HIS OTHER SON by MAYNARD SIMS Read Free Book Online Page B

sister?”
                The
young girl obeyed, revealing a long white forearm. The fine downy hair was
light to the point of being almost invisible.
                “Now
if you please, Mr. Stock, your cigar.”
                “My what?” Stock stared at the Havana between his fingers.
He’d completely forgotten it was there and there was an inch of ash on its end,
but still it smouldered.
                “Please,
Mr. Stock,” Brother Simon said and reached out to take it.
                Randolph
Stock flicked the ash into a brass ashtray and handed the Havana across to him.
                Brother
Simon smiled. “Now, please observe.” He blew on the smouldering end of the
cigar until it was glowing a fierce red, then he took hold of the young
sister’s wrist, turning her arm so the sensitive skin on the inside of her
forearm was exposed. With a flourish that would have done justice to a stage
magician he set the glowing end of the cigar against the girl’s arm, pressing
the burning tobacco hard into her skin.
                Stock
watched, horrified as tears filled the girl’s eyes. She was biting her lip to
keep from crying out, and sweat was beading on her forehead. Brother Simon held
the cigar there for thirty seconds as the skin of the girl’s arm began to char
and blister. Finally Stock could stand it no longer. The girl’s face had become
a mask of tortured agony.
                “Enough,
man, for pity’s sake stop!”
                Brother
Simon removed the cigar from the girl’s arm and turned to smile at Stock.
“Please don’t be alarmed. Watch.” Still holding onto
the girl’s wrist, with his other hand he covered the scorched flesh of her arm.
His face wrinkled into a frown of intense concentration and his mouth opened
and closed uttering words that Stock strained but failed to hear.
                A
minute passed and then, with another flourish, Brother Simon took his hand away
from the girl’s arm.
                The
skin wasn’t marked, save for a slight brownish discoloration where the burning
end of the cigar had been.
                “But
that’s…” Stock looked in astonishment from Brother Simon to the girl. She was
smiling back at him. A deeply serene smile that disclosed nothing of the agony
she had recently suffered.
                “So
you see, Mr. Stock, not everything is as science would have it.”
                “I
guess not,” Randolph Stock said, and took a handkerchief from his pocket and
mopped his perspiring brow.
                “Now
where were we?” Brother Simon said. “Ah yes, we were discussing terms.”

 
 
    Dean Rulski pulled on his
shirt, trying hard to avoid Paula’s gaze.
                “Lighten
up, can’t you?” Paula said. She was still lying naked on the sun lounger , a slight film of perspiration sheening her body. With a sigh she sat up and picked up her bra from the floor. “Look,
you were okay. Sure, you weren’t the best lover I’ve ever had, but for a first
time outing you did okay.”
                Dean
buttoned his shirt. “I’m going back to the house,” he said, wondering why he
felt vaguely dirty. His first time with a woman! Somehow he’d always imagined
it was going to be something wonderful, instead he felt tarnished in some way,
and he felt as if he’d let his parents down. Perhaps kids from Arizona were
different from other kids. Perhaps other kids would want to brag about
something like this. All he wanted to do was to get back to the party
and away from Paula Devereaux . She was something else. Something from outside his sphere of experience. The
predatory female; he’d read that phrase in a book somewhere, and it described
Paula Devereaux perfectly.
                “Hey,
lover boy,” Paula cooed from the lounger . “Your bow
tie’s on