Well, this is new territory for me (mostly). I've written stories with an interracial component before, but this is the first time I've written a story specifically for the "Interracial category. I hope you like it and look forward to hearing your critiques, both negative and positive. Be warned...as is my nature, this story will eventually touch an aspect of incest (big surprise, huh?).
As always, this is a work of fiction and all characters within are fictional existing only within the confines of the story and my so called imagination. Enjoy!
*
I looked down at the card in my hand and then back to the four story brick building across the street from where I was parked. The large sign on the building matched the card. It read 'The Cameron Solution' above an odd calligraphic drawing of a bull. The illustration struck me as vaguely disturbing after studying it for a moment...the bull seemed ferocious and powerful with one too many legs. I glanced around. I was sitting in one of Atlanta's wealthier suburbs in the shopping district. A Filene's was situated to the right of the brick building and a Prada store resided on the opposite side. Well dressed individuals of both genders, predominantly white like myself, strolled the streets, some moving with purpose, others idly moving along, window shopping or pausing to enter popular and expensive stores.
As I sat there, working up the nerve to go in, I watched a middle-aged woman emerge, dressed in a power suit that went perfectly with her long reddish hair. She walked down the street with a smile that disturbed me nearly as much as the card's image.
I sat for a little while longer, recalling how the card came into my hand. Yesterday afternoon, my mother-in-law, Clarice had asked me to meet her at the country club for lunch. I'd been happy to meet with her. We had always had a good relationship since I'd married her son, Daniel and she was sort of a role model for me in how to act amongst Atlanta's old money aristocracy.
My own upbringing was middle class...Papa being a family doctor in a small, sleepy Alabama town. I'd met Daniel at the University of Georgia at a football rally for the Bulldogs. We'd both been freshman students and he was the most handsome boy I'd ever met. He was fascinated with my Nordic looks and we fell head over heels in love and were married two weeks after graduation.
David's family was serious old money...what some called the Bourbon aristocracy of the Old South. Dig deep enough into his family's past and it was something straight out of Gone with the Wind. They'd been one of the earliest families to settle in Georgia and established a massive plantation that had generated the family fortune. Unlike many in the South, David's great, great grandfather had foreseen the outcome of the Civil War and had converted much of their wealth to Yankee gold and hidden it away. In the war's aftermath, he'd bought up even more land and while he no longer had slaves, the family had long benefited from the toil and labor of their African-American workers.
Needless to say, we lived in a beautiful home that was just shy of what one could honestly call a mansion, our children -- two sons and a daughter -- went to the nicest private academies in Atlanta and we have lived a life of luxury. Daniel preferred that I not work and so I had focused on the children until they were all in school and then since have occupied much of my time with various charity organizations and getting deep into mastering both tennis and golf. Although, I didn't realize it when I arrived at the country club, it was those latter two activities that were about to land me in trouble with Clarice.
We'd had a lovely light lunch...the chef here prepared the most delicious salads. We'd just finished them and Clarice had ordered us each one of the club's special mint juleps when as the waiter left us, she turned to me and in a deadly, but low voice said, "Maddy, my dear, are you screwing around on Daniel?"
I felt my stomach do a nauseating flip and my skin burned as I gathered my wits together and stammered, "M-my Lord, Clarice! N-n-no! Where...where did you get such an idea?"
My mother-in-law glared at me and I felt like I might just wilt under her heated gaze. Finally, she replied, "Word is getting around that you're getting mighty friendly with Charlie Sims here."
My blush worsened and I could barely meet her steely gaze. Charlie Sims was the golf pro at the Country Club and I'd been working with him nearly a year on my amateur game. I liked golf quite a bit, but to be honest, I liked Charlie too. Despite his receding hairline, he was handsome with a buff body and a confidence that was...arousing. "Are you fucking Charlie Sims, Maddy?"
"No, I am not!" I replied, perhaps a little too loudly as my voice drew looks from nearby tables. I leaned in towards Clarice and said more softly. "Who told you such a thing?"
Clarice shook her head and said, "In the South, darling girl, amongst our kind, there are very few secrets." She reached out and placed a hand over mine. "A little bird tells me that you and Charlie Sims were getting quite friendly in the woods beyond the back nine, last week. Again, I want to know, have you fucked Charlie Sims?"
"No...I have not!" I hissed back, glancing around and hoping no one had heard my mother-in-law's accusation. If they had, they were doing a good job of minding their own business.
She pursued the matter like the best prosecutor. "Do you deny that you and he have been engaging in some naughty kissing, perhaps while he had a hand up your skirt?"
Again, my stomach did a flip-flop and I felt dizzy as I saw images of my marriage being flushed down the toilet race through my mind. I chose to tell Clarice the truth. "No, I don't. Charlie and I have...um, made out a couple of times." I slumped back in my seat. "Does Daniel know?"
Clarice threw her head back and laughed, "Lord, no. Daniel is like his father. Business and the Bulldogs consume his every waking moment. He'd starve to death if you didn't make him eat now and again." She grew serious as our waiter returned with our drinks. She was quiet until he'd left. She sipped at her julep and nodded approvingly before looking at me again and saying, "So, you swear you've not fucked Charlie or anyone else besides Daniel since you've been married?"
I nodded and replied, "I've came close with Charlie...thought about it a lot here lately, but no, I've never slept with anyone but Daniel. He was...is the only one."
My mother-in-law nodded and said, "I believe you, Maddy. Now...I want perfect honesty here. Hold nothing back. Isn't Daniel taking care of you in bed?"
I hesitated before I answered. How does one simply unload all one's bedroom secrets on the mother of one's husband? I couldn't face her as I replied and so I looked down at my lap as I said, "When we first got married, oh yes...Daniel was a wonderful lover and we couldn't seem to get enough of each other. But...as the years have passed and especially since the youngest was born, Daniel seems to have lost interest." I looked up at Clarice with tears in my eyes and said almost in a whisper, "It's like you just said, Daniel is more interested in business and the 'Dawgs' than in me. I beg him to make love and he just tells me he's tired or he's got a big day at the office tomorrow and I'm left hanging."
I paused and took a sip of my mint julep to steady myself before I continued. "I've begged him to take time off and the two of us get away...go someplace romantic with no cell phones or computers where we can make love without any interruptions." I gave out a heavy sigh. "He tells me he just can't make time and we're getting too old for that anyway." My voice began to rise up again. "Clarice...we're both just thirty-six years old!"
Clarice nodded and patted my hand. "I understand your frustration, Maddy, more than you can imagine. Daniel is like his father...like all the Cameron men. It must be genetic. It takes a corporate takeover or a Georgia championship to give them an erection."
I laughed at her somewhat bawdy remark and said, "You and David, too?"
She nodded and said, "I'm sorry to say that David and I haven't had sex more than say three times a year since...well, since that horny son of a bitch from Arkansas was president."
I was aghast at her words, both for how difficult it must have been all these years and for what it portended for my own future. "How could you stand it, Clarice? Not having sex all this time." I hesitated and then said, "Have you...do you have affairs?"
My mother-in-law looked at me with disdain. "Cameron women do not have affairs, Madelyn Cameron. This family has never tolerated even the slightest possibility of scandal. Our name has never been nor ever will be smeared with even rumors of such behavior."
The force of her voice rocked me back, almost stunning me into silence. I had always enjoyed sex. Even the night Daniel deflowered me had been wrought with pleasure. I loved fucking and I missed it something terrible. Day and night there was a fiery need burning between my legs that no amount of masturbation with my hand or toys had been able to appease. Clarice's words had the power of an imperial edict and I felt a shiver of fear ripple through me at what might be the consequences of violating such an edict might be. This might be the twenty-first century, but this was the Old South and the Cameron family was money and power with a reach that extended beyond Atlanta.
"What...how do you stand it, Clarice?" I asked meekly. "You strike me as someone who would appreciate sex, but if you aren't getting it from David and you're not having affairs." I reached out and downed most of my julep in one swallow. "How the hell do you stand never being made love to...to never having sex?"