Music Man Pt. 03

There stood Karin. "I was just passing on my way back from Crewe and I thought I'd look you up. Doing anything?"

Ged shrugged. "No, nothing. Want to stay over?"

"I thought you would never ask. Let's go to the pub and grab some food, and then find something to do when we get back." She grinned at him knowingly.

They walked to the pub and had a good, if plain, meal and followed it with a few drinks. Ged found Karin an easy companion, and they chatted about his songs and his trip to London. She told him eagerly about how her business had taken off since his housewarming, the guests being impressed with the look of the house, and were spreading the word.

They strolled back to the house arm in arm and took a bottle of wine and two glasses to the bedroom, where Karin stripped off her clothes in her inimitable sexy way and slid into bed naked. The action was so amazingly smooth, and Ged watched with admiration until Karin once again had to remind him he was still dressed, and so was not a lot of good to her in that condition. Thereupon he rapidly cast off his clothing and leapt on top of her, his rampant cock swinging enticingly before her admiring eyes.

He lay atop her, holding her hands to the bed in his, and rearing over her. She raised a thigh and caressed his cock and balls with it, smiling all the while, until his kiss stopped it. He drew away and they gazed into each other's eyes before he knelt up, his legs between hers.

Now her hands were free, she took his penis and began to stroke him with one hand while cupping his balls with the other. She then dragged a finger across his perineum and up the crack of his bottom, until she found his anus, which she gently stroked with her fingernail. He gasped at the sensation and she smiled another knowing smile.

In return he took her breasts and stroked around their fullness, avoiding the nipples at first, until she pushed her chest at him in a wordless entreaty to attend to them. At this he took the flat of each palm over them, before pinching them quite hard and gaining an appreciative gasp of satisfaction from her.

"I love it when you do that!" she smouldered.

"I love it when you do that," he replied, referring to her finger which journeyed to and fro, from balls to anus and back again, scratching gently with her long fingernail as before.

"I'm wet," she observed, "Put it up me, please, my love." She widened her legs to receive him the more easily.

He lay between her limbs, and moved towards her. She took him in hand and guided him in, groaning in satisfaction as he stretched her and pushed deep.

"Oh, yes," she whispered in his ear, as he bent to kiss her, pulling and pushing gently, feeling her gripping him, soft and warm, while she relished the fulness of him within her.

From there the love-making, for that is what it was, took its course, becoming more intense and strong as their passions rose and their guttural noises spurred them on to more violent action, until she came loudly, bucking and writhing under him as he rode her through her climax, releasing his gift to her as she came slowly down.

"You are some lover," she said, as they lay, he on his back and she at his side, her head on his shoulder. She played with the hairs on his chest, delighting in wrapping them round her fingers. His hands idly caressed one available breast and her back, reaching to glide over her buttocks.

"You too, you bring out the best in me," he replied, kissing her gently on her eyelids.

They sat up eventually and drink some wine, before finding that he was available for further play. This time their coupling was more mechanical, but none the less satisfying for that, as he took her from behind. Then, turnabout, she sank onto him, sitting astride with him buried deep, filled her glass with wine and tried to feed it to him. She spilled it down his chest and , handing the glass to him, licked it off, enjoying the additional salty flavour from his perspiration.

He half sat up against the bedhead, and she remained impaled on him, facing him. Then as she rose and fell gently, they shared the wine. When she put the glass down they gave themselves over to pleasure.

When she had regained her senses, she devoted herself to bringing him off, relishing the feeling of his hot stiff cock plunging in her. He took a long while to reach the point of no return. She could tell when he was near, for he held his breath for a long time as he sought to delay its onset as long as possible, but eventually he capitulated and let go. She shivered at the sensation.

Then they lay down and fell rapidly into sleep.

There is a brief moment as one comes to consciousness after sleep when memory has not arrived. Bereaved partners think the deceased partner is beside them in bed, until the second moment, when they realise that the space is empty.

In Ged's case, he felt the body in his bed and for that split second was back in the flat with Cassie, he turned over to greet his one true love, and received the shock of realisation that the blonde lying there was not brown haired Cassie. Just for a moment he felt sad, before frustration that she was gone from his life.

Karin stirred and they passed two carnal hours that Sunday morning. The weather had turned wet and the rain beat on the window of the bedroom as they ate a late breakfast in bed, so Ged and Karin were still nude in bed, when the doorbell rang.

"Who is it now?" moaned Ged.

"I'll go," said Karin, pulling on his dressing gown and going downstairs.

He could hear a muffled conversation and then Karin came back upstairs.

"It's Cassie," she said. "She wasn't going to stay, but I persuaded her. She said she doesn't want to keep you, but needs to tell you something. She's waiting in the living room."

Ged sighed and made to go down.

"Ged!" Karin said sharply. "Get dressed."

He shrugged and pulled on a pair of tack suit bottoms and a tee shirt. He was annoyed. What was the woman doing? She had told him to leave, and now she was back the next day. It was as if she was stalking him.

"OK?" he asked like a petulant child.

"Yes darling," she replied, oozing sweetness and a mocking smile.

Down he went, finding Cassie in the living room, her hair wet and clinging to her face and her overcoat soaking.

"Hello Cassie," he said distantly. "You wanted to see me."

"Karin's nice," Cassie said. "Very talented - the house is beautiful."

"Yes she is," said Ged, a little non-plussed at this opening, what was she doing making polite conversation?

"What do you want?" Now his tone was more aggressive, she flinched.

"Well," she said looking up at him as he stood just inside the doorway, his arms folded across his chest, a picture of rejection. "Two things. First, I apologise for shouting after you when you left yesterday. I was angry. I didn't mean what I said, except that you are bigger and your lovemaking is infintiely better."

Shouting at him? She told him to go away! And he did what she wanted: he left. So what was she doing coming here, coming all this way just to apologise?

"And the other thing?" he asked, and she could see he was still annoyed.

"I wanted to thank you for what you did for my family - getting them out of their trouble and so generously. What you did was wonderful." She smiled at him and her eyes shone.

"I love your family, Cassie," he said quietly, feeling rather embarrassed at her warmth. "I was in a position to help so I did."

"If I hadn't gone along with that stupid wedding," she said bitterly, "Dad would never have got into that mess."

"I didn't do it for you, I did it for your dad," Ged snapped. "So you had to come all this way just to tell me this?"

"Yes. I needed to do it in person."

"I can't see why. Is this part of your campaign to get me back?"

She could sense his aggression, and she did not understand it.

"I wanted to thank you in person. I wanted to apologise in person. It's what polite people do," she said doggedly as she became irritated by his attitude. "So you want to think of it as a campaign? OK, yes it is. I know I will never be properly happy unless we are together again, and I believe that when you get over your stupid anger at what happened, you will realise it as well."

"You're sure it has nothing to do with the fact that now I'm rich and have a big house?" His voice was hard and brittle.

There was a silence as she gazed at him open mouthed in amazement, and then she cut into him quietly and full of sorrow. "That was a disgusting thing to say. You hinted at that yesterday, and you know it isn't true. Apologise!"

He immediately felt ashamed of his outburst. Where did this burning anger come from? Where had that unfounded idea come from? It was so obviously ridiculous. He capitulated.

"I'm sorry, you're right, you've never been greedy or money centred."

"You may like to ask yourself a little question," she spat at him. "Are you bitter at me - or at what's happened? If it's me, I thought you said you'd forgiven me, so perhaps you were lying. If it's not me, why are you always saying these things to hurt me? Why take it out on me?"

She stood up and went towards the door, pushing past him. As she reached the front door she stopped.

"I've had it up to here with you," she said indicating her neck. "I know that deep down you want me; your pride won't let you accept the fact that you'll never be happy without me. I made a mistake, Ged, while you were on tour. Serious certainly, but a mistake!

"I can't help my reaction to cheating, or its violence. I don't know where it comes from or why it's so strong. I'm perfectly well aware it's out of proportion. Don't you think I'd love to know why as well?

"So I give up, if you want me you'll have to come to me. I am going to wait for you - not for ever, but for a long time. So now you'll have to come to me and ask me to come back to you. Goodbye Ged."

The door slammed and she was gone. Ged sat down heavily. Once again things had not gone as he expected. Again his bitter anger surfaced: what a nerve the woman had! What arrogance! She knew he loved her? He'd never be happy without her? She'd condescendingly wait until he came begging? Hell would freeze over first!

Karin came into the room to find him sitting there fuming as he reviewed what had transpired.

"You heard?" he asked her, looking forlorn.

"Impossible not to," she replied sitting down next to him.

The doorbell went again.

"I'll go," she said.

Ged heard the exchange at the door.

"Karin," said Cassie, for it was she who had returned. "I forgot something and it's important."

"Come in?"

"No thanks. Would you give him a message?"

"Of course."

"I completely forgot. It's about Zak, my bastard husband. He came to Cheryl's house on Friday. When I told him I had left him, he said something like he'd see to it Ged never got me either. Ged needs to be careful, I think Zak wants to do him some serious damage or even injury.

"Has Ged told you he's suing him? Well, Zak's so wrapped up in himself he thinks Ged is suing him out of revenge for Zak 'taking his woman back' as he put it; he really doesn't see any of the lying, or the stealing Ged's money as relevant or important. Tell, Ged, please, to be careful, to watch his back. Zak really hates him."

"I'll tell him," said Karin. "Look after yourself Cassie."

The door closed softly.

"You heard?" she said coming into the room.

He nodded. "I don't think there's anything in it: Zak's all talk."

Karin once again sat next to him on the sofa, turning towards him.

"I never realised how much you're still in love with her," she said taking his hand.

He snorted in disbelief.

She sighed. "Ged, you write songs about affairs of the heart, about love and loss. You do it so well, a real artist. So tell me, what's the opposite of love?"

"Hate."

"I don't think so. You know that marriage counsellors say that marriage partners who are angry and seem to hate each other or what their partner has done, strangely have a better chance of survival as a couple than a couple where all feeling has died? Where they are cold to each other?

"Someone said that the opposite of love is indifference, or apathy. Ged, you are constantly getting angry and so is she. You need to face it, darling. You are both still in love with each other but you're both too deeply hurt. That's what's keeping you apart."

Ged said nothing but he was sure that she was wrong. He could not foresee a future where they were at each other's throats all the time, or where, as soon as Cassie suspected he was smiling at another woman she would finish with him. He would be looking over his shoulder all the time, on edge in case she misunderstood.

Karin was continuing, "If I were in your shoes, I would be wanting to know why Cassie's reaction to cheating is so violent and intense. It isn't normal, you know. If you knew why she went off and married Zak so quickly on the rebound, you might be able to put it behind you."

Again Ged said nothing. He was thinking. She had done just that - gone off and married Zak. What he realised he didn't understand was why she went back to someone who had deceived her before. In view of her attitude to cheating that was totally illogical. He recognised that this was the big barrier to repairing their relationship, though he did not think he wanted to repair anything.

Karin rightly took his silence as rejection and with a sigh and a "Well I tried," for Ged to hear, she went and collected her things for leaving.

Once she had gone, after a steamy kiss to tell him she still loved him even if he didn't believe her, Ged sat and thought. He wondered if he needed all this aggravation.

When he had returned from the USA he had settled in his mind that Cassie was in the past and he had been ready to start again, but now he felt trapped by what seemed to be a campaign by everyone to get them together again.

He was trapped by Zak's fraud, the loss of his flat and being tied up in his lawsuit against him. He was trapped by these meetings with Cassie and the mixed feelings he had about her. He felt the need to escape: to run away as far as he could.

Perhaps life was not so bad, he thought. Because of Viv and Karin, he knew he would always be able to find girlfriends who would be good companions in and out of bed.

Perhaps what he had had with Cassie had been just youthful enthusiasm, unreal. Real adult life was not so idealised or intense; compromises had to be made. He looked round at the room, and remembered Karin the night before. Life was good really, even on his own.

He agreed with Karin that it would be helpful to know why Cassie reacted so insanely, so strongly and in such a contradictory manner. There was something about her that couldn't tolerate or forgive infidelity; couldn't abide someone who had cheated, but then she still allowed Zak back into her life. It must be that Zak touched something in her that Ged never had. It struck him that it was this 'something' that allowed Zak to win her back.

It puzzled him that she didn't seem to know, or she wasn't telling him, why her reactions were so violent. It kept coming back to that. She certainly would not tell him what Zak had that he hadn't.

She had denied his assertions against all the evidence. He decided that the business with Cassie was taking too much of his time. Perhaps it was indeed time to move on. Let Cassie wait out her time and go find another man to love.

Once his mind was made up, he felt relieved and settled down to touch up some songs which he felt were still rough. Soon he was lost in his work and Cassie and his problems faded away.

Later on he phoned Catherine Styles.