Read Online Brides Of The Impaler by Edward Lee - Free Book Online Page A

she thought.
    It was exciting just to think about, but after some undefinable moments, her thoughts had drifted elsewhere and she wasn’t sure why. Suddenly she felt flushed again, prickly with desire. God …A warm, delicious flash broke her out in gooseflesh as she imagined Paul’s hands on her skin, sculpting the contours of her body. Her eyes closed by themselves as further images poured into her head. She stood boldly naked before him, in this same room, before this same window, her nudity displayed to the sun as he knelt at her feet and—
    It’s been so long since he’s done THAT , her thoughts slurred. But even longer since she’d done much of anything for him. That all changes tonight , she felt certain.

    The fantasy doubled then. She closed her eyes harder to see it more clearly, and to feel it. Paul was on his knees, his mouth tending to her sex. The sensations rushed. Soon she’d actually opened her blouse for real, to let the sun pour on her breasts as her own hands caressed them…Yes, if she only had the vibrator; that would really send her off. One hand eventually opened her jeans and slipped down. The hand was now Paul’s mouth, working the delicate flesh to a hot, pulsing craze. Did she moan out loud? Her belly sucked in and her thighs quivered as her first climax in over a month broke and nearly brought her to the floor. Her fingers teased out the last sensations as her upper teeth crimped her lip…
    I can’t believe I just did that …She let her breath come back, let the tensions lift off from her muscles; then she opened her eyes.
    Oh my —
    She brought her hand to her mouth to keep from shrieking in embarrassment. Her heart seemed to swell twice its size—
    Because when she’d opened her eyes, her head had been bowed down toward the window, and a woman was standing there on the alley street looking right back up at her.
    Grinning.
    Cristina stepped back in the corner, shivering. She re-buttoned her blouse so fast she’d lined it up wrong. This is so embarrassing! What if I see that woman again ?
    But—
    Something occurred to her. Cristina was fairly certain she’d seen the woman before, on the street. One of the homeless waifs that loitered around 67 th Street and vicinity, panhandling.
    But she had to be sure.
    She inched forward along the wall. As the edge slowly crossed her line of sight, she inched even more slowly, peeping down. Eventually the entire alley street came intoview and there, for just a second, she thought she could make out the woman’s features: holey jeans, barefoot, a baggy, stained T-shirt full of holes and hair hanging down like an oily mop. The woman—or girl—was walking away and a second later was out of the window frame completely.
    Yeah, one of those homeless girls. Thank God . Who could she tell? And had she even been able to seen Cristina’s face clearly enough to recognize her later?
    I doubt it …
    She sighed out the rest of the shock and buttoned her blouse up right this time. But something compelled her to take one last look at the girl as she was walking away.
    Ever so careful, Cristina took off a window latch and angled the window open enough for her to stick her head out.
    The girl wasn’t to be seen.
    Must’ve been walking really fast to be on the street by now …But before Cristina pulled her head back in, she stopped to squint.
    Wait …
    A figure stood at the end of the alley but it certainly wasn’t the same girl. In fact, the figure looked almost like a nun.
(II)
    They were whittling.
    scritch scritch scritch scritch scritch …
    The sound filled the dirty, brick-walled room like rats skittering—a sound they were well accustomed to. Empty cans had been heaped to the farthest corner—the garbage corner, where they sometimes went to the bathroom, too, and old empty boxes for makeshift walls. A dead Sylvania television sat askew in another corner; they watched it a lot, and sometimes even saw things. There were four ofthem tonight;