giving herself to him. The hand came down hard twice more. Then Cassius gripped her legs as he began to fuck her ass hard. There were red marks on her pale butt-cheek now, the separate fingers showing where he had deliberately marked her. But now it was all about that big hard cock taking Allie's ass. The woman's little grunts each time he pushed home.

"You can still pick 'em - this one's a talented little fucking bitch," Cassius was talking to Harley as he was fucking Allie hard. He had a few beads of sweat on his forehead and his voice was slightly strained by his efforts but otherwise it seemed like he could go all night. That, however, turned out not to be his plan - at least not with Allie.

Cassius took a cloth and cleaned his cock. Then he was back onto Allie - but this time in her pussy. It didn't take long before the girl was howling out her orgasm.

It was Allie's turn to crumple up on a padded bench, her chest rising and falling in rapid shallow breaths, gasping for air and trying to regain her composure.

Cassius stood up with his cock still hard and ready. He had fucked two women to temporary surrender but he hadn't cum yet. His eyes came back to Heather and he pointed. "Like I say - you know how to pick 'em Harley. Your girl there seen enough? I've seen enough to know I want her to ditch that mask. Ditch it right now girl and get your fine-ass self over here." His voice had that same note of command.

Heather knew that it would be like nothing she had ever experienced before. Comparing it to her white boyfriends would be like comparing a park jogger to the Olympic champion. She gave a panicky glance across to Harley but he was already answering for her.

"Like I said Cassius - for tonight she'll just be watching. That was our deal." There was no passion or force in his words. He was merely stating facts with a calm assurance that his words would carry weight.

They did. Cassius didn't show any anger, annoyance or dissatisfaction. Instead he switched his attention to the blonde, now recovered and on the other side of Harley. "How 'bout you - you tired of that mask yet?"

The blonde hesitated only momentarily. Then she took off her mask and dropped it on the bench before walking over to join Cassius.

As she arrived Allie was back on her feet and walking unsteadily in the other direction. She grinned and showed her tongue in a mock expression of fatigue. Harley beckoned her to sit on his lap, holding his hard cock so that it lay against her back rather than penetrating her. He put one arm round her lap while the other held her breast, his warm rough palm on her hard nipple. His mouth was at Allie's ear but his murmured words weren't audible to Heather above the background music and the sounds of fucking coming from across the room.

Allie's eyes were fixed on where Cassius was fucking the blonde. Those eyes gleamed as the big club-owner fucked the blonde through two orgasms and then didn't halt until he, finally, came too.

After a few moments Cassius eased himself off the blonde, left her lying gasping for breath and with his seed visible at her well-fucked pussy. He wiped his brow and then reached for his shirt and pants.

They paused to clean up and then Cassius led the three of them back through the passages and out into the bar. There he bumped fists with Harley and gave Allie a farewell kiss. Then he turned to Heather and gave her a nod of recognition, a slight amused smile playing on his lips.

Heather was irked by that little smile. She had been feeling out of her place and way out of her depth while in the back rooms. This bar setting seemed much more familiar and on such territory she seldom felt wrong-footed. Her self-confidence had revived somewhat. She couldn't resist 'giving a little back'.

"So you're not going to offer me a job?" Her voice was loaded with maximum 'snark' - to let these guys know she wasn't someone to walk all over.

It seemed to work. The half-smile disappeared off Cassius' face. He looked at her intently and she seemed to feel her rediscovered confidence turn to mush in an instant. It wasn't fear, it was something else. She didn't really want to let herself analyse her feelings in that moment too much. However, when his little triumphant half-smile reappeared and he twirled his finger at her she took the hint and gave a slow spin for his inspection.

"My places got a reputation for a reason. My girls meet a certain standard. Looks is important - knowing how to look good is more important. Then there's knowing how to bring pleasure to a man, or sometimes a woman. For my girls I'm looking at eights - minimum." He paused and looked at her.

She knew what she shouldn't ask - but it seemed ridiculously important what these two men thought of her. So she still did. "And me?"

"What you reckon Harley - a seven?"

The other man nodded gravely and Heather felt the disappointment hit her. Shortly followed by the annoyance. She 'd never had any complaints about her appearance - plenty of boys had found her very attractive. Who the fuck were these two niggers to judge her anyway! She didn't like that word - she liked even less that her petulance had brought it unbidden into her mind. That kept her quiet as Harley spoke up.

"Coasting to a seven. A seven without even trying. That's natural advantages for you. Some effort, a little hard work maybe, and she's a nine at least. That's my reading."

"Word," said Cassius and he shifted his full attention back to Heather. "Come back if you decide to put that work in."

"What if I wouldn't want to work for you?" Heather was determined to regain some of the initiative.

His eyes claimed hers, and his eyes were deeply powerfully beautiful. "That's fine - it ain't for everyone. I got plenty enough applicants that I ain't got time for the reluctant. But I wasn't necessarily talking about you working for me." He gave her a little wink, turned on his heel and he was gone back into his club.

Once outside the cold night air hit Heather like a slap in the face. As she walked she could hardly believe that it had all been real. That places like that and people like that really existed. What she did believe, as the fresh air flooded her system, was that she'd had a drink or two too many. She'd have to get a hotel for sure.

When she asked about that Harley had seemed offended. "You're my guest - I can put you up without you having to pay for no damn hotel." He saw the look on her face and smiled. "You think I ain't got a spare room?"

"Besides," added Allie, "you think I'm sharing tonight - think again sister!"

It was maybe crazy to go back with them but hadn't the night already been as crazy as anything she'd ever known and later couldn't she always blame it on the alcohol. Whatever the case it turned out that they were as good as their word. She got a spare room in Harley's clean and well-furnished apartment and Allie most definitely didn't share - and judging by the noises they made Allie wasn't sharing Harley for half the night!

***

When she woke and had took her shower Heather found Allie in the little kitchen making breakfast. The young woman smiled at her and Heather again wondered at the ring on her finger and her activities of the night before.

She summoned up the courage and asked. "Does your - your husband know that you are here?"

Allie seemed genuinely surprised. "Of course. Why not?"

How were you supposed to answer that? Heather tried. "Doesn't he mind?"

Now the other young woman laughed. "He'd better not! He was the one that first got me into this. Well you know what they say about a woman once she's gone Black." Her bright little laugh came again. "I think that was once a warning but really its just a statement of fact. I'm not planning on stopping any time soon and I guess I'm just lucky that my husband likes it that way." She turned back to the coffee pot.

Heather didn't quite know what to say. She remembered words from the night before and began to fit the picture together. She also knew the question that she wanted to ask even if she knew that she shouldn't.

"Are they really that different?"

"They?" Allie's repetition of the word was teasing but also a little critical. Heather felt the blood come to her cheeks a little.

"I mean bla-, er, African-American guys."

Allie giggled and Heather realised how much the other woman was enjoying this. Shouldn't she be ashamed to be going with a Black man - especially when she was married to someone else? However, Allie gave off all the enthusiasm and conviction of a convert.

"You either know it or you don't. Haven't we all met or seen enough pictures of handsome white guys - maybe even have married one? So when we find that none of them can even come close to being as sexy as a Black man. When they can't ever hope to match the feeling you get when you know that a Black man wants you. That feeling never gets old. Well - you saw Cassius didn't you. Any white guys you've met ever match up to him?" Allie gave a little nod as if to underline the self-evident nature of what she had just said.

Heather wanted to argue but found herself floundering. She had always known that she found Black men physically attractive - it had never been a problem. The idea of actually being in such a relationship was just so out of left-field, so beyond the realms of possibility. It had made her attraction to Black guys purely academic. Or it had done until last night when she'd seen that look in Harley's eyes and had heard the tone in the voice of Cassius. The impossible was all too plausible now. She was stood at the cliff edge and feeling the apparently hard earth crumbling beneath her. That was quite something but there was something else much bigger than that. The real issue was that a sizable part of her was rejoicing at the fact. Not enough to guide her actions, not enough to overcome her logical sensible self, but it was there and it was hungry.

"Cassius lived up to his reputation then?"

Heather almost jumped out of her skin when the deep voice sounded behind her. How long had Harley been there - how much had he heard?

"He's quite something," said Allie, "certainly not a disappointment. Perhaps a little too keen on demonstrating ALL of his skills and abilities. Sometimes a woman just wants to be made love to. I've heard plenty say he's the best but I'd rate him second best."

Heather noted Allie didn't bother to say who was best and Harley didn't bother to ask. She had a suspicion that Harley was confident enough not to need to ask

"That white-boy husband of yours is gonna want you to go back there."

"Well he doesn't always get what he wants." Allie let the subject lapse

Heather sipped her hot coffee. It tasted good - a familiar pleasure in such unfamiliar surroundings. She felt that she should say something.

"That was quite a club last night. I guess I keep repeating myself but I REALLY didn't know that there were places like that."

"Which is why I took you down there. Figured out how it fits into your paper yet?" Harley was watching her over the rim of his own coffee mug, that little amused twinkle in his eye

"I'd like to ask you some more questions about that. I'm also wondering how much I can write about."

"Write what you like. Just keep patrons' names out of it. We didn't take you anywhere needs to be kept quiet about."

Did that mean that there were other places? Places that did need to be kept quiet about. Heather felt a frisson pass through her.

Allie spoke. "They didn't take us down the 'market'. At our end we get the business-men and the diplomats, the athletes and the media people. Down the 'market' it's a lot more 'street' if you know what I mean. That's why I've never gone down there. Not that I'm not tempted..."

Harley broke in. "You need to be REAL sure before you go down there. The 'meat market' has been there since half the city was occupied by troops in the Civil War. The men needed 'entertaining' and that's always meant two things." He told them off on his fingers. "Booze - drugs now maybe too. And of course..."

"Meee-owwww," said Allie. Heather remembered her doing that last night too but now she understood the meaning even before Harley made it explicit.

"Pussy." He was watching Heather carefully as he spoke. "For over one hundred and fifty years when a working man needed to get his dick wet he went to the 'market'. Ol' Jim Crow sent the white boys down-town and left the 'market' to the Black man. Places down there catering to all legal tastes. Some of them rubbing up all along the line too."

"Does Cassius run things down there?" Her inquisitive nature had got the best of her. She immediately saw Harley clam up.

"Lots of people got an interest down there. Maybe he does but I wouldn't know it. All you need to know about down there is that tourists ain't welcome and most definitely wouldn't be safe."

Heather knew she had been put in her place. She knew perfectly well that for Harley the term 'tourist' was definitely not complimentary. His mouth had set in a stern frown for he first time since she had met him.

"I'm telling you this in case you're tempted to go find out for yo'self. The 'market' is not a place for anyone to go who doesn't know exactly what they are doing. Who doesn't accept or welcome the consequences. The rules can get bent so out of shape down there that most of them may as well not exist. Its not a place for beginners or for tourists. You getting this?" His brown eyes had become stern and implacable. They told her, if the tone of his voice hadn't already, that Harley very much meant what he said.

She understood. She understood that beneath the bluster there was concern for her safety. However, the curiosity was still there. Harley and Allie had driven her round the seedy red-light district apparently just as an appetiser. What was going on at this 'market'? Perhaps it just had nothing to do with her official researches. She was very curious but knew that Harley's warning was not to be ignored.

"Got a good friend who talks about girls like you 'going off the reservation.' Meaning ones that get themselves in deep shit by going where they shouldn't or when they shouldn't. Give me a promise you gonna play by my rules - just so's I can sleep at night eh."

Heather saw Allie holding onto Harley's arm - knew she was expressing her support for him and approval of him. Heather still reacted a little to being called 'girl' and she definitely was NOT used to being told what to do, or especially what she couldn't do, by anyone, let alone by a working-class African-American man. It was not something that had ever happened to her before and she felt that she should be outraged. She tried to summon it up but it somehow felt artificial. She knew she was out of her depth here - she'd need to know much more before she'd even consider going against Harley's advice. However blue-blood society might look at him Harley had presence, he had gravitas, when he spoke seriously you had better listen.

"So even you have never been there?" She asked Allie.

"You mean a real Black-owned white slut like me." Allie grinned - she clearly regarded being thought of in those terms as a high compliment. "I've heard enough about it but..." Allie just smiled and shook her head.

Harley held her as he completed her thought. "Cassius would send her down there for sure - not at first maybe but sooner-or-later. The men ain't so fussy down there. He sends the girls who don't meet his upscale clubs' standards and he sends the girls who are desperate and he sends the girls who break his rules with drugs or other things. He sends all them down there straight away. But sooner or later all his girls got to work the 'market'. Either uptown gets tired of them or they can't meet their quota or Cassius just decides its time. He's like me - he comes from the street and he still remembers enough to make sure the street at least gets a taste of the best. The sort of girls they really like - the white-bread, real fine, up-town girls. The girls like Allie here and..."

He let his voice trail off but he was looking right at her and Heather felt a perverse thrill that he was identifying her with all this. It was sort of a compliment wasn't it or was she just going out of her mind!

Her throat was dry again but she tried to lighten the mood. "Allie didn't look too white-bread last night."

Allie shook her head. "I think that for down there I am WAAAYYYY white-bread. That's why I don't think I'll ever need to see it for myself."

"But if its so bad why would Cassius send his best girls down there? Don't they all quit?"

Harley gave a grim little smile. "Some do - but by then Cassius has made his money. Those that do come back come back 'trained'." He very carefully pronounced that last word. "Ready and willing to do most anything and anywhere to make him money. Lots of men down at the 'Market' love to train a white girl like that. Put her through her paces - teach her new skills. Some it breaks and some it makes. There are girls who get bored working up-town, who prefer working down there. That's where old Cassius has to be smart - dole it out careful like. For some girls the 'market' is just like rock or ice. They keep wanting more and pretty soon its eaten them all up, wrecked them, chewed them up and spat them out. Cassius has those girls working their best and their hardest up-town just to get a week working the 'market.' Crazy shit eh?" He paused and then glanced at the clock on wall.

"Shit - we got to be getting Allie to work and you to your wheels." He stood up but then paused and spoke to Allie. "Cassius is reckoning on that husband of yours to talk you into going work for him. So you let Brett know that if he even thinks about it then I'll kick his ass so hard he'll be tasting his own balls for six months."

Allie grinned and kissed him. "I'll tell him."

***

Allie had been dropped off at a modern but rather nondescript office building. Harley cast a thoughtful glance after her before he put the Mercedes in gear.

"Girl likes to act wild and I guess by some standards," he shot a glance at Heather, "she is pretty wild. But at heart she's a little sweetheart and I'm real fond of her. Friend of mine owns some clubs in the Capital. Maybe I'll see if Antwan could find a place for her. I think that'd be a win-win all ends round. 'Cept for poor old Harley of course."

The last sentence was delivered with such mock pathos that Heather barely suppressed a laugh. She instinctively knew that Harley wasn't a man who had problems attracting female attention. He wasn't dangerously showy like Cassius but he had that something about him. He was very easy to be around. She didn't doubt he'd soon find another girlfriend and that was assuming that Allie was his only girlfriend at the moment which she realised that she most certainly could NOT assume!