Southern Men: Ballad of a Texas Rose

by Carla Kane

‘A political fix-up that began over thirty years ago?’ Clara asked, a sly smile on her face, ‘by planting Texxon-marked waste on the community of Prudence? Don’t you think that’s a little farfetched, Mr. Cooper?’

  Ace Cooper narrowed his eyes. ‘I ain’t got a notion what you mean girl,’ he said.

  ‘Oh come on,’ Clara snorted, ‘you’re not an idiot, are you? I mean you’re the head of a multinational corporation, you must understand the charges that have been brought against you?’

  ‘I understand the charges,’ Ace said, ‘I just don’t buy em.’

  ‘And the evidence?’ Clara asked, ‘you do understand that the evidence against you is so great as to be pretty much completely disprovable, right? I mean, even a total imbecile could see that.’

  Ace leaned forward angrily in his chair. Clara could tell she was getting through to him.

  ‘Now gosh darn it!’ he barked, ‘I won’t just sit her and be insulted like this.’

  ‘Miss Silverman,’ Judge McKennedy ordered in his deep voice, ‘reel it in.’

  Clara glanced up at him, slightly wounded by the rebuttal. ‘I’m only speaking the truth your honor,’ she said.

  Cooper’s head lawyer stepped forward. ‘That should be stricken from the record,’ he said, ‘this is a courtroom, not a schoolyard.’

  ‘Granted,’ Moses said and banged his gavel. He looked down at Clara, his dark furious eyes almost piercing into her soul. ‘That will be all Miss Silverman,’ he said, ‘I don’t know how they do things in New York but down here we have manners. If you can’t learn to conduct yourself properly then things will not go well for you.’

  A spark of irritation flashed through Clara’s head and she gritted her teeth. ‘Yes your honor,’ she said and returned to her seat.

  Ace Cooper stood up from the stand and, chuckling to himself, walked back to his people.

  The rest of the session crawled along without any further progress at all. By the time Judge McKennedy banged his gavel to close the day’s proceedings they were in the exact same place they had been when they began. Clara gathered up her things and left, inwardly cursing the phony shtick of Ace Cooper.

  Out in the lobby she met up with the prudence townspeople to discuss their next move. As they talked, a young aide came up to her and relayed the message that Judge McKennedy wished to see her in his chamber immediately. Clara had no idea why that could be – it was certainly unconventional – but she excused herself and made her way towards the Judge’s room.

  Judge McKennedy’s chamber was on the second floor at the far end of the courtroom. Up there, the tall marble corridor was completely deserted and the only sound to be heard was the faint echo of voices from the people down in the lobby at the other end of the building. Clara stepped up to the big mahogany door and knocked.

  ‘Enter!’

  She opened the door and stepped inside. There at his desk was the huge figure of Moses McKennedy, still dressed in his black robes. He frowned sternly as she entered.

  ‘Sit,’ he bade, gesturing towards the chair in front of his desk.

  Clara stepped forward. ‘Your honor,’ she said, ‘what’s all this about?’

  ‘I said sit,’ Moses repeated.

  Something about the way he said it made her instantly obey, as though his voice was so powerful and commanding that it could speak directly to her very muscle-memory. Clara pulled back the chair and sat down. Beneath his implacable glare she suddenly felt very naked and vulnerable.

  ‘You got a real attitude problem, don’t you girl?’

  Clara blinked. ‘Excuse me?’ she said.

  ‘Shut your mouth,’ the Judge barked, ‘you got a real attitude problem – don’t you girl?’

  Clara stared at him. The shock of his words had jolted her out of her obedience. No way was she going to let him talk to her like this. But then again, he was the presiding judge on the most important case of her life so she had to at least try to keep her cool.

  ‘Your honor,’ she said, ‘I’m only trying to do right by the people of Prudence.’

  ‘The people of Prudence? Or your own self-serving ambition?’

  Clara was speechless. She knew which way the judge leaned politically but she’d always heard how principled he was besides. What was this all about?

  ‘Don’t you know Ace Cooper has done an awful lot for this state?’ Judge Moses asked, his furious glare still honed in on her face, ‘Ace Cooper is a popular man. He has an awful lot of friends around here. Friends who don’t take kindly to watching him get insulted by some stick-up-her ass New York lawyer.’

  That was it, Clara had had enough. She stood up from the desk. ‘How dare you,’ she whispered.

  In a flash Judge Moses shot up from his seat, towering above her like the vengeance of Thor himself. ‘This is my courtroom and I dare as I please!’ he shouted, ‘you on the other hand need to be taught some manners.’

  A twinge of excitement lit up inside Clara despite the strange circumstances she was in. Though she considered herself a modern, self-directed woman, Clara couldn’t help but get a little turned on when some guy tried to boss her around. Maybe it was that they had the nerve to challenge her despite all her best efforts to appear strong, maybe it was something more primitive and primal than that. She didn’t know. All she knew was – as the giant masculine monster began walking around his desk towards her – a universe of sexual energy was awaking within her body.

  He came around to her side and loomed above her furiously. She could feel the heat radiate from beneath his robes as his massive rock-hard chest heaved up and down with each breath.

  ‘Well?’ he said, ‘do you need to be taught some manners girl?’

  ‘I – ’ Clara began and then paused. ‘Yes,’ she said in a dry heavy voice, ‘yes I do.’

  Before she knew what was happening, the judge reached out and pushed her abdomen down over the desk with his big strong hands. Clara let herself be lowered willfully until her face rested against the cold wooden surface and her hair got in her eyes. Her cunt was hot and wet now.

  With a whack she jerked forward as Moses spanked her hard on the ass. A wave of stinging sensation washed over her and a mixture of humiliation, indignation and intense sexual excitement danced across the surface of her brain. Through the material of her smart grey suit pants, she felt the Judge’s hand rest against her stinging ass.

  ‘I’ll teach you some manners,’ the Judge warned and then slapped her hard again.

  Clara jerked forward from the force of it. The pain felt so good, the humiliation was delectable.

  ‘You’re a harlot,’ the Judge said, ‘you like being punished, don’t you?’

  ‘Yes,’ Clara moaned.

  ‘What are you?’

  ‘I’m a harlot.’

  The Judge spanked her again forcefully and a nebula of sensation exploded through her body. Clara’s hair was in her eyes and mouth now too as her face rested against the desk. With his other hand the Judge reached up and pressed it down into the hard surface, squeezing her cheek against her teeth. He continued to hold her down like that as he spanked her, Clara rocking forward ecstatically with each blow, squealing excitedly.

  ‘Come here,’ the Judge grunted and then stepped around behind her. She felt him push his huge rock-hard cock up against her ass as he moved closer to her. Holding her head down on the desk, he dry-humped her rough and hard for a few seconds, before reaching around her waist to unbutton her pants. This was so fucking dirty. So completely wrong.

  Judge Moses undid her pants and opened them, pulling down the zipper all the way. He placed his huge hands down over her crotch, feeling the heat emanating out of her panties. She burned for him now and she thrust her hips forward towards his hold.

  ‘You’re a naughty little harlot,’ the Judge grunted, as he slid his hand in underneath her panties and against her pulsing mound.

  As his thick fingers slid down over her clitoris, Clara whimpered with pleasure. She was soaking now, compl
etely aching to take him into her. The Judge pushed his sheathed cock harder up against her ass as he rubbed her swollen pussy lips. Clara squirmed beneath his massive hold – the guy was like a bear or something. Just pure primal energy.

  He inserted his fingers into her cunt while with his other hand he circled and teased around her throbbing clit. Clara moaned and shook, a pool of saliva spilling out of her mouth and onto the desk around her face.

  ‘Fuck me,’ she moaned, ‘please your honor, fuck me.’

  The judge grunted roughly and pulled his hands away from her juicy pussy. He wrenched her hips towards his hard cock again one more time and then reached back to lift up his robes. Breathing heavily, he guided his cock down along the cleft her ass, the hot sticky feeling of its skin filling her with nefarious pleasures. As he ran it down towards her loins she lifted her ass higher to give him full access to her gaping holes.

  His throbbing meat-stick continued down over the sensitive skin of her asshole and then stopped for a second. He was going to fuck her in the ass. Clara bit her lip and braced herself to take him inside her. She fucking loved feeling all that heat and power up her ass.

  Moses began pushing his way through her tight ring and Clara closed her eyes as he filled her – it hurt, but it hurt so good.

  ‘I told you you had a stick up your ass,’ the Judge grunted to her and then thrust his hips forward hard and fast, pushing his cock all the way up her channel.

  ‘OH FUCK!’ Clara warbled as the force of it shoved her forward.

  As the Judge started fucking her, he slipped his hands back around her cunt and began playing with her sore lips and clit again. Peals of ecstasy reverberated through her body as Judge Moses McKennedy took complete control of her pussy and asshole. She gave it to him willingly and within moments she was shuddering with orgasm.

  Judge Moses pulled his cock out of her and wiped it on his robes.

  ‘I want to taste that dirty pussy,’ he grunted and then bent down behind her.

  He placed both hands on her ass and pushed her forward as he opened his iron jaw over her cunt and licked it greedily. Holy shit, the guy’s tongue was as big as the rest of him, he really was an animal!

  He stuck his massive tongue right into her cunt and it went in as far as some men’s cocks did. He lapped and flecked at her throbbing inner-walls as she twitched and moaned above him. As he ate her out with such ferocious hunger, his strong fingers dug into the soft flesh of her ass and squeezed her tight. She was completely his, claimed as his own, whether she liked it or not. Luckily, she liked it very much.

  As the Judge continued to devour her cunt she felt the onset of climax begin again. She clenched her hands into fists and thrust her ass back at his face as he chomped and slurped on her snatch.

  ‘Oh fuck!’ she moaned as she erupted into pleasure once more.

  The Judge chuckled throatily and then stood up. ‘I ain’t done with you yet, girl,’ he said and took her ass in his hands, spreading her cheeks apart. Clara felt almost exhausted beyond repair from the ecstasy of their encounter but she knew that the Judge wouldn’t let her stop now, even if she wanted to. She licked her lips and prepared to take his huge cock inside herself once more.

  She felt the mighty head press against her soaking folds as it worked its way into her cunt. He was so big and hard it almost killed her to think of it! With a grunt he stepped forward again and thrust his huge pole up inside of her.

  ‘Yeah, you like that don’t you baby?’ he grunted at her.

  ‘Yes!’ Clara shouted.

  The Judge laughed deeply, bellowing as he fucked her strong and hard. Clara arched her back up towards him and he reached down around her chest and grabbed her soft tits with his hands. He held them possessively as he continued to thrust into her, his balls slapping against her sensitized flesh. The pleasure was uncontainable. Clara scraped at the desk with her teeth as she moaned ecstatically against the huge hulking animal that was Judge Moses McKennedy.

  The Judge increased his speed, becoming more forceful and frenzied with his strokes. She felt his thing bulge inside her as he exploded, filling her snatch with burning pearls of cum. He pulled her up towards him as he jerked deeper into her, his whole body shaking with the force of his climax. As he squeezed her chest in his hands, Clara came again for the third time, before collapsing, exhausted, into his grip.

  ‘Oh God Damn,’ the Judge muttered, panting behind her, his softening cock still all the way up her pussy. He grunted. ‘Here let me take a look at you girl.’ He spun her around and studied her with his deep intense eyes. His face was shiny with sweat and he looked like the polished statue of some powerful Greek god.

  Clara looked back at him, completely helpless in his grip. What would happen now?

  ‘Damn, you are just as pretty as a picture,’ The Judge said, ‘even if you are all messed-up looking.’ He opened his mouth over hers and kissed her deeply. She could taste the testosterone on his breath.

  ‘Now,’ he said, ‘I believe I told you I was going to teach you a lesson. Sit down.’ He released his hold on her and walked back to his desk.

  ‘What?’ Clara asked, staring at him in complete confusion.

  ‘I said sit down, girl,’ he said, ‘we got some matters to discuss.’

  Clara did as she was told. The passions of their union had left her completely wiped out and she had no idea whatsoever about what was happening here.

  ‘Now listen,’ Moses asked her, eyeing her levelly from his chair, ‘why do you got to go and insult a man like Ace Cooper in front of a whole courtroom like that, huh?’

  At the mention of her nemesis’s name, Clara suddenly recalled her earlier fury. ‘Because the man is a monster,’ she said, ‘he’s destroyed hundreds of lives and managed to get rich off it at the same time.’

  ‘Well God damn it,’ the Judge barked angrily, ‘you think I don’t know that?’

  Clara stared at him, her mouth hanging open.

  ‘But it’s like I told you earlier,’ Moses continued, ‘Ace Cooper has an awful lot of friends and supporters round these parts. You go in there calling him names then you’re not doing much to win them over to your way of thinking. No matter what the evidence says.’

  Clara said nothing, she was too shocked by what she was hearing. So that’s why he’d asked her to his chamber. Because he believed in her mission.

  ‘Now you’ve got a real good case here girl,’ he said, ‘and I can tell that you’re smart enough to win it too, but you need to cool down on that temper of yours and think about what kind of message you’re sending. This is important here, this case is about more than some legal hokum, real lives are on the line and you’re the one who’s responsible to make that happen, you hear me?’

  ‘Yes your honor,’ Clara nodded, trying to stifle her smile.

  ‘Good well then go into my restroom there and clean yourself up. And then get the hell out of my chamber. If anybody were to find out what just happened between us we’d both be ruined – and Ace Cooper would be laughing all the way back to the bank to count his fortune.’

  ‘Duly noted,’ Clara said and stood up. She walked towards the small restroom connected to the Judge’s chamber.

  ‘And you look after that sweet little ass of yours too,’ the Judge called after her, ‘God damn, it would be a terrible shame to ever let that go to waste.’

  Clara shook her head and smiled in disbelief as she stepped into the toilet. Those Texas men – those God damn Texas men.

  ###

  Hot Tycoon

  Bedding the Oil Magnate’s Son

  It was night time when Clara drove out into the desert. She knew she probably shouldn’t be going alone, but she hadn’t had the time to think of any other way to play it. She was supposed to be at the meet in less than ten minutes now.

  On the radio Dusty Springfield was singing a soul ballad with a voice as smooth as velvet. It was hot and the night was dark. The road was completely deserted as Clara drove out towards the
Texxon plant. She knew it was unwise to go alone, sure, but there wasn’t anybody else in the world she could have asked to go with her anyway.

  Clara was a lawyer, having moved south from New York almost a year ago to elope with her new man. The relationship hadn’t worked out so she moved on down to San Antonio and set up a practice. And then the biggest case of her life came along.

  It all started in a little town called Prudence in the mid nineteen seventies, where a man named Ace Cooper and the oil empire his family had ruled over for almost a century started a campaign of surreptitious waste dumping on the outskirts of the town. The effects of the pollution on the townspeople were massive, so much so that they would spend the next forty years fighting for justice.

  And that was where Clara came in. When she read in the paper that the community of Prudence were running out of money to spend on their case she stepped forward and offered her services for free. She believed in the cause and hell, the publicity would serve as a bonus for the amount of leg work she had to put in anyway. It was exciting.

  But after taking an early lead, the case had slowed down in recent months, bogged under by Cooper’s crack team of lawyers and their campaign of underhanded delays and misdirections. Suddenly Clara was realizing why the case had taken so long to progress in the first place. Ace had the means to just keep on throwing money at the table while his legal team pulled every trick in the book to stall the case for as long as it took for his opponents to run out of money. That was his game and that was exactly what he’d been doing, for over thirty years now.

  Clara wasn’t in it for the money – something Ace would never understand – but that didn’t mean she’d be able to go on indefinitely pleading the case. She needed to make money some way and if she was doing this one for free then she wouldn’t have as much time to do the work that actually paid. And she needed to eat.

  But then a breakthrough came. Or at least she believed it would be a breakthrough, because right now she didn’t know for sure just yet.

  That night when she’d returned to her office after eating in the diner down the street she’d found a small note wedged in the doorway.