A Valentine's Day Mess Pt. 03

Claudia flipped her pony tail behind her shoulders and touched Karen's arm. "I'd love to stay longer. It's a lovely party, but I need to take care of myself."

Manny couldn't remember all the times that Claudia's musical laughter carried through the crowded house. It came from the pool side, or the kitchen, or wherever she decided to hold court. The propulsion engineers he saw every day acted like they'd never met someone like Claudia; they were right, and they were charmed.

Karen stopped Manny at the door and Claudia waited outside. "You will be in Tuesday?" she asked.

Manny glanced at Claudia. She was frozen in place, staring into the dark shadows beside the doorway. He hurried to say, "Probably noon or so on Tuesday." Someone behind Karen caught her attention and she closed the door. He turned to Claudia and asked, "What?"

Claudia motioned, and when Manny's eye's adjusted to the moonlight, he saw wolves. Running seemed like it probably wouldn't work, so they stood where they were.

Three wolves stepped into the pool of light in front of the door and sniffed at them. The male sat down next to Manny and the two bitches stopped by Claudia—one sitting and one laying on the walkway.

"Let's just walk," Claudia said. "They don't act like they want to eat us."

The wolves trotted beside them on the way to Manny's car. They sniffed at the tires while Manny opened the door for Claudia, then followed him around the car. They watched until Manny and Claudia were both in the car then they faded away. The reflection of the full moon in their eyes was the last that Manny and Claudia could see of them.

"Do you think they're here to protect us?" Claudia asked, as Manny started the car.

"From Angelito?" Manny asked, but he didn't wait for an answer. "Maybe, and maybe we woke them like we woke the cougar at Valentine's Day." He pulled his car away from the curb and around the corner, then asked, "Do you think Angelito is here?"

Manny could tell by the glow from the dashboard and the yellow light from the passing street lamps that his sister was upset. "I don't feel like he's around," she said, "But what if he found a way to hide his stench? He could've been right there, and only the wolves kept him away."

Manny drove in silence, then changed the subject. "You were popular with the engineers."

Claudia laughed. "I think Honoria de Vázquez y Luna was popular with the engineers," she said. "She was professionally popular, so I tried to do it her way."

"I think she and Rodrigo should be our next story," Manny said. He pulled into the parking lot while Claudia agreed and stopped in front of his apartment building.

Sonya and her boyfriend were sitting in lawn chairs in front of her open door. She lifted a beer in a slightly drunken salute and said, "Hey Manny and Manny's sister! Sit down and have a beer!"

Claudia smiled and said, "My name is Claudia, and thanks, but I'm too tired now. I just made Manny bring me home from a party and I need sleep." She turned away to the stairs and then stopped and turned back. "Have you seen an old Indian around here?" she asked. "A stocky guy with long hair and a big scar on his face?"

"Nope," Sonya said. She turned to her boyfriend and asked "How 'bout you?" He shook his head. Apparently he was a man of few words.

"Gracias," Claudia said. "I'm glad to hear that." She turned and walked the stairs without saying more.

Sonya looked confused, so before Manny followed Claudia he paused to tell her, "She has a stalker."

Manny opened the curtains in his bedroom so the moonlight lit the room, and started undressing. Claudia disappeared into the bathroom and came out with her shirt open. Her bra and jeans were draped over her arm, she carried her high heels in one hand, and small container in the other. She dropped the clothes on her open bag and stashed the container in the fridge.

Claudia went to the window when she came back. Manny stepped up behind his sister and looked over her shoulder. First he saw the moon high over head and the headlights passing on the street, then he saw Claudia's reflection in the window.

Manny wrapped Claudia in his arms and, with his lips close by her ear, he asked "What's wrong?"

Claudia laid her head back against Manny's shoulder and said, "I have a little headache and I'm just tired of not knowing what will happen next, or why." She turned in Manny's arms and went on, "Can we go to bed now? Will you keep me warm?"

Manny smiled at his sister in the dark. "If you'll let me," he said, and pulled the bed sheet back for her. She climbed on the bed where the towel was still spread from their afternoon, then curled up with a groan and pressed her hands to her belly. Manny didn't know what to do. He climbed over her and moved a loose lock of hair so he could see her face. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Cramps," Claudia said. "They'll pass."

Manny kissed her cheek and her forehead. "I wish I could help you feel better."

Claudia turned her head to look at Manny in the moonlight. "Maybe you can," she said. "I read that sex is good for cramps, but I've never had a chance to find out for sure. An orgasm is good for headaches, and I have tested that." She waited for a nod from her brother then squirmed around and pushed her panties down to her knees and returned to her curled position. "Can you do me this way?" she asked.

"Oh God yes," Manny said. He wrapped Claudia in his arms, kissed her ear, and told her she was beautiful. He inhaled her scent, tasted her throat, and made her giggle despite her discomfort. He opened her first with his fingers, and then with his cock, and he thrust himself into her.

Claudia clutched a pillow against her chest and gasped at her brother's sudden penetration. She felt wet, warm, and tight around the sensitive head of Manny's shaft and his irresistible instinct was to drill her hard and fast.

"Give it time, Manny!" Claudia said between gasps. Manny caught his breath and got more control. She flattened herself on her belly, and his glistening cock slipped under her firm butt, deep into her and out again. He set up a rhythmic repetition that seemed to be what she wanted.

Manny felt his sister relax and hoped that meant he'd made her feel better. He was so intent on satisfying Claudia that when he rose suddenly to his own climax it almost took him by surprise. He groaned into her ear and pressed himself hard against Claudia while he came. He pulled back when his first spasms relaxed. She was laughing into the pillow when he gasped again, and then again, and squeezed his last drops into her.

He collapsed beside his sister to catch his breath; he stroked her sides and kissed her face while she pulled the towel from under them. She used it to clean him, and then herself. "I think you fixed my cramps," she said, "But I still have a little headache."

When Manny could breathe again he pulled Claudia up so his lips could travel from her face, to her throat, and to her breasts. He immersed himself in that soft flesh, he sucked her and squeezed her.

Claudia struggled to kick her panties off her feet and lifted her legs around him. She cradled his head in her arms and guided his mouth from one nipple to the other until Manny pushed away.

Manny kissed his sister's belly then pushed his hands under her thighs and lifted them up and apart. He slipped off the bed and searched with his tongue to find Claudia's already hardened clit, and he took it between his lips. He sucked it and flicked his tongue around it; he dragged her hood between his teeth.

Claudia's rocked her hips as she pushed back against his mouth. She panted instructions, knotted her fingers in Manny's hair and held his mouth between her legs. She bucked at the point of her orgasm and for a split second she slipped out of Manny's arms.

They both gasped in frustration, but Manny needed only a split second to find his sister's trigger again. He held her in his mouth while she came, and he kissed her and licked her until her body finally relaxed. Claudia seemed barely conscious after she pushed him away. He lifted her onto the pillow, climbed into bed beside her, and held her while they slept.

A grunt and a shuffle woke Manny. The light of the moon fell through the window at an odd angle and lit the table beside the bed. He lifted his head to look over Claudia while he searched the shadows. A black bear snorted and rose on it's back legs to tower over the bed, and then it fell back to four feet and shuffled into the shadows again.

6. The Courtesan

Claudia tugged on her brother's arm as if she needed to get his attention. "Did you mind going to Spanish Mass?" she asked. "The English Mass was so late, I didn't want to wait."

Manny and Claudia walked together through a pecan orchard, along the empty path beside an irrigation ditch. They passed rows of trees from sun to shade and back again.

"I understood enough of it," Manny said. He listened to their footsteps on the path while they walked. The shade broke the growing heat of the late morning, and the sound of bells carried over the orchard from a distant church. He asked, "You said the Mass might settle your nerves. Did it help?"

"It did—some," Claudia answered. "I try to go to Mass every Sunday. It's normal for me, and right now anything normal feels good. Being escorted from the party by wolves was weird. Having a bear in the bedroom was weird. I need normal."

The water in the ditch hissed against the bank and the scent of moist earth drifted under the trees. Claudia sniffed the air, then bumped Manny with her hip and asked, "Will you tell me about Rodrigo de Vázquez y Luna?"

"Honoria's brother?" Manny asked. He smiled at his sister and said, "Rodrigo was born in 1520. Their mother died before he was two, and he didn't like his step mother, so Honoria—who was only three years older than he was—became his example of what a woman should be.

"She was witty and educated. She played lute and harpsichord, and she sang. Rodrigo took every chance to peek at her, especially while she dressed and when she got ready to bathe. His sister set the standards."

"Honoria knew her little brother peeked," Claudia said, and her laughter jingled close by Manny's ear. "She acted like it made her mad, but it sorta flattered her. She hoped it meant that older men would like what they saw, too."

Manny freed his hand from Claudia's so that he could gesture with both hands. "Rodrigo was so jealous when Honoria got married that he didn't want to go to the wedding. But he was twelve and he didn't have a choice. It looked like a good arrangement for her. Their father was a Conde and she married up to a Marqués."

"The Marqués was like forty," Claudia said, "And Honoria was his third wife. She wanted something more interesting, but that wasn't her choice back then."

They reached the edge of the orchard and stopped in the sun beside a dusty road. "It's getting hot," Manny said. "Let's go home."

Manny squeezed Claudia's butt to hurry her along. Claudia squealed, "Manny!" and skipped ahead.

When Manny caught up with his sister he said, "Honoria visited home only a few times after she was married. Rodrigo was busy with his own lessons, and when he was sixteen he joined the King's army to fight the French in Italy. When that war was over, he wanted to be done with fighting.

"Rodrigo married Anna after he got back from Italy, then his father sent them to the Canary Islands to look after his interests in Las Palmas. Anna was a good wife, I suppose, but to Rodrigo she didn't measure up to his sister. But then, who could?"

The ditch they followed bent so the pecan trees framed the mountains at the edge of town, and the scene rippled in the hot air. "It was a good time for business, but a bad time for Anna," Manny said. "In two years in Las Palmas she had one still birth and one live birth. She bled to death after the live birth, and the baby only lived long enough to be baptized.

"The old Conde died a couple months after Anna, and Rodrigo went back to Castile. He took his father's title, but it took another two years to straighten out the estate."

The ditch bent again and they could see Manny's car gleaming in the sun at the end of path. "Things weren't going well for Honoria, either," Claudia said. She pointed to the car and changed the subject. She said, "Beat'cha there," and she sprinted for the car.

Manny groaned to himself. He didn't understand how his sister could have that much energy, but he took off after her. He touched the car just before she did then leaned on the top to catch his breath.

"Damn!" Manny shouted when the heated metal burned his bare arm. He parked the car in a little patch of shade, but that was gone now.

Claudia laughed at her brother then covered her mouth. She paced beside the car while she caught her breath, then she went back to Manny. "Are you okay?" she asked, and petted his arm to make it better.

Manny watched his sister, and he saw Honoria. "It's fine," he said. "Now let's go home."

During the short drive they agreed to lunch and a nap, and then they climbed the stairs to the apartment. Manny stopped Claudia outside the door and motioned to a plate of reddish stuff that sat drying in the sun. "I meant to ask you when we left," he said. "Is this what life is made of?"

Claudia laughed and said, "Impressive, isn't it?" She tipped the plate and said, "It's dried a lot already. After it's completely dry I'll crunch it up and put it in that locket I got yesterday, and you'll have me in a magic amulet."

It was mid-afternoon when Claudia woke up. There was a baseball game on the TV they left on for background noise and the air conditioner was straining to keep the apartment cool. She squeezed against Manny's back and breathed in his ear. "Are you awake?" she asked.

He wasn't awake before, but he was then. Manny groaned, rolled over and found himself nose-to-nose with his little sister. "What's on your mind?" he asked.

"Ai, Manny!" Claudia said. She wiggled back to create some space between them before she answered. "I was thinking about when Honoria met Rodrigo at the Duke's court."

Manny cleared his head, gathered his memories, and said, "Honoria was singing for the court when Rodrigo first got there. He was invited, but he got there unannounced and nearly unknown. It took him some time to recognize his sister then he couldn't believe his eyes and ears. She was still beautiful and so was her voice.

"All the men seemed to want Honoria's attention, so it wasn't until the dances started that Rodrigo had a chance at her, and then it happened only because the dancers had to change partners over and over. He watched his sister as she got close, and it didn't seem like she recognized him—or even saw him—because she was busy with her partners."

"They did it like this," Claudia said. She found Manny's hand and put her palm against his in the same way the dancers did as they turned around each other. "The last time that Honoria saw Rodrigo was at his wedding to poor Anna. A lot changed. Their hands touched before she realized who he was, and then she had to keep up appearances. She said, 'Time has treated you well, Most Illustrious little brother.'

"Rodrigo smiled at his sister and said, 'As it has treated you, hermana.'

"They traded formal niceties while they turned, and before she passed on to her next partner Honoria said, 'We need to talk. I'll send Beatriz for you.'

"Rodrigo knew Beatriz," Manny said. "She was Honoria's handmaiden, but she was also Honoria's childhood friend."

"Beatriz didn't have much hope of marrying well," Claudia said. "She was raped when she was still young, so she wasn't a virgin. Beatriz stuck with Honoria instead of accepting a bad arrangement."

"Rodrigo looked for Honoria's husband and didn't find him," Manny said, "So he spent his time with a few old friends—some who fought with him in Italy—until Beatriz got his attention. 'Most Illustrious Lord,' she said, 'Honoria de Vázquez y Luna will see you.'

"Rodrigo watched Beatriz as he followed her through the crowd. Her hair was held tightly in braids wound behind each ear. Her neck was long and her dress flared from a narrow waist and swirled gracefully around her ankles as she walked. She was not as outgoing nor as well-educated as Honoria, but she could have married well had she been whole.

"Honoria was so nervous while she waited," Claudia said. "She had the court wrapped around her pinky finger, but she didn't know what to expect from her brother. She waited in a salon, and when Beatriz showed up with Rodrigo she offered him wine.

"Rodrigo was a big guy. Honoria touched his arms when he took the chalice to see how much was him and how much was his puffy sleeves. She was like 'Eee!' Claudia said. 'I'll have to stop thinking of you as my little brother, but some things don't change. You danced like a bear when you were twelve, and you still do."

"Honoria's hair was the color of honey," Manny said, "And she held it back in a net decorated with pearls. Rodrigo watched the flickering light from the candles shine in his sister's brown eyes, and he laughed. 'With your permission, I might borrow Beatriz for lessons,' he said. Rodrigo gave the chalice to Beatriz and said. 'I remember that she danced better than either of us.'

"Rodrigo studied his sister's figure. Her chemise was cut low and her bodice was tight to show her cleavage. It fit her waist and the flare of her hips. He said, 'When you said we needed to talk I didn't think it would be about dance.'"

"Honoria was kinda scared to tell Rodrigo her story, but he had to know," Claudia said. "She had him sit in a high-backed chair, and she sat in the matching chair facing him. 'You noticed, I suppose, that my husband isn't with me. Did you know that the Marqués lost much of his fortune by investing in a silver mine in New Spain?'

"'I didn't,' Rodrigo answered, 'When did that happen?'

"Honoria explained, 'We got the news just before our father died. I knew the estate would be confused, so I didn't think I could go to you for help. My husband wasn't a pauper, but he couldn't support me the way I wanted. I was angry with his decisions, and he was angry with me. You see me with no children; it was his limp cock, but he blamed me.

"'We used to visit the court here in Escalona and Don Diego—the Duke—was fond of me. The Marqués went to Escalona with a business proposal—he offered me. Don Diego gave me an allowance and chambers to house myself and Beatriz. My husband got some introductions and business he needed to help rebuild his estate.

"'I am the Duke's courtesan, but I'm celibate at times like this when his wife's in the palace—unless he offers my talents to other men.'"

Claudia sat up on the bed and crossed her legs. She asked, "Was Rodrigo going to hit her? That's what she thought he would do when he stood up."

"He wasn't mad," Manny said. "He was confused. They were brought up to believe that it was more important to be practical than to be moral, but he never thought his ideal woman would be a whore."

Manny sat up to face his sister and went on. "Rodrigo paced between Beatriz and Honoria and tried to pull himself together. 'You could've come to me,' he told her. 'I guess you couldn't know that, but you could've come to me. You should have written to me.'"

Claudia waved her hand to mimic Honoria's impatience. "She was important. She didn't have time to wait for Rodrigo to work out his feelings. 'I have to go,' she said. 'My lute is waiting for me and the court expects to hear me play.'"

"Honoria left him to stew in his own juice," Manny said. "He went back to his apartment mad about the damage she could do to his name, about the way she distrusted him, and about how she dishonored their father. Jealousy was at the root of his anger, and it was the jealousy that made him realize that he wanted to bed his sister—that he had always wanted her. Rodrigo was tortured by the thought, and tortured again to think of her with other men.