Chapter 11
For as far back as she could remember, Lena had never spoken in anger to either her father or mother. They were not a quarreling family. They were three people who had lived together in love and harmony, feeling close to one another, and when they disagreed about some minor thing they simply talked it over until they came to an understanding. But that day Lena was angry, and as she sat at lunch with Molly and Jim she couldn't help showing it.
She said to her father: "I just can't understand why you let that woman unload a house on you without talking it over with me, Dad. After all, I am your daughter.
Didn't it occur to you that I might like to express an opinion?"
Molly spoke up. "I warned you, Jim. I told you I didn't approve of going behind Lena's back." She was ladling another helping of soup into Lena's soup plate, ignoring Lena's insistence that she couldn't swallow another spoonful.
Molly made the most marvelous vegetable soup in the world, but today Lena simply could not eat. As always when she was upset emotionally, her appetite had vanished. "How do you expect to keep up your strength if you don't eat?" Molly said, looking worried.
Jim had been watching her, his eyes thoughtful. "You don't seem to have much use for this lady, Lena. Every time you mention her, I get the feeling you wouldn't trust Miss Hall as far as you could throw her. Don't seem to me that's quite the right kindly attitude to hold toward your future sister-in-law, honey."
"I'm not marrying Corinne Hall," Lena snapped.
"But you are marrying her mother." Molly remarked that she was in complete agreement with Lena. For her part, she never had been able to stand uppity females, and that Hall woman struck her as just about as uppity as they came. She said to Lena: "Buying that house was your father's idea, honey. I was dead set against it. Oh, it's pretty enough, but little more than a playpen. But your father was quite taken with all those gadgets, and he had this fool notion that I shouldn't move or turn a hand for the rest of my days. So nothing would do but that he must buy the ridiculous house right on the spot."
Molly added, after swallowing a spoonful of soup and spreading butter lavishly on a piece of French bread: "In fairness to your father, Lena, he did think it would please you if we took the house. He thought it would be a lovely surprise for you. He wasn't meaning to go behind your back, Lena."
"What gave you the idea the house would please me, Dad?"
"These friends of yours said so, baby. They gave me to understand you'd seen the place and thought it was just about perfect."
"Dana Hall told you that?"
Jim hesitated. The sister had done most of the talking, he explained. But the brother seemed to back up every single word she said. He didn't contradict her at all.
Then Jim said that if his womenfolks didn't mind, he'd like to eat the rest of this wonderful meal without any more arguing. There was nothing surprising about that remark. Jim always had been one for keeping to pleasant subjects during mealtimes. Better for the digestion, he claimed. Yet Lena had the peculiar feeling that Jim had some special reason for wanting to change the subject. Twice she noticed an anxious, troubled look cross his face when he was watching Molly.
When they'd finished eating, Jim made the excuse that he wanted to snow Lena all the different varieties of fuchsias in the garden. He led the way around to the side of the cottage. When he was sure they were out of Molly's hearing, he told her about Molly's heart condition.
"I'm not one to break a promise to Molly," he said, "and she did make me promise I wouldn't tell you. But now I think it's best that you know. We mustn't argue or disagree or say anything that might get her upset. No matter how you or I may feel, honey, we'd best keep it to ourselves. It takes so little to start Molly worrying, and that's the worst thing in the world for her."
Jim went on to explain about the house. Nobody had to tell him, he said, that the fool place wasn't worth calling a house. It wasn't even well built. The lumber wasn't properly aged, and the cement foundation was a disgrace. The fact of the matter was, Jim said, he was beginning to wonder if these fellows out here in California had ever learned the first thing about building houses properly. But all that was neither here nor there.
What had sold him the house, he said, was that it would be so easy to take care of. The rooms were small and compact and with all those labor-saving devices in the kitchen, Molly would have a hard time finding any real work to do. The dishes washed themselves, the garbage took care of itself, and with that tiny stove and no space to turn around in, Molly couldn't wear herself out cooking more than she should, because there'd be no way or place to do it. Nothing that Hall woman said had a thing to do with my buying it, honey. I just looked around the fool place and decided it might add years to your mother's life. So I bought it."
He went on gently: "You mustn't hold anything against me, or against your friend's sister, either. I did it for Molly."
Lena was shocked by the news about her mother. She asked her father over and over if he was telling her the whole truth; if the doctor had really said there was nothing to be unduly alarmed about.
"As long as she takes it easy," Jim said, "and doesn't get upset, she'll be okay. We've just got to see to it that she doesn't have a single thing to get in a stew about. You'll help me watch out for her, won't you, honey?"
There were tears in Lena's eyes as she put one arm around Jim's shoulders. "I love her too," she reminded him.
When Dan O'Connor arrived, promptly at one-thirty, Lena invited him in. "The yellow house is a thing of the past," she told him regretfully. So how about his coming in to meet her folks? If he behaved nicely, she wouldn't be a bit surprised but that Molly might give him a piece of her wonderful coconut cake.
Molly took Dan to her heart on sight. It was ridiculous, Molly declared, to serve a big, husky male dessert without giving him something that would stick by him. So she insisted on heating up the vegetable soup. Dan ate two large bowls and wailed because there was no more to eat. Jim sat at the table and talked politics with him. Then they discussed the state of the world and what Jim referred to as all this cockeyed nonsense about flying up to the moon. In Jim's opinion, any man who couldn't content himself on this earth belonged in a mental institution, not on the moon or on a space shuttle.
Think of all the beauties of nature there were to see and enjoy, not to mention the work there was to be done, poor children to help to a decent life, starving people to feed, crooks to be weeded out of politics, all the rest of it. Oh, there was work aplenty begging to be done, according to Jim. Then, returning to the beauties of nature, Jim mentioned the glorious trip he and Molly had had driving from Texas in their trailer. After that, nothing would do but that Jim take Dan across the street to where he had the trailer parked.
By the time they returned it was plain that they were two men who liked and understood each other. "Come again," Jim urged. "Come any old time. You're a man after my own heart, O'Connor."
Molly paid him the highest compliment in her power. "You remind me so much of Jim when he was a young man," Molly said. "You even look a lot the way he looked in the days when he was courting me."
"Now, sweetheart," Jim interrupted with a chuckle, "O'Connor ain't interested in hearing about ancient history."
"Seems like it was only yesterday," Molly said wistfully.
That was around eight o'clock in the evening. "I didn't plan to make a day of it," Dan said when he and Lena were in his car driving into town. "When your mother invited me to stay for supper I didn't want to impose. But she seemed to mean it, and she made me feel so at home. Your folks are great people, Lena. It's no wonder you're such a grand girl, with Molly for a mother."
The words seemed to act as a trigger to release the emotional tension she'd been under all afternoon. With no warning, tears welled up; then Lena was crying softly and helplessly.
They were driving along a fairly isolated section of beach highway. Dan stopped the car. He turned and looked at her for a moment; then he put his arm around her and pulled her comfortingly close. "What on earth is the matter?" he asked gently, wondering if he had said anything to hurt her feelings.
There was a storm out at sea that night, and they could hear the breakers pounding against the beach. It was a sad, lonely sound. "It's my mother," Lena said. "I'm worried about her health. She has a heart condition. I didn't know until today."
Lena took the handkerchief Dan gave her to wipe away her tears. But she didn't try to move out of his arms. She felt less lonely, less troubled somehow, held close against him. She knew so little about him; he was a stranger really. Yet there was tenderness and understanding in him, and she craved these things more than she had realized.
"Maybe it wouldn't have hit me the way it did," she went on, "if I hadn't been so mixed up about so many things. I feel as if I were wandering and stumbling around a blind alley, not knowing where I'm going or even where I want to go."
Suddenly she came out with the words she had never intended to say and would probably regret. "The truth is, I've been infatuated with this man I told you about. It's been going on for quite a while, and I can't seem to get over it. But," she explained bitterly, "all I seem to get out of it is worry and uncertainty. I don't know if he's right for me, or how he'd make out with my family, or they with him. To tell you the honest truth, I'm not any too sure he wants to marry me. And I'm so mixed up about the whole situation I wonder at times if I'm losing my mind."
She told him what little there was to tell about the sale of the house, and about her quarrel with Corinne on Sunday, and about Corinne's hold on Dana, and about Dana himself. She interrupted herself once to say: "You said it sounded like a strange kind of romance, and I guess you were right." Then she was shaken by sobs which came from the emotional storm that had been gathering in her for a long time.
"What should I do?" she cried softly. "If only someone would tell me what's right, what's best. I don't even know if Dana really wants to marry me, or if he's just stringing me along, waiting to see if somebody shows up who suits him better than I."
After a long, long silence Dan O'Connor began: "Well, if you want to know what I honestly think, Lena-"
He didn't say it. Instead he told her: "If I were you, honey, I'd stop worrying about it. Let it ride for a while. It's a strange thing, but our worst problems have a way of solving themselves if you give them a chance."
He held her close, and they were silent, listening to the sad, lonely sound of the pounding breakers. When he spoke again it sounded as true, as deeply from the heart as if he were saying a prayer. "There's just one thing I know, Lena. Here's one guy who truly loves you. I want you to remember that I told you. Now I'm going to take you home. You need a good night's sleep. You need to forget your troubles. They aren't too serious, Lena. You're just seeing them through a magnifying glass that makes them seem bigger than they are."
Lena gave him a small smile that held a world of tenderness. "Thanks, Dan," she said softly. "You've helped me. I don't know quite how. But I feel better, a lot better."
"I'm so glad, Lena, dear," he said softly, looking into her eyes.
And then they both knew that they couldn't leave yet. No, they had to stay and make this moment last as long as they could, trying to communicate just how deeply their emotions ran.
It might not be love, they both knew that. But there were other reasons besides love that made it all right to give themselves to one another totally. It felt so right, so genuine, and all they had to do was let the feelings overtake them as they enjoyed the pleasures of their bodies.
Dan pushed Lena back on the car seat and started wallowing around against her breasts. She held him in place while he licked out at her big tits. In the midst of his frantic struggle to taste her flesh, he managed to reveal her breasts after tearing loose her clothing.
Lena couldn't believe how wild Dan had become at the sight of her exposed tits. But as he eagerly attacked her, he also couldn't believe how good it felt. His tongue slid all over her, dragging in and out of her cleavage, flicking across her erect nipples, covering her creamy mounds with a thin sheen of saliva that gleamed in the moonlight.
"So good," she murmured. "Oh, Dan, I can't believe I've waited this long tonite to let you do this to me. There were times when I wanted to, believe me. But now, well, it just seemed like the perfect time. Do you know what I mean, Dan? Do you feel it too?"
He had been biting into the hard brown flesh of her nipple, but he looked up at the sound of her voice. Wiping off his mouth with the back of his hand, he said, "Of course, darling. I don't know what it is, but tonight I want you so badly. Please, honey, reach down and play with my...well, you know...can you just touch it...for a little while? Please?"
Lena couldn't resist the pleading look on his face. He looked so desperate, so hungry, so needful. And when she stroked the long hard bulge in his pants, she was pleased to see his strained expression change to one of calmness. She couldn't imagine what he would look like once he was...he was...ohhhh, it was almost too much to think about-Dan driving his cock in and out of her wet pussyl But that's what she wanted.
She wanted more than anything to have Dan take her...to...to...to fuck her!
Although there wasn't much room in the front seat of Dan's car, Lena still was able to get his pants off quickly. Driven by her desire, she bared his cock and balls as swiftly as she could.
"Oh, Dan, it's so beautiful," she announced, gently running her fingers up and down his vein-encircled shaft. "I never thought it could be this...this hard...and alive."
"Yeah, baby, that feels good," he grunted. "Just squeeze it a little harder...yeah, like that...and run your hand up and down...pump it. . . ohhhh, baby...pump it!"
While Lena worked on his penis, Dan wriggled his hand down between her legs and slipped it inside her panties. Easing his fingers down below the elastic band of her underwear, he ardently sought out her cunt. Running his fingers through her curly pubic bush, he then dipped in to the wet, seething delight that was her pussy.
Her cunt lips parted as he slid one finger into her hole. Slowly at first, he finger-fucked her sopping wet cunt. Then he jammed his finger into her, burying it into her up to the last knuckle.
Lena matched his rough strokes with frantic thrusts of her hips. Each time his hand bashed into her puffy pussy flaps, he sprayed juices out across her belly and onto the car seat.
"More!" she cried. "Give me more! Ohhhhh!"
Dan rammed two, then three, then four fingers up her tightly clenching hole. She took him in eagerly, spreading her legs as wide as she could.
With his thumb, Dan tried to massage her clitoris, smoothing juices across the oily little love-bud. And she was becoming so aroused that it wasn't long before a small puddle of pussy sauce pooled between her legs on the slick vinyl seat.
"I can't wait!" he groaned. "I've got to have you, Lena. Oh, I want you so bad...so very bad."
"Then stop talking and give it to me," she gasped. "Oh, Dan, put it in me deep! Now!"
Yanking out his hand, Dan raised up so he could get his cock into her. His first attempts were so frantic that all he could do was poke into her repeatedly. Lena had to reach down and grip his shaft, aiming the head of his penis toward its juicy target. Pressing down against his trembling buttocks, she guided him inside.
"Oh, oh, that feels so good!" he cried, sinking his cock farther and farther inside. He thrilled to the feeling of having his prick surrounded by hot, wet flesh. And then he began fucking into her mercilessly, driven by his highly aroused passions.
"That's it," Lena sighed, holding Dan in place with two hands. "Now just do it nice and steady, baby. That's it, nice and steady. Don't want...ohhhh, yeah...don't want you to slip out...not...when I'm this...this...close. Ohhhh, baby, I'm gonna come. Dan, honey, it feels so good. Ohhhh, its gonna come. I can feel it. I can feel it!"
Dan was amazed at the way she began trembling and quaking beneath him. It was all he could do to keep his cock in place as she rode out her climax. Up and down she bucked and writhed up off the car seat, totally possessed by her bliss. And Dan just hung on tight and tried to keep his thrusts steady, tried to glide his shaft against her clit on the out-stroke to give her as much pleasure as possible, tried to hold back his own orgasm until he was sure she had received as much pleasure as possible.
"Now I want you to come!" she yelled. "Come inside me, Dan. Fill me up with your love!"
Digging his fingernails into her back and clenching his teeth tightly, Dan shot his load, filling her pussy with a tremendous amount of semen. The creamy white stuff oozed out between her splayed cunt lips as he kept spurting more and more of it inside her.
Lena delighted in the wonderful feeling of having her pussy filled to the brim with his hot cockmeat and his blazing jism. It was truly the most wonderful moment of her life.
And she only hoped that things were going to get better.