One Time Only

Jessica worked through her stretch routine in the living room as normal, it didn't matter whether I was there or not. Or perhaps it did, maybe that's precisely why she was there. I was ostensibly putting away groceries in the kitchen with a wide open display of her exhibition a mere twenty feet away. First came the floor exercises. She tucked one of her long slender legs under and reached out past her running shoes. Her loose cut off top dropped forward showing daylight all the way through, past her taut young peach size breasts. Next came the forward lunges with her eyes square on me, so I filled the produce bin of the fridge. When I looked back, she was facing the other way for stand up alternating toe touches. Her solid butt through the thin jogging shorts was enough, but her top flopped to catch on the bottom of her breasts, nipples, and eventually all the way to her chin. I continued to rattle bags and wasn't looking when she stood back up.

"I'm going out for a long run. Sure you don't want to join me again?" I looked around to see her straining on her tiptoes reaching and grabbing the trim on the top of the door jamb leading into the kitchen. The last time she executed this maneuver she had been wearing a very thin and tight silk undershirt that molded around her breasts and amazingly erect nipples. This time, her breasts were hidden, but I couldn't help but stare at the protruding of her ribs to the long tiny waistline.

"My ankle still needs a few more days, but then I'd be glad to join you."

She took a deep breath, pausing to give me a long kiss on the cheek, skipped out the screen door, and started her run. I watched her for a hundred yards until she turned towards the Johnson's. Yes. My heart started racing with the knowledge of what was about to happen. I wish I could have seen it.

I knew her displays were all intentional, now. At first, she had encouraged her mom with me, saying that I was nice and the cutest of all. Then, when we had become very serious and I had moved in, Jessica's treatment of me changed. The marriage engagement was the final straw. The house that had felt like hers would have to be shared with me. My stamp was all over the house and land. Her mom was never an obstacle to anything she wanted. I was.

At first, I didn't realize her plan. She was baiting me to hit her or rape her. In the beginning, she picked fights and stood right in my face yelling and insulting me. Lately though, she had quit the arguments and started paying me special attention. I was home by 3:00 most days, working the early shift as I did, a few hours before her mother. Jessica used to avoid me, but now she was almost always there when I got home in a broad array of skimpy outfits: bikini tops and cutoffs, thin crop tops, unbuttoned shirts tied low with a mini skirt. It was summer and hot, so at first I only enjoyed the show and didn't think much of it until I noticed that she usually changed before her mother got home. Then she started sunning topless by the pool regularly. Twice she crossed between the shower and her room talking on the phone and one hand drying her naked body. And she was asking my opinion and engaging me in conversation, alternating between looking me right in the eyes and turning her head away while posing in some full body stretch, allowing me to look her over "undetected". Yes, I know what she was doing now – tempting me to pounce on her. I figured she probably wouldn't put up much of a fight. Maybe she would even encourage me on verbally a few times and then bust me, claiming I seduced her or even raped her. It would be better now that she was legal age, but not by much.

It wasn't easy to refuse the offering of her body. The consequences were very clear to me though, so I let the innocent stripper charade continue. Then a month ago, she started being affectionate; pecks on the cheek and quick squeeze hugs. The first few were executed around her mother. Jill looked so pleased that her daughter was warming up to me finally. Soon after came the lingering touches before Jill came home. She made a point of giving me a welcome home hug, usually with her arms around my neck and her half naked body available to my hands. Nuzzling close over my shoulder, she would check out what I was reading or working on in the shop, looking wide eyed into mine and listening attentively. For a while, I ate up her attention and enjoyed the sexual rush I felt around her. Then one day, I knew that none of this was for my benefit; she walked into the house from the pool with nothing but a towel around her waist and sat down next to me on the couch. Acting as if she were clothed, she then asked my opinion about colleges and how much she would miss both of us if she went away and would it be all right if she started college in town. I asked her about her track scholarship and she said that wasn't as important as her mom and I. She looked back and forth from my eyes to my lips at least three times and wasn't retreating. I saw behind the sensual offer the craft of a young drama minor who was about to snare her prey. "I hope you'll stay, but I know you'll do what's best for you" is what I said and left the room.

I was in danger and knew it now. Confronting her seemed far too risky – I couldn't imagine it going well. Jill was no match for her daughter and wouldn't be much help, either. The idea came from a stranger. A couple days after the couch incident, I was coming out of a store – intentionally coming home later – when Jessica came bouncing out of her car wearing a knitted crop top that you could see right through and her running shorts, ran over to me throwing her arms around my neck and asking if I wanted to go running with her. I said no, maybe tomorrow. She pouted, kissed my cheek, and said "Tomorrow it is."

A guy I'd never met and wouldn't normally want to meet came over and said, "Is that hot little thing yours?"

"She's my girlfriend's daughter."

"Looks like you're doing her too," he said as a statement and not a question. "Lucky you."

"No, that would be a big mistake on my part. She's not as innocent as she looks."

"I don't care how good the Mother is, I'd fuck the daughter if I had the chance."

"Yeah, well, I'm doing it differently" and I got in my car and drove home. But I kept thinking of his last statement. When she came in from running that day she was drying her face with her removed top, walked right up to me and said, "Tomorrow I'll take you on my favorite running course. The Johnson's are gone, but they said I could run across their land by the lake." A plan was forming in my head.

True to her word, she was waiting at home for me the next afternoon to go running together. She wore a thin white sleeveless tee shirt that was at least two sizes too small and her running shorts. I changed into running clothes and began my research. We live in a semi-rural area of small hills and wooded clumps. Very few houses are next to each other. The Johnsons, our closest neighbors, live in a small forest on forty-five acres with a small lake on one border of the property. Jessica led us down our road and past several neighbors for nearly a mile before starting to circle back. Her pace was moderately fast and it was all I could do to keep up with the tight little butt in front of me. She short cut along a couple of tree lined fences and entered the Johnson's driveway. We cut away from the house on a trail down to the lake at a near sprint. When we arrived at the lake she abruptly turned around and exclaimed, "Isn't this fun! It's so much more fun running with you."

"Why did we stop?" She starred back at me breathing very deeply with her mouth wide open, sweat glistening on her skin and her shirt clinging tightly.

"Because it's time for a swim!" Within seconds she had popped off her shoes and thrown her shirt and shorts on the bank and was splashing nude in the water. "Oooh, this feels so good. Come in!"

I stood dumbfounded on the bank. Jessica was rubbing the cool water on her bare chest and neck. Then she threw her arms behind her in the water and arched her back, making an offering of her breasts.

"Come on! It feels so heavenly. I bet I can swim under water longer than you." I could see it; bumping into each other underwater and surfacing with her slippery skin wrapped around me. It would be more than I could take. My erection would leap into her. I knew my limits and they were approaching fast.

"I think I'll just stick to the running. Besides, the neighbors on the other side of the lake might be able to see us."

"Who cares!" She turned around and jumped up out of the water. "Anybody watching? Come join us." Jesus Christ, I was getting set up without doing anything.

"I'm going to continue the run before my muscles tighten."

"Keep stretching. Oh all right, let's go." She bounded out of the water glistening like she was covered with oil. She put her shorts and shirt back on, patting down her breasts and the flimsy tee molded over them and then practically disappeared. With her shoes in place she walked up to me and said, "You missed something fun," turned around and started running.

I avoided her when we got home, but a plan had been born. I was checking out her favorite running route carefully. The next day I examined the access areas from nearby roads. Then came the difficult part; it took me four days to find him, the man at the market that drooled for her. I had remembered the look of his old pick-up and found it by an apartment complex about three miles away. I told my story and he listened without comment. His eyes, full of distrust, began to be balanced with lust.

"You want me to rough up your little whore? Are you going to break me out of jail too?"

"If you do it like I say, no one will see – it's a very private area, even where you park. With the mask on, she'll have no idea who you are. If you get caught, so do I. If I didn't think it was safe, I wouldn't risk it."

"She's gonna get hurt, and bad. Is that what you want?"

"Just don't kill her or cause permanent injuries. If you restrain that much and don't mark up her face, people will forget soon enough. Except for her, of course. I don't want her to ever forget this lesson. Fuck her hard and work her over until she thinks you are going to kill her. Hurt her so bad that she can't fight back anymore. Make sure it's a very slow painful limp home when you're done. Are you gonna tell me that this doesn't appeal to you?

"If anything goes wrong, you're coming down too."

"Just do it exactly like I told you…and enjoy yourself for a good cause. I only wish that I could be there to share a piece of her."

"I'll punch her in the stomach once for you."

It had been five days since my conversation with the man that was to do her. I told him that he safely had a week and a half and should avoid the weekend. One day she drove somewhere else to run with a group. Every day she took off from the house in her teaser outfit of the moment I would sweat until she returned, though I noticed that she was varying her route. One day I was sure that she had turned in to the Johnson's, but nothing happened. She was always gone at least forty-five minutes and sometimes over an hour. I got working on a fence repair to keep from going crazy. After a half hour, I would start to wonder, "Was this the day? Did he have his hands on her now?" The thought came to me that his first attack could fail and she would break free and surely out run him. After an hour, I kept looking for her to come sprinting down the street towards home. When it reached an hour and a half, everything shifted. Sure, she could have stopped by the pond or ran into a friend, but like the beginning of a storm wind, I knew something else was happening. He had gotten her. A very scary man was on top of sexy Jessica and making her hurt. I began to worry that he might not be able to resist putting his hands around her neck and squeezing tight for a long time. At two hours, there could be no doubt – he had her. I was working like a madman using up the adrenaline pouring through me. This could all backfire in so many ways. Another half hour. How long until I should go and look for her? What would I find? Her mother would be home in an hour or so. Should I wait until then? What would seem more normal – to wait or go searching? What if he was still at her? The last thing I wanted was to have to engage him. What if he had knocked her out and taken her away in the trunk to use her as long as he wanted? If that was the case, I knew we'd never see her again alive. It was almost three hours when I heard my name being screamed.

Our next door neighbor, Millie, was moving as fast as her seventy-six year old legs would allow her, yelling my name. She was almost upon me. "It's Jessica! She's been hurt!" I looked quickly up the street the hundred yards or so to her house. There she was, staggering up the street. I ran past Millie who was breathing so hard she couldn't speak anymore. It had happened. Jessica was clinging to one of Millie's old afgan blankets and holding the other hand over her crotch. She looked awful. Her long brown hair was loose and ratted and her face so distorted with misery that she looked like someone else. She collapsed as I approached and I caught her and held her up. Her breath was a constant shallow sob. I picked her up and started back for the house. The afgan slipped off of her naked body and I saw the mess. One side of her was bloodied and seemed to come from a breast. Her belly was bruised and the inside of her thigh was purple. She stunk of cum. I looked back at her face; her lower lip was cut and dirt was smeared all over her tears, but he probably hadn't done more here than slap her a couple of times. The rest of her body looked pummeled.

"I'll call an ambulance!"

No, I've got to give as much time as possible for the escape, I thought. "Better I take her right to the hospital myself," I said.

"I'll call the police then."

"They'll need to see her first, so I'll call them right away from the emergency room."

"Can you wait here for Jill?"

I laid Jessica in the backseat and covered her; she rolled up into a ball and shivered. "I'm taking you to the hospital, Jessica. You're safe now."

I put my sweaty palms on the wheel and drove fast, but not too fast. I didn't know what to say to her. I wanted to be comforting and appropriately shocked, but I didn't want to ask her questions yet. God, she looked beat up. Oddly, considering that I had set her up, I felt bad for her. My biggest emotion though was worry, for myself. No, scared to death was more like it. I had to keep calm while looking disturbed and hope that the perpetrator didn't do anything stupid. Then there was the luck factor.

As soon as I carried her through the doors of the emergency room, most everything was out of my hands. Jessica wanted me near and I stood holding her hand while the nurse and doctor examined her and started the clean-up. The police arrived in minutes and called me out. I told them that she had gone out running about three hours earlier and then came limping in to our neighbors – what could have happened? The female deputy questioned her and the story started to appear. Jessica spoke through sobs, "I was running by the lake and these guys jumped me…they slugged me and held me down…"

"How many were there?"

"Four."

"Can you describe any of them?"

"They had nylons on their heads…I don't know. I think one had a beard. She started to cry uncontrolably."

The male deputy turned to me. "Do you know where she's talking about?"

"I know the lake and where she runs sometimes – I've gone with her before…I wish I would have gone with her this time."

"If there were four of them, your presence may have only increased the injuries. Will you take us to the spot now? The earlier we pick up clues, the faster we can apprehend them."

"Sure." They took me in the squad car and I directed them to the side opposite from where he, or they would have parked their car. Four of them. The number sank deeper and deeper into my chest. No wonder she looked so awful. My main thought though was that the chances of no one getting caught just went up by a factor of four. At least they had worn masks.

I took them into the Johnson's driveway and then started walking towards one end, explaining the route she might have taken. In the trail, just before the lake, there were a mess of footprints and then nothing. We fanned out and soon the female officer was calling us over. She had found blood and her sliced up shorts. Laying close by were her top and underpants, both shredded. Only her shoes were missing. I looked down at the blood on a root gnarl and the scrapes in the forest duff. The search continued. They found footprints leading a quarter mile to the hidden spot where I had told him to park. They checked the Johnson house, even though I told them they were on vacation. The sheriff had arrived and was filled in. The female deputy took me back to the hospital and would ask Jessica more questions. The sheriff and deputy would ask neighbors if they had seen or heard anything.

Jill was at the hospital now and her face was contorted in misery and fear. I held her until she calmed down while the deputy sought details from her daughter. I began to piece together the rape.

Two men had jumped her and forced her arms up behind her back. Her attempt at a scream had been hammered shut by a third man who drove several hard punches up under her ribs. She lost consciousness and woke up on her back with her clothes being yanked and cut loose. One man sat with his knees digging into her forearms while two more forced her legs open. One man left to take his pleasure on the helpless tanned body splayed out before him. Did the man he had contacted take the first penetration or did he want the foreplay of watching his accomplices work on her first? Had they all had their own preference for roughness? Someone had beat her inner thighs with his fists until her muscles had given way and even ligaments damaged; it had been an excruciating mile walk home. One of her shoulders had been dislocated. Her neck was bruised from strangling. She said that one man kept punching her belly the whole time he raped her. An opened gouge in her back where they pinned her on the exposed root must have caused her to arch her back from the pain. In so doing, her breasts must have been thrust up and driven one of them wild; he had bitten into one nipple causing a lot of blood and six stitches were required to close the wound. It was hard to tell how many times and places she had been slapped. At one point, they had flipped her over and raised welts with a belt all over her bare butt. I was amazed that they hadn't killed her. Maybe the strangler was intending her death when the other guys pulled him off, somehow believing that they'd have a better chance with her alive.

The sheriff said they had plenty to go on and would find them soon. The skin particles left on one of their belts would be enough evidence right there. There would be blood on clothes, too. Jill sank into my arms as we sat near the beat up girl.

"Who would do this?" Jill sobbed.

"I don't know, but they'll find them."

They kept her overnight to make sure that she didn't have serious abdominal injuries. Jill stayed the night and all the next day with her until I came home from work and brought both of them home. The doctor didn't want her to walk for a few days so we had to rent a wheel chair. Her right arm was in a sling to keep her shoulder steady. Bandages were everywhere with varying instruction for changing and dressing each one. Jill was at Jessica's side constantly, rubbing her cheek and asking if there was any way she could help. At one point Jessica snapped and yelled at her mother. Like normal, Jill backed off and started to apologize, but then Jessica's rage sputtered into sobs and her left arm reached out for her mom to hold her. It was the last time she screamed at either one of us.