She dove into the water and swam to the life raft. He was already up on it, and she instantly flung herself against him. He resisted for a moment, but as the steady motion of the water drove their bodies back and forth, he gave in to the feelings that were once again hardening him with excitement.
Her hand dropped from Van's neck and worked its way down. His kisses became more frenzied.
Janis' mind sang with wild excitement as her fingers caught the prize they were after. "Undress me, Van!" she gasped. "I want you to see me naked!"
CHAPTER ONE
The young sailor had caught Janis's eye from the moment she'd come into the bus terminal. He was tall, trimly built, with curly black hair and a bronze tan that seemed even darker against the crisp whiteness of his uniform. Just the kind of man I'd like to know better! she thought. Especially on a miserable trip like this.
She put her suitcase down at the luggage counter, handed the reservations agent her ticket, and turned to look over her shoulder at the bench where the sailor was sitting. Their eyes met quickly and he smiled, nodding his head just enough to indicate that he, too, was feeling the vibrations. Janis lowered her eyelids and gave back a sultry, promising smile.
"You're going to Tobinville?" the agent asked.
Not hearing him, her full attention directed at the sailor and the little game their eyes were playing as each scanned the other's body, Janis ignored the question.
"Miss? Miss!" The agent tapped her shoulder and Janis jumped in surprise. "Your destination is Tobinville?"
"That's what it says on the ticket, isn't it?" she cracked.
"I just wanted to make certain there was no mistake."
"The only mistake," she said with a touch of bitterness to her voice, "is that I am going there, not that I'm not."
The agent gave her a blank look for a moment, then went back to scribbling notations on her ticket. "That's one-way, right?"
"I'm afraid so," Janis sighed. "At least for now."
The man gave her a wan smile and handed back the ticket. "Give this to the driver when you board," he said. "That will be gate number ten, loading in about fifteen minutes."
"Thank you," she murmured. You're not too bad, either, she thought, giving the reservations agent a quick once-over. Testing her intuition, she gave him a smile and a quick wink, then almost laughed as she watched his cheeks turn a bright pink. Eat your heart out! she laughed to herself as she stuffed the ticket into her purse and moved away from the counter. She could feel the agent's eyes following the rhythmic sway of her behind as she moved slowly across the floor to the passenger lounge. It didn't bother her. In fact, Janis would have been upset if a good-looking man didn't look twice at her. Very few failed to.
At eighteen, Janis was the epitome of sexy young femininity. Her breasts were full, gourd-shaped, strong enough to support themselves without the aid of a bra. Naked inside the tight sweaters she usually wore, their gentle slopes burst suddenly into two thick, bright-pink nipples which pressed out against the clinging wool like hard rubber nubs. Her thighs curved gracefully from flaring hips, always generously exposed by the shortest of miniskirts, so that when she sat down it was almost possible for a man to look right up to the flimsy, black lace panties she almost always wore.
Janis was not a tall girl, but her flaming red hair was usually teased high on her head, emphasizing her height. Her face had the fragile quality of a china doll with its tiny, button nose and sculptured cheeks, but her eyes made sure the look she gave a man was taken for anything but innocent. A sparkling, sea-deep green, she emphasized their sultriness with exotic eye-shadow and extra-long false lashes, so that when she batted them at someone it was a sure bet he'd think twice about what might be on her mind.
Usually that something was sex. Since she'd first begun to change from a little girl into a budding woman, Janis had taken a liking to sex that just wouldn't quit. It was almost like an addiction sometimes. No matter how much of it she got, she was always looking for more. Just about every man she met, she mentally undressed and fantasized in her mind what it would be like to go to bed with him. The number who'd interested her enough to do more than fantasize had already surpassed her ability to remember them all. On more than one occasion she'd been startled to find out that a man she thought she was conquering for the first time had already been to bed with her!
It was this obsession with sex-and having it with one man in particular-that had brought her to the bus terminal that morning, in fact. Believing that their baby daughter was getting in deeper water than she could handle with a boy named Rocky-and not knowing that Janis had been floating quite contentedly over her head for years already-they were shipping her off for a "quiet" summer in Tobinville, where her older sister Peggy lived, hoping that a few months away from the temptations of big city life in Chicago would have a beneficial effect on her.
As she sat down on one of the terminal benches, Janis glanced at her watch. Ten minutes before boarding time. She was looking forward to this trip with all the excitement of beginning a three-month jail sentence. She and her parents had visited Peggy once a couple of years ago, before she got married, and even then Tobinville had seemed like the end of the world to Janis. It was what she considered a one-horse town. Small, typically mid-western, with one main shopping street, a few bars, and a dozen churches. During that first visit she'd made a crack to Peggy about wanting to see how they rolled up the sidewalks at night, but it had gone over like a lead balloon.
"I happen to like this town," her sister had emphatically declared.
You would, Janis remembered thinking at the time, for Peggy had always seemed the exact opposite of herself. Whereas Janis was wild and reckless in everything she did, Peggy had the conservative habits of a woman twice her age. The perfect wife and mother, Janis thought disdainfully. Well she can keep her apron and warm cookies. I'll take a see-through nightie any time!
Safe from her parents' condemning eyes, she fished into her purse and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. It seemed so impossibly square to her that in a day when most kids were smoking pot, hers would still object to just plain tobacco. She put one of the filters between her lips and was about to pull out her lighter, when suddenly her hand released it and she got up from the bench. Slowly, her hips swinging seductively, she crossed the lounge and stopped in front of the sailor.
"Pardon me," she murmured. "Could you give me a light?"
The boy's eyes rose slowly up the bare expanse of her legs, paused with a lingering glance at her protruding breasts, then met her eyes. He swallowed hard and fished out a pack of matches. As he struck one, Janis bent to catch its flame on the end of her cigarette, realizing full well that as she did so the front of her sweater gave him a penetrating view of the naked tits inside. She let him take a good, long look, then blew out the match and gave him a broad smile.
"Thanks."
"N-not at all," the sailor gulped.
"Where you going?" she asked, her voice a throaty purr.
"N-new Orleans," he stammered. He wiped quickly at the drops of perspiration beginning to form on his forehead.
"On the nine o'clock bus?"
"Yes."
"What a coincidence! I'm on that bus, too, but I'm getting off along the way." She gave him a long, meaningful look before adding, "I sure wish I was going to New Orleans, though. I'd love to go all the way with you."
The sailor's throat bobbed so hard Janis thought he'd swallowed his Adam's apple. She puffed quickly on her cigarette to keep from giggling. Teasing men was the only thing she liked as much as having sex with them, particularly when they were as obviously hot for her as this sailor was.
She was about to make another double-meaning comment when a sudden shrill, female voice called out behind them and caught the boy's attention.
"Billy! Oh, Billy! Here I am!"
Janis turned and saw a rather plain, ordinary-looking girl rushing toward them. She was waving her arm, her face lit with a bright smile that faded instantly when she saw Janis. The sailor rose and put his arm around the girl, kissed her on the cheek and hugged her. "Hi, honey!" he said. "What took you so long? You almost missed me."
"I couldn't get a taxi," the girl explained, then shot a second inquisitive look at Janis.
Taking a long puff on her cigarette, Janis fixed the sailor with a meaningful glance that she made sure his girlfriend caught as well, then murmured, "See you on the bus," and walked back to the other side of the lounge. As she left, she heard the girl's voice raise and smiled to herself at the thought of the explaining the sailor would have to do about her.
She'd barely sat down again when her bus was called. She waited until she saw the sailor and his girl moving toward the boarding gate, then hurriedly crossed the lounge to slip into line just ahead of them. Ignoring him, she moved steadily forward with the crowd until it was her turn to step into the bus. She put one leg up, then purposefully dropped the ticket from her hand.
"Damn!" she muttered. She bent over to retrieve it and her miniskirt rode all the way up her thighs, exposing a good two inches of the seductively flimsy panties covering her dimpled behind. She fussed for several seconds, giving the sailor and all the men behind him an unexpected show, then straightened up and, smiling to the driver, handed in her ticket and got on board.
The bus was only half-full, but she selected a seat far in the rear. As she slid in next to the window, she caught the sailor's eye as he moved down the aisle. "Hi," she called. "There's a lot of seats back here."
Returning her smile, the sailor put his duffel bag up on the rack and sat beside her. His leg slid instantly against Janis's.
Well, well, well! she thought. This trip might not be as dull as I thought it would be! She glanced at the sailor's hands. The fingers were thick and long. A good sign, she had learned through years of studying men's anatomies. With no one else sitting around them, it wouldn't be long before she'd find out if that old saying was true in the sailor's case, Janis felt a surge of anticipation. Her eyes glanced down to his lap, but the white trousers were too loose-fitting for her to tell anything yet. There's plenty of time, she thought. It's a long way to Tobinville.
A sudden tap from outside the window startled her and she looked out to see the sailor's girl hopping up and down waving frantically. Her eyes glowered with open hatred as she motioned for Janis to get the sailor's attention.
"I think somebody out there is trying to tell you something," she murmured. And two guesses what it is, she added to herself.
The sailor leaned toward the window, then nodded and got up from the seat "Be right back," he muttered.
Like hell you will, Janis thought. That broad must be a mind reader! She pressed her nose against the window and watched as the sailor got off the bus and began talking to the girl. Both of them motioned excitedly with their arms for a minute as they exchanged words, then the girl turned abruptly and began to run back toward the lounge. A moment of hesitation, then the sailor ran after her and caught her in his arms. He nodded his head up and down and she flung her arms around him. When he got back on the bus, he gave Janis a sheepish look and selected a new seat far toward the front.
The bus pulled out a few minutes later. As it passed the loading platform, Janis stuck out her tongue and put her fingers in her ears, making a horrible face at the sailor's girlfriend. She laughed at the shocked reaction, then settled back in the seat and closed her eyes. Well, she thought with a sigh of resignation, it's not the first man I've lost and probably not the last, either. But it would have been fun doing it on a bus for a change!
Most of Janis's experience had been learned in the backseats of a few dozen cars parked along the lake-front in Chicago. Stretching out comfortably in the narrow confines of a small sports car was one of the few times Janis was glad she wasn't any taller. She seemed to fit just right in almost any make of car, with more than enough room to thrash her legs around and squirm all she wanted. In a big convertible like Rocky's, the backseat seemed almost as large as a double bed to her. In fact, she'd often teased him about having that seat custom made extra-large just for that purpose.
As the bus left the suburbs of Chicago and headed its way south, the steady rhythmic bouncing began to lull Janis to sleep. She was tired anyway, exhausted from the session she and Rocky had had the night before. Her mind drifted easily back, remembering in vivid detail those last few hours she'd spent with him.
"You going to miss me?" she'd purred as soon as the car was parked and the engine and lights shut off.
"What do you think?" Rocky beamed, his face broken in that broad grin that Janis found so masculine and sexy. He was a big, strongly built boy, a former lineman on her high school football team and one of the most promising rookies at State in his freshman year. His chest and biceps were so strongly developed, in fact, that he had trouble keeping a shirt buttoned and even the widest-legged pants seemed skin-tight when his powerful thighs packed them.
"How much?" Janis teased.
His grin widening, Rocky reached in the semi-darkness and took her hand, brought it to his lap and pressed her fingers firmly into his crotch. "This much!" he laughed.
"Ohhhh!" Janis giggled with appreciation and surprise. Her fingers tickled up and down along the metal zipper, then slowly began to work Rocky's fly open. "But it's so dark I can't tell how much for sure. Maybe I'd better take a closer look, huh?"
Rocky chuckled with delight and leaned back in the seat, stretching his brawny legs far out in front of him. "Yeah, I think maybe you'd better."
Janis's hand darted inside his pants and fumbled with the folds of white cotton underpants separating his flesh from hers. "I don't know why you wear these damn things!" she growled.
"Why do you wear them?" he retorted.
Her eyes flashed devilishly in the darkness. "Who says I do?"
"You mean you don't?" Rocky gasped.
"Not tonight."
"Yeah?"
"See for yourself," she challenged. Her stomach fluttered with excitement as she felt Rocky's thick fingers touch her bare leg and move quickly up in under her skirt.
"For crissake!" he laughed. "You don't have any on!"
"I wanted to make it easier for you," she purred.
Rocky's hand clamped tightly between her legs squeezing the fur-covered flesh expertly. "Oh, baby!" he moaned. "What that feeling does to me!"
"What it does to you?" she laughed. "It's not so bad for me, either!"
"You like it when I pet you like this?" Rocky murmured huskily into her ear.
"It makes me feel like a little kitten!"
"Ummm! Then I'll do it some more!" His fingers stroked back and forth between her legs, the thick end of the middle one insinuating its way slowly into the moistened slit each time he petted her. "Nice pussy," he murmured. "Nice pussy, pussy, pussy!"
"Purrrrrr!" Janis laughed. "Pussy likes that kind of petting!"
"So does Big John," Rocky countered, using the name Janis had playfully given to a particular part of him the first night they'd experimented with the secret places of each other's body.
"Does he?" While Rocky's skilled fingers continued to play with her, Janis's hand resumed its search inside the restricting cotton underpants. "Oh! He does!" she suddenly giggled, her hand at last finding and seizing the solid warmth of him. "I'll say he does!" She togged at Rocky's belt and spread his pants open enough to pull out her hand and the prize it held free. Her fingers explored him, surprised anew at the astonishing size and width. She'd been with a lot of men in her young life and seen a lot of prize penises, but if there ever were a contest for such things she was positive Rocky would win it pants down.
While his one hand continued to excite her, Rocky's other slipped behind Janis's head and urged her slowly down. "Big John's going to miss you this summer," he murmured. "Why don't you give him a nice kiss goodbye?"
"Would you like that?" she teased, but quickly wetting her lips in anticipation of one of her favorite things.
"I'm sure he would!" Rocky laughed, but there was a note of impatient tension to his voice and his hand pressed on Janis's head more urgently.
"Let's see!" Slowly, her head dropped to the big football player's lap, until her face was completely hidden from him in the darkness.
He gasped with delight as he felt the first warm, wet touch of her mouth. His hand tightened in her hair, pushing her further down, and his breath began to come ragged in his throat as he felt her tongue fluttering lower and lower.
"Oh, God!" he moaned. "You could send me right through the roof when you do it like that, baby!"
Excited by the pleasure she was giving him, Janis's head began to bob up and down with a steadily mounting rhythm. She knew Rocky loved it this way and she liked doing it for him. There was a certain thrill in it that she couldn't get any other way. A definite knowledge that she was in complete control of his pleasure-able to stimulate him to the point of no return just by the skillful way she used her lips and tongue, or give him the sharpest pain a man can get by simply clamping her jaws together when he least expected it.
The first time she'd ever taken a man had been this way, because he'd become frightened of doing it the other way when she told him she was only thirteen and still a virgin. Ever since that time, she'd had an unquenchable thirst for it.
Rocky's hips began to arch up from the seat and his powerful thighs tightened with each downward thrust of Janis's head. His breathing was growing louder by the second and the frantic stroking between her legs was becoming almost painful as he mindlessly rushed toward fulfillment Usually Janis didn't stop, knowing that after a while Rocky's potency would rebuild and he'd be ready to do it the other way, but tonight she knew there wasn't enough time for both. It was already late and her parents would have the cops out looking for her if she wasn't soon home to pack for the morning's trip.
Gently, her teeth nipped together, cutting the build of pleasure. She slipped her lips away from him and sat up.
"What's the matter?" Rocky groaned. "I didn't ... "
"I know you didn't, silly!" she laughed. "Do you think I can't tell when you do?"
"They why'd you quit?"
"Because I have to get home early tonight, and I've got something better in mind for right now."
"Yeah? Like what?"
Prying his hand gently from between her legs, Janis eased herself backwards on the seat until she was flat on her back. She flung her legs on either side of him, squeezing him tightly as she pulled him toward her. "Come here and find out," she murmured huskily.
Rocky hesitated just a moment, then turned sideways on the seat and rose up onto his knees. With a quick shove, he pushed his pants and underpants down to his knees, then lifted Janis' skirt up and bunched it around her waist. His head dropped and planted a lingering, tongue-wet kiss in homage to her womanhood, then he straddled her and eased himself slowly down.
Janis bit her lip as his weight sank onto her. Each time he entered her she was positive she'd never be able to take him without screaming in pain, but once he was inside, the pleasure all but overwhelmed her. They fit together so comfortably it was like a finger being thrust into a made-to-order glove.
"Ohhhh, baby!" Rocky grunted. "You got it!"
"So do you, honey!" Janis gasped. Her legs clamped him tightly, holding him steady while she adjusted to the awesome size within her. Then, her muscles relaxed and her libido raring to go, she began to gently sway from side to side in under him. Rocky took up the rhythm instantly. With a grunt, he lifted his immense weight and a moment later drove it back down on her.
"Like a knife in warm butter!" he murmured hotly into her ear.
"Let's see if we can't get it hot enough to melt the knife!"
Rocky needed no more of a challenge. His big body began to hammer at her, thrusting with such force and so deeply that each time he drove down on her she slid backwards on the seat, until her head was touching the padding on the side door.
"Oh, baby!" she sobbed. "Do it! Do it! Do it!"
Rocky grunted, his face broken out in sweat, his big muscles quivering as his buttocks rose end fell above her, seeming to come down deeper with each stroke. The muscles in his neck extended like thick cords. His arms were trembling as he tried to support himself above her while maintaining the deep thrusts that came faster and faster with each second.
Janis clung tightly to him, riding with him, her body rising up with his and falling back onto the seat each time his powerful thighs drove her down. Her head was exploding with pleasure, every nerve ending inside her raw with animal sensations. Her teeth snapped at his neck and cheeks. Her fingernails clawed over his back and down to the thundering buttocks. Her eyes rolled from side to side in their sockets and her breath came with shrill, frantic gasps.
"Are you ready, baby?" Rocky panted. "I-I can't hold back much longer!"
"Yes!" Janis sobbed, feeling a sudden fireworks of thrills burst inside her. "Now, Rocky! Let me have it now! I'm ready!"
He thrust down on her like a steamroller, his big buttocks clenching and tightening as he gasped again and again and again and finally slumped motionless on top of her. "Baby!" he laughed. "I don't know anyone who can get to me like you do!"
"The same goes for me," Janis assured him.
"Do you mean that?"
"Of course I do."
"Then why don't we do something about it?"
"We just did!" she laughed. "Your memory isn't that short, is it? Or am I losing my touch?"
Rocky lifted up and sat on the edge of the seat beside her, a sudden earnestness in his eyes. "I don't mean that. I mean why don't we make it permanent?"
"Permanent?" Janis pushed down her skirt and struggled to sit up. "What are you talking about?"
"You don't have to go away tomorrow. You could stay here with me if you wanted to."
"Sure. How?"
"By us getting married."
"Mar-!" Janis covered her mouth and began to laugh. "Married! Me?"
"Sure, why not? I don't see what's so funny about it. I thought you and I had a good thing going."
"We do," Janis said. "That's why it's so ridiculous to ruin it by doing something as stupid as getting married! Who needs it?"
"You do. I do. Everybody needs somebody to have for just their own."
"Yeah?" Janis cracked. "Well I don't. I need something like that like I need a hole in the head." She fished into her purse and got out a cigarette, took a deep puff and blew smoke at the windshield. "You'd better pull your pants up and take me home," she said. "This party's beginning to get stale."
Rocky seized her by the shoulders and forced her to look at him. "I'm asking you for the last time, Janis. Will you marry me?"
"In a word? No." She blew another cloud of smoke, this time directly into Rocky's face. "I'll go to bed with you any time you want it, honey. But not if a sink full of dishes will be waiting for me the next morning or if there's a bunch of screaming brats howling their heads off in the next room. That kind of crap doesn't appeal to me at all."
"What do you want?" Rocky demanded.
"I want to live!" she snapped right back at him. "That's what I want! To live!"
Those words, almost the last she'd spoken to Rocky, rang through Janis's mind as she stared out the big window of the bus as it drove slowly down the main street of Tobinville and pulled to a stop at the curb outside the one-room bus station.
"Huh!" she grunted. "Some living I'm going to do in a dump like this."
A familiar face stepped out of the small crowd waiting for the bus and with a wave of her arm, Janis recognized her sister Peggy. She smiled and returned the wave, then started to get out of her seat. Just as she did, a man came out of the station and put his arm around Peggy's shoulder. Peggy pointed and suddenly the man began to smile and wave too.
Janis stared in open-mouthed awe, too dumbstruck even to return the wave. "So that's Peggy's husband!" she murmured. "Maybe I'll be doing some living after all!"
CHAPTER TWO
Van Avery was just about the most beautiful hunk of man Janis had ever seen. Like Rocky and most of the other men she found herself attracted to, he had an abundance of black curly hair and a definite masculine ruggedness to his looks and build. Even from a distance, his arms looked powerful enough to crush a woman in their grip and the muscles on his hair-covered chest just didn't quit. His smile was partly boyish in its lopsided grin, yet solidly self-assured as only a confident man's could be. Janis couldn't take her eyes off him as she moved slowly up the aisle of the bus. Even the young sailor was completely forgotten in the aura of her brother-in-law's sexuality.
"Goodbye," the boy called. "Have a nice vacation." But Janis didn't even hear him. Her mind was completely filled with thoughts of Van and how it would be to have a man like him make love to her.
How could Peggy have trapped a guy like that? she wondered. It just doesn't make sense.
She had always thought of her sister as being on the plain side, even slightly frumpy. It was true that Peggy lacked the flash which Janis radiated, but her sister's appraisal was harsher than she deserved. Peggy's looks were more of the wholesome type. With her light blonde hair and quick smile, she reminded people of the girl-next-door. Her body was probably as good as Janis's, but she never displayed it quite as obviously as her sister. Instead of tight, low-cut sweaters and high-pitched skirts, she chose simple, conservative dresses that complimented her looks, but did nothing to arouse anyone's attention. Her make-up was simple, too, designed to do nothing more than heighten the natural attractiveness of her face and eyes.
As Janis stepped down from the bus, her sister ran toward her and caught her in a tight embrace. "Hi, honey!" she laughed. "We thought you'd never get here!"
Janis perfunctorily returned Peggy's welcome kiss, but her attention was fully centered on the handsome man coming to greet her.
"Hi," Van said, extending his hand. "You must be Janis." His voice was deep and warm, entirely self-assured.
"And you must be a dream!" Janis murmured, taking his hand. The strength in Van's grip surprised her and her eyes darted up to his, flashing with invitation as their hands held.
"He is!" Peggy laughed, slipping her arm possessively around her husband's waist. "Van is my very own dreamboat." Then, her eyes darting quickly to Janis's as though to warn her sister not to try doing anything about changing that fact, she added, "Aren't you, honey?"
Van smiled and bent to plant a quick kiss on Peggy's cheek. "I sure am."
"Why didn't you tell me you'd hooked such a good-looking husband?" Janis asked.
"I did!"
Janis's eyes ran meaningfully up and down Van's body before she gave him another suggestive smile. "I guess you did, but I didn't expect anything quite this good!"
Peggy attempted a smile, but it was a nervous, apprehensive one. "Well, I, uh, guess we'd better get your suitcase and head for home. You must be starved."
I am, Janis thought, casting another long look at Van as he went for her luggage, but not for what you think.
"We live out of town," Peggy explained as they walked to the car. "Van bought a service station right down the street from here and we used to live in an apartment above it, but he's been doing so good lately we've managed to put a down payment on our very own house."
"We're keeping the apartment open though," Van chuckled, "just in case."
"Oh, honey!" she laughed. "You're going to go a long way!"
"I'll bet he is!" Janis murmured.
When they reached the car, Janis wanted to slide into the front seat so she'd be next to Van, but Peggy opened the back door and ushered her inside. "I guess Tobinville hasn't changed very much since the last time you were here," she explained as they drove out of town.
Janis looked forlornly at the bleak storefronts and dismal houses lining the town's main street. "No, it sure hasn't," she agreed.
"I guess it'll be quite a change for you, spending the summer with us," Van said. "We don't live quite the exciting life down here that you people in Chicago do."
"Oh, you might be surprised," Janis said, digging for a cigarette and quickly lighting it. "I have a way of livening things up wherever I go."
Peggy's head shot around, her eyes suspicious of the tone Janis had used. "When did you start smoking?" she asked.
Janis shrugged casually. "I don't remember. Some time ago."
"Do Mom and Dad know about it?"
"No." Then, staring intently at Van's head, she added, "I do a lot of things they don't know I do." As Van laughed in appreciation of his young sister-in-law's implied mischievous nature, Janis directed her attention to Peggy and smiled as sweetly as she could. "Of course those are the only things in life that are any fun, aren't they?"
Flustered, not knowing quite what to say, Peggy smiled wanly and turned back around in the seat, the three of them remaining silent until they'd reached the house.
"Well, so this is Where you live," Janis said, as she got out of the car and looked up at the big old farmhouse built on the edge of nowhere. "How quaint."
"It's not much right now," Peggy apologized, "but we've got a lot of plans for fixing it up. Van's very good with his hands."
"Are you?" Janis murmured, giving her brother-in-law a suggestive smile.
Van caught the meaning in her smile and grinned with embarrassment and confusion. "I'd-better get your suitcase out of the trunk," he muttered.
"Come on," Peggy said, "let's go inside."
The interior of the house seemed every bit as dismal to Janis as the exterior had led her to anticipate. The rooms were small and characterless, serving their appointed function and nothing more. The sparse furniture Peggy had selected did nothing, as far as Janis was concerned, to add any charm or interest. She followed her sister from room to room, critically appraising what had been done to them and thinking how much more interesting she could have made them if she'd been asked to do the decorating.
"Well?" Peggy smiled when the downstairs tour was over. "What do you think?"
The beam of pride in her sister's eyes was so radiant Janis didn't have the heart to squelch it. "It's-uh-very nice," she lied.
"Like I said, we've still got a lot to do with it, but Van and I are proud of what we've accomplished so far." She took Janis's arm and led her to the staircase. "Come on, I'll show you the upstairs. I think you'll like the room we've fixed up for you."
As they started up the stairs, Van rushed quickly down them. "I'll see you later, honey," he said, kissing Peggy's cheek.
A rush of disappointment shot through Janis. "You're leaving?"
"I've got to get back to the station and help close up," Van explained. "Today's Friday and I've got to take the week's receipts down to the bank before it closes."
"My little businessman!" Peggy laughed.
"See you later, Janis," Van smiled, then bounded down the stairs and was gone. With him went Janis's spirits. She didn't like the idea of being left alone in the house with Peggy. They'd never had very much to say to each other, even when they were girls. Somehow they'd always seemed to be rivals, even though a seven year difference in age was between them. As long as Janis could remember, they'd been competing for things: whether it was their parents' affection, a new dress, or-when Peggy was still living at home and Janis was well into puberty-even a boy.
"Come on," Peggy said. "I want to show you your room."
There were four doors leading off the upstairs hall. Two were at the head of the stairs, directly across from each other, and two were side-by-side at the end of the hall.
"You're down here," Peggy explained, leading her sister along the hall.
"What's in here?" Janis asked, pointing to one of the first doors.
"That's my room."
"And this one?" she asked, pointing to the door across from it. "Is this Van's room?"
"Of course not!" Peggy laughed. "I meant this one is our room. Van and I sleep together, honey." She opened the other door and motioned for Janis to look inside. The room was obviously a nursery, with a child's wallpaper covering the walls and a crib and bassinette standing in the middle of the floor.
Janis gaped in surprise and turned questioningly to her sister. "Are you ... ?"
"No," Peggy blushed. "Not yet. But we're working on it!" She put her arm around Janis's waist and led her down the hall. "This door is to the bathroom," she explained, "and this one's where you'll stay."
The room was quaintly furnished with old-fashioned bedroom furniture painted a light violet color and with a muted flower wallpaper. In its way it was rather charming, Janis thought. At least it showed more imagination than the rooms she'd seen downstairs.
"It's lovely!" she exclaimed.
"I'm glad you like it. Actually it was Van's idea to do it like this. He thought it would make any guests we have feel at home right away."
I might have known you didn't do it, Janis thought She put her purse down on the big old dresser and dug into it for a comb. She began to fix her hair, looking at Peggy in the mirror. "Van's a man of many talents, isn't he?"
"Yes, he certainly is," Peggy said with possessive pride.
"How, uh, how did you meet him?"
"Well, it's kind of a strange story," Peggy said, sitting on the edge of the bed as she explained. "He just kind of drifted into town one day and started hanging around the insurance company where I was working. I didn't pay much attention to him because he looked kind of disreputable. Then one day I was driving home and I almost ran over him."
"What?"
Peggy laughed uneasily. "You see, back then Van had something of a drinking problem and he just kind of walked out into the street without knowing what he was doing."
"Oh?" Janis said, her ears perking with interest. "It sounds like he was kind of wild."
"Oh, he was!" Peggy laughed. "He used to raise all kinds of hell when he was drinking! The other girls at the office used to laugh and say you needed an armed escort when Van Avery was in town!"
"Hmmmm!" Janis murmured. "How did a nice girl like you ever get hooked up with someone like that?"
Peggy bristled. "Well, he changed, of course. That day he almost ran into my car I took pity on him. I could see more to him than the rowdy side he was showing and I kind of made a project of him. I took him home and filled him full of hot coffee and we talked about our problems for almost half the night. After that, he just kind of stopped drinking and we began to see each other regularly. I helped him get a job at the station and he made such a success of himself that when old Mr. Brenner decided to retire he helped Van finance a loan so the station would be his."
"So you really did everything for him, huh?"
"I-guess so."
"Aren't you afraid he might resent that some day?"
"I don't think I know what you mean."
Janis put down her comb and turned to confront her sister. "Well, you know some men feel that a woman who does everything for them takes away their pride. A man wants to think he can do everything for himself and could eventually hate a woman who tries to emasculate him."
"Janis!" Peggy gasped. "What an awful thing to say!"
"I was just making an observation. After all, you should be aware that it might happen someday-especially if another woman comes along who can make Van feel like his own man again."
Peggy's eyes flashed with a mounting anger. "Van does not feel that I've emasculated him, believe me. We're very happy together and now that he's on the right path there's no question that he's the boss."
"Okay!" Janis said breezily. "If it's true, you've got nothing to worry about, I guess."
"It is true!" Peggy insisted. "And as far as another woman taking him away from me," she added, eyeing her sister coldly, "I'd like to see one try! Van and I have things between us that no other woman could begin to wreck."
Oh no? Janis thought, accepting the challenge instantly. We'll see about that!
She put down her comb and stifled a yawn. "Gosh, that bus ride exhausted me. I think I'd like to soak in a hot tub for a While, if you don't mind."
"Of course," Peggy said. "I've got to take the other car and run into town for some things I need at the store anyway."
Janis pulled off her sweater and smiled at the gape of surprise on Peggy's face.
"Don't you wear a bra?"
"No, it's too confining. None of the really sophisticated people do these days," she added cattily.
Peggy ignored the cut and stared openly at her younger sister's breasts, so proudly defiant in their lift, so exuberantly free. "You've certainly grown up from when I was living at home, honey," she murmured.
"Oh?" Janis said sweetly. "Do you think so?" She dropped her skirt, knowing that the filmy black lace panties so scantily covering her hips would be another shock to her sister's home-spun sensibilities.
"Yes, I do." Peggy got up from the bed and started for the door. She paused for a moment and turned back to her sister, her eyes tense and meaningful. "But Janis," she said softly, "just don't think you're too grown up. In spite of tire clothes you wear and the way you make yourself up, you're still a girl and I'm a woman. Remember that."
Janis bristled as she stared angrily at the closing door. "Oh yeah?" she muttered. "We'll just see about that, sister dear!"
Peggy was gone from the house by the time Janis had the tub filled with warm water and scented it with her favorite cologne. She sank slowly into it and stretched out almost horizontally, allowing the relaxing warmth to seep through every muscle. She closed her eyes and rubbed her fingertips slowly up and down her torso. The feeling was a sensual one and before long her nipples began to harden and expand. She played with them for several minutes, until they began to ache with the tension of sexual excitement.
Looking down at them, she lifted one of her tits up until the nipple pointed at her face. "Poor baby," she murmured. "You don't like me to get you all worked up when there's no man around to take care of you, do you?" She squeezed her firm pink nipple between her thumb and forefinger, smiling at the way it throbbed back in response. Full-size, her nipples were almost as long as the top joint on her little finger. "Don't worry," she whispered. "Before you know it, you're going to feel Van's hot mouth sucking on you. I promise you will, if it's the last thing I do."
Aroused by that thought, she lifted herself in the tub and arched her tit up as far as she could, then bent her head down to it. By straining her neck, she could just touch her puking nipple with her lips. The feeling of a mouth on it, even her own, sent a shock of delight racing through her tit. Her tongue licked around the thick nipple, exciting herself until a sharp cramp began to shoot deep in her belly.
Still ticking her own breast, she slid her other hand down between her thighs and began to toy with the sopping wet fur at their center. "So I'm not a woman, huh?" she murmured. "Just a girl, huh?" She laughed harshly, her fingers digging into her soft crack. "We'll let Van decide that for himself," she promised. "When I'm through with him, sweet Peggy, he'll wonder what he ever saw in you! I'll give him a taste of some things you never even heard of!"
Her excitement mounting as she thought of the erotic games she could play with Van's rugged, naked body, she released her breast and concentrated the attention of both hands between her thighs. With one, she continued to stroke the velvet, fleece-covered slopes of her lower belly. With the other, she began to slowly insinuate the tip of her longest finger. She felt her muscles relaxing, her petals slowly spreading to receive the invading fingertip. With her eyes closed, she could almost imagine it was a man beginning to enter her.
"Van!" she moaned. "I'll do things for you a man only dreams of having a woman do! I'll make you so happy you'll never be able to think about another woman!"
Her finger probed deeper, finding the love bud inside her and toying with it until it was full and hard. Gently, she stroked it up and down, getting a charge of excitement with each erotic tickle. Her finger began to move faster, stimulating herself with such practiced skill that she knew it would only take a few minutes longer to enjoy release.
Suddenly she stopped, hearing a car stop outside the house. She listened expectantly as the downstairs screen door banged closed and the sound of heavy footsteps clamored up the stairs. Her heart lurched with excitement as Van came down the hall and tapped at the bathroom door.
"Peggy?" he called. "Is that you in there?"
"No," Janis answered, "it's me. But come on in."
The door opened and Van stepped into the bathroom, abruptly freezing just inside the door as he stared open-eyed at Janis sitting naked in the tub. "I-I'm sorry," he mumbled, turning to leave. "I didn't know you were in the tub."
"Don't go!" Janis exclaimed.
Van stopped and turned back to her, his eyes staring boldly but in complete disbelief at the proud thrust of her breasts and the dark shadow between her legs in the clear water. "W-where's Peggy?" he stumbled, wetting his lips nervously.
"She went into town," Janis said coyly. "We're all alone."
Van shifted uneasily from foot to foot. "Did she say why?"
"Shopping, I think." Then, her eyes flashing with open invitation, she murmured, "We've got enough time."
Her brother-in-law swallowed hard. "Time?"
"Sure. To-uh-get to know each other, shall we say?" She laughed huskily and held out her hand. "Come here, handsome. Give your new sister-in-law a real kiss of welcome, why don't you?"
"I-uh-I trunk I'd better go downstairs."
"What's the matter?" she taunted. "You aren't afraid of me, are you?"
"No, I'm not afraid."
"Then come here," she purred. "You can wash my back while we talk it over."
"I don't think there's anything to talk over," Van said flatly. "And if you need your back scrubbed, there's a brush right there on the edge of the tub." He turned abruptly and went out of the bathroom, closing the door firmly behind him.
"So!" Janis murmured as she listened to Van's footsteps thundering back down the steps. "He's going to make it a little difficult, huh? Good! I don't like things that come too easily!"
She settled back in the tub, her hand returning to the now-burning spot between her legs. "But I'm going to get you Van Avery!" she swore, recalling the way he'd stared at her, his eyes openly devouring her lush young nakedness. "It's going to be a long, long summer. And I don't think you're strong enough to hold out forever!"
CHAPTER THREE
"A picnic?" Janis exclaimed the next morning as she helped Peggy clean up the breakfast dishes.
"We go to the lake every Saturday during the summer," Peggy explained. "It's nice and cool and the water's beautiful. You did bring a suit, didn't you?"
"Yeah, I brought one."
"Then come with us. It'll be fun!"
"Yeah," Janis muttered dismally, "it sounds like a barrel of laughs."
"Ohhhh!" Peggy teased. "Just because you've grown up in wicked old Chicago doesn't mean you couldn't have fun at a picnic."
"It just doesn't sound like my speed."
"Honey," Peggy said, putting down her dishcloth, "around here, things like picnics are about the only speed you're going to get."
"I wouldn't be too sure about that."
Peggy shot her sister a sharp look, then shrugged her shoulders. "Suit yourself. If you want to sit around this hot house all day while we have fun at the lake, it's up to you. I don't want to force you into doing anything you don't want to."
Before Janis could answer, the kitchen door swung open and Van strode in. "You girls about ready to go?" he asked.
Janis stared in wide-eyed awe at her brother-in-law. He was dressed in a short white bathing suit that clung to his hips like the skin on a sausage, outlining in perfect detail the incredible bulk of his masculinity. His thighs and chest were hairier than any man's Janis had ever seen. The black, wiry fur covered him like a bear, but even its thickness could not disguise the well-developed muscles underneath. A sharp, sexual pang ripped through her belly as she stared at him, desiring him as she had desired no other man before. Her eyes devoured the thick bulge in his swimming trunks, measuring it, imagining it swollen to its full size. No wonder Peggy wants to hang onto something like that! she thought, envying her sister until it almost sickened her.
"I'll be dressed in a minute!" she proclaimed.
"Oh?" Peggy said sarcastically. "Changed your mind?"
Janis met her eyes defiantly, then darted to Van. "Why not?" she taunted. "Like you said, it might turn out to be fun after all!"
Racing upstairs, Janis dug into the dresser drawer where she'd unpacked her bikini. She laughed with unrestrained delight as she pulled off her clothes and wriggled into it. She'd bought the suit just a few weeks earlier in a specialty shop in Chicago, but it was so daringly skimpy that her mother had absolutely forbidden her to wear it even to sunbathe in their own back yard. Admiring her reflection in the dresser mirror, Janis conceded that the suit was, indeed, shocking, but it created just the impression she'd wanted when she bought it.
The top was little more than an inch wide, barely covering the round haloes of her nipples. It exposed her tits to perfection, leaving no doubt at all as to how well she was built. The bottom was just slightly larger. The sides were two linked metal circles that held the front and back pieces together, and these were so narrow that when she'd first tried it on she'd thought she might have to shave some of her belly hair to keep it from being completely indecent. As it was, the suit just covered her front and back clefts.
Delighted by the way she looked, she slipped on a large white man's shirt, leaving it open down the front, and went back downstairs. Van and Peggy were waiting for her in the parlor. A low, appreciative whistle sang from her brother-in-law's lips as she walked into the room.
"Man, oh man!" he laughed. "The Tobinville lake is about to turn into steam!"
"Janis!" Peggy chided. "What do you think you're doing in a get-up like that?"
"Going to the lake," she smiled innocently. She almost laughed at the shocked look on her sister's face. Compared to Peggy's conservative, one-piece tank suit, she felt sexier than ever and realized that the way Van was admiring her, he felt the same.
"Not in that you aren't! Now go right upstairs and put on something decent!"
"I can't. It's the only suit I have. Besides, it's the fashion to wear skimpy bikinis these days. You should be glad I didn't buy a topless one!"
"Janis, you can borrow one of mine if you haven't any others, but you are not ... "
"Van, what do you think?" Janis quickly challenged. "Do you like it?" She turned from side to side, giving him the full show.
"Well, I ... "
"See?" Janis crowed. "He likes it, but he's afraid to say so." Then, thrusting the challenge like a knife, she added, "Of course if you're worried, Peggy ... ."
A grim look passed over Peggy's face. "All right," she muttered, anger smoldering openly in her eyes, "come on. But first thing Monday morning, young lady, you and I are going into town to buy you a decent bathing suit."
Smiling victoriously, Janis skipped out to Van's car and parked herself in the front seat, closing the door firmly on her sister. "You don't mind sitting in the back this time, do you?" she asked sweetly. "I get so carsick when I don't sit up front."
Peggy grit her teeth, but climbed meekly into the back, leaving Janis alone with Van. She watched with mounting fury as her kid sister inched her way slowly closer to her husband, then abruptly swung the picnic basket over the seat and plopped it between them. "Watch it!" she muttered. Then, smiling just as sweetly as Janis could do, she added, "So nothing spills."
The lake turned out to be a pleasant surprise to Janis. She'd half expected something the size of a large puddle, but it was big enough for speedboats at one end and uncrowded swimming at the other. There were picnic grounds, a fringe of woods, and a short but sandy beach at the edge of the water. Van selected a spot just beyond the trees, so they could alternately enjoy both sun and shade. As Peggy spread out the blanket and began to unpack the lunch, Janis inspected the area. The way the lake curved, it would be easy for someone to slip into the woods beyond the beach without being seen, she quickly observed. In fact, there seemed to be a good spot just a hundred yards or so away.
Feeling a surge of excitement in her belly as her plan took shape, she ran back to the blanket and discarded her shirt. "Anyone for a swim?"
"You're going to swim in that?" Peggy gasped.
"Sure, why not?"
"By the time you come out of the water that suit will have shrunk to nothing!"
"So?" Janis shrugged. "What do you say?"
"Not me," Peggy said. "I'll be content just sitting in the sun and reading."
"Then how about you, Van?" Janis asked. She saw the way her brother-in-law's eyes were devouring her nearly naked body and his throat throbbing as he swallowed hard.
"I don't know," he hedged. "I think I'll stay here with Peggy."
"What's the matter?" Janis taunted. "Don't tell me a big strong man like you is afraid of the water."
"Van's an expert swimmer," Peggy announced.
"So? Then come on! Show me what you can do, expert!"
"No, thanks," Van smiled. "I don't think I want to just now. You go ahead; maybe I'll join you later."
Undaunted, Janis reached for a paper cup and held it out to her sister. "Could I have some of that lemonade, please?"
"Sure, honey." Peggy filled the cup and handed it back, then squealed in surprise as Janis poured every drop of the ice-cold drink down her husband's back.
"There!" Janis laughed. "Now you're already wet!" Adding insult to injury, she scooped up a fistful of sand and threw it at him. "And sticky!"
Sputtering with anger, Van leaped to his feet. "Why you ... !"
"Try and catch me!" Janis challenged, and tore off down the strip of sandy beach with Van right behind her. She laughed wildly as she ran, but the excitement of the chase had nothing to do with it. As soon as they were around the next curve and out of Peggy's sight, the race would be over, she vowed, and another type of game would begin. In that bikini, with Van already obviously interested, she didn't see how she could lose.
The trees rushed toward her as she ran blindly forward and turned with the curve of the beach. She twisted her head around to see if Van was following and suddenly screamed with shock as a pair of arms came out of nowhere to catch and hold her. A grinning, sun-tanned boy with a shock of unruly blond hair laughed as she struggled to break free. "What's the hurry? Where's the fire?"
"Let go of me!" Janis screamed. "Let me loose!" Her fists pummeled at the boy's chest and he let her go, but Van was already there and the chase was ended.
"Hi, Jip," Van laughed, gasping with exhaustion from the race. "I see you caught her for me!"
"Hi, Van," the boy answered. "What do you want us to do with her?"
Us? Janis's head whirled around and confronted a dozen other teenagers a few yards away, watching in silent fascination.
"How about lighting a fire and roasting her over it?" Van suggested.
"How about skinning her alive?" the boy offered. Then, his eyes moving slowly up and down her body in open appreciation of the sultry curves, he added, "Except it looks like someone beat us to it!"
"How about going to hell?" Janis snapped angrily. It had been such a good plan and would have worked, too, if those creeps wouldn't have been there. She'd been positive that if she'd been able to get Van alone he'd have gone into the woods with her-or at least broken his resistance and got him to agree to come to her room that night when Peggy was asleep.
"She's a live one, isn't she, Van!" the boy laughed.
"She sure is!"
"Is this your wife's sister? The one who was coming from Chicago for the summer?"
"That's her," Van grunted. "Janis, this is one of the boys who works part-time at my station. His name's Jip Jones."
The boy grinned and held out his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Janis."
"The pleasure's all yours," she cracked, refusing to take the proffered handshake. "Come on, Van. Let's get back to our blanket."
"Why don't you stay here and make friends with the kids?" Van suggested.
Looking scornfully at the innocent young faces listening to their every word, she laughed and retorted, "No, thanks. I forgot to bring my sand pail and shovel."
"Go on, don't be such a snob," Van chided. "They're a great bunch of kids."
"Yeah, I can see they'd be a barrel of laughs. What time does their nursemaid bring out the cookies and milk?"
"We're going to have hamburgers later," one of the boys in the group called.
"Hamburgers!" Janis mocked. "Now that does sound racy! I'll bet one of you little devils even slipped in some onion when Mommy wasn't looking!"
Van shot her an angry look. "They're just trying to be friendly, Janis."
Something in the tone of his voice told her it might be a smart thing to cool the wise-cracks for a while. "All right, I'm sorry," she muttered.
Another of the boys stood up and approached them. "Would you like a coke? I've got a lot in my basket."
Janis's eyes ran slowly down the boy's torso, lingering on his crotch as a slow, suggestive smile crept over her face. "So I see!" she murmured.
The boy's face reddened with embarrassment.
"Oh! You meant the picnic basket!" Janis drawled. The boy was interesting. Still virtually a baby, as far as her particular tastes were concerned, but obviously possessing a good start toward manhood. She glanced quickly at the other kids' faces. Maybe I could have a little fun with these hicks! she thought, realizing that with Peggy hanging close by she'd get nowhere with Van that afternoon. The stares the boys in the group were giving her were definitely encouraging and the glowers from the girls were enough to spike her bitchiness.
"All right," she told Van, "I'll see you later."
The blond-haired boy named Jip beamed happily and took her lightly by the arm. "Come on, I'll introduce you to the group."
The boys stared with awed fascination as Janis moved slowly, sensuously toward the little circle of teenagers. Eat your hearts out, kiddies! she laughed to herself. These goodies have already been reserved!
"Everybody," Jip announced, "this is Janis. She's Peggy Avery's sister, down from Chicago for the summer." The boys nodded and grinned in greeting, but the girls gave her no more than cold, forced smiles. "Sit down, Janis," the boy prompted. "Tadpole, get her a coke, huh?"
"Tadpole? Jip?" Janis laughed. "What kind of names are those for good-looking guys like you?"
"My name's really Tad," the boy said sheepishly as he handed Janis a coke bottle.
"Well who gave you such a stupid nickname?"
"I did," one of the girls said icily.
Janis's eyes flashed to meet the girl's and found them burning with open hatred. She was a rather pretty thing, in a girlish way, but certainly no match for Janis's big-city flashiness.
"Betty-Lou gave all the kids in our group nicknames," Jip explained.
"Did she?" Janis drawled cattily. "How clever of her! I wonder if she has a name for me?" Then, smiling as the other girl bristled, she murmured, "Yes, I'll bet she does!"
For a long moment there was an awkward silence, then another of the boys spoke up. "That's some bathing suit you've got, Janis."
"Do you like it?" She turned from side to side, exhibiting her near-nakedness to each of the boys in turn. One of them whistled and got a sharp poke in the ribs from the girl sitting next to him. "I was a little afraid to wear it down here."
"Oh?" Betty-Lou murmured. "I can't imagine why."
Fixing her attention full on the conservative two-piece suit Betty-Lou wore, Janis retaliated, "Well it's too old-fashioned, of course. I thought surely everyone would laugh at me for not having a topless suit."
"Topless!" another boy sniggered. "Man! I'd like to see that in Tobinville!"
"Would you?" Janis purred. A loud gasp shot through the group as she began to unhook the snap to her bikini bra. Then, giving each of the girls a condescending look, she dropped her hands and smiled. "No, I'd better not. I don't want the other girls to feel out of place."
"Would you like to come to our wiener roast tonight, Janis?" the boy named Tadpole asked.
"A wiener roast!" Her eyes widened with exaggerated interest. "Hmmmmm! There's nothing I like better than a hot wiener!"
"You know it's a couples party," Betty-Lou snapped.
"Oh," the boy mumbled. "Yeah, I forgot."
Betty-Lou fixed a sweet smile on Janis. "Sorry."
Not as sorry as you're going to be! Janis muttered to herself. Then, turning to Jip, she asked, "Why don't you give me a tour around the lake?"
The boy hedged for a moment, looking from Janis to Betty-Lou, then grinned uneasily and agreed. "Okay, I guess I could."
Taking his hand in hers, Janis skipped off down the beach, turning to call over her shoulder to Betty-Lou, "See you later!"
They walked for several minutes in silence, plodding further and further from the group until they rounded another indentation and were out of sight. Jip's hand tightened on Janis's. "You're some girl!" he said hesitantly.
"Do you think so?"
"Oh, sure! Boy, you really made those other girls look silly!"
"I guess a girl grows up faster in the big city," Janis drawled. Then, returning the pressure on Jip's hand, she added, "You're different from the rest of the group, too."
"Oh? How so?"
"Well, it's kind of hard to describe, but you just seem like more of a man than the other guys."
"I do?" the boy gulped in surprise.
"Of course you do." Janis stopped walking and fixed him with a suggestive stare. Her eyes ran slowly up and down his body. In spite of her resolution to conquer Van or nobody, she had to admit that there were definitely interesting qualities to be found in Jip. His face was boyish, with just the beginning of the leathery hardness a man gets with regular shaving, but his body was well-developed and youthfully strong. He looked like he played sports well. His biceps and thighs were lithe but well-proportioned; his chest and belly were ribbed with muscle.
Janis's eyes wandered further down, fixing on Jip's crotch, appraising the bulge inside his bathing suit. The boy shifted his weight nervously from one foot to another as he realized what Janis was staring at. "How big is it?" she murmured in a low, sexy whisper, and Jip's face turned white.
"W-what?" he gasped.
"How big is the lake?"
He swallowed bard and wiped his hand across his brow. "Oh. It's, uh, about five miles around, I think."
"Then I guess it's silly to try walking all the way," she said, biting her Up to keep from laughing at the boy's discomfort. "Why don't we sit down somewhere in the shade and rest?" She turned and pointed to the dense thicket of woods at the edge of the beach. "How about in there? Is it cool back there?"
"Yeah," Jip gulped. "It's cool. But ... "
"But what?" Janis teased. "You aren't afraid of anything, are you? A big man like you?" Again her eyes dropped to the boy's crotch. She tugged on his hand, pulling him towards the woods. "Come on, I'm hot!" she laughed.
Jip followed her uncertainly, his steps as dogged as a condemned man going to the gallows. "I'll bet he's a virgin!" Janis thought gleefully. "He's ready to pee in his pants in fear of what bad old me is going to do to him!"
"There's, uh, a nice clearing over here," Jip suggested.
"Oh? Is that where you take all the girls you make out with?"
Jip grinned foolishly and shook his head no. "We, uh, have picnics there sometimes."
"Ummmm! These picnics are beginning to sound like fun!"
"I don't know if you'd enjoy them," the boy answered. "They're actually kind of dull."
They won't be for long! Janis thought with a laugh. She followed Jip into the little clearing in the woods, then squealed suddenly and began to hop up and down. "Oh! Oh! Oh!" she cried, bouncing and brushing her hands over her breasts.
"What's the matter?"
"A bug! I think a bug just flew down my top!" She hopped wildly, shaking herself and pushing at her breasts. "Well don't just stand there!" she cried. "Help me!"
"W-what do you want me to do?"
"Get it out! Get it out!"
Jip swallowed hard and raised his hand tentatively toward Janis's bobbing tits. His fingers seemed frozen, unable to do what his mind was telling him he could.
"Put your hand in!" Janis squealed. "Get it out!" She seized the boy's wrist and shoved his fingers down into the deep cleft between her tits. Her bouncing stopped the instant his fingers began to clumsily paw at her. A triumphant smile spread across her lips. "Find anything?" she murmured.
"N-not yet," Jip squeaked.
"Keep looking! I know something flew down there!"
Her body began to gyrate slowly back and forth as the boy wriggled his hand over her firm young tits. His groping was hardly a match for the experienced fondling she was used to, but just the feel of a masculine hand on them was enough to begin to excite her. "Come closer," she suggested. "Look and see if you can't find anything."
Jip's eyes were as wide as saucers as he peered down into the deep valley of flesh. His fingers tightened on her nipple and began to squeeze it with such force it was painful.
"That's not it!" Janis snapped. "Don't squash that, for crissake!"
The boy's hand pulled back and he muttered a quick apology. "I, uh, can't find anything," his hand moved slowly, reluctantly, and yet with an aura of relief from her breasts.
"No?" Janis drawled. "I could have sworn something flew down there." Her eyes widened and she pointed with mock surprise at Jip's bathing suit. "Look! It's in your suit now!"
The boy's cheeks turned beet-red with embarrassment "That's not ... "
"It's alive!" Janis shrieked. "Look how it's jumping around in there! It's a big one, too!"
"I-I-"
"Quick! Let me get it!" she cried, and before Jip could stop her, she seized the top of his bathing suit and thrust her hand deeply into it. "Ohhhh! It is a big one!" Her fingers made a tight fist around the solid length of hot boy-flesh, squeezing it and tugging on it as though she meant to rip it loose from the rest of his body.
"Janis!" he gasped. "That's not a ... " He stopped abruptly, startled by the strange smile he saw on her face as she moved closer to him and her hand began to stroke more gently.
"I know what it is, dummy!" she laughed. Her lips parted as she pressed them gently against Jip's mouth. "Kiss me!" she ordered. The boy began to gum her lips awkwardly. "Not like that!" she chided. "With your tongue! Like this!"
Wrapping her other hand around his head, she forced his mouth down on hers and rammed the full length of her wet pink tongue between his lips, stroking and curling around his until it began to respond clumsily. She drew her own tongue back into her mouth and forced Jip's to follow. As soon as it was inside, she closed her lips on it and sucked deeply from the back of her throat, bringing a gasp of surprised delight from the boy. As they kissed, her hand continued to play with him inside his bathing suit, measuring the full length and girth of him and finding it quite suitable. Not like Rocky's, she thought, nor what I expected Van to be, but certainly big enough to have a good time with!
She fondled him until he was throbbing at the peak of excitement, then abruptly pulled her hand away and broke the kiss. "Janis!" the boy choked, reaching to pull her back into his arms.
"We'd better get back to the others," she said flatly. "They'll be wondering what happened to us."
"To hell with them! Don't go now!"
"Sorry, honey," she stated. "That's as far as I go while the sun's still shining."
"What?" Jip groaned, his need pathetically still very much in evidence.
"It's a peculiarity of mine," she explained with a wicked smile. "I only get really wild when it's night And," she added pointedly, "especially at wiener roasts. When I'm at one of them there's no controlling me!"
Jip swallowed hard. "I-I'd love to bring you tonight, but I've already got a date."
"Oh?"
"It's kind of understood that Betty-Lou and I go everywhere together."
Janis's eyebrows lifted archly. "Well, then you'll only have a few hours to wait until she takes care of your problem, won't you?" She turned and started to walk away from him, but Jip lunged after her and caught her hard by the wrist.
"Don't go! Please!" he begged. "You can't leave me like-this!"
"Oh, come on!" she mocked. "Don't you know yet what big boys can do to take care of problems like that by themselves?"
"I don't want to do that!"
Janis's hand stroked across the front of his bathing suit and the rock-hard strength pushing against it. "Take me to the wiener roast instead of Betty-Lou," she breathed huskily, "and I'll give you a night you'll never forget, Jip. That's a promise!"
He hesitated, his hand twitching nervously at his side. "All right!" he agreed at last. "I'll pick you up at Van's about eight o'clock."
"Good!" Janis planted a quick kiss on his mouth and skipped away from him toward the beach.
"Wait a minute!" Jip groaned. "What about right now?"
"That's your problem, honey!" Janis laughed. "See you at eight!"
CHAPTER FOUR
Actually going to the wiener roast that night was a drag, Janis thought, as she sat glumly in front of the blazing fire and watched Jip and the other boys toasting hot dogs for their dates. The fun of it had been seeing the shocked expression on the faces of the other kids when she'd shown up on Jip's arm instead of Betty-Lou. As far as she was concerned, the evening had gone downhill from there.
The rest of the girls were instantly resentful of the dirty trick Janis had played on their friend and made it obvious they wanted nothing to do with her. That didn't matter, because Janis had never had much love for any other girl, considering them either as rivals for boys she wanted or beneath her contempt. All of her life she'd had more boys than girls as friends and she was delighted to see that, even in a hick town like Tobinville, this was holding true.
In spite of their dates' warning to keep away from her, the guys had swarmed around Janis all evening, bringing her cokes and making sure she got the first wiener ready from the fire. She noticed how each of them in turn had sidled up to Jip and murmured a few words that had brought an instant burst of hearty, sexual laughter from the boys. She knew what they were saying-or at least that the gist of it had to do with their friend's luck and impending good time with Janis.
She took another small bite on the hot dog Jip had fixed for her, then tossed it half-eaten into the sand. "This party is beginning to resemble a wake!" she announced loudly. Fishing into the large purse she'd brought, she withdrew a transistor radio and tuned it to a rock station, turning the volume up full blast "Anybody want to dance?"
Nearly all of the boys lunged to be first, but the sharp reprimands from their dates halted them in their tracks. They stood back, their eyes burning with lust as they watched Janis begin to sway and gyrate her hips and breasts in time to the throbbing sensuality of the music. She'd selected a pair of short-short white cutoffs that clung to the molded curves of her behind like she'd been poured into them. Up top she wore a sleeveless blouse, unbuttoned far enough to give a generous view of the tempting young tits underneath and leave no doubt that they were as naked as they looked.
As the music built, she began to bump her hips like a novice stripper, thrusting her behind at one boy and then shimmying her tits at another. The shocked looks on the girls' faces only made her dance wilder, her movements more suggestive and enticing.
"Come on!" she taunted. "What are you all? A bunch of panty-wastes? Can't you disobey Mommy just once when you feel like it?"
She knew every one of the boys wanted to leap forward and dance with her, but thoughts of the consequences held them back. They knew she was Jip's date and disobeying their own date's edict to keep away from her would only leave them out in the cold for the rest of the night.
All right, Janis thought, determined to get a rebellion going if it killed her, let's see if this doesn't warm them up a little. She stopped dancing and dug into the purse again, this time pulling out a fifth of scotch whiskey. Another gasp went up from the girls and even the boys gaped at one another in stunned surprise.
"How'd you get hold of that?" Tadpole asked enviously.
"Easy. I've got a fake ID. card that says I'm old enough to buy it. All the kids in Chicago know how to get what they want if they really try." She opened the bottle and took a long swig from it. The scotch burned its way down her throat, but she let no sign of it show on her face. Even as the first began to warm her stomach, she raised the bottle back to her lips and took a longer swallow, then held it out to the boys. "Anybody want a slug?" she offered.
Like lambs frightened of an impending slaughter, none of them moved forward to accept the challenge. "Here," Jip laughed, "give it to me." He took the bottle from Janis and poured a generous swallow down his throat, then turned to his buddies. "What's the matter with you guys?" he chided. "Are you all chicken?"
The boys shifted nervously, glancing at one another to see who would be first. Finally Tadpole stepped up to Jip and took the bottle. The ice broken, the other boys crowded up to him and soon the bottle was being passed back and forth with happy shouts and laughter.
"That's the idea!" Janis laughed. "Now let's see who wants to dance with me!"
"I will, baby," a tall, athletic-looking boy named Ringo laughed, grabbing her by the hips and beginning to gyrate in time to the throbbing rock music. Janis laughed at his clumsiness, but began to move in counter-rhythm to the thrusting of his body toward her. As the music swelled, their bodies gravitated closer until their bellies touched and they began to move their hips in a slow, sensual grind. Janis could feel a pressure beginning to build against her thigh as her heavily sexual dancing excited him. Pressing the core of her belly against the pulsing lump in Ringo's pants, she began to move her hips slowly in and out, her hands stroking the hair on the back of his neck as she pulled his head down to hers.
"You're good," she murmured huskily.
"I try to be," the boy grunted, thrusting himself against her and grinding his hips in a slow circle to let her feel the strength she had aroused.
"Hmmmm," Janis purred, "I'll have to try you sometime!"
"Any time you want to, baby!"
Her mouth touched his and Ringo's tongue drove instantly between her lips, big and thick and wet. He searched the inside of her mouth, sucking hard from the back of his throat as he pulled on her own willing tongue.
"All right!" a sharp female voice snarled. "That's enough. You're my date, Romeo!" The girl pulled Ringo away from Janis and another boy took his place instantly. Laughing, she pushed him away and stepped into the middle of the circle, her body fully illuminated by the blazing campfire.
"Now I'm going to show you how to really dance!" she taunted. The rhythm of the music pounded steadily forward as her hips began to sway from side to side and her incredible pair of tits bobbed like oval balloons filled with jello. Turning toward the group of boys still drinking her scotch, she lifted her hands slowly to the top button of her blouse and opened it. The guys nudged each other and focused their full attention on the performance Janis was about to give.
With her tongue rolling sexily around her lips, she opened her blouse all the way down the front as she danced, then slipped it quickly off her shoulders and dropped it to the sand. A loud chorus of appreciative whistles burst from the boys as Janis shook her naked tits at them.
"Who wants to dance now?" she challenged.
A tall dark-haired boy jumped into the circle with her and attempted to pull her into his arms, but Janis pushed him away.
"Huh-uh!" she laughed. "You have to take off your shirt, too!"
The boy stripped quickly, revealing a muscular chest covered with a patch of thick black hair. Moving back to Janis, he caught her and drew her up against him, grinding his hairy chest against the softness of her tits.
"Ohhhh!" she squealed in delight. "That feels so good!"
"Let's go someplace and I'll make you feel even better!" the boy growled in her ear.
"I don't know," she teased. "I'll have to think about it."
The boy's hands dropped to her buttocks and pulled her sharply against him. A hard, throbbing pressure dug against her thigh. "Think about that," the boy muttered.
"I will, I will!" she promised.
Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder, pulling her roughly away from the boy. She stopped dancing and turned to confront one of the girls, her face twisted with hot anger. The other girls stood close behind their spokesman, looking like they were fit to kill.
"What are you trying to do?" the girl snarled. "That's my date!"
"Can I help it if he wants to dance with me?" Janis said sweetly. "If you don't know how to hold onto your man, don't blame me, honey. Blame yourself."
"I wouldn't lower myself to your level," the girl spat angrily back.
"No? Then why don't you and those other old maids go tend to your knitting and let me show these guys how to have some fun? Because whether you know it or not, my level is just what they like! Don't you, guys?"
By this time the boys had almost finished the scotch and their spirits were strong enough to answer with a resounding chorus of yes!
Janis laughed wildly as the boys crowded around her. She began to dance again, shaking her naked tits defiantly at the other girls. "Why don't you chicks start acting like women instead of somebody's grandmother?" she taunted.
"Are you going to stand for that?" one of the girls squealed.
"Not me!" another girl answered. "If that's what Hot-Rod wants, I can give it to him as good as she can!" An instant later, there was a second discarded blouse on the sand as the girl stripped down to her waist and leaped into the circle with Janis. The boys began to hoot and clap their hands, defying the other girls to follow their example. Before long, even the most hesitant of them had shed her blouse and bra and the deserted beach sang with the shouts of wild laughter as the semi-naked teenagers flung themselves with wild abandon into the music.
"Okay!" Janis laughed. "We're starting to get somewhere! Now for the bottoms!"
The crowd froze in its tracks as Janis boldly unzipped her shorts and flung them into the darkness beyond the fire.
"Last one into the lake is a sex fiend!" she squealed, tearing off across the sand toward the cold, dark water. As she dove in, she heard shrieks of laughter following her and in a matter of minutes the kids were all naked and splashing wildly about in the water. The party was finally starting to come alive, but the best part was yet to come.
She saw Jip swimming a few yards away and paddled quickly up behind him. Her hand circled his waist and seized him. "Boo!" she laughed, tugging playfully on the maleness she held captured in her hand. He yelped in surprise, then recognized Janis and pulled her up against him. His mouth found hers instantly and he kissed her hard, using his tongue more skillfully than he had that afternoon.
As their bodies bobbed in the cold water, Jip took Janis's breasts in his hands and began to squeeze them and stroke the big nipples between his fingertips. The feeling of the cool water and the boy's hands excited her and she felt the twin pink nipples expanding and hardening as he continued to play with them.
"You sure know how to raise hell, don't you!" Jip laughed huskily, as he glanced quickly at the wild abandon of the other kids frolicking around them.
The pressure of Janis's fingers tightened and she pulled on him playfully. "Apparently that's not all I know how to raise!" she laughed sexily.
Jip grinned and reminded her, "You proved that this afternoon, remember?"
"How could I forget?"
"You made a promise to me, too."
"Did I?" she said innocently.
"You sure as hell did!" Jip avowed. "I'm going to hold you to it, too!"
"Yeah?" Janis's hand suddenly released its grip and she splashed water up at his face. "You'll have to catch me first, big boy!"
With a squeal, she took off from him, paddling as fast as she could to shore. Once on the beach, she tore off across the dark strip of sand with Jip hotly in pursuit. As soon as she knew they were far enough away from the other kids, she slowed down and let him catch her. With a flying tackle, the boy threw his arms around her middle and brought them both tumbling down to the sand. He wrestled her quickly onto her back and pinned his weight on top of her.
"So you caught me!" Janis laughed. "Now what are you going to do about it?"
Jip's hips drove down at her, pressing the full bulk of his aroused masculinity against her belly. "Do you have to ask?" he growled.
"I hope not!" Janis purred. Her hands dug into his shoulders and pulled his face down to kiss her. As their mouths met and exchanged brutal kisses, her nails clawed their way down to his buttocks and dug into the hard balls of flesh, pressing him even flatter against her.
She had no real desire in Jip as a person, but the effect of the scotch she'd drunk, together with the sheer animal lust aroused by the hardness and readiness of a man on top of her, made her want him. Then, too, the fact that Jip had probably never done it before seemed tremendously exciting to her.
Her hips began to move in the sand, grinding slowly from side to side under the boy. A low murmur built in her throat as she urged him to lift up, then caught him and bent him down into position between her thighs. She brushed the hot tip of him against her wet fur, guiding him to the spot.
"Give it to me!" she murmured, her nails digging hard into the boy's buttocks. "Come on, baby, show me what you can do!"
With a sharp gasp, Jip lunged down hard on her, his body fusing with Janis's with such force that the slap of his belly hitting hers was like a gunshot in the still night air.
"Jesus Christ!" Janis screamed. "I didn't mean that hard! What are you trying to do? Rip me open?"
"I-I'm sorry!" the boy stammered, his face coloring with embarrassment and shame for his inexperience. He started to pull back out, but Janis's hands pushed him down again.
"As long as the damage is done," she cracked, "stay where you are. But give me a minute to catch my breath, huh?"
The searing pain that his violent entry had ripped into her belly began to mellow, shifting into another kind of feeling as the presence of a man in her began to arouse her need once again. Her hips started to move slowly up and down from the sticky sand, her belly rubbing against Jip's as she worked him in and out of herself.
"All right, honey," she muttered. "Let's try it again. But this time let's take it easy, huh? You're not drilling for oil, you know."
The shame of inexperience had weakened the boy's erection, but as Janis began to guide him his strength returned and his strokes became surer, more instinctively aware of how it should be done. His mouth covered her face and neck with hot kisses as his buttocks rose and fell on top of her, driving himself deep into the warm core of a bliss he had heretofore only dreamed of. His chest squashed her tits almost as flat as he rubbed his upper body over her while his lower parts continued to pump with faster and faster strokes.
"Is it good, baby?" Janis gasped. "Do you like it?"
"Oh, God!" Jip moaned. "I never felt anything like this in my life!"
"Feels good, huh?" she laughed, grinding her hips up at him and working her inner muscles in a new and surprising way. She clamped firmly onto him, held him in place for a moment, then squeezed and massaged him until he was groaning with delirious pleasure.
Her legs lifted from the sand and locked behind Jip's back, opening the road to pleasure even wider for him. "How's that?" she asked. "Feel good?"
"Ohhh, Janis!" he drooled. His hips drove down at her, burying himself right to the hilt in that hot pot of bliss.
"Faster now, baby!" she urged. "Harder, too! I'm ready for it now! Let me have all you can give!"
The moonlight bounced like refracting sparklers off the shine of Jip's naked ass as he drove himself mercilessly into her, each lunge bringing a cry for a harder one from her insatiable lips. As he hammered himself in and out of her she rode with him, her legs tightly clinging to his back, her body lifting from the sand and slapping back down with a force that shook the breath from her.
Suddenly Jip reared back his head and began to bray like a wild man, his thrust becoming reckless and mindful of nothing but the swift culmination of his own pleasure. "I'm going to!" he howled. "Janis, I can't stop it! I have to!"
"Not yet!" she screamed, instantly aware from the different kind of pulsing she felt inside her of what was about to happen. She clamped tightly on him, trying to stop it. "Not yet, dammit!"
"I-I can't help it!" the boy groaned. "I-aaaagghhhh!" His body exploded violently, his weight lunging deeply down on her as the full joy of release burst from him again and again and again.
Janis hurried to join him, desperately flinging herself up at him and working her muscles in a frantic attempt to catch her own pleasure before it was too late. She'd never had to work like this before. Every other man who'd taken her had had the sense to wait until he was sure she was ready to come with him before taking off on his own.
Using every bit of her skill, she twisted and writhed in under Jip, working him against his will until finally she gasped and surrendered herself to the sweet flood of fulfillment.
When it was over, Jip rolled off her and onto his back in the sand. He seemed nervous, embarrassed now that he'd done it. His eyes avoided Janis's, as though he were ashamed of what they had just done.
"I think I know now how you got a nickname like Jip," she muttered. "Only I think you should spell it g-y-p."
"What's the matter?" he asked, raising up on an elbow and looking earnestly down at her. "Wasn't it all right?"
"All right?" Janis was about to laugh and make a disparaging crack about the boy's performance, but something in his eyes stopped her. He looked so hurt, so vulnerable to having his masculine pride destroyed.
After all, she told herself, even I wasn't really so hot the first time. Maybe with a little practice and a lot more self-control he could get to be pretty good at it. At least good enough to keep a small-town mouse like Betty-Lou happy. The wrong thing said right now, though, could put a dent in him that no woman for the rest of his life would ever be able to straighten out. Once mocked, he would never again be absolutely certain that he had the ability to please a woman, that no matter how good he performed she wasn't secretly laughing at him.
Janis knew there were women in the world who enjoyed doing things like that, who got their kicks from mentally castrating men they went to bed with. But she wasn't one of them. If a particular man couldn't match up to her expectations, she saw no reason in destroying him for it. There were plenty of other men around to choose from and probably plenty of other women who might find the guy perfectly adequate.
"Yeah," she murmured, "it was all right, Jip." He beamed with relief and put a quick kiss on her mouth. But, she added to herself, the next time I'll get a man to do the job right!
CHAPTER FIVE
It was quite late when Janis got back to the house that night and in the morning she had the vague recollection of being awakened by Peggy muttering something about church. Janis had pulled the covers over her head and snapped that she wanted to be left alone, so that the next time she woke up the house seemed strangely quiet and deserted.
Still in her shortie pajamas, she padded barefoot downstairs for some coffee and aspirin. The scotch she'd drunk the night before had blossomed into a splitting headache, but the pain of it took secondary importance the moment she stepped into the kitchen. Van sat at the table, bare-chested, wearing only a pair of cut-off levis.
He smiled and looked up as the door closed. "Good morning, sleepyhead! Finally decided to crawl out, huh?" He motioned to the plate of buttered toast in front of him. "Want some breakfast?"
"Can I have it in bed?" Janis drawled sexily.
Van laughed and shook his head. "Boy, you never give up, do you?"
"No," she purred. "But I give in easily. Why don't you come upstairs with me and find out?"
Van laughed again and chewed into his piece of toast. "You'd better have some orange juice and cool off, kid sister."
"Where's Peggy?"
"Oh, she took her car and went into town to church."
"Why didn't you go with her?" Janis asked, beginning to hope that Van had purposefully stayed behind for the same reason that was on her own mind.
He shrugged and gave her a quick smile. "I've got too much work that needs to be done around the house and yard. Besides, I never took to all that religion stuff myself."
"I know what you mean. When Peggy and I were girls, she always made our parents drag the both of us to Sunday School. I hated it! But I guess that's just one of the differences between her and me."
Van looked up, but said nothing as he took a sip from his coffee.
"Peggy always was kind of square," Janis continued. "She never really wanted to do the things that were fun. I was glad when she moved down here to Tobinville."
"I guess that's something we agree on then," Van muttered.
"Oh?" Janis's eye brightened hopefully. "About Peggy being a stick-in-the-mud?"
"No. I mean I'm glad she moved down here, too."
"Oh." Janis paced nervously from the sink to the refrigerator, pouring a glass of orange juice she had no intention of drinking, but needing the time to alter her battle plan. "I, uh, was really surprised when I first met you, Van," she said. "I mean, I didn't expect Peggy's husband to be anything like you."
"Why not?"
"Well, you know. I kind of expected someone with glasses and a bald head."
"Why should you? Peggy's a very attractive woman."
"In her way, sure. But you must admit, a person would think that a guy like you would have picked somebody more ... "
"More what?" Van muttered.
Janis put down the glass and moved quickly behind his chair. She put her arms around his neck and leaned forward, pressing her full breasts against his shoulders. "More like me," she murmured. She started to kiss his ear, but Van lifted her arms away and abruptly got to his feet.
"Don't start playing games again, Janis," he warned.
"Why not? Are you afraid of what might happen if Peggy isn't here to protect you?" she taunted.
"I'm not afraid of anything."
"Then why don't you come upstairs with me and I'll show you how happy a real woman can make you."
"Peggy is all the woman I need or want. The sooner you realize that, the better things around here are going to be for all of us."
"Peggy!" Janis laughed mockingly. "Come on, Van! Who are you trying to kid?"
"Maybe you don't understand right now how that's possible," he said tersely, "but when you're grown up you just might be able to."
Janis's back bristled. "What makes you think I'm not grown up now?" she demanded.
"Forget it," Van smiled. "Fix yourself some breakfast if you want it. I'm going out to do some work on the lawn."
"Van!" Janis called as he turned to go out the back door. He stopped and looked questioningly at her. "Look at me," she murmured. "I am grown up. I'm a woman and you know it. If you don't believe me ... She unbuttoned the front of her pajamas and pushed the top back from her shoulders, then cupped her tits and held them out to him. "Look at them," she said softly. "Are Peggy's this big? Do hers look as good as mine?" She took two steps toward him, juggling her breasts slowly up and down as she moved. "You know I want you, Van. I've wanted you from the moment I first saw you. And you want me, too. Now's our chance. Don't throw it away."
Van's face was grim, his jaw tightly set as he stared at the tempting display his young sister-in-law was offering. "If you weren't Peggy's sister, I'd ..."
"You'd what?"
"I'd-I'd put you over my knee and spank the living daylights out of you!" he growled.
"No you wouldn't," Janis persisted. "You know what you'd do. And you know what I'd do, too. All kinds of things, Van. I'll bet I know how to do things that Peggy doesn't do for you. I'll bet I could make you feel like a real man if you gave me the chance." She held out her hand to him, begging him with her eyes to take up the challenge. "Come on. Let's go upstairs and I'll show you."
Van stood his ground for a long, long moment in silence, his eyes darting from Janis to the clock over the sink. Then, breaking abruptly forward, he rushed to her and caught her up in his arms, lifted her and carried her out of the kitchen and toward the stairs.
"Yes, Van! Yes! Yes! Yes!" Janis laughed deliriously. She showered his neck with kisses as he took the steps two at a time, her weight as negligible as a feather's in his strong arms.
At last! her mind screamed. He's going to take me at last! She felt an ache pulsing deep in her belly as he carried her down the upstairs hall and kicked open the door to her bedroom. She could almost feel his weight on top of her, his strength moving inside her, his power bursting free and flooding her with his sheer masculinity.
He carried her to the bed and dropped her down on it. Her arms lifted up to him, her eyes beseeching him to hurry. "Quick!" she moaned. "I can't stand it! I need you in me, Van! Please hurry!"
Something in the look on his face drew her up short and she felt a sudden chill race down her back. It was not desire she saw in his eyes, but a frighteningly cold anger.
"Van ... ?"
"If you so much as move from this room before your sister gets home," he threatened, his voice deep and low and very, very menacing, "I swear I'll get the biggest board I can find and paddle you so hard with it you won't be able to sit down for the rest of the summer!"
"Van ... " she whimpered.
"I mean it, Janis. You can push me just so far." He glared angrily for a moment longer, then turned and strode out of the room and back down the steps, slamming the door so hard behind him that the pictures on the wall rattled.
Janis stared at the closed door for a long while, her frustration slowly turning into an anger that tightened her fists so strongly together the knuckles were white. "Yeah?" she screamed. "Well I haven't begun to push, buddy! Just wait! You'll eat those words before I'm through with you!"
Afraid of challenging Van any further, at least for a while, Janis stayed upstairs until she heard her sister's car pull into the driveway. When she heard the screen door slam, she peered out the window to make sure Van was still working in the garden, then left her room and ran quickly downstairs.
"Peggy! Thank goodness you're home!" she gasped. "I'm absolutely starving!"
"Well why didn't you get your pretty self out of bed and fix breakfast?" Peggy smiled. "Did you have to wait for me to fix it for you?"
"I couldn't."
"Now don't tell me Mom didn't teach you how to fry an egg, because I know better."
"No, I mean I couldn't leave my room until you got home."
"What?" Peggy looked intently at her younger sister. "Why on earth not?" "Van wouldn't let me."
"Oh, Janis!" Peggy laughed. "I've never heard anything so ridiculous!"
"No, really! He wouldn't. He told me if I came downstairs before you got back from church he wouldn't
"Janis, I don't think I'm getting this. Just what are you trying to say?"
"Well, I came downstairs about an hour ago to get something to eat. I didn't know Van was here, so I just came down in my shortie pajamas. He was in the kitchen. I didn't think anything of it until I saw the funny way he was looking at me. Before I knew it, he started attacking me! I had to run upstairs to get away from him!"
Peggy's lower lip began to tremble and she made a good deal of fuss about suddenly clearing off the table and rinsing the dishes in the sink. "I don't believe it," she muttered. "Van just wouldn't do something like that."
"Well you'd better believe it," Janis retorted, "because he did! He almost ripped the pajamas off me! He said I was the most exciting woman he'd ever met in his life and that from the moment he first saw me he wanted to ... "
"Janis, stop it!" Peggy shrieked. "I don't want to listen to any more of your lies!"
"They're not lies!"
"They are and you know they are! I know what you're trying to do, but it won't work. Van and I have too much between us for you to make me jealous with a pack of lies like that!"
"Oh?" Janis challenged. "Then why are you so upset if you think it's nothing but a pack of lies?"
"I'm not upset. I'm just appalled that my own sister would stoop so low!"
Janis bristled, her eyes flashing fire. "What you mean is that Van would find your own sister more exciting than you."
Peggy's hand cracked hard against Janis's cheek. "How dare you!" she screamed. Then, covering her mouth with both hands, she shook her head and began to cry. "Honey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that."
"You're going to be even sorrier," Janus said, her voice cold and threatening. "Until now I was trying to be decent about it and hold him off, because you're my sister and I didn't want to hurt you. But believe me, the next time your dear husband makes a pass, I'm taking him up on it! For the rest of your life you're going to regret slapping me, Peggy!" She turned and ran out of the kitchen, back upstairs to her own room where she slammed the door and locked it. Then, grinning like a Cheshire cat, she went to the window and looked out at Van.
A few minutes later, she saw him lift his head up as Peggy called him to the house. She went to the bedroom door and listened as the sounds of an argument drifted up from downstairs. Opening the door, she crept into the hall and edged her way carefully to the staircase.
"I tell you, nothing happened!" Van swore.
Peggy was crying, her voice quivering. "Is that the truth, Van?"
"Of course it's the truth!"
"If I thought for one minute that you and Janis . .
"Oh, for Christ's sake!" Van shouted. "Don't you know me better than that?"
"I don't know. I'm beginning to wonder if I really know you at all."
"Well that's fine! That sure as hell is fine!"
Janis had to cover her mouth to keep from giggling. Keep it up! she thought gleefully. The more you fight, the better my chances are going to be! She realized that one of the best ways to conquer any objective is to cut off the target's supplies. And Van was the kind of man who needed a regular supply of sex. If he wasn't getting it from Peggy, Janis calculated, it wouldn't be long before he turned elsewhere for it. She'd be certain that when he started looking, she'd be right where he could find her. But this time he'll be the one who does the begging!" she vowed. He'll get it, but he'll have to crawl for it first!
Her spirits continued to soar as the argument downstairs became more heated. She could almost feel herself in Van's arms, the reality of it coming one step closer with each of Peggy's angry shouts. Suddenly she backed up as she heard her sister burst into tears and run for the staircase. Darting down the hall, she barely closed her door in time to avoid being seen as Peggy dashed upstairs and into her own bedroom. A few seconds later, Van thundered up right behind her and stormed into their room, slamming the door behind him.
Janis opened her door and listened as the argument continued. But the smile on her face began to fade as the shouts tapered off, replaced by the quite different sound of murmurs and long periods of silence. Tiptoeing softly down the hall, she eavesdropped outside her sister's bedroom, her face going white as she realized what was happening inside.
"Oh, honey!" Peggy sobbed. "You know what that does to me! Ohhhhhhh!"
Janis's ears strained, but she could hear nothing except a strangely muffled moaning punctuated by sudden gasps from her sister. Dropping to her knees outside the door, she peered through the keyhole but was so dismayed by what she saw she wished she'd never looked.
The bed was directly opposite the door. Peggy was sitting on the edge of it, her skirt pushed up to her waist, her body supported on her elbows as she leaned backwards. Van was on his knees in front of her, his head buried in the warmth of his wife's thighs. As Janis watched in mounting horror, his hands stroked up and down Peggy's chest while his head bobbed in her lap.
"Ohhhhh!" Peggy moaned. "Honey, that feels so good!"
Her hands reached down to caress her husband's hairy shoulders, then press against the back of his head and urge his face even closer. Janis could almost hear the wet, smacking sounds of Van's tongue as he used it on her sister.
A pang of jealousy shot through her stomach like a barbed spear. She wanted to burst into the room and pull Van away from Peggy, force him to shower that wonderful pleasure on her. She could almost feel his hot tongue licking through her belly fur, finding her, drilling slowly into the meaty pink core.
Janis's agony mounted as she watched Peggy squirming with pleasure, tossing her head from side to side and jerking her legs spastically as Van brought wave after wave of sensation to her throbbing center.
"Stop!" Peggy groaned, suddenly leaning forward and lifting him up and away from her. "I don't want to end it like that," she murmured. Her arms circled her husband's waist and she planted a wet kiss in the matted hair of his stomach. "How about giving me a chance now?"
Janis's eyes bulged like saucers and her throat went dry with desire as she watched Van fumble with his fly, then drop his shorts to the floor. He stepped out of them and moved closer to the bed. Peggy's hands gripped the hard, fleshy balls of his ass as she pulled him to her waiting mouth.
"Ohhhhhhhhh!" he groaned as the first wet grip of his wife's mouth slipped over him. He held her head tightly with both hands and began to rock himself slowly back and forth at her face. His legs tensed and his gasps of pleasure came harder and faster as Peggy worked on him, returning in full measure the erotic homage he had just given her.
From where she peered through the keyhole, Janis could only see Van's buttocks pumping like a well-oiled machine, thrusting and driving at Peggy's mouth, but in her mind she could picture all of what they were doing. She had done it enough times herself to know how Peggy's lips would be stretched around him, how her cheeks would be puffed out, how her forehead would slap against his belly as she strove to take all of him with her deep lunges.
Her own tongue began to work instinctively inside her mouth, imagining the taste of warm male flesh on it. Her hand dropped to her lap and slipped quickly under her skirt. Her fingers felt like sticks of fire as she pulled back her panties and touched them to her aroused flesh. A shot like electricity ran up her spine. She stiffened her middle finger and inched it slowly through the moist muff of hair and into the juicy passage beyond. Her muscles clamped on it instantly, sucking it in past the second knuckle. As she watched her sister and brother-in-law through the keyhole, her finger began to move rhythmically with the thrusting of Van's buttocks.
Suddenly he stopped and lifted Peggy to her feet, then eased her gently onto her back on the bed. Her legs spread wide to receive him. A dull groan of pleasure broke from both their throats as he settled his weight on top of her and moved slowly inside.
Peggy's legs lifted and locked at the ankles above Van's back. Her hands pressed down on his buttocks, fitting him all the way into her. As he began to move, she sobbed with pleasure, her breath becoming ragged as the tempo quickened and they rushed headlong toward a mutual release.
When it was over, Peggy's legs dropped limply back to the bed. "I'm sorry, honey," she murmured. "I never should have doubted you."
"Forget it," Van assured her. "You know you'll always be the only woman in my life."
Outside in the hall, Janis got shakily to her feet. Her panties were sopping wet. She moved unsteadily back to her own room, her fists clenched tight with anger and frustration. "We'll see about that," she muttered under her breath. "We'll just see about that, Van Avery!"
CHAPTER SIX
Things were rather tense around the house the rest of that day, and not much improved the next morning when Van went off to work at the station and the two sisters were left alone. Janis stayed in bed as long as she possibly could, then went downstairs with a sheepish look on her face. She had plotted all night and come up with a new tactic for getting Van, now that she realized it would be impossible to wedge jealousy between him and Peggy. The best way to win a battle, she'd decided, was to make the enemy think the war was over-and then strike hard as soon as his defenses were down.
Peggy was busy cleaning the living room. She muttered a curt good morning as Janis passed through to the kitchen for a glass of milk, but it was obvious from the cold tone in her voice that she still resented the trouble her volatile young sister had caused the day before and was not about to let her forget it.
Look at her, Janis thought in disgust, as she leaned in the doorway and sipped at her milk while she watched Peggy push the vacuum cleaner around the room. Her hair's a mess, she's got no make-up on, and that house dress is right out of the Stone Age! How could Van be serious when he says he's in love with someone who looks like that?
And yet, somewhere in the back of her mind, Janis realized that she envied her sister's married life for more than the obvious reason of Van. There was a definite pride visible in Peggy's eyes as she cleaned her house, moved her furniture, dusted her knick-knacks. These were her own things-hers and Van's. The substance of their life together, the visible possessions of a marriage. This was a house they had worked together to buy and which they had fun decorating together. A house that would someday ring with the cries and laughter of their children, that would know the happiness of Christmas and the joys of birthdays and anniversaries. It was a place removed from the cares of the world, where Peggy and Van could be alone in the shelter of the home they had created.
Often, during the days she'd been there, Janis had watched Peggy peeling vegetables in the kitchen or making the beds upstairs and wondered what it would be like to do such things because you wanted to, because it was part of your responsibility toward your home and husband, and not because it was something you had to do to oblige your mother. She'd seep the happy swell of pride in Peggy's eyes when Van complimented her on a meal she'd made or when they discussed some item of furniture they'd both looked at in the store in town, hoping some day to buy.
Was that what marriage was all about, Janis wondered. Until corning to stay with her sister, she'd never really thought it possible for a woman to find fulfillment in being a wife. And yet now, she was beginning to wonder.
"Peggy?" she called hesitantly, raising her voice to be heard over the steady hum of the vacuum cleaner. "Peggy!" she called again.
Her sister looked up, a trace of annoyance in her eyes. "What?"
"Could you shut that off so we could talk for a minute?"
"What? I can't hear you."
"Shut that ... " Janis smiled and moved quickly to pull the plug from the machine.
"Now why'd you do that, Janis?" Peggy complained. "I've got a million and one things to do this morning."
"Can't you just spare a minute? I've got something I have to say to you."
"About what?" Peggy sighed.
"Please? Just sit down for a minute?"
Peggy dropped the cleaner hose and sat wearily on the couch, her eyes following suspiciously as Janis moved to sit beside her. "All right," she said. "For a minute. But if it's any more of that nonsense about Van, I warn you ... "
"No, please. Just listen." Janis urged. "It is about Van, but it's not what you think." She suddenly threw herself at Peggy, wrapping her arms around her sister's neck and hugging her tightly. "Oh, Peggy!" she said, doing her best to put a sob into her voice. "I've been such a fool! Such a stupid little fool! No, worse! I've been a bitch!"
Peggy's hands gently patted the girl's shoulders. "What are you talking about, honey?"
"I don't know why I did what I did, Peggy. I must have been out of my mind! I just couldn't control myself and when I saw how much trouble I'd caused I felt so ashamed I just wanted to die!" She put her head on her sister's shoulder and began to sob in her throat as though she were crying, even though her eyes were perfectly dry and coldly calculating the effect of every word she uttered.
"Come on now," Peggy consoled. "I understand."
"No, you couldn't. And I know you'll never forgive me for what I tried to do."
"Of course I can forgive you!" Peggy laughed gently. "You're just young and confused and in too much of a hurry to grow up. I know that; so does Van. We both realize you don't mean all the things you say and do."
"I've been just awful!" Janis sobbed. "When I see how happy you and Van are I feel like a first-class skunk for ever trying to come between you."
"I told you before, honey. You couldn't come between us, no matter how hard you tried. Even if Van was attracted to another woman in a sexual way, it wouldn't be anything more than that and I know he'd come back to me as soon as he got it out of his system. It just wouldn't be important, because our marriage means more to the both of us than just a legal piece of paper and a couple of wedding rings. It means that we honestly want to spend our lives with no one else in the world but each other."
"Well," Janis said hesitantly, knowing this was the most dangerous gamble she was taking in her new plan, "I've decided that after all the trouble I've caused and all I've tried to do, it just wouldn't be right for me to stay here any longer. I've packed my things and if you'll drive me into town I'll get the next bus for home."
Peggy pulled away and gave her a stern look, but in her eyes was a reassuring gentleness. "If you've packed any suitcases, you'd better march right back upstairs and unpack them this instant, young lady! Because you're not going anywhere."
"But, Peggy ... "
"No arguments! You're staying with us for the summer as planned, and that's final!"
Janis laughed and threw her arms tightly around her sister's neck. "Oh, Peggy! You're just the best sister in the whole wide world!"
"Now that we all understand each other, we're going to have a wonderful summer. Just wait and see."
Uh-huh! Janis thought with a smile. Just wait and see is right! But not in the way you think, honey!"
A sudden knock at the door broke them apart. "Go see who that is, will you, sugar?" Peggy said, separating herself from Janis and getting up from the couch. "I've got to get this cleaning finished or I'll never make it to town before the stores close."
Janis pushed absently at some stray hairs as she went to answer the door, her insides bubbling with triumph. She'd given the performance of her life and could almost taste the prize she was going to get because of it. "Yes-? Oh, it's you." Her smile changed to a condescending sneer as she peered out the screen door at Jip Jones's grinning face. "What do you want?"
"Hi, Janis," the boy beamed. "How come you didn't come to the phone when I called last night?"
"Because I was busy," she snapped. "I'm busy right now, too, so make it quick. What do you want?"
"I-thought you might like to go for a ride with me," Jip explained. "I've got the day off from the station and a full tank of gas and ... "
"And a case of the hots, too, I imagine," she cracked.
Jip's face began to color and he looked down at his feet as he shifted them nervously from side to side. "Well ... "
"Look, what do you think I am? A sex machine? Something you drop a quarter in anytime you're in the mood for a quick thrill? I told you I'm busy, so beat it."
She stepped away from the door, but Jip called after her. "Wait a minute! I didn't mean ... "
"I said beat it! I'm not interested!"
"Who's at the door, Janis?" Peggy called.
"Nobody!" She started to close the inner door on Jip, but Peggy came out to the hall and spotted him.
"Oh, it's you, Jip. How are you?"
"Fine, Mrs. Avery."
"There isn't anything wrong at the station, is there?"
"Oh, no, Mrs. Avery. Nothing's wrong. I've got the day off and I stopped to see if Janis wanted to go for a ride with me."
"How nice!" Peggy said, beaming at Janis. "It's a perfect day for it!"
"I'm not going," Janis muttered.
"What? Why not?"
"I-I thought I'd stick around the house and help you with the cleaning," she said, quickly deciding that between the two evils, Jip was the one to avoid.
"You'll do no such thing!"
"But, Peggy ... "
"You heard me! This is supposed to be a vacation. Now you go upstairs and put on some clothes. Jip, come on in. Janis will be ready in a minute."
"Peggy, I'm not ... "
"On the way, you two can stop at the station and give Van his lunchbox. He was in such a hurry he left without it this morning."
Janis's ears perked to instant attention. The wheels in her mind began to clack as a new idea took shape. "Okay," she said with a smile. "If you're sure you don't need me."
"When I clean," Peggy declared, "anyone else hanging around just gets in my way. Now go get dressed while I see if I can interest Jip in some of those chocolate chip cookies I made last night"
"Oh, boy! My favorite!" Jip beamed.
Go ahead, Janis thought as she ran upstairs to change, eat your fill, sweetheart. Whether you know it right now or not, those cookies are the only sweet thing you're going to get this afternoon!
As soon as they were away from the house, Jip tried to put his arm around her, but Janis pushed him off and sat as far from him as she could. "What's the matter?" he asked.
"Nothing. Just drive, huh? I don't feel like getting myself wrapped around a telephone pole because you've got itchy fingers." She dug into her purse for a cigarette and lit it, her eyes staring coldly at the road ahead, barely conscious of the boy sitting beside her. A few minutes later, however, as they began to approach Van's station, she suddenly slid all the way back across the seat, so close to Jip that their thighs and legs were flush together. "Put your arm around me," she muttered.
"Huh? Why the sudden change?"
"Shut up and do what I tell you."
Jip slipped his arm up behind the seat and rested his hand on Janis's shoulder, but a quick tug from her and it fell to her breast. "Boy, I sure don't understand you!"
"Who asked you to?" As the boy's car pulled into the station and stopped in front of the office, Janis leaned her head against his shoulder and a bright, beaming smile spread over her mouth. Her smile broadened as Van stepped out of the office and approached the car.
"Well, Jip," he laughed, "what's the matter? Get homesick on your day off?"
"You forgot your lunch," Janis purred. "Peggy asked if we'd drop it by on our way."
"Oh?"
"Yes," she said, snuggling closer to Jip. "We're going for a long, long drive out into the country. Just the two of us." Her hand tickled slowly up and down Jip's leg, the motion easily and quickly observed by Van.
"Well, it's a beautiful day for a drive," Van agreed. "I wish I could take the opportunity myself." He took the lunchbox Janis handed him and turned to go back into the office. "You kids have fun now!" he called.
Jip started to put the car into gear, but Janis slapped his hand from the ignition and pulled away from him. "Wait a minute," she snapped.
"What's the matter?"
"Shut up and stay here." She slid quickly across the seat and opened the door, jumped out of the car and ran after Van into the office. "Oh, Van!"
"Yes?"
"Didn't you-uh-hear what I said? Jip and I are going for a long drive together."
"I heard you," he smiled.
"But, I mean-just the two of us!"
"Sometimes that's more fun than with a crowd," Van said, sitting behind his desk and opening up his lunch. "Gives you more of a chance to talk and get to know each other."
"Van," Janis wailed, her frustration mounting by the second, "I don't think Jip intends to do much talking! I mean I don't think that's why he's taking me for this drive!"
"No?"
"No!" She was getting so angered by his indifference she had all she could do to keep from stamping her foot "He's got something else on his mind!"
"Well, Jip's a bright boy. I guess he's got a lot on his mind."
"Ohhhh!" she swore. Then, deciding on a different tack entirely, she sat on the edge of the desk as her brother-in-law began to eat and said, "Van? Peggy and I had a long talk this morning."
"Oh?" he mumbled, his mouth filled with sandwich.
"Yes. We came to an understanding about things."
"What kind of things?"
"Well, you for instance."
"Me? What about me?"
Janis smiled and leaned toward him, forcing him to look at her as she explained. "It's just that I realized what a fool I've been making of myself in the last few days."
"Oh?" Van said, but continued to chew at his sandwich.
"Yes. You see I realize now that it was ridiculous for me to be chasing you the way I was."
"Well, that's very sensible, Janis."
"Of course it is. I mean, you're so old!"
For the first time since she'd started, Van put down his sandwich and gave her a direct look. "Just what is that supposed to mean?"
"It should be obvious. I mean a girl my age chasing after a man your age is just nonsense! It would be like seducing my own father, for heaven's sake!"
"I'm not that old!" Van protested.
"No, but you're still old. It makes much more sense for you to stick with Peggy. She's sedate and easygoing. I need a boy like Jip, who won't fold up on me right away, if you know what I mean." Janis had to bite her lip to keep from laughing at the look on her brother-in-law's face. "So I just wanted to set your mind at rest. You don't have to worry about me chasing after you anymore. From now on, it'll be Jip who'll have to watch out!" She leaned across the desk and chucked Van's chin, then leaped to her feet and darted to the door. "Toodle-oo!"
She made a great display of hugging her arms around Jip and kissing his neck when she got back in the car, but as soon as they were out of sight of the station she pulled away from him and slid back against the opposite door. "All right," she snapped, "you can take me back home now."
"What?"
"You heard me. Turn the car around and take me home."
"Boy, you're some joker, Janis!" Jip laughed nervously. "For a minute there I thought you were serious!"
"I am serious. Take me home."
Jip's hand shot across the seat and seized her leg. "I'm not getting this."
"You're not going to get it, either," she said, pushing his hand away. "And keep your eyes on the road, will you?"
"I thought you told Van we were going for a long ride?"
"I did. But that doesn't mean I'm going to do it, just because I said it. Will you-watch it!" she shrieked, as the car suddenly swerved into the lane of oncoming traffic. "Will you please keep your hands on the wheel and not on me?"
"Safety first, huh?"
"Damn right, safety first! I have absolutely no desire to die in a hick town like Tobinville, believe me!"
"If that's what you're worried about-I mean safety-I took care of it. I mean I'm more prepared today than I was the other night at the lake."
"What are you talking about?"
Jip gave her a leering grin and said, "Look-uh-look in the glove compartment and you'll see what I mean."
Sighing with boredom, Janis snapped open the compartment. The first thing to catch her eye was a small packet wrapped in tin-foil with the word prophylactic printed in bright red letters. She started to giggle, then laugh uncontrollably as she pulled the packet from the compartment and dangled it in front of Jip's face. "This? Is this what you wanted me to see?"
"Yeah," the boy said, his face flushing deep pink, "but I don't see what's so funny about it."
"God, I haven't seen one of these things since I was thirteen!" Janis laughed. "I didn't even know they were still making them!" She began to rip open the tin-foil wrapper and pull out the three tightly-rolled rubbers inside it. "Oh!" she squealed. "They've even got little bags on the end to catch all that nasty stuff!"
"Hey! What're you doing!"
"What does it look like I'm doing?" Janis giggled. "I'm blowing them up! They're balloons, aren't they?" While the boy roared helplessly, Janis filled one of the rubbers with air until it was swollen into a giant-size replica of a man's penis. "Oh, if only I could find a man like this!" she laughed.
"Stop it! What are you trying to do!"
"Want to hear it go pop?"
"Janis ... "
A loud crack made him jump as Janis burst the air-filled prophylactic. "That's what I think of your safety first!" she sneered. "And you, too, for that matter! Now turn this car around and take me home!"
Jip wheeled sharply off the main road, but he was not turning the car around. They bounced roughly down an old dirt road leading to a deserted farmhouse and he pulled to a stop under a grove of trees, far out of sight of the highway.
"Now what?" Janis cracked.
"You know what I want." His face was tense, but the look in his eyes determined.
"Yeah, I know. But what you want and what you're going to get are two different matters."
"Why are you acting like this? The other night at the lake I thought-"
"Well you thought wrong. Now start this car before you really begin to bore me."
"You don't know what I've given up for you!"
"Betty-Lou?" Janis sneered. "You can get her back in a second, don't kid me. She'll think her fatal charm won out over mine in the end."
"Janis, please ... " He lunged at her, holding her in his arms as she squirmed to break his grip.
"Don't push your luck, buster!" she warned.
"I'm not letting you go! I want you and I'm going to have you, whether I get it willingly or not!"
"Yeah?" Janis said, her back stiffening. "Just try!"
Jip pawed at her blouse and to his surprise he found her offering no resistance. He yanked the buttons open and caressed her naked breasts. Still she gave no response. He pushed the seat back and then slipped sideways on it to stretch Janis flat on her back. His hands tugged roughly at her shorts and when they were off, he spread her legs wide apart.
"You're only wasting your time," she muttered, her voice heavy with contempt. "Better men than you have tried this game and lost."
"Yeah? We'll see!"
Holding her legs firmly, Jip slipped off the seat onto his knees and pressed his face down into the soft warmth of Janis's belly. His tongue licked across the tender pink flesh, inching its way steadily downward until the tickle of her hair made him pull back. His hands pressed into her thighs, opening her, then his mouth returned, his tongue driving deeply with the first thrust.
Janis had to bite her lip to keep from squealing in wild delight. She was determined not to show any signs of response, no matter what Jip did to her. When she wanted to make love to a man, there was nothing she wouldn't do with him. But it was equally true that when she said no, she meant no, and there was no way he could force a cry of surrender from her. In spite of the fires Jip's hot, rasping tongue was lighting inside her, she lay stiffly in under him, her legs and belly rigid, forcing a bored expression onto her face.
"Do you mind if I smoke?" she said sweetly, her voice like honey-dipped acid.
Jip's face lifted in astonishment. "You ... "
"I warned you, little boy. Now will you stop making a fool of yourself and take me home?"
"Like hell I will!" He tugged at his belt and jerked down his fly. Pushing his pants and underpants to his knees, he scrambled back up onto the seat and thrust his weight down on Janis.
"Tell me when it's in," she cracked.
The boy's face was almost scarlet with rage. "You'll know when it's in, bitch! You won't forget this for the rest of your life!"
He lunged with such force that Janis felt as though a baseball bat had suddenly been driven into her. The pain shot straight up to her eyeballs, but not a grimace showed on her face. She lay stiffly in under him, her legs unyielding, her inner muscles frozen in resistance against him.
Yet, as Jip began to thrust and lunge, his body hammering at her with all the violence of a young boy trying to prove himself a man, Janis felt herself responding to him. Her mind screamed with brutal sensation as again and again he drove down on her, ramming so deeply that she could feel him in the pit of her belly. She longed to suddenly clasp her thighs tightly shut on him, hold him and work him inside her, then release and grip and lock her legs around his back and surrender herself completely to the raw eroticism of this animal coupling.
Her tits were on fire, the nipples big and hard and throbbing with need each time Jip's chest slammed against them. Her throat ached from the longing to scream out her pleasure, to sob and gasp each time that enormous thrust of feeling drove into her. The seat-cover was pulled tightly in both her fists. Her nails dug into the cloth to keep from flying suddenly onto his back and clawing with frenzy at his skin.
More than he had ever hoped to or would know, Jip was proving himself a man that afternoon. The heat of anger had thrust aside the clumsiness which Janis had come so close to mocking the other night, and in its place was the raw, brutal skill of a man who can take a woman against her will and make her love it!
Cursing at her apparent indifference as he continued to ram without mercy, Jip suddenly tensed and his strokes became more frenzied and reckless. His body pounded at hers like lightening, his flesh moving with hers in a headlong rush to oblivion.
And then, just before Jip cried out and drove down on her to stay, Janis's flesh betrayed her completely. A low, agonized cry from her soul broke from her lips as the wall broke down at last and the flood of her surrender came pouring free. Jip knew it, too, and that knowledge pushed him over the edge with her.
For several minutes he lay on top of her, both of them breathing hard through their mouths. Then, shakily, Jip raised up and lit a cigarette for himself with trembling hands.
"Finished?" Janis challenged, but the fight was all gone from her voice and they both knew it.
"Yeah, I'm finished. You know damn well I'm finished." Jip took a long drag from his cigarette and blew the smoke at the windshield. "Boy, you're just about the toughest bitch in the world, aren't you?"
"I try to be," she cracked.
"You don't have to be, you know. If you just ... "
"Save the lectures for Betty-Lou," Janis interrupted, sitting up and reaching for her shorts. "You got what you wanted. Now take me home and we'll call it even."
"Is that how you want it?"
"Yeah," Janis said, not daring to look into his eyes. "That's how I want it."
CHAPTER SEVEN
As the hours of the following days ticked slowly by, Janis had more than one occasion to regret that afternoon with Jip. When he dropped her off at the house, each knew it would be the last time they would see each other and with him went her only relief from the torment of being around Van without being able to possess him.
Sometimes, when they would be watching television after supper, she would look across the room at him with his arm around Peggy and the need for him would be like a knife twisting slowly in her stomach. When he brushed past her or grazed her hand while passing something at the table, Janis's sharp intake of breath was almost audible. She dreamed of him during the day and at night the agony of sleeping alone and knowing he was right down the hall, making love to her sister, was enough to make her want to die that very night.
But, true to her plan, Janis acted as though nothing at all was the matter. She ignored Van almost to the point of rudeness. Whenever he caught her staring at him, she looked quickly and guiltily away, breaking into a chatter of conversation about the first thing that came to her mind. She helped Peggy in the kitchen more than she ever had helped her mother at home, preferring the menial work to the tension of being alone in the living room with Van and not knowing anything to say except how much she desired him.
Although it was torment to keep it up, she could tell that her plan was getting instantaneous results. Peggy's suspicions relaxed after the very first day and she no longer thought twice about going into town and leaving her sister and husband alone in the house. In fact, noting Janis's abrupt indifference to Van, she even began to encourage them to do things together, feeling that an undesirable rift might have grown between them.
On Van's part, the new tactic was having exactly the effect Janis wanted. While she had been openly and obviously chasing him, he'd been able to ignore her with the indifference of a stallion stud used to being courted by every mare in the pasture. Her sudden lack of interest, though, was like an insult to his masculinity, particularly since Janis had told him she now preferred a much younger man. His pride began to reassert itself through more meaningful smiles whenever he talked to her and a casual way of exposing his chest and biceps as often as circumstances permitted. Often he would strip off his shirt and he on the couch bare-chested watching television, asking Janis to bring him a cold beer from the kitchen and then giving her a broad smile and wink when she handed it to him.
Those moments were especially difficult for Janis, for she knew that if she acted too quickly the entire scheme would go up in a puff of smoke. She had to bide her time, let the sauce simmer just long enough without running the danger of having it boil over.
The opportunity she'd been waiting for came almost precisely two weeks from the day Janis had first arrived. It was a hot Saturday, with the temperature climbing even higher and more than an hour to go before noon. Peggy had taken the car and gone into town to do the week's grocery shopping and stop for a doctor's appointment. Van was working on the running battle he had with the weeds in their front yard and Janis was getting ready to let her plan spring into action at last.
She came downstairs in her skimpy bathing suit and went out to where Van was working. "Hi," she said, tapping him on the shoulder. "You look hot."
His eyes quickly scanned up and down her nearly-naked body and he began to grin. "You don't."
"Oh, but I am," she purred. "I'm very hot."
"Want me to turn the hose on you?" Van laughed.
"I've got a better idea. Why don't we drive out to the lake for a quick swim?"
Van shook his head and went back to the weeds. "Can't."
"Why not?"
"Too much work to be done around here."
"Oh, come on!" She bent down and put her hand over his, stopping his work. Her fingers tightened on his. "The weeds will still be here when you get back. A swim will do you a world of good. Besides," she added with a droll smile, "I still haven't had a chance to see you in action. In the water, I mean."
Van laughed and shook his head no, but Janis's sudden rebirth of interest was beginning to intrigue him. "I really can't. But if you want to go I'll loan you my car for the afternoon."
"No good. I don't know how to drive." She tugged on his hand, urging him to his feet. "So it looks like you're stuck taking me."
"Janis, I ... "
"Oh, come on!" she laughed. "Don't be such an old stick in the mud! A hard swim will be good for you; you're starting to get flabby!"
"Where?" Van protested.
"Go on, get into your suit while it still fits! Unless you want to go skinny-dipping!"
Van shrugged his shoulders helplessly. "What can I do? She's got me cornered." He put his arm around Janis's waist and squeezed her hip. "All right I don't think Peggy would be mad if we sneak off without her for a little while."
Not unless she catches us! Janis thought with a wicked grin of anticipation.
"Get in the car," Van said. "I'll be changed and down in ten seconds."
Janis's insides were fluttering wildly as she waited for him. When he came out of the house, her heart leaped almost to her throat. He looked so sexy in that tight bathing suit! She crossed her legs together and swallowed hard as she stared at the awesome bulge pushing against the front of the suit as Van came up to the car.
Soon! she thought. Soon!
Van parked the car near the spot where they'd had the first picnic but, anxious to avoid running into another crowd like they had the last time, Janis maneuvered him further down the sandy beach and spread out the blanket under a sheltered grove of trees. "You won't get much sun in here," Van told her. "Why don't you set things up down closer to the water?"
"This place is fine," she assured him. "You know, too much sun isn't good for my skin. We redheads have to be careful about how much exposure we get." Van began to laugh and Janis whirled with a questioning look. "What's so funny? It's true! I could get a terrific burn if I stay out in the sun too long!"
"I wasn't laughing about that!"
"No? What then?"
"What you said about exposure," Van grinned, his eyes running quickly up and down her body. "I mean, it's hard to imagine you any more exposed than you are in that suit!"
"Hell, a man would have to be blind not to!" Van laughed.
"And you sure aren't blind, are you, baby?" Janis purred. She turned from side to side, exhibiting her sultry curves to their fullest advantage. "I'll bet you've always had an eye for the ladies, haven't you?'"
Van shrugged modestly. "I've done all right in my time."
"Hmmmmm! I'll bet you have!" Janis moved closer to him and put her hand on his chest, running her fingers slowly down through the thick whorls of black hair until she was almost to his belly. "But don't talk like your time is over, honey. I'll bet there's still a lot of juice in the old machine." Her hand moved down to the rim of his bathing suit and was about to drop lower, but Van caught her wrist and lifted her fingers away. "What's the matter, sugar?" she purred. "Scared of something?"
"We came here to swim, remember?"
"But there are so many other, more interesting things we could do-now that we've got the chance."
Van held her eyes for a long moment, reading the open invitation in them. Her body pressed closer, her swelling nipples grazing his chest and the warmth of her thighs brushing against his. Her perfume was intoxicatingly strong in his nostrils. Her long red hair whispered excitingly over his cheek as she brought her mouth slowly to his.
"What do you say, handsome?" she murmured.
Van hesitated for just a moment longer, then his hands wrapped around her and seized her by the buttocks, pulling her sexy young body up against his as their lips met with savage force. His thick tongue drove into Janis's mouth, plunging deeply toward the back of her throat and almost suffocating her with the intensity of his kiss.
Janis moaned with joy as Van's big tongue plunged in and out of her mouth. Her arms tightened around his back like steel bands. Her hips ground slowly from side to side against him, feeling the steadily building of pressure from inside his bathing suit hardening in response to her suggestive squirming. Her mind was spinning deliriously, scarcely able to believe that at last she was in his arms and about to know the brutality of this big man's loving.
Her hand dropped to his hip and worked its way between their bodies, finding the strength of him and squeezing it possessively. "Take me, Van," she sobbed. "Take me now!"
He pulled away and looked down at her aroused body. For a moment it seemed as though he would, indeed, thrust her onto the blanket and pin her flat Janis could almost feel it happening. But the magic spell suddenly broke and Van began to shake his head from side to side.
"What do you mean no?" she gasped. She reached for the strong lump in his bathing suit again, but he brushed her hand roughly away.
"We'd both better get in the water fast and cool off," Van muttered. "Before we make a mistake we'll both be sorry for."
"Who'll be sorry?" Janis squealed. "I won't!" But it was too late for protests. Van had made up his mind. With a quick jerk of his body, he turned from her and ran off across the sand into the cool lake. He swam hard the instant he was in deep water, as though he were fleeing for his life.
The ache of disappointment was like a hook caught in Janis's insides and ripping her apart. She'd been so sure, so positive that she was going to have him at last What had gone wrong? What? She felt close to tears, her frustration more intense than she could bear. She looked out at Van as he swam toward the life raft several hundred yards from shore, watching him go with the agony of a fisherman whose prize catch had suddenly and inexplicably torn free from the line and swam away, just as victory was within grasping distance.
"Well you're not getting away that easily!" she vowed angrily. "If I have to rape you, Van Avery, you're not getting away from me this afternoon!"
She ran quickly to the lake and dived into the water, swimming hard to catch up with Van. By the time she reached the life raft, he was already up on it, panting with exhaustion and brushing the water from his arms and legs. "How about a hand?" she called, bobbing in the water alongside the wooden platform.
Van knelt at the edge of the raft and leaned over to offer his arm and pull her up. He was unprepared for the sudden hard tug Janis gave as soon as she'd fastened onto his hand. With a tremendous splash, Van toppled off the raft and into the water. He came up sputtering, his face red with anger.
"That was a rotten trick!"
"Not half as rotten as the one you just pulled!" she rejoined. As Van wiped his eyes, she splashed hard in the water, showering him again.
"What the hell's the matter with you?" he shouted angrily.
"I'm trying to drown a rat!" She splashed again, then a third time, until Van could take no more and lunged at her. She squealed and darted away, but he caught her by the ankle and pulled her back.
"Here's a taste of your own medicine!" he raged, ducking her under the water.
Janis spat water as she came back to the surface, then instantly flung herself against him. The steady motion of the life raft as its metal drum pontoon drifted with the lapping of the lake brought their bodies flush together. She pulled up her legs and wrapped them around Van's waist, clinging tightly to his neck and forcing his mouth to accept her kiss. He resisted for a moment, but as the steady motion of the water continued to drive their bodies back and forth he gave in to the feelings that were once again hardening him with excitement.
His arms encircled her back and pulled her tightly against him, almost squashing her breasts in the unyielding strength of his hairy chest. The feeling of that wet hair was like slick fur against Janis's nearly-naked tits as she squirmed with him. Her hips began to pump back and forth on him, responding wildly to the hard steel pressure inside his bathing suit. Her right hand dropped from Van's neck to his waist and worked its way into his trunks. This time he didn't stop her. His kiss became more frenzied as her fingers slipped further and further down his belly until they caught the prize they were after. The strength and hardness of it startled her. She moaned deep in her throat and tried to wrap her fingers all the way around him, but he was bigger than she had anticipated and it was impossible to make a fist on him.
She squeezed hard, then began to work her fingers up and down on him, tantalizing him in a way she knew no man could resist for long. Van's tongue drove more roughly into her mouth as she played with him, exciting him until he would no longer be able to resist, until there would be no thought on his mind except the pleasure Janis's hot young body offered.
His hand dropped to her lap, his thick fingers probing until he'd pulled back the thin strip of bikini. His palm cupped between her thighs, then his long middle finger began to work its way through the slick wet fur until he'd found the core of her. Janis moaned with delight as Van fingered her, clenching her thighs on him and working her inner muscles to give him a sample of the skills she knew.
Van's other hand dropped to his bathing suit and began to push it down, freeing himself for the first hard thrust which his finger was only preparing her for. Now it was Janis's turn to stop the show. Knowing what Van was about to do, she pushed him gently away and murmured, "Not here, baby. I want this to be good!"
"Where?" Van gasped.
"On the blanket. Let's do it right." She reached down and squeezed him again, then winked and laughed, "I'll race you to shore."
Before Van could protest, she broke away from the diving raft and swam as fast as she could toward shore. He was right behind her, his body thrashing water as he made long, powerful strokes to catch up with her.
Janis's mind sang with wild excitement as she swam. At last! she cried to herself. I knew I'd get him! I knew it!
She reached the narrow strip of beach and ran across the sand to the blanket, throwing herself down on it and lifting up her arms to Van as he dropped to his knees beside her. She laughed with joy as his weight fell on top of her. Their lips met in another furious kiss. Her arms clung tightly around his neck, her legs lifting to lock behind him. For several minutes their dripping wet bodies ground together, their hips arching and falling in imitation of the rhythmic strokes of lovemaking.
"Undress me, Van!" Janis gasped. "I want you to see me naked!"
He pulled up and groped to remove the tiny strip of cloth that covered her tits. Yanking it away, his hands fell on her breasts and squeezed them hard, pressing the twin mounds together and kneading them with his strong fingers until the nipples were stiffened and standing high.
"Do you like them?" Janis moaned.
"What do you think?"
"Then show me," she urged, pressing gently on the back of his neck. "Kiss them, Van! Take them in your mouth and make love to them!"
With an animal-like snarl Van's mouth fell on the young girl's left tit. He seized the nipple in his teeth and clamped his jaws gently together, shaking it from side to side like a dog with a bone. The slight pain of his bite was more exciting to her than any tender kiss he could have given. Her hand pressed harder on his head, urging him to put more of the beautiful tit into his mouth.
Her hands raked up and down Van's naked back as he paid homage to her tits with his lips and tongue. Each time he sucked on her nipple, she squealed with delight and begged him for even more. A fire was growing deep in her belly and her thighs began to fan it into flame as she opened and closed her legs, squirming deliriously under the wet assault of Van's mouth.
Suddenly he pulled away and began to work his tongue down Janis's chest, licking slowly in a zig-zag pattern to her belly, where he drove the point of his tongue into her navel and licked and sucked at it until her stomach was bouncing like a frenzied belly dancers. His hands stroked her hips, tugging at the bottom part of her bikini. She lifted up from the blanket and Van pulled the suit down.
Tossing the thin strip of cloth onto the sand, he lifted her legs up onto his shoulders and stared down at her lush young nakedness. "Oh, baby!" he groaned. "You redheads are something special all right!"
He lowered his head slowly, his mouth planting hot kisses along the salty-sweet flesh of her inner legs. He pulled her closer, forcing her to lift her legs almost vertically up from the blanket, then buried his face in the damp muff of soft flesh and hair.
Janis screamed with delight as his tongue tickled across her and suddenly drove deeply in. Her hands gripped his shoulders, her nails digging into his back as Van's head began to bob slowly up and down between her thighs. He was good at it! Only Rocky had ever been able to know just how to use his lips and tongue like this! Most of the other men who had done it for Janis had been inept, barely able to excite her. They had the desire, but none of the skill that only continual practice can give a man. Van had it though, she thought. And how!
Knowing just how he was exciting her, Van continued his erotic play until the twitching of her thighs told him it was time to stop. He pulled his mouth away and dropped his legs back to the blanket, then rose slowly to his feet. Janis stared up at him as he towered above her, her eyes fixed firmly on the heavy bulge in his bathing suit. As he started to take down his trunks, she scrambled quickly onto her knees to stop him.
"Let me!" she begged. "Please, Van. Let me take them down!"
He grinned and nodded his head, putting both hands on his hips and planting his feet firmly apart as she wriggled up on her knees and put her hands on the elastic waistband of his bathing suit. "Go ahead," he murmured.
Janis planted a quick kiss on her brother-in-law's wet, hairy belly, then slowly tugged down his swimming trunks, her eyes widening like a little girl who was opening a Christmas present. She swallowed hard as she uncovered him and the suit dropped to his knees. The size of him astonished her. His hairiness was almost terrifying.
Her fingers stroked lightly up the insides of Van's thighs, then formed a basket to cup the swinging weight between his legs. She bent her face and kissed them both, then licked at them with the end of her tongue as Van's hands pressed her head closer.
"Go ahead," he urged. "I like that."
Janis's mouth widened and she drew her head up in under the twin orbs, each as big and oval-shaped as a hen's egg. She touched her lips to them and was about to suck them into her mouth when suddenly a branch of fallen wood snapped like gunshot not four feet from the blanket. Van pushed her head away and whirled around.
Two teenagers stood gaping at them from the edge of the woods, their mouths and eyes wide open in astonishment.
"I'm-uh-sorry," the boy gulped, his eyes taking in every inch of Janis's nakedness and comprehending instantly just why she was on her knees like that in front of Van. "We didn't-uh-know this spot was taken." He and his girl stared for a moment longer, then turned and disappeared back into the woods.
Van bent and started to tug his trunks back up. "Come on, get dressed," he snapped. "We're getting out of here."
Janis clung to his legs, trying to stop him. "Why, Van? They won't come back! Nobody else will bother us!"
"Come on, I said!" He pushed her roughly away and pulled up his suit. "Those kids know me, dammit! I'll be lucky if this story isn't all over town by six o'clock!"
"They won't tell anybody!" Janis pleaded, seeing her victory disappearing right before her eyes but helpless to stop it. "They were here for the same thing! They're not going to tell!"
Van picked up the scraps of Janis's bikini from the sand and tossed them at her. "I said get dressed! I'll wait for you in the car." Without so much as a look back, he disappeared into the woods.
Hot tears of anger and frustration streamed down Janis's cheeks the moment he was gone. She pounded her fists into the blanket, cursing and crying at the same time. She had been so close! So close! Her insides ached with a torment she had never known before. It was worse to have touched him, to have had him almost in her mouth, almost to have known the full extent of his lovemaking-infinitely worse-than just dreaming and hoping for him had been. She had seen that dream almost coming true, then suddenly and rudely been awakened and thrust roughly back to where she had been before.
"It isn't fair!" she cried. "It just isn't fair!"
When she was dressed, she gathered up the blanket and trudged slowly back through the woods to the parking lot. Van was smoking in the car and didn't even look up as she got in beside him. He reached to turn the ignition key, but Janis's hand stopped him.
"Van, I'm sorry."
"Not half as sorry as I am, believe me!" he growled.
"We could go somewhere else. I know a place where Jip took me once. Nobody will ever bother us there."
"Forget it. We're going home." Van thrust her hand away and started the car, squealing the tires as he shot out of the parking lot and up the road to the highway.
"Please, Van!" Janis whimpered. "You can't leave me like this! Not after what happened between us!"
His head suddenly whirled around, his eyes black with an angry warning. "Nothing happened! Absolutely nothing, do you understand that?"
"Van ... "
"I don't know what got into me, what in hell I was thinking, but believe me, it's never going to happen again! I want that to be perfectly clear!"
"You can't say that!"
"I can say it -and mean it, too! I lost my head for a couple of minutes back there, but it's not going to happen again. From now on, if you want to fool around you do it with Jip or one of the kids in his gang. Not with me, get it?"
"You're just upset ... ."
"Damn right I'm upset!" he exploded. "If this ever gets back to Peggy I don't know what I'll do!"
The wheels in Janis's mind began to spin and an idea, a last desperate chance, clicked into place. "Those kids won't say anything," she told him.
"Maybe not. But even if they don't, it won't change anything I just said."
"No," Janis purred, "they won't say anything. But I might!"
Van's head shot around. "What?"
"That's right, honey. If anybody tells Peggy about this afternoon it's going to be me. Unless ... "
"Unless what?"
"Unless you finish what we started."
"You're nuts!"
"I'll leave my door open when I go up to bed tonight. As soon as Peggy's asleep, you come down to my room."
"Like hell I will!" Van vowed. "You can't threaten me!"
"No? Then you'd better do some fast thinking, sweetheart, because you're going to have a lot of explaining to do as soon as we get home."
"You wouldn't dare tell!"
"Why not?" Janis shrugged. "You're the one who's got something to lose, not me. If I can't have you, I'll make sure Peggy doesn't want you either."
"You little bitch!" Van swore.
"Come on now!" Janis chided, clucking her tongue at him. "It's not going to be that bad. You might even have a good time for yourself."
"I'm not coming to your room tonight, or any other night, for that matter."
"Oh yes you are," Janis said sweetly. "You just think about it until we get home, honey. You'll come."
CHAPTER EIGHT
Janis stared up at the ceiling, her body lying naked beneath the sheet. "He's got to come," she whispered. "He's got to!" It was more than two hours since she'd heard Van and Peggy come upstairs for the night, yet the only sound after that had been her own restless turning in the bed.
Van had agreed to nothing that afternoon, but she was positive that his silence was its own consent. It was obvious he resented her little blackmail attempt and several times during the course of the evening Janis had thought he was about to shatter it by confessing to Peggy himself. He had said nothing, however, and neither did Janis. Not that she wouldn't if he didn't show up, though.
She promised herself that she would wait for him all night, if necessary, and if he didn't come she would tell Peggy about the incident at the lake first thing in the morning. Why not? she thought bitterly. I've tried everything I can think of to get him. If this doesn't work, there's no reason in the world why I should spend the whole summer in this dump. But if he does, our man Van is going to be doing double-duty around this house for a long while!
She began to smile with contentment as she thought of how happy she would be able to make Van. Maybe, once he'd had a taste of the joys her young body could give him, he'd even decide to leave Peggy and marry her. It's possible! Janis told herself. After all, I've got so much more to offer!
As her fantasy took shape in her mind, she began to imagine what life with Van would be like. Of course she'd throw out nearly all of the furniture already in the house. Her own taste was so radically different from Peggy's that when she got finished redecorating, it wouldn't even look like the same place. She'd put in a lot of the trim, modern furniture she'd admired in store windows and decorating magazines. Lots of big, fluffy pillows scattered around the floor, too, she decided, so when the mood came over them they could just stretch out and make love wherever and whenever they felt like it.
She'd pamper Van outrageously, do things for him that Peggy didn't do and make him truly feel like the lord of the manor. Things like bringing him breakfast in bed and washing his back when he took a bath. They'd make love every morning before he went to work, too, she thought as her fantasy expanded outrageously. And when he came home at night they'd both get into the bathtub and make love again, right there in the middle of all that soapy water! She pictured herself and Van making love all over the house. On the kitchen table, out in the yard on the soft grass he was so carefully nurturing, going up the stairs, in a closet, while she was bent over the sink washing the supper dishes!
As her erotic thoughts blossomed, Janis felt her body beginning to stir with renewed desire. She was already keyed up in anticipation of having Van come to her room, but her imaginative ideas were quickening the tension. Her hand slipped in under the sheet and softly caressed the inner surfaces of her thighs. The skin was moist and hot, ready to be taken by a man's strong loins.
Her fingers gently touched the center of her softness and her belly jumped in shock as a sharp thrill raced through it. He better hurry, she muttered. I'm so hot I'm going to set the sheets on fire in another minute!
She tried to console herself by toying between her legs, but that only made waiting so much more difficult to endure. The temptation to slip her fingers into that warm, quaking center was all but overpowering, yet she resisted it. She wanted to keep herself triggered, ready to fire as soon as Van possessed her.
She started to reach for a cigarette, hoping that would relieve some of her anxiety, when her ears perked to attention. She thought she heard the sound of a door creaking open down the hall. She sat up and listened. A moment later she heard the soft pad of footsteps moving slowly down the hall. They stopped outside the door and she held her breath. In the semi-darkness she could see the knob turning and then the door pushed open. Van stood naked in the doorway, his body outlined by the hall light behind him.
"Janis?" he whispered.
"Come on in. I'm waiting."
He stepped uncertainly into her room, his eyes blinking against the sudden darkness, and shut the door. "Are you in bed?"
"Of course! Where'd you think I'd be?" She held out her hand to him. "Over here." Van approached the bed and stopped just alongside him. "What took you so long?" she asked.
"Does it matter? I came, didn't I?"
Janis laughed softly and reached out to clasp his manhood. "Not yet, honey," she purred. "But you will." She pushed back the sheet and tugged gently on his flesh. "Come on, crawl in."
Van got into bed and lay rigidly on his back. "I don't know why I'm doing this," he muttered. "I should just let you tell Peggy and get it over with. This is just complicating matters further."
Janis scrambled onto her knees, hovering over him and straddling his body with one leg over each side. "You know why you're doing it," she murmured, bending down to kiss him quickly on the mouth. "You can't resist me."
"Hah!" he laughed sharply.
"Don't laugh! It's true! You know you can't resist me! I'm more woman than you've ever had in your life!"
His eyes looked coldly into hers in the darkness. "Baby, I doubt if you're even half the woman your sister is."
Janis's back bristled at the challenge. "Oh, yeah? We'll see about that! We'll just see about that!"
She slid herself quickly down, squatting on Van's knees. Her hands tickled their way over his hairy stomach and down to his groin. He was soft. She lifted him, working him in her fingers, but there was no response.
"Forget it," Van urged. "I'm a one-woman guy."
"Like hell you are! No man is!"
She played with him for several minutes more, but when it seemed apparent her fingers were getting nowhere, she decided to try her mouth. She moved further back on him and drew her head down. Her long hair fell like strands of silk across his belly. Holding him up, her tongue began to stroke up and down Van's length, circling him and nibbling on him in a way that had never failed to work with any other man she'd encountered. She felt a slight pulsing response, but still not the effect she wanted.
Twisting her head to the side, she lay her cheek on the man's thigh and brought him to her lips. She captured him and pulled him all the way into her mouth, so deeply that her nose was buried in the thick patch of hair below his belly. She held him in place for a moment, then began a furious motion with her tongue, washing over him in every possible angle until at last she felt him beginning to stiffen in response.
She continued to suck as her fingers dropped to the pouch dangling between his legs. She tickled the hairy orbs with her fingertips, tossing them gently up and down and adding another dimension to the excitement she was showering on Van. As she teased him, he swelled in answer, until Janis could no longer keep all of him comfortably in her mouth. She backed off and lifted her head from his thigh.
Poising herself directly over him, she began to bob her head up and down from his lap, taking him as deeply as she could without choking. Her tongue tickled back and forth with the steady strokes of a metronome. Her lips tightened and relaxed as she fed him in and out of her mouth. In a matter of minutes Van was as excited and ready as any woman could want a man to be.
Under other circumstances, Janis would have stayed down on him until she'd finished what she started. But she didn't have to remind herself that these were far from normal circumstances and she'd been disappointed right at the crucial moment far too many times to take a chance on losing him again. Her vow to make him beg for it was completely forgotten as she slipped him free of her mouth and swung her body up, straddling him with her thighs poised in mid-air just above him.
She reached down and captured him with her hand, lifted him up straight and held him as she began to settle her weight down.
"Oh, God!" she gasped, as the bigness of him began to enter her. She felt as though she was sitting on a flagpole! There was pain-more than she'd felt with a man in a long, long time-but the pleasure that accompanied it was more than worth the effort. Slowly, inch-by-inch, she lowered herself on him until she was sitting on Van's stomach and the strength of him was buried deep inside her.
She leaned forward and kissed him hard on the mouth. His tongue resisted at first, refusing to do battle with hers, but as Janis began to move herself up and down on him he weakened and surrendered himself completely to the erotic thrills they shared.
As they kissed, his hand groped blindly for her breasts. He caught them and squeezed them hard, making her squeal in pain as his thumbs and forefingers pinched the nipples with such force it seemed he wanted to pluck them from her tits.
"Not so hard!" she cried, tearing her mouth from his.
"What's the matter, baby?" he grunted. "I thought you liked it hard! Aren't you the girl who said she could take it that way?"
"Van, please ... " The pain he was bringing to her tits was unbearable. It was all she could do to keep from screaming and bringing Peggy running down to the room on the double.
She struggled to get away from him, when suddenly he wrapped his arms around her waist and threw her over onto her back, covering her instantly and pinning her flat to the bed.
"Let's see just how good you are, baby," he growled. "You wanted it, now let's see if you like it!"
Her eyes flew open and she had to bite down into the pillow to keep from screaming as Van lunged into her, throwing the full force of his strong body behind it. He drove so deeply that she feared he was going to split her right down the middle!
"Like it?" Van snarled. "Huh, baby? Like it?"
Janis clung tightly to his shoulders as he hammered at her, his body pounding down with such force that the old bed began to shake and the headboard bang against the wall. He was ruthless in his strokes, mindful of nothing but his own raw pleasure. He seemed, in fact, to be trying to punish her with his body, make her scream for him to stop.
But that cry would never come from Janis's mouth. She had waited for this too long, wanted him too badly to end it now that she had him. She was positive she could turn the tables on him, make it as pleasurable for herself as it was for him. She began to grind her hips up at him, opening and offering herself to the brutal lunges in the hope of finding some pleasure in them.
Slowly, her body began to respond. She felt her insides turning to hot jelly, her stomach quivering as wave after wave of throbbing desire shot into her. Her head began to twist on the pillow, her legs flopping weakly up and down from the bed. Drool dribbled down from her mouth and all she could do was whimper incoherently as Van's big body continued to thunder above her.
"Ohhhh! Ohhhhhh! Ohhhhhhh!" she gasped, as she felt herself finally surrendering completely to him, She clung tightly, pouring out every bit of her resistance as the savage lovemaking overpowered her. A moment later, she felt Van answering.
She held onto him for several minutes afterwards, listening to the harsh sound of his breathing as he struggled to get control of himself again. Slowly he lifted off her and rolled onto his back.
"Well?" Janis whispered.
"Well what?" he said tiredly.
"Was I better than Peggy? Aren't you sorry you said that about me now?"
His hand patted her sweat-moistened belly. "Baby, you were just fine. But you're still a girl and Peggy's still a woman."
"What?" Janis shrieked.
"It's nothing against you," Van explained. "It's just that you don't have the experience she does. In time, I'm sure you're going to be just fine."
"I'm just fine right now!" she cried. "You're lying! You're just afraid to admit that I'm better than she is!"
"If that's what you want to think," Van yawned. He started to get up. "Now that I've kept my part of the bargain, if you don't mind I'm going back to bed. I'm tired."
"Well, I do mind!" Janis swore. "And you're not that tired! I'll make you admit the truth if it takes all night!"
She swung herself over him, trapping him in the bed. He was still semi-aroused and she thrust herself down on him with a fury. Working her muscles and bouncing on him in a way she knew was sure to reassert his masculinity, she felt him coming back to life and in another minute Van was just as strong as he'd been before.
This time it was Janis whose lovemaking knew no bounds. Hovering over him, she writhed and twisted and drove herself into a dozen different contortions, using her body like a machine to assault Van's flesh in every way she knew. She bounced up and down on him until the springs creaked with one long, steady song and the picture on the wall behind the bed flopped wildly back and forth.
He squeezed her breasts and stroked her stomach, urging her to slow down before she killed herself, but Janis wouldn't listen. She drove herself mercilessly, determined to give him a night such as no other woman had ever done or would possibly be able to duplicate.
When the end came, it was with the violence of a fireworks explosion. Janis's head flew back and she had to bite into her arm to keep from shrieking the roof down. She had never felt such dynamite go off in her life and when it was over she slumped weakly onto Van's chest, her body covered with perspiration and every muscle in her limp with exhaustion.
"Well?" she gasped. "Did I prove my point?"
"You were great, baby," Van said, patting her bare behind and urging her off him.
"That's not what I want to know! It was better than Peggy gives you, wasn't it?"
Van looked away and swung his legs off the bed.
"Wasn't it?" Janis shrieked, catching him by the shoulder and forcing him to turn and look at her.
He shook his head slowly from side to side. "No, Janis, it wasn't."
"Wh-?" She was speechless, too stunned to do anything but gasp and gape at him in shock.
"You were great, I'm not denying it. But you've still got a lot to learn about loving before you can come close to matching Peggy."
"Get out of here," Janis muttered. "Get out of here before I kill you!"
"I'm sorry."
She picked up one of the pillows and threw it at him as hard as she could. "Get out!" she shrieked. Hot tears were brimming in her eyes as she watched him leave the room and shut the door behind him. The moment he was gone she doubled over and began to cry more bitterly than she had ever cried in her life.
"It's not true!" she sobbed. "It's just not true!"
CHAPTER NINE
For the next two weeks, Janis walked around the house like a zombie. She'd never felt so blue in her life. She had always prided herself on being a sexpot, a modern-day Delilah who could give any man in the world a haircut and have him begging for another trim. Right from the time she'd entered puberty her whole life had been devoted to seduction, but in one night Van had erased everything she'd thought she'd accomplished. He had humiliated her, stripped her of the one pride she had in herself, and with that gone there was nothing else to take its place.
Nothing seemed to interest her now. At meals she just picked at her food and went away from the table leaving half of it on her plate. Instead of watching television with Van and Peggy, she went upstairs to her room almost as soon as the sun went down and just lay on the bed, staring blankly up at the ceiling until she fell asleep with her clothes still on.
Even sex no longer interested her. Since that devastating night with Van, her desire seemed to dwindle down to nothing. She had no cravings for a man whatsoever, and even self-gratification failed to arouse her. On the two occasions she tried it-more out of lack of anything more interesting to do with herself than any lustful need-she stopped before she was anywhere near release, bored and disillusioned with the effort required in trying to excite herself. The old enthusiasm just wasn't there anymore and there was nothing Janis could think of to bring it back. Each time she tried, she kept hearing Van's voice repeating: You're good but Peggy's better ... Peggy's better ... Peggy's better.
The funny thing was, Janis didn't even feel a resentment toward her sister. Like a boxer who's been beaten and knows he has no chance of coming back for another round with his opponent, she stoically accepted defeat. Rather than envy or jealousy toward Peggy, she began to respect her sister for the first time in her life. She watched her as she moved about the house, so poised and confident, so sure of her position in Van's world.
Janis had never realized that Peggy could not only be competition for her, but a better woman in the bargain. Unconsciously she began to imitate her, dressing in more conservative clothes and fixing her make-up and hair in a way that emphasized the good qualities in her face and features more naturally. Her manner was more subdued, too. More humble and retiring, with none of the wise-cracking smartness that had characterized her personality throughout her teen-age years.
The change in Janis was so abrupt and so radical, in fact, that Peggy couldn't help noticing and wondering about it. "Honey?" she asked one afternoon, while she and Janis cleaned the living room. "Is anything the matter?"
"No," Janis said listlessly.
"Are you sure?" Peggy eyed her sister suspiciously, then took the dusting cloth from her hand and led her to the sofa. "Sit down," she ordered gently. "I want to know what's troubling you."
"Nothing," Janis muttered.
"Now come on, I know something is," Peggy chided. "I've never seen you act like this. You've been moping around the house for almost two weeks now, looking like your best friend just died." She put her arm around Janis's shoulder and pulled her close. "Are you homesick? Is that what's bothering you? Don't be afraid; you can tell me."
The well of emotion that had been building inside her during all those long, lonely days since the night with Van suddenly became too much to bear alone and, bursting into tears, she flung herself into her sister's arms. "Oh, Peggy!" she sobbed. "I'm so miserable! I just want to lay down and die!"
"Why, honey? Why?" Peggy soothed, running her fingers gently through Janis's hair as she held her close in comfort.
"Don't be nice to me, please!" Janis whimpered. "I couldn't bear it! I've done something so terrible and I'm so ashamed of myself!"
"You mean what happened that night with you and Van?"
A sharp chill ran down Janis's spine and she pulled away from Peggy. "You-know?"
Peggy nodded her head slowly, her eyes gentle and understanding. "I know," she said softly.
"How? Who told you?"
"Van told me. The morning after it happened."
"And you didn't say anything? You didn't do anything?"
"What could I say?" Peggy said, smiling gently. "It had already happened."
Janis covered her face with her hands and began to cry uncontrollably. "Oh, God!" she sobbed. "You've known all this time and still you've been so nice to me!"
"Honey." Peggy put her hand softly on her sister's shoulder and forced her to look into her eyes. "It doesn't make me love you or Van any less. Oh, I was, hurt when he first told me, and angry, too. But then I realized Van must love me an awful lot if he was able to confess something like that. If he hadn't and I'd found out some other way maybe I'd feel different than I do right now. But this way I can understand. And forgive."
"He does love you!" Janis swore. "He loves you more than anyone else in the whole world. I realize that now."
"I know he does," Peggy smiled. "And I love him, too." Squeezing her sister's arm, she leaned forward and whispered, "Want to know a secret?"
"What?"
"We're going to have a baby."
"Oh, Peggy!" Janis cried. "That's wonderful news! When did you find out?"
"Just last week, when I went for my second appointment with Doctor Brannigan."
"Does Van know?"
"Not yet. I'm saving it for a surprise."
Janis hugged her sister tightly and kissed her hard on the cheek. "I'm so happy for you!"
"Thank you, honey," Peggy said, her own voice getting choked with emotion as they embraced. "I know someday soon you're going to be this happy, too. Just wait and see."
Yeah, Janis thought afterwards when she was alone, just wait and see. That's all there was to do. Wait. But for what? One meaningless day to pass so another equally meaningless one could take its place? Peggy could wait for Van, for the birth of her first baby, for the gradual unfolding of her life as a fulfilled woman, but none of those things seemed to be in Janis's future. She felt as though her life was a blank screen and she was waiting for the movie to begin, but somehow the projector had broken down and no matter how long she patiently sat waiting, there was never going to be a show.
Her depression hit rock bottom as the days slowly passed, so that one Sunday morning when Peggy came into her room and announced she had a surprise for her, Janis barely registered any interest.
"Oh?" she said listlessly, as she combed at her hair in front of the dressing table mirror. "What is it?"
"You'll have to come downstairs and find out," Peggy said with a secret smile.
"I don't feel like it right now, sis," Janis told her. "I'll be down in about an hour for some lunch. You can show me then, okay?"
"I don't know if he'll wait that long."
"He?" Janis laid down the brush "and looked up at her sister's grinning face. "What do you mean, he?"
"The surprise is a person, not a thing. Somebody's here to see you."
The only person Janis could possibly imagine being downstairs was Jip and the thought of confronting him that morning was even less appealing to her than spending the day locked up in her room. "Tell him to go home," she muttered. "I don't feel in the mood for seeing anybody today."
"I don't know if he'll like that, honey. He's come a long way to see you."
"A long ... ?" Janis's eyes suddenly fired with excitement. "Peggy! It isn't ... !"
"You'll have to come down and see for yourself. I told you it's a surprise and I'm not about to spoil it!"
Janis leaped up from the dressing table, her mind and body suddenly functioning in completely opposite directions. "What am I going to wear!" she cried. "And my hair! Look at the mess I am!"
"Calm down!" Peggy laughed. "Your hair looks just fine. Put on some lipstick and you'll look great."
"Oh, I won't! I'm a mess!" Janis raced back and forth from the closet to the mirror, her hands picking up things and then dropping them a moment later. Suddenly she knew she couldn't wait a moment longer and, not caring how she looked, she ran from the room and down the stairs. He was waiting for her at the bottom of the steps.
"Rocky!" she squealed, leaping the last few steps and flying down into his arms. He caught her and whirled her around, hugging her as tightly as she was hugging him. Their lips met in a savagely passionate kiss. "Oh, Rocky!" she cried, as tears of happiness slipped down her cheeks. "What in the world are you doing here!"
"Glad to see me?" he grinned.
"What do you think!" She flung her arms around his neck and kissed him a second time, their tongues battling inside her mouth as she squeezed and hugged him with all her might.
"Pardon me!" Peggy laughed, as she came down the stairs behind them. She tapped Janis on the shoulder and smiled at the radiant look on her sister's face. "Why don't you bring your surprise into the parlor so he can tell you the good news?"
"What, Rocky?" Janis asked, hugging him as they followed Peggy into the parlor.
"I was going crazy back in Chicago without you, baby," he said, squeezing her waist. "I never knew I could miss anybody that much, but I did. I couldn't get you out of my mind. All I was doing was moping around the house thinking about you. So ... "
"So?" Janis prompted. "You decided to come and see me, right?"
"More than that," Rocky said, with a conspiratorial wink in Peggy's direction. "First I went and had a long talk with your folks. Then they called Peggy and had a long talk with her. When everybody finished talking, we all agreed it was the best thing for us."
"What was the best thing?" Janis asked, feeling a sudden chill of apprehension about what Rocky was going to say next.
"For us to get married!"
The words hit her like a bombshell. Her face dropped as she looked from Rocky to her sister and Van. Everyone was beaming like an idiot. Everyone, that is, except her.
"Rocky, you know how ... "
"No," he said, shaking his head firmly. "You're not going to wriggle out of it. I made up my mind to come down here and take you back to Chicago for a wedding and I'm not leaving without you. I'll set up a tent in the front yard and wait for ten years if I have to, but sooner or later you're going to give in and say yes. Why not do it now," he grinned, "and save me all that trouble?"
Janis fidgeted nervously with her fingers. "Rocky, I just don't know what to say."
"Say yes. That's all that's necessary right now."
She looked into his eyes and saw the expectation in them, as well as a dozen other things she'd never really noticed in Rocky before. Things like warmth and kindness and gentleness. A desire to protect her and love her and make her happy for the rest of her life. A need to share the good things in his own life with somebody. A person to work hard for and achieve goals for and enjoy the good times as well as the bad. She had never really thought of Rocky as anything more than a marvelous sex partner, and yet now she could see that he was so much more than that. In many ways, Janis thought, he was like Van. A man who would love a woman so completely that he would make her happiness his life's goal.
She looked across the room and saw Peggy and Van smiling back at her. His arm was around Peggy and she was clasping his knees. They belonged together, looked so right with each other. In the time Janis had spent in their home she'd learned so much about marriage that she'd never known before. How it was possible for two people to find complete fulfillment with each other and long for nothing more than to share their lives in every way. There would be bad times, of course, but there were bad times in anything and the good times would far outweigh them and make it all worthwhile.
Maybe, she thought, I've wanted something like they have all my life and just never known it. If it could happen for them, there's no reason why I can't make it happen for me, too!
"Well?" Rocky asked. "What's your answer?"
She began to smile and soon a wide grin spread all the way across her mouth. "Yes!" she laughed, throwing herself into Rocky's arms. "Yes! Yes! Yes!"
She was packed within an hour and ready to start the drive back to Chicago. Rocky took her suitcase out to the car while she said her goodbyes to Peggy and Van.
There were tears in her sister's eyes as they hugged each other tightly on the front porch. "Goodbye, honey," Peggy sobbed. "Be happy! I know you will; he's a wonderful boy."
Janis grinned and shook her head. "No. He's a wonderful man." She squeezed Peggy's arm and kissed her again. "I know I'll be happy. And thanks."
She moved to Van and kissed his cheek as he put his arms around her. It was funny, she thought. After all those weeks of wanting him, it doesn't mean anything to kiss him now.
"Thank you, too," she whispered in his ear. "I think I'll be all right now."
"I know you will," Van grinned, then patted her rump and turned her toward Rocky and the car that was waiting to take her back to Chicago and a whole new life.
"Baby, you just don't know how much I've missed you!" Rocky said, when they were on the road at last.
Janis snuggled close to him, her fingers playing up and down his leg. "Did you?" she murmured. Her hand tickled its way slowly up to his crotch. "Let's see if you did!" Rocky grinned and widened his legs to make room for her hand. "Hmmmmm!" Janis chided, as she tweaked playfully at him through his pants. "You don't seem to have missed me that much!"
"Keep it up, baby, and I'll show you!" Rocky chuckled.
"Maybe I'll just look for myself!"
Twisting sideways against him, Janis opened the boy's fly and wriggled her fingers into his pants. She caught his naked flesh and squeezed gently. "Maybe you did miss me, after all!" she murmured, as she felt him beginning to respond to the warm message of her hand. "Yes! I think you did!"
For the first time since that night with Van, Janis felt herself beginning to awaken sexually. She loved the feeling of Rocky's solid flesh between her fingers. The desire to do more than just touch him became irresistible. Spreading his pants further apart, she untangled him from his underpants and brought his flesh into the open. Her eyes widened in delight as she stared down at his lap. She'd almost forgotten just how potently male Rocky was. He had nothing to be ashamed of in comparison to any other man, Van included, Janis thought with pride.
"Well?" Rocky laughed. "Satisfied?"
"Not yet," Janis murmured. "I haven't given Big John his hello kiss yet!"
"Right now?" Rocky gulped.
"Why not? He might be mad if I neglect him any longer!" She lowered her head quickly, diving in under Rocky's arm as he steered the car. Holding him firmly, she ran her tongue across her lips and planted a warm, sloppy kiss on the tip of him.
"Oh, baby!" Rocky moaned.
"Like that?" Janis purred.
"You know how much I do!"
"Missed it?" she teased, giving him another playful lick with the slippery flat of her tongue.
"Like crazy!"
"Me, too!" she chuckled. Then, catching him completely off guard, she lowered her mouth on him, taking almost all of him in a single, sensuous swallow.
The car lurched dangerously to the side, hitting the curb and bouncing back onto the asphalt. "Janis!" the boy cried. "Stop it before we get killed! You know how crazy that makes me!"
She lifted her head reluctantly off him, kissing his warm belly as she grinned up at him. "I thought you'd like it!"
"I do like it! I do! But not while I'm driving the car!"
Janis sat up and glanced quickly around at the passing countryside. Recognizing where she was, she motioned at the road ahead. "Let's stop somewhere then! There's a turn right up by that clump of trees. It's a deserted road."
Rocky grinned expectantly at her. "Want to have the honeymoon before the wedding?"
"Why not?" she smiled back. "Then we can have another one afterwards!"
Rocky steered off the highway and started down the dusty lane that Jip had taken Janis two weeks before. "This looks like a great place!" he beamed. "How'd you find it?"
The words cut through her like a knife, suddenly squelching the excitement that had been steadily mounting in her. She let her hand drop from him and moved over on the seat. Rocky stopped the car and turned to gather her into his arms, but to his surprise there were tears streaming down her cheeks and she was looking away from him.
"Hey, honey? What's wrong?"
Janis pushed his hand away as he tried to touch and console her. "This is all a mistake, Rocky," she sobbed. "I can't let you marry me."
"Why not? Are you trying to be funny?"
"Does it look like I am?" she cried.
"Then what's the matter? How come you're acting like this all of a sudden?"
How could she explain it to him? How could she tell him that for the first time in her life she'd had a sudden attack of conscience, realized just what a fool he'd be making of himself if he married a girl that half of Chicago had already been to bed with? While he'd been making himself miserable with loneliness for her, she'd been too busy to even give him a second thought. Too busy making a tramp of herself with Jip and his gang and even her own brother-in-law. She just couldn't let him walk into a trap like that. If she did, and he found out about it later, she knew he would hate her for the rest of his life.
She wanted to marry Rocky, more than she'd ever wanted anything, but not if she had to lie to him, deceive him into flunking she was somebody she wasn't. It would hurt to give him up, but maybe that was the price she'd have to pay for the kind of life she'd led so far, Janis thought. The wild, reckless roller-coaster ride was finally over and it was time to pay for the ticket.
"You-you're too good for me," she said through her tears. "I don't deserve somebody like you, Rocky."
"Oh, come on!" he laughed. "If anybody's too good, it's you."
"I'm not!" Janis sobbed bitterly. "I'm not good at all!"
He tried to put his arm around her and draw her close, kiss her and make her stop her bitter accusations against herself, but Janis pushed him away, determined to say all she knew had to be said.
"I've been a tramp, Rocky. All my life I've been no good."
"I don't want to hear this, baby," he said softly. "It's not necessary."
"It is!" she insisted. "There've been so many guys before you that I can't even remember all their names!"
"So what? I've had a past, too."
"That's not all. This summer-these last few weeks while I've been away. How do you think I knew about this place? Because some boy brought me here, that's how! And we didn't just look at the stars, either!"
"I can forgive that. It's my own fault for letting you get away from me in the first place."
Janis looked at him through tear-stained eyes, hating herself for what she would now have to admit, but knowing the whole truth would have to be told or it wouldn't be any good. "Van, too," she whispered.
"What about him?"
"I slept with him, too. I chased him from the day I got here and forced him into going to bed with me."
Rocky swallowed hard and looked down at his hands. He fumbled in his shirt pocket for a cigarette and blew the smoke harshly at the windshield. For several minutes he didn't say anything. He just sat and smoked in silence while Janis covered her hands and cried. Then, so suddenly that it made her jump in surprise, he squashed out the cigarette and grabbed her hard by the shoulders.
"Look, I don't care about what you did with any other guy. It doesn't really change the way I feel about you. I still love you more than I've ever loved any girl and I want you to marry me and spend your life with me."
"Oh, Rocky!" Janis cried. "You're just saying that because you feel you have to."
"Damnit!" he swore, shaking her roughly. "Will you stop feeling sorry for yourself and listen to me? I love you, Janis! I love you! Anything else doesn't matter-just as long as I know you love me, too." He looked intently into her eyes. "Do you?"
"Yes!" she sobbed, flinging her arms around his neck and pulling him close. "I do, Rocky! I do! I do! I do!"
"Then let's forget about everything else. From now on, you're going to be my woman-just mine. Do you understand that?"
"Yes!" Janis cried. "And I will be, too! I'll never even look at another man! You're all I want! Just you!"
Their lips met furiously, their bodies melding together as Rocky lowered her slowly onto her back. His hands tugged at her blouse, ripping the buttons open, then caught her breasts as they spilled out and squeezed them until the nipples were rigid with excited life. He bent his head to them and kissed them, sucked on them brutally until they throbbed inside his mouth and Janis's hands were clawing at his back in wild, abandoned passion.
Her hands clung tightly to his shoulder as he reached lower and pushed down her panties and drew her skirt up around her hips. She spread her legs wide for him, opening herself for this man who alone would possess her for the rest of her life.
Rocky poised above her while he shoved his pants down to his knees, then nudged himself into position between her waiting thighs. Janis lifted her knees high to receive him, the warm core of her trembling in anticipation of taking her man. As he eased himself down, she moaned with pleasure, opening wide' and taking him deep.
"Baby!" Rocky growled, as he rested in her for a moment and then began to move slowly, steadily, with confident strokes. "You're all woman! All my woman!"
"Yes!" she whispered in his ear, her thighs quickening in response to the thrusting pace Rocky was setting.
She knew now that it was true and that it was all any woman needed to be.
