DIRTY BEAST

The Cripburn Complex, 1423 Arroyo Place, Southport, New Jersey…..

Charlotte Freedman was busy moving about her apartment unsure of what to do following her results from a home pregnancy test. She wanted so badly to speak to Victor about it but hed been much too distant and upset with the tragic anniversary of his wifes death fast approaching. He saw her less and less as the day approached, possibly due to guilt as well a grief and their on and off again association. He was as fickle as any man shed ever known but she knew all too well why it had been. He had a young daughter to look after and for a long while it had been only them. His wife was murdered and he was left alone with a three year old girl and many many questions as to why. Tears streamed down the well meaning womans cheeks as she tried to convince herself that telling her lover the truth would be the best thing for him, but she recalled how upset hed been the first time they slept together and they had gone through a pregnancy scare.

It was a false positive, but hed been really unhinged ever since she informed him and it stood to reason that hed be worse should he ever find out what shed been keeping from him. At the time shed been jealous of his friendship with Valerie Runnels, he seemed to communicate with her more, but it was because of their daughters and Charlotte foolishly assumed there was more between them.

Victor was of course quick to put an end to her assumptions and then some.

Still, she let her jealousy get the better of her and her neediness at having to have his attention and love drove her to do something she only regretted in part. Victor assumed incorrectly that following their pregnancy scare the first time that shed been on birth control. She didn tell him that shed stopped taking the pill after a while and that their last encounter, which occurred a month prior meant that shed possibly been pregnant with his second child and he was none the wiser.

Charlotte stared down at the stick she clasped in her hands, shaken from the ramifications that lay before her and the fact that shed been an expecting mother. She knew what she set in motion, but to actually see it happen in real time was something else all together. She had been trembling as she let it sink in that the test had been positive and placed it back into the bathroom as she heard the knocking at her front door.

Quickly putting away the test and closing the bathroom door, she moved toward the knocking and attempted to compose herself in the process. When she finally reached the door, after taking a moment to gather her wits before opening it. Much to her shock a slightly bloodied and bruised Victor Harlowe stood on the other end disoriented and weary.

He wasn in his usual tweed attire which was odd to her as aside from occasionally seeing him naked due to their association hed always worn it around her. His glasses were gone as well and he seemed to be in a good deal of pain.

”C-Charlotte… ” he said sounding as out of breath as he appeared. ”Im terribly sorry that I bothered you… ”

She shuffled the battered man inside terrified of what hed gotten himself into. He limped inside at her request and assistance as he made his way toward the sofa of her living room. He flopped down on the brown cushions and leaned his head back against the wall revealing the enormous gash on his side that hed been hiding via his left hand when he arrived.

”Victor? ” began Charlotte in utter shock at the disheveled and beaten man before her. ”Whats happened to you? ”

”Its just a scratch, no need to get your knickers in a twist. ” replied Victor in a snide tone despite being well out of it either from the blood loss,

From the scent of him, Charlotte could tell that hed been drinking or he at least began to after parking in her lot. He still had the bottle of red wine strongly gripped via his other hand.

”Stay there… Ill get you cleaned up. ” said Charlotte near tears. She was already at war with emotions and now this, hed come to her bleeding.

Victor smirked noting her concern with amusement. They hardly knew one another aside from his once in a blue moon visits when loneliness got the better of him and he could no longer sustain his need via his own hand. She seemed like a safe bet then, unattached and less likely to be clingy well that was until the incident where she believed hed been dating Valerie Runnels. Victor Harlowe turned up the medium bottle of red wine he brought with him still staring at the bumbling teacher as she moved across the apartment to gather what she needed to patch him up.

He watched her with his eyes low due to blood loss and drink as he sat on the sofa seemingly in a trance as she returned and got him out of his shirt and jacket. He winced now and again, but it wasn too much pain for him due to the drink. By the time she was done, she could see the open gash about his side and winced herself at the sight of it. He had insisted it was just a scratch, but it looked like someone or something was trying to kill him. Something large or with a sharp weapon of some sort.

Realizing that her speculation would only cause him to bleed out, Charlotte did her best to clean the wound pressing it and wiping it via a warm towel she grabbed from her cabinet and soaked in a bowl of hot water she collected before taking off his shirt and jacket. He watched her intently. His blue eyes focused on her as if shed been the only thing in the world. Under normal circumstances she would have welcomed the attention of that sort but now she was She didn know it but he could hear her heart beating a mile a minute and smirked once more. The scent of arousal hit his now flaring nostrils and he continued to watch her in silence for a time.

A single tear streamed down her right cheek and he took note of it. Finding it odd that she bothered to care so much. They had only slept together once or twice… possibly three times and here she was acting as if it was a major ordeal.

”Its just a scratch. ” he said slowly wiping away her tear with his index finger just as she finished dressing his wound.

Charlotte sighed relishing the gentle feel of his touch despite his relative drunkenness. Shed never seen him in such a state that often, but she knew what had brought it on. No matter how much he attempted to bury the past it always found a new way to torment him. His love for his wife must have been a profound thing for him to go through so much and still want to hold on to her memory even at the cost of having something in the here and now.

”Victor…. ” she began only to be silenced via her lovers kiss blocking the words from escaping her lips.

He sat shirtless and intently focused on her as he pulled her body into his lap and once more captured her lips. He seemed to enjoy the rich scent of her perfume and the softness of her skin as she pressed her body against his chest.

Charlotte closed her eyes as if she were trying to keep this moment in her memory for all time. She knew come morning hed be distant again and angry with not only himself for having been weak enough to come to her, but then hed feel he betrayed his wife all over again due to having awoken in bed beside her like the last time.

”Victor… ” she began. ”Theres something you should know… ”

”Shhh. ” he interrupted kissing her lips once more his drunkenness was truly taking over a this point and Charlotte knew there was no arguing with him. ”Itll keep till morning…no more talk. ”

Charlotte gasped as Victor lifted her off the sofa with ease and walked her toward her bedroom.

There wasn another spoken word between them that passed through the remainder of the night, but in the back of her weary mind Charlotte once more thought of the pregnancy test she had hidden before Victors untimely arrival.