John watched the first glimmer of early morning sun filter through the slight gap in the threadbare curtains, reflecting off the shimmering gloss of Vickie’s long dark hair. Slowly, softly he pulled back the covers from her naked form, his eyes taking in each bit of her. Twenty years before, when he had first seen her naked, she had been a beautiful girl. Now, she was even lovelier. The sight of her winter paled skin took the breath from him. The soft swell of her breasts with their darker nipples caused an involuntary reaction in his loins.

Twenty seven dollars and sixteen cents. His true love was worth so much more but that was all there was in their checkbook.

He folded the covers back over her flat torso until the slight dimple of her belly button was just exposed. John rose slowly to his knees, trying not to disturb her sleep in the early morning. For several moments he simply looked into her beautiful face, watching her nostrils flare as she sucked in breath, smiling slightly as she made that cute almost, but not quite, snoring sound that he liked to hear. He imagined her beautiful eyes, now hidden by her sleeping eyelids. He loved her eyes even more than her pert mouth that so easily curled into a brilliant smile that lit a room.

He lowered his face toward her neck. His nose drank in the faint smell of the inexpensive perfume that lingered from its application the day before. She always smelled so delectable. His lips touched the skin where her long neck met her curved shoulder. The smooth feel of her warm skin against his lips sent lightning coursing through his very being.

He kissed her skin softly working from her neck to her arm and then back to her neck. He listened to her breathing as his kisses worked up to her ear. She did not move a muscle but he heard her breathing change from the long rhythmic cadence of sleep to a more rapid pace. She was still asleep, or at least not quite awake, but the kisses had roused her from the depths of slumber. His kisses moved down her neck once more and then down her chest. He kissed each inch of skin as his mouth moved to her right nipple. He was intensely aware of his body, everywhere it touched her soft skin.The heat of their bodies touch sent a familiar warmth into him that circulated through his every fiber.

His lips sucked a stiffening nipple into his mouth as he was aware of her hand moving to run through his hair, pulling his face tighter as a soft sigh escaped her lips. He sucked with more vigor as his ardor increased. He felt the tip of his hard cock brush the skin of her waist as it rose to full attention. The feel sent violent waves of pleasure through him and he shuddered slightly.

Reluctantly he removed his lips from her left breast and kissed his way to the right, giving that nipple equal time as he sucked it into his mouth. The feel of her fingers running through his hair, encouraging his attention, made him breathe even faster. The slightly larger gap his knees made between her right arm and her body allowed her to move her heretofore pinned arm. She pulled it upward until her hand could close on his throbbing penis. She stroked it softly as her other hand pulled gently on his hair, moving his mouth up to meet her greedy lips.

Their tongues reached for each other and began a dance inside their mouths. They were both breathing faster as the need reached their cores. Vickie’s arm wrapped around her man, pulling him close, feeling the touch of their skin as her other hand stroked him. John’s hand was not idle as it traced the curves of her body sliding to her hip and then over her to find her moist entrance.

He heard her, felt her gasp as his finger slid inside her warm wet slit and gathered slippery juices to lubricate his finger as it slid along her stiff clit.

Vickie arched her back and thrust her hips to the rhythm of his finger as she pulled him even tighter to her. Their kiss became passionate as soft moans escaped her lips. Her hand pulled on his penis, guiding his whole body over hers as her legs spread. Knowing that the woman he loved, wanted him, needed him, increased his own desire. His soul was on fire with longing for her.

John broke their kiss as he rose to his hands and knees. His blue eyes gazed into the depths of her brown ones. He saw her desire for him in her unfocused orbs as he lined his cock up. The feel of her soft sopping pussy on the head of his dick made him tremble slightly. Her hands on his waist urged him forward but he took his time, slowly sliding into her. He gasped as he felt her welcoming pussy slowly engulf his cock. The muscles of her vagina clamped and relaxed on him, urging him inside her. He felt her hips moving but he held his position, luxuriating in the feel of that velvety pussy engulfing him slowly. He stopped when he was all the way inside her. His eyes had never left hers as they traded emotion between the connection of their eyes.

Her legs wrapped around his waist as she began to rock her hips. Her hands pulled him hard, urging him to thrust. John matched her rhythm, as they slowly sped up. His thrusts came faster and he felt her suck in her breath as she pulled herself up to meet the lunges of his hips. Her pussy clamped down on him and he felt her breath explode as her head rolled. His gaze never left her face as she came. John felt a wash of joy flow through him and a smile curled his lips. He actually felt her pleasure. Watching her release was all he really needed but not all there would be.

When she could breathe again, he slowed down, sliding slowly into her until her passion built again. He knew his wife and knew that her desire would return. In moments, her hips were rocking again and he matched her motion. Each thrust came harder. This time, he felt the pressure build. His eyes were locked on hers as he felt the connection of their souls. They were one.

He felt her need for him return as his desire for her intensified. The pressure inside him went almost unnoticed. It was not the feel of impending release for him, but rather the complete merging of the two of them. It was as if his love, his emotion, his very soul was trying to become one with her.

The feeling built as he matched her movements. He was determined to hold off until she came too. He watched her eyes close, her face twist. He felt the first contraction of her vaginal muscles and he allowed his own feelings to flow. He let the pressure come. He allowed his very being to well up inside his throbbing cock. He slammed into her and then stopped at the bottom as his face turned red from the breath that he was suddenly holding. The pressure built, not just in his cock but in his whole being. He gasped as he felt her pussy grab him again. He could hold back no longer. Her whole body convulsed in what he knew was a powerful release. The intensity of his explosion matched hers. Their bodies quaked and his soul exploded along with his cock.

Their mutual orgasm was as if they were connected, two souls merging, becoming one. The pleasure intense, draining, all consuming. The fire of their souls burning in each other quenching each other’s need. The moment lasted an eternity before it was over and they lay gasping for breath, his strength sapped, he sagged to her body as their lips met in a tender kiss that lasted for several minutes before he rolled off her and she moved to snuggle her body against his.

At that moment the alarm clock went off and Vickie began to giggle. She held her man softly in her arms. “Let it ring. I want to hold you for a few minutes. Damn, boy, you are way better at waking a girl up than that alarm clock.” Her eyes were smiling as her lips met his in a soft kiss. The touch of their bodies warmed them but all good things must come to an end and she released him.

John reached for the alarm as she rose with a smile and headed for the bathroom. He lay back on the pillow as his eyes followed the exquisite form, watching the wiggle of her pretty butt as she walked away from him. He loved her even more than he had twenty years ago.

The feeling of failure that had been so close to him since Christmas slammed into him again, driving away the warm wonder that she had left him with in the wake of their loving. Vickie was his true love and she was worth so much more than he was able to give her.

Her face had beamed when she opened the single present from him at Christmas. She had at least pretended to love the cheap sweater that he had managed to get her from K-Mart. She deserved so much more! He felt close to crying. He would do better for Valentines Day. He would show her the depth of his love.

Vickie had been a beautiful girl when he had first started dating her in their second year of High School. He watched her naked form as she walked and thought that she was even more gorgeous, more desirable than she had been then. The hard years she had spent with him had done nothing to dim her beauty. She deserved so much more than the life he had given her.

Thanks to him, she had not reached sweet sixteen without being kissed. In fact, he blamed himself that by her sixteenth birthday she could not reach the sink to help wash her family’s dishes. He had fathered the baby that she had carried.

There had been many options, besides the hard life they had chosen to share, but they had not even considered those. They had been young, but they had also been madly in love. They had loved each other, and the new life growing inside her too much to consider abortion or adoption. Instead, they had chosen a life of hardship and sacrifice to their own love and the life that that love had created.

They were married before either of them reached their seventeenth birthday. They had been offered the chance to live with both of their families while they finished school. Both sets of parents felt a certain animosity toward them. John’s parents considered Vickie the temptress who had wrecked his life. Her father treated John with total disdain, the corrupter of his sweet innocent little girl. Living with them had not been an option, if they had expected to succeed as a couple.

They could have finished school, finished in disgrace. Vickie would have had to go at night since, in those days, pregnant girls or married mothers were not allowed to be exposed to the student body as if such conduct would rub off on the other girls. John would have been almost equally scorned by the administration while the boys might have held him as almost a hero. Instead, he chose and she was forced to abandon school.

Neither family was pleased when they were married. They had tried to talk them both into the other options. Neither family had truly forgiven them for their choice but both had reluctantly accepted it.

John had gone to work, bagging groceries. The money had been slim. The life hard. His money had barely covered the cost of their apartment. The grocery discount had helped, as had their parents. Youth had been a curse in the early years. They had been barely out of diapers themselves when Charley came along. It had not been easy raising him and the sister who followed only a year later. There had been no luxuries in their lives, unless one counted the 19 inch color television, but even that had had to come as a Christmas present from her parents.

John had been a hard worker and promotion and raises had followed along with the benefits that made it possible. Those raises had kept them treading water, rising income that had barely kept pace with the escalating expenses. What John realized was that his ability had seen him further than his education should have allowed. Twenty years later, he was the manager of the grocery department. What he thought, and what the company knew was that if he had accomplished more than his GED, he would be the store manager, if not a district manager.

The only thing that had never failed them was the love that they shared. John was even more in love with Vickie than he had been 20 years before. Their love had endured, intensified through the hard years There had been many times when they worried about having a roof over their heads and food for Charlie and Connie, never had they worried about themselves. Each night they had found comfort in each others arms. Never had they lost the desire for each other. Never had either of them allowed the relationship to become stale. They were not only lovers but best friends who met the challenges of life together and head on.

Vickie had never complained about what she did not have and neither had John. He felt only joy at the years they had spent together, but he loved her so much that he believed that she deserved more.

Ten years ago, Vickie had found employment as a receptionist in an Optometrist’s office. A position that brought in only slightly more than minimum wage. Still every penny had helped in their war with the bills.

Two years ago, Charlie had graduated from High School with honors but he had not been able to garner enough in scholarship money to afford college. He had known that all along. He had never bemoaned their poverty, but like his parents he met the problems head on and solved them. Before graduation, he had enlisted in the Army. The last two years with Charlie gone had been difficult emotionally although they had not showed it. Both John and Vickie missed him, feared for him, especially when he volunteered for duty in Afghanistan.

John would have hardly believed it, but Connie had pulled off a full scholarship to play basketball! John could only shake his head. He knew Connie was good, but the touch of chauvinist in him had expected Charlie to win the athletic scholarship. Connie had never asked for money, but still they knew how hard it was with no spending money and they had sent her what they could.

The last five months had been strange. They had never known time to themselves in the 20 years they had been married. There had never been the time or privacy to wake each other with kisses. There had never been money for movies, or dinners out. They had seen two movies and gone out for dinner on several occasions. Each time was a joy, mixed with the guilt of spending money.

Vickie had celebrated one of the happiest Christmases of her life. Her baby, Connie, had come home from school. The value of the presents she had gotten had not mattered. Most important to her was the look of love she could read in John’s face and the joy of the love she felt for him and her family. She missed Charley, but his phone call from Afghanistan on Christmas Eve had lit her eyes with joy.

She had felt too much happiness to see the pain in John’s eyes when she opened his present. For the first time, he had not shared his feelings with her.

**************************************************

Vickie had one joy in her life. She loved to write. At first she had practiced her craft with paper and pencil, writing short stories for John (private ones), and more public ones for Charlie and Connie. When the grocery store had updated office equipment ten years before, John had rescued a working computer from the trash. It had even come with word processing software. Vickie was still using it. The only part of that system that had finally gone to heaven was the old daisy wheel printer. It had breathed it’s last gasp just after Christmas. John would gladly have done anything to get her a new one, but it was no use. There was no way to connect one.

The old DOS programs needed to be tailored for a new printer, and that software was no longer being updated. No new printer would work. She needed a new computer.

Vickie did not complain but she did mention the problem at work. Her boss quickly agreed that Vickie could bring her disks to work and print her stories on the office computer/printer.

Anyone who read the words that came from her fingertips, knew that Vickie was good. Very good. She tried once to find a publisher for her romance novels and other works but failed in her attempt to find either a publisher or an agent willing to represent her. It was just a consuming hobby.

**************************************************

John, too, had one love. A 1966 corvette that his father had given him when he turned 15. It was old then, and worse it had been totaled in a roll over accident. The plan had been to rebuild it. They had expected it to take several years but it had been twenty-one. It still rested in his father’s garage, complete except for an engine. The original motor was so badly rusted that it could not be turned. He could not afford the engine but he could afford to polish the car once each week. He loved that vehicle, dreamed of seeing it on the road with him behind the wheel. His father had offered several times to buy him the engine, but John had known that he could never afford the insurance or the plates to operate it.

The corvette sat in his father’s garage, so beautifully finished that it was more a work of art than a mere car. A work of love and not just a simple refurbishment.

John knew that his dream would never come. As he watched his beautiful wife getting ready for work, he decided. He would sell that car that would never run and purchase her a new computer with all the bells and whistles.

***********************************************************

Dr. Judy Stone was an optometrist but also a fan of pulp romantic fiction. Vickie had worked for her for ten years and Judy had never once had any inkling of her talent, until she allowed her to print her latest work on the company computer.

It had been an accident. Judy had not intended to read the manuscript, unbidden, but when Vickie had gone to lunch with the document printing, the first several pages had stuck to a letter that Judy had needed. After reading the first few paragraphs she had been hooked. Judy had come back to the office after dinner and read the words off the screen till well after midnight. There was only a single chapter left to read when her eyes could focus no longer. She had gone home to sleep, just so she could concentrate on reading the conclusion.

This morning, as Vickie stood before the mirror putting the finishing touches on her appearance, her boss had come in early. Judy was scrolling through the words, now committed to the company computer.

Judy was just finishing the story when Vickie came in.

“Vickie, I need to talk to you. You have a couple minutes?”

“Judy, I work for you. I always have a few minutes for you when I’m at work.”

Judy led her to her private office and closed the door. “Vickie, I owe you an apology. I read your novel on our computer. I read the first bit by accident, but I had to read the rest. I just wanted you to know that I read it. You have a lot of talent. Have you ever tried to have any of your work published?”

“I tried once, but all I got was a lot of rejection letters. Sent it to a dozen or so agents, but they all turned me down. Trying cost me too much. I couldn’t really afford the postage or the paper and ink. So I just write for fun. I’m glad you liked it,” Vickie chuckled. “I have about a hundred more at home you can read if you’d like. This one isn’t my best, but I’d be happy if you read it or any others. You want.”

Judy watched her for a moment. “Would you like to have them published?”

“Of course. It’s my dream, but I’m happy to just write for fun. I really don’t have the money to pursue it.”

Judy looked at her. “Maybe I could help.”

“Judy, I don’t want your money. I’m happy to just write for fun.” Vickie blushed a little and then she smiled. “I think we both need to get to work Doctor. I can hear the first patients now.”

They said no more but Judy knew something that Vickie did not. Her college roommate was an editor for a company that published exactly the type of romance novel that Vickie had written.

That night, Judy sent a long e-mail to her old roommate with the manuscript attached.

*******************************************************

On Valentines Day, John drove his beautiful wife to work as usual, but then he went to his father’s garage, this time not to polish the already glistening coat of the corvette, but rather to say his goodbyes. He needed to buff the car one last time with a loving touch and perhaps the hint of a tear at the corner of his eye.

He knew this car was in perfect condition, except for the engine. If it had been working properly, it would have been worth $25,000 or more. Bill was giving him $2,500. Still, it was more than enough to pay for the new computer he had already spotted for Vickie and new software. His heart sang with the joy she would get from the new computer while his eyes teared at the loss of his precious car.

He watched them hook it up to the wrecker and haul it away. He followed the truck into the street and watched the car rolling away until it was gone from sight. Then he took his money and headed directly to the computer store.

******************************************************

At the very same instant that John was watching his car disappear into the sunrise, Vickie was in shock. When she came into work that morning there was a stranger there. Judy’s friend had flown in from New York with a check and a contract.

It would be months before her first (and not her best) novel was in print but the publisher had handed her an advance check for $5,000. Vickie had never held so much money before. Her mind was spinning and Judy gave her the rest of the day off and loaned Vickie her car.

It took Vickie only a second before she knew what she was going to do. She was going to get a new engine for John’s prized corvette, but first she wanted to hold the money! She headed straight to the credit union and cashed the check. For a moment or two she fondled the crisp bills, simply enjoying the thrill of holding so much money in her hands.

As soon as she felt the joy of touching the cash, Vickie headed straight for Bill’s Car Parts. Bill had been a friend for years. What she saw shocked her. Vickie and the corvette arrived at practically the same time.

At first there were only some calm questions, but once things became clearer, the interior of the parts store became a very noisy place indeed! Stores hath no fury like a woman pissed, and car parts stores saw few angry females.

When the dust settled, Vickie had bought back the corvette for $3,000 and spent the rest of her money on that new engine and its installation.

Bill had mixed feelings at the conclusion of the transaction. He had never seen the car before he agreed to buy it. He didn’t realize how perfect it was. John had told him it was a finished restoration just needing an engine. Bill had heard that before, but this car was more than just restored, it was obviously a work of love. The car was perfect and Bill knew immediately that it would bring $25,000 or more with just the addition of the motor that was already waiting for it in the shop. For a second, after the corvette had arrived, the cash register had jingled in the back of Bills head. Then a pang of guilt had hit him. Before those internal noises had died, Vickie had hit him! Bill had just made a deal and seen $20,000 fly out the door, but so had his guilt. Still it was a profitable day. He made over $1,000 in just a few minutes after selling the engine and the car back to Vickie.

Perhaps it was the touch of guilt that made him agree to put all the shops resources into installing that engine but it was finished just after lunch. The release of such a fine machine, to its owner is not something for mechanics to rush. There had to be time to admire their work and the artistry of a classic car.

The four mechanics who had done the work had nearly come to blows deciding who got to test drive it. In the end, all four of them took one lap around the block, after each circuit they made minor adjustments until it was better than perfect. It was nearly 4:00 when they decided that they could part with it. Vickie had watched every turn of a screwdriver with a smile on her face.

Vickie had no regrets about her purchases. No qualms that all her money was gone. Only a question about why he would have sold that car. She could hardly wait to show it to him. She could only imagine the look on his face.

*********************************************

John was not a computer geek. It had taken him most of the afternoon to get the damn computer installed complete with its fully functional printer. He had also prepaid six months of DSL Internet connection for his love. He felt no regret about the sale of his precious car. He could hardly wait to see Vickie’s face. Only one more hour before he picked her up at work! He could barely contain his joy at the thought of seeing her happiness.

He had just finished and stepped out the back door for some fresh air when he heard a car pull up to the house. He started around the garage to see who it could be.

Vickie had seen the car in the drive and could hardly contain her enthusiasm. She couldn’t wait to see John’s face. She also wanted to know what could have gotten into him to make him sell his car. She almost bounded into the house.

Vickie had entered the house just moments before John had come around the garage to see “Bill’s” Corvette in the drive. His heart leaped and crashed at the same time. He felt an intense joy, that his baby was now fully functional and he knew it would turn heads on the street. It was also salt in a fresh wound to know that that car no longer belonged to him. It took him a moment to realize that Bill was not to be seen and a look of confusion crossed his face.

Vickie had searched the house for John, and almost missed the new computer. She had gone right by it looking for John, and had not spotted the new equipment until she had turned around and headed for the door again. She gasped and squealed in joy.

There was a huge grin on her face as she walked to the front door. She watched John take his handkerchief out of his pocket and polish a spot on the corvette’s finish. She watched him from the door for a moment.

“How bout taking your girl for a ride in your new car?”

John looked up to see Vickie standing in the door with a huge smile on her face. “My new car?”

Vickie’s eyes twinkled as she walked quickly toward him. “Your new car. I bought it back for you.”

“How?”

She pulled her love into her arms. “I sold one of my novels, or rather Judy sold one for me. Now stop asking questions, kiss me, take me for a ride and then take me to bed!”

What could a man do but obey his wife?

Now it was time for my short final speech, my last words. In my fingers I still had Vanessa’s strand of hair. Holding a tiny piece of her gave me the comfort to accept my fate, to die for her. vibrator

“Ladies and gentlemen of the audience and everyone else in attendance, I’m truly sorry that you have to be here so late this evening. It was unnecessary. Please don’t blame me unduly, I shall instead put the blame where it actually belongs… on the heads of the Granger family of Gilbreath County, where they, not I, murdered poor Vanessa Lea Miller and dumped her into a hasty grave. I learned of her murder and sought her killer, Ralph Granger and, after I faced him in his office with my evidence before an abundance of witnesses, he committed suicide. It was the only honorable deed of his entire sordid life. His family, the malevolent Granger clan that oppresses Gilbreath County, felt otherwise. The truth was dangerous to the prestige and power of their family, and, like all other challenges to their excessive unlawful and immoral authority, I must be done away and made an example of. Even though I was already in unlawful custody by the police long before the suicide of Ralph Granger, it was determined that I should be held accountable for his death, and by means of lies and forgeries I was framed for his alleged murder. Not satisfied with this outrage of justice, I was convicted for poor Vanessa’s death as well, despite the fact that if questioned, I could prove that I was living in a town four states away at the time of her death. Naturally, not a single word in my defense was allowed. So here I am today before you. The truth will come out. It must! It shall… and soon! I go to my death now as another murder victim of the Granger’s, but not unwillingly. Although I am innocent of the crimes I was sentenced here for, I accept this fate willingly, if not quite cheerfully, if it will hasten the end of the Granger reign of corruption by even a single day. It will take many steps to accomplish this worthy goal, and my single step off on this rope tonight is but the first. Except for the Grangers, I wish you all the best.”

Refusing the hood, I allowed the rope to be tightened around my neck while my fingers caressed Vanessa’s brown hair strand to find the strength to keep the tears from my eyes and the smile on my face. It was now all over… I had done everything for her that I could do.

I thought of the many dashed hopes I had dreamed of for my life. To find a home, to find a loving wife and have us build together a future. Since this had been impossible for me since my promise to Vanessa, I instead thought of my dreams for my next life… with her. Of growing up together as childhood friends and neighbors, to our growing love while in school, then our marriage and our wonderful children and then finally our golden years in retirement walking together on a sandy beach hand in hand. Bereft of everything I had yearned for this life, I prayed that find my contentment somewhere, somehow in the next one. Now that my oath was fulfilled I had oh so many regrets.

I heard the sound of the wooden door under my feet opening but I never felt the impact of my neck snapping. There were many worse ways to die.

*******

At first I thought something had gone wrong. I looked around and saw that I was still standing on top of the gallows. The warden and the executioner were standing next to me looking down into the open trapdoor and at the taunt extended rope that bore my lifeless body. I gave it a quick look to make sure that I was still hanging there, and I was. It was really quite disconcerting actually.

Ok… I was dead. This was to be expected, but I had rather expected that I now would be somewhere else entirely. This was now very disconcerting. No one looks their best when dead, but I thought the wane little smile on my face made me look at least contented with my fate and death.

Looking back over to the witness room, I was moderately amused to see that the Granger brothers were now at the center of the media attention. The two formerly bored newspaper reporters were now delighted to be at the center of some Pulitzer wining investigative journalism, and they were getting some first hand experience dealing with the stench of the Granger corruption. Another local TV camera crew was getting right into their faces and repeating my charges against them and not receiving much in the way of any replies. In fact, looking at the two brothers with my ghostly eyes, I could see that Vanessa’s plan would indeed work to perfection.

Their age of misrule was already over. There would be newspaper stories, state investigations, FBI and DEA agents turning over every rotten leaf in the county. Witnesses could come forward in droves to hand over hidden documents that ought to have been shredded or burned long ago… but instead held as insurance for a future day of need, and now that day was near at hand. Vanessa would receive her long postponed autopsy (they would find her wearing my jacket inside her coffin), as would Ralph’s body, both confirming my claims of murder and suicide. Both Granger brothers, and several of their uncles, nephews, nieces and cousins, would soon face federal trials and a few would eventually face long walks from death row to their own eventual scheduled appointment with the executioner. Vanessa and I had been avenged.

I should have cried tears of happiness, but apparently the dead can’t cry.

I looked to my right hand to look upon her hair once more, to gather the strength to find my path in this strange afterlife but it was now gone. Instead, Vanessa had now appeared and was holding my hand, as beautiful as she ever was in life. I had only seen her under the veil of shadow, but now she shone as the sun.

Her touch, once freezing to me, was now warm and soothing and I fell into her arms. Apparently the dead can cry tears of love and joy, and I let them flow for a very long time.

“Would you live for me?” She asked.

“Yes. All of the days of my next life! Can we be together, in happiness? To live and love and marry and raise our children… and live the life that we ought to have had here before it was taken away from us?”

“Come with me then, it’s time to go. We have a new future together just waiting to begin!” She said, holding my hand tightly as a lover would, and with a smile we disappeared in a flash of warm light. Going to a better place, and a new happier life… together at long last.

“Y…yes, I will, but I don’t know what to do or how to save you… or myself.” I told her, giving myself up completely to her cause and need for justice.

“Don’t be too afraid. It’s the only way. I’ll tell you what to do and then everything will be all settled. There will be some discomfort, some sadness, but in the end everything will be better, and then we can be together… in peace and happiness this time. Trust me.”

I did. She told me what I must do and how I must act. Her kisses were like burning hoarfrost that devoured my soul and made me weak but yet brave in her arms. I was still terribly afraid… but her anchor on my soul now gave me the strength and courage to act and speak on her behalf and go where she could not.

It would all be alright in the end… I was sure of it now.

She was once more wearing my jacket when she seemingly melted away right into my arms, but leaving me this time a single long strand of her hair left in my fingers. I expected it to melt away in my hand at the first break of daylight, but it remained in my hands. It was a lovely honey-brown color and I wished I could have seen it and caressed her hair in life.

I never saw my jacket again.

*********

My final campaign began in the wee hours of Monday morning. Using my hidden savings I had printed up a thousand handbills of my Manifesto, “Ralph Granger — Murderer of Vanessa Miller!” and I had put copies up on telephone poles, in mailboxes and on car windshields all over the county. I even put up a few larger signs on the county square and in front of the larger businesses in the county, including Ralph’s office building.

The signs would get taken down fast, but it would take a while to find and remove them all and in the meantime the word would spread. The accusation would have been publicly made and not easily refuted.

I tried to stay out of sight and keep a low profile until the last of my flyers were distributed and the business day at Ralph’s office was well underway. I wanted a full house for my one big speech… it was quite unlikely that I’d get a similar opportunity and I wanted to make the most of it.

Ralph, a rather nervous and seedy looking individual in his late twenties who appeared to be heavily partaking of his own methamphetamine products, was the nominal manager of a regional telemarketing call center in the county seat. Frankly, even this was probably beyond his limited managerial capabilities, but in this nepotistic county there was always some mostly harmless place to put the idiot sons and nephews to give them some sort of useful work. Allegedly, he and some old school buddies were also brewing up meth and after smoking up all that they could, they then tried to distribute the rest. Only family connections were keeping him out of jail. Not even his drug fueled rampages and his impulsive murder of Vanessa had been enough embarrassment for his dad and his uncles to quietly dispose of their troublesome kin.

After today, it was now going to be much too late. I got out of my truck and gave it a last caress goodbye. It had been good to me, driving me across seven different states in the last seven months and I hoped its next owner would treat it well. Where I was going soon, I would be unlikely to ever need it again.

**********

Ralph’s call center was a large former factory building not far from the center of town that had been converted into a large open cubicle work area, hosting at least two hundred employees to handle the phone calls. At a glance I could tell that it was really sucky work, especially for young ladies forced to work under Ralph’s roving and exploitative eyes. Most of the phone workers were women, local girls and housewives that desperately needed the extra income… even at the risk of falling prey to the sexual interest of Ralph or his even cruder friends. The aura of fear, hopelessness and misery was palpable everywhere inside.

I smiled at the girls and cleared my throat. It was a big noisy room but I was sure that even the poor gals in the furthest corner would be able to hear me. I wouldn’t have long at all; already I could see Ralph in his corner glass office looking at me in panic and starting to dial a number on his telephone. They would be coming for me soon, much too soon… but I would have time to tell Vanessa’s story, and in front of a lot of witnesses. Not all of which could be frightened into permanent silence after this was all over.

“Ralph! Come out of your office so that you can defend yourself. I will not harm you in any way, but I do wish to speak to you, to accuse you before these witnesses of the willful murder of Vanessa Miller. Why did you kill her Ralph? Because you had date-rape drugged her in the first place to bring her into your bed? Because she repeatedly fought to avoid your unwanted advances and the loathsome touch of your hands upon her? You’ve violated dozens, maybe over a hundred young women Ralph, but once you found Vanessa you swore that you’d keep her and make her yours. You kept her against her will, Ralph. Here under your sharp eyes while at work and then locked into your bedroom at night where you made her submit to you. Say this isn’t so, Ralph?”

Ralph said nothing to me, but jabbered some more into his telephone, apparently in a near complete panic. The rest of my audience was giving me their complete attention and several young (and not-so young) ladies were nodding in agreement with every word I said.

“You got her pregnant Ralph, the thing that she feared and dreaded the most, being forced to bear your child, the permanent reminder of your abuse and rape. She wanted to terminate it, to escape from you, to run away to some place far away where she could excise every single trace and memory of you — but you wouldn’t let her go. In your drug-fueled anger at her disobedience, you kicked down the bathroom door where she was then having a bout of morning sickness nausea and you beat her in a fury of rage until, at length in your insane fury, you drowned her with her head inside the toilet bowl until she was dead and oh so cold to the touch. You murdered her Ralph, and then unable to take even the slightest responsibility for your crime you then dumped her body into the pond behind the house to be found later. Isn’t that so, Ralph?”

Ralph still made no reply. Now he was cowering under his desk with his hands pressed over his ears so that he could blot out my stinging words. I just spoke up louder, right outside his locked glass office door so that he could hear every single word. My time was almost up and the sheriff’s deputies would be here any moment to haul me away.

“Your father helped you cover up the crime and called in the rest of the family to make sure that no one paid the slightest bit of attention to yet one more grave in the county cemetery. Poor Vanessa went into that cold, cold ground quickly that first night, away from friendly eyes or anyone who might show have the slightest interest in her demise. Even now, the Grangers will hold together, lying their old tired lies and frightening or beating anyone who dares utter a word of the real truth, like me. They think they can still protect you, but they can’t… not from her. By telling her story I’ve released her – she’s now free and loosened from her deep cold prison. When you leave here today you will see her. When you look into the mirror you will see her lurking behind you. When you lock yourself into your bedroom tonight she will be there inside with you as well. You cannot escape her ever again, her blue eyes will look into yours and you will hear her cries of ‘J’accuse!’ You can never escape what you have done, but you can choose to confess your crimes here and now… or else you can take them to your grave, when Vanessa comes to you for her revenge. What shall it be Ralph?”

Oh, for just a few minutes more… unfortunately, the rescue party of sheriff’s men came bursting through the door right at this point and soon had me down face to the floor with a heavy boot in the middle of my back and soon handcuffed. Ralph was blubbering something but I couldn’t distinguish anything of what he was saying. Frankly at this point it didn’t much matter. I had told my story and there were now witnesses that knew the real truth.

A half hour later I was back in jail and getting the worst beatdown of my entire life. It cost me three teeth and four broken ribs but even at the end I could still laugh at my persecutors.

Late the next morning, I learned that Ralph had been found dead in his father’s home, of a single gunshot wound. Self-inflicted. Apparently Vanessa had come to pay him a visit and her direct and more personal accusations had steadied his nerves and his trigger hand. I would have smiled at the news, but my face hurt far too much.

Later in the afternoon I learned, that despite being already held in custody, I was going to be formally accused of Ralph’s murder… and that of Vanessa’s as well, assuming they could find a way to fudge the evidence reports. All of my booking paperwork from yesterday was removed to be shredded and burned… as if it had never happened. Now I was ‘arrested’ once again and a new fraudulent paper trail was created, every single page and report was a travesty of justice and pure outright fraud.

Ralph’s father wrote a deposition claiming he had seen me at the house threatening Ralph once again, right before he heard the single gunshot. The ’suicide gun’ was relocated across the room by the doorway with the prints wiped off clean. Ralph, like Vanessa, was buried with extreme haste and without a coroner’s investigation or autopsy.

I just laughed and laughed. The more forged evidence they planted, created or forged, the more I just laughed in their faces. The family was desperate; I had been too bold, too public with my charges and I must be made to go away, fast and silently, and most importantly permanently. They even tried the trick of leaving my cell door ‘accidentally’ unlocked at night so that I could be shot while trying to escape. They were franticly seeking the quickest possible fix. That ‘fix’ was a forged confession letter that rounded off my case for prosecution at an all too speedy trial.

Three days after my alleged murder of Ralph Granger I was standing manacled and gagged in the courtroom of his uncle, the county criminal court judge Wyatt Granger, who took less than fifteen minutes to hold my trial and convict me of two counts of murder in the first degree. I never got to utter a single word in my defense, nor did I have even any sort of legal representation. All of these trivial details would be forged up later in a bogus trial transcript where I had alleged confessed to every crime, as if I were in a Russian kangaroo court in the days of Stalin.

The sentence was of course Death.

Underneath my gag I was still laughing at the poor fools. It would take time, but they had now sown the seeds of their own destruction more completely and thoroughly than anything I possibly could have ever done on my own. The sands of the glass timer were now slowly falling and nothing on earth was now going to be able to stop their advance, and our belated justice upon the Grangers.

*********

You might be saying to yourself about now ‘Ok, nice frame-up, but it’s all just too obvious. Somebody, somewhere will catch on and real justice would then start to ensue, right?’ Well not quite… yes and no, mostly no. Jails all over the world are full of ‘innocent’ people, poor folks caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, or who just had the wrong sort of enemies. The world everywhere is full of lazy police and prosecutors unwilling to reach for anything except the lowest hanging fruit on the tree, blind to other suspects that might cost them both time and money to pursue. One bird in a hand is better than a dozen other ones hidden in a bush… even if it’s the wrong bird. Innocent men and women are on death row and die there with regularity. Once the system has made a decision it is difficult to the point of near impossibility to stop the train of justice and get the wheels to slowly go backwards to fix even the most blatant mistakes. Governors are elected on ‘tough on crime’ platforms and often tend to view convicted felons as 100.00% guilty of their crimes. Common sense has almost never played any role in any courtroom anywhere.

While it is true there are anti-death penalty activists and “Innocence” organizations that crusade for cases like mine, they are all under-funded and heavily overworked. They too look mostly for the low-hanging fruit; low labor and costs — high reward cases. More than anything else, these groups seek out martyrs to further their political ends. The idea of an innocent man being wantonly executed by a harsh and uncaring state would make them salivate with pleasure, and they would leave no stone unturned in their path to make the most political gain, not to mention reap tons of favorable publicity. To them politically, one dead martyr to their cause was worth a dozen still living wrongly convicted death row inmates. I was counting heavily on this.

All of this was true in my case especially. The Grangers were extremely politically powerful in the state and they were friends (and big campaign finance donors) with the Governor, his Attorney General and the state administrator of prisons. I wasn’t the first troublemaker they had railroaded into prison for life, or worse. I didn’t have any money for lawyers other than the crappy next to useless ones appointed to draft my automatic death penalty appeal, most of whom couldn’t even explain what a tort was, well, correctly anyway.

On the surface, the evidence against me seemed to be overwhelming, albeit largely circumstantial, and no one I met while on death row for the next three and a half years seemed to show any inclination towards scratching at anything below the top surface of my case. As far as I was concerned, matters were progressing exactly as I wished them to and I wasn’t bending over even slightly to assist any of my appalling young and woefully inexperienced legal staff. Most of the male lawyers were barely old enough to shave. None were willing to accept my quite even tempered claims of innocence or even once indulged in any basic investigation of the facts of my case. So be it.

Soon faced with the decision of either appealing my sentence to spend years if not decades tilting at windmills in the hope of finding an attorney willing to work pro-bono that would actually investigate my case, or to just to drop my appeals and await my execution, I felt I had no choice but to choose the latter. Time was not on my side. The longer I waited the fewer witnesses that would be available to later investigators and there would be a greater risk of more genuine evidence being lost or destroyed. For Vanessa to get her complete revenge, my role in it had to be completed as quickly as possible. By waiving my final appeals, I could be facing the hangman’s rope in just a matter of months now, instead of years or even decades.

I accepted my fate… but I didn’t have to like it one little bit. I didn’t want to die… but I was willing to, to save Vanessa.

*********

By eleven-thirty that fateful night I made my final prayers and confessions to the prison chaplain, who was a rather likeable and wise old man that had known for some time that another innocent man was about to make that last final walk tonight.

I’d just finished my last meal, a rather pleasant dish of old-fashioned chicken and dumplings. Given a choice of nearly anything for a final last dinner, most inmates simply pick a cheeseburger and fries, and I quite understand why. They want something comforting to remind them of home. In my case I was remembering and craving something from my childhood. Happier memories from a simpler age and time.

Earlier in the evening, with both the chaplain and the warden present, I recounted the complete telling of my story, much as I have told it here. They also signed as witnesses my final notarized statement of the truth containing the facts of the case of the murder of Vanessa Miller, the suicide of Ralph Granger, the resulting cover-up and my kangaroo court trial. In the hands of a good crusading anti-death penalty lawyer, this length and comprehensive statement that recounted everything I had learned and every witness I had spoken to, would give any investigator a complete roadmap to the truth. In the hands of a good political zealot, this statement would blaze the trail for one of the biggest political scandals in a generation.

Part of me was scared that this would all be for naught, but holding Vanessa’s single long brown hair both calmed and reassured me. Somehow I still trusted her. The warden and the chaplain both thought I was benignly daft.

“Let me call the Governor and get a 48 hour stay of execution!” The warden begged. “I can call in the state police and if even one of the accusations you make is accurate then you’ll get an automatic appeal. There is no need to throw away your life in order to get revenge!”

“I’m not throwing away my life. I’m willingly but begrudgingly sacrificing it in order to fulfill an oath and to make the world a much better place after I’m gone. Hopefully quite soon. Warden, were you ever in the military?”

“Semper Fi!” he replied, and I nodded.

“In combat, would you have risked your life for a fellow Marine? Maybe even fallen upon a hand-grenade to save your squad? Or even fought against impossible odds on a dark street at night to protect the life of your wife and children, just to give them an extra chance at survival?”

He agreed he would do all or any of those things. I rather liked my warden; he was a fair man and a pretty good egg under his hard external shell.

“This is the exact same sort of thing that I am now doing. I’m going to fall on that grenade so that the decent men and women of Gilbreath County can someday enjoy the breath of non-corrupt air and so that no more of their wives and daughters will ever have to undergo even a small part of what Vanessa suffered. I have to do this… for her and for them.”

I think they both now truly understood. They both promised that they would see that my statements got into some proper hands where they could do some good.

********

Entering the execution chamber, I was a bit surprised. I almost expected some gothic chamber of horrors, complete with blood stains on the concrete, or the rampant odor of mildew and old fecal material or the stench of stale urine, but instead the room was bright and clean. It was almost a cheerful room, albeit with a slight heavy odor of pine-sol industrial cleaner. I was even more surprised to see some of my old nemesis’s sitting in the glass paned small witness room to watch my sentence being carried out. I guess the top Grangers wanted to make sure that I was finally out of their hair. Eli Granger was staring at me with undisguised hatred and only the presence of a preacher sitting next to him kept his rage and manners in check. His elder brother the judge sitting on the other side of him was a bit more circumspect, almost bored even, as if he wished to get a trivial annoyance done and out of his life for good.

Sorry, I wasn’t going to oblige them. I was willing to die to save Vanessa, and the others, but I wasn’t going to go meekly or gentle into that good night. The warden promised me that I’d have a few short minutes to make a final statement right at the end. Not long enough to tell my story over again to the pair of bored newspaper writers that were drinking coffee in a vain attempt to ward off the lateness of the hour, but enough to leave everyone with just a taste or hint of what was to come next. Or so I could only hope.

“Would you die for me?” The shadowy female hitch-hiker asked me not fifteen seconds after she got into my car.

I don’t normally pick up hitch-hikers, even rather lovely young and attractive appearing female ones, but when I saw her walking along the side of the lonely county road, miles from anywhere, hunched over in the cold late autumn rainy drizzle, something other than my head told me to hit the brakes and stop for her. Now, just a few moments later, I was wondering if I had suddenly picked up some sort of deranged serial killer who cruised remote rural roads near midnight on certain dark and moonless Friday nights.

“Ummm… probably not.” I admitted to her. In the murky rainy gloom, without a streetlight for miles, I really couldn’t get a very good look at her, but she didn’t seem to have a knife or any other sort of weapon in hand that was itching to bisect my throat.

“Well, that’s not a ‘no’, so I guess we can still become friends. I’m just… visiting here, really not much more than a passing stranger. A death in the family… murder, actually.” Her voice was low and sort of wispy, but I could clearly understand her every word.

“I’m fairly new here myself. Just passing through, really. I’m doing some grunt day labor over at the big grain silo in Bonner’s Grove. Not many jobs hereabout, but I needed to make a little more money before going back out on the road. Seeing America, finding myself, getting my shit together… you know.”

“I do actually. I’m still trying to get my shit together also, but it has been a pretty rough year for me. Slow down a bit, my stop is just up around the next curve in the road.”

I took that curve but didn’t see anything other than fog, mist and drizzling rain. If there was a farmhouse anywhere nearby, I didn’t see any lights. Still I pulled my old beat-up truck over to the side so that she could get out.

“Here! I said, suddenly in an unexplained moment of chivalry. “It is nasty wet and cold out there and you must still have a bit of walk to get home. Take my coat; it’s warm and it will keep you a bit dry. You can return it to me on Monday at the silo.” “Thanks! I’m not sure I can make it there, but I’ll make sure you get it back.”

She took the coat and put it on, and as she opened the passenger door to leave me, she bent over and gave me a slight peck on the cheek. Her lips were cold, nearly freezing cold. As cold as a grave doesn’t even begin to cover it. I was now glad I had given her the coat!

With that she walked off a bit down the road, just a shadowy figure that was nearly at once out of sight.

“Lady! You never told me your name?” I shouted off to her just as she disappeared out of sight on the other side of an iron fence. Instead of a reply I only heard some faint laughter that was soon lost in the cold wind and rain.

***********

I would have forgotten about this incident all-together, except for a couple of little disturbing facts. First, that the passenger seat and backrest of my truck were bone dry where she had sat. She had been walking in the rain and must have been soaked to the bone… but there wasn’t a single damp spot on the seat or the floorboard that I could find. Not one drop.

The other thing that bothered me was the way I did recover my coat. After waiting nearly a full week for her to show up at my work to return it, I decided the next Thursday evening after work that I would try to find the house where she was staying. It was a little tricky finding the spot where I had dropped her off, and at first I was certain that I’d gone to the wrong place. Gilbreath County Cemetery isn’t the usual place to deposit lovely young ladies in the middle of the night. I checked with the farms on all sides of the graveyard, but none of them had a young lady as a guest, or recognized the extremely vague and quite inadequate description I could give of her. I didn’t even know her hair color. Discouraged and walking back to my truck, I took a short-cut through the graveyard and soon found my coat. It was carefully hung up over a gravestone where I could easily see it.

The gravestone said simply “Vanessa Lea Miller”, along with her birth and death dates. The dates revealed that Vanessa was a young woman barely twenty-three years old. It was a fresh grave too, scarcely four months old. There were no flowers, not even plastic ones. Nothing was left here, except for my coat, to show that anyone had cared for or missed the late Miss Miller.

A chill ran down my back as I picked up my jacket and put it back on. The outside layer was very rain resistant and its inner layers were still quite dry. Still I felt quite cold all of the way back to my small rooming house. I naturally assumed that I had met Vanessa’s sister that last Friday night, but something kept bothering me for the rest of that night and the next day, Friday at work.

*********

At work I asked everyone I knew about the ‘murder’ of Vanessa Miller. Most of the guys had no idea whom or what I was talking about. Others changed the subject on me hard, and moved away from me if I pursued the subject. Around lunchtime, the silo foreman took me aside to find out why I was asking about such an unpleasant (and politically incorrect) matter and urged me, for the sake of my future employment… and my health, to drop the matter. Completely.

I didn’t disagree. I kept my trap shut the remainder of the workday, collected my paycheck, cashed it, got showered and changed for a little night on the town, and ended up as usual at Frankie’s Ice House. I like Frankie’s. The place is an unapologetic dive that serves one purpose only, to provide the local guys with a quiet place to drink — cheaply. You can get pretty much hammered at Frankie’s for about twenty dollars or less, but I was after the complete treatment tonight and stayed until at least one o’clock in the morning, when my table had too many empty beer bottles on it to fit any more fresh ones.

The subject of Vanessa, and her apparent mysterious relative, was not discussed once all evening. Frankie’s patrons don’t hold much to making casual, let alone controversial conversation. Much for the same reason that the jukebox in the corner isn’t even plugged in. Silence is the tonic that makes the drink flow smoothest at Frankie’s.

I really shouldn’t have driven home, but the late night wet and cold sobered me up fast. I kept telling myself it would be safe to drive home… that I wouldn’t see her ever again.

No one was more surprised than me to see my shadowy and mysterious lady once again walking that same stretch of lonely road in the early hours of the morning, but now she stopped and apparently was waiting for me.

I knew when I was screwed, so once again I pulled over for her.

**********

“Would you die for me?” The pale but pretty hitch-hiker asked me once again just moments after she got into my car. She ought to have been soaked to her skin from the cold rain, but I grasped her hand and like the rest of her it was bone dry.

“Darling, I would sustain any matter of bodily harm defending your virtue and protecting your honor, but I’m not quite ready for the grave just yet.”

“Fair enough,” she replied with something of a twinkle in her dark eyes as she leaned over to peck me on the cheek again. Her touch was once again bitterly cold, and her lips nearly sucked all of the warmth from my body. Despite my teeth now chattering and with my blood running in near frozen channels through my body, I was now dead sober and I looked upon her with a combination of fear and unabashed curiosity. I could almost see her eyes, still in shadows. Were they grey or a lovely pale blue that was lost under the cover of her wet bedraggled hair that would undoubtedly feel all too dry to my touch?

I had so many questions for her, but I feared the answers even more. The memory of old Cub Scout campfire ghost stories of the perils of phantom hitchhikers was once again fixed in my mind. I wanted to hold her and kiss her but I was terrified at the thought of what would happen even more.

“Drop you off at the same place?”

“If you please.”

We drove in silence for over five minutes until I could see her corner coming up in the distance.

“I tried to find out a bit about you… your sister at my work, but no one will listen to me. Some of the men were just plain scared of making any trouble; others were frightened at what would happen if some important people in the town and at the county seat found out that some questions were being asked. No one would help me or lift a finger to get involved… and now I’m scared and frightened too.”

“You should be,” she said with a slight smile as I stopped in front of the graveyard for her late night visitation.

“What can I do?” I earnestly begged her. The dread on my face was obvious and plain to see.

“Be a dear and loan me your coat again for the night. You just won’t believe how cold I’ve been lately. You’ll know where you can find it again when you need it.

I gave her my jacket once again and before she got out of the car she gave me a little kiss on my lips. It burned and froze me both at once. It was exquisite and yet it was soul crushing. I think it was supposed to make me feel brave… and it sort of did. I could feel her touch lingering on me, like a tiny anchor now roped onto my soul to protect it, hopefully, under the rough and dangerous seas that I was sure were now coming.

“Be brave.” She said with a small but penetrating voice that cut through my fear and the outside wind and rain like a crisp new windshield wiper upon wet glass. “You promised me your physical pain to protect my honor and I’m going to hold you to your oath. You are going to know true fear and undoubtedly real bodily pain, but if you’re the kind of man I hope you are, then I know you will persevere. I’m so counting on you… There is no one else who can or will listen to me.”

In a moment she was gone, out of sight and probably over the fence once more inside the cemetery. Just as I had expected, her seat was dry and didn’t leave the slightest trace of her, and I was left alone once more shivering with the cold and my fear of my now very uncertain future.

To discover the truth of Vanessa’s murder, I was going to have to ask a lot more questions to a lot more people, and much more firmly. Many of them weren’t going to like the subject matter and a select few of them would undoubtedly soon begin to make my life a living hell.

I wasn’t long left in suspense. I also found my jacket Saturday morning right on top of Vanessa’s grave mound as if she had been lying right there on top of it before sinking into the rain sodden ground.

*******

By the lunch whistle on Monday, I was flat out of a job — fired by the silo foreman ‘for my own good’. Several other helpful former coworkers urged me to get my ass out of the county – fast. The sooner the better. I just couldn’t do that… I’d made a promise that I intended to keep, even though I was sure that it was going to cost me dear.

I spent Tuesday in the County Records office where the clerks and I played a complicated and tiresome game of ‘keep-away’. I wanted the see the autopsy and court records for Vanessa’s case and they claimed they didn’t have anything on her at all, blaming instead the county coroner. I knew better; I’d met the coroner on Monday evening and he swore to me that the county sheriff had interrupted him before the autopsy had been barely started, taking away all of his preliminary notes and telling him that the case was already closed.

What little I did learn convinced me beyond a doubt that Vanessa had been murdered alright. Allegedly she had been found floating one morning in a small stock pond behind Eli Granger’s house. The words ‘accident’ and ‘mishap’ had been used a lot by the sheriff’s men and by the county judge who indecently ruled her case shut and closed a mere three hours after the discovery of her nude floating body. The coroner knew otherwise; normal drowning victims don’t show signs of a recent severe beating or have loud and quite distinct finger strangulation marks around their neck.

Vanessa had been murdered, and the evidence instantly pointed to her sometime boyfriend, Ralph Granger, Eli’s son. Remember that name, Granger. It shows up a lot at every level of the local county government. A Granger was County Sheriff, a Granger was Chief County Clerk, another was the County Judge, and so forth. You get the idea. Rural southern nepotism at it’s finest. The Grangers had run Gilbreath County for nearly fifty years and took their dime or quarter upon every single dollar that was earned inside the county line. Most of the regular folks were getting more than a bit upset about this and were pretty much itching for some change, but the Granger family kept enough goons in deputy uniforms to keep the piece… and drive off the troublemakers.

By Wednesday evening, I was certified as county troublemaker #1. The word had gotten around fast that I was asking embarrassing questions about young Ralph’s stormy relationship with Vanessa. Some of her co-workers were beginning to open up to me and I was starting to hear some rather interesting stories about Ralph usual courtship rituals with young women like Vanessa that included drugging, forcible seduction, outright rape, and boatloads of physical and psychological abuse afterwards to keep their women in line.

As a side industry, he and his friends were involved deeply in a side operation of methamphetamine manufacturing and trafficking. Since I didn’t have a job anymore, I was using a bar table at Frankie’s to meet my reluctant witnesses. The quiet somberness suited the mood and the grimness of their stories. I was not getting a lot of different pieces of the puzzle, and it was a dark and unhappy one.

Not long after sharing drinks with a nice young gal who was a former co-worker of Vanessa’s, two rather impolite sheriff’s deputies came bursting into Frankie’s and quickly grabbed me and hauled me right out of there, with my boots scraping a furrow behind me through the decades old layers of peanut shells that covered the floor two inches deep in some spots. My captors didn’t even have any questions for me, other than my name. Once I’d identified myself they just commenced to beat the total crap out of me. Once I was satisfactorily bloodied enough to be booked, I was admitted to the presence of his august immenseness, the County Judge, who seemed to be holding a special night court session just for me. In less than five minutes, I was declared guilty of being a vagrant, since I no longer held a job, and fined for the full amount of money that they found in my wallet and for good measure then sentenced to a week in jail. Luckily, I don’t keep my savings in my wallet, I’ve got a little hidden hidey spot in my truck where I keep my important stuff.

Life on the road can sometimes be a little hazardous.

**********

To be honest, this wasn’t exactly my first time in jail, but this was the first time that I’d actually been more or less innocent. I’d been wild as a kid, hanging out with gangs of kids older and mostly braver than me. I had nothing to do with crimes involving the use of a gun, but just about anything else was fair game, especially petty theft. I did drive a getaway car once for a couple of casual friends who shot and nearly killed a convenience store clerk, a kid just barely older than me. I hadn’t known that my friends were armed or I wouldn’t have agreed to help them.

I knew that some sort of line had been crossed and I didn’t like it and I never worked a job with those guys again, but I still kept and spent the $225 that was my share of the loot. Two weeks later I got caught trying to jack a car and my minor crime spree on the streets was all over. The judge offered me five years of hard time up at State Prison, or four years in Army Infantry as a front line grunt. I took the Army, and it was the best decision of my life. The service was the family that I’d never really had before and I pretty quickly got my shit straightened out and became a model soldier. I spent my time on the DMZ in Korea and then did a tour in the Big Sandbox before getting out to start to make an entirely new life for myself. I’m still not quite an angel, but I’ve tried pretty hard to stay on the right side of the law ever since. Since I’d left the service six months ago I’ve worked and travelled through seven states, looking for someplace that I could call home, but nothing has seemed quite right to me yet.

Now, finding the law here to be on the wrong side of truth and justice was a bit of a surprise to me.

******

I managed to survive my week in prison, but I was astonished that my ribs and teeth all survived the stay intact, albeit extremely loosened. I was beaten, semi-starved and humiliated in nearly every way possible, but I kept focused and grit my teeth and endured. ‘Pain is just weakness leaving the body,’ one of my old Army physical training instructors had told me. Quite true. They were not yet willing to kill me, so their abuse and pain was just making my will that much stronger than theirs. I would survive… and someday soon they would pay.

When my week was up my things were returned to me and I was given clear and extremely precise instructions to leave the county and never return. I did leave the county, but just for two days. I caught up on my sleep and tried (utterly in vain) to interest any of the other surrounding county newspapers or sheriff’s officers in my story.

Some folks had some sympathy for me, and one neighboring sheriff actually bought me dinner while listening to my story, but the end result was the same. The Grangers were too powerful to go directly against, especially with petty claims. They would need something big – big enough to bring in the Fed’s like a major civil rights investigation, or even the DEA, to handle the rumors of major methamphetamine distribution in that county. They wanted the Grangers’ gone as much as anyone, but first there needed to be some sort of solid proof to get an investigation kickstarted.

‘Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” I heard this repeatedly from nearly everyone I spoke with. They weren’t unwilling or disinterested… but they needed something firm that they could hold onto and use to bring in the Fed boys running to their assistance.

Somehow, for Vanessa’s sake, I had to find something tangible and real.

************

Late Friday evening I turned the truck around and drove back into Gilbreath County. I intended to go to Frankie’s to quietly have a few beers while my brain tried to think of a clever plan. Instead I soon found myself driving past the ice house and travelling down that gloomy rural country road that lead to Vanessa’s cemetery. I began willing myself to not look towards the roadside, hoping that I would miss her in the dark cold and rain. Funny, it seems that it had rained nearly every day I’d been here. I was also beginning to think that I’d never see the sun or ever become warm again inside. Surely she wouldn’t be waiting for me to come again tonight?

When I saw Vanessa’s ghostly figure waiting for me on the side of the road I knew I was well and truly trapped with no possible escape. I needed to make an iron-clad case for the Feds to investigate so that Vanessa could have justice… I never guessed that it would be my own case.

Julian decided to visit one of the adult book and video stores in a gay section of the city. He had never been in one of those stores before and he was understandably nervous on his first visit. Julian walked in and he was greeted by the clerk behind the desk. Julian walked around trying to look normal but he was overwhelmed by all of the sexual material. There were videos, books, novelties and sexual toys of all sorts. His nervousness was more apparent than he thought.

“Is this your first time here?” a voice whispered from behind him.

“Yes, it is. Is it that obvious?” Julian whispered in reply.

“Yeah but don’t let it bother you. It’s normal to be nervous. I’m Allan,” the handsome young man said holding out his hand.

“Julian,” Julian replied shaking the stranger’s hand.

“Come with me Julian and I’ll show you something,” Allan said and then he walked toward the back of the store.

As if in a trance, Julian followed Allan into the back room where there a large number of private video booths. Allan picked out a booth and locked the door after he and Julian were inside. Allan then put some tokens in a slot and a gay movie appeared on the screen immediately. Julian couldn’t believe his eyes as he had never seen a gay porn movie. There were three men in the video and one was on his knees getting fucked in the ass while he sucked the cock of the third man. Allan rubbed Julian’s crotch through his pants until Julian was hard which didn’t take long. Allan then unfastened Julian’s belt unzipped his pants and pushed them with his briefs down to his ankles.

Allan then dropped to his knees and took Julian’s rock hard cock in his mouth. Julian was so turned on that he came in Allan’s mouth almost immediately. Allan sucked down every drop of Julian’s cum and he drained Julian’s cock dry. Julian couldn’t believe that he had just cum in another man’s mouth. Allan then stood up and kissed Julian allowing him to taste his own cum. Allan then dropped his trousers and underwear baring his own erection. He pushed gently on Julian’s shoulders and Julian realized what was expected of him.

“I’ve never done this,” Julian whispered.

“No problem, just do what I did to you,” Allan replied as he pressed down on Julian’s shoulders.

Julian sank to his knees and his face became level with Allan’s cock. Julian had never seen another hard cock until today. Allan pulled Julian’s head toward the erect cock and Julian instinctively took it in his mouth. Julian actually liked the feel of the hard shaft in his mouth and he sucked on it tenderly. Allan’s cock was about the same as Julian’s in length about 8″ but less in girth of asbout 4″ around. Allan guided Julian’s head back and forth until Julian got the hang of it. Julian then bobbed his head up and down on Allan’s cock until Allan stiffened and fired a barrage of cum into Julian’s mouth. Julian instinctively swallowed the first jet of cum that hit the back of his throat and then he continued to swallow each additional volley. Julian surprised himself with his reaction to Allan cumming in his mouth. Julian thought that he would have been repulsed by it but he had just the opposite reaction. He actually liked the taste of Allan’s cum and he had a strange sense of power over Allan when Allan came.

Julian was hard again and he hoped that Allan would suck him off once more. But Allan surprised Julian when he turned him around to face away from him. Allan then reached under Julian and cupped his balls and stroked his cock. Julian groaned as his scrotum was fondled and then he watched the scene on the video screen, the three men were still fucking and sucking each other. Julian felt Allan’s tongue slide over his perineum and up between his ass cheeks. Julian flipped out when Allan licked his ass and rimmed his asshole. Julian didn’t know that people did that to each other but the feeling was sensational.

Allan worked his tongue back and forth over Julian balls to his asshole. Julian thought that he would cum again any second if Allan didn’t stop tongue probing Julian’s ass. Then Julian felt a cool liquid enter his asshole and it almost seemed to numb his anus. Allan then stood up and coated his cock with the same lubricant unbeknown to Julian. Allan pushed Julian over slightly as he lined his cock up with Julian’s asshole. When Julian felt the cock at the entrance to his ass he panicked briefly but he didn’t protest. After all this was why he was here.

Allan pushed his cock into Julian’s ass and Julian almost screamed out in pain. Even though Allan’s cock wasn’t too thick it was still thicker than the candles. Julian muffled his cries with his arm as he was afraid that any noise would draw too much attention to them in the video booth. Julian was afraid of getting caught naked with another man. Allan worked his cock into Julian’s ass and the pain eventually subsided. Julian then felt bloated for awhile and then he just felt full. Allan began to saw his cock in and out of Julian’s ass.

Julian’s ass was extremely tight and Allan did not last long even though it was his second orgasm. Julian felt Allan stiffen and hold onto Julian’s hips. Allan plunged his cock all the way into Julian’s ass and then he unleashed a torrent of cum into the virgin asshole. Julian felt Allan’s seed flood his ass and he found himself instinctively using his anal muscles to milk Allan’s cock dry. Julian at that moment decided that he liked the feeling of cum filling his asshole.

They stayed in the same position for a few minutes and then Allan’s cock softened and slipped from Julian’s ass. Allan told Julian to pull up his pants. Once they were both dressed Allan spoke.

“That was great. Come on I’ll show you another part of the store,” Allan whispered.

Allan opened the video booth door and they both stepped out into the hallway. Julian noticed that there were other men standing around other video booths and as he walked by them he felt a hand caress his ass. Allan led him to the theater section of the video store. Julian saw the movie and it was an all out orgy with naked gay bodies all over the place doing every imaginable thing. It took a while for Julian’s eyes to adjust to the dark room but when they did he noticed that there were 6 to 8 men in the room. There were folding chairs to sit in to watch the movie but no one was seated. Allan started caressing Julian’s body again and he had Julian erect in no time. Allan this time undressed Julian so that he was totally naked and then Allan took off his clothes as well. Julian felt the presence of another body behind him as Allan embraced him.

“Who do we have here today Allan?” the voice asked.

“Fred this is Julian and you won’t believe this. Julian just gave up his cherry to me in the video booth,” Allan replied.

“His cherry, you got his cherry, his oral cherry and in the video booth!” exclaimed Fred.

“Fred I got both his cherries, his mouth and his ass,” Allan bragged.

“Both of them and in the video booth, oh that is so hot,” Fred gasped.

Fred then took hold of Julian’s erect cock and asked, “Julian you have a beautiful cock, can I suck it? Would you like me to suck your cock?”

Julian was overcome with desire and he just nodded. Fred dropped to his knees and took Julian’s cock into his succulent mouth. Fred proved to be an excellent cock sucker and he deep throated Julian as he cupped Julian’s balls. Another body then moved in behind Julian and Julian felt another cock slide into his ass. The man behind him pushed Julian over slightly so that he was bent over Fred who knelt in front of him. The man fucking Julian this time wasn’t as large as Allan and his cock slid in easily. Julian was groaning as his ass was fucked and his cock was sucked. Then someone turned Julian’s head to side and offered him another cock. Now Julian was getting fucked as he sucked a cock while his own cock was being sucked. The four of them kept at one another until they all came. The guy in Julian’s ass came first which triggered Lorne’s orgasm. As Julian was filling Fred’s mouth with cum his own mouth was flooded by the other cock. It was then that Julian noticed Allan on all fours with cocks in his ass and mouth.

The four of them uncoupled and then Julian was pushed to the floor and placed on all fours. Another cock entered his ass and yet another one filled his mouth. For the next several hours Julian sucked cocks and was butt fucked repeatedly. Every once in a while someone would suck on Julian’s cock too. Later Fred let Julian fuck him in the ass. It was the only ass that Julian got to fuck that day but he loved it. He loved sliding his cock in and out of Fred’s ass as he caressed the shapely buttocks. Julian finally came in Fred’s ass and then collapsed on top him. Minutes later everyone got dressed and Julian walked out of the video store. He never did see Allan again after that day but Julian had achieved his objective.

Julian looked at his watch and realized that he had been in the video store for over four hours. He walked back to the subway station and headed back home. When Julian arrived home he was exhausted and his body ached all over not just from the fucking and sucking but from using muscles that had been idle until that day. He learned that he liked getting fucked with a real cock and he like the sensation of warm cum shooting into him. He also liked fucking a guy’s ass as much as he had liked fucking Maria’s ass. Even sucking a cock and having it shoot in his mouth was kind of a turn on. Julian knew that from that day on he would enjoy sex with both men and women.

JULIAN VISITS A BATH HOUSE

Weeks passed since Julian’s visit to the video store. He still dated girls and he even found one who would let his fuck her in the ass. Most of the girls he dated wanted nothing to do with anal sex. Julian had even bought a dildo and a put plug so that he could indulge in anal play while he jerked off. Julian however missed the real thing and he decided that he wanted to experience another cock in his ass. He opted not to visit the video store but instead to visit a gay bath house that was popular in the Village.

On a Friday night Julian went to the gay bath house. When he entered he paid a fee which included a locker and a towel. Rooms were extra but Julian didn’t opt for a room on his first visit. He watched other men come in and they were all shapes and sizes. They undressed, put their clothes and personal belongings in a locker and then wrapped the towel around their waist. Julian did the same thing and then he walked around and checked out the bath house. It had a small swimming pool, large Jacuzzi, a stream room, sauna and of course showers. There was also a large room with rows of beds in it. Julian noticed that there were already guys in the beds fucking and sucking.

Julian walked the halls and passed a number of rooms. Most of the doors were closed but there were some open with guys in them. Some guys lay on their stomachs and wiggled their asses in an invitation as people walked by. Other guys sat on the bed stroking their cocks. Julian noticed a board at the end of the hallway that had all the rooms listed. Guys wrote messages on the bed to advertise their interest. Julian was extremely nervous and actually thought about leaving when two cute guys walked up to him and introduced themselves as Bruce and David.

They convinced Julian to join them in the shower and when Julian noticed the firm hard bodies of Bruce and David he felt a surge in his loins. Julian was a little embarrassed as his cock hardened slightly into a semi-erect state and pushed out his towel. Julian followed David and Bruce to the showers and joined them. Julian stepped under the water and turned his back to David and Bruce. The next thing he felt a set of hands on his back and he froze in a state of desire.

David said, “Here I’ll wash your back for you,” then he ran his soapy hands over Julian’s shoulders and back.

Julian was then doomed as his cock sprung into a fully erect state. Julian stood rigid as the hands passed over his shoulders and worked their way down his back. When David touched him just above his buttocks, Julian trembled and moaned slightly. Then David cupped Julian’s ass and then moved his hands around Julian’s body. Julian could feel David’s erect cock pressing into his ass as David reached around and cupped Julian’s balls with one hand and Julian’s cock with the other.

“Would you like me to fuck you Julian?” David had asked.

Julian just nodded in the affirmative and David pushed him over slightly. David ran his soapy fingers in and out of Julian’s asshole and then David placed his soapy cock at the entrance. David pushed while holding on the Julian’s hips and the cock slid in easily. Julian loved the feeling of a warm cock sliding in and out of his ass. By then Bruce had joined them and he offered his cock up for Julian’s mouth. Julian eagerly swallowed Bruce’s cock and then the two of them fucked his ass and his face until they came. Bruce filled Julian’s mouth with his cum just as David came in Julian’s ass. Julian stood up and then he realized that they had an audience. Six other guys were stroking their cocks and watching the action.

“Come with us Julian,” David told him.

The three of them took their towels but they did not bother to wrap them around their bodies. Bruce and David then took Julian into their room where they had him get on the bed on all fours. This time Bruce fucked Julian’s ass and Julian sucked David’s cock until they both came again. Julian later found himself on his back with his legs dangling off the bed. David then pushed Julian’s legs up and slipped his cock back into Julian’s ass. David fucked Julian with Julian’s legs resting on David’s shoulders. Julian turned his head to one side at Bruce’s urging and took Bruce’s cock back in his mouth. David pleasured Julian when he reached over and grabbed Julian’s throbbing erect cock. Bruce played with Julian’s tits as Julian sucked Bruce’s cock. David jerked Julian off as he fucked him and Julian shot two loads all over his own body before Bruce and David came again.

Julian then returned to the shower and washed before he made the rounds again. Julian walked by the rooms again and this time a door was open that had been closed earlier. Julian saw a cute young blonde guy lying face down on the bed. The guy had a great looking ass and it stirred Julian loins. The guy motioned for Julian to come in the room and Julian entered.

“Close and lock the door. I’m Peter,” the handsome blonde said.

“I’m Julian.”

“Get on the bed Julian. I’m going to fuck you first,” Peter directed.

Then Peter greased up Julian’s asshole and he marveled at the shapely ass on Julian’s small frame. Julian looked good on all fours as he waited for Peter’s cock to penetrate his ass. Peter took his time lubricating Julian’s ass and he liked the submissive posture that Julian presented. Julian had his head down on his hands which were folded on the bed. Julian’s ass was elevated and his back was arched emphasizing the curvy shape of his ass. Julian looked perfect and he presented exactly the image that Peter liked to fuck. Julian even had cute little tits to go with his effeminate frame.

Peter moved close and slowly eased his cock into Julian’s ass. Julian groaned slightly with the penetration and his sphincter stretched to accept the swollen cock. Once past the sphincter Peter fucked Julian slowly until Julian’s ass opened up and was once again able to take a big thick cock. Peter then picked up the pace and soon his hips were slamming into the petite Julian. Julian’s cute ass would jiggle each time Peter thrust into it and Peter loved the effect. Peter felt his orgasm building and he knew that he would dump a good sized load in Julian’s ass. Julian felt Peter’s body stiffen and make one final thrust as Peter buried his cock in Julian’s ass. Then Julian felt cum surge into him and he felt Peter’s cock throb with each release.

Julian’s anal muscles involuntarily clenched and unclenched as they massaged Peter’s cock and drew every drop of cum from the shaft. Peter kept pressed against his lover and let his cock be milked dry. Julian couldn’t hold his position any longer and he collapsed forward on the bed. Peter followed Julian down and lay on top of Julian with his cock still buried in Julian’s ass. Peter felt Julian’s smooth hairless skin against his own and he liked the feeling. Peter remained on top of Julian until Julian begged him to get up. Peter didn’t realize it but he had been crushing Julian’s smaller body. Peter had gotten lost in the moment as Julian’s ass muscles tightened around Peter’s cock. Peter then rolled to the side and his still erect cock slipped from Julian’s dilated asshole.

Julian remained on his stomach face down on the bed as he recovered from being thoroughly fucked. Peter looked over at Julian’s ass and he could see cum oozing from it. Peter was tempted to finger Julian’s asshole and push the semen back in. Peter started by caressing Julian’s curvy smooth ass and then he played with his asshole. Peter pushed his finger into Julian’s cum filled hole. Julian wiggled his ass in response as Peter played with him. Julian then pushed himself up on all fours giving Peter better access. Peter felt his desire mount again so he moved back behind Julian. Peter eased his cock back into Julian’s ass for a second time and he knew he would last a little longer this time since he had already cum. Peter fucked Julian for what seemed like an hour until he finally came again.

“Oh Peter, I don’t know if I have ever been fucked like that since I’ve been here. You sure had a lot of cum built up,” Julian cooed.

“I’m glad you liked it because I loved fucking your ass,” Peter told him.

“Julian would you give me a massage? My muscles are really stiff after fucking you,” Peter requested.

“With pleasure,” Julian replied excitedly.

Julian took the body lotion from Peter and then straddled Peter’s body. Julian sat on Peter’s legs just below Peter’s buttocks and rested his soft cock in the crack of Peter’s ass. Julian poured the lotion on Peter’s back and shoulders and then began to massage Peter. Peter’s skin was hairless, smooth and flawless and Julian’s hands glided over the skin. After several minutes of massaging Peter’s upper body Julian turned his attention to Peter’s ass. Julian massaged each of Peter’s buttocks relishing in the feel of the round firm globes. Julian felt his cock begin to harden again and within a few minutes of rubbing Peter’s ass Julian was erect. Julian’s hard cock was nestled in the crack of Peter’s ass and Julian slid his cock within the fold of Peter’s buttocks.

Peter felt Julian’s cock harden again and he said, “You like my ass don’t you Julian?”

“I love your perfectly shaped ass,” Julian replied.

“Are you going to fuck me?” Peter asked in a sultry voice.

“Yes I need to. You got me hard so I will fuck your hot ass,” Julian rasped.

Julian smoothed the body lotion all over his cock and then he poured some of it in the crack of Peter’s ass. Julian then fingered Peter’s asshole making sure that it was well lubed. Satisfied that Peter was sufficiently lubricated, Julian eased his cock into Peter’s hot ass for the first time. Peter pushed his buns up to meet Julian’s penetration and the cock slid in easily. Peter groaned as the shaft filled his anal passage. Julian fucked Peter for what seemed to be almost an hour before he finally came in Peter’s ass and then Julian collapsed on top of Peter. Peter liked the feeling of Julian’s tits pressing into his back. The two of them remained in the same position for several minutes before they separated. Julian rolled off of Peter and lay on his back. “Let’s take a shower and get cleaned up,” Peter suggested.

The two of them went to the showers and began to wash each other. Peter washed Julian’s body and paid particular attention to Julian’s ass. Peter stood behind Julian and washed Julian’s tits and abs. Then Peter’s hands made their way down to Julian’s ass. Peter cupped the inviting buttocks in his hands as he soaped up Julian’s ass. Then he fingered Julian’s asshole and soaped up his own cock. Julian leaned forward slightly placing his hands on the shower wall and arched his back so that his ass pushed back toward Peter. Peter eased his cock into Julian’s soapy asshole as he held onto Julian’s hips.

Julian groaned seductively as the big dick entered his asshole. Peter fucked him slowly and watched his cock slide in and out of Julian’s shapely ass. Peter was so turned on that he felt his orgasm building quicker then he planned. There was no stopping him and his balls tightened as he unloaded in Julian’s ass. Peter held onto to Julian’s hips and drove his cock deep into Julian’s asshole. Julian felt the hot cum fill his asshole to overflowing and instinctively used his anal muscles to milk Peter’s cock.

Peter stayed hard and kept fucking Julian. Peter could feel his own semen surround his cock as he continued to fuck Julian’s ass. Peter sensed that he would stay hard and he was pleased that he could continue to fuck Julian’s ass. Julian realized that Peter would fuck him until he ejaculated again and Julian began to stroke his own cock.

“Peter, play with me? Please play with my cock. Stroke it for me. Jerk me off as you fuck me,” Julian begged.

Peter grabbed a hold of Julian’s cock and jerked him off as he fucked Julian’s ass. Peter loved holding Julian’s cock and jerking him off. Peter lasted much longer this time but he still felt a huge orgasm building in his balls. Just as Peter came in Julian’s ass a third time, Julian screamed that he was cumming. Peter stroked Julian quicker and he watched over Julian’s shoulder as Julian ejaculated. Julian’s cum oozed out of his cock and trickled over Peter’s hand only to be washed away by the shower water. Peter liked feeling Julian ejaculate and watching the spunk ooze out of Julian’s cock.

The two of them got out of the shower and dried off. Julian noticed that Peter’s cock was still semi-hard. “Does that thing ever go soft?” Julian teased.

“Not as long as there is a hot ass like yours to fuck,” Peter replied as he playfully grabbed Julian’s ass.

“Come on, let’s go back to the room,” Peter suggested.

Once in the room with the door closed, they both got hard again and then they played with each other’s cock. Julian couldn’t stand it any longer so he dropped to his knees between Peter’s legs and Julian took Peter’s big cock in his mouth. Julian jerked on his own cock as he sucked on Peter’s.

Peter then spoke, “Come on Julian, let’s go back to bed and we can suck each other.”

The two new lovers got into a 69 position. It took them quite awhile to cum again but they didn’t care as they loved sucking each other’s cock. They stroked each other’s legs, abs, asses and balls as they deep throated one another. They went at it for over an hour and then they both managed to cum again. They came in each other’s mouth and continued to suck each other’s cock until they both went soft. The two insatiable lovers then turned their bodies to face each other and embraced. They cuddled and petted and Peter sucked on Julian’s tits. Julian had never really cuddled with a guy before but he learned how sensitive his breasts were. Julian liked the way Peter made love and his visit to the bath house had been better than expected.

Julian eventually got out of bed and left Peter sleeping in the room. Julian closed and locked the door behind him. He decided to take another shower but this time to get cleaned up before he left. Julian then dressed and returned the locker key to the clerk who smiled at him. Julian then checked the time and saw that it was almost 5:00 AM. He had been at the bath house for almost nine hours. Julian then went home and slept until noon that day.

His life was changed forever as he loved having sex with both men and women. He loved getting fucked in the ass and he loved fucking other people in the ass. He had become an accomplished cock sucker along with his pussy eating skills. Julian was pleased with his sexuality and he looked forward to many more interesting encounters. Julian received word later that week that his Aunt Amelie and her son Pierre would be visiting New York. He had not seen them since he lived in Paris and he was thrilled that they would be staying with him while they were in New York.