The Lisa Series

by Charles Arnold

She stood up. “Yes,” she said.

  Silk looked at her. “Tell Billy, while he’s waiting for the second show, how about making us some coffee and bringing it in here.”

  Lisa crossed in front of me holding her blouse and skirt in front of her. Her face was scarlet. She could hardly speak. “Billy,” she looked directly at me, but I couldn’t tell what she was feeling, “can you make us some coffee?” I nodded. She disappeared down the hall. Before the coffee was ready, she had gone back into the living room.

  “Ahhh,” I could hear Silk saying, “that’s my girl. Sit here over here on the couch, by me.”

  In the kitchen, I put the cups on a tray along with cream and sugar and the coffeepot. I carried it into the living room. Silk was still naked. He looked grotesque: his pale skin splotched, his sunken chest, his scrawny neck, his skinny legs and long dirty toes; his skull like a cadaver, sunken eyes, thin lips, yellow teeth. The sight of him turned my stomach. Lisa wore a thin black nylon robe tied loosely at the front. She still had on her heels. She was snuggled up against him, his right arm around her, his hand inside the robe fondling her breast. She had reapplied her make-up. Her red lips seemed swollen.

  My hand shook as I poured the coffee. “Some wife you got here, Billy. She could probably make five hundred a night.” Silk said. He pinched her nipple. “And still hot, ain’t you?”

  “Yes,” she said, looking across at me, warning me with her eyes not to do anything.

  “What you hot for?” Silk asked.

  “For this.” She put her hand on Silk’s cock, but she continued to stare at me. She knew I was ready to explode. She seemed to be saying, ‘Hold on, it’s almost over’.”

  “It ain’t goin to do you no good like that, is it?” he said.

  “No.”

  “Got any ideas?”

  “Could Billy go back into the kitchen?” she asked.

  “In a couple of minutes. I want him to know what I been going through these last weeks.” He took his arm from behind her and opened her robe. “Wet your lips,” he said, grinning. She did and then slowly bent her head down and lifting his flaccid cock, began to kiss his wrinkled scrotum. As the sack swelled, his cock began to stiffen.

  Silk looked across at me and grinned. “Frank likes when she does that. He likes to hear her kissin him down there.” He patted her head. “That’s right. Do like that. Let me and Billy hear you loving old Silk’s balls.” She made soft kissing sounds, pressing her lips lightly against his tightening skin.

  “Ahhh, that’s good,” Silk said. He nodded to me. “There’s some other things she does to Frank that I ain’t allowed to make her do to me, but she sure kisses good.”He patted her head again, “don’t you?”

  She glanced up at him. “I want to please you,” she said.

  Suddenly, his eyes narrowed. He grabbed her hair and yanked hard forcing her head back. She cried out. I started to rise but he motioned me back. He leaned over her upturned face his spittle spraying her, “You fuckin bitch,” he hissed. “You think you’re better than me. You know what I want? I want Frank to give you to me for a week. Frank’s too easy on you. I know what you need. You need to be Silk’s woman for awhile. You need to be Silk’s little whore.” He let her go. She looked terrified. “Old Silk would teach you good,” he said, looking to see that his words were being recorded.

  His anger passed just as suddenly as it had flared up. “Now, Mrs. smart-ass Lindal, if you’re so fuckin anxious to please me, get started.” He moved her so that she lay on her side, her head in his crotch, her back to me, her knees drawn up. “Spread,” Silk said, touching her thighs. Obediently, she opened for him. He began to masturbate her. She squirmed against his hand. Silk looked at me. “She’s a hot bitch, Billy. You got no idea how hot. I seen her like this lots of times with Frank. When she gets hot and wet, Frank stops playin with her pussy and makes her answer some questions. It’s like a game.” He took his hand from between her legs. “Keep teasing me like that, but when I ask you somethin look up here and answer, like you do for Frank.” She ran her tongue over his balls and along the underside of his cock. “You hot?” he asked.

  She looked up at him. “You know I am,” she said. She took his hand and pushed it down between her spread legs.

  “No, not yet.” He pulled his hand away and directed her to the tip of his cock. She circled it with her tongue. “This is what Frank asks her,” he said. “You like that? You like lickin me? Say it just the way you answer Frank.”

  “Yes, can’t you tell I do?”

  “You like my cock better than Billy’s?”

  She hesitated for a moment then said, “Yes, better than Billy’s.”

  “How much better?”

  “Lots...lots better.”

  “Why? Look up here and tell me why?” She tried to go down on him again, but he stopped her. “Why, damnit?”

  “You make me come.”

  “Don’t your husband make you come?”

  “Not like you do.”

  “You mean not as often, or not as good?”

  “Both...you make me come more and you always make me come good.”

  “Always?”

  “Yes, with you it’s always better.” He pointed to his crotch. Quickly, she slid her mouth down over his cock. Once more, he put his hand between her legs. She moaned and ground herself against him.

  He looked over across at me. “That’s what Frank asks her and that’s just what she tells him. With me, I know she don’t mean it. But with Frank, I think maybe she does or at least she’s beginning to. Maybe you can tell.” He lifted her head and turned her so that she faced me. Her mouth was wet, her lips swollen. “Now,” Silk said, “before Billy goes back to the kitchen I want you to tell the God’s truth, understand?”

  “Yes, I understand.” She continued to look at me. I could see her eyes beginning to tear.

  “And I want you to talk loud enough so that it’s clear on the tape. When you say them things to Frank about liking his cock more than Billy’s, are you pretending or do you mean it?”

  She glanced away from me toward the recorder. “I...I’m not pretending. I mean it.”

  “You saying you like Frank to do you more than your husband?”

  She looked down at the floor between us. ““Yes...yes, more than Billy.”

  “Okay, Frank be glad to hear it,” Silk said. He shifted her around so that she was kneeling above him, straddling his bony hips. Her pussy was poised above the purple head of his cock. He reached up and squeezed her breasts and with his long fingernails pinched her swollen nipples. She gasped, then lowered herself. I watched his cock slide into her. She leaned over to slip her tongue between his grinning lips.

  I returned to the kitchen. In a few minutes I heard her scream and Silk groaned as they came together.

  Chapter Six

  Carl

  For the next three nights, Lisa did not go out. Except for delivering the tape on the evening after Silk’s visit, she was not summoned by Frank. She seemed withdrawn and forgetful. Twice she burned our supper. She’d been waking up around four in the morning and going into the living room. I’d find her there, curled up on the couch.

  She’d reported that Frank took the tape without even inviting her in. Other than that, neither of us had mentioned Frank or Silk. In fact, other than the simplest forms of communication we didn’t speak much at all. I knew something was wrong but had learned that it was best to let her tell me without pressuring her.

  When I arrived home on Friday, there was a note saying she was having her hair done and would be home by seven. I’d just finished reading it when the phone rang. “Hey, Mr. Lindal?” I couldn’t place the voice although it was vaguely familiar. “It’s Carl. You know, Richie’s friend from Bruno’s, remember?”

  I sat down at the kitchen table. “Yes, Carl.”

  “You know, uh, a...a...well, what we talked about...what Mrs. Lindal said that night...”

  My mouth was dry. “About how she agreed to
help Frank repay the favor he owes you?” I forced it out.

  Carl laughed, relieved, “Yeah, yeah the favor, that’s it.” I waited. “Well, I don’t know,” he continued, “exactly how to...”

  I interrupted, “Maybe you should be talking to Mrs. Lindal?”

  “No,” he said quickly, “Frank wanted me to call you. Frank already explained things to ah...ah...Mrs. Lindal a couple of days ago.”

  That must have been the cause of Lisa’s quiet withdrawal. “What do you want with me then?”

  “It’s really Frank’s idea. I mean about the place and all. Don’t get me wrong, Mr. Lindal, I mean I couldn’t have thought of a better...I mean, well, it’s the Holiday Inn, the one off route eighty-four, you know?”

  “Yes, the new one.”

  “Right! That’s it. Frank wants you to get a room there, a nice room with two double beds for tomorrow night.” He paused.

  “Then what?” I could feel my body tighten and the familiar emptiness in the pit of my stomach.

  “Frank, you know, he wants you to bring Mrs. Lindal. I mean, she knows about it. She agreed.”

  “And after I bring her there?”

  “She...she’s supposed to meet me in the bar around eight o’clock. Only Frank wants you to be there too, but not exactly with her, you know?”

  “I’m to be in the bar but not with her?”

  “Yeah, that’s right. She’s supposed to come in after you’re already there.” He waited a moment. When I didn’t respond, he went on. “I’d rather it was just me and her, but Frank wants you there. He says you’re used to it?” It was a question.

  “It’s happened before,” I said.

  “Well, like I told you, I’d rather be there with just her, but Frank makes the rules.”

  “Yes, he does. Then what?”

  “After a little while, you go back to the room and we follow.”

  “Then the favor?”

  “Yeah, in the room there. Mrs. Lindal is supposed to bring this little tape recorder...”

  “I know about it.”

  “Okay, I guess that’s all.” Carl sounded relieved. “Oh, I forgot, Frank said to tell you there might be a surprise. Okay?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you’ll get us a nice room?”

  “I’ll call now.”

  “Oh, one more thing,” the boy’s voice was more confident.

  “Yes?”

  “Ask your wife...I mean tell her to wear that dress she had on at Bruno’s. The one without a back, and them high heels, you know, no stockings and nothin under the dress.” I didn’t say anything. He took a deep breath. “You’ll tell her that Mr. Lindal?”

  “Yes, Carl, I’ll tell her.”

  As it turned out, it wasn’t necessary to inform her. She’d received complete instructions from Frank. I was to reserve the room, bring extra tapes for the recorder, shave her pussy, drive her there, and once again be a silent witness. Then, I was to bring her home. She reminded me of Frank’s rule that we were not to have sex together. “It’s the last week, Billy,” she pleaded. “I’m sure Frank’s looking for an excuse to add extra days. That’s why he’s making me do this. That’s the reason for the tape recorder. That’s why you have to watch. He thinks you’re ready to break.”

  “What about you? Aren’t you ready to break?” As soon as I spoke, I realized it sounded like an accusation.

  “I hate it, Billy. You know that. Frank keeps talking about a party at Ryan’s. He’s just looking for an excuse.” She turned away from me and began to cry. “Billy, I’m scared of Ryan’s. Frank keeps bringing it up. You were there. You know what they would do...” she turned back to me, her face streaked with tears. “And tomorrow it’s Carl, that creepy little pervert who got us in this trouble. He caused this horrible thing and in a few hours...”

  I reached out to take her in my arms, but she ran down the hall and closed the bathroom door behind her. There had to be a way for us to break Frank’s control. There were times when it seemed as if Frank was succeeding in destroying all that was good between Lisa and me. If we went to the police and told them the whole story, how her son Richie had been tricked, the tapes Frank insisted on, the way he was blackmailing us, maybe they would let Richie off with a warning and put Frank behind bars.

  But they’d ask why we didn’t come to them right away, why we accepted Frank’s proposition. We’d have to tell them about Ryan’s, and Silk, and now Carl. Of course, Frank would give them Lisa’s tapes and claim that she really wanted to do the things she had done. The tapes would indicate he was telling the truth. Besides, how could we be sure the police would be at all sympathetic. Frank was one of them, an ex-cop. We’d been through so much all ready. With Frank in possession of the recordings, we had no case at all. If Frank kept his word, in just one week from now this terrible ordeal would be over. I decided to say nothing to Lisa about going to the police.

  The next afternoon, as I helped her prepare, I could tell she was still hurt and angry. As I shaved between her legs, she kept her eyes closed and didn’t speak. Once, I nicked her, but she didn’t even flinch. She was withdrawing, physically and emotionally. However, I couldn’t help but notice that her pussy was becoming wet. She hadn’t experienced an orgasm since last week with Silk. Up until then, Frank had been making her come several times a night. In her reports to me, she’d described having two or three orgasms each time she visited him. One night she had four.

  In spite of her determination to shut down her senses, a week without sex coupled now with the scrape of the razor and the warm soapy water had begun to stimulate her.

  When I finished, she relaxed for a long time in the tub. Before getting dressed, she perfumed and oiled her body. Then, with bright red polish, she painted her toenails and fingernails. These were the same meticulous preparations she’d made for Frank and Silk. The transformation was extremely provocative, but she remained detached...almost as if it were someone else’s body she perfumed, someone else’s nails she so carefully painted.

  The thought of her with Frank, the sight of her with Silk, and the idea of her with the boy, Carl, almost drove me crazy. In my waking hours I would imagine her with them, and at night she was with them in my dreams. I wanted her so much. My own cock was painfully rigid most of the time. The fact that she had never prepared herself like this for me and had never said or done the kinds of things Frank required of her seemed only to make my desire for her stronger. Although I knew she loved me and hated Frank, there were times when I would have gladly traded places with him.

  She’d bought new leather pumps, black like the old ones with what seemed to be an even higher, thinner heel. Usually she complained about Frank’s insisting she go out in mid-winter without stockings, but tonight she’s slid her pretty bare feet into the new shoes and said nothing.

  I stood, unobserved, watching her from the hallway. Carefully she pulled the backless dress over her head and cinched the wide black belt tightly around her tiny waist. She certainly didn’t look like a married housewife. She looked theatrical; perhaps an actress, or model, or dancer. But, I thought, a very sad one.

  We’d put a new tape and fresh batteries in the recorder, which she dropped into her purse. I watched her pack a small suitcase. Into it she placed a new white negligee and white high heeled shoes. She included her make-up and body oil and perfume, four white candles, two champagne glasses, and a corkscrew.

  I went to the closet for her coat. As I held it for her, she reminded me once again that she would have to say and do certain things that Frank had told her to say and do or had hinted at. She mentioned again the need for me to remain silent.

  Suddenly, she turned around and hugged me tight. Her tiny body shook violently as she struggled to keep from sobbing. “Billy...oh, Billy, it’s awful. I try not to think about it, and I try not to feel anything, but it’s impossible!” She looked up at me. “That boy...he’s only a few years older than Richie. He’s ignorant. He’ll be loud and crude. You saw how h
e was...how he looked at me that night in Bruno’s. The thought of him touching me...of...of what I have to...” The trembling stopped as quickly as it had begun. I could see the tears in her eyes, but she held them back. She took a deep breath, “Promise, Billy, that you will help me just like you did with Silk. The thirty days are almost over. Please, Billy?”

  “Yes, Lisa, I promise.” For me, Silk had been the test. This didn’t seem nearly as bad.

  On the way to the Holiday Inn, she had me stop and buy two bottles of champagne. “I can’t do it absolutely sober,” she said. I thought about the skyrocketing Visa bill. She’d used the card for her new nightgowns, shoes, perfume and cosmetics, and now the room reservations and champagne. In the past, we never charged things we couldn’t afford. In the past, she worried constantly about money; saving coupons, looking for bargains, making do with a limited and rather shabby wardrobe. But since the contract with Frank, she bought what he told her to buy without questioning and with no apparent concern about how we were going to pay.

  We arrived at the motel at seven-thirty. She was to meet Carl in the bar at eight o’clock. “Do you know anything about a surprise?” I asked, remembering that Carl had mentioned it.

  “No, not really. Frank said maybe later tonight there would be a phone call, and that I had to be agreeable. That’s probably why he wanted you to bring the extra tapes. He said that whatever happened, he wanted the tapes to keep running.”

  “Silk again?” I asked. “Or maybe Frank himself?”

  She was becoming upset. “Please, Billy, one thing at a time. I’m terrified he might have Ryan’s on his mind.” She took the suitcase into the bathroom and quickly closed the door. In a moment, she was back. “I’m sorry, honey,” she tried a little smile. “I’m uptight. It’s nerves. I don’t think there will be a phone call. Frank likes to put the pressure on me. He thinks it’s funny. I told him that I might not be able to do this thing with Carl. That’s when he mentioned Ryan’s again and brought up the stuff about a surprise.” She looked at her watch. “You better go out. I’ll follow in a couple of minutes. When...when it’s about time to come back here, I’ll give you a signal and you leave first. Don’t lock the door.” She looked around, then pointed to a dark corner of the room. “There’s a chair for you.”