Collapsing together I rolled over and then clung onto him, eager for him to stay.
‘That was fucking fantastic, ‘I said.
‘You’re the best,’ he whispered.
‘Really?’ I asked, pleased and hoping this might lead somewhere.
‘You bet,’ he said, squeezing my breast before rising and leaving me alone.
I had trouble sleeping, even though I was exhausted. Thoughts of what had just happened swirled through my brain. I couldn’t wait to see him again in the morning, yet the thought of Melissa finding out sickened me.
I heard someone up so I showered quickly and made my way to the kitchen. Fortunately it was Ronnie; he was making coffee so I came up behind him and hugged his back.
‘That was wonderful last night,’ I said, smiling up at him as he turned.
“It was,” he said, smirking. “Wasn’t it wonderful, Melissa?”
I hopped back out of his arms, and directly into Melissa, who had slipped into the room silently. My thoughts raced as I turned to look at her.
“Exquisite,” she said. She reached out with both arms, the soft skin of her hands pushing my robe off my shoulders. She laughed upon seeing my face, which I’m sure was showing all of my emotions: fear, disbelief and a little bit of hope. She leaned forward to softly kiss my mouth, and looked directly into my eyes, smiling.
“You were a bad girl last night. I’m willing to keep you on, but I’m going to have to punish you,” she said.
“I don’t…” I was having a hard time making words, still unsure of what she meant.
“Now hike up that gown and bend over,” she barked, turning me roughly toward Ronnie, who was also smiling. “Ronnie and I are going to have our way with you.”
Chapter 8 — Sam
I inherited Sam when I moved into the crumbling apartment. Most people find cockroaches under the sink or maybe a stray cat in the back yard. I found a ghost who liked to fuck.
I was living alone for the first time in my life. There wasn't much money after the divorce and my credit rating was so bad that it was hard to find somewhere to live. The decaying concrete-block apartments were on the wrong side of Broadway, so they were less fussy in their choice of tenants. They let me live there. And apparently, at one time, they had let Sam live there. Most people eventually left; Sam stayed on.
At first I thought he was a dream. A very pleasant, sensual kind of sojourn into the nebulous world of fantasy. Light, barely-there fingers caressed my skin one night, with just the softest hint of touch, just enough to raise my fine hairs into awareness. The rustle of the sheets as they were lowered to bare my breasts to the kiss of the moonlight and streetlight coming in through the narrow window, all felt like part of my somnolent state.
Questing lips, open-mouthed, drifted down from my neck to nestle in the valley between my breasts. A whisper of a sigh. I moved slightly, encouraging my dream lover to explore my nipples, which were already hardening in anticipation. I kept my eyes closed. I did not want to wake from this sensual lethargy in a hurry. I pressed my legs tightly together to build the ache of climax. I knew that if I moved to rub myself then I would wake up and I didn't want to let this beautiful torment end just yet.
The mouth moved to my nipples and circled around them, hotly, wetly. When it dropped down and started meandering over my belly I couldn't hold back any longer. Even if it meant waking up, I had to masturbate. I dropped my hand down to the clutch of hair between my legs. My hand encountered a brief resistance, as if the air was denser somehow, but when I moved my fingers into my slick-oil folds, the mouth moved back to my breast.
Even through my spiraling arousal, my foggy brain realized that something wasn't right. I was awake, no doubt about it. Which meant that I had been all along. Yet lips still closed over my nipple. I raised my head and looked down over my body. Nothing. The air seemed to distort slightly, ripple and coalesce into a denser pattern, like mist floating in from the sea. It drifted upwards and simultaneously my skin shivered with the absence of touch.
'Who's there?' I cursed my voice for wavering.
There was no answer of course. My arousal withered and dried. I was spooked enough to get dressed, turn on the light and sit by the open window nursing a cold cup of coffee until morning.
The next day I asked Marisa, my neighbor, if she had heard of anything strange happening in my apartment.
She grinned her wide, white smile at me. 'Met Sam have you? Annie, who lived there before you always swore she would never move out-said that ghost was better lovin' than any man she ever had.' Marisa rolled her eyes. 'And hon, let me tell you, she had a few men!'
'Ghost?' My voice was surprisingly steady.
Marisa shrugged. 'No one knows for sure,' she said. 'But what else do you call a phantom who comes to you at night and makes the sweetest love this side of heaven?'
'He made love to her?' My curiosity was roused.
'Oh yes, hon, he did. Some mornings Annie walked bowlegged from his lovin' the night before. She said,' Marisa's voice dropped to a confiding whisper, 'that no one gave her orgasms like Sam did. Three, four times a night. He doesn't come every night, but when he does, he doesn't leave until morning.'
'Why's he called Sam?' I asked curiously. 'Was he someone who lived here once? How did he die?'
Marisa shrugged vaguely. 'Don't know,' she said. 'Annie called him Sam. Said she needed a name to call out when she came; Sam seemed as good as any.'
'Why did Annie leave?'
'Not willingly. She didn't want to leave Sam. But her mom got sick and she had to move back to Cleveland. She kinda hoped that Sam might follow her there, but I guess he didn't.' She kicked the doormat with her toe. 'Guess he likes to stay in Denver.'
'Did Annie have a boyfriend?' I was curious to hear what Sam had made of that.
'She did when she moved here. He didn't last long. And she said that Sam was better than any flesh and blood man, but when she did take someone home with her, he didn't seem to mind. She said she sensed him watching.' She giggled. 'Not the jealous kind obviously. The perfect man. Or ghost.'
I smiled. I was beginning to like the sound of this.
Marisa winked knowingly at me. 'Hon, if you move out tell me, I might just switch apartments.'
That night I stripped naked and climbed into bed, the sheet around my waist, breasts invitingly uplifted. He didn't come. Not that night, nor the ones after that. I was beginning to think that it was all my imagination when he came to me.
It was around midnight, and I was in that half-hazy stage between sleep and consciousness. That elusive floating, drifting stage, when the soul leaves the body and spins pirouettes around the room. The time when the mind can finally make the leaps of association necessary to solve impossible problems and the weary end of the day when every muscle fiber relaxes, so that you feel you are sinking down into the mattress, bonelessly, until the edges of your body blur.
I felt a soft touch on my mouth. A gentle exploratory kiss. A welcome home kiss from some one who cared. I waited, my heart pounding slowly in anticipation, to see if it was repeated. The merest brush whispered again over my lips. I opened my mouth slightly, trying to breathe slowly and silently and I felt the push of a tongue, insinuating itself into my mouth. It ran around, twisting around my tongue before withdrawing.
'Hello Sam.' I whispered the words into the charged air.
There was no answer of course, but I could feel the corners of his mouth turn up slightly as he smiled against my skin. He lapped his way down my neck, pausing to lave a collarbone, licking me lazily, before trailing his way down to my breasts. I turned slightly, encouraging him to my nipple with the wordless gesture. He didn't disappoint; I felt the warm wetness as he closed over my breast.
With a slight shock, I felt a disembodied hand cup my other breast. It hadn't occurred to me to wonder if Sam
