“She took it pretty hard, naturally. The unity of the family means so very much to her. It means a lot to me too… but the children are old enough to understand now. Lucille will leave for Florida next week and we can be married by the end of the summer. I'm leaving her the cars, the house, the beach house, one third of the stock in my grain business, and all of the insurance agency. That's the price I had to pay.
“I thought… well, it will cause quite a scandal our getting married right after the divorce… so I thought you and I could settle up at the lake cottage. That's close to my canning company, and I could drop into the office there once or twice a week.
“Just think, Denise… you'll be a free woman. No work, no worries, just you and I at the cottage with nothing to do but live and love. Denise, I'm a young man again with so very much to live for. You have no idea what you've done for me…”
The shock of this turn of events was almost paralyzing. I could not think what I would do. The idea of living in a lake cottage with Charley Riggs was about the most awful future I could think of. Although I had kept it quite secret from Charley, and made him believe he was the only man in my life, I had been sneaking out to parties and seeing Cindy as well as some of my other lovers the whole time he had been going with me. This was the life I loved, and I was determined not to let it go.
Chapter Nine
Charley had brought over two bottles of Champagne to celebrate that night that he broke the news, but I celebrated all by myself long into the night after he left. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get drunk. I think I wanted to just pass on into oblivion.
I was so sick the next morning, and so tired from the little sleep I was able to get, that I called in sick for only the second time in my teaching career. I wanted to get drunk again and stay drunk forever, but I did manage the good sense to do some work around the house after several little naps.
At four o'clock, I had just showered and washed my hair and was lying down on the sofa-bed to watch a TV program, when the door chimes sounded. I slipped a robe over the baby-dolls I was wearing before I went to answer it. I fully expected it to be Charley. I was quite surprised, and even a little pleased, when it turned out to be young Ricky Conover, a not-too-bright sophomore of about 15 or 16, who was in my “introduction to Drama” class, and had shown obvious signs of having a crush on me.
Ricky had bought me a box of candy and said he wanted to drop by and see how I was. I told him I was feeling much better and invited him into the den where I lay back down on the sofa-bed. Under ordinary circumstances, I would have been very formal about everything, even though I might liked to have become more involved personally. But with the turn of events, I just didn't seem to give a damn.
I had often thought of Ricky and wondered if his crush was purely affectionate, or if there might not be more to it. He was a big boy for his age and had the reputation of having stolen several “cherries” from girls whose reputations had previously been impeccable. Ricky was a tall and relaxed type youth of quite good looks. His hair was unwieldy and blonde, yet not so long as many of the boys wore theirs.
“I like your place, Mrs. Bryant… and I sure like that outfit too,” he said, emitting a flirtatious whistle as he ogled me.
I had deliberately let one half of the robe slip to the floor as I lay on the sofa. That was the kind of mood I was in. I recalled the time I had seduced another student a few years back, but Ricky was a different breed. I didn't quite know what to do next.
“Are you looking at the outfit, Ricky… or my bare leg?” I asked him very straightforwardly, making no attempt to pull up the robe.
“Gee, I'd sure like to see you at the pool in a bikini, Mrs. Bryant,” he fell to the repartee quite easily, his eyes really devouring my legs in a way that stirred me somewhat. “You could probably show some of these girls at school what a real body looks like.”
“Well… thank you very much, Ricky,” I smiled, bending my leg slightly at the knee. “I suppose I could go rummage through my wardrobe and find one to model for you.”
“You… you mean it?” he said, his face breaking into a broad smile as he gave a long wolf whistle, “Say, I've always thought you were…”
Ricky blushed profusely and began to grope for words. He realized he had almost made a faux pas. I just lay there with a knowing, questioning grin on my face and stared at him. I was thoroughly enjoying myself.
“Go on, Ricky… you doll,” I said with a laugh, bringing up my other leg so that the left half of the robe fell away. “You've stuck your foot in your mouth, I'm afraid. What was it you were going to say? That you always thought I was a hot one? That I must be pretty wild in bed? What was it, Ricky?”
“Well…,” he began hesitantly, his eyes taking in my exposed legs eagerly. “I didn't mean any harm by it, Mrs. Bryant. But everybody says you're the sexiest teacher in the school and you've got a better figure than Miss Lyons, the girl's gym teacher. I dunno… I like you, Miss Bryant. You give me ideas. You get me shook.”
“Still want me to model that bikini?”
“Sure…”
I was having a glorious time with Ricky. The whole episode became absolutely exhilarating once I had decided to go through with it and to hell with the consequences. I wouldn't have a job anyway, I figured, if I had to turn down old Charley Riggs, and I wasn't about to let him go through with that crazy divorce of his.
The bikini wasn't really hard to find, as one of my paying clients liked to watch me walk around in one. It was a real darling of an outfit-an underwired uplift top that practically pushed my breasts out until the nipples peeked from it, and the barest of mini-pants that tied at either side.
When I walked back downstairs into the den, I thought Ricky was suddenly paralyzed. The shock was so great that he couldn't whistle or even make a remark. The only evidence that he was emotionally stimulated was the expression in his eyes. The opened so wide and remained that way, I thought they would fall out of his head.
“Mrs. Bryant…?” he finally managed to get out, gulping and looking very white, then flushed again. “I… I've got this crazy idea in the back of my head that if I… if I walked right over to you and kissed you… and put my arms around you… you wouldn't get mad, you'd let me do that, and… Now, wait! Don't get me wrong. I said I just had this crazy idea. I didn't mean any harm or anything wrong, Mrs. Bryant…”
“You'd expect a lot from me if I let you do that, wouldn't you, Ricky?” I asked him.
“No… nothing else.”
“Oh, I don't mean that,” I laughed at the slight misunderstanding, “I mean at school. Wouldn't it spoil the pupil-teacher relationship? How could I be Mrs. Bryant in the classroom if I had been… Denise to you here?”
“You… well, I'm not a guy who would mess things up for you, Mrs. Bryant,” he promised, taking a step forward as his eyes danced across my near-nakedness, “I know… how important it would be to say nothing. Nobody even knows I came over to see you…”
“Ricky, be perfectly honest with me. Why did you come over here?”
“Because I like you… you're my favorite.”
When he stepped closer, I put a hand back behind my neck and tossed my freshly washed hair to the side. With my other hand, I began to draw small designs, using my fingers, over the exposed tops of my breasts. It felt good. I was thoroughly enjoying the sensations as well as the eager and desperate stares that Ricky bestowed on my body. I giggled a little and felt deliciously evil and sexy.
“Mrs. Bryant…”
“Call me Denise,” I whispered when he came up so very close to me.
“Den-ise… oh, Denise…”
He suddenly threw his arms around me, his fingers digging into my buttocks beneath the mini-pants, his mouth covering mine and his lips pressing to my mouth with the artistry of one who has kissed for a long time in the heat of passion. I opened my lips to admit his tongue and I made pleasant noises as mine meshed with his and I pressed my pelvis against a very hard penis.
