Free and along came SPIDER ( A Martina Spalding Thriller ) (Spider Series Book 1) by J.R. WRIGHT

corner pulling her robe over her shoulders
and brushing hair from her face.
    “I was,” Marti put down
the receiver and turned fully toward her.
    “I’m sorry.  You were
on the phone…”
    “No, I was just about
to call Parker.  That’s okay.  I’ll do it later.”
    “Oh…!  Parker!  Don’t
you think you ought to start getting yourself ready?”  Gloria squinted at the
clock on the wall in the kitchen.  “It’s a quarter after four.”
    “I’m not going,
Gloria.”  Marti folded her arms under her breasts, preparing herself for what
she knew was coming. 
    “Why not?”  Gloria
glared.
    “Because I don’t think
it’s safe you being here alone.”
    “Why not?  I’m fine!” 
She tossed her arms up over her head, an action that allowed her robe to gape
open leaving her naked before Martina, except for the black panties she wore.
    “You’re not fine,
Gloria!  Your body has suffered a terrible trauma.”  Marty doubled back and
threw out her arms, gesturing to her, but kept her voice at a level tone.  “At
this point we don’t even know the full extent of your injuries.  From what I
can see, you may even have broken ribs.  Just look at you.  It’s like you were
run over by a bus,” she fretted.
    “I know!” Gloria looked
down at her patchwork of bruises.  “Aren’t I a mess?”  She looked up again,
grinning broadly.
    “Oh, Gloria, what am I
ever going to do with you?”  Marti went to her with a gentle hug.  “It makes me
wonder what you ever did without me.”
    “That is the way with
it, isn’t it, Martina?” Gloria said humbly.  “I guess you’ll just have to stick
with me now.”  She began to whimper.
    “You’ll be fine,” Marti
patted her back.  “We’ll get through this together, okay?”
    “Okay,” Gloria said
meekly, then pushed away and swiped tears from her cheeks.  “I can’t believe
the mess I’ve made of my life… all the bad choices.”
    “We all make mistakes,
Gloria,” Marti consoled.
    “Oh yeah!  How many poor choices have you made?”
    “I’m still a virgin, aren’t
I?” Marti giggled, but it wasn’t funny to her.  In fact, she was more than
perplexed by it all.  Mortified at the mere thought of giving the boot to her
innocence… taking another into her body… the pain that may cause… the shame
that may follow…  And most of all, would she emerge from her maiden voyage the
same person as before?  If not, what effect would it have on her persona? 
These unknowns were all so frightening…
    “Yeah, well, that’ll be
rectified tonight, hopefully.  Now go get yourself ready!”
    “Don’t be silly!”

 
              
     
     
    CHAPTER
ELEVEN
     
    At six sharp, Marti
pushed through the Saturday night crowd at Hannity’s, her eyes searching ahead
for Parker McLean on her way to the rear, where she expected to find him.  And
directly to her back was Gloria, with a firm grip on Martina’s hand, as she pulled
her blindly along.  They were both in shapely full length pastel evening
dresses, with sleeves.  They looked lovely and much alike with the exception
that Gloria, by necessity, again wore her sunglasses, which rendered her near
sightless in the dimly lit establishment. 
    Seeing them coming,
Parker darted from the very last booth, decked out in his Sunday best three
piece suit.  It was charcoal in color, but to set it off, he wore a very loud
red tie and a huge, almost beaming, smile.  Seeing it prompted Martina to beam
in return, as she hurriedly approached, a groping Gloria appearing to be
dragged behind.
    Surprisingly, Parker
pulled her in and planted a kiss on her cheek before saying, “You are so
beautiful.  And Gloria…”  He ended it there, but so she wasn’t made to feel
like a third thumb, he took her hand up for a kiss as well.
    Marti thought that was
so admirable of him, and she gloried in the sight of how it appeared to make
Gloria feel accepted in her time of depression.  “Thank you,