Josh Stallings - Beautiful, Naked and Dead

My eyes drifted open, Piper’s blackout curtains kept the room in complete darkness. Cass lay on top of me. She was naked and her smooth skin pressed down against me. Her supple body felt warm and comforting. She gently placed her soft full lips on mine. Her hair smelled of bleach and spring rain as it brushed across my face. Her small tongue darted into my mouth. I ran my tongue across her tiny teeth, she bit it playfully then invited me into her mouth. I had forgotten how good a kiss could feel. Girls in my world would lap dance a man to orgasm but never kiss him, even prostitutes drew the line there, that was too personal an act to sell. Lost in her lips I couldn’t remember the last time I had kissed a girl. Running my hands through her hair I pulled her face off of mine.

“I know you want me,” she said.

“No question about it, but…”

“You still don’t get it. I could have any man I want, and I choose you.” Whatever else I had to say was lost in her kisses. Logic lost the battle against hunger. In the dark I explored her body like a blind man. My hands felt rough on her supple flesh as I ran my fingers down her back, feeling every ridge and valley of her finely toned muscles. I tapped my fingertips down her vertebrae until I came to the tip of her tail bone. Cupping her succulent tush, pulling her tighter into me, the blood rushed out of my brain in a steady exodus down south. Licking small strokes around her areola, I sucked her nipple into my mouth and felt her swelling with desire. Sitting up, she straddled me, her thigh hit my wounded leg. Hot pain roared up.

“Oh baby, I’m sorry,” she said with real concern. “Do you want me to stop?”

“No, never.” I clenched my jaw and let the pain subside. Rising up onto her knees, she wrapped her fingers around my penis and led me inside her. Lowering herself slowly down onto me she let out a small gasp, paused and then took in a little more.

Gently rocking back and forth she settled all the way down on me. Gripping her hips I found she was light enough for me to lift her up off the bed, then pull her back down onto me. Wildly she pressed down in a quickening rhythm. “Come on Baby,” she called out, willing me to come. She pressed her wondrous body against mine until I could hold back no more. In a rush of release I roared and whimpered, filling the room with my strangled animal sounds.

Leaning down she brushed tears from my face. Tears I didn’t even know I’d cried. “Now you’re mine,” she said, kissing my tears. I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing, pulling my head into her chest she stroked my hair and let me cry. The weight of my life rushed through me, all that I had lost, all that I had never had. I lay in the darkness, unprotected and safe.

“You’re a pig,” Piper said. I was dressed and drinking a cup of coffee in her breakfast nook with Angel curled up at my feet when she came in. From the back of the house I could hear Cass in the shower. “You fucked that little girl. In my bed. Don’t you have any shame?”

“I guess not,” I shrugged, not able to meet her eyes.

“God damn it, Moses, she’s a baby. She can’t even legally drink yet. What the fuck are you thinking?” Her eyes bore into me, killing the glow of the morning.

“I wasn’t, it just happened.” She was correct, I had broken a cardinal rule; don’t eat the young.

“No, flat tires, runs in my stocking, those are things that happen. This you did. So you finally got to fuck Kelly, or at least her proxy. So how was it? Everything you dreamed of or just another lay?”

“Come on, Piper.”

“Does little miss fine ass know you like to dry hump me when you’re horny?”

“I need a ride to my car,” I said.

“Fine.” She shook her head and picked up her keys off the table. We left without another word, what could I say. I was sorry I hadn’t lived up to some picture Piper had of me? I was just another guy like all the others?

In Highland Park Piper dropped me off around the block from my house. “I want her and that dog out of my place by the time I get off tonight,” she said.

“Done.” Somehow I’d stumbled over a line she had drawn in the sand. She drove off without looking back. Limping around the corner of my street I spotted a Lincoln Town parked in front of my house. No goons leaned on the hood with tommy guns waiting for me, they were probably in my house frying eggs and playing Frank Sinatra on my stereo. Keeping low I slid into the passenger side of the Crown Vic. Purring it to life I drove off like just another neighbor going off to work, thankful that out of a paranoid habit I always parked two doors down. I drove over to York Boulevard to a small clinic. Dr. Pikia, a compact older woman with a thick Indian accent, ran it. She accepted cash, and never asked too many questions. I was sitting on the table with my pants down around my ankles as Dr Pikia unceremoniously ripped off the blood soaked gauze bandage Piper had put on my thigh, taking the fresh scab and a patch of hair with it. The gash from the wood spike was angry and oozing blood. She swabbed it out with iodine, then cleaned the wound left by the drill bit. I closed my eyes fighting to think of anything else. Cass’ fine body filled my head.

“You will be needing stitches,” the doctor told me, injecting a syringe full of Novocain into my leg. With numb detachment I watched the needle thread my flesh wondering how many times I had sat here or in another room getting myself patched back together. Rolling on my side, she spiked my rump with a tetanus shot and told me to keep the wounds clean and come back in two weeks. We both knew I wouldn’t be back unless I got ripped up again, I knew how to take out my own stitches.

Cass and Angel greeted me at Piper’s door. Cass started to give me a big kiss but I pulled away. Crouching down I let Angel lick my face and ears.

“I came out of the shower and you were gone,” Cass said, trying to get a read on my mood.

“I had to get stitched up.”

“Do we have to have that awkward moment where we pretend we didn’t make love?”

I couldn’t answer her. My mind and groin had very different opinions on what my next move should be.

“Piper told me to watch my step with you, said I could trust you with my life but not my heart.”

“She could be right.”

“She’s jealous.”

“No, she’s looking out for you. Now get your things and let’s roll.” When she left the room I called Helen and told her I needed a favor.

“You want me to watch Angel? Bruiser missed her at the park this morning. That fat slob laid around pining for her.”

“It’s bigger than that, can I come over?” She gave me her address in Silverlake. I started to leave Piper a note but could think of nothing worth saying. I loaded my strange little crew into the Crown Vic and purred across town. Cass slid across the seat, slipping her head under my arm. Angel wanted to be in the middle of the affection, she crawled onto Cass’ lap and put her head on mine.

“I have to go back to San Francisco, take the war to them.”

“Good, it’s time we made them pay.”

“Baby girl, this whole deal is about to go sideways. And I don’t want you on board when the wheels come off.”

“You’re dumping me again?” she said quietly. “Is this about this morning, didn’t you like me?”

“It sure as hell isn’t that. I have to put you in a safe place, I told you I can’t do what I have to and worry about you at the same time.”

“I can take care of myself. I can help you.”

“No, look, you’re the only hold card I got. They find you, and I’m screwed.”

“I’m not leaving your side,” she said, setting her jaw.