The Necklace - The Dusky Club, June 1962 - Linda S Rice (books to read fiction txt) 📗

ask for forgiveness, and hope she wouldn’t have to grovel too much. She steeled herself for the task, sighed heavily, and stood up as Buttons jumped off her lap.

“Well, here goes,” she said to the cat. “This might be one of those learning experiences Mika was hinting at. Maybe I’ll learn something valuable here that I can take back with me to the future...like maybe how to apologize or say I’m sorry.”

“Mrow,” said Buttons.

She sighed again, went back into the cottage, and out to the car to get her suitcase out of the boot. She washed her face and changed into a clean dress that buttoned down the front. The dress had a ruffled collar and a v-neck, revealing only a modest amount of cleavage like the green dress. It was fit to her waist and flared out at the bottom. It was shorter than most of the dresses she’d worn, stopping a few inches above the knee. She looked at herself in the mirror and let her hair down from the ponytail she’d tied it up in that morning, then brushed it out. She pinched her cheeks to put some color in them. Then she pulled off the clean pair of panties she’d just put on. If all else failed, she could try her womanly ways on him either with tears, her body, or both. Men were so easy to manipulate that way.

Feeling she was now up to the task of apologizing, she went out the front door and headed up the hill to find James.

He was sitting at the base of the big tree; his knees were drawn up, arms crossed on top with his chin resting on his arms.

James’s anger was fading, but not as quickly as it usually did. He knew he had a hot temper when someone crossed him, but he typically was able to keep it in check.

But not with her. He was totally out of control when it came to her.

He was contemplating why. Was it because he loved her? Did he, in fact, really love her? Yes! Of course, he did! He was obsessed with her. And when you truly love someone, your feelings about everything are more intense, both the good ones and the bad ones.

She had just wanted to do something special and nice for him. She didn’t think about the money aspect because she’d never experienced the lack of it. Why should he be so angry with her for trying to please him? Casting aside the thought of the expense, she’d worked very hard to make everything perfect...and it had been perfect.

And... Susan wasn’t like other girls. In addition to being stunningly beautiful, she was musically and artistically talented. She could draw, sing, dance, and play the piano. So what if it was a mystery as to how she had acquired all these abilities.

He envisioned future hours spent together drawing and maybe even painting. They could make music together like his mum and dad used to do. He pictured her in the kitchen, cooking his favorite meals, and keeping everything tidy.

What other girl had he ever met that did any of that stuff? Not one. He knew he could also talk to her about anything and that she would listen and understand. He could just see her knitting baby booties by the fireside, Sunday mornings driving through the countryside, puttering in the garden together, even though he wasn’t overly fond of getting his hands dirty; how could he ask for more?

And, like icing on a cake, she had a passion for lovemaking that far surpassed anything he’d ever experienced before. She seemed to know instinctively how and where to touch him to give him the most pleasure, and she made love with wild abandon, crying out shamelessly as she reached her climax. Just the thought of it made him harden with desire.

He deeply regretted the painful words he’d said to her about being a whore and faking being a virgin. He knew she hadn’t faked it. And, while he didn’t still comprehend how or where she had acquired her passionate nature, he was in the process of convincing himself that it must be due to her reaction to him. Although young, he was experienced when it came to pleasuring women, and she most likely was simply responding to his extraordinary talents and own passion.

Indeed, that must be it!

On the downside, he had discovered she was impulsive, headstrong, and fiercely independent, but that could all be changed. She was young enough to be molded into whatever he wanted, and he intended to start working on it soon. She would learn to be submissive, especially now that he’d taken her virginity and felt he would have to do the “right thing” by her. Yes, if they were to make a go of it, she would have to change and understand who had the upper hand.

A shadow fell across the grass in front of him, and he looked up to see her standing there. She was barefoot, and her tawny blond hair was streaming down across her shoulders and arms. She was wearing a short dress, revealing her long, tan legs, and he could see the outline of her breasts where they pushed against the bodice of the dress. Her face was bleak, and her expression subdued. Had she come to beg his forgiveness then?

After Lynn told Ian the truth about herself and Susan, incredible as it was, Ian had a different perspective of her. The mystery was solved as to how she knew so much about sex and how to satisfy a man in bed…She’d had years and years of experience! At first, the thought of her being sixty-three-years old in the body of an eighteen-year-old was a bit of a turn-off, but memories of their pleasure the night before, negated all the “weirdness” of the situation, and he was actually feeling quite anxious to see what else she might be able to teach him.

“Why don’t we ring up James’s dad and see if they’re at his house or if he knows where they went off to?” he asked Lynn.

“Great idea!” Lynn exclaimed, reaching into her purse for her iPhone.

“I don’t think that will work here, you know,” said Ian.

“Oh! Of course not! I knew that!”

Ian reached for the phone on the nightstand and dialed James’s number. Mel answered.

“Hey, Mel. Ian here. Can I talk to James?”

“Not here at the moment,” said Mel.

“Oh, and do you know where he’s off to then?”

Mel hesitated, knowing James and Susan only had another couple of days before she had to leave on her tour, and hoping they would take the time to firm things up for the future. He liked Susan and was hoping they could make things work out between them on a permanent basis. He didn’t believe her when she said she wouldn’t be able to come back after the history tour. And, he had hopes that maybe James could talk her out of going at all.

“Not sure,” said Mel. “They left a few hours ago but didn’t say where they were off to or when they were coming back.”

“Oh, so they’re coming back there then?”

“Most likely,” Mel lied.

“Ta, then, Mel. I’ll check in a bit later.”

Ian hung up and turned to Lynn.

“They appear to be missing at the moment.” He looked at her with hooded eyes. “Might you want me to get a little frisky with you while we wait for them to come back? Might as well enjoy ourselves a bit, don’t you think?”

He reached for her and tumbled her back on the bed, reaching up under the skirt of her June Cleaver dress.

She giggled. “You can get as frisky as you like,” she said, pulling him close.

 

Chapter Seventeen

The Apology

As Susan looked down at James, she became tongue-tied. She thought she’d found the words to say to tell him how sorry she was, but they were stuck in her throat. Why was this so hard? She loved him, didn’t she? If you loved someone, it shouldn’t be so hard to say you were sorry.

He looked up at her expectedly and then patted the grass next to him, indicating that she should sit down. She lowered her eyes as she sank down on her knees and lowered herself back onto her calves. She looked him full in the face and took a deep breath.

“I’m sorry, James...I’m so, very sorry...I’m extravagant and spoiled...and I wasn’t thinking...”

This was a lot harder than she thought it would be. It bordered on humiliating.

He said nothing, waiting for her to say more.

“I wanted to do something special, not just for you, but for your dad. I like him a lot...” Her voice trailed off, and she looked away.

James still didn’t say anything. He was making this more difficult for her, and she was beginning to feel bitter about it. She turned back toward him and met his eyes. She was going to have to beg, damn it!

“Please...please, will you forgive me?” she pleaded, squeezing a few tears from her eyes.

He couldn’t stand a female’s tears, but for some reason, it suddenly made him angry and resentful; he thought she was just using them to make him weaken against her. A typical womanly trick.

He tried to calm himself. Reaching forward, he gathered her into his arms and planted a kiss on her hair, but he still said nothing. He tilted her face up to his, looking at her face and what he decided were fake tears, before forcefully crushing his mouth onto hers in a demanding and punishing kiss.

As his tongue shot possessively into her mouth, he knew what he was going to do. He was going to take her right here on the grass. It would be her penance. He didn’t fully understand why, but if she thought her tears and a few sweet little words were supposed to make everything right, this time she was mistaken.

She had a lesson to learn.

Looking at her bare legs and seeing her breasts outlined so provocatively in the dress had aroused him to a hardness that needed immediate satisfaction. She’d obviously dressed seductively on purpose to taunt him.

His pent-up anger continued to grow, thinking that she was toying with him, teasing him with her body and that she wasn’t sorry about anything at all.

Before she could protest, he pushed her roughly down on her back, ripped open the front of her dress, pulling her breasts out, and brought his mouth down on her nipples, nipping at them hurtfully. She cried out beneath him, and he knew it wouldn’t take much to make her ready for him, but he wasn’t going to take the time. He just wanted her now, at this very moment, and he was going to have her now, ready or not.

Anger, lust, love, and desire all melded together in his mind, one emotion pushing against the other in a battle of wills.

As she realized what he was about to do, she tried to push up against him, uttering a small, feeble protest, but he forced her back down. She squirmed beneath him, trying to get up and away, but her efforts were futile. He was stronger than her.

“Please…no…” she murmured, trying to push him away again. “Not like this, James…please…”

He pulled up the skirt of her dress, noticing she wore nothing underneath, and opened his trousers. His throbbing manhood sprung out, and without any consideration for her pleasure or readiness, he pressed her knees open with his and plunged deeply into her, her arms pinned above her head. He began heatedly thrusting in and out, taking total possession of