Chapter 12
It was Friday night of the second week that Sugar had been working as a carhop at Damon's drive-in restaurant. She had been on the job only about an hour, when a long, underslung, robin's-egg blue Caddy drove in and came to a halt in one of the spaces that fanned out like the spokes of a wheel from the diner.
Sugar could see from the distance that the occupant of the car was a male, so she went through the usual routine reserved for members of the opposite sex. She tilted her pillbox cap to a jaunty angle at one side of her pretty brown head, made sure that just enough cleavage showed over the top of her low-cut uniform jacket to be intriguing, then walked briskly toward the car to take the customer's order.
It wasn't until she was just a few steps from the Caddy that she suddenly recognized the man behind the wheel. With a gasp she halted in her tracks. Then, hoping he hadn't recognized her, she turned quickly and started to hurry away, when the man's voice called out to her: "Seems you tried to run away the last time we met."
Too late. He had recognized her. So there was nothing for her to do but turn and walk to the side of the car. She looked at him almost tearfully and whispered, "Please, Mr. Ordway. I ... I don't want any trouble."
He dropped his blue eyes to the liberal display of white flesh that her uplift bra pushed up over the neckline of her jacket. He smiled quizzically. "Trouble?"
"I know what you probably think. After all the things Yale must have told you about me that night of the graduation. And... well, as I said, I don't want any trouble. I need this job very badly."
Ordway held his smile. "I'm afraid you've got me confused with Mrs. Ordway. She's the one who was upset about the things Yale said about you. Not I. Such a lovely young girl as you, I was very much in sympathy with my son. Perhaps even a little envious."
She started to suddenly feel self-conscious the way he was ogling her breasts and made a vain attempt to cover them.
He wisely raised his eyes to meet her gaze. He said, "Would you believe me if I told you that I've been very unhappy about the way you were treated that night of the graduation, that Mrs. Ordway and I caused you so much trouble and humiliation? That's why I've tried to find you and apologize to you. To see if there isn't some way I can make it up to you."
Sugar smiled weakly. "That's hardly necessary, Mr. Ordway."
"I feel it is," Cal Ordway insisted. "Yale told me that you were the one who picked out the gown that you wore at graduation."
Sugar nodded perfunctorily.
"Which proves you have excellent taste-rather expensive taste," Ordway said. Then he glanced around at the surroundings. "Hardly the taste of a girl who'd be satisfied working in a place like this."
"I have other plans," Sugar said in her defense.
He smiled expansively. "I'd like to hear about them. Maybe I could help you realize them? If you could possibly see your way clear to meet me a little later this evening, we might just talk about them?"
Sugar looked at him intently. Suddenly it dawned on her how naive she had been. He hadn't come here to apologize, or to tell her how sorry he was about what happened the night of graduation. He was here for one purpose-to see if she'd go out with him.
"As I said, darling," Ordway went on with a new warmth and intimacy in his voice. "You very obviously are a girl with good taste, who likes pretty things, and . ,. well...since I own De Moiselle Boutique, I see no reason why you shouldn't have everything your heart desires."
A mild chill swept through Sugar as she realized what he was implying. Not necessarily because she was shocked or offended. But because he was Yale's father. She could only begin to imagine what Yale must have told him about her for him to proposition her this way. Not that she blamed him. It was Yale about whom she felt embittered. His father, after all, was a man and probably figured that what his son had done, he should be able to do, too.
As she kept staring at Cal Ordway, a strange thing happened. She envisioned herself back in De Moiselle Boutique. All around her were breathtaking gowns and dresses ... costly wraps...shoes and sandals and boots of every style and coloring...hats and handbags...the sheerest of sheer hose...delicate, dreamy lingerie...sparkling jewelry...exotic perfumes. Everything to make a girl look beautiful, feel beautiful. They were there, all of them, right at her fingertips. Hers for the taking, to wear and keep for her very own, without fear of being caught, or having to return them as she did the bridal gown that Yale let her wear.
"Well?" Ordway asked anxiously, his eyes continuing to appraise Sugar's breasts and bare legs.
Sugar weighed her answer very carefully. It was true that she had promised herself that she would never follow in her mother's footsteps. But from the events of the past few weeks, it was becoming more and more apparent that no matter how she tried to avoid it, sex was going to play a very important part in her life. Aside from Yale and her uncle, she had allowed Damon to bugger her for the past week or so.
This, however, she did not consider as breaking her promise. It was merely a means of existing while she got herself situated and arranged for the business course she was planning to take. She had tried everywhere to get another job. But with school closed for the summer vacation, the city was flooded with graduates like herself and jobs were at a premium-especially jobs that paid as well as the one she had with Damon.
Now, Ordway with his promise of "everything her heart desired," was offering her an opportunity to really live, rather than merely exist. Since there seemed little likelihood that she was ever going to escape sex, it would be foolish for her not to accept the very best deal offered her. Then there would be the added satisfaction of knowing that he was Yale's father and that she'd be getting back at him for running out on her the way he did, without even so much as a good-bye, and for what he must have told his father about her. On top of that, there was Mrs. Ordway. Not that Sugar was a particularly vengeful person, but she felt she owed the woman something for the way she humiliated her at graduation, even had her locked up. What better payment than to usurp the love of the woman's husband?
"I still haven't had your answer?" Ordway said tolerantly. "Would you care to meet me after you finish work?"
She met his gaze for a moment, unblinkingly. Then she slowly moved her head up and down.
His face brightened with a smile. Sugar was amazed that when he smiled, how much he looked like Yale-even if a somewhat older version.
"What time?" he asked eagerly.
"Nine-thirty," she replied. Then added, "But I won't be dressed to go any place."
His smile spread. "I think we can take care of that little detail."
It was closer to ten p.m. when Sugar slid onto the front seat of the Caddy, alongside Cal Ordway. It had been a lot more difficult and called for a lot more diplomacy than Sugar figured on before Nick Damon would let her get away without taking care of him.
Now seated beside Ordway in snug slacks, a well-fitted sweater and her long brown hair pulled back in a pony tail, she looked a lot less than her seventeen years. She could see very clearly the decidedly disquieting effect her youthful appearance had on him. Not that it caused him the slightest uneasiness or guilt of conscience because she looked so young. To the contrary, it apparently had been a long time since he'd gotten into anything as young and fresh and tender as Sugar, and he was looking forward to the possibility eagerly, as she could plainly see by the way his cock was palpitating hopefully, expectantly, in the dim reflection of the light from the dashboard.
In spite of his reaction, Sugar was still self-conscious of the way she was dressed, especially in the presence of the man who owned one of the most fashionable ladies shops in the city.
"I warned you I wouldn't be very presentable," Sugar said as he got the car moving away from the curb. "If I'd had any idea I was going to meet anyone after work ..."
"Stop worrying," he told her. "I told you I'd take care of it, didn't I?"
"Yes ..."
"Well, that's what I did. I stopped off at the boutique and picked up a complete change of clothes for you." He indicated a huge box on the rear seat of the car.
Sugar could feel her heart beating excitedly as she tried to imagine what he had selected for her, what he thought her tastes might be.
"Wherever will I change?" she asked, quite innocently.
He cleared his throat and kept his eyes straight ahead through the windshield as he headed toward Highway 101, which would take them southward along the coast. "I ... I hope you don't think me presumptuous, darling," he said in his smoothest tone. "But I did want to see what you look like in the new clothes I brought for you, so I took the liberty of making reservations at a ... a motel just this side of Huntington Beach. It's a quiet place, discreet and very respectable. I hope you don't mind?"
Sugar turned her head and studied his profile. Again she noted the amazing resemblance he bore his son. Same strong jaw, aquiline nose, look around the eyes. Only his hair was more gray than blond and closely clipped, and there was the hint of a double chin.
She thought about what he asked her: Did she mind that he'd taken the liberty of making reservations at a motel? Of course, he sugar-coated it by saying it was just some place to go so she might change clothes. But she knew the real reason they were going there.
Perhaps she should have resented his wanting to take her there. But after Yale and Damon and her uncle, she couldn't see how it could much matter. Besides, she was awfully anxious to see the clothes he'd brought her-and to find out what plans he might have for her. Still, she couldn't let him think she was all that easy, regardless of what Yale might have told him about her.
"I'm not in the habit of going to motels with men, Mr. Ordway," she said in her best and most innocent little-girl voice.
"I'm sure you aren't, my dear," he agreed. "But I did want to see how you look in the lovely clothes I brought for you. Find out how close I came to your correct size. Whether or not, I've lost my eye when it comes to judging the measurements of pretty young ladies."
Sugar hesitated a long moment, as if weighing what he said. Finally, with a forced sigh, she said, "Well-okay, Mr. Ordway. I don't want to appear ungrateful after you've gone to so much bother. And, well, I don't suppose it will hurt very much going there with you, this one time. But you will promise to be good?"
"Very good," he assured her with a smile and leaned his foot down heavily on the throttle.
Maybe it was simply the newness of it all, but Sugar only wished she didn't feel like such a harlot, going to a motel with a man this way. Knowing that no matter how many polite excuses he gave her, or she tried to give herself, she was going there to be fucked!