Daring Young Man Read online

  She wouldn't have wanted them , Jake reminded himself. Save for the grandchildren, always the children and grandchildren. He knew, though, that Cindy was not entirely stingy or didn't like nice things; she was just very practical.

  But still…just once, to have surprised her with a diamond necklace or earrings would have made him happy. He'd never have that chance now. J.J. would never be able to present a grandchild to his mother…too much guilt.

  Shaking off the would haves and should haves, Jake turned to his son. "What was so important that couldn't wait until I got back to the store?" he asked. "A son needs a reason to see his father?" J.J.'s smile was crooked. "Most sons don't, but you're unlike most sons." "I don't quite know how to take that," J.J. said. Jake chuckled. "Don't take it as an insult, son. I certainly didn't mean it that way." With one last sad nod to Cindy's grave, he turned and started back for his truck, parked in front of J.J.'s Mercedes on the narrow gravel road splitting the cemetery. "What's on your mind?"

  He heard paper crinkling as J.J. fell into step beside him, and cringed. J.J. had been showing him lots of paper lately, and obviously couldn't take a hint. "I got an e-mail today," J.J. began. "Was it one of those jokes that's been forwarded around the world a thousand times? Because if it isn't, I'm not interested in the next words about to come out of your mouth. In fact, I don't even want to hear the joke." "Come on, Dad," J.J. whined. "At least give it some thought." Jake stopped short of the truck and let his shoulders sag. He had given it plenty of thought, every day since Red and J.J. had first broached the subject of Jake selling the store and retiring. As often as Jake thought about being called home, though, the notion of retiring and sitting around his house and waiting to die had less appeal. Jake's Organic Market had been a dream in his youth, one that Cindy helped him realize, and in his eyes giving it up would be akin to selling off a piece of his soul. True, he didn't like living without Cindy, but working at the store—keeping his mind on business—had made living less painful.

  J.J. waved the printout in front of his father's face. "It's a great offer," he was saying. "A good twenty percent more than what the store is worth."

  "I'm not selling." Jake was firm. "I've accepted that you and Red don't want to take over the business, and there's no reason for me to sell. Not while I'm still capable of working."

  "Don't you want the time to rest now, Dad? You've worked long enough, you've earned it."

  "The work is restful, son. I wish you boys could see that. I don't play golf. I have no desire to buy an RV and see the country, and I hate bingo. I would rather work at the store." Jake resumed his path to the truck and rounded the front grill. "The people are wonderful, and I get plenty of exercise, unlike you, who sits in a cardboard cubicle under a fluorescent light all day…"

  J.J. came up behind his father and cut off his path. "I do not," he said, annoyed. "I'm on the road a lot, showing houses and commercial properties."

  Jake pointed a finger, pressing a divot into the paper. "I don't want to hear that you've been showing my property around. Jake's is not for sale. I'm not retiring and I'm not selling, I don't care how much money is being thrown at me." What was the point in retiring and sitting at home, where nobody waited for him?

  "It's a lot of money," J.J. sang. "You could buy a second house at the beach, be closer to me and Red and the girls…" "I already have a nice house. You're going to make me sell that, too?" J.J. crumpled the paper in his fist and punched it into his free palm. "It appears I can't make you do anything. I'm just giving you an easier alternative to working yourself to death."

  Jake gently brushed past his son. He hoisted himself into the truck cab, slammed the door, and cranked the engine. He rested his forearm on the edge of the opened window and smiled at J.J. "Work is not death for me, son. Right now it's the only thing keeping me alive, aside from my family. No amount of money is going to tempt me into giving it up. Besides," he added, gunning the engine, "money won't bring your mother back, so what's the point in having so much of it if you can't buy what you really want?"

  The truck rumbled away, and Jake watched the image of his first born standing in the middle of the road shrink in his rear view mirror. He knew J.J. meant well, and tried not to dwell too much on their conversation. J.J. just couldn't understand his father's attachment to the store and his desire to keep working, Jake decided. Unlike his younger son, J.J. wasn't married, nor had he enjoyed a lasting relationship with a woman. How could be possibly sympathize? Big money offers for the store were not going to ease the pain. Jake wondered if anything short of death would.

  Two

  With a dramatic sigh, Lauren dropped the bulky cardboard box to the floor beside her sofa; its contents rattled and clanked as Lauren straightened her form and waved to the box with a flourish. "My friends," she addressed the two lovely blonde women before her, "let the ceremonial rites begin."

  Ellie Garriston and Sue Briscoe were curled around either end of the sofa, their feet tucked under cushions and pillows as they sat. Each sipped from a wineglass. Presently Ellie, closest to the box, unfolded one leg and curiously toed the box.

  "You sure this stuff will burn?" she asked, suspicion coloring her voice. "I can just imagine the looks on the faces of the firemen when they root through the charred remains of your house to find the only thing intact is a box of sex toys." "Not necessarily," Sue chimed in. "That box is cardboard. It'll burn." "Say, you think the firemenn would stick around to party?" Ellie laughed. "Ha ha." Lauren crossed her ankles and plopped down on the carpet, extending her arms for balance and nearly spilling her own wine. "I mean it. A new era begins tonight. Say goodbye to the old Lauren." "Goodbye, Old Lauren," Sue sang. "I've readjusted my halo." Lauren puffed up her chest. "Getting rid of the toys, the dirty movies, anything that might make Jake uncomfortable when I've succeeded in my plan of making him fall hopelessly in love with me."

  "Everything but the sexy pictures Sue took of you that you're planning to show Jake, right?" Ellie cast Sue a wicked smile, then leaned over the box. "I can't believe you're actually going to burn this stuff. Think of how much money you've spent over the years. This stuff isn't cheap, and I'd know."

  Ellie plucked a translucent pink rabbit vibrator from the box, holding it upright and turning it in her hand. "Look at that craftsmanship. Note the detail of the tiny bunny's ears."

  "I'm familiar with the tiny bunny's ears, thank you," Lauren said. Yes, she was especially familiar with the way those tiny rubber bunny ears hummed against her exposed clit as the vibrator's rotating shaft twisted in her pussy, driving her to multiple orgasms every time she used it. No more, though. The only cock she wanted inside her was attached to the man of her dreams, not something mass produced in Taiwan.

  Sue snorted. "What do you suggest, El? We call the Goodwill and donate everything? Vibrators for the underprivileged?"

  Ellie shrugged. "Poor people need lovin', too, you know. Besides, some people who aren't poor can't afford some of this stuff. Like that thing. What the hell is this?"

  Now Sue was bent over the box, sifting through its contents until she found the item in question. "Good night, Lauren!" Sue held up a dildo thicker than the blunt end of a baseball bat. "How…?"

  "That was a gag gift, from my bachelorette party. You remember." Lauren frowned, recalling briefly the failed marriage that had ensued. She had never used the enormous phallus, and imagined it was likely not meant for human consumption. As a conversation piece, though, it did the trick.

  Sue dropped it back into the box when something else caught her eye. "Ooh, you're not going to throw this out, are you?" she asked, holding a jar of flavored cream. "You might actually want to use this with Jake."

  Lauren shrugged. She didn't like the tone of Sue's voice, which to her suggested that her plan to win Jake was nothing more than a pipe dream. Sue had cautioned her about it more than once, and it had taken a good amount of wheedling from Lauren to get Sue to take the budoir photos. Though Sue was pleased with the end result,
Lauren could tell Sue was still pessimistic about the plan.

  Well, she would show Sue. She would show the whole town. She would win Jake, but in order to do that she had to show Jake a side of her he could find attractive and available exclusively to him. That would have to entail getting rid of the jar in Sue's hand...for now.

  "Truth be told," Lauren said finally, "I don't know how Jake would react on seeing a jar with a label marked 'Cummings' Clit Cream.'"

  "As opposed to seeing the actual clit itself in a photograph?" Ellie screwed her face into a wry smile.

  "He's not going to see all the pictures, El. Just the tamer ones at first," Lauren insisted. It hadn't been Lauren's intention for Sue to take Penthouse-style photos, but Lauren had gotten so carried away with the photo session that Sue ended up taking more intimate pictures than originally planned. Lauren first thought to have Sue destroy the racier pictures, but the quality was so good she couldn't bear to do it.

  Assuming the plan worked, Lauren felt she could gradually introduce the steamier pictures into their relationship at a later time. And she could always buy more cream; this stuff would just congeal if left unused.

  "Just peel the label off, he won't know it from face lotion." Sue unscrewed the lid and dipped her pinky into the thick, pink goo, then tasted. "Mmm." She licked her lips. "Strawberry."

  She dipped a second finger deeper into the cream and beckoned Ellie closer. Ellie obliged and sucked the dollop into her mouth with a wicked grin. "That's good, isn't it?" Sue cajoled.

  Ellie concurred with a throaty moan. "Can I have it if you don't want it?" she asked Lauren.

  "Take anything you want. I don't care anymore." Lauren waved the box away, and the two women giggled with juvenile delight as they rummaged for spoils. Ellie extracted dildo after dildo—they seemed to get larger as she emptied the box, and she appraised each one with an amused look.

  "Don't know if I could take a used dildo," she laughed, arranging them on the carpet according to height. "Besides, with Brady around I don't really need one anymore."

  Lauren reached for the wine bottle on the coffee table and refilled her glass. "Oh, really? What do you do when you're in the mood for double penetration now?" She looked archly at Sue as she asked. Lauren knew quite a bit about Ellie's sex life; at least, she knew as much as Ellie was willing to share, which was practically everything. She knew in the days before Sue hooked up with Cal Briscoe that Cal had occasionally participated in three-way sex with Brady and Ellie Garriston. Given the couple's strong sexual appetite, Lauren had to wonder what the couple was doing now for fun.

  Ellie looked at Sue, who offered only a coy smile as an answer. Lauren sipped her wine. Surely Cal wasn't...no. Where did that leave Sue? "You're not saying..." Lauren's voice faded. "We have an understanding," Ellie said, and winked. "We have an understanding," Sue echoed, and pocketed a squeeze tube half-filled with anal lubricant. O-kay. Maybe she'd get the goods after a few more glasses of wine. Loosen a few tongues if they didn't start licking certain places. "Well, while you two are sifting through that stuff, you might be interested in what used to be my prize possession. It's yours if you want it. Otherwise I'll just bury it in the backyard and hope my neighbors aren't spying on me. They'll think I've committed a crime," she said, giggling, as she sprang to her feet.

  When she returned from her bedroom Ellie and Sue were still debating the true meaning of Lauren's cryptic statement. Both women then gasped with surprise as a heavy body fell to the floor in front of them. "Oh, my," Ellie said. Sue pointed her drink at the floor, her arm wavering over the crooked lines of the

  splayed limbs. "Is that what I think it is?" "Ladies, meet Bob." Lauren puffed her chest and slowly knelt to the floor beside the

  figure's torso. "Or, should I say, Bodacious BOB 9000." "Bodacious BOB," Ellie whispered, awed. "The gold standard in battery-operated boyfriends. How did you ever get your hands on one on a teacher's salary? What, did you finance this thing?"

  "Worth his weight in gold," sang Lauren as she stretched out the corded waistband of the black sweatpants covering the lower half of the sex doll. A very thick, very realistic vibrator rested between its thighs.

  Lauren didn't wait for her friends' awed gasps to completely fade. "And check this out." She reached behind Bob's neck and flipped an unseen switch; instantly the dummy's pouty lips parted slightly to reveal a plastic pink tongue, swirling in circular motion.

  Ellie whistled. Lauren couldn't help but notice her friend shifting to press her thighs together. Ellie definitely yearned for a ride. "Instant three-way," Ellie said instead. "Nice." Sue frowned and leaned on the couch arm to look down the hallway. "Don't tell me

  you kept that stuffed in your toy chest, too?" "No." Lauren feigned annoyance. "Hall closet. Though when I first got him I sat him on the couch. It's a good safety device for single women. Anybody looking through the picture window will see the back of a guy's head and think you have company."

  Lauren sighed at the image of Bodacious BOB perched on her sofa while she laid her head in his lap and watched television. Unlike her ex, Bob was thoughtful enough not to interrupt her during her favorite shows. Or fuck another woman in their bed while she was at work.

  "Good luck trying to give that away." Sue sank to the floor and followed the hypnotic movement of Bob's tongue, then rolled her eyes. "I mean, I'd take him, if I thought he had other talents." "What's left that Cal won't do?" Lauren arched an eyebrow. "Cleaning gutters. Speaking of the devil..." A muffled chirping drew Sue closer to her handbag, from which she produced her cell. Sue checked the number and nodded before answering, moving away from the other two.

  Ellie stroked the University of Virginia emblem on Bob's sweatshirt, smirking as Lauren wheedled. "Come on," Lauren urged. "He slices, he dices, he vibrates up to seven speeds. Fun for the whole family."

  "I already have one of those, thanks." Ellie continued to shift. Lauren could only imagine her friend was getting wetter at the thought of settling her pussy on such a rapid tongue. Judging by how quickly Sue was gathering their things, it only meant Ellie was about to get her wish, and then some. God, how she wanted some. This plan had to work. "Early night?" she asked Sue, and pointed to the corner where Sue had earlier shucked her shoes. Their husbands, one of them had mentioned earlier, were holed up in Cal's home studio laying down tracks for Brady's next album. This after just finishing a tour. Where did they get the energy? Lauren sighed. She had an idea. Sue stepped into her low heels and urged Ellie on with rapid arm movements. "And they've started without us. Ellie!" she snapped, and the other woman literally sprang into the air and caught her purse in mid-stride. She was out the door with a hasty farewell, but Sue lingered with an expression Lauren thought rather odd. "Join us," she said. Lauren had her glass raised and missed her mouth, dribbling wine down her blouse.

  "What?" "You want to be fucked, I can see it clearly. You come with us, you will be, any way you want it." Sue rifled through her purse, not looking at Lauren. "I feel kinda guilty if you're going to be here alone."

  "I'm used to it. And anyway, what would Brady and Cal say if you brought home a fifth wheel?" Sue smiled. "Actually, it was their idea." O-kay! The image of her nude body sandwiched between two handsome musicians, whose physiques and libidos well betrayed their ages, crossed her line of vision and blocked her friend from view. Yeah, it would be nice for once to have a real live cock throbbing in her pussy, to have two strong, callused hands kneading her breasts or ass as that cock pumped into her and filled her with searing hot cum. To have another cock to suck on or, heaven forbid, fucking her ass while this was going on was too much for her imagination. Her friend was insane. Too much sex had gone to her brain. "You would let your husband fuck another woman?" she asked, incredulous. She

  hoped Sue wouldn't say anything about recording something like this! To her continued shock, Sue shrugged. "It's sex, Lauren. It's a beautiful thing to do and share. I've been prudish about it in the past, but, you know, being with Cal has se
t my inhibitions free. We love each other and nobody is going to threaten that. We also love sex, and agree that it isn't something we have to keep to ourselves."

  "So...you guys are swingers then?" Lauren couldn't believe she was having this conservation with the same woman who, only months earlier, had cringed at Ellie's explicit stories of life with Brady, and had been so reluctant to take Lauren's candid photos.

  "I wouldn't say that. We don't actively look for other people. We do, though, have very good friends," Sue said, and Lauren knew she was talking about the Garristons. "We'd like you to be our friend, too."

  "I am your friend." Lauren had to wonder where Sue and Ellie would figure into this new overture of friendship. Lauren liked sex, too. No, she loved it, but only with men. Only with Jake, she would see to that. "Go." Lauren waved her friend away just as an impatient car horn sounded. "Have an extra orgasm for me, and don't use any complicated safety words you might forget. I'll be fine."

  "Okay." Sue didn't sound convinced of Lauren's content, but backed slowly away all the same. "Call if you change your mind, or just come on by and jump in. Oh, before I forget, I have an extra CD-ROM with your pictures."

  Lauren's attention was on Bob now. She heard Sue digging through her purse. "Just put it in my bag, on the chair by the door. Thanks!" she called. When the door clicked shut, Lauren let out a ragged sigh and gathered up the sex toys strewn on the carpet. She resisted the temptation to use any or all of them. Water water, everywhere...

  "I am such an idiot." She couldn't believe she had actually turned down sex. She couldn't believe Cal and Brady would dare to suggest that Lauren join the couples in their reindeer games. Of course, this was Brady and Cal...why be surprised? She could have spent the evening being kissed, licked, fondled, and fucked by as many as four people at once, but instead would be sprawled on her living room floor wondering how well silicone would burn and should she use lighter fluid for the bonfire. "I must really be in love," she told Bob. Bob wisely offered no comment. "Exactly," Lauren said, and unbuttoned her blouse. The stain had set, the blouse was ruined. Into the box it went with the other discards, then Lauren poured another glass of wine. She drained it in two swallows, and swore Bob had winked at her. Another glass later, Bob was licking his lips and smiling. By the next glass, he was