Karen Black Ch. 01

"We're in the Clearwater suite. Could you put both our cells in the hotel safe for me, please? To say we don't want to be disturbed until tomorrow when we check out would be a gross understatement."

The receptionist smiled. Her neck went slightly red as well. She covered well though when she leaned under the counter and came up with a large brown envelope, placed both phones into it, asked both Cheryl and me to sign the seal. With a pen, she wrote 'Clearwater suite' onto it and took it into the office behind reception, coming back with a receipt which Cheryl placed into her purse.

By now the bellboy had my suitcase and we followed him into the elevator and to our suite. I tipped him, even though Cheryl had her own purse out. She gave me one of those looks.

"I hold doors open for women as well, Cheryl. It's called being a gentleman. My folks raised me to be one."

She blushed and looked a little guilty with her assumptions.

"I know, sorry."

At least she relaxed a little. She pointed to a door across the room.

"That's the bedroom. Please get changed into shorts and a t-shirt, the bathroom is the door at the far end of the bedroom."

I think she was surprised when I just picked up my case and walked into the bedroom. I had given them three days, and refused to spend any of it asking questions that wouldn't get answered or to just be told that it wasn't time yet.

Cheryl was sitting on the couch when I came back in. She must have had clothes stashed in the room because she was dressed the same as I was. With a bottle of champagne and two glasses, she patted the cushion next her and I sat down. Since it seemed that these two women knew the rule, I kept my peace and sipped from my glass.

"You're not a big alcohol drinker, I know that. There are soft drinks in the fridge."

My first instinct was to ask how they knew that. My second was to realize that my aunt and Brandi had been busy. She caught me by surprise when she swung her legs over me and rested them on my lap. Cheryl waited for me to say something, I didn't.

"You call yourself a geek and nerd and all the rest of those words. For every time you got stuck with the word geek, I was called Barbie. For every time you got called a nerd, I was called an airhead."

I leaned over Cheryl's legs and placed my glass back onto the coffee table. She waited until I sat back.

"We are all guilty of name-calling. I had to go into your file to find out your first name. To most at the gym, you're invisible. Oh, we know you're there, but you come in -do the required amount of work that your trainer asked of you for your fitness regime- and then go home."

This time it was Cheryl that placed her drink onto the coffee table.

"I have you for a full day. You promised not to run, thank you. I caused you to run the first time, which is why I asked Karen to do it this way. It's down to me to make this right."

Even as I watched her, she showed uncertainty. I couldn't prompt her because I still had no clue. In the end, we guys resort to form. We sit and keep quiet while the women around us figure out what they have to say.

"Karen and I grew up across the street from each other. They say opposites attract, well that was us. Karen was the tomboy, while I was the Blondie. Karen did track, while I was the cheerleader. The saying was true back then... I got the quarterback, while Karen joined up."

Once again she paused as she reached for her drink, took a sip and continued. She went onto college with Rick. He even got noticed by a couple of scouts. Rick's opinion of himself became too much. He seemed to believe the world now revolved around him, and Cheryl had to take a back seat. As Rick's ego fed on itself, Cheryl was reduced to a bystander.

Her sorority helped her, and she decided to let go of Rick since he had made it clear to her that he was going pro at the end of college anyway. There just didn't seem to be enough hours in the day for practice, him, socializing, him, chasing other women, and him.

He only just held his grades together enough to stop himself from getting kicked out of college. With the last couple of months of the football season left, he was sacked and stretchered off with a blown knee, the end of his hopes to turn pro. It was only then he looked around and found that Cheryl had moved on. That's when he went full on to reconnect with her.

"I'm told love is blind. Boy was I a poster girl for that statement. My old love for him resurfaced and the shit way he treated me before we broke up soon got forgotten. We married soon after college. I got a job with an insurance agency and he ended up a car salesman."

It seems the resentment grew as her first promotion meant she earned more than he did. The drink took hold and the beatings became a regular thing. He would cry and apologize, and days later they would start again. Karen came to visit. She took one look at Cheryl and beat the crap out of Rick. While he was in the hospital for accidentally falling down the stairs, Karen moved Cheryl out and into a friend's apartment.

"When Karen left the Army, we soon became lovers. My fear of men was so bad that I ended up leaving the insurance office. No money, and living in a friend's apartment slowly going nuts. Karen started her fighting career in the MMA and it was then she talked me into coming with her to work in the gym."

"But you're still in a male environment?"

Cheryl nodded her head, leaned over to pick up her glass, handing me mine as she did. She waited until I had finished mine before she continued.

"Remember, I have a desk between me and you. You can't hurt me. As time went on, my fear calmed. Karen and I married and for a while, we were happy."

Now we seemed to be getting to the real reason for the three days.

"Karen and I can deny it all we want, but we're not full-on lesbians. We soon realized we married and are together for convenience, not for true love. It's a mistake we have spent close to a year trying to rectify, yet neither of us could agree."

That was it. She simply stopped talking, waiting for me to catch up. To filter everything she had told me- and I suspected to ask...

"Ok, I will bite. Agree to what?"

She smiled and gently took my hand. Although it was easy to see, by the way she held it, that if I tried to pull it away, I would have a fight on my hands.

"I'm going to let you into a very well known secret. Women choose their mates, not the other way around. It was plain to see by both of us that at best, we are friends with benefits to each other. Oh, don't get me wrong, we love each other. Just not as deeply as your aunt and Brandi do."

For some reason, she held my hand tighter this time. Her eyes bored into me.

"We want a man to share us. I don't mean every now and again, neither of us can do this every month. We want a man in our lives to love us. Not one of us, we come as a package deal. For a year now we have looked. Either I would come up with someone, or Karen would. Yet we could never agree on the same man then you came into our lives."

So now I finally understood, and yes, I did try to take my hand back. The bruises lasted a day afterwards. My habit of pacing to think things through was greatly discouraged as well. Cheryl wanted me close so she knew what I was thinking.

"I know you have questions. Ask away, but you're not moving from here. It's taken me years to be this comfortable with a man. I'm not going to give it up without a fight."

My mind felt like a tsunami; all those questions just rushed to the front of my head, and yet I couldn't distinguish one question from the other. I breathed in and out a couple of times and tried again.

"Why me?"

Cheryl giggled. When I looked at her, she shook her head.

"That's not the first question you want to ask, so I'm going to wait for you to calm some before you have another try. Ok?"

Again my thoughts rushed at me. My mind's eye surveyed every male member of the gym. Twice she smiled when she caught me shaking my head as I put one or another of the regular crowd next to Cheryl and Karen. Something else occurred to me, and I knew I had to ask.

"Are you sure you want a partner and not a sperm donor."

Slowly her hand came to my cheek. Her hand felt so warm.

"I understand we are all pushing you along just a bit faster than you would like to go, so I will let that one slide. Under normal circumstances, I would have busted you in the mouth for that comment."

Hell, even I smiled at that. Even as my mind once again drifted, my hand reached for her feet and began to massage them. Cheryl gave a yelp, and instinct made her want to move her feet away from me. Once she realized what her body was doing, she stopped and put her feet back on my lap.

Soon she started to gently moan. That smile held out as well. She had shut her eyes, probably the first time she had taken her eyes off me since I had been here.

"You're what folks call a 'people watcher.' The thing is... You're not unique. I've been watching you. You're one of the few men that talk to my face, and not my tits. You have always had nice things to say when you come in. That's what got us thinking about you."

This time she giggled, and I thought I had caught a nerve.

"Karen called you her muse. She told me you freaked out when you watched her fight."

She felt me pause, and her eyes opened; the smile faltered when she looked at me.

"I went from a nice quiet hotel room to seeing two women beat each other into submission in the span of three hours. Karen lives in a world I know nothing about, and kind of scares me. I saw her face when she fought. That girl has a rage within her, but she controls it well."

The giggle lasted longer this time.

"Take her away from her training, and she's the kindest gentlest person you will ever meet."

The only sound in the room for a while was Cheryl's breathing, moaning and shifting from one ass cheek to another. Her smell was faint to begin with. The damp patch between her legs and the slight glistening that seeped out of the bottom of her shorts confirmed what I was thinking.

Suddenly her eyes flew open. Her hands went behind her to grab the arm of the couch, and she used the leverage to lift herself away from me. I saw fear. Cheryl wrapped her arms around her legs and gently rocked back and forth. She watched me for such a long time, waiting for me to move towards her- and afraid if I did.

"We have a lot to talk about. There are things you need to know, personal things. I... Can't... Please don't push for more yet. Karen... Karen can... I mean."

I had seen that look once before. Cheryl had been raped. I had caused her to freak out and I needed to calm her quickly before her self control really came unstuck.

"Answer this for me, Cheryl. Do you trust me?"

After a pause, she nodded her head.

I tried again. "No. That's not a good enough answer, Cheryl. Do you trust me?"

Again, she nodded her head. She watched as I stood and went into the bedroom, coming out moments later with a blanket. I put half on the couch and then tossed the other half over the back for now. I looked towards Cheryl.

"You chose me, Cheryl - you did. Something in you has seen something about me that says 'trust him.' We are going to test that, Cheryl. You are going to challenge your fear."

Confusion was now mixed with her fear. She watched as my hand extended towards her.

"You have it within you, Cheryl. There is no one in this room that's doing anything they don't want to do. You have to always remember that. But you have to make a choice now- does the past own you, or do you own you."

Some of the color had come back to her, and I was feeling like I was getting somewhere.

"It's still your choice, Cheryl. I'm going to lie down, and you're going to lie next to me. The choice is this: If you come here, are you going to lie down as you are, or are you going to remove your top? I will match each item of clothing you give up."

The outright fear returned. Perhaps it was only my calming voice that kept her from bolting for the bedroom and locking herself in.

"Remember, Cheryl, you both chose me. You chose because there was something in you telling you something. Listen to that voice now. Make a choice and take a step forward. Ignore it and continue to live with that fear. But you have to choose now honey."

I suppose this was what people always call moments when time stops. Cheryl just sat there. Her eyes darted from me to the blanket, and then to the space I had left at the front of the couch- and then back to my outstretched hand.

Finally her arms came away from her legs. Her hands went to her t-shirt and lifted it over her head, dropping it on the floor. She moved as though a leaf falling to the ground two miles away would spook her. She crawled on all fours to the space I had left her, and lay with her back to me. Lying next to her, I pulled the blanket over both of us. My hand then rested on her stomach.

For such a long time, she was tense. My hand didn't go looking for her naked breasts. It stayed were I put it, and ever so slowly she started to relax. What I heard next was little more than a whisper. I think she was saying it more to herself than to me.

"Please don't hurt me."

I was laying next to a hot blonde with the nicest tits I've seen this side of a porn magazine, wrapped in a blanket and thankful that for the first time in my life, I didn't have an erection.

End of Chapter One.