Chapter One

 

"Why can't I just use a calculator?"

It was a reasonable question, and one she'd dealt with any number of times.

"Because if you let the machine do it for you, Jimmy, you won't understand how it's done."

"But why do I need to if the calculator can do it so fast!?"

"Because we're building your knowledge base."

He looked back at her blankly.

"The idea is for you to learn how arithmetic works, because it gets much, much more complicated in future years, and you'll need that knowledge in order to be able to work calculators then," she said patiently.

He pouted, which didn't surprise her, but she pointed at his paper and he scowled and picked up his pencil again as she walked along the row, glancing at how the kids were doing at subtraction.

Explaining things repeatedly was one aspect of being a teacher she hadn't quite grasped when she'd first chosen it as a career. She loved children, but explaining the same thing again and again did get tiresome. Nor did she have the personality of say, Mr. Smith, the Science teacher, whose manner seemed to inspire instant obedience with little questioning.

Samantha just wasn't a very strict teacher.

Children today, she sighed to herself. Then she smiled. At the ripe old age of twenty-three, and in her first year as a teacher, she was already looking down at a generation gap.

But then, she'd never really been in line with her own generation either. She'd been raised by very liberal parents, who had money and so had elected to move out to a rural area. It was certainly beautiful there, but most of the people were far more socially conservative than her parents, and she had assumed more of their beliefs than her parents probably would have expected.

Not that she wasn't extremely liberal, of course. The affect growing up in a rural community had had on her was more subtle. She was somewhat prim and proper and modest in her behavior, her words and her dress, for example.

"Can I go to the bathroom?" Pedro asked, holding his arm up.

"You just went thirty minutes ago."

"I need to go again."

"If you go again I'm liable to ask Mister Smith to drop by and see what you're doing in there. If you don't mind that then go."

He visibly hesitated. "I can wait," he said, turning back to his paper.

She snorted and moved on.

She liked Jason Smith. The children thought of him as a very strict, authoritarian teacher, but that was more of a reflection on how much their own parents let them get away with. Not to mention that they weren't used to male teachers.

Samantha's own parents had been, for liberals, very strict, and her smaller, rural school had been even more strict. It wasn't exactly a 'children should be seen and not heard' attitude, but it certainly expected young people to behave respectfully towards their elders.

Unlike the city, where they run amok, she thought.

She reached down and caught at Aria's collar as the girl leaned way over her desk trying to see the paper of the girl in front of her and pulled her back into her chair, giving her a scowl that made the girl blush.

"Keep your eyes on your own paper," she said sternly.

Her own parents had raised her with the moral guidance that said cheating was practically sinful. Maybe it actually was sinful. She hadn't exactly been raised to be very religious and didn't put a lot of thought into it.

Some of the other teachers thought she was religious or something because of her prim and modest attitude, but she honestly wasn't really. Her upbringing had more impact on her than any religious education - scant as that had been.

They'd probably be certain she was religious if they knew how little sexual experience she had.

Saving herself for marriage had been an ideal she had absorbed while out in the rural part of Idaho. It was quite out of fashion here in New York city. Even her girlfriends who knew thought it was silly.

"Saving yourself till marriage is a rule that existed back when women got married at sixteen, Sam," her girlfriend Bethany had said. "It made sense, then, especially when women didn't work and there were no abortions or birth control devices. We're in the twenty first century now."

It had been an odd discussion for her, and an uncomfortable one. Bethany, though, had been entirely casual about it, and had mostly discussed it in strategic terms.

"You can get away with not doing much with a date at sixteen. By twenty, men expect something. Now you're dating men who are in their mid to late twenties. If they don't get something they'll move on."

"Why would I want such a man to stay?" she replied.

"Uh, because they're almost all like that? Unless you plan on marrying a super religious guy, which would not really go well with your social views."

"From what I've experienced of sex it's greatly overrated anyway."

"It can be. A lot of men aren't exactly great at it," Beth said, rolling her eyes. "But the only way to find the ones that are, unfortunately, is to go through some of them."

"That sounds... sordid," Samantha had said in distaste.

"Well, it's not like it can't be fun anyway. I mean, unless he's really awful at it, and most men by the time they're in their mid-twenties have at least managed to get a bit of experience and patience. Not to mention an understanding of a woman's body."

Samantha was still undecided. She agreed with Bethany's belief that men expected sex in this day and age, at least by the third or fourth date, but surely there were some more patient! Some willing to wait!

Why should they? That was a question she didn't have an answer for. If almost all girls were willing to sleep with them, why would they not go with one of those girls. She was sure many of them were smart and nice, too.

She had high standards, she knew. She was looking for a sweet, kind, gentle, generous, respectful man with roughly the same open minded, inclusive social views as she had. He had to be successful and educated and sophisticated, and like arts and perhaps be a gourmet cook. But he also had to have a swimmer's body, and be very strong tough minded and principled and... macho.

So far in her life, no such being had presented himself for her inspection, and she was somewhat doubtful one ever would. When she'd put her list of desirable qualities before Beth the redhead had simply laughed her head off.

The last man she'd dated, in any event, had had no more than a third of those qualities, and he'd been handy only in the way his hands kept finding their way onto her body, despite her pushing them away.

No, in her whole life she'd only had sex twice. Once when she was eighteen, and that had lasted less than a minute and been both embarrassing and painful. The second time had been her last year in college when she thought she should surely have at least something 'wild' in her past to look back on when she hit middle age. That had lasted somewhat longer and been almost pleasant, but her embarrassment and inhibitions had not made it much to remember.

She sighed and went down another row, dealing with questions, and drawing attention back to papers where they belonged. Almost everyone managed to finish the test on time, and she saw them off as the bell rang with more than a little relief.

She collected the papers and stuffed them into her briefcase, then collected her things and headed out. Her end-of-day journey began with a five block walk, followed by waiting on a bus which took her to the nearest subway station. Then she took the train south, transferred to another, then got on another bus for her trip to within a few blocks of her home.

But that was life in New York, and at least the trains and buses came fairly quickly. And since she got out before rush hour really got started, she invariably got seats - unlike on the trip in, where she usually stood in crowded trains and buses and hoped no one groped her!

She lived in Brooklyn, in a lovely little three story row-house on a quiet street. The house, like every other one on the street, had been subdivided into three apartments, and rented out. She had the top floor. This meant she walked up a flight of stairs from the street, into the front hall, and up a second flight to her door.

It made getting groceries home something of a chore, which meant she had to do it often, in small amounts. Still, she didn't think she'd feel safe in the basement apartment. The ground floor was occupied by a grumpy old man she had attempted to befriend with little response. That was odd, since people tended to like her.

She got home at last, carried her briefcase, purse and groceries up the tall exterior stairs, unlocked the door, and let herself into the tiny hall. On her left was the door to the first floor unit. She took the long stairway up and unlocked her own apartment, and was finally home.

The building was built in the early part of the 1900s, with very high ceilings and beautiful crown molding. It had a bay window in front, and was typical of the long, slender houses of the time.

She put her briefcase on the dining room table, where she would mark the tests later, then put the kettle on the stove to make tea before going to her bedroom to change from her work clothes.

It was good to get out of them. It was hot out, but her modest clothes were heavy. The blue dress she wore was knee-length, and loose enough so as to not draw the eye to her anatomy. Her bra was the worst part of her work wear, and she sighed with relief as she removed it.

It was a heavy, special bra, designed to flatten her breasts so as to diminish them as a possible source of male attention. Since she had been a young girl that had been an embarrassing thing, all those boys salivating over her breasts. It was so improper and they could be so crude!

She stripped off her underwear as well. It was a hot day, and she would take a quick shower. She paused to examine herself briefly in the mirror, feeling rebellious at the thought of having to sleep with men just as a prelude to getting to know them better.

Why weren't they interested in a more intellectual relationship! The mind and personality were more important than the body! Surely at this point in their lives they realized this!

She sighed and went into the small bathroom, took a quick shower, then wrapped a towel around herself and headed into her bedroom.

"Gah," she said.

It was hot!

She preferred to not use her window air conditioner, in order to help save the environment. But honestly, the room was stifling! What was worse, without it, the other window in the room simply didn't let in enough air!

She went over to the window and turned on the air conditioning unit, sighing as it began to almost immediately blow cool air against her damp body. She opened the towel, and it caught all the air, redirecting it onto her as she stood there.

And then a naked man looked in the window, saw her, and his eyes went wide.

Samantha gaped at him, then shrieked and stumbled back, jerking the towel close around her body!

"Sorry, lady," he said. "Didn't know anyone was home."

"Go away! Who are you!? I'm calling the police!"

The man wasn't naked, it turned out, though he was shirtless. He wore dirty jeans low on his hips.

He grinned at her. He was a very large man! She had never seen a man with such broad shoulders and a powerful chest! Not up close, at any rate! His chest was extremely muscular, too!

"I'm your new landlord. I bought the place from Mister Suffridge and I'm doing work on the window frames. They all need some caulk."

Samantha gaped at him still. She had heard 'cock', and her already red face flushed more deeply.

Well, until he held up the caulking gun and she realized her error.

"You should warn us if you're going to be peeking in windows!" she said, deeply embarrassed.

"Sorry, babe. I was working on mine, and then saw that the others needed it too, and nobody was home. At least, nobody was home when I started. I knocked on your door."

"I just got home!" she exclaimed.

"And decided to take a shower," he said with a smirk.

Samantha flushed again.

"Hey, nothing to be embarrassed about, babe. Believe me, you got nothing to be embarrassed about," he exclaimed. "You got an incredible body!"

"I did not request your opinion, sir!" she said coldly, her face flaming.

"Well, if a guy waited for a girl to ask him his opinion he'd never get to offer one, now would he?" he asked with a grin. "I'm Liam McGregor," he said. "If you need anything just knock on my door. I'll be staying in the first floor apartment where Mister Bernstein was staying."

"What happened to Mr. Bernstein?" she asked, despite her embarrassment and a strong desire to get away from him.

He had seen her completely naked! No man had done that in forever! Her face was hotter than it had been before she turned on the air conditioner!

"He decided to leave when I jacked up his rent."

"Are you going to raise my rent?" she gulped.

"You pay market rent. He was paying way less. His unit was rent controlled."

"Then how..."

"I told him that he either doubled his rent or I'd move in myself. If you're the owner, you can evict a tenant if you need his unit for yourself. So that's what I did. He wasn't exactly poor, you know. He was just cheap."

Embarrassed as she was, Samantha could not help but notice just how... extraordinarily well-built Liam was. Nor the way his tanned skin strained across his well-defined pectoral muscles, nor the way it glistened as he worked in the hot sun.

He looked down, down towards her naked legs, for the towel barely covered her groin! She tried to ease it lower, but then it exposed an uncomfortable amount of cleavage! She was about to say something extremely firm to him about his rude ogling when he spoke instead.

"You know, it looks like the interior frame needs work, too," he said.

She involuntarily glanced at the inside of the window frame where he was looking, and of course, he was right, and of course, she had requested the landlord do something about it. And been ignored.

"Mister Suffridge was not quick to make repairs or to do basic maintenance," she said.

"Yeah. That's why I got the place cheaper than I should have," he said. "I'm gonna take care of all the maintenance and repairs he should have been doing. Make a list and knock on my door and we can talk about it."

He grinned broadly. "No need to dress."

She flushed anew and glowered at him.

"I will provide you with a list. Now if you don't mind, I'd like to get dressed!" she said firmly.

He smiled slightly. "Don't let me stop you."

She flushed anew. "Mister McGregor - ."

"I'm already here, so if you don't want to give me another show why don't you take your little towel and gorgeous body into another room to change?" he said blithely.

She opened her mouth to say something really rude, but he had turned away and was now caulking along the edge of the exterior frame!

She leaned in and he raised his eyes, to her cleavage, clearly, as she held the towel in one hand while she reached up and yanked the curtain closed.

"Awwww," she heard him say.

She glared at the closed curtain and she reached her arm inside it and closed the window completely.

She eased back, then closed the blind she had put over the air conditioner.

She stepped back nervously. She could see his shadow against the curtain as the bright sun was behind him. But she was quite certain he wouldn't be able to see her.

Nevertheless, she grabbed her sweatpants and a top and underwear and darted into the bathroom to change!

He had seen her naked!

Completely naked!

Just standing there in front of him with the towel open wide!

She groaned in embarrassment! How was she ever supposed to be able to face him again, to look him in the eyes knowing he had seen her naked!?

She looked at herself in the bathroom mirror anxiously, holding the towel wide just as he would have seen her, and cringed! She was so naked! Her bare breasts wobbled slightly as she moved. They were too big not to. At least, she reassured herself, she had a firm, trim body. She exercised quite regularly to ensure it.

Her hair was a mess!

That was of minor importance compared to him seeing her naked, but she closed her eyes anyway. Talk about a horrible introduction to a neighbor and landlord!

The air conditioner gradually cooled the air in her bedroom and, with the door open and a box fan on the floor, that air then wafted down the hall to the rest of the apartment. It wasn't as good as having central air, or having one in the front room, but it certainly cut the temperature down quite a bit.

After doing her hair she went back to the window. There was no shadow there, and she peeked carefully out. He wasn't there anymore.

She pulled the curtain back and then saw him below. The first floor had a deck, and he was on it, doing some sort of repair. He was still wearing only his jeans, and they were very tight across his bottom as he bent over, painting something.

She felt a bit ashamed of herself for gawking, but only momentarily. After all, he had seen her naked so he could hardly complain if she looked at him bending over in his jeans!

Big macho goon of a man, she thought, resentfully. Probably one of those men who thinks women are there for sex and making babies and dinner. No doubt full of himself, too. Mister big muscles! And why would a man work out all the time to get such muscles if he wasn't a narcissist?

She worked out a lot too, she thought, admitting it reluctantly, but that was different. If a woman had even a little fat on her it showed. Not to mention her breasts would begin to sag like crazy if she didn't ensure her chest muscles were properly toned!

Well, if she had large breasts like Samantha did anyway...

He was a big man, well over six feet. He could carry lots of extra fat on him without anyone noticing or caring! Not that there looked to be much fat on his powerful body...

She felt, unbidden, a curiosity about what he looked like naked. And, rarely for her, she felt a sense of sexual interest rising at the image she put together in her mind.

She ruthlessly quashed it and turned her head to other things, like marking the exams!

But it kept returning.

He had seen her naked! Completely, utterly and absolutely naked, right there in front of him, as if displaying her body for his enjoyment! Had he enjoyed it? No doubt! He would probably tell all his friends while they were at the bar, drinking cheap beer! Oh yes, she knew his type of crude man! He'd describe her body in intimate detail, right down to her shaven sex and big breasts, and the other men would lick their lips in excitement and wish they were him!

And he'd probably tell them he planned to have her, too! Unless he was married. Was he married, she wondered? Seeing someone? Surely a man that powerfully built and good looking already had a beautiful girlfriend...

Thank God she had just shaved the other evening!

It wasn't that she thought shaving was proper or improper. She'd been doing it for years, simply because she had developed an irrepressible attraction to sexy lingerie. It was her secret rebellion against her outward showing of being prim and proper. For she didn't think of herself as prim and proper so much as... dignified.

She had self-respect! She wasn't going to let some crude man use her body for his own enjoyment and then laugh as he told all his friends what a slut she was! Oh no, not Samantha Lacy! He would show respect for her mind and her personality before he would get to see, much less touch her body!

And it wasn't like she'd been much impressed with the sexual prowess of the men who had either! So what was the big fuss about!?

And then again why did she care that she was well-shaven and looked good for this strange man who had voyeuristically ogled her through her bedroom window?

Because if he was going to see her naked she would at least prefer that she be as... attractive as possible. Well, she liked to look attractive and present herself in the best way possible, after all. That was a normal human thing.

She settled down to marking the exams then worked on her dinner. Healthy food, of course, put together by her from separate ingredients. None of that pre-processed frozen garbage for her!

She had an uneventful evening, and went to bed early. She lay in her bed beneath the same window he had looked in on, and she had a great deal of difficulty getting him out of her mind, getting that powerfully built, half-naked male body out of her mind.

She told herself he was an arrogant male blue collar type, and that she was lucky he hadn't decided to climb through the window and... and attack her! But she still couldn't clear her mind, and her hands... her hands moved almost instinctively over her body beneath her loose nightie, fingers stroking lightly against her sex as she spread her legs.

Finally, she gave in. She flung back the covers, tugged her nightie up above her breasts, and then turned to open the drawer of her bedside table. She drew out the dildo she kept there, then lay back on her back and raised her knees, spreading them wide.

It was a very realistically shaped dildo, looking very much like a man's penis, save only it was bent somewhat, curved. She rubbed the head up and down against herself, the soft silicone making her gasp as it rubbed her already warm clitoris.

It swelled immediately, the sensations quickly redoubling as she let her mind drift back to that afternoon, to the side of his body, his face, his eyes. Only this time, he simply climbed through the open window, leering at her!

She was already moist, and became more and more so as she closed her eyes and imagined it. She imagined putting her hands up to stop him, her hands feeling his broad, naked chest, sliding over all those muscles as he came closer!

And then he picked her up and swung her aside, throwing her on the bed! And suddenly he was atop her!

She moaned, back arching, nipples hard and tingling as she slid the dildo deep. Her breathing quickened and she pumped the dildo, sliding it especially far, her arousal deepening as she imagined him entering her, thrusting into her!

She let her other hand roughly squeeze her breasts, as she was certain he would do, pumping the dildo harder, making the head jam against the back wall of her sex. It ached, but she was sure it would ache with this man, too! He would be rough and thoughtless!

She fed the entire thing into her body, which she almost never did, groaning aloud, letting her thumb clasp the base so that, as she pumped it in and out in short, sharp motions, her thumb stroked over her now deliciously sensitive clitoris!

She raised her buttocks upward, rolling and jerking her hips excitedly, groaning and gasping and then letting herself go as the orgasm hit her. She cried out, her back arching, her hips bucking spastically against the dildo as she rammed it furiously in and out!

The orgasm took her to another place, more intense than usual, her head rolling back as she let the last of her breath leave her body in a long, drawn out cry of pleasure! Then she dropped her buttocks back to the bed, gasping, going limp, chest heaving as she opened her eyes.

Now she could sleep, she thought, as her heart rate began to return to normal.