Chapter 2

The next night I was sitting at home, waiting for Bo to either come by or call me if he was successful with a special assignment I had given him.

Years earlier, The General once told me he did something he was not too proud of, to protect someone he cared about. That’s how I remembered the conversation, someone he “cared” about. I could not use that other word, the “L” word.

I was doing the same. Even after all that had happened, someone I still cared about.

I had not slept at all. Every time I would try to lie down, I could still hear Carrie crying and sobbing. And still see her incredibly firm breasts and hard nipples poking through the thin shirt she was wearing. And see her long, long, well-muscled legs and tight butt.

When my doorbell rang, I assumed it was Bo and although I was a little surprised since I thought it was way too early, I really didn’t think an awful lot about it.

I opened the door.

It was not Bo.

It was Bo’s daughter.

Carrie looked at me for a minute, then did something that very few men have ever been able to do to Big Jake Lewis!

As I have said, Carrie had grown at least three inches, and probably gained 40 pounds. She was also a superbly conditioned, world-class athlete, and was the starting forward on the nationally-ranked University of Alabama women’s basketball team.

She now put every ounce of that anger-driven conditioning and 160 pounds into her right hand.

She hit me so hard with an open-handed slap that it knocked my head back and rocked me to my heels. I actually stumbled backwards before managing to catch myself. Carrie continued to walk towards me as I was stumbling back.

“Now you are going to listen to me, you miserable son-of-a-bitch, because last night I had to listen to your crap! Now you are going to sit down and hear what I have to say if I have to take a two-by-four and beat you senseless first,” she said, and was so angry she was shaking.

My first and only thought at that point was I was VERY glad to see that Carrie was NOT holding a two-by-four. I suddenly had no doubt that she meant every word of what she was saying.

“Okay, Miss James, come on in,” I said, which was kind of stupid since she was already a half-dozen feet inside the house.

We walked into the living room.

“Now sit down ... Sheriff!” she ordered, and used just as much contempt with that word “Sheriff” as I had used in my words with her last night.

I sat.

I could see Carrie visibly trying to control her temper, so I just sat and said nothing.

Finally, she seemed to compose herself some, then started talking.

“Jake, I don’t think I have ever loved anyone more than I loved Aunt June.

“There are times when I think I actually loved her more than I love my own mother ... and I love my mother a lot,” she said.

“She was more than just a second mother to me, she was also like the older sister I never had.

“I knew I could talk to Aunt June about anything – things I would never dare discuss with my own mother. And Aunt June would never judge me, but would only offer encouragement and help me to see the right thing to do.

“Did you know I was standing right outside the bedroom door, that final day, in case either one of you needed something?” she asked.

I shook my head no, and had to admit my surprise.

“Jake, how do you think it made me feel to hear Aunt June say she knew, not just that I loved you both, but I was IN LOVE WITH you? You don’t have to answer that, because I will tell you. It made me so sick at my stomach I wanted to throw up!” Carrie admitted.

“I could not believe what I was hearing, coming from a woman I loved so much and respected so much. Hearing her say ‘a woman always knows when another woman is in love with her husband,’ made me physically ill.

“I wanted so much to run in there and tell Aunt June how wrong she was! Yes, I loved you both, but I immediately started telling myself I could not ... COULD NOT be in love WITH you.

“I would be betraying my love for Aunt June, and her love for me.

“I couldn’t be in love WITH you Jake, I couldn’t.

“What kind of monster would I have to be, to have fallen in love with Aunt June’s husband, while she was lying there dying? What kind of sick, perverted person would I have to be?

“You can’t even conceive of how those words tortured me, made me question myself and everything I believed in. Made me doubt that I was even capable of human feelings.

“If I was actually, as Aunt June claimed, ‘in love with’ you, then I thought I had to have been one of the sickest, most depraved people on earth.

“The next few weeks were, for me, hell. Instead of being excited about starting college, I was mourning Aunt June, and torturing myself each night denying I could possibly be in love WITH you.

“When I did get to college, I did the only thing I knew to do. I poured myself into basketball with a vengeance. My coaches said they had never seen anyone work as hard, or spend more hours in a gym than I did. I started a high-calorie diet to gain weight, so I could become an even better player.

“I also started running miles every day. I would run a couple of miles in the morning, then several more miles in the afternoon after basketball practice.

“If I wasn’t in the gym, then I was in the weight room working out.

“The coaches told me I spent more time in the weight room than most of the members of the Alabama football team.

“I became a starter my freshman year on a team already ranked in the top five in the nation.

“And all to try to forget about what Aunt June said ... and to try to forget about you.”

“But no matter how many hours I spent in the gym, how many hours I spent running, and how many hours in the weight room, no matter how completely exhausted I was, every time I closed my eyes at night, all I could see was you ... all I could see was Jake.

“And I finally had to admit Aunt June was right. God help me, Aunt June was right. I was in love with Big Jake Lewis.”

“I even thought about killing myself, Jake. That was how bad I felt.”

Carrie said that when she came home that first year for fall break, she had planned on talking to me and admitting her feelings for me, and see how I felt about her, and about what June had said.

But then Bo told her that as soon as I heard she was coming back into town and wanted to talk to me, I suddenly left for an unexpected vacation.

“That told me how you felt,” Carrie said. “And it made me feel even worse about myself.

“I told myself that you thought I must be that sick, depraved monster I sometimes felt I had to be.

“I became determined to get you out of my mind, and out of my heart.

“When I got back to college, I deliberately got myself drunk and lost my virginity, and then started sleeping with anyone who would have me.

“I tried to FUCK you out of my mind and FUCK you out of my heart, Jake,” she said, and began crying.

“But every time I closed my eyes ... every time someone was on top of me ... I still could only see you.”

For the next year-and-a-half, about the only thing Carrie did was play basketball and sleep with anyone who would have her. And a lot of men would have her. But every time she would close her eyes, she would only see me.

“I’ve never had an orgasm, Jake, because it was always you that I wanted ... always.”

Carrie said that when she found out that I had suspended her Dad, she was actually glad, because she felt now the love could turn to hate. And that is why she wanted to roll my house, to prove to herself how much she now hated me.

“It didn’t work, Jake, it didn’t work,” she said as she began crying harder.

“And do you know what the worst part is? That guy, when he told my Dad that he had slept with me? He was right. He had been another Jake substitute.

“Daddy was trying to protect his daughter’s name, but his daughter was nothing more than a slut. Just a cheap, miserable, depraved slut who would not say no to any man.”

A couple of times as she was talking I had started to say something, or reach out to her, but each time Carrie told me to just sit down, shut up and not say anything until she had finished.

In the last few months Carrie said she finally realized how futile her efforts were to “fuck me out of her heart,” so she had stopped sleeping around.

“Last night, I was about to suggest you call my father. Calling my father and knowing my mother would find out what I had done would be worse than jail, Jake.

“But that was what I was going to do, then I was going to offer to plead guilty to any charge you and Daddy wanted to make against me. But I didn’t want my mother to see her daughter in jail. It would have killed her, Jake.

“But then you told me you could probably also charge me with solicitation, and told me to go prostitute myself elsewhere.

“I have never had anything hurt me like that in my life. Never, Jake, never.”

When I started to get up and tried to interrupt Carrie, she ordered me to sit back down and shut up ... or she would hit me again.

I sat.

“All day I have thought about nothing else but what you said, about prostituting myself.

“Well, Jake, I also saw how you looked at me last night, how you were checking me out, how you were looking at my body. That is a look I have learned very well, and I could tell that you liked what you saw.

“And I also heard what you said about my ‘pretty tits and tight little ass’ and I knew you were interested.

“So maybe we can both get what we want. Isn’t that what they call a win-win scenario?

“Neither side gets exactly what they want, but both sides get some of what they want?”

Carrie walked over until she stood just a couple of feet away from me.

“Maybe it was not the way I would want it to be between us, but if that is all I can get, I would just have to accept that.

“I would rather be your prostitute, I would rather be your whore,” Carrie said, “than any other man’s wife!”

Carrie was wearing a pair of shorts and t-shirt, but tonight I could see that she had a bra on since I could see a bra strap on her shoulder.

She pulled the t-shirt over her head and threw it at me.

“I’ll be your $100 whore, Jake. If you will have me.”

Then she slipped her shorts off and threw those at me. She was now only wearing panties and a bra.

“If that’s too much money, then I’ll be your $50 whore, Jake.”

Carrie reached behind her and undid her bra and slipped it off and threw it at me. Her breasts were beautiful. Not huge, but very firm and her nipples were already hard.

“If that’s too much money, then I’ll be your $25 whore, Jake.”

She then pushed her panties down, stepped out, bent over and picked them up and threw them at me as well.

“What is the lowest of the low, Jake? Is that a two-bit whore? Well, then I’ll be your two-bit whore, Jake. If that’s all I can be, then I’ll be your two-bit whore.”

Carrie finally fell to her knees on the living room floor and started sobbing again.

“Any way you want me, Jake, any way at all. I’ll be yours any way at all. You don’t have to give me anything else, not your name, not your love, just let me be your two-bit whore!”

By now I am crying also.

I walked over and knelt down beside Carrie and took her into my arms.

“You are no man’s whore, Carrie, and you are no slut. I was just too blind to see, too caught up in my own suffering to realize you were suffering as well,” I said.

“Oh God, Carrie, I can’t believe how much I have screwed everything up.

“I have failed you, and I have failed June.

“Carrie, do you remember the last thing June said?” I asked.

“Take care...” she answered.

“At the time, I didn’t know if she meant take care of yourselves, or take care of each other,” I explained, “but now I know she meant take care of each other.

“And I have failed you ... I have failed you so much,” I added, and by now I am really crying.

“Carrie ... my beautiful Carrie ... I have no right to ask this, but can you ever forgive me?” I asked.

To be honest, if our positions were somehow reversed I don’t think I would have the courage, nor heart, nor the compassion to do what Carrie did then.

“Just hold me, Jake ... please, just hold me!” Carrie answered, then gave me a very soft kiss on my lips.

And I did. We just sat there – together – on my living room floor for probably 30 minutes or more, just holding each other. And we were both doing a lot of crying.

When we finally stood up, I picked Carrie up in my arms and carried her to my bedroom.

By the time I finally entered her that night, she had already had at least a half-dozen orgasms from the ministrations of my mouth, tongue and fingers.

And when I finally entered her, she just gasped, “Oh God, Jake ... BIG Jake,” and exploded again.

We finally fell asleep in each other’s arms, and for the first time in two years I did not wake up a half-dozen times during the night.

I slept like a baby. And when I woke up the next morning, just like a suckling baby my lips found her breasts and nipples and soon she was awake and crying out in passion as we made love again.

We took a shower together, and were soon making love in the shower with water cascading over our joined bodies.

Soon we were lying down on my bed again. I just couldn’t get enough of looking at this beautiful young woman, with such an incredible body.

I had already lost count of the number of times I had told her that I loved her, and always wanted to be with her – for the rest of my life. And she told me the same.

“Well, what do you want to do today, Jake?” Carrie asked.

“It’s not what I WANT to do, but it is something I have to do,” I said, after thinking for a while.

“I have to call Bo and have him come over so I can talk to him – about us,” I explained. “I just hope he doesn’t kill me when he finds out you spent the night here with me.”

“I already know how protective of you he is,” I said, “and I only hope he gives me a chance to explain how much I love you.”

“Don’t worry, Jake,” Carrie said, “somehow I just know everything will be all right.”

Carrie’s confidence was encouraging, but I was really worried. Like I had told Carrie, I knew how protective Bo was when it concerned his daughter. And how terrible his temper could be when something finally crossed that threshold that ignited the hidden rage in Bo.

I grabbed my portable phone off the nightstand and dialed Bo’s number. I was lying on my back and Carrie had her head on my left shoulder. I had the portable phone up to my left ear, so Carrie’s head was just a few inches away because she wanted to hear anything her Dad said.

I wasn’t going to tell him over the phone Carrie and I had spent the night together – he needed to hear that from me in person – but just wanted to let him know I had something very serious I needed to discuss with him, and that it also involved his daughter.

When he answered, I began what I knew would be one of the most difficult conversations of my life.

“Hey, Bo,” I began after he answered.

“Do you think you could run by my place?” I said. “There is something I really need to discuss with you.”

“Sure, Jake,” Bo responded. “I can be there in 15 minutes.”

Then before I could say anything else, Bo added, “Hey, Jake, it is only 7:30.

“Do you want me to stop and get us all some breakfast,” he asked, “or you going to make Carrie get out of bed and cook?”

Have you ever had total sensory overload?

Something you see, or hear that simply defies logic?

Something you know can’t be happening, but it actually is happening?

Something that is so unexpected, so shocking, that your brain momentarily stops working?

Something that renders you not only incapable of speech, but even thought?

If so, then welcome to my world!

The next thing I know is that Carrie is laughing almost hysterically, and I hear Bo saying, over and over, “Jake, are you still there? Jake, are you still there?”

Carrie finally stops laughing long enough to make some remarks towards the phone, which is still pressed up against my ear.

“Oh God, Daddy, you should see his face! It is priceless,” Carrie added, then began laughing again.

“Hey, Kitten,” I heard Bo say. “Do you need eggs or bacon or anything? If you do I can stop at the store.”

“To tell you the truth, Daddy, I don’t know,” Carrie answered as she gave me what could only be described as a wicked smile, “I haven’t been to the kitchen yet. Jake won’t let me get out of bed!”

I could feel my face start to turn red.

“Oh, Daddy, I wish you could see his face now,” Carrie told her father, “He is blushing!”

“You see, Kitten, your Mom and I told you he actually loved you!” Bo said.

“I know, Daddy, but he sure had a hell of a way of showing it!” Carrie added.