" There was a lump in my throat as i hurriedly returned my arms to their formerposition. The second blow came without warning, not even the prescience...afforded bythe movement of air. His slap was still tingling on my skin, the heat beatinginto my tender breast, as His voice came again. "I did not give you permissionto move those arms, slave." A frown creased my brow, even as the tears stung at my eyes and my breastthrobbed at the impact of His hand. i don't understand, i called in the. He imagined her fresh out of a long, hot bath, radiating nothing but that earthy scent. ‘Do you want to stay the night?’ he asked her. ‘Oh,’ she groaned, ‘I can’t. I promised I’d be home.’ ‘Okay,’ he said, then, ‘someday?’ Mary raised her head to look at him. She was always surprised by that timid note in his voice when he asked things like that. He could call her a ‘sweet little cocksucker’ with all his might, but saying ‘stay the night’ made him nervous. ‘You know I want to,’ she said. He asked me if I had ever been with a black man before and I told him I had not. I asked him how old he was and he told me 46. My God, he was two years older than my dad. He told me to take my clothes off and get on the bed and he would be out of the bathroom in a minute. I did as I was told, and laid on the bed under the covers with the lights out. He came out of the bathroom and turned the lights back on, and pulled the covers completely off the bed, telling me I wouldn't be needing anything. Says she hates peaches now. Had to pick too many when she was a child.’ The man removed the piece of straw from his mouth and reached into the pocket of his faded blue overalls. He pulled out a small knife which he opened and handed to me. ‘Well, aren’t you gonna taste one before you run off to the mountains?’ Instantly I knew what was missing. I had to have at least one peach before I left. That was a tradition. The customer always tasted one before leaving. Seeing the expressions on the.