“It’s going to be alright.” Henry whispered as he leaned down to kiss my forehead.
I giggled and reached up to wrap my arms around his neck. His pale skin was cool to the touch, pairing nicely with the heat emanating from mine.
He smiled and started unbuttoning my blouse. “You seem to be in a really good mood today.”
“Yeah, I honestly don’t know what’s gotten into me.” I slowly ran a hand through his brown hair. He looked very good for his age, but the strands of gray that peppered his locks were starting to give him away.
“Well, I’m certainly not complaining. You haven’t been this excited for me since… actually I believe this is the most excited you’ve been! At least for the past four years or so.” Henry smirked at me, probably thinking back to the first time we became intimate with one another.
“Yeah, well….” I trailed off, slowly losing myself to the sensations emerging from the actions he was performing on my body.
As he lightly traced my small frame with his hands, I began to think about the day we first met. And then about the day he touched me like this for the first time.
It was five years ago to this day. I guess that would make today our anniversary.
His family had just moved into our neighborhood. We lived in a relatively small, close community so everyone knew almost everything about whoever lived on our street. It was hard to keep secrets here, but that doesn’t mean it was impossible.
I was sixteen years old, but I looked quite mature for my age. My mother always told me that I had a figure that would make Aphrodite jealous and a mind that could outsmart Athena.
She wasn’t wrong.
From a very young age, older kids would approach me to help them with homework assignments despite me being several grades beneath them. I was considered the typical nerd of the town, except people respected me rather than mocked me. When puberty finally hit me at age 13, I was given the moniker of “Albert Fine-stein”. This was mostly due to my big curls that I cropped down to a chin-length fro and my curves finally settling into the right places. Although, I would often retort that the nickname was heavily flawed because of my mocha-colored skin, my dark almond-shaped eyes, and my beautiful smile.
So they eventually started calling me; “Akeelah and her Bee-hind”.
So clever.
But there was no surprise that I caught Henry’s eye. We were neighbors after all. And I was gorgeous. Something he reminds me of every time we make love.
We spent the first few months getting well-acquainted with each other. We were so close that we even managed to get our families well-acquainted as well.
Time passed in a blur and before we knew it, there were days where it would just be Henry and I in his house. Spending time together without any supervision.
Things seemed fairly innocent at first. We would keep our distance, speak on safe matters, and when things got uncomfortable we would each excuse ourselves from the room. Typically though, I would leave and retreat to my house. I never felt completely comfortable remaining in his home during those moments. I didn’t know why, but I was a smart kid and I knew it would be better for me if I went home.
My mother had raised me to always trust my intuition. And I did. Every time.
But there was one day my intuition failed me.
Actually, Henry and I are currently celebrating that day at this very moment.
It was on a particularly hot Tuesday in July. I had been outside, lounging on my back porch doing SAT prep. After a while, I started feeling too hot, so I reached up to tie my curls into a loose bun. I was attempting to grow them out for the next school year, so they were now resting just a little past my shoulders.
As soon as my bun was in place, I felt a cool breeze dance across my neck and I breathed a sigh of relief. I closed my eyes and rolled over to lay on my back. I would have moved into the shade, but I was working on my summer tan. I always thought my darker summer shade made me look more dazzling in the vibrant colors of my summer wardrobe. So I decided to sunbathe on my deck in my favorite bikini.
My bikini top was a little risqué with the triangles only slightly larger in area than my areolas, but it was the only thing I could wear that would ensure my tan would be complete. My bikini bottoms were also very skimpy (practically just strings stapled together) but they were necessary. Plus, I knew my entire family was out for the day so I wasn’t too worried about them seeing me.
I never even considered who else I should have been worried about that day.
I was suddenly hit with a cold blast of water and my eyes shot open. I quickly sat up and started yelling angrily in the direction the water was coming from.
“What are you doing? Why are you spraying me with water?”
I heard Henry’s laughter in the distance as I got hit with one more icy blast.
“Stop! What’s wrong with you?” I angrily wiped water from my eyes. I looked down and instinctively covered my chest with my hands. The water was so cold that my nipples were prominently showing through the thin fabric.
They were no longer leaving anything to the imagination.
Henry dropped the water hose and hopped over his fence. He was very tall, around 6”3, so he literally hopped over his tiny 5 inch fence. He approached me with an apologetic expression on his face, but the slight quiver in his lips gave him away. He clearly thought this was funny.
“I’m so sorry. I saw you laying there and I couldn’t resist.” His eyes slowly lowered from my eyes to take in my whole body. I could no longer read his expression. “I didn’t mean to get you all wet.”
“Yeah, well you did. So if you don’t mind, I’m going to go inside of my house.” Keeping my hands firmly positioned in place on my chest, I slowly rose to my feet. It was a challenge to do so without my hands, but I would have rather died than let him see what I was covering.
“Here.” He bent down to grab my now ruined SAT prep book. “I’ll buy you a new one. I didn’t notice it when I started spraying you.”
I just looked at him. He was looking into my eyes again, and this time his expression seemed genuinely apologetic but for some reason I was filled with unease. The expression I had seen on his face when he was looking at my body made me feel incredibly unsettled. Unable to shake the strange feeling of impending doom, I just nodded and started to turn away.
Don’t.
I froze. For some reason, I felt like something bad was about to happen. The unease was started to claw at my mind, making me want to run and hide myself inside my house. However, the only way I could effectively get away was for me to turn around and walk through my door.
So I did.
When my back was officially turned towards him, I quickly dropped my hands from my chest and used one to cover my butt and the other to open my porch door. I was aware that my hand wasn’t covering anything seeing as I was essentially wearing a thong, but it made me feel a bit better. I actually started to feel so good, that I questioned the unease I had been feeling just moments before.
It was the last good thing I felt in that moment, and for years afterwards actually.
As I was stepping through the door, thanking the gods for letting this awkward interaction end, something rectangular and heavy hit me hard across the back of my head.
The last thought that crossed my mind before I hit the ground and succumbed to the darkness was that I should have never let him hold onto my SAT book.
I awoke an immeasurable amount of time later. I was in a small room.
A room I would soon come to think of as home.
The floors were carpeted and the walls covered in beige foam. There weren’t any windows and the only furniture in the room was the bed I was strapped to and a small wooden table in the corner. Next to the table, there was an outline of a door, but there was no handle. Across from me there was a singular toilet, sink, and a small square mirror hanging over the sink. The mirror was pristine and the positioning of it allowed me to see myself in full view.
I was still in my bikini, except this time I had the added accessory of thick white ropes attached to each wrist and each ankle. Wanting to know how tightly strapped down I was, I attempted to sit up. To my surprise, I was able to sit up with ease. I was even able to move each limb about 8 inches in any direction before the ropes would be pulled taut.
Then it dawned on me.
He didn’t do this for my comfort. He did this so that he would have less of an issue putting me into different positions.
Tears started streaming down my face as a soft cry emerged from my lips. I gently started to tug on the ropes. With each tug, my cry grew louder, and I began to get more desperate. In mere months I was full-on screaming and thrashing against my bonds.
It was as if my body was on auto-pilot because my mind was completely empty. I believe it’s because I had already accepted my fate.
I knew that any and every effort I made was futile.
It wasn’t long before Henry entered the room. I was still screaming and thrashing on the bed, but he paid no mind to me. Instead, he walked over to the sink and began to assess his appearance in the mirror. His hair was brushed back into a tiny man-bun and he was wearing a long silk robe.
The smell of his cologne filled the room. It was light, with just a hint of musk. It was a scent I used to enjoy.
But now I absolutely hated it.
Henry turned around to face me, a wide smile on his face. It was so unsettling that I instantly stopped screaming and thrashing. I just went limp. Almost as if his smile finally made my body realize what my mind had realized awhile ago.
There was nothing I could do to stop whatever was about to occur.
Henry approached the bed and slowly crawled on top of it. His robe shifted ever so slightly, but it was enough to reveal that he was not wearing anything underneath. He slowly trailed his hands up my calves, thighs, and then stopped in the slight gap between them.
He then sighed and moved his hands to my stomach. Tracing the slight outline of my ribs and the crease between my breasts.
“You don’t understand how long I have waited for this moment.” He started toying with the string of my bikini top. “From the very moment I saw you, I knew that you were the one for me. I just didn’t know how long it would take before I could have you.”
I just stared at him. There were many things I wanted to say..no, scream.
But I was no longer in my body. I could feel, hear, see, and smell everything. Yet, there was a disconnect. The only thing I could manage was a tiny:
“No.”
It was faint, and I wasn’t completely certain it had come from me. But it had, and he heard it.
“But yes. You knew exactly what you were doing. All those months coming to my house, staying with me even when my wife and kids left. You knew exactly what you were doing to me. How could you not? And then, on today of all days, when I’m celebrating the finality of my divorce, you decide to practically leave your body on display for my pleasure and mine alone?” This time he tugged on my bikini top, just hard enough for it to completely come off. Almost if it had never been tied in the first place.
“Sweetheart, you know exactly what you do to me.”
And then I started screaming. I’m not sure when the screaming stopped. All I know is that I screamed long after he had left. I screamed until the pain in my throat was worse than the pain of what he had done. But it never surpassed the pain that encompassed my mind.
I opened my eyes to see Henry staring at me with a look of concern. He reached up to wipe a tear from my eye.
“Are you okay? I thought you were having fun.”
I laughed and pulled him in closer to me. I then started peppering his neck with light kisses.
“Yeah, I am.” I answered in between kisses. “I was just thinking about how much I’m enjoying your anniversary gift.”
“If I knew you would have enjoyed it this much, I would’ve brought you upstairs a long time ago.” He chuckled, slightly moaning in pleasure.
“Why wouldn’t I like it? For the first time in years I finally get to see my family again.” I drew back and laid my head on his pillow.
I had seen my parents earlier today. I was watching them from the bedroom window in fact, right before Henry came in. Henry still has trust issues, so this room is soundproof like my old one. The only change is that I actually have a window. It’s one-sided so I can only see the outside, but he put it in a spot where I would have no issue seeing my parents enter and exit their home.
My old home.
“It’s just weird to think about how they never knew that I’ve been right under their noses, or feet for all these years. Just 12 yards away.” I sighed and looked into Henry’s eyes. He looked worried. “But don’t worry, it’s just a weird thing to think about. I promise you I’m not going anywhere and I’m definitely not going to try anything.”
Henry smiled and leaned down to kiss me, letting me know that he had effectively been reassured. His lips were soft, but firm. Something I’ve learned to love over the years.
I kissed him back.
And then I slowly lost myself to the sensations as they took over once again and he continued where he left off.