Juicy (9 page)

‘
I’m sorry Juicy. It’s been so long since I’ve been touched…’

She almost couldn’t breathe when she thought about how much she, herself, needed someone’s kind touch.

Stepping out of the bathroom, she looked at the closed door of her bedroom, then with her hands crossed over her naked chest she slipped carefully into her room. Troy was still sleeping and he still hadn't changed positions.
Was he breathing?! She hurried over to the bed and relief washed over her when she saw the steady rise and fall of his chest. He looked so content, so comfortable. Could she...could she be with a man like Troy?

‘…
I can take care of you.
’ He had said.
Never taking her eyes from his form, Juicy slid into bed. She knew what she wanted more than anything else in life right now. She wanted to stroke Troy's naked skin and to soothe his brow. Juicy wanted to kiss his waiting lips and feel him slide into her anxious body. She wanted to feel his hands caress her skin...
But for now, she had to be content to watch him sleep. She did this, examining the stubble on his cheek, the shadows his lashes cast on the pale skin of his cheek, and the dark blond hair that fell across his brow. Before long her eyes drooped. The ibuprofen, the shower, the conversation with Troy, the sex...it had all drained her and she fell asleep watching him, wanting him.

***

Juicy reached up to scratch her arm as something slid across it, making her skin itch, tickling her flesh. When she felt the same sensation slipping across her hip she opened her eyes.
Troy was up on his elbow watching her with clear eyes. Apparently his headache had disappeared and apparently he had been awake for some time. It was his fingers that were tracing the lines of her nudity. He himself was equally as nude as he had pushed the quilt away. Wordlessly he brought his fingers to her lips and touched her there with just the tips.
Juicy blinked and resisted the urge to run away. Instead she placed her hand on the hip that was positioned only inches from her own. She could feel the sudden heat emanating from his pelvis even before she saw the rise of his penis. Juicy slowly scooted closer to him until their pelvises were touching. Troy slid his arm around her and pulled her against him fully and she draped her own arm around him and clutched him. They smiled at each other.

Troy reached up and traced the line of her jaw with his fingertips seconds before kissing her. After a long moment of exploring her mouth, he looked back with a slight frown. His fingers moved to a deep bruise on her hip.

“Does this hurt?”

“Not really.” She murmured. He sat up and leaned over her, urging her onto her back. Then he began to gently kiss her body, his touch light over her bruises. Juicy closed her eyes enjoying his light touch. When he finished kissing the front of her, he had her roll over and he kissed the back of her.

She had peeked at him when he reached the pooch of her belly. He kissed circles around her belly button causing her to giggle and then she sighed. Now he had placed his cheek against the round of her ass, stroking down the back of her thighs.

Her moans grew as her skin became sensitized. She felt him sit up and then he placed his fingers on her lower back, running them down her spine. She trembled.

“How about here? How does it feel here?”

“Feels good…”

“There’s a bad bruise here.” She glanced over her shoulder and tried to see but couldn’t.

“Kiss it.” She suggested.

He did. She started to shake more.

“Troy…” She sighed.

“I’m here.” He moved his body up until he was nuzzling the back of her neck and moving his body against hers. “Juice, do you have any condoms?” He whispered into her ear.

Her eyes opened and reality flooded her senses. So many realities came to mind with the mention of that one word; Condom. “Yes.” She said quickly and moved to reach for her bedside table for a roll of condoms. She handed them to him nervously. Maybe she shouldn’t be doing this…

“I don’t want you to worry about this, okay.” He was still whispering even though he didn’t need to. But his soft words were soothing and she listened intently. “I haven’t made love with anyone in years, Juicy. But every time I go to a shelter, or clinic, I have to get tested. I don’t use drugs and I’m not gay, I don’t…do that.” He paused and stared intently into her eyes. “So, please don’t worry.”

She watched him with openness. “Years? You haven’t been with anyone in years?”

He shrugged slightly and placed his lips on her shoulder. “I don’t really care about that.” His eyes stared deeply into hers. “You don’t…You don’t have a boyfriend?”

“No.” There was no time for boyfriends when you spent as much time as you could doing hair and trying to make money. “No boyfriends, just…well, my dildo.”

“Oh?” He raised a bemused brow. “I’d like to see my competition.”

She buried her face into the pillow and laughed.

He swooped down and kissed her neck and shoulders again and again.

She closed her eyes and sighed, passively allowing Troy to kiss a path down her body. When she felt completely consumed by her own need she turned and cupped his face. She kissed him fiercely. She needed this. She needed to feel this man inside of her.

“Please…” She reached down and gripped his hard cock and now he was the one that trembled. Troy slid easily between her legs and she brought them up and enclosed him against her. Why did this feel so right? His hands were planted on either side of her head, his body not quite resting on her, and he waited for her to guide him inside of her.

Juicy positioned him at her opening and then he pushed forward. “Oh god…” he moaned. “Oh Juice…” His eyes closed as his lips parted. Troy pushed deeply into her and then he sought a tempo as he repeatedly thrust in and out of her. Juicy clutched him desperately, her hips matching his every move and soon their intertwined; one dark, one white resembled a strange ying yang symbol.

They made love for the entire evening using only two condoms though they made love four times. The third time Juicy whispered that she was taking the depo shot and she tossed the condoms across the room to land on the dresser.

Almost desperately, Troy plunged into her, unsheathed. A short while later he cried out his third orgasm of the night as if it were his first. Juicy writhed beneath him, pushing back against each of his thrusts and it was her climax that triggered his responsive ejaculation--almost as if it was the first time they had touched.

CHAPTER 7

Hunger drove them out of bed. After a meal of scrambled eggs and toast, Troy slipped on his freshly laundered clothes while Juicy watched tensely. Of course he would have to leave. He couldn’t just stay in her apartment forever…

He kissed her lips three times allowing his fingers to gently stroke the small of her back. “Go to the doctor, okay? A real doctor. Have them look at the bruise here, it’s pretty bad.”

“I will do that, and I will call the police station and I will rest.” He blushed knowing that he’d repeated this to her several times. “Um…when will I see you again?” It was the question that sounded desperate no matter how off-handed you tried to sound.

Troy had already pieced together that Juicy had to make up a lot of work. There were some things that he wanted to take care of, as well. “This weekend? I’ll come back Saturday.”

Saturday was three days from now. “Ok.”

“Don’t work too hard. And if you start getting a headache, Juicy, don’t just try to work through it. It won’t get better if you do that, only worse.”

This time she opened the front door and let him out. “I will be okay.” He smiled, lowered his head to give her another quick kiss then he bounded down the stairs and out the door. Juicy stood there and watched for a few moments wondering if that would be the last time she’d see the strange, unique man that she’d become so instantly attached to.

Things moved fast over the next few days. She visited her doctor who kept making her repeat everything she’d told him about her attack and hospital stay. When she told him that she had been in a coma for three days and that the swelling in her brain almost caused them to cut out a portion of her skull he just looked at her like she was a damned lie.

Then he wanted to see her antibiotics, and when she responded that she wasn’t on them or any other medication he almost stroked out. She was at the doctor’s for the entire morning. He found several additional fractures and gave her special cleansers for her skull injuries, as well as fresh bandages. He told her to return in a week and to go straight home and get some sleep.

Instead, she went home and did hair until after midnight. The next day she did the same thing, working on hair until the wee hours of the night. But at least by Friday she was caught up and could start rescheduling her regulars.

The night brought terrifying dreams of thugs and beatings. Juicy wasn’t used to being afraid, but there were nights that she would wake up and be frozen in her bed, absolutely incapable of moving. Later, when the panic attack subsided, she would leap out of bed and turn on a light. She was very tired; working all day with only a restless sleep each night.

One morning she sat at her neat table and drank coffee before her first client was to arrive. She thought about Troy and then she wondered if she would be stuck in this apartment doing hair for the next ten years. She wondered how he’d gotten where he was, but mostly she thought about how good he made her feel when he held her and looked deep into her eyes and told her to take care of herself.

“Juicy…it looks like somebody beat you good.” Barbara Jean said, while giving her a distasteful look. Barbara Jean had known her Momma back in the day, and Juicy had been doing her hair regularly since she was seventeen years old. Miss Barbara didn’t tip good since Momma had died, but she was regular income.

“Yes Ma’ame. I just got jumped coming out the bank on Providence Street. Stole all my stuff and landed myself in the hospital for three days.” She repeated the story as she had for the upteenth time.

“Well why didn’t you call me? I would have come by.”

Juicy almost laughed. “Yes Ma’ame.” If I get put into a coma again I’ll remember that.

“Well you best get your locks changed. If those thugs got your wallet then they know where you live.” Juicy’s back straightened. She’d forgotten to call the police. Damn. Would they come back and finish what they had started? Juicy picked up a small towel and wiped her hands clean of pressing oil as she walked out of the room.

“Juicy, girl? Where you going?!” Barbara Jean called out after her.

“Be right back.” She called absently over her shoulder. She quickly dialed the building manager. “You need to come up here and have these locks changed, and I need another key. Yeah I was robbed…What?! No I didn’t give my key to another deadbeat boyfriend!” She slammed the phone down and got something for her headache before returning to her back room.

Miss Barbara Jean was impatiently looking at her watch and some of the other ladies waiting were tapping their feet and looking like they had better things to do. She pierced her lips together as a thought kept nagging away at her. They were going home to look nice for their men, or going to parties, or out clubbing. And all she was going to be doing is pulling in the next client so that THOSE heffas would be having the fun that she didn’t have time for.

Well this really sucked. She hadn’t looked at things in that way before. If she couldn’t get her own shop then she would be stuck in this room doing hair while life past her by.

Several hours later the maintenance man arrived. His nosey ass was trying to cock his head into the back room of her apartment. Yeah, she wasn’t supposed to be holding a business there but, he wasn’t supposed to be poking around either. She never let maintenance into the apartment unless she was going to be home. She was thirty-three and had always lived in apartments. She knew that men could be nasty as hell.

One of her Landlords had gotten busted coming into people’s apartments, drinking up their liquor, and eating up their food. Another maintenance man had gotten caught with his female tenant’s panties…he had tried to lie and say he found them in the laundry, but some of them still had tags.

She looked at the maintenance man with narrowed eyes to let him know not to try making small talk.

“Sounds like you got a party going on.” He waited for her response.

“Looks like you need to get to work.” She turned and went to the back room where she shut the door soundly. Fifteen minutes later he was knocking on the door. She sucked in an annoyed breath and opened the door a crack, blocking his view with her large body.

“Are you finished?” He was trying hard to peek around her. She stepped out and closed the door after her.

“Yeah. Here is your new set of keys.”

“Thank you.”

The older man gave her the once over. “Someone really did a number on you, sista.” She was about to say something smart when he continued. “There’s been some strange white man watching the building. People have been seeing him for the last few days. I hope he ain’t trying to scope-”

Juicy’s heart jumped. “Across the street?”

“Yeah.” He took her excitement as fear. Juicy hurried to the front window and tried to see out. It was dark and she couldn’t see much further then the slight green space that marked the end of the yard. She rushed out of the door before she remembered the maintenance man. She rushed back and ushered him out of her apartment. She kept telling him goodbye and he kept trying to stop her from confronting the perspective thief. Finally she slammed her door shut and hurried past him still clutching her keys. When she got to the bottom of the stairs she smoothed down the front of her shirt and opened the buildings entry door.