Chapter 20

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Instead of going to school, Jake rode his bike over to the DeRizzo house.

Despite the seriousness of his errand, he felt buoyant. His mother had been in high spirits that morning. She had also been very affectionate. She had kissed him soundly when she woke him up and hummed as she prepared for work. She had come up behind him while he was making toast, given him a hug from behind, and told him that she loved him.

He forced himself to look serious and knocked on the front door of Julie’s house. Jake had timed his arrival after Julie had left for school. Mrs. DeRizzo opened the door dressed in a bathrobe.

“Julie’s already gone to school, Jake.”

“I didn’t come to see Julie. I’d like to talk to you, without her.”

“Then why don’t you come in? Can I get you something? Tea? Juice?”

“No, thanks, Leanne. I’m fine. I just want to talk. It’s kind of sensitive. Can we talk without anyone overhearing?”

“We’re all alone.”

“I had sex with your daughter yesterday.”

“I would have expected you to sound happier when boasting of taking my daughter’s innocence.”

“No, I’m not happy about it and I don’t feel like boasting. It didn’t go well. I couldn’t get her to see her first time as anything special. Even worse, there was no emotional connection between us.”

“Jake, she’s just thirteen. There’s a limit to the depth of her character. It may be a couple of years before she grows into the girl you seem to be looking for.”

“I don’t think it’s just that. She’s complicated and fascinating, and I have a great time with her. The problem is that it’s like everything she knows about relationships comes from Carol.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“You remember what I told you about Carol last weekend?”

Leanne nodded.

“With Julie and me yesterday, it was all about the sex. There was no tenderness. No kissing and cuddling. No foreplay. It wasn’t that she was trying to punish me, though I admit that she’s still not all that happy with me after Tuesday night. It’s more like it didn’t really occur to her to expect more than just connecting the pipes.”

“You’re not saying she’s a nymphomaniac like Carol.”

Jake laughed. “No, ma’am. I believe that her capacity for sex falls within the normal range.”

“We’re not a very demonstrative family, Jake.”

“Julie doesn’t see you and Mr. DeRizzo being, well, affectionate?”

“Not lately. As the years have gone by, Gus has gotten more distant, colder. It’s been a long time since Julie has seen Gus touch me in, well, an affectionate way.”

Jake smiled at her joke, but he could feel her resignation and loneliness.

“I’m sorry it’s been hard on you.”

“You’ve been listening to my thoughts.”

“Actually, not your thoughts so much as your emotions. You don’t seem to dwell on the details of your marriage. But I do know that you’re lonely. It’s very strong in you.”

“That happens a lot to housewives. Husband and children are out of the house most of the time. When they are home, they are concerned with their own things. Husbands need to relax from work. The last thing they want is to deal with an emotionally-needy wife.”

“Isn’t there anything you can do to get what you need?”

“You mean like volunteer work or church or joining a book club or having an affair?”

“Well, yeah. Any of those things.”

“When Julie started middle school, I stopped doing PTA. I’m not the type to get much solace from church. I don’t know of any book clubs. I don’t need to say anything about an affair. I’m sure you’ve already read my mind.”

“Yes, you’re scared of Mr. DeRizzo’s temper, or you would have done something like that a long time ago. I wish you had. I’ve come to think very highly of you. I feel bad that you are unhappy.”

“There is a virtue in marital fidelity.”

“Especially in a good marriage, but you’d be happier if there were no marriage at all. Then you would be free to go out and socialize. And you’d be free of your husband’s jealousy.”

“Jake, we live in the world we live in. There are some things we can’t change.”

“But you’re still young and you’re so smart and you’re, well, you’re gorgeous. I can feel you yearning to connect with someone. I feel your despair at the thought of spending the rest of your life like this.”

“And there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“What if there were someone you could be with, someone safe?”

“Are you offering?”

“Yes, Leanne.”

“It’s completely out of the question. I’m thirty-eight. It would rob me of my dignity to have an affair with a boy.”

Jake stood and walked over to her. He pulled her up from her chair and put his hands on her waist.

“I have a boy’s body, but I have advantages no boy has. I have the knowledge of men much older, though I must admit that I’m finding gaps all the time in what I know.”

He moved his hands up and down her sides, rubbing the sides of her breasts in passing. Her nipples grew and showed through the robe.

“I can read minds. That means that I can get close to people, become a real friend, the kind of friend who can help you in ways that no one else can, in ways that you don’t yet know are possible. It’s something I can do if you’ll let me. It’s something I want to do.”

He pulled down the zipper on the front of her robe, revealing a nightgown underneath. He slipped his hands inside the robe and put them back on her sides. Leanne shivered when Jake stroked up her sides and down again. He leaned in and kissed her. It was a soft, tender kiss and she moaned. He pulled her hips gently against his.

“No, Jake. I won’t permit it,” she said and struggled to pull back.

“I won’t force you, Leanne. But I also won’t take no for an answer when I know how much you need and want this.”

“Oh, Jake, it could cause such big problems.”

He pinched her left nipple between his index finger and his thumb and she moaned.

“Take me to your bed,” he said.

“God, help me. I have no defenses against you.”

“Good. Lead me to your bed.”

She took him up the stairs. “But what happens later? What about Julie? What if Gus finds out?”

“Julie already knows you need this. We’ve talked about it. I’ll break it to her gently. Gus is a tougher problem, but I think I have a solution. We’ll talk about it later.”

“What about you and me? I mean later on? The next time we see each other?”

“We’ll be honest and loving and supportive of each other. There need be no uncomfortable moments because we’re friends as well as lovers. What we are doing now will give us both something we need. Now and later, too. I’m not offering you a one-time encounter. I want this to be long term.”

They walked into her bedroom. The bed was still unmade. He pulled her bathrobe off from behind and turned her to face him. He could see her nipples, areolae, and pubic hair through her thin nightgown. Her breasts were small, not much larger than Julie’s. They weren’t as firm as Julie’s but they still stood proudly, nicely rounded with the nipples erect. Her waist was still slender and her bottom trim.

“You’re even more beautiful than Julie. Your body is fully developed. Real hips and breasts. I love the way you look.”

Jake sat on the edge of the bed and pulled Leanne to him so that she was standing between his knees. He smiled up at her and put his hands under the hem of her nightgown. He slid them up her legs and encircled her hips with his arms. They went around her ass and he pulled her to him. He stroked her bottom and her haunch with his hands while he nuzzled her breasts. He bit down gently on a nipple through the nightgown and she yelped.

“It’s as firm as a teenager’s.”

“It’s not as firm as when I was a teenager, but you just keep saying that.”

He stood and pulled her gown over her head. She stood before him, naked. Jake thought it odd that even though she was one of the strongest women he knew, she looked small and vulnerable. He kissed her. He probed at her lips with his tongue, and when she responded, he let her take the lead, kissing him enthusiastically, exploring his mouth with her tongue.

“You kiss sweetly,” he said after a minute.

He picked her up in his arms and she yelped again. He laid her gently on the bed. He kissed her lips and chin and then kissed down her neck to her upper chest. He kissed and suckled her nipples. She did not react much so he kept moving downward, brushing her skin with his lips. He passed her belly button and approached her pubic hair.

“Uh, Jake, what are you doing?” There was a hint of panic in her voice.

“You are very desirable, all of you. I’m going to show you how much.”

He nuzzled her pubic hair a moment and then suddenly licked the length of her inner labia. They were prominent. He found her clitoris and licked around it. She responded immediately. She was more sensitive there than Julie.

Jake probed her vagina with a finger. It was surprisingly tight. He gently pushed two fingers in. The passage slowly yielded and he began to experiment with her vagina. He found a sensitive spot and applied pressure there. When he stopped licking her clit and began to suck on it, she whined. As Jake continued, the whining climbed to a higher pitch. Jake sucked it until she went over, screaming his name and humping at his face.

He let her come down for less than a minute before he resumed sucking again.

“Oh, God. Jake, that was so intense. I don’t know if I can do it again.”

Jake ignored her. He used the same techniques to send her back up. He brought her nearly back to the top when he decided to see how near the apple falls to the tree. He pulled his fingers from her vagina and gently probed into her anus. He felt inordinate satisfaction when she screamed shrilly and her body locked into place with her pelvis raised into the air. He pulled his finger from her sphincter and lazily licked her clit, allowing her to come back down.

“How long has it been since you’ve had intercourse?” he asked her as he stood and took his clothes off.

“It’s been over a year.”

“A year? How is that possible?”

“Mr. DeRizzo’s drinking has taken a toll on his ability to get an erection.”

“Are you set up for birth control?”

“No, I stopped months ago.”

“Do you want a baby?”

“No, and don’t even joke about that. If I turn up pregnant, he would go on a rampage.”

Jake ran downstairs, pulled a condom from his bookbag, and returned to the bedroom. He ripped open the wrapper and put on the condom.

He settled between her legs and seated his penis in the entrance of her vagina. He pushed in slowly, letting her vagina open gradually to admit him.

“Oh, God, how can the penis of a thirteen-year-old feel so large? Jake, it’s been so long since I’ve had a man in me. I didn’t realize how much I missed it.”

Jake began moving, keeping the pace slow. Leanne had cooled off when he had gone for the condom but Jake’s thrusts rekindled her passion. She talked to him all through their coupling, telling him how good it felt and how much she wanted him. As she became more aroused, her words faltered and she began to whine.

He waited until she was approaching climax and again touched her anus. Once more she went crazy and launched into an intense orgasm.

Jake was starting to get close even as Leanne was coming down. He waited until his own orgasm was imminent and then pushed his finger all the way into Leanne’s anus. She screamed his name and came one more time. Jake filled the condom and then collapsed on her.

When Leanne had calmed down, she stroked his hair.

“I love lying here like this with you,” Jake told her. “I’ve admired and desired you as long as I’ve known you.”

“What did you do to me?”

“I put my finger in your ass.”

“Did you do anything to my mind?”

“Yep.”

“That makes me a little uncomfortable. What did you do to me?”

“I told you that you’re beautiful and that I want you very much.”

“I meant with, you know, with your mind? Sex has never felt like that for me.”

“I did peek in your mind. But you should have expected that. I showed you on Sunday how sensing what a woman is feeling helps me to be a good lover.”

“You didn’t do anything else?”

“Nothing, honest.”

Jake pulled out, removed the condom, and flushed it down the toilet.

“Now, I’ve skipped my first two classes already so as much as I’d like to, I can’t linger much longer.” He lay back down next to her and pulled her close. “Let’s talk about us and how this changes the landscape.”

“I shouldn’t have let you talk me into this, Jake. I’ve made a real hash of things.”

“Nonsense. What you did this morning is the best thing you could have done. Now you have a friend that you can talk to honestly and intimately, one who is loyal and cares for you and would do anything to make your life better.”

“I know you can read minds and that’s amazing, but how is that going to help?”

“It will help a lot. I showed you last week that I can control minds, too, though I do it sparingly. I also have significant financial resources.”

“You would give me money?”

“If money would make your life better, I would give it lavishly.”

“Jake, I’m not sure I believe that. Why do you live in an apartment if you are wealthy?”

“The money is a recent development. The important thing is that you’re no longer dependent on Mr. DeRizzo. If you had enough money to take your kids and start over again, would you have done things differently? Or, if you had stayed, would you have been in a better position to insist that Mr. DeRizzo be a better husband and father?

“But money is hardly the most important thing. It’s just a tool, one among several. What’s important is that we’ve got the resources we need to give you the life you want. Let’s first decide what will make you happy. Then we’ll figure out how to make it happen.”

“I know you mean well. And it makes me feel good that you want me here in bed like you do. But I’ve got problems that can’t be fixed.”

“You’ve got a husband who’s a cold, overbearing, abusive drunk who uses his fists to make his house run like he wants.”

“Yes,” Leanne said and began to sob quietly.

“And you are a proud woman who is determined to protect your children from him. So you plan on riding it out until they are out of the house.”

“That’s right. I may be lonely, but when it’s all over, I will have done the best I could for Kara, Brian and Julie. That’s something to be proud of.”

“But what about the damage he does just being around? Is he the reason that Julie, for all her good qualities, is so distant? Is that why she refuses to engage me emotionally?”

Her crying grew harder.

“Everyone walks on eggshells. They’ve learned not to confront him because if they do then he bullies them or insults them or hits them. The house is full of tension when he’s here, and they hate to be home. I wouldn’t be so lonely if I just had my children around me.”

Jake pulled her close and stroked her back until she grew still.

“Why haven’t you divorced him?”

“It’s too risky. He controls the money. He can hire the best lawyers. I don’t have a job or even prospects. He’s a bigwig in the community. He has influence. There’s no telling how much harm he would do before the court made him leave the house.” She began to sob again. “Jake, what if the court gave him custody? My children would be at his mercy.”

“I promise I can help, Leanne. Do you remember how I made you trust me that time?”

“Yes, it was remarkable. You haven’t done that to me again, have you?”

“Examine yourself, Leanne. You don’t trust me all that much, do you?”

“No.”

“That’s because I haven’t and I wouldn’t. Leanne, I think you’re perfect. There is nothing about you that I would change. I like your aristocratic manner. I love your devotion to your children. I admire your determination. I treasure the affection you feel for me.”

“Jake, you can’t know how good it feels to hear someone talk like that. I haven’t felt like someone valued me for years.” She kissed him firmly. “Do you want me to have your children? I will.”

“Why is that so tempting, Leanne? I’d love to have a child with you. It doesn’t make any sense.”

She smiled at him fondly.

“Yes, it does, Jake. It’s one way that love is expressed. It tells me a lot about you that you feel that way about me.”

“Well, before we jump into that complication, let’s deal with the current one. While I would never take control of you or Julie, I have no such scruples when it comes to Mr. DeRizzo. I can make him leave your home and give you a divorce on favorable terms. Or, if you prefer, I could just make him stop drinking and behaving abusively. I could even help him with his anger and his need to drink. That would take some time, but I think I could do it. Or we can mix and match.”

“You can do those things? But how?”

“There are several techniques I could use. One thing I might do is alter his mind to produce strong negative emotions if he thinks about doing something that I don’t want him to do.”

“And you would do that for me?”

“I would. I’ll do whatever I can to help you. My first choice would be to arrange it so that I can have you and Julie all to myself. But if you want to rehabilitate Gus, I’ll try that even if it means I have to give you up. But that would be my last choice. It would break my heart to lose you to him.”

“Jake, somehow it doesn’t seem right.”

“Why not?”

“I’ve struggled to provide a good life for my children for almost twenty years. But I’ve been unhappy and my children have, too. Now you are telling me that you can snap your fingers, and our lives will get better.”

“If you had the power to make your children’s lives better, would you hesitate to use it?”

“No, of course not. I see your point.”

“Do you want to think about it awhile before we decide how to deal with him?”

“Will you really be here for me, for me and Julie?”

“We can’t know everything that will happen to us in the future, but I will commit myself to you and her for the long haul. Like I told Julie, I won’t promise to be monogamous, but I will do anything for you I can. I will never abandon you.”

“Then I’m going to rely on your promise. In my heart, I will never look at that son of a bitch as my husband again. If you can get him out of my life and get me a good settlement in the divorce, I will have your children.”

“School lets out early tomorrow. I will talk to Mr. DeRizzo tomorrow afternoon. Don’t say a word to him about this until I let you know it’s okay. I’ll wait until tomorrow to tell Julie about us, too.”

She radiated embarrassment.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea to tell Julie?”

“I promised her that I would never deceive her. It’s the same promise that I make to you right here and right now. Besides, I already told you that Julie and I have talked about me sleeping with you.”

“That’s so strange, Jake. I’ve never considered what it would be like to live life that way.”

“What way?”

“You know, having relationships with more than one person.”

“You don’t think you can love more than one person?”

“Of course I love all my children, but I don’t know if I could love more than one man.”

“I bet in the right circumstances, it could happen easily. It has for me. Well, not with men. You know what I mean. But now the morning is wearing away. I should get myself off to school.”

She blushed deeply.

“Before you go, would you do that thing you did to my bottom again?”

“I would love to. We’re not doing anything important in third period anyway.”

Julie sulked during lunch. Jake peeked to see what the problem was and found that she was jealous that he was going to see Carol that afternoon. Carol had to nag her into going to the biology lab.

Afterward, Jake went to social studies. He was glad this was the last class of the school year. He was running out of mind-reading tricks to show off with. He started reading all the girls within range. Whenever he found one of them with a crush on Jan, he relayed her thoughts and emotions to Jan. He was able to read the nearest three-quarters of the class before the mind noise got too hard to break through. For some of the girls, it was an innocent admiration, but for a surprising number, it was definitely lust.

Jake then read Jan. She was decidedly unimpressed. He sent her his disappointment.

I thought it would be a treat for you to experience your female admirers. You’re not surprised by all the homage?

He felt her amusement.

I’m a woman. I used to be a girl. I guess this is about what I expected. Although I have to say that I didn’t realize that Jenny Wilson had it so bad for me. She’s kept it hidden well. I’m also surprised that Julie is so cool toward me.

You should have been in her mind when you kissed her. There was nothing cool then. I was going to show you, but you were out the door so fast. She’s unhappy because I asked her to let us be alone this afternoon when you and I see Carol. I’ll make it up to her later.

The bell rang to begin the class. Jan got up to begin her lecture.

Turn off the girls now, Jake.

Jake smiled and complied.

After a half an hour of discussing the federal courts, Jan stopped and handed back their papers.

“You’re done. Congratulations to all of you who passed my course. Keep it down to a dull roar until the bell.”