Inner Circle (17 page)

Kathy rose to her feet as Sheila turned and went out. Ruben was about to follow. Kathy stepped forward, “Simon,” she spoke his name hesitantly .

He paused at the door. Sheila was halfway down the walk. “Yes, what is it?” he said, annoyed.

Kathy twisted her hands in front of her, “I wish…I wish I were going with you now. I wish you were taking me to your bed. I’m…I’m so…so….”

“Hot?” he said.

“Yes, Simon, hot and wet.” Kathy crossed to him. “Will you, will you…kiss me, please?”

He stood looking at her for a moment, “There is more than thirty years difference between our ages, Mrs. Ryan. You are regarded as the most beautiful woman in our village. I’ve just destroyed your dead husband’s reputation and humiliated you before your friends.” He chuckled. “And you are standing here before me naked and, I think, trembling. You are asking me to kiss you.” He shook his head, “No. You are begging me to kiss you. You are begging, aren’t you?”

She stepped closer. Her nipples pressed against his damp shirt. Tentatively she reached up to touch his face, “Yes, I’m begging. Please, Simon…”

He placed both hands on her ass cheeks and roughly pulled her to him. “Yes, Simon, yes,” she whispered, “like that.” She stood on tiptoe and tilted her head. Her lips touched his softly and parted. She slid her tongue into his mouth and moaned.

Abruptly he released her and stepped away. “The words,” he said, “say the words.”

The rush of heat spread from her bare breasts to her wet pussy. “I need you, Simon Ruben. I think I’ve always needed you; needed you to take me; needed to belong to you. It began way back when I was very young. I felt it but didn’t understand what it meant. I didn’t know till now.”

He stood looking at her frowning. Like Sheila, he was not quite certain she was telling the truth. Her naked body seemed to glow in the lamp light, her pink nipples were erect, her face flushed, her full red lips were wet. In the eyes of every woman who had ever looked at him in the past, including Kathy, he always saw fear coupled with revulsion. In her eyes, now, there was a softness and, he thought, longing. He crooked his finger at her. She moved to stand directly in front of him. He pointed to the floor. She got to her knees and looked up into his face. He had started to perspire again. Her face was next to his crotch where his rancid scent was strongest. “What do you want?” he asked.

“I want to taste you once more before you go, dearest Simon. I want to breathe you in.” He nodded. She pulled down his zipper and opened his fly as wide as she could and then the slit in his shorts. The stench was powerful. She pushed her head inside so that her lips were once more on his cock. He pulled his open fly around her head enclosing inside with the heat and sweat and smell. She groaned aloud and wrapped her arms around his legs and placed her hands on his ass pulling him into her. Moaning and crying, she began to kiss and lick his prick slavishly, her tears and saliva mixing with his sweat. They remained like that for a long time, her nose pressed tight against his scrotum, her lips and tongue on his balls and the underside of his cock. Then opening her mouth wide, she took his thick cock into it once more. However, this time it was Kathy who pulled him into her until she had taken it all. It was as if she’d entered some other dark world where there was nothing but the smell and taste and heat of him and his huge organ filling her mouth and pressing against the back of her throat. She continued to moan as she sucked him, wanting to feel his hot spunk filling her mouth, wanting to taste and swallow it, wanting to suck him dry.

With a great cry he came for the third time that night, flooding her mouth. She swallowed rapidly and sucked harder, drawing from his piss hole the last bubbles of his cum. She kissed his cock tenderly before pulling back and looking up at him again. Her face was wet with tears and sweat, her lips swollen, her eyes misty. “Every night, Simon, I’ll suck you….suck you like that. Every night, I’ll kiss you and lick you…kiss and lick every part of your body; your mouth, your feet, your ass…suck and kiss and lick, Simon.” She flung her arms around his legs again a pressed her cheek against his crotch. “Oh, God,” she sighed, “you make me so hot.” Again she looked up at him, “I am truly yours. You know that, don’t you? Please tell me you know I belong to you.”

He stepped back quickly causing Kathy to collapse on the floor. She lifted her head and the tears trickled down her cheeks. Her passion had momentarily unnerved him, but he gathered himself together and sneered at her. “You are pathetic, Mrs. Ryan, beautiful and desirable, but pathetic all the same. The strong willed, independent, high spirited, woman who a short time ago commanded my respect is a whimpering, groveling, mindless, creature who is going to submit to me and my niece in ways you haven’t imagined.” Kathy bowed her head. Ruben continued, “Yes, I know now that you belong to me. I know now there isn’t anything you won’t do. There isn’t any place on my body or on Sheila’s that won’t feel the warm and loving touch of your tongue. We will humiliate you in public and abuse you in private. We will whip you. We will give you to others. You will be our slave, our pet, our whore. Do you understand?”

Kathy lifted her head, “Yes, Simon, I know and accept. I…I….want to do and be just as you’ve described. I belong to you now, unconditionally.”

“Good,” he said. Before closing the door he turned back to her. “You have my permission to bring yourself off before you go to sleep,” he chuckled.

Kathy bowed her head, “Thank you, Simon,” she said.

Before falling asleep, she lay in bed remembering the taste of Ruben’s huge cock and how it filled her mouth. She recalled how he and forced it down her throat and how her mouth filled with his  thick, hot jism. If it weren’t for the dreadful cap she knew that just touching her clitoris would result in a violent orgasm.

In the middle of the night she awoke. Clearly in her mind she saw her humiliation on the dance floor before her friends. Ruben was fondling her ass and then her breasts. He was kissing her. She was frightened and ashamed to realize that she had been calling out  his name in her sleep.

That had never happened to her before.

Chapter Six

Kathy slept for ten hours. Once more the troublesome dream of the discordant notes disturbed her sleep. When she awoke, it took some time for her to realize she was alone in her own house. She recalled the events of the previous day and evening with horror. How could she have debased herself in front of Simon Ruben? How could she have entertained for a moment that he was what she needed? How could she have kneeled to kiss the feet of his despicable niece? She must have been drugged or had temporarily taken leave of her senses. She’d even said she loved and adored him! What had caused her to do that? He’d released her from the fear of the rats and worry about Mary Margaret, yet she’d knelt naked at his feet begging to suck his ugly cock. It was true he reminded her of Stein. It was also true that she’d been aware of his power over her even as a teenager. Still, how could she have given herself so completely to him?

My God! He would soon be sending for her. She was under the contract to Satomi, but the Japanese had apparently sold a portion of it to Ruben. Well, whatever it took she’d get away. She’d draw all the money out of the bank and escape to Montana, someplace in the wilderness. True, Satomi still had her sister-in-law, but Kathy had tried her best to keep Mary Margaret from harm. Now, she had to think of herself. Ruben would surely kill her before the terms of the contract expired. She’d certainly be no help to Mary Margaret if she were dead. Quickly, she showered and dressed. She’d go to the bank, then come back and devise a plan to escape to Montana so that Satomi’s men couldn’t find her.

As she was headed to the door, the phone rang. Call-waiting indicated the call was coming from Madam Khe in Japan. “I will make this short,” the Chinese woman said. “Apparently, that fool Ruben wasn’t aware of the video camera’s installed in every room of your house. Mr. Satomi heard and saw your performance last night.”

“Oh my God!” Kathy exclaimed.

“Yes, it was surprising. Like Abul, Simon Ruben and this skinny niece were about to violate the stipulations in Mr. Satomi’s contract. Like Abul they were rather forcefully persuaded to fly to Japan on Mr. Satomi’s jet.” She paused and chuckled softly. “Like Abul, those two ignorant self-serving idiots are feeding the sharks in the middle of the Pacific.”

“You mean they’re dead? Simon and his niece are dead?”

“Unless they survived a 10,000 foot fall and were able to swim fifteen hundred miles to Hawaii, they are most certainly dead.”

“But what…” Kathy began.

“Stay where you are for the time being. Do not attempt to run away. You still have almost a full year to serve Mr. Satomi. You know now what happens to those who displease him.” Kathy heard the click as Madam Khe hung up.

She sat back and smiled broadly. Wally, Ezra Stein, Richie and Vinnie Sconzo, Harriet, Miko, Swart, Madam Khe, Mi Jong, Kim, Abul, Simon Ruben, and Sheila…she was free of them all. Her house was once again her own. Her five million dollars had been divided between income producing stocks and savings. She was ordered to stay where she was. Was it possible that Satomi would concentrate on Mary Margaret and let Kathy alone for awhile? Certainly, since Ruben was dead, she had no reason to attempt to flee.

Perhaps she would restore the house to its former condition, and rejoin the country club. Satomi might simply leave her alone. She might even begin work on her doctoral thesis in art history. Her professor, a renowned art scholar who’d published a number of books, had taken a liking to her. He was distinguished, highly respected, and charming. Kathy thought she could fall in love with him. She wanted to return to a life that she had once known with her husband; active, up-scale, social, productive, conventional. She might even be able to somehow persuade Satomi to let her sister-in-law go. Of course she realized this last was wishful thinking. In any case there was nothing she could do about Mary Margaret.

Weeks went by without a word from Madam Khe. Even those disturbing dreams of Doctor Gruber and of the discordant notes had become less and less frequent. On a lovely morning in May exactly sixty-four days after her dreadful wedding to Abul, she sat at the front window of her house looking out on the spacious lawn, the blossoming dogwoods, the bright red azaleas, the driveway lined with daffodils and tulips. Robins and mourning doves were pecking at the feeder. English sparrows flitted through the oaks and maples. A line of poetry came into her head, “God’s in his Heaven, all’s right with the world.”

Kathy went into the kitchen for her third cup of coffee. She looked out at the pool. Its cover sagged with gray water and leaves. She made a note to call the pool company. It promised to be a full but pleasant day. She had to pick up her tennis racket that was being restrung. Later she had an appointment for a pedicure, and then a luncheon date with three of her former sorority sisters. Although a number of her friends had not forgiven her for the encounter with Ruben, her life had returned to being almost normal.

She stood for a long time looking out into the yard, sipping her coffee. She was vaguely disturbed. Just last night she’d had a very real dream in which Doctor Gruber’s insane nephew, Frederick, appeared along with his Negro servant and the black dog. The strange notes kept repeating in the dream. By now, they were familiar. They frightened her and left her slightly disoriented. When the cup was empty, she started to dial the pool service. Suddenly, she put down the phone. From the bottom of her desk, she took a small leather bound notebook. Riffling through the pages she found the number she was looking for. Quickly, she shoved the notebook back in the drawer and slammed it shut. Half aloud she said, “My God! What am I thinking!”

A short time later the phone rang, startling her. When she picked up the receiver and held it to her ear the five notes she’d been hearing in her sleep sounded, then silence. Hearing them sent a wave of heat through her body. She could feel her cheeks burn and her nipples stiffen. The terrifying dream came back vividly but accompanied with the old familiar tingling in the pit of her stomach and warm flow of secretions to her crotch. In addition she felt weak, susceptible, as if her will had suddenly been, not dissolved exactly, but diluted. For a few moments she wasn’t even certain of her surroundings.

Not really wanting to, but feeling somehow compelled, she retrieved the notebook and stared once more at the number. She sat for ten minutes before picking up the phone and dialing. “I’d like to speak to Doctor Gruber, please. Say it’s Mrs. Ryan.” She waited. Her mouth had gone dry. Her hand trembled. She wanted to hang up but couldn’t. After several moments, she heard the perfectly modulated voice of the tall, pale, cadaverous Doctor Gruber. She had thought of him as “Death” incarnate. She had even married the hated Abul to escape him and his insane nephew, Frederick. And now? My God, she thought, I must be crazier than either of them!

“Mrs. Ryan, I must say, this is a surprise.”

“Ah….yes, Doctor Gruber….I…uh...I suppose you know about Abul?”

“Of course. He’s dead.”

“Yes…and…and…”

There was a long pause. Finally, Doctor Gruber broke the silence. “Where are you calling from, Mrs. Ryan?”

“Home. I’m at home.”

“And why, exactly, have you contacted me?”

“I…I…don’t know. I’m not sure.” Gruber said nothing. Kathy’s hand shook. She bit her lip. “I…called because I…I…wanted, ….no, I need perhaps, to visit you…talk with you in person. Just a visit, Doctor, nothing more.” Gruber waited for her to go on. “I’ve been bothered….bothered by things. And my dreams.”