Human Conditioning

by Hirst, Louise

  Aiden was momentarily distracted by the tips of her fingers pressing lightly against his chest and he inhaled a deep breath, trying to still the immediate stir in his loins. As she closed the top button, he took her hands.

  “What’s the money for, G?” he asked seriously.

  Gina hesitated for a moment, savouring the feel of his warm hands against her cold fingers. “A debt,” she finally admitted.

  “Roy,” he muttered and released her hands.

  “Please, Aiden!”

  He surveyed her, thinking, considering. She looked genuinely desperate and he felt bad for her. He finally nodded. “Alright, but this is the only and last time I get that prick out of trouble.” He paused for thought then added, “And I want him to know it was me who bailed him out…”

  “No, Aiden, he won’t take the money if he knows where it’s come from!” she pleaded.

  He stood. “It’s that or nothing. Take it or leave it.”

  “What if I tell him afterwards?” Gina begged, standing up and taking the top of his arms. Trailing her hands slowly over his hard muscles, she moved in closer. “Please,” she whispered, blinking up at him, her green eyes beseeching and sensual. “I’ll do anything you want.”

  Aiden groaned in frustration. “Alright, alright!” he said.

  She grinned and wrapped her arms around him. She pressed her lips on his and he responded, slipping his tongue into her mouth and exploring it eagerly. When he pulled away, he took her cheek in his hot hand. “I’ve gotta go, but… come back later. I want my prize for being such a good boyfriend.”

  Gina’s mouth opened to speak, but she decided against it. She wasn’t about to screw up the moment by pointing out that he had just called himself her boyfriend for the very first time, yet inside her heart was swelling to bursting point.

  Chapter nineteen

  Gina awoke in unfamiliar surroundings, but a surge of happiness overwhelmed her when she registered the heaviness of Aiden’s arm around her waist. She turned into his naked body, slowly so as to not wake him, and gazed into his handsome face. She smiled, watching him breathe quietly, and wondered how someone so serene whilst asleep could be so controlling and pent-up with bitterness when awake.

  She thought of last night and her smile grew wider. She had met Aiden, as requested, and they had gone straight up to his bedroom, leaving only for crisps and vodka the whole night. When they had made love, she had felt as if she and Aiden were the only two people in the world. She had felt safe and cherished. Aiden was a fantastic lover. He took control, driving her wild with anticipation. His sexual appetite was boundless. Six times he had taken her and six times he had pleasured her. She loved it when Aiden was in a giving mood, and he had been in a great mood last night. When Aiden was in good stride, she went with it and enjoyed every second, because, much like her, his good humour was usually short-lived.

  Aiden flicked his eyes open to see Gina staring at him. He stretched then rubbed his lids with the palms of his hands. “Why are you staring at me?” he asked sleepily, a bashful smile appearing on his lips – a smile he didn’t show all that often.

  He turned on his side and leaned on his elbow. Gina fell back onto her pillow and relaxed, feeling his hand stroke her stomach. “You look so peaceful when you’re asleep,” she said wistfully.

  “Peaceful?” He removed his hand and ran it over his face. “I wouldn’t know the meaning of the word…”

  Gina turned to see the immediate change in Aiden’s demeanour. For just those few wonderful seconds she had caught a glimpse of the man who would have existed if he had led a simpler life. Now, she witnessed the reality of their environment build up on his shoulders once more.

  Aiden swung his legs off the bed and rubbed his face. “I’ve gotta get on,” he announced, standing up.

  Gina sat up and took his hand. “Don’t rush off… please?” She pulled his naked body to hers and wrapped her arms around his waist, nestling her cheek against his hard abdominal muscles. Peering up at him through her thick lashes, she pressed, “Let’s just relax for five minutes before we have to face our shitty lives again…” She pouted, but her temper was already betraying her. Aiden was rushing off again and she didn’t want him to. The thought only conjured the familiar feeling of rejection that always threatened to anger her.

  “I quite like my life… and I’ve got things to do…” Aiden announced flatly.

  “Oh, really?” Gina snapped. Her temper had been provoked, and Aiden sensed this. He stepped out of her embrace and proceeded to dress himself. Gina watched him with a bitter taste in her mouth. “You hate your life. You’ve always wanted to get out of here, so why do you pretend otherwise?” she goaded.

  He turned to her with a frown. “What you on about, G?”

  “Well, why pretend that you’re happy when you’re not?”

  “Who says I’m not happy?”

  “You do, all the time!”

  He sighed. “What’s this really about?”

  She gulped and her cheeks flushed with embarrassment. On some level, he knew her inside out. “Why can’t you just spend five minutes with me?”

  “You’ve been here all night,” he reasoned.

  “Yeah, and you got what you wanted, and now you can’t wait to get rid of me!”

  Aiden roughly pulled on his jeans. “You’re starting to annoy me now, G…” he warned.

  Gina stood and whipped up her dress from the floor. “Well, you’ll feel less guilty when I’m gone for good, then, won’t you?” she spat. “Thanks for making things very clear, Aiden…”

  Her subconscious was screaming at her to stop. She had had a wonderful night, and Aiden had made her feel loved. Why was she so determined to fuck it all up? The answer was plain and simple. She knew that his attention would always be short-lived and she wanted more.

  “What have I done now?” Aiden sighed as he pulled a t-shirt over his head.

  When Gina was fully dressed, she turned to him and announced, “I can’t put up with this anymore. I’m done.”

  At that she headed for the door. Aiden immediately followed her, taking her arm and pulling her round. “Oi, don’t be like that…”

  “Let me go! I’ve had enough!”

  He had to do something, say something to change her mind. “I love ya, don’t I?”

  She laughed and pulled her arm from his grip. “No, you don’t, Aiden. You never have…” She wrenched the door open and left the room.

  “Please, G, stay, for Christ’s sake!”

  “For what?” she yelled. “What can you possibly offer me?” Aiden leant in to kiss her but she pushed him away. “It won’t work! Not this time!” she cried and stormed down the stairs.

  He caught up with her halfway down and pulled her to him once more. “Look, I’m sorry, alright!” he begged. “Just stay. I’ll call Reggie, tell him I’m gonna be late… we can do whatever you want for the next hour…”

  Gina glared at him. Yet however angry she felt, she knew she couldn’t resist spending time with him. That was what she had asked for and she had got it. Her friend Lily Summers had once said to her, ‘You have to learn to choose your battles’, and right now her words couldn’t be truer. Aiden had been good to her last night and still she had found a way to fuck it up. What the hell was wrong with her?

  She sighed and, brushing past him, walked back up the stairs. As she stepped back into the bedroom, she felt Aiden’s hands slide up her thighs and her anger was washed away immediately by the balm of his touch.

  Taking the hem of her dress, his hands traced up each side of her body until the dress came over her head, leaving her naked apart from her knickers. He discarded the dress on the floor then his lips found her neck as his hands moved around to her front and groped her breasts roughly.

  Passion exploded between them. Gina spun round to face him and pulled his t-shirt over his head, then worked on his jeans until they were open enough for her to slip a hand into his boxers and pull out his ample erect
ion. She gasped as Aiden spun her around again and, kicking the door shut, he forced her up against the wall. Her nipples hardened as they pressed against the coldness of the plaster and she let out a groan as his arms snaked around her waist.

  Dipping his hands into the front of her knickers, he pushed them down her legs, threw them to one side, then trailed his fingers back up the inside of her legs, forcing them to part to finally locate her sex. She was soaked, and he slipped two fingers inside of her easily, feeling her inner muscles tighten around them in acceptance. Taking a breast into his other hand, he squeezed hard and forced her further against the wall.

  Gina groaned. He knew she enjoyed his dominance in the bedroom and he planned to give her something to think about today, something that he was certain would hold her interest.

  Sliding his fingers out from her vagina, he immediately inserted them inside her again, this time at the rear. The shock was evident in Gina’s gasp, but as his fingers moved slowly inside of her, stretching her and testing her limits, she began to feel the new and exciting pleasure of his fingers in that forbidden place. She ground her buttocks against him with every thrust of his hand, feeling her pleasure taking her higher, and when he moved his other hand to her sex, she cried out and fully accepted him as he replaced his fingers at her rear with his member.

  He felt her whole body tense but he strummed her clitoris hard and fast as he trust deeper inside of her. Gina clawed at the wall with her nails, fearing she might collapse as her whole body shuddered with sensation. “Aiden!” she cried out, but it wasn’t through pain. She was overcome with pleasure now, the sensation at her rear and the slipperiness of his fingers over her sex bringing her close to orgasm. With another few thrusts, she exploded beneath his fingers and, as if on cue, he released his juices inside her.

  Aiden stilled for a moment, then Gina felt his damp body collapse against hers and they together breathed heavily, their heads resting against the cold wall. “Don’t ever leave me,” he breathed.

  “I won’t, I promise,” she replied breathlessly.

  ************

  Roy was in the bathroom shaving when Gina came home. As she headed for her bedroom, he stepped out in front of her. “Where you been?” he asked, his eyes taking in her short dress. He registered that she wasn’t wearing a bra.

  “A friend’s house…”

  “Lying cow. You’ve been with that Foster lad,” he sneered.

  “Oh, leave it out, Dad, please…”

  She went to leave but he stepped closer to her. “Does he touch them?” He pointed to her breasts.

  Gina sighed and again tried to pass. Their shoulders clashed. She had to force herself past him. “Does he put his big cock in you?” Roy called after her as she slammed her bedroom door on him.

  Chapter twenty

  Kate was just about to unlock the door to the flat when Aiden swung it open from inside. He smiled when he saw her, but his lips pressed into a hard line when he saw that a well-built lad of about his age was standing behind her. Adam Draper had been in the year below Aiden at school, but they didn’t know each other, although Adam was keen to finally meet the person who had stirred up such a huge reputation.

  “Who’s this?”

  Aiden glared down at Kate’s friend and Kate rolled her eyes. “Adam, this is Aiden, my extremely overprotective brother. Aiden, this is Adam Draper, my… boyfriend,” she announced hesitantly, eyeing Aiden with an expression urging him to back off. “Adam was just walking me home,” she added.

  Aiden didn’t avert his glare as Adam offered his hand. “I’ve heard a lot about you, Aiden…”

  “I bet you have.” He didn’t take his hand, and Adam lowered it bashfully.

  “Aiden,” Kate warned.

  He twisted his lips. He wasn’t impressed at seeing his sister with a lad older than her who would definitely want to get into her knickers. “How old is he?” he asked Kate, voicing his concern, as if Adam were no longer present.

  “Sixteen and a half. Why?”

  Adam watched uneasily as Kate and Aiden began to discuss the wheres, whys and whats of his and Kate’s very new relationship as if he wasn’t even there. When Kate finally looked up at him, he knew they had ceased their conversation and, it seemed, they were awaiting his answer to a question he had not heard. “Sorry, what?” he stuttered.

  Aiden smirked and, stepping out of the doorway, he strolled away without looking back. Kate smiled apologetically up at Adam, her beautiful blue eyes beseeching him to forgive the behaviour of her insufferable brother. Adam smiled and ran a hand through her dark hair. “He likes me, then?”

  Kate wrapped her arms around his waist. She could tell that Adam was affronted by Aiden’s rebuff. Aiden was someone you wanted as your ally, not your foe. She was aware of the reputation her brother had and she understood Adam’s desire to get on the right side of him. “It’s not personal. He just doesn’t want to admit that I’m growing up.”

  “That you are, Kate,” Adam replied ardently, pulling her against him. “I haven’t forgotten about our arrangement tonight.”

  Kate flushed. “Neither have I.”

  He kissed her then stepped back. “I’ll see you at mine at 8pm.”

  She nodded and watched him walk away and disappear down the stone steps.

  It was a heady feeling to know that tonight was the night she would lose her innocence, and to a man who was not only handsome, but also good-natured and caring. Kate grinned and went inside, taking herself straight to the bathroom. She stared into the mirror and surveyed the young woman staring back her. Not a child. Aiden’s behaviour towards Adam niggled at her. She would need to talk to him about that when she next saw him… depending on his mood.

  She smiled and shook her head. Her brother was a cantankerous fool. But even as she thought it, she justified his behaviour, like she always had done. He was merely looking out for her, like he always had. Despite the preferential treatment her mother gave her, their parents had always been fucking useless, ever since she could remember, and Aiden had had to step up on many occasions and look out for her, protect her, and care for her. That he had a problem with her seeking independence wasn’t all his own fault. He shouldn’t have ever been put in a position where he worried so much about her. That was a parents’ prerogative, and something both of their parents had spectacularly failed to do.

  Comparing the relationships of her friends and their siblings, she had learned to accept that she and Aiden had a very strange kind of affiliation. Remarkably close as children, they had been so in tune with one another that they had once developed a private language that only each other could understand. It had driven their father mad and had forced their mother to communicate with her through Aiden, giving Aiden full control. Kate pursed her lips at the memory. Hmm… maybe too much control, she thought idly.

  Taking one last look at herself, she smiled. Despite having just turned fifteen, she looked so grown-up and, tonight, she would finally become a woman.

  Chapter twenty-one

  When the phone rang, Roy initially decided to leave it, but when it kept ringing and ringing, stopping, then ringing again, he picked it up. “What?” he asked the caller irately.

  “Where’s the money?” a gruff voice replied.

  Roy recognised the voice immediately. He turned ashen and suddenly lost the ability to speak. “Look… I’ll… I’ll get your money…”

  “You’ve been saying that for months. We heard about Billy. Seems like your big diamond bust didn’t come to fruition.”

  “I’m getting it some other way. I swear. I just need a few more weeks.”

  The phone line ran silent for a long moment. Then the caller replied, “We explained before what we would do to you, Roy. Your daughter’s gonna find your head in a fucking box, and that’s not before the rest of your spineless body is found along the bank of the River fucking Thames!”

  Roy began to blubber. “Please!”

  “Watch your back, Roy. You’re
out of time.”

  The line fell dead. Roy stood blubbing down the receiver for a few seconds before he registered that the conversation was over.

  ************

  Duggie and Vivien were going out. Vivien knew it wouldn’t be to anywhere special, but it was a rare thing Duggie taking her out, so she was going to make the most of it. She trotted into the kitchen in high heels and the black knee-length dress she wore on these rare occasions. It was one of her best, from Dorothy Perkins. She looked as attractive as ever: her black bob – not a hair out of place – and her cat-like grey eyes enhanced by an application of green eye shadow and black eyeliner.

  “You two be good, now,” she said to Aiden and Gina who were sitting at the kitchen table having a cigarette. “And make sure your sister doesn’t bring that boy back,” she added with a stiff index finger pointing directly at Aiden.

  “Alright, Ma,” he grumbled, impatiently. She had been giving him the same warning over and over for the past hour.

  They all heard Duggie shouting from the front door and Vivien stuffed a lipstick and keys into her handbag and trotted out of the room, but not before turning back and saying, “No bloody funny business!” as she stared a warning at them both. Then, finally, both she and Duggie left.

  Gina puffed a laugh when the house fell silent. Aiden stubbed out his cigarette and walked into the lounge, switched on the television and slumped down onto the sofa. Gina followed him in and sat beside him. He was being distant, and it provoked a feeling of nervousness inside her. She never quite knew what Aiden expected of her when he was in this kind of mood. Was she there for sex, a cuddle on the couch or was he going to cause a row in order to get rid of her? She never knew. She just had to wait for Aiden to make up his mind then execute a plan of defence.

  “G, do us a favour…” he said, out of the silence.

  Gina glanced at him warily, his tone immediately setting her heart to quicken with panic. She gulped. “OK.”