A Burning Secret
Beverly Montgomery
All rights reserved except for use in any review. The reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter, invented including, photocopying, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher and author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents or either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblances to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2013 Beverly Montgomery All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-578-11730-0
DEDICATION This book is dedicated to all of you who continue to read and be interested in my books. Without you, there would be no need for me to write.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My inspiration is my family who always encourages and inspires me. I wouldn’t be where I am today without your support!
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CHAPTER ONE It is the year 1970 and Montclair City is full of excitement! Located outside of New York City, it is a beautiful and progressive city and people from all parts of the world come here to have a great time!
Downtown Montclair is saturated with a variety of cafes’ and restaurants, jazz and blues clubs, and shopping boutiques.
There is something for everyone to do and especially tourists but the city has its share of crime so one does have to be careful.
All across the country, there is a section of society living in communes and they are referred to as hipsters. They are great advocates of free love and their motto is, “Make Love and Peace.”
They have an overwhelming opposition to the status quo and are committed to challenging it.
It is simply a different time and in many ways a very exciting time to be alive!
When shopping in Downtown Montclair, it is not unusual to see women dressed elegantly while lingering on the streets, window shopping and patronizing sidewalk cafés. The aroma of hot croissants and coffee consume the air.
Many tourists frequent playhouses to enjoy the latest and greatest stage plays and are awed and captivated with performances by their favorite actors and actresses of the day.
But in lower Montclair, on Bermuda Street, lives Callie Broadway, a single mother and her daughter Sasha.
Callie is a very beautiful woman and it is clear that her daughter Sasha has gotten her great looks from her.
Callie was once heavily involved and caught up in the Love and Peace Movement.
At the time, she was dating Sasha’s father Gregory Callahan whom she met when she attended Bismarck College in New York.
Gregory and Callie were very much in love with being in love and caught up in the times and all that it enveloped.
They were majoring in Political Science when they met Melanie Spencer, a young woman with strong political and social beliefs. Melanie even participated in several war protests.
It was Melanie who persuaded Gregory and Callie to go with her to visit Belleview Village, a large commune on the outskirts of New York City.
There they saw large groups of people with different lifestyles and cultures vocalizing their disdain for the war and other political and social issues.
Gregory and Callie were intrigued by the people residing in the commune and decided to take a year off from college to join them.
But their decision was fraught with a number of problems that they hadn’t counted on.
The most pressing issue was their lack of money for food and other necessities.
At college, they didn’t have to worry about room and board and they had access to food because the students in their dorms often shared food and whatever else could be shared among them.
Gregory found a way to support himself and Callie by making a variety of wooden artifacts which he sold on the streets in Belleview Village.
And they both participated in the cultivation of a variety of fruits and vegetables that they sold at the local Farmer’s Market.
But there was an unexpected problem arising between the men in the commune because Gregory had a bad roving eye and the women in the commune were enchanted with his good looks.
His mistake was getting it on with one of the leaders’ old lady and he threatened to throw Gregory out on his butt if he dared to even look at his old lady again.
Callie didn’t care what Gregory did because she was too busy doing her own thing.
Then to make matters worse, Callie got pregnant and Gregory wanted little to do with her.
But when the baby was born, Gregory felt sorry for her and agreed to sign as the father, on the baby’s birth certificate.
Callie was very disappointed with Gregory though and decided that she didn’t want to raise her daughter in the commune because she and Gregory had fallen out of love with one another.
The birth of Sasha gave Callie a new awareness and perspective on life. And too, she wanted more than the lifestyle and the rhetoric of the Make Love and Peace Movement.
So Callie made the decision to move from the commune but she needed to ask her parents for financial assistance until she could get on her feet.
They reluctantly agreed because they were still angry with her for dropping out of college.
But Callie’s parents loaned her $5,000 and told her to make good use of the money.
That’s when she found the apartment on Bermuda Street and quickly formed a few relationships with several men who became frequent visitors to her apartment.
The people in the complex were very curious and suspicious about what was going on with Callie and all those men.
One neighbor Grandma Swanson was known as the snoop in the neighborhood because she was always leaning out the window and watching to see what she could see going on in the lives of others. She even had the nerve to prop a chair near her window so when she gets tired of standing, she sits and watches neighbors for as long as she wishes.
People in the complex are always saying, “Nosy Old Grandma Swanson must be bored or something but she really needs to stop all that gossips about people and get a life!”
Her husband, Gary, died a few years ago and some neighbors believe it was her constant nagging and gossiping that sent him over the edge and drove him to Alzheimer’s.
He had to be taken to Lawrence Senior Home because Grandma Swanson was unable to care for him.
However, once Gary moved to the Senior Home, he got better and lived another five years playing dominoes and cards with other residents.
Over the years, Callie had become painfully aware of the gossip about her but she was unaffected by what the neighbors were saying because she was doing what she felt she needed to do to make a good life for herself and her daughter.
Mostly, she had become accustomed to and enjoyed the free love and sharing that occurred when she lived in the commune in Belleview Village and she enjoyed being intimate with different men.
Yet, Callie did everything she could to protect Sasha from knowing what she was doing with her men friends.
Callie would often say, “Sasha, my friends are coming over to see me today because they want to make sure I’m doing okay so stay in your room.”
But Sasha has some suspicion about what’s really going on with her mother but she knows it is better to pretend to be in the dark about it.
Anyway, pretending not to know what’s going on has always been a great coping mechanism for Sasha.
Callie caters to Sasha every whim by spending excessive amounts of money on new clothing, shoes and whatever Sasha desires. Yet, Sasha has the nerve to get angry with her
mother when she doesn’t get her way.
Sometimes, Callie wonders whether having Sasha as an only child was a mistake but it is too late to think about that now because Callie is way beyond her baby making years.
CHAPTER TWO Sasha is now 21 years old and a freshman at the Claremont City College where she is studying Psychology. She also loves acting so she enrolled in a performance and arts class as well. She has been selected for the lead part in several plays and she has a very promising career if she decides to pursue it.
She chose Psychology as her major because she has a great sense of awareness about people and she possesses an uncanny ability to quickly analyze people by observing and interacting with them.
She believes that more often than not, people will always put their best foot forward for those who they wish to impress.
Yet, she has never had a steady boyfriend in her life because she hasn’t met anyone that she feels is deserving of her love so she tends to date lots of boys.
She mostly believes that many of the boys are really immature and though she is intimate with some of them, she feels that many of them are unable to really satisfy her needs.
But all of that changed one Saturday afternoon when Sasha was shopping with her mother. Standing across from her was a tall and distinguished looking man who kept gazing at her.
Sasha flirted shamelessly with him by smiling and tossing her beautiful mane of hair and she knew just what she needed to do to hold his attention.
He was very tall with a muscular build and his salt and pepper hair complemented his nicely tanned skin. Standing about 6 feet tall, he looked very sexy in his white woven knit shirt and blue slacks.
Sasha kept gazing and smiling at him and he nearly dropped a package that he was holding because he was too busy looking at her.
It was clear that the man was much older than Sasha who could easily pass for a woman much older than 21.
Wondering how she would find a way to talk with him without her mother being suspicious, she told her mother that the man was a counselor at her school and she wanted to discuss her course plans for next semester.
Sasha introduced herself to John Belvedere. They made a little small talk and then John asked Sasha if she would be interested in going out sometimes.
Sasha replied, “Sure, how about tomorrow?” John didn’t know what to think. He had just met this young woman and yes, he had asked her out but he didn’t expect such a ready, set, go response.
She wasn’t even trying to play hard to get and that bothered John somewhat, yet, he wanted her in the worst way.
Sasha kept standing there looking at John and waiting for his response. He finally said, “Okay, I can manage that.” “Where should I pick you up?”
“Oh, pick me up near the corner of Landau and Main Street around 8:00 a.m.,” Sasha replied. She felt this would be better because her mother would be very upset if John were to show up at her door!
John agreed but he was somewhat nervous because he didn’t really know Sasha’s age but he reasoned that if she was in college, then she had to at least be over 18.
He was mesmerized with Sasha’s good looks and he couldn’t wait to see her again and for Sasha, tomorrow seemed like a lifetime. She was so excited she could hardly contain her excitement.
Sasha walked back over to the shoe department and her mother asked, “What were you talking to that man so long about?”
“Oh, that’s John,” Sasha replied. “We were just talking school stuff like I told you.”
“John works in our school office.”
Callie cocked her head to the side and placed her hand on her big wide hips and glared at Sasha as though she really didn’t believe what she was telling her.
Callie told Sasha that she had observed her body language when she was talking to John and she said, “You didn’t look like a student having a conversation about classes to me.”
Sasha didn’t respond and just kept looking for shoes and Callie let it go for now because she was too focused on finding the right shoes to go with the pretty blue dress she had just purchased.
The next day, John was parked in his car waiting at the corner of Landau Street near Sasha’s school.
It was early so there weren’t many students hanging out on the campus and that was good news for Sasha, who had lied to her mother by telling her that she had an early class that day. Actually, that was one of the problems with Callie. She just took Sasha’s word for everything and never really bothered to check her story even when she felt that something wasn’t quite right about what she was telling her.
When Sasha neared the corner, John emerged from his shiny black sports car and he flashed his big broad smile and pearly white teeth.
As she walked closer, Sasha began to swing her hips from side to side and held her head up high as though she were performing in a fashion show or something. John obviously impressed by what he was seeing, winked at Sasha and then gave Sasha one Sterling rose and a peck on the cheek.
She smiled and looked John up and down while licking her lips and saying, “Damn, you look good!”
John kissed her once more on the cheek as she slid in on the buttery soft leather car seats.
John was dressed in a black pullover knit sweater that showed off every muscle in his arms and chest and his pants were nicely hung over his slim hips and nicely shaped behind.
As he smiled at her, she noticed that he had a large dimple in his chin and she was in love with his good looks.
Right away without hesitation, John took Sasha hands and with his deep sexy voice he said, “I guess you know I want to make love to you.”
He was like a school boy with his first big crush. Sasha knew that’s what John wanted and so did she. She could see by the way that he was undressing her with his eyes that he was interested in more than talking with her.
But instead, John said, “Let’s go for a ride and then we can see where things go.”
“I don’t want to push you into doing something that you don’t really want to do.”
Sasha touched his arm and said. “No, I want to.”
As they drove aimlessly down a back road, John said, “So you introduced yourself to me as Sasha B so what is the B for?”
“Oh, the B is for Broadway which is my last name but I have always been called Sasha B by my mother and others who are close to me.”
“Oh, I see,” said John. “Well, your name is very pretty and so are you!”
They both felt somewhat awkward because their obvious age difference gave them very little to talk about but talking was the last thing on their mind.
One thing was for certain; they were very hot for one another so any awkwardness they felt was overpowered by their mutual attraction to one another and their desire to make love.
John suggested they go somewhere where they wouldn’t be disturbed and they could talk and have the privacy they both desired.
Sasha didn’t ask questions but she assumed that John would be taking her to his home.
However, when they reached the Montclair Hotel rather than John’s residence, Sasha knew right away that John was either married or he had a significant other.
She hadn’t even thought to ask him if he was married or not and John certainly didn’t offer up that bit of information. But for the moment, it was unimportant to her.
John took Sasha by the hand and helped her from the car. They walked arm in arm into the hotel where they registered as husband and wife.
John was so anxious to get Sasha to their room to make love to her that he pushed the wrong elevator button and then they got off on the wrong floor. They both chuckled at their situation and then took the exit to a flight of stairs leading to the floor of their room.
When they reached their room, John quickly picked Sasha up and laid her on the bed and began undressing her and she allowed it.
As he undressed, Sasha kept her eyes glued to his beautiful body. She was pleased to see that John was very well endowed.
John began kissing her passionately and Sasha loved everything he was doing to her.
Then he turned her over to massage her back with a bottle of oil that he had removed from the pockets of his pants.
Sasha was totally caught up in the moment as John pulled her gently on top of him. It was like a thunderbolt had hit her and she could barely contain herself. She rubbed his muscular arms and kissed him passionately as they made love over and over again.
John had been with a lot of women and none had been so freely and without inhibitions as Sasha was with him.
Nothing was off limits because Sasha was quite comfortable with her body and she was not concerned with what John or any other man thought of her.
It was not as though she was going to bed with every man. She just wanted this man, at least on this day.
Sasha was very skilled in her lovemaking so John knew that she had been with other men but he was not concerned about it because he had been with many women.
John simply wanted to savor the moment and the taste of Sasha.
They lay quietly on the bed for a while before speaking and John finally said, “That was nice, really nice, indeed.”
Sasha being somewhat upset exclaimed, “Is that all you have to say?”
“Well, you were great!” John said, somewhat apologetically and feeling like he had done something wrong.
Sasha got up in haste, grabbed her clothing and ran towards the bathroom.
John jumped up behind her grabbing her from behind as she walked towards the bathroom door. “Let me go!” Sasha screamed.
“Oh, now you want me to let you go!” John exclaimed loudly.
“You sure weren’t saying that a few minutes ago when you were all over me like an acrobat artist,” John scoffed.
“Well, that was then and this is now!” Sasha shouted. “I’m going to take a shower and I would like for you to drop me off at school.”
“Wasn’t I good to you?” John questioned, “You were great but it’s time for me to go!” Sasha snapped.
Sasha was not in the mood for a question and answer session with John. They both knew what they were getting into when they agreed to meet. Sasha got what she wanted from John and he got what he wanted from her so she didn’t understand why he needed so much reassurance. She told John that she wanted to go ahead and take her shower so she can get to her class on time.
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