Double Feature (4 page)

My breast, my pussy, my pearl and my ass. He controlled my
body, playing it like a symphony and making me sing with impossibly excruciating
need. “Oh God, Miles! Please, please!”

If there was one place left for Miles to take me over the
edge, it was my mind. “Josie,” he breathed with a rasp as he pumped into me,
“whose woman are you?” His thumb moved in circles inside my pussy easily
because I was so wet for him. His fingers slid faster and faster around my
swollen pearl and he rubbed my nipple the same way. His thrusts inside me were
short but steady and deep.

I craned my head to look at him. “Brand me, Miles,” I
panted. “Turn me over and brand me.”

He stopped everything and eased out of me. When he quickly
turned me over I could see from his face that he was beyond excited by what I’d
suggested.

Miles tore the condom off and threw it into my bedside
wastebasket. One hand went back between my legs and the other to his needful
shaft. I shook my head wildly. “Untie me,” I demanded. “Let me touch you.”

“Shitfire, you’re incredible,” he moaned. He dove down and
kissed me hard as he freed my hands. Even as I sucked his tongue, I groped around
the bed until I found the bottle of lube. I slicked up my palms and fingers
good.

He broke away from the kiss to rear back on his knees. His
hand went between my legs again, two fingers inside me and his thumb at my
pearl. I grasped his throbbing tool with my fingers laced on top and my thumbs
pointing up in steeple form underneath. With every tight, slick pull my thumbs
made a long sweep on the ridge under his crown.

“
Fuck!
” he shouted. His hand worked frantically
between my legs and the other squeezed one of my breasts for dear life.

I rubbed his cock faster. “Brand me, Miles,” I whispered. My
hips thrashed in time with his hand. I was so close but I wanted to come with
him.

Miles shouted as his body tensed over me like a living
statue. His face was clenched in the place where male power meets male
surrender. I came the second I felt his hot liquor lashing my breasts. My head
fell back as my body shook in a long wave of ecstasy. I milked his cock and
felt his liquid heat on my belly and my breasts and all the way up to my neck.
Through it all I heard him saying my name over and over.

Riley

Weeknights in Mayfield are downright deadly dull. Now I had
a chance to brighten them up with exciting news—my BFF Josie was dating a bona
fide movie star! Only I couldn’t find anyone to tell about it.

After I left Josie’s I’d driven to the Dee-Luxe Diner
looking for my buddies but no one was there. I found them all at Stubby’s
Alehouse but before I could get a word in about Josie’s score my buddies rushed
me out. They said the sheriff was there looking for me and didn’t have a smile
on his face when he asked. I’d walked into the bar seconds after he went to the
men’s to take a leak. Everyone told me to get gone fast.

Now I was driving around Mayfield wondering where to go and
what I’d done to Calvin to make him so mad at me. Man, this town was starting
to feel like a pair of tight underwear.

As Roscoe snored loudly from the passenger seat I ran
through my mental black book to think of who I might visit. When I leaned my
elbow out the car window the handcuffs clanked against the door.

Ahhh yeah.
A big smile widened my lips. True, Lucille
had been none too thrilled with me having to hacksaw the base of her headboard
rung to get free since she didn’t have the key to the cuffs. But with the
pillows plumped up you couldn’t see a lick of damage. I hadn’t been mad at her
for playing prisoner with someone else, even though she wouldn’t tell me who it
was. Not that I really wanted to know.

I made a quick U-turn that slid Roscoe all the way over and
into my lap. “She won’t be mad at us anymore, boy,” I said as I settled him.
“We’ll have her smiling again in no time.”

Just as I had that morning, I parked a tad down the road
from Lucille’s house. Roscoe led the way up the darkened path, the sun now gone
and just a sliver of a moon rising above me. Crickets sang as I trudged up the
hill with a big grin on my face. I was already planning what I could do to
Lucille this time. Was there a place in her house we hadn’t done it yet? Maybe
I’d blindfold her or pour warm honey all over her or—

My heart stopped when I saw the police car parked in front
of Lucille’s house. Was she hurt? Had something bad happened? I ran up to her
steps but froze when I heard her flirtatious laughter coming through the
screened windows.

I glanced back at the police car. Calvin had been looking
for me at the bar and around town. How would he know to come here? Had talk
about Lucille and me gotten around even though we’d been careful?

Lucille was laughing again. This didn’t sound like the
Have
you seen him? No, Sheriff, I haven’t
conversation. Then I noticed that her
house was lit with the soft glow I knew to be her perfumed candles. I tiptoed
up the porch steps quiet as I could and peeked through the window.

There stood Lucille in a thin white sundress I knew well.
I’d asked her to leave it on once ’cause I liked the way it billowed around her
thighs as I rear-ended her. She was smiling up at the man standing with his
back to me. I didn’t have to see his face to know it was Sheriff Calvin
Clodfelter.

That handcuff felt tighter around my wrist than ever.

Lucille had her hand on Calvin’s chest and now she eased it
up his neck as he drew her close for a kiss. Just before their lips touched she
saw me. I doubt the look she gave me was her
come hither
. I couldn’t say
for sure because I was distracted by the diamond sparkling on her finger.

She and Calvin kissed slow and deep. I supposed I should’ve
left but for the moment I’d forgotten how to walk or breathe. Calvin. Lucille.
The handcuffs. Him going from laughing with me at poker-and-porn night to
treating me as if I were shit on the bottom of his shoe. It all made sense. I
was just a tad too slow to have figured it out.

Roscoe’s whine broke me out of my spell. I had sense enough
to leave before I was discovered. If only I’d had sense enough to keep from
getting so stuck on Lucille that it felt as though my world had suddenly shrunk
to nothing.

Josie

Miles and I had shifted to our regular positions in my bed,
him on his back and me half draped over him, my cheek resting on the slope of
muscle from his neck to his shoulder. He held me and tucked his chin over my
head.

We hadn’t spoken in a while. Part of it was recovering from
the kind of sex that makes words useless. Except for maybe the ones he’d wanted
me to say, that I was his woman. After the kind of lovemaking I’d never
experienced before, the time was right for silence but the unspoken words
created a distance.

I shifted my head a tad. Instead of looking melancholy Miles
was smiling to himself as though harboring a good secret. “What canary do you
have fluttering around in there?” I asked.

“Remember that TV series script you found for me?” he asked.
“I came over early tonight to tell you the news. My agent got me an audition.”

“Whoa my God! Miles!” I sat up and whooped in congratulations
for him. I’d felt down to my bones that this gritty show would be perfect for
Miles and launch his career. We laughed as we embraced and the man’s smile made
my heart bust wide open.

“I audition in New York City the day before my movie
premiere,” he told me. “I’ll know soon if I got it because production starts in
a month. Imagine that!”

“Imagine that,” I repeated with far less excitement. My
heart began to sink. I wanted him to get the part and I knew he would. But that
meant he’d have to go back to Hollywood to prepare for stardom. He’d be gone
from Mayfield and me within hours.

“Well?” he asked. “What do you think?”

I crawled off the bed and pulled on my tank top and peasant
skirt. “I think it’s time for you to go.”

Miles was so confused it took him a moment to say, “Huh?
What’s going on here, cowgirl?” He clambered off the bed and before he could
reach for me I gathered up his clothes and pushed them at his chest.

“Get dressed,” I said. “You’ll have to leave soon. Might as
well be now.”

Angry comprehension creased his brow. “Look, Josie, this
doesn’t have to be the end of us. I can fly back from Hollywood and visit. Or
you come be with me in LA.”

I shook my head. “I’ve had my time in a big city. I got
chewed up and spat right back here to Mayfield.”

Miles frowned. “There’s something you’re not telling me.” He
took my chin to make me look him in the eyes. “When we met you said your fear
of heights kept you from looking over the edge of the movie theater balcony.
Your blood just about turned to acid when I admired your paintings and called
you an artist. You’ve been trying to get rid of me since we met even though you
know we’re right together. What’s this really about, Josie?”

With a sigh I wandered away from him and over to a painting
I’d done of the summer wildflowers that decorated the back roads of Hawthorne.
“This artwork you like so much got me into the top art university in New York
City. I never thought I’d make it in,” I said with a self-conscious smile. “I
was a nobody from a town no one’s ever heard of. And I was in a class with rich
kids and the son of a famous artist. His family’s name is on a museum on Fifth
Avenue. Students and teachers alike were throwing themselves at him. But I was
the one he courted with a vengeance.”

Miles gave me a gentle grin. “Doubtless he did.” He moved
toward me. “What’s this got to do with us?

“That guy taught me a lesson about focusing on what matters
most,” I said. “I got addled by his fame and started thinking he was better
than me. He became more important to me than my painting. When the time came
for the teacher and the rest of the class to critique my work for the final
grade, I was ripe for a takedown.”

I drew a deep but shaky breath before I could finish the
story. “My beau led the charge against me. Said my artwork was the kind of
cheap Americana you’d find in a bad motel room. The rest of his acolytes
followed suit and tore me to pieces.”

“That son of a bitch.” Miles looked fit to spit. “Josie,
don’t you see the truth of it? He felt threatened by you. I’d be willing to bet
you’re a far better artist than he is and he just wanted to reduce the
competition.”

“And he did,” I said. “I left school the next day. I wasn’t
sorry to be in Mayfield again. I’m close to my family and my friends and I love
this place. But I came back with my tail between my legs because I let someone
get under my skin.” I leveled a serious look at Miles. “I won’t let that happen
to you. You’ve got the spark, Miles. You can go far. But not if you’re
distracted by some woman you met a few days ago.”

“You’re not just some woman,” he said. “And this isn’t only
about me.” He took hold of my wrist to expose the tattoo on my forearm that
read
To Thine Own Self Be True
. “Look at the whole picture, Josie.
You’re afraid of what we’ve got here. I get that you gave your heart to someone
and he broke it. But we’re not going to take each other down. You helped me by
saying I had what it takes to go for that part. I could help you,” he said, “if
you’d trust me.”

In my heart I knew he was right. But it would take a damn
sight more time for me to learn to trust him than we had together. I felt tears
coming to my eyes at the thought of what I had to say to Miles for his own
good. With a slow and cruel certainty I pulled my wrist from his hand.

“Don’t make more of this than it is,” I said. “We met a few
days ago in a movie theater. We fucked a couple times. It was good. Now it’s
over. Put your pants on,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. “And get
gone.”

Riley

I’ve heard it said that truth can be found at the bottom of
a bottle. That was the case with the fourth beer. When I drank down the last of
it I realized I’d been stuck on Lucille something awful. Me of all people—Wily
Riley, Wandering Wanamaker. I’d been in love and hadn’t even known it until my
heart got all busted up.

In some sort of shock I’d dragged ass back to my car and
driven away from Lucille and Calvin. They’d started getting romantic. If that
had been any other couple I would’ve watched the fun but I couldn’t bear to see
her with someone else. I knew Lucille had other men just as I had other women.
I was okay with that as long as I could have her. If that diamond ring meant
what I thought it did then Lucille and I were over.

That’s the part that truly got me understanding that Lucille
had been the love of my life. I adored women but she was special. Lucille was
as skilled a lover as I was with an appetite to match. I just didn’t come
across that kind of woman every day. The thought that we were through was going
to cave me in.

I didn’t remember driving to the all-night market at the gas
station or buying the beer or even coming to my old treehouse out back of
Daddy’s place. I only knew I was up here getting drunk and fighting an awful
lonely feeling. Normally I’d know just what to do about it—find me a woman.
Usually any woman would do because I loved them all.

Now the only woman I wanted was the one I couldn’t have.

The treehouse was my sanctuary away from too many siblings
at home when I was a kid. Being that I had no permanent residence to speak of,
I still visited on the rare occasion when I wanted to be alone or just found
myself that way. I had a comfy sleeping bag up here and some dirty magazines
and a little dog bed for Roscoe, where he was snoozing peacefully. The treehouse
was a fun enough place to camp out but at the moment it might as well have been
solitary confinement in a prison. I felt lonesome down to a core I didn’t even
know I had.

“Riley… Riley, you up there?”

I heard someone whispering from below. I looked out one of
the holes sawed in the treehouse wall to provide a window. Down at the base of
the big oak tree stood Josie.

My body suddenly lit up with a possible cure for what ailed
me even as my mind told me that thought was badder than bad.

“Josie?” I squinted down at her. The way her eyes shone in
the moonlight showed she was crying. “Josie girl, what’s wrong?” She didn’t
answer before she started climbing up the treehouse ladder.

Oh hellfire. This wasn’t good at all. I was half drunk and
aching for a woman and my best friend was here. My very pretty best friend.

Josie climbed up into the treehouse just as she’d done
hundreds of times since we met in high school. She was wearing a little pink
sundress with a neckline that hinted at what in my experienced opinion were the
best tits in Mayfield County. She looked at me with tears pooling up in her
green eyes and for a second I came to my senses. I grabbed her by the
shoulders. “Did someone hurt you?” I demanded. “I’ll whup whoever did, by God.”

“No,” she whimpered. “I’m the one who did the hurting.” Her
chin trembled and the next thing I knew she fell into my arms.

Josie’s body heaved against mine with sobs as she told me
she’d busted up with Miles Masterson. She hadn’t cried this way since the night
she told me to pick her up at the bus station because she was coming home from
school for good. That bastard at the art college hurt her so bad I thought my
first visit to New York City would be to commit murder. Instead I held her all
night until she was good and cried out.

That time I’d been enough of a friend to keep from taking
advantage of her vulnerable state and pouncing on her, though it wasn’t easy.
I’d never forgotten the night of her eighteenth birthday when she asked me to
be her first. In all the times I’d made love with women that stood out as one
of the best.

Josie finished the story of breaking it off with Miles for
the good of his acting career. Before I could say it she mentioned Miles knew
this was really about her being too scared to get stuck on someone again. Then
she’d told him he was nothing to her but a good time to make him get gone. From
the way she described him leaving without a word, she’d accomplished her
mission.

I was listening. Some of me was. A lot of me was feeling
Josie’s body curled up against mine. She was warm and soft and smelled of
vanilla shampoo and something else I recognized as sex. She and Miles must’ve
done it before they’d had this bad conversation. The feel and scent of her were
turning me on. I had to shift when my cock started waking up and as I moved I
held her a tad tighter. She took that as me trying to comfort her and nestled
into me further. Oh Lordy.

I tried to focus on comforting her, truly. But I was all
busted up too, about Lucille.

Josie looked up at me. “Oh Riley,” she whispered. “This
feels so awful. What am I going to do?”

She was asking me for help. Instead of good advice my mind
came up with the idea of kissing her and the right ways to touch her that would
get me between her silky thighs in no time flat.

Hellfire! What kind of dickbag was I? But I couldn’t help
wanting her even as I knew this would be more wrong than anything I’d ever done
or do. Josie was my best and truest friend. She was hurting. She’d come to me
looking for a shoulder to cry on, not a hard cock looking to fuck a sweet
pussy.

Damn it, why’d I have to go and think of her pussy…? The
thought of how good she tasted and felt made me go hard without caring who was
in my arms or why. Knowing I was a dirty dog never stopped me from being one.

But my heart did.

Swear to God I was just about to make my move on Josie. I
reckoned I’d hate myself the next morning but I’d reasoned we both needed some
comfort. The naked kind. It might cause some trouble but we’d work things out
after I finished fucking us both so senseless we wouldn’t feel bad anymore.

Then one of Josie’s tears fell onto my chest and slipped
right on down over my heart. As it lingered on my skin it stopped me. I swear I
think that teardrop seeped into me and turned my heart into something different
entirely. Something better.

I realized I loved Josie. Not the same way I felt about
Lucille. A different kind of love that started filling the hole in me. I loved
Josie the way a best friend should. I knew if I made the moves on her I’d be hurting
her and that was the last thing on Earth I wanted to do. Even if it meant me
feeling this lonely pain for the rest of my days I wouldn’t do harm to this
woman. Now I reckoned I really could be a man worthy of calling himself her
best friend.

I pulled her upright and gave her a grin that had no
ulterior motive behind it. “Josie, everything’s going to be okay,” I said.
“Wily Riley’s got a plan.”