Dirty Old Men [And Other Stories] (Zane Presents) (14 page)

She leaned up and shrugged, looking him in the eyes. “That’s just how I am.”

Samuel shook his head. “An
angel
sent down from heaven.”

“I’m not hardly an angel,” Candice rebutted. “If I was, I seriously doubt I would be riding you like this. I don’t think that’s the work of angels,” she stated sarcastically.

“And why not?”

“What do you mean, ‘why not’? Angels are not sent down to earth to fuck people. In fact, I don’t even think they can
use
that word.”

“Well,
you
just did.”

“Yeah, which proves I’m not an angel.”

“Well, you still deserve to be taken out,” he insisted.

“It’s really not necessary,” she countered. She climbed off of him nice and easy, while making sure his condom didn’t spill out its semen. Then she took it off and wiped him up with a warm rag. She had made a big mess of the old man.

“Wow, I really did you slimy today,” she told him, while wiping him up.

“That’s all right. You see how you cleaning me up all good. I feel like I got a damn diaper on at a nursing home.
Nurrrsse!
” he teased.

She laughed. “Whatever. You’re not
that
old. You don’t need Viagra yet.”

“Yeah, I guess not with
you
around.” Then he caught himself, believing his comment may be insensitive to her. “But I mean that in a good way,” he covered up.

Candice shook it off. “I don’t mind. I’m glad I turn you on like that. Why would I
not
like it?”

“Well, a whole lot of women don’t want to be looked at as sex objects, number one.”

“Well, most people don’t look at me as a sex object. Not at all.”

Samuel figured she wasn’t the best-looking young woman in the world, but she was at least an
eight,
and that was much better than most. So he refused to believe that no one else wanted to fuck her. She was surely attractive enough to be lusted over.

He asked her, “What are you talking about? What do you think, you’re
unattractive? Because you ain’t hardly ugly. You’re a good-looking girl.”

She blushed. “Thank you. But I already know that. It’s just that…I, well, when you’re nice to people, sometimes they don’t look at you in that way.”

Samuel stared at her to imagine what she meant. “So, you mean to say that you only let your freak out with me; is that it?”

Candice shrugged, standing in the middle of his living room with a soiled summer dress and no panties or bra. “Well, would you
want
me to be like this with everyone else?”

Samuel chuckled at it. “Hell no! They can all go out and find their own angel.”

“I’m not an angel,” she repeated.

“Well, you’re
my
angel. So I want to take you out and treat you to a nice dinner tonight, right after we finish cleaning up your dress.”

She shook it off. “I have something else to do tonight.”

“Well, cancel it.”

“I can’t. But we’ll go out soon. Maybe we can take a trip up to Greensboro or something.”

Samuel frowned. “I didn’t move here to go to Greensboro; I live in
Charlotte
now. That’s like moving to Cleveland to go to Columbus for dinner. For what?”

“Well, I’ve lived in Charlotte my entire life, so I’d rather hang out in other places now,” Candice explained to him.

“Well, move away then,” he suggested.

The young woman went silent for a spell. That’s when Samuel decided that he had probably gone too hard on her.

“Or, maybe you like being around the safety of your folks,” he added.

“Maybe.”

After that, he got to thinking that either she was a homebody, or she didn’t want to be seen out in public with him.

“You ah, not doing somebody
wrong,
are you?” he questioned.

S
hit, maybe she ain’t no angel,
he mused. The girl obviously had some kind of secret going on. Or at least he felt that way.

“You could be a homebody,” he countered, giving her another option.

Candice took the bait far too easily for comfort. “Yeah, maybe I am. I’m
just a homebody. Or at least in Charlotte I am. I mean, I’ve seen everything there is to see here.”

“Well, I haven’t. I thought you were supposed to show me around this place.”

“I did show you. I gave you a whole list of places to go
and
directions for how to get there,” she reminded him.

Samuel could see she was prepared to dodge the real issue of being seen out with him in public. But he planned to stop his inquiry until he could catch her out and about.

“Well, let’s ah, get that dress of yours cleaned up.”

He finally climbed up from the sofa. And he told himself,
Something’s going on here, but she’s not ready to tell me yet.

At lunch hour at the bank in downtown Charlotte, Samuel had an urge to call up his young sex pupil and ask her if she wanted to do lunch.

“By the time I get down there, I would need to rush right back to school.”

“I’ll come meet you at a lunch spot near campus then,” he told her. “I’m not worried about how long I take off for lunch. These loan applications will still be here at my desk when I get back,” he joked.

“Umm, how about dinner instead?” Candice suggested. “I mean, that would be a lot less cumbersome than trying to jam in a lunch hour.”

Samuel nodded.
Okay, now we’re starting to get somewhere,
he told himself. “Where would you like to go?”

“Umm, I’ll decide a little later on. Okay? I have to think about it.”

Samuel hung up his phone and looked forward to taking the young woman out for dinner that evening. He figured she deserved his good treatment after how well she had treated him. She had made his relocation to Charlotte smooth, inviting and down-right seductive. And he agreed to meet her at his apartment so they could travel in one car.

“Can I get some more before we leave?” Candice teased Samuel at his apartment that evening. She wore a purple blouse and skirt set, looking a hundred percent professional, like a school principal in training. But she was obviously still fresh, no matter what she wore.

Samuel laughed it off, still dressed professionally himself, in a dark sports jacket, button-up shirt with tie, and fine slacks with his shoes.

“We can have all night for that when we get back.”

“But it’s a work night, and I have to get up early tomorrow. In fact, we may need to take two cars anyway.”

Samuel was stunned. It seemed that Candice was attempting to wiggle her way out of another date while getting sexed up before they left.

“You know, if I didn’t know any better, I may start to think that you were only using me for a good sex thing.” The idea sounded implausible, but it could have been karma. Samuel had been using young women to satisfy his sexual fantasies for years. And he had never been married or sired any children in four, long decades of dating.

“You don’t like having sex with me?” Candice asked him innocently.

“Now, I didn’t say that. I’m just saying—”

“Well, what’s the problem?” she cut him off.

It was the first time he had witnessed her strong backbone, or at least while dealing with him.

“The problem is, all that we’ve been
doing
is fucking.”

Candice stopped and started chuckling. “Oh my God, I never thought I would hear a guy say that.”

“Well, I’m saying it.” Samuel had had enough sex in his life to know when something smelled fishy. And for a young woman, or
any
woman to fuck him good and not even want a good dinner for it, he suspected that something peculiar was going on.

Suddenly, Candice took a deep breath and began to look saddened.

“So, you don’t want to anymore?” she asked sincerely.

Shit, is this girl a closet sex fiend or what?
he wondered. He could read the sadness in her eyes at even the suggestion that he would no longer want to fuck her.

“It’s not that I don’t want to; it’s that you’re making me feel kind of funny
with how you’ve been dodging doing anything
else
with me. I mean, that’s just unusual.

“I’m not an ugly guy,” he continued. “So unless you’re embarrassed about me being older than you, or you got some kind of a boyfriend somewhere that you’re not telling me about, I don’t understand why I can’t take you out nowhere.”

“But we
are
going out now,” she reminded him.

“Yeah, after me
pushing
you for it, and only
after
you get another
fix
. And now you tell me that we need to take two cars so you can rush off afterward. Hell, I don’t even know where you
live.
But you know where
I
live,” he added.

The facts were all adding up, and they were convincing.

Candice looked away from him and took another breath. Then she turned and looked him in the eyes. “I’ll tell you over dinner,” she promised him.

Samuel nodded and agreed. “Okay.”

“And we can take your car.”

When they arrived at a dark Italian restaurant on the south end of Charlotte, Candice was extra quiet.

Samuel joked, “Whatever you have to tell me is not the end of the world, is it?” Her stale silence was making him nervous.

She looked up at him and grinned, while looking inside the multiple-page menu.

“I hope not.”

Samuel chuckled on the outside, but on the inside he was growing increasingly suspicious. He frowned. “What exactly, ah—”

“Hey, Candice. How are you doing?” an older woman stepped up to their table to greet her. She was tall and stately. After speaking to Candice, she quickly glanced over at Samuel, with a look of investigation.

“Hi,” he responded and nodded. It was obvious she wondered who he was. Samuel could read it in her quick, probing eyes.

“Hi,” she greeted him back. Then she looked at Candice for an explanation.

“Samuel is a bank loan officer from Cincinnati. I’m trying to do a few things with my account,” she explained.

The woman nodded back. “Oh. Well, you should bring him to church with you.”

“He hasn’t decided on a church yet.”

The woman looked back at Samuel. “Well, he can always visit a good house of the Lord.” Then she stuck her hand out. “I’m Sister Davis from the Southern Tabernacle Baptist Church, right here in Charlotte. And I guess you already know who her father is. Reverend John Burton is our pastor.”

Candice stared across the table, praying that Samuel would keep his cool about it. And he did.

He nodded to Sister Davis. “Yes, of course. She told me all about him. But like she said, I haven’t made up my mind on which church to join yet. I’ve been busy trying to figure Charlotte out first.”

“Mmm-hmm, I see. Well, you couldn’t find a more beautiful and willing soul than young sister Candice Burton here to talk to you about it. And you’re supposed to be helping her with banking services?”

“Ahh, right now, I’m trying to pick out something on this long menu to eat,” he hinted with a kind smile.

Sister Davis reacted startled. “Oh, well let me let you all get back to your menu. Don’t mind me at all.” She chuckled. “And Candice, I’ll see you back at Sunday service.”

As soon as the woman left them alone at the table, Samuel looked across at Candice and grinned.