Chapter 5

It was well past midnight when Pete arrived home and stepped onto the front porch. He noticed that a light had been turned on in the front room, but he had seen none in the bedroom. Wondering if this meant that Mark was still fucking Mary, he entered the house quietly and stole across the front room to listen at the door of the bedroom. There were no sounds, not even the slight, soft sounds of breathing coming from the room. He pushed the door open carefully and spoke Mary's name softly. She did not answer, and he hesitantly turned on the light. The bed was made up and there certainly was no Mary and Mark lying on it. The pillows looked fresh and clean. Pete frowned, flicked off the light and returned to the front room where he poured himself a small drink. It was perhaps ten minutes later that he decided to call Cindy to see if Mark had returned home. She told him over the phone that she had not seen Mark and had been about to call Pete. Pete hung up after telling her that Mark and Mary might have gone somewhere, possibly even to a motel, just to see what it was like-for the kick of it. He didn't believe this for one moment, but he had to tell Cindy something.

"Pete," she said at length, "why don't you come back here? I don't like being alone for long periods of time."

"I'll wait a little while and, if I don't hear from Mark and Mary, I'll come back to your place."

"Good," she said. "Don't wait too long. I'm scared of being alone at night."

He hung up and waited for over an hour, then called Cindy again. "They haven't returned. I'm sure they must have gone to a motel for some reason. As I said before, probably for the kick of it. Do you still want me to come to your place?"

"Yes, Pete. Please come over. I hate being alone at night. I think Mark is mean for doing this and not telling anyone."

"My car is gone, so we at least know they went somewhere in the car."

A note of alarm crept into her tone as she spoke. "Do you think they might have had an accident, Pete?"

"We would have been notified by now, Cindy. I know that Mary carries plenty of identification in her purse when she goes somewhere."

"So does Mark. At least, I think he does. Maybe we'd better call the hospitals, Pete. What do you think?"

"Tell you what," he said to reassure her. "I'll call the hospitals and then call you back. Okay?"

"Okay, Pete."

They both hung up at the same time, and Pete called several hospitals, all there were in the city, but no one named Mark Alexander or Mary Braden had been involved in any accident. He called Cindy back immediately and told her this. He could hear her breathing a sigh of relief.

"I don't care for things like this, Pete," she said. "I'm going to give Mark the devil tomorrow."

Pete laughed, even though he didn't quite feel like a laugh. "I know what you mean. I'll be right over to your place. Won't take long. I'll walk fast."

"All right. Bye." He heard Cindy hang up at the other end of the line. He replaced his own phone on its cradle and frowned.

Ten minutes later he was at her front door and she was in the process of opening it, sliding bolts and making all sorts of similar sounds.

Pete looked at her when the door was open. "Hey," he said. "Are you that afraid of being alone? How many bolts did you slide back?"

Cindy laughed tensely. "Just two. One was stuck, the small one there." She pointed at the door, but Pete barely glanced at it.

He was far more interested in the shortie nightgown she was wearing. There were no panties to it, either, which made it interesting. He reached out his hand and placed it directly over her warm cunt. She moved closer to him, her arms stealing about his neck as she kissed his mouth, darting her tongue in and out quickly.

"Were you really afraid of being alone?" he asked.

She giggled a bit. "Yes. I also wanted you here just in case."

"Just in case of what?"

"In case I got hot pants again." Once more she giggled.

"Aren't you worried about Mark and Mary any longer?"

She looked at him oddly. "The hell with them," she said. "Doing this to us and not telling us and making you call up hospitals and everything. I think that's very mean of them, both of them."

"Does seem a bit..." He did not complete the sentence.

"Well, the hell with them!" Cindy cried. "They've gone off somewhere, so you and I'll have fun. Hey... I have something really wild to tell you. It's about that nutty Rose. Do you know what I caught her doing a while ago? You won't believe it, but I found her..." Cindy's face had reddened --" I don't know how to say it."

Pete felt a chill pass through him as he soberly regarded her. "Just say it right out," he told her.

"Rose must have gotten so hot that she went nuts, Pete. I caught her with my Great Dane on top of her. In her kitchen, for heaven's sake. She untied the dog and took him into her kitchen and got him on top of her. She was on her hands and knees, and, boy, was that dog of mine socking it into her."

Pete again regarded her soberly. "I have a confession to make, Cindy. I knew about Rose and your dog. I saw her and... him. I was even inside her house." He then proceeded to tell her all about the event. When he was through, he looked at her closely to note her reaction. There was nothing he could detect. Cindy was calm.

"I knew you were there, Pete. I saw you from my bedroom window."

He laughed nervously. "This must be true-confession evening."

"I figured you'd tell me about being at Rose's place when you got around to it. However, I didn't know you knew about her and the dog."

"I didn't want to say anything about that," he said quietly. "I thought it was none of my business. That is, to talk about what she did."

Cindy nodded approvingly. "There should be more people with that attitude, baby. I like you for it."

Pete had removed his hand from her furry twat while he had been talking about Rose, but now he placed it back and felt the thrill of touching her wet gash.

"We're quite a group, aren't we, Cindy?" he said, for want of anything better to say. "I mean, all five of us."

"Better make that six. My Great Dane has to be counted in."

"What is the name of your dog, Cindy?"

"As of now, I have a new name for him. Want to hear it, Pete?"

He nodded.

"I'm calling him Man from now on."

"Man? Odd name for a dog."

"Not for this one, Pete."

He stuck his finger into her cunt. "I see your point, baby."

She pressed her body closer to his. "Point? Put your finger in as far as you can point it, Pete. Jerk me off, can you?"

"Jerk you off? I never heard it called that, not for a woman."

"Finger-fuck me then. Do you like that better?"

He darted his finger in and out of her hole rapidly while she moaned and leaned against his body. "You like that, Cindy?" he asked. His rod was growing harder by the moment.

"Love it. Anything that has to do with sex I love. Anything. If you can ever think of something entirely new and different and need someone to try it on, come for me. I'm willing."

"You're quite a gal," he said approvingly. "I like you." He removed his finger from her twat. "Come with me, baby. I've just thought of something new.

She pulled away from him, a look of strangeness in her eyes. "I think I know what you want me to do, baby. You want me to let the dog... do it to me, don't you?"

Pete grinned. "You said if I ever thought of anything to come and get you for it. I've just thought of the dog."

She averted her eyes. "Please, Pete, not that. I'm not... ready for that. Not yet. Maybe if you get me a bit high or something."

He laughed. "I was simply calling your bluff, Cindy. I wasn't going to ask you to have sex with the Great Dane. Don't you understand? I was pulling your leg."

"Put me on a bed," she sighed, "and pull my leg. Pull my everything."

"You're not even concerned about Mark and Mary now, are you, baby?"

She looked serious momentarily. "The way you were finger-fucking me a moment ago I thought you weren't worried, so that tended to relax me. Do you think we should go looking for them, Pete?"

He shook his head. "We'd never find them, baby."

She laughed lightly. "Have you noticed how you're using my word so much of the time?"

"You mean the word 'baby'?"

"Yes. Did you pick it up from me?"

"Probably. But why are you asking me this? Is there something important about it that escapes me?"

"No, nothing. I just feel complimented that you would... well, pick up my favorite word of endearment, or whatever it is, and use it." Pete noted she had pulled still farther away from him as she talked. Now she was at least seven feet away. He was puzzled and decided to ask her when another thought hit him. "Cindy," he said without changing expression, "is Rose watching us through the side window? Right now, I mean?"

She came somewhat closer to him, picked up a blanket and held it over her body, twisting about, stamping her feet, and turning this way and that as if she were a Spanish dancer.

"Let's get out of this room, Pete," she said softly, smiling all the time. "Make believe you're a dancer or something and follow me to the bedroom."

"Are you nuts?" he asked, perplexed.

"Rose has someone else out there with her, I think. I don't want to put on a stag show for the whole neighborhood."

Pete did the thing that came to his mind. He stepped to the light switch and gave it a flick, plunging the room into darkness. "There," he said, "that's better than making believe I'm a dancer."

"I didn't want to offend Rose, Pete," she said softly from across the room. "She'll never forgive me for turning off the lights."

"Tough." Pete spoke the word very softly.