Chapter 6

Gail woke early, looking around, locating herself and sitting up. She felt sleepy still, but rested. She put some weight on her feet and found she could hobble to the bedroom. The shock of seeing Lee on the floor and the empty glasses and bottle made her catch her breath. She retreated from the room hastily, shutting the door and retreating to the couch. She sat, trying to think of what to do. With an impulse, she thought of leaving the apartment, going away until he had left. Yet, where could she go? All her clothes were in the bedroom.

She sat, resigned, that strange sad look coming into her eyes again. With a deep sigh, she got to her feet and made her way to the kitchen where she started preparing breakfast. Both of her men would be hungry.

It was Lee who awoke first, rubbing his face then listening. Noises coming from the kitchen, small early morning cup-and-saucer noises. He got up noiselessly, put on his pants and crept to the kitchen. Gail was standing with her back to the door when he entered. He hadn't made a sound yet he saw her back stiffen. She felt him behind her. She turned slowly, looking at him with large grave eyes.

He took her in quickly. She had changed physically. Something different in her face. Maybe it was self-pity. Whatever it was, it was a sign to Lee. She still wasn't broken. She was still full of pretense, she was still a "good girl." She still wasn't what he called, "Liberated." She still felt guilt and felt there was a "normal" way to behave in bed.

It was with a thin lipped grin that, he crossed the room in his bare feet, thinking: I'll take care of her.

He took her in his arms and kissed her on the mouth, running his tongue in and out as one hand closed over her buttocks. "Hiya, Babe," he whispered, pulling his mouth away. "I'm back."

Gail was fighting him with all her strength, glancing over his shoulder toward the bedroom. "Lee!" she hissed, hitting his bare chest with her fists. "Rod is in there! Stop it!"

For an answer, Lee thrust his hips forward and rubbed his groin against hers. Under his pants, he was as naked as she was under her housecoat. "Been a long time, Babe. I want to fuck that little million volt pussy of yours again."

"Stop that talk! You're insane!" she whispered fiercely, fighting to pull away but feeling her strength and resolution ebbing fast. She fought against a animal desire to throw open her housecoat and let him fuck her right on the kitchen floor with her husband, Rod, joining in. Let him watch her brother fucking her, let the two of them do anything they wanted to her! "Oh, Lee," she moaned, trying feebly to pull away. "Why did you have to come back? " she wailed, her voice rising slightly.

Lee let go of her, looked over his shoulder and walked to the table and slid on a chair. "How about some black coffee?" he asked in a cheery voice.

His luck or intuition held. Rod was up and coming out, yawning and stretching. "Well, he's here. Hey, what are you doing on your feet?" he asked, taking Gail in his arms and kissing her.

A lewd thrill ran through her. She felt her cunt moist and itching with desire between her thighs as she looked at Lee grinning at her with that wild look on his face. No matter what else she felt, it was exciting, being caressed by two different men one right after the other.

"Well, there he is. Does he look all right? Only thing wrong with him is a broom closet."

"What?" Gail asked and the two men laughed.

She was led back to the couch and, while they both made breakfast and kidded back and forth in the kitchen, she tried hard to compose herself and make light banter back. She learned that Lee had left school by Popular request and her mind imagined what had happened in the closet and she insanely wished that it had been her, that they had thrown the door open and caught them fucking and they had gone on, right in front of them.

She jerked herself back to reality with the silent warning that such thoughts were bad and the dreaded admittance that she thought of them--sex fantasies--increasingly. She sat on the couch and watched her brother and husband with increasing disbelief. They got along so well together and Lee was so charming and full of locker room camaraderie with Rod. At times, she sat stunned by the secrets she held when she watched Lee's seemingly innocent yet brazen behavior. His audacity was unbelievable! They sat in the living room, and the late afternoon sun slanted long into the room. Rod had mixed a batch of martinis while Lee was playing a Rolling Stones album on the stereo he had rushed out to purchase, Rod driving him to the nearest record store, and was now enthusiastically trying to get Gail and Rod to like the music.

Rod was tolerant and unimpressed. They sat sipping their drinks until Lee suddenly, again, unpredictably, leaping to his feet and snapping the stereo off. He looked down at Rod with a smile twitching his lips. Then he turned and stared seriously at Gail on the couch. He turned back to Rod, his face set and serious. "I've got something to tell you. Something I wanted to tell you last night."

His manner, his tone of voice made Rod sit up. "Well, what?"

Again Lee swung around to face Gail on the couch. It seemed her face was drained of all color and the knuckles of her hand tightened, growing white, around the glass she held. She didn't breathe or blink. She couldn't. She was frozen with fear.

Lee looked back at Rod. "Gail and I have a secret," he said, his voice low and each word loud and clear.

Rod stiffened, not sure of what he was going to hear; not sure that he wanted to hear it. "Okay," he said gravely, "Let's hear it."

Lee looked hard at Rod then Gail for a moment and Gail felt as if she were on the verge of screaming, a scream she wouldn't be able to stop.

"Well, when I was here before, when you were away, we... no, it was me. I made Gail do something."

Rod licked his lips and nodded. It was coming, the whole sordid mess, he thought. His eyes flicked at Gail who was sitting like a marble statue, her eyes riveted on her brother. "What," Rod asked in a low voice, "Did you make Gail do?"

Lee held a palm out, "Well, actually I talked her into it. Listen, it's all my fault and I take the blame. It was my idea and..."

"Get to it!" Rod said, his face hard.

"Well," Lee suddenly looked like a charming boy, abashed at what he had done. "I talked her into smoking some grass."

The three of them seemed caught in a frozen tableau for an eternity of seconds before Rod took on a look of amusement and threw back his head and laughed and Gail seemed to grow smaller and sag back in relief on the couch, a silly dazed smile on her lips while Lee kicked his toe into the carpet, winked at Gail then turned a lamb-like face to Rod. "Like I said, it's all my fault."

"That's it!" Rod said, pointing at his wife who tried to laugh back. "That's what's been bugging you! Even after I told you I had smoked it!" He was up, grinning, going to his wife and kissing her on the mouth. "You were worried! How did you feel, like some dope fiend?" he asked.

Gail hugged him, thankful her brother hadn't just come out and told all the truth. She wasn't completely sure that he wouldn't just for the hell of it, come right out and say it.

Her relief was entirely artificial yet she seized the opportunity to feel closer to her husband. He had her in his arms and she was looking over his shoulder at her brother standing slouched in the middle of the room, grinning at her, immensely pleased with himself.

Rod seemed elated that his doubts were so easily assuaged; he drank and laughed and got up, slapping Lee on the shoulder. "You son-of-a-gun! I might have known!" He was suddenly full of questions and plans. He discovered that Lee could get some. With a broad wink that Gail couldn't see, he asked Lee. "How long will it take?"

"Well, it depends. I could make a phone call."

It was agreed and Lee went into the bedroom to make the call. Gail motioned to Rod to come close to her so that Lee wouldn't hear. "Rod, I don't want to take any."

"Ah, come on, it's all right."

"I mean it. I don't like what... I just don't like it."

Rod was too elated to really listen. He drained his glass and poured himself a generous amount of straight scotch. He raised his glass in a mock toast. "Don't be a prude. Listen, I tell you it's all right. Little grass won't hurt a thing."

Gail stared up at her husband filled with a dread of what was coming. He was standing in front of her, drinking, gulping. She knew his pattern. If he kept on like this, he would soon be drunk. A premonition, a sudden flashing sense of what was going to happen: a presage of doom. Rod drunk, smoking marijuana and Lee urging him on, biding his time like some smiling predatory animal. Lee sitting in the background until Rod is too drunk and too drugged and passes out. Then?

"Rod, please don't drink too much," she said in a soft, plaintive voice.

"'Sallright. Look, honey, we used to drink night 'nd day over there," he said with an extravagant wave of his arm. "Fly one of them choppers smashed, can do anything."

Lee came into the room, grinning shyly at Gail then looking self-conscious in front of Rod. "Look, remember that girl Kim I told you about last night? Well, she's got some and she's got the night off. How about if I ask her over?"

"Sure! Why not? 'Sallright, honey? Sure it is! What the hell!"

Lee left, grinning at Gail, borrowing the car keys to go pick Kim up. Gail was left sitting on the couch, her face a mask. Calmly, she said, "Rod, you're mixing scotch with martinis. Do you think that's a good idea?"

Rod, sitting across the room slumped in a chair, made a face. "Ah, come on," he said, his lips twisting, "You're not going to be a nagging wife are you?"

She looked down at the empty drink in her hands. "No," she answered in a small voice.

"Better not," he muttered, staring into his glass. "I didn't come home to listen to somebody bitch me 'cause I felt like having a drink or two." His voice and manner were sullen and he stared down at his drink before suddenly gulping it down and getting unsteadily to his feet and heading for the kitchen to pour himself another drink.

An anger blazed in Gail. If her own husband didn't care, why should she? She held her drink aloft. "If there are any more martinis, I'd like another."

"Thatta girl," he said, grinning at her and taking her glass. "Gonna be an interesting night."

"And how," she answered with a bitter sarcasm in her voice that Rod ignored, thanks to his numbing drinks.

She got Rod to help her to the bedroom where she checked her a appearance and brushed her hair then got into bed. She was working on her third martini when the doorbell rang.

With the bedroom door open, she could see a portion of the living room. Gail's heart stopped when she saw who Lee's girl friend was: it was the dancer they had seen together what seemed so very long ago! Lee was more diabolical than she had thought.

The girl stood in the middle of the room, wearing an Indian headband and a fringed buckskin miniskirt. Her bare thighs and legs were tanned. She was tall, well-shaped with dark almond eyes that flashed suggestively as she looked around the apartment and into the bedroom where she saw Gail sitting erect in bed. A slow lascivious smile spread over her thick shapely lips, as she shifted her weight, thrusting out one hip and putting a hand on it. She lowered her head, her smile all-knowing. "Hi," she said in a throaty voice, "I'm Kim."

Gail closed her eyes and nodded. Women have a way of understanding each other far better than men do. A look, a word, a gesture, an intonation, can say so much. Men tend to make little of such scenes, putting it down as jealousy, as petty vain rivalry. Women know better: Kim had just told Gail that she knew all about her and Gail had accepted and silently pleaded for mercy.

They all came pouring into the bedroom with introductions and explanations all around about Gail's accident. They sat on chairs with Kim sitting on the edge of the bed with a newly poured drink in her hand, smiling down at Gail. "Your brother didn't do you justice."

"Oh?" Gail looked at Lee who was busy stuffing a long pipe with a thick gummy substance.

"You're much more beautiful than he said," Kim said in a cool way.

Gail tried to wince out a smile. "Thank you."

"Damn right," Rod said, looking at Kim. "Hey!" he said loudly, "What is that, Lee?" he asked, turning to watch Lee.

"Something better. Hash. Seems Kim had some and wanted to donate it."

Rod turned and grinned at Kim again, his eyes taking in her smooth bare thighs and her heavy pointed breasts under her dress. Damn, he thought, I don't think she's wearing a bra.

Gail knew she wasn't. Having her sitting there, shifting her weight, she could gee her breasts move freely under the buckskin. She had seen Kim naked and knew how high-riding her breasts naturally were.

"Say, are you really Indian?" Rod asked, obviously fascinated by her exotic beauty and excited by what Lee had told him about her. He crossed his legs and sipped at his drink, feeling his cock growing thick between his thighs. "I mean, do you have Indian blood somewhere in the family?"

Kim gave him a dazzling seductive smile. "Yes, my mother was a full-blooded Cherokee, my father was a red headed Irish policeman in Coffeyville, Kansas. I'm what they call a half- breed."

Rod laughed and patted her on the shoulder. "What a combination. Couldn't be better."

"For what?" Kim asked in a low seductive voice, flirting with him over the edge of her drink.

Rod's face colored and he drank from his glass before answering, "Oh, anything, I guess."

Lee interrupted with the pipe. He lit it expertly and quickly handed it to Rod who puffed and rose to sit on the bed next to Kim. He exhaled and handed the pipe to Kim. "Pass the peace pipe, huh?"

Again, Kim smiled at him with an inviting look. "Depends on what you mean by 'peace, '" she said, accenting the word.

Lee and Rod laughed as Kim took the pipe into her mouth slowly, closing her lips over the stem with a loving, "Mnnnn."

They passed the pipe around, crowding closer on the bed. Gail looked to see their smiling faces watching her as she puffed on the pipe. The hashish was having an effect and she felt like she was on a celestial elevator, zooming up so fast she felt as if she had left her body and reason far down below. This, she thought, is what they must mean by getting 'high.'

The room was suddenly very quiet and thick with a pungent sweet smoke and everything seemed to be moving in ultra slow motion. It seemed to Gail she had accepted, puffed on and passed the hashish pipe hundreds of times, that they would never smoke it all. She stared absently at the faces around her. Rod had taken on a glazed look and might be some child watching a movie or TV. He didn't seem conscious of anyone around him until he started, rubbed his face and said, "Wow!" in a soft voice and look at Kim with his eye slitting and growing hungry.

Lee seemed bemused, his fist propping up his chin as he watched Rod and Kim, ignoring Gail. Kim straightened her shoulders, thrusting her breasts forward toward Rod so that her nipples pressed against the soft tawny buckskin. Her dark Indian eyes slid slowly to Gail and wandered over her body, taking in all she could see.

Lee slapped his hands on his knees and said, "Let's have a little music and some more to drink."

Rod tore his eyes from Kim and said, "Hey, that's a great idea." He got to his feet and went into the living room after collecting all the glasses. Kim, with a lazy smile, said, "Let me help you."

Gail was left looking at Lee who was staring off into space, that wolf-like smile on his face again. "Lee, don't, please don't. In God's name, don't."

He turned innocent eyes to her. "Don't what?" he asked then chuckled to himself and got to his feet and walked to the door, his hand on the knob. Looking over his shoulder, he gave a cruel wink. "You gotta rest. I'll tell Rod. And," he whispered, closing the door, "I'll be back."

The door closed slowly and firmly and Gail leaned back on the pillows and closed her eyes. There seemed nothing she could do to stop what was happening. Nothing, in her drugged state, she wanted to do. With an anguished thought, she realized that there really was nothing she wanted to do. She drained her glass and wished for sleep.

Kim followed Rod to the kitchen, her hips swaying back and forth. She stood watching him mixing the drinks, her hands on her hips, her pelvis thrust out. Rod gave her a flirting glance. What the hell, he thought, no harm done and it's not like I'm an old man yet. "Lee says you're a dancer."