Monday, Tuesday, & Saturday

Roman got off the bed and dressed. Lorna watched him and accompanied him to the door still naked. He kissed her and said, "I could do it all over again."

Lorna opened the door and murmured, "Go now, I've got to think." He left.

She went back to the bedroom. She could smell the aftermath of their couplings and she lay on the bed and began to cry. Her tears were not for what had happened, but that it had happened to her at her age. "Why didn't I meet him long ago?" she sighed, "we would have made such love."

She slept for a while and when she finally got off the bed she put away her dance finery carefully, putting it into a box and putting it where she hoped Clifford would never find it. She dressed in her drab clothes and went to the kitchen. There she found a bedraggled Joshua sitting at the table with a mug of coffee.

"Did you have a good night?" asked Lorna meaningfully.

Joshua summoned up a weary grin and replied, "Fantastic, what about you?"

"You lied to me about that girl," said Lorna, avoiding the question. "You said you hadn't been...been doing things with her."

"I didn't mum; I said that I didn't do anything she didn't ask me to do. Did you enjoy yourself last night?"

"You arranged it with Roman, didn't you?"

"Not exactly, mum, all I said..."

"You needn't go on, Roman told me."

Joshua gave another grin and said, "Then you did...you did do it with him."

"How could you do that Joshua, to your own mother?"

"Mum, I don't think Roman would have raped you, he's not that type, so if you did it with him you must have agreed. All I wanted to do was to brighten up your life a bit, let you see how the other half lives. You've spent most of your life with that awful chapel lot - and...and with sour-faced dad."

Lorna was about to protest, but she knew it was true. "You won't say anything to your father, will you?"

"Of course I bloody well won't. I wouldn't tell him anything. Will you be...er...seeing Roman again? He's a great guy, isn't he?"

"He's..." Lorna wanted to say all sorts of extravagant things about Roman, but contented herself with, "very nice, but I don't suppose there'll be opportunity for us to meet again."

She felt a choking sensation that seemed to presage the arrival of tears. She turned away to try and hide the emotion she was feeling.

"Come on mum," said Joshua, "You know what they say, 'Love can always find a way'."

"Who said anything about love?" whimpered Lorna.

"Sorry mum, only joking but he is..."

"Leave it there, please, Joshua."

"Okay, mum. I'm going to bed; I didn't get much sleep last night."

"No, I don't expect you did."

Joshua departed leaving Lorna to start trying to sort out her confused feelings. What she had done ran completely contrary to all that she had been brought up to believe, yet that night with Roman had seemed...what?

She tried to think of it as evil, but it didn't work. It had been something lovely and fulfilling and she longed for Roman to be with her again. He didn't love her...of course he didn't. How could he after knowing her so short a time? He had just wanted to have sex with someone and she had been available and ultimately willing. If tomorrow some other woman made herself available for him he'd soon forget his night with her. She had made herself cheap and yet....Even if it was only for that one night he had given her something she had never experienced before; the joy of sexual fulfilment. Could he have done that without having some feeling for her? He had wanted to stay with her; had said he would come back, but was that all talk?

She didn't know the answers to her questions; she only knew that she was feeling emotions previously unknown to her.

The day seemed to drag by. Tomorrow was Sunday and chapel day. She shuddered at the thought of joining those "whited sepulchres" as the chapel people were so won't to accuse others of being. She could fail to attend, but Clifford was sure to hear that she had not been there, and any deviation from attendance would bring forth a sermon from him.

That night she slept badly and she cuddled the pillow that had been used by Roman.

Joshua, like her self, went to the chapel that morning to prevent trouble with his father. Together they listened in the drab surroundings to a sermon on the theme, "The Lecher and the Winebibber Shall be Accursed." She found herself unmoved by this diatribe and felt as if she was disassociated from the place and people. Those who from early childhood she had been involved with were suddenly strangers.

On the way home Joshua said, "What a load of old tripe. I'll bet that preacher pulls himself off daily."

"Please, Joshua," said Lorna, "don't talk like that," but in her heart she felt Joshua to be right. The chapel members were a bunch of repressed people who, fearful of their own sexuality and its power that lurked within them, coped by condemning and abusing those who lived life as they never had. The question for Lorna was, having seen something of that other world, would she have the courage to remain in it, or would she fall back on the narrow safety of the chapel?

Clifford was due back by mid afternoon. He arrived home full of pious zeal and ready to deliver a whole galaxy of sermons on the spot.

It might have been expected that after a week's absence from home, he would have made up for his lack of sexual release, but not Clifford. It was not Tuesday, Thursday or Friday and the regime must to stuck to. Additionally it was Sunday, and not the day for engaging in things of the flesh.

The sermonizing based on what he had learned at the conference went on until bedtime and beyond. An emotionally exhausted Lorna fell asleep just as Clifford was informing her that "The day of wrath is near."

Monday passed uneventfully and the dreaded Tuesday followed as it always tends to do. This was the night of Clifford's gratification, or whatever it was. Lorna, who until this point had simply accepted this situation, now felt sickened at the mere thought of it.

She was sitting in the kitchen about lunch time when there came a knock at the front door. She went rigid. Was it Roman? What should she do? If it was he and she let him in and things happened between them, what sort of Pandora's Box would she be opening?

The knock came again. She would answer the door and if it was Roman she would tell him to go away and never return.

It was indeed Roman, but there was no telling him to go away. The moment she opened the door he stepped inside and took her in his arms and kissed her hungrily. "Oh God, Lorna, I've wanted you so badly."

Hardly thinking what she was saying Lorna gasped, "Roman, oh Roman, I've missed you so much."

Without any other words they moved towards the bedroom. Lorna was in drab clothes, not her sexy gear, and her hair was back in its bun. Even as they went towards the bedroom Roman was letting loose her hair and beginning to undress her, she was stroking his face and hair.

The undressing finished they fell on the bed and Roman said, "A quick one, darling, and then a long one afterwards."

Lorna parted her legs for him and he came between them. She took his penis and guided it into her. As she felt him penetrating her she gasped out, "Yes, Roman...yes."

He came quickly before she had time for an orgasm. He seemed almost desperate in his need for her. Lorna clung to him saying words she would have thought ridiculous outside this moment of passion; "I love you...I love you..."

When Roman had finished ejecting into her he moaned, "You can't know how much I've wanted you, Lorna. I've thought of nothing else since I left you. I made a hell of a mess of the tutorial this morning."

"Do you feel better now, darling?" asked Lorna.

"Sort of," he replied, "can I do it again?"

"Do you need to ask, my love?"

"Come on top of me this time."

Lorna who had never experienced anything but the missionary position said, "I don't know what to do."

"Sit across me and I'll show you."

She sat across him and Roman, raising her up and moving her back a little, said, "Now just lower your self." As she did she felt his penis slide into her.

As she felt him enter she gave a little yelp and said, "Oh Roman, that's so lovely."

"Just raise and lower your hips, darling."

Lorna quickly got the hang of it and found she could angle his penis to give her most satisfaction. As her orgasm struck she gave a little scream and began to pound up and down gasping, "I love you...I love you...don't leave me..."

It was when she had nearly finished that Roman released his sperm into her. She wanted it so much...Clifford's she had never cared for...but Roman's..."It's somehow different," she thought.

When he had finished she hung over him, letting her breasts brush his chest. Roman pulled her closer, kissed her and said, "Lorna, I think I'm falling in love."

Lorna knew that the night would bring Clifford's penis into her vagina. She felt sick at the thought of it. She wanted to speak to Roman about it, to tell him that what she did with Clifford meant nothing compared to what she did with him, but she was still too reticent.

As they lay embracing she wondered about those words, "I think I'm falling in love." What did they mean? Was he merely saying he liked having sex with her, or did they mean something more? And what was love anyway.

At the chapel the passage, "Love thy neighbour as thyself" meant loving the other members of the chapel, but not those outside it. In any case, the chapel members seemed singularly lacking in self-love, so how could they love anyone else?

Roman had to leave, but he went with obvious reluctance. "I'll come again tomorrow, if you'd like me to?"

"Yes, come again tomorrow, Roman, but..."

"But what?"

"I don't want you coming if there's...there's someone else."

He smiled; kissed her, and said, "There'll be no one else as long as I have you." He left.

That night before Clifford set about having sex with her, Lorna had to suffer yet another sermon.

Clifford informed her that their city had been chosen as the place of "The Lord's second coming." The second coming would be soon because they had received a sign at the conference.

For some reason best known to him self God had ordained that the sign of the imminence of the second coming was that their amalgam teeth fillings would turn to gold. It appeared that almost instantaneously the members of the conference had found that their fillings had turned to gold.

In order to prove this Clifford demonstrated with his own fillings. As far as Lorna could see they were still plain old dental amalgam, but she dared not say so for fear of inciting a tirade.

Clifford got on with the job and after a few grunts and gasps unloaded his bank of semen into Lorna. She lay there during this performance no longer simply accepting it, but hating it.

When he had finished he carried out the usual penis wiping and said, "Go and shower, we don't want your smell in the bed."

Lorna went to shower, not so much in obedience to Clifford, but because she was in a hurry to get his semen out of her. She wanted Roman's semen and what she had in her now was poison to her.

Having divested himself of the sermon and offloaded his sperm, Clifford was snoring when Lorna returned to the bedroom. She looked at him with distaste and then climbed reluctantly into the bed. She took a long time to go to sleep, and when she did, she dreamed of Roman.

Roman came the next day and his first action was to bring her to climax with oral sex. Lorna had learned a few things about oral sex from the computer, including giving a male oral sex.

She got Roman to lie on his back and slowly kissed her way down his body until her mouth was poised over the crown of his penis. She paused for a moment. She could see clear sticky fluid oozing out of the little slit.

Taking a deep breath she took his crown into her mouth. Roman gave a groan and clutched her head to him. Lorna began to lick and suck, tasting Roman as he had tasted her.

She felt him start to tremble and he cried out, "Lorna, I'm coming...let go...let go..."

Lorna did not let go. She felt the first spurt of his semen into her mouth and savoured the salt taste. Roman continued to spurt semen and she tried to swallow it, but it became too much for her and began to run out of her mouth.

She had feared she might be revolted, but instead she said to herself, "I'm tasting Roman, and I love it."

He finished with a contented sigh and Lorna removed his penis from her mouth. She wanted to say something but the sticky semen made it hard. Finally, and as if she was under the influence of the vodka again, she asked, "Wash that nish, darling?"

"It was wonderful, my love. Was it all right for you...I didn't want you to..."

"It wash lovely."

"Hey," said Roman looking at her, "Let's clean you up a bit, I haven't finished with you yet."

He cleaned round her mouth and got her to stick out her tongue for wiping clear. As she put out her tongue he licked some of the sperm from it and grinned saying, "Now I've tasted myself."

He began to fondle her breasts, and then started sucking her nipples. She held his head close to her, loving the suckling, and for once feeling herself to be in charge, as if he was a child she was feeding.

She was already aroused and wet with lubricant, but Roman's fingers explored her vagina and clitoris. The sucking of her nipples and the touching of her clitoris brought Lorna close to orgasm. Roman seemed to sense this and came between her legs and entered her. In seconds the orgasm came, shaking her and drawing out gentle whimpers from her.

She gave a loud squeal as her climax came and it was then Roman ejaculated for the second time. Once more Lorna was crying out, "I love you...I love you...don't ever leave me."

When Roman had finished he sighed and said, "I adore you, little Lorna."

Indeed he did adore her. She was unlike any other women he had been with. She had a sweetness and innocence about her that made him want to say, "I'll take care of you, I won't let anything hurt you." She was beautiful and somehow unspoilt, so unlike the sexually blasé women he had known. In truth he felt an overwhelming love for this lovely and refreshingly ingenuous woman.

He withdrew from her and said, "I have to go, Lorna, I've got a tutorial to take."

"I know," she said. "Come back when you can, I'll be waiting for you."

He left feeling a great reluctance but from then on he returned day after day during the week. The weekends were closed to them because Clifford and Joshua were at home.

The Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday sexual fiascos went on, and Lorna grew too loath them increasingly. Sundays at the chapel also went on and she came to dread having to sit through the dreary services. The bright times, the times when she was truly alive, were when she was with Roman.

They talked of her leaving Clifford, but Lorna was not ready for that yet – at least, not until the critical moment arrived. She loved Roman with a burning passion and she was sure he loved her, but the chapel lingered on. She just could not make the break.

Then came the crisis. Neither she nor Clifford had ever used any method of contraception. "The purpose of carnal relationships is procreation," Clifford had sermonised. Apart from Joshua Lorna had never got pregnant, but now she was.

She told Roman first, waiting for him to reject her.

"I'm going to have a baby, Roman," she said anxiously, "but I can't be sure whose it is."

They were lying naked on the bed and Roman looked at her for a few moments, then he kissed her and said, "I don't mind whose it is, come to me."

Lorna began to cry. "Would you really...would you really take me...even though the baby might not be..."

"I will take you no matter what," he replied. "I love you and want you. Does you're husband love you and want you?"

"I don't know what he wants anymore, except those..."

"Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday when he fucks you," said Roman.

"Yes, but I must tell him about the baby. If I'm going to leave him I must tell him why."

"Do you want me to tell him?"

"No, certainly not, Roman. I've cowed to him for twenty years, I won't cower anymore and I'll be the one to tell him."

And so it was. Lorna chose a Wednesday evening when there was no copulating, and told Clifford quite bluntly.

"Clifford, I'm going to have a baby."

Clifford looked up from the sermon he was preparing and stared at her for a few moments.

"Did you say you're going to have a baby?"

"Yes."

"After all these years?"

"Yes."

"You're sure?"

"Yes, the doctor told me."

"I don't know what the chapel..."

"There's just one thing I have to tell you, Clifford."

"What?"

"The baby might not be yours."

For a moment Clifford said nothing as he tried to take in what he had just heard. Then his normally bulbous eyes suddenly stuck out even further, his pale skin reddened and his mouth fell open.

He jumped to his feet, scattering sermon papers over the floor.

"You mean you've been having carnal relations with another man?"

"Yes."

I...I...you...you...slut. You whore of Babylon...you Jezebel...I...I...you harlot of Satan...I'll...I'll kill you...I'll...have your name struck off the chapel membership roles...you'll leave this..."

He raced to her and struck her a blow across the face. "You should be publicly whipped and then burnt at the stake. You should be made to stand outside the chapel with a sign round your neck, 'I am a harlot'."

He struck her again and then seized hold of her shaking her. She kneed him in the groin and he doubled up screaming with pain. I'll kill you, I'll kill you," he croaked.

Lorna fled from the house. She ran the two kilometres to Roman's house and banged on the door. She banged and banged and there was no answer. Finally she collapsed on the doorstep.

When Roman arrived home she was still sitting there weeping.

He asked no questions and simply opened the door and picking her up carried her into the lounge. There under the light he saw the bruises on her face. "The bastard," he said, "I'll go and..."

"No Roman, leave him. If you want me that is enough, I'm here."

"I want you; I've wanted you all along."

"I haven't got a thing, Roman. I ran from the house and I only have what you see me in."

"It's enough to have you here, my love," Roman said. "Now suppose you have a shower and get into bed, then I'll see what I can do for those bruises."

When Lorna had finished her shower Roman took her to the bedroom. Lorna saw the double bed and felt a spear of jealousy pierce her. She thought of all the other women who had occupied it with Roman.

"Are you sure you want me," she asked, emphasising the "me."

Roman took her point and said, "Yes, there have been others, but not now or in the future."

He helped her into the bed and undressing her got in with her. He made no moves to have sex with her, he simply held her as she went gradually off to sleep. Her last drowsy words were, "I love you, Roman," and Roman responded, "And I love you very dearly."

Two days later Joshua arrived at Roman's house in a taxi stacked with boxes and parcels. They contained as many of Lorna's clothes and other things that he had been able to rescue.

"Dad's in a hell of a state," he announced. "He had all your things ready to burn, but I got to them before he could set light to them and here they are."

"Is he all right?" asked Lorna.

"I don't know about 'all right'," grinned Joshua. "The thing is, though, he doesn't seem so worried about you leaving and the baby – oh yes, I know about that because he keeps going on about it – but what he's really worried about is what they'll think and say at the chapel."