Cruel and Unusual - serialised novel EXCLUSIVE to Steemit Part 18

Exclusive for Steemit - serialisation of Cruel and Unusual – my second novel

Episodes:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

The girl smiled. She pulled back the sheets on the bed and approached her latest customer with a slow and seductive sway.

Jack allowed her to undress him; she was very careful and folded his clothes neatly, putting them on a chair. Then she gently pushed him onto the bed but he resisted and moved towards his clothes. He fumbled in his jacket, but she stopped him. “No sir, you pays after, cos you might like it the once and want to stay a bit longer.”

She pushed him back to the bed and he sat on the edge, watching as she teased him. She at last stood naked in front of him, the glow from the fire adding to the ambience.

She approached him, her fingers tweaking at her nipples, making them stand to attention. By the way his eyes boggled on stalks, she could tell that he was a novice and so she determined to make the experience one that he would want to repeat - with her of course.

He did indeed want to repeat the experience - twice more that evening - and promised to return another time.

“I’ll find you then sir, never you fear. But if you do come round ‘ere, just be ware, I share this room with someone, so don’t think that I’ve scarpered if she’s ‘ere an’ not me. She’d sort you out nice enough too, though not as good as what I can,” she glanced down at the money he offered. “Oh thank you sir. That’s very generous of you. An ‘ole five pounds! You’re more than welcome again sir!” she said as she made the note vanish from his sight.

Jack had enjoyed his first taste of a prostitute and his second, and indeed, his third but the following morning when he awoke in his own bed, naked for a change, he felt disgusted with himself.

In reality, he had very little to feel guilty for. He had no wife and so was not breaking any marriage vows, nor betraying a loved one. He had not abused the girl in a physical or verbal sense and he did not follow any religion and so would not have to suffer the wrath of any supreme being.

Yet he loathed himself.

He stripped his bed; found clean linen - a task he had never undertaken for himself in all his years. He made his own bed and drew a bath. On hindsight, he would have been better staying at his club the previous night at least he would not have had to change his bed sheets or draw his own bath.

He caught himself thinking, “Well I shall have to do that the next time it happens then,” and he answered himself out loud: “What are you thinking of? There will never be a next time!”

Jack was still at home later the same day, he had not gone to work. He sent a hastily written note to Sir Matthew that he was still not quite up to the mark and he would be back on Monday, it being Friday would mean that Sir Matthew would have to find someone to cover him over the weekend. It would mean an inconvenience for Sir Matthew and for the person covering, but Jack had other things to think on and he did not dwell on the nuisance he had caused.

So he decided to try to relax and not think about the events of the previous night but he was restless. He sat down to read, and then changed his book. Then he decided to fix himself a drink, then something to eat. Then he lost interest in both novels and decided to study instead.

The light was not quite right.

His chair was uncomfortable.

He was thirsty again.

In sheer desperation, he stood and then he paced.

Though the house was not small, Jack could not find a room in which he could settle. Eventually he took to the stairs and paced the bedrooms. Still not satisfied, he took to the other set of stairs and went up into the attic. From the smallest window at the top of the house, he looked over the tops of all the houses. A sense of peace descended upon him and he stood still and quiet, the calmness washing over him like the gentle lapping of waves on the shore.

All at once he seemed to awake and he was startled because it was dark outside. Had he watched the sun set and not even noticed? He was in the same place as he was to begin with and yet he seemed to have been asleep. How could he have slept so soundly and not moved or fallen?

It had been early afternoon when he had ascended the stairs up to the attic. The sun had been shining through his little window but now it was the moon, so full and bright, giving a different kind of light to that of the sun. The refreshing cold light had him lifting his face towards it to bask in its coldness. The same smoky, blue, misty quality of light that had captured his attention on the previous night and made him unaware of the girl until she had grasped his elbow and led him away to her bed.

Again he was aware that he had an erection but it was different this time. He could feel the blood pulsing through his penis. He could feel every heartbeat. As he closed his eyes and concentrated, his pulse beat throbbed through his temples too. He could feel the blood coursing through every part of him.

The arteries in his neck were throbbing in the most uncomfortable way. Even his eyes felt as though they were beating. He placed the tips of his fingers on his closed eyelids and could feel the tiny throb through them. He put a hand to his chest and counted his pulse rate. There was no racing of his heart, no variance, it was beating strong and regular - but it was beating so that he could feel it throughout his entire being.