Promise of Souls

by Holly Hampton

  I stopped the thought from crossing my mind. Why would I want that woman to become a paid Larni? My chest burned again after I forgot to breathe. My body became feverish at the thought of that woman. She was not my Larni. She could never be my Larni. My heart stopped and my body heated up more. I was going crazy, as crazy as how I felt when Maddie accidentally hugged me on the day of the auction. My cock twitched hard when I remembered Maddie’s eyes. Their eyes were the same and they pierced through my heart. But she was a real Larni.

  #

  “Stop the car,” I ordered when we were about to take a turn at the corner.

  There she was. The woman with raven-hair and blue eyes and answers to the name Larni. Her slightly distorted lips curved to a smile as she explained the flowers at the display rack. My heart jumped when I saw her eyes twinkled. My Larni. Maddie would have the same delight when she talked about flowers or things that she liked. I rolled down the windows and watched her from afar.

  “Max!” Larni called when the little girl that looked like her tried to touch a rose. “Go with Aunt Jean, okay?” she told the little girl.

  The little girl looked around while she was in her mother’s arms. Her eyes caught mine and a strange spark jolted my heart. She looked so much like my Larni - so much that if we had a child it could have been her.

  “Ca-ca!” the toddler said while pointing at my shiny car.

  Larni - the real one - looked at my way and found me looking at her. Impossible. How can she have that name and the same eyes? It was her! I wanted to declare, but it was indeed impossible. My Larni, the fake one, died a brutal death. One she did not deserve if I only let her stay in the lake house as she requested.

  “Do you want to buy flowers for her?” Henry asked.

  I shook my head while keeping my eyes locked at the real Larni. Her face turned pale and she looked away. She wanted to go inside the flower shop, but the old woman, who she was talking to, asked about another flower. She conversed with the old woman but kept glancing at me. I could feel her awkwardness and a strange feeling of fear towards me. Why would she?

  A corner of my lips raised in a side grin. Larni must be scared of me. Everyone who knew me assumed that I returned to my old ways of jumping from one woman to another, playing with their hearts and making them pretend to be my dead fiancée. When I want the woman to become my Larni for the night, she will become my Larni, regardless of what it would cost.

  “Do you see that woman?” I told Henry.

  “The one with the ugly face?” Henry asked.

  “The one holding the kid,” I corrected. I could not understand but I hated how Henry described the woman. She already went through pain when she had that face. No one should insult her for losing whatever beauty she had before.

  Henry gave me a quick frown and asked, “Don’t tell me…”

  “I don’t care what you will do,” I cut in without taking my eyes from the woman. She smiled again and I felt a ray of light shone on me. That Larni had a distorted face, but for a moment, I saw her beauty - a beauty that resembled Maddie’s. I clenched my jaw and told Henry, “But make sure to get her on the lake house by tonight or you’ll be fired.”

  “Her? Are you sure?” Henry said.

  I closed the window and told him, “Her. Tonight. Whatever the cost.”

  #

  Max

  My heart fluttered with excitement when the car stopped in front of the lake house. That was easy, I thought as I watched Larni step out the car. She looked around the lake house and a soft smile appeared on her face. My hands clenched into fists as I thought, my Larni. Her gestures were the same as Maddie’s. It felt like I was watching my Larni coming back to life, but with a different face.

  Larni stopped when she saw me from the outside. I saw her gulp and trembled with fear. Her eyes showed some reluctance, fear, sadness, but a hint of excitement. I closed my eyes when the memory of the night I bought Maddie at the auction returned to me. Larni had that same look in her eyes. Or I could only be desperate in wanting her to be my Larni for the night?

  I looked at Larni from head to foot. Henry followed my usual instructions and dressed Larni in a short dress with thin fabric that can easily slip from her skin or I can easily tear. I did not want to bother unzipping or removing the dress. These women- substitutes did not deserve my time. I just wanted to fuck them and be done with it. But damn. The substitute in front of me was nothing I imagined.

  My eyes landed on her healthy breasts. Her nipples protruded against the tiny fabric that covered them. I wanted to see how they looked. How pinkish were her areolas and how big were her nipples. I wondered if there was still milk in them and how it would taste. Henry cleared his throat to stop me from staring too much at Larni’s breasts.

  “Leave us,” I told Henry when Larni had entered the house.

  “Wait,” Larni said in a shaky voice. I looked at her and she quickly avoided my eyes. Her lips stuttered as she said, “T-the contract. Sign it first.”

  Henry rolled his eyes and grabbed the paper from the desk. He handed it to Larni. She looked at the document and said, “This is not your signature.”

  My eyes widened and my body turned numb at her words. Henry signed petty documents for me and no one notices it. I looked at Larni with suspecting eyes. How did she know that it was not my signature? I was about to ask her, but she handed me the document and said, “Sign it yourself. I want to see.”

  “Are you doubting me?” I asked.

  “This is for my daughter. I have to be sure,” she replied. It was the first time her eyes looked at me with determination.

  Jesus. My whole body trembled at her stare. Larni. I wanted to grab her by the neck and force my lips onto hers. She looked at me the same way my Larni looked at me that even my heart was fooled. This woman. She was making me mad at her for making me crazy. No woman had done this to me since my Larni died. No. No other woman had done this to me, for I felt more craziness than what I felt for Maddie before.

  I wanted to turn her away from me. I did not need someone like her messing my mind and my heart. My Larni was dead and she was the only one. No one can take her place. No one could surpass her. But, I could not let this Larni leave.

  I grabbed the paper from her hand and signed it. “You will pay for doubting me,” I warned her.

  But it was a half-truth. She would pay for making my heart waver about my Larni. I hated Maddie for lying to me. For pretending to be someone else. But I loved her and promised to love only her. This Larni in front of me was making a liar out of my heart. And I hated her. She had to pay for it.

  “Thank you,” she spoke softly and hid the contract.

  Shit! Even her soft voice reminded me of Larni. My desire to take all of her heightened - as if my body wanted to know if she was my Larni.

  “Leave us,” I told Henry again.

  Larni’s face turned pale when Henry walked out. I walked behind the bar and poured her some wine. I looked at her and found her looking around the lake house. Her eyes seemed to wonder. I had renovated the rooms in the lake house after Maddie’s death. I wanted to erase her memories because of my anger and all her lies. But, I did not have the heart to destroy our room. I kept it as a sacred place meant to be hers alone.

  “Have a drink,” I told her as I poured myself a shot of whiskey.

  She rushed to the bar and grabbed the whiskey from my hand. I glared at her, but my glare mellowed when she reminded me, “You can’t do that. You can’t donate your blood if you drink alcohol.”

  The situation annoyed me. I needed to be drunk to stop thinking that she was my Larni. A short laugh left my throat. She was different from every woman I had after Maddie died. I forced those women to pretend as my Larni. I get myself drunk to make it easier for me to believe that they were my Larni. But this woman, who stood close to me, with her beautiful caring eyes, was a real Larni. She did not have to pretend and I hated it. I did not want her to be my Larni, but I wanted her.

  “
Your blood has to be clear of alcohol for at least two days,” Larni added.

  I kept looking at her eyes, which were filled with worries. “Larni,” I uttered while holding her neck and forcing her face to level with mine.

  She froze in my arms. Her mouth parted in shock. I traced her nose with the tip of my nose and a warm breath blew from her mouth and unto my face. The temperature of her neck increased and her warmth spread to my hands and all over me. Her body trembled and I could feel her fear and excitement as my body became closer to hers.

  I pulled away from her and grabbed the glass of whiskey. She hurried and grabbed it back from me. Her eyes became misty with tears as she pleaded, “Please.”

  Something smashed my heart and guilt stung me. Larni would not have accepted my offer if not for her daughter. Her daughter had leukemia and needed blood transfusions. Maxine had to undergo scheduled transfusions until she was ready for a bone marrow transplant. I did not know if it was fate or luck, but Maxine had the same rare blood as mine, AB-. Finding a blood donor was difficult because of the rarity of her blood. Larni agreed to spend a night with me in exchange for my blood.

  I put down the whiskey and sat on the couch. She blew a sigh of relief and remained standing in front of me. “Where is her father?” I asked.

  Larni’s eyes widened at my question. I quickly avoided her eyes before it could make me remember my Larni again.

  “He…”

  I looked back at her when she could not answer. Asshole, I thought after concluding that Maxine’s father left her. I raised an eyebrow at her and asked, “Did you love him?”

  “More than my life,” Larni replied without hesitation.

  Her reply stabbed me in the heart and ignited an ire inside of me. A jealousy that I should not be feeling sprung in me. I did not know the reason, but I was angry that she had loved someone more than her life. She made me wonder if my Larni felt the same for me. Maddie - or whoever she really was - was never fully honest with me. Hence, I could not be certain if she had loved me the same way Larni loved Maxine’s father.

  I leaned on the backboard of the couch and presented my bulging crotch to Larni. She looked away when my cock twitched. I chuckled softly and unzipped my pants.

  “I trust that you have done this before,” I said in a cold tone.

  I clenched my teeth when she nodded softly and walked closer to me. My eyes followed her face as she knelt before my cock. A strange jealousy built inside me as she held my shaft and guided my tip to her mouth. I hated that she was doing it to me out of force, but she had done it to the father of her child out of love.

  My body quivered when she pushed my shaft deeper into her warm mouth. “Shit,” I blurted when her clumsy mouth grazed my length with her teeth.

  “I’m sorry,” she said with a tiny smile on the corner of her lips.

  Larni! Her clumsy mouth and her smile was all my Larni’s. I grabbed the back of her hair and forced her to look at me. She gulped and she became scared when I glared at her. “Larni,” I called, but unsure if I was calling her or my Larni.

  I caught her mouth with mine and kissed her torridly. She was reluctant to accept my kiss, but replied to them after a while. Her reluctance irked me more. She would have kissed back without reluctance if I were her daughter’s father. Damn it. The jealousy I felt was surreal and it was making me angry - angry for desire.

  I grabbed her by the waist and forced her to sit on the couch. She opened her mouth to plead for something, but I never let her talk me out of what I wanted to do with her. I gagged her mouth with kisses while I raised the hem of the short dress to expose her crotch. She still tried to speak, but I deepened my kiss. Her objection turned into moans and she returned my kisses. I slipped the strap of the dress and exposed her breasts.

  I grabbed one of them and squeezed it with my hands, running my thumb on the nipples. A smile formed across my face when I felt her motherly liquid grace my fingers. I pulled away from her mouth and wrapped her nipples with my mouth. “Maxwell,” she suddenly called when I pleasured her breasts.

  I held her by the shoulder and asked her, “What did you call me?”

  “M-Maxwell,” she answered in panic.

  A strange energy wrapped around me. Burning me with anger and confusion. Just who is this woman? Was she trying to emulate my Larni? I pushed her back on the couch and wanted to leave her, but my body was crazy. It was as if her body was calling mine. I slipped my mouth into hers and kissed her with passion and anger. Her replies were reluctant again, but her passion had become deeper. I moved away from her lips and wanted to move my kisses to her shoulders.

  “Stop,” Larni said softly.

  I looked at her shoulders and saw her scars. They were deep, dark and wrinkled. Larni reached for her scars and tried to cover it with her hand. I looked at her with suspicion. Maddie was burned to death, too. I would not have recognized her if not for her engagement ring. There were just too many coincidences between the two of them and it was making me crazy. There were many questions clouding my mind, but my body only wanted one thing to do. I wanted to be one with her.

  I took her hands away from the scar and kissed every inch of her scars. She tried to stop me, but I kissed them more. She stopped resisting and offered more of her skin to me. My kisses wandered all over her skin until I landed back to her breast. Her body waved as I fondled her healthy breasts with my mouth and hands. Her hips rose and touched my bulging cock.

  I moved lower to her crotch and tore her flimsy panties. Her body waved crazily when I caught her folds with my mouth. She gyrated her hips and moaned loudly. She bit her lips to avoid calling my name and it irked me. I slipped down my pants and released my erected cock. Say my name, I wanted to tell her as I raised one of her legs on the board of the sofa to spread her legs wider and to expose her womanhood to me.

  “Maxwell,” she called when I pushed my cock deep inside her.

  My heart throbbed when I heard her call in the same intensity her walls throbbed around my cock. I smiled widely and pushed harder inside her. She called my name again and everything in me became hyped. I thrust inside her deeper and in long stroke while trying to let her call my name again.

  “Maxwell, stop,” she uttered when my thrust became rough and too deep.

  My crotch slapped on hers as I entered her hard. She urged me to be gentle, but my body was desperate to reach my climax to her. My cock fitted her perfectly, and like a puzzle, I felt a sense of completeness. She stopped pleading for me to become gentle and instead, adjust to my roughness. Damn it. Even that gesture was the same as my Larni.

  I had the tendency to get lost at the moment and thrust roughly. My Larni would ask me to slow down and be gentle, but I would often forget. So, she adjusted and received my rough thrust.

  This true Larni was doing the same for me. She arched her hips higher, allowing me to reach deeper into her. Christ. She was too hot on the inside and my cock could not stop becoming crazy about her heat. I thrust in her fast, hard and long strokes, pushing her to the brink of orgasm while I chased mine. She clung hard to my neck and wrapped her legs to my waist tighter, pushing my butt with her heels.

  “Maxwell,” she kept calling.

  “Larni,” I said while intensifying my thrust.

  She was close to orgasming and I wanted to explode with her. I wanted to feel her warmth and hear her moan my name as we get lost in the pleasure. Her moans became fast and short and she called my name between those moans.

  My body had no intention to withdraw from hers. I was always careful with the other women I used as a substitute for my Larni because I did not want to have a child from them. I wanted to have a child only with my Larni and no one else. But the excitement of conceiving a child with the woman in my arms overwhelmed me. My Larni, my heart kept screaming. She was my Larni, old or new, I did not care. For at that moment, I was claiming my Larni’s soul and not just her body.

  Larni moaned my name louder before she tensed against my body an
d shuddered hard. Her temperature rose and pushed me to my climax. My cock expanded in her hotness and burst its seeds inside her. A wonderful pleasure rushed all over me as her walls squeezed everything I could offer. I shuddered against her while she writhed on the couch. We remained pulsing against each other until the pleasure that rippled in us subsided.

  She dropped her hips back on the couch and I fell on her chest. I wiped the sweat on her breasts with my face and planted soft kisses on them while calling her, “Larni.”

  “Maxwell,” she whispered softly before closing her eyes. Her lips curved with a satisfied smile.

  Fuck! I thought as I pulled my cock from her. It could not be! My Larni used to pass out when pleasure overwhelmed her. She would sleep for a few minutes while having that smile. I walked back to the bar and poured whiskey on a glass. I remembered Larni’s request and poured the whiskey out.

  My body became hot with desire when I looked back at Larni. The side of her face which was not distorted was exposed to me. For a moment, I thought that she was Maddie. The length of their eyes and the thickness of their lashes were the same. It’s not her!

  My eyes landed on my smartphone when it sounded. Henry sent me an email and the subject was Larni’s background. I wanted to open it but hesitated. Why should I know about her background? She will only be with me for a night. I did not need to know her. After I donated my blood to her daughter, I would not see her again.

  A strange pain stung my heart at the thought. Her beautiful eyes and that of her daughter’s flashed before me, pulling back my buried soul and making it a desire to be with them. That’s it! I had to get rid of her before this craziness worsened.

  #

  Larni

  I opened my eyes slowly and looked around the room. My heart had calmed from its strong thumps and my body had cooled down from the beautiful heat that wrapped it a few minutes ago. My eyes stopped at the bar where my Maxwell stood, in his godly sculpted nude body. Tears blurred my vision of him. I wanted to run and hugged him from the back, but I could not. I could not with this face and with my true identity.