Chapter 8

The young Joshua Cross had always been a noteworthy figure in Cedar Grove. His father Amos being pastor of Bethel Baptist Church gave standing to both him and his twin Jericho. Their rebellious nature and the attention it brought them from school principals, local leaders and law enforcement always made them “persons of interest” whenever somebody was looking to assess responsibility for troublesome incidents in the community.

Josh was the apparent leader whose coattails his brother Jerry, as well as most of the boys of note, clung to. In high school, he was captain of the football and basketball teams, prom king, and valedictorian. While his teachers recognized him as an unconventional thinker, he was extremely popular with his peers. His closeness to Eve Harrington, a girl they considered to have loose morals, made his friends envious and the females wanted him as a boyfriend. In Cedar Grove, Josh was a big fish in a small pond. In New York City though, where he matriculated to Columbia University, he was merely a “country bumpkin.”

When he met Elizabeth Chadwick at a freshman mixer, he was intrigued by this forward, big-city girl. He was intimidated as well. Her searching gaze, while they were at the event, was so intense that he felt that this complex girl was trying to invade his brain and gain control over him.

They talked for about ten minutes before he ached to escape. Beth struck him as the most intense young woman he had ever met. After the night of the mixer because he sensed she could see him for what he was he made every effort to avoid her. During the next couple of weeks, they would see each other on the way to class and exchange a greeting. Hers was always friendlier than his. He was always relieved to be saved by the bell.

It was in the third week that Elizabeth’s History professor suffered a fatal heart attack which forced the college administration to consolidate the two History 101 classes. When she came into his classroom that day with the rest of her class, she, much to Josh’s distress, spotted the empty chair next to him and made a beeline for it. After that, the conversations Josh dreaded began taking place both before and after class.

He couldn’t figure out what the problem was ... Beth was extremely attractive and engaging but her piercing eyes always seemed to be flashing “DANGER.” Elizabeth Chadwick was so far above him socially that he was afraid she would easily find out what a fraud he was. He’d always been witty. Those in his Cedar Grove life who were able to keep up with his thought that Josh was highly intelligent and extremely funny. In his element, he was the unquestioned leader.

Elizabeth was highly amused by his quips, but he was convinced that she was just putting him on. It was about two weeks into their combined class when the bell rang at the end and Elizabeth said, “Obviously Josh there’s something about me that’s putting you off.” When he didn’t answer she went on, “Are you ever going to ask me out or am I just wasting my time?”

She was an incredibly confident and independent woman who had no interest in most of the guys who hit on her. In her eyes, they were frauds who thought they were big deals, their main goal being to get into her pants. She assessed that these young men couldn’t even get to first base with her. By her unusual upbringing, she was accustomed to males who not only intended to get there but when they knew what to do to make it worthwhile for her. As far as boyfriend types in her peer group were concerned Beth was neither eager to endure their crude attempts nor interested in becoming their sexual mentor.

When she first met Josh at the mixer, she knew right away that he was a hick but saw a depth in him that he didn’t realize he had. Though shy and in a new environment she could tell by his comments that he was speaking from a depth that most young men didn’t understand. And by his asides in class, she saw both wit and cleverness which needed a bit of refinement. Like all young women, she was looking for someone she could mold to her specifications. But she was a modern-day Circe who wanted a man that would most complete her life, something she saw in Joshua Cross.

When he was with her before and after class, he was tongue-tied and didn’t know how to handle her direct questions. He knew this Elizabeth Chadwick was intelligent and clever ... too clever for him by far. He was sure she would quickly see how unworthy a suitor he would be and couldn’t understand why she continually tried to engage him in conversation.

But she exuded a sexual presence that had him masturbating with thoughts of her each night. While there was no intimidation when he engaged in these mind-bound fantasies in his bed when she came into his classroom that day, he was afraid she would see the empty seat beside him or ignore it. In a state of panic when she sat beside him, he just knew they were not for each other. When she let it be known that she wanted to date him he stammered, “I-I don’t know what to say.”

I can’t believe that this guy is so braindead she thought and said, “You can start by saying, ‘Beth would you like to go out with me?’”

The profound logic of it made him laugh and think I can’t believe I’ve been this dumb. Her unexpected candor had a calming effect on him as he said, “Perfect question, I guess this Midwest hayseed was a little put off by Elizabeth Chadwick, the socialite.” Shaking his head at his naiveté he chuckled and said, “Beth, would you like to go out with me?”

To his shocked surprise, she retorted, “Asshole. I was beginning to think you didn’t have it in you.”

Thinking about her earthy response he was emboldened to answer her sarcasm in kind, ”I wonder if you have any idea just how much I’ve been thinking about having it in you just before I go to sleep every night,” certain that he would be erased from her life forever.

While his face turned almost crimson with his stupid brashness Beth studied him with a harshly critical eye. Without a hint of color or passion said, “Smartass, you must be accustomed to corn-fed farm girls who don’t know how guys think.”

With a hopeful laugh, he said, “They know Beth, they know ... at least the corn-fed farmer girls that I’m familiar with.”

With a wry grin, she cocked her head and said, “You’re gonna find out Joshua Cross that I’m different from most girls. You would be surprised to know that I’ve been handling my fantasies about you in the same way before I go to sleep.”

He thought of his years with Eve and how she had constantly reminded him about her clitoris and how it seemed connected with her nipples and toes; telling him to be tender in his initial touches, patient in his foreplay, and to increase his forcefulness as her excitement rose.

“That’s an exciting picture,” he replied as his confidence surged. She raised her eyebrows and wrinkled her forehead. “Unlike most guys, I would even say “big city boys,” I’ve had the luxury of a very ... um ... insightful female friend.” His ease of conversation was triggered by her purposeful urgings for him to ask her out.

From the beginning, he sensed the strength of her libido but was put off by her pushy self-assurance, something he noticed in many New Yorkers that he had met. Since childhood, his experiences with Eve Harrington made him confident with all the girls in Cedar Grove which made it easier to take their cherries or at least get inside most of the girls he had dated there. It had always been a mystery to him that his brother who had the same experiences with Evie was nowhere near as confident with girls as he was. Beth’s statement about her difference from other females struck him as braggadocious but he didn’t want to judge her too harshly. I’m being arrogant because of my time with Evie.

“A female friend? Not a girlfriend,” she asked, “Is she an older woman?”

Having wished he could have made it with at least two of his teachers he thought from your mouth to God’s ears and said, “We were friends from childhood but were never officially a couple.”

Cocking her head Beth thought, Interesting. If her perception of Josh’s female friend were correct, she knew from her own life experiences what kind of girl his female friend could be.

“Yeah,” he said wistfully, “she just married my brother,” not mentioning anything about the pregnancy.

“So, do you have any regrets?”

The regrets were that he got Evie pregnant and let his brother take the rap. But Jerry was in love with her so that alleviated guilt had been alleviated. His main regret was that he knew his brother would never keep up with Eve’s libido, that somehow it was going to cause him grief. “No,” he said, “It was just time to move on.”

“So where are you going to take me when you decide to ask me out? Is it someplace special?”

“It’s only special because it is the first time, I’ve asked ... maybe just a beer?”

“How about 6:30,” Beth said, “for about an hour or so; I have to get back and do some studying.”

They went to an old German bar called the Rathskeller and talked about their childhood and their families: Beth was amazed that Josh’s father was a fundamentalist preacher and that he was a twin whose brother had just gotten married to a girl whom Josh had been sexually involved with and was studying to follow in his father’s footsteps. He didn’t say that the girl was pregnant when they had gotten married.

Beth talked about her father being a successful lawyer and told him that they had a house in the Bronx and a summer house on Long Island ... but not that they were nudists who had practiced incest regularly.

They walked hand in hand back to the residence—the “quick” date had lasted well past curfew at the girls’ dorm. When they kissed goodnight, she opened her mouth to accept his tongue. Kissing and humping in the shadows Beth’s hand found Josh’s erect penis through the fabric of his trousers. “So,” she said while stroking him to ejaculation, “when you told me that you were thinking how much you wanted it inside me, I had no idea how much of you there was to go inside.” Before going in she patted his limp, damp penis and said, “I don’t know when we are going to make it happen Josh but it’s going to happen Sweetie ... and soon.”

As he walked back to his residence, he thought about what Beth had said earlier in the day just after class, “I think you’ll find I’m different from most girls,” hit home. He was already aware that girls in New York were light years ahead of Iowa girls, at least the Iowa girls he knew. They were much more forward, more aware of what was going on around them in the world. They were girls who weren’t afraid to be candid on any subject, women’s right to vote as an example. In New York and particularly at Columbia they had already formed clubs that were outspoken—some were even militant about female enfranchisement. During their “hour, or so” beer evening Beth made plain to Josh her passion for women’s rights, telling him that gaining the vote was just around the corner.

She also told him that women should have the same sexual freedom as men. When she grabbed his dick while kissing him outside the dorm he was blown away. In his culture males made the first move. Evie Harrington had made the first move on him though, but he knew he wouldn’t have made it with the other girls had he not actively seduced them.

In comparing Beth to Eve there was no question that Evie, due to her mother’s advanced thinking and teaching, was much further sexually aware than those other girls. But Beth was more sophisticated than Eve. She had a broader realm of ideas than Evie would ever have. Evie was focused on sex at a time when forces in her body were trying to take control. Beth had groped and stroked him through his pants at the dorm merely because she wanted to. His immediate concern had been that someone else might see them. He didn’t know at the time that several girls on that front porch were giving their dates pleasure in the same primal way ... marking their territories.

Automobiles were available at the time only to the richest college students. While the children of the next generation would be pursuing sex in cars there were few places where middle-class kids of their generation could hide and have sex. But Beth was the daughter of a wealthy family and was more sexually liberated than the bulk of the American population, having the means to ply their sexual activities in private sector accommodations near the campus.

Josh couldn’t believe that on their next date after they went to an Italian restaurant on 120^th St. Beth took him to a rooming house on Amsterdam Avenue just two doors from the Apollo Room in Harlem. The rooming house was owned by Beth’s uncle who made a fortune renting rooms by the hour to both Columbia students and patrons of the Apollo Room who topped off an evening of drinking by having sex.

Josh, the country boy, was shocked to see mixed-race couples coming in and going from the rooming house. Not wanting to comment about what he was seeing he knew that Beth would eventually get around to it. By that time though he would be better able to sort out opinions that he hadn’t yet considered. It was just one more wrinkle of big city life that the rural Midwesterner hadn’t yet encountered.

After the whirlwind conversation following their first day of class together and their date for beers that ended in passionate kissing along with a hand job at the entryway of the girl’s dorm, Josh found peculiar drama in being in the convenient Amsterdam Ave. hideaway for the express purpose of having sex. Though he had been pursuing sex with Evie Harrington for several years it wasn’t the same thing. With Evie, he had grown into it, aware of her naked body since they were kids. As puberty began ripening them it was taken for granted that whenever they were together naked sex would often be part of their association. They were not boyfriend and girlfriend so there was no jealousy when the other had sex with another person. It was even a way for them through their shared experiences to learn to be better sexual lovers.

Beth was an adult woman who had shared herself with other men. In Cedar Grove, Josh considered himself a stud but in New York, he was putty in the hands of the predatory Elizabeth Chadwick. She knew the rules of the game which, in much of the country, were quite stringent where sex was concerned. But in New York City the rules were more relaxed.

Upon entering the room, the openmouthed kissing, caressing, and writhing began as the door was closing. Beth’s fingers worked furiously on the buttons of Josh’s fly while Josh was lifting the hem of her long skirt. Once his “barn door” was open she clutched at the swollen bulk inside trying to get a true feel of what she thought she felt through the fabric of his pants at the entrance of the dorm on their first date. Thanks to her father, her uncle, and two cousins she was no neophyte at handling erect penises. But the prominence that was coming out of Josh’s fly in her hand was like nothing she had held in it before.

The myth about size is only mythical to those who don’t understand the feeling of such girth in their hand. Beth’s thoughts were oh my God I would never have believed.

As Josh’s fingers got to her skirt up just above her knees and he touched the fine weave of her silk stockings his fingers moved to where the fabric turned to flesh. With the excitement of her hand clutching his cock and making its outer skin glide over the complicated musculature below, he had to tense his body to stave off premature ejaculation. Feeling around the top of her hose he touched the clasps of her garters before moving up to the warm dampness of her panty panel.

“GOD Josh,” she gasped, “I want you so much.”

“Oh, sweetie I can’t believe this,” he said as he pushed the delicate panty fabric into the groove of her labia, wicking more of her copious moisture into the fabric.

Desperately wanting him inside her she cursed herself for leaving the three condoms she had brought with her in her purse. Not wanting to bend down to pick it up she thought He’s so excited I can’t let him put it inside me now, he might cum too quickly. She knew if she sucked him, and he came in her mouth it would enable him to fuck her longer without popping when he got it up again. She would enjoy more foreplay during that time which would enhance her excitement.

With the way he was controlling himself she hoped the experiences he alluded to about the girl in high school would improve her chances of getting a lover who would last longer than a boy who was too new at fucking. Besides, she longed to feel his magnificent presence in her mouth. She wanted to experience his seed filling it, tasting it and she relished what she hoped would be warm, custard-like gulps going down her throat.

As she dropped to her knees Josh eased his embrace to let her face slide to his pranging erection. Holding it in her hand she plunged her hungry mouth over his head, and her moistened lips tightened and glided on his tingling glans. He knew the luxury of Evie’s well-schooled mouth but when Beth curled the tip of her tongue and flicked between the lobes on the underside of his knob, butterflies in his stomach conspired with the weakness in his knees to stagger him and make him gasp, “Jesus CHRIST Beth.”

His ample length allowed her to stroke him as she bobbed, her smooth lips gliding on his shaft. Resisting the urge to come he held himself back as he had done so many times with Evie and the girls at Cedar Grove High. Beth moved her hand further down his shaft and continued to bob so deeply that it triggered her gag reflex. She coughed, rested then bobbed faster intending for his balls to erupt and gush in her mouth.

Having taken Beth’s enthusiastic fellatio as a challenge Josh was determined to make her work for his load.

After realizing that his stamina was above average Beth was equally determined to make him come most explosively. It was like she was on offense, and he was on defense. He was amazed at her oral work ethic. Beth, though her jaws were aching, was pleased to know that by the time they would be fucking her man wasn’t going to make her say, “Please don’t stop.”