Chapter 8
The travel clock went off like a time bomb within his head. Dragging himself from the bed, he stumbled across the room to the dresser and managed to shut off the insistent ringing before it took off the top of his head.
Eleven o'clock. He stared at the clock face trying to remember why the hell he had bothered to set the thing to begin with. Then it dawned on him. It was Sunday. The reunion was over. And the motel's check-out time was noon.
An hour remained to get himself into some shape, pack and check out. He shook himself, as he staggered into the bathroom and turned on the shower faucets full blast. Stepping in, he let the jetting streams cascade over his body, slowly washing away the numbness that seemed to permeate every cell of his body. Eventually the fog clouding his brain lifted enough for him to climb out of the shower and face himself in the mirror. With the aid of his trusty toothbrush and a strong mouthwash, he was able to eliminate the thousand or two dead cats that inhabited his mouth, resulting from too many beers and cigarettes the night before.
He ran his hand over the rough stubble sprouted over his chin. He pondered shaving for a moment, the decided he'd let it go until tomorrow. There was no need to look presentable while on the road.
Back in the bedroom, he pulled out a pair of blue jeans and a t-shirt and quickly slipped into them. Comfort rather than style once more governed his choice of clothing for the long drive. Taking his suitcase from the closet, he neatly arranged the clothes he brought hut had not worn in one side, then crammed the soiled clothing into the vacant compartment.
Glancing in the refrigerator, he noted there were still two complete six packs left. He toyed with the idea of getting one of those Styrofoam ice chests, then decided he'd leave the beer for the maids.
Snapping the suitcase closed, he settled down on the bed and gazed around the room, making one last check to make sure he was leaving nothing behind. As far as he could tell, he wasn't.
A knock came from the door. He smiled. There was something he had forgotten, one of those white bath towels. Making a mental note to slip one into his suitcase, he rose and answered the door.
It was Joanna.
The woman's presence startled him. After Friday night, he had never expected to see her again, or wasn't sure that he desired another meeting. For several seconds, he just stood there, staring at her, as if he were unable to believe she was outside. Her eyes were held by his for an instant then drifted to her feet.
"Sam, I'm sorry to intrude," she said softly, her voice barely audible. "I wasn't even sure you'd still be here. I called Rhonda and she told me where you were staying. I know you'd probably just as well avoid this meeting, but I had to see you before you left... not so much for me, but for you."
He didn't know what to say. She was obviously uneasy about coming to his room. Her gaze would rise to his face, then dart off in another direction only to return for another brief second. She held her hands tightly before her, her fingers looking as if they would knot at any moment.
"Will you invite me in?" she asked, her words almost a plea.
He nodded, stepping aside to admit her, then closing the door behind her. Her gaze quickly took in the room, as she walked to the sofa and seated herself, trying to look casual and composed. She failed. Her nervousness was so apparent that he felt uneasy, regretting having let her in.
"Please sit down," she requested, her hand lightly patting the cushion next to her. "I promise I won't take long."
Again he nodded and took his seat. The vibrations coming from her would have knocked anyone over. She was uptight and strained with tension. But over riding it all was a strange determination to complete what she had come for.
"Look, Joanna," he said, "if this is about Friday, there's no need for an explanation. It's just something that happened and we can leave it like that."
She shook her head as she glanced up at him, tears welling in her eyes, "I can't leave it like that... not with you. What happened the other night wasn't fair... "
She paused as if trying to find the courage and the words to continue, "... I don't know what I was expecting Friday night. I guess I still had some romantic images of a knight in white armor who would come along and erase the past and take me off to another world. But whatever was going through my head, it wasn't fair to you."
"I'm certainly no knight in shining armor," he smiled. "The wicked magician was always more to my liking."
She attempted a smile, hut her lips did little more than tremble, "No, you have certain qualities that would put you in the knight category. That you don't realize this makes you all the more attractive to a damsel in distress."
He shook his head, "No, you're wrong. I'm simply a man, nothing more, nothing less. It's enough being that without taking on any fake roles. And you're a woman and a very attractive one that would draw any normal, healthy red-blooded man."
Again she tried to smile, "But I'm distressed... and not too sure if I'm healthy or not. I know I'm not normal. I'm sure you noticed the same thing."
She paused once more, attempting to gather her thoughts, "I guess you've heard the rumors about my marriage and my frigidity?"
"I don't pay much attention to rumors," he answered. 'The woman I was making love with Friday night wasn't frigid. She was frightened, but I didn't know that at the time."
"Frightened and frigid," she persisted "I just couldn't go through with it. It wasn't the first time it's happened. My husband couldn't understand and he ran from me like I was a carrier of the plague."
He started to reply, but she shook her head, "Let me finish. I've never been able to say it before, but you've always been special to me. I can't let you go away the way I left you Friday night.
"It wasn't just my husband," if she had been nervous before, he could almost see her trying to crawl out of her skin now. "It goes back a lot further than that... it happened when I was thirteen."
He listened as she explained, visualizing her at that age, young, just coming into womanhood, the rise of her pubis maturing and bushing with a soft down, while her breasts were no more than small swollen apples ripening with her biological changes.
"My mother had gone to visit relatives for the weekend," she continued, "leaving me alone with my stepfather. I don't know if you ever met him. He died in a car accident a few months after that weekend...
"... Anyway, it was Saturday night and he had been drinking a little too much. I was in my room preparing for bed when I noticed the door to my room was opened. My stepfather was standing there staring at me with a strange leer on his face," she said. "He came into the room, smiling and talking in a soft voice, telling me how beautiful I was and how he had been watching me develop into a 'little lady.' "I tried to move away from him, but he reached out and threw me atop the bed. His hands were all over me, feeling and squeezing. I fought him in an attempt to escape, but he slapped me several times. I was frightened and in a daze, but when finally I shook free of it, he was on top of me and... "
She stopped, her voice quavering, then breaking as she tried to hold hack the sobs that came with the painful memories. He gently eased her to him, trying to comfort and soothe her, but realizing there was nothing he could do. Joanna wanted to get this all off her chest and all he could really do was listen.
Her sobs subsided a bit and she began again, "All I remember after that was the pain. He left and I felt ashamed and dirty, thinking that I had somehow caused the whole incident.
"It really screwed up my whole head." she glanced up at him. "I couldn't tell anybody what had happened, especially my mother. As I matured, it only got worse. I wanted to be like the other girls, but I couldn't!
"When I met Harry, my husband of one week," she detailed, "I thought he was different. He seemed so gentle and understanding. Then on our wedding night, it was just like my stepfather. He wanted me and he wouldn't be denied. He refused to listen to me and my pleas. He ripped off my nightgown and raped me, although there's no law that says a man can't rape his wife... it was still rape."
She shuddered in his arms as she remembered. He pulled her even closer, gently caressing her.
"For six nights it was the same thing. Then that last night, I found his revolver in his desk. When he came to our room I held it out and said I'd shoot him if he came closer. He realized I was serious. And I was. I would've emptied that gun into him before I'd let him touch me again. He filed for a divorce the next morning."
"Shhhhhh," he whispered, lifting her chin and lightly kissing her lips, then wiping away her tears with a fingertip. "It's all right now. They're not here and nobody in this room is going to hurt you."
"It's not all right," she shook her head. "I thought it was, but then Friday night, no matter how I tried to forget, I couldn't. I wanted you, Sam. I really did, but I came on too strong and you answered in the only way you could. It was just happening too fast. I tried to fight my fear, but even with all those wonderful things that were happening within me, I just couldn't forget."
His arms closed around her again, holding her tightly, trying to soothe away the trembling of her body. Neither of them spoke for several minutes, until he finally broke the silence. "I don't know what to tell you. But I'm not your stepfather or your ex-husband. All men aren't like that, though god knows, it sometimes appears this society tries to perpetuate the myth that all a man has to do is ram himself into a woman and she's supposed to be satisfied."
"I know," she whispered. "I think you're that type of man, a different one that is. One who cares. And I thought that Friday night would prove it to me. But it wasn't your fault. It was mine... I was hoping... "
He lifted her chin and kissed her, their lips brushing together for an instant then retreating. Her eyes rose to his and stayed there, "Oh, Sam, give me another chance, please. I know it will be different with you."
He didn't answer, except to lean forward, once again letting their lips softly meet. She made no attempt to draw away from him, but instead seemed to melt warmly against his chest. Her lips trembled, then opened. He didn't drive his tongue into the sweet warmth of her oral shelter. Instead, he let the tip of his tongue teasingly play at the entrance of her mouth.
Her own oral digit slowly extended to meet his, then darted into his mouth exploring and probing. Slow and gentle, he repeated to himself as the tip of her tongue tapped at the roof of his mouth, control yourself and take it slow and easy.
He wanted this woman. He had always wanted her and he wanted to make damn sure that she wanted him. Trying to ignore the stirrings of his loins and the rising of his cock, lie pulled her to him and held her in a firm embrace that was meant to tell her that she was doing just fine, as much as it was designed to comfort her.
When his tongue finally slithered into her mouth, she was ready for it. She welcomed him as their entwining oral digits cajoled and taunted and titillated. The noon check-out time for his room was completely forgotten as he lost himself in the enticing rhythmic rise and fall of her breasts against his chest. The two stiff mounds seemed to be trying to stab their proud forms into his flesh.
Together they drifted down on the sofa, laying side by side, letting her accustom herself to the feel of his body. Even through the cotton dress she wore, the inciting warmth of her body penetrated to his fingertips. She was trembling again, no longer from the painful memories of her confession, but from the desire that suffused through her body.
She sighed softly as their lips parted. Her eyes opened and gazed over his face. She smiled, still unsure of herself, but quite willing to place herself in his hands.
"Make love with me," he whispered. "Not to me, but with me. There'll be no taking, only a sharing."
She nodded and lifted her mouth to his again. Her tongue resinned its delightful gyrations of pleasure for minutes that seemed like hours. When they finally parted again, his mouth moved to her ear, his tongue and teeth busying its delicate lobe of flesh. She moaned softly as her arousal grew. Her hands tightened on his back, pulling him harder against the soft willingness of her body.
Down her gracefully sloping neck his tongue moved, creating a series of provocative thrills that only increased the moans coming from her lips. She swayed under him, mashing the proud cones of her breasts to fleshy globes and rolling them against his chest.
With languor, his tongue drifted over the soft flesh of her throat, finding its downward course blocked by the high neckline of her dress.
They were in an awkward position. There was no way he could manage to slip that dress from her while they were lying on the sofa. And he had no desire to interrupt the soothing effects of their embrace. There was only one way to solve the problem. His mouth returned to hers and his arms encircled her waist, easing her with him as he rose.
Standing there, her hands roving his back, his own fingers found and unclasped a single snap at the back of her dress. He fumbled for a moment, then slid the zipper down its jagged-tooth path. His hand then rose to her shoulders and slipped the cloth down over the smooth slopes. She hesitated again, then let her arms drop, as she moved back a half step. The dress fell in a bunched heap around her ankles. In a toe-kicking motion, she stepped free and removed her shoes at the same time.
"Just stand there a moment," he smiled. "I just want to look at you for a moment. You really are beautiful, you know."
She was. He had never had any doubts that she was the most beautiful woman he had ever met, bar none. And he damn sure wanted her to know that. His cock rose to its stiff, full, rigid length, as his eyes slowly drifted over her. She was a tall woman with long, slender, shapely legs and firm breasts that jutted toward him as her chest rose and fell. But she appeared almost fragile standing there dressed only in a pale pink bra and matching panties that hinted at the dark triangle of her pubic mound beneath.
"I feel self-conscious," she said softly, her eyes remaining on his.
"You shouldn't," he answered. "You are beautiful. I don't think I could ever get enough of just looking at you."
She trembled, obviously pleased with his words.
"But if you want," he added. "I'll stop."
"No," she shook her head and smiled in an embarrassed manner. "I like the way you look at me. I always have. It's just that I feel self-conscious about it. Maybe if I had something to look at it would help. I remember how you used to look when we went swimming together... "
He kissed her and smiled, "No more need be said. I'll remedy the situation."
His fingers immediately went to work, tucking under his t-shirt and peeling it over his head. He then worked his blue jeans off and stood there for a moment, letting her eyes drift over his body. Occasionally her gaze would move to the thick bulge straining from beneath his shorts, but it never lingered there for more than a second.
"I feel like a teen-age girl," she said. "I want to see you completely in the buff."
"We'll take care of that in a moment. But don't you think we should move into the bedroom?" he answered.
He had no intent of letting her see his cock, not right now that was, not until after she had felt the full pleasure of their bodies together. He had no want to risk her associating the needy looking hardness of his penis with that of her step-father's and ex-husband's.
She nodded and shivered with anticipation, as his arm circled her waist and guided her to the king-size bed. Lowering her to her back, he eased himself down at her side, soaking in the luxurious heat of her skin against his. They embraced again. This time when they parted, his finger had worked free the clasps of her bra and he slid it from her arms.
The effect of the moonlight the other night had been deceptive. Her breasts were far from milk white. Instead, they were a slight summery tan that matched the rest of her supple nakedness. Joanna apparently believed in sun bathing in the nude. A mental image of this seductive goddess lying on a blanket completely naked except for the sun above flashed through his mind, causing his testicles to churn with arousal. It was a sight he would like to view someday. But right now he was much more interested in the real thing, rather than some mental titillation.
His mouth covering hers again, he worked his hands slowly from her shoulder to the proud peaks of her breasts. Langurously, his palms glided around the sleek cones, reveling in their sexual warmth. Her flesh seemed to glow. She quivered and squirmed a bit next to him, as his circling hand climbed up the jutting pinnacles of pleasure and his fingers tenderly caressed the quiescent nipples topping them.
Lovingly he toyed with the flaccid buds, enticing them with a flourish tingling sensations that brought an aroused life to the twin buds in preparation for his mouth, which moved from her lips to one of the stiff crests. Continuing his tender caresses, his tongue slowly circled the dark mushroom of flesh, awakening new desires within her young body.
He sucked and nibbled gingerly at the sensitive nubbin, savoring the womanly taste of her body, a taste that was slightly spiced with the smell of her perfume. When he had completely satisfied himself with the fattening bud, his mouth drifted across her chest and encompassed the sister peak to repeat his oral ministrations.
She moaned as his tongue and lips circled and kissed and sucked, while his hands continued their diligent fondling and caressing of her resilient breasts. A sexual fire of glowing coals was burning in her chest. Its heat suffused on a direct line to her loins and the moist cleft that prepared itself for his ultimate entry. She sighed, her hands gratefully cradling his cheeks, feeling them hollow as he sucked at her nipples. Her back pushed up from the bed and his mouth opened, accepting a full face of her succulent titflesh.
As she writhed in a languid lolling motion beside him, he slipped a hand from one of her beautiful breasts and slowly let it drift down over the flatness of her stomach. His fingers tucked beneath the elastic band of her panties and inched them downward. She raised her ass and wiggled some, helping him work them over her smooth thighs. Then she kicked them free and stretched out beside him, her complete nakedness pressing warmly against his body.
Returning to his original intent, his hand wove through the silk-like strands of her pubic down. Cautiously, her thighs opened to his exploration, allowing his palm to cup around the womanly protuberance of her vulva. With soft insistence, he gently stroked the fleshy knoll of her lovemound, rubbing and massaging new arousal within her body.
Her legs opened wider for him, as he squeezed and kneaded his fingers into her cuntal mound. Her hips reacted, slowly rising and falling in rhythm with his commanding grasp. She writhed and wiggled with the squirming excitement instigated by his persistent manipulation of her pussy. She moaned and whimpered under the dual stimulation of his mouth and hands.
Allowing his index finger to sandwich itself between the plump lips of her labia, he slid it back and forth within the moist flow of her sexual juices, only teasingly brushing against the extended bud of her clit. Each steadily gliding stroke elicited sharp, sucking sounds from her lips, as she gasped for her breath under the profuse sensations that sizzled in her loins.
His inquisitive finger then gingerly moved deeper within her body, edging through the inner lips of her labia and into the moist tunnel of her vagina. In a slow-motion twisting movement, he swirled around within her cuntal walls, arousing ever newer and hotter thrills within the cleft of her sex.
Letting her excitement mount, he eased his digit in and out of her open quim in a gently stroking fashion, while his other fingers continued to knead the now pleasure-aching mound of her pussy.
"Good," she murmured. "It feels so good!"
The next step was tricky, but he managed it without too much awkwardness. Abandoning her breasts, his mouth once more traveled up her neck and possessed her lips. Simultaneously, he slipped his finger from her heated cunt and then worked his jockey shorts over his hips and kicked them off.
She stiffened as he slid atop the luxurious bed of her voluptuous body, his hands once more encompassing the proud cones of her breasts. She whimpered in a piteous little cry of confusion, a confusion that stemmed from desire and fear, as the bulgy head of his prick nestled against the silk-fringed gash of her sex.
"Relax," he whispered, while his hands reassuringly stroked her breasts, lovingly fondling them. "Relax. There'll be no pain this time. None at all. I promise."
"Yes," she mumbled, still unsure, but equally unwilling to abandon the pleasure he promised. "All at once. I want you to come into me all at once. That way it will be quick and... uhahharaaahhhhhhhh!"
His hips jerked and slammed inward, shafting his full length into the liquid warmth of her interior. There was no pain, as he had promised, only the sudden surprise of his unexpected invasion. Her body stiffened a little more, but there was no time to be afraid before the great satisfaction of their coupling suffused warmly through her body.
"Yes," she cried out, filled with the fantastic feel of him. "Yes, yes, yes!"
She hugged him close, kissing his lips and his neck and playfully nipping at his shoulders. The tight tunnel of her sex squeezed down around his thickness, but this time, the reaction came not in fear, but in relish, as she felt out the rigid strength of his cock. Again and again, she squeezed and relaxed the walls of her cuntal folds, as if she were attempting to suck him deeper inside the heated recesses of her belly.
The luxury of her velvet-lined channel of love surrounded him, completely sleeving his swollen shaft from the tip of its blood-engorged glands to the thick circumference of its base. Marvelous! She felt absolutely marvelous, so tight and hot around him, as she squeezed and sucked at his bigness. There was a pleasure in and of itself just lying there feeling the heat of her body bathing his prick; just lying there with her sleek and smooth body pressed warmly beneath his. It was a youthful dream come true and a man's desires attained. If that had been all there was to be, it would have been enough.
But there was more. He had promised her a sharing of carnal pleasures and that exactly what he intended to provide.
Slowly, he lifted his pelvis and drew the entrenched length of his fleshy root out from the innermost depths of her belly. She moaned, her tight, moist folds clamping around his shaft, as if unwilling to relinquish the satisfaction of having him implanted fully within the chamber of her cunt. The squeezing clutch of her vaginal muscles was unbelievable. She gripped at him like a third hand. Sensual ripples of sensations washed along his length, caressing each and every inch he eased from her taut channel.
Upward he worked, until his cock was once more poised at the entrance to her belly. Then he reversed course, slowly gliding back into the waiting depths of her core. The fat, desire-swollen head of his prick opened her vagina to him. The clamping tightness of those velvety folds gave way before the ponderous mass of his glands, molding themselves to the imposing contours of his shaft.
Down he eased himself, filling her with his thickness. Gently packing her to the brim with hot, long hard cock, he sank into her belly. She clamped down around his fully enveloped loveshaft and wiggled her hips a bit, setting off all sorts of fantastic cartwheels in his balls.
"I'm full," she sighed, her black eyes gleaming with relish. "You feel so hard and big in me, so demanding... yet so warm and gentle at the same time. I knew you'd be like this. I knew it would be good with you!"
"Woman, you have no idea what you do for my ego," he smiled, kissing her lovingly, then increasing the passion of their embrace as his tongue swirled within her mouth.
With the same mounting desire, his hips swung up and down in a steadily increasing tempo that left her gasping in surprised delight. In and out he worked, riding her for every ounce of pleasure he could provide and loving every minute of it. He had no flaming desire to come. He only wanted to be inside this raven-tressed goddess, feeling the marvelous excitement of her body. Excitement he had awakened and now would fulfill.
The aroused flood of her womanly fluids secreted in a heavy flow from the walls of her cunt, washing him in liquid heat, a sea of sexual honey. Hot and squeezing, her pussy and its pink folds of delectable pleasure grasped covetously at his unyielding spike of manhood, as he burrowed into them time and time again.
Possessively, her legs locked around him and tightened. She moaned in a long deep-throated sigh of passion as her hips picked up the sensual rhythm of his plowing strokes. His hips rose and her pelvis pulled away, the muscles of her cunt tightening marvelously. He thrust down, skewering her on the hard length of his shaft and her hips leaped upward, accepting the demanding mass of his sex.
Her fears ebbed, then completely dissipated as he poled in and out of her welcoming cunt. There was no hesitation now, no indications of frigidity. The only thing he felt beneath him was a woman and a woman that was fully engrossed in the feel of a man within her body. Her desires, wants and needs were no different now than those of any other young, healthy woman with the awakening realizations of the pleasures of sex; the pleasures that can he shared by a man and woman.
Releasing the fleshy holds he had on her breasts, he pushed himself up on his elbows and gazed down at the woman beneath him. Her eyes now contained that soft, misted look of lust. Her red lips sensually writhed under each deep probing drive of his cock. Her breasts shimmered and jiggled under the impact of their pelvises.
Craning his neck, he tucked his head between his shoulders and once more sucked up one of those succulent nipples. Hungrily, his lips and tongue ate at the desire-swollen bud, relishing the rubbery texture of its firmness. Her hands caressed the sides of his face, pulling him down harder on her tit, so that he opened his mouth and took in as much as possible.
Her hips jerked and bucked under him, fucking herself on the rigid impalement of his cock. A reaction that increased as he pulled away from that one aching nipple and moved on to the next, once more lavishing his delightful oral attentions.
"Good!" she groaned above the wet noises of his busy lips and tongue. "I never imagined anything this wonderful. Never!"
Neither had he. That is, never imagined it actually happening, though he had thought about it enough as a youth. If it were possible to have a little piece of heaven on earth, he was experiencing it now. She felt so damn good, he still couldn't believe it was finally happening. She felt so fantastic there was no way for him not to believe it was happening!
His hips jerked and plummeted full cock into her edacious furrow of mounting lust. He pumped and plowed into her belly, feeling the rising pressure of his own need. Her pelvis rose and fell to meet the new vigor of his shafting. She thrashed under him, her ass hissing over the bed.
With two last hasty kisses to the dark cherries topping the crests of her tits, he once more let her feel the full weight of his body for a moment or two, then swung to one side. Wedging a hand between their now sweat-slick stomachs, he pushed through the matted strands of her cuntal fur. She groaned in growing desire, not in protest.
A fingertip found its way to the cleft of her labia. Wiggling downward just a bit, he found the erect little nubbin of her clit that he sought. Her body jolted as a fresh blast of sensations coursed through every fiber of her being.
"My god!" she groaned. "What are you doing to me? I'm... I'm... I'm... "
Whatever she had intended to end her statement with was drowned out by a long series of incoherent groan and whimpers and moans. His fingertips avidly twirled around the button of her pleasure. He teased and taunted, fondling the lust-aching nubbin, as his hips lashed back and forth, whipping his prick in and out of her hot hole of desire. She squeezed and tried to clamp solidly to his knifing root of manmeat.
Harder and faster, he entrenched himself into the steaming heat of her depths. Her breath was now coming in short gasping groans. She thrashed and writhed, throwing herself onto him, swallowing up each deep-grinding plunge of his loins.
Upward she soared as her body exploded into the swirling winds of orgasm. Whatever fears she had held of this man were completely driven from her as her body was filled with the full satisfaction that he had brought to her. From red-hot to glowing white heat, her nerve endings were overloaded with the throbbing, pulsating ever expanding universe of pleasure within her thighs.
Her body was rigid, as she accepted the still shafting movement of his cock. Her legs locked around his, squeezing at him with desperation. Her fingernails bit into his back, clawing. She groaned and moaned as the quakes of ecstasy shattered her being into a thousand fragments of bliss. Tidal waves of lust were unleashed within her body and she rode atop them savoring the fantastic melting of sensations.
There was no longer any need for him to contain the boiling need of his balls, but still he held back his own release. In and out of the contracting tunnel of her cunt he pumped, making damn sure she received the total pleasure of her climax. Out and in he filled her with his prick, as she slowly floated down from the crescendo of sensations her body had produced.
And then, when her eyes had fluttered opened and she gazed at him with loving gratitude for the carnal pleasure he had given her, he came. His testicles lashed out in an eruption of such intensity that it surprised even him. But this is the way he wanted it. He wanted her to see the pleasure that she had given him. The pleasure that they shared, as he had promised.
Lovingly she held him closely as his body quaked. Willingly she accepted the hot rush of come that spilled forth from his groin. Thoughtfully she squeezed down with all her might, making the already tight pocket of her cunt even that much more fantastically taut for his pleasure.
Gratefully he groaned, as he abandoned himself to the luxury of her body and flooded her innermost recesses with his seed.