Chapter 5

HER SOFT BELLY THRUST UPWARD AGAINST ME....

Merriam was a student nurse. It was her duty each evening to give me a sponge bath and change my bed linen. The first time she stripped me down, those lovely black eyes flashed and she broke into a smile. It had been two days since I had had anything. I was hotter than a poker. The flag pole was up and I was ready to pole-vault right out of bed.

"You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Mr. Nelson," she cooed demurely.

"Why? It's a natural reaction. A man sees a pretty girl and nature reacts. I can't help what my third leg does, honey. I have no control over it."

"I'll pack it in ice cubes," she suggested jokingly. "That'll make it go down."

"What if it froze at its present size? What would I do then? I'd have to pitch a tent right here in my bed."

She did not answer. She dipped her wash cloth in warm soapy water and stroked my thighs clean. Her touch was gentle and provocative. All the while, she kept stealing glances at my throbbing joint, and I could tell she, too, was getting aroused. What I liked about her was that she did not try to hide her fascination for it, not for very long. She was quite outspoken about it.

"I've seen many naked men," she commented, "I'm ready to live with the Eskimos. But you beat anything I've ever seen. Don't you have trouble with something that size?"

"I've had trouble with it, but no complaints," I replied.

She started giggling. "I mean, aren't you afraid you may trip over it sometime?"

"When it's properly serviced, it behaves itself," I teased back at her.

With her wet hand, she grabbed it and squeezed it hard until I felt pain. "Make it behave now," she ordered, "and I'll try to sneak back here after visiting hours when the lights are turned off." She bent over to kiss me, and I felt her active tongue plunge into my mouth. I bit on it teasingly, and she giggled with pleasure. All the while her hand held its grip on my flag pole. My hips started moving up and down until she loosened her grip and her fingers began stroking it with a gentle massage

"Oh," I moaned. "What do I do now?" It was as though I had been love-starved for a year. "Please ... please, don't stop."

"I have to," she whispered. "Supposing the doctor should walk in here. Be patient, Mr. Nelson, and I promise I'll get back to you."

Nothing more was said. We didn't dare carry the conversation any further. In silence she finished my sponge bath and changed the sheets. Then she was gone. I tried to read and occupy my mind until she returned, but it was impossible. I kept counting the minutes, and the hours stretched out for what seemed like forever.

It was well after eleven o'clock when she slipped back into the room. I was out of bed and seated in the chair waiting for her. She put her finger to her lips and motioned me to silence.

"I can't stay too long," she whispered, as she tore open the front of her uniform quickly and efficiently. As the two massive globes of her breasts were exposed, Merriam pressed her hand against my shoulder, guiding me toward her lovely olive-toned flesh.

"Kiss them for me," she implored softly.

Avidly I complied, filling my mouth with an incredibly soft mound. My hands nervously began to play over her tiny body like a drunken flute player.

As I moved my lips from one breast to another, Merriam was groping, slipping her hand underneath the robe a was wearing, grasping for my relaxed rod.

Immediately she pulled back and glanced at me, an expression of disappointment on her face. "What is wrong?" Couldn't you wait?"

"No," I smiled. "It isn't that. I think they have been putting salt peter in my food."

Her intense disappointment disappeared and her face brightened. "I'll fix it!" she murmured, and dropped to her knees.

I thought to myself this is how I got into the hospital to begin with. But I wasn't complaining. Merriam's lips were quite persuasive. The blood rushed to my groin and I began to sense a mounting anxiety. When I had expand-ed to my fullest, Merriam withdrew her lips. She got up off her knees, backed up to my bed and fell upon it, flinging her button-down uniform wide open. She wore regulation cotton stockings that were rolled with the aid of garters to just above the knees. That way she had no need for a garter belt, only blue nylon panties. She had thoughtfully removed "her brassiere before stealing into my room.

As I stood watching her tense with anticipation, she raised her trim, shapely legs high in the air and for a moment I thought she was doing her calisthentics. She raised her legs so high off the bed that I was able to see the round contours of her buttocks. Her hands reached around her rear, her fingers went up to her spine and began peeling the nylon panties off her hips. Not until then did I realize what she was doing. I had been given a few pills to kill the pain in my head and I must have been a little dopey.

She beckoned to me. Dazedly, I moved to the side of the bed and stood staring down at her naked body. She lay on the high-rising hospital bed, her lovely olive-skinned legs spread apart, her eyes shining devilishly.

"I helped to arouse you, Mr. Nelson," she whispered. Now would you do the same for me?"

When the impact of her suggestion finally struck me, I think I started to laugh. I don't really remember, but her expressive little face became sober and woeful and I couldn't refuse her. Suddenly filled with compassion, I dropped to my knees and patted her thighs.

"I'm sorry," I said. "Believe me, I wasn't laughing at you. It's just that I have never had to be worked up before, especially by a trick as cute as you."

I leaned over to plant a kiss on her thigh. Swiftly, she reached out and grasped me from behind the neck, guiding my head toward her crotch. "I won't bite, Mr. Nelson," she murmured hoarsely. She began to twist and squirm with desire.

I shrugged. "What the hell, I told myself. "There's always a first time."

Resigned, I lowered my head to her thighs and her thatch. I took a deep breath and darted a tentative, hesitant tongue. Once I made contact, Merriam began to thrash and moan. I lashed out again, experiencing a surge of animal lust. Diving into the muff, I discovered, was an art. If you've never tried it, you don't have any idea what it does to a woman ... or for that matter what it does to the male.

I moved up to her breasts to give them a second working over. I took one of little Mer-riam's big breasts in my mouth and gently ton-gued it to a throbbing rigidity. I stuffed as much of the sweet-tasting mound as I could take into my mouth and sucked greedily. I heard Mer-riam's rasping breath. Then I moved to the other breast and repeated my actions, this time lightly biting until the nipple stiffened under my lashing tongue.

Merriam emitted a choking cry and without thinking she grabbed my bandaged head in both hands and jerked me toward her. Her action produced a stabbing pain in my head that forced me to reel dizzily, and all my weight collapsed on top of her.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she whispered. "I forgot for a moment."

I pulled back. Once the pain subsided, I felt lightheaded and high, sort of numb, as if I had been smoking pot. For a moment I stared hungrily at the shadowed junction of Merriam's thigh's until my sight came back into focus. Then I yanked off my robe, leaving myself free and naked.

Before easing myself down to my task, I glanced at Merriam's small round face and was pleased. She was sweating, and her eyes were glistening with way-out ecstasy.

I crouched over her, adjusting myself to my target. As her soft belly thrust upward against me, I plunged my weapon and we became a unit of one, indivisible, joined in the most consummate union in the world.

As the pace and tempo increased, we rose rapidly to immeasurable heights of joy, to a summit of sensation beyond the highest mountain.

When at last we crested there was a mutual explosion. We convulsed together in febrile spasms as passionate fountains spewed flaming lava....

We were lying side by side, gasping for breath, my hand still clutching her breast, when the door to my room flew open and the head nurse entered briskly, only to be stopped dead in her tracks.

That, of course, is another story-how the head nurse got lured into my swing shift.

During my fourth year with the phone company, I got promoted to a desk job in the office. There had been a flood of letters of commendation about me from satisfied housewives, who found me courteous, willing, efficient ... and accommodating! The new job may have been a promotion as far as the phone company was concerned, but it was a demotion as far as I was concerned. Working in an office meant I lost my contact with the housewives of America, and their generous tips. I had built up a steady clientele of satisfied customers. Now my daylight hours were not my own. I was confined behind a desk with a lot of paper work I had no interest in whatsoever.

I was in charge of complaints! In all the time I had been an installer, I had never had a complaint. Nevertheless, being in the complaint department brought me in contact with many of the company's other phone installers, getting their sides of the complanits. This led to my giving advice, tips on how to handle the housewife, which gave a few of the installers enough courage to tell me a few stories about the demands made upon them by frustrated wives. Over a few martinis during the lunch hour, this gave me the spirit to suggest that the men might find it beneficial if they weren't always so pure on the job and did not resist the pressures put upon them by the housewives and career girls.

Before I realized it, more and more of the men were calling me to tell me of their adventures on the job and to thank me for my advice.

"So when I get home at night, I'm too exhausted to take care of my old lady after supper, but who cares," one installer admitted. "I mean a guy gets fed up having the same pot of stew all the time."

"Mr. Nelson, I'd like to buy you lunch," another installer enthused. "I've had a hell of a time making the payments on my car. Now with the extra side money I'm picking up, I can have the car paid off in no time."

Although the front office did not know how I approached the problems in my department, they admitted that there were fewer complaints now and more letters of commendation from housewives. There were also more calls requesting the installers to return for adjustments to the phones. One contradicted the other, but the front office was happily bewildered.

This put my brain to working. What if I organized the young unmarried installers and took a percentage of their tips? It was an idea worth considering. But I would need help.

I thought about Jeri K-, and on an impulse I called her.

"Hello, Jeri, this is Archer Nelson. Do you remember me?"

"Darling, how could I ever forget you? How have you been?"

"Well, I've come up in the world. I'm no longer and installer."

"What a pity, darling. Does that mean I can't have you by pulling the phone cord out from the wall any more?"

"Jeri, I'd like to see you, if I could. I'd like your opinion about an idea I have for making money."

"Is this a business proposition?"

"You might call it that. Could I drop by one afternoon and discuss it with you?"

"Of course, Archer, darling. I'd adore to see you, with or without a money making proposition."

"Wonderful! When would it be convenient, Jeri?"

"Corey and I are having a party tomorrow night. Why don't you come? I know Corey would be glad to see you, and some of my female friends will blow their minds when they feast their eyes on you."

"That sounds great. Would we have a chance to talk?"

"Of course, darling. For you, I'll make time." Then she burst into one of her throaty laughs. "What's so funny?"

"You'll see tomorrow night, Archer. You've got a shock in store for you."

"Give me a hint?"

"No! That would spoil all the fun."

She went on to inform me that the party would be held at their house in the suburbs, then gave me the address and instructions on how to get there.

The next day I went out and bought my first dinner jacket. I was coming up in the world. I was being accepted socially on equal terms. That wasn't too bad for a Greek kid from a poor family, who hadn't even graduated from high school.

I drove into the driveway of a magnificent mansion. Fabulous foreign cars, gleaming with polish and chrome, were everywhere in the driveway. South Sea Island torches gaily lighted the gardens surrounding the house. A butler showed me into a large, crowded room just off the entrance hall and I found myself caught up in a cloud of laughter, the tinkling of champagne glasses, and the groovy sound of a five piece combo playing on the patio outside.

For a moment I felt like an outsider. I knew nobody.

A few older women threw me appraising glances, but for the most part the men ignored me as if I was unimportant. Suddenly I felt Jeri's presence beside me. She came from behind me and clung to my arm warmly.

"Archer, darling, you're late," she greeted.

"I had a hard time finding the place. This is not my neck of the woods."

She looked me over critically, then smiled approvingly. "I have a feeling before this night is over, it will be," she predicted. "My God, you're handsome in a dinner jacket." Then she stood off to display herself. "What do you think of me?"

She wore a long flowing gown of blue lace and embroidered beads. I knew the dress was probably very expensive, but I didn't care for it because it had no shape. But what did impress me was Jeri's radiance. She was like a woman reborn, effervescent and deliriously happy.

"Don't you notice anything?" she asked.

"Yes. You're one helluva good-looking woman, only tonight you're dazzling."

She moved in and pressed against me. "Darling, I'm wearing a maternity dress. I'm pregnant." I must have gawked stupidly at her, because she added. "Come on, you need-a drink. I'll tell you about it later."

We elbowed through the crowded room to a bar beyond the chattering guests. I was aware of many of the people there giving Jeri and me curious glances and I realized they must have thought it strange that the hostess would suddenly give all her attention to a stranger, who was not a member of their social set. Enroute to the bar, Jeri asked her guests if they were enjoying themselves, and here and there she paused to introduce me, but there was so much of a clamor I was unable to remember the names of any of the people I met. Also I was thinking about what Jeri had told me.

Eventually we got to the bar and I ordered a drink. I was further startled when Jeri asked the bartender for a glass of milk.

"What is all this, Jeri?" I asked.

She leaned over confidenitally and whispered in my ear, "Let's get out of here." She was glowingly beautiful, not harsh and theatrical like I had remembered her. She placed a hand on my arm and I became aware of the warm suggestive pressure of her fingers. "We can take a walk around the grounds and talk."

As we made our way toward the patio, we ran into Corey, who was genuinely delighted to see me. "Archer, my boy, I'm so glad you could make it. Did Jeri tell you the good news?"

"I'm about to," Jeri replied. "You can talk to him after I've finished." With that she pulled me off quickly before she was caught having to make more introductions.

Outside the house, we walked around the large veranda which overlooked the gardens. Many couples were spotted here and there, some standing on the terrace, some seated on benches under a trellis in the garden. Jeri led the way, taking us further away from the house, the laughter and the music. We strolled together down a concrete walk, made a sharp turn and found ourselves on another terrace with a maze-like garden beyond. Little niches were spaced a few feet apart, each adorned with a white wrought-iron bench.

Here we were alone. Jeri drew me inside to a cranny, where we were shrouded in privacy by the shrubbery and the dark shadows. She took my glass, placed it on the bench, then turned to face me.

"Darling, I guess you can see how happy Corey and I are. Whatever togetherness we have recaptured, we owe to you."

She placed her arms around my neck, and clinging to me, she sealed her lips to mine, her mouth leeching hungrily. Instinctively, I put my arms around her. Once again I felt the same ecstatic feeling I had felt with her before, only now she did not appear to be so attainable. I had to remind myself that Jeri was by nature an outgoing, overly-affectionate woman, but her warmth towards me now was out of gratitude.

"Are you really going to have a baby?"

"Yes, I am. And I can't tell you how I'm looking forward to it. It will give me an entirely new approach to my life, perhaps not so wasteful and pointless."

"Is Corey the father?" We had been on such intimate terms I felt I had the right to ask.

"I don't know," she confessed frankly. "The only thing I'm sure of is that it's either you or Corey. It has to be one of you ... because it happened that week-end. But don't you see, Archer, it doesn't really matter. The very fact that Corey could be the father is enough for us. We don't really want to know otherwise. Corey is automatically asuming that it is his. I am too. It's made a great difference in our marriage. It's made us young again."

Once again Jeri enveloped me with her arms. "Maybe I'm a little more realistic than Corey. So let me just say, if you are the father, thank you, Archer, dear...."

"Maybe I'm not," I said.

"If Corey is the father, then I'm still eternally grateful. You made it possible for Corey." She reached out to touch my cheek, pulling my face down to meet hers. Once again she kissed me.

Suddenly, I felt remorseful, almost jealous. I became aware of Jeri's blue lace beaded gown, covering her lusty body as I remembered it, a body containing a seed that in all likelihood I planted. At that moment Jeri was a magnetic attraction. The expensive perfume that surrounded her, made me aware of how truly womanly she was. The whole scene was perfect for the pursuit of Jeri but yet, I did not want her. Inside, I felt dead.

And still my male vanity insisted that I force the issue. I put my arms around her and drew her close. My hands became bold instruments, reaching under her dress, to grasp her breast. Jeri shoved me away roughly.

"No! Don't tempt me, Archer. How I have thought about you and wanted you back in my bed ... but we can't. Not now. I owe it to the life inside of me to behave myself."

She turned around and began to walk towards the house, fast. I followed her and caught up to her on the terrace steps. She stopped and whirled around to gaze into my eyes. "You wanted to talk to me about something. What was it?"

"It's not important now." I stated.

"If there's anything I can do, Archer...."

"There is right now," I cut in. "Introduce me to all the wealthy women here who aren't getting what they want from their husbands."

Jeri laughed. "That's practically every woman here."

We walked together back into the house. I was aware of several knowing glances being hurled in our direction. I knew what they were thinking. If Jeri was aware of the staring eyes, she didn't show it, or she didn't care.

"Look around," Jeri said gaily. "Which one do you want to meet first?"

"The richest one here. I don't care how ugly she is."

Jeri looked at me with a peculiar gleam in her eyes. "What are you starting? A stud service?"

"That's exactly it," I exclaimed.