by Lauren Wood
“Right it wouldn’t make sense that a guy who was finally free would kill the man who basically gave him that freedom.” Melody had said.
Cassius had cut her off with a look though.
“Yeah I agree.” Jureal had said. “So anyway, I thought perhaps it was a relative of the Lars fellow. Do you know anything about the Goma?” He had stopped and asked them both.
“No, besides the legend talk I’ve heard from some people in the past.” Cassius had stated cautiously.
“I have no idea, I’m from Earth.” Melody had looked at him and played dumb.
“Okay, we’ll you have heard of gladiators before right Melody.” Jureal had looked at her.
“Yes, the Romans on Earth used to have fights to the death.” Melody had shook her head.
“Well the Goma is the same thing, but in our Galaxy. The men who battle are often slaves, they’ve either been sold as slaves, or their families were slaves. The deal is that if any warrior can win 200 fights they will be set free. It isn’t a task that is easy to do. There have only been two in all of the history of the Goma. Mazart back around 100 years ago was the first fighter to complete all the fights. Recently, Cassius completed this same number of fights. This is where it gets interesting though. The night of the fights someone killed Demetri, and the signs all pointed to Cassius. I on the other hand had other theories about the guilty party. I thought that it would either be one of Lars’s relatives, he’s the man that Cassius obliterated in about 10 minutes time. Or perhaps an angry fan who felt they were cheated on a bet. I just happen to have the right connections and let it be known of my theories. It seems that the authorities hadn’t looked at the cameras in the building yet. When they pulled up the footage from that night, you know who could be seen clearly walking out of the building?” Jureal had stopped and studied them both closely.
Melody squirmed under his study, but sat tight lipped. Cassius had not said a word either.
“Well it was Cassius and his prize for the fight. About two minutes after walking into Demetri’s office was a hooded man. The kicker was when they pulled the office film though. The man who had come in was Lars’s younger brother, Marteen. Clearly on the film you can see Marteen as he slayed Demetri.”
“Oh really, that’s great news!” Melody had said.
Cassius had looked at Jureal, “So how long have you known I was the warrior?”
Jureal had laughed, “Since the first time I met you son. But I’m telling you I have a sense about anyone I meet. I can tell if they are a good person or a bad one. You my friend are indeed a good man. That was why I pulled my strings and made sure that the truth was discovered. You my man are truly a free man. If you want you can go back home.”
Cassius and Melody had been stunned further to find out that Jureal had once been an inspector for the authorities. If he had thought Cassius was really guilty, he would have called them in the day he first met them. But he had gone with his gut instinct and now Cassius could do anything he wanted.
They had decided they loved Zevon and would stay there most of the year. But had planned to visit his home planet once the baby was born, he wanted his parents to meet their new grandchild.
“What are you thinking about Melody?” Cassius interrupted her thoughts.
“Oh just thinking about how scared I was when I was first kidnapped. I never imagined that I would find love out in space.” She answered as she rubbed her belly.
“You know I was so upset when I first found out you were the prize. Boy was I a stupid man at that point.” Cassius laughed.
“But you’re not anymore!”
He grabbed her and kissed her deeply, “No my love I’m not, and I have the most amazing wife a man could ever ask for. I love you Melody.”
“I love you too Cassius.”
THE END
THE WIDE RECEIVER’S LADY
Chapter 1
“I can’t believe that he’s even giving me the time of day. He could have anybody that he wants and he has chosen me. I have all of this nervous energy and he’s going to be here in the next couple of hours. I have no idea what I’m going to wear. I do know that I want to make a good first impression. I can’t have him playing the field and I don’t want to see that infamous wandering eye of his. I need to make sure that the only thing that is on his mind is me.” Melissa was a cheerleader and she just got her big break. She was taken with one of the football players. She heard all the rumors about how he would sleep with a girl and then practically leave her on the side of the road after he was done with her.
“I don’t really know what I can do to advise you on this particular subject matter. Football has never been one of my strong suits. I tend to shy away from those sports that become barbaric enough that someone can get seriously injured. I can’t see how anybody can be on the edge of their seat with excitement when bones are breaking and careers end suddenly.” Raven was 19 years old and had just moved out of her parents’ house for the chance at spreading her wings and becoming her own woman. She was only 5’2, 115 pounds with jet black hair and the kind of studious appearance that came from knowing exactly where she was going.
“It doesn’t matter that you know football or not. What matters the most is that you’re a woman and that you’ve obviously had some experience with a man.” Melissa had found her roommate to be a little hard to get to know. Raven was here on a full scholarship to be a geneticist and to work primarily in the biochemistry field. She’d never met somebody so smart in her life. It did help that she was there to aid her in her own studies. She made learning easy and fun. She often thought that Raven would make a great teacher or maybe a professor if that was the field that she was attempting to go into. “I think that as a woman, we both know what it takes to attract a man.”
“Speak for yourself. I don’t usually like to talk about this, but I’m not exactly as experienced as you may think. I have dated, but I’ve seen some of my friends walk down a dangerous and dark path. They had their futures snatched away from them because of some bundle of joy in the oven. You may think that condoms are 100% affective, but they do have a tendency to fail from time to time. I would feel like I was playing Russian roulette with my life. I’m not one to judge and I would never tell anybody what to do with their life. These are mistakes that we make on our own and we must live with those decisions regardless if they are right for us or not.” “I’m trying to be subtle, but I don’t think that she truly understands the concept of the bad boy mentality. She will become his prize possession and he’ll use her and then discard her when he finds something better. I don’t want to be her mother and being her friend is a fulltime job.”
“You could really use a makeover and one of these days I’m going to turn you into a swan. You will no longer be able to stand in a corner and not be seen. I think that I could mold you into something that all the boys would swirl around like locusts after their queen.” Being a cheerleader, Melissa had been acutely aware that beauty was only skin deep. Makeup hid those flaws and one thing that she noticed about Raven was that she was that natural beauty underneath it all.
“I don’t think I really need your help. No offense, but I’m not exactly what you would call a social kind of girl. I find the concept of idle chitchat to be mind numbingly boring. I can’t stand people that are not able to keep up with me intellectually. I actually find it quite interesting that you are studying to be a chemical engineer. People see what they want to see and you project the kind of girl that is easy on the eyes.” “I want her to be like me and stop this foolishness of panting after a man that cannot be tied down. Vance has always had a free ride and his father an ex football player has done his best to open doors. It’s obvious that he has never had to work for anything in his life. He thinks that his world revolves around football and I pity the day that the reality will come crashing down on his head. I will admit that I find him uniquely attractive and the bulge in front of his uniform has made him a legend amongst the females.”
She took it out and she moved it around the room to see that it was a little on the demure side. She saw a pair of scissors and knew how to alter any kind of dress. She went directly to the sewing machine and began to form this otherwise plain piece of material into something that was going to make Vance’s jaw drop.
“You really are a woman with many talents and I’m afraid that Vance will only see the exterior surface. He’ll judge a book by its cover and if you’re not careful, you’ll have your panties flung across his headboard at the end of the night. We both know that he’s not exactly a three date rule. If he doesn’t get what he wants on that first date, then he will move onto somebody that is willing to give him the milk for free.” I do feel a bit of a jealous streak running down my back. It’s all too much when I see him walking across the campus with that smug look and those muscles right there for anybody to witness. He is that shining example of what a woman should avoid and never can. I could never get enough of seeing him take his shirt off and playing with the boys on the field between classes. I could only hope that I was subtle enough and staying within the shadows was a good way not to be recognized as a groupie.”
Raven hated football with a passion and found any sport that was rough around the edges not at all interesting enough to even give it a chance. She knew the kind of man that Vance was and how easily he could sing his song of praise to any woman to make them drop their panties. It didn’t stop those fantasies emerging in the dead of night when she was all alone with only her fingers as companionship. “I’m not going to lie to myself and say that I’m not willing to enjoy that one moment of bliss. It is a constant struggle between my brain and the rest of my body that craves his touch that stops me from acting on those feelings. I’m just happy that I don’t fall on his radar. He would never see me as something that was going to easily spread her legs for his obvious virility.”
“You can say that, but I’ve never seen you go out with a boy since I got here. If I didn’t know any better, I would say that you were a virgin. There’s nothing wrong with that. I don’t want to make you think that there’s something wrong with you. I do believe that there’s one person for every one and I just might have found my prince charming.” She had that dress turned into a masterpiece with a plunging neckline and a long slit up the side that gave a bit more than the average dress off the rack.
Raven was wearing her glasses and even though she had contacts, she never had a reason to attract that kind of unwanted attention. She never did have a need for makeup and the very little that she did have on was on only when she went out socially. A little blush and lipstick was like catnip and made the boys give her more than a passing glance. It was the reason why she didn’t wear makeup when she was on campus. It was only when she went out alone to occupy her time in the clubs to see how the other half of lived that she would let down her hair a little.” I know that she is that blond bombshell with huge melons on her chest. I get this feeling that maybe Vance is what most you would call a breast man. I’m not exactly lacking in that department. I do hide it well with bulky sweaters and bras that are meant to hide my obvious endowment to the male populous.”
Raven wore a pair of black yoga pants with a sports bra. She knew that he was coming here to see Melissa. She began to think that maybe it would be a good idea that she covered up what was going to make his eyes see her as more than just the friend. She had no interest in letting him see the real woman underneath the nerdy persona. There was a part of her that would have loved to flaunt it in his face and to make him yearn for something that he couldn’t have. That would only be asking for trouble. “I see how determined she is to make him hers, but I’m not sure that anybody is able to make him settle down. It’s a known fact that his family life was not all that it was cracked up to be. His father was not exactly the one woman kind of guy and that seems to have been passed off to his son. His father James was one of those football players that didn’t know what it was to be a part of a team. I did catch one game out of curiosity and seeing Vance in uniform certainly did raise the temperature. I wasn’t much into the sport, but I did have to admit that his leadership qualities were above reproach.”
“What do you think?” Melissa put that dress on and felt sexually liberating. There wasn’t much to it and underneath was very little else including a thong that rode up into the crack of her ass. It was a little uncomfortable, but the outline of it through the dress when the light hit it in a certain way would certainly give him ideas. “I want your unbiased opinion. I know that this is not where your talents are, but maybe you can make an exception for this one time only.” Melissa hovered over young and innocent Raven by a least a few inches. She really did feel like she was the older sister and that it was her duty to show Raven what it was to be a real woman in a male dominated society.
“Let me see if I get this right.” Raven grabbed her crotch and made the appearance of shifting her balls like that of a man. “You look delicious enough to eat. Come over here…baby and take a seat on my face.” She had lowered her voice to that of baritone gravel. She was mimicking the look of a man that was more of a playboy than someone that was capable of commitment. “If I don’t say so myself, I believe that I nailed that impersonation. Guys only think with one head and it’s not the one that’s on top of their shoulders. I don’t care if they are intellectual, jock or preppy. It doesn’t matter and if they have testosterone, then they will become like salivating dogs after a bone. Even the briefest moment where they think that they are going to get some will become their mission of choice. They will become obsessed and I’ve seen it time and time again and I’m not impressed.”
“That was pretty good. A lot of guys would take exception to how you perceive them. I know that I shouldn’t care and that I would be better off with somebody that is going to show me a bit more respect than this guy. You know what they say about the heart wanting what the heart wants. When you feel those butterflies and you know that that guy has eyes for only you, then that is when everything changes. Danger and excitement is one thing, but if you mix that up with a pretty package including the one between their legs, then a woman can’t be responsible for their actions.” Melissa stood in front of the mirror looking from every angle. It wasn’t exactly understated and the intention of this dress was to make sure that it landed on his floor in a not so subtle way.
“If I were a guy, I would be all over you like a cheap suit. I just don’t want you to feel obligated. He’ll probably take you out to a fancy restaurant. Try and be a good girl and we both know that we all have that bad girl waiting to get out for the right guy.” “I’m not immune to the way that he stares at the other girls. Being a ghost has always been the one thing that has prevented me from having the spotlight put on me.”
Chapter 2
Vance was getting ready for his big date with Melissa. He knew by the time that dessert arrived that she would be practically eating out of the palm of his hand. He had watched his father and learned by observing what it took to make a woman feel like the most important person in the room. He saw the way that his father made them desire him and all it took was the ability to read the signals. If the signals weren’t there, then he could easily change his tactic to get them to lower their guard.
“You know that the coach doesn’t condone dating before a big game. I’ll do what I always do. I’ll cover for you the best way
that I know how. Try to promise me that you will at least make it an early night. I know that you pride yourself on giving the girl the royal treatment all night long. I know that they’re not praying when they are screaming the lord’s name in vain.” Julian had seen his best friend turned into the consummate ladies man. He had always been that way from the moment that he met him three years ago in high school. He followed him around mimicking his every move and becoming a sought after commodity by NFL teams that were most likely going to be scouting those that they thought had potential.
“You know that there’s no way that I can promise something like that. I have a reputation to uphold and I’ll be damned if this girl doesn’t get my very best. Some guys might try to phone it in, but I go all out to seal the deal. Money has never been an object for me. You know where I live and you know that my father had a career that afforded him nothing but the best.” He had just returned from Puerto Rico for a weekend sojourn with his father and his soon to be third bride. He actually slept with the daughter of the bride with both parents sleeping down the hall in the next room. That was an awkward moment at breakfast, but soon turned into a romp in the surf. He remembered Charlene with fondness. He remembered all of their names. It couldn’t be helped with his condition.
“You make us good guys look bad. You claim to be one of the good ones, but we both know that the only thing that you’re interested in is what they have between their legs. You don’t care what they think or who they really are. You make them believe they you’re only in it for them, but mostly it’s for the chance to sink deep into some strange pussy.” Julian did not mean to belittle his conquests. He actually found some of them crying after the ordeal and was able to parlay that into sloppy seconds. He was always good with a shoulder to lean on. Those girls that had found themselves used by Vance were always in need of a sympathetic ear.
