Cold Hands Ch. 01

In that moment, I realized just how mature this inexperienced girl was. She had a very profound understanding, not only of her own sexuality but mine as well. I had it in mind that I wanted to return the favor and go down on her. Or at the very least, I wanted to use my fingers to try and totally rock her world. But reality chose that moment to check in. I had already been awake for approximately 21 hours at that point. That was combined with the orgasm, the full stomach, and the warm, soft, naked feminine body pressed tightly against me in her very comfortable bed. All of these factors caused me to quickly slip into unconsciousness before I could go any further.

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I was suddenly awakened the next morning by someone who had grabbed firmly onto my wrist. They were yanking on my arm in earnest, trying to pull me away from something. I was vaguely aware of the softness and warmth of a woman cuddled up next to me. All of this violence was accompanied with a loud voice.

"Get off of my sister you fucking asshole! I'm calling the police, you rapist! I going to make damn sure that you go to jail for what you have done to her!"

Hannah snapped awake suddenly and leapt from the bed knocking most of the covers off of me. I guess that Haley's hangover was not as bad as we had predicted. She had come into her sister's bedroom searching for her only to find the two of us lying together buck naked.

"Haley! Stop it! Let go of him! You don't understand!"

Haley was relentless in her pursuit of what she perceived to be justice for her family. "I'm going to kill him! You're dead meat you damn child molester!"

Once again, that fear that I had from last night reasserted itself to the forefront of my mind. My blood ran ice cold through my veins. When Haley called me a child molester, my mind immediately went back to the fact that Hannah looks too young. I never saw the preliminary wind up. All I caught with my still fogged over eyes was the blur of motion, then I heard the extremely loud and sudden "CRACK!" as Hannah's palm connected solidly with Haley's cheek.

My little firecracker girlfriend knocked her sister halfway across her bedroom. The aftermath was almost comical. A grin escaped my face unintentionally. Haley placed her own palm gently against her cheek where Hannah had scored a solid blow. The quiet, soft, and subdued, "Ow" that Haley followed up with after getting slapped was hilarious in its own right. It was the total opposite of being commensurate to the inflicted hit.

"Haley, honey. Look at me! He did NOT take advantage of me. If anything, I took advantage of him. He is the guy from my dream, Haley. Are you listening to me? He's 'The One'."

Haley looked at her sister with a puzzled gaze. Then her brain kicked into gear and started to connect the dots. "How can you be sure?"

"He pulled off the hat trick last night. He hit all three of the first milestones in perfect order."

"But where did you find him? How did he get here?" Haley looked directly at me. Evidently it was the first time that she had gotten a good solid look at my face. Recognition dawned upon her. "You're the deer hunter! What the hell, dude? Just because I flirted with you a little, you think that it is entirely acceptable to stalk me? Then you follow me home and take advantage of my baby sister? Child Molester! Baby Raper!"

"Don't make me slap you again, damn it!" Hannah yelled at her sister. "Look at me Haley, forget about him for a second and look at me."

Haley was still breathing heavily and fully worked up into an overload. Surely if she had been part dragon there would have been flames bursting from her nostrils right now. It wasn't hard for me to even imagine some smoke coming from her nostrils that was not actually there.

"How old am I, Haley?"

Haley paused for a moment and stared at her own feet.

"Say it, Haley. I want him to hear it from you. He was already freaked out about it last night and now you're making it worse all over again. Tell him, damn it!"

Haley looked me in the eye, "eighteen. She's eighteen."

"That's right. And I am fully emancipated. Free to explore my own sexuality, right?"

Haley nodded then pointed at me. "But how in the hell did he get here? He must have been following me and stalking me. I don't know what I did at the ice house to piss him off, but he is trying to get back at me through you!"

"No sis. He's not trying to get back at you for anything. I want you to calm down and try to remember everything that happened last night. Start from the beginning and tell me everything that you did." As she was speaking to Haley, Hannah had opened up her closet door. A soft smooth cotton robe hung on the hook. She wrapped herself up for modesty's sake then led her sister to the living room.

By now, I gathered that Haley had gotten a full vision of my nakedness. But for the sake of propriety, I slipped on my underwear and my tee shirt before following after them. Hannah had seated herself on the couch and Haley had taken the adjacent chair that was placed at a right angle to the couch.

Haley let out a sigh, then began to recount her afternoon and evening. "I met the deer hunter at the ice house. He was drinking alone, but I thought that he was really cute. I went over to sit next to him at the bar and flirt. But he didn't flirt back...at least I don't think that he did. If he was flirting back with me, he was really terrible at it. Totally awful." Hannah glanced at me and I nodded my head. She seemed to believe in me and returned her focus back to her sister.

"A little while later, this stranger came in. I found him cute and attractive so I changed targets. He had great moves and I found myself drawn to him. He invited me to dinner and I accepted. We went to that restaurant 'Clear Springs' over on Broadway. As the evening rolled on though, I just started getting this really bad vibe off of him. When we got back in his car he wanted me to go back to his hotel with him. But by then something felt totally off to me. I started giving him directions to get me close by here without actually showing him how to get me all the way home.

He must have slipped a roofie in my drink at dinner because before I knew what was happening, I had passed out. I vaguely remember him trying to get into my blue jeans. I guess that I should be glad that I wasn't wearing a dress or skirt last night. It would have been far easier for him to rape me. I must have managed to fend him off because when I woke up this morning, one of the first things that I thought about was checking myself. I am fairly certain that I didn't get laid. It's possible that he could have been wearing a condom, but I wasn't sore at all and it doesn't feel like I have been penetrated recently. There's certainly no man juices inside of me."

"Sis, listen closely. I'm pretty sure that we have the whole picture now. Even drugged, you put up a good enough fight that the guy decided that he was wasting his time with you. Skip came along just in time to see this guy push you out of his car and leave you on the side of the road to freeze to death. It got down into the upper teens last night. If Skip hadn't found you, you would have died of hypothermia. He scooped you up off of the shoulder and brought you safely home."

"How the fuck did he manage that? I am fairly certain that I never met him until yesterday at the ice house. I certainly didn't tell him where I live."

Both girls turned towards me giving me their undivided attention. Now I had a perfect idea about how a lamb felt when it was being stalked by lions. "Well, I need your forgiveness at this point. I wanted to see you safely home, but you were not lucid enough to tell me anything that would help. So I went rootin' around in your purse until I found your driver's license. I figured that was the best option at the time to get you somewhere safe."

That earned me a dirty look from Haley, but I plunged ahead just the same. "I certainly didn't want to take you to the Police Station. They would have booked you for public intoxication not knowing that you had been a victim of your date. I also thought that you were probably uninjured from a cursory examination, so if I had taken you to an emergency room, you would have just ended up paying a huge medical bill for no good reason.

"I was desperately hopping to locate a family member for you. In the end, I got extremely lucky and this was the outcome. I'm sorry that I invaded your privacy, but it was absolutely necessary at the time. Like I said, after I weighed all of my options, it was the best that I could come up with."

"You did just fine, baby." Hannah wrapped me up in a huge hug. "Haley?"

"Thank you for getting me home, but I am still not happy about finding you and my baby sister both totally naked in her bed. I don't think that you taking her innocence was proper compensation for what you did for me. You took more from us than you deserved!"

"Haley! Didn't you hear me earlier? I was fully prepared to just thank him and send him on his way. But before I could, he completed the first milestone. I let things play out and he hit it again and again. Three times last night he completed objectives from 'The Dream'." Hannah didn't mime air quotes, but it was easy enough for me to picture it just from her words alone.

"And as for your sister's innocence," I said. "It is all still there. She went down on me last night, but I was too tired to do anything else with her. We fell asleep together. That's all. I trust her when she told me that she was a virgin last night. That means that she still is this morning."

Haley's head whipped around so fast that I thought she was going to give herself whiplash. As she looked at me, I could have sworn that someone had just taken a two by four and whopped her straight between her eyes. For her part, Hannah grabbed her own midsection and keeled over in laughter. As for myself, I was totally bewildered.

"Fffuuuccckkk me!" Haley muttered.

That was soon followed by Hannah trying to catch her breath and coughing out, "that's four!" After another moment or two to catch her breath, Hannah continued, "do you believe me now? I'm telling you! He found me! He is your future brother in law!"

"No. Not just yet. One time is coincidence. If you can pull off the blindfold test, then I will believe you and I will cheerfully accept him into our family."

"I have to wear a blindfold now?" I asked in confusion.

"No honey, I do." Hannah responded. "But that is still off in the future. It isn't the correct time for that one just yet."

I still had absolutely no clue about what was going on. But after having my life upended in the past twelve hours, I was quickly learning that my best course of action was to just 'go with the flow' and see where it led to. Haley stood up and walked over to a spot on the floor just in front of me. Then she motioned for me to stand up, which I did.

"Don't get any ideas yet fella. But I do owe you a thank you for making sure that I got home safe and sound. Come 'ere." I took a step forward into Haley's arms and she pulled me closer into a firm embrace. I had a feeling that I had suddenly come home. I responded by holding her close and returning her affection as if I were her brother. Again, everything felt totally natural and right. Without thinking, I buried my face into her neck and breathed deeply. Most of her perfume had worn off by then and I was rewarded with her natural body scent. I felt peace, comfort, and well being.

I'm not sure how long we embraced. I lost track of time. But as we parted, I turned to look at Hannah and the puzzle piece suddenly snapped into place and locked solid. Hannah had a tear rolling down her left cheek just as in my dream. Her smile lit up the whole room. My own Déjà Vu had just slammed into me like a Mack Truck. My body must have jerked awkwardly because Haley pulled me back into her arms for support, mine not hers.

"Babe? Are you okay?" Noticing my discomfort, Hannah's voice betrayed her concern for me.

I was breathing too heavily to immediately answer her and Haley held my face and kissed my cheek. I looked into her eyes reading her own moment of concern as well. In that moment, I knew that I was home now. In that very instant, I knew that both of these women would play a huge role in the rest of my life. I gained control of my breathing and separated from Haley a second time. Looking Hannah dead in the eye, I answered her.

"I've been here before. I dreamed this encounter nine months ago." I gathered Hannah into my arms as she rushed to me. Our lips found each other easily and our tongues met. "Oh my God, Hannah! I love you so damn much! I need you, baby. I need you so badly!"

"I know hun. I need you, too. I'm not going anywhere. I promise."

That was when I felt another set of arms wrap around both of us.

"You two lovebirds are totally insane. And you're also so sickeningly sweet that I think that I'm going to puke!"

"Nah," I quipped. "That's just all of the liquor that you drank yesterday coming back up."

All three of us giggled together at that.

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It was shortly after noon when I left the home of the Fletcher sisters. I needed to do my personal daily cleaning ritual. Hannah had offered the use of her shower in hopes of keeping my presence at their residence even longer, but I politely declined with the excuse of not having any clean attire. Hannah immediately went over to her dresser and emptied two drawers of her own tee shirts and short pants. She rearranged one of her other drawers making it empty for the tees and pants and replaced them back into her dresser.

"There," she said. "You have two drawers for some of your undies and socks. There is also room in my closet to hang some of your other clothes. I expect you to bring some of your wardrobe with you when you return. We will be moving into together soon enough, but you need to have necessities here for when the need arises."

I started to protest, but she twisted her wrist and quickly placed her hand backwards pinky side up with her palm across my mouth to silence me. "I'm not taking 'no' for an answer mister!"

"Yes ma'am." I answered sullenly.

"That is 'yes dear' to you, Mister!"

Properly chagrined, I answered again with "Yes, dear!"

"That's better. Now, there is the matter of dinner tonight. Your place or mine?"

Feeling a little bit like Wiley Coyote opening a box freshly shipped from the Acme factory and labeled 'Instant Girlfriend', I grinned at my own inside joke and reached for the pen and legal pad that lay nearby. I began filling out all of my pertinent information. I held absolutely nothing back except for my Texas Driver's License number and Social Security Number. I filled out my full name, address, cell phone number, land line number, work number, place of employment, and date of birth. Below that I wrote out my parent's names and their address and phone numbers.

Hannah briefly scanned over it before handing it to her sister. Haley, who had been observing the whole scenario as it unfolded gazed on the information that I had recorded and muttered, "Oh shit!"

"What in the hell did I do wrong just now?"

"Nothing, babe. But for those at home keeping score, that's five." Hannah answered with a chuckle. "I've watch you write out your information on that legal pad a hundred times."

I felt like I was leaving something unattended to. But not knowing what it could possibly be, I trusted Hannah to stop me if I was fixing to screw up. I kissed her goodbye and bussed Haley's cheek before heading to the door. Hannah made no moves to stop me so I got back into my truck and headed home.

Walking in through my front door, my house seemed suddenly very empty and very lonely. It wasn't a feeling that I was accustomed to at all. My house was in an older section of town and records showed that it had been constructed during the 1920s. It had a distinctively Victorian air about it. I had purchased it for two reasons. First, I enjoyed the older vintage. It reminded me of my grandparents homes from both sides of my family, right down to even smelling nearly the same. Second, since it was in an older part of town, that made its price significantly less that some of the homes recently constructed on the outskirts of town. The price that I paid for it was a steal.

It had three bedrooms and two baths in addition to the other standard features. There was a separate dilapidated two car garage in the back yard that was actually little more than a shed. I planned to one day tear it down and replace it with something more modern. But for now, I parked my truck under a carport that spread out over the driveway and was attached to the side of the house. My parents had initially scolded me for buying something larger than I actually needed. But I pointed out that it was only about $10k or $15k more than the one bedroom townhouse that they had tried to steer me towards, but still cheap enough that I could easily afford the payments. True enough, stuff wore out and broke down more frequently than what it would have in a newer place. But I was handy enough to repair most of it myself with a tiny bit of help from our local Lowe's^®.

I began to check around the house to see what I needed to clean up in anticipation of the guests that would be coming tonight. Surprisingly, everything was nearly shipshape. I had a handful of dirty laundry scattered on the floor of my own bedroom. Fortunately, I had done my laundry a couple of days ago down at the corner laundromat so my hamper was empty and ready to receive my clothing. Checking the sink, I found it empty. Then I remembered that there had been two reasons for electing to get Pizza the previous evening. First, it had been late at night and second, I didn't want to dirty up any dishes that I would have to wash later.

I pulled some vegetables out of the freezer and a package of stew meat from the fridge. I pulled my largest stock pot out of the cabinet and tossed some left over bacon grease into it. Any time I cooked bacon for breakfast, I always poured out the pan into an empty pickle jar that I had washed and cleaned specifically for that purpose. Once the grease was melted, I added flour and seasonings to create a roux. When that was ready, I added the beef stew meat to the pot and browned it. This was followed later with some water and the vegetables, then set to simmer at a very low boil.

I would later make a pot of rice for the side. I didn't know if Hannah and her sister would eat their stew plain or prefer it over rice. I could always do hundreds of things with the rice later if they preferred it plain as I did. My stew always came out rich and thick, not at all soupy like that made by some others.

Next on my list was to make my own special corn bread. A can of cream style corn always went into the recipe. Call me weird, but I liked having corn kernels laced throughout my cornbread. I also liked it extra moist so that it doesn't crumble as you are trying to eat it. I had learned to cook at both my paternal and maternal grandmother's apron strings as well as from my own mother. I was quite proud of the fact that the very first merit badge that I completed in Boy Scouting was my cooking merit badge. Easy-peasy!

The cry of a domesticated animal at my back door alerted me to the fact that my feline had returned home. He was an absolutely beautiful Orange and White Short-haired Tabby. My mother had wanted me to name him Morris after the cat in the cat food commercials. But I felt like he had too much white hair to look like the star feline. He had been born on the Fourth of July, so I thought that naming him Skyrocket was more appropriate if somewhat unconventional. I just called him 'Rocky' for short. I kept his food and water next to the refrigerator and he made a beeline for it as soon as I opened the back door for him. There was no need for a litter box since he always tended to business outdoors. His vaccination and ID tags on his collar tinkled together like a bell as he trotted across the floor and dove face first into his food. Maybe I should have named him Garfield instead. Except for a passion for lasagna, their eating habits were quite similar.