Chapter 9

RITA STRETCHED ON THE SOFA, COUNTing her sensations. The first was tingling satisfaction. The two and a half hours in the van had been almost like turning back time. There'd been a hunger in Ted for their old ways that matched her own and she wondered where he'd found strength enough to drive home afterward-or to go back out when Jens had called another emergency meeting. The next was the smoothness of the upholstery against the skin on her back and the backs of her legs. Then there was the intimacy of her half-bra, cupped against the swell of the lower sides of her breasts and of the see-through bikini panties, that barely covered the dark patch on her loins. And there was that breath of breeze that eased the late afternoon heat. Overall, was contentment.

Ted would be home sometime. Maybe it'd be another fifteen minutes-or maybe not until the middle of the night-but right now she could relax, almost naked and wait.

She heard the door open. There he was! Then someone called out.

"Hey! Anybody home?"

She panicked in the instant of confusion before she recognized the voice. "Bill?"

"Yeah. Someone is home."

"Elsie with you?"

"No. She sent me by myself."

"Oh." She wanted to cover herself-to make a dash for the bedroom and a shift or something. But she'd have to pass Bill on the way. It wasn't as if he hadn't seen her this way before-more of her, in fact-but she hadn't been alone with him then.

"Hey! Aren't you going to tell me to come on in?"

"Oh, Bill! I'm sorry! Of course!"

She tensed as she waited for him, then smiled at the way his eyes widened.

"Whew!" He whistled and stared. "God, you look sexy!"

"That's what Ted says," Rita replied. "Have a beer?"

"Sure." He went to the refrigerator and returned with the can in his hand. He dropped into an easy chair.

"Christ! I wish Elsie'd lie around the house like that!"

"Tell her so; she might. You say she sent you over by yourself?"

"Well yeah." He looked uncomfortable. "Yeah ... in a way. Where's Ted?"

"Jens Jensen called another emergency meeting this afternoon. He didn't say how long it'd take."

"Oh. Well ... I wanted to ask Ted ... Aw, hell! The fact is, you might be able to tell me more than Ted could."

"About what?"

"You remember how Elsie looked when she and Ted came out of the den the other night?"

Rita nodded. "Yes, I do."

"I don't know what the hell Ted did to her in there, but she's sure different! Goddamnit, Rita! I've made love to you! Is Ted that much better? What secret technique does he use that I haven't heard of?"

"Oh, Ted? Come on, Bill! There's no secret!

"Well, there's sure as hell something different!"

"Y-y-yes. There's something different. You really want to know?"

"Of course!"

"He just made her wait, Bill."

"Made her wait! What do you mean?"

"Well, the times we've ... well ... all made love in the same room, Elsie would let herself get worked up just so far. Then she'd take charge and force things into a real quick climax. She never lost her self-control."

Bill grinned. "Yeah. She'd come through a screwing without a hair out of place.

"Bill!"

He shook his head. "That was before. She doesn't now!"

"She doesn't?"

"Never mind. What about this waiting thing?"

"Look, Bill. When I'm ready to come, I want to come! If I can make Ted keep on whatever he's doing, it happens fast. But if he stops and gives me a few seconds to recover, we have all the fun of getting there again. Only he likes to do that a whole lot of times."

"No kidding?"

Rita shivered. "Things keep getting more intense every time. I go wild!"

"I don't know how the hell I'd wait, myself!"

"You'd probably have to work it so whatever you did wasn't too damn exciting to you."

"I don't know ..." He eyed her with a speculative expression. "Look, Rita, would you ... I mean, would you mind if ... Goddamnit! Would you help me figure out what you're saying?"

"You want a demonstration?"

"Hell, no! A lesson!"

"On me?!"

"Well, I ..."

"I don't know whether I can, even if I want to. I spent two and a half hours with Ted, this morning."

"Two and a half hours!"

She nodded. Bill looked dejected and she felt a surge of sympathy.

"Bill?"

"Hmm?"

"Try me, Bill. I'll do my best. Maybe you can get the idea, even if I can't go all the way."

"You're sure you want to? After all, two and a half hours ... !"

"Go ahead."

She stood. It took a moment of concentrated effort to unhook her bra, but it came loose and she lowered it slowly and laid it aside. Bill swallowed. She leaned down to push her panties off, prolonging the action when she realized that Bill's reaction was stimulating her. She lifted her feet out of them and laid the wisp of nylon on top of her bra. She lay back on the sofa, then sat up.

"Here, Bill?" she asked. "Or do you want me to come over there?"

"Where you are," he said. His voice was thick.

He got up and came to her side, sitting on the edge of the sofa. He played with her breasts with both hands, tugging gently at her nipples and rolling them between his fingers.

"Hey, baby! They're puckering!"

"I know! Ooh! It does feel good!"

Bill chuckled. He bent over her to suck one nipple into his mouth and tease it with his tongue. Rita tensed at the tingle that rippled through her. She placed her thumb on the upper curve of her breast and her fingers on the lower surface and squeezed toward Bill's mouth, as she had when Teddy was nursing.

Bill stroked her lower abdomen with his finger tips, moving them in wide circles and raising gooseflesh over her entire body. She felt the circles approach her loins and sucked in her belly, waiting for the moment when he should touch her genitals.

"Ooh! Bill! It's going to work!"

"It's not just going to be a dry run?"

"Oh, no! It's going to be for real!"

"I feel better."

He returned to his mouth-teasing of her nipples and his fingers brushed through her hair to the soft tissues between her thighs. She thrust her knees apart and wiggled her hips. Bill was touching her clitoris-rotating it slowly in tiny circles. Her chest felt constricted and she had to gulp for air.

Hot eagerness welled up in her and long before she expected it, she felt herself on the verge of an orgasm. She seized Bill's wrist with both hands and pushed his hand away from her throbbing clitoris.

"Wait!" she cried. "Bill, wait! I'll come if you don't!"

"But you said you wouldn't be able to stop when you got there-that Ted had to make you stop!"

"Oh ...! Oh ...! Bill!" she panted. The urgency subsided slowly. "Yes! But we've been making love this way for a long time. I've learned-trained myself a little bit. I can stop him the first time or two. But he watches me and when he sees I'm starting to come, he stops me and makes me calm down before we go on." She breathed deeply. "You can start again, now."

Bill dipped his fingers to the mouth of her vagina and covered them with her fluid, then scooped it up onto her clitoris. She soon lost the ability to tell just what he was doing. She could only tell that the area around her vulva was jamming her nervous system with signals of lust and frenzy. She forgot herself and knew dimly that her body was tossing under Bill's stimulation. A tremor started, deep in her belly, where she felt the emptiness that needed filling. She stiffened and cried out and the tremor spread.

Bill withdrew his hand from the excited flesh and held her in his arms. He kissed her and whispered to her while the tremor receded and her body relaxed.

"God, Bill! You caught me just in time!"

"I did? For a second, I thought I'd waited too long. I was afraid you were already into it."

She shook her head, then caught his chin gently between her teeth. He leaned back and stared at her. She smiled.

"You learned fast," she murmured.

"I know what you meant, now," he said.

Good, she thought. He'll stop and go home. He'll undress Elsie and spend the rest of the day experimenting. But he didn't stop. His fingers were once more at her clitoris.

"Bill!" she protested. She gasped and her back arched. "Oh, Bill! Wait!"

"Not now, baby."

His fingers worked quickly and smoothly and she began to thrash about, held securely about the waist by his other arm. She tried to reach his hand to push it away, but she could not get her own hands past his body. She moaned as the heat raged inside her. She felt the tremor rise again and she clamped her knees together and pushed her body off the sofa, her weight supported by her heels and her shoulders. She felt herself go rigid and the tremor shook her and heat exploded through her.

There was a moment of sudden grayness and she let out her breath in a tremulous sigh and fell back to the sofa.

"Oh, Bill ... Oh, Bill ..." She opened her eyes and stared tenderly into his face. "You let me go too far, that time, Bill."

He shook his head. "No. I didn't want to leave you hanging."

"But you didn't come with me! Go ahead. Put him in and come, Bill."

"Not now, baby."

"But it isn't fair to you!"

"Elsie's waiting. If you're all right, I'm going home to her. I want to spend an hour or two like this with her."

"Oh. Of course! Go, Bill! Make her be a wild woman!"

He grinned. "You're damn right!" He bent down and kissed her. "Thanks for the lesson, baby. Maybe you should have been a teacher. You've got the best kind of teaching aids."

"Oh, Bill! Get out of here!"

When he'd slammed the door, she showered and again dressed herself in the bra and bikini panties. She thought of Ted and more hours with him to night. Should she mention Bill? Probably. After all, Ted was still one ahead of her, if she were to keep score.

Ted squirmed in his seat, hoping there might be some position that would be comfortable. Jens had his elbows on the table and his chin in his hands. Wilson-Jerry Wilson-paced the length of the room, his hands clasped behind his back. Ron slouched on his tailbone, his feet propped up on the edge of the table.

"Run it through again," Jens said. "Go slow."

"All right." Jerry stopped beside the table. "The Raiders are clean. Three of the boys started the season without birth certificates-we went on the strength of their baptismal certificates while we waited for them to get the official record-but their birth certificates are available now and they confirm the ages we had."

"So Ted's got no ineligible players." Jens glanced at Ted with an expression that Ted thought was almost one of gratitude.

"Right."

"And the Broncos?"

"All clean but one. That is, the federation finally gave me the names of the two boys that were being challenged. One is too old and he isn't even on the roster." Jerry shot a quick glance at Ted out of the corner of his eyes. "The other ... well, there was a question as to his age, too. I've got his birth certificate here in the file and it shows he's eligible. I'll keep it on hand until the season's over."

Jens raised his head. "The kid's parents don't mind having someone hang onto the certificate?"

"Well ... no."

"What's the boy's name?"

"Hershel. Charley Hershel. Tackle."

Jens straightened in his chair. "Then it's like you said. The federation hasn't anything to complain about as far as eligibility goes."

"That's right. And the heat's going to be off any way. After today's game, Ted's Raiders are a cinch to make it to the play-off. It'll be the two Oakdale teams squaring off at each other. There aren't going to be any protests in that game." He stared hard at Ted. "Are there, Brown?"

"I don't expect there'll be anything to protest," Ted replied.

"That about wraps it up, doesn't it?" remarked Ron. "Incidentally, Ted. Who's going to get your 'most valuable player' award this year?"

Ted shrugged. "I don't know."

"You know who you're considering. Which guys are at the top of the list?"

"I haven't rated them. I'm not going to, until after the last game. We just don't have any outstanding individuals, Ron." He'd be damned if he'd put his finger on any one of his kids. The top two Charger backs had been hurt seriously in today's game against Ron's Broncos. To Ron, it was simply another of those breaks of the game-of a sixty-three to nothing game on the way to the play-off.

"It doesn't sound like you take the award very seriously," commented Ron.

Ted stared at him through narrowed eyes. "I take it seriously," he said quietly. "I take the kids' health seriously, too. I don't have any stars, Ron."

"Is that a crack, Ted?" asked Jerry.

"I guess so. Ron's got nine to his credit, now. He's not getting any of mine if I can help it."

"That's a strong accusation, Ted," suggested Jens.

Ted felt tight inside. "I want one thing under stood. My kids have come through their games without a single bad injury. If Ron and I do meet in the play-off, my parents are going to film the whole game from four angles. And if there is an injury, we're going to be in a position to see how it happened." He turned to Ron. "Is that clear?"

Ron smiled sleepily. "I guess I'm simple. I don't know what you're talking about."

But outside, after they left the room, Ron stopped Ted. "I wouldn't be too eager to push that film bit if I were you, Ted. The way you and your assistant coaches have been screwing each other's women, you ought to be keeping real quiet. Can you imagine what the kids on your team would say if they knew?"

"Is that a threat, Ron? Seems to me you're not in a position to shoot off your mouth."

"So what would you say? 'So did he!' isn't going to make you look any better."

"You haven't any ethics at all, have you, Ron!"

"Sure! Don't do anything that hurts your chances of winning! What other kind of ethics make sense?"

Ted balled his fists and walked away from Ron.