Chapter 3

Donna sucked in enough air to lower the oxygen level in the Thornton home as she snapped erect, so Harmon thought it politic to cover her mouth to prevent a scream that would have emptied the police station. "Shhhh! In the first place, you're in no danger -- and in the second, this is MY house -- not yours -- so questions about which of us is the intruder and which isn't could turn up embarrassing answers!" Donna started fighting the hand, so he added, "I'll let go as soon as you stop trying to make loud noises! I'm not trying to hurt you!"

Donna slowly subsided; as she relaxed, Harmon said, "There, now, Darlin' -- there's no reason to be scared of me -- I'm Mac's daddy..." He very carefully removed his hand from her mouth; the other hand had remained on her hip the entire time -- which wasn't a secure grip -- more or less deliberately.

"You scared me!" Donna clutched her clothing to her chest and stepped away.

"There didn't seem to be any way not to, Darlin'," Harmon chuckled.

"How long have you been here?"

"Oh, plenty long enough. You're a hot little number!" Harmon complimented her. "Mac's doin' real well for himself!"

"Well, I, um..." Donna stood there dumbfounded as Harmon plucked her blouse and shorts out of her hands, one by one.

"Yeah, it's way too late to get all modest -- not after that exhibition you put on a little bit ago!" Harmon murmured. "You know, frankly, I'd have never guessed..." Donna covered her face in embarrassment. "Now, now -- you shouldn't be embarrassed," Harmon chided, "I've seen a woman or two in my time and you can pretty much hold your head up high when it comes to pleasin' a man..."

Covering her face hadn't been smart, she realized; she hadn't seen him coming. He had his hands on her again; one slid around her waist and squeezed an ass cheek and the other slid just under her breasts. Harmon gave a little tug and Donna found herself on his knee, Harmon having settled on the couch arm. She reached for his hand and he moved it, caressing her midsection. "You can make my hands happy," he chided, "It'll be all right."

Donna wasn't sure about that -- and she was thoroughly flustered. "Mr. Thornton..."

"Call me Harmon," Harmon replied breezily. "So, where did you meet Mac?"

"Well, we're both in school..." Donna muttered, her hand chasing his here and there. To an outsider it would have looked like she was just holding it; when she got a grip on one, the other would start up...

Harmon squeezed her ass again and grunted, "Huh..." He liked asses -- he'd just normally stuck to smaller bubble butts... "You don't do what you were doing here on this couch at school, Darlin'. How experienced were you when you and Mac did THAT the first time?"

"I, uh, wasn't." 'Not the breast... '

"Mac took your cherry? Looks like he got you off on the right foot..."

"Actually, he took me by surprise..." Tugging a hand holding your nipple was the same as tugging your nipple, Donna discovered. And the hand on her ass was moving around front... "H--Harmon..."

"You were telling me about how you and Mac got together," Harmon prompted.

Donna gave up on her nipple so she could wedge a hand between her legs -- one of hers, that is. "We were at a party."

"Must've been one helluva party..."

"It was a victory party -- after a game."

"So he got you drunk?"

"No..."

"Stoned?"

"Uh uh."

"So what happened?"

"I was ... looking. So was he." Donna realized that Harmon was good with nipples -- just enough and not too much... "Harmon..."

"Shhhh. You ain't hurtin'." He was caressing her back. "I do a LOT of lookin' -- and I wouldn't have seen you. Well, I would've, but..."

Donna REALLY didn't want to go into this... "I, uh, put myself out there, sort of."

The hand on her back circled to cup her right breast while the fingers of the other one released her nipple and cupped her left. "Stuck these under his nose, did you?"

"S--something like that." Now he had BOTH nipples...

"Brave, then, are ya?"

Donna took a shot at trying to free both nipples simultaneously -- and Harmon let her win on the right side -- so he could slide his fingers through her pubes. "N--not really ... N--not there..." Both hands on his wrist didn't keep his fingers from rubbing her nubbin -- and he STILL had a nipple...

"Shhhh..." Lips on her neck gave her chills. "You put it out there once, though, didn't you? How come?"

"Desperate..." 'Oh, Gawd, did I SAY that?' There were too many distractions; Harmon seemed to have tentacles!

"You weren't alone, were you?"

"N--no ... H--Harmon, Mac's not going to..."

"Darlin', do you think you were Mac's first? Or even his eighth or tenth? We share -- he's had a BUNCH of ladies that I've brought home. Frankly, he's a little behind..."

Donna froze, shocked. "He never..."

"Well, I don't generally start my pickups with, 'Hey, I've got an eighteen year old boy who would probably like to poke you when I get done... '" Harmon chuckled. He ducked his head and lips and teeth clamped on a nipple, replacing his fingers. The hand he'd been using to play with Donna's clit rose to capture her other nipple -- and when her hands chased it, the hand that had been mauling her left nipple settled between her legs to replace the other. Donna moved her hands here and there, ineffectually.

"I--I..."

Harmon chuckled. "I know -- he's the love of your young life, and you don't want him to come home to find you bouncing on my pogo stick. Well, you just relax, 'cause my zipper's gonna stay up. But I'm gonna play, and you're gonna get your cookies off -- it's kind of a matter of honor..." He rocked her back about forty-five degrees; her legs were spread by the couch arm and she had no way to close them.

"Oh, nooo..." He was winning...

"Dammit, Pop!" Mac's voice grated.

"Oh, good -- you're back. Little Donna and I were just gettin' to know one another."

"How long have you been home?" Mac queried, disgusted.

"I was here when you left, actually," Harmon admitted.

"Donna isn't one of your one-nighters, Pop. Give her back!"

"You're quite a bit behind, Son -- when do you plan to catch up?"

"I don't with this one. I don't ever remember just wandering in on one of your women and telling her she owed me a fuck," Mac growled.

"Weren't you even goin' to air the subject?"

"Tough to say. She's a sweet girl, but I have different plans for her than you generally do for yours. If I didn't, it wouldn't be a problem, but since I do..."

"Oh, all RIGHT!" Harmon sat Donna back up -- but refused to let go of her right breast. "Tell me about your momma, Darlin'. Is she anything like you?"

Ten minutes later, they were alone in Mac's room. "I'm sorry!" Donna blurted.

"You didn't do anything. Pop steamrollers women for fun -- older, experienced women. You weren't safe. As hot-blooded as you are, if he'd been fucking you when I got back it STILL wouldn't have been your fault!" Mac replied.

"H--he was right there ... And I couldn't get away..."

"It's okay, Darlin'! Relax!"

"Is he always like that?"

"Well, he's been out drinking -- and he didn't bring anything home..."

"He watched us."

"You're lucky, then."

"H--he seemed impressed..."

"He knows the good stuff when he sees it." Mac sat on the bed and pulled her onto his lap.

"What do I do?"

"Well, what about your mom? She's divorced, right?"

"Well, never married, actually," Donna said quietly, embarrassed. "I was, um, an accident."

"She likes guys, though, right? And she looks like you?"

"Well, I think so. She DOES look like me -- or maybe I look like her -- but I don't have any idea how good she is..." Donna's mother didn't seem to do sex, period -- well, except for masturbation. But Donna wasn't going to discuss THAT with Mac... "What if that doesn't work?"

Mac grimaced and scratched his ear. "Then you probably ought to not make much of a fuss. Pop generally doesn't do a woman over five or six times..."

"What?" Donna turned a look of amazement on Mac. "I should just roll over and... ?"

"Darlin', you can make a fuss if you want, but what would you have been doing if I'd been ten minutes later? If you were smart, you might have talked him into just a blowjob..." ' ... but you're not that smart, ' Mac added to himself. "If you fight him, he'll just consider you a challenge -- and you won't be safe, ever. After five or six times, the new will wear off and he won't hassle you any more."

"What if it doesn't go that way?" Donna worried.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Mac replied, toying with one of Donna's nipples. 'Then you're gonna get a lot of dick... ' Mac wasn't giving Donna to Pop, period -- he could borrow her, if it came to that, but that would be all...

Besides, it wasn't as if Donna didn't like dick; ten minutes later, her knees were pressed back on either side of her breasts and she was rocking her pelvis up to meet Mac enthusiastically while he power-stroked her. Collapsed across her twenty minutes later, Mac reflected that if her mom was anything close to her in sexual response, Pop would be plenty busy...

Sunday morning, Candace managed a serious gathering of the older generation females -- even Jiang Yi was there. It turned out that Phyllis knew a budding realtor -- who was suffering, since amateurs who entered the housing market during the boom were being destroyed by the bust. Such was her enthusiasm at finding a new sucker that she joined the meeting at ten-thirty with a stack of MLS listings -- and Candace and Louise and Jiang Yi (who was VERY pleased at being included in something important) spent four hours touring listings with the realtor, whose name was Joy something...

Candace stood in the yard of an imposing place on the edge of town with a phone against her ear. "Toby? Candace. What's my budget?"

"Well ... What do you think you need?"

"Something fancy in move-in condition would probably break us," Candace replied, "but there is a glut of fixer-uppers. We're out on the edge of town looking at an old bed and breakfast. It's busted up some, but it is zoned commercial and it has a lot of the facilities we're looking for, including an airy -- if rustic -- basement and a couple of interesting outbuildings."

"How much?"

"Joy says a hundred -- but Jiang Yi says the guy who owns her restaurant has his ear to the ground and a cash offer -- and it would have to be cash, because it really can't be occupied in its current condition -- would probably get it for eighty. Of course, it might need that again in repairs..."

Toby winced. "Do we have that? Yes. Do I want to wave that much cash around as an acquaintance of Marta's? No. Look, if we can come up with the cash for the purchase, can you talk somebody into getting a loan for the repairs? We'll pay the payments -- and close it out in a few months -- but we can't look TOO solvent..."

"I think we can probably swing that." In an extremity, Candace could -- but if she could shift it to one of the others, so much the better...

"I don't have to tell you to haggle, do I?" Toby asked.

"No, Honey -- you're just a kid where THAT is concerned!" Candace grinned. "Talk to you later..."

In the end, Candace offered seventy thousand, knowing full well that there would be a counter offer. Joy went away pleased; there would be a negotiation, but unless the out of state owners were idiots, there would be a sale...

Jiang Yi went home to Frank, after... "Did ya have a good time with the girlfriends?" Frank rumbled from his seat in front of the TV.

"Yes."

Frank eyed her. "Ya got something on your mind. Bring me a beer so I can wet the brain cells." Jiang Yi went off obediently and returned with an open bottle; Frank waved her stocky ass onto his lap. "What's up? Better not be jewelry -- you got eight, ten years before I get senile."

"It's about the club. What do you know about... ?" It turned out that Frank needed an extensive briefing; the Fernando situation, in particular, had escaped his notice. Jiang Yi finished up with, "I have a little money and good credit -- I can probably get the loan -- but I wanted to ask you first. I will want to redo the kitchen..." The house had a restaurant-class kitchen, but it had been vandalized.

Frank eyed her. "You plan to run a restaurant outta there?"

"Uh, probably not..." The idea HAD been kicking around in the back of her mind -- but hadn't surfaced until Frank whipped it on her. "Catering, maybe. Parties."

"Enough to make a business of it?" Frank eyed her.

"A hobby, maybe."

"I got better lines of credit than you -- I'll hook it up. Don't Cadillac it and don't set yourself up to be comin' home late and wasted -- I expect to be fed and fucked regular," Frank declared. Jiang Yi kissed him on the cheek.

Louise came home to find Fred similarly in front of the TV. The boys were out -- presumably with their girlfriends -- so she decided to brace him. "So, how goes the grand experiment? Are you gonna move over to the other side?"

Fred frowned and glanced around, but there wasn't anyone else in sight. This wasn't on his list of things to mess around with today ... After glaring at his wife for a moment, he grunted, "No, I don't think so. I've met some that like it over there and I ain't them. Why?"

"I was wondering when you're gonna pay up."

Fred grimaced. "That shit in the peep booths wasn't enough?"

"Nope, sorry." Louise didn't SOUND sorry. "I couldn't back down now if I wanted to -- and I don't. You've been good, and I'm almost tempted -- but I can't let it go. In the first place, you'd know you got away with something -- and you'd probably backslide."

"I can get my shit on the outside..."

"You can," Louise agreed, "And you can walk -- but it'll cost you. On the other hand, you can play both sides -- safely -- if you're not blackballed."

Fred realized that Louise had just sweetened the pot. "What's up? Is there a rush or something?"