Chapter 7
She reached up to grasp his hands as she twisted her body. She smiled up into his face. "You know we can't do that. I've already been rude to the lady. Besides, as you said, we'll be more anxious than ever when it's over. Come on, we have a neighborly duty to perform."
"Meeting a divorcee who's built like a running guard and pretending to enjoy meeting her two brats." He growled the words, sorry he'd made the bargain with Sigrid. Still, Karen was right. They'd have a hell of an appetite, especially after they'd had a drink or two.
She laughed as she put down her brush and got up. She got up on her toes and kissed him lightly. He began to wrap his arms around her waist, but she pushed him away.
"Don't muss me." Then she took his hand and pressed it against her left buttock. "Come on, let's go."
He followed her out of the bedroom and they went straight to the door. There she paused, sucking her lower hp in a habit he found erotic, although he never admitted it to his wife. "I suppose dinner will be late. I don't dare put anything on."
"We're having sex for dinner, remember?"
"All right, schoolboy." She tilted her head as her green eyes looked up at him. "You seem different, honey. Sort of keyed up, anxious. I haven't seen you like this since right after the honeymoon."
"Second childhood."
She giggled. "It's beginning to infect me. Come on, let's do our duty and get it over with." Again she frowned. "Just a second."
She ran into the bedroom and then she emerged with a small package. "I just got this today. A little cologne from Paris. Think it's okay as a welcoming gift?"
"Sure. Why not?"
"I don't have anything for the children."
"Screw the children," he grumbled. "The girl can share the cologne and the boy...well, he's getting his kicks on pot or something, probably. Don't worry about it."
She smiled. "All right, let's go."
They stepped out into the late afternoon sunshine. Even though it was almost six the summer sun was still warm and bright. He was pleased about that. Sunlight was more wholesome than moonlight for the test that was coming up. They hurried along the outside corridor to the door of 5-B.
He paused and glanced down into her beautiful face, that innocent, moral and yet exciting face. A face that belonged to him alone...and the body that went with it. He was almost sad to be testing her this way. He felt disloyal, but he knew she'd pass anyhow. She'd pass without ever knowing she'd passed and the Taylor family would have failed. It would give him an edge over Sigrid if she ever came to him again. "Ready?"
She giggled. "Of course, you silly goose. Ring the bell."
He did so and a moment later the door opened. They looked down at one of the children, the girl. She looked about fifteen, and she was small but budding. She wore what might have been a boy's shirt and tight jeans, but they were neat and clean. She had rusty hair somewhat like her mother's and the green eyes were there, too. But they were innocent eyes. The rest of her was frail and willowy, but with a certain adolescent beauty that would improve as the months passed, Greg knew.
"Hi," she said, her voice surprisingly low and shy. He almost shook his head. She was a long way from being like her mother. There was none of the bigness about her, although she looked wiry and the height would probably come over the next three years.
"Hello," Karen said, her voice sweet. "We're Mr. and Mrs. Eastman. From next door?"
The child nodded. "I know. Mother said you were coming. Please come inside." The kid was polite; Greg gave her that much.
She stepped aside and they entered the parlor of the apartment Greg had come to know so well that morning. He sniffed, almost expecting to smell lingering sex. But the place was neat, clean and fresh. Sigrid and her family had been busy the last couple of hours.
They were standing in the middle of the room when Sigrid came hurrying in. She was smiling and touching her hair self-consciously, like any normal hostess, but Greg knew she was putting on an act. Nervous this broad was not. She was plenty sure of herself-and her family.
She looked like something bigger than life, a terrific panorama of a woman. There was so much of her and it was all so perfectly put together. like a Mount Rush-more shrine, huge and handsome at the same time.
Sigrid wore a stretch outfit, light in color, and it brought out every curve in her body. Greg was impressed all over again. She made a woman like Karen pale before her. Then he looked at his wife. No, Karen stacked up all right. They were simply different types.
Sigrid was packed into a stretch jersey sort of blouse that emphasized her breasts and her thin waist. Her hips and legs were packed into stretch pants that went to her ankles. She wore sandals from which red toenails protruded. There was nothing that was missing. The pants hugged her thighs and her hips. She couldn't have been wearing pants or the line would have showed. The pants were tight into her crotch so that he could make out her mound easily. Above he could see the outline of her nipples.
If she were trying to put Karen down with such a sexy outfit, she was failing, Greg knew. She looked cheap...or was it only that he wanted her to look cheap? He glanced at Karen and she was smiling her genuine smile, apparently honestly impressed and not at all shocked. He watched her eyes flick up and down over Sigrid's great body and he could see only honest admiration in their blue depths. Well, women admired other beautiful women. That was a fact
In fact, Sigrid was doing the same with Karen. He could see envy in those green eyes for that willowy body, those slim legs, that fashion model's figure that she could never manage. They were the fullback and the fleet split end, each gorgeous in her own way. Neither could ever be like the other, but they were equally valuable members of the team.
"Welcome, welcome," Sigrid was exclaiming. "Welcome to Chez Taylor." She laughed at her bad French.
Greg heard himself stammering out the introductions as the two women said the right things to one another. Sigrid was gesturing toward her daughter. "I suppose you've met my little Diana, the huntress. Isn't she a handsome child? Pardon me if I seem to brag, but I'm proud of my children." She looked a bit sad. "They're the only sound dividends from my marriage."
At once Karen was sad, too. She was like that, always putting herself in someone else's shoes, terribly sensitive to the pains of others. She nodded. "She's a beautiful child, just like her mother."
Diana looked uncomfortable, but she was a pretty little thing. Perhaps strong, too, Greg decided. Her small muscles looked tight and fit and breasts were budding in a delightfully adolescent and fresh fashion under that shirt. Her hips were still slim but they'd mature soon enough. Her legs, packed into the jeans, looked sturdy enough. Yes, she had strength, thanks to the Taylor gymnasium in the next room. He could imagine the whole family in there for an hour every morning.
Karen handed over the little package of cologne and Sigrid was delighted. She exclaimed over it, opened the bottle and both she and Diana touched some to their wrists and ears. Then Sigrid turned to her daughter.
"Call David, would you, darling?" As Diana left the room her mother turned to her guests. "Now, what can I get you to drink?" She gestured toward a coffee table. "I have a few snacks, so choose your poison to match, if you wish."
"Oh," Karen said, lifting her hand. "I really don't drink. Perhaps just a Coke, if you have one."
Sigrid wrinkled her nose. "Coke. How about something with just a little stick in it?".
Karen glanced apologetically at Greg. "Well, if it's very light. Promise."
"I promise." She smiled into Greg's face, her look bland and friendly, as though nothing had happened between them. Their eyes were at the same level, two six-footers eyeball to eyeball. "And you, Greg? May I call you Greg? I feel we're friends already. The water heats beautifully."
"Terrific," Greg replied, a hint of irony in his tone. "I'll take anything you've got to offer." The double meaning slipped out without his noticing but he saw the look in Sigrid's eyes. He flushed.
"Come on, I'll need help in the kitchen," Sigrid said to him. "Karen, please sit down. The children will be back in a moment." Then she called as Greg followed her out. "David, Diana, get in here."
In the kitchen he found bottles and mix. He made a small one for Karen, moderate drinks for himself and Sigrid. For the children he poured out straight cola, at their mother's direction.
As they worked he muttered, "We won't be staying long. This is crazy and...we have things to do at home."
"I noticed, lover," Sigrid purred, standing close to his shoulder. He could feel a heavy warm breast at the back of his arm.
"You noticed what?"
"The look in your eyes; her eyes, too. I dare say you have plans to jump into the sack." She widened her green dyes in admiration. 'You're an iron man, I'll say that for you."
Greg was pleased at the compliment, but he could never allow her to see that. "You're crazy. Karen would never tip her hand about such a thing."
"Bullshit. I can tell by the way she talks, the way she moves. She's got a twitch in her twat. A woman can see these things if she's a student of sex, like I am." She giggled. "This will make her all the easier a mark for David."
He sighed. "I think we'd better drop that little game, don't you? If you-or your brat kid-shock Karen you'll lose a neighbor. It could be pretty embarrassing."
Sigrid extended her hands in innocence. "I told you, it's up to Karen. She's going to be the aggressor, as I said. David will merely be his own sweet self. She's going to put the make on him. She's going to touch him first."
'You are mad."
She giggled again, the sound surprisingly light from such a husky throat. "We'll see in the next hour, lover. Meanwhile, I keep my end of the bargain. I'll never tell your wife about us, unless she decides to join in the fun-which she will. Then we'll all be very friendly."
He blew out his cheeks. "AH right, let's get it over with, but I hope you coached the kid carefully. If he gets out of line I'll.. . "
"Don't worry." She held up a hand. "You can leave whenever you-and or Karen-decide you want to. I have a hunch she's eager to enjoy some fun and you're going to get a kick out of a front row seat."
He placed the glasses on a tray. "And this is all going to happen right before our eyes, no tricks."
"Nothing up my sleeve," she assured him. "Believe me, our act has been a smash hit coast to coast."
They returned to the living room just as the children entered from the bedroom hallway. Again Sigrid was introducing them and Greg sized up David. He was a nothing, as he'd seen from a distance earlier. He couldn't have weighed more than 140, and he was even thinner looking because of his height. He was almost six feet and about seventeen. His straight and narrow body was topped by very light sun-bleached hair. His face, thin and adolescent, was tanned so that the blue eyes seemed especially light.
Greg could imagine the kid surfing on his board, his bartered chopped-down jean trunks barely clinging to his angular hips as he waited on his knees for the big one to roll in from the sea. But he was anything but a handsome figure now. He was a scarecrow in tight jeans and a shirt. He was dressed exactly like his sister.
Greg looked down at the boy's crotch as they were still muttering introductions. There was a modest bulge there, but nothing out of the ordinary. At least Sigrid didn't put her kid in stretch pants so that Karen would get an eyeful right off the bat. She was playing the game fair-so far.
At last they all sat down. It turned out that Greg was in the middle of the couch with Sigrid on one side of him and Diana on the other. Mother and daughter made handsome couch companions, he had to admit. Across the room Karen and David sat in separate chairs with the low coffee table between them. Again Sigrid was playing their test game fair. She could have packed Karen and her son tightly on the couch, but she'd left plenty of air between them.
They all sat back and began to make small talk. Karen told Sigrid about her all-day shopping trip and Sigrid told Karen she'd spent the day cleaning house. She glanced at Greg from time to time as she spoke, but she gave nothing away. She was a cool customer, he realized once again.
As they spoke gradually separate conversations developed. The people on the couch together and Karen chatting with David. It seemed natural enough because of the seating arrangements. Eventually the people on the couch drifted into silence, although Greg was aware of the nearness of both women. He could hear Diana's light breathing, and occasionally her elbow or her knee would bump against him, but he couldn't say for certain that she was flirting.
At his other side Sigrid was discreet and every bit the polite hostess. She didn't press anything against him, except the occasional thigh when she leaned far forward to reach for a nibbler from the coffee table. I
Ten feet away sat Karen and David, chatting amiably across the coffee table. It was impossible, Greg knew. Sigrid was going to lose. How could Karen be turned on by this punk? Especially in a crowded room and with a coffee table between them.
Sigrid was still reading his thoughts for she murmured, a polite smile on her lips. "You'll find out. Just watch. Just be willing to believe your eyes...and ears."
Greg stared at her and then he turned to Diana, who also smiled sweetly. "Mother is always right. She's taught us that in the bedroom and in our gymnasium. We have a lot of strength in our family. She's given Us a lot of hers."
He turned his attention to his wife and the boy. He was listening politely as Karen told him about her shopping trip that day. He should have been bored-for it was a boring story for any normal boy-but he seemed terribly interested. He sat coolly, hands on his knees, his clothing neat and clean, his posture erect, his eyes bright, his head at an attentive angle.
Then Karen caught herself and she flushed. The others, including Greg, were listening now, their own couch i conversation forgotten.
"I'm afraid you don't care about a woman's shopping trip," Karen was exclaiming. "I'm sorry. Tell me about school."
"No," David said, spreading his hands. "I like hearing you talk. Please keep going. Tell me what else you brought home."
Greg saw Karen flush with pleasure. The kid was flattering her. "Well, I did get some undershorts for my husband."
The boy licked his lips. "Undershorts? Tell me, Mrs. Eastman, were they jockey or boxer style?"
Karen flushed again and looked at Greg. Her blue eyes were dancing strangely.