Chapter 10

We didn't make any formal announcement. We didn't have to, I suppose; the news must have radiated from my face. And where I'd gaze at Eric with a sort of dumb adoration before while he'd treated me with cool indifference, there was a warm closeness between us now. I'd look up from my plate and see he was watching me, and a quick spark of affection and understanding would pass between us.

Everyone noticed. Mark talked to me about it in our apartment that first night. He was a little awed, because we'd both come to look on Eric as belonging to a world apart from ours. He was typically brotherly, too, though. He had to be satisfied Eric was going to treat me right.

"When's he going to marry you?" he asked bluntly. "Where you gonna live?"

I didn't know the answer to either question. We'd put off setting a date. Somehow it had seemed too big a step; we'd needed a little time for our new closeness to soak in. And we hadn't talked about where--just about a little white clapboard with a picket fence and a brick walk.

But that wasn't really what Mark was thinking about. He was wondering where he'd be. He was wondering what place there would be for a fifteen-year-old kid brother when his sister was a new bride.

"Mark, sweetie..." I grabbed him and hugged him tightly. "Marky, I don't know. But Eric understands about us. Wherever we live, you're going to be there. And it's going to be a lot better than this!"

Duane Fowler didn't say anything about the new state of affairs at all. He stopped bugging me, though. I became as safe at work as if I'd been in church; it got almost boring. And all of a sudden the cash register and books seemed to be okay, so I didn't have to stay night after night trying to find the source of errors I hadn't been able to see in the first place. At Ma's, he was formal and proper. Honest, it was enough to make a body sick!

Will was his usual snotty self, but he let me to hell alone! I mean he didn't get one bit nicer, but he made it real clear he knew I was out of bounds for him. And he looked so subdued when Eric was anywhere around that first few days I knew Eric had put the fear of the devil in him!

Ma was interested, of course. She could see how close we'd gotten. And she came to me privately for particulars. She didn't let on she was being nosy... not the kind of nosiness that wants to know the date and the church and the color of the bridal dress and all that. She let on it was strictly businesslike. I mean, after all, she ran a respectable rooming and boarding house and had to have a license and all that meant the authorities wanted assurance there wasn't any hanky-panky going on. The thing with Eric looked on the up and up, she let me know, but it was so sudden. So she was assuming it was the kind of romance that was going to wind up with wedding bands and a ceremony and not one of those backstairs things that got landladies in trouble.

So I reassured her, although I pretended I wasn't about to give away little secrets about what day everything was going to come about.

And Nancy noticed. God, yes, she noticed! She acted offended, first off. You'd have thought Eric was her private claim. And she did everything she could to get his interest. She wore her things as daringly as she could, always risking Ma's hard stare and caustic order to go make herself decent. And she managed always to be bumping into him in out-of-the-way corners. More than once, she managed to get into the downstairs hall in her underwear just as he went through on his way upstairs or outside.

It got so bad I ached for him. It had to be embarrassing to have that thirteen-year-old kid poking her immature little butt at him all the time, no matter how cute she was... and no matter how cute her butt was, for that matter. It got so I intercepted her a few times just to save Eric the embarrassment and fuss.

Well... maybe I had a bit more in mind than saving him embarrassment.

Anyhow, irritated and watchful as I'd become, I still almost missed it when it counted. In fact, I did miss it until it was too late to do anything.

I was on my way back to my room. I'd been in Eric's apartment straightening up for him and giving it a little of the feminine touch. And he'd been lounging in his armchair with his feet out on the ottoman making exaggeratedly contented sounds.

"Goddamn, Lee, I'm really going to go for this! Why the hell don't we take a quick run down into Arkansas and get a J.P. to do the honors so I can really get used to the service!"

I'd laughed and made some wisecrack about what was he waiting for. And then I'd hurried out, because he'd suggested exactly what I wanted; and here we were, not even having gotten our license yet or started waiting!

So I wasn't paying close attention when I passed the head of the stairs. Nancy was coming up them and shrank back against the banister when I passed the top. I kept right on going without even looking at her face and it wasn't until I had my hand on my own doorknob I realized what I'd seen out of the corner of my eye.

The child had been wearing spike-heels, for one thing. Her hair had been piled up on her head for another--masses of black ringlets until she could hardly have reached the top with her hand! She had on hose and an indecent miniskirt--I mean, it was so damn short you could see bare thigh above her stocking when she raised a foot on the stairway--and a sleazy blouse with the top two or three buttons unfastened and the neck pulled off one shoulder. It was pulled so far down you could see the white swell of one little boobie! And no Goddamn bra!

Well! I like to twisted that doorknob off! And I turned around to holler at her. But she'd flitted her hot little ass right down the hall where I'd come from and was at Eric's door. And I don't know what the hell she said, but his big, blunt hand came out and closed on her arm and he yanked her inside so fast both her feet were off the floor!

I didn't know what to do! I was so furious at the way the kid was got up that I couldn't even think straight. I kept asking myself what could make her go to Eric's room in that kind of outfit. Obviously, an invitation! And why had he yanked her inside like that? Clearly because she'd gotten there at the wrong time. And what was going on in there?

Well, I don't have to be clairvoyant to figure that out!

I knew if I went to the end of our sun porch nearest Eric's apartment there was a tiny service hallway leading in to where a bunch of flues came together. And I knew there was a place where the flue from Eric's heater went through the wall and the cover guard didn't fit. Well, all right, I'd peeked through it sometimes when he'd first come there, just to watch how beautiful he was when he was reading his paper or something.

So I scrambled into that service tunnel and found the right chink and got my eye up to it. I'd already missed the preliminary sparring. They'd got down to brass tacks by the time I had them in view. And I found myself looking at an entirely different Eric from the man I meant to marry!

He wasn't lounging in his armchair, of course. Not right then. He was standing in the middle of his living room, his feet wide-planted and his hands on his hips, glowering down at Nancy as if he were a Greek god and she was just a lowly mortal. He was giving her the eye, all right; he wasn't missing anything about the way she was dressed. And naturally, he was seeing it from a man's point of view, missing the sleaziness and seeing it as sexy.

He was looking at the way those young, budding, saucy little tits of hers held the blouse out and the way the tiny, flat nipples showed through as shadows. He was looking at the way the too-tight skirt wrinkled across the front and bulged over her new- found love mound and hugged her hips and clearly announced she wasn't wearing panties or a garter belt. And he was... Well, he had a hard-on that wouldn't quit!

But he gave her a disgusted look and said, "Okay, you want to distribute God's blessings; what the hell have you got I'd give a damn about?"

She simpered and made her hips wiggle. "In the old days the kings had girls the same age as me, Eric. They didn't want to waste time on old bags twenty or twenty-one."

He just shrugged. "In the old days, maybe the broads knew enough to make them worth a king's time. Maybe they got some education about what men wanted by the time they got your age."

"What... What do you mean?" She sounded as unsure of herself as she had sounded cocky a moment before.

"I mean you come in here flaunting a couple of tits the size of olives and a half-developed ass and expect me to start panting! What the hell! What do you know about what a woman puts out to make a man feel good?"

"I..." Her voice hardly carried as far as the wall. "I want to learn," she whispered. "I could make you happy; I know I could!"

He looked as cruel and overbearing as he sounded. "Horseshit! You don't give a damn! First thing you have to do you'll start crying and screaming and go running off to mamma!"

"No! No, I won't! I promise! Try me!"

His eyes narrowed and his lip curled at the corner. And he grinned at her--an evil, lecherous, triumphant grin. "Well... Well, why not? Maybe the right way is to start 'em young!"

"Oh, yes, Eric! Of course it is!" She was ready to climb all over him. She jerked her blouse open and stuck a tit toward him. "Just feel!"

He roared at her. "WHAAAT! What's there to feel! That's not going to do anything for me, you dumb cunt! You're the one who's going to do the work, not me! You're learning; remember?"

"Yes," she replied in a low, quavering tone.

"YES WHAT? GODDAMN IT, WHERE'S YOUR MANNERS?"

"Y-y-yes, sir!" She was so scared she was stuttering. She'd eat his shit right now, I thought. Christ! Maybe he's going to make her do that! Maybe that's the kind of monster he is under that beautiful, gentle front he's put on all this time!

He growled at her. "All right, slut! That's more like it! Now, get your Goddamn clothes off!"

"But... I..."

"OFF... ! OFF... ! OFF! YOU DUMB SHIT, DON'T MAKE ME REPEAT MYSELF! I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO LOOK AT THAT CHEAP CRAP! YOU UNDERSTAND?"

"Yes... Yes... ! All right... !" Tears streamed from her eyes and she sobbed. "Only don't yell at me, please..."

"AND STOP YOUR GODDAMN SNIVELING! THINK A KING WOULD PUT UP WITH A FUCKING BAWL-BABY?"

She sniffed and choked back the sobs, tearing her clothing off with nervous, fumbling fingers and rolling it up in a tight little bundle and hiding it behind a pillow on his couch. She straightened and let him stare at her. For a thirteen-year-old, she was about three years ahead of herself in development. I mean, a sixteen-year-old would have been better filled out, of course, but she wouldn't have had much better lines.

Nancy's boobs were just about perfect cones. They angled up from her ribs as steeply at the underside as they did down at the upper. They promised to fill out to juicy plumpness real soon, too; the flesh already looked as if it were ringed by bands that were too tight, with the tissues bulging between them. Right out at the tips, they weren't cones, though. They were rounded and fat-looking, faintly pink and shiny-textured. And in the middle of the pink, round, soft, darker-pink little mounds looked as if they'd been stuck on like raisins stuck into dough.

She did have a waist. I mean, most thirteen-year-old girls go straight up and down between ribs and hips, but her waist did pinch in a little and her bottom did look just a little bit plump and squeezable. She had perky, black little ringlets on her mound and her pussy-lips had begun--just begun--to fill. And she had damn nice, shapely legs.

Eric didn't say a word. His haughty scowl didn't even flicker. He kept looking her up and down and very deliberately started pulling off his clothes. I could see terror creeping into Nancy's eyes as she took in the bulk of his shoulders and the massiveness of his chest. And when he pulled off his trousers and shorts she looked like she was choking to death while she measured that brutal cock of his with her gaze.

"Oh, my!" she whispered faintly. "O, my goodness!"

"Now, tramp! You good for anything?"

"What?" she asked as if she hadn't understood.

"I SAID ARE YOU GOOD FOR ANYTHING?"

"Yes... What do you want me to do... sir?" He flung himself into his armchair, legs sprawled and widespread, cock standing like a mast in the midst of the gleaming, golden forest of pubic hair.

"LICK IT OFF! ON YOUR KNEES AND LICK IT OFF!"

"Oh, please..." She whimpered.

But with one glance at his stony expression she sank to her knees and crawled slowly between his legs. Sinking until her ass rested on her heels, she reached hesitantly for the awesome shaft. She touched it with her fingertip and stared with wide eyes at the moist, swollen underside.

"YOU GOT A TONGUE IN YOUR GODDAMN HAND, STUPIDT?" He roared again.

"N-n-no, sir."

"WELL, THEN?"

"Y-y-yes, sir." She bent from the hips, put her hands in her lap, and extended her tongue timidly. The quivering pink tip touched the great shaft and her head recoiled.

"Oh, shit! Rest your stupid elbows outside my legs, dummy! Give yourself some support and get in there and do the Goddamn job right!"

"Oh, please, Eric! D-d-don't be mean to me! I'm trying!"

"WELL, TRY HARDER!"

"Y-y-yes, sir."

Resting her elbows outside his thighs forced her to lean further in and brought the outside bulges of her boobies into contact with the hot flesh of his inner thighs. She shivered and gasped, a thrill of excitement clearly racing over her at the touch. With a half-concealed shudder, she dragged the reluctant tongue up the length of the huge shaft.

Eric patted her on the head. "Now that's the way, girl. Just lick real thorough-like. You'll find it's pleasant after you get the hang of it."

"Oh, dear!" she said weakly. "Yes, sir."

She licked at the bulging, heavy underside of the shaft again, again running her tongue from the base to the flare of the foreskin. Except for another paternal pat on the head, Eric made no gesture or comment. She drew her tongue only a short distance the next time and when there was no reproof, she limited herself to short, nervous lapping. But it was obvious she was finding Eric's prediction to be correct; it wasn't bad at all once she got the hang of it. And she wouldn't have been human if she hadn't thrilled to the enormous, stiff instrument before her. She eased her hand along his hairy, muscular thigh and touched the great shaft of his cock with her fingertips. His lack of comment made her bolder; she closed her fingers around the huge handle and raised the rigid thing to a vertical position. Without realizing it, I'm sure, she extended the range of her tonguing until she was wetting the entire surface.