Roomers Revisited Ch. 05

'That don't answer my question, Mr. Curzon. You gotta understand, one, I don't wanna listen to you cryin' about your problems, two, I still ain't gonna talk about Rachel when she ain't around, and three, five will get you ten, she knew you were down here tryin' to buy me off, she'd go fuckin' ape all over you.' Bullseye.

'You aren't as I'd imagined.' I should fuckin' hope not.

'Dam' good thing for both of us. Drink your scotch, Mr. Curzon, and go on home. College is for experiments and new experiences. Tell your wife Rachel's guy ain't got no jailhouse tattoos, reads a lotta serious stuff, ain't got designs on anything except her body, and for sure ain't stupid. Point out her grades are right up where they oughta be, she's pretty happy, everyone oughta be real pleased she ain't hangin' out with genuine lowlife. You do that, I'll manage to leave this discussion outa my sewing circle gossip. You good with that?'

Well, shit. He went round and around some, tryin' for a lever, and I sat tight, said nothing, and in the end he gave up and drove away. Me, I ditched the scotch, opened another beer, picked up my book, feeling kinda proud of myself. Hadn't even asked how much he was willing to spend keeping his daughter out of my goddam clutches. Don't be telling me I got no principles. Took Annie out that evening, had a real nice time.

Course, Rachel found out about her dad's visit. Guess he must have blabbed, or her mom, or someone. Hell, she could have had their bedroom bugged, all I know. Sure enough, she went ballistic, jumped in the car, arrived ten-thirty the next evening. Goodbye early night. You get a double handful of warm girl all over you an hour before Christmas, it's present time.

'Hey, Rachel, thought my gift'd be comin' down the chimney, not through the goddam front door. Whaddya doin' here?' She quit chewing on my neck.

'What did you say to my dad? He's really pissed and I'm really pissed with him.' Oh ho.

'Nothin' interestin', kid. Told him no way I was gonna talk about you like you were a fuckin' trophy is all. Rest of the conversation was kinda borin'. Guess that's why he left.' She tried and wriggled and squirmed some, but I held firm. 'Didn't talk to him about you, ain't gonna talk to you about him, Rachel. Truth is, I need your goddam family dynamics like I need an extra asshole. You come down to say Happy Christmas or to grill me?' Her arms were still round my neck and she leaned back and looked at me.

'You are so not what you seem. Happy Christmas, and you'd better have enough energy to say it back for a long time.'

'Wanna play in the shower some first, recharge my batteries?' She was up for that.

'Don't stop.' Her voice was kinda hoarse and her thighs were trembling. We were hunkered down on the bed, head to tail, and I was running my tongue and lips idly round the target. Seemed to suit her; she was doing the same to me and it sure felt excellent.

'Ain't gonna stop till you surrender, kid. That crack about energy riled me some.' Her body quivered as she stifled a giggle and her lips brushed my cock gently.

'Why do I feel like I want to devote everything to pleasing you? I mean, I just want you to be happy, and that's weird. But why?' Because I ring your bells, dummy. What else is there?

'Shit, girl, it's a gift. I guess I'm just goddam irresistible when I put my mind to it.' Her mouth slithered the length of my shaft.

'Of course you are. But that's what, not why. You don't love me, do you?' Certainly fuckin' not.

'Got burned real bad doin' that, long time ago. Crazy in like with you though, you wanna know.' Thanks for the line, Annie. Works a dream with smart girls. Her tongue danced slowly over the head of my cock, and I knew she was thinking.

'I don't love you either, yet, but it'd be easy to take the plunge.' Easy and dumb, like a lot of stuff.

'You oughta try to avoid that, Rachel. I'm real good at fun, excellent at like, fuckin' ace at friends, but love ain't on the menu. Pavlovian reaction, kid, and that's a fact.' Jeez, girl, settle for what you've got, will you. Sure didn't want the problem of finding a replacement, plus trying to let her room, middle of the fuckin' school year. Didn't much want to watch her hurting either. I let my tongue get a tad closer to the action, distract her some. Good move: her thighs clamped over my ears and her mouth snapped back to my cock, drew me into her in one smooth rush. I nuzzled her hard little clit happily, went right on doing what I like doing best, only a tiny part of me worrying about devotion.

Straws show which way the wind blows they say, but being a slacker, and a dam' good one too, I managed to tuck the pesky things away, leave them till they needed dealing with, kept on enjoying. Forty million bucks gasping and squirming on the end of your cock is a real nice feeling, and having every last goddam cent begging for more, hell, that's prime time. By the end of the year though, it was kinda plain that it was gonna come to a head, and not the head I wanted, neither. Middle of May we were on the bed, resting up after a pretty good main course, but it didn't feel real relaxed. She was laying in the crook of my arm like always, but her body was kinda tense, not the boneless that a happy well-fucked woman oughta be displaying.

'Tell me what it is, kid. End of term? Problems at home? Problems here? Better to spill, less it's real private.' She stirred and pulled at my chest hair.

'Being observant is your second best thing. You know what I'm thinking?' You think I'm dumb?

'Hell, Rachel, I had to guess, I'd say you're goin' round and around in circles wonderin' about the summer, feelin' kinda nervous, normal stuff like that.' She stopped trying to depilate me.

'That's another thing about you, and I don't know if it's good or bad. You've been here before and it makes me feel real young and silly.' Well, shit. Not a dumb girl at all.

'Old enough to think for yourself, smart enough to do it right, Rachel. My opinion, anyway. I'm crazy in like with you, told you that already; happy to stay that way, keen not to fight about it nor hurt you none.' She wriggled round so she was facing me.

'You're such a dream to be with, but you're a very selfish guy. I think arguing with you would be a horrible experience too. I sort of get the feeling you're hard as nails under all the relaxed Doug stuff.' Like I said, not dumb at all. She swallowed and carried on. 'You won't compromise worth a damn though, and you're never going to love me like I want you to, right?'

'Real bad at that, Rachel. Not a place I go, not with you, not with anyone I ever met. Nothin' to do with you as a person: just, some guys are pretty contained and I'm kinda the far side of that.' Why do they always want to go over everything twice? It's like the goddam cops, checking your story matches second time round. Good job I can do this one in my sleep. Point in her favor though, she didn't start crying.

'Suppose I said I wasn't going to sleep with anyone else over the summer. What would you say?'

'None of my business. I ain't a real possessive guy: happy when you're here, pissed when you go, pleased when you're back, simple stuff.' She almost pouted.

'It's not normal. And I suppose it's none of my business what you do either?' You're getting the idea.

'I'm rude to you, treat you bad, lie to you, stuff like that, you gotta right to call me on it, Rachel. You wanna go past that, well, shit. I react kinda bad to pressure, makes me sorta nervous, defensive maybe.' She didn't say nothing to that, just lay quiet against me while I wondered what she was gonna decide. Felt a warm damp feeling on my chest for a moment, but didn't mention it. Hell, I can be sensitive too. After a while she reached up and hugged me hard.

'Lessons in growing up, I guess. You can't make someone love you just by loving them. We've had a good year though, haven't we?' Thank God for smart girls. I tried not to let the relief sound in my voice when I answered.

'Good as it can get, Rachel. You wanna stay in the house next year, I'm a happy guy; you want to live somewhere else, visit maybe, I'm happy too; you wanna say it's been great but I'm movin' on, well, hell, it's your life. Been a privilege to share part of it, kid, and that's the truth. I'd kinda miss you though.'

'As much as you can miss anyone. I'm glad about that, I suppose.' There was the tiniest hint of hurt in her voice, but nothing she couldn't handle, seemed to me. She seemed to shake herself and her hand closed round my cock. 'You'd better let me pump this fellow up right now though. You're going to spend the next month saying goodbye so hard you'll wish you'd thought differently.' I squeezed her shoulder encouragingly. 'You manage that, girl, I'll come quietly, do what I'm told.' Somehow she giggled and gulped at the same time. 'Motivation. I love motivation.' She slithered round and her mouth closed lovingly over my cock and I shivered happily as she went to work. Wasn't much chance of her wearing me out, but she was gonna have fun trying, and I was gonna have a whole lot more. There's times when making like damaged goods is the way to let 'em go.

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

I stretched and sighed. Ain't often that the springtime view outa my window don't soothe me, but this evening it plain wasn't cutting it. Rachel had dithered some, but in the end she couldn't get away from the happy ever after crap. Plenty of tears, but she kept them to herself mostly, real impressive. Left at the end of the semester, transferred to a fancy college like her dad wanted. Like I said, there's times I wonder I should maybe have been a tad more accommodating with her, but what the hell. She wasn't Annie, not by a country mile, and I'd have cut and run eventually, money or no fuckin' money. Never seen her since, but she sends me a birthday card every year, just her name, nothing sloppy. Nice to know part of her hasn't let go. Kinda touching even, I guess, but memories are just that: what's gone is gone. I shook myself and decided to go work out some in the morning, get ready for whatever was fuckin' gonna come along next.

Exercise tends to soothe me some. Never tried to work out why, but it's a small price to pay. Coupla months, I was feeling optimistic again. Annie and Kirsty seemed to be getting on good. Fact is, Annie had come by coupla weeks after Christmas, wanted to show me the last month's figures, have me reassure her I guess; I was on the couch with Kirsty, feeling warm and lazy after a nooner when she arrived. Real surprise was, the atmosphere didn't chill right down. She even managed a smile.

'Come back in ten minutes, two hours, or tomorrow, Doug? Guess I shoulda called, huh?' I felt Kirsty stiffen then relax, wondered what to say. Seemed like stuff was balanced kinda delicate. Was sorta shocked when Kirsty spoke up.

'Coffee for me, beer for the sultan here.' Annie smiled again and hustled through, started making kitchen type noises, and Kirsty prodded me in a real unfair place. 'You want me out of the way?' Hell, I didn't know. Every time you think you got a woman nailed down she'll turn round and surprise you.

'Better ask Annie, kid. I mean, you know each other kinda good by now. Ain't for me to decide how you handle everything.' She reached up and hugged me.

'At least you're consistent. Take ten minutes for your shower while we talk.' She hopped up and started pulling on her jeans, and I turned the gas grate up high as I went through to the bedroom. Nice to know I didn't have to hurry. Truth to tell, I took my time. I never in my life seen two women get the talking they needed done in ten minutes. Twenty in the shower, ten drying and dressing, minimum, I reckoned. When I came back into the lounge they were curled at opposite ends of the couch, still yakking. Kirsty stood up and gave me a peck on the cheek.

'I'm dribbling cum like a leaky tap; I'll shower upstairs and hit the books. Annie'll tell you what we decided.' She blew Annie a kiss and bounced out, looking sorta pleased, and I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding, sat down next to Annie, took in half my beer in one pull.

'You come round just to talk to the girl?' She punched my arm kinda hard.

'Don't you be disrespectin' her, Doug. She's smarter than you think, understands both of us real good. Dam' near shit when she started tellin' me her goddam plan.'

'So what's gonna happen? You worked out some kinda fuckin' rota system, I'm likely to start reactin' real bad.' She rolled her eyes some.

'Jeez, Doug, you're gonna be the one runnin' it. I ain't gonna try to control you, seein' as I ain't fuckin' suicidal, and she don't much wanna do that either. Wants to get her sheepskin, do all that shit right, ain't gonna let fightin' about bedroom time screw up her life.' Well, that didn't sound too bad. She looked altogether too smug though and I reckoned I'd better take hold of the conversation.

'Tell me that later, I guess. Maybe you oughta spill the reason you interrupted my 'nooner.' She looked annoyed for a second, then grinned.

'Ain't gonna give an inch, are you? I got stuff here you oughta see, help you relax some.' I took the sheaf of papers she handed me and flipped through them.

'Holiday season was great, you're makin' money, the bank loves you, it's goin' better than you thought. Way to go, girl. You mind me sayin' I ain't that surprised? Kirsty's been kinda droppin' hints that half the people she knows are talkin' about the cool new shop in town?' She'd been wanting more than that, so I reached over and hauled her onto my lap, hugged her real good. She hugged back and I felt a celebration coming on, pushed my hips up a tad, let her know what she was crushing. She quit chewing on my ear and pulled away some.

'Umm, mebbe I better say what Kirsty and I agreed.' I didn't say nothing, just eyeballed her kinda stern, and she bit my ear again before she went on. 'Don't fuckin' look at me like that, Doug. You want two sets of pussy up front, the pussy gotta be happy with it too. Never worried me before who else you were screwin', seein' as you kinda kept it apart, didn't get the names wrong, stuff like that, and Kirsty and me, we'd both be good with that. So what happens is I don't screw you here, and I don't bitch about that, and she don't bitch if you ain't around, seein' as how you live here and she knows you'll be back to deal with her soon enough. Me, I always kinda liked it when you visited me unexpected. Knowin' what you was after made me hotter than hell, tell the truth. You reckon you can handle that?' I thought about that.

'And Kirsty wants to finish college, settle down, have babies somewhere else?' She grinned.

'Jeez, Doug, you don't gotta cover your ass with me. That's for you and her, I guess. You want my opinion, she's way too smart to try changin' you. I mean, she likes to take the idea out and play with it when she got nothin' better to do, but hell, everyone does that once in a while.' Good point.

'Good point. You wanna go home, pretty up some, be ready to go eat later? Put the kids to bed after, I'll do the same to you?' The smile I got back was wide and warm, then she slipped off my lap and headed out to her car, sparkle in her eyes I hadn't seen for a while. Fuckin' prime time. Two minutes after she split there was a tap at the door.

'C'mon in, Kirsty, and I'll tell you how you done real good. Guess I owe you.' She closed the door behind her, dived at me and pushed me back onto the sofa.

'If you can't get the best solution possible go for the best possible solution. Doesn't work for engineering but it's fine for people. See how much you've taught me?' She wanted to be told she was real smart, grown up, stuff like that, so I did that some, held her tight while I told her what a happy guy I was, how it was all down to her, all the crap women like. Mentioned that caring for friends wasn't a fuckin' zero sum game, how much I valued her and Annie both: shit, it went down a storm, and a little finger work had her yelping and thanking God she hadn't been a jealous bitch, risked losing everything. Didn't ask her to return the favor though: if I was gonna be seeing Annie later I'd need all the recovery time I could get.

'That one was for you, kid, and you better remember we owe each other now. Now tell me what you're doin' tonight.' Then it was oh, Doug, she had so much work, and it had to be submitted tomorrow, was why she'd grabbed the afternooner. Like I didn't know, but it never hurts to check.

I have to say, Annie excelled herself; six o'clock I was at the new shop, helped her get the shutters down, made nice to the kids while she changed, all the easy stuff that women love. Decided I wanted ribs, so I took them there, filled the kids up good, made sure they went straight to bed when we got back. When Annie came back from reading them some goddam story I was one bong hit ahead of her, stretched out on her new couch, wondering if I should take the first course slow or fast. Soon had the problem solved for me though. She slipped quietly into the room and smiled, her hands busy with the buttons on her dam' hippy dress.

'Gimme a hit of that and scoot along, Mr. Investor. There ain't no cash dividend yet, so I guess you'll hafta take the first payment in kind.' The dress slid off her skinny shoulders and puddled round her ankles as she spoke, then she dived onto the couch, holding out one hand for the bong. Didn't try to keep it away from her, not being a total dam' fool, and she sucked in a good one, held it, eyes fluttering, cheeks turning a little pink.

'Goddam, that's good. Righteous grass, hard cock, sweet talk afterwards: you mind if I say some personal stuff first?' Shit. Last thing I fuckin' want.

'Go right ahead, Annie. What friends are for, I guess.' She took another hit and passed it back to me, scooted round and chewed my ear some.

'What I like about you, Doug. You ain't ever been one to grab and run. You remember when my Dad died?' I nodded, dam' near lost the ear. She moved back a little, carried on. 'Got kinda antsy, I guess, once carin' for him had finished, and you plain weren't gonna do any dam' thing to scratch my itch, so it seemed like Ray was the only game in town. Guess that's why I said yes to him. New adventure, doin' all the stuff I thought I oughta have been doin'. You understand that?' Course not, dummy, and I don't need to, neither.

'Guess I can imagine the feeling.' Her teeth closed over my ear again.

'Hell you can, and you ain't gonna try. Don't matter anyway. I done it now, and it was good for a while, I guess. Ray, he wanted to make it right for us, but he screwed up real bad, poor dumb bastard, and then it was a fuckin' disaster. What I'm tryin' to say, I belong here, I guess, and a guy like you is what I need, I'm bein' honest about it. Fact is, you don't wanna be full time, and that suits me fine, plus you never hurt me, puts you way ahead of the field, plus there ain't a field, not really. You mind me bein' a coupla steps past in like with ya, not carin' about you bein' a selfish bastard?' Tell the truth, I felt kinda choked when she said that: she was as selfish as me, but in a woman's way, less fuckin' aggressive about it.

'Annie, you better not tell a soul, but we're two of a fuckin' kind; why we get on pretty good, I guess. You wanna move round some, lemme talk to your pussy a while?' Jeez, we was head to tail in about two seconds, her mouth dancing over my cock while her warm little pussy wriggled around looking for my tongue. No chance of the party trick yet, the way we were facing, but I played about some, lapping at the gates and nibbling the doorbell. I gotta say, for a woman who'd birthed two kids she was tighter than I had any right to expect. Small girls got their upside, I guess.